Four Seeing

The week's been rather surreal, and I feel like it's just beginning. It makes up for last weekend's canceled plans and bad cold.

Yesterday, I got a shot of adrenaline at work by some big news, and followed it up by managing to snag a pass to the Oracle OpenWorld 2011 Customer Appreciation Event. I had hesitated a moment when the offer was up in the air — I've been sick after all, and the event was supposed to last until 1 a.m., on a tiny windswept island in the middle of the San Francisco Bay — but Elsie gave me a look like I was being stupid at giving up the chance, so I went for it.

Because really, how often do you get to see Sting, Tom Petty and The English Beat for free? (Well, free except for the cost of working for a corporation.)

Elsie already had her ticket, and we found out Kasey was also going with another friend, so we joined up and headed over to Treasure Island together.

You could have called the event a bit decadent. Free beer, wine and soda were available all over the grounds, and the selection of free food was crazy. I would have been happy with the free hot dogs we saw near the entrance, but we never got to try them because of all the other stuff. I mean, there was a pig roasting on a spit, for heaven's sake.



It probably wasn't kosher. Oh, well.



The live shows were all amazing, and you could hear the music from anywhere within the designated event area. So we spent a lot of time running around, picking up free drinks between playing carnival games (again, for free), trying to dragon-jack innocent passersby, and generally having a blast.

The view from the top of the Ferris Wheel:


Bonus: crossing Treasure Island off the Bucket List.

This coming weekend is almost as booked as the last one was supposed to be. I have tomorrow off, and plan on doing a Big Grown-Up Thing: buying myself a new car. It's actually kind of traumatic for me to do this — I'm seriously attached to my current car (hey, if I can't have a boyfriend, kid, or pet, I have to have a car to love), and really hate to let her go. But it's time. She can't be trusted to go on road trips any longer, and that's really my favorite part about having a car in the first place, what makes the cost all worth it. A new car is also part of my tentative Master Plan, and I think I'm finally ready to do this, make a commitment. Practice for other Grown Up decisions to come down the road. We'll see how it goes.

Also lined up for the weekend is a sisterly birthday party, another family event, and possibly seeing some more live music at Yoshi's.