i’m a real girl

“i wish you were where you’re supposed to be
close to me
but here i am just staring at this candle burning down
still no sound” — carrie underwood “i know you won’t”

happy halloween. i’m not huge on this particular holiday, but i did get into the spirit a little bit. i went to work today dressed in a t-shirt that’s printed to look like a doctor’s lab coat, kind of like those t-shirts that are printed to look like a tuxedo. yes, very tacky. also, very cheap and very easy. :) anyway, almost no one at work was dressed up this year, which is neither here nor there, really. work was work. nothing too crazy. john did tell us yesterday that we could leave at 3 today, though, so that was an excellent treat!

i headed straight for the gym for a good workout. i worked really hard yesterday, so i needed to get back in there and loosen up my tight muscles. felt good. :) and it’s great to go at like 3:30 when no one’s there.

then i came home, cleaned up, and headed back out again. i went to the movies to see “lars and the real girl.” it was between that and “dan in real life,” but marke suggested “lars,” so i went with that. plus, i figured my window to see “dan” is probably longer. anyway, the movie was good, but it was very different than what i had expected. i was thinking more romantic comedy and less family drama. and i often found myself torn between laughing at lars and crying for him. anyway, it was a good movie and really well acted, so i’m still glad i saw it. but i am looking forward to “dan,” which is definitely a romantic comedy. maybe saturday?

anyway, i was back home around 8. i had a really good dinner (thanks to that trader joe’s run last night), and i’ve just been hanging out in front of the tv. i don’t really get trick-or-treaters here, so it barely feels like halloween right now.

so things are decent. i’m still going a little bit crazy, but you know. you never know what tomorrow brings. g’night. ;)

i am forgetful

there were a couple things i forgot to add to my earlier post:

1) i added new photos to my flickr.  i added to my set of photos from ucla’s family weekend, and added a couple of photos of me and dad from last weekend.

2) i am in love with meg allison’s new ep.  check out some tracks on her myspace, especially “i want you to” and “i’m with you”

i want you to

“baby, why’d you have to leave me, why’d you have to go
i was counting on forever, now i’ll never know
i can’t even breathe
it’s like i’m looking from a distance, standing in the background
everybody’s saying, he’s not coming home now
this can’t be happening to me
this is just a dream” — carrie underwood “just a dream”

i admit that i was less than anxious to get back down here yesterday (monday morning).  i had a great weekend in san carlos with the parents.  but it was back to reality bright and early.  i was at the airport by 7 and landed in the oc before 10.  and i was in the office around 10:30.  so back to reality i went.

work’s been quiet, which is fine by me.  it’s going to pick up in the next few days, though, as we prepare the month’s three magazines, jason and i go to kentucky to visit our printer, and the company shuts down for the thanksgiving holiday.  anyway, yeah,work’s fine.

and really, i’ve just been catching up on errands and such.  tonight, i did a load of laundry (i desperately needed that) and picked up some actual groceries at trader joe’s.

and i’ve had way too much time for thinking.  that happens to me.  my head’s all everywhere.

anyway, hope you’re doing well.  g’night. ;)

crave

“if we leave tonight and drive fast enough
all our troubles will be just like us
long gone, baby
let’s get out of this town tonight” — carrie underwood “get out of this town”

it’s been a wonderful weekend back home. seriously. i’m so thankful. :) i really am wishing i had a couple more quiet days around here to just continue to relax. but anyway, i’ll head to the airport bright and early tomorrow morning and get back to my regular life.

this morning, mom, dad, and i went up to the city to the ferry building. they have lots of little specialty food shops, and we ended up with amazing cheeses, bread, and chocolates. mmm… my favorite things, really. :) and we just wandered around a bit. it was nice. and we ran into the parents of one of my friends from high school. it was great to see them!

and dad and i spent the afternoon baking apple pies. he picked a bucket of apples from his tree in the backyard, and we put a couple pies together. awesome! and quite delicious. :) though i didn’t actually try a slice until just a few minutes ago.

