Things I am thankful for, and things I am not...

Jeremy Roenick and the Sharks victory in the first round against Calgary.

The Weepie's new album. And the fact that iLike is streaming the whole thing here.

Mike's new condo, which is still empty. I am helping move all his stuff in this weekend!

My new addiction- who thought Scrabble and Boggle combined would be so much fun!


And now for the most recent thorns in my side:

Kit and Zoe. I know they are nocturnal and for the last 3 months earplugs have been enough. But I swear they play a game where whoever wakes up Mommy first wins. I have not slept a whole night through all week, and I am exhausted. I think tomorrow after work I am going to do a room re-design and see if I can fit these buggers in my closet. It's a long shot, but anything is worth a try so I can sleep through the night again.

Look at the new addition to our household!

Her name is Lola and she is 8 weeks old!!!

I'm sorry

Sorry for the crazy angry post yesterday.

I just hate people wasting their time being critical of things which are basically non-important. It's a waste of energy to be so vitriolous.

On a better note, Mike is coming for lunch today AND he is getting his keys!

Yay for a new condo! I'll post photos of it later when his stuff is all moved in!

I both hate and love Wednesdays

Wednesdays are the day the paper comes out.

So you think, yay finally people get to see what I have been working my tail off on all week. Maybe they'll like it and send some sort of thank you email or nice note.

But no, that assumption is usually wrong.

I worked on beefing up a press release and actually making it a story this week. Apparently the person who gave us the press release is pissed.

Well you want to know what – I'm pissed too!

I was working on a handful of stories for the paper on Friday, on top of trying to publish a freakin' 64-page magazine when my boss comes and hands me this press release to beef up, something like 5 hours before deadline.

He basically tells me to take out references puffing up the agency who sent us the release. SO I DID.

And now the person from the agency, a somewhat reputable person in the community is pissed off.

Well guess what – IT'S NOT MY FREAKING FAULT. I was just doing what I was told. And I am SICK AND TIRED OF GETTING SHIT FROM PEOPLE.

I'm especially tired of getting shit from people regarding things that in the large scheme of things AREN'T THAT IMPORTANT.

Anyway, for those who do care I worked really hard this week. And I have three stories I am really proud of - in case you are interested in reading them here are their links:
• LASD advisers predict deficit for next five years
And in case you are wondering about the picture, I posted it to calm me down. It is of my parent's timeshare at Lake Tahoe.

Rascall Flats/Taylor Swift

Lauren and I just had the best time at the Rascall Flats/Taylor Swift concert. We had the best seats, since Rascall Flats decided to extend their stage right up to our section practically!



It was the last performance of their tour, and you could tell Rascall Flats was tired, but they still put on a great show.



The highlight though, was most definitely Taylor Swift, whose energy and rock out moves were the perfect way to start the night. She has a bright and shiny future ahead. I also have to say I loved loved loved her shiny guitar, only in country music can you pull that off.

The mystery text message

So I got a mystery picture text message from a 650 number today. And being that I am a 949 number, anyone from this area calling me is not a wrong number.

And what's stranger is the picture in the text message is of the Free Tibet rally that was held in San Francisco today. So strange.

So if anyone knows who belongs to the phone number 650-305-0146, you might just help me solve the mystery.

And I don't feel bad about posting the phone number because I texted back "who is this?" and got no response. Who the heck is this? And why did I get this text?

One of the best

One of my most favorite movies of all time is Almost Famous. And I am at home enjoying it, alone on a Friday night. And it is spectacular, except for my throat, which heavily enclosed which means I am either on the verge of being sick or I am experiencing the worst allergies of my life.


"I always tell the girls never take it seriously. If you never take it seriously then you never get hurt. If you never get hurt then you always have fun, and if you ever get lonely you can just go to the record store and visit your friends." (Courtesy of Penny Lane)


"The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what you share with someone else when you're uncool." (Courtesy of Lester Bangs)

Fun with Mike

Been having a lot of fun with my boyfriend lately.

Last weekend we decided to take a whirlwind day trip to Sacramento/Elk Grove. It was hilarious, we did all the touristy things to do:

• We toured the Capitol
• Went to the Crocker Museum (and looked at historical California art)
• We walked around old downtown Sacramento – ate a snack dive place and then bought yummy candy!
• Had brunch at the Tower Cafe, next to a historical theatre and landmark of Sacramento.
• The we went to ANOTHER historical theatre and saw this movie. Which I have to say is the absolute worst film I've ever seen. EVER. I never walk out of movies but was seconds away from walking out of this monstrosity. You would think Charlize Theron, Nick Stahl and Dennis Hopper would be able to create a better movie than it turned out to be, but no, not even a cast could save the plot of this movie.

