maps

i love walking around the city of san francisco. maybe not when i'm in a hurry or the weather is gross. but give me a cool, sunny day when the sky is clear and i have a few errands to liesurely run, and i'll gladly dust off the old walking flip-flops and zig zag my way from neighborhood to neighborhood.

today, as i was doing such a thing (prepping for my trip to FLA for the holly-days), i started thinking, okay noticing, that there is often a larger guiding force helping me choose my route. i noticed this because when i start out on my walk, i usually plan in advance the streets i'm going to walk along (optimizing for least number of hills or shortest distance)... until, lo and behold, i find my self waltzing along a new street! and often a street i've not waltzed along before.

it's fun to do this spontaneous-course-choosing, but it's rarely my own doing that takes me down these roads. the guiding force i speak of is called (are you ready?)... the traffic light.

i noticed today that i usually let the ebbs and flows of the lights take me where i want to go and (more often than not), their chosen course will trump my originally planned course. eventually, i make it where i'm headed. and i hardly ever go further out of my way than i need to. the lights easily answer all the little questions for me, and it's rather pleasurable.

do i cross here, or turn? depends on the light.
do i stay on this side of the sidewalk or the other? depends on the light.

and so, i began to wonder if there is a traffic light in my life. am i the kind of person who takes the course that allows me to continually saunter along to my next grand goal with the least number of glitches (i.e. moments waiting for the light to change)? or do i charge head first along my original path, never taking time to look left or right? to find those hidden secret streets? i'm not really sure. i think i'm a light-follower, not a strict-course planner. at least, i kind of hope i am.

btw

i'm very happy to see that "the lovely aaron neville" has spawned a little war of comments on this site. i just knew that once i started talking about the right topic, my viewers would come alive!

i just never thought it would be aaron neville's christmas album that woke you all up.

gamers

my friends and i love playing games. this weekend we had a wild night of 90's trivial pursuit. for all you 20-somethings out there who hate playing "our parent's trivial pursuit", i highly recommend that you get your hands on a version of this "time capsule" edition.

for once, we actually knew the answers to almost ALL of the questions! nevermind that your chances of getting a question right were fairly good if you blindly guessed tiger woods, bob dole, or muhammed ali.

i particularly liked the silly new pieces shaped like: a latte, a grunge rocker, dot.com stock, and a pda. they need more though - at least 6 pieces would have been nice!

ain't nothing like games, sushi, and wine to kill a saturday night.

tidbits of info

1. i used to hate pears! but i like them now, when they are either good & ripe, or else cooked in a sugary wine mixture (what's the word for that? simmered? sauteed? no... something with an 's' i think. shoot. brain fart. it will come to me).

2. chris wiped my ipod last week (tsk!). so my "0 plays" list is back up to 1029! time to work my way down again...

3. i still have a lot of snot in my nose. frickin' illness.

4. i got a christmas tree over the weekend! we have presents under it! and conor bought cute white lights! it makes my home feel very happy & festive.

5. aaron neville's soulful christmas album is alive and kicking! man i missed it since i played it last... year.

1 year later

yesterday was monumental for two reasons.

1. my first project when i started at my job was to salvage an old project that had been piddling along with no manager, direction, focus, etc. for many months before i was even hired. the project was supposed to launch during the holidays, 2003. that's when i came on board. yesterday, we finally had our major test and it was smashingly successful. except literally a whole year late. holidays, 2004. on tuesday, it's going to launch. do i get to pat myself on the back for this? i'm not sure. i can't believe it took a year to get the dang thing finished. granted, the developer moved, disappeared for months on end, yadda yadda. factors totally out of our control. but still. i'm torn. i'm really happy it's launching, but i can't fathom that it took a year to get it all under control. what a mess!

2. the completion of the project above reminded me that i accepted my job on the day of last year's christmas party. yesterday was this year's christmas party. which means i'm 1 year old in the realm of my job (duh, you probably figured that out above, too)(oh and technically saturday is the real 1-year date, but i won't be at work on saturday). so happy birthday to myself. except that this means i have officially hit my goal: "give it a year, see how it goes, then decide what to do with your life." well, okay... here goes, life. bring it!

cav-

cave. cavern. cavernous. cavum. cavity.

i went to the dentist today. first time in over a year. first time not going to my childhood/hometown doctor. first time i payed for it myself. there were a lot of firsts... including my first official cavity. well okay, the first one that we're going to do something about. well okay, actually, there were two.

so ashamed...

in two weeks, i have to get them filled. i've never had a filling before. needless to say, i'm scared! but this dentist seems to bend over backwards to abate a person's fear. the tagline on her business card is "aesthetics and comfort". she even offered me laughing gas, if i want it!

actually i'm more excited that she can sandblast off the decay, rather than drill it out. phew. it's the drilling that kind of freaks me out.

snuggle

stayin' home from work today. i don't understand why i keep getting these viscious colds. it's brutal. my sinus have GOT to be tired... come on guys, take a break for a while! its like i'm trying to grow a new eco system in my head.

i've been given strict orders not to leave my bed. i'm drinking a lot of tea, and taking naps, reading, playing games on my laptop. pretty low key day. i slept in until 3pm (off and on), which i haven't done since my high school/early college days. freakin' weird sensation, i tell you. not one i care to repeat many more times in my life.

but alas, it's been about an hour and a half since i woke up. almost time for a nap!

fine.

hmm. guess no one likes the new color, since i got no comments on the picture. harumpf. oh well. i'll blame the shot - i look a little ghostly. obviously the lighting wasn't so hot. neither is my cellphone camera.

nevermind the hair. i'm done talking about it. i like it. on to more exciting things... like the fact that i'm getting sick, and it sux! i think i have zero ability to fight off colds these days.

but despite this, today is going to be monumentous. guess why?
because i'm going to... (drum roll, please)...

EAT MEAT.

that's right - i told conor a while ago that i was craving kielbasa. this was our conversation...

m: "i'm craving kielbasa."
c: "if i make some, will you eat it?"
m: "what do you mean, if you make some? you mean, cook it up for me, right?"
c: "no, i mean make it. from scratch."
m: "uh, okay."
m: "uh, you can DO that?"
c: "yeah! never tried, but i've always wanted to learn!"

so, yes, the boy seriously made me kielbasa from scratch. AND sauerkraut. they have been fermenting and curing for weeks now, and they are finally ready to be consumed.

i can't believe i'm dating him... who the hell makes their own sausage???

apparently it has figs and arugula and port wine and all sorts of other yummy sounding things in it. but right now it just looks like a giant 3 foot long turd in my fridge.

i'm so childish

since i'm eating meat today for the first time in a while. i'm allowed to act like a child, right?