I have my own website again!  Just haven't really finished it, but if you want to see the trainwreck hot mess in progress

http://meganmcgory.com

or just follow me on twitter, life is more interesting there lol

http://twitter.com/meganmcgory
http://twitter.com/mannequinreject

Hey myspace cadets, I know it's been a while!

My grandfather, after seeing the turn-of-the-century bottles in my trunk, now calls me the female Indiana Jones.  My March obsession of sea glass hunting turned into my April obsession of bottle digging, just like I used to way back when I lived in Sterling.  Last weekend Ramy and I dug this 4 gallon crock out of the Moosup River.

Yes, there's money in it. I'm doing it for the thrill, the history, and if I get lucky, some extra cash.  Plus I have an artsy idea with all the embossed glass shards I've been finding.  So I collect broken glass.  Call me crazy, but just you wait.

Lots more details and pictures at http://mannequinreject.blogspot.com

I post regularly on that blog, maybe I should crosspost to here, livejournal, and facebook? 

I had a nasty bout of food poisoning again this week.  Second time in two months, but this one isn't going away as easy.

And I have 113 friends on myspace...surely one of you out there knows how to mount a bike rack to a compact car? --bats eyelashes--  It's one of those that straps to the inside of a trunk, for a car, not an SUV or something.  Ramy and I are just confused to high heaven and some help would be a blessing.  We bought the rack from craigslist for $10 and the old lady we bought it from couldn't find the directions.

I pulled this right out of my crafting blog, http://mannequinreject.blogspot.com .  I really had a lot of fun and wanted to share it with all of you who read here!

Remember my last entry where I was climbing the walls because I wasn't at the beach looking for sea glass? My collection till today was rather pitiful because I had never gone out collecting it before.


Well my 9AM doctor's appointment was canceled, so I filled my gas tank (ouch) and bought a kitchen strainer, grabbed a bunch of CDs and some Mountain Dew, and took a drive to Watch Hill, RI.

Weeeee!

On the way, here's two things I noticed.

1. You can see the Newport Bridge (actual name: Claiborne Pell Bridge) from Ekonk Hill (Rt. 49). I lived in Sterling 13 years and never noticed this before till one night when Ramy and I only had one car and I was driving to Voluntown to pick him up, and realized I could see two white solid lights on the horizon. I really didn't think it was the Newport Bridge till I actually could see those huge suspension towers. I would have taken a picture but it was a little too hazy for my camera to pick up. Here's what wikipedia has to say about the bridge: "The main span of the Newport Bridge is 488 meters (1601 feet), ranking it number 64 among the largest suspension bridges in the world, and making it the largest suspension bridge in New England. The overall length of the bridge is 3,428 meters (11,247 feet). Its main towers reach 122 meters (400 feet) above the water surface, and the roadway height reaches as high as 66 meters (215 feet).^[2]"

2. There's a bricked up root cellar far down Rt. 49 in North Stonington. I've driven by it several times and only today did it click what it was. lol.

And so I went to Watch Hill. The day was beautiful and the beach was deserted, sun was out, etc etc. The reason I chose Watch Hill was because that during the Hurricane of 1938, 36 houses washed into the bay and every once in a while artifacts turn up from them. I also figured some of them went in the drink with Depression Glass, which would possibly turn up the some of the rarest colors of sea glass (red, orange, black, milk white, electric blue, etc.) In fact, the electric blue piece I have was from 2003, when Zack, Brandon, and I went to Fort Mansfield and I found it. Zack was jealous. lol.

This marks one of the few times I went to Watch Hill without intending to go to Fort Mansfield, but every urban explorer knows the one thing you should never do is explore a place like that alone.

It lies 2 miles out at the end of the beach, and no ambulances can reach you if you were to fall two stories off the roof. I've been there a dozen times, no need to go alone. (Wikipedia entry on Watch Hill/Fort Mansfield here).

