May 2008

End of the week. Megan comes in the morning. My house is clean and my laundry is all folded. And I have watched like three Friday Night Lights in a row. It’s a good day.

So the other day Jon was listening to some music on MySpace the other day so I was thinking about how maybe I should utilize my old barely used MySpace account a little more.

(warning: MySpace rant below)

Now I am not sure who all uses MySpace. I’m sure there are normal and very cool people hiding in the masses of Second life players and thirteen year olds. I mean seriously am I just a Facebook snob or what? First, you have to basically be a computer hacker to be able to change your profile page. And with all the ads vomited all over the place I can’t really tell how to even look at my own profile. Plus what kind of social networking site lets you have whatever name you want on your account. I mean how do I tell if Big Boob Zombie Princess 9576 is my friend from highschool or some crazy stalker? Ok I’m a Facebook snob but I just consider it classier, more modern, and I can do my stalking within the respectful framework of nonpersonalized pages (I mean seriously it is so annoying that you can have dungeons and dragons background and blasting Ashlee Simpson on your page and all that crap). Plus what kind of site asks for your “body type” as one of its standard “About me” sections? Sleazy. Or as TJ and I might say … beezy.

(end rant)

So I realized today that it is a good thing that I do not play more video games. Don’t get me wrong – I love me some Nintendo NES. Especially sophomore year when I pretty much wasted my life away to beat Level 19 of Tetris (which I did, first of anyone, and I pretty much rock). But I realized today how sometimes video games can ruin real life. Case in point: today I was driving down the road rocking out in the Kia and lo and behold I Love Rock and Roll came on 96.5 (I don’t quite consider that light rock but whatever). So I turned it up and tried to enjoy and wouldn’t you know it all I could think about were the guitar chords on Guitar Hero. And how there’s the one point where it goes a little off beat (“and dance with me” – right into – “I love rock and roll”) so you have to be quick on the uptake. Ruined. It is no longer simply the end of the night drunken Logan’s song. Thank goodness all my NES games are from the 80s and the songs sound about as modern as the ringtones on my first Motorola. Or to be honest on my current phone. Seriously do they just put shitty ringtones on phones now so you have to buy them? Anyway that’s a whole other rant.

Ok this is turning into one of “those blog posts” that Jon complains about that just stretch on and on so I’m ending it here and going to sleep. Wine night tomorrow with my ladies! And Megan will be here and then Becca. There’s nothing better than best friends.

Ok so I’m not quite living beyond my means. It is strange though how every once in awhile I’ll have those weeks where I stress about finances. I think it might be a sad excuse to play around with my Excel spreadsheet budget or perhaps a reflection of the gas station on the corner now being at $4.27 a gallon. Either way I spent this morning cringing every time CNN flashed another “economy going down the tubes” story.

Sadly enough I also spent the day doing some work with one of our clients the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. You would think that reading about people who have dealt with a serious life-threatening disease or have lost people to the disease would make me lighten up a bit (well at least I have my health) but alas I am apparently self-centered.

So what better way than to reflect on how I am blessed financially and how, despite my stepdad’s initial worries, I have managed to make it (almost) a year in one of the most expensive places in the country without living on the streets. Plus I in the mood for bullets:

• I paid off my student loan in full in November. So what if it was only $4,000 I still managed to pay it off without having to pay any interest.
• I pay my rent, car payment, insurance, bills, and my credit card bill in full every month.
• I have a 401K that let’s just say is already looking pretty nice. Thank you matching employer contribution.
• I saved the majority of my tax refund and my stimulus plan (minus that bit that went to Costa Rica and what the ticos stole but yanno).
• I don’t stress so much about money that I miss out on dinner dates with friends or driving across town for something even with the cost of gas.
• I manage to (most of the time) be a cheerful giver. Plus I get a set of address labels every week from a different charity so they must think I have the big bucks.

