Adriane's Adventures

I love this record baby..

2008-07-15T18:51:00.001-07:00

Did anyone else see Lady GaGa perform at the Miss Universe pagent?? It was some crazy shit, her dancers were freaking me out, but the performance was great.
Also I loved the costume portion of the contest, you absolutely can't beat Miss Albania dressed as a vampire and Miss Dominican Republic dressed as a slutty baseball player..classic!

By the time you get to the monkeys you are plastered..

2008-07-13T12:26:00.000-07:00

This is what one of my co-workers told me Friday about the Wild in the Zoo fundraiser event that is held every year at Oakland Zoo. One night to support the zoo local restaurants and bars set up booths all over the zoo for wine and beer tastings and yummy apetizers, but since it's lots of free booze naturally everyone ends up shitfaced. I'd totally forgotten about this event, but alas 4 or 5 years ago I had gone to it. My friend Carlos worked in public relations for the zoo and got a few of us in free. Rest assured we had lots to drink and nothing to eat. The best part of the night was watching this lady who was probably in her late 50s take a spill and knock over a camera display..the resulting chaos was priceless. Also in case you were wondering..I don't even remember making it as far as the monkeys.

Cool Graffiti

2008-07-05T15:08:00.000-07:00

Some great graffitti spotted in Barcelona

Somebody in Kansas City..

2008-07-05T14:42:00.001-07:00

I'm really digging the new song Kansas City by Sneaky Sound System...been playing it on a loop for days..makes me more productive at work I'd say. You can check it out at their myspace page. Sneaky Sound System

Let Freedom Ring!

2008-07-04T10:27:00.001-07:00

Happy 4th of July everyone! I for one plan on sitting in the park most of the afternoon drinking beer and carrying on until finally the real fireworks start! Although currently all the fog might stop the fun!
Of course yesterday the weather was beautiful. I went to see the Giants fend off the Cubs in the afternoon, got a nice tan, and had lots of ballpark food, a fine way to start off 4th of July weekend.

A Whole New World!

2008-07-01T20:48:00.001-07:00

First of all I finally have my very own laptop..I know it's about time that I got with the program. Anyways now I am no longer restricted to just using the computer at work which made it hard for me to blog..because bleh people are always watching, or calling or wanting me to do stuff.
Secondly I can now do a blog post directly from my igoogle homepage so as soon as I launch my browser I can just jot down a few lines, no signing into blogger.com and going through all the motions..so in theory I'll be blogging lots more..although shit lets be honest...sometimes I just get lazy.

Barcelona!

2008-06-07T09:39:00.001-07:00

I was recently in Barcelona for a few weeks hanging out and it's a great city, one of my favourite in the world. It has all of my main requiremens for a great city.
1. Sunny Weather
2. Awesome transportation system
3. Nice Beaches
4. Great Nightlife

Here's one of my favourite pictures from the trip. Think it pretty sums up my time there. That's of course Conor and Danielle my flatmates from Sydney, they came over from Ireland to celebrate my birthday, drink some and create havok, we succeeded on all counts!

Entitlements

2007-11-06T16:18:00.000-08:00

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!!!

2007-10-26T16:25:00.000-07:00

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!

2007-10-24T17:19:00.000-07:00

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!

2007-08-17T16:37:00.000-07:00

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!

2007-07-17T10:32:00.000-07:00

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!

2007-07-17T09:59:00.000-07:00

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

2007-06-27T09:28:00.000-07:00

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!

2007-06-21T11:04:00.001-07:00

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

2007-06-20T10:42:00.001-07:00

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!!!

2007-06-19T20:48:00.000-07:00

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

2007-05-25T22:16:00.000-07:00

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

2007-05-23T21:44:00.000-07:00

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

2007-04-21T09:43:00.001-07:00

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

2007-04-12T10:40:00.000-07:00

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

2007-04-09T16:37:00.000-07:00

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..

2007-04-05T13:38:00.000-07:00

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!!!

2007-03-31T12:43:00.000-07:00

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

2007-03-30T18:12:00.001-07:00

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...

2007-03-30T09:29:00.000-07:00

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

2007-03-22T13:58:00.000-07:00

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

2007-03-19T14:45:00.000-07:00

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..

2007-03-13T14:10:00.000-07:00

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

2007-03-13T14:01:00.000-07:00

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

2007-03-13T09:45:00.000-07:00

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..

2007-03-09T09:07:00.000-08:00

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...

2007-03-02T16:31:00.000-08:00

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...

2007-03-02T16:11:00.000-08:00

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...

2007-02-27T14:54:00.000-08:00

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

2007-02-26T10:48:00.000-08:00

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...

2007-02-21T14:00:00.000-08:00

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

2007-02-20T13:27:00.000-08:00

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!

2007-02-20T13:15:00.000-08:00

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..

2007-02-15T14:44:00.000-08:00

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..

2007-02-14T13:40:00.000-08:00

Myspace Comments

What might have been..

2007-02-14T13:20:00.000-08:00

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

2007-02-07T11:46:00.000-08:00

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

2007-01-29T09:57:00.000-08:00

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

2007-01-25T14:29:00.000-08:00

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

2007-01-25T10:49:00.000-08:00

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

2007-01-23T16:09:00.000-08:00

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

2007-01-16T11:36:00.000-08:00

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...

2007-01-10T09:13:00.000-08:00

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!

The New Year

2006-12-30T22:36:00.000-08:00

Courtesy of Death Cab for Cutie....
So this is the new year and I don't feel any different
The clanking of crystal and explosions off in the distance
So this is the new year and I have no resolutions
It's self-assigned penance for problems with easy solutions
So everybody put your best suit or dress on
Let's make believe that we are wealthy for just this once
Lighting firecrackers off on the front lawn
As 30 dialogues bleed into one
I wish the world was flat like the old days
So I could travel just by folding the map
No more airplanes or speed-trains or freeways
There'd be no distance that could hold us back

Hey everyone--Happy 2007--best wishes for the new year!!!

