i love the history channel!

Claudia and I saw a truly awful sight tonight; we watched the end of an episode of 'The Conquerors' on the history channel, in this case about William the Conqueror, who as we all know conquered Britain in 1066. However, what we *didn't* know is that William the Conqueror fell heavily on his saddle pommel, which caused his intestines to rupture. He experienced internal bleeding, which led to infection, and his intestines started to fill with pus. Apparently, he spent about two weeks in agony as his intestines rotted inside of him, before finally dying in Caen, Normandy, at the age of 60.

All that is well and good, if painful, but it turns out that during the funeral, his body had swollen up from the rotting so much that when the priests tried to fit his body in the sarcophagus, it exploded. The stench was so unbearable that it sent the mourners running for the exits. Isn't the disgusting? Even worse is that the history channel, in true reenactment glory, had little splatters of 'pus' appear on the screen, and then start to run down the screen as they described the stench and the awfulness of what happened. Ew. Claudia and I could barely speak from shock, and we're not normally the squeamish type. Thank you, history channel! I love you!

Anyway, I worked a lot today, which was fantastic. Yesterday, I had a bunch of my coworkers over for a pot luck, which was also great. Plans for the rest of the week include dinner with my team at work tomorrow night, dinner in Sausalito w/my roommates on Friday, a barbecue at the beach on Saturday, dim sum on Sunday, seeing 'Sin City' w/a coworker and Claude on Sunday, and then starting the next week. And my parents are coming next weekend! It's quite the hectic time between now and when I leave for India (around the 25th of April), and I'm making the most of it.

But right now, 'making the most of it' means watching 'The Family Guy'. Yay!

they stuck me in a box in the ground (pt. 9)

The title of this post comes from one of the more memorable songs played by the Deathray Davies when they opened for Louis XIV at Slim's in San Francisco last Thursday. The Deathray Davies are a six-man band from Texas, distinguished from other bands by the presence of a bandmember whose sole goal is apparently to look retarded and shake either a tambourine or a pair of maracas. They occasionally set him loose on a xylophone, which he proceeds to beat into submission with little regard for melody. This is not to discount his prodigious talents in any way; he can keep a beat on both quarter notes and eighth notes, and he can drink a beer while playing, which is more than the drummer can say for himself. All in all, a worthy effort--however, since I had a headache before I even went to the show and my tetanus-injected arm throbbed every time someone brushed against it, I didn't have much patience for the opening act.

Adit somehow convinced me, Claudia, Ritu and Stephanie to see Louis XIV with him on Thursday night. I'm glad that I went, although I shouldn't have (I'd thrown up when I woke up Thursday morning, I think from a reaction to one of the shots I got, and I felt sick all day, and ended up throwing up again and staying home from work on Friday). Louis XIV wasn't at all what I expected; the lyrics were far raunchier than I was prepared for, and I guess I should have guessed that they would look like eyeliner-covered glam rockers, but I hadn't really thought much about them before I showed up at the club. However, I really liked their set, and I will probably buy their album; in addition to 'Finding Out True Love is Blind', which is getting a lot of airtime on the radio (and which I downloaded from the iTunes music store late Thursday night), I really liked 'Dominique' and several other pieces.

After the concert, we went to a diner and hung out, and so I didn't get home until almost two. As mentioned above, I woke up sick on Friday (and no, there was absolutely no alcohol involved, unless Adit spiked my coke at the club, but I'm sure he didn't) and so stayed home. Saturday, I had a nice brunch w/Terry at the Cheesecake Factory, then cleaned up a bit, then had dinner at home with Terry and her siblings before they went to church. I worked on my romance novel a bit last night, but I'm having trouble w/the next scene and so haven't published it to my other blog. I also drank a lot of tea; I bought loose-leaf tea on Saturday, which gives me an excuse to use the teapot I procured several weeks ago.

