For those of you that have followed my blog for a while might remember in March when I went to get a tattoo on my wrist as a tribute to Harry.  I had “designed” it myself, although it was quite simple:  a big bold “lmL” with the words “Forever in my heart 8.11.76-1.22.09″ underneath it.  lmL was something special between Harry, Emily and myself, kind of an “inside family joke” that turned into something so much more.  I get questioned about it ALL the time (understandably so), so here is the story behind it:

Every morning, Harry and I would together walk Emily to the bus stop to send her off to school.  One of our neighbor’s kids used to wave to her Mom from the bus, but not a normal wave, she would use the hand symbol for I love you and wave it until her Mom did it back.  The first few times, I didn’t say anything and it was a few days later that Harry brought it up to me.  He said “do you see that girl waving her hand like that all the time?”  “Yes, I do, it’s funny but very cute.” So we started to do it with Emily on the bus and she loved it.  It went from a goodbye on the bus to our goodbye all the time, no matter where we were.  Anytime we were leaving each other, we would use that hand symbol instead of waving.  Harry and Emily came up with these extensive handshakes that always included the hand symbol.  We even laughed about how our neighbors were probably making fun of us now as we had of them, but we didn’t care.  After a month or two, I realized that when you typed lmL it kind of looked like the hand symbol (the l was the pinky, the m was the middle fingers and the L was your pointy finger and thumb).  So from then on, any text message, e-mail or Facebook comment ended with lmL, in addition to our daily hand gestures.  Since Harry and I kept in contact via text messages all day, lmL was used quite often.  After I spoke at Harry’s funeral, I gave his urn the lmL hand symbol for one last time.  Emily and I still do it to this day.

So, now, that you know the meaning, let’s get back to the tattoo.  You can read the original post about the tattoo here, but I will give you the synopsis: I had attended a funeral that night for a co-worker’s Mom.  I had already drawn out the tattoo and had it in my bag and on my way home, thinking about how precious life really is, decided that I should get it done.  I said out loud: “Harry, if I should get this tattoo tonight, show me a sign!”.  No more than 3 minutes later, I came up on a tattoo shop, Lucky Cat Tattoos, in Miller Place, NY.  I said to myself, “if that isn’t a sign, I don’t know what is.”  When I walked in, there was one artist who was free at the time, Rob. While he was doing the tattoo, I noticed that he spelled Forever wrong.  He had made it Forover.  At first, he said I was wrong but then realized his mistake and made the o into an e.  At the time, it was not noticeable to anyone who didn’t know about it, but it was something that bothered me since I got it.

After a few months, the o/e started to look obvious and the For in Forever and the 09 had faded out, almost to the point that it looked like they weren’t there.  I had shown this to MANY tattoo enthusiasts who balked and asked where I had gotten it done. They had never seen anything like it, especially in a tattoo that was only a few months old.  I waited another month to make sure it was completely healed before I complained.  I happened to be in the area of Lucky Cat Tattoos one day and thought I would stop in and see what they said.  I saw the store manager.  He said that the fading was “normal” on my wrist. Normal? I had never seen anything like this before. The tattoo artist that had done my tattoo was off that day.  I told the manager, “to be honest, I don’t want that artist touching my wrist again. He spelled Forever wrong!”. His response:  “That is the only way we will fix it for free,” he said.  “If you want a new artist, you will have to pay for another tattoo”.  Considering the guy had spelled something as simple as FOREVER wrong permanently on my body, I was really taken back by this.  However, I’m broke.  I could barely afford to get it done in the first place and couldn’t afford to get it re-done.  I was told when the artist was there and to come back.  Fast forward two months.  I had gotten really busy and I don’t live near the shop anymore.  I called ahead of time and got the artist on the phone.  He couldn’t remember me or the tattoo and denied the spelling mistake. He told me to come in and he would take a look.  As soon as I stopped in, he remembered me, the tattoo and the spelling mistake.  He (and the manager) told me they didn’t want to do it that night, he wanted a picture of it so that they could draw it out and figure out what letters needed to be retraced.  He said he would call me to come in at some point that week.  A week goes by, no call.  I call them and he says, “Oh, yeah, um, just come in whenever you want”.  So, back I go.  He tells me that they decided to just go over the entire tattoo again.  So basically, I could have had it done the week earlier, but had to wait a week for no reason.

