Thankful Thursday

Is it really Thursday? My days are all jumbled this week and I could have sworn it was Thursday the last 3 days.

Whatever day of the week it is, it's also Valentine's day, which is usually one of my least favourite days of the year. And I feel like I can say that justly, because I'm speaking as a happily married woman and not a vengeful and bitter rejected girl who is secretly pining for a valentine. Anyway. I just get tired of all the hoopla and super-hiked prices and seriously: all the emotions! Because on facebook alone, I see a long list of people writing angry/sad posts about Valentine's day or their lack of romance, or I see a bunch of people who are desperately trying to show the world how much they are loved. It's tiring and although I love the celebration of love, I don't like artificial shows of it. Blech.

Speaking of which, Facebook kindly reminded me today that I should purchase candy for my Valentine, because that is what one does on Valentine's day, right?

Sea salt caramels, anyone?

On that note, we're keeping up our tradition of finding a random weird little place to eat tonight, with the goal being that we're the only ones there. This is why we ate in a trailer 2 years ago and why we chased down a food truck (and failed!) last year. This year we're finding an almost-abandoned turkish kitchen and sampling some of their wares. Excellent!

But since it is Thursday, afterall...

1. I'm thankful for Nolan. Not because it's valentine's day but because I'm just so glad he's home from his trip and that I have him in my life and we get to hang out tonight. He just makes me so, so blissfully happy. *Stopping now before I fall into v-day cliches*
2. I'm thankful for the little things. Like receiving an email from our travel and expense team and finding that someone thought it would be funny to change the name to travel and entertainment in the very serious email signature. Maybe you'd have to know the situation to think it was funny.
3. I'm thankful for uncertainty. I hate it, but it's so good for me to have to be open to change and expand my field of vision at work.
4. I'm thankful for our parents! We got valentine's cards from both, and just that little thing made both of us smile and feel very loved. I can't actually remember a Valentine's day when my mom didn't give me a card or valentine...but this is the woman who used to make us treasure hunts when we got home from school on Columbus Day - incredible! Parenting like a boss.
5. I'm thankful for renewed energy both at home and especially at work - I needed a little kick in the pants to get out of a rut and am feeling much better after my trip last week.

What are you thankful for?

a case of the mondays

Maybe it's because I got my flu shot this morning, but today has been tiring. Also because I am running a little bit low on sleep after the weekend? Who knows. Either way, I'm secretly hoping my bootcamp after work will be low-key (it never is though!) so I can be lazy. Ah well.

This weekend Nolan and I headed up the hill to visit the fam in Placerville. Sadly, our mountain bikes went from the car to the work palace, and never saw the dirt. But! There is always next time. And we did other fun things. Like going to sushi with Nate at one of our fave spots:

Having an egg-cracking contest to see who could crack their share of 250 eggs into this bucket the fastest. I think Nolan would have won if he didn't cheat by leaving an eggshell in there. Don't worry - it didn't go to waste! The eggs were eaten by 90 men the next morning and apparently delicious. But still.

 Check out all those shells!

 We hung out with Gramma, who is the newest magnet for the animals with her fuzzy blankets.

 And as usual, the not so fun part: leaving to go back home. Milo anticipated this as he always does, and picked a bomb hiding spot. If Nate hadn't secretly seen him crawl in, we never would have found him. Check it out - can you see him back there?

 Here's the zoom-out (below).

He was in the left cabinet behind all the photo albums. I don't understand how such a pea-brained creature can always outwit us. Like the time he hid behind my mom's books in her room and blended in with the white wall. Or when he tucked himself under the covers at my in-laws house, and we couldn't find him for ages because he had laid so flat we thought he was just a wrinkle in the bed covers.

Anyway, he eventually came out, but went back into hiding (in a NEW place!) right before we had to leave. Since we didn't find his hiding place that time ($5 says he was under the house, since we caught Hagrid sneaking out of there when Nolan brought treats to coax them out), we had to leave him up there temporarily. I guess I'll pick him up this weekend since I'm going back anyway. But this time I'm putting him on lock-down.

