I Love a New Bag
Current mood: content

I love getting a new bag. The one I just got looks like a red egg:



Cute, isn’t it? It’s got a bunch of little flower logos on it and flower material inside. I love the ritual of moving things from the old bag to the new bag, discovering additional pockets (pockets rule!) and figuring out what goes where. It took awhile for me to find the perfect bag. I thought I’d found it - one by the same company but it had magnets in the front - magnets! Magnets neutralize my expensive BART cards and who knows what else? So 20th century, jeesh! So I found this one online - I wanted a small one that would also hold a hardback book - and no mention of magnets. I finally got it in the mail, it seemed perfect in every way. But lo and behold - a magnet in the very front. Fortunately I work just a few doors down from a guy who does alterations and he removed the magnet and put in a snap instead (ok that’s 20th century too but at least will do no harm). Now it is truly perfect and all the little pockets rock:



By the way this is the pic from the website - I do not have a pink pda! It’s also got a large pocket behind for said book, a few zippered ones that you can’t see in pic above and I discovered one on the side of one of the water bottle holders. I love my new red egg! I tried it out for the first time today with great success. It really doesn’t take that much to make me happy!

Currently listening : The Who's Tommy: Original Cast Recording (1992 Broadway Revival) By The Who Release date: 13 July, 1993

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Some Things
Current mood: okay

-- one of the new people on my team at work didn’t work out
-- the person who held my position before me, my former supervisor and all around amazing person just resigned and is gone in 2 weeks
-- month of various cats being sick in various ways (better now)
-- helping lori connect to people who can help with her business
-- inlaws coming end of march
--2 houseguests in May
--my parents come in June for a whole week
--1 houseguest in July
--maybe trip to east coast in September
--no time for "real" vacation for either of us
--tired and kind of down (with PMS right around the corner)

I know it will get better. Not all of these things are bad, just very exhausting! By the way, I just finished this book below. I haven’t read King’s books in a long time - some that I’ve read in the last 10yrs I haven’t really been into but I loved this one - it reminds me of  "IT" in some ways and I couldn’t put it down.

Currently reading : Lisey's Story: A Novel By Stephen King Release date: 19 June, 2007

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It’s a Fact

Sometimes my job is incredibly overwhelming.

Currently reading : The Thong Also Rises: Further Misadventures from Funny Women on the Road (Travelers’ Tales Guides) By Jennifer L. Leo Release date: 18 August, 2005

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Happy Anniversary Sweetie :)
Current mood: happy

8 wonderful years together, 4 years married - it just gets better and better every day, need I say more? 

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Happy Birthday Lori B!
Current mood: happy

My sweetie celebrates her 41st bday today. For those of you who know us well, you know that this is an extra special celebration due to Lori's horrible health scare 5 months ago. Now she is fully recovered and back to being a stressball about work again, as it should be - haha. But seriously, if not for all of you wonderful friends out there offering love, help and kind wishes, it would have been that much harder to get through and Lori and I both appreciate that so much. 

Saturday night we went to see Phil Lesh & Friends - Lori was still getting over a cold but made it through the opening act, Dumpstaphunk (who are awesome) and the first set which rocked. It was their Mardi Gras show so it was very bluesy rock, very cool. One day Lori will once again make it through a whole show, hee hee. We stayed at a hotel in the city, and had a very yummy dinner there first. Today I took the day off work and since there is finally a break in the rain, we'll go walk around the water, probably the lake in Oakland, and then we will get birthday cake. Happy Birthday sweetie

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All You Need is Love
Current mood: sneezy

Our trip to Vegas rocked - it was fantastic seeing M and getting to spend time with her. One of my favorite things about the trip was Castle Baby – since M left her 2 ½ yr old daughter back on the east coast, she had her surrogate substitute, a little flat, stuffed doll with a pleasant face and cute elf-type hat – she (and we) took a series of pictures of castle baby at different places and with different people around Vegas, a la the gnome (now used as the Travelocity gnome) from the movie Amelie – we even got one pic of Castle Baby with said gnome! It was very hilarious and very sweet.

We were the first to arrive – dropped our stuff off at the Luxor and then played some slots, ate some food and waited for M and her bro M to arrive, she from Balto and he from Santa Cruz. As it turned out, her flight was early and his was late so they connected at the airport. At about 11pm maybe slightly earlier we were told that our room wasn't yet ready – what? Isn't checkout time 11am? 45 min they said, so we head over to nearby bar – had a wonderful drink called Citrus Cucumber, maybe lemon vodka and something else with a big slice of cucumber, strong and refreshing. While at the bar, however, a hotel alarm went off – complete with loud siren and flashing seizure lights – there were announcements over the loudspeakers but we couldn't hear what they were saying over the bar noise and none of the bartenders, waitstaff or any other hotel employee seemed at all fazed by it so we tried to ignore it like everyone else.

