Story Archive - April 2007

Sexy Hot Tub Party (04/29/2007)

Nature is best observed from an air conditioned theater. - Charles Lee

I got home on Friday early enough that the sun was out and shining down into our porch. I was going to try and finish all my weekend work that night so I could relax over the next couple days, but instead, felt the overwhelming need to open a bottle of white wine and sit out on the porch reading the weekly. My aura of relaxation leaked into the house through the open windows and my friends quickly abandon their own indoor activities an pulled up chairs beside me.

My phone rang and I stepped away. Tim and Cristi were supposed to be coming down on Saturday, but they told me they were going to surprise us a night early. I giggle with anticipation about the surprised. When asked who called all I could say was, "Umm... sexy twitter stalker friend." Everyone just accepted that fib. Cool.

One dinner and three bottles of wine later, we were indoors when Tim and Cristi magically appeared at the front door. Everyone was excited! We love guests! While every weekend night (and nearly every weekday night) is a party, having a guest increases the awesometasticity just that much more. I sat down on the stairs in my Jack Daniel's pajama pants (thanks Ray!) and had a long talk with Cristi on life and love. Since we're the life of the party, soon everyone had joined the staircase excitement!

The Stair Case Party for Cool People

Friday night Filip called to invite us all to a house warming BBQ party. He moved into his new house about three months ago, but busy jobs and young children cause time to race by. With a twelve-hour lead time, we were there! The weather stayed gorgeous the entire weekend and I just kept pausing and thinking how grateful I am to live where I live in the world.

BBQ Flame of Destruction

This was the first time I've met Filip and Lei's son Alan. I've seen both of them a few times since Alan was born, but he was always sleeping when I swung by. He is absolutely adorable, as most babies are, and I couldn't get away from him. He was very impressed with how loudly I could clap my hands, and kept grabbing them and clapping them for me so he could hear it. It was followed by a crazy giggle.

Jordan and Alan Clapping

We went to mini-golf, but due the ridiculous length of the line and inefficiency of processing people through it, we had to leave without playing. We still took a walk through the golf course and Timmy got to point out his favorite hole that is set to launch golf balls onto the freeway.

That night, back at the complex, it was time for a sexy hot tub party. I've been trying to coax my friends into coming over for a sexy hot tub party for the last few weeks, but it's never worked out. This weekend it happened!

Sexy Hot Tub Party

Watch the Feed (04/26/2007)

I'm pretty sure uncut life isn't very interesting. - Karen Nguyen

I had a cool experience last night; it was one of those moments when I am just astounded by what we can do. I was one sent a picture of space from the Hubble and it was this amazingly gorgeous view of a random tiny piece of the cosmos with vivid galaxies everywhere. All I could think was, "oh my god; that's space!" Technically, there was an expletive in there when I thought it. When I watched Sojourner sending videos of Mars I was floored. I remember someone commenting how boring it was to see the grainy pictures of vast red desert and all I could think, "are you kidding me? We are watching a feed of images from Mars being sent by a robot that we sent there!" It was amazing.

Last nights adventure doesn't meet the astonishment I felt from those two experience, but I did have a moment of amazement.

Around ten o'clock, I was getting ready to go back to work and a twitter came in on my phone from a random internet person. My twitter friends are mix of people I actually know, people I clicked randomly on the public time line and added as friends and people who randomly added me. Her twitter was saying that she was at a conference in NY, at the Apple Store and firing up a live video feed on the internet. I clicked in and watched. For two hours I watched while talking to her (along with two other people) in a little chat window while she partied in the Apple Store and talked back to us.

It's shocking how connected we can be these days. Seriously shocking. I'm just amazed at the concept of watching someone's stream video from her wireless laptop to an open wifi network and then across the country and it didn't cost her a penny. Imagine life ten years from now with pervasive computing.

Falling into Shrapnel (04/25/2007)

I woke up early this morning for a call with UK to learn that the call had been canceled. There's a bittersweet moment where I'm frustrated I dragged myself out of bed for a canceled call, but happy I can head back to bed for a little extra rest.

During the hour of extra sleep I had this beautiful dream of my life in the future, about five years from now. I woke up feeling good. I woke up feeling happy. The problem is, things are off course for that future. Things need to change for me to actualize it. Change is hard

I was scheduled for a bone scan and went zipping down the path to my car. One of the wheels of my Heeleys snagged in a crack on the ground I flew. I fell hard. I've only taken one fall before, but this beat it. The scrape on my chin looks bad, the throbbing pain in my knee frustrates me, but the terrible shrapnel scratches on my iPod Shuffle are really disheartening. At least at first. I think soon I will be proud of the battle damage and able to brag about the nasty fall I took while "skating."

iPod with Battle Damage

Earth Day _T-1_ (04/21/2007)

Have you ever dated someone because you were too lazy to commit suicide? - Judy Tenuda

It rained in the days leading up to the weekend as nature took her shower. I was hopeful that the rain might last, give me a chance to really enjoy a weekend in the misting wetness. The clouds subsided and weekend gave a mix of sunshine and grey.

Saturday I went down to Santa Cruz to one of the redwoods groves to go hiking with a friend. On our way into the grove there was a large cutout from a redwood tree that went back about two-thousand years. My grandfather had a very similar slice for a long while that he eventually donated to China.