We also took our Christmas pictures while up there. I am amazed at how quick and painless it was this year! So excited that Christmas is just two and a half months away!

Maybe that's why I wore soft boots today.

So it's been a rough week already: first week of training for a half-marathon, sick husband, trashed house, first week back from vacation, and I'm tired all the time. And then this morning:
-the muni took forever to come
-once on it, the girl next to me passed out ON TOP of me.
-I let her use my boots as a pillow, and then helped her into a seat when she said she was fine.
-she passed out again while I was holding her up, and had a seizure.
-ambulance took a long time to come, and then finally when I got to work I was almost an hour later than normal.
-I didn't have Starbucks this morning.

So overall, I am slightly traumatized, tired and sore, and starving all the time, and my running shoes are starting to get holes in the heels.

This afternoon, for the third time, I found a tiny pool of bright yellow, thick liquid on my desk. Like, in the middle of nowhere, under nothing but the roof tiles, which were definitely not leaking. I had just cleaned up another puddle in the exact same spot 30 minutes earlier, and STILL had no idea where it was coming from or what it was. My thought process was something like this:
-Ugh, gross. What IS that. Where did it come from?
-What. Again. SERIOUSLY.
-Where is it coming from?
-Those roof tiles really do look like styrofoam.
-Man, I could use a coffee.
-Am I going crazy? WHAT IS THIS.
-Maybe David knows what that is. Hmm. Maybe he's been secretly dripping stuff all over my cube when I wasn't looking. How dare he!
-Oh. My cabinet has too much lube on it. It's thick and bright yellow and drips in that spot when I open it. Oh.

When we finally went out for a walk (and maybe some coffee, heh), I also witnessed what potentially could have been the most awesome thing I have ever seen, when a bird went careening straight into my coworker. Unfortunately, he changed course (BARELY) at the last minute, and my coworker ducked in time. But he reached out after the bird to catch it and teach it a lesson and he was THIS.CLOSE. to grabbing it. His response? "no way, those birds are so delicate. but i kind of wish i had grabbed it, spun 360, and let it fly!"

It's been an interesting day.

shed-jool

Between now and January 9, I only have 3 weekends free. How depressing is that! Of course, I won't be complaining that 2 of those busy weekends will be in Europe and 2 will be in Mexico, heh. But STILL!

Thought: Is social elitism prevalent in our common lives today? Who knows. I tend to think so, only because I can walk into a store in Union Square, and if my hair is greasy from the gym (or just greasy in general), the salesperson will snub me. Yet the next person in is a man in a suit, and they're all licking the tiles beneath his feet. Not that I'm a bitter member of the working-class, but this has miffed me lately. Especially since I find it to be VERY prevalent in certain circles I find myself in. I respect someone who has worked hard to be where they're at, but we're all just people. I kind of feel the same way with saints--people pray to saints, and yet they're just (dead) people. What makes them any different, really? There is a big difference between admiring someone's accomplishments or character, and treating them much differently than their/your peers. This is challenging in a city where I'm constantly trying to please those around/above me, and yet walking by crazy people on the streets who walk up and grab my arm and speak gibberish to me. Obviously I don't want to be grabbed by someone who smells like urine, but I'd like to think that doesn't have anything to do with the person, as much as it does with the stench. We're all just trying to get by, right? In our own way?

Granted, some are after different things than others, but it seems like I've noticed even more than usual the fierce drive of people after things that just don't matter. Myself included. Yikes. All this isn't to say the symbolic capital of some people doesn't make sense, but there is a difference between that and and social elitism based solely on possession or idolatry for one reason or another, and as we all know, too much of a good thing...We're hypocrites of our own creed, "We hold these things to be self-evident, that all men are created equal...", and I might add, "and remain equal despite our own strivings to set ourselves above others." Mission: study the Constitution.

Not to rant or anything, just a thought. This is probably the most confusing post ever.

