emmy fashion recap: what is this, a funeral?!

for (almost) every awards show, i eagerly watch from the countdown to the red carpet, to live from the red carpet...to the actual show, mostly to see what gorgeous and/or hideous gowns will be discussed at the water cooler the next day. not that anyone at my office discusses emmy fashion around a water cooler, but...you get the point. anyways, i don't know what y'all thought about the emmy ensembles this year, but i was BORED as haaale and felt like i was at someone's wake with all of the black floating around! an awards show, in the summer, in sunny los angeles just didn't seem right full of somber dark tones. yeah, i get that it's a classy gig, but it doesn't mean you have to look like you're in mourning. my god! anyways, i took the liberty of choosing my 3 least favorite and 3 best-dressed at the awards last night. agree? disagree? speak up!

WORST-DRESSED:

christina hendricks

i don't know if a "mad men" time warp threw her off, but i was SO not a fan of christina hendricks' boobalicious, MILFy frock. it looked like a colonial housewife turned into a lady of the evening. combine that with the bright red hair and it looks like she could be turning tricks at a renaissance fair.

tina fey

everyone was raving about tina fey's oscar de la renta gown, but i felt more like it was something you'd find in a tacky cape cod gift shop for a cougar's "night on the town". the pattern is absolutely cringeworthy and the cap sleeves just make it look even more frumpy. no thx!

january jones

oh, girrrrl, i don't even know where to begin. what is with you mad men chicks?! now we've gone wonder woman with this nasty electric blue, and it looks like you're dragging a comforter and/or insulation behind you. blech.

BEST-DRESSED

anna paquin

take notes, chickies, this is how you do it! yeah, sookie's rockin' some black, but she's also got some FIERCE gold patterned shoulder action going on. with the sleek updo, she's totally flawless and fabulous, amirite?

claire danes

i don't even like claire danes that much (except of course, on my so-called life), but i LOVED her dress. it was classic glam - lots of sparkles and a pretty, subtle color. a bunch of gals wore white this year, but i much prefer something like this that has a little twist. bravo, angela...er, claire!

nina dobrev

i have a soft spot for the vampire diaries star nina dobrev because she was on my favorite canadian teen melodrama, degrassi, but i thought she looked particularly stunning in this one-shoulder grecian-lookin' gown. and she's sooooooooo tan.

hot and fresh out the kitchen

sometimes, there are just so many random things i'm loving that i need to make a "hotlist". so without further adieu and in no particular order...

1 .mike "the situation" signing on for "dancing with the stars"

as you've learned from my previous post on the veritable god of screen, shelf, and nutritional supplement, i've got quite a thang for mr. sorrentino. and despite me swearing off "dancing with the stars" because it's SOOOOO BORING, the sitch might just have me tuning in again. but only if he promises gratuitous ab-flashing and random "GTL" and "grenade" outbursts.

2. weddings

this past weekend, i got all gussied up, hopped on a big yellow school bus with about 25 of the bride and groom's friends and proceeded to cry (the vows make me emotional, shut up), eat filet mignon, drink whiskey sours and dance 'til i dropped at the fabulous reception. now, there seems to be a lot of hate for weddings for some reason, and i just don't get it. i mean, odds are if you're getting invited to a wedding, you're friends with or relatives of one of the people getting married. so, you should PROBABLY be happy for them. plus, who doesn't want to eat a gourmet meal, get tipsy and boogie to kc and the sunshine band and lady gaga with aunt millie and the cute stranger you just met? by the end of this reception, men were donning nothing but vests and ties while jumping wildly to usher's "O.M.G." can't beat it.

3. boston's restaurant week

despite my mysteriously non-obese weight, i'm a secret fatty and the amount of food i ingest even disgusts me sometimes. so tomorrow, i'm heading to tremont 647 as part of boston's restaurant week to enjoy a 3-course pre fixe meal for the low, low price of $33! not bad for grilled shrimp risotto, sage-crusted rib eye and s'more brownies with chocolate ganache. NOM!