Today, I woke up late, watched some VH1 with Claudia, and then Ritu and Vidya came over to watch 'Pride and Prejudice.' (note: Vidya apparently only reads my blog so that she can hit Ctrl-F and search for her own name, so I'll oblige her: vidya vidya vidya vidya vidya). We turned the screening into a tea party; Claudia made really tasty cucumber sandwiches, and I made tea in a real teapot w/sugar cubes and everything, and I also made cookies and deviled eggs. Yummy! So we watched about three hours of 'Pride and Prejudice', and still have some left over so that we can have another tea party at a later date to finish it. I also hemmed two pairs of pants, drank some more tea, watched the last half of 'Steel Magnolias' on TV, and now I'm thinking that I should sleep.

Expect massive amounts of fun in the v. near future!

The Search for John the Baptist

John the Baptist...or meaningless grafitti? 

So the picture above is of this archaeologist who believes that he has found the cave that John the Baptist lived in in the wilderness outside of Jerusalem. The reason I know this is because Claudia and I watched 'Snatched' last night, and then afterwards got sucked into the History Channel. We watched the end of some documentary on the Shroud of Turin (it's Easter weekend, so there was a lot of Christian programming), then an hour of 'The Last Days of World War II' (basic premise: the show is new every week and covers this week sixty years ago; it's like 'Best Week Ever', only about the war. This week was the fall of Iwo Jima, and Eisenhower's decision to let Stalin take Berlin). After that, this show came on called 'The Search for John the Baptist.' I intended to go to bed immediately, until it became clear that the archaeologist believed that he had found John the Baptist's cave based primarily on the drawing shown above.

Now, any child with a stick could make that drawing; in fact, that's what most of my drawings look like even when I'm trying my best. To me, it looks like any ol' stick figure...but to the archaeologist, it is incontrovertible proof of the cave's provenance. He says that the upraised hands were symbolic of baptism, and that the figure's robes resemble John the Baptist's traditional outfit. I don't really see any distinctive outfit other than that normally worn by stick figures, but okay. The only other stuff on the walls were a bunch of indentations that the camera kept focusing on, although I could never tell what they were supposed to signify, and three very rough cross-shaped things that the archaeologist said was a clear representation of Jesus' crucifixion.

In his defense, he did get a bunch of slave labor from some archaeology students over a spring break, and they dug to the bottom of the cave and found lots of pottery remnants from several periods in history, including 1st century AD. That does signify that the cave was in use by a variety of people. However, the archaeologist believed that the cave was used for religious services related to John the Baptist, and a helpful computer simulation was provided of some priest standing in the middle of the cave using the 'illustrations' on the wall to illuminate John the Baptist's role in Christ's life. If this were true, couldn't they have, at some point in the millennium between the crucifixion and when the cave was abandoned during the onslaught of the Crusaders, found a freaking artist who could do better than one stick figure and three crosses? There is no writing on the walls and no other illustrations. In fact, I would not be surprised to learn someday that the stick figure was actually made possible by a $100,000 grant from the National Endowment of the Arts.

Okay, I've said enough. I should go to bed!

 
This is just here so that I can link my profile to it... 

oh, my, starry-eyed surprise

I feel silly for getting addicted to a song because of a commercial, but the Diet Coke commercial featuring Paul Oakenfold's 'Starry Eyed Surprise' has me surprisingly hooked. I love it! And it is most definitely better than the retarded Burger King commercial w/the Hootie and the Blowfish dude singing some ridiculous song about the Tendercrisp Bacon Cheddar Ranch sandwich, while technicolor people do stupid things in the background. I told Claude and Terry that we should have a party before we leave in which we reenact that commerical, but that was promptly quashed.

I worked a lot today (it was painful to be in the office by nine, since I didn't even get back to California until after eleven last night), then came home and did a load of laundry, ate some chicken pot pie, and watched Terry watching the Stanford/Utah women's basketball game. She's quite impassioned about basketball, and so I had a bit of mild fun teasing her during the game. The game was never particularly close, or I wouldn't have taken my life into my own hands by interrupting her :)

I meant to finish chapter six of my romance novel tonight, but I got caught up in the TV instead, and I also spent a considerable amount of time coordinating my calendar w/Terry and Claudia so that we could set the dates for the major fun things that need to happen before I leave. Expect housewarming parties, beach barbecues, and Loro special dinner to come your way in the next five weeks!