On to infinitely more superficial things. I was sitting at my desk this morning, when an email pops up from my coworker. Subject Line: "MAN OVERBOARD!!!" So I open it, and saw this (click to enlarge):

I happen to really like this vest I'm wearing, AND have gotten many compliments on it. See?


If you can ignore the creepy Easter Bunny peeping over my left shoulder (wtf?!), you might notice that the vest, although very warm and cute looking, DOES actually resemble a life preserver. Hhh. My badge there is even like the little pull-cord to inflate it. Maybe I SHOULD have been a stewardess afterall.

I've also decided to resurrect the quote of the day. So here you are:
"Most people don't realize that two large pieces of coral painted brown and attached to the skull with common wood screws can make a child look like a deer."
-Jack Handey

Nolan: 8 days!
Europe: 12 days!

For Sale

We left Milo up in Placerville with my parents for two weeks when we left last weekend, because the brat wouldn't come out from under the house. I don't think he thought we would actually leave him there. So though we miss him, we're enjoying some peace and quiet in the mornings when we wake up, and enjoying our dinners free of greasy little paws trying to snatch the tomatoes from our salads or the little mouth chewing on sockets...


However, I'm just hoping he doesn't wear out his welcome up there, as he will be needing a place to stay for a couple weeks in October, when we're gone (details to come!). Sounds like he's already walking on thin ice, as this was waiting for me in my inbox this morning from my dad, obviously on his way to work:

"For Sale:
Cat- to good home....or bad. I don't really care. He is young, frisky and stupid and does'nt have a natural instinct in his body. He poos where he wants; Comes to no one; Is self centered. Name is milo but you can call him whatever you like since he is ignorant and doesn't know his name. On second thought, I'll pay to get rid of him.
--------------------------
Sent using BlackBerry"

Three Wolf Moon

Thanks to gchat statuses, I found this today, talking about the disappointment of a customer in his new Three Wolf Moon shirt, and how he thinks maybe some of the benefits are exaggerated. Things like not being approached by a supermodel while wearing it, and also that he was mistaken for somebody else while wearing it. I think my favourite part was this, though:

"...Similarly, I have not been invited to a vision quest, even though I wore my wolf shirt in New Mexico.

There is one thing, though, and that is that whenever I wear the wolf shirt I have a lot less issues with involuntary urination. I have not studied it long enough, however, to establish a cause/effect relationship."

Fascinating.


I love the sun. I love warmth and getting tanned and swimming and wearing sundresses and flip flops...I cannot wait for this weekend! Time to get away from the fog before I start dreaming about living in Antarctica.

Speaking of dreams, I had a doozie last night. I was living in a cabin with all my friends and family in their own cabins (Nolan and I slept in a bunk-bed in my dream, isn't that fantastic!). I had to hop the fence to catch the muni, and every time I jumped that fence, this giant bear-thing would chase me until I jumped on the muni, and wiped my brow and thought "that was a close one". Eventually, I hopped the fence, and the thing chasing me was Milo. So one morning (I mean, in my dream), I rolled out of my top bunk, and Milo was creeping into our camp, and I tried to poison him to protect everyone, but then felt bad because I love Milo! and then made him vomit up the Indian charms I had given him to poison him. "Throw up the mother charm, Milo!"
Unsurprisingly, I told this dream very enthusiasitically to Nolan this morning, who walked away when I got to the part where I stick my finger down Milo's throat to make him vomit.

Things That Shouldn't Be In Macaroni

Our bed is so comfortable, it's almost a curse. I was *this* close to killing Nolan when I was rudely awakened this morning by the covers being ripped off, the drapes tossed open, and a hard SPANK. Misery. You all know what I'm talkin about.

When he came home, he informed me that he had good news and bad news, and which did I want first. Bad, of course.
"Okay, bad news is that I found several toenails in a box of unopened Macaroni and Cheese. The GOOD news is that they are going to give us a refund! w00t!"

Quote of the Day:
Drunk guy on the Muni: "HEY!...don't ever. question.my.integrity."

felt vampire womb?

