I am running out of titles.

I just watched love actually, which is possibly the cutest movie i've ever seen. although i do with things had worked out differently for laura linney.

i finished the new photoblog. all three of you who read this should go check it out. i know there are only 4 photos up, but give it time! at one a day it will get full pretty quick. i've been seriously considering ditching the written blog and moving entirely to a photoblog. then again, i've only been completely obsessed with the photoblog for a few weeks now, i should give it some time and see if i stay obsessed. also i should wait and see if i can keep getting interesting photos. there are only so many shots i can take along my day to day travels. maybe it will force me to stop being such a hermit and get out more. then again, i might go out more if it EVER STOPPED RAINING. oh my god, so much rain, i can't take it anymore!

on a random note, can anyone suggest some cool things to see in vegas? I'm headed there for a weekend next month and would like to try to get some intersting (non-casino) photos.

pinch me, please

i was attacked by the carpet cleaning machine and have only recently recovered!!

ok, that's a bit of exaggeration, but i have been really busy. the carpet cleaning really was long and involved, and i think i will be sucking the cleaning powder out of the carpet for the rest of my life. but the carpet looks FANTASTIC. i also 'inherited' two bookshelves for my living room and a corner shelf for my bedroom. this is good because the shelves i have are overflowing. hopefully i can get my stuff moved in to them sometime in the next hundred years. ;-)

i've been spending most of my time this week working on a redesign of the photoblog. I decided to start all over... i think i'm going to move to the 'one shot a day' format. I really like the idea of trying to come up with something every day.. it will be a big challenge because i mostly spend my life in 4 places (home, work, youth group and mom&dad's house). I will be re-evaluating the stuff I already have and re-posting a lot of it eventually. but the photoalbum style was not really what i wanted in the first place and the challenge of getting a whole series up at once and in a timely fashion was a PAIN IN THE ASS.

the actual design is that thing that is causing me the most greif, though. it's interesting, because i used to be very proud of my design skills, but now i would much rather paste in a cool looking template. I can't bring myself to go back to tables but CSS is confusing and i just can't seem to grasp it. but i think i did come up with something that isn't a direct ripoff of anything, although it is going into the very popular grey background thing. whatever, i was sick of the white background and i like that way the colors look on the grey.

so anyway, new photoblog tomorrow or saturday, i think. i can't wait! ;-)

slacker.

i have been slacking on the blog thing. but now i am slacking on the moving-stuff-so-i-can-clean-the-carpets thing so i can end the slacking on the blog thing. phew!!

i was really really happy to get back from boston. not becasue i didn't like boston, because i totally did. but becasue i wanted AWAY FROM THE COLD. i mean, really, how can people tolerate it? :-) but good times were had by all and i'm hoping to go back in spring of '06 so i can actually go to boston commons and enjoy being outside.

i think one of the worst things about the cold was how hard it was to take pictures. it was hard to push the little buttons with my gloves on, so the gloves had to be taken off, and most of the time the photo i wanted was just not worth it at all. so i didn't take nearly as many photos as i thought i would. but i got some good shots, and i'm hoping to get them up on the photoblog soon.

https://dramabug.smugmug.com/Travels/200502-Boston

i've been revampig the photoblog, increasing the size of the images so people can actually see what's on them. and i've been formatting photos since august and then not posting them, so i have a ridiculous number to back post. i've been slowly making progress. 3-4 a day until i'm caught up doesn't seem like much but it's SO HARD.

yesterday was a weird one - left work after an hour due to a terrible migraine and slept from 9:45 until nearly 4 pm. it totally threw off my internal clock, but i would rather have insomnia than a migraine any day. then i found out that Alex is gettting married (congrats!!) people keep asking me if i'm ok. I'M OK. really, we dated more than 10 years ago, if i wasn't ok i think there would be something wrong with me. all i know is that i'd better get an invite, if only for all the relationship advice i gave him in college. ;-)

I just got a new CD in the mail from England yesterday - Bell X1. (it was only $16 to order it from the UK, where amazon US wanted $34 plus shipping! as if!) anyway, the CD is FAN-FUCKING-TASTIC. you all should order it from the UK. or buy it if it's ever released here. because it is great (link below!). other new cd's are all on the right as well. it was a good month for music.

the white and fluffy stuff.