Merry Christmas one and all!

2006-12-22T14:20:00.000-08:00

Here's wishing you and yours a Merry Christmas. Let's hope all of us have been good little boys and girls this year, no one wants to wake up Christmas morning to find a lump of coal in their stocking.

I'm headed down to Southern California for the holiday and then back up to San Francisco for Joey's Rockin' New Years Eve party, not to be confused with Dick Clark's Rockin New years Eve, as there will be no ball dropping at midnight, there may however be a girl down!

Everyone have a very merry one and a happy new year!

Join the Revolution

2006-12-22T12:09:00.000-08:00

Alright folks I've finally gotten on Myspace, mainly I was just too lazy before to get it together but finally it's done, so check out my profile at:

http://www.myspace.com/travelingdre

Also if any of you are on there add me as a friend..I a few!

Chile Bound

2006-12-20T10:45:00.000-08:00

Since I'm meant to move to Chile in the next few months lots of people have been suggesting some great reading material for me to check out before I leave. The first thing I'm gonna be checking out is a trilogy by Eduardo Galeano called Memory of Fire, which is a history of Latin America starting from the around the 15th century and going through the mid-1980's. I reckon that will pretty much get me up to speed on my history lessons for the region. While looking for these books I saw that Galeano had a recent book called Voices of Time, it's written as small vignettes, very beautiful ones at that, anyways here's one of them..

The Voyage
Oriol Vall, who works with newborns at a hospital in Barcelona, says that the first human gesture is the embrace. After coming into the world, at the beginning of their days, babies wave their arms as if seeking someone.

Other doctors, who work with people who have already lived their lives, say that the aged, at the end of their days, die trying to raise their arms.

And that's it, that's all, no matter how hard we strive or how many words we pile on. Everything comes down to this: between two flutterings, with no more explanation, the voyage occurs.

The Christmas Spirit

2006-12-14T16:47:00.000-08:00

So I officially got into the Christmas spirit the other night when I went to my little sister's Christmas Choir concert. She's in the San Francisco Girl's Chorus and they put on a great show at Davies Symphony Hall. Since I didn't know until pretty much the last minute that I'd even be able to go I ended up sitting way up on the second tier by myself, but at least I had binoculars. I thought I'd be like in the movies where I could scan the crowd with my binoculars the whole time the show was one, spying on people. Anyhow it was too dark in there for all that and eventually I just got a headache from all that scanning...guess that's what I get for being nosy.

Back Jack

2006-12-12T14:06:00.000-08:00

I'm back in San Francisco for a couple of months and have been enjoying it so far, even though it's currently raining which makes me miss sunny Australia it's been nice to catch up with friends and family here and check up on all my old haunts. Everything is so manic here because of the holidays--Christmas parties, concerts, etc. have been taking up my time so I've just resigned myself to the fact that I won't get a good night's sleep until after New Years..something to look forward to indeed!

Young and Restless

2006-11-26T11:03:00.000-08:00

So apparently I'm not alone in wanting to wander, there was an interesting article in today's paper about the 25-34 age group and what big cities are doing to attract us to live there b/c apparently our demographic is very mobile and willing to move to places that have the characteristics that we want, and what are those characteristics you ask?
"They are people who, demographers say, are likely to choose a location before finding a job. They like downtown living, public transportation and plenty of entertainment options. They view diversity and tolerance as marks of sophistication."

The article goes onto to state that we as an age group are, "Mobile but not flighty, fresh but technologically savvy, "the young and restless," as demographers call them, are at their most desirable age, particularly because their chances of relocating drop precipitously when they turn 35."

I actually totally agree with this article, it's pretty much how I feel, I would rather choose a location where I want to live and then find a job and I do value those characteristics in a city, not to mention I'm hoping that my proclivity to move will lessen by the time I'm 35...perhaps by that time I'll have been attracted by one of the cities that are trying to "lure" our age group there..which are namely..Atlanta, Denver, San Francisco, Charlotte, Portland and Austin..anyways very interesting article, something to ponder..you can read the whole thing at

Cities compete for Young, Restless

It's gonna be a doozy...

2006-11-23T08:58:00.000-08:00

It's not yet 9am here at Thanksgiving central and already everyone who's walked through the door has been steadily complaining...are you gonna put glaze on the ham? I don't like alot of glaze, did anyone buy ice cream to have with the pies?, why did you arrange the table like that? etc. Also my mom's already made the statement, if anyone else says anything to me I'm gonna just chew 'em out. So looks set to be an interesting Thanksgiving..I think there is something to my personal rule of only being home every other holiday.

Thanksgiving!

2006-11-22T11:19:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and I thought it a great time to list some of the things I'm thankful for, even though I've had some delays and setbacks with my job lately I'm confident that everything will work out how it should, it always does even if I don't always see it that way at first. Anyways because of that I'm able to spend Thanksgiving and Christmas with my family so for that I'm very thankful.
Also I'm thankful to my friends who always crack me up and have provided me with many happy memories.
Finally I'm thankful that I've been able to complete my masters degree and that I was able to spend 2 wonderful years in Australia, that's two things crossed off my life list (1. get a masters and 2. Live overseas for at least a year), not that it's just about checking things off the list but I made the list so I could remember the things I"ve dreamed of doing and go after them..so onto the rest of the list!

Side Note: My grandma was an avid watcher of Dancing with the Stars and last night while we were cooking dinner she was complaining about the fact that Mario Lopez didn't win b/c she thinks he's so cute and was a good dancer. Anyways then she goes on a tangent about how Mario does not have a girlfriend and she thinks that he's just not ready to settle down, etc. cracked me up how she had Mario's romantic life figured out, better she's worrying about his than mine I say.

