Goodbye 2010

When I was graduating high school, that song “Here’s to the Night” was all over the radio and at every school dance. I wish the radio were playing it now. I’ve long since graduated from mix tapes in the van’s tape deck to a 500-song Smart Playlist on my iPod, which is plugged into an FM transmitter, which broadcasts the iPod’s music through an empty FM station in Blue Bandit’s radio. But for some reason, this Eve 6 song never made it onto my iPod. Thank God I have Nelly’s “Ride Wit Me” because if “Here’s to the Night” was the most-played song during my high school years, then “Ride Wit Me” was surely number 2 and instantly transports me back to the turn-of-the-century.
Outside, the rain keeps falling and we are all growing up.

Even more g.d. snow

Because you know, last year's just wasn't enough. It started snowing after midnight on Sunday and finally stopped sometime after midnight Monday morning. The wind is still blowing though. Oh my, how the wind is still blowing. I'm pretty sure Philadelphia is still in a snow emergency.
What's annoying about this storm is that throughout the weekend, the general consensus was, "oh, we're not going to get hit with that big storm! We'll be fiiiiiine!" Fast forward to Christmas Day night. I'm at dinner with my family and all of a sudden it's, "oh my god, we're getting snow!" Then I'm watching the 11 p.m. news that night and Adam Joseph is all, "SNOW! We're probably going to get 10-12 inches by the end of Monday! Did I mention we're getting snow???? Well, we are! Good luck with that, suckers!"

My point is, I really need to start making life decisions that don't involve living in areas where snow between December-March is considered an acceptable occasional experience.  Maybe Australia will take me back.

A journey of Habanas

This past week, I've read the word "Habana" so many times that when I hear "Havana" (the capital of Cuba), it's lost all meaning. Poor capital got upstaged by a brand of notebooks, at least in my little part of the online world. 
FULL DISCLOSURE TIME: Since I occasionally write for the Quo Vadis company blog, they "pay" me in things like Habana notebooks instead of real money. However, I've also purchased Habana notebooks on my own from a variety of vendors, including GouletPens and Writers' Bloc, because that's how much I like them. 
ANYWAY
QV posted an update about the popular Habana line of notebooks (and planners). Changes are coming: 

• the US-market notebooks will no longer have 90gsm, white paper. Instead, they will have 85gsm, ivory paper. The paper should still work well with fountain pens though.
• the change in paper weight should be good news for non-US markets because currently, their Habanas contain 60gsm ivory paper that is reportedly not fountain-pen friendly. So: some people are getting an upgrade, some are getting a downgrade but if all goes well, the paper will still satisfy fountain pen users (*cough*me*cough*)
• The US-market Habanas will no longer have bright white paper. It'll be ivory. Yes, like the Rhodia Webbies although I don't know how "ivory" it will be. 

Okay, I am a bit annoyed that a product I love and use regularly is being tinkered with, and in a way that might not benefit me (and really, isn't it all about me?). However, Exaclair's VP of Marketing, Karen Doherty, explained the reasons for the upcoming change in a follow-up comment to the announcement (Exaclair is the US distributor for Quo Vadis, Rhodia, Clairefontaine, Exacompta, J. Herbin, Brause, G. Lalo, and Decopatch).

We made the decision to switch to ivory paper primarily for two reasons: for global brand unity and also to expand our manufacturing here in the U.S. Our U.S. or French made products have to compete with high quality products made in much lower cost countries. The switch to ivory will allow us to do more manufacturing for North American sales.

And besides, there are worse things in life (trust me—it's been a rough year).

Three good things about today

Because lord knows I do enough whining around here.
1. I made two pans of fudge for an office potluck, from my mother's recipe. And they turned out perfectly! (Easier said than done when dealing with fudge).
2. My awesome cousin found my camera, which has been missing since...a while. I had it last Christmas, I know that much. Turns out I left it at her house at some point so at least it was in good hands during that time :)
3. It's not snowing!

A passport

My passport expires in 2012. I have to keep reminding myself but the expiration is still so far off that I worry I'll miss it. It's a sad, little book. There's one lonely departure stamp in March 2002 on one page and then a flurry of arrival and departure stamps a few pages later. March 2002 again, January 2004, April 2004—England, Australia, and America. There's also a tiny, blue round sticker with a "y" written on it, sitting right over the "p" in "passport." It took me five minutes to remember why it's there. I got my passport in January 2002, for a class trip to London (my first passport ever). We were all flying out of Newark Liberty International Airport. Yes, that one. So there was a lot of extra security, including a woman who flipped through our passports while we checked in. Then she marked them with a blue sticker for some reason. It's held up pretty well, all things considering. I'm almost sorry that when I send in this passport to be renewed, I'll have to say goodbye to the weird little sticker. We've been through a lot together.