Oh my God. I am absolutely thrilled. I am not a religious person but I just feel like I should thank God because for the first time in about 8 years I feel like I can be proud of my country, and I am proud to be an American.
There are people out there who feel like they've woken to a scary new world and to this I say why? Why? Does the current administration not scare the absolute bejesus out of you? From the collapsing economy to the global imperialism, the lying and deceit that has been the hallmark of the Bush administration, the loss of our rights because of so-called Patriot Act - none of this scares you? Instead you are scared because a *GASP* black man will be taking office? That's what scares you? Never mind that he's capable, intelligent, has an illustrious education, has commercial success as well as private success, including a happy marriage and beautiful children...he's somehow terrifying because...? Well, I just don't get that attitude at all.
I am ecstatic. I feel such positive energy and hope for our future. I am proud to say I voted for Barack Obama and that my voice was heard amidst the clamor of this election year. Congratulations to Barack Obama, future President of the United States of America.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Happy Halloween!
Guess what I bought yesterday as an early birthday present to myself?
Isn't it pretty? I think I caught my boyfriend petting it a few times. (LG 37 inch HDTV, 1080p) Eventually I'll be hanging it on my wall. We attempted to do it last night, but it's actually a bit more complicated then I thought. I mean, I'm a girl with a powerdrill. I was sure it would be something I could handle but I read the directions and installation requires a level and a ratchet (wratchet?) which are tools that I don't have (yet). And it came with so many different screws and bolts that I just couldn't deal with it so instead we put it on the mount and (gently) placed it on my IKEA table that doesn't match anything.
And anyway, being that it's Halloween, my vacation, AND my birthday weekend, I look like this:
Isn't it pretty? I think I caught my boyfriend petting it a few times. (LG 37 inch HDTV, 1080p) Eventually I'll be hanging it on my wall. We attempted to do it last night, but it's actually a bit more complicated then I thought. I mean, I'm a girl with a powerdrill. I was sure it would be something I could handle but I read the directions and installation requires a level and a ratchet (wratchet?) which are tools that I don't have (yet). And it came with so many different screws and bolts that I just couldn't deal with it so instead we put it on the mount and (gently) placed it on my IKEA table that doesn't match anything.
And anyway, being that it's Halloween, my vacation, AND my birthday weekend, I look like this:
My boyfriend took this *almost* stealth shot of me, but I caught the movement out of the corner of my eye. This must be the look that I give people when I'm pissed. No wonder people are often scared of me! Notice how he was kind enough to get the toilet paper that I've been using as tissues to blow my nose in the frame? Yeah, I'm one hot sick mama.
I'm kind of excited about tonight though. I'm having my parents over for dinner and my mom is going to help with all the trick or treaters - this will be my first real Halloween in my new house (which is almost one year old!).
Anyway, I'm kind of stressing about what to make for dinner and I'm contemplating a run to Heinen's for some pre-made yumminess that I can just throw into the oven to heat up. My dad loves pasta. Chris offered to make his excellent version of Alice Springs Chicken...I'm torn. I don't know what to do. I'm not the world's best entertainer.
In keeping with my new tv, I had to call my cable company (actually its AT&T Uverse and I've honestly been reasonably pleased with the service) to get the Hi-Def stations. It's an upgrade. I also got HBO too. It's time to stop living like a barbarian!
Anyway, hope everyone has a safe and happy Halloween!
Sunday, October 26, 2008
The Theme of Today's Post is "Offensive"
I'm not the only person getting tired of the presidential election campaigning, but my experience has an extra dash of spicy irritation. Namely, the Scots.
Scottish people are avidly following this election, as I imagine are citizens of many other nations. Interestingly, I don't give a toss about elections for Parliament in England or other parts of the UK (probably because it has zero effect on my life).
However, when I meet the locals, the first question they ask me after they've ascertained I'm not Australian (?) is who I'm voting for in the upcoming election. They're completely fascinated. They seem to uniformly believe that Americans are stupid because of George Bush. I keep having to remind them that 50% (or more) of us did NOT vote for Bush. More distressing still is the seeming widely held belief that the US government was actually responsible for 9/11 and that our government somehow orchestrated the whole thing, just as we apparently deliberately orchestrated the whole banking industry meltdown so that we could purposely take down the rest of the world in a global recession.
