Alot of people I think will assume that I went to see this movie because Daniel Radcliffe stars in it. This is not so. I'm a fan of Susan Hill's ghost stories. That was formost in my mind. Daniel Radcliffe was a nice bonus.

( There will be spoilers. )

I had a bit of a surreal experience last night.

A friend of mine that I know only through the internet informed me that she was dropping everything. No more facebook, no more twitter, no more live journal, no more dream width. Basically she was going to disappear.

I’ve had this happen before and I think it’s fairly common with friends on the internet. Some times people just disappear. Generally it’s unexpected and that’s what made this surreal. This was the first time that I was given forewarning about a friend planning on disappearing. I was mad, I will admit that. I felt hurt that she would just leave behind everything. I thought our friendship meant more. We talked a long time last night. I don’t know what’s going to happen now. Maybe it was for attention, maybe she really feels that she needs to cut herself off from people. A part of me thinks it’s a gut reaction and she believes that it’s the only option.

It got me thinking though, of all the people I have been fairly close with online who I don’t see anymore. One woman in particular was named Sandra. She was a few years older. She gave me advice while I was in college, especially during my freshman year. We sent things to each other. Then slowly she stopped coming online till one day I never saw her again. I have no idea what happened to her. Maybe she outgrew me. Maybe she just got sick of the internet. Maybe she got hurt. I rather think that she just outgrew me and moved on. I miss her though. I’d like to show her that I made it through college. I’d like to tell her that I’m engaged.

There are so many others. I’ve been on the internet for about a decade now and I’ve met a great number of people. Out of all of them, I believe I have retained 1 friend since when I first began coming online and participating in Fanfiction and such. That one friend is stillbefree. Feel Special!

My fiancé and I decided to put aside money for the wedding using a joint savings account. I like the idea. I support this idea. I think it’s important for us to have an account together but I also like the idea of retaining my personal account. We also finance really differently. He loves using the direct deposit. I need to physically handle my money, sort out where it needs to go and put it in the respective accounts. This works for me. Direct deposit and withdrawal work for him. Neither one is better then the other.

I’ve come to this conclusion after talking bank accounts with a co-worker that I am particularly friendly with. Her son (who is an adult) is having issues with maintaining an account. He just can’t get a grasp on their inner workings and the whole fee system. I will admit it can be hard. You have to really pay attention to your account nowadays. I am quite convinced that banks are not our friends. Her son didn’t do well with direct deposit and automatic withdrawal. When I explained my method, she said that it may work for him. I hope he does figure something out. You sort of need a bank account in this day and age. I know there are those debit cards now that don’t require a bank account but they don’t impress me at all. For the people that they seem to be targeted to, there are an awful lot of fees.

Anyway, I’ve done some looking into banks. There are two that I am interested in for this joint savings account: Franklin Mint Federal Credit Union and TD bank. I’m leaning more towards TD bank since my fiancé could have funds from his account directly put into it. They also have an account type that I’m interested to know more about. I suppose it will come down to what sort of interest rates both offer.

Currently it's something along the lines of "Leave a message or I will not call you back." Though this is not entirely true. If certain peopel call me, I'll call them back just because it's so odd that they called to begin with. Anyone else that I talk to on a daily basis I normally will text them back to ask what they want. Or if it's days later when I realize they call (which has been known to happen) I usally just leave it alone. If someone calls me once and doesn't leave a voice mail, it can't be super important.

I would have to say Link. The Legend of Zelda was one of the first video games we owned and the series holds a special place in my heart.

I have come to the conclusion that I should not go to sleep with my ring on and there is a perfectly legitimate reason behind this conclusion. I wrote an entry a while back about having some sleep walking tendencies and thinking of it now, a great deal of these activities have to do with my hands. Twice already I have woken up after going to sleep with my engagement ring on, to find that I wasn’t wearing it and had no idea where it was. The first time I found it on the ground next to my bed. The most recent time I found it lying on the mattress beside me. I have no memory of waking up in the middle of the night to take it off and generally when I do wake up, I remember.

I don’t believe I have a sleep walking disorder. It’s not extreme enough for that. Most people wouldn’t even say that I am a sleep walker because I don’t actually get out of bed. These are small things, amusing and annoying at the most. I hadn’t really put much thought into it till I kept losing my ring!

So, I’m going to take it off every night because that’s just safer in my eyes.

Yesterday began Philadelphia’s restaurant week and being the amateur foodies that we are. My brother and I like to go to at least one restaurant. We’d go to more if we had the cash but that’s life currently.

This year, we weren’t too happy with our choice. I booked us at Graces Trading Company. And if that name sounds familiar, yes, it’s one of the restaurants that Iron Chef Jose Graces has. Basically, I picked it because it was within walking distance of the train station and he’s an iron chef. I had never been to one of the restaurants that are owned by the Iron Chefs. Not even Wolfgang Puck and his restaurants are practically everywhere. So, I was expecting an experience.

