Entitlements

I feel like I am entitled to the following during the workday:

1. Enough time to read all my fav. blogs.
2. To not have to listen to a neighboring cube dweller argue with his girlfriend about why he cannot call her constantly because he is busy.
3. A normal tempreture in the office, I mean do the words "room temprerature" mean anything? It is always FREEZING in here!

Dunder Mifflin Infinity!!!

Here is the ad I made for Dunder Mifflin Infinity--the Office fansite/contest for this season...click on it to check out the webpage and give me points for this week's task!

I'm Baaack!

Alright I've been slack about blogging lately as per usual. Feel like I've been super busy lately, dont know with what exactly..mostly working and looking for a new job! Plus I'm trying to be on a super diet before I head to Mexico in November! Also I've been wasting time as a member of the Flint, MI branch of Dunder Mifflin Infinity (a website for those of us addicted to The Office, there are new tasks every week that coincide with the episodes on TV). Anyways you can check out my profile at:
Dunder Mifflin Infinity

Update!

Well it’s been an interesting week, things are starting to wind down at my current job as slowly operations are being moved overseas, which means of course lots of going away parties!!! I missed a big one on Wed. night because naturally I was hung over from going out on Tuesday night! Out on a Tuesday you say?? Yes, well my friend Lisa found out she got a job that day so we innocently met after I got off work for a celebratory drink which turned into several and a big night out, and of course I had a blast.
Also I’ve got a few interviews coming up next week so I should know soon what my next move will be job wise, Hint—it might include relocating again, so good thing I haven’t signed any leases in San Francisco  I think from here on out I should just assume I won’t be in any one place too long!
Also I’ve been a writing fool as of late, not on the blog of course but short stories, think I might type a couple up this weekend and stick them on the blog..so watch out for that!

Oh the Horror, Part 2!

So here’s part 2 of the post on the backpacker bars in Sydney, as I pointed out last time a blog called Gridskipper posted a list of the best bars to shag a backpacker in Sydney. I realized that I’d been to all and had an incident of some sort. I listed a few in the last post, so here are the remaining stories about 2 more bars on the list. #3 is Sidebar, which as pointed out is the hostel bar for the WakeUp! Hostel in Sydney. I stayed at the WakeUp! For like a week before I moved to Brisbane and that week included Valentines Day so yes I spent Valentines Day at the Side Bar, I ended up going with 2 of the guys who were in my room (I was staying in an 8-bed dorm). Needless to say it was a traffic light party, where you wear Green if you are single; yellow if you’re a maybe and Red if you’re taken. Simon the 18 year old Brit backpacker I was with wore a bright green kimono he’d gotten when he backpacked through Vietnam. I didn’t wear one of the corresponding colors, not that it mattered after the drink specials, bar sponsored drinking games, and occasional free shots and drinks that the bar gave everyone…bleh! Needless to say after that night Simon thought he was my boyfriend and I had to hang with him the whole week…you can’t avoid someone when they sleep in the bunk above you.
Next up we have World Bar in Kings Cross. Kings Cross was the backpacker hangout but I hated that neighborhood, so literally I only went out there once. Conor and Danielle and I and mad Mary all headed down to World Bar to meet up with some other Irish Conor knew. On the way we drank all 6 of our emergency beers (these were the beers that conor would put in the band of his pants for the bus ride/walk to whatever place we were going out at). Then Danielle and I had no telling how many vodka lemonades. Needless to say I had a good time and I met a very nice/cute Irishman who Danielle says is the cutest boy in her town and me and him hung out a few times…so all in all I would give World Bar thumbs up. The picture is of the lot of us at World Bar!!!

Oh the Horror!

So I was just perusing Gridskipper, which is kind of a guide to cities around the world but it's basically a blog from various, backpackers, travellers, etc. talking about good bars, restaurants and the like. However I was mildly horrified by this post..Entitled something to the effect of where to find a backpacker to shag in Sydney. The list is here:
http://gridskipper.com/travel/sydney/shagging-a-backpacker-in-sydney-279121.php

Of course when I read it I had in fact been to every one of those bars at least once, and have a story...I think that says something, and I really don't want to think about what exactly. I would agree with their #1 listing of Scubar...damn Scubar, damn them to hell, they had super cheap drinks and pizza. I think you could get a jug of snakebites and a pizza for $10 AUD..which is like $8. Also after that until like midnight jugs of beer would be about $5. After my very first day of work in Sydney I went and met up with this guy I met at orientation and we of course went to Scubar, at about 6pm and didn't leave until close..bleh! Also the girl that worked the bar in there was always super pissy, one time she was telling me how there were rats all over the house she shared with like 10 other backpackers..eww. Then there's 3 wise monkeys which is I think 3 or 4 on the list, there were lots of incidents there too, especially our first couple of weeks in Sydney since it was by our hostel. But the most famous incident at 3 wise monkeys was when Eric and my irish flatmate did heaps of tequila shots there, then stole the maraccas from the band and on the way home Danielle got in a fight with her boyfriend and got out of the cab on the side of the highway, and Eric got out too and they walked home..then someone broke the door off the bathroom later that night..damn you 3 wise monkeys..damn you!! Also I've seen the Lebanese bouncers there literally throw people out into the middle of the street..NICE!
This brings us finally to #2 on the list The Coogee Palace Hotel, which was down the road from my flat, so of course I frequented it. I think all I need to say about this place was that my company Christmas party was held there and it was open bar, and yes I did make out with my boss, and no I don't know if anyone saw, and yes I was embarassed everytime I had to go into his office for the next 2 months...and so be warned..if you go into any of the bars on that list..you WILL have an incident, there's no way around it!!!!!!!!! Also stay tuned for stories about the other bars on the list!!