I hope that I'm just meeting local freaks and not people who are voicing the common opinion. Either way, it's pretty offensive, at least the 9/11 part. I really hate talking to conspiracy theorist freaks. They are SO SURE of themselves. They speak like they truly know all the facts. It's like when my brother Matt says "Trust me!" and I immediately don't.
My question is, when did America turn off our beacon in the night?
Which brings me to a conversation that I had with a pilot I was flying with recently. We were in Scotland and had just been accosted by a local who wanted to know (of course) who we were voting for. El Capitan said that he sort of liked Obama but that the rest of his party scared the sh*t out of him. I rolled my eyes so hard that I got a little dizzy and immediately felt compelled to tell him that HIS party scared the crap out of me. Then he decided to tell us all how he felt about the media:
"I went to engineering school. Now, my friends who weren't so good with numbers and couldn't handle all the math, they decided to go get an MBA. Now, those guys that still couldn't handle all that math, you know what they decided to do?? They decided to go Journalism school! They became journalists! I think journalists have ZERO intelligence! They are SO DUMB! They write the exact opposite of things I have truly experienced!"
Well, maybe. But honestly, I found this beyond the pale, for about a million reasons, but mostly because I majored in journalism for a semester or two, I have a brother who IS a member of the so-called 'dumb' media and probably went to a better university than El Capitan, and further, I (mostly) believe what our left-leaning media says (with a few healthy pinches of salt thrown in rather than the requisite grain).
So, I'm sick of feeling offended and would like for people to stop being so up-front with their yahoo opinions. Frankly, just shut up. You all sound like idiots.
Scottish people are avidly following this election, as I imagine are citizens of many other nations. Interestingly, I don't give a toss about elections for Parliament in England or other parts of the UK (probably because it has zero effect on my life).
However, when I meet the locals, the first question they ask me after they've ascertained I'm not Australian (?) is who I'm voting for in the upcoming election. They're completely fascinated. They seem to uniformly believe that Americans are stupid because of George Bush. I keep having to remind them that 50% (or more) of us did NOT vote for Bush. More distressing still is the seeming widely held belief that the US government was actually responsible for 9/11 and that our government somehow orchestrated the whole thing, just as we apparently deliberately orchestrated the whole banking industry meltdown so that we could purposely take down the rest of the world in a global recession.
I hope that I'm just meeting local freaks and not people who are voicing the common opinion. Either way, it's pretty offensive, at least the 9/11 part. I really hate talking to conspiracy theorist freaks. They are SO SURE of themselves. They speak like they truly know all the facts. It's like when my brother Matt says "Trust me!" and I immediately don't.
My question is, when did America turn off our beacon in the night?
Which brings me to a conversation that I had with a pilot I was flying with recently. We were in Scotland and had just been accosted by a local who wanted to know (of course) who we were voting for. El Capitan said that he sort of liked Obama but that the rest of his party scared the sh*t out of him. I rolled my eyes so hard that I got a little dizzy and immediately felt compelled to tell him that HIS party scared the crap out of me. Then he decided to tell us all how he felt about the media:
"I went to engineering school. Now, my friends who weren't so good with numbers and couldn't handle all the math, they decided to go get an MBA. Now, those guys that still couldn't handle all that math, you know what they decided to do?? They decided to go Journalism school! They became journalists! I think journalists have ZERO intelligence! They are SO DUMB! They write the exact opposite of things I have truly experienced!"
Well, maybe. But honestly, I found this beyond the pale, for about a million reasons, but mostly because I majored in journalism for a semester or two, I have a brother who IS a member of the so-called 'dumb' media and probably went to a better university than El Capitan, and further, I (mostly) believe what our left-leaning media says (with a few healthy pinches of salt thrown in rather than the requisite grain).
So, I'm sick of feeling offended and would like for people to stop being so up-front with their yahoo opinions. Frankly, just shut up. You all sound like idiots.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
I'm in the middle of reading a book right now called "The Year of Living Biblically" by AJ Jacobs. Now, I know my brother might read this (hi Jeff!) and I'm wondering if I should have underlined the title of the book instead of put quotes around it. I can't remember, and honestly, I don't really care that much but it's something my brother would know, as he's a real writer for the AP Wire.
Anyway, "The Year of Living Biblically" is about a guy who decides that he's going to try to live according to the rules of the Bible, you guessed it, for one year. And he doesn't mean just the Ten Commandments, he means the obscure rules, too, like the one that prohibits wearing clothes with mixed cloth like wool and linen. Or the other one that says your clothing has to be adorned with fringe.