for dinner, i picked up kath from her dorm at stanford and we had a very mellow dinner at pizza chicago, which was really good. it’s great to see her and get her to take a little study break. she has midterms coming up this week, so she’s been stuck in a room reading for the weekend. and i didn’t get to meet up with troy today, but i did at least get to chat with him a bit. he sounds like he’s doing well, though we somehow ended up talking way more about me. anyway, it was a lovely evening.

now i’m making sure i’m all packed up and enjoying tonight’s “brothers and sisters.” i should get to bed soon. hope you also had a really nice weekend. g’night. ;)

and breathe

“don’t need directions
don’t need a map
if we get lost i’ll be good with that
yeah, we’ll find a way to make the time pass
windows rolled down with the heat on high
stars all aligned in a runaway sky
holding my hand as the miles roll by
long gone, baby” — carrie underwood “get out of this town”

wow.  i’m beyond glad i decided to come home to san carlos this weekend.  so far, it’s been lovely.  the thing about coming here totally at the last minute is no one knows i’m here.  and i don’t have many plans.  it’s quite relaxing this way.  and after what felt like a crazy, stressful week, that’s exactly what i’m needing. :)

so i had a really nice saturday.  i slept in a bit (i think it helped that mom was out the house, so it was super quiet), and then hung around with dad watching football.  he even made me waffles for breakfast. :)  and i did eventually get cleaned up and dressed and put on a cute outfit.

sarah came down from woodland this afternoon, so we did what we do: shopping and eating and shopping.  we went down to stanford shopping center and walked all around and had fun, though we pretty much bought nothing.  and so we decided to venture farther south to santana row.  we were hungry even though it was a little bit early for dinner (5:30ish), so we went to maggiano’s, where they informed us that they were totally full on reservations for the entire night.  crazy!  but we found a couple spots at the bar, where they also serve the full menu.  so we had a delicious (and quick) dinner there before doing a little more shopping.  turns out they opened a brand new h&m there this week, so we explored that.  sarah and i both spotted the same red handbag on a display.  it was the only one left in the store.  so we split the cost and plan to share it!  fabulous idea, right? :)  she has it first, and she’ll bring it to me when she comes to visit in a few weeks.  excellent!

and now i’m just hanging out.  my parents are tucking in, and i will crash soon, too.  we’re planning on going to the city in the morning to the ferry building to enjoy the harvest festival there.  i’m mostly looking forward to the artisan breads and cheeses.  mmm… :)  and i’ll probably find a friend or two to have dinner with.  should be wonderful, right?

now, i just have to figure out how to get all my trips to san carlos to be this quiet.  ;)

hope you’re having a nice weekend, as well.  g’night. ;)

oh, it has losers

“got it all figured out inside of my head
there’s a bag packed up at the foot of my bed
you say the word, baby, i’m all set
we’ll cover our tracks
tell a couple white lies
make sure we got a good alibi
and by the time they catch on
we’ll be outta there sight
long gone, baby
let’s get out of this town tonight
nothing but dust in the shadows
gone by morning light
somewhere we won’t ever get caught, ever be found
baby, let’s just get out of this town” — carrie underwood “get out of this town”

i woke up thinking perhaps today’s air would be better than yesterday’s.  then i looked outside.  nope.  the same.  maybe worse.  my apartment smelled like fire, too.  not a good sign.  and i headed out this morning into ash and smoke definitely worse than yesterday, though i’ll admit that san clemente was better than here.

so i worked some today.  nothing that exciting, really.  it’s weird.  i had to go out to get lunch (i only want pizza delivered so many days in a row) and there was no one out.  the schools are closed.  it’s like a ghost town or something.  anyway, i worked today.  exciting. ;)

went to the gym.  worked my butt off.  came home.  had dinner.  watched some tv.  cried like a baby at the end of “ugly betty” (stop judging me ;)).  and am now enjoying “the office” and chatting with some friends.

there is some fun news today, though!  i booked a last-minute trip home to san carlos.  i am getting out of this smoke and going to see the family and some friends, and i couldn’t be more excited.

