my week off

OK, so my week off turned out to be a little stressful. It started out the way I wanted- ran errands, went to yoga, spent some time in the kitchen, yadda yadda yadda, then I swear some planet is out of alignment or something because everyone in the world went crazy.

One of my best friends got fired this week. I am UBER-PISSED because it was really unfair, and done by a hot-head exec over our boss' head, and everyone is really angry and upset. Now that I've calmed down a little I think it is probably a blessing in disguise for her, because she deserves better! but I'm going to miss her terribly and if it weren't for my frakking end game I would quit too (solidarity sister!). Damn the man; save the Empire!!

The virus software that cleaned the 21 trojan horses off my laptop also is so "secure" that I spent all week not being able to get to certain pages on the web. Namely, google searches (I could get to google and gmail but not do a search), all blogspot pages, hotmail, and any forums. I assume it was a Windows thing, since I couldn't access these pages in Firefox OR IE, but Safari worked just fine (zip it, Uncle Al). I have literally spent hours on forums, help desks, the phone, trying things and rebooting, dreaming of a baseball bat, over and over, ad infinitum, ad nauseum. I am SO frustrated. Then, this morning out of nowhere, some guy on some forum suggested I rename firefox.exe to firefox1.exe and boom! Problem solved!!! Are you frakking kidding me??? I have NO idea how that worked but I cannot believe it was something so easy.

Wednesday I did 7 loads of laundry and made dinner for my friends Jonathan and Roman, including my salute to Cafe Gratitude's fiery carrot-avocado soup-- which turned out AMAZING if I may say so myself, so I will be posting it soon. We watched the BSG miniseries and ohhh, I love watching the beginning knowing what I know now. I heart you Laura Roslin!!!

Thursday I mailed 3 birthday presents (2 late and 1 on time- feel special, CC??)-- at like, 10am and then went to meet Brian for coffee. I had my yoga clothes in my bag and everything. But, yeah right, coffee turned into breakfast, and breakfast turned into a bloody mary at our favorite bar-- the one that plays movies on the wall, and next thing I know we had Philadelphia Story, The Royal Tenenbaums, and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang under our belts, and then went out for noodles. I love days like that!!

Yesterday I spent in my pajamas doing paperwork and catching up on Torchwood, and last night I worked at the studio and tried a new wine & dessert bar with my friend Velma. To start we had a cheese plate and asparagus with green garlic and black pepper, and then carrot cake-baked alaska that was maybe one of the best desserts I've ever had, and a dark chocolate brioche with balsamic caramel ice cream and a lime yogurt sauce. YUM.

So today is my last day of freedom for a bit. I'm going to yoga in an hour and then I have to work the desk tonight, and tomorrow it's back to the real job. At least I have my May and June schedules sorted out, at work and the studio, which makes me feel a little more settled. Settled for a couple of months anyway. Any more than that would probably freak me out. :)

Edited to add: oh, and also? I had meat this week. For some reason I've been thinking about it non-stop for a couple of weeks. Maybe my bout at the gynachiatrist made me a little iron-deficient, or maybe spring just brings out my inner carnivore (about this time last year I caved for a steak). At any rate, I had about a third of a cheeseburger and it was awesome and exactly what my body wanted and I think I'm all set for another year.

&%^$*&#@ technology!!

So, yesterday was my first day off after 92 hours of hell work. It was a pretty awesome day- I slept in, skipped yoga, and since the weather was so great and the park was packed, Brian and I decided to steer clear of the crowd and went to our favorite bar for a couple of libations. On the way there, I ran into this girl from the yoga studio that I've been trying to make plans with for weeks, and we ended up having the best day!! We had a couple of bloody marys (and the bartender gave me extra little onions, yum), watched Airplane!, ate some dinner, went dancing in the Castro, and ended up at her boyfriend's bar in the Mission with a big dog named Stella. The best part was that I actually forgot my wallet, so all my peeps paid for my entire day out, including my cab home so I wouldn't have to wait on a Sunday late-night train. Haha, suckahs!!!!

