laurysa

Lynds

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 02:04:46 GMT

I haven't yet figured out the words to express what I'm feeling, so for now I'll just cut and paste. Maybe tomorrow or sometime in the future I'll be able to write about it:

Update on Lyndsay 8pm 8/19‏
Hello all,

Some of you have been following with me all along, others have been following with Mary. It comes with great sadness that I inform all that Lyndsay has passed away. While this is deeply sad and will undoubtedly take a long time to rebound from, we need to remember the good things. Lyndsay led her life with amazing courage. She was happy and never complained about the hand she had been dealt. I am forever a better and happier person because I had Lyndsay in my life, and I'm sure all of you feel the same. She will forever be in our hearts!!! Even with all the sadness I can't help but smile and count my blessing for all that she brought to my life. Thank all of you so much for expressing your thoughts, prayers, and care. We will be forever greatful. Take care of yourselves.

Love,

Steve and Mary

pancakes

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 00:28:16 GMT

Mike and I usually try to make a real breakfast whenever we don't have some place to be on a weekend morning. I'm in charge of pancakes, and sometimes eggs. Over the course of the past 15 months, we occasionally experiment with the type of pancakes, and I thought I should record this information.
Types of pancakes (just to clarify, all ingredients are mixed in, not put on top)
1. regular- mmmm, original is good
2. banana- love em! try to make sure I always have bananas on the weekend for this.
3. chocolate chip banana- pretty much the best pancake ever
4. chocolate chip (or pieces of a hershey bar)- yum
5. mint chocolate chip ice cream- this was mike's idea and I went along with it once, and I think once was enough for me.
6. peanut butter- not bad, but not the best either
7. applesauce- surprisingly good. it added moisture to the pancakes so that you didn't even really need syrup. I think I used too much applesauce though since the apple flavor was sort of overwhelming. it also reminded me of latkes which I don't really like.

Kevin

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 19:56:55 GMT

Tuesday night, I got a facebook message from Jenny telling me that Kevin stairwaytokevin had died in a snowmobile accident. It's definitely a weird feeling. I don't feel as sad as I always thought I would if a friend died, more like shocked. Like I'm not walking around balling my eyes out, but I keep thinking about it and it's like, wow kevin's dead. I just went back and read his entire livejournal. He only had about 20 entries so it didn't take all that long, but it brought back memories and was just weird to read the thought of someone who's no longer living. So many of his entries were about snowmobiling.

12/3/03
"Went snowmobiling for the first time this year on some halfway decent snow with my new sled today. Took some digital camera movies of me doing a couple jumps, but they dont work for some stupid reason. I did get one pic out of it though.
Ive said it before and ill say it again, that thing is dangerously fast, and I love it. If I end up in a body bag before the end of this winter, I won't be surprised."

There were several entries about how he loved to go to his family's cabin in Saranac , NY (where he died) and live without electricity and just hunt and snowmobile with his family. He definitely died doing something he loved.

Entry from when his brother died 11/19/04
"He died riding a motorcycle, doing what he loved and he felt no pain.

I'll see you again, man. We'll get Steve, Chris, Dan, and Joe all together and bust each others balls like usual. Then we'll piss off Trish Lisa and Katie by waking up their kids be seeing whose sled starts on the first pull. Wait for us, bro, and keep our beer cold. We'll see you again."

I'm not a big believer in the afterlife, but hopefully he's chillin with his brother enjoying those cold beers. RIP Kevin. Thanks for all the memories and I will never forget you. Okay, now I'm crying.

life

Sat, 08 Dec 2007 00:36:01 GMT

I never post anymore. I should start doing that again. I feel like lj used to be a way to communicate with peeps, but now facebook has replaced that need in my life, but I should still use lj for myself so I can look back when I'm old and know what I did when I wasn't old.

1. we have a crazy amount of junk food in the office these days. We never used to have food, but now we have all these new people this year who are 50 year old women and like to bring in food. There is candy all over the place, and those white fudge covered oreos, and who knows what else. There are only 6 people in the office, so it's really more food than we need. I feel kinda bad that I don't contribute to the food, but really i don't even want it there. When there's food I eat it, and that's bad. I never buy junk food, but somehow it finds it's way into my life.