I liked the location. It was in a part of Philly I am fairly familiar with and we didn’t get very lost. The atmosphere and decorum were also rather nice. Though, I didn’t particularly like where we were seated. We were put at a small two seat table that was tucked in a corner. I understand it was busy because it was the first day of Restaurant Week but I’m a big girl and it was a bit uncomfortable. I kept feeling I had to scoot in more and more because I was bothering the people that sat behind us. They didn’t say anything. It was all thoughts in my paranoid head.

The food was really was disappointing. It just felt underwhelming. With the Restaurant Week menu for lunch, you’re given a starter, an entrée and a dessert. For our starters: I had Pasta e fagioli with sausage. While it was nice to have a soup with it being so bitterly cold outside, I felt that it was under seasoned. My brother had the in house made salami. The presentation was nice but again it was a bit underwhelming in taste. For a main entrée I had a fungi pizza which was wild mushrooms, taleggio and shredded black truffle on top. My brother had a chicken penne sandwich. I didn’t mind my pizza. I thought it would be better as an appetizer rather then an entrée. My brother had tried a bite of it and it was the first time ever I had seen him spit food out. He apparently does not like black truffle.

Dessert was probably the only thing that I can’t find fault in. We both had the Winter Verrine which was a small glass with layers of caramel applies, butterscotch putting and a cornmeal streusel. I was honestly surprised by the cornmeal streusel. When I think cornmeal I don’t think streusel but I think I will now. There was also a disk of cake that was heavy with the all spice. My brother didn’t much like that aspect but all together, I thought it rather nice.

Would I go back? Maybe. Would I go out of my way for it? Probably not. Maybe it’s one of those restaurants where certain things are good on the menu and other things are amazing. Or maybe I’m not wowed by Americana food. Its all things I’ve had and while I do think chefs can pull off doing classics, there has to be some sort of twist. I don’t like the fact that I didn’t much enjoy my time at Graces Trading Company. I wish that it was different.

Well, the end of the year is fast approaching. It's been a good year I would say. I got a lot of writing done and I'm happy with that. Though I'm not sure how some of the pieces went quality wise. I haven't even gone back to look at the reviews for the last one I submitted for a fest. Though, with the year ending, now I'm starting to think of the ones that I do usually participate in the past two years or so like lilyjames_fest and mwpp_mischief and I'm eager to do it again. I feel horrible that I missed the little fest for the holidays that the Lily and James community had. It's rather silly to feel guilty about it. In retrospect it's probably best that I didn't participate since this fall has been crazy but I've missed it. I've missed it so much!

Hopefully, the games will come back (not that I doubt they will but you never know) and I can participate then.

Weird that I make a post every so often and this one is mostly about fanfic fests. I'm sure some people would like to know details about the wedding. There really aren't any at the moment since its years away. All I've really done so far is collect who I would like to be my bridesmaids. So far I've asked ami_ven, my cousin phillybaby07, and two other friends. My sister is Maid of honor because she just has to be. Not simply because she is my sister but she is one of my best friends. We are close and sometimes it feels like she's in my head. Despite the 9 year age gap.

Sadly this is all I have to say at this time. Really, I should update more. I do have stuff that happens. I really do! I just never seem to be able to write about it.

The internet is like a second home to me. It's where I have met so many close friends! One day I have to write an ode to fan fiction because it has done a great deal for my life.

Anyway, to answer the question:

cheezburger.com
gaiaonline.com
fanfiction.net
The Escapist
Cracked

There are other sites but these are the first that came to mind so I assume they are important XD

I have a love/hate relationship with LiveJournal. I don't like making journals about my daily goings on and sometimes I'm just too lazy to post something. Some things have happened recently that I feel I should make a journal about them. Maybe I should have actually made a journal about it a few days ago when it actually happened but I do feel like I've been a bit all over the place. Sunday was probably the only day that I truly got to relax and I don't even want to t get into the past two days because I could go into a rant that would go on and on.

Last Friday, my boyfriend and I decided to stay in because it was the night of the Supernatural Premier and I will admit I am enjoying the show even if it's moved on from it's original arc and is not exactly how it was in the good ol' days. It's still entertaining television.

About halfway through the show, we're done with dinner and just enjoying the time together. I was tooling around a bit on the computer because I had some bill pay to set up and Tom suddenly goes "Let's have some ice cream". I agree cause Ice cream is good and we all deserve a treat sometimes. Now, I'm not paying attention to him as he goes off to get the ice cream. I'm watching the show and finishing up with the computer. Tom comes back and I hear him say "I hope this ice cream lasts."

First thing I think is What? That was an odd thing to say. I look over to ask what the hell he means by that and he's kneeling down with the bowl and inside the bowl is a box with a ring.

I laughed cause that's my default nervous reaction. I also gave him a bit of a push and called him a dick for tricking me. After that though I said yes. I then proceeded to blow up the phones and facebooks about what happened. It was like 9:30 at night though so certain people weren't awake to answer. It's all good though.

So, that's what happened to me this weekend. Not bad though I had been hoping for a nice quiet, uneventful weekend XD