I had two apocalyptic dreams last night, and woke up in time for an earthquake. If that's not the world telling me to get a move and a shake on, I don't know what is.
The dreams were kind of interesting, actually — scary when I woke up out of them, but thinking back not so horrific. In the first, the human population had been decimated by some disaster, and, on the island of Manhattan, was split into two factions. I somehow was one of the leaders of one faction, and was trying my darnedest to convince the leaders of the other faction that it would be best for humanity to join together to the cause of survival. My persuasion techniques included rhetorical argument, an appeal to common sense, and womanly wiles. I had to convince all the leaders before the conflict escalated into a full-out war ... as much of a war as an endangered race of beings could have.
In the second dream, we were cleaning out and packing up the house in anticipation of the next morning, when "they" would come pick us up with large buses and take us away. (Side note: whenever I dream about my "home", it's usually the house my parents currently live in, and which I lived in during middle and high school, but always on the street we lived on when I was in elementary school. Not sure what that means.) My dog Chloe was there — in real life, she died 10 months ago — and after the cleaning, the entire neighborhood was at the bar partying it up like there was no tomorrow. Probably because none of us expected to be alive tomorrow. I made a goodbye call to my best friend, who was really rather blasé that my world was about to end. I woke up just as the white (yellow? I don't exactly remember) buses pulled up into the cul-de-sac, and the call was out for us to get on them.
All sorts of surreal.
In real life:
Bad thing that happened this week: I came home Monday evening to find burnt beans in my crockpot, instead of baked. Not enough liquid, I guess, but it was disappointing. What a waste of bacon.
(One) Good thing that happened this week: I came home today to find the photo prints I ordered last week had arrived. Now I just have to sort through them and put them into albums. The prints span over the last two or three years of my life, and I'd been wanting to print them up for a long time. Digital pictures are nice and all, but I feel like you don't get the same enjoyment from them as you do with an actual physical print. Call me old-fashioned, I guess.
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Monday, October 24, 2011
Baked Bleu
Rugby, I have found, is a very esoteric sport. Not so esoteric as, say, Australian Rules Football, which I watched for an entire hour once and still had no idea what anyone was doing.
The Rugby World Cup was this Saturday night/Sunday morning, and it was New Zealand v. France, and of course since I have one amie française and (through her) a ton of French acquaintances, I had to join them in the completely packed Kezar Pub to watch the game until three in the morning. The bar was full to capacity by about midnight, and the game didn't start until 1 a.m., so there was a lot of jostling and me making conversation by trying to find out the rules of the game. (Though I wish I'd had someone explain the scrum to me, which mostly seemed like the ultimate in grunting male display and sporty battle. Now I know: it's just like a hockey face-off. Because I can't watch any sport anymore without comparing it to hockey.)
Spoiler alert: the French lost. But only by one point, which even I can tell was pretty good considering everyone was expecting the frogs — sorry, Les Bleus — to have their asses handed to them. Though I could also tell that New Zealand — the "All Blacks". See? I'm getting okay at this understanding of other cultures/sports — was a better team, seeing as they had control of the ball most of the time.
At any rate, the lesson here is that best way to watch a sport you're unfamiliar with is to watch the World Cup version of it, if possible, in a bar packed with absolute fans of it. It was hard not to get caught up in the excitement, even for something I had absolutely no investment in. Heck, you could even have caught me chanting "Allez les Bleus!" with the best of them.
So that's the sports portion of my weekend. There was also a lot of culture, honest.
Friday evening after work I headed to the EXIT Theatre to see a play written by my friend Jeremy. I didn't tell him at the time, but I have to admit to you, Imaginary Internet Friends, that I almost cried at the end of his piece. It was witty and fun and poignant and sad. I'm reminded yet again that I have a profoundly talented friend, which both humbles me and makes me proud at the same time.
On Saturday, Jenny and I went to Treasure Island to participate in The Winery SF's Grape Stomping Event. There was less stomping of grapes than I'd expected, but lots more tasting of wine than expected, so it balanced out.