Old Folk

2006-11-19T12:05:00.000-08:00

Hanging around with my grandmothers lately has brought about so many mysteries in my mind, such as why do they always try to give me their clothes?
My grandmothers are 72 and 77 and yet they both seem to be convinced that I would enjoy wearing clothes that they themselves do not want!!!! They also seem to think that I want clothes right off their backs. If I ever compliment one of my grandma's on her clothes she tries to give them to me, I don't want them!! I said they look nice on you..you who are 72 and while you do in fact look nice in them they're just not my style. Last week my grandma tried to give me her winter coat, a very nice gesture indeed and it was a nice coat for grandma but not for me, I'm always trying to think of nice ways to say that I don't want the clothes but alas I've decided the firm way is best--I won't ever wear that seems to rebuff along with the statement, it looks fabulous on you though.

Sometimes...

2006-11-13T14:17:00.000-08:00

when I wake up in the middle of the night I still think that I'm in my room in Brisbane, it's the weirdest thing I'll reach for the side of my bed where I always kept my cell phone then realize that I'm not there anymore. Also sometimes when I first wake up when I'm gathering my thoughts and thinking about what I'll do that day I sometimes think I'll go to places that are in Brisbane, then I'll quickly realize wait a minute, not there anymore. So very strange how a place can stay with you.

Lifetime Scores Again!

2006-11-08T11:51:00.000-08:00

The Party Never Stops: Diary of a Binge Drinker will premiere in March on Lifetime.
The movie centers on a bright and ambitious college freshman (Paxton) who falls into the world of nonstop partying and binge drinking, leading to devastating results. (www.movieweb.com)

My first question is was someone following me and my friends around at Texas A&M circa 1996-2001?? I'm glad they are making a movie about this, it should be highly entertaining and as Lifetime always does, teach us a valuable lesson!!
I could probably go on all day about the lessons I learned or didn't learn but should have, but mainly I think we must look at the dates I listed. Most of you are probably thinking, isn't college only supposed to take 4 years? Why yes dear readers that's how it normally works but then sometimes you fail your first semester in college miserably putting you on scholastic probation and not giving you credits for some of the classes you took, causing you to repeat classes and take others that someone told you were easy for the sheer fact of bringing up your grades enough to stay in school. But as always I pressed on, was able to stay on past my freshman year and then binge drink for 4 more..just thinking about it is giving me a hangover.

I love that story!

2006-11-06T08:41:00.000-08:00

My old flatmate and good friend D. McG, aka Danielle just sent me an awesome e-mail this morning, While we were living together in Australia she would sometimes bring up that she has always wanted to be a lawyer, that it was interesting to her, etc. but she didn't score high enough marks to study law at college so she got a degree in social sciences (or something related) instead. Also she had a full scholarship waiting for her to get her masters in social sciences when she got back to Ireland, so the law thing, just basically never gonna happen, but it kept nagging at her. Anyways she went back to Ireland and did her masters and got her degree in August and has started working, law dream over completely, right? Not so..my girl came through and this morning I got this e-mail from her..

Hey missus...ur gona b so proud of me...remember that drunken meltdown in Brisbane about wanting to study law? Well im starting law school (at nite) this week! I cud never get wat u said to me out of my head....'if you're happy knowing that ull NEVER be a lawyer, then move on...if not, do something about it'!!
So mad props to DMcG today, you did it! So glad you took that step and now you know at least know you gave law a go!

Some good quotes..

2006-11-01T22:50:00.000-08:00

The first of our good quotes is from a Lifetime TV movie I was watching earlier tonight, called The House Next Door which was of course about an evil house. Basically everyone that lived there turned evil or died...for example in one of the families that moved in the husband turned super psycho on his wife for doing things like not putting the spices in alphabetical order..but at first you didn't know what was wrong just that he had shoved open a drawer and had his wife by the hair or something and he's putting her hand in the drawer and he says..all sing-songy..
"What is wrong with this picture,
now tell me sister!!"
Now I fully maintain that if anyone ever threatens you in a rhyme they are beyond normal crazy and are totally psycho and you should freakin' get away from them ASAP and never look back!! Of course the wife stayed and later in the movie he got all crazy and threw her on the ground and pointed a gun at her because she put lettuce or something in the refrigerator crisper and he was saying that she was trying to poison him. Needless to say a scuffle ensued in which she captured the gun, pointed it at him and then said all sing songy..
"What is wrong with this picture,
now tell me mister!!"
Then she shot him like 12 times. Oh and also earlier in the movie he got mad at her because she got the invitations to their house warming party printed regularly instead of embossed..so naturally what with the spices incident and invitations and what not..I was thinking..is the husband gay or something?? But anyways I digress..here is another good quote for today, albeit a more serious one..

"Breathe. Let Go. And remind yourself that this very moment is the only one you know you have for sure."
-Oprah Winfrey

Dressing Room Dilemmas

2006-10-30T17:05:00.000-08:00

I swear since I've been home I've felt so many times like I was twelve. Honestly I haven't spent so much time at home since I was 18 which was..yikes 10 years ago. So now at 28 I find myself hanging out at my mom's for a couple months before starting work and BAM! twelve again. On Saturday I went shopping with my grandma and my mom and they kept picking out clothes for me to go and try on, I've learned that I can gong only a certain amount of outfits and then it's futile to resist. So that's how I end up in the dressing room with several outfits..only a couple picked out by me that I have to put on and then walk out to show my mom and grandma..uhh. It made me think of the time when I was a teenager I can't remember how old I was but I went to buy a bikini and I had to go with my mom since I had no money of my own and after I put every one on I had to come out of the dressing room so she could see...so embarass!! Then flash forward to adulthood and I had to come parading out in some "work outfits" that had been picked out for me..it just never ever ends.