Taxicab Confessions

I’ve had some interesting cab rides in my time for sure, but I think the one I took on Sunday just about took the cake. I went downtown to check out the gay pride festival at civic center, however when I got there and ate a hot dog, my hangover kicked in and I just said hi to everyone and decided to head home. I went down to Muni and there were sooo many people waiting and it didn’t look like any trains were coming so I decided to just catch a cab home. After waiting on the corner for a while and being forced into conversation with the toothless man holding a furniture liquidation sale sign (FYI he gets paid $70 a day cash!), a cab finally stopped and I thought it was smooth sailing from there. As soon as I got in the guy started talking non stop and then his phone rang and he started talking in Hebrew so I knew I was in trouble right there, because as I’ve learned from living with the Israelis in Australia they are always up to something. Then the guy started telling me how the night before he was driving around the Yankees in his cab and that they ride with him every time they are in town and also by the way do I know where he can buy some weed, etc. Then finally we get to my street and I tell him which driveway to pull into and he says, “Of course, I will take anywhere you want to go, even right up to your bedroom.” So I was already feeling nauseous and that just about pushed me over the edge, I got outta that cab and ran up the stairs, WITHOUT the Israeli cabbie!

Trouble!

Yesterday my best buddy Joey got a random email from his friend Eunicia who none of us have talked to for at least 3-4 years, she had basically dropped off the face of the earth. Apparently she is back in town and will be out and about for pride weekend on Saturday night. Now a little background on Eunicia, back in what is now known as the wild and wooly days her and Joey were co-workers. Every weekend she would come and stay at our house and her and Joey would go clubbing, usually at 1015, or sometimes we’d go hang out at 711 club, a little bar that was on Market St. Usually there was some crazy incident with Eunicia where she passed out somewhere or Joey got lost or some drama. The one time I went out alone with Eunicia I was in a car wreck and woke up on a sailboat, that’s just the kind of stuff that happens when you go out with Eunicia. It started out as an innocent night, we were just gonna go to the Marina and have a few drinks at this bar where Eunicia knew the doorman. Next thing you know she is telling these guys that ask if they can share our table that it’s gonna cost them Jager shots all night, surprisingly they agreed. The night gets a bit hazy after that but I do know that after the bar closed we were gonna go drink at someone’s house, on the way, the car drove up on the curb and the airbags deployed so we drove the rest of the way (which was like 2 blocks) with the danged airbags out. Turns out the house we were going to was in fact a boat, and we had a few more drinks there and I went to sleep in one of the bunks. When I woke up I just felt rocking and for a minute I forgot where I was and was afraid to open my eyes because I thought the rocking must be a sign of a BAD hangover, turns out the rocking was just because I WAS ON A BOAT IN THE OCEAN! I woke Eunicia up and we went to open the hatch, praying that we were still docked and then got the hell off that boat! So yep I’m wary of hanging with Eunicia on Sat. night, unless of course she’s calmed down, but somehow I doubt that.

The Flying Dutchman

So today I was randomly thinking every Dutch person I’ve ever met is crazy. I mean the obvious first one that jumps to mind is Soot Face my former classmate who wanted us to put soot on our faces for a presentation. But really the looney Dutchman I was thinking of in this case is Michel this guy that lived down the street from me in Brisbane; he was a friend of my landlord and used to hang out at our house a lot. One of the first times I met him he was telling me how he was a graphic designer and gave me his card—cool I said and thought nothing of it. Weeks later I saw him on his bike wearing a suit and I assumed of course that he was going to work at whatever Graphic Design place he worked at. When he was at the house later I told him I saw him riding to work and he’s like yeah I just started working at the travel gear shop up the road (this shop was like REI)..so it was odd that he was wearing a suit, whatever I thought maybe he’s the manager. Then one night I was out drinking with my landlord and the subject of Michel came up and he’s all yeah he’s so full of it, he owes me so much money and never pays me back. Then I said oh is his business not going well? Then Dylan cracks up and says, what business, Michel hasn’t had a job in years he’s been on the dole (welfare) ever since I’ve known him, he never even went to Uni. So basically Michel dresses up for a phantom job and has fake business cards..lord knows why?? Maybe to get girls? If that’s the case then good on him because it sure did work on me.

Too Much Fun!!!

Last week I was chatting to a friend about life I guess and my job situation, etc. and then she says to me, you know what your problem is and mine too?? We've had too much fun..at first I was like huh? and she says think about it, we've had lots of adventures, lived overseas, traveled heaps, etc. and so normal life is just boring. Getting up and going into the office is boring, work is boring, and yep everything just boring, compared to people who've never been anywhere or done much who can be content with the daily grind..we will never be that. So I agree perhaps I've had too much fun and perhaps I'll never be content but hell that can't all be bad, I remember the good times and I'm sure there's more to come. Meanwhile I hang out for 8 hours somewhere everyday and listen to the radio with shopping, eating and gossip breaks inbetween oh and I get paid for it so I suppose it's not all bad.

