Monday, October 24, 2005

The two day hangover

Oh my God, I'm dying. This past weekend was the be-all of parties . My college roommate's bachelorette party in Las Vegas. Woo hoo!

We stayed the Mandalay Bay Resort - my first time. It's a very nice hotel. The casino was a little confusing to me - I couldn't quite figure out the layout. The room was very nice - nice because I was lucky to stay in the two bedroom suite that the matron-of-honor booked for the bride to be. Four of us stayed in the suite, and then two other sets of 5 girls in regular rooms.

I'll write more about the trip later - I'm not thinking with a full brain today.

Let's just say when you're with a group of girls in Vegas, hang around the VIP areas. There are always groups of guys who book those areas and then invite the girls to join them for drinks. I only bought myself one drink during two nights out. The VIP areas give the good stuff too.

Monday, October 17, 2005

Beautiful day... missed it all

I left work around 5:30p today. Purse in one hand, my lunch sack, and for lack of a better term, my briefcase/bag thing for papers. In other words, a bag full of work I was bringing home to do.

Anyway, I walked out of my office building and this beautiful warm air hit my face. There was a slight breeze that just made it so comfortable to walk through - yeah, for the half block it takes to get me from the door of the building to the underground MUNI station.

I brought my lunch to work today - which I rarely do. My friends tell me it's good to bring my lunch because then I can save a lot of money. Which is true. The average lunch in San Francisco runs around $5 - $6. On the occasions I meet up with friends, lunch can go up to $10. Because I brought my lunch today, I ended up only spending $1.50 for my ride home. But the drawback, I never went outside. I heated up my rice and chicken, and worked through the hour and beyond.

No packed lunch tomorrow. I'm going out into the world. Hopefully, the weather will hold up and I'll get to enjoy a little sunshine.

Tomorrow night, my friend and I are going to try Paragon Restaurant. We're doing a very late celebration for her birthday. Not that I forgot. Lucky her - she got to go to NY for her birthday weekend, and our schedules didn't mesh until tomorrow night. I've never been there before - but the menu looks pretty tasty. I hope it's good!

Sunday, October 16, 2005

Mom's birthday

Yesterday was my mom's birthday. Happy Birthday Mom!!!

We celebrated with dinner at Momo's. The food was very good. I highly recommend their Coconut Rock Shrimp appetizer. The prices are typical San Francisco 'trendy' restaurant price, but the portions are good (4 out of 5 of us brought leftovers home) and the atmosphere is enjoyable.

After dinner, everyone came back to our place and we had delicious Tiramisu cake. My mom opened her presents and we chatted for a little while. It was a very nice evening.


Friday, October 14, 2005

Drama is over... I hope

After a few days of being miserable whenever my husband talked about the Europe trip, I've finally come to the conclusion that - we're going. I am going to see Paris and London - no matter how long or short. I should just accept it and move on. It's always going to be there - we can always go back. Start planning what to do in the short time we're there. I'm very lucky that we get to go at all.

Since my last entry, the plans have changed so many times that I've lost count - and it's only been a few days! Paris was cut down to 4 full days, and 1 full day in London. After a tantrum on my part - and at that point, I didn't care if I was being selfish anymore. If my hubby was going to be silly about the whole thing and didn't realize that I didn't wait 10 years just to spend 4 days in Paris and 1 day in London - he definitely heard about it. As he said, we have to sacrifice sometimes. True - but in this case I thought about it and couldn't understand WHY? Why do I have to sacrifice my dream trip? He's been to Paris, I have not. He doesn't really care if we go to London. Well, hello? His wife cares. I was about to book a trip for myself and go for two weeks on my own - one week in Paris, one week in London. The trip we were 'supposed' to take this year. I would take the portion that would have been his ticket and do some shopping.

