Last night I was watching the X Factor and I noticed something silly but it kind of made me think..

So they showed an audition by this kid D'Angelo. D'Angelo was cocky and basically a jerk and his singing was awful. He had no respect for any of the judges and kept mentioning how he was better than Justin Bieber and therefore will get picked. He even said that he can't sing but since Bieber can't either he'll be famous. He started singing and it was terrible and also wasn't paying attention, so the judges walked off stage during his Chris Brown song. He went on for way too long and then left. He then, upon leaving, took the mic with him and they showed footage of crew calling the cops. The police came and crew chased him down and D'Angelo was handcuffed and taken in for stealing the mic. He confessed stealing it on air. Then the following text showed on the screen: "D'Angelo was charged with a misdemeanor but got out in a few hours."

I realize this may be nit-picky, but why didn't it say D'Angelo was charged with a misdemeanor AND got out in a few hours? Doesn't the BUT imply a total slant toward how he shouldn't have? Or is there something about misdemeanor's i'm missing? I realize it is merely semantics, but I still found this odd.

In other news, and keeping with the TV theme here, Survivor premiered last night and it was a great episode I thought. The contestants all seem rather intelligent or at least, rather smart when it comes to the game. That said, the guy who got voted off really only has himself to blame as he was attempting to be sly and play mind games--but it backfired on him. 

I'm glad that SYTYCD ended since between that, the Voice and the X Factor there were too many reality-art-contest shows a week. I avoided watching Big Brother this season (just caught a few episodes here and there) and haven't cared about Americas Got Talent ever. I'm excited for The Amazing Race to premiere and am relieved that Teen Mom is finally over so I can stop watching that.

I'll leave you with this, since it made me giggle:

    
 
I should probably post a proper update about the Amsterdam/Iceland trip that I took back in May where I surprised my sister on her birthday in Amsterdam and then explored Iceland and went to the Blue Lagoon, craters, waterfalls, geisers, black sand beaches... but above is a small sampling and below are many more pictures of the rest of the summer.. while I didn't post any pictures from the big baby slash bridal shower and wedding for now (which were both gorgeous and fun events with amazing friends), enjoy this massive picture post of other things I did this summer.

I flew to Chicago for work and had beautiful views from the plane
  
I went to the Clearwater Festival up in Croton-on-Hudson and saw Josh Ritter, Bela Fleck, Arlo Guthrie & Family.. it was a beautiful day out and I ended up back at the beach at Croton Point Park on July 4th--with a nice firework dinner afterward in Tarrytown.
    
At a work event I hung out with Chuck Schumer (D-NY)

I went to Huntington, NY to see Joshua Radin in concert (Tristan Prettyman opened for him). 

   
   

And then went to the Newport Folk Festival which was fantastic. There I saw My Morning Jacket, Patty Griffin, Dawes, Iron & Wine and Arlo Guthrie & Family again.
   

   

Then I saw Roxette play at the Beacon Theater. This concert was ridiculously amazing. We had 2nd row seats and it was one big giant sing-along. RIDIC. The video below from the show is taken from the Roxette blog.. and i'm dancing in it. ha!
 

 
(at minute 1.53 or so see that short long haired girl jumping? Yeah? That's me! ha!  There's another video on the blog as well..)

and last but not least, earlier this week I saw Hugh Laurie at the Paramount Theater in Huntington, NY which was totally impressive as well.
     
   
   

How was your summer? Would you believe I still have more tickets and concerts coming up? So fun!

Soo.. it surely has been a while but i'm still alive and kicking

Fun things that I did this summer (in no particular order):

• The Clearwater Folk Festival
• a work trip to Chicago
• the Newport Folk Festival
• My dear friend I's wedding
• and her bridal and baby shower before that..
• a trip to Iceland and Amsterdam
• The Joshua Radin concert in Huntington NY
• a trip to Croton-on-Hudson to swim and see July 4th fireworks
• some DIY home projects
• restaurant week deliciousness...