Let Go

Today I did something that was rare for me, I just plain let go of everything that was keeping me estranged from a good friend of mine, it just wasn't worth feeling that little tinge in my stomach whenever I thought of him. So I sent him an email and well it's just left up to fate now. So you know who you are :) and if you read this, I missed you, and I hate that I hadn't talked to you since I left Australia, I know that you've been going through some of the biggest stuff in your life these last months and I should have written the minute I found out, I know you would have done that for me. I miss you, and I will talk to you soon.

Anyways I know that was serious, but well it had to be said and for some reason I feel better also putting it out there in the Universe, and also when I come back and read this everytime I'll remember what it is to be a good friend, and that I haven't always been one.

MIA

Yep I've been missing as of late, no excuse much except to say that I've been lax, but dammit it's summertime, which means time for me to get my act together, because no doubt there will be many summertime antics to report..so rest assured I'll be a bloggin'

Oh Blanche

So Rue McClanahan, who is of course Blanche on everyone's favorite show about oldies, The Golden Girls has a new book called, My First Five Husbands...and the ones who got away (I'm not making it up!) which I haven't read but I will b/c well it has to be good with a title like that! Anyhow to my point..I bet the writing process for that book went something like this clip.

My Secret Crush

My secret crush which is no longer going to be secret is on Chris Carrabba from the band Dashboard Confessional. As you can see from the pic he is very cute, and also has so very many tattoos which I don't normally go for, nor do I normally go for the "rocker" type. I happened to catch him being interviewed on Fuse the other day and thought, damn he's hot, I think I've seen him in music videos before and thought so, but then forgot all about it. Needless to say I think this secret crush stems from another oh so embarassing secret crush I had at A&M. I lived in a complex of 4 dorms, 2 mens and 2 womens that we're connected by a huge common lobby which had pool tables, a food court, ping pong tables, study area, etc. Anyways there was a desk that was manned 24 hours a day in the lobby mostly to check out pool cues and ping pong balls and I'm guessing make sure no one severely vandalaised the lobby. Matt Can'trememberhislastname worked at the desk. He looked kinda like this Dashboard Confessional character and he was in fact in a rock band. I've been racking my brain the last couple of days to remember what the name of his band was but dammit I just can't recall. He was totally into the little hipster crowd at A&M (my god I can't even believe there was one). He was a senior and I was a pesky freshman when I first met him, I remember I used to go down there and chat to him, timed of course for when he was supposed to get off work so we could walk across campus to wherever he was going, then we'd part ways. I can't even remember how I first met him, if I just went up and introduced myself or what, I'm sure it's so embarassing I blocked it out since I used to sit with my friends in that lobby from about 6pm to 5am every single day and we had nothing better to do than flirt with guys or see what kind of trouble we could get into. Soon Matt and I became good enough friends that he would let me sit behind the desk with him and we'd talk about The Simpsons and my classes and his band and his girlfriend (who went to Baylor if I recall correctly)--also let me just say that what self-professed wannabe rockstar has a girlfriend that goes to Baylor!!!!!!!!!! I remember I was so disappointed he had a girlfriend, I mean after all he was perfect for me. I'm sure he thought I was just a silly little girl, and I'm almost positive that at least once he'd seen me make out in the lobby with someone after a party (he never mentioned it and neither did I). Finally after months of following him around and sitting with him in the lobby during his shifts offering to fetch him a soda or some pizza he invited me to a party! I was so excited, this was gonna be my chance, proof that he actually liked me!!! I dragged my friend Shivani with me, and of course at the party he said hi to me and we had a short chat and then he went off with his friends and ignored me the rest of the night. I was crushed, well crushed for about 2 hours, until I got back to the dorms, and Shivani and I ran into some friends who were with a new guy I didn't know, he was cute, we talked, hit it off and that's the night I met my college boyfriend that I dated for about 3 years. I didn't totally forget about Matt though, I'd still say hi when I wandered through the lobby and one night when he said it was his last shift, I sat behind the desk with him and we chatted about what he would do after school and if his band would stay together, etc. and when it was time for him to leave he gave me his namebadge, I still have it, I ran across it in a box in San Francisco a few years ago, it made me smile when I saw it, perhaps I should tell Joey to dig it out for me so I can find out what Matt's last name was and google him...let the madness begin again!!!!!!