I woke up this morning to a winter wonderland. SNOW! everywhere!! something i will never see on christmas morning. of course I was geeking out in the living room, since i ahve never really seen it snow like this. of course, walking around boston in the snow is not the most pleasant idea, so we went to the mall! we also watched La Traviata, but i fell asleep at the end. it was a very pretty movie, though. ;-)

the past 4 days have flown by... Donna's recital, walking around Boston, dinner with Donna's Family, yummy Sunday Brunch, shopping on Newberry St., and now snow!! and tomorrow i'm hanging out with Davy. Boston is so so so pretty... but very cold. very, VERY cold. which makes it hard to take photos, because it means i have to take off my gloves, which is rather unpleasant. I hope that maybe next year i can come back in the spring when it is warmer, and do more walking around. i keep coming back east in the winter when it is too cold to walk around!

I really like Boston, but i definetly am looking forward to going home to warmness. WARMNESS! i'm just hoping it stops snowing so i cna enjoy my last day here, and so there are no problems with my flight on wednesday.

So right now I'm sitting in Donna's aprtment in Boston, listening to music and trying to decide what to eat for dinner. everyone in the house has gone to opera rehearsal and i decided to stay here. since i will probably be walking around outside a lot tomorrow, i wanted to stay in tonight, and relax. i think i'm going to watch a bunch of Aqua Teen Hunger Force and eat leftovers. mmm. ;-)

I hate valentines day.

i know it's the day after. what can i say? i'm different.

ahem... and now, the best valentine's card i have ever received.

"I hate Valentine's Day.
I hate not being able to find the right card to send.
I hate finding the right card to send because they might not have gotten me one and then I'll feel like such a fool.
I hate wondering whether or not I should give a gift, and if I do give a gift, how extravagant it should be.
I hat not getting a gift on Valentine's Day, especially if I've given somebody else one.

I hate Valentine's Day.
I hate not going out to dinner on Valentine's Day.
I hate going out to dinner on Valentine's Day, because everyplace romantic has been booked solid for the last three weeks, and if you do by some miracle happen to get in, it's disgustingly crowded and noisy and about as romantic as gym class in high school.

I hate Valentine's Day.
I hate thinking about all the flowers that give thier lives just so someone at the office can look really popular.
I hate it that there's some kid in a classroom somewhere who didn't get any valentines becasue he or she's not popular. I hate it when I don't get any valentines.

I hate Valentine's Day.
I mean it. I hate it, hate it, hate it!

But you I love.

a bit embarrassing, if you ask me.

i used to be a bit of an awards show junkie, but if the past year or two, i've sortof given them up - they're so contrived and i really just want to know who wins. i have no problem going to yahoo the morning after and reading the list of winners.

but last night, i watched the end of the grammys simply becasue there was nothing else on. it was cool, i saw john mayer perform and saw him win for daughters, which i love love love. it's such a great song.

but that whole singalong of across the universe? what a freeking train wreck!! like, people were singing the wrong lyrics. and it had that bad campfire feeling. i mean, that echoing thing? NOT OK. it certainly did not sound like a bunch of people who do music for a living.

don't get me wrong, i think the whole concept was very noble, very we are the world. but my ears would have been happier if they had maybe passed the hat and said, "hey, we know that we're richer than most people, so we pulled out our wallets and collectively gave X number of dollars. if you want to donate too, please do so."

i mean, really! they're handing out gold statues while dressed in designer gowns and they want me to go buy a poorly rehearsed song? something about it just annoys me.

p.s. has anyone else actually heard that ray charles cd that won album of the year? honestly, i think it is way overrated and it has insane pitch problems... i think green day should have won instead.

you can call me miss messy.

