um, festive?
we were told today at about 2pm that we could all go home! YAY! oh, but guess who's still at work?! it's depressing to see all of 2 cars in the parking lot, but at least i might actually get some overtime. I could use that 5 bucks.

whapwhapwhap!
i'm floating around the halls of petco today with angel wings and a halo and devil horns and a tail and a shirt that says "confused." this outfit the substitute for my real halloween costume which is not-so-work-appropriate... the wings i'm wearing are the courtesy of my ingenious design of 5 years ago and have still held up all this time. they're really big and fluffy and actually hinge in the back so i don't have to go through doorways sideways. that part is great because it gives me a sort of fluttery effect, and doesn't hurt quite as bad when i (sometimes accidentally) hit people in the hallways. especially the 2 senior VPs and a junior VP who were having a conference right outside my cube.

muuuudsliiiiide!!
i could really go for a frosty one right now... but unfortunately that's not the kind i was talking about : ) Last year at this time, life around me was burning and suffocating. This time 'round the sun it's drowning in rainrainrain. Makes for some mud-time, and that's never bad... unless that mud happens to be under your house. on a hill. and then that would suck.

haphaphappy birthday to shannon, aka shay-nin, aka shay-ma, aka shama-lama, aka shamu-ramu-dingu-dongu!!
ps - congrats to Boston, home to the hotness known as Red Sox fans. Really, what is up with Bostonian boys? Must be in the water. Spike, dust off the welcome mat, I may have to come hunting pay you a visit. Unless this is still going on...

japan rocks
did you hear about the earthquake in my home-ken of niigata? i just did, and i freaked. thankfully i've heard back from all my still-shakin' peoples , and they're okay, but they'd appreciate prayers for still times and quiet nights.

yatta!
\yah-TA\, exclamation: plain past tense of the verb 'yaru' - to do. colloq. lit. I did it!
well, at least i can say that i fought off the urge to turn around and go back home after i had driven down to balboa park early this morning. i don't know how i ended up doing in the speech contest; i didn't get 1st-3rd, so i got the consolation t-shirt, certificate, and rousing "try again next year!" from the contest organizers. i also got cornered (literally) by a really short, really scary (she had this HUGE nose and no forehead and about 4 inches thick of makeup) japanese lady in the bathroom who had grabbed my arm, wheeled me into the paper towels, and the only part of her enthusiastic jabbering i understood was "joozu!! JOOZU!!" (meaning: you are good.) My japanese sensei had shown up (unfortunately) and i guess i had surprised her by being there, especially since i hadn't asked her for help like everyone else. Almost everyone i had talked to had their speech edited by a teacher or native speaker; i don't know... in my mind, that's cheating. Especially since the girl who won had her friends write (or "heavily edit" as she put it) her speech. Like a very wise 14-year-old recently observed, "I know, you just want to know if it's something you can do on your own." Yes, for the most part that's true. but i just realized something that may be blatantly obvious to everyone else: it's a total pride thing. if i do well, then look at that! cool! if i don't do well, well then that's my fault (especially since i am the type of person to put in as little work as possible). but if i enlist the help of someone else, then i am a) needing someone else, and thus b) responsible to that person for my outcome, and c) opening myself up to the criticism that hey, you didn't do it right the first time, and obviously you don't know it all.

i've got issues. i'm working through them. and today was a little bit of therapy.

hazukashii
silly me, i've gone and signed myself up for a speech contest. in japanese. huh, i suppose i should get started on that speech. in japanese. especially considering the contest is on sunday. this sunday.

the 3 topics to choose from: 'election year' (hells no. difficult enough without having to switch everything to 'erection ye-ah'), 'freindship' (not sure what that is, know what frIEndship is, but figure everyone will write about that, and i'm not a follower ;), and 'food culture' (not food and culture, which is what i originally thought it was). so ... leastest evil? maybe i can write speak about my adventure at nat's. for 3 minutes. in japanese.

i'm still full.
apparently i missed out on the stuffed mushrooms the other night. kinda bummed about that. that's what i get for being fashionably late.

convivial
\kuhn-VIV-ee-uhl\, adjective:
Relating to, occupied with, or fond of feasting, drinking, and good company; merry; festive.