Jacobs starts out as an agnostic who is uncomfortable with religion but as the book progresses he starts to feel a little bit more spiritual and more at home with praying. The Bible says that men should not cut their facial hair, so he grows a giant, unkempt beard. One of the Ten Commandments prohibits lying, so he's almost painfully truthful. For instance, there is a memorable scene where he and his wife are out to dinner and an old friend she hasn't seen in a long time runs into them. The friend tries to arrange a playdate but Jacobs tells her he'd rather not because he just doesn't have the time. His wife is pretty furious.
Oh, I forgot to mention he has a wife and son. The Bible also says to be fruitful and multiply and the couple happily comply as they are trying to expand their family. Unfortunately, they are running into a little bit of difficulty and decide to try in vitro fertilization.
Now, the whole time I'm reading this book, I'm heartily amused. An agnostic myself, I do find some of the rules in the Bible (there are, according to Jacobs, over 700) sort of ridiculous. Like the fringe wearing, or the facial hair. I also think that if I was married to an obsessive compulsive freak like Jacobs, I'd get a quickie divorce so fast Britany Spears would be jealous. My boyfriend grew a goatee and after two days, I was like, dude, please shave!
Furthering the insanity, Jacobs at one point decides to build a hut in his living room to help him celebrate Sukkoth, which is a Jewish holiday that focusses on remembering the hardships the people of Israel suffered as slaves in Egypt. I understand the purpose of this holiday but I gotta say I'd be pretty annoyed if my husband decided to build and live in a hut in the living room for a week.
Which brings me back to he and his wife's difficulty getting pregnant. I gotta say, Jacobs gets pretty obnoxious with all the rule following. He decides that he's not allowed to sit anywhere a woman has sat because if she's menstruating she's technically unclean. If he were to sit in the same seat a menstruating woman had sat in, he would take on her impurity. So to solve this problem he begins to carry around something called a Handy Seat which is like a cane that can be transformed into a three-legged stool. He gets a Handy Seat after his wife gets annoyed with him and sits in every seat in the house while he's out. He takes the Handy Seat everywhere.
My point is, no wonder they can't get pregnant! Who'd want to be with someone so obnoxious?? And it's not like Jacobs really is religious - this is all an experiment so he can write a book. Previously, he wrote a book called "Know-it-All" about himself reading the Encylopedia Britannica. I can't help thinking what an insufferable bore this man must be in real life. I hope he spends the next year making it up to his wife. In fact, that should be his next book - "My Year of Making it Up to My Wife for Being Such a Selfish Ass."
But anyway, the book is actually quite amusing and really interesting. Not only does it explore the eccentric parts of the Bible, Jacobs assembles a board of religious advisers from many different backgrounds, retired Christian pastors, Jewish rabbis from ultra-Orthodox to fairly progressive, as well as other scholars who help explain to him why such strange rules exist in the Bible. And, very occasionally, there aren't any answers or explanations.
I guess it really is what it is, right?
Anyway, "The Year of Living Biblically" is about a guy who decides that he's going to try to live according to the rules of the Bible, you guessed it, for one year. And he doesn't mean just the Ten Commandments, he means the obscure rules, too, like the one that prohibits wearing clothes with mixed cloth like wool and linen. Or the other one that says your clothing has to be adorned with fringe.
Jacobs starts out as an agnostic who is uncomfortable with religion but as the book progresses he starts to feel a little bit more spiritual and more at home with praying. The Bible says that men should not cut their facial hair, so he grows a giant, unkempt beard. One of the Ten Commandments prohibits lying, so he's almost painfully truthful. For instance, there is a memorable scene where he and his wife are out to dinner and an old friend she hasn't seen in a long time runs into them. The friend tries to arrange a playdate but Jacobs tells her he'd rather not because he just doesn't have the time. His wife is pretty furious.
Oh, I forgot to mention he has a wife and son. The Bible also says to be fruitful and multiply and the couple happily comply as they are trying to expand their family. Unfortunately, they are running into a little bit of difficulty and decide to try in vitro fertilization.
