California Girl

I was one, for a few days. No, I didn't go blonde or take my pet to a psychic. But I got to visit and see [some] sights and white-knuckle it on the freeways for a few short days. Now I'm home again.

Just in time for my body clock to finally get on west coast time. Ughhh, work this early in the morning? Booooo.

When I get a minute, I promise more tales of the trip with --I hope-- pics, if I can ifgure out why Blogger won't let me upload images, including pics of Terry and Miss Cheese and even Lola (who I guess does not blog so I cannot link her but she was pretty and cool and also pretty cool). Next time I will have to visit Cressy but I didn't have long enough this trip.

Happy Monday and THANK GOD it's a short week.

***UPDATE***

Normally I would probably write a whole new post, but I'm so distressed that this post has been up since this morning and I have ZERO COMMENTS that I don't want to put a new post on top til there are comments on this post!! (now I know what Dzer means when he guides us all to the lower posts).

Anyway, I wanted to let you know that I've joined a little blogroll called Blogging Chicks. See?

Jet-Set Jmai! Take II

First, a few quickies:

1. I just realised that I passed the 50-post marker with the Tag by Trick post. Man, I feel like I have been blogging so much longer than 51 posts. Hmph. Oh well, happy half a hundred to me!

2. Chulo sent me a gorgeous boquet of roses today for our anniversary (8 months, in case you were wondering). He's such a good boy!

3. Why the hell can't I upload images to this blog anymore? The thing says they're uploading but there's nothing there! It's pissing me off!!!

Well, anyway... onto the post. Remember back in ...what? April? May? Both? ... when I was frequently on the go, meeting up with Chulo at various locations around Florida before he moved down to Lauderdale and made an honest woman out of me? I feel like that again these days, except -sadly- I'll be travelling mostly without my honey.

Ouch, my jaw hurts from chewing frozen Milky Way bites left over from Halloween.

Anyway. We have a bunch of things going on at work, so I find that I will have to travel a bit in the coming weeks. Now, you guys know I don't really like travelling (at least not the getting-there-and-back part). BUT, I get to go to ...

drumroll please...

California!

YAY. I've always wanted to visit the Bay Area and now I finally get to go there! Yes, it's for work, and yes, it's for a ridiculously brief period of time. But these days, I'll take what I can get. I have oodles of vacation time but no real time to take it, so I decided to take ONE DAY for myself out there before I have to come home. YAY again!

So I fly out Wednesday (yes THIS coming Wednesday! nothing like last minute!) evening. I will work on Thursday and probably most of Friday, then I have Friday afternoon and alllllllll of Saturday to myself... I have discovered that flying to the west coast is likely to aggravate my TA (travel antipathy) as most flights make connections all over God's green earth, and on the direct flights, the flight times seem painfully long for a girl whose travel repertoire consists mainly of FL-NYC flights, which are under 3 hours. I opted for a late flight both ways, but it's the Saturday night flight (leaving well past my bedtime and arriving at 8am!) that's going to kill me. But still, a whole day of San Francisco treats! YAY!

The best part about this trip is that I will get to see my godmother, who I haven't seen in probably 20 years. She and her husband moved out to Berkley when I was still twee, and I haven't seen them since. She's a brilliant and talented lady, and I love the stories my mom always tells about her and their "wild" days before she met my dad... actually my godmother is the reason that my parents met. She was doing her master's in the same program as my dad's brother, who invited her to a party which she dragged my mom to ... and the rest is history!

So, to recap: Cool? Finally getting to San Francisco. Cooler? Having the trip paid for by work. Coolest? Reconnecting with my godmother. Have I said YAY enough times?

Oh and? Terry, don't think I won't be meeting that challenge you gave me a couple of memes ago. If you're free I would absolutely love the opportunity to meet you in person and have a drink. Or three.

Then in December, I need to make another work-related trip. I'm also kind of excited about this one too, though, because:

a) I never turn down a chance to go home to NYC
b) There is no place finer than NYC at the holidays (no place colder either, dammit!)
c) Work is paying for [most of] it
d) It's my birfday!

We have a corporate branch in NY, so the way it works at my company is the NY executives fly down for the Fla holiday party, and the Fla executives fly up for the NY party. So I get to go to TWO OPEN-BAR PARTIES wheeeeeeeeeee! And the NY party just happens to fall on the week of my birthday, so I am staying the weekend and Chulo is flying up on Friday night, and -yay of yays!- my parents are coming down to the city for the weekend and we're having a birthday/early Christmas weekend with my sister and her husband!