4. the new usher jam "dj's got us falling in love"

now, the top 40/hip-hop music of this summer has been particularly phenomenal, but when i went out dancing a few weekends ago and this one came on, i practically jumped out of my skin. between the fist-pumpin' beat, the catchy chorus, and when pitbull comes in and says "yabbadabbadoo make her bed rock, mami on fire psssst red hot" = RECIPE FOR SUCCESS. check it.

what are you loving right now?

this is a jetsetter music letter

jetblue and i have had a lovely relationship, really. i guess you could technically call it "love at first flight". heh. but from the moment my eyes met with the free directv and i spent my flight chuckling at anthony bourdain and bad-mouthing house hunters couples, i knew we were going to make a great pair. then there was the time ol' JB saved half of our bachelorette gang with a red-eye flight to boston, complete with sleep masks and earplugs, after ANOTHER airline ::cough DELTA cough::: left us stranded in vegas, hungover and sleep-deprived.

so when jetblue announced they'd be offering an "all you can jet" pass, for unlimited u.s. travel between september 6 and october 7, 2010, for $699 ($499 if you scratch travel on fridays and sundays), i was naturally ecstatic. YES! drop everything and travel the states. sounds great! oohhhhh....except for that whole having to take work off for a month thing. but a girl can dream, no? so here's my dream jetsettin' itinerary if i DID do it:

1. take a surfing lesson in san diego

2. hike runyon canyon in L.A. (...then party like a celebrity, with celebrities)

3. stand on the golden gate bridge in san francisco

4. catch a fish at pike place market in seattle

5. eat a bacon-maple doughnut at voodoo doughnuts in portland

6. remember (and visit) the alamo in san antonio

7. wander sixth street in austin

8. see a show at the grand ole opry in nashville

9. go to a jazz bar in new orleans

10. tour the coca-cola factory and CNN studios in atlanta

11. see how money's made at the u.s. mint in denver

12. take a hot air balloon over the desert in phoenix

so, where would you go and what would you do in a month of non-stop jetting? spill it!

leave the gun, take the tuna melt

being a wannabe foodie and fast/fast casual/frozen food connoisseur, i truly enjoy trying out new ways through which i can stuff my face. one of these ways - recently discovered through my pal kari - is a site called foodler , that allows you to place your order from a number of local eateries - sometimes even offering free delivery!

anyways, being tired from a late night out on saturday and feeling generally lazy, it was going to be a foodler dinner night on sunday. i read good things about neapoli cafe in nearby malden, so i clicked through to the menu, not knowing quite what i was in the mood for. and there, like a shining beacon of light at the top of the sandwich section, i saw it: "tuna melt w/ tomato sandwich". YES! food epiphany. unfortunately, my total, minus tax, came to a precarious 9.98 - there was a $10 minimum. i needed to add something. naturally, my first instinct (as is everyone's when thinking about what would be good on a tuna sandwich) is "artichokes". obviously. CLEARLY. my weird food preferences aside, i had hit the almighty $10 and all i had to do was click "finish order". bam. done. cut to a half-hour later...

i receive an ominous call from the delivery man, whom i could not understand in the SLIGHTEST due to the language barrier going on. however, my apartment's 3rd-floor location and living room's view onto the street below has turned me into a veritable christopher reeve in "rear window", so i was totally lurkin', and saw no car, so i assumed he said something like "your food's on its way". which was weird, but i went with it.

