pointless

It is so pointless for me to even work from my home office. It is now 3:30 I have not worked a single billable hour. Instead I have all these errands to run since I am rarely here. Good thing I came this time though. Got to see a coworker from LA, turns out one of my friends is leaving the company today to go be a band manager so I got to chat with her. Our year end reviews are coming up so had to talk with my counselor...and I JUST got something to eat. Crappy.

So I am really jealous about my new band manager friend. How cool would that be to love a band and have your job be to promote them! I think this totally makes my top 3 job list. Not sure yet what the other 2 are! This way no one could call me a groupy since it would be my job to hang around bands!

It is so lovely outside I can;t wait to leave here early and just hang out in SF!

my sis

My sister left for Spain yesterday! Mark gave her a ticket to spain for her bday - isn't that just sweet?! I love that my sis lives so damn close to me...I forgot to mention to MAC that she was leaving this week and on his way to work yesterday she saw him through her window and screamed out to him that she was leaving and she was so excited and MAC was like jato is a punk and didn;t say anything:) anyway - how cool is it that MAC and I can just run into my sis on our walk to the bus stop?! I have to say even though I don;t see my sis that often which is pretty pathetic since we live so close - I am really going to miss the idea of having her so easily accessible to me while she is away. Same thing happened when my dad went to Peru - even though I talk to him on the phone all the time it was weird having him in another country and talking on the phone with him - just not the same feeling.

Well I am so excited to come home this weekend even though MAC is a punk and has to go to tahoe for work today and tomorrow. I hate when our schedules cross. I am coming home tonight and he has to travel. On my bday week I am coming home wed night and he is off somewhere for work until thurs. He is working on fixing that though cuz he is going to have to deal with one pissed off bday girl if he is not around that day!

losing my mind

It is time for me to whine - I am getting old and it is bothering me. Not in the "oh my god I am in my mid twenties" sad but the "oh my god I am losing my memory it must be a sign of old age". I have never been forgetful or absent minded but over the past few months i have just been losing it. I have forgotten my purse 3 times now at a restaurant. All 3 times someone was nice enough to bring it out to me and all 3 times I feel like a complete moron. Today I had a bag of my bananas and a water and I was sitting down for one second and then we all got up to leave and I forgot my stupid bag. Hello was I not excited enough that I had my bananas that I had to forget them? So I realize this half way through my route to work. I turn back and luckily one of the hotel satff was nice enough to notice that someone left the bag so he kept it safe for me. This morning at the hotel I swear I felt like a superstar. Everyone was like oh hi miss ato - did we fix the shower drain ok for you - here is a water - have fun at the gym! I love it! Now I am feeling guilty if I end up switching hotels. It is nice to go somewhere where everyone knows your name - just like the Cheers song says!

ya win some ya lose some

Started out having a great weekend. MAC and I got massages at ReFresh. I got a deep tissue and he got a swedish. I was actually hoping for a bit more pain during my massage but I left feeling very relaxed/. So many bumps and crappy things hiding in my back - certain pressure points hurt pretty bad but overall very soothing. We then left for tahoe and made pretty good time considering there was already traffic at like 3. Had a very nice dinner at some posh place. I hate a plateful of seafood AND it was a seafood soup! I usually grimace at the sight of seafood soup (for no reason in particular) but I had a great time sorting around the soup to something new to eat!

Sat we went to the casino and I had sooo much fun! Played some craps and on my second round of rolling the dice I kicked some major ass! I seriously hit so many hot numbers and I actually won twice! I was on a roll and yet I was so annoyed cuz the table - including MAC - was not cheering loud enough considering how much money they were winning!~ So I was totally up double my money but of course lost most of it but still ended with a gain - as did MAC who played craps for the first time out there!

Sunday we headed back and unfortunately had a traumatic event occur. I was unpacking and laying on the top of my pjs was this black thing. I pull out the pjs - the thing lands on the floor and starts freaking slithering away. I had a stupid disgusting gross piece of crap worm in my bag. I don't think I have ever screamed so loud in my life. MAC said that was the most hysterical he has seen me. I could not stop screaming and poor MAC was on the toilet when this all happened so it took him a sec to respond! (SORRY MAC had to share!). I recovered after a lot of coaxing but I am sure I will have some nightmares in the near future. I hate things that should never ever be in my luggage.

HAIL

There was totally a hail storm last night. Freaking weird - I haven't seen hail since I was like 8 and it was crazy. I was in our station wagon (WHOO HOO!) and I totally thought the hail was going to break our window. Oh so not only did I see hail - I freaking walked back from work in the stupid ice! Good thing I had my super duper hefty umbrella on me:) I am such the smart traveler!