2. The whether has been crazy here. Well, maybe not crazy by upstate NY standards, but it's been raining really hard for days. Like really hard. There were high winds the other day and trees were knocked down and power lines came down and people were without electricity. I had power at my house, but I drove to work on Wednesday to find out that the building didn't have power and they weren't letting people in. So I had wednesday off. Yay! Mike also had off on Wednesday cuz he works at a school and a lot of the schools were closed. So I went to his house and we watched You, Me, and Dupree, then we walked to Waikiki and just kinda walked around for hours.

We went to this one hotel that has free pool and ping pong and stuff. Played some games, then we walked down to the ocean to look at the waves. Normally Waikiki doesn't really have big waves, especially in the winter, so it was fun to watch. there are way bigger waves on other beaches, but they weren't normal giant surfing waves- they were like chaotic going crazy in a storm kinda waves. There were very few surfers out and only a few swimmers. Then we went to this sports bar that has free pizza M-F 3-6 but we've never been able to go cuz of work. Basically, they give you 2 pieces of pizza for each drink you order. They were small pieces, so not an awesome deal, but it was aight.

Pau for now

fame

Fri, 30 Nov 2007 00:15:31 GMT

okay, 3 stories about famous people and people who aren't really famous.

1. So I read about what famous people do. I never cared before, but for some reason I do now. I read stuff about them online. I know, I'm a loser, but whatever. So, I always see all these videos and stuff about people on vacation in Hawaii, and I wonder why I never see any of them since people are always here. I never even run into Dog the bounty hunter who's office is within 2 miles of where I live and work. But then I realized I actually have seen some famous people here 1. I saw Paul Walker (from fast and furious) at a bar about 2 years ago. I wouldn't have recognized him but others did. 2. we saw one of the guys from lost while we were at an art museum a few months ago. I don't watch lost so I wouldn't recognize any of them, but Jackie was super excited about it, and said hi to him when we walked by and was really excited when he said hi back. 3. We saw the lead singer from yellowcard at a bar. not sure if that counts since we were going to the yellowcard concert the next day, but i think it still counts 4. got autograph and pic of all american reject guy which really doesn't count cuz we were at the concert.

so then last week Mike and I were on Maui and we were chillin on the beach. We were sitting next to these two girls who looked normal. the houses in that area are super expensive (like 10 million) and mike pointed out to me that the girls were going up the path to the house where they apparently lived or were staying. we had a whole discussion about it. Since they were pretty young I figured they didn't own a 10 million dollar house and probably lived with their rich parents. Mike thought they weren't tan enough to live there, so then I said they were probably visiting their parents for thanksgiving.

then, while we were in the water, I noticed a guy sort of hiding in the bushes with a super nice expensive camera. I told him it looked like the paparazzi. we went back to our stuff which was like 5 feet from these girls, but they didn't look like anyone famous to me. Then when I got back, I was on TMZ, my favorite site for celebrity gossip, and there was a video of the girls on the beach- you can even see our towels and stuff in the video! Apparently it was Owen Wilson's new girlfriend Le Call. I have no idea who that is, but Owen was apparently on Maui too and was probably in the house 20 yards from me.

2. Is everyone from Amherst aware that Jeff Addiss is in Raisin Bran commercials? I had no idea til Betsy showed me the commercials on youtube. She made me watch the commercials without telling me who was in it, but I recognized him immediately. Funny thing is, I've actually seen one of the commercials before and didn't recognize him since I didn't know i was supposed to be looking for someone i knew. IMDB him- apparently he's been in other stuff too.

3. I always wonder why no one i know has been on a reality TV show. Well, other than when Colin was on Jeopardy, but game shows don't count.
When I was little, my mom sold Discovery Toys with this lady Kathy. She had a daughter Susan who was a year older than me. We used to play together. They moved out of the state when i was around 10 or so and I never saw her again. This week, Kathy calls up my mom out of the blue and they talk for awhile. Apparently, Susan was in the final 3 on the Bachelor Paris! I went and looked up stuff from the bachelor and it's kinda funny to hear what people have to say about her. The bachelor went home with her to her parent's house, and apparently her mom (kathy) basically scared him away by talking about how she was recently engaged and implying that she was just on the show to advance her acting career. So I guess Kathy told my mom that Susan wants to be an actress and has had small rolls in a few things (IMDB her too), and she's dated NFL and NHL players and they're worried about her. I found this video of her that was close to porn- she's in a bathing suit frolicking on the beach in a suggestive manor.
It's kinda funny because I watched at least a few episodes of the bachelor that season (I pretty much only remember the finale- maybe that's all i saw). they only ever refer to the girls by their first names, so I was watching her and didn't even know it. i don't really remember anything about her though, so if anyone watched that show fill me in!

