The other baked goods

back to press

nikkicupcake — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 12:37:07 +0000

I never really thought I’d go back into music after Aiden was born, fuck I never thought Aiden was going to be born. Yet Friday is the big day! Friday is the day that I’m picking up my camera for the first time in about 4 years. See I used to do press photography. I would go to a million concerts and take a million pictures of a million bands. I LOVED it. See this was before everyone started calling themselves a photographer. This was back in the day when the average person couldn’t afford a digital SLR. I had a digital SLR and my cannon 35 mm that went everywhere with me. My camera lens has seen some of the best bands around.
I would take pictures of big bands like Fall Out Boy or Good Charlotte. My friend Christie and I even followed Fall Out Boy around a bit in the tri-state area. (Christie followed them around a bit more that I did). It was good fun. When people were home studying in high school I was crammed against a barricade next to the stage at Irving Plaza. That’s were I felt most expected. I did this from the time I was about 15 until I was 21. The very last night I was ever guest listed for a show was actually my 21st birthday.
In the recent past I have made feeble attempts to relive my youth. I would work on HTML for a site so I could get started interviewing bands and then I would go as far as figuring out where my equipment stood. Then I would count down the days until I would return to my former life. The days would slip away, and I would just say FUCK IT! Yet this time will be different.
I will be taking pictures down at Warped Tour in Camden, NJ. Which I am NOT excited about the drive. I’m not excited about driving down to a place I don’t know well with new (used) car. Yet I will be showing up. I will be fulfilling my chance to actually live like I once did. See Alan doesn’t get this. Alan thinks oh yeah w/e. See Alan didn’t know me when my calendar was filled with tour dates and I had pink hair. I haven’t gotten 1 tattoo since Alan and I started dating. I got rid of my awesome hair and had a baby. So you can understand why I thought Friday would never come.

Gaget Addict

nikkicupcake — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 18:09:26 +0000

I am one for technology. I waste massive amounts of money on having the newest gadget. As soon as a new Sidekick came out I went out and bought it, year after year. I knew the phone itself was a piece of crap for the fact that I had 8 warranty replacements for my Sidekick 2. I returned a Sidekick 3 to a t-mobile store DAYS before it came out because it stopped working. Yet I always had the newest Sidekick even though I knew they were shit. Then when Microsoft destroyed my beloved danger, I had to have the next best phone. Then I started the run done the newest most exciting phones with t-mobile then sprint and finally Verizon. Mind you this was all in less than a year.
This need for the trendiest technology follows to music devices, Kindles then Nooks, electric cars and so on. See it’s kind of need, let me correct myself obsession is kind of an expensive issue I have. Mind you, I don’t follow Apple trends, I feel they are stupid and useless. Anyway there is one tread that I did not follow and that was the blue-ray DVD. When the fight over Hi-Def or Blue-Ray was going on, I did not partake. I had no interest. When blue-ray won out, I did not run out and buy one. When a play station 3 replaced my beloved play station 2 I didn’t run out and buy one either. So that has left me without a blue-ray player.
Yesterday I finally gave in. I bought a blue-ray player. See for months I have been looking at buying one. I’ve been browsing all the major retailers and on Sundays I would look in the papers to see if the price would drop another $10. See it had to drop another $10 before I’d buy one. Yesterday I got fed up of waiting. For months I’ve been buying DVD combo packs for in preparation for the day I’d give in. Finally I did. I found myself at Wal-Mart with my child and my dad yesterday buying one. While looking at them I debated if I really needed the built in Netflix or what I really needed it to hook up to my TV. I needed it all. So I found myself spending triple what I was planning. I also found myself increasing my DVD collection by quite a few, mind you I have a pretty impressive collection ranging from horror, Japanese horror, French new wave, Disney classics to coming of age movies and 80s cult hits. So I’ve found myself immersed into another gadget trends.

