change of heart

ok i'm finally i'm getting accustomed to the red. now it's your turn.

i promised pictures for my faithful readers, so here, i took this one today for a friend that was IM'ing with me... she called it my "super hero secret identity sultry private investigator that uses her police contacts to find the bad guy" look.

meeting the folks

yee-haw!
i spent my thanksgiving in pheonix, arizona.
with conor's family. all 16 of us.

16 people is a pretty large group, but it's actually quite small compared to what i got used to, growing up - on one holiday during high school, i swear to you, i counted 50 people at my aunt's house.

but since the last few years have dumped me into very small, very quaint thanksgivings, a 16 (count) party was a welcome diversion from my often-lonesome 20-something life in san francisco. we had grandparents, parents, step-parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, twins, a dog, you name it.

we did:
1. arts and crafts (tie-dye, sewing projects, jewelry making)
2. games (checkers, sharades)
3. hikes & walks
4. visits to "old town" pheonix, and "rawhide" (another old west tourist town)
5. a group photo, dressed like cowboys & floozies (sepia-toned... you know the kind... completely ridiculous)
6. mexican food
7. margarita's, cocktail hour, enough booze to hide the headache from the kids running in circles around you

so all in all, one cannot complain. i'm a sucker for dumb activities like tie-dye. even if the shirt i came home with is an XXL and ugly as sin. i'll never wear it. but that wasn't the point. the point is that i'm the kind of person who likes being around large, chaotic families. i honestly don't mind helping a 10 year old make a beaded necklace. i don't mind carrying an 8 year old on my back, all the way down a mountain during a hike. i'm the kind of person that 11-year old boys get crushes on because i'll help them with their sewing projects.

and i'm also the kind of person who will happily sit through a hour of looking at grammy's sketches & photos from her art shows (which were quite cool, i have to say), and i will happily laugh at grandpa's jokes (because they're actually hilarious - only hard to hear. he has no vocal chords. just one of those vibrating things he has to stick to up to the hole in his neck, which makes him sound like a robot. very rad).

the bigger the family crowd the better. i like it when i can disappear into the chaos and feel completely enveloped. no one pays too much attention to you when the group is large. you can be visible when you want to be, and invisible when you want to be. its perfect...

... because i'm also the kind of person who loves the quiet moments - like when conor and i could sneak away from the group and just hang out together, sitting in the sun, taking in the dry phoenix landscape, and enjoying the fact that we have a few days off of work, to hang out. together.

sue-she

my roommate is the best.

last night, we made sushi. she went to an asian market called 'yum yum fish' (out in south san fran), and bought us sushi-grade tuna and salmon. we had cucumber, carrots, avocado, lemon, wasabe, pickled radish, rice, inari wrappers, seaweed, rice, the works.

we decided that when we live next door to each other in our old, married, adult years, we're going to have:

1. rainy tuesdays at the museum (stay-at-home-dad #1 will be in charge of this)
2. pasta saturdays (stay-at-home-dad #2 will be in charge of this)
3. sushi sundays (she's in charge of this, but i'll help)(help eat all the sushi!)

mmm. ain't nothing like stuffing yourself silly. and i can't wait to eat my delicious sushi lunch today. i've got a roll in my bag just waiting to be chopped up (and gobbled up!).

sinking. in.

okay, i hope i don't bore everyone to tears with my red hair talk. but it's on my mind (badda bam! bad pun) and as i said before, it's going to take some getting used to.

(for me, anyway. maybe not for cam, who told me exactly when he had gotten used to it, and i swear not five minutes had passed)

thankfully, the following things ensued this weekend:

1. chris informed me that my hair was "the talk of the office" on friday (in a good way). he claims everyone loved it. he was even nice enough to pick out the closest pantone swatch color (PMS#1810) so he could blog about it. since i had a really hard time showing my face at work on friday, this was a major breakthrough. phew!
2. conor repeatedly tells me he loves it. he also told me several times that he likes it better, and that i shouldn't change it back. not sure i totally agree, but, second phew.
3. catfoo loves it. the word she used was 'mesmerizing' (which personally, i think, is a great word). triple phew.
4. someone actually said i looked like julianne moore without being prompted by me. major props! quadruple phew!

but for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. which means that unfortunately, the following things also ensued this weekend:

