So what else is new?

I'm in a bad mood. I woke up in a bad mood, and it had increased exponentially by the time I got to work. I just had a bag of cookies from the vending machine. That should help. Or else I will get sick and have to leave. Either is fine with me.

Don't you hate it when you drink so much during the day that you just can't drink later that night?

I feel weird. I kind of feel sick, but I think I am just depressed.

Yesterday was a pretty good day - I went wine tasting with friends and friends of friends. We stayed in the greater Sonoma area and the 98 degree heat was almost unbearable. I have a low tolerance for wine as it is, but you mix in the heat, and by the end of the afternoon, you can stick a fork in me I'm done. The best part, besides the cheesy pizza and chipotle steak at Ravenswood, was getting down on it in the air conditioned smooth ride between stops. The oven-baked drunk fest was immediately followed by a serene lounge in a park back home. My sister and I went to watch to the kids' drum recital. (Excuse me, rhythm ensemble.) The breeze there was heavenly, and we sprawled out on a blanket in the grass, snacking on cookies, pop corn, and root beer. I have to say, my nephew rocks on the drums (although, let me clarify that this was Desi Arnaz-style bongo drums). He told us he and his friends are going to have a band when they're teenagers.

We did not stay for the movie (for which the recital was one of the "opening acts.") I dropped my sister off and headed down to Andrew's. A group of us went up to the city and sat out on the patio at Gordon Biersch. It was such a nice night - and such a welcome break from the heat of the day. But I was not feeling too hot. All the wine and meat and cheese had taken its toll, so I just sipped on sprite. But it was still fun to hang out and listen to all the stories. And believe me, these guys tell a lot of stories.

And I am still not feeling too hot today, but I think it's more than just yesterday's excursion. The bottom line is apartment hunting is not fun - and it's really putting me in a funky mood. And at the rate I am going, it just might be 2006 before I get there.

People in My Neighborhood

I'm in a good mood because it's Friday, and it's payday - and I am leaving work early to go to the company picnic.

Ok, so there was this woman on the bus last night, and she was huge. It's mean to say, but she was. I was sitting next to the window, and she got on and sat next to me. Which meant I ended up feeling guilty making her stand up so I could get off the bus. Plus, after she sat down, she pulled out one of those sleeping masks and proceeded to snore through the next hour.

And I just have to mention something about the dude in the yoga place that I sometimes walk by who weas a speedo and really shouldn't.

There was a guy snoring on the bus this morning

It was really annoying.

I should say something about the Olympics

I think I've watched more of this Olympics than I ever have in years past - not just the gymnastics and the swimming, but indoor and outdoor volleyball, fencing, rowing, tennis, diving, and track. I stayed up way too late last night watching the men's gymnastics finals. What was the deal with the Alexei Nemov thing? As much as I love to watch gymnastics, I am the first to admit that the subjective scoring is totally shitbag. And last night was the perfect example of how bullshit it is. (I did not watch the night Paul Hamm fell on the vault and ended up winning the all-around gold medal anyway.) Anyway, so last night the Russian dude was given a low score on the high bar - too low in my opinion and everyone else's - so the crowd booed. Ok fine. But they kept booing, and it lasted for so long that the judges actually reconvened and changed the score! I mean, what the hell?! If the judges can be so easily influenced by the crowd, why do we have judges at all? Why don't we just choose the winner based on who the audience claps loudest for?

Let the Downloads Begin
I tried to save a lot of songs before I left my old job, but the CDs I burned are now randomly scattered throughout my car. So I am starting from scratch. iTunes is now installed on my new work computer, so I can embark on 8 hours a day of slacking off.

Surprise, surprise, I did not get much work done today. This morning my mind was reeling with ideas and plans for the coming months. I love those moments when I get all fired up with possibility.

In connection with my previous musing on random people you have interacted with - how weird is it to discover people have lives? I know that sounds weird in and of itself. But with this whole blogging thing, I have come across blogs of people I know - and they have lives and friends and moments and are in a world of their own. Why is it that I expected otherwise?

The Server Is Down; It Must Be Monday

Since I can't get any work done at the moment, I thought I'd do a little blogging.

Pitter Patter
Did you know that a co-ed baby shower involves a spongebob pinata, lots of cupcakes, a keg, and a drunken game of "moon ball"? Neither did I, but it does. Saturday afternoon we went to Andrew's cousin's baby shower. It was at a park, with lots of picnic tables and 3 barbeques. With the exception of the wind, it was a pretty nice venue. There were a good 50 people there. We loitered (I mean mingled) for a while and filled up on 7-layer dip, and by the time present-opening time rolled around, the guys had gone off to play catch. I watched the mama and papa to be open all the presents, which took a really long time. They got some really cute stuff. After presents, the kids went to town on the pinata, and after that, we played moon ball. And for those of you who don't know, that's basically softball but with a soccer ball and a broomstick. I played for a little bit - had a couple of good hits. But after two beers and 3 hours of sun, I was pooped, so I ended up watching the rest of the game. Let me tell you, it was quite amusing. You mix several 28-year-old guys who've had a few beers and 3 competive kids, and you've got yourself quite a game. I lost count how many times the "bases" (which were baseball mitts) were run off with. By 5:30 things had wound down, and we helped pack up the cars before taking off. Later, I tried to stay up and watch Olympics, but I passed out by 10:00.