This morning got up early and went to the market, made it to yoga for the first time in 10 days, which kicked my @$$, and have spent the rest of my day trying to fix my various technological woes. First off, my laptop got some sort of virus (thank you, utorrent). I ended up having to pay $59.99 for a new virus scan and disinfect program, and it found 11 trojan horses. 11!!!! WTF? It's taken me literally the last 5 hours of uninstalling, downloading, freezing up, rebooting, and it's still scanning. The first time it got to about 30% and gave me the blue screen of death, and the second time it got to about 49% and just randomly shut itself off. I'm so frustrated.

To add insult to injury, my DVR is on the fritz. It records about 10 seconds of every program, including Friday's Battlestar Galactica, and then goes to black screen and stays there. Forever. Last week I was on the phone with customer schmervice for an hour- rebooting it, getting a remote signal sent in, yadda yadda yadda, and then I went to work for a week and didn't find out until I tried to watch aforementioned BSG that it hadn't been fixed. So today I had to spend another 30 minutes convincing another customer service person that they were obligated to bring me a new DVR since I don't have a car and it's not my fault their equipment sucks. And all I really wanted to do this week was watch all the stuff I missed last week. *sigh*

&%^$#&@!!!~

It's still a good night, though, because I don't have to work tomorrow (although there is a doctor's appointment, a Comcast technician, about 8 loads of laundry, and other various chores on the horizon), I'm sitting on my own couch, my roommate is out of town, and I am perfectly happy to occupy my time with a bowl of homemade broccoli soup, a glass of pinot grigio, and Seinfeld, Scrubs, and Friends reruns for the rest of the evening. Heaven!!

Oh, btw, the virus scan has climbed to 17 while I was writing this post. *glowers*

heat wave

Y'all, it is 77 degrees today. 77!!!! In coastal Northern Californa, that is cause for exchanging one's Uggs for flops, and one's hoodie for a t-shirt. I don't think it's been this warm since I moved here.

It's my 9th day in a row of work, and when I say "day," I am talking an absolute minimum of 14 hours. I am so tired I am practically delirious. I even caved this morning for fast food, which I never eat, including a tall bubbly cup of liquid Satan soda. I would be lying if I said I didn't enjoy it. But even though I stayed for the soda, I went for the burrito. See, I have been searching through the breakfast burritos of downtown San Francisco, including several places in the Mission, making my own at Whole Foods (which was a disappointing and expensive mistake), and today, Del Taco. *sigh*

Why does no one make a breakfast burrito exactly the way I want it? Abim "exactly the way I want it..." "hashbrowns, beans, eggs, cheese, avocado, cilantro, and some sort of fresh tomato salsa." Most people do eggs OR beans, but not both. A lot of places don't have hashbrowns, or else do cubed potatoes instead- hello, not the same. One place actually substituted rice. The only place I've ever had the perfect breakfast burrito, strangely enough, is from the Asian woman who works the roach coach at the San Jose Convention Center. Maybe I should open a Hello, Taqueria and show everyone how it's done.

OK, now that my belly is full, I really need to start some sort of project before I just nod off right at my desk. I have to do something non-work related tonight or I'm going to go postal. And tomorrow?? Tomorrow I sleep.

just a couple of updates

Sorry I've been absent, but I've worked 73 hrs in the past 6 days, and also been somewhat under the weather, so I pretty much have been moving somewhat fluidly from bed to bus to desk to bed again. In approximately 36 hours I will have 7 days off, so I'm just standing by for more interesting pasttimes. And by "interesting pasttimes," I mean "sleeping longer than 6 hrs at a time, doing laundry, cleaning the bathroom, and going to the market." What a gripping life I lead!

In other news, this is one of the saddest (and yet, most fascinating) updates I've seen in some time. Is nothing sacred??? (I know, Karen, I know!)

Connie Kelley's Birthday

So, yesterday I had a minor "surgery"/"outpatient procedure." I won't go into much detail here as it had to do with my lady parts, but I must say it was one of the most painful things I've ever done to myself. It took a LOT longer than the doctor anticipated (apparently my lady parts were playing hard to get with the multitudes of metal instruments introduced to them) and she ended up having to bring other dilating equipment in and then once we were all done (and I was sweaty and close to passing out) she had to do a sonogram to make sure there were no mishaps. Not an external sonogram like the kind where you look at a baby. Nope, that had to go inside, too. Geez.