Now, the whole time I'm reading this book, I'm heartily amused. An agnostic myself, I do find some of the rules in the Bible (there are, according to Jacobs, over 700) sort of ridiculous. Like the fringe wearing, or the facial hair. I also think that if I was married to an obsessive compulsive freak like Jacobs, I'd get a quickie divorce so fast Britany Spears would be jealous. My boyfriend grew a goatee and after two days, I was like, dude, please shave!
Furthering the insanity, Jacobs at one point decides to build a hut in his living room to help him celebrate Sukkoth, which is a Jewish holiday that focusses on remembering the hardships the people of Israel suffered as slaves in Egypt. I understand the purpose of this holiday but I gotta say I'd be pretty annoyed if my husband decided to build and live in a hut in the living room for a week.
Which brings me back to he and his wife's difficulty getting pregnant. I gotta say, Jacobs gets pretty obnoxious with all the rule following. He decides that he's not allowed to sit anywhere a woman has sat because if she's menstruating she's technically unclean. If he were to sit in the same seat a menstruating woman had sat in, he would take on her impurity. So to solve this problem he begins to carry around something called a Handy Seat which is like a cane that can be transformed into a three-legged stool. He gets a Handy Seat after his wife gets annoyed with him and sits in every seat in the house while he's out. He takes the Handy Seat everywhere.
My point is, no wonder they can't get pregnant! Who'd want to be with someone so obnoxious?? And it's not like Jacobs really is religious - this is all an experiment so he can write a book. Previously, he wrote a book called "Know-it-All" about himself reading the Encylopedia Britannica. I can't help thinking what an insufferable bore this man must be in real life. I hope he spends the next year making it up to his wife. In fact, that should be his next book - "My Year of Making it Up to My Wife for Being Such a Selfish Ass."
But anyway, the book is actually quite amusing and really interesting. Not only does it explore the eccentric parts of the Bible, Jacobs assembles a board of religious advisers from many different backgrounds, retired Christian pastors, Jewish rabbis from ultra-Orthodox to fairly progressive, as well as other scholars who help explain to him why such strange rules exist in the Bible. And, very occasionally, there aren't any answers or explanations.
I guess it really is what it is, right?
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
NO COFFEE FOR YOU
Those of you who know me know that I'm quite protective of my coffee. It's my very own ambrosia, that without which I cannot start my day. I have been known to yell at people who accidentally (?) put their trash in my coffee - SERIOUSLY HOW DOES ONE DO THIS? I still don't understand.
Denizens of the UK have an occasionally poor understanding of customer service. I woke up late yesterday and wandered over to Starbucks on The Royal Mile in EDI for my daily infusion. When I walked back to my hotel, I noticed some friends sitting in the bar. Coffee in hand, I walked over to say hi and promptly sat down at the bar to join the conversation.
Unfortunately, the mid-20's bartender took issues with my cup of coffee. "You can't drink that in here," she said.
"What? Why not?" I ask.
"You can't drink that in here, you have to go over there."
"What if I buy something?" My brows are furrowed in puzzlement.
"You still can't drink it in here." She's insistent.
"You've gotta be kidding me."
Finally she loses her temper. "It's not MY rule," she fumes.
Embarassed, I put on my coat and leave. I'm outraged. I'm not about to throw away my coffee, that I paid one pound seventy pence for just for the so-called privilege of sitting in your crappy bar. (That's over $3 in American money - yes, for a cup of coffee. I'm talking a simple cup of coffee, not a frou frou frappe, latte, or cappucino, just a simple cup of joe.)
I don't understand this rule. It just seems so weird to me - you can't drink coffee from another store in this establishment. Do you want my business at all? If you had let me sit there and drink my coffee the likelihood that I would buy a drink probably would have gone up, thereby making money for your establishment. I mean, what kind of ridiculous rule is this to enforce? There are rules that you kind of let people bend - like when we tell people it's time to turn off their electronic devices, we give them a few minutes to finish their conversations on their cellphones or pretend to not notice that they are still fiddling with their Blackberries. (Frankly it's hard to care that much about these rules - we've told you a bazillion times to turn it off, we've explained the reasoning but I'm not the freaking police and I can't arrest you if you break these rules) Seriously, if it had been me working the bar, I would have just ignored the coffee cup and if questioned about it later, I'd deny that I saw anything. HELLO.
Denizens of the UK have an occasionally poor understanding of customer service. I woke up late yesterday and wandered over to Starbucks on The Royal Mile in EDI for my daily infusion. When I walked back to my hotel, I noticed some friends sitting in the bar. Coffee in hand, I walked over to say hi and promptly sat down at the bar to join the conversation.