Easter Weekend

This easter weekend was fairly uneventful compared to easter's past but all in all a good time. Friday I went to see Grindhouse which is an excellent film. I particularly liked liked the second installment DeathProof, the first one had it's moments for sure but I was more sucked into the world in Deathproof, I guess because it almost seemed as if it could really happen or something. Yesterday we had a family Easter dinner which was fairly uneventful besides the fact that my brother and cousin when they got sent to the store to buy some stuff that my aunt forgot came back with a bottle of Sailor Jerry's 92 proof spiced Navy rum, which they hid in my brother's room and kept using to spike their cokes all day. I myself stuck to a mojito and some wine my grandma brought over. Needless to say my brother came home from work and had to take a nap today..as is the case I'm sure with my cousin. I have to say that my favorite Easter is one that went totally awry. A few years ago when I was living in San Francisco, Joey, my brother and I decided to have an Easter Dinner Party at our house. Each of us were supposed to invite someone, at the time I was dating this stockbroker type guy and he hadn't met any of my friends yet and what not so I decided to invite him. Needless to say we all got into some wine before the dinner so by the time the guests started arriving I think we were all a little tipsy. Let me just begin to list some of the many things that went wrong.
1) Joey asked my date how much money he made, like 10 mintues after he got there, and when he said something non-commital like, oh enough, Joey persisted, starting naming ranges, etc. until he got an answer.
2) As we sat down to dinner my brother's friend Eddie got there and he was wearing a huge easter bonnet with all this easter grass, plastic eggs and peeps glued to it, then he proceeded to show us how the peeps were 69ing and in various other sexual positions.
3) Joey's date Julio arrived and he was already super drunk and having inappropriate conversation at the dinner table.
4) We weren't even drinking real wine, but in fact some Wild Vines, which sells for like $3 a bottle and looks like Boones, no doubt my date was discovering how classy I was. In fact I think he was horrified, he left as soon as dinner was over and I never heard from him again.
5) After dinner we retired into our "bar" where we turned on the strobe light and pretended to be in the Matrix, Julio and I re-enacted several key fight scenes :)
6) Apparently they are pictures that I've never seen, Joey is going to look for them tonight so I can post some..sure to be more horrid details I left out!

Ah the sunset..

Last Saturday night my aunt and I drove into Santa Monica along the Pacific Coast Highway to check out my uncle's girlfriend's art opening at a gallery called Arena 1. It's a pretty cool gallery, they've set it up in an old airplane hanger so it's massive and is like a maze, but lots of room to show cool stuff and plent of room for installations. Anyhow the show was good and so was the drive there, we drove through Malibu around sunset and it was of course beautiful, of course you couldn't pay me to live right on the water b/c of the traffic nighmares on PCH..but it's pretty to look. This weekend is of course Easter and tonight I'm headed out to a big dinner with my dad's side of the family..gotta try and spend lots of time with everyone before I take off!!

Grandma vs. The Sign!!!

As soon as we rounded the corner into my grandma's cul-de-sac I knew that all hell was going to break loose because there was a real estate For Sale sign in front of my grandma's house and I know that it's not for sale. Since my mom lives across the street from grandma we had a great view to the sign. My sister told me that she thought grandma didn't know it was out there since she hadn't mentioned it and sure enough when we told her she was pissed. Apparently when my grandma came home from work she came into the house from the garage so she hadn't seen the front of the house. Anyways so she said she was gonna call the company or something and that was that. A little later on last night as my mom, brother and I were headed to the store we passed grandma's and saw her kicking the sign and trying to uproot it. Of course we cracked up and my mom turned around and stopped the car, then my brother got out and helped her, she kept trying to break off the swingy part of the sign (I'm surprised she didn't end up hitting herself in the head with it) and was trying to knock the whole signpost over. She finally suceeded with my brother's help and then she threw part of the sign in the bushes..you can see the end result in the pic. Also she's planning to place several more calls on Monday to her homeowners association and the realty company and the city and lord knows who else. Poor guy who put the sign in front of the wrong house!! Give 'em hell gramms!!!!

Designing Women

I do love Designing Women and of course Julia's rants, this particular one has to be one of my all-time favs!!! Because that is the night that the lights went out in GEORGIA!

Notes from everywhere...

First of all I'm back at my mom's for a visit so it's been a busy week, I flew into LA Sunday afternoon and have been catching up with folks this week. Friday night I went to dinner with an old boss of mine at Beach Chalet which is right on the water at Ocean Beach in SF, got to see a beautiful sunset and had a yummy dinner and some good beer (they make their own). Then it was back home and Joey and I ended up having a mini-movie marathon, watched 2 great movies, including Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown which I have never seen but was just great.
Saturday we headed to this event called Beer and Bites, which was put on by the SF Brewers Guild, to taste lots of beers and have some good foods, they had lots of fancy foods like pate and oysters which I don't really like but the beer was great and we couldn't have asked for a more beautiful setting, it was at the Officers Club at Fort Mason, which is kinda fancy and has a beautiful view of the bay and Alcatraz.
I've decided I have to live close to the ocean, nothing beats a beautiful view of the sea or being able to go for a run along the beach, which is what I did yesterday with my brother, forget that I thought I'd collapse and we ran over some dunes, it was such a nice day and I love the smell of the ocean.
In random news I was hit on by a call center operator from India that I always speak to on the phone about one of my credit cards. Earlier this week I paid it off at it was at that point he's all..my real name is --- not Shane Williams as you've known me as (I knew they gave them fake names!) and then asked if he could email and said if I ever came to India we could go for a tea..it was all too much!!
Alright gotta jet, I'm staying at my grandma's which is a story in itself and she's lurking..will write more on that adventure later.

My Obsessions

So occasionally I get obsessed with things, then spend hours on the internet researching, reading or looking into said obsession. Then oddly enough one day it'll pass, I forget all about it and am onto something else..weird how the mind works, so recent obsessions...