After the movie it was time to visit Elk Grove, or as I like to refer to it as, Mike's new Plano. See Mike likes to "future trip" as a good friend would call it. He wants to move there when we are ready to start a family (in around five years or so). So we looked at various different neighborhoods, and ended the night at a brewery in old downtown Elk Grove for dinner.

Isn't it funny how all of Northern California towns have downtowns? It's a strange phenomenon for a Southern California person like me, I didn't even know what a downtown looked like (well except for maybe LA, or business type downtowns) before I came to Nor Cal and now I work in one.

Anyway so that was the fun that we had last weekend.

Now last night, I did something I had been resisting for a long time. Mike wanted to go take a walk to the nearest dive bar "The Peacock Lounge," or as locals refer to it as, "The Cock."

I thought maybe after a drink or two we'd leave and then we could watch a movie or something at my place. But NO!

This place was fun! Really fun, I'm sure the drinks helped make it fun but we spent the whole night playing darts and having strong drinks, without worrying about who needs to drive home. It was awesome, and the drinks were killer – seriously.

Mike and I rarely get to drink together so this was a fun opportunity, also really cheap. I think we got five drinks for $27, and the service was amazing.

So that was my Saturday. And today Mike and I are going to the last (for us anyway) Sharks game of the season. They won the Pacific Division title on Friday night, away, so we get to help celebrate that victory tonight!

Ok, well I hope you all have been having wonderful weekends.

O.K. I get it!

"Are you ready for this earthquake?" U.S. Geological Survey seismologist Tom Brocher asked last week at a meeting of the California Emergency Services Association. "I hope you are because this earthquake is ready for you."

I get it people. I'm scared. I realize that I'm going to experience the next big catastrophe. The big difference? People aren't so poor here, we won't get the outreach that Hurricane Katrina survivors get, because honestly, who wants to help the rich?

Who wants to help an area where the average income is around $75,000 a year, and that is for the people on the lower end of the scale. Also, who wants to help an area that gets headlines like: Get ready for the Big One on a weekly basis, yet only 10 percent are equipped with the proper insurance?

Anyway, all money aside. I'm scared. I'm extremely scared. I hate earthquakes, and apparently I live on the hotbed of American earthquakes. There is no matter of if the next one will strike, it will most definitely be when.

I toss and turn some nights just waiting for it to happen. But seriously what else is there I can do? I mean I already check this site on a weekly basis, or any time I think I feel something,

Anyway if you want to read up on the most recent article to scare my socks off, here it is in all its catastrophic glory:

Next major earthquake on the Hayward fault will be catastrophic

And when it happens, I hope you'll all think of me and hope I'm not having a severe panic attack when it does. (The last quake I was in, a measly 5.3, I almost hyperventilated).

Annoying trend of the week

So my annoying fashion trend of the week:

High boots, like to just below the knee

Paired with:

Cropped business pant (Bermuda length)

I love the cropped business pant, but with a boot that almost reaches the pant? UGLY! To me, this works with some skirts, but the length of the pants just make it weird to me!

New music musings

So been browsing new music lately. Check it out.....

http://www.dragonette.com/

http://www.katyperry.com/

It's playtime!

Thought I'd share these pictures I took of my chinnies at playtime. I'm a little worried about one of my chins, I think she might be pregs (geez I hope not), but I guess time will tell.

P.S. Ignore my toes, I know a pedicure is loooooooong overdue!

Time change mess

I'm a hot mess, I'm a time-change-not-adjusting-well hot mess.

It all started when my friend told me it takes her two months to adjust to the change every year, I laughed and said I had never had a problem with that, not at all.

Well, never say never my friends. Ever since the time change it has been afternoon naps, to make up for the fact I can't get to sleep until 1 in the morning. And don't even get me started on what it's like to wake up in the morning.

Ugh, double ugh.

Lately work has been meh, I've been feeling uninspired, which has been showing up in my efforts. It all has me a bit worried, I hope I don't seem like a total slacker, but I've just been bored with it all lately.