Girlfriend

nikkicupcake — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 08:46:06 +0000

I hate being called Alan’s girlfriend. It sounds like such an informal title once you’ve had a child. After Aiden was born I stopped referring to Alan as my boyfriend, I now call him my partner. Alan still calls me his girlfriend. Now, technically Alan and I are involved in a domestic partnership. This is because when I worked for Barnes and Nobles we had this lovely little piece of paper notarized saying “Hey, we live together and don’t plan on splitting up and are committed to one another” Legally saying we are domestic partners. Mind you this was for health insurance reasons. Yet I am still just Alan’s girlfriend.
The other issue I have is that little status box on facebook. See some time ago, before Aiden was born Alan change it that we were in an open relationship. Let me define that open relationship to you. Alan could go out and do whatever he wanted with whoever he wanted. If I even went to go see a band play I would be accused of cheating on Alan. Even if it was to go see some uber huge band, because of the way I look must mean I was a groupie and sucked someone off. Mind you I’d be standing near no one and talked to no one the whole time I was out. So after Aiden was born I was asked if Alan and I were in an open relationship, and if was sure if Alan was the father because everything you read on facebook is true. So I had to explain what this open relationship was. Which was kind of embarrassing. I think it made into an awkward situation, which it never had to be.
But to explain this “open relationship” a little better. Alan and I hit a really, really rough after being together for about 6 months. See I wasn’t new and shiny anymore, and our situation sucked. So Alan was fed up which is fine. He had every right to be. I was kind of crazy psycho girlfriend for about 2 minutes. Alan was douche bag for about 5. Anyway while I was at work one day Alan changed his relationship status, and I got an automated e-mail from facebook letting me know I was no longer in a relationship. This made me nuts. It drove me up a wall. Alan then got an earful when I got home from work. The status was then changed to open relationship and never changed.
Since I’ve started seeing Alan over 2 years ago, I haven’t even looked at anyone else. I once even tried to see if I was remotely interested a “scene” guy. You know a guy with tattoos, piercing, wearing really tight pants. That didn’t work. Even when I talk to or see “one that got away” (which there is more than one) I have no interest. I get extremely grossed out when I get hit on. Alan on the other hand I don’t know. There was this time period where he was myspacing a bunch of girls to hang out and try to hook up with. He came home with bit marks the one night. I just said if that’s what you need to do then fine. He then broke down crying. There are many nights that he goes out and doesn’t come home because he “misses” the last train to Lyndhurst. When he gets home the next morning I always ask how was the girl you fucked last night. I thing you grow up you have a kid. But like I said, if that’s what you need to do.
Anyway so maybe that’s why Alan still calls me his girlfriend. Maybe it isn’t. All I know is it makes me feel inadequate. I had the way it sounds. When Alan’s mother introduces me it’s like this is grandson and then here’s my son’s girlfriend. It comes out sounds just so trashy and not right. Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe all I am to Alan is his girlfriend. I mean with his track record it’s 100% possible and likely that he doesn’t view me as anything more than that.

Thunderstorms

nikkicupcake — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 03:39:27 +0000

I love thunderstorms. It’s my favorite thing about the summer. When I’m in Maine I hope for a night time storm so I can see the lighting across the lake where I stay. When I used to live in Cresskill there were some really awesome storms. I remember the last whole summer I lived there. There were 2 major storms that knocked out power for a whole week, twice. When Alan and I had first started dating there was a pretty major storm, but we missed it because we were “snapping”. I wish I didn’t because it was like the wizard of oz outside. We lost power at the store for about 10 hours. Then last June all it did was storm and rain. But this year there’s been nothing to speak of in Lyndhurst.
Everyday for the past 2 weeks or so I’ve been obsessing with the weather patterns over Lyndhurst. I’ve been watching as each weather system as passed over us. I’ve be disappointed with every awesome storm we should have turns into a dud. See in the winter if the storm ends up being a dud I’d throw a party unlike the summer. All I want to do is throw a pity party for myself because I was let down because of rain.
The funny thing is that when I was little I was so scared of thunder. I used to run and hid under whatever I could. I remember my grandmother telling me that it was just God bowling. I still think that’s a great thing to tell little kids. I’m not religious, but if Aiden gets scared that’s what I’ll say to him. It’s one of the only memories I have of my grandmother, but it’s so vivid. One year in Maine there was such a nasty storm I ran and hid in the cabin, but I had no relief still. I thought we were all going to be hit by lighting. But now I love it. I used to drive to the shores of the Hudson River to watch the storms with my mom. It’s one of my favorite memories of her.
Anyway again today I am disappointed with the lack of storms. I wanted to watch a real nice storm and then after the rain has passed I want to be able to go outside to feel the cool summer air. Like I said, my favorite thing about the summer is thunder storms. I love the smell after the rain and just the feeling of fear and excitement with every loud crack.

