Woe to Me

I am sick. I have a head/chest cold from hell. I don't have health insurance or paid sick time. *sigh*

Woe to me.

My homework sucks. It's about law and the Constitution, you'd think I'd ace it but I am all doped up on cold relievers and pain killers to do any good.

Woe to me.

I missed going to see Delilah dance with Jojo - I was REALLY looking forward to that.

Woe to me.

I am so consumed with losing weight and being obese that I have begun to dream about it every single night to the point of delirium.

Woe to me.

My CD matures today. All $10,500. All of it will go to pay off debt. All of it.

Woe to me.

I gave in on Friday and smoked cigarettes. Like 5 in a row. I'm sure that helped my chest cold.

Woe to me.

I am in a terribly grumpy mood and this blog is perhaps the most pathetic blog entry I've ever typed.

Woe to me.

Thanks

I give thanks for (in no particular order):

Dane
kitty kats
compassion
string cheese
painting
mountains
Victoria's Secret
Isis
Fuddruckers
honesty
lilacs
old friends
new friends
spirit
soul
Mrs. Fields
yoga
Eckhart Tolle
credit cards
Mom & Dad
toothpaste
Moab
PETA
Midol
naps
siblings
IRA
humility
Grandparents
Veterns
butter
experience
make up
passion
combo fried rice
conservation
purified water
love
STARBUCKS!
soy
preservation
music
movies
games
*explicit*
beauty
change
life
vodka
happiness
rainbows
rain
green
sea critters
home
health
travel
dance
Dan Brown books
hammocks
pedicures
friendship
wireless internet
sushi
hugs and kisses

Just a few things I am thankful for. :-)

180 Degrees

I have two very different friends in Seattle. And that's it. *smirks* Laura Rose - the creative, talented artist (as in dance, interpretation, costume, human modification, make-up, etc.) who lives on her own beat to her own tune. And Johanna - the creative, talented career-woman. I adore both women as they both have specific roles that they fill for me. However, Jojo and I are very much alike in many ways. She's a lively, outgoing, strong, independent woman who has her sh*t together despite hiccups and a past that would bring down any strong horse. I admire her courage and endless hope and passionate love. She reminds me of myself in that she has many, many friends here and stretches herself thin attempting to nourish each of her relationships. She is ALWAYS meeting with someone somewhere, and quite possibly meeting someone else after that! Any night that she has to herself somehow gets booked up with something else before the day is through. The poor thing runs ragged for everyone else. I have to chuckle because I ~know~ exactly where she's coming from. It's hard maintaining old friendships, keeping current on the news, and building new ones from the ground up. I admire her perseverance to do so, especially since I want her in my life.

Of course talking to her and hearing her crazy schedule, it forces me to consider my own schedule and with that examine my personal growth. For a while in CO I had been looking for a clean break, if you will. I adored the time I spent with my friends, but it got to the point that someone was always having a birthday or anniversary or so-in-so was in town, so-in-so was out of town, so-in-so was down and out, so-in-so just got a job! There was a reason to celebrate or lament every weekend of my life, not to mention the weeknight rituals that I adored and didn't want to abolish from my schedule. All told, I found myself with NO freetime. No time to just do nothing and if I did have that time, I found a reason, found a friendship, found something to do with that freetime so I could "check it off the list" for one more week/month/whatever.

When Dane got the job offer in Seattle, I knew that would be my clean break. A chance to start fresh. A new medium for nurturing old relationships and a great forum for starting new ones. I miss my friends in CO and long for that comfortable fun of hanging out with people who KNOW me and were there for my trials and tribulations. However, it has been nice just going out and having no-baggage fun. There is something so sweet about new friendships. I can almost liken it to a courtship between young lovers. You know, that new, fresh time where everything you do is always fun because you are just in their company. That's what it's like with Jojo. We have gone to so many new places and fun events and it's all a joy because it's so new and she's fun, and we're new.

I'm digressing. My point in all this is that while I miss the old and appreciate the new, I am thankful for the nothing. The nothing that I get to do all weekend and more often than I have ever done in my life. It is so nice sitting here knowing that I am going home after work to a nap, perhaps a bubble bath, dinner at home, and lots of Discovery channel with the Man and the kitties. That sounds like heaven to me. The rest of the weekend will be filled with small errands and chores, perhaps a matinee, but mostly rest and relaxation. Just what I've needed.

I am looking forward to the holiday's this year like I never have in the past. It is so nice to call the shots for once rather than be told what to do. As usual, we are hosting a Thanksgiving party, it already sounds like we will have plenty of guests. The next six weeks have already been booked between my parents coming up, a visit from Steven, Amy coming up, holiday parties, holiday symphonies, shopping, decorating, volunteering, solstice feasts/dances, - the works. I really do love this city!