Surprisingly (to me), The Winery SF is not the only winery actually on Treasure Island. We decided to drive around the island a bit, since Jenny had never been there and I hardly have been, and we stumbled on a couple more wineries, one of which offered a free tasting. We actually bought bottles there, since we liked their wines better than The Winery's. Who knew?
And right now, my crockpot is stocked and starting up a batch of Baked Beans to cook all day while I'm at work. I've been craving these for a long time, looking forward to coming home to the smell tonight. And it's time now for me to go catch that bus to the office. Oh, Mondays ... why are you so Mondane? Hahaha, I crack myself up.
The Rugby World Cup was this Saturday night/Sunday morning, and it was New Zealand v. France, and of course since I have one amie française and (through her) a ton of French acquaintances, I had to join them in the completely packed Kezar Pub to watch the game until three in the morning. The bar was full to capacity by about midnight, and the game didn't start until 1 a.m., so there was a lot of jostling and me making conversation by trying to find out the rules of the game. (Though I wish I'd had someone explain the scrum to me, which mostly seemed like the ultimate in grunting male display and sporty battle. Now I know: it's just like a hockey face-off. Because I can't watch any sport anymore without comparing it to hockey.)
Spoiler alert: the French lost. But only by one point, which even I can tell was pretty good considering everyone was expecting the frogs — sorry, Les Bleus — to have their asses handed to them. Though I could also tell that New Zealand — the "All Blacks". See? I'm getting okay at this understanding of other cultures/sports — was a better team, seeing as they had control of the ball most of the time.
At any rate, the lesson here is that best way to watch a sport you're unfamiliar with is to watch the World Cup version of it, if possible, in a bar packed with absolute fans of it. It was hard not to get caught up in the excitement, even for something I had absolutely no investment in. Heck, you could even have caught me chanting "Allez les Bleus!" with the best of them.
So that's the sports portion of my weekend. There was also a lot of culture, honest.
Friday evening after work I headed to the EXIT Theatre to see a play written by my friend Jeremy. I didn't tell him at the time, but I have to admit to you, Imaginary Internet Friends, that I almost cried at the end of his piece. It was witty and fun and poignant and sad. I'm reminded yet again that I have a profoundly talented friend, which both humbles me and makes me proud at the same time.
On Saturday, Jenny and I went to Treasure Island to participate in The Winery SF's Grape Stomping Event. There was less stomping of grapes than I'd expected, but lots more tasting of wine than expected, so it balanced out.
Surprisingly (to me), The Winery SF is not the only winery actually on Treasure Island. We decided to drive around the island a bit, since Jenny had never been there and I hardly have been, and we stumbled on a couple more wineries, one of which offered a free tasting. We actually bought bottles there, since we liked their wines better than The Winery's. Who knew?
And right now, my crockpot is stocked and starting up a batch of Baked Beans to cook all day while I'm at work. I've been craving these for a long time, looking forward to coming home to the smell tonight. And it's time now for me to go catch that bus to the office. Oh, Mondays ... why are you so Mondane? Hahaha, I crack myself up.
Saturday, October 15, 2011
Giving Love a Bad Name
Walking through the Noe Valley Harvest Festival today, a bumblebee flew straight into my heart. Unfortunately, the bee was not as strong as my boobs, and bounced right off and onto the ground.
Trying to decide if that was nature, or fate, or whatever, trying to tell me something there. I mean, the aim was dead-on. It still kind of hurts a tiny bit when I think on it. It was like Cupid's Arrow ... except probably the exact opposite in effect. Or something.
In other news, I was digging through some old knitting projects this evening, trying to find something creative to do besides moping in front of Netflix, and stumbled on an old bucket list I made for myself back in 2007. It was inspired by that Day Zero Project that was all over LiveJournal back in ... well, 2007. It was intended to be a list of 101 things to do in 1,001 days. I only came up with 57 items, and they were supposed to be completed by March 28, 2010. Some of these things seem just ridiculous now. Some are goals I still have. Only 12 actually got done at some point.