Back to the check-in desk, room still not ready, 20 more minutes, got some vouchers for the café. Got our players club cards then finally to the room which by time we got up there was still open and the cleaning person was just finishing up. Stuck brother M around the side in the "man room" and called up for a rollaway bed for him.

As it turns out, brother M works for Apple so we were trying to pump him for information on the soon to be revealed "next big thing" at Macworld the following week – of course Lori was signed up for the Macworld user's conference. We got a little preview about Apple TV but not a peep about the Mac Air (so thin you can keep it in a manila folder!). Good job keeping secrets brother M! It was funny throughout the weekend watching both he and Lori tapping away at their respective iphones.

Saturday we got up, got breakfast and headed down to the Bellagio to see the showing of Picasso's ceramics – it was pretty interesting and toward the end there is a film – the Mystery of Picasso or something like that – where they film his process of painting a piece – the painting goes through all these amazing transformations and what he ends up with is pretty radically different and much more simple looking, even though the process is anything but simple.

Then we walked down to watch the fountains in front of the Bellagio – for those of you who have never been, they come on every half hour and sway or whoosh to piped music, very cool – one of the best free things in Vegas. Walked across the street to the new Planet Hollywood hotel, formerly the Aladdin, basically now a mall like most other hotels, attached the casino. Except for some cool chandeliers, my reaction to this hotel can be best summed up on one word: "eh." On the Paris, mine and Lori's favorite hotel, to their pricey but fabulous buffet – crab legs, big shrimp, fresh grilled veggies, gazillion kinds of meat, way yum. After this it was back to the hotel for Lori and I to chill while M n M did some more sightseeing.

That night we made a failed attempt to get our groove on with the dance, dance revolution machine at the arcade but I gave up our spot like a dumbass at the New York, New York hotel. Won some cute crap by playing those machines that push quarters into other quarters which then fall into the slot and tickets come out for said crap. On to Excalibur where I taught Marnee how to play craps and I was a hot roller until I wasn't anymore. However my rolling did turn around my losing streak and in the end I only came away with a $13 loss, not so bad – while Lori and brother M geeked out on the iphones. Back to the Luxor for a few slots, a drink then blessed sleep around 2am until…

...8am in the morning when the hotel alarm went off yet again – only this time the loudspeaker and sirens are in the room above the beds and completely unmuffled. Brother M goes down to one of the ubiquitous Starbucks and agrees to call if we need to panic. The longest 10-15 minutes later, another announcement comes on that there has been a "minor incident" and all is well. Of course by then we are totally awake and we never did find out what was up – a waitress in the café told us the next day it was actually the third time that week it had gone off, causing us to believe the system to be really good or really malfunctioning. One theory we had was the Criss Angel Mindfreak theory – apparently he is taping his new season at the hotel as evidenced by his production office, several Criss Angel-themed stores and his poster everywhere. Not to mention the co-optation of the anarchy symbol (although that might be oxymoronic) for his logo. We heard he is staying in the penthouse up by the big light that emanates from the Luxor each night so that planes don't crash into…??? The Excalibur which is considerably higher? Anyway we surmised that he and his partying friends somehow set it off.

I have to say, I used to love the Luxor till I stayed in it. This is in no way meant to make M and her husband P who graciously paid for the room feel bad, it just isn't what I imagine it used to be. Aside from the alarms, if you stay in a Pyramid room (i.e. in THE pyramid) you must go up to your room via an "inclinator" that goes up the pyramid sideways-ish, causing anything in your stomach, food, alcohol, etc, to roll around in a way to which humans are just not accustomed. Plus their big headliners are, are you ready? Carrot Top and 3 scrawny girls in bras in some topless show (these are 2 separate shows) and the Redneck Tenors. 'Nuff said.

Moving along, another very high point in the trip was getting to see the new-ish Cirque du Soleil show, "Love," which is set to Beatles music. It was incredible, worth every penny. The music is fantastic, the costuming, dancing and videos that interpret and go along with the songs are amazing. Not as many acrobatics as the other shows have (ok I've only been to Mystere) but still wonderful. All in all a wonderful trip and especially a great chance to hang with M who I don't get to see nearly enough. Pics to follow...

