Just added 2 new photo albums:
* New Year’s Eve 2002-03
* Teenie
Enjoy!
Author Archives: Cindy
no international travel for now
Yesterday, Dave & I were supposed to go to Victoria, BC, for the wedding of a friend of his. I’m not allowed to tell the full story of exactly why we couldn’t go, but let’s just say that he & I are apparently both far too irresponsible to be trusted to leave the country without adult supervision. So instead, we went to Alki and lay on the beach for a couple of hours. That was great, except it didn’t occur to me to bring sunscreen, and I got burned pretty badly. Ow.
One funny moment at the beach: At one point I was lying on my stomach and sort of surveying the people walking on the beach between us (at the shore) and the street. I saw this guy, thought “gee, that looks like… [insert double take]… I mean that REALLY looks like…. [insert triple take]… hey, I think that’s Scott!” And sure enough, it was. Very random to just spot him walking along the beach like that. He sat & chatted with us for a while, then went off to explore the tent where the scientologists were trying to cultivate new members. (I’m not making that up – they really did have a tent set up at the beach.)
After the beach, Dave & I went to Artcore Studios to talk to Bishop about the tattoo that I want. He roughly sketched out his idea for my tattoo based on what I had told him I wanted (sort of a repeat of the conversation we had a couple of months ago, but a bit more elaborate), and I think it’s going to be really awesome. And I set an appointment, which will be on Saturday, July 10th, at 2:30 p.m. I can’t wait. There will be photos when it happens, don’t worry.
Oh, also, Dave & I met up with my cousin Catherine for dinner on Friday night. That was a smashing success, if I do say so myself. It was great to see her & catch up on family stuff, dinner was great (mmmm… Flying Fish), and Dave & Cat seemed to like each other. So for an initial family member meeting, I think it went really well. I’m still waiting to get the pictures that Cat took on her digital camera, but I’ll post them as soon as I get them.
Actually, thinking of photos, I have a lot that still need to be added to this site. I suppose I should work on that today while I’m just slacking around the house doing laundry and cleaning. Hmmm… We’ll see.
I’m going back to California tomorrow morning. Yippee.
greetings from foggy southern California
So, how much work have I done since my arrival in Santa Ana a little over 24 hours ago?
Zero.
As in, nada, nothing, zilch. I cannot believe that my company paid to fly me over 900 miles so I could sit on my ass in a conference room with a bunch of other guys who are also doing nothing. I understand that a lot of consulting is “hurry up and wait,” but this is insane. There was absolutely no reason that I needed to be here this week, except that it makes the project leader feel reassured to know that we’re all here & ready to work. Even though there’s nothing to do yet. Bah, this sucks.
On the upside, the hotel is really nice. Free breakfast, and free happy hour in the evenings. Good way to save up that per diem that I’m getting for meals every day – screw dinner, I can just have a couple of drinks on an empty stomach and fall asleep. Call it the liquid diet plan. I’ll have enough extra cash saved up for my tattoo in no time.
There’s a Pearl Jam song that I can’t seem to stop listening to lately. It’s an old one, I think it’s called “Indifference,” it was either on Vs. or Vitalogy. I put the CD in yesterday when I was driving to the airport, and again when I got in the rental car at LAX. (I felt very rebellious, listening to my Seattle music in L.A.) There’s this one line at the beginning of the song that really gets me:
“I will stand, arms outstretched,
pretend I’m free to roam.
I will make my way
through one more day in hell.”
I’m pretty sure it’s a reference to a relationship, but it sums up fairly accurately how I feel about this whole California project.
I miss my cat. Prepare yourselves for more whining as time goes on.
frequent flyer miles, here I come
Last week at work was pretty interesting, it’s just taken me this long to try to wrap my head around what’s going on so that I can write about it coherently, and I’m still not sure that I can. Basically, even though I’ve been in Seattle for the last couple of months, my job is to be a consultant for anywhere on the west coast that I may be needed. So as of this Wednesday, I’m going to be flying to Santa Ana, CA every week from now until Labor Day. (They said something about 8 weeks, but I looked at the calendar & counted – it’s actually 11 weeks – so I’m not sure which number is accurate.) But in a nutshell, for the next 2 months, I’m going to be flying out every Monday morning & flying back every Friday afternoon. So I’ll still get my weekends in Seattle, but I’ll be gone most of the time.