1. i woke up in a panic friday night. oh no! it's permanant! what have i done! what have i done!?!?! gulp.
2. i went shopping, in an attempt to find a shirt (or two) or a sweater (or something) that i felt neutralized my hair color. i came out empty-handed. i also lost half my nerve and most of my self confidence somewhere in those racks of clothing. double gulp.
3. i broke down crying to conor on our way home from a bar last night. the same bar i lost my cell phone in and had to go back to to retrieve today. but the tragic point is not about the missing cellphone (which was a giant pain in my ass), the point is that around 11:30 last night, i was out in front of my apartment, uncontrollably crying about my hair. unprompted. unsolicited. how lame is that? triple gulp.

so here's my analysis of the situation:

1. thank you, conor, for being really cool.
2. it's only hair. people dye their hair all the time. what's new for me is old news for millions of others. i need to stop making this out to be more special or more unique than it really is.
2. even though i might be scared, i know i could pay good money to undo it. and i'm not going to do that. i'm sticking this out. i made the choice, and so far i'm the only person who seems to dislike the final outcome...

its kind of like when i moved to san francisco last year and said i had one year to decided if i liked living here or not. my breakthrough was in month 7, and now i think this place is great. hopefully it won't take me 7 months to get used to red hair (or else i'll have some really nasty roots), but you get my point. time.

3. it's fall! the leaves have changed, apples are on the trees (at least, i'm imagining this is the case in new england... living in san francisco is like living in alaska during that period of perpetual light - you never know what time (of the year) it is). anyways, i figure, why shouldn't i exude autumness, too? warm hues. red wine. cranberries. mmm.
4. i decided to steal cynthia's olive green cashmere sweater until i find a suitably similar one of my own. this new 'awareness' of my color palate is a little more than i can chew at the moment. sorry, cyn, i hope ya don't mind. wink.
5. at least i don't have to look at myself! if i avoid the mirrors, will i ever know the difference?

my mother's daughter

it's done.

thankfully my friends took me for drinks right afterwards (champagne, to celebrate!) so i didn't have time to think too much about the change. also, i'm really glad the main woman in 'the incredibles' had red hair, too, since we saw that movie right after dinner. she made me happy. so far, reactions seem positive, and everyone says it is very believable (if i can believe them).

but... i'm still in shock. i had to tell my hairdresser i'd call him in a few days with my reaction once the surprise/weirdness wore off.

i'll try to take a picture that i LIKE and post it here in the near future. until then, pretend i look like this: julianne moore (i know, wishful thinking).

do blondes have more fun?

i've been monitoring women and their hair colors lately. i watch them on the trains, in stores, at the gym. i'm searching for the perfect color for my hair appointment today. all this observation has brought several things to my attention:

1. a lot of women have really awful hair. is it really fair that men basically just have to cut their hair short in order to look cute? short-haired people don't have to worry about humidity-frizzies, split ends, roots, how to wear it, how to keep it healthy. and long-haired women don't necessarily want to worry about that stuff either. it's apparent in the number of women who don't. their hair just ends up looking like shit, because they don't do the one thing men do to guaruntee a nice head - cut it short. chop it. i mean SHORT. free yourselves, bad-haired-ladies-of-the-world!

2. there are a lot of blondes and fake blondes out there. full blonde, highlighted blonde, blonde up top with brown underneath. blonde with red. blonde with white.

3. ponytails are in. they always have been, always will be. don't let anyone tell you differently. i'm a big fan. and rarely do i see a pony-tailed woman who doesn't look cute. unless her ponytail is 4 feet long.

4. black women with blonde hair look awesome.

5. white women with brandy-braids look awesome.

6. dreads are nasty, particularly when dyed unnatural colors. how does that logic work, honestly?

ring around the rosey

this gallery in SF is having (what looks like will be) a really cool exhibit - anyone want to check it out with me? 200 rings. catfood & i love the wheat grass one.

200 RINGS

toe jam

time to get my feet back into "shoe-wearing shape". the days of flip flops are diminishing as the weather is cooling off.

but, more importantly, i feel like wearing heels again. i'm feeling, so, so... girly these days.

eek!

redhead?

for the first time in my life, i'm conteplating dying my hair. and not just more blonde highlights, because i've been there, done that... i mean, can i really keep on trying to relive my glory days of childhood, where i was blonde naturally? my days of sitting in the sun with lemon juice soaked hair is over. but... what else do i know? Dramatic Hair Change isn't usually for me. i'm the girl who looked like a hippy from 6th grade through college.