Anyway, after a lot of bitching, he got back on the phone - and at this point, the best he could do is 3 days in Belgrade, on the fourth day we fly to London (get there around 3pm), spend one night. Then we take the train to Paris and spend 6 nights there. On the 7th day, we take the train back to London - so if we leave earlier in the morning, I can probably manage almost 2 full days. On the 3rd day in London, we fly home.

It's better than nothing. It just frustrated me that I had to get mad before he really 'heard' me. He didn't understand how unhappy I was the way 'our' trip was being planned and he didn't realize how important this trip was to me. It's not like I haven't talked to him about it for the past 10 years. Every anniversary is like a countdown to this trip. I bring it up all the time anyone mentions Europe. All my friends know that is my plan. Anyway... it's booked, finalized. This is it.

In other news, I finally submitted my resume for another position at my company. I've been over my resume over and over and over - and just can't think of anything more I can do to polish it up - so it will have to do. Hopefully, I'll get an interview and be better able to 'sell' myself that way.

Wish me luck!

Wednesday, October 12, 2005

Selfishness is a terrible thing

Unfortunately, the title refers to yours truly. To explain a little...

Next year marks a milestone for my hubby and I. We will have been married for five years, but we'll have been together for 10!

For the past 10 years, we've been planning to celebrate the occasion with a big trip to Europe. The trip of my dreams - Paris and London.

Two years ago, while on vacation on Oahu, we bought a Marriott timeshare. Part of the deal was that because our tower wouldn't be actually finished until the year 2006, we would get a bunch of bonus points, 2 free tickets to anywhere in the world, plus a bonus week to use anywhere. We couldn't believe it when they told us the 'extras'. That was our Europe trip right there. 'Free' plane tickets and hotel for a week.

So, 2006 is around the corner. An old family friend of my husband's suddenly brings up that in March, he is going to Belgrade to visit relatives. My father-in-law's only brother lives there. So, he decided he's going too... My hubby has not seen his uncle in many, many years, so suddenly he wants to go too.

So here's where my selfishness comes into play. Instead of this being OUR big European trip, the one that I've been planning for the past 10 years. The one where I thought we'd decide on when we'd like to go and how long we'll stay for... The trip is now the Belgrade trip - and we fly to Paris and stop by London for a day or two afterwards.

I mean, I can't complain. It all works out to us actually going to Paris and London. I get to go where I've wanted to go for over 30 years of my life. But man - it's just not the same. I've built up this trip for 10 years in my mind. It was supposed to be like our second honeymoon. We were supposed to plan it for US, not someone else's trip to Belgrade. So, because we're now going to be staying in Belgrade for three nights, that cuts into the Paris and London part. The Marriott is still covering our plane tickets - and one week's worth of stay in Paris, but London is now more of a stopover because of our Belgrade transfer. We have to pay for that ourselves.

So, no 1 week in Paris and 1 week in London, like I've been dreaming about. It's more like 5 full days in Paris and 1 full day in London before we have to come home.

Am I being too selfish? I mean really? I've dreamed about this trip for so long - and now everything is being dictated by someone else's plan and unfortunately, our financial situation (that prevents us from making this two separate trips). It's just irking me how everything turned out. I feel like I can't say anything because I don't want to be the wife who won't allow her husband to see his uncle (maybe for the last time? He's 80+), but it's so hard to get excited about this trip.

My husband says we all have to make sacrifices and unfortunately, we're not in a position that finances are not an issue and we can do what we want. And then he told me that his grandfather and his uncle are his favorite relatives. I wasn't able to meet his grandfather, but he wants me to meet his uncle. I want to meet his uncle too, but when he put it to me that way - what the heck could I say?

I know I'm rambling and ranting, but I know that without the Belgrade part, nothing was an issue before. I'm not going to say anything because my hubby was on the phone for hours last night, trying to make a trip that worked so that I would get my time in Paris and London - and I felt guilty that we was doing all that for me (for us). But damnit - this was our trip first!!! We started planning it first!