Have you really stopped and thought about the “tea party” (if you’re offened by liberals don’t read this!)

nikkicupcake — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 12:06:46 +0000

I was in school not too long ago. See I am only 23, so I can clearly remember school. I can remember all the time we spent talking about the Boston Tea Party. It was longer than anything else we covered in history about the Revolutionary War. That’s because it really lead to this war that gave us things such a free speech and right to public assembly. The way we learned the Boston Tea Party went was that it was lead by a bunch of liberal radicals. Today there’s this new thing coming up in politics called “The Tea Party” being leading by the one and only Sarah Palin and other conservative republicans who couldn’t make it as republicans. Which doesn’t surprise me that they actually have the name wrong and the meaning of the name.
See these right wing conservatives do already have a party that is for the constitution and is against changing it. It’s actually the 3rd biggest party today. It’s called the Constitutional party. Not the Tea Party! The original tea party was a Libertarian movement! The Constitutional party is cool with the same things you are like no same sex marriage and that a women does not have a right to choose. The only thing you two don’t agree on is Iraq. Like all other decent people they think the war is kind of wasteful and my generation‘s Vietnam. How you wage war on an idea? Besides that spreading capitalism the way we do is actually imperialism which what the original Tea Party was against.
Now looking at what the new Tea Party stands for there’s a lot of flaws in it. First they think all amendments to the constitution should be removed. So bye-bye to freedom of religion, our current legal system, fair elections, the end to slavery, voting, women’s rights, need I continue? See the tea party claims it stands for what our founding fathers did, which was small government and freedom. But they aren’t preaching it. If it was the case, politics isn’t a career then. The plan was that the government would meet only a few times a year then go back to doing their everyday job. What’s Rand Paul’s everyday job? What does Sarah Palin do when she’s not making a fool of herself about politics? Oh that’s right NOTHING! Then everyone would be equal and have the same rights. Same sex marriage and the right to choose wouldn’t be questioned anymore. Then we would stop being imperialists too.
Also the tea party is against healthcare reform. When was the last time any of the tea party leaders paid for health care. As a young person you really do see the need for health care reform. See when you finish college you have to find a job and most new jobs don’t give you health care and if they do you just may not be able to afford it. See I just recently stopped working for a company that did give me health care, but after all the costs of it I was bringing home about $100 a week. How can someone with a child live on that. So I see the importance of affordable health care unlike Sarah Palin who can collect SSI for her son with down syndrome. Yet my son who is a normal, healthy child can’t get as good health care as a child with a disability. The really sad thing was my mother couldn’t get SSD or SSI and couldn’t get the health care she needed when she actually had disability that affected her. She was actually turned away from the proper help because we had health insurance. But there isn’t any problem with that.
The tea party is supposed to be representing people without representation. They are supposed to making sure that “Joe the Plumber” is being taken care of. Yet the only people who really support the tea party openly in political poles are rich, conservative, middle aged, white males married to stepford wives. When was the last time you walking to say a room full of construction workers and found a bunch of middle aged, rich, conservative white males. Those people are not being represented by the tea party. They’re voice is being heard at union halls and at the local government level. When was the last time you heard of an active union member voting republican? The tea party also undermines us, young people. They seam to forget that we have a voice and never speak to us either. They seam to forget we don’t go vote during primaries. The actual election day is when you will really see what happens, and the people will speak.
The biggest issue I think the tea party has is that they don’t have a clear message. One day they’ll say we aren’t for political labels yet favor republicans over 70% of the time? Or one second someone of your party affiliation who’s a major contender in big government says something along the lines of the civil rights bill was wrong. Then the next day the said candidate takes back their statement on national TV. I’ve even asked a number of tea party supporters what they stand for and not once have I gotten a clear answer.
So now looking at the tea party, they’ve gotten their name wrong. The original tea party was a bunch of liberals, tea party members are far from that. Then they stand for what our founding fathers where for. So first thing’s first, all these tea party politicians are out of a job. Then Sarah Plain has no right to open her mouth because women have no rights. Followed by throwing out justice. Then our health care costs getting more out of control. Then actual misrepresentation, not this allusion that the tea party is claiming. Now really looking at it, doesn’t the tea party sounds really absurd to you too?