so i’m off for tonight.  hope you’re doing well.  g’night. ;)

fully distracted

“when the morning breaks i’ll awake
and then i won’t want you to go
and when you’re gone i’ll hold on to the memory all day
and, baby, when the sun comes up, yeah, yeah, yeah
so listen here now, i know you’ve been hurt
by the one before, i know your pain
and i know you never thought you could love again
but i know the way, yeah, yeah
and i know about your circumstance
but love is here at a second chance
so take my hand and follow me
you’ll never wanna leave” — john legend “sun comes up”

i thought it might get worse.  it did.  the smoke from a few different fires around here feels like it’s closing in.  it’s not windy anymore, so the smoke is just hanging around.  it’s covered the whole sky.  i woke up to brown instead of lovely blue.  it was still brown when it got (prematurely) dark, as well.  everything seems dusty or ashy.  it’s definitely not healthy to be outside.  i put a few photos i took around town up on my flickr just so you can get an idea.

it is good to hear some of the fires have slowed and are closer to containment.  i just am not quite feeling the effects of that here yet.  i’m also glad to hear some remarkable stories, particularly that everything is going quite well down at qualcomm stadium.  amazing.  thanks, san diegans.  so we’ll see how things go tomorrow, i suppose.  i am feeling a little bit anxious to get back outside again. :)

work went fine today.  the building is a decent, but not perfect, refuge from the smoke filling san clemente.  it did eventually work its way in.  but it was much better in there than other places.  marke brough tai, his dog, into the office because his apartment was just too smoky.  since i feel like i already know tai, i didn’t really mind having a dog around most of the day at all.  oh, and i did get a fair amount of work done considering how distracted i was between trying to follow fire news and trying to keep an eye on the dog. :)

after work, i headed for the gym.  they have air conditioning.  it was pretty decent air.  i had a great workout, though i did have a weird incident.  there was almost no one there, but two other guys and i were watching the baseball game (game 1 of the world series) on one of the tvs.  there was only one other guy in the room and he was reading a book intently.  anyway, a y employee walked in, realized that particular tv wasn’t on cnn, and changed the channel.  i asked him not to since everyone in the room was watching that.  he insisted that that particular tv must be on cnn exclusively.  no.  one.  else.  was.  watching.  tv.  in.  the.  whole.  room.  after putting up a little bit of a fight, he conceded and put the game back on.  i was just astounded at how a guy who just happened to be walking through the room (he doesn’t like sit in that room or anything) decided purely because of crazy y bureaucracy that he should change the channel on the 1 tv everyone was watching.  think, people.  don’t let silly, unimportant regulations ruin the fun your customers were having.  put all the other tvs on cnn for all we care!  anyway, it turned out fine.  i just thought it was silly. :)

and now i’m hanging out with my tv and the air conditioner.  i’m doing fine.  hope you are, too.  g’night. ;)

more smokey than bandit

“wait a minute, baby, i’m not through
i intend to spend more than one night with you
a love affair that never ends
like the old song says, ‘let’s do it again’
come with me, i know you’ll stay
you’ll wake up in the morning to a brand new day” — john legend “sun comes up”

i know.  i know.  it’s about time i post an update, especially with all the craziness that is socal right now.  so not to worry, i’m fine.  not on fire.

let me start with the weekend.  i went up to la (westwood, century city) to meet up with my parents and brother for ucla family weekend.  really, though, we did very little that was actually related to the official family weekend activities.  we did dinner at an italian place in the century city shopping center friday night that was way more delicious than i had anticipated!  and saturday we went out to pasadena to the rose bowl to see the ucla football team take on cal.  um… what to say… it was a pain in the ass to get out there, park, and get out, but i wanted to go to the rose bowl.  it’s a sports landmark.  so i did it and enjoyed the game, but i don’t think i’ll be out there for all the ucla home games. :)  at least we got to spend a little time in downtown pasadena afterwards, including a perfect pizza dinner and a little shopping.  sunday morning, we did breakfast at jerry’s and then parted ways.  i headed back to the century city shopping center to officially start my christmas shopping.  and i did a pretty good job!  oh… and i might have found a few wonderful things for myself while i was at it. ;)

