Hurricane Essentials

To prepare for Hurricane Irene, I made a list of Top 10 essential items needed to get me through the weekend. In no particular order:

1. Bottled water/ my lucky pink water bottle
   
2. Nutella
3. Brown Cinnamon Sugar Pretzel Crisps
4. Wine and/or hard liquor
5. Pasta
   
6. Garden State, Center Stage, Pans Labyrinth, Now & Then - readily available to play on repeat
7. A boat & swimmies (since, ya know, I can't swim)
8. Advil and/or Excedrin
9. A good book or two..or five
10. A funny hashtag to tweet with all weekend

What's on your Hurricane Survival list?

#Earthquake

As we all know, Monday's earthquake turned out to be kinda a big deal for us East-Coast-ers. I was ironically scheduling tweets on Hootsuite for a client when the earthquake shook our 15th floor office, the entire building, and numerous cities on the East Coast. I say that was ironic because twitter ended up being our main source of news for the next hour. Initially, the thought of another terrorist attack flooded my brain as I ran down 15 fights of stairs in record time (in flip flops, no less!) Within seconds of re-gaining service outside, my co-workers were on twitter- telling us that #earthquake was trending and announcing updates on how high it ranked on the scale, who else felt the quake, and what was happening around us.

According to twitter's twitter (hah): "Within a minute of today's #earthquake, there were more than 40,000 earthquake-related Tweets. And, we hit about 5,500 Tweets per second (TPS). For context, this TPS is more than Osama Bin Laden's death & on par w/ the Japanese quake."

It's crazy how crucial this social media tool was in our panic. I can only imagine what people would have been tweeting on 9/11 if twitter had been around. What would have been trending? Would people's last words from the towers been tweets? I guess that's something we will never know..

One of the highlights of the day was coming back into the office looking at brands' twitters to see if they were taking advantage of the trending topic. Some did, tastefully, wishing everyone to safety. Others, not so much, using it to promote their brand in the wrong way. My favorite being from Elizabeth Arden spa who promoted their massage for those who were stressed about the events. Too soon? Perhapskis.

What were you doing during the EarthquakeApocolypse? Did you check twitter for updates? Facebook? TV? What were your favorite #earthquake tweets and status updates? Share below!

First Date Etiquette

So I guess my journey is beginning a little sooner than I had planned to blog about dating experiences. Last night was, I guess you could say, my first "real" "adult" first date. I spent the days before worrying it would be absolutely horrifying. Alas, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be...but it also wasn't great either. So this post I will be sharing some things for guys to consider during a first date..well actually just during a first date with me (and assuming for most women too). For his sake, I will not say which of these he did or did not do..so use your imagination :)

1. Guys should ALWAYS offer to pay. If you see me reaching for my wallet the words "oh please don't be silly" should be coming out of your mouth. And then, I'll smile and ask "are you sure?" and you should insist. If you are a stubborn chick and you really do want to contribute, go halfsies I suppose, but NEVER pay the whole thing. He asked YOU out - keep that in mind.

2. There shouldn't be an extended period of silence. If you just met each other, you should be asking tons and tons of questions to get to know them better. Small lulls are fine...longer ones get awkward. Guys especially should make an effort to ask questions because if you don't I'm assuming you don't care enough to learn more about me.

3. The phrase "I should really stop smoking weed" should never come out of your mouth...nor should you hit the bong before you go out on the date (this goes for both guys and girls). Also, if you're going out for a drink - neither party should get wasted. That looks realllyy bad.

4. Learn to read body language. If I like you, I will find a way to be closer to you and maybe even touch your arm (or leg if you're really lucky). Don't put your arm around me if I have made no such effort.

5. Finally, don't assume there's gunna be a second date. And if you want a second date, don't ask for it to be 2 days later. Even if I had a great time, I'm going to want to take some time and reflect to make sure I even want to see you again. Be a nice guy - call and ask (or facebook chat me, whatever).

This list could go on for days but I'll stop at 5.

Please, my lovely readers, I'd love your feedback on this. Do you agree with my thoughts? What did I leave out? Comments are very much so encouraged!