Gawker- this website reports on New York Media, etc. not really a particular interest of mine but every time I go to the site I discover something new to look into or about a legal battle involving people I've never heard of but is some sort of magazine/newspaper saga that is interesting to read about. Plus I find out about weird magazines that I've never heard of or get to read about rich entitled white folks, which can be entertaining. Anyhow my two favorite features in Gawker are undoubtedly Altarcations (which scores the couples featured in Sunday's New York Times who got married last week, inevitably deciding which couple are probably the biggest jerks) and Unethicist (which answers the same questions as the New York Times Ethicist column, but of course with better answers).

Luxury Real Estate- I don't know why it fascinates me so but I could look at houses I can't or probably won't ever afford in exotic locales all day long! It all started when I checked out the International Herald Tribune's Raising the Roof Blog, about international real estate. Then I moved onto checking out various properties listed LuxuryRealEstate.com. Mostly I look at apartments in Manhattan that I can't afford but they've got homes in cities all over the world to look at, seriously last week I think I spent a few hours a day everyday checking out this site.

Also there are the old standbys, Go Fug Yourself ( wonderful commentaries on celebrity fashions) and The Onion (although I've been more obsessed with the print edition than the online one lately b/c the print edition has great weekly event listings and what not)

Okay gotta go find the next internet obsession, happy surfing everyone! Also Aggies take on Memphis tonight..go Ags!!!

Notes on the weekend

I ended up watching lots of NCAA basketball this weekend which was nice, had a couple beers and watched some games with my dad on Friday night and basically took it easy since I knew Saturday was gonna be a big day. Since it was St. Patrick's Day we headed to the festival they had at Civic Center, so we drank some beer and listened to some Irish bands all afternoon, mostly drank beer though. Then headed over to an Irish bar in the Haight where there were lots of drunk people causing a commotion. I had a few guiness there and a sake shot oddly enough that the bartender gave us for free. When we left there we headed back towards the Castro and about one beer in there it was time for me to go home, didn't even finish my beer, just hightailed it home to go to bed. Sunday I headed over to the Deyoung museum in Golden Gate Park to see an exhibit they are having on Vivienne Westwood. It was really good, plus their permanent collection has some really great American paintings all the way from colonial times to modern art, so it's always nice to browse through there. Later in the day I was headed to meet Joey for a movie and the train I was on abrubtly stopped, and we were told to exit the train it was going out of service. Unfortunately it turned out that someone jumped from a wall in front of the train, it was really eerie. Thank goodness we were told not to look in a certain direction when exiting the train if we did not want to see the body..I wasn't even curious to look I'm sure I would have had nightmares. The whole incident was really upsetting and I feel for the driver of the train he seemed really shook up. So I ended up walking the rest of the way to meet Joey and we made it to the movies. I saw The Namesake, which was a really great film, as it was a great book..worth a look. So now I'm wrapping up my last week in San Francisco trying to think about what I want to make sure and do before I leave the city!!

I Miss you..

Claire!! The next in the series of I miss is of course Claire, my Aussie partner in crime. I miss our forays to the McDonald's drive-thru in Kangaroo Point, trips to the Southbank Cinema for a rainbow ice and a movie, even Tuesday night ladies nights at the Down Under Bar which you know I complained about but I usually ended up having an alright time at the DUB and well you can't beat the meal deal. I also miss wandering to your house after I got off work at Fosters, our gossiping and constant theories about things, I miss your car always being on the fritz, never knowing if we'd make it home in time to see the O.C. and get pizza!!! I miss internet days in the computer lab, constant procrastination, web of lies, waking up to find a crazy shit text from you (although I do love that even though you are in Japan we can still exchange crazy shit texts that leave more questions than answers). I also miss exchanging magazines, chugging UDL's in the car, and our Sunday dinners at RG. I'm glad you're going bogan watching in Thailand, because well it must be done, can't wait until we catch up again, know it will be soon!

Le Weekend

It was a busy weekend, went to see a couple movies and well managed to spend all day Saturday at the bar...so quite the weekend! Saturday morning my dad and I had tickets to see 300at the IMAX. It was a madhouse over there too, as soon as they let people in everyone started running, I thought I was gonna get trampled for a minute..hell people there are like 500 seats in the IMAX it's not like you won't get one!! Then after the movie I went to meet some friends over at Zeitgeist for lunch and a beer in their back beer garden. Needless to say after a marathon Uno game, which I won by the way, we ended up staying there until it was dark..bad news..but I had a good time. Then Sunday dad and I headed off to see The Host (why all these movies with dad you ask? well my stepmom and sister went outta town this past weekend so it was just me and pops). Then after that it was just grocery shopping and the usual Sunday activities and to bed early for me, I was so tired after the Saturday festivities.

The Must List

Every week Entertainment Weekly does their must list, of things you shouldn't miss, last week on March 9, the must book was Love and Rockets, my uncle's comic book! Congrats guys on 25 years!

BOOK
9. LOVE & ROCKETS
You can find punk rock and magic realism in the groundbreaking comics of Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez. Fantagraphics honors their 25 years in the biz with a series of reissues.

Notes from everywhere..

So note #1 is that I've just got 2 weeks left in San Francisco and then I'm headed back down to Southern California for about a week before I head overseas again so things are getting kinda hectic around these parts.