I sit down in the chair and he begins.  All went well the the majority of the tattoo, until he gets to the lettering.  He tells me he is going to redraw the F with pen since you can’t really see it.  This makes me feel better but then he changes his mind. “I can see the F fine, I will just go over it again.” WELL…I guess he couldn’t see it that well because he COMPLETELY SCREWED IT UP!!!!  See the pic below of the tattoo as soon as it was finished:

The F is crooked, smaller and not lined up with the rest of the letters.  You can still see where the top of the F used to be.  I was sooooooo mad as soon as I saw it.  After I pointed it out, he realized his mistake… but it was too late.  The manager came over and suggested making all the letters bolder to fix the F.  I said, “you are not touching my skin again”.  He told me to come back in a few weeks and they would try to figure out how to fix it AGAIN.  Basically, he screwed up the ONE THING that I went to get fixed.  I also noticed later that the 1.22 looks like 7.22 now and there is no dot over the i in the word “in” as there was before.I have never, in my life, met a group of more incompetent people.  People have said in the past few days, “it’s not THAT bad”. It’s tattooed on my body, for life.  When you get tattoos, you don’t want them to be BAD at all, only perfect will do, and this is far from it.  If this was just a tattoo that had no meaning, it would be one thing, but this is a tribute to the love of my life and it has turned into a disaster. I’m hoping that the F fades AGAIN and I will go to a tattoo artist that has actual talent to get it fixed, not some 21 year old moron who doesn’t know what he is doing.  (BTW, he has an apprentice. I don’t think he should be one to teach anyone anything).

So, a word of advice: Check out your tattoo parlor before you go.  Don’t just take the artist that is available at the time.  There is probably a reason why every other artist was busy and he wasn’t.

Image via Newsday / AP

Dear Kanye,

I forgave you when you had a hissy fit at the Grammy’s in 2004 claiming you were robbed of the Best New Artist award. Everyone has a bad day.  I forgave you in 2005 when you said “George Bush doesn’t like black people” during the Katrina Benefit.  Partially because I really disliked George W. Bush.  I forgave you when prior to the 2005 Grammy’s you said there would be a “real problem” if you went away empty handed.  I forgave you in 2007 at the VMA’s when you again had a hissy-fit, not only because you won no awards, but also because you had to perform *gasp* at Hugh Hefner’s Sky Villa at the Palms and not the event.  I also forgave you this year when you dissed Twitter.

But your actions last night are UNFORGIVABLE.  Not only was this Taylor Swift’s first VMA, but Beyonce was also nominated for Video of the Year.  She stated on the red carpet that she really wanted the big award.  Beyonce wasn’t upset losing an award to Taylor, why were you?  I’m glad they kicked you out and glad they cancelled your performance.  It probably wouldn’t have been that exciting anyway.  Let’s face it.  You are known more for your stupid antics then for your music, which isn’t even all that good.

Regards from an ex-fan,

Becky

P.S.  You ended up screwing Beyonce over, since she used up her acceptance speech time to allow Taylor to have her moment.  At least someone has some class.

I had decided last week that I wanted to do something different with my hair. I hadn’t colored it in about 2 years and I needed a cut. Being the frugal one I have become lately, I went to Lemon Tree instead of going to a salon that would charge more than I could afford. Instead of looking up locations, I figured there had to be one on my way home one night and as soon as I started looking, there it was.  I walked in and looked for a pricing sign and saw none.  The receptionist who was also the manager asked what they could do for me.

ME: “I need a color and a cut, but before you start anything can you tell me the price? I want to make sure I have enough.”

MANAGER: “Sure, that will be $45″.