I was kinda bummed because it looked like I was going to be able to spend Thanksgiving with my family for the first time in probably ... oh maybe 10 years or so. See, the market is open (half-day) on the day after Thanksgiving .. some antiquated rule about not letting the exchanges close for more than 3 days at a time or some nonense. And I never take that day off, because it's such an easy day to work, it seems like a waste of a vacation day. So I can't very well travel for one day up to NY, and anyway we always make up for lost time at Christmas. But this year, my parents were going to come down here, since Chulo and I will be spending Christmas in Orlando. But the fares are insane, so they decided they would save their money and visit at another time instead. So I'm SO excited that I'll get to be with them during the holiday season after all!

And today they put up the tree in Rockerfeller Centre? Oh man... it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! -happy sigh-

Tag by Trick

Before I head off for the weekend, a tag post borrowed/tricked into by Nat. Although she was tricked into it too, so I suppose I should just keep the chain going and trick whoever else into it, too. Don't worry, even with the trick, the tag is optional, so don't let the fear of tagging stop you from reading (ahem, Phil). It’s a good tag, though… a curious collection of questions, the correlation between which I cannot comprehend. But still fun... enjoy!

1. Explain what ended your last relationship? Fear of growing up

2. When was the last time you shaved? Ummm, Wednesday?

3. What were you doing this morning at 8 a.m.? Cursing at the slow person in the left lane

4. What were you doing 15 minutes ago? Drafting a contract. It got too confusing so I decided to check blogs instead

5. Are you any good at math? Not so much

6. Your prom night? Junior – went with my ex-boyfriend’s brother (as friends only!), then went to the most boring “Students Against Drunk Driving” after-prom party. Senior – went stag with a bunch of friends who did the same, then went to a super-fun, drinking-in-the-woods-with-a-bonfire party and got dummydrunk off Kahlua mixers. Ouch.

7. Do you have any famous ancestors? My great-great-great-great-great grandfather sold NYC’s Herald Square for a piano. He should be famous for the stupidest DUH move of all time. Oh also, probably a pharaoh or two. Cleopatra. You know, like everyone else -s-

8. Have you had to take a loan out for school? Not for undergrad, but I lived off my loans in law school while I paid tuition with my scholarships. You can’t work during law school unless you’re a crazy! I will be paying that off forEVER

9. Do you know the words to the song on your myspace profile? What’s myspace?

10. Last thing received in the mail? Dunno – I never look at mail. It's a wonder my home hasn't been repossessed

11. How many different beverages have you had today? Water, Sprite Zero, and a pumpkin spice latte from Sbux. Mmmm.

12. Do you ever leave messages on people’s answering machines? I’m not sure know anyone with a real answering machine anymore. Maybe my parents. And I do leave them messages from time to time, so yeah, I guess so

13. Who did you lose your CONCERT virginity to? Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam, baby!

14. Do you draw your name in the sand when you go to the beach? No

15. What was the most painful dental procedure you have had? Wisdom teeth pulled, ouchies.

16. What is out your back door? My patio.

17. Any plans for Friday night? Yes, we’re driving to Orlando

18. Do you like what the ocean does to your hair? Not at all, it makes it sticky and stinky and I can’t wait to wash it

19. Have you ever received one of those big tins of 3 different popcorns? At work, yes. Yummy cheese!

20. Have you ever been to a planetarium? Not for ages, but we used to go to Hayden all the time when I was younger. I don’t think it’s even called the Hayden Planetarium anymore

21. Do you re-use towels after you shower? Listen, I do enough laundry as it is. One-use towels? Gimme a break!

22. Some things you are excited about? My first Christmas in a loooong time with a big family, making the most of my career and waiting to see if I can meet the demands of my current position, the imminence of holiday gingerbread lattes from Sbux

23. What is your favorite flavor of JELLO? I usually mix a sugar pack with a sugarfree pack and I almost always gel it with fruit. It mostly tastes the same… some reddish/pinkish gelatin concoction with canned pineapple floating in it.

24. Describe your keychain(s)? grey key fob to get me into work, various little plastic membership thingies (blockbuster, Borders, LA Fitness), and always at least one Hello Kitty item.

26. Where do you keep your change? In the change purse section of my wallet. Chulo keeps his in a 5-gal water jug next to one of my many shoe racks

27. What kind of winter coat do you own? A long black leather one, which is not actually mine but has been on perma-loan from Diane since like, I dunno, maybe winter 2000??

28. What was the weather like on your graduation day? I think it must have been cloudy on my HS graduation day, since we held it in the gym. But we had the party of all parties on the lawn outside afterwards, so it couldn’t have been too bad. I don’t remember the other graduations.

29. Do you sleep with the door to your room open or closed? Open, unless I have houseguests.

30. Did U read this far? Consider yourself tagged (you know, if you wanna do it)!!