I'm really quite chipper, considering that I'm packing up to leave for a third-world country. I'm just excited to have some adventure again; nothing particularly insane had happened to me for awhile, so I was definitely due. I have to get my shots and my malaria pills tomorrow, and perhaps the pain will make this all seem a bit more real and sobering. For the next few weeks, my mantra will have to be 'work harder, play harder'--I have tons to do at work to get ready to transition, and I have even more to do at home. Between packing up all my stuff for the trip, putting away my clothes and souvenirs so they don't get dirty while I'm gone, settling all the change-of-country things like insurance, visas, doctors, and dentists, and buying clothes that may be comfortable in the 100+ degree heat, I could fill the next month with work and errands alone--but I have massive plans for fun, and I want to do as much of it as humanly possible. Let's see how much work and fun I can pack into every hour between now and my departure!

productivity!

Iowa State lost today, 92-65, to a North Carolina team that seems poised to go all the way. It was sad to watch; while most of the ISU kids are freshmen or sophomores and so have a great chance to build an excellent team over the next couple of years, they kinda got spanked today, and it was Jared Homan's last game as a senior, so that was a little rough. But, I got steak for breakfast before we left for Des Moines, and then we checked my bag early and went to my aunt's house to watch the ISU game, which means that I watched the bloodbath right before I got on the plane.

For those of you who have been waiting patiently for my romance novel, however, take heart--since I read the books I took home with me while I was in Iowa, I had nothing better to do than write some of my own novel on the plane. I wrote Chapter Five and part of Chapter Six; happy reading!

devastated demon deacons

More NCAA basketball tonight; the game between West Virginia and Wake Forest was fantastic, going into double overtime before West Virginia finally came out on top. I didn't see that much of the actual game, because my area of the country was shown the Kentucky/Cincinnati game, but I saw the last five minutes of regulation, as well as both overtimes, which seemed to last for an eternity. I was sort of cheering for West Virginia, since they were the underdogs (and who doesn't cheer for the underdog when there is no clear allegiance to either team?) but I've always loved the name of Wake Forest, and I also love that their team name is the Demon Deacons. I just think that's great; so much better than a Hawkeye (Iowa) or a Golden Gopher (Minnesota) or a freaking tree (...).

I didn't do much of anything today; I was retarded last night and started reading the romance novel I brought home with me, and of course I stayed up until four a.m. to finish it, which means that I didn't get enough sleep last night and now I have nothing to read on the plane. Sadness. However, the romance novel was probably the best romance novel I've ever read, dialogue-wise; it's another Georgette Heyer, called The Grand Sophy, and it's one of those classic ones where the girl comes into a dysfunctional family and saves it from itself by reordering everyones' lives, simultaneously comes into contact with a very headstrong, domineering male with whom she bickers constantly, and ends up marrying said domineering male when they realize they're a perfect match (hmm, I know a girl who's domineering and desires to reorder everyones' lives for the better; I think I know what kind of dude she should be looking for).

I think I'll order a whole bunch of Georgette Heyers to take to India with me, since I can read at least five of them on the plane ride alone, but it's a shame I have nothing to read tomorrow on the flight back. Maybe I have a book left on my already-scavenged bookshelves upstairs that can hold my interest for the trip back to California. I'll be home Sunday night late, and then I'll have a whole week to start to put my affairs into order before spring break ends and my last amazing month of ridiculous fun can begin. Yippee!

Any 'Napoleon Dynamite' fans out there will be pleased to note that my mother used the word 'flippin' tonight, in reference to an uncomfortable article of clothing. I was quite amused. My grandmother, as well as Aunt Becky and her boyfriend, came for dinner tonight; we had a v. traditional midwestern dinner of ham, scalloped potatoes (aka potatoes au gratin), baked beans, asparagus, and five-cup salad (made w/marshmallows, pineapple, mandarin oranges, coconut, and I think sour cream? a cup of each of five different things, I can't remember the details...I just know that despite its name, the salad does not contain any lettuce or other vegetables, which is what a midwestern salad is). My grandmother also got someone to bake a small white cake, frosted w/yellow and white flowers to mimic my parents' wedding cake, and my mother dug out the knife and server that they used at the wedding to cut the cake, and also had napkins leftover from the reception that were printed w/their names. Now, does that explain my packrat tendencies or what? To still have enough napkins from your wedding that you could use seven on your 25th anniversary and still have a whole bag stashed away in your cabinet for future use is a clear sign of an obsessive compulsive, and I've inherited it from both sides in spades. Yay.