On the same twilight note from last night and being in a weird funk after watching a MESSED UP movie with Ash U.--"He loves me, he loves me not" with Audrey Tautou, I decided I would post something that makes me feel NORMAL. Seriously, who does this:


Along those same "wtf" lines, I think there are better ways of protesting out there. Or of getting a raise and better benefits. Like...finding a better job. I KNOW, the economy sucks, but, I think THIS is a little extreme.

I also have to say: I had my first official training session with my PT last night (the others have been "consults"), and I have never gone through two sweat towels like that before in my life. I was vacillating between feeling really productive and strong and wanting to cry. I also am pretty sure I sweated out every ounce of liquid in my body...and don't think I have been to the bathroom since. Huh.

I love conference calls and call-in meetings. You can be IN a meeting, but have the freedom and privacy to do otherwise non-meeting-appropriate things. Like...yawn loudly, and close your eyes, and take off your shoes. Hah. I get dry-mouth just thinking about doing that in front of the people in the live meetings.

Shout-out to ylehsa, who just got accepted into a VERY prestigious art school! what what!

pahhhdon, i seem to have lost my luggage

Good news: Airlines lost 1.3 million bags LESS last year than the previous year. Hurrah. Bad news: this REALLY puts the odds of losing your luggage into perspective. Travel light, kids.

I've fallen into the virtual abyss--I have been SUCH a loser lately that I have been living through my facebook profile/blogs instead of actually hanging out with people, all the while feigning exhaustion from the new job (but we know that is past), so this week I am changing that. Hopefully. I mean if you guys still want me <3

I also had another couple of breakthroughs recently. One being that Oregon Chai concentrate mixed with milk happily substitutes for my white mochas in the mornings, and saves me almost 300 calories/lots of grams of sugar/money/addiction status per day. I will be bringing it in my sparkly pink mug (thanks, Nolan!), ready to save my day, every morning to work from now on. Another thing I realized, on a TOTALLY unrelated and different note, is that I need to do something with my life. Like...I care about illiteracy and think it is the saddest thing in the world that adults cannot read. You are almost helpless nowadays if you cannot read! So, I am going to do something about it. Someday I will announce what that is, but for now I have my own ideas in my head, and just thought I would put that out there. I care. So there.

Tomorrow I will be unveiling Milo's new project (be prepared)...YES my mother bought a project for Milo and Nolan and I to work on together, and I know that sounds really shady right now but trust me. Tomorrow. It will be worth it.

Day 2

I absolutely love my job. I mean my brain feels fried, but so far SO GOOD.

I even love the material my cube is made out of. It's easy to stick pins into and makes a satisfying crunching sound when you do.

Did I mention I have a huge, lovely smelling bouquet that was delivered to my desk yesterday from my coworkers? Eeee.

This morning I stopped in at Starbucks to, you know, feed the habit, and my favourite boys (who work there) decided that in honour of my new job, the drink was on them today. w00t w00t! Little did they know that by not making me pay, in my mind they were allowing me to spend money on another drink later today and feed the habit a little more. DOH. Since I was embarrassed about going back twice in 5 hours, I went to the one a block over, and lo and behold: one of the boys had transferred over there and asked what I was doing back again. Foiled.

Also, let me restate as I did 6 months ago, that I DO NOT understand some food-service people. I mean, I go into Subway (and this has happened before), and try to get my free 8th sandwich with my punch card, but no, I have to take a drink too. I can't just take a free sandwich, I have to take a drink too. Okay well I don't want an icy drink on a frigid January afternoon. They cannot seem to fathom a world where they save money by keeping their dumb drink and just giving me the sandwich, and instead tell me that if I don't want my drink, I can't use the punch card for my free sandwich. wtf, mate.

ylehsa sent me a video today that will look oddly familiar to those of you who have met my fat little child. Enjoy.

