S.F. Day 3

"WILL THIS BLOODY FUCKING WIND EVER STOP?!" She asks.

OMG WIIIIIND!  Dam you, wind. I hate you so so so so so much! It SHOULD be a gorgeous day here in San Fran. 53 degrees, sunny, springy, plants are blooming, pigeons cooing and cold-as-shit wind. Worse by the bay (obviously) and awful on the 2 1/2 hour open side cable car tour we took. My face feels burned and not from too much sun. Ok, rant done.

Breakfast: Sears Fine Food
Eggs Benedict w/ hashbrowns.

Waited for 20 minutes or so (in the wind) and then longer inside. Dunno if it was worth the wait but it was pretty darn tasty.

Lunch was another bowl of clam chowder in a bread bowl. I LIT-RALLY can't get enough clam chowdah. I could eat it every day in a SF bread bowl. OMNOMNOM.

Next we went (more) shopping at this indoor designer mall. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we're girls...What do you expect? One store called "Next" was really funky, high end spendy (not designer spendy - the level just below). Got a couple things on good sale though including these sick pants with, I shit you not, swarovski crystals all down the legs. Man, they are sexy!

Dinner: Sushi Boat
Sushi floated around a moat on little boats and you just grabbed the ones you wanted. B/c of this I have no idea what I ate. But I like the thrill, the excitement, the mystery and the risk of food poisoning! Livin' on the edge, bitch! LOL. Except I know I had Flying Fish Roe (and really tasty green tea!)

San Fran Day 2

Breakfast: Lefty O'Doules
Corn Beef Hash - corned beef, potatoes (hash), green peppers, onions
Two eggs
Toast
OMFG TASTY!

Then, and oh holy crap no shit there we were...we shopped at Macy's for like...three-four hours!! And hey, they have cooler stuff than Boulder's Macy's. And it was cheaper than some of the other stores around here: Saks Fifth Avenue, Barney's, Bloomingdales, Zara...

At one point we saw this homeless guy w/ a rottweiler laying down and on him was laying a TABBY cat and on the cat there was a WHITE rat!! A rat on a cat on a dog, what's up wit that? Go transient. Any animal lover is a friend of mine =) (As long as you're not PETA).

Lunch: Boudin's Bakery
Clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl. again....
OMFG TASTY!

We sat in the sun for a while to digest and had a drink at the Westin Hotel where Mom and Dad stayed last time. I had a drink w/ gin, lime juice, cucumber, ginger ale. Mom always just has scotch. haha
Then we took a clanky cable car to Fisherman's Wharf which was still cold and windy. blech. But the wharf was cool, all oceany and fish-smelly.  I got a cool Greek Fisherman's hat. It is going to be awesome for steampunk.  =D

Then we HAD to have a drink at the Hard Rock. They are actually really exciting. Mom nerded out about George Harrison's guitar and Shakira's pants. And I finally got the Bloody Mary that I'd been craving all day.

Dinner:
3lb crab (for both mom and me)
Crab chowder...need I say this again..
OMFG TASTY
Out waiter was named Vito and he was pretty fun. I asked him how "killer" are their Killer Dungeness Crabs and he said: "So killer there were 30 homicides last year alone because of them." Heehee. He said to us at the end of dinner that we were very fun. hooray! We're fun!

And no, I'm not going to say how much money I spent today. Let's just say that I finished my M.A. COMPS and I'm on vacation, dammit.

San Francisco Day 1

Arrived 6:00pm

Staying at Hotel Frank - apparently a "personality hotel". Design is all black and white with houndstooth print carpet and houndstooth print on the robe cuffs and collar. You can buy the robes, they're pretty comfy. I wonder how much they are...?

Had dinner at this place called Annabell's Bistro. Mom and I shared a dinner we got:
Teiro Zinfandel, Napa Valley '05
Crab cakes with Remoulade Sauce, Arugula and Radishes
Pappardelle pasta del Mare with shrimp, squid, clams, muscles and tilapia
-Mustard cream sauce: coarse-grained mustard, cream, garlic and...?
It was pretty awesome, I need to remember this place. :-)

Went to Macy's. Tried on a pair of $500 boots. Too small (thank god LOL).  But MAN did I feel all swanky!  All I needed was a fox-fur collar and a gin martini. =) All the shoes here are really high...how can there be such a market for ankle-breaking designer shoes in this city? Maybe I should move here, buy ankle supports, and be one of those fancy city ladies. Woo!

Thing About People That Drive Me Nuts!

- People who are so full of hate that they have to plaster their hate over everything they touch.
- Drug Addicts, or for that matter, anyone who follows drug culture so seriously.
- Gamer geeks who are so, to the point that they make an entire blog about their WoW Character.
- People who drink hot coffee in the summer. I mean..ICK!
- Smokers who sit next to me after having just had a cigarette.
- New mothers who not only want to tell you about their kids and send like a bazillion pictures every day, but want to tell you how their pregnancy went, how many catheters they had, how many times little Jimmy went potty and all the other TMI details.
- People not responding to IMs in the middle of a conversation.
- Know-it-alls and braggarts and arrogant fuck-heads.
- Apathy, just in general.
I'm sure there's more, but I'll leave you with this list.

What kind of writer

I don't really know what kind of writer I am.