I almost forgot to mention that we went to Cameron's for dinner on Friday. I'm sure I've mentioned this place before - funky British style pub in Half Moon Bay. It is definitely one of my favorite places to go. We picked up Jen and Sean and the four of us had a fun evening out. One of these days, I'd like to stay the night in one of the rooms above the pub - just for the shit of it.

Catch Me, I'm Falling

I had a bit of a breakdown again today. The feeling of not being in control of my life is lingering and more fervent than ever. I think all I want to do is move to Victoria. Is that so wrong?

New Job: Day 4

I am up to Day 4 here at the new job, and so far every day has brought something new. This morning I got to pass by Pier 39 and my friend's apartment building! Wonders never cease! And yesterday I ate hummus during lunch and later ended up in Novato.

(I am trying to type quickly because my computer screen now faces the door so everyone walking past my cube has an excellent view of what I am typing.)

Next week is going to be a rude awakening - actually having to work all 5 days!

New Job: Day 2

Ok, it's actually Sunday night. I haven't seen any of the Olympics yet, and for some reason I am not all that interested to.

The second day of the job was both better and worse than the first. Better in that I felt a little more settled - figured my way around, actually went outside during lunch, made friends with the mail room guy, was finally officially recognized by the HR department... Worse in that I had a few more crash course sessions of training and was given actual tasks to do which sparked feelings of inadequacy and being overwhelmed. Plus my cold finally kicked into high gear so my nose was running and I was sneezing all day - I was pretty miserable.

I need to put together some kind of plan, some kind of goal to work towards. I am still in that "things will be better when (fill in the blank)" mode, and since I can't snap myself out of it, I need to make an effort to make the (blank) happen.

Reunion + Wine = Good Times
I had the day off on Friday, which was great. That night, I watched most of the opening ceremonies, except I fell asleep right before the lighting of the torch.
Andrew came up Saturday afternoon, and that night was the reunion. It's weird, but after all my reminiscing and tripping down memory lane, the day of the reunion kind of snuck up on me, and I wasn't excited as I thought I'd be. Plus, I was a bit disappointed about all the people that didn't show up - there were several that I really would have liked to see. But, it was a fun time nevertheless. The coordinators put together an excellent spread, including all the wine you could drink, plus souvenir glasses. Andrew spent the majority of the evening reminiscing with his college buddies, and I spent most of the time with my best friend from grade school - who didn't even go to our high school! Towards the end of the evening I helped move the party down to the speakeasy for a few more drinks and a few songs. We finally stumbled home around 1:30, in full agreement that it was a good party.

New Job: Day 1

(I promise I won't give a day-by-day play for too long.)

It's actually in the morning of Day 2, but I just wanted to jot down a few things.

I took Bart to work. Lord that train filled up quickly. And I really can't sit by the window anymore. I got a little turned around when I first came up from the station, but it was fine because I was a half hour early anyway. I hot lapped around, discovered a Papyrus, JambaJjuice, bakery, and deli all within a 2 block readius, plus (and the best part of all) the bookstore opened at 8:30!!

So I got into the office at 9:00 - and did not leave again till 6. The lunch room is upstairs and is kind of slim with amenities. There are no water stations - ok, there are sinks with a filtered-water spiggot, but there are no cups. Only 4 stalls in the bathroom. No one took me out to lunch. Is it petty of me to think that going out to lunch on the first day should be a given? Hell they did it at the place where I was temping!

The job itself is ok, haven't done much yet except review the training manual (that's right, I said training manual). I do feel a bit overwhelmed, though, because I have to manage the interns! Around 3:00 that I realized that there were still 3 more hours left in the day. And that wasn't a good feeling. The people are nice but I always get the feeling that they are thinking I should know more than I appear to. And no one from HR talked to me - isn't that weird? I mean, no orientation? What's that about? And no one from IT came over to walk me through the computer and phone systems. I just didn't feel the love....

I've Been Bad

I have not kept up with my written journal for several months now. I think I have been pretty good at keeping track of my general daily adventures in this blog, but despite the relative anonymity, I don't care to chronicle any personal stuff. Of course, it's all written down somewhere. A day doesn't go by in which I don't jot down some random thought or feeling, or opinion about a coworker. My pockets, my nightstand, and my car are overflowing with scribbled up scraps of paper. It's just a matter of pulling all those scraps together and binding them into some kind of permanent record of my life. Hmmm...

Misc

Oh My Fucking God!
That's all I have to say about that.
Except to also say that I had to look up eugenics: a science that deals with the improvement (as by control of human mating) of hereditary qualities of a race or breed.
OMFG.

