I must say that I can never actually get excited when I take a trip as I spend most of my time before the trip thinking not of the fun times I might have but of the horrible things that might happen to me in my attempt to arrive. It is for this reason that if you asked me right this minute if I am excited about going to Oklahoma at 7:30pm today that I would say a resounding “No!”. And why? Because I have to fly there. And we all know what happens when Brianne flies solo. Bad Bad Things. And so, instead of being excited about seeing friends and family and new babies, I am instead trying to mentally prepare for the worst. In an attempt to circumvent problems, I spent extra money to fly direct to Oklahoma instead of the usual connections in Chicago (where I have had more than one mishap) and Cincinnati (where I was forced to spend the night in Kentucky in a series of events that I still do not understand). It is my hope that this direct flight will leave close to on time, fly without incident to arrive before Christmas day in my destination. This is all I’m asking for. Is it really too much? And so, I ask again this year as I did last year that you all take a moment today to think positive air travel thoughts for me as I make my journey to the Great State of Oklahoma.

Do you know how sometimes your room gets so messy that you think that it might just be easier to burn it all down and start over rather than sort it all out and clean it? I sure hope I’m not the only person to whom this happens. That’s where I am right now with my room. I’ve been using my reading chair for clothes/box/shoe/school book storage for at least 3 weeks. I still haven’t unpacked my overnight bag from our trip to Philadelphia. I recently had one of those girly moments where nothing I put on felt right and so all of those many many outfits ended up on the floor and there they have stayed. I’ve got at least four jackets or coats floating around in there to the point that when I leave the house I don’t look in the coat closet, I instead have to rifle through my storage chair to find something of suitable warmth. I recently got some new gloves that have yet to be warn as they are also in the storage chair. I recently started a new semester in school and instead of filing away my old papers and books, they are in a pile next to the chair. A pile over which I frequently trip on my way to my closet.

The point of this messy room horror story is that I hate to come home from a vacation to a mess. It seems so daunting. And so, as I am leaving tomorrow for OK, I am forced to clean the mess today. I am not looking forward to this and fear that I might be killed during the process. I mean, we all know how bad my luck has been with paper cuts of late, perhaps a cardboard box or textbook will get me in a bad way and because of the quantity of the mess, Maren and Jeff will not find me until it is too late.

I’m sure there is a clear lesson in here and I’m reminded of when Maren and I shared a room as kids and how it would get so messy that eventually Mom would come in and she’s take hours and hours to clean and sort it all out with us and then she and dad would sit us down in the middle of the newly cleaned room and give us a stern talk about keeping the room clean and remembering how nice it looks now and working hard to keep it in the same fashion. Obviously this is not a lesson that stuck. And having glimpsed Maren and Jeff’s room lately, it’s safe to say that the lesson evaded Maren as well.

So, wish me well as I dive into what might be an all day process. I only hope I make it out alive.

Wednesday as I was getting ready for work, Jeff left to go meet Maren downtown. He walked out with his wallet in his hand and some boxes he was taking outside to be recycled. A few minutes later, Jeff comes back into the house to say that he got to the corner and couldn’t find his wallet. So, we look around. And then I suggest he look in the trash downstairs since that’s where he took the boxes. Long story short, many minutes passed and no wallet. Of particular note is that just that day Jeff had gotten his new license from Alberta, Canada and had just put it in his wallet. What an unfortunate time for it to go missing. I had to head off to work and left poor sad Jeff sifting through the recyclables in the 38 degree weather.

Just after arriving at work, Maren called me to say that some good New Yorker had found Jeff’s wallet on the street and immediately brought it to the police station to turn it in. The police had then called Maren and the Perretts were on their way to retrieve the wallet with the new license.

Now, for those of you who remember, this is not the first time an awesome New Yorker has helped out a Perrett in need. When Maren’s car was hit one day, she found a spectacularly detailed note on her windshield telling her all about what had happened, who had done it and the contact information of the witness. I must say to those people who say that New Yorkers are not nice that you must be mistaken. Not only do we find your wallet, leave you information about your car damage, we pick up things you have dropped, zip your dress for you when you forget to do it (I did this once for a woman I saw on the street), and occassionally try to prevent you from getting hit by a car. We are down right friendly sometimes which seems to be pretty handy for Maren and Jeff.

P.S. I am super excited about today because it’s Everyone Plus Jeff’s fake Christmas. Jeff, Zak and I are going to make cookies while Maren is at her work party and then when she gets home we are going to play games and watch christmas movies. Zak is going to spend the night and in the morning, we are going to gather around the tree and open our presents and then enjoy the crap out of them before Zak and I leave town on Sunday. Merry Fake Christmas

P.P.S. Reminder to Oklahoman’s: Zak and I are in town the 20-27 if you want to eat, drink and/or be merry with us.

Tuesday night, we did Rockefeller Center Take 2 and actually saw everything with lights. I think it goes without saying that this is the much better way to see things. Meghan and Lisa came over to the house to play Mario Kart with me and Jeff before we headed out to meet Maren and Zak for the festivities.

