from aaron

one word, no explanations.

1. Yourself: Lucky
2. Your Lover: Perfect
3. Your Hair: Long
4. Your Mother: Inspiring
5. Your Father: Comforting
6. Your Favorite Item: DRZ400S
7. Your Dream Last Night: Forgotten
8. Your Favorite Drink: Alcoholic
9. Your Dream Home: Potrero
10. The Room You Are In: Messy
11. Your Pet: Dead
12. Who You Are Now: learning
13. Who You Want to be in Ten Years: mentoring
14. What You're Not: suburban
15. Your Best Friends: drifted
16. One of Your Wish List Items: house!
17. Your Gender: Female
18. The Last Thing You Did: jobhunt
19. What You Are Wearing: glasses
20. Your Favorite Weather: activity-appropriate
21. Your Favorite Book: Blank
22. The Last Thing You Ate: microwaveable
23. Your Life: enviable
24. Your Mood: struggling

how bored are you?

FIRST REACTION ANSWER
35 first reactions!!
Type your FIRST REACTION!

1. I need: a better job

2. Sex: that too

3. Relationships: nice

4. Your Last Ex: imacculately manicured eyebrows

5. Homosexuality: fabulous

6. Marijuana: makes me sleepy and boring

7. Crack: reminds me of those people we saw sitting on a car hood smoking crack on our way to Nann 'n' Curry

8. Food: wish I had healthier instincts and cooking skills

9. The President: Bill Clinton. I liked that guy.

10. War : Bad idea

11. Cars: stupid

12. Gas Prices: car drivers are stupid

13. Jimi: Hot or Not? (I know, wrong spelling)

14. Politics: for their own sake= crap.

15. Religion: abused, misunderstood

16. Children: no more road trips

17. MySpace: slow

18. Worst Fear: bad stuff happening to my family or Paul

19. Marriage: "is what brings us together, today"

20. Fashion: crappy industry

21. Brunettes: hairballs

22. Redheads: crazy

23: Work: timesuck

24: Pass the time: interweb

25. One night stands: who cares

26: Pet Peeve: car drivers

27: Pixie Stix: oooh! That sounds great

28: Vanilla Ice: the surreal life

29: Porta Potties: A friend jumping off a pirate ship to claim a bank of porta-potties for our pirate ship... hmmm

30: High school: waste of time

31: Band: aid

32. Pajamas: only if it's cold

33. Woods: nice air

34. Surfing: not interested

35. Pictures: draw. Didn't I used to draw?

oh, feh

We cannot do the Cal24 Rally this year, as we will be flying in from Isle of Man that weekend.

Damnation!

I want to have my cupcake and eat it too.

Things that go "slurp, smack, slurp" in the night

Last night Paul woke me up from sleeping while he was reading National Geographic because there was a possum snacking loudly on his porch. You could hear it through the wall/door/whatever. We crept over to the door, threw the porch light on and opened the door, and there he was! So cute and ugly and weird, and very curious. I leaned in to see because I am blind, and he appeared ready to just come on in, so we backed off and closed the door a bit more, then watched him turn around and waddle slowly down the stairs.

So cute!

big, too, must have been 15 lbs or something!

Bent

So this is a bad picture of the dent in my front rim from Thursday night's Geneva onramp adventure:






Basically, it's not huge, not enough to bother fixing I guess. There's a similar-sized dent on the rear from this too.
But the front was kind of interesting because when it bent, it made a clean spot (very visible in the picture, as I never clean bikes) and made this spray pattern on the tire. Paul tells me the spray is the talcum from the tube inside. The rear dent didn't leave such interesting marks, so no photo. You can't see the bend from the angle of the picture anyway.

I have no doubt that I hit HARD, and that a streetbike would not have taken this crap. Thankfully, I had parked the SV because its rear tire is shot. Else I'd be typing from the hospital or something.

Granite countertops, nothing!

The weather smiled on us for the weekend. Gorgeous days! Too bad Saturday was mostly indoors.

We went to hang out with my parents and my sister and Jesse and Amy and the little creature they made. Who is really quite cute. I don't know a damn thing about gardening, except it is really not for me. I like the gardens where they put concrete over everything and then have a glass of wine. That's my style. And it was represented.