Fun things that are coming up in 2012:

• A trip to the Mexican Carribean with my sister. Playa del Carmen and spider monkeys and dolphins and beach and cocktails and and and.. here we come!
• Roxette Concert (WOOHOO!)
• Hugh Laurie Concert
• with a little bit of luck the acoustic Ben Harper Concert at Carnegie Hall
• The Global Festival with Neil Young, K'naan, The Black Keys, the Foo Fighters and Band of Horses.
• a Grouplove concert
• Christmas in Amsterdam
• I want to see Once the Musical..

Oh and I have a car till December so i plan on using it for road trips (Baltimore!) and fun day trips outta the city.

Yes people, I am alive and well! What's new with you?

I love my sister.

That is all.

Have a good weekend, everybody

Would you ask a new neighbor who you have spoken to maybe 3 times (including a subway ride commute in to work this morning) to check your mail for you while you're out of town? She lives alone on my floor and seems really nice. I dont want her in my apt, but if she checks her mailbox, it'd be easy for her to empty mine too, right? Then when I get back I'd pick it up from her? Or is that weird and should I ask a friend?  I don't think I get secret mail, but I suppose bills can have private confidential information if opened. Hrmm.

Have you seen THIS chart yet? I find it fascinating.

There's a box of clothing from Modcloth under my desk at work. I can't wait to open it.. but want to try stuff on at home, not the office.

This evening I'm attending a rehearsal for my friend's show. If you have $1 or $5 and you want to support some local artists... you should support this. Really. They really need it and every little bit helps. If they can get 4000 people to donate essentially a latte, they'll break even and be able to do another show after this one. For more info see here: Playing With Reality. I'm a little nervous about the rehearsal but i sam sure it will be fun. As you all know, i'm not an actress. haha. Then afterward I'm so looking forward to some quality couch and dvr time. I've gotten home after 10pm every day this week so far and me tired and DVR exploding.

I was sad to hear of Maurice Sendak's death today. When I was little girl Pierre was my all time favorite book for a while and I can still recite much of it by heart. 

Today I discovered this on youtube. I never knew it was a song by Carly Simon or Amanda Palmer..

 i enjoyed it.

Also, Sendak's 2 part interview on The Colbert Report was hilarious.
And he sailed off through night and day..  hopefully to let the wild rumpus begin  

The weekend was GREAT! I had so much fun. It left me with a sunburn and i'm zonked.. but it was totally worth it. I drove a rental Prius down to DC on Saturday and the drive was fine. NJ (as always) had too much road work, a few accidents and some traffic around exits 7 and 8 on the turnpike, but other than that it was smooth sailing and I really enjoyed the drive. 

Upon arrival in DC we went to the South West Seaport/Marina to the lil' fish market there which was so cute! We picked up a bushel of steamed lemon and old bay seasoned crabs and made our way back to my friends' house and shortly thereafter the birthday party began. Someone brought artichoke dip, there was a lot of beer, and we ate crabs and hung out. At 11PM we made our way to a private-room karaoke place where we sang for 3 hours. By the end of that people were happily wasted and there was a jumbo slice pizza run followed by more hanging out back at the house. Around 4.30AM it was bed time.. and I slept very well . The next morning a bunch of us met up for brunch and this is where I acquired my sunburn. The drive back up to NYC was fun. Two friends came with me and again, it was easy. The car was returned and I watched Game of Thrones and the Amazing Race with some friends.

Last night a friend who now lives in Monaco was in town so we hung out. I went to bed around 12.30AM and while I felt bad that I was bailing early, I was just so tired.

Tonight I vow to get to bed at a reasonable hour.. although i'm totally going to make some progress on my DVR--which i'm way WAY behind on.

Every day on this site, I have footprints from Florida. Sometimes multiple times a day.. I wish I knew who was checking my site so often. Hi Florida! .. say hi or something, wouldya?

