Shhhh...

The city is so quiet. Our office is dead. We're closing at 1pm, but man, I'd be surprised if even 20 people are here.

• I'm grouchy this morning because I read somewhere online that the city is quiet because of Shmurning Man. Let's get real here. The city is quiet because its a long weekend...the last one of summer...and everyone is enjoying themselves. It's NOT because of Shmurning Man. Undo credit. Grrr...
• I'm grouchy this morning because of McCain's choice for VP and what a blatant political ploy it was and just another example of his lack of judgement. John Freakin' McCain. Grrr...
• I'm grouchy because all of this overshadowed the monumental, historical, powerful, inspirational speech by Obama last night. Misprioritized headlines. Grrr...
• I'm grouchy because things at work are getting way too political for my "I just want to make people happy at their jobs" attitude. How naive of me to think creative fields are immune. Corporate America. Grrr...
• I'm grouchy because the weather has been pheonomenal this entire week and will suddenly drop 10-15 degrees just in time for the weekend. Bad timing. Grrr...
• I'm grouchy because a guy that I met (we'll call him Mr. Bell because he reminds me in a weird way of my 4th grade teacher), hasn't contacted me to set up a date. And it really seemed like he was into me. Men. Grrr...
• I'm grouchy because Virgin America is now subtracting $75 from the value of your ticket if you decide to cancel. Considering my ticket was only $120, I'm a little irritated at myself for deciding not to go down to SoCal this weekend. Ripoffs. Grrr...

I look back and laugh at all that makes me grouchy this morning. Because at the end of this list, I still know that I'm walking out of the office around noon and have 3 1/2 days of POSSIBILITIES ahead of me! I'm excited for the weekend...I'm off to adventure!

Watching the Democratic National Convention...

...I'm sitting here eating some pizza, drinking a soda, got my feet up, my computer on my lap, watching the DNC.  I missed the Bill Clinton speech.  But, I was so glad to have caught the Biden bit...

• How impressive was Beau Biden?
  
• How adorable is Mama Biden?
  
• How great was Michelle Obama's dress tonight? (man, she really likes turquoise, huh?)
  
• How touching was it when Michelle Obama teared up during both Bidens' speeches?
  
• How fun was it seeing Barack Obama make a surprise appearance? (Hilary "rocked the house"! ha!)
  
• How endearing was it watching the delegates get all giddy when he walked out?
  
• How relieved are we all that both Hilary and Bill Clinton actually seem happy now...and not just "fake" happy?
• How funny-in-an-insider-kind-of-way was it when Obama accidentally called it "Mile High Stadium"? (it's now called Invesco Stadium)
  

Gonna go and watch the repeat of Bill Clinton's speech now.

I'm feeling good about it all...

8.27...of the day...

Word of the day:

aestival - of or belonging to the summer

"Love, warmth, play, lazy...all aestival descriptions of what I plan for my summer in SF to be!"


Fav of the day:

Etsy.com is such a great website. Its all things handmade. And there are some real gems out there. I recently purchased these prints for my work office. I think they're hysterical...especially in the office of the HR Director.

I also have these in my office as well (not from etsy). I love the irony.

For those of you who work at companies with "traditional" HR professionals in very stringent roles, I apologize...and I feel sorry for the HR person! Though the last weeks have been a bear at work and I often times feel exhausted and spent, I do love what I do. To any HR peeps out there, keep it simple. Remember that successful companies are just about good people doing good work. Focus on the people and they will respond by respecting the policies and the processes. Trust me! :)

PS - I received a postcard from MM that he sent from Shmurning Man. Ack. Grrr. Doh. *sigh* Why?

I can't help myself...

I often find myself laughing at other people's pain. It's terrible. I mean, not in a "yay, you're hurting...hahahahaha!" way. But more like..."you put yourself in this position, you nimwit" way. The best example I can give: the show Wipeout. The contestants chose this path for themselves. Thus, I will laugh hysterically when they faceplant into a HUGE red rubber ball. The show always make me laugh OUT LOUD! :)

BTW...I saw these L.A.M.B. shoes (I know, I know...can I be any more obvious about my obsession with L.A.M.B.?) I'd probably never buy them because of their aardvark-esque quality. But, still, I think they are SEXY beyond description. If I saw a woman wearing these, I'd be thinking "dang, girl, you sexy! work it! (snap! snap!)"

This city won't let you down...

Seriously. It's impossible to be bummed out in SF. There's just too much beckoning you to do. I had planned to have a woe-is-me weekend, locked in my apartment, doing chores...like Cinderella or something. ha! But, after a sweet email from Emily and a couple funny pictures from my sister, I decided to stop wallowing and go check out the town. So, of course, I stole some ideas from my favorite SF'er and set out on an adventure. Brace yourselves: I actually left Russian Hill!!!! "YOU GO GIRL!" :)

The top if the hill you see WAAAY over yonder is just about where I started. (my calves STILL hurt this morning from walking those hills!)