flu shot

Thu, 27 Sep 2007 21:15:22 GMT

Okay, today's poll is:
Should I get a flu shot?
- it's free
- it doesn't matter that I don't have a doctor cuz i could get it at the drug store
- I don't usually get one and I haven't had the flu since high school or maybe even longer
- this might be the year get the flu and then it turns into pnemonia and then I die
- I'm lazy and don't feel like writing down when they will be at the drugstore right down the street, and then remembering to go, and walking for 8 minutes to get there

random stuff

Wed, 26 Sep 2007 22:49:52 GMT

This morning when I was walking from my car to the office I passed this old lady with a walker. From a distance I could see that she was wearing white head phones and I was thinking "wow, that old lady has an ipod. What a cool old lady!" then when I passed her I could see into her bag where the head phones were leading and saw what appeared to be a giant walkman. Cool old lady would have been cool in the 80s, but now she's a few decades behind the times.

2 surveys- please respond

Survey #1
Let's say (ambiguously gendered) person A- Kris, gets invited to something and is allowed to bring a guest. Kris invites (ambiguously gendered) person B- Terry. Gifts are expected at this function. Should Kris ask Terry to help pay for the gift? Would they split the cost 50/50 or some other way? Does it matter what kind of function they are going to (housewarming, babyshower, wedding, birthday party, etc)? Does it matter what the relationship is between Kris and Terry (friends, casually dating, in a relationship, etc)? Does is matter if Terry knows the host of the function? Does their gender matter at all?

Survey #2
1. What are you used to doing for a funeral?
a. send flowers
b. make a donation in the person's honor
c. give the family money
d. prepare food for the family
e. some combination of the above choices (please specify)
f. other (please specify)
2. do you think this is a custom because of your
a. religion
b. ethnicity/ ancestors country of origin
c. current geographic location
d. other (please specify)

thanks for participating in my very very official research study.

because everyone's journal said to

Tue, 18 Sep 2007 20:54:32 GMT

1.	Child and Youth Worker
2.	Librarian
3.	Dental Assistant
4.	Special Education Teacher
5.	Physical Education Teacher
6.	Teacher Assistant
7.	Early Childhood Educator
8.	Addictions Counselor
9.	Religious Worker
10.	Community Worker

1. Go to http://www.careercruising.com/.
2. Put in Username: nycareers, Password: landmark.
3. Take their "Career Matchmaker" questions.
4. Post the top 10 results (or however many results you want).

surf's up dude

Mon, 04 Jun 2007 23:33:08 GMT

After living in Hawaii for more than 2.5 years, I can now officially cross surfing off my list of things to do before I die. Well, I may not actually have surfed at all, but I attempted, so I think it can get crossed off the to do list.

Robin's friend/co-worker Carrie lives right on the water and has a bunch of surf boards and Robin has been going out with her most weekends. So yesterday I was home when Robin was getting ready to go and decided to join them. Carrie gave me a giant surfing for dummies surf board. They sent me out in the water first, and I paddled out and hung out in the water for like 10-15 minutes without any problems. Then they came out to where I was, and Carrie's friend Leigh Ann told me when to start paddling when there was a wave coming. so I managed to ride one wave lying down on the surf board.

then the people who knew what they were doing left me to go out farther where there were bigger waves or whatever. and that's when stopped going well. big wave came along and knocked me off the board and threw me under water. I cut my foot on the coral. It's a little tiny cut so no biggie, but coral cuts hurt and don't heal well since the reef is made up of living things. I took the leash off of my ankle when the next big wave was coming because the board was dragging me. so then I spent the next 15 or so minutes lying the wrong way on the board trying to figure out how to get the leash back on. finally got it back on and decided i should give up just yet.