1. long
2. parted in the middle
3. chin length bangs
4. kind of unruly (i blame the east coast humidity)

my brief short-haired year (10th grade) found me with bangs and an under-curled triangle cut that wouldn't have flattered a meatloaf.

"short haired megan" means: i look like a chipmunk.

but here's the deal. i saw this girl on the train the other day who had The Most Fabulous Hair i have ever seen in my life. it was a cute, short, angled cut where the back was about 2 inches shorter than the front. it was stick straight and fabulously flingy, bouncy, smooth, shiny... but the thing that caught my eye was the color.

Red.

not orange red.
not pink/magenta red.
not purple red.
not blonde red.
not black red.
not red red.

but perfect red.

imagine... a fall maple leaf? no, too bright. imagine cinnamon. nutmeg. or... marachino cherry juice lightly brushed over a chocolate cake. with golden glitter.

i am not making any sense. just take my word for it.

Fabulous.

the thing is... can i pull it off? i'm sure i'd get used to the color (assuming they get it right), and i know my mom would be happy (she's a redhead). i know chandra would be happy too (she's also a redhead). but the cut? short? stick straight? flingy? bouncy? shiny?

it would take some maintenance. some hot-iron lovin'. it would probably make me slightly more high maintenance than my current flip-out 50's cut. or would it?

what should i do!?
my intended blonde-highlights hair appt. is next thursday.
tick. tock. tick. tock.

true blue?

... baby, i love you

blue is a neutral, science-y kind of color...
so, colin, better than pink? can you trick your boss now?

pretty in...

what do you think? about the pink? use it or lose it?

i can't get past "denial"

i'm talking about the election. i just can't come to terms with the results. i don't believe it really happened. it doesn't seem real.

i can't read any political coverage in the news, magazines, or online.

i hear his name, or see his picture, and i turn the other way, revolted. its like someone is trying to show me the image of a corpse. and i can't stomach a peek. i can't grasp the awful, scary, mind boggling truth.

is it really?... did it really?...

oh man.

what are we in for, these next 4 years? can someone please tell me? even if i'm not sure i'm ready to believe it?

fur coats

public service announcement #1: i'm dog sitting right now.
public service announcement #2: i'm cat sitting right now.
public service announcement #3: i'm covered in fur from the moment i get 'home' until the moment i use the lint brush to take it all off & walk out the door.

how do pet owners do it?

first of all, i've never slept with any sort of animal curled up next to my head. the furriest (and largest) animals we ever had growing up were hamsters (the goldfish were close in line for the largest, but didn't have a fighting chance at being the furriest)(except when it was my brother's turn to clean the tank and he forgot to do it). now, i seem to be living on animal planet. cat butt/tail/paws in my face at night. walks in the rain. cans of stinky food. treats. petting. fur.

more fur.

but you know what? these animals are fucking cute. the cat (salvie - short for salvadore) has this scrunched up face like a little old man and enough fur to line several jackets. he's a persian. he meows, but i swear i've also heard him bark. the dog, chloe, is a chow. she's like a giant, moving stuffed teddy bear. she's so mild mannered i wonder if she's real. and she hates walks, particularly if it's raining out. chloe prefers to sit around all day and look cute. and trust me, she does that REALLY well.

pets...

in some ways, it's kind of like babysitting for newborns because i never have a clue what they want or need from me. when i'm home, the pets just stare at me all the time... follow me around the apartment... and make cute noises until i pet them. what a life.

oh yeah, guess what i learned today! did you know that catnip is like a legalized drug for cats? an aphrodisiac? it makes them entranced!

zero plays

my 'zero plays' list on my ipod started out with over 1200 songs on it. but today, it's down to 106. yee-haw!

triple decker sunday

sometimes, i think i'm nuts. it doesn't help that when other people hear about the things i like to do, they just make me feel even more nuts. but then, there are days when i realize that actually, i'm not so bad... a lot of my friends are equally as nuts as i am. i guess that's why i like them so much.