Oh Dr. Phil

2006-10-20T14:11:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I was lucky enough to attend a taping of Dr. Phil with my grandma and about 40 other seniors. Let me tell you it was quite an adventure. The Dr. Phil show sent a bus to pick up the ladies club and take us all to the studios. First of all let me say that the oldies love to push and shove to get onto the bus, and of course are in a panic that they won't be first into the studio, etc. Even though we were told they'd be letting us in by numbers. My grandma kept going further and further up to the front and then would yell for me, where are you?? Keep Up!! It was exhausting really.
The actual taping was alright the topic of the show was Is it normal? There was a lady on who was basically a hypocondriac and then someone who refuses to celebrate holidays. The general consensus among the ladies was that we should have at least gotten free Dr. Phil mugs and they felt rushed around all day. I'd say the rushing they felt was themselves getting in a tizzy about getting on/off the bus first or making sure they got into the studio ASAP. Also they got super impatient when Dr. Phil and some Marines were filming PSA's for Toys for Tots, it was taking forever and it was cold in the studio..purses were gathered and they were ready to bolt the second it was over. Anyways the taping airs on Nov. 1st, I'm sure you can see me since the lady in front of me kept clapping at inappropriate times and so the camera would pan over to her. Oh the other best bit was that they showed Dr. Phil being drawn for an episode of the Simpsons and in the clip he says something to Homer about losing weight. This one got all the ladies started, something about a Dr. Phil diet bar scandal that all the seniors seemed to know about in great detail. At this point I also got another lecture about broccoli. My grandma said something about how you need to read labels very carefully and that one time she almost ate somethign with too much Vitamin D, and that you can OD on Vitamin D if you're not careful..then she says, you can OD on anything really if you have too much, even broccoli. Then she launched into the broccoli speech again, by the end of this she's gonna have me brainwashed to never eat broccoli again!

Limbo Land

2006-10-17T11:25:00.000-07:00

So currently I'm in limbo, not going but not staying either. I should be leaving in the next couple of weeks to start my new job but in the meantime I'm just killin' time. My typical day goes something like this:
8:30am- Wake Up, Check E-mail
9:30-11am- Go to gym (note this is my only outing of the day)
11am-1pm- Come home from gym and shower, eat some lunch
1-3pm-play on the internet, attempt to learn spanish or read
3pm-4pm-Watch Oprah
4-5:30pm-Am usually very bored, waiting for my brother to come home at 5:30pm

The highlight of this week is on Thursday I'm going with my grandma to sit in the audience of Dr. Phil, should be interesting, and if nothing else kills a whole day!

I'm still here!!

2006-10-05T22:49:00.000-07:00

So yes I'm still home, and last week I was lucky enough to get the flu--so that kept me out of commisson for a bit. I'm all better now and getting back into my daily routine of tv, gym and spanish lessons. I'm now going for training in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia which is gonna be exciting. Meanwhile I've still got lots of stuff to read and lots to learn, not to mention lots of lying around to do before the real work begins.
Also the whole flu thing has exhausted me because now that I'm well my mom has it and so she's been home and needing some TLC which is fine except that because of this grandma feels the need to stick around half the day and constantly give advice on how to get better or why my mom still feels sick. The best was yesterday when we took my mom to the doctor. On the way there my mom was getting sick into a bag (this flu thing is horrible with all the vomiting!). Anyways so grandma says to me, "What did she eat that she's throwing up?" and I tell her that all my mom's eaten all day is some chicken broth, at which point my grandma says--Broccoli!! Who the hell gave her broccoli, sick people aren't supposed to have broccoli..and you know too much of that can poison you, if you have more than half a cup you are poisoned, that's why I don't like to eat broccoli!!! Of course at this point there is no stopping or correcting her so I just sit there for the 20 min. car ride listening to grandma rant about the evils of broccoli and my mom throwing up in the backseat..and yep that's pretty much what life is like back home!

And thus it begins..

2006-09-20T07:55:00.000-07:00

Well as some of you may or not have heard there was a coup in Thailand yesterday so this has changed plans as far as beginning my training for work. My company has decided to change the location of training to ensure the safety of all involved since the situation in Thailand is a bit uncertain at the moment. Of course this delays everything a bit and dammit I'm anxious to get started with my new job!! By the end of the week I should know my new traning destination so I"m excited, I'll get a surprise as to where I'll be headed next and of course will keep you all posted. Meanwhile I'm just chillin' here at my mom's house, working on my spanish, reading lots for work and of course fitting in lots of relaxing/fun activities.

Sorry for the Absence!

2006-09-11T21:00:00.000-07:00

No I haven't disappeared off the face of the earth, I'm just back home for a visit before starting my new job. It's been hectic trying to visit everyone in my short time back but I'm coping. Also there's a slight chance my leaving date might be revised which frankly would be welcome since I feel like I haven't had much time to sit and relax. I'm in San Francisco for the next few days and then will fly back to my mom's house for about a week before taking off for Thailand (if everything remains on schedule!). Also I must remember not to get used to sleeping in, sure soon I will have to wake up at a normal hour and that my friends is not something I'm looking forward to!

Things I will miss 5

2006-08-23T02:09:00.000-07:00

The Beer

Of course I will miss the Aussie Beers that I have grown to love, and I was lucky enough to work for the company that makes one of my all time favorite beers Victoria Bitter!

Things I will miss 4

2006-08-23T02:01:00.000-07:00

The Footy

Rugby Union (pictured), Rugby League (and my favorite the state of origin series which I watched in an island bar made of sand last year, hours from shore), and Aussie Rules Football it's always been fun to watch a game even though at first I had no clue what was going on. Everyone is so into sports here that it's a great atmosphere wherever you are watching a game and whatever game you're watching! Some of my best nights out have been watching the various footy games Australia has to offer!

Things I will miss 3

2006-08-23T01:45:00.000-07:00

The color of the water and the cliffs, with such unique looking rocks--absolutely beautiful!

