Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Forgotten

Happy 2/29!

So, Squirrel will be happy. I forgot my underwear this morning! When I have to work my temp job early in the day, I am trying to go to the gym beforehand, and then I shower. I got there, and emptied my stuff (luckily right in the beginning) and realized I had forgotten my underwear. Arg. So, I took off the ones I had on and washed them. Problem was, they were cotton, semi-heavy. Don't know what I was thinking by washing them. The guy at the front desk is someone who's really nice and have spoken with him a bit. So, I went up and asked if I could use their clothes dryer. He was torn I guess because he thought I wanted to do all my laundry there, but then I showed him my panties and he brought me back to....

put the underwear in the dryer with the wet towels. And they dried for 40 minutes.

Luckily I was wearing my extra special black Joe Boxer underwear with a winking face on the back. Very sexy. But at least not holey!

(PS, last time was 3/5/10)

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

If you pay attention

You can spot the moment someone loses interest in you/what you are saying.

I went to a fair for start-ups today. Almost the oldest person there, but oh well. I was waiting to see one booth and I took a small Twix from a bowl and then put it back and took a Three Muskateers. One of the guys had to comment to me that he was very disappointed. I told him it was because I would never buy a TM, but I do like them.

In any event, we started talking and it was a very interesting organization. Of course, he asked what I do/was looking for, and as soon as it wasn't data mining or software engineer, his eyes went blank. So I exited quickly. Of course it didn't help that I didn't practice my pitch so I said xxx which didn't apply to that world at all.

Whatever. I got 4 free t-shirts out of the fair, as well as some lip stuff, a mini light, and a small spiral notebook. As well as a few neat stickers.

This morning at a career session, I rated my attitude right now as 2 out of 10. That about sums it up.

Sunday, February 26, 2012

A few best parts

Of the awards -
- Two of the women from Bridesmaids reading the award and someone yells "Scorsese" and they pull out small alcohol bottles and take a drink.
- Meryl Streep's expression when she won. And then her speech.
- Best supporting actress win by Octavia Spencer
- Emma Stone's acting before giving out the award.
- Amazing Cirque de Soleil (and the fact that one actually fell!!!! Never thought I'd see that they are human).

And more... :-) So glad they are on West Coast time.

Friday, February 24, 2012

Warren Hellman Celebration of Life

Last Sunday, a celebration of life with bluegrass in the sunny day by the beach/ocean. Wonderful.








Movies and Books

Books
- Wonder - R.J. Palacio (young adult, facial deformity)
- The Table Comes First - Adam Gopnik - nonfictionfoodie culture
- The Scorpio Races - Maggie Stiefvater (young adult, horeses kill)
- Immortal Bird - A Family Memoir (Doron Weber) - son death at 16
- Diary of a Mad Fat Girl - Stephanie McAfee
=- All there Is - Dave Isay Nonfiction - stories of love recorded.
- behind the beautiful forevers - Katherine Boo (mumbai slum - nonfiction - LIfe death and hope in a mumbai undercity)
- Pulitzer finalists

Film
- Take Shelter
- In Darknes (?) - Jewish, Nazi, sewer
- Chronicle - telekinetic powers
- Chico and Rita (?) Animated
- Drive (?)
- Hugo
- On the Bowery (1957 - skid row NY)
- the Descendants
- Extremely Loud and INcredibly Close
- Warrior ?
- Hello I must be goin (?) - 19 yo and 35 yo
- the Beginners

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Howdy doody

Awake after my morning snooze. Did a show last night - 2 to 6 am. Went to bed at 8:00, and then 7:00. :-) It wasn't as good as the week before, but oh well. One of the realllly frustrating things is that the music library is realllly messed up. Seriously at least one half of the music I want I cannot find. And then I'm stuck scrambling before the show. But let me tell you 4 hours goes by fast. And I'm on the feet my whole time, barely able to stop and take a drink or eat something. But again, it's fun, more fun when you do a good job though. :-)

It's a gorgeous day and I may need to go for a walk for my exercise. I would go for a bike ride but a little nervous as my bike ride this Sunday seemed to have pushed my back a little. I feel like my hips are being squeezed, not in a good way. Hobbling around my temp job yesterday...

And btw, that's going well. Great people, and more importantly, great food. ;-) It's one of those places that has lots of money so they serve lunch for employees and have snacks around. And boy are the lunches amazing! Wednesday was roast pork loin and/or stuffed portabelo mushrooms, broccoli, celery root mashed potatoes, salad with beets/apples/celery root, and espresso white chocolate cookies. OMG. It's only M/W/F though. Poor them. I make sure I'm there those days... [btw, I brought the woman two apples I thought were good, and she appreciated it and thought they were good too. whew]

OK, I need my walk. Hopefully I'll tell you about the weekend before next weekend happens!

Monday, February 20, 2012

Time wasting

M is working a lot so when he stops, he wants to watch crap.

Crap #1: House of Dead. Given one star by Rotten Tomatoes I believe. But it really sucked. Based on a video game, and throughout the movie it has video game images of killing zombies. The best part of the movie for me was the opening sequence because it was artsy video game images - kind of distored. The best part for M was in the first 20-30 minutes there were two lengthy shots of boobs and a woman with a very nice beeehind..

Crap #2: OK, I can't blame this on M. I have heard a lot about The Voice, so I decided to try it. And it sucked me in for a half hour. Very good premise - a few times I was literally holding my breath to see if someone would turn around. But, I must say the CeeLo really really creeps me out. The really really white teeth. The way he leers at the women. The latter hopefully is part of his schtick, because again, it really creeps me out.