so, my house is messy. i know the problem is that i have too much stuff, and i'm trying to remedy that, but it SO HARD to throw things away. or give them away. SO HARD. but i am making progress. i stayed at home all weekend and cleaned. well, cleaned and watched a bunch of TV and read a book, but i did actually get things done.

like my laundry room is all clean! all the towels are off the floor and currently drying. and they will NOT end up back on the floor! i can see the floor in my bedroom. like, the whole floor. there is still a pile of stuff on my bed that needs to find a home, but it is NOT ON THE FLOOR. i moved my bedside table and chair and vaccuumed the whole room. i put all my shoes in the shoe boxes (actually apple boxes filled with shoes, but it works) and i can actually close the curtains over the closet (no closet doors).

it's nice. i like not having clutter all over everything. i'm hoping i can keep doing a little at a time and keep getting rid of things. but now i have to go tackle my dining room table and start packing for the tip to boston. i leave in 4 days! ack!

doing the geek dance

i am dancing all over my office right now because i JUST PUT SKINS ON MY SITE. this is something i never thought i'd be able to figure out, let alone get to work.

this is very exciting for me.

please leave a comment if you come across anything broken.

SKINS!&!@#!

(thanks to trinity, who inadvertantly directed me to the awesome ALA php stylswitcher!)

clinique-ly insane

could not resist the ridicuolusly stupid play on words. HA.

phew! busy day! half the office was out today for various reasons so everyone else had to work 3 times harder. of course this meant i was on my feet more than usual, and DAMN, my legs are sore.

so as a little treat to myself after work i stopped at macys to spend my ancient gift cards. i figured with 25 bucks i could get a cute clearance purse or something. clearance purses, yes, cute no. pass on the purses. i supressed the urge t buy earrings (i don't wear them but i love them) and the idea of buying clearance boots was ruined by the fact that even on clearance they were all still over $50!

so i cruised over to the clinique counter and was asking about their 3 step system. i got ddmg for christmas and i love it, so i figured i'd try out the rest of the system. and i got the cleanser and the clarifying lotion and i even had 13 cents left on my gift card. whee!

i'm really hoping that i can get in the habit of using this stuff because i'm really sick of having freaked-out skin. but the good thing is that if i really don't like it i can take it back and either try different levels of the stuff, or return it altogether.

so it was a good shopping day, but i get home and i have way too much to do to get ready for my trip next week, and my internet is running slow. so it's time for me to be productive!

you stole my story!

I've had two of my netflix movies for EVER, so I vowed this weekend to watch both of them and get them back in the mail. Today I watched The Secret Window, which was not so great. I love John Tuturro and Johnny Depp, and they were both good, but the movie was way too predictable. I'd be curious to read the book, though, i really like Stephen King and his books are usually much better than the movies they spawn. Tomorrow I'm going to watch Memento, which I have had since NOVEMBER. Terrible, I know.
Today I tried to install the Netflix Suite plugins on my site, but I can't get it to work at all. It doesn't even show up in my list of plugins. grrrr. Trinity - which plugin do you use? Any thoughts? I could use all the help I can get!

is there anybody out there?

so, after a long winter, i'm finally starting to feel up to writing again. i know it's technically still winter, but when i get out of work, it's still light out, and we've been having great weather, so for me, spring is coming!!

things have been good!
work is good - found out today that everyone in the office is getting a merit increase. hello raise! i've been waiting for you!!

holidays were good - had my annual holiday party which was a smash, and spent chrstmas with the fam at the beach, as usual. got a new camera, which is very exciting.

new year's was goooood - spent the evening in SF eating ridics food and having way too much fun with my friends. stayed up until almost 6am and crammed 7 people into a tiny hotel room!

birthday was good - 26 is the new 25, y'all! went to SF again, this time with Danny and Donna, and had fun eating REALLY good food at Asia SF. i even met up with Tracy, who i have not seen since HIGH SCHOOL. it was awesome.

and now it's february, and i am getting ready for a trip to boston to visit Donna and see the sights. hopefully the weather will not be too lame - i'm not so good with the cold and trying to see boston while it's dumping snow will not be fun! but i'm really looking forward to the trip since i've never been there before.

but before i leave i have to get an entire corner of my bedroom cleared so my dad can hang a shelf while i'm gone. so we all know what i'll be doing this weekend!! hah.

checking in.

so, i've been busy lately.. with work, and also on a big household project. So that's why i went awol.

and i'm gonna go awol again for a little while. not feeling very inspired lately, and need to recharge.