My aunt showed up this afternoon with a red sticker on her forehead in honor of my move to India, and she and her boyfriend gave me a whole package of red stickers so that I would 'fit in' when I moved there. I only mention this because Aunt Becky said that her boyfriend occasionally checks my blog and would love it if he got a shout-out. So, Brian, here is your name immortalized in print :) I hope you're happy.

the lure of the east

[disclaimer: if you work with me, please do not say anything about this in the office; it will be announced officially on Thursday]

Dear friends,

For the past week or so, I have harbored a secret that has become increasingly hard to maintain. However, I only have a certain amount of time left to me on the sunny shores of California, and so I wanted to share with everyone as soon as I had let my family know about a recent abrupt change to my life. I told most of my family after coming back to Iowa, and so now I can make it official for the rest of you:

I am moving to India.

That's right, I'm moving to India. This is quite the shock, I'm sure, since I a) love beef, b) hate vegetables, c) have a stomach that does not respond well to curry, d) just moved into a new apartment, etc., etc. However, I found out last week that I might have the chance to work in the office in India for six months, and it was made official on Tuesday. Things are moving v. fast; I think I'm projected to leave around May 1, although I haven't finalized the dates or booked my flights yet. I'm probably going to stay at least six months (i.e. through October), so my intentions of grilling all summer in California are very much out the window. However, this is going to be a much hotter, more intense experience than Coachella, for example--average temperatures in May are 104 degrees Fahrenheit, with an average humidity of 70-80 percent.

It also means that Scotland is out, which makes me v. sad, but I'm so excited about the chance to go to India. I'll be in Hyderabad, which is in the middle of south India, working in our office there and living in a company-sponsored apartment. Hopefully I shall get to travel, since there is a multitude of places in India and around Asia that I would like to visit.

Anyway, this is why I intend to have the most insane, amusing, fun-filled six weeks in recent memory; you can think of it as though I have a terminal illness called 'India', and I have to live each day like there's no tomorrow until I go. So, expect some fun plans in the near future! I'll be back Sunday night, and then the planning can begin in earnest.

For those of you who are curious, I'm not abandoning Claudia and Terry; I'm leaving all my stuff in the apartment and paying rent so that I can move back in as soon as I return. This means that you are still welcome to come over and watch TV, although you'll probably find it in your best interests to befriend at least one of my roommates. I will also blog religiously, and will hopefully post lots of pictures to keep all y'all informed of my exploits. I'm so happy that I'm going on a new, grand adventure; it's the best of both worlds, since I get to have a crazy new experience and yet still come home to all my friends and my apartment and everything when I'm done. So yeah, I'm excited...watch this space for more updates as the time of departure approaches. My first adventure is getting all my shots and malaria pills on Tuesday...I can't wait!!

In other news, Iowa State beat Minnesota in the NCAA tournament today; I had fun watching the game with my mom, and she was v. happy that they won. I think they'll have a great team next year, since with the exception of their biggest player, all of their main players are freshmen or sophomores. This slightly mitigates the disaster they experienced in 2001, when they became only the fourth 2-seed to ever lose the first-round game against a 15-seed (ISU vs. Hampton College; I watched the end of it in Stern latenight, and apparently made a spectacle of myself, since most people were cheering for the underdog, of course). So, that was great too; all in all, my trip home thus far has been wonderful. It was completely fortuitous that I came home this weekend; I got my tickets a month ago, long before I knew about India, but it was nice that I was able to tell all of my relatives in person.

