the angel from my nightmare

The aftermath of my party was admittedly not quite as fun as the party itself, but that's to be expected of any party that consists almost entirely of irish car bombs. I woke up around noon (which isn't absurdly late considering that I went to bed at 4:30), and then Claudia and I had dim sum for the final time before I leave. I was completely stuffed by the end of it, since we ordered all the old favorites--egg custard buns, rice noodles stuffed with pork, deep fried shrimp with mayonnaise, har gar (aka tasty shrimp families), deep fried shrimp in bean curd, and baked bbq pork pastries. That's a lot of food for two people, especially when one person doesn't want to eat much and the other one has a raging hangover, but we pushed through to victory.

I ran some errands after dim sum, although my dark sunglasses really came in handy to ward off the cruelly-sunny day; it was of course my luck that the sun was shining for the first time in two weeks on precisely the day that I would have chosen rain. Anyway, I dropped a purse off at a cobbler to get the strap repaired, then went to the mall to stock up on makeup and moisturizer before my trip. I got the *best* free sample set at Lancome; the gift contained minis of all of my favorite things (a 4-color eyeshadow set of dusty pinks and blacks, my favorite pink lipstick, my favorite shiny lipgloss, and the best mascara in the world). I've never gotten a gift from them that ever contained anything that I would ever purchase on my own, and to get all of the things that I purchase frequently was amazing.

I made the mistake of reinstalling 'Civilization' yesterday, because I didn't want to pack, clean up (the apartment still smells vaguely of beer and pizza), or study for the foreign service exam. So, I got absolutely nothing done. But, Tammy came over for a couple of hours and rescued me briefly from my dorkiness. Thanks for that, Tammy, even if we didn't end up watching 'The Two Towers' like I know you secretly longed for.

Today, I saw 'V for Vendetta' with Zach. I really liked it, but I am inclined to like any movie that promises vengeance, retribution, and effective civilian revolt in the face of totalitarianism. The likelihood that the plot would have worked was implausible at best, but the effects were good and I really like the voice of Hugo Weaving (known for his roles as Agent Smith in 'The Matrix' and Elrond in 'The Lord of the Rings'--and so now he can sound both fair and menancing at the same time without even really trying, which is exactly what this part demanded). One word of advice to you, though--sell your Google stock and buy Dell. After another world war ravages the earth, and after a mysterious virus wipes out most of America (to the point that America is sending offerings of wheat and tobacco to England in a desperate plea for medicines), Google is nowhere to be found on the English governments' computers--but they are using Dell monitors. Who knew that Dell would still be around in 2020? I certainly didn't, but I'm about to get a lot smarter about my investments.

I only have five-ish days left in California, a fact that my mind is shying away from. Luckily I don't have too much to do--I need to do laundry, and I need to pack up my car and take the rest of my stuff to storage, and I need to change my oil, and of course see ten or twenty people, but that's all pretty standard for me, so I think I'll handle it well. I'm looking forward to my trip back across the Great American West, and to my brief vacation...but two weeks from now, I'll be going into the Dublin office for the first time. Scary! Now, though, I need to sleep.