and since then, i’ve really just been working.  though, honestly, we’ve been a bit distracted while at work.  the news is constantly changing and takes some tracking down.  but i did ship the final magazine of the month today, so that’s great. :)

okay, so there are fires in socal.  before i really get to what i want to write, let me just acknowledge that they’re really devastating to lots of people who aren’t me or my loved ones.  there are thousands and thousands way more affected than i am.  i’m lucky to be very safe and not really worrying for my own safety.   now, onto how it has been for me…

there are a few fires that are too close.  first there was the malibu fire that struck extremely close to pepperdine.  seems like things will be okay there, but looking at these photos i definitely was scared.  and then there’s the santiago fire that started in irvine.  it’s not actually that far from here, it will burn a whole lot more, and it’ll come too close for comfort to the homes of several people i know.  it doesn’t get much news coverage because it’s not as big as some of the other fires.  and there’s the rice fire out near fallbrook that is contributing to the smoke out here, as well as blocking some roads people i know use regularly.  and of course, there’s the witch fire north of san diego that’s evacuated homes of people i know.  and there are some smaller fires here and there contributing to the chaos.  again, it’s pretty smoky here (though it depends on the winds at the moment), and it’s extremely hot and dry.  honestly, i’d probably love this weather if there weren’t all the fires and i could stand to be outside for more than a few moments.  i turned on my air conditioning for the first time ever because it’s too warm to have it off and the windows closed.  my sinuses hurt from breathing all the ash and whatever other nasty pollution is in the air from the fires, causing me to have a headache.  i probably should just to go bed.  i’d feel better.  but anyway, i think the air conditioning is helping with it.

so i am managing, and so is everyone else i know.  on the other hand, there are lots of other people who aren’t, and my thoughts are with them.

and i think that’s about enough from me for tonight.  hope you’re doing well and keeping safe.  g’night. ;)

just quickly…

… a few notes from me tonight.

1) i’m back from la, where i spent the weekend with the family.

2) we had a good time.  i have a few photos, but i’m trying to get more from mom.

3) the malibu fire makes me sad, though thankful it wasn’t worse.

i want a lifetime

“baby, when the sun comes up
i’m gonna be holding you
it’s destiny that you’re next to me
i’m in love with you
oh, and, baby, when i wake up
i’m gonna be there with you
a new day rise
i wanna look in your eyes
when the sun comes up” — john legend “sun comes up”

honestly, it wasn’t a particularly eventful day.  at least that i can write about. ;)  i mean, it surely feels like i’ve been working my ass off all day long, but it might not necessarily make for a good post.  i considered not even posting, but this could be my last post before next week.  tomorrow i’m headed up to westwood to join the fam at ucla for family weekend.  i should be back sunday afternoon/evening.  anyway, about today…

got up.  had an amazing chocolate croissant again for breakfast.  seriously, go to your trader joe’s to the frozen section, find the chocolate croissants, and bake yourself some.  i swear, you’re thank me. :)  anyway, i headed off to work after a strange attempt to visit the atm near me.

work.  i did lots of it and also lots of waiting on other people to do their work, too.  it ended with me handing off two magazines at 5:20 to becky (they have to be delivered to the ups store by 5:30) and wrapping things up being the last person in the office.  lame.  whatever.  i did take an early lunch to head over to costco for a flu shot (went so great!  no lines, nice nurses) and then pick up lunch at pedro’s.

after work, i headed for the gym and had an amazing workout on the elliptical.  i think i was working out some aggression.  :)  anyway, that went well.  then i came home, had dinner, packed for the weekend, and watched (too much) tv.  there’s more tv ahead, as i still need to catch “the office.”  and then i’m crashing.

not sure if i’ll update before the weekend because i’m not sure about my plans for heading up there.  anyway, i’m off until next time.  g’night. ;)