Happy spring break, for those of you still in school!

we'll float on, good news is on the way

I slept until noon today, which was absolutely wonderful. My mother made me kraft mac and cheese and hot dogs for lunch, which is a great meal for watching the first day of the ncaa tournament. I watched basketball the rest of the afternoon, had a nice long chat with Emily on the phone, and then had dinner (roast beef and potatoes, very midwestern). I followed dinner with more basketball, watched the news, and then surfed the net for awhile before writing in my blog. All in all, a v. unproductive day...I'm glad that I'm in a period of enforced idleness, since I can't clean my room or do work or run errands or anything else while I'm here.

I'm sad that I'm not going to Coachella this year, but that's the way things go; the main acts are Coldplay and Nine Inch Nails, and I'm not a fan of either (and have already seen Coldplay in concert, in a live show that I found to be one of the least enjoyable of my entire life, although I had fun with the group I went with, right up until the point when Adit started elbowing his way through the crowd and ran away with all our stuff, and we had to tackle him with a blanket to prevent open mob warfare from trying to kill him...but that was years ago, and we're all so much more mature now). And anyway, I had such a great time last year that it's hard to believe that this year would be better, unless the bands were equally/more enjoyable; also, since we learned from last time, we wouldn't have fun dying in the sun or relaxing in the freezer section of a supermarket, and that means we'd have more conventional, more boring fun instead.

But, I may try to go to Vegas in April, and I have a multitude of fun, entertaining plans in the works to make the next month or so the best month ever. More details later--but if you're excited about beach barbecues, screenings of terrible movies, Loro special dinner, outlet shopping, tequila, the long-awaited housewarming party, a tea party, or even just some good ol' VH1, let me know and I'll keep you informed. I haven't gone on a spurt of planning a whole bunch of activities in a long time, and it's time to immerse myself in the social whirl. Oh, and maybe I'll write my romance novel too. But that's a topic for another day.

'it's more fun than converting virgins!'

Surprise! I'm in Iowa. I got on a plane last night shortly after writing my most recent post, and flew into Dallas around 6am CST this morning. I got into Des Moines around 10am, and my brother picked me up. We got home around noon, and we very much surprised my parents, who were luckily both home. Also luckily, my father had decided not to buy last-minute tickets to San Diego, so he will actually be home this weekend. Yay! I came home to surprise my parents for their 25th anniversary next week, and since my brother's home on spring break, it's a perfect little mini-vacation.

The quote in the title bar, by the way, is my father's opinion on the joys of introducing Russians to peanut butter. I had mentioned how I wanted to go on the trans-Siberian railroad someday, and he said that the 24-hour train ride he took east of Moscow once was one of the most interesting/entertaining things he's done, and watching people try to eat peanut butter when they'd never had it before was apparently vastly amusing.

So I got home, and we went out to lunch at the local tavern, which isn't much to look at (it's in the back of the American Legion building), but serves great, v. cheap food (my parents and brother all got the lunch special--hot beef sandwich w/mashed potatoes, chocolate cake, and tea/coffee--for $4, while I got a cheeseburger and cheeseballs for less than $5). It definitely isn't as scary for me as dim sum, but I could see where the ambience might scare off some of my more sophisticated friends. I took a nap in the afternoon, we had dinner, and sat around the table discussing things as we usually do. It's nice to be home, albeit briefly, since I'm flying back to California on Sunday.

Anyway, I should go to bed...the time change always wreaks havoc, since I don't want to wake up here until noon, and by then I've already wasted half the day. So, it's off to bed with me!

it takes my pain away

I got my new glasses today! They are dark and rectangular, and more stylish than is my wont, but I like them. The only problem is that they are very small, and so I'm a little disoriented when I look around in them; I can see really well through the lenses, but all around them is the problem. However, I really like them, so I'm trying to break them in.

Anyway, I'm watching 'Sex and the City' with Terry and Claudia, which is v. relaxing if not v. productive. I have tons of work to do, but it's not happening; I'm trying to remember the importance of taking breaks on occasion. So, time to put the computer away, stare straight through the center of my glasses, and try not to have my eyes fall out :)

my shallow heart's the only thing that's beating

Wheeeeee. I've gone out for meals endlessly the past few days. Tonight, I had dinner with Tammy, Shedletsky and Claudia at Tamarine in Palo Alto; it felt very grown up, since we had dinner late (we got there just before they stopped seating at nine p.m.), I was wearing my 'professional' clothes (pinstriped pants and a subtle light pink sweater), we were able to successfully keep our laughter soft despite repeated references to sex, drugs, and the grunting noise made by the sherpa in Zoolander during the orgy scene, and the food was more expensive than I usually partake in on a Monday night (we had prawns, scallops, chicken skewers, and this surprisingly great soup w/wontons and coconut milk). Then, I went over to Ritu's for awhile, since I haven't seen her for ages.