Note #2 this weekend is the Big 12 Championship tourney and of course A&M is in it..go Ags..we've got a really good team this year and I'm glad I'll at least be able to see the beginning of the NCAA tournament in the coming weeks before I leave.

Note #3/Rant Why are the freakin' Thursday shows a re-run??? It's been like a month since the last new Ugly Betty--What gives????

Note #4 It's nearly the weekend, thank goodness, tomorrow my dad and I are going to see the 300 at the IMAX--I bet it's gonna be loud and tonight perhaps some happy hour/game watching festivities will occur.

Have a good weekend everyone!

I miss you...

Valerio!! (you are the next contestant in the I miss you series). The reason I put explanation points after Valerio's name is that he would always shout it..Vaaalllerriooo he'd shout a few times a day just because! Also due to an ex-girlfriend obsessed with yoga Valerio could bend every which way (as pictured) and would so often, mostly when drunk. There are so many Valerio stories but one of my all time favs is when he made some weed tea and drank it..crazy Italian! Also Valerio loved to drink wine and play Risk, he was a pretty good player too, gotta give him props, especially since he didn't speak much english. Nonetheless he was one of the most warm and funny people I've ever met, one day soon I'll finally make it to Milan Valerio for a visit, I wish you the best of luck in your quest to marry a pharmacist's daughter, so you will have a job for life at a little Italian pharmacy, maybe you can dole out the pills with your toes :)

The Pincess and the earplugs...

Since I've had lots and lots of flatmates the last few years I have grown accustomed to sleeping with an eyemask and earplugs. This puts me in my own little sleep world and I can literally tune the whole world out. Anyways I always wake up and my earplugs will have fallen outta my ears, no doubt due to constant tossing and turning. I always seem to find them though somewhere on the pillow or mixed up in the blankets, they've never gone totally missing before, until the other night. I searched and searched for those suckers, taking all the blankets off the bed, picking up the pillows, looking on the floor, I just couldn't find them anywhere. So I got a new pair out last night before I went to bed (because you know I have a whole bag of those suckers, can't be without my earplugs!). As I lay my head down on the pillow I noticed something was off, I couldn't tell what but I just could not get comfortable and then lo and behold, I noticed there was an errant earplug inside my pillowcase!!! I mean honestly that's some crazy tossing and turning when the earplug came plumb outta my ear and all the way into my damn pillowcase, no wonder I always wake up with my blankets twisted every which way!

I miss...

I just thought you know maybe I could do an I miss series, since I did wish Colin a Happy Birthday the other day and say I missed him, there are other people who I do miss and who I apparently have not mentioned on the blog. So in order to correct this egregious error..I miss you Nigel..we were flatmates on Moray street and I remember when I first moved in you'd always share your beer with me! Then we became best friends when I told you that'd you'd be my best friend if you downloaded the Powderfinger CD for me and bless your heart you looked for it for weeks and finally were able to download it for me. Then there was the totally broke period of time when me, you and Wazza had no money to our names and spent nearly every weekend splitting a bag of goon and watching TV. Finally the financial situation perked up slightly and we were able to start splitting a whole carton of beer..imagine that! I miss the times spent just sitting in your living room or on your balcony chillin', whineging, drinking beer, watching TV or eating a kebab. I also miss the Friday night trips to the Vic and the State of Origin parties..and of course thanks for coming on the Citycat pub crawl..which of course only ended up having 2 stops since we ended up staying at the Mertyr Bowls Club (pictured above). You know perhaps one day we will buy that caravan, live off the dole and drive around Australia..it's never too late!

Gay Friday, Blackout Saturday, and Oscar Sunday

This weekend was very eventful! I didn't really have plans for Friday night but Joey and I ended up going shopping and then headed over to the martini bar in the Metreon for a drink. Turns out that Friday must be the night all the straight women go out with their male gay best friends because just about everyone in there was a gay man and a girl, having a martini and gossiping and most people had shopping bags, so I guess Joey and I were just the cliche girl and gay out for our Friday gossipfest/martini. I was so tired Friday though, we didn't stay out long, I was in bed by about 10:30pm.
Saturday there was a beer bust, which is always trouble. Basically it's $10 all you can drink beer from 3-7pm. We ended up having a pretty good size group with some new friends of friends added into the mix. At one point when we ordered a whole bunch of jello shots, this girl made the toast and said, here's to blackout Saturdays!! Apparently when some of them were in school together at Tufts, blackout Saturdays were a regular occasion. Anyways due to the practically free beer and cheap jello shots it did indeed end up being blackout Saturday, luckily we only went to one bar after the beer bust and I did manage to get home sometime around 11pm (so I'm told).
Then there was Oscar Sunday which was fun, I enjoyed watching the red carpet show and Joey had lots of good nibbles and Sangria for his party, I ate way too much food but it was fun, even though the show seemed to drag on forever. Now it's Monday and I'm back and work..bleh, but I feel like I crammed lots into the weekend so can't really complain!

Relaxed tropical ambience...