So from there I think I can set some goals for from now until the end of the year:

• Double my savings by the end of 2008. Ok a big but not huge goal (I mean I do still live in SF so my savings are … meager). Pretty reasonable if I tighten up the budget.
• Spend less on groceries. Ok you’re right Jon, I don’t need Rainbow Grocery. Except maybe for eggs. Except for $6 a dozen I should just buy my own chicken and then I can treat it as well as I want.
• Keep up more with the “actuals” on my budget spreadsheet. Take a hint from Mrs. Beck and her receipt saving and actually file them too instead of just shoving them in a large envelope like I do currently.
• Trust more. Worry less. Sing Mom’s “Don’t be a doubting Thomas” song.

Oh and resolve to stick to a list when I go to Target. Seriously that place is going to be the death of me. They take up almost as much of my money as Chevron/Shell/ARCO/other evil gas companies (just kidding Becca I know the speech on how it isn’t the gas companies fault).

Speaking of Sarah Beck I want to throw a little shout out of encouragement – YAY you started to blog! In the name of privacy you aren’t going on the links list but I thought it was definitely worth mentioning that I am super excited to now how one more avenue of keeping up with your busy life!

To enjoy the sunshine (number one on the FB interest list … take note California) Glory and Jon and I are headed out to Fort Funston. Which I just told Anneliese so now when she reads this it will be backward of normal where she usually finds out something in my blog first and then I go to tell her and she is totally bored and already knows. Ha take that!

I found this card today my mom sent me that reads:

“Dear Animal-cracker people:

I did not receive my full complement of zoological shapes in my most recent purchase of your crackers. Notably missing are: the deer, the beaver, and the dingo (for which I only received the head).

Please Advise.”

Love it.

I’m not sure if Angie (my co-worker) is ever going to read my blog. She said one time that she found it online because she has an alert set to show up whenever Brakeley Briscoe is mentioned on another site. That’s creepy Angie. Anyway in hopes that she is reading this I would like to take the time to say that her and I pretty much were sharing a brain in our Foundation Center class today.

So the guy teaching the class (who was a bit boring p.s. and I would have been totally bummed if it weren’t for the fact that we got a free book, despite that it is also probably 700 pages of boring but still) was talking about the Mission statement for the San Francisco Zoo. Now me, being me, was of course thinking the total inappropriate comments along the lines of “to advance the interaction between people and animals … literally” and, well, worse. Thankfully I was saved when the guy started talking about them raising the money and Angie wrote the note on her page “Maybe they should have used some of the money for a new tiger fence” (ok I’m paraphrasing). Such low blow humor. Plus then there was this slide and below the “You are not alone” she wrote “Yes you are”. Seriously Angie you crack me up. You will be receiving a Someecard tomorrow to summarize.

And can you tell I was a little bored, especially by the second presentation. Thank you glittery red pen I found at work.

Did some work on my CASA case this afternoon and then just about immediately afterward my CASA supervisor called me to check in. She must have a radar of when I have updates for her.

Ok well off to church with TJ. I think Ash Cloud is going too so it will be a regular party. I’m been feeling a little spiritually low lately so I think that tonight will be really good to just spend some time being still and quiet.

IKEA this afternoon with my favorite Swede Heléne. Ok well technically unless you count her husband she’s the only full Swede I know but still. It’s always fun going with her cause no doubt she always manages to find another Swede in the store with whom to speak Swedish and then I get to listen. Plus I like to bug her with questions like “what does Svit mean” and complain that they must not drink very much in Sweden because the water glasses at IKEA fit like 1/2 a cup of liquid. Plus all the picture frames are in in metric system measurements so they fit pictures that are like 4 and 2/3 by 6 and 1/3 … which basically means my pictures either look ghetto with extra space of someone’s head gets cut off. I did manage to frame a picture of Glory though so now I am that creepy lady with a picture of her dog in her room. Typical.