Coit Tower is where I rested.

These are the stairs that I climbed down to find the not-so-secret, yet out-of-the-way hiding place of the infamous SF parrots. I almost gave up on finding them, though I heard them all around me. But, I finally captured one on film!

Down some more brutal steps to finally land near the Embarcadero.

I did some shopping at the Farmer's Market and picked up stuff in line with Fall's hot color...purple: dahlia's (well, not quite purple...but close), champagne grapes (I've never had these! They're delish!), and yes, it's true...a PURPLE pepper!

I grabbed a ham and fontina sandwich at Lulu Petite (decided to pass on the cupcake though...sorry Emily! :)) and head off to the movie theater. Caught a matinee of "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2" (wait for it on dvd). Jumped on the bus and went down to Hayes Valley. I love it down there. But sometimes I feel like it's way too cool for me. Ha. (I think I'm just cool enough for Russian Hill, probably too cool for the Mission (hee!), and not quite cool enough for Hayes Valley.) Window shopping that spilled over to Fillmore St in Pac Heights and then FINALLY back home.

Whew! For someone who's barely ever made it out of Russian Hill, I tackled Telegraph Hill, the Embarcadero, Hayes Valley, and Pacific Heights all in a weekend! GO ME! Next adventure: Cole Valley, Alamo Square, and The Castro.

*sigh*...the weekend...

It's been an especially difficult week at work... layoffs, performance issues, disgruntled employees, overworked staff...and I feel beaten. I almost burst into tears a number of times this week. So, normally, I'd be so excited for the weekend. But, with the vacation behind me, no boy to spend time with, and my one and only friend in the city out of town, I'm actually kinda dreading it. My apartment's a mess. I haven't unpacked since I came home from vacay. I haven't done laundry in forever. I haven't gone grocery shopping in who knows how long. I mean, I guess I could try and pump myself up and be excited for a weekend of actually getting stuff done. But, I'm kinda back to feeling a bit alone.

Alone time might be exactly what I need...just not really what I want...

Maybe happy hour with my fellow ladies of bootcamp tonight will cheer me up and get me started off on the right foot for the weekend ahead...

Burning Man, Shmurning Man...

Let me start by saying that I am, for the most part, ALL ABOUT self expression. True, I myself am fairly conservative when it comes to these kinds of things. I don't paint myself all over, dress up in costume or run around naked, or shout and scream and howl at the moon. However, I've come a long way in what I am able to understand in others. I'm a lot less judgemental (thank God!), and I even APPRECIATE so much more people's abilities and needs to express themselves.

I get what Burning Man was all about in its inception. Burning a wooden man to symbolically burn away all the pain, heartache, fault, guilt in one man's life. In fact, when I was younger, at a summer church camp, we wrote down our biggest struggle on a piece of paper and burned it in the campfire. That symbolic act was very powerful for me.

I get what Burning Man evolved into. A celebration of the free spirit, of art, of music, of people expressing themselves to embrace who they are. I am friends with many creative people (heck, I work in advertising!) and I'm amazed at what people see through their eyes that I would never have noticed. I love art. I love music. I love creativity.

But, what Burning Man is today...that I do not get.

Growing up in SoCal, I had never heard of Burning Man. Please, I lived in the suburbs and did all my shopping and dining out at chain stores. People's self expression came in the form of what color Hurley shirt they'd wear that day or what ammenities package they'd get with their new Audi. But, Burning Man is quite "the thing to do" up here in SF. You HAVE to go to Burning Man. Stores (Trader Joes's, Sports Basement) have entire display sections of products "suitable for Burning Man". People count down the days to when they leave for Burning Man. It's a BIG DEAL up here!

MM (no, we're not seeing each other anymore) is going to Burning Man. He would say for weeks how he needed to prepare for Burning Man. So, I thought I'd jump online, do some research, and help him get ready. I read blogs of what you'd need when you were there. But, I was really turned off as I read more and more of what Burning Man has become: a week of complete hedonism: sex, drugs, and anything/everything for shock value...the freedom to do whatever you want without consequence...all under the guise of "art" and "celebration of life".

I don't mean to come across as small-, closed-minded. Really? Go for it. Pay the $200+ for admission. Spend a week in brutal, desert conditions. Sleep around, drug it up, risk being raped, pilfered, and beat up. "Celebrate life" and "appreciate art". But, it kinda ticks me off that this event still wants to pretend that it's about what it was when it first started...simply because they continue the tradition of setting aflame the "burning man".

I admit, I've never been. And I don't even know why I'm so fired up about it. I just think I'm annoyed at this point because this city is so obsessed with it.

Forgive me...