An acquaintance of mine is headed to Australia shortly and asked for some suggestions on the best ways to see the Great Barrier Reef. While I was suggesting places to go I thought I'd include a couple of websites so he could further investigate, find hotels, etc. One such website had a mention of Airlie Beach which is the launching off point for some sailing tours of the reef. Anyhow I found the description of Airlie to be somewhat misleading.
The description is as follows:
Airlie Beach is the gateway to the Whitsundays, a colourful, cosmopolitan and inviting holiday town lying on the shores of a palm fringed beach and overlooking the calm waters of Pioneer Bay dotted with yachts.
As you drive into Airlie Beach through the neighbouring community of Cannonvale the road climbs above Abel Point Marina, providing expansive views of the indented coastline, the aquamarine sea and the shapes of distant islands on the horizon. You can't avoid the holiday feeling that scene evokes, nor the relaxed tropical ambiance as you wander around the village streets and down to the vast lagoon. (From Whitsundays Tourism website)

Now the part in red is the part that I take issue with, yes Airlie Beach is located in an idyllic setting, yes the water and lagoon is beautiful and yes the weather is always warm and yes it's right next to the reef, however this does not make for a "relaxed tropical ambiance" as you wander through the village streets. Unless by relaxed tropical ambiance you mean men running through the streets (in the early afternoon mind you) with blow up dolls, seeing girls throwing up outside restaurants, the recruiters for wet t-shirt contests wandering the streets, or at 9am lots and lots of drunk yachties and other sailboat workers sitting at the outside bars causing a ruckus(I mean granted they are only on shore like 1-2 days a week so they need to get their drinking in). Also I'm sure I myself even detracted from the relaxed tropical ambiance a time or two and I'm not saying I didn't have a blast in Airlie Beach, I'm merely saying that if you are up for a relaxing vacation spot with no hassles and peace and quiet, Airlie Beach ain't it! In fact it rather reminds me of the island of Tortuga in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, although instead of pirates running amok, it's backpackers.

Weekend Antics

It was a 3-day weekend so plenty of time to do plenty of stuff. The weather was so beautiful this weekend so outdoor activities were abound. Saturday we went to the beer garden at Zeitgeist and played some Uno and drank some beer, always a fun activity. Then my aunt came into town so we went and hung out at the Palace of Fine Arts for a bit then grabbed some dinner. Sunday we made a little movie, which is silly and after my aunt edits it will hopefully be up on YouTube, will keep everyone posted on that! Also I went and saw Children of Men which was a really good movie, somewhat depressing but definitely worth a look and I do love Clive Owen, who was great in the film. Yesterday was kind of a relaxing day, just went shopping most of the day and then had a chill evening, I needed to decompress. Can't wait until this weekend, beer bust on Sat. and then Oscar party on Sunday..good times to be had by all!!!

Happy 21st Birthday Colin!

Just a shout out to my good Aussie buddy Colin who turned 21 this past weekend. I'm sorry that I missed the party, looked like a big night out. Looked like fun since everyone dressed up as cops and Indians :)

Sometimes..

you see a piece of weave lying on the sidewalk and wonder where it came from, did it simply fall out of someone's head or was there a fight and it got ripped out or did the glue just stop working? Who can say really, anyways Silvio now has a blog dedicated to the random weaves spotted on the sidewalks or in the streets, I added the link to my blog, check it out.
http://randomweaves.blogspot.com/index.html

And also, lest I forget..

Myspace Comments

What might have been..

So I was thinking the other day, you know how people always ask you where do you think you'll be in 10 years? Which I do think is an annoying question, right up there with why don't you have a boyfriend? and when are you going to give up on this job of yours and settle down close to home? (Both of which are frequently asked questions by certain members of my family who shall remain nameless!)
Anyhow if you'd have asked me where I wanted to be in 10 years at 18..I certainly wouldn't have guessed I'd be where I am now, or where I'd been or all the things I've done in the past 10 years, I suppose overall I'm happy with how things have gone, but you know me always wanting something other than what I've got..so here's to the next 10 years of totally unexpected experiences!

Lazy Days

So yep I'm lazy, here it is Wednesday and I'm barely getting around to blogging about my weekend in Houston. There were extenuating circumstances though, my stepmom's family has been in town and staying at the house and my little sister has had the flu so it's been chaotic. Anyways enough excuses and onto the weekend update!
All in all the weekend was a good time, I wasn't too hungover on the plane ride home, although I was covered in cat hair since Rudy has 3 cats in her house. It was ironic that I looked like a cat lady on the plane, being that I hate cats.
Friday night we went out in Rice Village and went out for dinner and grabbed a few drinks. Sautrday during the day we didn't do too much, aside from a trip to Sonic and then to the grocery store to pick up some Luzianne iced tea to bring back to Joey. It was the oddest thing though, they had a one man band playing in the supermarket, he was all set up with his keyboard at the front singing Frank Sinatra songs. Bridget suggested we just drink at the store it being a festive atmosphere and all. Then Saturday night we went out downtown which was a good time. We enjoyed Dean's Credit Clothing with it's smelly vintage clothes that you could try on while getting drunk and also had a good time at Live which was fairly deserted, but the MC Boss was trying to mix it up, plus you can't beat out of control Asian break dancers. Then Sunday we kept it low key, a run to Whataburger, where they got the order totally wrong and then we just chilled at Rudy's place until it was time to head to the airport. Oh and also we were watching this movie on TV called Night Train to Venice, which is the weirdest, make no sense movie I've ever seen, we were so confused the whole time. I promised I was gonna try to look it up on the internet and figure out what the plot was because one thing is for sure you can't tell by watching the movie! Click on the link for the supposed plot summary, which still to me makes no sense.