Birthday events were fun over the weekend. I had dinner with my friend A Panda and we had a delightful dinner at Spork in the Mission in San Fran. We were expecting more, but the wine was a delight so I guess that made up for a lot of it.

Saturday I had an 80 minute massage, which was wonderful and very much needed. Though I was aghast at how much my friends spent on it ($140!). Then we had a great dinner at Bella Luna in Downtown Palo Alto.

More than one person said my working out has been paying off lately, which is giving me more motivation to continue my gym workout sessions.

Took my chins out for a play time session yesterday, in their new play pen. Zoe loved it, but Kit was just super freaked out. Kit is a bit of a heifer and I just pray that she isn't pregs, which I don't think is possible, but might be.

Anyway, my parents come this weekend, and they've come this time just to see me! Which they have NEVER done before. So I'm excited!

Anyway this post was full of randomness, I'm sorry, thanks for sticking with it.

P.S. Freakin' Hillary, she has really been pissing me off lately. If you don't know what I am talking about, read a newspaper every once in a awhile.

The big 2-5

So today was my birthday, and not one single person forgot, which makes me feel awful special.

Highlights include:
-Getting flowers delivered to my office from Mike!
-Having lunch with Mike
-Getting yummy fruity pies from work
-Getting pie from my roommates too, sooo nice of them!
-Having dinner with my BFF and our surprise guest!
-Getting calls, texts, emails, facebook messages from everyone
-Stopping to enjoy the beautiful weather and literally smell the flowers
-Realizing that no matter how tough life gets at this point, I will always have so many friends to back me up!

Look at all the colors in our front garden, with the weather so nice, it's absolutely gorgeous to be outside!

Here is a bench in the backyard, I think it's kinda neat.

This is Gus, he is my friend. He comes and says hello almost everyday after work.
I <3 him.

Flashing lights....

So I went to Vegas a few on President's Day weekend. It was fun.

I was able to bring $200 and not spend a penny more. Thanks in part to making my money last on the slot machines (and my boyfriend, for feeding me), my favorites include penny and nickel Wheel of Fortune (and you know I'm taking about the one with the gigantor spinner!), the lobster fishing one and the mermaid one! All good fun.

I think it's kind a funny how I don't take to video games well at all, but I love the video slots. I won't do any other slots unless they are video ones and have awesome bonus rounds.

All in all I left with less money than I came with, but oh well, no worries. I didn't go to the ATM once, which showed some restraint on my part.

Highlights:
-Dinner at the Tuscany Resort- mmmmmm nothing like good Italian food, good wine and a fine buzz the whole time.
-Gambling at the Monte Carlo- this went on for hours- as did my buzz
-Dinner at the Piano bar- we did nothing but sing along and eat pub food for over two hours. The piano men loved us, they kept giving us ("San Francisco") shout outs
-The view from the Voo Doo Lounge atop the Rio (see picture above)
-The authentic Bavarian Hauf Brau (sp?)- it was great, people were crazy drunk all around us and kept paying top dollar just to get a shot of jagger and a spank from their waitress

Kit and Zoe

Here are the pictures of my new 6 month old sister chinchillas. Kit and Zoe. So far I have noticed that Kit (the round one with the short curly tail) is more mellow and a bit more timid to get to know me. Zoe is an acrobat and is always jumping off the walls. Zoe is also quicker to take chances, like check me out and nip my hand when I stick it in the cage, or crawl up my arm.

I got the cage from Chins to Go of Sacramento, also the breeders where I got my chins. The girls love the wooden steps and wood ledges and I love the pull out bottom for cleaning purposes.

Coward

What a coward.

That is all I have to say about the board member who shall remain nameless.

I love how he chooses to call me out on something he views as a factual error in front of everyone at the school board meeting. I love how he calls for a retraction without even asking me to explain where I got my facts.

If he had asked me why I reported the numbers I did he would understand what I was trying to report to the readers. But I guess he didn’t care what I was trying to do, he just wanted to make me look like I am a joke of journalist.

UGH what a jerk. Wanted to make me look small in front of so many people, make me look like I was wrong in an arena where he knew I wouldn’t be able to defend myself.

I am so mad right now. I am hardly paying attention to the meeting because all I can think about it that ridiculous call out he made.

WHAT A COWARD. Oh man, if I didn’t have to be professional and act unaffected I would be telling him a thing or two right now.