I spent all last night drinking hot peppermint tea under a blanket and a heating pad and I took 4 advil and an ambien before bed last night. I really wanted to sleep through the sharp, stabbing pains and waves of nausea. It worked, because I slept for almost 9 hours and I feel soooo much better today! (Granted, I'm not even vertical yet, but I have high hopes for getting up soon.) I was planning on going to yoga today but I'm thinking I might opt for lying in bed a little while longer. I need to call my mom (it's her birthday) and I have to be at work at 1- so I'm going to take it easy, post-op style.

Also, I've never been one to have seasonal allergies, but I guess my first spring in California is presenting me with new pollen and blooming things. I don't feel horrible or have a fever, but the constant itchy, watery eyes and runny nose are really annoying. Any suggestions on a) natural remedies, or B) over the counter remedies? I bought some local honey; I heard that helped.

Hotdog, work just called and our dates were wrong- I have to go in right NOW. SUCK. There went my morning of convalescence.

Happy Jamie's Mom's Birthday, Happy Friday, and Happy Battlestar Galactica Day!

chores

So March is over- my crazy March of 4 girls, a boy, and a dog, and nonstop work and running around. Today was the first day I didn't set my alarm in I can't remember how long.

I'm off for almost a week. You might ask, Jamie, aren't you looking forward to lying around and doing nothing? The answer, dear reader, would be YES- that would be RAD, but unfortunately it's not going to happen. My week "off" includes 3 doctor appointments, grocery shopping, working at the yoga studio, 5 loads of laundry (plus hand-washing), cleaning, paying bills, running errands, and luckily- since I have all this time on my hands and all- Sci Fi is playing 10 eps of Battlestar Galactica a day leading up to the premiere of season 4 Friday night, in which I believe Gaius will finally cut his hair. My DVR is on the fritz so I will have to stay home and watch it. (Note to self: call Comcast tomorrow.)

So it's 6pm and I've just plopped down on the couch to catch "Flight of the Phoenix"- Helo is being ostracized because Boomer is a Cylon, Chief is making lovey-eyes at a Raider, and Starbuck is beating someone up in the rec room. Ahhhh, good times. She also just called Apollo "a tad aggressive." Ah-hahahahaha.

lockjaw

I have had an insane week. I did something really awesome on Tuesday and I have photos and video (!) to prove it, but I can't post about that until I get to the post office to mail the reapings from said doings to the friend that deserves them the most. You know who you are.

A couple of days ago, I slammed my finger in a drawer and it was all bloody and gross, and I had to go to work, so I cleaned it and put a bandage on it (good little nurse-to-be). But it was my right index finger, which happens to be my trackpad finger, and my flipping through file folders finger, and my shuffling through stacks of paper finger. The trackpad, most importantly, does not recognize a bandage as human contact, so I had to take the bandage off and just keep busting the wound open over and over again. It was much better today- I think I only bled once- so I decided it best if I ripped my thumb open with a rusty staple. Seriously, the pad of my thumb from tip to knuckle is ripped open. My thumbprint might not grow back right. Do you guys think I need a tetanus shot? I haven't had once since 1996 when I ripped my other thumb open with a rusty machete during the opening scene of opening night of On The Verge.

Anyway, it's late and I'm frackin' exhausted. I'm really too delirious to be blogging- I'll probably read this tomorrow and decide it was written by a drunk 3rd-grader.

Oh! Earth Hour is tomorrow night! Participate.