ME: “OK, that’s good, let’s do it.”

She proceeded to show me all the colors and when I picked one (Light Golden Brown, for all those that like all the details), she told me to have a seat.  5 minutes later, she comes out with the bowl of hair color.  Then, this:

MANAGER: “Just a clarification, the $45 is just for the color, it will be an additional $30 for the cut.”

ME: (Nearly falling out of my chair) “I don’t have $75! Forget the color, I will just get the cut.”

MANAGER: (in a raised voice), “No, you WILL do the color, I already mixed it!”

ME:  “No I won’t, unless you don’t want to get paid for it! I can’t afford that much!”

MANAGER: “Well how much CAN you afford? I can’t just throw this out!”

ME: “I can afford $40 but was stretching it to afford $45, which is what you quoted me!”

By this time, everyone in the place has stopped what they were doing and was turned around watching the altercation.  I am about 2 seconds from leaving and have already stood up and grabbed my bag.  In an effort not to waste the already mixed color she tells me she will do the color for $35 which is the price for a touchup and the cut for $18.  She made sure to tell me that this is less than a senior citizen price and I should feel very lucky that I got it.  LUCKY? That I got overcharged and my hair doesn’t even look that good? Well, she certainly didn’t get a tip.  That’s how lucky she was. They tried to get me to try the eyebrow threading too, but I wasn’t letting them near my eyebrows after that debacle!  Maybe had she honored the price she quoted me, in front of at least 5 people, I would be going back there again.  Instead, I write this blog for many to read…that’ll teach Lemon Tree.  Bastards.

After 5 long days without my Macbook, I am back.  It was absolute torture. In the middle of posting a blog on Friday, August 7th, my screen froze. I thought nothing of it and rebooted the computer, hoping that it had saved a draft of the post. When I turned the computer back on, it was eerily quiet and all I got was a grey screen and a folder/question mark flashing.  My heart literally jumped out of my chest.  I immediately called the Apple store and hearing the panic in my voice, the receptionist asked me what happened. She said the earliest they could bring me in was Sunday afternoon.  2 days without my Mac.  I thought that wouldn’t be too terrible.  I could read a book and catch up on some TV.  Sunday came and when I brought the computer in, as soon as I told them what I saw, he said, “Oh, that’s not good. Maybe you’ll be lucky, but you probably lost everything”.  He plugged my computer into his and of course, couldn’t find my hard drive.  There you have it.  Everything gone. In a second.  My resume, my pictures, my music, my tax returns.  You name it, it was on my computer.  Basically it was like a lifeline for me.  I was attached at the hip with it and all of a sudden it was taken away.

I had over 1,000 photos and videos of Harry that were now gone.  The  Mac “Genius” said that the hard drive was now property of Apple, that was their policy.  I basically broke down in tears in the middle of the store.  I explained that Harry had passed away and that was all I had left.  He said he understood and made an exception.  I think he just wanted me to stop crying.  He said I could bring the hard drive to a data -recovery service, but last year, he paid over $800 to retrieve one document off of his hard drive.  I almost started crying again.  Plus, it would be another 3-5 days without the computer.  I sucked it up and handed it over.  For the past 3 days, I have been using my blackberry to go on Twitter and Facebook but it would not allow me to update my blog.  I was hoping everyone didn’t think I abandoned them.  You truly don’t realize how much you rely on your computer until you are without it for 5 days.  I literally kissed it when they gave it back to me today.  Maybe a little extreme, but I was so happy to have it back.

I had all my pictures and music on my iPod, thank goodness.  I will be able to retrieve the music and the pictures with a program made especially for an instance like this.  The only thing is the pictures will all be low-resolution, but I will have them nonetheless.  First, I am trying to reinstall all my programs and bookmarks.   I will get onto Entrecard ASAP as well…I’m sorry to everyone that I wasn’t able to drop for 5 days.   It’s nice to be back in touch with the world! I missed you guys!