Unfortunately, the mid-20's bartender took issues with my cup of coffee. "You can't drink that in here," she said.
"What? Why not?" I ask.
"You can't drink that in here, you have to go over there."
"What if I buy something?" My brows are furrowed in puzzlement.
"You still can't drink it in here." She's insistent.
"You've gotta be kidding me."
Finally she loses her temper. "It's not MY rule," she fumes.
Embarassed, I put on my coat and leave. I'm outraged. I'm not about to throw away my coffee, that I paid one pound seventy pence for just for the so-called privilege of sitting in your crappy bar. (That's over $3 in American money - yes, for a cup of coffee. I'm talking a simple cup of coffee, not a frou frou frappe, latte, or cappucino, just a simple cup of joe.)
I don't understand this rule. It just seems so weird to me - you can't drink coffee from another store in this establishment. Do you want my business at all? If you had let me sit there and drink my coffee the likelihood that I would buy a drink probably would have gone up, thereby making money for your establishment. I mean, what kind of ridiculous rule is this to enforce? There are rules that you kind of let people bend - like when we tell people it's time to turn off their electronic devices, we give them a few minutes to finish their conversations on their cellphones or pretend to not notice that they are still fiddling with their Blackberries. (Frankly it's hard to care that much about these rules - we've told you a bazillion times to turn it off, we've explained the reasoning but I'm not the freaking police and I can't arrest you if you break these rules) Seriously, if it had been me working the bar, I would have just ignored the coffee cup and if questioned about it later, I'd deny that I saw anything. HELLO.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
I Climbed a Mountain (Sort Of)
Finally, finally I climbed Arthur's Seat this past time in Edinburgh. I'm quite proud of myself. I'm no athlete. I'm occasionally a gymrat but I'm currently in a slump so I'm not in the best shape. However, I was still able to climb on up.
I started out slowly, but quickly felt more confident and picked up some speed. Of course, then the ground started to get a bit steeper. I tried to keep the pace but I swear it felt like my heart was gonna pop out of my chest and I had to slow down. Occasionally I would stop and take some pictures.
At the top, I ran into some other Americans who were taking pictures. I asked if they'd take mine (because you need proof that you did these things!) so we all played musical cameras. It was windy and beautiful, with late afternoon sunshine flooding over us. I looked over at the next mountain, could barely make people out who had walked up to the top and thought to myself, next time.
The walk down, while less arduous physically, certainly was fraught with it's own dangers. I took mincing baby steps down due to the steepness of the path, afraid to go faster because I knew I'd pitch forward and fall flat on my face. Meanwhile, athletic runners passed me going up and I marvelled at their conditioning. Would that EVER be me? I doubt it.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Football Americain
Last night my family went to the Browns - Giants game. Now, we are from New York and my father has been a lifelong Giants fan. He and my brother showed up to the stadium in their Giants regalia - my dad wore an old Shockey jersey and Jeff was a little more muted with a light gray and blue sweatshirt that a little more subtly indicated his allegiance. Honestly, I was a little worried about how my father would be recieved by 80,000 drunk Browns fans, because they can be a bit scary at times. I've seen Browns fans pick fights with Steelers fans just for wearing Pittsburgh jerseys.
My dad, thankfully, is a pretty good natured and affable guy. Takes an awful lot to set him off. Plus he's a big dude and while he's in his 50's, I can't imagine anyone would want to really mess with him. He got a few comments but I think that most people were expecting such a blowout that no one really gave him a hard time. In fact, most fans woud make a comment and then sidle up to him to whisper in his ear what he thought the point spread was going to be. Winslow was in the hospital, Jurevicius is physically unable to perform (what does THAT mean?)...everyone expected to lose.
So when Cleveland scored that first field goal, we were kind of astonished. And that was just the beginning. The Browns actually smoked the Giants. SMOKED THEM. It was genuinely amazing. People were cheering and jumping for joy. Perfect strangers were high-fiving eachother, drunks were barking (nothing unusual here), and for once Cleveland had something to celebrate.