case in point: triple decker sunday. that was today. pete planned out this whole "low key triathlon" for us to do, along with our friend cynthia. it involved swimming with his masters team, then hoping on our bikes for a liesurely ride (26 miles) along skyline blvd., followed by a 6 mile run through golden gate park. the idea was to go slow, take all the time we needed on the transitions, and have fun.

prove we could do it.

honestly (and this is going to come out all wrong), i don't need much proving - i used to do a heckuva lot of triathlons a few years back. but! seeing as i'm not in prime shape right now, it was a much needed test of my strength (or lack thereof). and its fun to find tri-buddies out in california. i had some great ones in massachusetts (steve, jenn, andy, brian, even carla & shawdee are gettin' in to them, which totally rocks). but even though people "say" that san fran is the triathlon mecca, i don't believe it. i haven't seen it.

anyways, back on topic. so why are we nuts? because who else would elect to wake up at 7am on sunday morning and do this to themselves? not very many people, thats who. it was cold, gray, early, and i would have much rather been sleeping. but once again i proved to myself (you'd think i'd learn eventually) that a little waking-up pain is always trumped by the joy of the activity, in the end. and it really was a great morning.

to be honest, i was the slacker in the group. i had to skip the swim because i'm dog sitting for a friend, which means i have all new pet-related morning routines this week. but i met up with them for the bike. that leg was fantastic, as all bike rides are. we rolled our way along the coast and experienced a nice mix of hill climbs, downward descents, and flat terrain. the run afterwards was a little less fantastic -i'm perpetually battling tendonitis in my left knee which has come back full force lately. and no ones muscles feel good on a run that directly follows a long bike ride.

but - even with my run/run/walk/run ratio, things were good. the sun was shining, i was cruising along with friends, and we finished. eventually.

the last hurrah was eating a huge meal at a local diner. mmm pancakes and coffee. amazing how coffee makes all pain melt away...

lucky penny

this is a tribute to one of you out there who loves to find pennies - heads up. i found one on friday, and stuck it in my shoe! it was shiny and gorgeous, year 2004, mint D. i laughed when i saw it on the ground, and when i stuck it in my shoe, my friends thought i was nuts. but i didn't care because it made me happy. it was a beaut.

charts 'n graphs

i've said it before and i'll say it again: i freakin' love Quicken®. i can chart out all sorts of fun things, like my dwindling debt (nevermind those school loans), my growing retirement fund, how much money i spend on coffee... it's amazing to see all the day to day purchases mapped out in a graph, cuz' there ain't nothing like numbers to tell you the truth (the whole truth, and nothing but the truth).

in high school, i remember my old AP history teacher (gus haynes was a rad dude) telling us that "in 10 years, we won't even be using cash... it's going to be replaced by debit cards, and the government will be able to track every single expenditure you make!"

"yeah right, mr. haynes. whatever."

he may not have been 100% right (since i still have a pocketful of change and a wad of ones in my bag), but he was certainly hitting on something fundamental. i wouldn't be carrying around the little bit of cash i do, if it were honestly up to me. i hate it. it feels vulnerable. it's not labeled. not mine. someone could easily snatch it up and claim it as theirs and who would know the better? how's that for security?

maybe there's something weird about knowing other people might be able to see everything i ever spent my money on... admittedly that idea freaked me out when i was sitting in my history class listening to gus "tell it like it was"... but i don't buy it. it's quite awesome that, at the very least, I can look at my money with complete accuracy, detail, and instantaneity - whenever i want (assuming i'm at home with my lappy and my wireless). does anyone really care that i bought a new hoodie, two lattes, a can of cashews, and my MUNI pass?

having all this data at my finger tips is particulary awesome because tracking my money day-to-day, week-to-week, month-to-month helps me figure out where the hell it all goes. it keeps me in check. being someone who is fresh out of school and a newbie in the world of "adulthood", i need a little financial chaperone, of sorts.

so here's to mr. haynes being mostly right! and to the glorious, digital world of debit cards and online bill pay!

if it were up to me, i'd even pay pal my rent to my landlady, doing away with my checkbook once and for all... that's what i call freedom!

a little bit wet

i just stood in the rain for an hour waiting for a bus that was never going to come.