Banana cream pie

nikkicupcake — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 00:17:23 +0000

key lime pie

nikkicupcake — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 15:16:03 +0000

check out http://theotherbakedgoods.wordpress.com/2010/06/02/key-lime-pie/

on how to make this awesome pie!

BP sucks…. end of story

nikkicupcake — Mon, 31 May 2010 19:50:05 +0000

There isn’t a person in America that thinks the BP oil spill is going well. It’s horrible what’s going on! I don’t live in the south. I live in the northeast so I really don’t feel as strongly as say my best friend from school who’s stepfather works in the gulf. But I defiantly know how you guys are feeling. Anyway things aren’t going well (ha ha well GET IT!, bad joke) down there.
The number of lives lost already is too much, and there are bound to be more because of the environmental issues that are going to be coming up. People are going to see a spike in cancers and god knows what else. I really feel for the children, born and unborn in the area. This is going to effect them the most when it comes to the environmental issues.
The economical issues are astronomical too! There’s a good chance BP will be going bankrupt because of this clean up. That will effect the jobs of everyone who works for the company. This will also effect the people who work in the gulf too. My said friend’s stepfather can’t go to work now. So what happens to him? What happens if he’s the only person bringing in money for his family? Is the going to be help for these people who are just getting their lives back together after one huge set back? Also this may raise fuel prices. The raising fuel prices affect all of us. It makes it impossible to buy goods and just to drive to work.
Now you’ll see how quick off shore drilling slows down. For years republicans have pushed for off shore drilling saying disasters like the one that just happened won’t. Well it did. It really fucked us up! So dearest republican thanks for cutting OSHA and thanks for the special interested in oil companies. You have not only caused us to become dependant on oil and supported taking away our reasonable choice of car when you didn’t want to be oil dependant. You’ve also aided in this horrible spill. But it’s still all Obama’s fault right?
My father is a well driller. He has over 40 years experience in the field. He actually teaches well drilling at the New York Carpenter College. He knows all about BP’s newest top kill attempt. See all day long my dad seals wells will mud and all kinds of other shit. And my very knowledgeable father just shook his head when he saw that BP stopped the top kill. He just said they should have just pumping shit into the well until it stops, it will eventually stop if they just kept doing it.
A lot of people are claming that the government isn’t doing anything like when the hurricane hit a few years back. Well lets look back to a few years ago. Was anyone from the government even in the area? How long did it take for the Bush administration to acknowledge that there was something major wrong? Well on the other hand as soon as the rig collapsed there was government support. So how can you say the government isn’t doing anything. The other thing you need to look at is that the government doesn’t know how to stop the leak either. There isn’t a government team of deep water drillers to stop oil leaks like this I bet after this there will be!
Anyway this BP thing is out of control. It’s a very sad thing to see happen. It’s effecting all of us in some way or another. The best thing anyone can do is just boycott BP and it’s brands, and hope for the best for anyone in the gulf. And remember to maybe look into other fuel options when it comes to car. Oh and flex fuel is a joke. It’s green washing!