And it's actually overcast for once! Today's another day to check out the cam if you can - absolute grey! Today is the kind of overcast where the top of the Needle is non-existant.
http://www.spaceneedle.com/webcam/

The Weekend

Friday: Good day at work, tying up lose ends. Went home and napped and talked to mom till it was time to go to Jojo's. She made bluefin tuna steaks w/ onions, sweet squash w/ brown sugar, blue cheese potatoes, and corn salad. It was a fabulous meal. I brought the carrot cake from a posh cake maker near my work. We talked till about 2:00 am. We didn't even bust out a game, we just sat and talked all night. It was great.

Saturday: Per Mog's advice we slept in as LATE as possible - 2:30. Went up to Daman's for lunch, ran errands, and raided the grocery store for every snack food possible. Got on the road about 6 for Olympia, about 1 hour and 15 minutes away. We got there just in time to go to the mall and blow a few bucks shopping (Mog and I got a couple pairs of shoes, Dane got some shirts), eat dinner and mosey around town. At about 9 we stood in line for the 22nd Annual Olympia Film Fest only to get a ticket that allowed us to walk around town and not lose our place in line. Right on. We walked all over town till 11 then stood back in line and waited for admittance to the theatre. Around 12 we piled in to the old school theater, donned our 3D glasses and watched Friday the 13th part 3 in 3D. Totally awesome. Totally cheesey. The best was when Jason squeezed "Richard's" head so hard his eyeball came blasting out at the audience. Followed by the cross bow scene. After that and a couple of short films we watched Phantasm - all 70's, all mullets! For the third movie we watched Lady Terminator. A horrible, horrible film inspired by the original Terminator. This movie was B-A-D. After that it was Demons, which I slept through. Dane said it was worse than the sum of the first three put together. Once Demons was over, we decided, at 8:30 am on Sunday, that it was time to drive home.

Sunday: We drove home sleep deprived, which is IMHO worse than drunk. We barely made it through Jack in the Box, the only thing we could stay up and eat. Even at that we barely finished our food. Originally we were going to stay up all Sunday so as not to mess up our sleep schedule, but that was not happening. We promptly passed out till 3:00 pm waking up long enough to watch another 2 movies and go back to bed.

All in all it was one of the best weekends I've ever had. And completely sober and smoke free!!! AND I watched my diet the whole time. While the guys munched on chips and candy, I had carrot sticks, unbuttered popcorn, and apples. I haven't felt this healthy in a long time.

And I cannot wait for the next film fest! You would not believe how fun and funny it is to go to a theatre of hecklers and watch bad horror flicks. Good times.

More later, I have some updates on Seattle living, or driving rather, my radiating persona, and other stuff. We closed the fiscal year tonight. In fact I just got home and it's about 10:00 PST. We were held hostage till everything was done. Stay tuned.

Planet Crystal

So let's see here, what's worth "writing home about"....Dane and I went to the Big Bad Voodoo Daddy concert last night at the symphony hall, that was cool. Probably the only time I will be able to scream "WHOOOO" in that establishment. BBVD is a great Swing band - they were totally fab to see! I felt like I was in the early 1900's in an underground jazz club in NY. After that we GORGED ourselves on happy hour sushi at Nijo. We didn't think it was possible, but it IS possible to stuff yourself silly on raw fish. I love that happy hour in Seattle consists of sushi rolls and sashimi, not buffalo wings and peanuts on the floor.

Work is going good. It's boggling to work at such a large company sometimes. For example there needs to be standardization with everything. Case in point, our accounting software specifically the vendor system. Each vendor name has an abbrievated code so the clerks do not have to type Acme Supplies of Mass Purpose each time they enter a bill. However, without a set process, you would have a trillian different acronyms of Acme Supplies of Mass Purpose. So as a general rule, you use the first 8 letters of the business name. In the case of individual vendors, the vendor code would be the first 4 letters of the last name followed by the first 4 letters of the first name. So Joesph Smith would become SMITJOES and so on and forth. I am doing a cursory vendor check for Building Materials Inc. so I type in BUI and click the lookup icon. Up pops a list of vendor names starting with BUI and continuing down the alphabet. I do a double take on a particular vendor thinking "this must be a joke". I pull up the history and sure enough, there it was...Rashpal Buttar. BUTTRASH. Now I understand that our system is limited to the number of characters and we also must MUST obey the standardization rules at all times, but certainly there are select circumstances when it is considered most prudent to deviate from said regulations. Why not BUTTARRA? BUTRASHP? So that was funny. *chuckles* BUTTRASH. I felt like a 3rd grader giggling in my office, snickering about it with the other CFA's. And you know BUTTRASH was printed on the check! Not Pay to the Order of BUTTRASH, but it is still on the stub. Come on, people.