Anyway so I got two chairs (yay) and a set of new wine glasses and a set of dishes. The old dishes I somehow managed to have four plates and only two bowls left. And three wine glasses. Completely unacceptable so I had to update. We might not have money to be all big baller out here in SF but I can certainly have the $25 18 piece dish set and 4 wine glasses, thank you very much. Megan and B – I am ready for you. Except I think I need to get some silverware cause I’m pretty sure I only have 2 forks left. Where the hell do all of these things go?

Well I’ve set a new rule for myself to try to be in bed by 9:30 so I guess this is the end of the road tonight. Tomorrow’s hump day! Thank you four days weeks.

Well that was quick. Guess I turned in to a “normal” blogger like Jon says and managed to not write every day. I kinda missed it though so I’m looking forward to getting back into my routine.

As for now it is bedtime so all I will say is Happy Birthday Jon! And happy 4 day week for the week now for the rest of us. Megan comes on Saturday and then Becca the Thursday after! Yay!

To echo Lacey’s Someecard on her blog (but not her beautiful weather post) I am in a mood to complain complain complain about the weather today. Plus I am really bummed because our ROCK hiking got canceled. Probably for the best since I still am feeling sick and got exhausted just walking Glory around the block but I am still bummed. Eric’s ARRH Matey Pirate’s Cove hiking got me excited!

So looks like it’s back to bed for awhile and then maybe taking on the ambitious task of staining my kitchen table. Maybe I’ll find an American flag for my mom and can FedEx it her way.

Here’s to hoping there’s some Man vs. Wild on. Oh Bear.

Good news – feeling a little bit better with the cold. I had some much needed rest last night and will get to sleep in until like 8 or 8:30 tomorrow morning (big news for me) so that will be wonderful. Better news – I had a great evening eating soup, drinking wine, and chatting with Sarah. I learned so much about her and life and myself. I also learned that I should get seat cushions for my kitchen chairs, but that is another story.

I’ve been really wrestling so much this week with determining what I want from life. Not only what I want to get but what I want to give. I think I have been going about it in a bit of the wrong way in that I have been looking to where I want to go and not spending enough time really looking at where I am and how I should grow on that. I think that something Sarah said tonight really hit home for me that the strengths that I have, even those that I consider weaknesses, are characteristics that I have been blessed with and that I should see are ways in which I can bless others. So often I spend time thinking of how to compensate for what I may consider shortcomings. I think I am starting to understand that instead maybe I should see how to take those characteristics and make them into strengths for whatever it is that I plan to contribute to this world.

All in all between this evenings conversations and a great, albeit less time than we would have liked I’m sure, chat with my Aunt today I have had a very stress relieving and mind opening end to the week. Plus I had a good laugh with the fact that one of our consultants accidentally wrote “anally” into a proposal instead of “annually” (told you I’d write about it Angie) and Heléne brought me a mocha from Starbucks to begin my day.

On that note it’s kinda funny because yesterday I was feeling kinda down on the fact that I am sick and didn’t have my mom to take care of me. I’m not quite sure why I was feeling like that since I have been in college for the past four years before living here so it’s not like I ran home every time I had a cold anyway. Regardless, it was so nice then because today Heléne brought me a Starbucks, I had a great Target run and Friday Night Lights with Jon, a soup session with Sarah, and so many other little things all day with phone calls and emails (and Someecards) that really reminded me that even though I don’t get to snuggle into my mom’s arms and eat chicken noodle soup (although don’t worry mom that is still my #1 sick-time craving) I still really have people to get me through. Plus I even allowed myself a little Gchat time since I hadn’t caught TJ online like all week. Romantic movie night here we come.

Well I better get some rest since my ROCK kids and Pirate’s Cove await in the morning and no way I can be sick and/or tired and survive that! Snuggle time with Glory

I hate having a cold. Thanks dirty airplane. At least it’s an excuse to eat the cranberry cough drops I’ve had waiting to be opened for the past two months. And p.s. even if tea is supposed to help a sore throat it kinda sucks that it doesn’t contain more caffeine. I’m not complaining though; at least I don’t have what my sister does. Feel better soon Kat!