Had another 3 hr dinner last night. I had to be strong since this was probably the only week all of these people would be here. So we went to a really nice restaurant that I loved since the last time we went I had the best salmon dish ever. I was all excited to have another seafood dinner and there is one item on the platter that I ordered that I had never heard of - tilipia - which I was informed is fish, and I was ready to experiment since how could I go wrong at such a fantastic place? Get the dish, try I bite, I was totally grossed out cuz the damn thing tasted like pure salt. I mean it was freaking loaded with spices or soemthing. I thought it was weird but perhaps normal but I had two of my coworkers try it out - the girl spit it out, the guy was like no this is not right! I am like great! Stupid fish! However, I did not bother to return the dish cuz the salmon, scallops and shrimp were all decent. And I liked the pilaf. BUT if that were my own money you better be damn sure that I would throw that back in their face! Or at least I say I would...not sure if I would ever have the balls to return a dish. Just seems so rude!

the answer is...

So yeah - I know at least 3 of you guessed right. Answer is SOUTH. Now I understand that at the north pole, east and west have no bearing. well not true - I kind of get it. And thanks to Laura for spending a lot of time going back and forth with me - I get it. So my problem was that I was thinking if I am at the north, then south would result in me facing directly down, as in like to hell! But that is where Laura saved me. South is a direction - not up and down! I can go south on a freeway and I am not heading to the core if the earth!

ok so for more ground breaking stories - I was watching the news and they had this segment on smoking. I am sure you will all be amazed but turns out drinking is linked to increased smoking! Even light smokers will have a craving to smoke if they have been drinking. If you are trying to quit or avoid this - they suggest that you drink slowly! HAH! Supposedly it is the act of drinking too fast that after half an hour does cause some stimulator (suprisingly since alcohol is a depressor) and that stimulator will increase the smoke craving. The guy said have one or two drinks and drink them slow. Great advice eh?

So all the big wigs were in denver this week so a group of 14 of us went to dinner last night. I got stuck at the end at the kiddy table:( we were at the restaurant for THREE hours. SO insane. But I have to say these big shots were really cool - I just wish I could have talked to them more!

I hate riddles

You know how i-bankers go through a rigorous interview process where they ask you all these brain teasers? I applied to MS not to do i-banking but fixed income (which is not as stressful) and the interview process was still pretty intense. I think I have told most of you what an idiot I truly am...How did I get into college?? In case you forgot - here was the brain teaser that stumped me: you have 50 socks in a drawer - half black half white. How many do you have to pull to get a matching pair? All you smarties say - oh that;s easy - you pull 3 and you have to have a matching pair. I of course did not even come close to this! I asked them if I could give them a range...7-9!!!! Where in the world did I come up with this? Let me explain: I thought they were asking me the probability of pulling a matching pair..In my head I was thinking oh crap - I can't freaking do stats in my head! so I just threw out a number. LAME. They must have been dying at my answer!

Anyway, last night I once again felt like a moron. Answer me this: If you are in a room which has 4 walls and 4 windows and each window is facing south - where are you? I now know the answer and I refuse to accept it as right. Let me know what you all think and then I will let you know my issue!

A present for me?!

It feels like Christmas. I juat got my new computer and boy am I happy! little things I have to adjust to but overall I am stoked. Yup I said it - stoked! And the IT lady was so damn nice it just made this morning very pleasant. So sadly last night I got into the hotel and unlike the prior week, there were no water bottles and cereal bars awaiting me in my room:( you can;t start pampering someone and then take it all away! I made it to yoga this morning and I am feeling a bit sore now. I was amazed how much I was sweating at the end of the class! I remember lasassy talking about head stands and I tried my first one! The instructor had to balance my legs but I got them up there!

Oh and then the wonderful starbucks man gave me a free drink coupon of my choice! How nice!!! It is supposed to be 78 here today so things are just looking great!

Thanks to all of you I saw this weekend for making it a spendid time! Dinner was lovely and props to the bohemia crew for being sketchy and drinking FREE red bull and vodkas all night (unfortunately to MAC's dismay I had way too much to drink!). Sat BBQ in WC was sooo much fun! I love bocce ball and I rock at it...kind of! Depends on which arm I throw with but I am ambidexterous damn it Jefe! And Ana/Jiggles/Titty McGee is beautiful!

MAC is also slowly but surely feeling better. He has been resting and drinking lots of water which seems to be helping. thanks to all of you who shared your stories with me - definitey helped to calm me down.