So, the weekend. Friday night I had In-n-Out with Claudia, then watched basketball w/Terry and two of her v. amusing former residents. Saturday, I got my oil changed and my tires rotated (yay for industriousness), then had a late lunch with John, and then went out to dinner for Tammy's birthday (Gordon Biersch, mmm), and then ditched Tammy (badly done on our part, it was a spur-of-the-moment thing) to get ice cream w/Claude, Shedletsky and Michael at the Creamery. It was great fun because we realized we looked like we were on a v. mismatched double date (Claude and I were both wearing skirts/cute shoes, and the boys were wearing the traditional techie uniform). Also, I got to share an ice cream sundae w/Michael, and so there were numerous dirty references to cherries, and to hooking up, and to things that happened on the Loro ski trip (not that I hooked up with anyone on the ski trip, and that's especially important to point out to my dear parents, who read this religiously).

Then, we came back to my apartment, and I got to take Shedletsky's orange-mocha-frappucino-cherry, and by that I mean show him 'Zoolander' for the first time. It's fantastic to watch the movie w/someone who hasn't seen it, which is increasinly hard since I think just about all of my friends have seen it at least five times. Sunday, the dim sum club played the game, and we sat at dim sum from around 11 to 2:30. It was my turn, and I lucked out w/a scallop dumpling that I actually really liked. I sat around for a bit when we got home, went to Borders w/Claude and picked up two new romance novels (one of which I stayed up late and finished last night), then had a birthday dinner for Angela at a Thai place in Mountain View.

So as you can see, I'm quite the social butterfly. I intend to have an awesome April--beach trips, lots of dim sum, a housewarming party, Loro special dinner, etc., etc. Yay for socializing!

And for those of you who read romance novels and/or Jane Austen, I highly recommend Georgette Heyer's 'The Masqueraders'. She basically started the Regency genre, writing from the 1920s to the 1970s. This particular book involves two siblings who are swept up into their father's intrigues and so, to survive, switch sexes; so, Robin becomes Kate, and Prudence becomes Peter. It's so great, because they of course become friends with people whom they end up falling in love with, and then it's a huge mystery how it will all play out. Their father is fantastic--completely conniving, and so overbearingly confident in his own genius that he's just hysterical. There is no sex, for those of you who read romance novels for that, but the story is amusing and her dialogue is *fantastic*. You know that they have to be good, since Harlequin has started republishing most of her books, and romance novels typically don't have a 90-year lifespan.

Okay, time for bed!

like indecision to call you and hear your voice of treason...will you come home and stop this pain tonight?

I'm freaking exhausted. I stayed home sick from work yesterday, since I felt like vomiting (and by that I mean that I was nauseous, not just that I felt like doing some vomiting--that sounds like I 'felt like shopping' or something). But even though I was sick, I still worked from 11:30am to 11:30pm, with a couple of breaks to eat some oatmeal, make an eye doctor's appointment, etc. It was nice to work in my pajamas, though, so it wasn't all bad. Then I had to be at work at eight this morning for a conference call--but I rebelled and came home at six, and I took a bubble bath and read a few chapters of a romance novel. That was v. relaxing. Then, Claudia and I went to Mountain View and had coffee/cake with Vidya at Books, Inc.; the cake that Vidya got really sucked, so we left and got Verde milk tea instead. Vidya and Claudia got toast, which amused me for some reason. And now, me and my roommates are watching the Daily Show, and I think I'm going to go to bed. However, Jon Stewart just said 'piz-eace in the mid-iz-east', which I thought was funny.

