How could anyone mistake these two?

I suppose it's easy to confuse these two people, if the guy on the right would've never taken off off those god-awful Star Trek glasses. But he did...for 23 years straight on one of the most beloved children's shows ever to grace network television, The Reading Rainbow.!!

Actual text conversation with an individual whose identity will be kept anonymous (to avoid the much deserved hate mail that would follow, for not knowing the difference between those guys, should said identity be exposed):

Anonymous: (at a sportsbar, watching football)
Me: (Sitting at home, watching ABC Family's 25 Days of Christmas movies)

Anonymous (3:23PM): I think one of the actors from the cosby show is sitting next to me. I don't know his name.
Me (3:23PM): Which one do you think he is? I'll look it up
Anonymous (3:26PM): He's black
Anonymous (3:26PM): Might not have been the cosby show. First name starts with an L? Def him.
Me (3:27PM): First real name? Oh gosh...you're definitely not the person to know black actors! Sheesh!
Anonymous (3:28PM): You prob dated him :-)
Me (3:29PM): Touché.
Anonymous (3:33PM): He was the guy on sesame street.
Me (3:35PM): Savion Glover? Guy with dreads?
Me (3:37PM): This guy?

Anonymous (3:39PM): Definitely him! Ha - that's funny. He was pissed and I tried to placate him. Silly actors.
Me (3:41PM): Oh please! You were probably too afraid to even say hello!!
Anonymous (3:43PM): Come on! Say hello to a douchebag? Please.
Me (3:44PM): Bahaha. Well, I don't think Levar Burton is a douchebag at all. "But you don't have to take my word for it" <----Shameless Reading Rainbow quote.

One of the coolest things I've seen in Hershey...

I was on the phone with my mom, when I kept hearing what sounded like ambulance sirens. I mentioned it to her, and started to get really concerned when I noticed the noise was getting closer and closer. I finally ran into the living room and looked out the blinds...only to see one of the neatest things!!

I should mention that I live up a hill, on a dead end street....so the fact that the fire truck found its way into my neighborhood, made me ecstatic; I felt like a little kid on Christmas morning!!

I should also mention that this does NOT make me enjoy the Winter any more. It still sucks.

Okay, so maybe my blog title isn't as relevant anymore...

I realized tonight that the title of my blog meant so much more before all the crazy things that make electricity not such an immediate need anymore. It became especially clear to me as I retired to my bedroom tonight, carrying my laptop, iPad, work iPhone, and personal cell phone. Nice. And, should my electricity go out again, and the batteries die in each of my nifty gadgets...I happen to have a wind-up flashlight I can use to traverse through the dark shadows of my apartment until I find my backup iPhone/iPad charger; and should that be stolen by some battery stealing bandit...I also have an emergency solar battery, with convenient usb adapter, that'd come in handy! If all else fails, this apartment building has outside electrical outlets...so my phone will always get the charge it needs.

In any case...checking fb without electricity isn't quite as hard as it used to be. And, for that matter, my stories aren't as "rock bottom-esque" as some have been in the past. But, not to fret...a new year is upon us...there's no telling what's in store in 2011!! ;-)

Just a random thought.

C'mon, Friday....almost 26 more minutes!!

Ugh...it's that time of year again...

You know what's worse than snow? Shoveling it.  Worse than ice? Scraping it.

(That's a picture from last year...my first snow shoveling experience)

 

Today was the first morning I had to scrape the ice off my window. Not the first freeze. But the first, "are you kidding me - I'm going to be late for work -why doesn't my defroster work better" type of ice scraping! Bad start to the day. Luckily for me, my inaugural winter was one of "PA's worst"...so this year doesn't seem quite as treacherous as last year's. ::knock on wood::

 

For starters, I own a coat. In my defense, i used to think I owned a coat when I first moved up here. I quickly realized that was but a mere windbreaker. It now lives in my cube...for days when the indoor temperature is just a tad chilly. I now own several coats: A long, black, wool peacoat; a short, red, fashionable, wool coat; a trendy, green, super warm short coat with a hood; and my newest additions: 2 down coats that I purchased this year. One is a shorter, brown Calvin Klein down coat. The other is a longer brown, down Marc New York coat. They're both fairly similar  - but the latter will be especially great for my trips to Toronto! I also am smarter about wearing gloves, scarves, and hats this year.

 

I cannot forget two recent purchases: my new heated ice scraper, and my new, arctic guard winter windshield cover...which will reduce my chances of needing to use my heated ice scraper!! Love it. Not looking forward to using the aforementioned...but definitely looking forward to seeing their results!! =)

 

Well, gotta run. I need to get enough sleep tonight to build in about 20 extra minutes for possible ice scraping, car warming, etc. Unfortunately, I didn't put up the arctic shield tonight...soooo....keep your fingers crossed that the ice isn't too bad in the morning. IF it is...I'll be sure to take a picture of my heated ice scraper being put to good use!!

 

Happy (almost) Friday!!

Fly, Birdy, Fly!

So, the "transition" is practically official at this point! As many of you know, I've spent the last two months and twenty-one days doing two jobs, waiting for a backfill to be hired and onboarded into my former role; the role I moved up here for originally. My "new" role is very similar, but is customer-facing now. With that said, I couldn't be happier to pass the proverbial torch on this morning!

 

This is technically his third week on the job...but the nature of the role made today especially significant. Once a month, we receive data that measures our national performance- I've traditionally been the messenger of that info. Today, the new guy got to handle it. Sweet. Now, it did come with a caveat; I had to arrive at work at 6:30am to leave enough time to walk him through the process involved. After running the data, it goes all the way to the Senior Leadership team...so ensuring that it's accurate is critical.

 

ANYWAY - there will certainly be a learning curve involved, but I'm so excited to be in a position where I can dedicate my time and energy to one role. It'll be interesting because on one hand, I want so badly to just give him all of the answers and make this as smooth of a transition as possible. But, I'll need to temper that by letting him make mistakes, learn things the hard way, and provide guidance when necessary. More than anything, I'm ready to set him free (which means setting ME free), so that he can learn and grow the way that I did in the role...and make it his own!

 

Fly, Birdy, Fly!