free seashells, online sample sales

my friend adrienne is moving to DC. while packing she found a box of shells (the building she lived in was her aunt's, the box might have been her cousins at one point). so she put an ad on craigslist. "box of free seashells" i meet her at a bar last night and she tells us she had nearly 10 responses in the first 5 minutes.

"OMG I collect seashells..may I have them please?
thank you,
Susan"

"hi I would like to pickup the box of seashells i like seashell and i would love to have them please call me @ 212-748-XXXX Nancy"

the next day i get this e-mail from her:

"I can't. Seriously. I had like forty more emails when I got home, and I will officially never give anything away for free on craigslist again."

and then, THEN, she arranged to meet the first person who'd responded...who never showed up. adrienne sent her an e-mail saying she waited for 20 minutes. she replied saying she was 30 minutes late and waited for half an hour.

kate sent me her first set of ultrasound pictures. at 9 weeks the thing looks like and is pretty much the size of a gummy bear. kate refers to me exclusively as "aunt jasmine" now. it's going to take some getting used to.

GAH! the cuteness.

this is utterly hilarious. just, so great. LOVE

i await my morning emails from rue la la, hautelook, and, worst of all, gilt. and when they arrive i pray that none of the designers will be ones i'm interested in. but, oh god, malandrino is at gilt again. and so i have to click, just to see. and that clicking starts a wave of desire, lots of "ooooh! i need, NEED that!" and then the trying to find your size and the adding your name to a waitlist, and then trying for your size again and sometimes having one pop up and then you MUST add it to the cart. but wait! it's only reserved for 9:59 minutes. so you scramble to see if there's anything else worth picking up. (because after all, if you're already paying shipping you might as well load up, right?)

people, it's a sick cycle. i think i'm addicted to online sample sales.

however, i've been successful and i never spend more than $150 on anything and most of the stuff IS designer and at a hefty discount. and so i'm the proud owner of several more dresses than i had at the beginning of the summer. and i've only been to bloomingdales once since probably march.

oh, see? i'm trying to validate. boooo. help!

i want to read the new raphael yglesias book now that i'm done with infinite jest but i can tell, already, it's the kind of book that's going to make me want to find the kind of love that most people will never have, ever. the kind of love that makes any love you might find seem small and insignificant in comparison. the kind of work that makes you want to be loved in the way that most men aren't capable of loving. kind of like anything written by calvin trillin about alice.

the kevin fitzgerald bit on this wait wait is awesome.

colin is in surgery today. he'll be in the hospital all week. i'm bringing dinner to his parents tonight who are basically planning on being there 24 hours a day with short tradeoffs in the evening to sleep. keep him in your thoughts!