Anyway, despite my exhaustion, life's good. I had fun seeing Vidya, and I love my apartment. I went to the eye doctor today (which means I probably looked like I was on drugs at work, since I came back from a long lunch w/chalupas from Taco Bell and completely blown pupils), and I ordered a new pair of glasses that I should get next week. I'm excited by that, since I never wear my glasses because I got them in high school and don't really like them; they also give me a headache because the prescription is old. So maybe I will look smart and intellectual with my new glasses, which will make David love me...er, I mean, I'm not that shallow [for those of you not in the know; David is one of the top people at the dim sum restaurant--and I want to seduce him into making us the pan-fried scallops with spicy sea salt that they used to have at the Palo Alto branch].

Hmm, I think I sound rather self-absorbed lately, mainly because I have nothing exciting to share, and so I end up talking about the minutiae of my life. I always talk about minutiae, but it feels stupider right now because there are much larger things that I'm not writing about. Anyway, goodnight! Good luck with deadweek, for those of you who are in it; and happy birthday to Tammy!

you go to sleep dreaming how you would be a different kind if you thought you could...but you come awake the way you are instead

I've been going crazy with zee shopping lately; ever since my review, in which I was encouraged to dress for a leadership position if that's what I want (and who knows what I want, I certainly don't), I have given myself carte blanche to buy obscene amounts of clothing. However, I have been very good in the sense that I haven't bought any shoes (oh yeah, I lied, a got a pair of sedate but still shiny gold sandals on Tuesday, but they were a great buy). Today, I went to Valley Fair, and came back w/two skirts, a pair of tan pants w/pink pinstripes, a sweater, and seven shirts. I only intended to buy five shirts, but then I found a skirt at Banana Republic that was cute but also...*blue*. Which is very difficult, since I don't wear blue and found myself at a loss as to how I would insert a blue skirt into my wardrobe. The answer, obviously, was to buy two blue shirts (one navy, one a brighter sky blue) to go with the skirt so that I can wear it twice in two seemingly completely different outfits. I am pleased that the answer didn't involve me putting the skirt back on the rack, because I like it despite its blueness.

So unless I miscalculate, after my week-long shopping spree, I now have five new pairs of pants, four new skirts, and several new tops. Yay. And I'm spent! I'm done shopping for awhile now, since I really don't like shopping all that much (although I would like a couple more pairs of shoes, since my extensive shoe collection tends more toward the sneakers-and-flip-flops side of the spectrum, rather than the high-heels-and-ballet-flats side that my new purchases require). Shoe shopping, however, is something I am always willing to do, so that will still happen in the near- to mid-future. And with all these purchases, I can now go at least two weeks at a time without wearing the same pants/skirts twice, and still look dressy (aka 'professional'). That makes me happy.

In other news, the weekend was pretty uneventful. I intended to start writing again tonight (after realizing that I was watching VH1's 'The Fabulous Lives of Hollywood's It Girls' for about the tenth time, and shutting it off in disgust), but then Claudia got home and I got distracted. However, I did read a book on Regency London on Friday night (I'm lame), which was nice. I also had tasty dim sum, and saw Ritu, although neither of those activities were as fun as they could have been since it felt too early to be awake, and the sunniness of the day was not exactly matched by the sunniness of anyone I saw. But, Terry went w/me when I took Ritu to the airport, and we hung out at Peter's Cafe in Millbrae while waiting for Claude and the gang to show up for dim sum--and Peter's Cafe was surprisingly good, despite the fact that we make fun of it nearly every time we drive past it on the way to dim sum. It's open twenty-four hours, they made a great mocha, and the french toast that Terry and I split was really really good. So, someday in the future the dim sum group may have to go there at four a.m. and hang out for a few hours until dim sum opens.

I need to figure out what I'm doing with my life, but I continue to put it off. Nothing like procrastinating like crazy--my room still isn't clean, I should have seen an eye doctor and a dentist several months ago, I've calculated my taxes but haven't bothered to file them, and the list of important things left undone goes on and on and on. To my credit, I did do laundry last night, which was key since I was about to run out of underwear--I'm not above digging a shirt out of the laundry pile if I know I didn't sweat in it the first time I wore it, and I'll sometimes wear jeans eight or ten times before I wash them, but I insist on clean underwear, so they're the limiting reagent in my wardrobe.