And then there's clothes shopping time wasting. I went to two real stores this weekend in search of a simple white cheap top, because you can't get white at a thrift store. But, cheap=really see through usually. But I keep trying. I finally found one but had to pay $15 for a simple short sleeved shirt. HFA. I spend so much more time at real stores because paying real money makes me think even more than I usually do, especially when I shouldn't be spending money.

So, that's my time wasting this weekend that I can remember.

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Words out of my mouth

Sometimes I cannot believe what I have said! Thinking about this this morning...

A woman at work [weird to say] really likes apples, as I do. We bonded over it, and she said she had found some good apples at a certain store and at the farmer's market. I said I'd have to look it up. She offered to get me an apple the next time she went. So, she brought me one. How nice!

I saw her a couple days later (btw this is my 'supervisor'). I thanked her again. She asked how it was, and at first I said ok, in that kind of 'it really wasn't all that great' sort of way. But then I kept talking. 'Actually, it's probably the most tasteless apple I've ever had. And not very crisp.' WTF! Why o why? She looked kind of shocked but said that next time she'd try one from the same batch. And I said I would bring her an apple.

So, I need to make up for that. My o My.

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Movies and Books

There may be repeats... but oh well!

Movies
- The Interrupters (Hoope dreams filmmaker - violence in inner cities)
- The Future (couple in LA - everyday)
- Charade (Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn)
- Dogtooth (Greek film, bizarre, creepy, keep kids from outside world)
- The Double Hour (Italian, psychological thriller)

Books
- Bond Girl: Erin Duffy - Wall street
- The Flame Alphabet: Ben Marcus (speech of children lethal to parents)
- The Orphan Master's Son: Adam Johnson (Korea)
- Emily, Alone: Stwart O'Nan (80 yo widowed matriarch)
- House of Prayer No. 2: Mark Richard ('special child' - hip defects - memoir)
- The Evolution of Bruno Littlemore: Benjamin Hale (first chimpanzee to learn human language)
- The surrendered: Chang-rae Lee (set during Korean war)
- Out of the Vinyl Deeps: Ellen Willis (criticism - rock critic)
- What There is to Say We Have Said: Eudora Welty and William Maxwell (correspondence

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Oh boy - long time!

I can't believe it's been over a week since I wrote. I was feeling sad for a while about the wonderful women who died. But it was also working - a whole 17 hours last week! ;-) But I'm so grateful that it's part time, and that it's an excellent networking job and looks great on my linkedin profile - I did put in the description that it's part time and temporary, but perhaps I should put it in the header? I've gotten some congratulations on my new job. Oh well, I'm keeping it as is.

I've gotten to the point that I'm struggling to allocate my time wisely. Work for money, searching for jobs, attending informational sessions/networking events, revising resume, keeping up with existing contacts, radio, reading...

Speaking about reading:
Unbroken - Lauren Hillenbrand. My o my. I was not aware at all what the Japanese did during the war - horrible horrible atrocities. At one point reading the book I could not believe all that that man went through. It was a bad bad movie. But it was real.

So, after that I read
The Last Time I was Me: Cathy Lamb. Such a good change from Unbroken - I needed it. A woman who goes through a breakdown and turns her life around. Sounds depressing, but it's pretty funny because the character/the writing is wry/snarky funny, which I love. It was bad though, becasue I liked it so much that I read it outside of exercising. Too much time!

Movies
Contagion - great to watch when the person you are watching with is hacking a lung out. Pretty well done, though I thought they pulled the ending out of a hat. It felt like they were done before they were done.
Cray Stupid Love - really a lot of fun. The culmination towards the end made me roll my eyes, but was still funny. The speech at graduation an unbelievable venue, but just closed my mind to that.

OK, there's more, but I've been listening remotely to presentations during Social Media Week, and I did a 4 hour radio show last night (so much better than the first time! but kind of intimidating at the beginning when the previous DJ's friends were watching me - ack!), so I gotta go be horizontal for a minute or two.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Saturday, February 4, 2012

On the periphery

My friend died yesterday. Or the day before, since I rely on emails. She wasn't a close friend - I worked with her a long time ago. There was a group of people who got really close at that time - they used to get together every Thursday to watch Friends. I was climbing then, on Thursday nights, so never got that close to any of them. I feel bad for all of them, who I also only know a little bit except for one.

I was going to write that I tend to be on the periphery when there are groups of people. Then I thought no. Then I thought yes. I have some close close friends, but not groups of people. Which isn't necessarily bad, it's just different.

So, enjoy your life, beginning today.

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Cancer attacks

Right now two people I know are fighting for their lives.

The first is a fomer co-worker. She's great and has always had an upbeat personality. She and I shared a few moments when we discussed our marriages with each other; they were very similar. But she had two boys, and I did not. In the end, despite her diagnosis with aggressive cancer, and having most of her stomach taken out (and no belly button in the end) and so on, she did get a divorce because it was going to help her stay well.

Unfortunately right now she is in the last stages of her life. At 45 years old. One son who is 12 and the other 9. I wish I had been closer to her, but I'm not. But there is a large community around her, and that is great.

The other is WhyMommy (see the link on my blog to the right). Been fighting cancer for 5 years and still is, but it's beating her back right now. Two sons, three and six I believe. Another amazing and upbeat person who has had a tremendous amount of influence.

Think of these two and send good thoughts, and pray if that is your wont.