All I can say is I am livid, burning and enraged. It is one thing to call me ugly, not like my personality or my taste in music. It is quite another thing to judge me without giving me a chance fight back – especially when it is about my livelihood.

I have been working toward being a journalist since I was in seventh grade, SEVENTH GRADE. Don’t mess with what I have worked my whole life for. DO NOT try to soil my name.

What a jerk, what a cowardly jerk.

Most embarrassing moment

So one of my favorite bloggers recently asked her readers what their most embarrassing moment was. Well that got me writing. So here it is for you all to enjoy...

Oh boy, this one brings me back to high school. When I had the crush of the century. See I was in the journalism class at good ol’ Woodbridge High School and I was in my first year. Well when I met the editorial staff there and I fell hard for the Editor-in-Chief, his name was Patrick.

Now in no way did Patrick give me any attention, any reason for me to like him. In fact he was actually not the nicest or handsomest person on Earth. But I had rose-colored glasses on when it came to him, he was everything I wanted to be… intelligent, literary, alternative, older and he couldn’t care less what everyone else thought of him.

I spent more than a year falling for him, all the while keeping it a deep, dark secret. No one knew. I bottled it all up while trying to get closer to him, learn from him, visit his workplace (the art cinema house) and join things he was in (ahem…Latin Club, as if that isn’t embarrassing enough).

Well when he was a senior and I was a sophomore I had had enough. I just had to tell him. I – had – to. So being the literary fiend I am I wrote out my feelings in a letter. A page long letter. I simply stated that I had feelings for him and he didn’t have to respond to the letter if he didn’t want to, I just had to get the information off my chest. I worked so hard on that letter, writing and rewriting it in all its glory.

So after spending three agonizing long days at home (it was a long weekend) after giving him the letter on Friday. I get back to the class on Monday, somewhat excited, somewhat scared.

I walk in and everyone sort of looks at me. Now by no means was I at all noticeable, I never stood out in that class (well except to the teacher, who liked my good attitude and writing). I sat down at my desk and began to work on my latest article, all the while wondering why everyone was acting so strange.

Finally the only girl editor, who I guess took some sort of pity on me, brought me out in the hall and showed me a piece of paper. My Letter. Reprinted in its entirety.

She then proceeded to tell me Patrick had an underground literary magazine and that most everyone in the class had a copy and knew that I had written that letter to Patrick.

I could have died. Not only did Patrick print my personal letter for all his friends to laugh at, he told them all he though it was the most hilarious thing he had ever read.

So not only did I get rejected that day, the whole world knew I was rejected.

Sitting in class for the next 45 minutes could quite possibly be the most embarrassing 45 minutes of my life.

See into the future

Don't you just wish sometimes you could fast-forward 12 months into the future to see where it all ends up? I have been an eager to know the outcome of the primary and I really thought Super Tuesday was going to mean something. To say I am disappointed I didn’t get an answer is an understatement.

Hillary or Barack…. at this point I just want the person who will get the republicans out of office.

I worry if Hillary wins, too many people HATE her, and I mean H-A-T-E in caps. That worries me, I’m afraid she can’t take the White House when all is said and done.

If Barack wins I might be slightly happier, he has people believing we can change the way things are run. And who doesn’t want to have faith that the nation can change its backward ways. My problem is that I feel he might lack the experience. He has the faith, but do I believe that his experience can back up everything he claims? I don’t know.

The ultimate solution would be to combine Hillary’s experience with Barack’s faith and message of change. I still think the combination would be more successful if Barack were the front-runner. But I really feel they have to run together.

I’m afraid they won’t. I think if Hillary wins, I think she will strongly consider running with Barack (he’ll definitely bring in votes where she didn’t). But I think if Barack wins the nod he might consider running with someone else. There’s been too much bad blood drawn, and I hope when all is said and done, they can overcome all the vitriol that was unleashed in the past several months.

When all is said and done I think Obama-Clinton will be the best ticket and will have a real shot at getting the Republicans out of the White House.

I just wish I could teleport or something, just for 1 minute into the future, just to see who actually is going to take the White House in the next election.

One thing can be agreed on…… thank goodness Bush will be gone!

Ah Suburbia

I almost forgot one of the downsides to living in suburbia...constant gardeners. There are so many houses surrounding this house, three behind, one on each side, three across the street. So no matter what afternoon it is, I'm bound to not be able to nap when I want to because of a gardener.

Ugh, stupid suburbia.