A New Leaf (because seriously I don't want to screw this up)

My (overdue) New Year's Resolution: not blog about work directly anymore. That includes at work (so my afternoon readers you might be disappointed to find I am writing later in the day now), and about work directly. By which I mean I may refer to work-related things/people but ALWAYS vaguely. I have already learned a few lessons from my first day today, the first of which helped me to reach this decision about blogging and the others are just interesting:
a.) people at my new work are not WILDLY INAPPROPRIATE like those at my old work. You know who you are if you read this (and I would if I were you because there have been some doozies), and do not talk about: 1.) their genitalia 2.) who did what in the men's bathroom today that required maintenance to pay a visit 3.) others' genitalia 4.) fart machines 5.) wild political rants 6.) general bashing (don't ask) 7. this is the "etc." category under which pretty much every other inappropriate but still makes you guffaw/snort into your hand when your supervisor isn't looking (and sometimes when he is) thing falls.
b.) no matter how much you love your work, there is always somewhere better in some way. In my case, in lots of ways, though I didn't even think that possible. I feel spoiled already.
c.) It is very possible that San Francisco may one day fall into the ocean...and my company is prepared and THEN some (they gave us all emergency backpacks with everything we need to survive in our cubicles for several days, and encouraged us to bring a book or a picture of our dog to put in there to "calm us" if we feel panicky during a disaster. I don't know about you, but I am pretty sure if I am trapped in the remains of my cube with only rubble around me and my crank-able flashlight to guide me, gazing into milo's frozen eyes is sure as hell not going to get me through it. ).

This being said, if you need me: email IS the new chat.

They took me to lunch today at the Palace Hotel. It is the swankiest...well, look:

Procrastination

I finally feel that old familiar feeling of being in college again, waiting to write my term paper, waiting...until 2 hours before its due, and then cranking it out and then feeling powerful because I finished it in the nick of time (don't ruin this for me, I enjoyed that feeling). I promised Nolan I would write up a review for a restaurant we went to by (yesterday) sometime, and he has given me a day extension in honour of me FOR THE FIRST TIME picking a watchable movie last night (Ash M., I think you can appreciate the gravity of this statement. There was no singing jewelry!). My track record is amazing, but finally instead of suffering through something for an hour and a half that LOOKED good on the shelves of Blockbuster, we were glued to the screen watching De Niro, Hoffman, Pitt, and crew for two and a half hours. Sleepers, my friends. I never even knew this existed! Never noticed it on Pitt's IMDB! Hhhhh, but I digress. So I still owe him his review. Why? Because UCSF pays for the meal if you review it for the paper. So this is a weekly habit. He is busy with boards, and I was caught mid-wander around the house, and he pinned it on me. Anyway, yet here I sit, writing plentiful words here and none on my review. Also pending: my bible study hot topic notes/research/anything. I am teaching this Sunday at small group, and have the topic...in my head. So it has to somehow make it onto paper by then. My goal is today, but we all know how that goes.

I haven't been sleeping well the past few nights and couldn't figure out why. Was I cold? Was Nolan kicking me? Was Milo hogging my side? No it was probably because I have to have this stupid thing JAMMED IN MY MOUTH FOR THE REST OF ETERNITY.

According to my dentist, I am a teeth-grinder. Hence the lack of enamel on my molars. You cannot even imagine the delight Nolan has in watching me try to talk with this.

Speaking of ridiculousness, we have been looking for a bookshelf for awhile. Ahem, I mean, a free one. Haha. So yesterday I look out the window, and lo and behold, there is a free bookshelf right across the street! Sweet Providence! So I asked Nolan to help me carry it. "Sure" quietly emanates from the office bowels somewhere. 15 minutes later I remind him that someone might take it. 15 minutes after that I tell him I'll make him a tasty dinner if he gets it. All the while he keeps saying he is going to go get it "right now". 10 minutes later I look out the window, and two Jewish boys are loading it into their sedan! NO! Because I am a graceful neighbour, I didn't hang out the window and bellow at them and make gestures, but let them run off with OUR FURNITURE quietly. I'm sure you can imagine the horror-struck look on Nolan's face when I informed him of his impending doom. He then calmly suggested that we play a game of AoM to soothe my soul. Because "of course! That is a GREAT idea! Why wouldn't my wife accept a joint computer game in return for a piece of furniture she set her heart on and then promptly was disappointed by!" And because I am immature, I sat down and played with him.