I think the picture of Maren below is pretty cool. It looks like we were employing some super-cool camera technique, but we weren’t. Maybe those people were walking super-fast. Or maybe they are ghosts?

We tried for many long minutes to take this picture ourselves before a kind British lady offered to do it for us.

I loved this picture  because you can see our faces reflected in the sign that we are leaning on as if we are standing over water. Try not to be distracted by Zak’s expression. If you’ve ever tried to photograph Zak, you know it’s nearly impossible to capture him looking normal.

The whole point of our tree visit was to get a good picture of Maren and Jeff for their holiday card this year. What we got were about 100 duds and this pretty good one.

Going to see the tree and all the lights and the carol of the bells light show across the street and the masses of humanity that you have to deal with is one of my favorite things to do in NYC all year long. I mean, it’s no Marathon, but it’s a pretty awesome sight. To come into Rockefeller Center from the back of the tree and then walk down the stairs towards the angels and look down and see the ice skaters is a pretty cool sight. And of course, this just never gets old.

What could be a better follow-up to National Cat Herders Day than National Chocolate Covered Anything Day? I like the very idea of this day. Chocolate on anything-good. I encourage you all to experiment with this idea throughout your day. I’ll try my best to as well and we’ll see where we meet up.

Our second attempt to see the tree in all its lighted glory worked out but it takes so long to upload photos that I’m going to post the pics tomorrow. So for today know that you should dip it in chocolate when in doubt.

National Cat Herders Day. And now you might be asking what on earth is a cat herder. Allow me to explain.  It was invented by a couple in California who have created several other whimsical holidays. Cat Herders Day was inaugurated to honor all of the people in the world whose lives can be compared to the impossible task of herding cats. This time of year, especially, most of us can end up feeling as if we’re chasing after a bunch of independent-minded felines.

I must admit that I was a little bummed to find out that there aren’t actually any cat herders out there. You know, herding the wild cats cowboy-style out on the open range.

I was of course, reminded of this awesome Super Bowl commercial. Please enjoy and try not to get too caught up in your loose ends and do try to herd a cat or two if possible. I think I’ll see if Maren will let me lasso Luna.

youtube=[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pk7yqlTMvp8]

Friday night we all made plans to hang out and then go see the Rockefeller Center christmas tree as Maren and Jeff, in all their many visits to NYC have never been here during Christmas and thus never seen the wonder that is this tree. Zak, Jeff and I hung out and played some Wii while waiting for Maren to get home from work. Zak and I tried to play Mario Kart in Jeff’s helmets. In spite of the fact that we looked awesome, that greatness did not extend to our play.

When Maren got home we played some games and rocked out to the 90’s music channel on tv.

And when I say rocked out, I mean Maren used anything in her vicinity as a microphone and sang along to all songs, even to the point of not realizing that when I said “lean in” for this photo that I meant her. Keep in mind that she is not posing to be funny. Nope, she is just that involved with her beer bottle microphone singing.

After the drinking, gaming and singing, we headed to the subway. And yes, that is me in a hat! Iknow, it’s shocking.

We waited so long for the 1 train to come that we had time to take more pictures than any tourist would take underground.

I’d like to explain the photo below but simply cannot. You be the judge.

Again, I’m not sure about this one either. Needless to say, we waited a long long time for our train to arrive.

When it finally did arrive, we headed to 50th street to see Rockefeller Center and that area in it’s Christmas glory.

One of my favorite things is the giant red ornaments floating on the fountain. I absolutely love this and the fact that they change the configuration of the bulbs every year to keep us on our toes.

After we saw the red bulbs, we headed with joy in our hearts to show Maren and Jeff their first ever glimpse of the Rockefeller Center christmas tree in all it’s glory. And what we saw was the unlit tree blocked off by the police. Yes, they turn of the tree every night at midnight. Who knew? Fortunately we weren’t the only New Yorkers to be caught unawares. We met the lovely couple in the photo below and took this nice little family photo with them in front of a teeny tiny tree that they do leave lit up. Perhaps it’s the consolation tree for missing the big one. In spite of our missing the tree, we did get his lovely photo with strangers the we decided would make a really nice holiday card if we were a little family.

What I love most about Friday is that we planned and planned to coordinate our schedules so that we could all be there to see the Perretts reaction to the tree and what we saw was the disappointment of seeing a giant unlit tree. Oops. The best laid plans…

So keep your fingers crossed as we head back out tomorrow to give this another go.

Let me tell you what it’s been like since Jeff moved in last Sunday. First off, there have been at least 3 days this week when I haven’t seen Maren at all. Not even a quick glance on the street corner. However, I have seen Jeff everyday. When I wake up in the afternoon/evening to get ready for work he says a nice little hello and then we watch Around the Horn and PTI and Sportscenter together as I get ready for work and eat my dinner. We talk a lot of sports and basically debate the same things the PTI guys do. It’s nice. It’s like PTI: The Home Version. It’s nice having Jeff there when I get up. And since he’s a boy, if I don’t want to talk, he doesn’t care. Oh, and he went out and got the paint that I needed to finish painting the kitchen when I was sleeping on Thursday.

I think it’s safe to say that Jeff and I have spent more one on one time in the last 7 days than we have in the last 7 years combined. In fact, I have sort of started to use him as a fill-in for Maren. I’ve already started telling him things and then not telling Maren. Just last week I made plans for us all and told Jeff and not Maren and I complained to Jeff about a family thing and never mentioned it to Maren. I’ve also taken to telling Jeff about my work happenings and any phone calls or mail I get that is interesting. I mean, I made him look at Autumn’s baby’s picture that came in the mail and again, didn’t show them to Maren. Aparently, I only need one Perrett to talk to and can take or leave the other one. And so far, that one Perrett has been JFC.

There is one way, however, in which he has bested Maren as the Perrett of choice. Once, I asked Maren if it was raining. And she said “no”. So I didn’t take my umbrella. When I got outside, far enough away to not be able to turn back, the sky opened up and I was drenched. But, Thursday, Jeff made a point to give me an accurate forecast for my venture out and suggested which body parts to layer and which would be fine without the added layers. Talk about service. Oh, and as we discovered on Friday, the addition of Jeff means that we are only one additional person away from the perfect number for game-playing. And as you know, we Genow’s like to game! Perhaps we’ll institute a weekly game night and change up the person we invite to be the 4th. Interesting…

In summary, so far, our little How I Met Your Mother-inspired living arrangement has been quite nice. And with our new furniture arrangement and new kitchen paint colors, it almost feels like a different place than the place where Meghan and I lived. (Meghan-you’re not going to believe it when you see it, that’s how different it is). And in case you were wondering, I still hate the cat!

As promised to several people, I’m going to keep you all updated on the interesting parts of my Psychology of Sexuality Class. For week 2, we are assigned Freud’s Three Essays on Sexuality originally pulished in 1905. The three essays are entitled (1) The Sexual Abberations, (2) Infantile Sexuality and (3) Transformations of Puberty. They look at such varied topics as homesexuality (which he calls inversion), bisexuality, pedophilia, sex with animals, fetishes, sadism and masochism to name just a few. I think the most impressive thing is the ability to cover all of these topics in a mere 109 pages.

Some of the more interesting quotes from these essays are:

“A similar consideration aplies to sexual intercourse with animals, which is by no means rare, especially among country people, and in which sexual attraction seems to override the barriers of species.”

“The most striking distinction between the erotic life of antiquity and our own no doubt lies in the fact that the ancients laid the stress upon the [sexual] instinct itself, whereas we emphasize its object. The ancients glorified the instince and were prepared on its account to honor even an inferior object; while we despise the instinctual activity in itself, and find excuses for it only in the merits of the object.”

“The sexual life of women-partly owing to the stunting effect of civilized conditions and partly owing to their conventional secretiveness and insincerity-is still veiled in an impenetrable obscurity.”

On kissing: “A man who will kiss a pretty girl’s lips passionately, may perhaps be disgusted at the idea of using her tooth-brush, though there are no grounds for supposing that his own oral cavity, for which he feels no disgust, is any cleaner than the girls.”

I think it’s safe to say that this class should prove to be very interesting.

As suggested by Erica in one of her comments, I submitted the funny thing I overheard at the movie theatre to the always awesome site: overheardinnewyork.com. If you haven’t checked it out, it’s time to do so. I’ll share some recent funny ones with you:

1. Lady with Russian accent to salesperson in outerwear section: I don’t like the style, it’s not feminine. It’s like for soldiers, or Chinese people.

2. Young son: Mom, you know I puke when you make me sit in the back of the bus.
Irritated Jewish mother: Just sit down.
Young son: Then… don’t come crying to me when I throw up on you!

3. Girl on cell: Okay, I’ve got to get naked for my cousin. Bye!
Random passerby: Say what?

4. NYU girl #1: You’re smoking again. You’re a smoker.
NYU girl #2: No I’m not! I only smoke when I’m stressed out in New York.
NYU girl #1: (blank stare)
NYU girl #2, realizing: Shit.

5. Gay guy to girl: He’s so unapproachable and homophobic.
Girl: Honey, he’s not homophobic; he just really doesn’t like you.

6. Ghetto girl #1: Smut. What is “smut”?
Ghetto girl #2: “Smut”? Sounds like “slut.”
Ghetto girl #1: Yeah. I think it’s like “slut,” but for a man.
Ghetto girl #2: Cause it has an “m” for men.

7. Girl: Yeah, like I mean, I would definitely say that I was in the best shape of my life when I had my eating disorder.
Guy, after long pause: Uhhhhh… at least you’re honest!

You should really check out this site. On top of funny things overheard in New York, they have funny things overheard in offices, and by celebrities in interviews. It’s a funny way to waste some time but I also find it a little addictive. So use with caution.