Things I'll miss part 2

2006-08-23T01:39:00.000-07:00

Lawn Bowls

Yes lawn bowling is a real sport and yes it's mostly old people dressed in all white. However nearly every town in Australia no matter how small has a bowls club. There were 2 within spitting distance of one of my old houses. The advantage of the bowls club? Cheap food and booze of course! Every night of the week the bowls club is invaded by younger people taking advantage of the bargain basement prices, good locations and sometimes dodgy live music and poker machines! My old local lawn bowls club was the last stop on a pub crawl I did last Sat. night and there was also a fancy dress party in full swing in part of the bar, from the outfits I'm guessing it was a pimps and hoes party..the bowls club, not just for old foggies!!

Things I will miss, Part 1

2006-08-23T00:17:00.000-07:00

Queenslanders

The Queenslander style house is the most common in the state I live in (you guessed it Queensland!) and are perfect for the warm weather, they are made of timber and have beautiful verandas and are up on stilts with the whole underside of the house just being open and you can often just see all the way through to the backyard. I've lived in 2 different Queenslanders since I've been here and absolutely loved it, if I ever moved back here I'd live in an old queenslander for sure. The picture is of a queenslander that was just down the street from where I used to live, the whole neighborhood is full of beautiful houses like this and most are very close to the river, so have beautiful views.

New Look!

2006-08-19T20:23:00.000-07:00

New blog, title and new blog address and new resolve from me to blog more often. The next couple of weeks may be iffy though because of my mini-vacation home to the US, but also realistically I'll just be stuck at my mom's house all day so perhaps extensive blogging/internet surfing will be in order!

Important Announcement!!

2006-08-10T01:48:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody, here's an important update for you, I got my employment contract and final placement for my new job! Drumroll please...I will be a Regional Manager in South America based in Sao Paulo, Brazil!! So who knew it's back to Brazil for me for a while. I'm really excited about the position. I'm gonna be super busy the next few weeks though, I'm leaving Australia at the end of August to come back to the US until around Sept. 20th when I will leave for training in Thailand and then in October I will go straight from Thailand to my post in Brazil...so lots of globetrotting in my future. Can't wait to have lots of visitors in Brazil. Meanwhile I'm in a panic about languages, I really need to ramp up my spanish quick (as other countries in my region include Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Peru and Columbia) as well as get some basic portuguese down..so I'm really freaking out about that, not to mention this is going to be a crazy busy job but I'm looking forward to the challenge!! Hope to catch up with some of you when I'm back home!!!

Absent

2006-08-07T02:19:00.000-07:00

hey all sorry I've been absent for a bit, things have been mighty hectic over here! Currently I"m working full time at Fosters for the next few weeks and then I'll leave to start training for my new job! Yep I managed to get a real job right out of school using my masters!! I'm really excited about it and will be headed to training in SE Asia at the beginning of Septemeber before being relocated to (hopefully) the US! The job involves lots of travel so I don't mind being based in the US, as I'll probably spend at least one week a month overseas!! Anyways just waiting for final details on my training dates and my final location placement..will keep everyone updated on my whereabouts..more stories to come!!

Less is More

2006-07-22T20:22:00.000-07:00

Why is it that the less you have to do, the less you seem to get done? Now that school's over and I'm just working part time, I don't seem to ever get anything done, just getting lazy I suppose. Like today it seems like a massive effort to even go grocery shopping, so I may or may not actually go. Also I've been watching quite a few movies lately, I saw a good one the other day called Sione's Wedding, it's a New Zealand film about a group of Samoan mates, really funny and great cast, loved it. Also I saw that Lake House movie with Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock, while I don't pretend to understand the space-time continum I did think the movie was okay, it's just best not to think about it too much. Also I have to say the guy that played Keanu's brother in the movie, for some reason there was something about him that creeped me out, perhaps it was his constant pained and weird facial expressions. In other news, I've got a job!! I'm starting relatively soon and details to follow shortly but I should be leaving Australia by the end of August to start my training, so in the meantime I'll be making the most of my lazy days.

Party Week!

2006-07-01T19:06:00.000-07:00

I've offically finished my degree to this week was branded party week and why not? Monday was a big night, went out after the final was over and ended up staying up all night at a bonfire. Then I took a bit of rest until Thursday when it was a night out at the casino and then Friday topped it off with a graduation dinner and then a big night out with all my friends who just finished school as well. I'm so happy to be done, the next few weeks are now vacation time, I'm offically a woman of leisure, well apart from my part time job but that doesn't take up much of my time..will be coming back home probably at the end of July for a visit before I take off on my next adventure!

Sign of Doom

2006-06-20T18:31:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I had an Economics final, I knew it was gonna be hard but thought I was at least semi-prepared, turns out I missed something. I sat down and looked around and noticed that everyone had calculators, interesting I thought, didn't know we needed a calculator but I had one in my bag so what the hell I went and got it. The thing is though if you didn't know you needed a calculator to begin with then getting one is probably not going to help you much, and that hunch turned out to be correct in my case. But at least umm I felt like I fit in with my pencils and erasers and calcualtor and ruler to draw graphs, yep I gave off a damn good performance of acting like I knew what I was doing, just turns out I had no clue so I'm pretty sure my grade for that class has gone down, I did make up answers for all the questions though so at least that'll be entertaining for the lecturer.

Please Remove the obstruction

2006-06-16T23:44:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine lives on the 34th floor of this apartment building in Brisbane, earlier today when I was waiting to get the elevator down I could hear a ruckus occuring on a floor above, there was lots of shouting in an asian language of some description and the robot voice of the elevator saying, Please Removed Obstruction from the Door. Meanwhile I"m standing there getting pissed thinking dammit hurry up and get in so the elevator can come down to my floor! Finally it does and what was in the elevator you ask? Well it was 3 Asian people with heaps of luggage and I'm not kidding a massive box of eggrolls, like it was as big as a TV box, which I'm guessing was the obstruction in the door. Also I'm wondering where it was they were going on vacation that they felt it necessary to bring along 500 eggrolls. It was all I could do to contain myself until we got to the ground floor, it was too funny.

