Answer: Pink eye and personal space, respectively

Don't worry, I don't actually have it; I just thought I did.

I woke up this morning just fine, only a little groggy from a late-night aim session.

I took my shower and started to feel a pain in my eye. I wiped it with a towel and assumed it was just a rouge drip of shampoo. However, when I got out and looked at my eye, I saw it was completely bloodshot.

Now I'm a pink eye veteran and was surprised I didn't have any of the other symptoms, which are gross and shall not be discussed. However, one of my colleagues had it two weeks ago and it was a horrid, viral case.

I decided it was better to be safe than sorry. I decided I would take the day off and visit Dr. Bean at Empire Vision, because she's pretty much the bomb diggity when it comes to my eyes.

However, a half hour later my eye was completely clear again. Oh well, no point in calling the schools back at that point (the kids will still need help learning to read tomorrow). Therefore, I climbed back into bed for a lovely mid-morning nap. It was freaking awesome AND I still had tons of time after my nap to make doctor appointments I never have time to make during the school day. Word.


Now for something completely different



Let's talk about personal space. It's a must. for this girl.

Exhibit A:

That's me at a Counting Crows concert this past summer. That's the girl who invaded my personal space. As you can see I am attempting to bite her.

Ever since my family and I attended the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, like, 11 years ago (I'm guessing it was circa 1996 because the Backstreet Boys were on a float) I've had some serious crowd anxiety.

I'm okay if it's crowded, as long as people evenly space themselves, are courteous to those around them and/or follow the rules of traffic. Oh, I am aware these expectations are way too high for the general population, but I'm just putting it out there.

I am not a fan of people who try to stuff themselves into an already densely populated area, with no regard to the people already there. The girl, your honor, seen in Exhibit A above, has broken one of my cardinal rules of personal space. However, just to set you all at ease, I didn't bite her. There, in fact, are no consequences for those who break my rules of personal space. I get aggravated, but knowing my standards are way too high, I simply just grumble and try to get out of the area.

This is probably why I'm not so much a city girl. However, I have made significant gains in the area of sidewalk-crowd maneuvering. Still, I believe it's the suburbs in general that suit my neurotic tendencies.

Let's end on a happy note.

I like cake.


I like it a lot.



Stay classy, Poughkeepsie

Answer: Easter Morning

I'm not much for buying into religious visions that appear on the sides of buildings or slices of cheese. But seriously, look at this egg I dyed.



Not cool, Lucifer, not cool. With all of my sick artistic skills, I don't think I could've put such an image on an egg if I had tried. Needless to say, after sharing it with the fam during brunch, I ate this egg and felt fine. The rest of the eggs came out beautifully, free of demonic visions.

Exhibit A:


I also had fun making them. It was much more fun than cooking or cleaning, and yet I was still contributing to our Easter Brunch. Nitz and I even took some time out to rock out to some Spring Awakening.

She's chilled way out in the past couple years, as you can clearly see. My dad has chilled out as well, yet still refused to take any part in our mid-morning performance.

I'll close with a little shout out to the cutie dove who welcomed us back from a way-too-early morning mass.

Hi little guy.



Stay well everyone and


Stay classy, Poughkeepsie.

Answer: The Birds!

I've been living in Poheezie for about a year and a half now, and have an ongoing obsession with the birds who frequent the pond in my apartment complex. These birds include but are not limited to about several dozen Canadian Geese, Mallards, and seagulls, two ice-loving Swans and this freak of nature:



He is a Muscovy duck btw. I did not know this until I googled his description last Thursday evening.

Our first encounter was Thursday morning when I was leaving for work, late as usual. Btw, it takes me about 25 minutes to get to work, but I enjoy subjecting myself to stress and pressure. Therefore, I leave 15 minutes before I need to actually be at work.

Anyway, as I'm speeding up the road past the pond, I see this awkward specimen. I slowed down just enough to turn and examine it's weirdness. I then proceeded to literally shout, "What the fuck are you?!" Note: this is not the first nor will it be the last time I've yelled at the birds.

Anyway, the mystery has been solved, and I guess his appearance isn't too uncommon in North America. However, let me now share some bird behavior I find to be quite peculiar....

stop looking at me swan

WTF. Apparently these birds have not heard of this little concept called migration. From what I've heard, it makes quite a lot of sense and serves a helpful purpose: survival. If you ask me, the ducks in the first picture looked pretty fucking cold, probably because they were sitting on mother-loving ICE. And while I don't have any pictures to prove this, the pair of swans looked pretty cold and pathetic after a few weeks of hanging out in the sub-zero weather.

That's all for now. As warm weather is increasing at an exponential rate, we (sadly meaning I) await the inevitable arrival of the goslings. I look forward to sharing the pictures as proof of their serious, shared death wish.

Stay classy Poughkeepsie

Chatie