Sorry the 2014 super bowl isn’t in NY

nikkicupcake — Wed, 26 May 2010 17:12:46 +0000

So all I’ve been hearing about for the last 12 or so hours is how New York is hosting the 2014 super bowl. That would be awesome for New York if Giant Stadium was actually in New York. See Giant Stadium is actually in East Rutherford, New Jersey, not New York. East Rutherford is actually a very small town in Bergen County. There’s nothing really special about the town other than the Medowlands/Xanadu Complex is in it. So the 2014 super bowl is not in New York, but New Jersey.
Now I know what you’re thinking, that this will be great for the New York Metro Area. It will be, believe me. See next to Giant Stadium is this failed monstrosity known as Xanadu. It’s been opening 2007 as the US biggest mall because us Bergenites need another mall, number 6 to be exact and considering traffic stretches from Paramus to almost Rutherford. Now will fill the town of Lyndhurst and surrounding areas. So it’s now 2010 and Xanadu hasn’t opened. There are tons of rumors flying around about it too. Most are that they’re knocking it down which I promise you is a huge pile of you know what. See I used to own a café in Lyndhurst, which is just the town over. I became involved with the different merchant committees and my father does environmental construction in the area so we get all the gossip, but also the truth.
Anyway the Xanadu complex is hurting the surrounding towns. This huge ugly eyesore is just sitting empty when towns could be collecting taxes and new jobs could be filled. But thanks to the 2014 super bowl maybe Xanadu will now be open instead of an empty hollow shell of a building.

papers

nikkicupcake — Mon, 17 May 2010 17:06:05 +0000

Alan loves papers, newspapers, notebooks, magazines, books, printing large amounts of “writing”. Anything to do with paper. See Alan is the biggest packrat when it comes to paper. Every time he’s in the city he must pick up every free paper he sees from the Village Voice to L. He then reads them from cover to cover and finally those magazines make it to one of the four hot pink Rubbermaid totes I bought for myself to get organized. Which as you guessed have been taken over by paper. My desk which I share with Alan has 2 large piles of papers on them too. Besides the pile of papers that lays next to my bed. About a month ago I got into this cleaning frenzy. I actually went thought crates and bucks of shit I owned and threw out 3 crates of crap. I went through Aiden’s things and handed whatever I could down to Huff and Nancy which ended up being 2 huge shopping bags filled with stuff and a stroller. So then feeling productive I figured I’d rub off my productiveness on Alan. I said hey you’re never going to use all these newspapers why don’t you go through them and cut out what you want and throw away what you won’t use. Now the process of cleaning that took me one day, took Alan over a week. Alan had taken over both spaces in our room I let Aiden go crazy in with these hot pink totes. He then spent days, I mean DAYS going through old issues of the Village Voice re-reading them cover to cover. A few times I even mentioned band names to Alan and he’d refer to an old issues headed for the trash. Then he would pull it from the discard pile and return it to the pink tub. After all that Alan swore that he has emptied out 1 and a half totes. I was excited about this and told Alan how I can find another use for the tote like store Aiden’s toys he keeps upstairs. My mistake was not taking that tote back over. I went to Target that very night and bought the biggest techno-colored tote I could find to store Aiden’s ever growing toy collection. Why Aiden needs 3 caterpillars that sing to him, I don’t know but anyway. Today about a month later I have decided that our bedroom has gotten quite a bit messy. There are Aiden toys everywhere and the clothes hampers are overflowing. My biggest distress is that the papers have returned! The papers that I can’t stand have begun to reappear. There are huge piles on our desk. All the totes are filled again. The worst part was last night while trying to sleep these piles of paper migrated to our bed! That’s my biggest pet peeve when it comes to Alan. He loves to take up all this space in our bed with papers or his laptop. He hasn’t done it in ages but it happened again. So I plan on cleaning and organizing our room today. When Alan gets home I’ll suggest that tomorrow he spend the day getting rid of some of his papers. Don’t get me wrong some of it is his writings, but why do you even have a laptop then? And I’ll say like I always do, “If I see any papers they’ll end up in the trash” I’d never do it, but maybe it’ll motivate him and maybe we’ll go through 2 months without this fight next time.