Also on a side note, I listened to the new Dixie Chicks album today and I have to say it's great, love the Not ready to make nice song.

The Blind Men and the Elephant

2006-06-06T21:17:00.000-07:00

This is a great poem by John Godfrey Saxe that oddly enough I ran across in a law textbook, but it's from a fable told to him in India way back when..the moral to the story is great, and it is of course true, many wars and ignorant comments and gestures are made on assumptions of things we've never seen, a lesson to us all.

It was six men of Indostan
To learning much inclined,
Who went to see the Elephant
(Though all of them were blind),
That each by observation
Might satisfy his mind

The First approached the Elephant,
And happening to fall
Against his broad and sturdy side,
At once began to bawl:
“God bless me! but the Elephant
Is very like a wall!”

The Second, feeling of the tusk,
Cried, “Ho! what have we here
So very round and smooth and sharp?
To me ’tis mighty clear
This wonder of an Elephant
Is very like a spear!”

The Third approached the animal,
And happening to take
The squirming trunk within his hands,
Thus boldly up and spake:
“I see,” quoth he, “the Elephant
Is very like a snake!”

The Fourth reached out an eager hand,
And felt about the knee.
“What most this wondrous beast is like
Is mighty plain,” quoth he;
“ ‘Tis clear enough the Elephant
Is very like a tree!”

The Fifth, who chanced to touch the ear,
Said: “E’en the blindest man
Can tell what this resembles most;
Deny the fact who can
This marvel of an Elephant
Is very like a fan!”

The Sixth no sooner had begun
About the beast to grope,
Than, seizing on the swinging tail
That fell within his scope,
“I see,” quoth he, “the Elephant
Is very like a rope!”

And so these men of Indostan
Disputed loud and long,
Each in his own opinion
Exceeding stiff and strong,
Though each was partly in the right,
And all were in the wrong!

Moral:
So oft in theologic wars,
The disputants, I ween,
Rail on in utter ignorance
Of what each other mean,
And prate about an Elephant
Not one of them has seen!

Bits from everywhere

2006-06-06T21:13:00.000-07:00

Sorry I've been absent lately but lots of school stuff to get done in the last few weeks. I got my paper back that I spent all night on and I got 26/30, which is excellent..I always do work better under pressure, although I have to say that my brain was on auto-pilot most of the time.

Also in other strange news, Dr. Heidi the Austrian PhD student who I shared a hostel with one time is supposedly gonna be my new flatmate. My landlord told me last night she was moving in and I thought, I know that crazy Austrian, and crazy she is indeed so the next weeks should be interesting, I'll of course keep you apprised of the antics of Dr. Heidi.

All Night Long

2006-05-30T20:57:00.000-07:00

I was up all night last night and no it wasn't for a fun reason. I was finishing a paper, a very long, involved paper. Today my eyes feel like sandpaper and it was so hard to get up to turn in the paper after 2 hours of sleep, I think I must just be on some adrenalin rush at this point, don't know how I haven't fallen over yet. Anyhow I finished at 6am, have no idea how coherent the paper is but the important thing is that it's done..one more paper to go and that's it..masters degree here I come. Let the celebrations begin!

World Record Holder Here!

2006-05-20T15:59:00.000-07:00

So I never thought I'd set a world record for anything but hell you just never know what might happen after you wake up in the morning. Yesterday I was at the Paniyiri festival (huge greek festival in Brisbane), little known fact outside Australia it has the biggest Greek population outside of Greece. You get tired of hearing it though, it's an often repeated fact here, especially that Melbourne is the largest Greek city outside Greece. Anyhow I was one of the many, many dancers in last night's successful world record attempt for the world's biggest zorba dance! Yep there were nearly 2000 of us, all with linked arms and doing the zorba for over 6 minutes, it was good fun. As we know I'm about the least coordinated person on the planet so I really did have to keep repeating the instructions for the dance over and over again in my head but it worked and was really great and I didn't fall down or lose the grip on the shoulders of the man next to me so all in all a success. Also I did have some Mythos (greek beer) and ouzo and see lots of hot greek-australian men so a great time was had by all!

Sweet!

2006-05-10T23:32:00.000-07:00

Today I started my job with Fosters and can I say I couldn't be more pleased. First of all I have my dream schedule start time of 10am, which allows me to get those extra zzz's in the morning. Next and best of all found out this morning when I was getting the grand tour that there is a bar on the premises, not too far from where my desk is turns out and it opens at 4;30pm everyday and drinks are you guessed it FREE! Unfortunetly I'm sick and so no drinkies for me but one day I shall be well and then 4;30 here I come. Also my co-workers are pretty funny, rough as guts Aussies for the most part. Kylie (yes there are lots of Aussies named this) who was training me was telling me that when I run across wine orders to highlight them so they "stand out like a dog's bollocks", cracked me up. Then my boss says hope you don't mind cursing and carrying on, we find it helps to pass the time. Should be interesting, and my time today went by fast even though I did feel like someone had my head in a wrench b/c of this damn cold!!

Just in Time

2006-05-08T21:48:00.000-07:00

Today is my birthday and I have a cold, so I was still aslep when the temp agency called me at 950 am and asked if I could make it to an interview at 11am. Sure I said even though I didnt wanna get up because I do need a job. So I jump up run to use my roommates computer to see where this place is on the map, only to go through a super frustrating experience because well her laptop is french and little known fact but the french do not use the same keyboard we do, the letters are arranged differently,instead of qwerty they use azerty, which means i kept typing in things wrong and I was in a super hurry!! I managed half running to get there on time and the interview went great and before I made it back to the bus stop I got a call offering me a job with..Fosters Australia(no one does drink fosters here but they make lots of aussie beers, wines and spirits that people do drink), yes I now work for that most Aussie of beer companies..I feel this will round out my full Aussie experience...Happy Birthday to me!