Wow, I've talked a lot about clothes tonight. I'm turning into such a girl. Yes, I know, I wear pink, and my femaleness is pretty obvious, but I typically don't talk about clothes all the time. Really, I'm just rambling, but at least I'm rambling about something fun rather than something depressing. So anyway, time for bed!

smile like you mean it

Work has been hectic, to say the least, and I have about ten hours of stuff to do this weekend that I would prefer to forget about. For those of you whom I've not been in contact with, I apologize; I'm so tired when I get home from work that I don't want to do *anything*.

In addition, I got my performance review for last quarter at the end of last week, and one of the suggestions for improvement was to dress up more so that I could assert myself as more of a leader. To this end, I went shopping on both Monday and Tuesday night so that I would have more 'business casual' clothes to wear to work. So, I now own pinstriped pants, and a cream-colored wool skirt, and a pretty pink sweater that is a sedate shade of pink, rather than a blinding shade of pink, and a pair of peach pants that would be capris on a normal girl but instead fit me just right without requiring annoying hemming. I have also been blow-drying my hair, and applying my makeup in a subtle and professional manner. However, today it was raining, I played DDR with Claude in the morning and so was running late, and then we were both drying our hair at the same time and so blew a fuse. Because of all those annoyances, I wore sneakers and jeans to work--and I did feel more slovenly than I had all week, so maybe dressing up is a good thing. So, more shopping this weekend? Perhaps--although doing laundry is also key, so that I can wear all of the clothes that I already have.

So, last Saturday, I bought an awesome couch and loveseat after eating dim sum; they were delivered on Tuesday, and I am in love. They are overstuffed, and covered in sage-green microfiber (so it feels like suede)--I'm not a fan of sage green, but it really works in the beige-and-cream color scheme of the apartment, and the couches are super-comfy. Yay for new furniture! The place is starting to look like it might possibly be inhabited by grownups, someday.

Sunday was Claude's birthday party, which wasn't the most exciting birthday party known to man, but it was still very entertaining. I had to work late on Monday, and then go shopping, and I also shopped Tuesday night. Wednesday night, I had to stay late at work again, then hung out with Tammy. Yesterday, I had Shari, Greg and Julie over for dinner; we made fajitas, and Claudia pressed the leftover chocolate fondue on them, and a good time was had by all. I really just like dinner parties, and I don't care who I'm feeding as long as I have the opportunity to do it, so I will have to plan more such gatherings in the future. Today, I worked, came home, ate a peanut butter and jelly sammich, and then read 'Regency London' while doing some desultory watching of the History Channel. The book wasn't entirely useful for my needs, since it spent much more time on architecture than it did on society, but it was still interesting.

Tomorrow, I'm taking Ritu to the airport, then hanging out someplace around South San Francisco/Millbrae while waiting for the kids to drive up and have dim sum with me. Then, perhaps we're going shopping for a bed frame for Claudia...and then I will be working furiously in an attempt to finish my work so that I can enjoy Sunday.

I feel like I'm retarded when it comes to my job; at the end of the day, I never expected that I'd end up in business, and I would still like to be a novelist, but despite all that I seem to be ridiculously ambitious while I'm employed, to the point that I'm changing my entire wardrobe just to ensure that my level of responsibility continues to increase. And yet, if that happens, I'll just have even more work to do, which seems ridiculous. Ah well, c'est la vie, and I have a passion for the role that I have despite the fact that I'm not enamored with corporate culture in general.

So, I'm tired, overworked, I think I'm getting sick, I haven't written anything in my romance novel, my room is a complete wreck, I need to clean my bathroom, and I have about five loads of laundry sitting in my closet. And yet, the fact that I'm always so strapped for time is, I think, a good thing--it keeps me from dwelling on those-things-which-must-not-be-named, and it ensures that I seize the small amusements where I can, rather than moping because something grand and adventurous is not occurring. Someday I would like to return to grand and adventurous (or at least moody and 'artistic'), but for now I'm happy where I am.