hung out in the water a bit longer avoiding being knocked off again. then robin and carrie came back to where i was. i told them i cut my foot and carrie was gonna go in and get booty things for me. as robin and i were chillin in the water waiting for her to get back another big wave came and knocked me over. swallowed a bit too much salt water. then i was attempting to recover but waves just kept coming and pushing me back towards shore but where there was a wall that the waves crashed into. i manged not to get knocked into the wall, but decided my three near death experiences were enough for the day.

and that was my first attempt at surfing.

sabres

Tue, 17 Apr 2007 02:34:47 GMT

all you buffalove peeps should be proud of me. I just listened to an hour and a half of the sabres game on the internet radio dealie. listening to sports on the radio is a bit painful. but go sabres! and go me for listening!! Anyone know if they created a way to watch the game live via the internet yet? or even not live would be fine. any one?

news

Thu, 05 Apr 2007 00:48:40 GMT

This is for Liz who thinks her class is horrible: http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/04/03/school.sex.ap/index.html

stolen from Gail

Wed, 07 Mar 2007 22:32:29 GMT

Lost

Wed, 07 Mar 2007 21:11:19 GMT

Yesterday I left my office to go get lunch down the street and they were taping lost right by where i went. There were signs that said that by entering the area you agreed that they could use your image and blah blah blah. So I might be in the background of lost now. I don't watch lost, but all you people who do should look for me. They were taping along a little stream thing with a stone wall around it. There were these guys on bikes wearing yellow shirts and black ties, and there were police officers wearing light blue uniforms. Look across the stream and you might me (but probably not).

LJ year in review

Sat, 30 Dec 2006 20:51:15 GMT

Another year almost over, so here's another LJ year in review. The first sentence/few sentences (yeah, I cheat) from the first LJ entry I had each month (surveys etc not counted):
January 5th, 2006   If your new years resolution is to lose weight, get more in shape, or become better in bed, then I have the answer for you: the hula hoop.

February 3rd, 2006   So if any of you have been following my life for the past year you'll know that I've had a horrible time making friends in Honolulu. So suddenly I find myself part of a clique consisting of me, mike, and sue which is a pretty small clique. So the thing is, Sue is crazy.

March 2, 2006   I think I'm gonna walk home from work since I forgot my wallet containing my bus pass.

April- no real entries

May 23, 2006   It's been like 5 years since I had a real update, so I'm just going to assume you all know everything that's been going on in my life and don't need any catching up.

June 1st, 2006 Holy crap, listening to sports on the radio is insanely boring!

July 21, 2006 Today is my half birthday so I think that gives me a good reason for an update.

August 11th, 2006   My sister and Dan's committment ceremony is on Sunday.

September 27, 2006 Empty apartment filled with only memories
The other possible name for an entry was "Let the naked apartment time begin!"

October 2   I'm going to be homeless soon. At least it doesn't get cold here so it's okay if I have to live on the beach.

November 14 Okay, I need advice. Should I live with Robin?

December 14 Okay, I need help remembering how things work in cold places.

Well that's my year in review based on LJ entries. What was your LJ like in 06?

Thu, 14 Dec 2006 19:17:26 GMT

Okay, I need help remembering how things work in cold places. I'm all packed (i think) and I leave tonight, but there are some things I'm still confused about. 1. do people wear sunglasses in buffalo in the winter? I was thinking that like if you're driving and there's snow and it reflects the sun and stuff like that you might need to wear sunglasses. but maybe it's never that sunny. I threw them in my bag just in case because i couldn't remember. 2. what do you wear when you 'go out?' I remember in rochester we'd wear like tank tops and stuff still and then we would just freeze our asses off on our way to/ from the bar. Is that what you do? I only packed like 1 going out shirt. do i need more? 3. i'm not really sure about the shoe situation. do you just wear sneakers all the time? I'm pretty sure that's what i did in college, but maybe it's different now that we're ancient adults. hmm, that might be it. what other weird things does one need for winter that i forgot about? what did I forget to pack?

buffalo!

Fri, 01 Dec 2006 00:31:46 GMT

People to see in B-lo: Elizabeth Marie, Jeffrey Ryan, Danielle Nicole, Andrea Eve, Debra Jean Agnes, Betsy Catherine, Megan Irene, Katherine Kyong Lee, Sara (with an accent), Patty cakes (or maybe UR in rochester these days and belong in my rochester entry that will soon follow), who else is in b-lo these days??? choicie, betsy's family, all my neighbors, all 500 philipps

Places to go shopping: galleria and blvd mall, target, vicki's semi annual sale, Pennys (does that still exist?), Bonton, Kaufmans, wegmans (buy large quantities of bulk candy)

Coffee shops to chill at: sloppy joes, spot, higher grounds

places/things to eat: fridays (sesame jack chicken strips and oreo madness), applebees (oriental chicken salad/ wrap), olive garden (fettucine alfredo, lunch all can eat thing), chicken finger sub from somewhere (maybe someplace with the name mary in it), maybe duffs for chicken fingers, large quantities of logenberry from a fountain, labella sicilia, chinese food, a greek place at 3am, bagels!! (from bagel brothers which should still be called that), timmy ho's for late night snack, krispy creme

New homes to vist: Annie's, Danielle's, Jeff's

Games to play: campatibility, beyond balderdash, friends scene it, ass hole, rummy

wintery things to do: midnight mass!!!!, make xmas cookies, eat xmas cookies, sledding???, look at tacky cheektowaga xmas lights, shovel driveway, eat maple syrup covered snow, remember how much i hate winter, secret santa, new year's celebration

bars to visit: marriott happy hour (followed by swimming), vaious places on chippawa, trivia at buffalo wild wings

trips to foreign countries: Canada for bingo and casino (plus casino on NY side cuz i've never been), and maybe Niagara falls fun

other: drive on streets with no traffic even at rush hour, letterboxing if there is less than 4 feet of snow, laugh at people's mullets, sabres party (at danielle's?), say the word 'pop' when referring to carbonated beverages

okay, i'll keep brainstorming but everyone else better leave comments with ideas too

we're #2

Tue, 31 Oct 2006 02:47:54 GMT

The safest city list http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061030/ap_on_re_us/city_crime_list came out today and Amherst once again kicked some major ass. Second safest city in the US. Rock on A-town. Anyone interested in going on a killing spree in Brick, NJ so we finish #1 next year? Honolulu is 113 safest so I pretty much should fear for my life. So much less safe than A-town.

On another note- there is a kid freakin out down the hall. I heard all this screaming for several minutes and I thought it was like an obnoxious toddler, but then i went to look and a lady was restraining a kid who looked about 8. This has been going on for about half an hour. He's (or maybe it's a she- couldn't tell cuz the lady was holding him down ont he floor) screaming at the top of his freakin lungs.

not homeless!

Fri, 20 Oct 2006 02:35:43 GMT

Today is the bestest day ever! It is my two year anniversary of being in Hawaii and I found a place to live! Too bad it's raining/rainey. Now off to celebrat my anniversary by dressing up in a hula outfit.

look at me being all posty these days

Wed, 04 Oct 2006 07:21:29 GMT

apartment update: probably pretty boring to read
I looked at yet another place today. There was nothing really wrong with it. But I'm bad at making decisions. It was pretty cheap- i think $1675 or something for a 3 bedroom. That would be 600ish/person but the rooms aren't equal size so it might be like $525, $625 and $725 or something. But I just didn't get a great vibe from it... but i'm thinking i should still phil out the application cuz it was a decent place, just not amazing which duh, i'm not gonna find a ton of amazing places for that cheap. weird things about it- there's a window from the kitchen into the garage. garage was probably added later i guess. there's another unit behind it and the people have a dog which doesn't thrill me but i guess i could live with it. the house behind is really close, and 2 of the bedrooms have windows that look out at it. the second largest bedroom has a door from the kitchen in addition to the door from the hall. All the houses around it are pretty close too.

there's enough room in the driveway and garage for 2 cars- but don't know about 3. I was the third car in the driveway but I went over the sidewalk which i'm pretty sure is illegal. maybe if park diagonally or something can fit 3 in the driveway. Not a lot of street parking in the area. speaking of the area- it's in a pretty busy area right between pensacola and piikoi. it's not on a major road, but not as secluded as some of the places i was looking at.

