Blog

It's been days since I've written in this thing. Mostly due to the fact that I've been drinking too much and...stuff. Angie came over and we had dinner at the sushi boat restaurant down the street. Much fun catching up and dishing about the past few weeks. Her boy is really glad he wasn't there, due to the extreme girl-ness of the conversation. I have to say, I miss that girl. It's fun reminiscing about old times - and about not-so-old times. Thankfully, she has not submitted to the married crowd yet.

The madre is in New Jersey this week, which is a nice break from the parent thing. I feel bad, because my Mom is pretty mellow. But she's still my Mom and living with her is weird sometimes.

I'm gearing up for a trip to the UK. It's time. I need a vacation. I now need to compose a list of other destinations - because while I'm there I may as well take advantage. I'm thinking I may have to hit up Germany for Octoberfest. I'd also like to see Prague. And I'd love to go back and explore more of Belgium and The Netherlands. Spain is on the list too, but I don't want it to get much longer - because I can't take as much time off from work as many more destinations would warrant.

I wish the weather would stop being so lame. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for foggy weather, it's nice thinking weather. But not in the last week of May. I don't want to be thinking too much in the Summer - I want to be drinking on a porch in the sunlight working on a nice tan. I want to be at the beach. There is a time and a place for damp, cold weather. It's the winter - or it's the Sunset. I'm in neither time or place, so I'm kind of pissed. I got spoiled in Santa Cruz. (As opposed to just never going outside in New Jersey) I forgot the Bay Area is much less temperate. Times like these I need a car so I can drive to the places where it's warm. Damn the lack of car.

Off to bed - I've been staying up way too late and coming to work far past 9. It has to end...

Epic Global Domination

Some old SC buddies came over to play Risk today. It was the perfect day to sit around on the porch, drink cheap Mexican beer with lemon, and listen to hip-hop and the clackity-clack of the dice.

Erik, Jeff and myself - picture taken with Jeff's monkey arm holding my camera precariously.

More monkey arm shots with Jeff.


We played for hours - which is why we needed to light up the board with candles later on in the evening.


The game was starting to heat up. After dominating Europe and most of Asia (and Africa for a few turns), I fell to the Jeffster's evil card-dealing ways. He took out Erik and gained 4 more cards to trade in - which allowed him to sweep the globe with 50 troops in the middle of his turn. Needless to say, I seceded. That's too much dice-rolling when I know I'm going to lose.

Besides losing Risk, I didn't do a whole lot else this weekend. I had some wine with Angie and her new boy Jeff (different than the one pictured above) on Saturday. We subjected the poor guy to endless wedding slideshows, Vegas pictures, and a ton of girl chat. Poor dude.

It's that time of year where you can glimpse summer around the corner. I'm hoping for some sweet barbeque action at my house soon. It's also high time for another beach bonfire. Good thing my birthday's next weekend - I plan on inviting as many people as possible to come over and bring food and meat. Yes!

Just 5 more days of work before the next weekend. I can handle that, right?

Boo.

Vegas, Napa, Beyond...

What a month. Weddings are exhausting when you're helping plan them. There is some fun involved, but for the most part it's expensive, stressful and emotionally draining. I don't know if I have the energy to detail the past two weeks in full. Perhaps I can mention the cliffnotes.

Vegas - what a scandal! Walking the strip with a group of drunk girls labeled with Bachelorette Party shirts was an interesting phenomenon. Going to a strip club with my Mom, cousin and sister was by far one of the most amazing experiences thus far - what a total riot. I always knew my Mom was cool - but now I'm pretty sure she's a complete rockstar.

Wedding - what do I say? The event itself was beautiful. My sister looked fantastic. I looked like a purple cupcake. This is my job as maid of honor. I was also responsible for keeping my sister calm the day before and the day of - not an easy task. The day before was ok - I just had to step up and keep the wedding party and rest of the family organized for the rehearsal. Then on to the day of - I don't know how many phone calls I got from people asking about random details. And then the whole my sister is crying and swearing and shaking and I have to apply her makeup and we've got about a half hour before the ceremony starts. And then she was fine - she got ready to walk down the aisle and settled into this nice calm. But the whole couple of days caught up with me and I started to lose it. I didn't really think that I was the crying at weddings type of person - but I guess I'm allowed to cry at my sister's, yes? My brother-in-law's family was really funny - they kept saying how I had presented as really strong and tough - but that I was a real softie after all. I told them it was only when I put on a dress.

I think what I'm glad about is the perspective the whole thing gave me. I tend to forget that my sister is a really big part of my life, because she's so far away, and because we're so different. But my family is really important to me - and I love them all to pieces. I need to stop working so much and start seeing more of them, it's so easy to take them all for granted and live my own life. I think for the longest time I was under the impression that it had to be one or the other - my life as my own or my life with my family. But I really need to work towards meshing the two together. I've been on my own for so long that I think I got way too cynical. Hm.

In any case, it's going to be nice to get back to my own life. I miss my friends. I sense drinking in the future...