The Weekend Update

So it's been another busy weekend, Friday night we hit up happy hour and then went to a house party, which was really fun. The police showed up about 10:30pm for no reason but after that it was smooth sailing or drinking as the case may be. A fun time was had by all. Needless to say I slept in on Saturday then had to get it together for a concert Saturday night. I went to Berkeley to see Keane, it was a great concert, the sound was awesome and the lead singer's voice was in top form. Then we hit up Jupiter's a brewery/bar in downtown Berkeley which has a great outdoor patio area, unfortunately we didn't get to stick around long b/c we had to get the last train but definitely have to keep that place in mind for a hot day. Then yesterday Joey and I headed out to see Pan's Labyrinth, it was such a good movie, and I usually don't like fantasy-type movies but this one was done really well, totally worth a look. It's gonna be a busy week, and I head out to Houston on Friday to see my girls, can't wait!

Australia Day

Happy Australia Day to all my Aussie friends, wish I was still in oz havin' a VB or 12 and a barbie with you this arvo in the hot sun!

The Death of the all-nighter

Reading this story from The Onion took me back to the days of the all-nighter:

Too Much Expected From Nap

NASHVILLE, TN—Vanderbilt University sophomore Derek Sellars drastically overestimated the mental clarity, physical replenishment, and...

The all-nighter was worse for me in grad school than it was in undergrad, I think it was because I had more massive, long papers to write instead of exams and also I think I've gotten worse about procrastinating. I mean the procrastination reached epic levels. My best buddy Claire and I seemed to make each other worse when it came to that, we'd purposely plan to not sleep for like 2 days before a paper was due because we knew neither one of us would be done. It's not as if I didn't work on the paper before then, I did, I'd come to the computer lab every night for 2 weeks, and there we'd sit, surfing the net, taking hour long vending machine/smoke breaks, leaving to go have a beer, socializing with everyone in the graduate school lab, the distractions never ended. During our last semester it got WAY worse. Claire and Nico had a group project to finish and realized wait a minute it just has to be turned in by the end of class, so really now there was 3 hours of class time available to procrastinate. Nico took it to a new level when he told a professor his laptop had crapped out on him and he needed a 24-hour extension and then when I asked him about it he's like yeah I hadn't even started it yet. So there was now another day to waste. Actually extensions just made it worse b/c then the torture was extended another day, whereas if you were forced to stay up for 2 days and just turn it in then it was over. So here's to no more all nighters for the purpose of turning in a business analysis that is composed of total b.s. written over 48 hours with only short naps in between!!

It's Official

I finally got my diploma! My graduation was October 3, 2006 but somehow my diploma managed to get lost and it was finally tracked down by my university last week and yesterday it finally arrived in the mail!!! Anyways so now I guess it really is real, I do in fact have my master degree, yeah!
In other news I've been messing with adding little elements to my blog like headlines from the news and what not, I haven't figured out how to do it up super fancy yet but I'm working on, so the blog is currently a bit of a work in progress.

Loooong weekend

When I say it was a long weekend I don't mean just that it was 3 days, I mean that I was busy. Saturday we went to the races at Golden Gate Fields for dollar days. That meant dollar beers which was nothing but trouble. Mostly because it was daytime drinking which always goes awry. I had a good time though and managed to not be hungover on Sunday, which could only mean one thing, going out for some more beers on Sunday afternoon. First we went to see Notes on a Scandal with Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett, it was really good, Cate was a shady lady and Judi was pretty evil, but it was very entertaining. Anyhow after Joseph Anthony and I left the theater we stopped for a slice of pizza, which incidentally ended up being the only thing I ate all day. Then we headed over to have a beer at Badlands, $1.50 long necks were on special until 8pm, incidentally we got there around 3:30pm maybe and were there until well after the special ended..no more Sunday beer sessions allowed!!! We should have known to leave when the music videos starting repeating. Then yesterday I pretty much stayed at home all day, except for a trip to the grocery store. I finally finished reading a book I got for Christmas, Acts of Faith it's a good book about the Sudan war, and the best intentions of some foreigners to help and make some money at the same time, it's a long book but worth the read. Also I watched a couple of episodes of Big Love, the HBO show about a man with three wives, it's really good, I'm about halfway through the first season and the tension is building. Watching the show is exhausting at times, it's too much stress they dynamic between all the women, not to mention other household problems, but it's my new favorite show at the moment. Well it's almost lunch time, halfway through the day, I can't wait to get home and get some sleep!

That don't mean...

Being back at UCSF, there’s always lots of gossip going around about this person or that person or who’s left their job and who’s new. So earlier today Shirley went to another department and was talking to everyone that worked over there and there is this one lady that works over there that never says hi to her , and that’s one of her pet peeves—people that don’t speak. Anyways so I told her well I heard that lady was Swedish (and I was gonna say so maybe she doesn’t realize she’s being unfriendly) but before I finished I was cut off by the comment…well that doesn’t mean she has to be an ass. Then Shirley says just because people are going through changes or socially retarded doesn’t’ mean they have to be an ass..I totally agree!