"there's trouble on the line"

i explored the web surfing capabilities of my phone while waiting. i discovered that chris's blog crashes my phone's web browser, while my blog loads just fine. ha!

i also discovered that while it seems i can try to post comments to blogs, it won't actually let me click on the "publish" button. sigh.

i also discovered that nextbus.com doesn't tell me when the number 6 is coming next. only the trains. that makes no sense! shouldn't train information be at nexttrain.com?

for the record, my candy-n-booze plan for the day failed miserably. i did no afternoon shots. i broke down around 5pm when the sugar from my candy lunch depleted, and i decided to get myself some apple juice and cashews at walgreens downstairs. then i stopped for sushi on my way to the bookclub. i did drink wine there (yay! according to plan!) but also ate a chocolate cookie (boo! not planned! although, can that fit under the candy-only category?). i also never felt like eating guac and chips.

sigh. and it is still raining here. did i mention that i waited for the bus in the rain for an hour? yes i did. well, just when i was at my grumpiest point - trekking up 3 blocks from lincoln to get home after taking a different bus - and just when i was grumbling internally at a frantic rate about all sorts of grumbly things, i passed a person sleeping half in the rain/half under an awning with a cardboard box as their blanket. and i realized, "you know, at least i have somewhere warm and dry waiting for me in 2 blocks and 5 minutes away."

and things felt okay for a moment.

and then, things felt sad all over again. because it's not just about me. here i am, 2 blocks and 5 minutes later, in a soft sweater, teeth brushed, hair combed, phone charging, typing away on my computer.

while that person is still out there sleeping in the rain...

fine, tummy, be that way

since the last two days have been not-fun-eating-lunch days (due to mysterious digestive/taste/ability-to-stomach-my-lunch-food issues), and since today is a sad, sad, sad day all around me, i'm goint to retaliate. here is my plan (which went in to effect about 5.37 minutes ago):

1. i'm eating nothing but candy for lunch (thanks chris)
2. i'm going out for shots with a co-worker this afternoon (thanks lamont)
3. i'm consuming nothing but wine for dinner (thanks bookclub)
4. maybe i'll stop for a side of guacamole & chips on my way home

so, with this plan, it seems that today is going to be a good day afterall! even if it IS to the great dismay of...

my not-big-drinkers parents
my uber-health-conscious cousin
my christian cousin
my mormon brother
my dentist
my waist line
my productivity

half a cup of mourning

i need to stop living in liberal meccas because it's getting to be a big joke, and i'm rather sick of being the butt of it. why do i fool myself that there are rational people living throughout the united states?

in san francisco, kerry got 83% of the vote. the rest went to nader. okay, i'm kidding about the nader part (he wasn't even on our ballot), but you get my point.

some things that happened today:
- i discovered that the website of my hometown paper (the st. petersburg times, florida) has the best interactive graphic of the country & its vote tally. better than any major news site, including the awesome nytimes graphic that is just overkill (albeit gorgeous overkill).
- san francisco passed a city policy to "urge the United States government to withdraw all troops from Iraq". seriously. it got 63% of the vote. way to urge!
- kerry conceded the election to bush
- my company threw around the idea of moving the offices to finland
- dan decided he'd move to north korea if canada fills up
- my (usually non-political) cousin sent me a ranting email
- my uncle decided that our election process is no more civil or effective than afghanistan's
- the MUNI got me to work in 20 minutes
- starbucks made a half-decent (dare i say good?) plain latte

i'm glad that i am not adding to the list a victory by bubba the love sponge in his race to be pinellas county sherrif. at lease some pigs aren't flying.

game day

man. we totally need a gameday app for the election, like we had for the red sox games! why can't the MLB run election coverage for us?? forget all this manual refreshing of swamped news sites! sheesh. disappointing.

blast from election past

before this whole election 2004 mess gets underway, lets take a moment to reflect to the 2000 election. i grabbed this here screenshot from my computer around 1 in the morning on election night, upon seeing the announcement. i was ridiculously, joyously happy that my little old state of florida pulled through for me.

of course as we all know, i soon came to realize that i'd been duped. the let down was immense.


(click the image to see the full shot of boston.com's site that night)

let's join together and cross our fingers the sunshine state doesn't rip my heart out of my chest again...

need work?

i don't exactly know why i'm feeling compelled to post this info - but my company has a few job openings right now. i guess i figure, who better to work with than my friends, huh? we need a game producer, a web designer, and a customer service person.

click here to read about the openings