We flaked on a wedding (I know, classy, huh?) Saturday night, and stumbled around my neighborhood peeking into the various residences. There is a building I've been lusting after for a while; Saturday I noticed a light on upstairs and climbed up onto a little brick thing to look in. Granite walls! Beautiful building, I want it. We learned a little bit about its owner on the interweb. Ain't cyber-stalking grand?

Sunday was finally SV day.

It was also drinking beer on a parkbench day, incidentally.

I suspect that dirtbiking this weekend will be cancelled on account of raininess?

I totally just almost died! (again)

This week has been very, very busy. All I want is to sit in my house for a few hours and stare at the wall or alphabetize my CD's or something...

Sunday we were supposed to work on the SV, but got a better offer when Jesse and Daniel showed up. We went into SF and had a grand time at Toranado and Lingba Lounge.

Monday night I had my midterm for Mandarin. It went OK, I think. I can now argue about prices in Mandarin. Sortof.

Tuesday night I went to Berkeley to help Paul with some stuff, and Wednesday night we went shopping in Union Square. Which was totally exhausting.

Last night I went and saw my folks at the Garden Show, and then I nearly died on the way to dinner afterwards when I was trying to merge onto 280 South at Geneva.

It was raining, and there was a car a ways back in the lane I was merging into, but tons of space, no problem. Then THUNK! *Loud,* over the rain and freeway noise, and I hit the bars. I thought I was going to go over them. I have never hit anything so hard as I FELL into that pothole. Fucking great. My rim is dented now. I was sure I was going down, but the bike took the impact. The SV would not have; I am very lucky. That hole could easily get someone killed, so uhhh, watch out at the Geneva onramp.

Tonight I am going to do -nothing-, and then tomorrow is ridiculously busy again.

Oh, by the way, my boyfriend is totally The Hotness. The future became a different place when I met him, a much closer and more important place. I get excited about things in near and distant futures... the Isle of Man trip is turning into a near future, and that's pretty cool. What's next? ... We've talked about Bhutan... Who knows? Whatever it is, it will be grand.

Threads

I went to school for fashion, and so, like, I thought that showing off your threads was supposed to be a GOOD thing.

So I was confused by the looks of consternation Paul was giving me for showing them off on the SV. Hmph.
(bonus points if you know why my license plate is crooked with a busted frame)

Chinese the lazy way

... is totally not working.
I am sitting around procrastinating on my Mandarin homework. Again.
I am not learning anything much this semester. I have hit a wall, or something.

I would really like to find a conversation partner. Anyone a native, or very fluent Mandarin speaker, please please please spend some time with me to practice? I can bake brownies, or help with your Engrish, or something....

help! This is not working!

as a sidenote, what is this "wo ai ni (like a mouse loves rice)" song doing stuck in my head?

Slapping sharks

I am constantly anxious.
It's part of my equilibrium. If I don't have a project, a goal, a change I'm working on, I will come up with a new one. Something more complex, more difficult, less attainable.

If things get quiet, I'll want to plan some ridiculous venture (endurance rally?) It's not that I'm never satisfied. I am very happy. But there's always got to be something in the works. Several somethings, usually.

If it gets too quiet, I'll start making waves. There needs to be constant motion, at least on the horizon.

And then there are all the little things; the things that are never done. The dishes, the papers that need to be filed or sent, the constant chatter of daily life that is constantly overdue. The guilt is enough to crush me. How can I find the time to file things when I'm a week behind in Chinese, agreed to go to San Jose for support time, working on the weekend, planning a trip to a tiny island no one has any information about, trying to keep in touch with my friends and family, trying to arrange a gigantic financial goal, and playing Katamari Damacy? Not that I'd have it any other way. I feel sorry for people who just plod along, waiting for life to happen. I prefer to bite off more than I can chew, and just swallow it whole if need be.

Paul signaled to me the other day that he knows this. (I assume he's known this for a long time.) Still, it's nice to hear that your insanity has already been accepted as part of the package. Good luck to him in managing me.

Resolved:

Today I resolve to write more letters.
At least once a week, be it a store-bought card or a lipstick-written note on a cocktail napkin, or a 3-page handwritten diatribe, I need to let people know what they mean to me, personally.

A friend used to send me long letters when we parted ways from high school. Every square inch of paper used... what wasn't body text was margins filled in with drawings, collage, and a lot of unintelligible but wonderful gibberish. Now that we've lost touch, I've begun trying to track down the author of these treasures. Maybe someday I'll find her and pass these letters to her grandkids.

