12 years later

i was talking to the editor of @ucsd magazine, casually over coffee, and mentioned that his "campus couples" feature from a few issues back should have featured silvi and me. i would have married her if she was a boy, we just work. somehow, that turned in to raymond concluding that i would have that article... if i wrote it.
so...
here's the result: http://alumni.ucsd.edu/magazine/
current mood: i heart my hunnybunches!

FOR TODAY...
(borrowed from my aunt, who borrowed it from someone else. aren't memes great?!)

outside my window... (what window??) the sun is bright and the day is warm (sigh).
i am thinking... i wish i could hammer back at the guys doing construction below my feet downstairs. so distracting!
i am thankful for... getting to sleep in a little while a yummy breakfast was made for me.
i am wearing... my worries on my face. no good!
i am remembering... that patience is a virtue (ha!) and that the future comes in its own way and in its own time.
i am creating... a bus liaison crew presence for the breast cancer 3-day (only 2 months away!). it's a mardi bras theme ;)
i am going... to a slew of meetings today. no time for lunch!
i am reading... six-word memoirs on love & heartbreak
i am hoping... to step up my fundraising efforts for the BC3-D and reach my goal of $500! you can help by going here: http://www.the3day.org/goto/btrozzi and donating $30 for my 30th birthday!
on my mind... gosh, what ISN'T on my mind right now?! career change is once again afoot... i would really like to be able to settle for just a little while.
i am noticing that... the lack of sleep i have been getting (have been NOT getting?) has really made me grumpy and edgy. again, no good.
i am pondering these words...
from the kitchen... for the first time in a LONG time, i have ventured to work sans lunch. so the culinary adventure will be interesting today considering i don't have time for lunch anyway!
around the (office)... boxes and things. this place really needs to get organized! of course, my office is in a storage closet, so i guess it makes sense.
one of my favorite things... having such a great support network of friends and family close to me. i am truly blessed.
a few plans for the rest of the week... restaurant week, fun time with rc and sam solo?, sending mr. powers off to his family, and finally seeing natalie after a long, long time.
current mood: i recently found out my tendancy to worry comes from my father

doesn't bode well
welcome to september and my second paycut. this time, i get furlough days to make up for the fact they're paying me less... which means that i'm expected to get the same amount of work done in less time and for less pay. really, this IS a labor of love... i'm clearly not in it for the money.
here's an article that provides a quick snapshot of how bad it really is, if you do the math in your head. a good way to know how it really is hitting home is by reading the comments as well.
current mood: hanging in there

unwelcome home
every time i come back in to the US, i'm reminded of why we're seen as rude. getting to the dubliln airport on friday, i was informed during check-in that i would need to go through US customs and immigration before i got to my gate. i sort of dismissed this directive until the lady behind the counter let me know that a) i would have to pick up my luggage in atlanta and re-check it (groan) and b) that the us customs check i needed to get through expected those on my noontime flight to have already gone through their inspection by 9:15am. what?? i was proud that i was at the airport even by 9:30, considering the hour or so it took to get there from grace's. so i grabbed a coffee and jetted over to the designated customs area where i was treated as if i was entering the US, stamped and all. it was an interesting concept, supposed to alleviate traffic in atlanta (kinda worked, but... not really). it also stuck me in a strange small sub-wing of the airport that had 3 gates and one bathroom, and that's all. at least the bathroom was interesting, since the auto faucets kept turning on in a ghostly fashion... like my own watershow!
the plane ride home was more on the good side, since i had the middle row all to myself and could stretch out and pretend to sleep. unfortunately, i somehow managed to break all three in-seat consoles that were to provide my entertainment (movies, games, music) for the long ride home. i was also next to a family of 3 kids under the age of 3, who were actually quite well-behaved in spite of their disinterest towards sleeping whatsoever. what was annoying was the adults who spent the whole of the 9 hours entertaining the kids by beating on the tray table and clapping their hands and making other repetitive annoying noises. at one point, one of the kids also climbed on to me and started going through my stuff; not sure which adult was supposed to be watching that one.
once i hit atlanta, that's when things started getting... bad. getting off the plane, we were greeted by a range of attitudes, from the unwelcoming and rude to the indifferent. none terribly good. we were forced to pick up our luggage and go through customs, then recheck it and go through security (shoes off, liquids in the bag, etc), all without ever leaving the arrivals terminal. seriously, we had to go through security just to leave, and once again subjected to the shouting nastiness of the TSA. welcome home.
the flight was delayed by about 45 minutes as we waited for catering to bring on to the plane the meals for first class. us chattal could purchase meals that were already on the plane, yum. we were filled to the brim with people who were near riot by the time the plane left. i made a point of putting ear plugs in to try to drown out the screaming kids and bitching adults. once we were airborn, people started cheering, and again when we landed. chill out people.
so, it's nice to be home after taking a good 20 hours or so to get back here. and now i have the 3-day weekend to recover and do laundry. LOTS of laundry.
current mood: wonky