The sun was hiding behind the gray clouds and the light was highly scattered making the place temprid and beautiful. It's been too long since I was far from the cars and guitars and everybody. Fifteen fit into the park past the rangers and she tried to climb the first redwood we found. I nervously laughed staring between the sign that said "please stay on the trails and don't climb the trees" and the rangers who were thankful caught up in some conversation. I'm a stickler for the rules, even the stupid ones. I follow them, because I know why they exist, and while I can break them and be responsible, it only makes other irresposible people think they can also break the rules.

We wandered a ways away from the entrance and started seeing the trees where the insides had been burnt away and once again wandered off the trail to make our summer home. It was gorgeous inside some of the trees with the cool wind flowing through the window hole and back out through another door hole.

I'm still trapped in a hard emotional state. I don't want to burn bridges, but I don't want to always look backward. I can talk about my job ad-nasuem, but it bores me. Her job is just as boring, though totally different. So we talked about friends, family and life. The standard things that everyone has in common. Besides, deciding how all my friends should live their life is truly my favorite hobby.

Cuts and Batteries (04/17/2007)

Because everybody's trying to short change everyone on the copper pipe - John Roderick

I ditched work "early" today to try and get a few errands done. I got my hair cut! I still have a hard time getting it done, since the miser in me says that I should just never cut it (college) or shave it myself ever few months (post-college), but Gumdrop said I wasn't allowed to shave my head, and I continue to live by that rule. I pulled up photobooth and found myself amazingly shy about taking a picture of myself for posting, so I have done my best to remove that shyness by making it sepia and cutting off half my head.

My Hair in Sepia

Afterward I ran by the store and dropped of my dead watch for a new batter. When I came back 10 minutes later, the watch repair man told me my watch didn't take batteries. I was amazed to learn that I had purchased a device in violation of the laws of thermo dynamics, but proud of it. I didn't feel like arguing with him. At home I pulled out my own precision tools and started taking it apart. The circuit board inside is a little intimidating, but he must have seen this all the time with the watches that the kids wear. Then I realized, kids don't wear watches because they have mobile phones. Most digital watches are just tossed out and replaced these days, so it was probably a rare sight.

I pulled the battery out of the device, and now I'm going to go again and get a new battery. I considered for a moment heading back tonight, but I'm not going to. He will see my face tomorrow.

The Circuit Board The Battery

Life, Just Living It (04/15/2007)

I have worked all of my life, so I really don't have any hobbies. - Steven Hill

Things may need to get simpler and shorter. I just don't have the energy to pull it together these days. I've started to becoming a fan of twitter (it's over on the right). I find I have a lot more things to say is less than 140 characters than I have to say when I want to take the time to think things out. All my friends should know the personal struggle I've been going through recently. If you don't, ask me, there aren't many secrets on the topic.

I've had an incredibly jam packed last few weeks in my social life. Once I've passed the self-reflection phase of an issue, I find my best next step is to jam pack my life full of other things.

My wayward roommate has been home and unemployed and another friend took a week of vacation so almost every night in the previous week involves an awesome dinner followed by watching some crazy movie. Next week both of those two go back to their jobs and things might settle a little more.

This weekend I spent another evening with SG at Santana Row. I'm embarrassed to say that the place is growing on me. I have annoyingly conflicting personalities. There's the part of me that is perfectly content to a quiet night at home, or a night at some cool cultural thing, but there is also the part of me that loves to go to the offensively trendy societies at Santana Row, buy drinks for wayward single girls and karaoke the night away. I ended up back at SGs apartment and we spent the night sipping cheap vodka and watching "Sex in the City," which I had never seen before.

On Saturday I was talking with SG's mother and she asked me what my hobby was. I don't know. I did my best to sort through my interested with GG at one point as well, and it's just too diverse. I suppose I'm a polymath. If I had to truly pick my favorite hobby, it would be something weird like "socializing." More than anything, I love to talk with my friends about their lives. Life, both living it and hearing about it, is my favorite past time. I suppose it's simple in many ways.

Home Pampering (04/08/2007)

America will have one big day where a black Abraham Lincoln dressed in a Santa suit will carry a flag door to door begging Easter eggs from people who throw firecrackers at him while eating pumpkin pie and singing Columbus carols. - Robert Kirby

At the party last weekend, I said "I mean, I'm very open about my life." There was an immediate response of eye rolls, laughter, and people calling me a liar. "Well, I'm more open than I was a decade ago." No one could argue with that, but when back then when I was juggling three personality, I couldn't help be secretive.

These days I'm almost all blended together and it makes life easier to live and doesn't require any of the old walls. I guess that makes thing's easier. Now it's just the full me and the online me, and the online me is just a subset of the full me. That's way easier to manage.

I've had a weird past three weeks. I'm still struggling around. December through February had been a slow time and my entire life was dedicated to working and collapsing. It was not a very exciting time.

The last three weeks has been a regression to the crazy social days of fall. Went to a book club mixer, went to an Irish music concert, partied at Santana Row, saw an anime at the Castro theatre, went bar hoping down Polk Street in SF, saw 300 at the IMAX, partied with friends in Piedmont, complete with breakfast at an awesome diner, saw the Battlestar finale and the Doctor Who Premier and went to Opera at the Modave Center in Davis. Eclectic.

Now it's Easter. I'm up visiting parents. I've driven around three hundred miles so far this weekend (that's only six gallons of gas for those keeping track). The house has crazy recirculating water, so it's always piping hot when I turn on the shower; plus, the shower is full of my sister's pampering Bath and Body Works products.