So MAC and I went to go check out the condo a block away. not shabby. So annoying to hear this young couple next to me say "yeah, 1.15M is in our price range". Are you freaking kidding me?

ambush makeover

I love this show! so fun to see how extreme people can look with just a cut, some make up and a dress! Anyone feel free to sign me up for an ambush k? I can use some new clothes!

I am having another lovely friday working from home:) excited for this weekend - lots going on (including doggy happy hour today!) but poor MAC is not feeling so good. I won't go into details but he is having breathing problems...which is quite odd since I am the one who has had breathing problems for a while...living together really makes you merge into like one person huh?!

I also watched THS's trust fund babies. It is so insane how people with like billions of dollars live. Being a socialite looks so glamorous. It must be so nice being able to have whatever you want. Not saying I would ever want that kind of lifestyle - I would hate to just grow up with life so easy and being so spoiled. Ugh the pain of money. Life is so ruled by it. So many fights caused by the lack of it. I mean we work for a living - we save our money so that we can have enough of it when we are older? Why can't I just spend it all now? Enjoy my earnings today and worry about money later?! That doesn;t really work. Such a hard balance to achieve. Either way - I am ready to go spend some bucks this weekend:)

weeks over

Yup I get to go home today. What a waste of a week. half the day tuesday was wasted traveling, and now travel time on thurs as weel. I just don;t get the value of face time at the client site but not like I have to understand - just do as told!

When I get a moment to sit back and think about what I am doing with my career, I am starting to realize that maybe, just maybe, I don't have to go down the corporate road and be this business woman. What is wrong with me taking a job that might not require high stress situations and analytical thinking? Could I be happy working somwhere that perhaps required different skills such as interpersonal skills vs intellectual? I mean ideally I want to dance for a living! Be like in a troop or something that competes around the world! Do you get paid to do that?! I want to be a salsa champion (after I learn how to really salsa!). or how about like a dog walker? I like dogs and once I figure out my allergies I would be set! Not saying that would be an easy job - but at least I can exercise will working! This weekend MAC and I hung out at starbucks for a while and I have to say I was a little jealous about how much fun the workers were having. How nice would it be to have a straight 9-5 job that you can go home and not bother to think about until the next day! This whole traveling thing really makes me live my job 24/7. (well maybe 24/5).

I wonder what it is going to be like to have my mid-life crisis if I am already so skeptical with my life. I think there is a book out there about the quarter life crisis. I am all over that.

Oh and I decided I *really* don;t like my evil co worker. I swear he freaking belittles me all the time. I am going to send MAC out here to kick his ass.

Again??

It's been a while updating my blog. So much going on! I had an amazing weekend - saw lots of peeps out on the town. Fri was marge's bday party which was good times - saw good old leah and sara from the younger class. Sat saw my new favorite band with some of the blake street girls and we had a blast! I, in typical groupie fashion, introduced myself to the band and let them know how cool they were and how I think they needed to turn up the vocals and update their website. Of course at the time I thought I was doing them a favor, next day realized I was totally that obnoxious girl! But ends up the band appreciated my comments and asked for more feedback! Poor MAC just sits back and rolls his eyes at me when I start talking about how great their CD is!

Sunday I was packing away and thanks to my dad for his warning, checked my flight info before taking off to the airport. good thing I did - denver airport was closed due to some major storms. I experienced my first SNOW DAY and I loved it! No work for me until Tuesday morning! Well, I did work from home but what a nice break!

Tuesday was just quite an adventure - had some major airport drama since of course my ticket was not registering in the system. Fortunately I made it on time and headed over to work. On the way my coworker and I did a little shopping since I was obsessing over the fact that I forgot my cardigan sweater thingy and it was going to be hot this week! I bought a nice little cardigan to make do and some really cute tops for the summer! Then off to get lunch and head over to the office. At the office my coworker realized that my order was not placed in the bag. So we call and they end up sending someone over on a bike to deliver my food! Was I supposed to tip the poor guy?! I didn't - I am bad:( So then I get my food and then turn on my computer. To just totally drown my high turns out my poor monitor was crushed and the screen was just worthless. No cracks but rainbow colors all over. So I then spent the afternoon heading over to the denver office to replace the monior, luckily they had some in stock! What makes things so sad is that I was scheduled to get a new computer on friday since my lease is up and I came really freaking close to having that lease date pushed back to november! But the IT people were AMAZING and they hooked me up!