Home Again

I have to say that I am not surprised to find I haven't written in a week. In my defense, our internet was down at my parents' house for most of vacation, so don't hate! Also: it was winter break and I felt like being lazy, so I did. I have tons of pictures to put in here, but seeing as how they have to be loaded onto Nolan's computer and it just arrived in the mail today, I don't have them yet. He left his laptop and Dutch citizenship papers in his parents' car last week, so his life had to be mailed back here to us in a little white box which I signed for this morning. Tomorrow he fills out the official documents and will have proof of his dual citizenship! His first act as a dutchman will be to go to Cuba next Christmas with his mom while we're all waiting for them on the beach in Mexico, plain jane limited old American citizens. Ah well.

We made out like thieves this Christmas...everything we wanted and then some! Not only did we get the wii fit (EXCELLENT!) but I also finally got a bluetooth headset so I don't have to be a poser with a walgreens wired earpiece that looks totally stupid. Speaking of stupid phones, apparently they're popular now. As if people using belts to secure their cells to their ear in lieu of a bluetooth (yes I have a friend who does this) weren't enough. Behold the "handphone":


There are only 4 of us at work today; 5 tomorrow and the rest of the week. That means it's been pretty slow. Slow enough for one to walk over to my desk, grab my bicep and say, "What's the deal, Caldwell? You look beefier." Thanks, pal, for noting my holiday weight-gain. Speaking of which...I'm off to the gym. Peace.

Proton, Electron, and Neutron.

I love my husband. I really do. Sometimes, I wonder what medical school really is doing to him. I appreciate the fact that he is insanely intelligent and is going to save the world someday, and yet...Last night he was sitting on the couch with me, and turned to me with a pleading look in his eyes, and said, "Babe, I have a serious idea about names for our kids someday." Okay, fine. Except that we haven't even decided if we are going to have kids. "Okay tell me, even though I think you're joking." No, he swears he isn't joking, and then tells me a story about how one of his professor's is named "Electron", because his parents were both scientists and professors, and named their three sons "Proton, Electron, and Neutron". No joke. I had to ask him if he was serious about this like actually serious, or like in the way he wanted to name our first son Guggenheim and now we have a Betta bearing that name (and thank goodness it was just a fish, because he calls him GuggenHYMEN for short). So now I see that this is heading in a direction I am not going to like. Furthermore, he is totally serious. "So I was thinking we should do something like that to pay tribute to science since it is something I love so much and am devoting my life to. Also, it would make me like them more." Then he suggests that one he liked was naming them after the 4 bases of DNA: Adenine, Guanine, Cytosine, and Thymine. "Firstly, we are not going to approach anywhere remotely close to the land known as 4 children, and secondly: NO." I felt completely justified for once as I looked defiantly into his crestfallen face. By the end of the night, I told him I would consider maybe middle names, so ask me again in 10 years and see how compliant I am then.

On the other hand, at least he is super easy to please. I came home from Safeway and showed him his little treat I got him: Oreo cookies 'n cream pudding. That alone merited an adoring look and an impromptu slow dance in the kitchen to Josh Groban's Christmas album.

I am eternally grateful to Scott, who gave me his code to pre-order tickets to a concert in April...for BRITNEY SPEARS! OMG! Haha, that was a semi-sarcastic squeal of joy, but also TOTALLY SERIOUS. I got the tickets at exactly 10am when the pre-sales opened and jockeyed my way to the best (cheapest) seats in the house! Section 213 facing LA BRITNEY! See:

I think we are a little bit too excited about this for married women in their 20s:
"me: I will send you an email with the confirmation and OMG I CAN'T WAIT
Sarah: Can we DRESS UP
me: YES like SKANKS
Sarah: YES. AWESOME
me: DIBS on the "oops i did it again" jumpsuit! i will buy a red onesie!!! haha jk
Sarah: Dangit! DIBS on going naked like the womanizer video!"