And even though I knew this was going to be a big part of my job when I took it, I’m really not happy about it at all. I feel like I was just starting to really enjoy my life here in Seattle – I have the new apartment in the city, I’ve been much more active socially, I found a really great guy (awwww…), I’m getting more exercise, etc. And now I feel like that’s all getting yanked away from me. Plus, I love the mild summers in Seattle, so why the hell would I want to go to southern California? (Granted it’s been brutally hot here for the last few days, but that’ll pass soon – it always does.) It just sucks, I’ve been crying a lot lately. Plus I hate flying, I have anxiety attacks every time there’s the slightest bit of turbulence, so the thought of doing it 16-22 times over the next couple of months does not sound like fun at all. I have a doctor’s appointment tomorrow afternoon, I plan on asking her for some kind of mild tranquilizer to help chill me out. I usually just drink before I get on the plane, but I think a prescription would probably be safer (and cheaper).
On the other hand, it sounds like the work I’m going to be doing is really good – it’s all interesting stuff that I haven’t done before – I just wish I could do it locally.
Meanwhile, Dave, who is rapidly on his way to earning the title of the Best Boyfriend In The Entire History Of The Universe (or, BBITEHOTU), has offered to take care of Teenie while I’m gone. How sweet is that? We’ll give it a trial run this week to see how she gets along with his kitties (I’m expecting lots of fur to fly). If that doesn’t work out, then I guess I’ll have to figure out what to do with her, whether that’s a pet-sitter or maybe I’ll fly her down with me sometimes. We’ll see. But that’s the update of all the goings-on in my life right now.
puddle of poobou
I have to confess, I haven’t really been working out since I moved to Seattle back in April. I’ve been to the gym once or twice, but mostly I’ve been justifying my laziness by thinking that since I essentially walk at least 2 miles a day (work is 1 mile from my place x twice a day), 5 days a week, I’m probably getting enough exercise. And I also walk around a lot on the weekends when I run errands in my neighborhood. And in truth, I probably am getting enough exercise – far more than the average couch potato American, in any case. But I haven’t gotten rid of these 10 pounds that I added over Christmas, so I think it’s time to take it up a notch. Last night when I got home, I had the energy to work out, but no desire to change clothes & drive to the gym. So I just moved the futon & the coffee table and did my Tae Bo workout video in my living room. I can’t remember the last time I did that, and of course I was completely arrogant in thinking what kind of great shape I must be in due to all this walking I’ve been doing, so I opted for the advanced workout instead of the basic one.
And may I just say: ow. Seriously, can someone please get a spatula and scrape me off the floor? Every single part of me hurts except my teeth, fingernails & hair. I’m glad that the sidewalks are relatively uncrowded in the morning, I whimpered throughout my whole commute to work today.
In other news, my cousin Catherine is going to be in town next week for some business thing. She lives in North Carolina, so I don’t get to see her that often – usually just once a year at our family reunion. She’s one of my top two favorite cousins, so I’m really excited to see her. Her husband Tony is also really great (I was a bridesmaid in their wedding), but he won’t be with her on this trip. Oh, interesting side note: Catherine is the first person I ever got drunk with, when I was 9 years old. She was 12 at the time. Open bar at the family reunion and a lack of supervision from the adults were primarily to blame for that one, I think. I’m pretty sure my mom still holds a grudge against her for that, although she’d never admit it. But once you’re appointed the “bad influence” by a parent, I don’t think you ever get past that reputation. Even though Catherine now has her Ph.D. in psychology and is very successful in her career. Oh well, I think one of my aunts considers me to be the bad influence on her kids because I was once designated driver when they all got completely wasted in New Orleans. (Go figure, I guess I was supposed to forcibly remove the drinks from their hands.)