a half-hour later, a starving me, and STILL no tuna melt, and i called ol' neapoli to inquire about my food. "he's right here," the man who answered said, "he said he called you and had left it at your door." "um, he just left it there?" "yes." "uh, okay....". i hang up and trot down the stairs to find a brown paper bag, teetering on the edge of the window sill on my enclosed front porch. what the frig? despite my instructions to, y'know, RING THE DOORBELL, dude decided to just drop it like it's, um, hot, and make a mad dash. i can only assume he had a severe artichoke allergy or encountered the raccoons that have taken up residence in our 'hood. the worst part? i HATE mayonnaise, but can deal with it in tuna if the fish/mayo ratio is in check - always a risk when ordering from a random place. let's put it this way...thing was a friggin' mayonnaise melt. i threw up in my mouth a little bit just thinking about it. i should have known it was doomed from the start, but i only wish i could have pulled a "home alone" and sneered, "keep the change, ya filthy animal" before mr. runaway made his swift exit.

show i love: "dating in the dark"

3 guys, 3 girls. a dark room. dates in a dark room! awkward face-touching! "dating in the dark" would basically be my preferred approach to dating if i looked like a swimsuit model and lived in southern california.

you see, as much as i hate to admit it, i have a bad tendency to be superficial and/or write guys off too quickly (a psychoanalyst - or anyone that knows me - would cite this as the reason for my single status). BUT...i love good conversation and getting to know someone in a casual setting without that snap judgment. not that an ABC reality show is necessarily a "casual setting", but you get the idea. sure, there's the chance for that pang of disappointment when the big reveal comes at the end...but there would be all of that chemistry and personality to back it up, at least...right?! problem solved. i mean, unless they're a complete ogre, there could probably be potential. maybe.

also, the great thing about the show is that no one gets "kicked off" and there's no prize - just the opportunity for a relationship to develop from it. kudos! and if ABC can do it, why can't i? curtaining off a function room at panera for the first-ever "north shore date in the dark" may not have the glitz and glam of hollywood, but it's SO doable.

viva las vegas

venus pool club at caesars palace

for those of you that know me, you probably know that vegas is one of my favorite places in the entire world (thus far). it's truly a 24/7 playground for adults, complete with delicious buffets, world-class entertainment and neon lights/glitter, and pretty much anything can (and does) happen there. so when my dear friend and bride-to-be emily invited 6 of us gals on a bachelorette weekend there, i didn't even have to think about my answer. as expected, it was a blast! though after 2.5 days, 3 nights, and another 12 hours stuck in the vegas airport, we were spent - vegas is fun, but exhausting!

some highlights of the whirlwind trip:

-getting dressed up and drinking for FREE every night.

i mean, i knew vegas loved big groups of girls, but this was out of control. we were practically assaulted by club promoters everywhere we went, offering us VIP tables and free bottle service every night. our answer: "why not?" i officially switched out of my whiskey sour phase and into a cranberry vodka phase that weekend. plus, if we wore half of the things out in boston that we wore there, we'd be publicly ostracized fo' sho'. but in vegas? anything goes. fabulous.

-making new friends.

another great thing about sin city is that almost no one you meet is actually from there! perfect. the first night, we hung with a bachelor party from the jersey shore (the actual place, not show), the next day, we met a fantastic group of southern gentlemen from north carolina at the caesars palace pool that invited us to hang in their cabana for the afternoon, and to their rooftop table at pure (nightclub) that night. everyone's ready to party/dance/talk/have some fun, and that's all that really matters. right?

-showtime.

arguably the best part of the trip was seeing LOVE, the beatles cirque du soleil show, at the mirage. after a yummy dinner at todd english's italian restaurant onda, we got psyched up for the show and i can safely say my expectations were far exceeded. i'm just now getting over my overwhelming post-show desire to be a cirque performer. the music, the dancing, the acrobatics, the costumes....all incredible and i can't recommend it highly enough (MUCH better than zumanity, which i saw last time). though i think my favorite part was at the end of the show - as the cast was rotating around while the audience clapped, a particularly hunky and muscular blonde performer took stock of our group - we were in the front row mezzanine - and started whispering to his fellow cast member, smirking, and mouthing "call me" complete with phone-to-ear gesture. le sigh!

so, i say that one raucous, crazy vegas trip a year would be just about perfect. who's with me?!