And the Adventure continues...

2006-05-06T21:31:00.000-07:00

Big news in these parts-- I got a job in Japan! So looks like in September I'll be moving to Osaka. Can't wait should be a really good time. I will be sad to leave Australia though, after spending about 2 years here I've really grown to love it and totally wouldn't mind living here for good one day. But the adventure must continue, time for me to explore a new place on a new continent, hopefully giving me another perspective on this great big world we live in. In the meantime though I plan to enjoy the sunshine and good beer and try to see as much as I can before it's time for me to go :)

The Fuzz

2006-05-01T23:03:00.000-07:00

So last week was fun, we had the threat of an immigration raid on the house because of my landlord and his damn kiosks!! Anyways I got a phone call and had to run home and basically had 30 seconds to grab stuff from my room. Why did I have 30 seconds you ask?
1. Immigration had already turned up to one of the kiosks looking for 3 of my roommates who were working illegally so they thought they'd be looking at the house next.
2. My landlord was burning all his business papers in the bbq outside and I didn't want to be implicated because I was in the house.
3. Due to a crazy theory told to me by my grandma I felt like I should get my passport before it was seized and used to "blame god knows what on me"

Anyways so I ran in grabbed my passprt and my photos and ran out to my friend's waiting car and then I was free. You know why I was free because at that moment I really was okay with never seeing any of my other stuff again, I was just glad to be outta the situation. Yes it would have really sucked to lose it all but you know there are worse things..such as being put in immigration jail somehwere in the outback.

Needless to say 3 of my roommates left and now my landlord is determined to only hire legal workers, so 2 british backpackers are moving into the house tomorrow..let the fun and games begin again.

P.S. yes I am considering moving but dammit I've only got 5 weeks of school left and it's just too much to even think about at the moment, at least I know all the incriminating evidence has been burned.

This is only a test...

2006-04-26T22:36:00.000-07:00

Well I'm convinced the last 2 months has been a test, a test to see how much one can take before they want to quit school. The fact that I only have 5 weeks left until my masters is finished is just mindblowing. I have wanted to just quit and get a full time job so many times in the last weeks because I'm so sick of having no money. It's like I'm in a science experiment to see how long a person can eat two minute noodles and not develop some weird skin rash or keel over from malnutrition. I'm really making a concerted effort not to get a negative attitude but I think it's too late at this point. However I keep reminding myself that I'm in a place I love, I love to wake up to the sound of the kookuburas every morning, walking along the river to get to school (there's always the nicest breeze no matter how hot), being so close to some of the most awesome beaches in the world (and thank god they are free), and most of all to all my great friends I've made here who try to feed me meals and keep me halfway sane.

We've come to this conclusion..

2006-04-18T23:02:00.000-07:00

I've discovered that I don't
1) Listen
2) Pay attention
These are two things that you get yelled at for when you are 10, yet still I have trouble with these things..it has become apparent on several occasions, most recently yesterday when I was interviewing for a job. We had to do an excersise, we'd be given a topic and had 15 seconds to think about it then talk about it for 45 seconds. So when it was my turn she says..describe your ideal pant..or I thought she said pant but of course I'd been tuned out of the conversation then came back in and heard something about pants. Turns out she said pet, describe your ideal PET! Oops..sorry miss wasn't paying attention.
This is only one example of many where I wasn't listening and/or paying attention, another one is the time I tried out to be on Wheel of Fortune. Of course we had to play a mock game and of course when they called on me I said a letter that had already been picked, why? because I hadn't been paying attention that's why. Dammit how do I cure myself of this!!!

Slow Poke

2006-04-18T21:42:00.000-07:00

Sorry been absent a bit lately, I've been running around interviewing for jobs, taking mid-semester exams, etc. I've got this week off but am working on some projects I have due after the break, 4 papers in 2 weeks..yep that's the stuff of dreams people.

In other news..I'm thinking of going to Japan after I'm done with school, just interviewed for a job yesterday and it went well. Am not really bothered to go and live back in the US when I'm done here and am really keen to keep on travelling so hopefully it all works out for the best. Also still no freakin' money from school and it's cramping my style in a major way. I'm trying to keep myself away from the New Zealand idea because after all I've only 5 weeks of school left until I've got a masters, would be a shame to quit now.

Itchy Feet

2006-04-10T22:07:00.000-07:00

So it is now Week 7 of school and still I haven't received the living expenses money I get from the US Gov't, supposedly it will be put in my bank account by next week. You would be surprised how one can live on NO money for several weeks. It does help a diet plan, even if you have to eat noodles and spaghetti all the time, it's not like you eat lots of it. Anyways I'm 2 minutes away from applying for my work visa online to go and pick fruit in New Zealand..2 minutes people..with the bond money from my place I'd be able to get a plane ticket and have money for about 3 weeks..until I got paid for my fruitpicking or working in a ski resort..yep..I have to convince myself everyday to stay put!!

Where it stops nobody knows..

2006-04-05T02:12:00.000-07:00

One summer I decided to stay at A&M and go to summer school (of course I ended up dropping out of my classes and just working b/c they were too early in the morning) but nonetheless I was in College Station the whole summer. One of my friends was doing an internship so I subleased his room, and moved in with the 2 guys that were living in the house. There were several issues in the apartment some being: there was trash everywhere, 2 pomeranians always in makeshift cages that one of the guys was watching for his girlfriend, sometimes one of my roommates would think it was funny to wake me up by pounding on the door with a golf club, and worst of all Rush Hour (the movie with Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker) was always being played on a loop.
Fast forward to my current household and guess what there's a movie that's played on a loop..Half Baked, I can hear the entire movie at least once a day and most days twice, last night it seemed to be on a loop until at least midnight..honestly people I know you are stoned but damn, download another movie!!! Also it shows no signs of stopping since we got 2 new roommates Monday night, both of which are total stoners..I keep telling myself patience is a virtue.