I'll be back soon though. ;-) if you need to get in touch with me, just leave a comment.

hope you are all well!

SHARK!

THAT is a great white shark. I took that photo. That is a photo i took of a LIVE GREAT WHITE SHARK.

seriously, if you live in northern california, it's worth the trip. besides the obvious fact that the aquarium is a cool place, but looking the only great white shark on exhibit in the WORLD is pretty fucking awesome.

ok, maybe i shouldn't call it a great white shark, because it really isn't that big (4 ft long), but dude, it looked just like jaws. freaky black eyes, and mean looking.

the funny thing was, there were these big signs in the room that said "NO FLASH PHOTOS" becasue the flashes bother the fish. on top of that, there was a guy in the room answering questions in a mic, and he kept saying, "no flash photos, please." and these dumb motherfuckers who don't know how to work their cameras kept taking FLASH PHOTOS and every time that happened, the whole room would collectively berate them.

so that photo is grainy and blurry becasue i took it in a dark room with NO FLASH. thank goodness for photoshop! (although it is time for a new camera, because when i got right up to the tank, the shark swam right in front of me and when i pushed the shutter, it took a good second and a half before the photo took, and by then all i had was blue. grr.)

just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water...

i am rocking out to Stevie Ray Vaughn and cleaning my office, although it is not so much cleaning, it's more like moving stuff back and forth from one side of the room to the other. every once in a while somethinmakes it on a shelf or in the trash, but for now it's mostly moving back and forth.

mmm, how did i not discover stevie ray vaughn until recently? mm, thank you, john mayer, o future husband of mine, for loving stevie ray vaughn and mentioning him all the time. i mean, my dad listened to SRV but i never really paid attention. damn, this guy was GREAT.

my goal for this weekend is to go to monterey to see the shark. White sharks have always fascinated me, ever since i read jaws when i was twelve. that book got passed all around the sixth grade. i'll admit that most people were interested in the tiny naked woman on the front (the cover was just a tiny version of the movie poster). i think i was the only one who actually read the bnook all the way through. after that, there was a time i wanted to be an icthyologist. but that was before i realized that i suck a science.

so anyway, totally looking forward to emptying out my memory cards and taking some more great aquarium shots. maybe if i'm lucky i'll be able to add some shark photos.

come on, RAIN ALREADY!

if i EVER learned my lesson i'd be going to bed right now instead of posting.

wednesday i woke up at 7:54 am, 6 minutes before i was supposed to leave for work. YEAH, that was good. luckily i never actualy leave at 8, so i knew that as long as i was pulling out of my driveway by 8:13 i would be ok. i was only 3 minutes late , which was some sort of miracle. of course, i never quite woke up, and then i got a migraine. it was sooo annoying. it's been a bad month for migraines. oh well, i hadn't really had any for a while, maybe i'm just getting them out of my system.

today i overslept again, but not as late. i still had plenty of time to wash my hair and make a bagel. however, i did leave the cream cheese on the counter, which pisses me off. not olny becasuue it was a wast of a brand new cream cheese, but when i was at TJ's, they were out of light cream cheese, so i 'HAD' to buy the regular kind. i was really enjoying that real cream cheese!!!

it's getting darker earlier, and i'm really not looking forward to driving home from work in the dark next month. grr. and it was all gloomy this week... when it gets all overcast and misty like it was today, i wish it would just rain. i love the way things smell after it rains, i love coming home and putting on fleece and turning my heater on, i love listening to the rain outside my house, but i HATE the weird anticipation when you think it's going to rain but it doesn't.

so come on! RAIN ALREADY! plus i'm a little dissappointed... all these earthquakes and i haven't felt ONE. boo.