So I spent the next 4 HOURS there, combing the beach. I walked up one end and down the other side, collecting little bits of glass that glistened in the light. And I picked up a few other odds & ends, and found some things that I WISH I could have taken home...


Ok, I'll fess up I knew about this second boat, that's been here more than two years, but I never saw it in person till today. Insane Bunkers originally hosted the photos from the person who discovered it, but they had a hard disk failure and lost all the pics. This boat apparently broke free from Stonington Borough (across the bay) and ended up over here. I wonder if its owner knows? lol

And I drove it 96 miles home.  :D

Still no final verdict on the name though.  Since Saabs are from Sweden and I once knew a girl from Sweden named Luna, I was going to name it after her twin sister Sophia, or Sophie for short.      I kind of like it.

Oh.  And ♥ the car.  It could benefit from a tune up, but that's all it needs!  And it's CLEAN!  No more dog hairs stuck under the cruise control buttons like in the Grand Am.  No cruise control, actually. lol

I need to make a new car CD mix. teehee.  Yes, it has a CD player (A+++++++++++++++++++++++++++)

So what happened to me, anyway?

1.  I have too many blogs.  I largely ignore all of them. lol  I'm just kidding but I do have a "new" blog--  http://mannequinreject.blogspot.com .  I started it as a creative project blog because as I've said to many of my friends lately-- all my friends are having babies and I can't afford to have one right now BUT I MUST CREATE SOMETHING.  So this is an insane urge to create something, anything, every single day.  I mean, this has even made me put down the journal.  I haven't even written in there since...since...well.  I have a lot of catching up to do.  I know I haven't written anything since the accident.

2. Accident?  Yes, on February 9th, for those of you who haven't heard or seen the YouTube video, my car got totaled.  I'm actually waiting for the insurance company to come take it away today.  And it looks like I'll be getting a couple hundred $$ towards getting a new car, in addition to paying off the Grand Am.  Despite all the car troubles I had with it last year, I think I'm going to miss it.  Or at least miss the stereo.  teehee. 

3.  Because of no decent car that's good on gas, I had to give up delivering the Bulletin, which I didn't even post that I had even started doing.  But yeah...I only have a part time self-employed job that doesn't pay all that much, but like I told Jess today, it's gaining momentum.  We just had our best day ever at the Flea Market, so we're keeping the booth, even though I said the day after the accident that we were going to give it up.  Not yet.

4.  I find that the strangest things sell on Etsy.  Like buttons.  So if any of you know where I can find massive amounts of buttons cheap...holler. lol

5.  YARD SALE SEASON STARTS SOON. OMG.  CAN'T WAIT.  YARD SALES = $$$$$$$ in flea market land.

6.  I WANT A SAAB 900 from the 1980's.

7. I'm a little discombobulated today and need to shower.  I think today is my day for painting and rehabilitating a desk I got from Salvation Army for $10.  I'm going to paint it black and do mosaic work on the top of it since the veneer is trashed on one side.

8.  I want to go bottle digging this spring.  I realize this isn't something I've actually done since 1997.  I know some in Sterling...but it's a lot of walking and it has to be warm.  And I want to go to the beach and find things.   I just want to find things in general.  I have mad amounts of energy that I really haven't had in years...that used to go into my writing...but eventually just fermented into frustration.  And now it's bursting out of me at an alarming rate, like I'm exploding.  

9.  BTW, all of the above keeps me from the internet, except to post stuff on Etsy.  Mannequin Reject Emporium

Here's the official announcement: ITema let me go. 

Meanwhile I started selling my home-made jewelry on etsy.

Mannequin Reject Emporium

Plz help a soon to be starving artist.

It's not like I didn't see it coming, I certainly did.  But I thought I had about an extra month to get out and I didn't.  Good news is that I have a job interview tomorrow already and it's not like ITema is going to give me a bad reference or anything.  Honestly, I'm not too worried.  I have money in the bank that should last a few months and hopefully I can make some extra cash through the flea market and etsy and delivering newspapers for the Bulletin or whatever I have to do.  It's life.