Bring back the TV!!!

2006-03-26T18:27:00.000-08:00

About a week before I moved into my current house the TV exploded, which is rather unfortunate. Because of this we've had no TV for a few weeks and will hopefully be getting one soon, as soon as my landlord is done building the kiosk. Due to the lack of television all of us are --gasp-- forced to talk to each other every night for hours on end b/c well there's nothing else to do. One can only read so many books in their room (I read 2 last week) before they'd rather have some human conversation. However the normal topics of conversation are always totally out there. Here is a partial list of things that I've spent hours of my life talking about in the last week:
Whether or not it's legal to have a monkey in Israel
The monkey that attacked Itzic at a temple in Thailand
The diseases monkeys carry
How Itzic can get someone an illegal monkey in Israel if they have enough money
The home countries of all the women Dan has slept with (he's trying to sleep with someone from every country--a whole other conversation)
Why Asian women aren't easy (this is a favorite topic of Dan's which has been discussed several times)
Dan's 3 step plan for sleeping with a woman
The best way to build a kiosk
Why selling skin care products is the best job for picking up women
Why the French are so prone to hysteria (we've had a French girl Juliet move in)
The French film industry
Why American women are easy (a topic I was endlessly grilled about by Dan)
The best places in America to pick up women
The best stoner movies
Comic books made into movies
The bitch lady from the property management company
Finally the most common topic:
When are we finally gonna get a new tv!!!

Build a Kiosk and they will come...

2006-03-25T19:53:00.000-08:00

Alright so the Israleis are working on the plan for Dead Sea skin product domination and they have branched out on their own and hope to have stands in 10 malls by the end of the year. However this past week they hit a hitch in their plan, the first mall told them that they could have a spot but they would have to provide their own kiosk. Since they don't want to pay money to rent one they have decided to build their own kiosk. Mind you none of them have built anything like this before and so they went on a scouting trip to malls to take pictures of kiosks as a sort of guide. Then it was to the hardware store to buy hundereds of dollars worth of timber and then of course tools, because well they had no tools. Right now the major construction project is going on in the garage, I fear this will only end in tears.

The Dark Horse

2006-03-25T19:51:00.000-08:00

The Dark horse captured on film at the party, he's very brooding.

I'd like to buy a vowel...

2006-03-22T19:50:00.000-08:00

Alright so I've blogged before several times about the norwegians. Here's the thing there are 4 of them, all hot who all have class together and are roommates, they are in 2 of my classes. Anyways Lars (my fantasy boyfriend) is widely believed to be the hottest of the 4, although now a dark horse has emerged to perhaps take the crown. I use the term dark horse here mostly because he's the only one of the 4 that's not blond. His name is Trygv, yep that's right there aren't any vowels in that, so I've taken to calling him no vowels. I've never spoken to no vowels before last night, normally I just kinda wave and then go talk to Lars. Well last night Lars wasn't out and so the 3 remaining hot norwegians were out together. Here's how my first conversation with no vowels went (some background: I'd had maybe 2 vodka lemonades already, no vowels was carrying an umbrella even though it wasn't raining, I went up to the bar to get 3rd drink and he was the only other person waiting)
Me: I guess you're a man who's always prepared (I point to umbrella)
No vowels: What?
Me: You brought an umbrella that was very prepared of you, in case it rains
No vowels: Rain yes, it might be wet
Me: What?
No vowels: I don't like to get wet in the rain
Me: No I don't like to get wet in the rain either
(It's at this point I realize..wit and charm would get me nowhere with this man..we are struggling to have an even basic english conversation)
No vowels: Are you having a test?
Me: What? No, I don't have a test, do you have a test?
No vowels: Yes I have a test tomorrow
Me: I hope it's not early..since you're out
Anyways I could go on and on this conversation was PAINFUL and lasted about 15 minutes. However I did talk to him later and it was a bit less painful, not much but a bit, baby steps. I really do think though that he may take the crown, because I saw him in boxing class earlier..Lars is really gonna have to step up the game to keep his spot.

Fun with hats!

2006-03-18T17:56:00.000-08:00

As usual there were Guiness hats to be had on St. Patrick's day and yes those are balloons tied to my purse, I walked around with them on all night, Dr. Pritchard medicine woman (who's not pictured--b/c well I forgot I had my camera half the night and hardly took any pics) was nice enough to nick them for me from the bar. Incidently that Guiness hat Damien is wearing and then I'm wearing is the last one the bar had so we were lucky!

Strike you down!

2006-03-17T21:23:00.000-08:00

Last night was a wonderful St. Patrick's day, fun antics to be had all around. My friend Nigel's new roommate who just moved here from the UK told me a great story about her previous run in with a Texan. Apparently this guy came to work at their lab (she's a smartie only 26 and working on a study to cure alzheimers--got sponsored to come to Australia to do so..I like to call her Dr. Pritchard Medicine Woman), anyways so medicine woman meets Texan at lab, they hit it off, one night all the lab rats go round the pub for drinks...same old story, medicine woman gets plastered and sleeps with Texan. Here's where it gets interesting she says that at like 8am--she'd only had 2 hours sleep and Texan wakes her up and starts preaching saying that god is going to strike them down for what they did last night and that they sinned, etc. Medicine woman says it was the worst morning of her life..she just wanted to go back to sleep and perhaps barf and try to forget the previous night but nope she got woken up for a sermon. This is why she now is afraid of people from Texas, can't say I blame her.