Classes have begun again and so has the procrastination coupled with anxious energy which generally leads to a few days of extreme productivity and then the cycle repeats itself. Work follows a similar pattern, usually on the same days of the week as the aforementioned chaos which is convenient on the slow days and stressful on the busy ones. As much as I tend to moan, in the end I enjoy the hectic nature of things these days, it makes me feel necessary and not like I'm wasting time.

I'm going up North to see my parents this weekend and am excited for mom's home cooking and the Bay Area fog: the perfect prescription for a tired mind.

The main takeaway from this update is that things are generally going very well and that you should be watching all of Mad Men every chance you get if you have not fallen in love with it (and Don Draper) already.

"Everything I pick up seems to lure me away. Everything I do in my daily life begins to feel like striking wet matches.

The need to travel is a mysterious force. A desire to go runs through me equally with an intense desire to stay home. An equal and opposite thermodynamic principle. When I travel, I think of home and what it means. At home I'm dreaming of catching trains at night in the gray light of Old Europe, or pushing open shutters to see Florence awaken. The balance just slightly tips in the direction of the airport.

I asked an impulsive question, What if we did not go home, what if we kept traveling?

- from A Year in the World by Frances Mayes

I wish to be this Monk seal, lounging on the beaches of Kauai, sleeping the day away in the sun.

Pictures from the trip to Kauai and Maui are here. I want to go back, like, right now.

A. Each tagged person must post 8 things about themselves on their journal.
B. At the end, you have to choose and tag 5 people.

1. I am loving school, which is something I never thought I would say. I realize now that all this time I was afraid to fail at it so I avoided it all together. I’m still insecure about my ability in this area, and it continues to make me uncomfortable.

2. I have officially been working the same job for three years (with a few title changes and raises) as of this month.

3. My favorite board games are Trivial Pursuit (90’s Edition), Cranium (Jolly and Seanzy, I want a rematch!), and Stratego.

4. I’m going to sell my car this Spring for something more practical (i.e. four doors, better gas mileage).

5. I am terrible with proper comma usage. Every paper I’ve written for school so far had at least three comma splices in it; therefore I’ve seen ‘CS’ in large red ink more than I care to say.

6. Like most early twenty-somethings, I want to change the world. However, I don’t want to tell anyone this for fear of breaking the illusion that I am a deeply cynical and logical person.

7. My social anxiety issues that are popping up more and more at work. They take the form of tiny panic attacks before in-person meetings and I usually try to avoid them in favor of conference calls if I can swing it. Even the calls can be painful sometimes.

8. I am obsessed with crock pots and crock pot recipes, if anyone has any to share, I want ‘em!

I'm supposed to "tag" 5 other people, but instead this will be an open invitation to everyone who wishes to participate.

Busy.

It's my most common response to "How are you?" these days and I've grown tired of the word. Work is crazy and long, long hours but rewarding. With each new project that makes me consider changing my name and moving to Fiji comes a large sense of accomplishment once completed/under control. School is great, but time consuming. Finals are next week and I'm really looking forward to a break before starting classes again in mid January. There's a seemingly never ending list of errands to run that is getting almost completely neglected. It's frustrating and can be a bit of a rollercoaster at times, so I'm looking forward to getting through the next two weeks and relaxing for a little while.

Fastest way to make a dirty house feel like a home again? Get the carpets cleaned!

The place feels like new again. Completely, totally, utterly worth it.

(Yes, yes, we're more than a month off, but I can be excited, can't I?)

1) A metric shit load of these babies, with all of the calories extracted.


2) Completely impractical, absolutely-no-place-to-wear-these-to, Christian Louboutin red satin pumps.


3) To be Miss Rumphius, the Lupin Lady.


4) To live in a French chateau/farm making one of a kind cheeses.


5) Puppy!


6) All expenses paid trip to Fiji or Hawaii (I'm totally flexible), New Zealand and Australia, and the time off from work to do it.


OK, OK, I may have gone too far. All I really want is good food, good friends and maybe an ice cream cake with my face on it, ala:

Note to self: Never, and I repeat NEVER, go get blood drawn on an empty stomach or sitting up straight.



Me, this morning.

... and it was DELICIOUS.

The classes I am taking in the fall, with days starting at 7 AM! Can I do it?



I am a little worried that I won't be able to handle four classes and work at the same time - however, I think this is one of those things that once I make the choice to do it, I'll get it done. After this semester, I would only need 10.2 more credits (read: one more semester or the fast-paced winter session) to apply to USC and start as a sophomore. I'd be on track to graduate in the spring of 2011... only three years late!

This is one of those rare things that as a consumer, you walk away thinking, "Hot damn! Someone got something right".

Recently I embarked on a project where I wanted to frame about 15 pictures that I'd taken with my beat up Sony Cybershot over the last year or so. I was expecting a painful, expensive process of digging up originals, sticking them on a CD and taking them to CVS or Wolf Camera and getting crappy reproductions back. NOT SO!

Flickr apparently has this amazing service where you just order the pictures you have already uploaded to their awesome image gallery system, in any size you want, for a mere $.20/print! But that's not even the best part. You can pick up all your photos at the local target only an hour later!

Cheap, easy, fast! Just like my women.

BREAKING: Tony Anderson, anti piracy analyst and occasional office prankster, found his desk COVERED in un-spooled frames from a discarded "American Pie 2" film reel late this afternoon. Alex Morrison, office mate and witness, had this to say: "I'm not sure who did that, it seems like a pretty big waste of such a classic and timeless film - not mention a very cruel thing to do...". There were conflicting reports that some frames of "Spy Game" had also been employed by the vandal. At the time of print, there are no suspects and all office mates should consider themselves on high alert for possible copy cat crimes and/or half-assed attempts at revenge.

Christian Bale is The Sex, no?

Least favorite part of school thus far? Essay questions! E-mail culture has trained me to list my thoughts quickly without a lot of gussying up, nary an introduction nor conclusion paragraph in my Outlook archive folders.

Bathroom is done (went with the dark green), and the living room wall needs one more coat and then it shall be complete as well! Huzzah!



( More under here )

The grey is the primer. I'm going to paint the squares red tomorrow to see how it looks with the rest of the room. Hopefully it will be fantastic so I can have a weekend project.

I've also begun to paint the downstairs bathroom two shades of green:



I need to decide which one I want to paint the whole bathroom in. The lighting is not so great, so the quality of the colors in this picture is not to be trusted. The granite around the sink is a pretty dark green-ish (with the light green here and with the dark green here). The cabinets are painted a very dark green/grey color, and the floor is cherry hardwood.

Poll #1208364
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 6

What do you think?