Wah, wah, wah... Yeah, I can't say anything to my husband, but I'm going to whine about it on my blog. I need an outlet somewhere.

Sunday, October 09, 2005

Another project update

Time to change my header again. I'm not crazy about fall - so I couldn't find any pictures I wanted to use - so I skipped straight to winter. I'm not a huge fan of winter either, but Christmas is my favorite holiday - go figure. So, I'm trying to get myself into the Christmas spirit early. Besides, I need the motivation...

My sweater is slowly coming along. Managed to join in my beige yarn, and now I'm working on 4-1/2" of the light blue yarn. I should be at a point to put in another three rows of beige and then back to the darker blue soon. I left several inches of extra yarn from where each color joins the next. I hope I didn't screw it up.



My other project, the 'secret' Christmas gift is coming along. I have all the pieces ready, now I just have to sew them together. Can't reveal what it is yet, but here's a small portion of it.



Now I have to make, let me see... GASP! Five more!!!

The stupid thread came out a little gray in very small spots, but it's noticable on the light pink fabric. I think after this 'eh em' is finished, I'll wash it to see if the gray comes out. I'm guessing it's oil from some parts of the machine - so it should come out.

Poor hubby has been trying to watch TV while I'm in the background sewing away and trying to watch too. Every once in a while I stop and ask him, "So, what happened? What did they say?" Yeah, he just gives me 'the look'. Hee hee...

Wednesday, October 05, 2005

Still up

I'm going to be hating life in about 5 hours - when I have to get up for work. It's 1:30am and I just finally stopped playing my new Sims 2 Nightlife expansion pack. It's fabulous. As with all my other Sims game packs - it's an obsession. Unfortunately, as each expansion pack comes out, the slower my computer gets. I need to add more RAM or pretty soon this machine is going to be crawling along. Another expansion pack is coming out in 2006. My goodness! I can't NOT get it! It's almost like you need a new computer to keep up with each expansion.

Oh man, my hubby is going to have fun trying to wake me up in the morning.

Good night...

Tuesday, October 04, 2005

Totally forgot!!!

Amidst all the drama of work, and bringing work home, and getting frustrated with my new sewing machine that is still turning my pink thread a light gray color - I totally forgot another gift item I'm supposed to be making for my friend Joe!!!

I am supposed to crochet a cap for him. I have the yarn already and everything. DAMN!!! I can't believe I forgot. I've actually been working on my hoodie sweater the past few nights. Just something to keep my hands busy while we're catching up on some TV shows I've taped. I've gotten past adding one color for three rows, and now I'm in the middle of adding on 4" of the third color. I should have been working on the cap this whole time.

So, guess what I'm doing tonight?

Hmmm, maybe I took on too much with this homecrafted gift idea. Can't give up yet though. I've still got two months. If I pull this off... I'll just have to reward myself at Christmas with something already made by someone else. :)

Totally off the subject. Guess who I saw a few weeks ago at Macy's? One of my idols! Sarah Jessica Parker! I was meeting a friend for lunch - and she was telling me how she was waiting for the elevator downstairs in the watch section, when out comes this petite woman, surrounded by these massive bodyguards. Well, she didn't realize who this woman was until she had already walked away. Turns out SJP was there to promote her new perfume, Lovely. I totally missed the commotion, because I went straight from the Geary St. entrance and up the elevator to the restaurant.

After lunch, I decided to take a chance and see if SJP was still there. I've never seen a line that long at Macy's. They had set up a queue between all the makeup counters on the main level. Through the crowd, I got close enough to get a good look at the lovely Ms. Parker. She is gorgeous. And she's soooo petite! I was so tempted to call work and tell them I would be very late. She was signing autographs if you bought her perfume. Well, I decided, I don't wear perfume, so it would be a waste of money - and I already saw her. Stupid me though - I didn't get a picture. Unfortunately, it was after the fact that it dawned on me that I have a camera phone. :P