My internet disappearance continues!  That's how awesome married life is.

But ebay definitely caught my attention recently.

So here's the long story:  Ramy brought mad stuff with him when he moved here, and he was like "I want to sell my Egyptian things!"

eBay is a no-go for Egyptian papyrus, let me tell you.  eBay is pretty much a no-go for almost anything because I believe it's destroyed the fun in collecting things.  Like...coins, for example.  I used to collect coins 15 years ago (omg...1993 was 15 years ago)...actually I started collecting coins on January 1, 1993. But I digress.  And I don't collect coins anymore.  But back then I remember many a trip to faraway coin shops (read: Putnam...for anyone in that area: remember there used to be a coin shop across the street from where McDonalds is now...only before there was McDonalds?).  Or we would go to a coin shop on the way to Jewett City or Zuckerbraun's...finding a coin you wanted pretty bad just didn't happen in those days.  And they cost mucho $$$$ and probably way more than they were actually worth.  It wasn't easy to collect anything.

Fast-forward to 2008:  YOU CAN GET EVERY COIN EVER MADE IN A COUPLE DAYS ON EBAY.  See my point?  BTW, same goes for Barbies, and why no one collects them any more. Ebay decimated the markets for a lot of "collectibles".  And of course, manufacturers putting out "Limited Editon 1 million items ONLY" for collectors didn't help.  Or the State Quarter series.  buhhhhh -bashbashbash-

Anyway.  You can get anything you want on ebay.  It takes out the unique-ness in every product ever made because if you think of it, it's on ebay, and you can probably have it overnighted to you.

Which is why we can't sell papyrus prints on ebay.  Not to mention that if we ever run out of prints, we can just get dozens more and sell them. lol

So then Ramy tried going to different International markets and everyone blew him off.  Well eff you too, pal. 

Meanwhile on November 23, Ramy and I were driving around looking for cars and stuff to do since we were technically still on our honeymoon yet we were back in ECT and keeping to ourselves, when I remembered that there's an auction every couple of weeks in Jewett City, at the site of the flea market.  So we drove down to see if there was an auction that night and sure enough, there was, but we ended up talking to Bob Leone, who runs both the auction AND the flea market along with his wife, Sue.  Soooooo then gears started rolling in my head and Bob sounded really interested that we were going to sell papyrus..but not at his auction.  In the flea market.  We just needed a tax ID number and we were good to go.

Ramy wasn't too familiar with the flea market so we decided to go check it out that Sunday (11/25) and the place was SWAMPED.  So we made arrangements to set up shop on 12/2, and we did.

Ramy wasn't too enthusiastic about it--the weather prevented us from making the rent at least two weeks and Zack had to help me make rent by buying stuff another weeks...LOL...(THANKS ZACK!) but it's slowly starting to move.  Ramy has a job now so I take on the flea market myself on Sundays and run our booth..which...if you've seen it, it's obvious we're not going anywhere any time soon because we've moved in and made that corner ours!  Not to mention I get merchandise at good prices from all over the internet and the previously mentioned auction, and we've branched out from selling just Egyptian stuff.  And Zack brought the Steam Punk art movement to my attention and I'm all off on another mission and making jewelry.  It's not Steam Punk jewelry yet, but it will be once I find some broken watches and other bits of jewelry crap.

ANYWAY, I spent 7 hours on New Year's Eve making jewelry while Ramy edited some DVDs for the part time videographer thing he has going, and his other job that's part time is as a cook at Cozy Corner...

So things are going pretty good for us!  Check out the Egyptian Emporium's myspace page and blogs and photos to see all the cool stuff I've been up to lately.  It says Egyptian Emporium / MR because MR stands for Mannequin Reject, and for those of you who remember my 2005 Zine and know how fond I am of taking pictures of Mannequin Heads...well...