School is back in session and appropriately so with HIS/301 US Constitution. Followed by American History in Film. I can't tell you how many times it would have helped balance GL accounts knowing how many films Audrey Hepbourn has been in. Actually I don't mind taking this elective. I welcome the break from accounting and the opportunity to learn more about a subject I might not be privy to.

The holiday season is starting and with that endless events, parties, get-togethers, shopping, lists to make, lists to retrieve, things to do. I am sending out a Christmas newsletter and card this year, that should be interesting. I am not sure how this facade will work, but I want to at least try it.

Dane and I are doing good. We are so dull. We spent last weekend watching Arnold Schwarzenagger films then capped off the weekend by meeting LR and Mog for a night at the Noc Noc - I had to buy "grace" for how Halloween turned out. Only cost $60, and well worth it. LR has invited me to the Winter Solstice feast, an offer that is quite coveted as it is only by special invite that one gains admittance to the feast. Delilah has decided on an Egyptian theme for this year's Fremont Summer Solstice parade starring the lovely LR as Sekhmet, Seth as Set, Robert as Osiris, Delilah as Hathor, Dane as Annubis and yours truly as Isis. I am thrilled at this honor and cannot wait to help create this parade as the best parade yet!

This weekend is reserved for dinner and games and Johanna's pad, followed by an all night B-grade horror film fest in Olympia. Good stuff!

Stay tuned for more in Planet Crystal (title courtesy of the English guy from Borders, Gary, see http://blondninjachick.blogspot.com/2005/02/life-without-plans.html, yes I still talk to him - he apparently added my email address to his own list as well as the Border's list).

Cabos San Lucas

The trip was amazing!! Absolutely fabulous. Nothing but good times with GREAT people. I learned many Spanish words, met many new friends, and had the time of my life. Dane and I went parasailing, on a dinner cruise, on a snorkel cruise, shopping, plenty of down time reading on the beach with Pacifico (not Corona - according to Jesus "Corona eez joonk") with lime and salt. I even got a CD from the flea market bar with totally awesome Mexican rock music. Kick ass time.

However...returning was quite the opposite. It is yet to be determined if the promotions agency that sponsored our vacation win was acting blindly or maliciously. Here are the facts:

1. Dane and I were told on Monday that our trip was canceled and not to be rescheduled. We lost the 3 days, 2 nights trip. It's not "Millenium's" fault, blame the vendors. We would get the $1170 we paid in deposit and extra nights refunded in 3-5 business days.
2. Delta told us that the airfare was in our name and we could do what we wanted with it: get a refund, reschedule, or change destinations for a fee.
3. Since everything was already lined up and it would only cost an additional $215, we chose to change our destination to Cabos San Lucas and would leave on 10-25-05.
4. Sometime between our touch down in CSL and our departure, Millenium (M) called Delta for a refund.
5. Delta refunded the airfare.

Here are the fuzzy details:
1. M might have represented themselves as the passengers NOT the agency (very illegal).
2. M might have been refunded the entire cost including our change fee.
3. No one knows how Delta could have refunded a fare that has already been half taken.
4. Delta shouldn't be able to refund a fare requested by an agency when the passengers are in a foreign country.

This was the outcome:
After arriving at the prescribed 2 plus hours ahead of flight time, Dane and I were told that our boarding passes could not be printed because they were refunded. Confused, we asked who requested said refund. Delta said the "passengers". We said "no". Then it seemed like M got the refund. Minutes tick by as we try to sort this out on phone because Mexico can't do anything in the airport except print tickets. They can't even reschedule or request a new flight. 10 minutes till the plane is supposed to leave we get told by the manager that the only way we are leaving Mexico is if we buy 2 one way tickets, EVEN though we had printed documentation that we already paid for the tickets. So we say fine, they say $1180 please. We pass out. With no other options available and a couple of maxed out credit cards, Dane pushes his debit card to the manager and we get on the plane 5 minutes after scheduled take off only to realize that our receipt indicates our travel takes place on November 1st, not October 31st. We look at each other and our "official" Mexican boarding passes (sharpie on a piece of paper - it was all they had to spare in our seconds to board the plane) and burst out laughing and crying. We can get to the States, but now we can't leave SLC till Tuesday. We get to SLC, lament our troubles to the Delta rep and are rewarded with 4 drink coupons, $50 off our next Delta flight, and two Halloween cookies as well as a ticket for the 8:44 flight, the 6:40 flight being canceled due to incliment weather in Houston. To make a boring story long, we are in the middle of a battle with M and Delta to get our money back and possibly press charges against M for impersonating our identities.

Other than that, the trip was fab!