I'm sharing the list below, for your viewing pleasure and general amusement. Items in green are things I've actually accomplished by this point.
Trying to decide if that was nature, or fate, or whatever, trying to tell me something there. I mean, the aim was dead-on. It still kind of hurts a tiny bit when I think on it. It was like Cupid's Arrow ... except probably the exact opposite in effect. Or something.
In other news, I was digging through some old knitting projects this evening, trying to find something creative to do besides moping in front of Netflix, and stumbled on an old bucket list I made for myself back in 2007. It was inspired by that Day Zero Project that was all over LiveJournal back in ... well, 2007. It was intended to be a list of 101 things to do in 1,001 days. I only came up with 57 items, and they were supposed to be completed by March 28, 2010. Some of these things seem just ridiculous now. Some are goals I still have. Only 12 actually got done at some point.
I'm sharing the list below, for your viewing pleasure and general amusement. Items in green are things I've actually accomplished by this point.
- Visit a state I've never been to before. (Ohio.)
- Go wine tasting. (Done with Dad for Father's Day 2010.)
- Save one month's salary (gross, in savings) ~ $4K.
- Join an interest group/club.
- Knit a (wearable) sweater for myself. (Three Decades Sweater - link to Ravelry entry)
- Volunteer for something regular.
- Attend one Pilates class.
- Work out three times a week for one month straight.
- Develop photos from my big [word unreadable - maybe recent?] trips (starting 2005) and put them into albums.
- See a movie by myself.
- Pay off the credit card completely (This one I'm really proud of.)
- Go on a six-month yarn diet.
- Go on three dates with three different guys. (Sad this had to be an ambition spread out over 1,001 days.)
- Write a short story I'm proud of. ("The Swap")
- Write a novel (1st draft).
- Eat an animal I've never tried before.
- Take a photography class.
- Take a language class.
- Become reading-fluent in Old English.
- Learn to play the guitar - beginning level.
- Run Bay to Breakers. (Hahahahaha)
- Learn self-defense (take a class) or a martial art. (Hello, Krav Maga.)
- Learn CPR. (Which reminds me, I need to sign up for the child and infant CPR class.)
- Lower weight to 136 pounds.
- Play a round of golf.
- Get oil change on car every six months for 1.5 years (3 times in a row). (I even put the date of the first change: 6/27, presumably 2007)
- Volunteer for a community event. (AIDS LifeCycle, with my coworkers.)
- Visit a country I've never been to before. (Luxembourg)
- Make a Flash movie to post on YouTube. (What the heck was I thinking?)
- Reinstate my radio show. (Still wish I was doing this.)
- Tour the Jelly Belly Factory. (I've visited, but not done the tour. Soon. Also: added this to my Bucket List.)
- Convince management to make Graveyard a six-person shift. (Got that for a whole year, though maybe it wasn't me that convinced management. And since then, I've left the shift. Wow. The way things change ...)
- Run a scavenger hunt around SF.
- Create a cookbook of all my favorite recipes, with pictures.
- Get something published.
- Design a deck of Tarot Cards.
- Go camping. (Kind of did this last year at the Capay Tomato Festival, with Claire. But that doesn't really count.)
- Go to Burning Man (again). (This is on my Bucket List.)
- See Kent play live.
- Write up a pattern for distribution (knitting).
- Teach four people to knit.
- Make a fountain (ceramic).
- Make "Lady MacBeth's Hands" (ceramics). (Hmmm ...)
- See a sports game that is not hockey.
- See a Sharks game. (I've seen two, actually.)
- Set up [internal coding group] BINGO/newsroom game.
- Beach clean-up volunteering.
- Go skydiving.
- Host a knitting party.
- Learn to juggle.
- Take a fencing class.
- Design and crochet a (Better) Booby Pillow (as seen on Etsy).
- Make pasta entirely from scratch.
- Watch entire Godfather trilogy. (I got through the first one ...)