My dad, thankfully, is a pretty good natured and affable guy. Takes an awful lot to set him off. Plus he's a big dude and while he's in his 50's, I can't imagine anyone would want to really mess with him. He got a few comments but I think that most people were expecting such a blowout that no one really gave him a hard time. In fact, most fans woud make a comment and then sidle up to him to whisper in his ear what he thought the point spread was going to be. Winslow was in the hospital, Jurevicius is physically unable to perform (what does THAT mean?)...everyone expected to lose.
So when Cleveland scored that first field goal, we were kind of astonished. And that was just the beginning. The Browns actually smoked the Giants. SMOKED THEM. It was genuinely amazing. People were cheering and jumping for joy. Perfect strangers were high-fiving eachother, drunks were barking (nothing unusual here), and for once Cleveland had something to celebrate.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Want vs. Need
After a summer of denying myself, I've been on a spending spree. In this economic downturn, it's probably not the best idea, but I WANT THINGS. For instance, I've been shopping for a flatscreen LCD HDTV. There are a lot of things to consider. For instance, brand, price, 720 vs. 1180p. Ideally, I'd like to get something I can finance at 0% interest for 12 months and 0 payments. I like to conserve my cash. I always figure I can roll the whole balance over to a 0% interest credit card or something before the terms are up. I just paid off my washer and dryer.
So yeah, an LCD HDTV. I want 37 inches. And of course, when buying these large ticket items, you can't forget the accoutrements that you'll need, like the wall mounts which can be another $100 or so. And if I don't want to wallmount, I have to get an entertainment center. What I'd like to do is get the tv and then get two leaning bookshelves to put on either side. Then I can get a table to put underneath where I can place the cable box and DVD player.
I also need to put shades up in the other two bedrooms in my house. My boyfriend is going to move in, and he'll be bringing a queen bed and some other furniture, so I'm trying to hold off until I can see what I've got but it's hard. I want everything NOW.
In the meantime I've gotten a second job at a makeup store. Once I slake my makeup and hairproduct thirst (which will hopefully happen soon because I've been going nuts with Paul Mitchell and Smashbox) I hope I can put the extra cash towards stuff for my house. I hate dipping into my savings, especially now, for anything.
I did take $500 out of my savings to keep handy for groceries and gas, just in case the nationalization of the banking system causes some screwups with the electronics, but I honestly don't think it will happen. I'm not worried I'm going to lose my bank savings (unlike my 401k) but I think if there's a momentary blip, at least I can still pay cash for gas and food.
But, oh, the stuff I want. A new pair of heels for work. Straight Works PM hair gel. Exuviance skincare. A haircut. Clothing. Purses from Banana Republic. Furniture. A hairdryer. STUFF. I want it all. Oh, and a puppy. Heh.
I have wants...and the only thing that is preventing me from running out and getting, well, EVERYTHING, is that I don't need most of this stuff. If I were to prioritize, I'd get socks and clothes first And then maybe a haircut. And then MAYBE the bookshelves because they are on sale. And after that...I'll wait until I see a good price. I could even wait until January 1st when stores are trying to get rid of their inventories. I'll have to wait and see, because, truly, I don't need any of this stuff. I just want it real bad.
So yeah, an LCD HDTV. I want 37 inches. And of course, when buying these large ticket items, you can't forget the accoutrements that you'll need, like the wall mounts which can be another $100 or so. And if I don't want to wallmount, I have to get an entertainment center. What I'd like to do is get the tv and then get two leaning bookshelves to put on either side. Then I can get a table to put underneath where I can place the cable box and DVD player.
I also need to put shades up in the other two bedrooms in my house. My boyfriend is going to move in, and he'll be bringing a queen bed and some other furniture, so I'm trying to hold off until I can see what I've got but it's hard. I want everything NOW.
In the meantime I've gotten a second job at a makeup store. Once I slake my makeup and hairproduct thirst (which will hopefully happen soon because I've been going nuts with Paul Mitchell and Smashbox) I hope I can put the extra cash towards stuff for my house. I hate dipping into my savings, especially now, for anything.
I did take $500 out of my savings to keep handy for groceries and gas, just in case the nationalization of the banking system causes some screwups with the electronics, but I honestly don't think it will happen. I'm not worried I'm going to lose my bank savings (unlike my 401k) but I think if there's a momentary blip, at least I can still pay cash for gas and food.
But, oh, the stuff I want. A new pair of heels for work. Straight Works PM hair gel. Exuviance skincare. A haircut. Clothing. Purses from Banana Republic. Furniture. A hairdryer. STUFF. I want it all. Oh, and a puppy. Heh.