Anyway.  That's my life lately, and life is good. :)

 1. Are you into anyone?
Yes!

2. Did you date anyone this past summer?
We were dating but never went on dates...

3. Who was the last friend in your house?
Ramy is always in our house :D.  But last friend before we were married would have to be Nick and Josh Rubino

4. Have you ever had chicken pox?
Yep, first grade.  Made me miss drug education so when I came back there was a picture book all about coke on my desk.

5. How's your ex doing?
Just one?  My exes are all alive. Last I heard, one moved, one was lost and looking for directions from me, another one is a lost cause, another one drives trucks, another one moved back in with his parents at the age of 30 LOL, one hasn't replied to my email about getting married...PATRICK...one is aiight I guess because I only see what he's up to through myspace lol, another one must be aiight because I get invites to be a vampire on facebook from him and the rest aren't really exes and can go to hell. lol  Does that make sense? hahhahaha

6. Is there someone you want to fight?
Nahhhhh

7. What shirt were you wearing when your last kiss took place?
Something Corporate.  teehee

8. Song playing right now?
Nada

9. What are you doing tomorrow?
Tomorrow?  Hopefully seeing Little Women at the Bradley if I'm not dead.

10. Does anyone like you?
He's in the kitchen

11. What's annoying you right now?
I'm sick of being sick

Hey what happened to question 12?

13. Have you ever watched a movie drunk?
When Finding Nemo started...no.  AND I never made it to the end. lol

14. What were you doing an hour ago?
working

15. Do you have your license?
Yes, it expires in a couple months (omg...do I feel old now)

16. Are you tired?
yes, being sick does that.

17. Who will you be with today/tonight?
Currently with Ramy...then he'll be going to work and I'll be dragging my sick ass to an AUCTION!!!  w00t

18. What does your last text message in your inbox say?
lol my phone hasn't been charged for like 5 days.  And I don't remember the last text I got, I think it was porn spam from some whohaa who got my number from LJ.

19. What color shirt are you wearing?
Maroon...Something Corporate...lol

20. What will you do Sunday?
FLEA MARKET!!!!!!

21. Last person to call you?
Ramy :D

22. Last person you called?
Chris, a million times lol

23. Does your family own any mansions?
...do ones made of legos count?  And even then, no.

25. Where were you at noon yesterday?
Home sick, but working

26. Are you married?
Yes.

27. Have you been outside of the U.S.?
Yes. And I'll do it again.

28. The last comment you received was from?
Justina

31. Do you wish at 11:11?.
If I catch the clock.

32. Do you wear any jewelry?
my wedding ring never leaves, and my engagement ring only leaves when I'm in the shower.

33. Next vacation you're going on?
EGYPT

34. Do you have any piercings?
No

36. Who did you last hug who wasn't in your family?
Zack at the Flea Market lol

37. What's something you want right now?
To be unsick

38. Where do you work?
ITema

41. Do you love anyone?
My husband, my family, my friends, then everyone who's nice to me.

42. What color is your hair?
Brown

43. What's your fav. breed of dog?
PUG

44. What do you hear?
Pepere putting up the ceiling in the basement.

45. Do you find yourself loved?
Yes.

47. Where is the weirdest place you have slept?
The floor of Windham High School's cafeteria.  I think that might just count.

48. What's the closest blue object to you?
lol it's on me, my robe.

49. What is your natural hair color?
Brown

50. What are you excited for?
Auction, flea market, you know.  Little things bring me joy :)

Sorry this still isn't the full YAY WEDDING update...I haven't quite collected/scanned/developed all the pictures yet. But I did upload a video or two to YOUTUBE. hahaha

Some kind of post following survey!

Stolen from Holly!

PLAINFIELD '02

Fill this out about your SENIOR year of high school! The longer ago it was, the more fun the answers will be!!

1. Who was your best friend?
Amie! Still!

2.What sports did you play?
Throw-the-donette........?