chalk and cheese
i've found myself picking up on a few little irish-isms that have invaded my speech. "loads" or "heaps" have been used a lot, on line or queue has come out quite naturally, and even a few "cheers!" that didn't sound totally gringo-esque. kelly taught me a new one: 'like chalk and cheese', the equivalent to our apples-and-oranges. that was a fun one. i'm trying to get the tendancy to repeat the "f&*! off" casualness back out of my everyday use too :)
so last you heard, grace and i were on our way to belfast... well... that didn't happen. we were aiming for the 9:35a train, and when that didn't happen because of missed busses and late trams, we opted for the next train, which we thought was at 11:35a. made sense... first train at 7:35, next at 9:35a... logically, it would be at 11:35a, right? so we found a coffeeshop to warm up in and waste time, and as we confidently walked across the street to get our tickets, the ticketseller let us know that the next train was at 1:10p... what??! turns out, our target train was at 11, not 11:35. so, so much for belfast. we spent the day running around in the rain (not on purpose :( it just never cleared!), having our picnic lunch in the trinity college student union, and spending the evening making oatmeal cookies, hot whiskeys, and watching sex & the city. not a bad way to spend the evening at all :)
current mood: timetables! schmimetables!

and that's how i got pneumonia...
remember what i was saying last time about the rain? i take it back. i take it ALL back. i walked around dublin on monday after writing that, and was subjected to downpour after downpour. my poor little umbrella was barely defense, but even worse, my shoes were soaked almost instantly. to make matters worse, i was totally lost looking for the jameson distillery, which should have been on the corner where there was this huge glass hi-rise. not exactly a mark of history and/or whiskey there.
i met up with grace at our designated spot and time, and she too was soaked. but she had the wherewithal to go shopping for new shoes, so she invited me over to search for some $20 shoes too. the result? some pretty rockin' blue boots i am now the proud owner of. we went to see a movie and allow ourselves to dry out a little before we donned the new shoes. sad to say, the old ones went in the trash since they were beyond the point of return and were falling apart. why am i constantly leaving shoes behind in foreign countries??
yesterday i ventured solo on the train out to the west of ireland to a little sea-side town called galway. it was THE place everyone told me to go, and yeah, i get it. but i was admittedly a little grumpy as the sun was shining bright as day, and it was, again, pouring rain. at least if you're going to dump on me, match it with some gray skies and don't be so schizo about it. i wandered in and out of shops (avoiding the rain), and made my way back to dublin on some crazy train scheduling (posted was a 5:20 and a 7:10p... i decided to take the earlier one back since i'd had enough of the weather, so i got to the station around 5:10p. turns out the train decided not to leave until 6:05p, and it was a good 3-hour ride). by the time i got back, i had been traveling more than not that day (5 hours to get back? trains, trams, and buses, oh my).
today, i am accompanied by grace up to the north to belfast. technically, we've already missed our train, so we decided to duck in to check our email; we've got a few hours to kill until the next train. we got a late start, plus the bus wouldn't let us off anywhere near where we wanted to be. oh well, hopefully getting home won't be too bad. today and tomorrow, we have a big list of To Do's to accomplish, including getting in to my tummy some authentic shepherd's pie, irish stew and soda bread, plus buying some very specific items including a special postcard (wink), and maybe (just maybe!) finding that damn jameson distillery
current mood: praying for good health