there were mussels. shrimp. artichokes. eggplant bruschetta. zucchini soup. ribs (my FAVORITE). pureed fruit drowned in champagne... and those were the appetizers. THEN there was dinner (beef, calamari, stuffed shells, sausage, asparagus salad, rice...). believe it or not, i was actually able to partake in the lemon/raspberry parfaits, the apple tart, and the strawberry shortcake for dessert. I had to turn down the coffee, though. One can only stretch so far.

i love love love natalie's family, especially when mary and leslie are cooking. how great is it to walk into the house, only to be scolded by nat's grandpa that i had a lot of catching up to do! take whatever idea you may have about a big italian dinner, and transport yourself to last night's festivities. i felt sorry for some of nat's friends who didn't know what they were getting into! it's all about the pacing, folks.

hairrrrrrrrrr
congratulate me as i am now the owner of a page-boy type hairstyle. this is EXACTLY what i didn't want. don't get me wrong; it doesn't look bad. but i detailed specifically to the chick cutting my hair that i did NOT want it shorter in the back/longer in the front, that i didn't want it angled, that I wanted it razor cut on the ends (not blunt) and what length, with my wavy locks, I wanted it to fall when it was dry. So BOOOOO to her not paying attention to A WORD of it! yarrrrrr.

it's in the stars
being the starry-eyed dork i am, i admit i check my horoscope on a regular basis. Today, i think this:

CANCER (June 22-July 22). A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour. Life's unexpected twists and turns are what keep things interesting. After all, would you really want everything to go exactly according to plan? Boring!

goes nicely with this:

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22). To realize the value of a minute, ask a person who has missed a plane. To realize the value of a second, ask someone who narrowly escaped a serious accident. Every moment of your life has value. Make the most of your moments.

geesh, i'm such a sap.

and then there was sam
i had meant to post yesterday, but was caught up in a 3+ hour meeting at work... feel not sorry for me, for decadent cheesecake was involved.

This weekend i took a much needed break from saving the rest of the world (was actually called "superwoman" at one point [[blushing]]). hung out with doc-a-roo and scud on sat. night, house sitting for friends of ours. It's good to just be able to sit with someone, you know? sunday hooked up with an old friend and her new family in OB, where we met 'sam'. sitting at o'bistro, minding our own menus, sam saw me through the patio gate and decided it was necessary to climb through the rose thorns to meet me [[blushing]]. His friends ditched him at that point, but sam spent a good deal of time hanging on the gate, declaring that he was "ready for a relationship!!" (I didn't ask) and was "GREAT with kids!!" Admittedly, he was cute, had the smile that some orthodontist is now quite rich for, but was, err, quite enthusiastic, shall we say? Got his number, and the first 3 digits are '666'... will have to double-think that one.

fave quote o' moment:
"it's like i'm Prada... and you're Porn."

if i've said it once...
i do hate to have to repeat myself, but, people, PLEASE. 'casual-dress' Friday does not translate to 'hideous-hawaiian-print-shirt', 'ratty-sports-team-jersey', or 'holey-jeans (or gasp! sweat pants!!)' Friday. In any language.

perhaps,
perhaps, perhaps. I can't get this song out of my head. 99% of that having to do with current life times, the remainder attributed to the fact that it's on my Maroon 5/Cake CD that i can't seem to unhook myself from at work.

last night i skipped karate (gasp!!) for a date with jason. he was playing at UCSD and i had gone there to check out my latest foray into tennis (didn't happen: i dressed out, grabbed the racquet, got to the courts and turned around without even checking into the class. As noble as my intentions were to create some balance in my life (ahem, karate, ehHEM), I think fulltimejob/karate/bellydancing/japaneseclass is quite enough, thank you). so i instead headed to see jturtle sing and laugh and kinda sing and really laugh. i hung out with his friend i had met last week and also valiantly tried to write my japanese presentation. didn't get too far on that, but did have a great time. admittedly have to say i have a little crush on the guy (hello! what girl doesn't want a little serenade every once in a while) stupid me, i turned down their invite to dinner, but a girl's gotta have some mystery, right?