3. What kind of car did you drive?
MY PONTIAC ------aka Ramy's car! lol

4. It's Friday nite...where r u?
.....like Holly said...on EWS. Or hanging out with my EWS friends. lol

5. Were you a party animal?
see EWS.

6. Were you considered a flirt?
perhaps?

7. Were you in band, orchestra, or choir..
No. Though I think that was the year I first did karaoke...

8, Were you a nerd?
DUDE IF I SPENT EVERY FRIDAY NIGHT EITHER A) ON EWS OR B) BUILDING A WEBSITE WHAT DO YOU THINK!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

9. Did you get suspended/expelled?
Ahem. no. But I did get written up for staying IN SCHOOL. WHATTTTTTTTTT. Basically I was supposed to sign out for Senior priveledge but I didn't because I wasn't leaving for the day. Helloooooooooooooo? And I was even more amused when they sent the referral to my house like a week after I turned 18. I remember going to the office and they were like "you're at risk for losing senior priveledge" and I was like I'M WRITTEN UP FOR STAYING IN THE BUILDING, AND I'M 18........WHAT'S THE PROBLEM HERE? I AM 18 pleasetreatmelikeanadultkthxbi.

10. Can you sing the fight song?
Some kind of 1940's alteration of it, yes. That no one knows except my grandfather. As for what they actually sing at pep rallies now that's more politically correct and not about drinking wood alcohol, well, I guess that's a no.

11. Who were your favorite teachers?
Mr. Baines, Mr. Clarke even though the end of the year turned into drama fest '02, Dr. Taylor, Mrs. Sweatt

12. Where did you sit during lunch?
That always changed. Usually whereever Lindsey sat though by the end of the year it was always the upper level.

13.What was your school's full name?
Plainfield High School

14. School mascot?
Panther

15. Did you go to Prom?
Senior ball, stag. By choice btw, people did ask me to go and I preferred to go alone that year. Though I did ask Nick and he said no. lol we'll not go into that.

16. If you could go back and do it again, would you?
Senior year? Sure. There are quite a few things I would have done differently during the last half though.

17. What do you remember most about graduation?
THE. RAIN. OMG.

18. Where did you go senior skip day?
Work. No, not kidding. lol. THE PACKHOUSE.

20.Were you in any clubs?
Diversity Club, NHS, yearbook, newspaper, lair workers

21. Where did you go most often for lunch?
Like we had a choice? Cafeteria

22. Have you gained some weight since then?
Gained some, lost some, gained a lot, lost a lot. I'd say right now I'm around the same weight I was at graduation but if any of you remember that was a bit different than the beginning of the year when I had that ulcer LOLLLLLLLLLLL

25. Who was your Senior prom date?
NOBODY! Though the Junior Prom was Ramy ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

26. Are you planning on going to your 10 year reunion?
hell yes

27. Who was your home room teacher?
no homeroom, only study hall. lol. And senior priveledge at the end of the year with periods 1, 2, & 3 study hall...so Mondays I didn't have to be in school till 9:50, Tuesdays I could come in at 9:00 and leave at 1:00, and Wednesdays I could leave at 12:15. IT WAS GLORIOUS. Though I spent most of that extra time working or sleeping in. LOL.

28.Who will repost this?
who knows? I never find out.

29. Who was your high school sweetheart?
Ramy...and we're getting married in just about TWO WEEKS!!!!!!!!!!ahhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!

30. Do you still talk to people from high school?
Well the one I talk to the most is pretty obvious (Ramy! insert hearts here!) and then there's the few I see on Myspace...hi Linds and Sarah and whoever else reads this!

Repost with your high school and graduation year.

And now for your weekly post:

7 DAYS (Egypt time) TILL RAMY'S ARRIVAL. OMG. I will now resume bouncing off the walls like I was in March!!!!!!!!!

Wedding is somehow coming together. Like Danielle from work and Uncle Timm are taking care of the food. Joe and his band VOICE OF APOLLO are performing and Eric is dragging down his professional sound guy friend from Albany the day before after they get good and liquored up. I'm not going to worry about that part of it, sounds like they do it all the time. lol.