Over the years, I have been wooed by the commercials.  You know which ones I’m talking about. Those As Seen on TV products that they make look like the BEST things you have ever purchased in your life?  I usually wait until these products are at CVS and then purchase them for around $9.99 each.  I figure if they are big enough to go from TV to CVS, then for sure they must be good.

1. Smooth Away™

The commercial is right.  It removes hair.  At the rate of 5 hairs an hour.  It comes with a large size pad (for legs and arms) and a smaller size pad (for facial and bikini areas).  The instructions say to place the applicator to the skin and rub in a circular motion clockwise three times and then counterclockwise three times.  Three times, my ass.  Three times each way wasn’t doing it.  I wore out one of the large pads on just one leg.  And it wasn’t even smooth! My skin was exfoliated, but it certainly was not hair-free.  Then, I broke out one of the small pads in hopes that it would redeem itself on my face.  Again, no.  If I were to rotate in a circular motion by my eyebrows, I’d smooth my eyebrows right off, or based on my legs, at least somewhat off.  I then tried to use it on my upper lip, but my nose got in the way! I couldn’t use the correct circular motion and ended up with a stubbly, lopsided mustache.

2. Dryer Balls™

Harry and I saw these a few years ago and thought this would be great for our blankets at the laundromat.  We were all excited to go to the laundromat to use them and wash our comforter.  We throw the balls in and guess what happens? They MELT.  The little nubs all got singed from the heat of the dryer and pieces melted on our comforter. We kept the balls in our junk drawer as proof of this happening for future house guests.  I would think Dryer Balls would be more heat resistant considering they are DRYER balls, don’t you?

3. Mighty MendIt™

Who doesn’t love Billy Mays?  The man could have sold sand in desert and people would line up, me included.  The fact that he sold this makes the appeal even better.  Plus, the thought of not having to sew another hem in my life? This intrigued me.  I never bought, but my Mom did.  I inherited it after she ruined a chaise lounge while trying to repair a rip in it. I decided to use it first to repair a hem on a pair of pants.  The hem has remained in place but the goop that remains of the product on my pants has also.  I give it an A for effort in material adhesive, but they could have made it dry clear.  This also came with a bonus bottle of Mighty GemIt.  I’m not one to bedazzle, but if I get into scrapbooking again, this will come in handy so I am holding on to it.

4. Strap-Perfect™

When I saw this commercial, I said, “I have to have this!”.  It hides your bra straps AND gives you a little “boost”? What girl doesn’t want this PERFECT item?  I waited for months until I finally saw it appear on the shelf at CVS.  I was with my Mom when I bought it and she told me I was crazy.  I said, “You’ll see…you’ll want to borrow them!”.  Well, Mom got the last laugh.  On the commercial, they show someone else putting it on the model.  That’s because normal people’s arms do not flex that way.  It is almost impossible to put it on.  Granted, I may have a bit more chub than others, but still.  They address this in the instructions, saying that is one of two ways you can use it.  The other way, you put it on before pulling the bra straps up and then you have to fit your arms through these tiny little holes and try to pull the bra up over your boobs.  It is a terrible experience.  What’s even more terrible is seeing that the shirt you put on over it doesn’t even work with the bra and you went through all that for nothing.  I have yet to have a top that works with this product. It also came with “invisible tape” that I have yet to try. I will let you know how that goes next time I have a wardrobe malfunction that needs attending to.

5. Pedi-Paws™

I had always seen this one and wished I had a pet to use it on.  Well, then I got Gracie!  This was one of my first purchases when she was s little 8 week old kitten.  The instructions say to take it out and turn it on a few minutes a day to get your pet accustomed to it.  I tried this and the first time, Gracie hissed at it.  So I immediately put it away.  Then the next day, she hissed and pounced on it.  The the next she hissed and swatted at it.  This went on for two weeks and then I decided to stop torturing the poor kitty and to just give it up.

To this day, As Seen On TV products still impress me, on TV that is.  I saw “Bumpits” last week for $9.99 and had to stop myself from buying it.  I don’t know if I’ll ever learn.