Ahoy Matey
We had a mini pirate marathon this weekend: we watched Pirates of Penzance with Kevin Kline and Linda Rondstadt and The Ice Pirates with Robert Urich and Angelica Huston. We also wanted to rent one of my all time favorites, The Pirate Movie (which is a spoof of Pirates of Penzance, with Kristy McNichol and the curly haired dude from Blue Lagoon), but alas my video store did not carry it.

Job Update
Only 2 more days left - and I feel a cold coming on. This is not going to be pretty.

For Some Reason I've Been Thinking About...
the random people you interact with and then never see again. Not just the anonymous relationships that every one experiences with bus drivers, waitstaff, cashiers, or theatre ushers. But people you actually see on a semi regular basis for a certain period of time... like that girl I was friends with for one semester at the JC and I even had new year's eve dinner with her family. Or the mother of those 2 boys that lived next door to the house I baby sat at. Or all the people that I met while temping at the winery.....

Weekend Update
Friday night I went for drinks at the Irish pub with the gang from work. That was maybe the third time that I had actually socialized with these people outside of the office. And to my surprise, I had a lot of fun. I even stayed longer than I thought I would and was late getting to my nephew's birthday party. Bad Auntie!

What else happened? Let's see.... we went for a drive Saturday afternoon and encountered some excitement on the coast. We were parked up in an overlook and could see across the bay a firetruck racing through town. Well about 7 minutes later that same fire truck pulled up the hill and the driver leans out the window and shouts "anybody call about a rattlesnake bite?" Well, that certainly woke me up. One more fire truck, an ambulence, and a freaking helicopter later, the EMTs still had not located the RP (reporting party). But 2 of the guys walked down the trail, one of them carrying a shovel - which we deduced was to use on the snake. Andrew was hoping the helicopter would land in the parking area, but I am glad it didn't - that darn episode of ER still freaks me out.
Other snippets: Driving too fast into the dip. Getting Chinese food. Watching the pirate movies. Touring the model homes. I guess we did a lot.

My Poor Big Toe

I wonder if I can get worker's comp for this? I wasn't in too good a mood last night - I'm stressing out about work. So I went to bed early and watched Mrs Doubtfire, and I snoozed this morning until about 7:40. So I guess I was in a bit of a rush. And, to paint the picture, I have been wearing flip flops to work pretty much every day since about March. I haven't had any problems.... that is, up until I opened the office door and smashed it against my toe. At the time, I just thought I'd stubbed it. It hurt but didn't really faze me. Until a few minutes later when I realized that I had indeed cut the bottom of my big toe and was now in fact bleeding - all over my white flip flop. Fast forward to an emergency triage in the bathroom in which I inspected, washed, wiped, and wrapped. And now it's stings like a bitch, so I am limping around like.... a person who limps.

Going Out with a Bang

As forthcoming as everyone has been with the "we'll miss you"s, I honestly think it's a good thing I am leaving. I really am not competent at this job. And especially these last few weeks, I have been making mistake after mistake. Nothing really huge, just a lot of little things that I should have done or should have done better. It's somewhat understandable, considering my mind has not been with this job since about my second week here. But you'd think I'd at least try to get it together my last week here.

And even though I have "potential to be a brand manager," I am still asked to go find plastic bags in which to put the little pieces. I don't even know if that really made sense, but I will know what I am talking about the next time I read this.

And I Thought the Comma Splice Was Bad
I watched Shattered Glass last night. I still don't really like Hayden Christensen, and he was such a sniveling sap in this movie that it didn't really help my opinion of him. But I guess he did a good job since he was so convincing with the sniveling. I don't remember hearing anything about this "scandal" if indeed that is what it was. After watching the movie, I wasn't so appalled by the fact that Stephen Glass fabricated his articles as I was by the fact that the New Republic magazine (and perhaps others) actually consider double checking a reporter's notes to be a thorough fact check. Ridiculous.

Weekend Update

Dammit! Not only am I crying again, but I am also biting my fingernails again! This is definitely not good.....

I had a pretty good weekend. I got to hang out with the kids a little bit on Saturday when they came over to my parents' house to celebrate my mom's birthday. Then my friend who was visiting from Oregon came and picked me up and we went to a BBQ at another friend's house. Good wine and delicious garlic bread! We had to eat and run though, because we had plans to go see My Big Fat Greek Wedding at a nearby park. Can I just say, the whole Movies in the Park thing is the best idea ever! I know a lot of towns do this, but I have only fairly recently gotten into it. A bunch of us went last summer to watch The Princess Bride. Sitting outside on a cool summer night, watching one of your favorite movies, and enjoying the comraderie of the crowd as everyone quotes the lines...... there's nothing better! They're showing The Sandlot next month. I am so fired up!

And then yesterday I bawled my eyes out during The Notebook. Not so much because of the sappy love story. More because of the sad and scary things that happen to you when you get old.

Hey, Little House on the Prairie is on the PAX channel. That Laura is such a firecracker!