Oh, and there might be alcohol at the wedding. Surprise! MIGHT, THAT'S NOT A DEFINITE. lol

Paid the rest of the ballroom fee today. Cake meeting at Motta's in Columbia tomorrow. Also still have to do the invitations (HEY, I've done a lot, just in a real backwards order! Those of you who are coming already know where it is and when so hold your freaking horses I swear that invitation will get to you before the wedding!) Maybe I will send all invitees invites but most of you saw the one on livejournal so I know you'll come whether you get the paper invite or not. I AM going to be making up like a wedding program type thing to make up for lack of proper invitations. And the wedding program is going to be almost identical to the invitations and I'll be doing them in photoshop. lol.

Did I mention I now have a bridal registry at Linens N Things? The ID is 600699425872 I think. If it's wrong do a search by name and I'll fix it. lol

Ummmmm what else.....whack dreams last night. Something about Ladd School getting knocked down and something else about some stupid stolen car and some other something abandoned house? something something something. OH. I was at the store in Shelburne Falls MA called Crystals---which is a damn cool store btw (almost as cool as Mystic Emporium but wicked expensive in comparison) and I walked out of the store for like 5 minutes and POOF the store turned into some kind of candy shop and I was like WTF WHAT HAPPENED TO THE COOL STORE?!?!?! and I went upstairs looking for the Artisan Gallery that in reality is above the Crystals store...and in the dream it was like some pizza place......again.......WHAT...so I was mad and left the store only to discover that I was no longer in Shelburne Falls, MA, but rather another town up Rt. 2 ---Florida, MA. And yes, in reality there really is a town in Massachusetts called Florida. Then there was the dream about Ladd School where the big round building....Fogerty....got knocked down to like one story instead of 5 or whatever it currently is because cops were sick of busting teenagers on the roof........whatever....lots of teenagers wandering around the complex complaining that it was boring. OMG I just realized I was driving my old car in the dream! YAYYYYYYYYY
And then there was the stolen car dream where someone stole a car and the cops were like YOU STOLE THIS CAR and I was like I SO DID NOT! and I really didn't but they made me take a lie detector test and my mom was like "I'M SO DISAPPOINTED IN YOU!" and I'm like "WTF WHY AM I FAILING THIS STUPID TEST".

But the dreams weren't as ditzy as I just wrote them. For Your Information.

Saw Nick's play tonight ---Rumours---AMAZING. I realized Rumours was the last play I saw my Uncle Ronnie perform in before he turned to directing plays, and that was in 1995...likewise Rumours is the last play I'll see Nick perform in for YEARS. Maybe I'll go see it again! Who wants to go? IT'S SO AWESOME. Especially for Nick's monologue at the end. And I met Deb! She's so awesome and she was great too! And so was Jess and almost everyone else in it. I had only one complaint.....lol. (Nick I'll tell you tomorrow!) OK make it two complaints, those chairs in the balcony KILLED MY TAILBONE.

Which I still haven't seen a doctor about, btw. My tailbone's been killing me for a year this month...and if I've put up with it for a year, then I can put up with it for a couple more months and might go see a Dr. about it in January. The reason why I haven't gone is because I don't think they could fix the problem with it anyway. If it broke the day of the SoCo concert on February 15, 2004 and healed ok...and then say something happened to it last November...aka the month I don't remember much of because of that concussion I had...well I guess it never healed right. And how would one fix a broken tailbone? Can't exactly put a cast on your ass!

-sigh- One day I hope it won't hurt so much. It didn't hurt much in Egypt, only that one night that Ramy and I were sitting at the dining room table for like 5 hours. Otherwise it didn't hurt at all.

In completely unrelated and sad news: How many of you heard about that crash on I-95 at exit 75 that 3 people got killed in? That's only a few minutes from where I work. You can read about it at wfsb.com and see pictures and all the rest. Joe, Chris, and I hung around work till about 6 talking about the traffic and the accident and while we were there, we saw such a vibrant sunset.