Currently reading : Eleven on Top (A Stephanie Plum Novel) By Janet Evanovich Release date: 01 December, 2007

10:28 PM - 3 Comments - 6 Kudos - Add Comment

Viva Las Vegas Redux
Current mood: thirsty

Thanks to the hubby of my friend M in Balto, Lori and I are headed off to Vegas for a 4-day weekend on Friday - we'll be meeting her and her bro who lives in Santa Cruz - hubby booked her (and therefore us) a suite at the Luxor and I can't wait to chill at one of our favorite places. I plan to win it big at craps, hang out at the Paris for my usual coffee and Bailey's and kick back with the M family!

I've had a hard time getting my brain out of vacation mode, just in time for more time off, I still feel like I need it - the last 2 three-day weeks at work have been so crazy busy it's felt more like full weeks. Lori has been back to working since the new year in a regular way, meaning she is swamped with work too. She's psyched b/c right after Vegas comes MacWorld! Then her birthday comes at the end of the month, haven't even had time to figure out how we'll celebrate it.

Still continuing my addiction to World of Warcraft, for those of you keeping track at home, I am now level 49 and counting!

Currently reading : Ten Big Ones: A Stephanie Plum Novel By Janet Evanovich Release date: 22 June, 2004

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Happy 2008!

Happy New Year everyone! Thanks so much for your boundless and love and friendship all year long :)

8:03 PM - 3 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment

...and a Tab of Yellow Sunshine LSD
Current mood: pensive

Things have been super busy since Thanksgiving. My supervisor at work has been out for three weeks for various reasons. During that time the two new people on my team started. I think they're going to work out great – they are super enthusiastic, quick learners and willing to jump right in. It was very very busy over the three weeks, lots of crises and on top of that most of last week our notes database was down. There was a lot of juggling to do, trying to get the new folks set up with phones, computers, train in some haphazard way. In the end it all worked out fine like these things usually do. Over the last three weeks I have realized:

     the person who has been with me on the Crisis team for the last year and a half is really leaving – she'll just be down the hall, it's true, but it won't be the same. I still don't have words for how I feel about this.

     the new people will not be my friends, I will be their supervisor and I have to ostensibly set some sort of good example – not sure how I feel about this either – excited yes, but also terrified and anxious come to mind.

      I can shape the team, to a point, the way I want it. I have to really pay much more attention to what I want our standards to be and how I want the team to grow and develop and work within the community. I will only have control over some of this but leadership has not been a main quality of mine, in my opinion. I have been much more comfortable deferring to someone else – I grant that this has changed over the last year or so, but having authority has always seemed so scary to me, having responsibility. I still have my boss and the agency to fall back on but I need to really have my point of view emerge more to the benefit of the team – I hope I can live up to this.

     I need to let go of some control – it is the story of my life. I have been able to do this with various successes and (mostly) failures – some of it is genetic, some of it personality and some of it comes from the notions that I have to do it myself to get it done right, I have to be "better" at whatever it is I'm doing and I have to control it for it to function well, whatever the "it" is. I am getting somewhat better at times but then do some major backsliding. I need to let people develop as they will and have their own voice. I don't really know how to do this – I feel like I only have the minimum of guidance, we'll see what happens.

     I need time off. I've told pretty much everyone that I will see them in January. I am very lucky in that I get 2 four-day weekends and I can't wait to spend it with LB doing mostly nothing. But I need more time off, a real vacation, even if that just means staying at home – as a matter of fact the thought of planning a trip sounds like scaling a mountain – this is not like me at all. I need to have time off so I don't burn out – right when I'm starting this next phase of my work life.

      I need to get back into incorporating something into my life like yoga – LB and I used to do yoga with a DVD, I want to restart that – it's really nice and has a great meditation at the end.

This past weekend was great – I got to see my sis in an awesome dance show, then the rest of the weekend LB and I lazed around, played tons of WoW and hung out with the kitties. The time off coming up will be good, I want to sleep, read, go to a movie, play WoW, take some walks, pet cats. It may  not sound very exciting but it's exactly what I want.

Currently reading : Love Over Scotland (44 Scotland Street) By Alexander Mccall Smith Release date: 06 November, 2007

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Happy Hannukah!

...and that's all I have time to say for now!  

Currently reading : Love Over Scotland (44 Scotland Street) By Alexander Mccall Smith Release date: 06 November, 2007

9:44 PM - 2 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment