New York State Votes for Marriage Equality

What a weekend!

When the New York Senate announced late Friday evening its decision to allow same-sex marriage in the state of New York, I burst into tears. Seriously. I am not sure my friends knew what was happening when I checked my phone and instantly began to cry while trying to convey to everyone around me: "It passed! It passed!" It took them a minute to figure it out, and then there were hugs all around.

In an incredibly close vote (33-29) the majority of Democrats and a few brave Republicans passed the Marriage Equality act into law. I am not sure how purposeful the timing was, but it serendipitously aligned with the anniversary of the Stonewall Riot and the New York City Gay Pride Parade. An amazingly festive and colorful weekend.

Marraige Equality in New York State

Today the New York State Senate will hopefully vote on the matter of marriage equality. I have the NYS twitter feed on and the livestream up... waiting...

All I can say, is if this passes today (knock on wood), the Pride Parade on Sunday will be the most epic parade NYC has ever seen. And I will be there with bells and rainbows on.

Nerdy Office Space

How nerdy is your desk?

As I sit in my cube and look around, I realize that I've got a lot of nerdy stuff. Granted, my workspace is downright sparse compared to some of my nerdier colleagues, but I can hold my own.

If you are interested in nerdifying your office space, or seeing how you measure up, I've included a list of "20 Nerdy Items at Ariel's Desk" for your reading pleasure. Note that none of these include the large collection of Sesame Street stuff that surrounds me each day. Nor the giant pile of ARCs to my left. Gosh, I have to go through that at some point...

BEA Swag Bag Contest Winner

 And the winner of the 2011 BEA SWAG BAG is

JediShywalker 

from

Down With the Capitol

and

The Hunger Games Fireside Chat

Congratulations, Shyla!

Email me at ColorfulSonata(at)gmail(dot)com with your mailing address and I'll send your swag! 

 

Thanks for playing!

Corporate Challenge!

UPDATE!

I did some serious run/walking and made it to the finish line in 42:05 minutes! Yep! That's a almost three minutes under my goal! Woohoo!

So today I am running in the corporate challenge. It's a 3.5 mile run through central park this evening at 7pm. I will be running with more than 90 of my Sesame Workshop colleagues and thousands of other corporate New Yorkers. I have been "training" for the past couple months using the Couch to 5k program, but am in no way a "runner". My big goal: 45 minutes. Last year I came in around 50 minutes with a nice slow jog. Today I will be doing some run/walk intervals of 3-5 minutes each. Hopefully my "training" and adrenaline will get me to the finish line in time. 

You may of course be wondering what this has to do with being nerdy. So, here it is:

My (mostly) Geeky Running Playlist

Discount crafts on Etsy!

OK. So I am sure most of you know about discount websites like ideeli, hautelook, giltcity, and ruelala. They are indeed wonderful, and have great sales on trendy clothing and accessories. What you may not know about is Quite Unique. "Quite Unique launched in February of 2011 and features one hand-selected item per day. Each item is crafted by an individual that values design quality, uniqueness and sustainability. All items are produced in limited quantities and are only available until they sell out." It's kind of like groupon for crafts!

The Best Thing Ever

A brilliant example of parenting at its best: Kindergartener decides he wants to give the Pandorica monologue for his school talent show. I want to know this boy. And be friends.

I Want to Go to There

For those of you who have the travel bug and are also nerdy, I've decided to look for some deliciously geeky vacation destinations about which you can fantasize. Here's one:

The Library Hotel

For as low as $190 per night, you can be a guest at the luxurious Library Hotel in New York City. "The Library's sixty unique hotel rooms in New York City are housed on ten floors dedicated to one of the ten classifications of knowledge of the Dewey Decimal System: Social Sciences, Literature, Languages, History, Math & Science, General Knowledge, Technology, Philosophy, The Arts and Religion.
Each of the sixty exquisitely appointed rooms have been individually adorned with a collection of art and books relevant to one distinctive topic within the category of the floor it belongs to. Choose your favorite or explore the unique delights of each room, one visit at a time."

Wrackspurt?

So I got a bit crafty last night. While I was toiling away at a new batch of Slytherin colored hair bows, I got to thinking. I have all this orange colored yarn left over from Chudley Cannon bows, and it's just taking up space in my basket. I decided to search the Interwebs for some ideas for scrap yarn.

For a brief moment I settled on knitting a bowl of oranges, but that didn't seem right to me. Too boring. Finally I found these guys: Mini Aliens. They are just about the cutest things ever. And so quick to knit... if you have the correct yarn. The pattern called for sport weight yarn. I had chunky yarn. This was going to be interesting.

The First Doctor

1st Doctor

Well, I just completed my time with the first Doctor. For just over three seasons of serials, William Hartnell was the Doctor.

2nd Doctor

I must say, when I first saw him with Susan, Barbara, and Ian, I thought he was a bit of a dick. But as I got to know him and his sense of humor developed, I found myself dreading the moment of his regeneration. Alas, at the end of The Tenth Planet, it happens. While I did not shed any tears, I do feel the need to have a bit of a grace period before embarking on a new adventure with Patrick Troughton and his companions.

In honor of his memory, I give you: the moment of his regeneration:

Win a BEA swag bag!

And now... for the first official BEA SWAG BAG contest!

Winner will receive the highly coveted Scholastic Wonderstruck promotional tote bag (left) that was handed out at the Children's Author Breakfast. The tote bag will be filled with advance reader copies of upcoming books, blads, bookmarks, and other promotional swag that was only available at Book Expo 2011.

The winner of this bag will have the chance to read books before they are released to the public. The next best-selling novel could be inside!

To enter the contest on Twitter, make sure you follow @Madam_Pince and tweet the following message before next Friday, June 17th :

RT to win a #BEA11 Swag Bag. Read @Madam_Pince 's blog #NerdyWordyThirty at http://tinyurl.com/6az6s9y for details. 

Winners must be located in the United States or Canada to be eligible.

Secret Sesame Geeks

So, the other day at work I get an email. It was sent to only a select few individuals, some of whom I knew, and others I did not. We all had one thing in common: we were geeks. Some more openly than others, but all geeks nevertheless. We had all been invited to play hooky this afternoon and go see X-Men: First Class. After a rousing bout of "reply-all" geeky fun, during which we argued about possible group names (Secret Sesame Geeks), and costumes (no capes!), a handful of us agreed to go.

Now, while I am excited to be seeing the new X-Men movie, I think I am slightly more excited to meet and hang out with my secret sesame geeky co-workers.

Who now may know me as Batgirl. Who, by the way...

The Lone Arranger

Ariel,  Professional Organizer

Don't you wish you knew exactly where everything was in your home? Wouldn't it be nice to have a simple system to keep your home organized? Don't know where to start? That's where I come in.

I can help you get your clutter organized and under control. I will work with you in your home as we go through each room and ready its contents for recycling, donation, or keeping. When we're done you'll have a brand new and completely usable space to live in and enjoy.

House Color Hair Bows - Update!

Me in Umbridge Pink

My hair bow crafting has been going strong. I now have several book Ravenclaw (navy and bronze), Slytherin (green and charcoal gray), and Umbridge (pale pink and dusty rose) bow designs. On deck are Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, and Chudley Cannon orange. I will be making some plain Hello Kitty pink bows as well.