The bride wore Google

I don’t let an hour go by without tapping into Google’s infinite power to pretty much manage my life for me.  At the risk of sounding like a Google-sponsored ad, from Mail to Alerts to Picasa to Reader, it’s become impossible to get through the day without using it.  And besides, who would want to?

Online searches adopted the nickname “googling” years ago.  The term was even added to The Oxford Dictionary and Merrian-Webster Collegiate Dictionary in 2006.  Google is an online powerhouse with annual revenue of $23.65 billion in 2009.  It has inserted itself into our lifestyle with Chat, Google Health, Calendar, Docs, Groups, Earth, Finance, etc.  We use Google-owned sites like YouTube, Blogger and Orkut daily.  I long ago gave up on Yahoo, Bing and other conglomerate search engine and “everything lifestyle” sites.  The Google kingdom has more than proven itself all powerful.

It only makes sense that Google has recently set its sights on the $40 billion wedding industry.  Enter Google Weddings.  The site allows users to create a website with Google Sites, edit photos and personalize announcements with Picnik, plan the nuts and bolts with Google Docs, share photos with Picasa.  Among hundreds of other things.  Don’t have the 5 seconds it takes to google “Florists in midtown Manhattan”?  Let Google google itself for you.  Within seconds the new site will provide resource after resource for your all encompassing wedding planning process.

So if in the interest of all things Google, what does this mean for sites like The Knot and WeddingChannel?  Is it only a matter of time before Google takes over the online wedding planning circuit?

Well Google, just when you thought you could hold me hostage in all aspects of my life, I guess the joke’s on you this time.

Oh sh*t, wait…

Mayor of Brad’s closet

I think most people know that I watch a lot of TV.  A lot.  So much so that, despite working in the Communications field, I never watch commercials.  Ever.  Who has that much free time?  I secretly (not so secretly…?) think that people who watch live TV need to have their head examined.  I’ve always practiced good time management when it comes to my television watching habits however the obsessive need to avoid commercials intensified last summer when I just couldn’t run the risk of letting my mind wander when my (previously “our”) favorite shows went to commercial break.  In the interest of that continued objective and my budding social life (okay, beyond budding…), I am pretty much guaranteed to simultaneously be doing something else – flipping through a magazine, messing around online, attempting to clean my room – while I consume ungodly amounts of Gossip Girl and The Good Wife each week.

It is a rare occasion that a commercial will actually hit my bedroom’s very own big screen before my trigger-happy finger hits fast-forward on the Tivo remote.  You can only imagine my horror when sometimes I get so caught up in the prerequisite secondary task that by the time I reach for my remote, a commercial has started.  This usual loathing for anything that isn’t network programming changed to pure excitement – this one time only – when I saw Virgin Mobile’s latest commercials for their Android phone.  I’m a Verizon Wireless girl myself but these commercials are fantastic.  Enjoy!

(Disclaimer: I still do not watch commercials.  This was a one-time occurrence.)

“Change of plans”

I’m heading to Boston this weekend for a regional event for work.  A colleague from another agency, who participated in this program with me last year, just emailed to say she’s looking forward to seeing me tomorrow.  Her email included an all too familiar PS: “Are you married yet??”

While answering this question is far less emotionally draining than 6 months ago, inquiries about my ill-fated wedding can still feel like a shock to the system.  It’s unbelievable how with only a few words I can go from feeling independent and somewhat proud of myself for surviving this mess to…well, a total life failure.  It’s only for a few seconds and, logically, I know I’m not actually a failure, but when your personal life blows up in your face, and when you have absolutely no say or understanding of how the explosion happened, it takes a lot not to feel completely disappointed in yourself.

I expect this will go on for quite a while.  There’s not much to do other than force a smile and simply state the least painful of explanations: “We had a change of plans; things just didn’t work out.”   But let’s be honest…it still stings each and every time.