So rest of the day was short and sweet. Went to the hotel, watched some shows, made some phone calls, and then slept quite nicely until of course the stupid neighbors come home at 2:30 in the morning and decide to freaking have a loud mouth drunken conversation. Maybe they were not drunk but damn they were freaking loud. Volume control people - work on it. At least it wasn't as bad as the last week drunken hook up attempt next door.

Stop talking

Had a wonderful dinner last night - watched the last 10 minutes of Alias, talked to my dad and MAC then went to sleep at 10 and was ready to get up early this mornign to go to gym. I was fast asleep doing just fine until my "neighbors" came home at 2 in the morning. Damn you hotel walls for being so thin. I could hear everything. Some drunken fools come stumbling around their room. Two guys and a chick that is wasted - slurring her words and all. She sounds a little worried since she had to go to work the next day and she can;t find her wallet. So she is wailing about needing to find her wallet and one of the guys is trying to be all smooth and is like oh come here and just calm down. He says this repeatedly while she repeatedly screams about her wallet. Then I hear giggling and then I think they are gone. Nope - they all come back, she is now whining about her lost phone. Blah blah the guy is still trying to hook up with her and obviously she is smart enough in her stupor to not have it. Or maybe she did and they were really quite. who knows. I pounded some nyquil and made it back to sleep. Didn't make it to the gym though:(

I get to go home tonight! Yeah SF!!! Yeah MAC! Yeah friends! I hope fri night clears up cuz I want to hit up another doggy happy hour.

My hair is kicking some ass out here in Denver. I am trying to convince one of the senior managers out here that she needs to let her hair just be and own her curls! She flat irons her her straight every day. I can't believe that! Curly hair is so much faster to style!!! And I bet her curls are those sexy wavy curls like lots of you ladies have!

Poop

Although I love the book I am reading - it is also making me think more about death than I would like...so here's the thing. I have questioned my religious/spiritual beliefs for a while. Since my mom passed I have been led to believe that there truly is a greater power out there. There were so many unlikely things that surrounded her death that I have no choice but to explain it via this higher power. Now the question is - what happens after death? Before my mom passed away, my bigger picture issue with religion started because faith and a god seemed to be an easy out to explain the unbelievable. I mean, to believe that there truly is no meaning to life is too hard for us to comprehend, therefore, having something to believe in keeps us grounded. So fine - I have had an experience that has forced me to take that leap and believe in some form of the after world. But last night I was having a hard time justifying to myself what that means. I do not want to accept that my mom is fully gone from the world. I thought I believed in some form of spirit that is left after death. But now I am doubting this. When you think about it, spirit is probably just the memories that we all carry with us and the physical resemblances left behind through her family. If this is true, then there really is nothing of her and just her left out there and that kills me. She is not out there watching over me and that is just not fair. I hope that I am wrong and the movie Ghost has it all right - having a spirit body exist and float away to a happy place. This spirit being able to see everything on earth. This is what I want. But I am *really* afraid that this is just a nice fantasy. Can I allow myself to believe in something that I have such strong doubts about? All of this turmoil in my head and what is the hardest of all is that I will never have an exact answer. No one knows the reality of death.

catching up

So many little things I wanted to write about so here they are!

On the news they quickly mentioned how talking to babies in high pitched voices does indeed help them learn the language! Something to do with catching their attention vs the regular pitch used talking to other adults. Thanks to YY for also pointing that out!

So weekend was ruined by a cold. All I did was sleep. Missed out on G's bday party, almost missed my plane. Stupid "spring an hour ahead" screwed me up. Thought my flight was at 3, turns out it was at 2. Thought it was 11, turns out it was noon. I had half an hour to get ready and pack. Poor MAC had to deal with one nasty biotch. I can;t help it - I am easily agitated and frustrated when things get out of my control. But I made it. And how cool is this? I got to have dinner in Denver with Laura and Andy (sp?)!! I feel like such a jet setter meeting up for a quick bite is some random state!

I have missed out on the gym now for 3 days since I can;t make myself get up in the morning - granted I do have my "I'm sick" excuse but I think that will have to end tomorrow.

I am reading a fabulous book though - I think I mentioned how I heart Dean Koontz. Psychothrillers rule! This one is all about how lives are intertwined and how our own energy exists everywhere and stuff...good stuff.

Oh and I have to share my cube with a new staff member. She is totally cool but come on - do I get any privacy?? We also have to share the network cord. Sucks. And I don;t have a printer so we have to disconnect our laptops to go connect to some printer in some other cube. LAME LAME LAME. And I didn't get to each lunch yesterday until close to 4. had a 2 hour meeting where I sat taking notes like the good little notetaker I am. I will stop there. I love work - work is great - traveling is fun. YAY.