Anyway, assuming that I can figure out a way to negotiate everyone’s schedule, it looks like Catherine may be the first family member who gets to meet Dave. My mom is very jealous. And this, dear friends, is the convenient thing about living over 2000 miles away from one’s immediate family – the whole issue of meeting the parents almost never comes up. And thank God for that. I like Dave, I don’t want to scare him off just yet.
weekend summary
Friday: Dave & I went to see Scott do his Emerald City Swing thing. That was cool. We hung out briefly afterward just to say hi to Scott & Ted, then went to a (very late) dinner at the Waterfont Restaurant at Pier 70. I must say, if any of you Seattleites haven’t been there, you must go. It’s expensive, but so worth it. I’ve been fantasizing about the scallops for the past 2 days, they were incredible. And the desserts… mmmm… in retrospect, we probably should’ve gotten the creme brulee in a to-go box, because it was really hard to keep myself from making little happy noises while I was eating it. It is so awesome, it’ll make your toes curl. You can quote me on that.
Saturday: My cell phone died. For some reason it just wouldn’t turn on at all, even though it was charged. I took it to the T-Mobile store, and they had to get me a new battery, except what should’ve taken 10 minutes ended up taking almost an hour because they couldn’t seem to get my phone apart. It appears that the cover was jammed somehow. (I swear I didn’t do it.) They ended up having to cut the back of the phone off completely and then gave me a new cover. So finally that was fixed, then I ran a couple of other errands and headed out to Duvall. And I must say, Dave’s house is actually quite lovely, and not nearly as “scary bachelor pad” as I was expecting. (Except for the wasps’ nests on the eaves of the house, those have gotta go.) It’s obviously still a work in progress, but it’s got potential to be really amazing. And the master bath has one of those gigantic jacuzzi tubs with jets in it – the kind of bathtub that’s been in my fantasy dream house as long as I can remember – so I told Dave that even if he turns out to be a complete jerk, I’m still going to try to make things work so I can come over & use his tub. 🙂
So, Saturday night, we made dinner – or rather, I made dinner, and Dave entertained me while I made a mess of his kitchen. And we watched the end of “Lost in Translation” (which we started last week but never finished) and “Monster”. Both were really good, I thought. But “Monster” had some truly disturbing scenes in it that I can’t seem to get out of my head. It’s definitely not a movie for the squeamish.
Oh, and for the record, I never saw a single alpaca in Duvall. I did, however, see a mama duck leading her little troop of baby ducks across the street, and they were damn cute.
Sunday: Slacked off. Made a bunch of phone calls. Went to the grocery store. Watched the first episode of the new season of “Six Feet Under”. Was fast asleep by 9:00. Overall, very very good weekend.
geeks + pop culture = uh… something weird
This morning as I was walking to work, I noticed something strange as I approached my building. The sidewalk widens out quite a bit in front of the building, so cars can pull up onto it – it’s a 30 minute load/unload zone. I spotted this huge black Suburban, which wouldn’t have been all that noticeable except the personalized license plate said “FABPRTNRS” and it was trimmed in hot pink maribou (explanation for the guys: that’s the fluffy feather stuff that they make boas out of). Perhaps more conspicuous than the SUV itself, was that in front of the SUV was a camera crew, complete with crane microphones and all. The Suburban backed up, sped forward, screeched to a halt, 5 of the gayest-looking men I’ve ever seen hopped out, they did one of those sports huddle things (all hands in the center and they yell something in unison), then they ran into my building. The camera crew filmed the whole thing. The weird part is that it wasn’t the guys from “Queer Eye”, but it sure as hell looked like that’s what they were filming. I ran into one of my co-workers outside and asked him what was going on. He was like “Oh that, it’s some internal Microsoft thing for one of their meetings or something…”
Did I mention that we share a building with Microsoft?
I have to say, I was kind of disappointed. There are a few dudes at work who are in dire need of make-overs, I was kind of hoping that the Queer Eye guys had come to Seattle. But alas, it is not to be. Still, that is one of the strangest things I’ve seen all week.
Apropos of nothing: last night I got a paper cut on my right thumb when I was opening my mail. This morning, when I went to get my bagel out of the toaster (Friday is free bagel day at work), I burned my left thumb. I am such a klutz.
Tonight, I’m going to see Scott boogie down with his Emerald City Swing group. Tomorrow, I’m going to explore the thriving metropolis that is Duvall, WA. I feel bad making Dave drive 45 minutes into the city every time we go out, so I’ve volunteered to go to the boonies. If you guys don’t hear from me again, it means I’ve been attacked by a roving gang of alpacas. I hear they’re all over the place out there.