You are indeed a stalker/creeper

Just as a quick follow up to Monday’s post about Facebook relationship statuses, The Village Voice blog Runnin’ Scared confirms that you absolutely are a creeper if you use Facebook’s new Breakup Notifier.  It actually goes so far as to point out that if the new app interests you, chances are you’re already a stalker.  Admit it, you check his or her page multiple times a day, don’t you??

Just remember, among other things, it’s not cool to “like” someone’s status when it suddenly goes to “single”!

Cheers! (Again!)

No, literally!  Again!

Just four days after National Drink Wine Day we get to celebrate…

National Margarita Day!

Best.  Week.  Ever.

(And I just so happen to be meeting the girls for drinks in an hour…)

Salud!

How about “Recently f*cked over”?

Last week Facebook launched two new relationship status options for users: “In a civil union” and “In a domestic partnership”.  Kudos Facebook!

I love that Facebook is now an equal opportunity provider for relationship updates!  I however learned an important personal lesson – in the form of my “Engaged” status – the hard way.  There was a somewhat overwhelming influx of calls, emails and texts the day my status changed from “In a relationship” to “Engaged”; it was utter insanity.  People who were, at the very best, “Facebook friends” (you know, those “friends” who you haven’t talked to since high school, and even then you were barely friends…) wanted all the details.  My extension at work was ringing before it appeared that Facebook had even finished saving the change to my profile.  It was…well, weird.

Weird I could ultimately handle; I was, after all, thrilled over my engagement at the time.  Nine months later though it was the effort that went into removing that “Engaged” status from my profile that proved nothing short of nerve-wracking.  Understandably, I did not want the demise of my engagement announced to my entire community and posted on everyone’s news feed.  At the time, I felt like a total failure; the last thing I wanted was to publicize my humiliation.   My boss spent over half an hour going from “It’s complicated” to “Separated” to “In an open relationship” on her own profile trying to figure out how we could discreetly remove my relationship status.

Add it to the list of taxing memories from my crumbled engagement but I’m no longer someone who announces their relationship status on Facebook.  (Not that there is anything wrong with it for others obviously!  I just have trust issues.  And commitment issues.  And intimacy issues.  And…)

Also, in case you haven’t heard – or in the event that you’re a serious Facebook creeper – you can now officially monitor the relationship statuses of your Facebook friends.  You select friends whose relationships you want to follow and then Facebook will notify you when those statuses change.  I really try not to judge where relationships are concerned but ummm, Fatal Attraction much…?

Perhaps this is just a little too Bridget Jones…?

Last night’s dinner: half a pint of vanilla fro-yo and two glasses of red wine.

Just because I could.

Cheers!

No, literally!

Today is (drum roll please…)

National Drink Wine Day!

(Also known as “most days” to my girlfriends.)

Best. Holiday. Ever.

Enjoy!

In six words

The New York Times featured a story this week on SMITH Magazine’s Six Word Memoir challenge, and specifically love and heartbreak in What’s Your Six-Word Love Story?

I took a quick stab at coming up with my own story of love and heartbreak in, of course, only six words:

– My friends are right about you.

– You did me an enormous favor.

– I am where I should be.

– You’ll look back and wonder why.

– Good luck to the next girl!

– TALL, handsome strangers work for now!

– No, you can’t have my ring.

–  Sleeping pills with a vodka chaser.

– I’m so much cooler without you.  (Hey! My friends tell me this all the time!)

– Your TV belongs to me now.

– In losing you, I found myself.

– Eventually my story won’t reflect you.

– Screw Mexico, DR’s where it’s at!

If you’re feeling a little adventurous, check out the site and leave your own story: http://www.smithmag.net/sixword-love.  And of course leave it here too!

So which story did I publish…?

 

Don’t talk to strangers

Especially strangers on Twitter.  Mom says.

Here’s the latest from the guy who thinks I’m “gorgeous” but is “sorry” that I’m a Bills fan:  “So did you have a nice Valentine’s Day?”

Um, sure…?  I stayed in with friends.  Here’s the address.

DELETE.