Happy Easter from San Francisco

Nothing really celebrates our risen Lord like a Big Wheel race. (Well, unless it's drag queens dressed as Jesus, but sadly, I missed that show and therefore don't have any photos to show you.) Ashley flew in from Boston yesterday and we went to the Annual Big Wheel Easter Race. There were hundreds of people lining Vermont Street (it used to be on Lombard but apparently those fancy buggers didn't like such shenanigans and goings-on in their neighborhood) watching fools on Big Wheels crash into one another. It was awesome. Everyone was dressed up- we saw an Easter Bunny, a nun, a Jesus, a pirate, a cowboy, a cow, a gorilla, a Barbie, a whole bunch of people just wearing normal crazy costume pieces, they were riding Big Wheels, trash cans, little red wagons, basically anything that has plastic wheels. Plastic wheels which, by the way, were designed to carry a 30-lb child. There was some serious carnage. Check out the top right corner for a pile-up:





How can you not love this city?!?!! I have to go back to work today, blech, I'm still mourning the return of Krysten and Chanelle and our eating (!!!!)-- I was so sad when they left I actually cried.
Things are about to get crazy over here but I promise to try and update more often. I've been such a slacker lately. And after I promised Karen I would be better, I went and let 2 weeks go by between posts! Anyway, I will try harder and I hope everyone had a great Easter weekend and ate lots of Peeps-- I have to get to yoga now so I can pack my bags and move downtown for my show. Have a great week!

back home

Recently I got gently chastised to post more often by Karen (whose blog you can now find in my list down in the left side-bar). Karen and I aren't very close- we are friends of friends- but I feel like we would be good friends give the chance, and I read her blog daily. I find it fascinating that our world of insta-technology provides us the opportunity to keep up with people that would otherwise possibly fall out of our lives by the mere inconveniences of geography.

I enjoyed the prod because I haven't been blogging much lately and truthfully- it's because not much is going on and I didn't think anyone was reading. I really love living in San Francisco but my life here is pretty low-key. I'm just really not sure anyone is interested in hearing "Today I went to yoga, walked through the park, and watched a movie." Truthfully? I think those days kind of rock. But they aren't very news-worthy. :) So thanks, Karen, for reading and nagging-- I'll try to be better!

So, last weekend Kristie Brooks was here and we had a blast, but stayed sooooo busy, and then I went to Salt Lake City, which was cold and everyone was white, which is a little creepy. The show went ok even though it was lots of work, and I woke up at 4am yesterday to take the first flight out- in a middle seat, thank you, new crappy travel agent. I came home to the most beautiful weather known to Northern California. It was about 58 and sunny and just... gorgeous. It's spring! We didn't really have traditional spring in Texas. I feel like it's been raining for 3 months here in the Pacific Northwest so when spring finally hit I was all "what is that shiny yellow thing in the sky?? It's soooo pretty!" Note to self: must get spring jacket; it's still cold.

Krysten and Chanelle are coming on Saturday for Krysten's bday, and I am spending the week getting ready. I went to 4 (!) grocery stores/markets yesterday- no small feat with no car; I bet I walked 4 miles!- and put in a 4-hr shift at the yoga studio. I hit the sack at 10pm, y'all and slept for 10 hours. That was pretty rad. This morning I'm going to go to practice and then run another couple of little errands before I tackle my laundry and house-cleaning. I am also planning on doing my taxes and getting my hair cut! See? Who wants to read about this?? :)

That's about it on my end. I'm working on a book review for my food blog and trying to eat well and go to yoga every day when I am home. I have a few new recipes I'm working on and other than that, life is pretty quiet. I usually equate "quiet" with "boring" but I am trying to stay positive.

What is going on with the rest of you?

remember when...

....we worked at two separate Deck the Walls in the same teeny Longview shopping mall?

....we went to a Halloween party dressed up as one another and no one could tell?

....we drove 22 hrs straight to North Carolina and swore we would never, ever do it again-- only to turn around in 10 weeks and decide it would totally be worth it?

....we broke the Sam's Choice Cola machine at Wal-Mart and gave free sodas to all the homeless people before we told management about the mishap?

....we kidnapped Carl's bungee-jumping stuffed dog and sent him ransom notes and photos?

....we had a marker fight?

....we were featured in a staff skit and didn't even know it because we were way too cool to attend staff functions?

....you randomly mailed me 2 candy bars to my hotel in Florida with no note or explanation?

....you changed e-mail addresses and phone numbers and I had no way of getting in touch with you except the great world o' blogging?

(PS> Kristie Brooks forgot to bring me your present, but she said she would mail it to me soon!)

Dude, call me.