- Learn Korean (writing).
- Relearn calculus. (WTF?)
- See three plays/musicals. (I think I've seen ... one?)
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Orange Crusher
So yes, I did buy a new car on Friday. It's fancy and somewhat sexy (as much as a Ford Focus can be) and has butt warmers and yes, I did cry my eyes out giving up the keys to my old Baby.
(Wiping more tears away thinking about the old car.)
More details forthcoming, once I get a chance to take a few pictures and upload them to my Flickr account.
However, I did want to say I discovered The Guild on Netflix Instant this weekend, and have been watching it. And now I want to know why no one ever told me Wil Wheaton was on this show. I mean, oh my god. I can feel my old crush bubbling back up from 19 years ago.
That's all. Excuse me now while I go heart-bubble in front of the TV some more before bed.
PS: You're right. I probably will stay up late Friday night just reading his blog, now that I remember it exists. Don't judge, pilgrim.
(Wiping more tears away thinking about the old car.)
More details forthcoming, once I get a chance to take a few pictures and upload them to my Flickr account.
However, I did want to say I discovered The Guild on Netflix Instant this weekend, and have been watching it. And now I want to know why no one ever told me Wil Wheaton was on this show. I mean, oh my god. I can feel my old crush bubbling back up from 19 years ago.
That's all. Excuse me now while I go heart-bubble in front of the TV some more before bed.
PS: You're right. I probably will stay up late Friday night just reading his blog, now that I remember it exists. Don't judge, pilgrim.
Thursday, October 6, 2011
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.
Monday, October 3, 2011
Soup, Tea and DayQuil
This weekend just past was supposed to be Busiest Weekend Evar. There was triple-booking both Saturday and Sunday. There were events all over the city (and out of it) to participate in. There was sun. There was Lambtown.
Instead, I spent all of Saturday in bed, except for the few times I got up to make soup or Cream of Wheat. In fact, Cream of Wheat has been the staple of my diet for the past 56 hours.
I did make an attempt to go out yesterday — the cabin fever was killing me, I caught myself sobbing for no reason on the kitchen floor at 1 in the morning. So I (deliriously) walked through the Castro Street Fair, and then probably did the stupid thing and walked from there to the N Train in Cole Valley (stupid because there's a HUGE F*CKING HILL in between), taking it to the Outer Sunset for some pho' before heading into the park for the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival. I had a date with my friend Claire, and my ex. I didn't make it to see either of them.
It's the Jewish New Year this week (started Wednesday night/Thursday), so it's as good a time as any for this bacon-eating Jew to make a new resolution: For 5772, I will resolve to not get sick so often. Because damn. Nothing so sad as missing out on eating lamb and listening to live music.
Since I've already started out the year wrong (though to be honest, this illness is lingering remnants from last year, so it doesn't count, right?), it's going to be soup, tea and DayQuil for me the next few days. Hooray, hot liquids.
Instead, I spent all of Saturday in bed, except for the few times I got up to make soup or Cream of Wheat. In fact, Cream of Wheat has been the staple of my diet for the past 56 hours.
I did make an attempt to go out yesterday — the cabin fever was killing me, I caught myself sobbing for no reason on the kitchen floor at 1 in the morning. So I (deliriously) walked through the Castro Street Fair, and then probably did the stupid thing and walked from there to the N Train in Cole Valley (stupid because there's a HUGE F*CKING HILL in between), taking it to the Outer Sunset for some pho' before heading into the park for the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival. I had a date with my friend Claire, and my ex. I didn't make it to see either of them.
It's the Jewish New Year this week (started Wednesday night/Thursday), so it's as good a time as any for this bacon-eating Jew to make a new resolution: For 5772, I will resolve to not get sick so often. Because damn. Nothing so sad as missing out on eating lamb and listening to live music.
Since I've already started out the year wrong (though to be honest, this illness is lingering remnants from last year, so it doesn't count, right?), it's going to be soup, tea and DayQuil for me the next few days. Hooray, hot liquids.
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