Triple date at Pizza Orgasmica tonight (“the original sin”) with N&A and N&S (Jon missed the memo about having a name that starts with N). Browsing my options I was thinking of going for The Virgin, Kama Sutra, or Aphrodite. The Virgin – cheeseless and lots of tomato? Not sure if I like the visual. I wonder though – if I create my own orgasmica do I get to name it too? Olive ‘chokes n’ palms? There’s a little S&M pizza for you. Here’s to hoping they have the other original sin – caffeine or beer – cause I am definitely in need of one of the other.

Cracked up for about an hour at work this morning reading all the back logged entries in Vershanna’s blog. As the homometer might say … fahbulous fahbulous fahbulous. Vshan you definitely made the blog link list on the side.

You can send me this someecard whenever you wish (or as soon as you get the chance – seriously). My favorite is your picture of Iman with the red arrows. Solid.

I’m in a blah mood … probably caught something from the airplane. According to Dan Savage the entirety of an airplane is covered in fecal matter so it’s likely I’ve got a bit of a cold. Time for some trashy tv and cuddling with Gdog.

Today I went to Tanforan after work to shop around for #1 a present for Jon’s birthday and #2 books for myself from Barnes and Noble (what can I say – I’m selfish and can’t possibly go to the mall without looking at something for myself too). Needless to say I didn’t buy a damn thing so the search continues.

It did leave me with a good story though so not a trip that was completed wasted. I was shopping around in Hollister. In general I have mixed feelings about that store; I love it because they have good sales sometimes but I hate it because everything is made for a 14 year old. So while browsing the sales girl came up to me and started to say something and then she stopped and asked “oh wait are you over 17 years old?” I mean seriously? I know I wear t-shirts and no makeup to work but I was thinking I could pass for over 16 at least. She then proceeded to ask me if I was looking for a job. Needless to say, although I might actually be able to make more money there, I told her politely that I was uninterested. I’ve got too much homework and with prom coming up and all …. ha anyway. I’m going with the Aunt Jeanne excuse that it must have been because my hair was in a ponytail and I had no makeup on (remember that when Mom?) From now on it will be that much more tempting to buy the student rate for movie tickets.

Since I refrained from any book purchases I went ahead and gave myself permission to do some iTunes downloading. Now this will likely be complete blasphemy against all those MJ fans but I downloaded the Fall Out Boy/John Mayer remake of Beat It and am pretty sure I like it even better. Between that and liking Britney’s My Prerogative I’m pretty sure it is apparent that I am a complete slap in the face to snobs in the music industry. Also got some Matt Nathanson, new Counting Crows, Panic! (thanks Megan for the inspiration), and my R&B fix with some Leona Lewis. Now it’s about what to remove from my iPod so all this new stuff fits on there. Another point in the column of why to get an iPhone in the fall (I’m so typical).

So I’m going to finally get a chance to sit down and talk a bit with Tim Snyder tomorrow morning. You know that whole “I’m going to talk to one person a week and use these great resources around me” idea? Well it’s good in theory but poor in practice due to the fact that the people I want to chat with don’t exactly have free schedules. I’m thinking maybe two a month is a better goal. I also got some great input from my Mom which was completely invaluable. It is amazing how important it is to get people’s opinions who know you best about what you really are good at and where you might fit best as opposed to trusting only yourself. I guess that is basically just an invitation for everyone’s opinion, which is likely dangerous but great at the same time.

Since as most people probably know California has recently struck down the ban on gay marriage I thought it was appropriate to take a look at what we have in store for us for the future. Hence the Daily Show clip.

All I can say is the Homometer part at the end is hil-arious. Love it. Thanks for the perspective Jon Stewart.

On that note it’s off to take a shower and finish my Dan Savage book. Homometer reading? FAAAHB-U-LOUS!