I attended the Today Show this morning to see DMB perform live.  I knew as this was a free show and first come, first serve, that I would need to get there early.   I arrived at 12:50am and there was already a crowd on line, camped out.

There were 110 people in front of me, we counted.  I tweeted this at 2am:

To my surprise, @Studio1A (The Today Show studio’s Twitter handle) had seen my tweet and retweeted me at around 4am:

I thought that it was great that they were using Twitter and responding / RT’ing to fans outside.  Word was, that they would be letting people in around 6am.  So, we just had to wait.  Some slept, others stayed up the night and had a great time, including a bunch of guys from PA, one of whom was 17 and had been to 267 shows.  How is that even possible??

There were guys selling Tie Dyes, one for $5, another for $15 and another for $30, all within 5 feet of each other LOL.  I bought the $5 one, and I actually thought it was really funny when I read it:

…But I paid $5 for this shirt! Around 4am, the girls I had met on the train (Jen and Mandy) went to the McDonalds around the block (the one that is open 24 hours) and were told they were closed, that they ran out of food.  How does a McDonalds run out of food?  They found a deli and got bagels instead. While they were gone I took a pic of my feet and the sign I had made in hopes that @davejmatthews would see it:

And a self-portrait in my poncho for posterity:

Time went by pretty freaking slow, as you could imagine, although we were never bored, there was a lot of action, between us getting all the trucks to honk their horns and explaining to many a cab driver why we were sleeping out there.  At 6am, we all packed up our belongings and got ready to walk in, except, we weren’t moving.  I could see other people going in. I assumed this was the fan pass line.  Well, it wasn’t.

Someone messed up and let the wrong line of about 100 people in (people had arrived only an hour earlier).  The people who had slept there the night before (one woman had arrived 1pm yesterday) made a big stink but they let all of those people stay in there. By the time my line of 100 was let in, we ended up on the side behind the tent, in the “non-camera” section.  We couldn’t even see the stage because of the equipment tent:

We were right beyond the reach of the boom camera that took crowd shots.  I rewatched my DVR and you could see (my sign) me for 3 seconds (barely) in the bottom left side of the screen. We were not given any memorabillia like the cheesy microphones or guitars (not that I would have wanted one anyway) like everyone else in the crowd, because we “weren’t going to be on camera”, and the staff were quite rude to us about it when we asked. The only nice people were the NYPD who went out of their way to be kind to us and even took pictures for people.

DMB sounded great (as always), We watched it on a screen in the equipment tent when the sound guy wasn’t standing in front of it.   I probably would have been better off watching the show from home, dry, clean and awake.  I’m going to sleep now.  Goodnight.

***On a side note, Matt Lauer was the only person from NBC who came back to say hi to us.  Thanks Matt.***

NO! Why? Because my cell phone is broken. It’s only 4 months old and it’s broken. Figures. So I went to the Verizon Wireless store nearest me to get it fixed during lunch. The store is in a mall. A BIG mall. A mall I am not familiar with. I walked all over the goddammn mall looking for the stupid store because no one knew where it was. After I found it (ironically next to the door I entered 30 minutes prior), guess what happened. That’s right, people. They don’t fix phones there. They only sell them. Don’t you think that maybe Verizon ought to list this important piece of information on their website so that people like me don’t waste their lunch hours walking through malls for NO damn REASON! Bastards.

After being a loyal Diet Coke drinker for as long as I can remember, I am taking a stand. I will no longer purchase any products made by Coca-Cola and have now become a Pepsi drinker. Why? Because they are ripping off the general public, thats why! Remember normal two liter bottles that cost about $1.99? Well, now Coca-Cola no longer makes them. Instead, they made an “easier to hold” one and a half liter bottle and are still charging us the same price! Why should I pay Coca-Cola, a multi-million dollar company, the same amount of money for less product? Instead, I’ll purchase a good ole two liter bottle of Pepsi for $1.99 and enjoy the two liters that I paid for. Take that Coca-Cola!