I can't decide where i want to live- initially i had thought it would be nice to be in like a really quiet suburbanish area, yet close to my office like nuuanu or pauoa. i've look at a bunch of places in that area and there are some nice ones and it's really peaceful yet only like 2 miles into downtown. it would be less than 2 miles to most of those places to my office so i could possibly walk or get a bike. but then the other day i started to thik that it might be cool to be closer to things like in mccully or ala moanaish area. it would be pretty close to a lot of bars and waikiki and stuff like that. but not as peaceful of a neighborhood.

So right now the only two palces i'm considering that i've seen are a 3 bed for $2400 in pauoa and the place today in...? (i don't know what the neighborhood is called but it's right next to McKinley HS) which is also 3 bed for $1875. Thoughts?

I have a place set up to look at on thurs on date street, but it's kinda far down and i'm not sure if i want to live there. hopefully will set up many places to look at this weekend.

I wish i didn't suck so much at making decisions. Anyone want to look at places with me and help me decide (oh wait, there are only 2 people reading this who actually live in this state).

Tue, 22 Aug 2006 04:06:04 GMT

Joe Normal
43 % Nerd, 8% Geek, 30% Dork

For The Record:

A Nerd is someone who is passionate about learning/being smart/academia.

A Geek is someone who is passionate about some particular area or subject, often an obscure or difficult one.

A Dork is someone who has difficulty with common social expectations/interactions.

You scored less than half in all three, earning you the title of: Joe Normal.

This is not to say that you don't have some Nerd, Geek or Dork inside of you--we all do, and you can see the percentages you have right above. This is just to say that none of those qualities stand out so much as to define you. Sure, you enjoy an episode of Star Trek now and again, and yeah, you kinda enjoyed a few classes back in the day. And, once in a while, you stumble while walking down the street even though there was nothing there to cause you to trip. But, for the most part, you look and act fairly typically, and aren't much of an outcast.

I'd say there's a fair chance someone asked you to take this test. In any event, fairly normal.

Congratulations!

Sat, 12 Aug 2006 04:29:17 GMT

My sister and Dan's committment ceremony is on Sunday. The whole family is in town and friends of the family and everyone else. Gotta go now cuz Dan just called and said they're waiting outside to take me to where my parents are staying. Cheers!

Sat, 17 Jun 2006 04:17:25 GMT

So I was just wasting time on myspace before going out to meet Gail's peeps at a bar near my office. All of Gail's girls just signed up for myspace like this month (lemming effect) so I was checking out their pages and adding them as my friends. So I came across Amanda's page and discovered that she was in APO which for some reason is super exciting to me- probably because I'm a huge dork. Maybe that's why Amanda has always been my favorite- because there's this amazing bond of brotherhood you can have with someone even if you don't know they're your brother. HA. Okay, time to stop being a dork now. Stop making fun of me Lynds, I can hear you laughing all the freakin way across the country.

On another dorky note, I've arranged Tiernan/APO type volunteering events for my people for pretty much all the upcoming weekends. Tomorrow is Autism walk, next Saturday is Taste of Honolulu, and the Saturday after that we're working the beer tent at Bayfest. That's 3 free shirts in three weekends!

RIP alice

Thu, 08 Jun 2006 00:37:10 GMT

"I don't want to Wait" by Paula Cole is playing on my station right now and that reminds me of the cult, and danielle's beach house, and fishy and alice, and Joey and Dawson.

hockeyness

Fri, 02 Jun 2006 01:10:28 GMT

Holy crap, listening to spots on the radio is insanely boring! B-lo just scored twice in like 2 seconds and it's still boring to listen to. I've actually managed to basically tune out the annoying announcers and do work and only hear when they go scooooooooooore, but then I have to try to figure out who scored. Wish I was in B-lo with ya'll watching the game instead of just listening.

Thu, 25 May 2006 02:46:43 GMT

Stupid East Coast Centric world- I would totally be watching the Sabres games if they weren't over before I even got out of work. I mean really, why would a hockey game start at 1:30 in the afternoon- that's just stupid.

Almost time to watch a taped live finally of American Idol. Or I could just go to any website right now and see who won and not waste 2 hours of my life.