On Friday after work I treated myself to a deep tissue massage from this hole-in-the-wall place in my neighborhood that was reviewed very well on Yelp.com. The massage was ah. mazing. Fantastic! And cheap too.. an hour for $50? Not too shabby! The place isn't terribly luxurious but it was clean and the people friendly. I walked out of there feeling like jello. Like I was high or something.. which I wasn't. I was going to walk home, but since I felt like I was floating when I emerged I opted for a subway ride home instead. I'll be going to that place more often for sure. Not any time soon though since I still feel like all knots are gone and there isn't any tension in my neck/back at the moment. The only strange thing was that on Saturday my neck/back felt kind of sore.. like I was bruised or something, which I wasn't visibly. After some googling though I realized that this is nothing to worry about and happens a lot with deep tissue massages. Sunday it was much better and today it is gone.

Other than that, it rained here all weekend so I didn't do too much. Yesterday some friends came over for a game day which was fun. We ended the day with the usual Amazing Race and Game of Thrones viewing.. oh, and sushi. Good times were had!

This week doesn't promise too much excitement but that is alright since on Friday a friend and I will be heading down to DC for two birthday celebrations. I am sure that will be fun. Thursday is trivia night as always. Tonight will be laundry and tv night.. fun times in the life of x_naomi_x.

I am looking forward to my trip to Iceland in May. Alright, time to do some work. Have a good weekend, everybody! Happy Monday!

I haven't been writing lately, but i'm reading still Lots of things have been happening over in Naomi land. Just this past week I nearly quit my job in order to travel the world and then maybe move to Amsterdam afterward. Drastic, right? The work stuff has been smoothed over for now.. emphasis on the for now since i'll admit the ideas are still percolating. Oneworld.com is kind of an evil website that way. Can you imagine just having a budget and traveling for 3 months? Or 6? or a year? Sigh.. i'd love to do that, and obviously it is a once in a life time thing--and now may be the time. Or now-ish.

The apartment situation is still a fantatstical mess. I'm going to not talk about that for now. And so for something completely different: 

Last night I was watching American Idol (oh hush.. ) and Jennifer Lopez was wearing a cute necklace. See?
 It is a Sydney Evan necklace and costs $1600something. Apparently JLo and Marc A. filed for divorce yesterday so her wearing this last night meant something. Who knows/cares. I like the rose-gold large one.

Anyhow, since I don't want to buy a necklace for $1600, I kept googling. I then found a couple of look-a-likes and a couple of non-diamond ones that I like..

It was 1am and I'm a sucker for etsy so first I bought this:

and then this:

 neither were expensive (aka both were uber-cheap). Neither are as nice as the Sydney Evan one. There is this knockoff which I am tempted by.. but fakes generally just look fake and i don't like fake looking bling:

However, WTF am I thinking? Have you met/seen me? The kicker is that I would never wear a pink love necklace. LOL. So all of this is silly and ridiculous. I don't need anything to say love.. not my kind of thing.

and yet..

DROOL. That rose-gold $1610 one is so pretty...  So. So. SO pretty.

Baby owls are always so adorable!

Did anyone see The Challenge last night? It was nutzo! I can't believe no one has died yet on that show. American Idol and Survivor were fun also. Heejun was too funny--I like that weirdo. As for Survivor.. oh Colton, karma served you well. Once again today i'm sleepy.. almost friday. almost friday. zzz

Is it Friday yet? Sigh. Tonight is trivia night again.. woohoo! Good times. This weekend my cousins are taking me to a Broadway show (for my b'day) and then I'm babysitting for a friend on Sunday. 

I just read a couple of articles about Rep. Terri Proud and her ideas about making women watch an abortion video before having the procedure. I can't even begin to comprehend..  UGH--how is that woman human? As a friend said on Facebook, perhaps we should have men watch a 4 hour video of an erect penis before prescribing Viagra, too.