I wouldn't say that I write poetry. I've always viewed poetry as silly and frivolous; only fit for those with no true talent. It's just the inane ramblings of those who are young and desperate for attention - or just desperate for attention.*

I wouldn't say that I write novels, because my ideas are varied and can change quickly - cycling through like songs on a jukebox. I don't have the doggedness required to plow through the slow spots. I want ACTION! I want COMEDY! I want DRAMA! While I have written two things that may be considered novels (or possibly only novellas), I don't know if I have the stamina to keep up that trend.

I wouldn't say that I write short stories, for I never know how to end or how much content to put in. I don't know how to be succinct without sounding terse and soulless. And even though my ideas cycle through quickly, I couldn't even say that they stick around long enough to carry a plot from beginning to end - no matter how long it is. I can be eloquent however, but that would take pages, thus defeating the idea of "short".

Therefore, I have concluded that I am the writer that writes excerpts, blurbs, passages; bits that say nothing in too many words; stuff that no one really wants to read anyway. I would say that my writing is more like a painting - art with words. I put words together based on their sound and they syllabicity and blend them into a landscape of color. I put my thoughts on paper as they come to me - instantaneous and abrupt. I am able to switch topics on a dime with a small transition. And I never know how to end things. So here I go....


*An addendum to my views on poetry: I know good poets exist. Reading their work makes one tingle and yearn, pine and rejoice. Your heart throbs with the rhythm and your eyes see stars. However, 99% of all poetry in the world is not this. It's crap, full of angst and forced rhyme. I agree that I too, have been a victim to this which is why I don't claim to be a poet. If, however, I should find out one day that my poetry is worthwhile, then I will have to rethink this definition.

Two MANDATORY things one needs to be a good blogger.

1). GOOD GRAMMAR: I can't stress how important this is. If you want people to keep coming back to your blogs, make sure you spell correctly and use proper punctuation. Abbreviations or slang words are OK as long as it's obvious that you *meant* to do that (like dunno, gonna etc. or IMO, LOL, OMG). But spelling "it is" like "its", leaving out apostrophes in possessives (Daves cat) and adding apostrophes in plurals (plural's) makes you sound like an idiot or a child (and you can't have a blog if you're under 13!).

Paragraph breaks are another important aspect of your blog. It's easier on the eyes and doesn't overwhelm your reader with and insanely long chunk of text. Also, proper capitalization make the blog just that much more pleasant to read if it is done on a mostly consistent basis.

2). SOMETHING INTERESTING TO TALK ABOUT: No, talking about what you did yesterday like going to Pizza Hut, shopping at Super Target and then catching a movie is NOT interesting. Maybe you should talk about the movie, why you liked it, why you hated it, whether or not your friends should see it etc. etc. Or, reveal a funny story that happened to you when you were playing with your cat. Or give your opinion on the state of the world. Just say ANYTHING but:
at 12:00 we had lunch at China Buffet.
at 12:45 we left for the mall.
we got to the mall at 1:30 and putzed around until our movie started at 2:00.
=BORING!!
Lastly, don't talk about your periods, your indigestion, or how sick like a dog you were last night and how many times you threw up/had diarrhea . And if you *must* relay that information. Be brief or be really funny. I mean for serious...NO ONE WANTS TO KNOW.

And let me tell you, you can't have one of these things w/o the other. BOTH are important to make a blog good and make your readers come back time and time again.

Spectacular

"And just as one thing in your life starts to go well, something else falls spectacularly to pieces." -Bridget Jones in Bridget Jones's Diary.

So, we all know the spectacular fail in my life. Though, I don't know if I would call it exactly spectacular as it was more of a winding down of an era. A slow painful death of a relationship where I realize now that it's better this way....

However, onto the things going well in my life. June has been a month of extreme changes for me. I got a real full-time job with good pay and benefits and retirement. I got a new apartment that is beautiful and has just enough room for me and my two cats. I'm starting to make new acquaintances and turning some of my acquaintances into friends. And I started getting back into salsa dancing. I wanted to just say how grateful I am for all these changes, even though they are stressful and sometimes overwhelming.

It is good to connect with old friends and to get to know other friends better. IT'S GREAT to have freedom again - to be who I want, when I want and to whomever I want. I'm not looking over my shoulder every second or catching my words wondering if they will be right. I'm not denying a part of myself that I think is not acceptable.

Fuck, acceptable. I'm who I am. While I try to be a good person, and to treat all others kindly I can't deny that sometimes I will make mistakes. And, as with all people, there are some parts of my personality that not everyone agrees with. But that does not make them wrong, that makes them me. So what if I'm loud, gregarious and flirty? I have a lot of personality squeezed into a 5'7'', 120lbs body so it's going to need some kind of outlet. And if someone can't handle my personality, then they can't handle me which means that I shouldn't try to conform to an unrealistic ideal, thus giving up me. (It's funny, Google thinks "shouldn't" is a wrong spelling!)

So what if I'm anal when it comes to personal space, possessions, cleanliness, my cats or language? It's not like I'm hurting anyone by being like that. And besides, some of you might be able to learn a thing or two from me. Yes, I may like things my way but when it all boils down - doesn't everybody?

And that's all I have to say about that! Pbbbttthhhhh!

p.s. Another funny quote from work:
Seth: So my microwave meal didn't tell me to poke a hole in the plastic cover.
Me: And that's bad how...?
Seth: What if it explodes?
Me: Why didn't you just poke a hole in it then?
Seth: Cuz it told me not to.
Me: Well, do you always do what the microwave dinner tells you too?

(Actually Google seems to think all contractions are wrong. Then it decides that they aren't wrong LOL).