I have wants...and the only thing that is preventing me from running out and getting, well, EVERYTHING, is that I don't need most of this stuff. If I were to prioritize, I'd get socks and clothes first And then maybe a haircut. And then MAYBE the bookshelves because they are on sale. And after that...I'll wait until I see a good price. I could even wait until January 1st when stores are trying to get rid of their inventories. I'll have to wait and see, because, truly, I don't need any of this stuff. I just want it real bad.
Room Confusion
Lately, I've been staying at the same hotel. I've been there five times in September and twice already in October. I keep getting the same room or a room thats down the same corridor. I immediately take a left after I get out of the elevator and then I hook an immediate right. My room is the first room on the right. It's automatic now.
The last time I stayed at this hotel, I was given a different room on a different floor, but I still thought that I was in the old room. I'd get off the elevator, hook a left and then a right, put my key into the cardreader and stare befuddled when the little light on the door lock flashed red instead of the usual green. I'd run my card through the cardreader a couple more times, irritation and confusion radiating from me, and then I had the 'a-ha!' moment. Oh, riiiight, this is not my room! Sheepishly, I'd go back the way I came and go to the right room.
It's important to me to develop a routine. I love to see new cities but I know I'm missing cool sight-seeing opportunities. For instance, when I'm in Vegas, I like to get up, run over to Starbuck's for some java, then on over to Terrible Mike's for breakfast (dude, you cannot beat $4.30 breakfasts - scrambled eggs, ham, hashbrowns, and toast). In Paris, I liked to walk over to Starbucks and then meander slowly back to the hotel. I also didn't mind walking over to the Jardins de Tuileries (well, I didn't really walk over there - I took the Metro because it's a bit of a haul). There is a huge fountain that people gather around, dragging over a lawn chair and reading or talking. It's a spectacular garden. I have similar routines in Seattle and San Francisco.
Mostly, my routines revolve around the obtaining of some coffee. In San Fran, there is a cafe about five blocks from the hotel that has excellent takeaway food. And the walk is always incredibly refreshing - the air is often cool and humid, usually there is a brisk wind blowing down those steep, skyscraped hills.
I kind of miss flying domestically, honestly. I love Edinburgh, it's truly a lovely city, and honestly I haven't hit Amsterdam yet, Brussels, Geneva or any Italian city. But there's nothing like San Fran, or Vegas, or Seattle, or San Diego. And it's so much easier to keep in touch with my family. I don't feel jetlagged. So, yes, so far I prefer American cities. And American coffee.
The last time I stayed at this hotel, I was given a different room on a different floor, but I still thought that I was in the old room. I'd get off the elevator, hook a left and then a right, put my key into the cardreader and stare befuddled when the little light on the door lock flashed red instead of the usual green. I'd run my card through the cardreader a couple more times, irritation and confusion radiating from me, and then I had the 'a-ha!' moment. Oh, riiiight, this is not my room! Sheepishly, I'd go back the way I came and go to the right room.
It's important to me to develop a routine. I love to see new cities but I know I'm missing cool sight-seeing opportunities. For instance, when I'm in Vegas, I like to get up, run over to Starbuck's for some java, then on over to Terrible Mike's for breakfast (dude, you cannot beat $4.30 breakfasts - scrambled eggs, ham, hashbrowns, and toast). In Paris, I liked to walk over to Starbucks and then meander slowly back to the hotel. I also didn't mind walking over to the Jardins de Tuileries (well, I didn't really walk over there - I took the Metro because it's a bit of a haul). There is a huge fountain that people gather around, dragging over a lawn chair and reading or talking. It's a spectacular garden. I have similar routines in Seattle and San Francisco.
Mostly, my routines revolve around the obtaining of some coffee. In San Fran, there is a cafe about five blocks from the hotel that has excellent takeaway food. And the walk is always incredibly refreshing - the air is often cool and humid, usually there is a brisk wind blowing down those steep, skyscraped hills.
I kind of miss flying domestically, honestly. I love Edinburgh, it's truly a lovely city, and honestly I haven't hit Amsterdam yet, Brussels, Geneva or any Italian city. But there's nothing like San Fran, or Vegas, or Seattle, or San Diego. And it's so much easier to keep in touch with my family. I don't feel jetlagged. So, yes, so far I prefer American cities. And American coffee.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