My dad has the really sweet habit of sending cards. I used to get them more frequently when I was in college. For four years, I basically lived and breathed AAC and didn't have any social life at all. New to the City, I didn't really even have any friends here. It's not that my dad has ever been overly effusive emotionally (though he can step up to the plate quite nicely when appropriate). Just... a card... just a few words written on it... in the mailbox for me when I got home sometimes. They probably don't look like much to other people; he usually only writes a couple words in them. It's a sweet habit I'll always cherish. I still get them today.

Mass email and blogging is a sad substitute.
Send me your address.

And how I really feel

When did making a little effort for your friends turn into "herding cats?"

I went to Santa Cruz Thursday because my sister needed me.
I go to see her also when she doesn't need me.
I routinely call people to just have dinner or coffee. I've at many times made routine of riding an hour (regardless of weather) each way to do so.

A true friend isn't the person who is there when you need them. A true friend is there when you don't need them too. If it's all boiled down to emergency lines of friendship-credit, let's re-examine our need for these accounts.

If I have an emergency, I'll call a tow truck or something. I just want a friend.

Let's resurrect the small quiet times of making effort to be friends; BBQing, sharing chocolate and grappa, double-dates, and planning goat-theft.

If that's a pain, just drop the fucking thing. If you're unwilling to invest the time, take the risk of troubling yourself, or bother with the details, then maybe the payoffs aren't for you.

Sicky

We've been spending a lot of weekends around the house lately. I guess it's a winter thing. I mean, I hope it is.
Last weekend was fairly productive, in terms of long-term goal setting and getting things on track. I sorted out my financial picture and gathered info. And played a LOT of Katamari Damacy.
Thursday I called in sick to take care of family stuff, which was good, and Friday I went to work despite being Actually Sick. I felt like ASS.
So it was really charming when I tried to call Paul (since the plan was to go to his house that night) to see if he was home so I could leave work early. He didn't answer until after usual quitting time, but when he did, he was cute and fuzzy drunk. I was worried I wouldn't be able to make it over the bridge because I was dizzy, but I did, let myself into the house, ignored the apparent fact that Paul was completely shitfaced and probably puking, and proceeded directly to bed. At about 6:30. Slept for a good 13 hours, and we were both up quite early Saturday morning, feeling, oh, about 85%.

I assume we were each hoping that the other would take care of our sick selves Friday night, but were both S.O.L.

Saturday Paul jumped out of bed and got the FZ1 project finished, then we proceeded to napping. At least we can now check that off the list.

Meant to go home Sunday but the light rain turned into real rain turned into pouring rain. And gusty winds. When did I become such a pussy? Well, we could have gone to SF, but it was warm in the house in Berkeley, and I did my studying there. I feel like I've fallen behind in my Mandarin. But the new book I picked up is pretty good, and hopefully I can get back on track.
Tonight: Class
Tomorrow Night: San Jose
Wednesday Night: laundry!

(Vegas) and Supperclub

Sometimes I don't post because I don't feel up to writing about something yet. I don't feel up to writing about Vegas really. The short version is like this:
Sunday fucking sucked. Seriously sucked. Sometimes people just do things that are seriously rude and fuck you. I won't write about office politics because this is public, and my mom says not to put anything in writing that you wouldn't want published in the newspaper (or something like that)

Following the explosive suitcase of fuck you, there was the overbooked flight and shitty customer service and somehow, narrowly getting onto the flight, even after the door had been closed and it seemed hopeless.

Following the shitty flight (hey, I guess I should just count myself lucky that it landed. It's the little things, innit?) I arrive to a sold out and very busy Las Vegas (with taxi line to show) and find that some dipshit cancelled my hotel room. Fortunately I had printed out the confirmation letter to show the desk clerk, who showed me the proof that someone cancelled it after the fact. I guess they have a few rooms set aside even when sold out, so I did get a room.

Sunday night, sales dinner at Zeffirino in the Venetian. Monday morning, I had my chilaquiles at the Grand Luxe Cafe as required (yummm) and then we did a few hours of work. Dinner reservations were made at the hip new hotspot (I guess) Tao in the Venetian, but I got the message about ten minutes before dinner, that everyone else cancelled. Thanks! Well, shit, I went anyway by myself. Tao was cool. Nice space, food was good, dessert was GREAT. Go there just to have the raspberry chocolate wontons!

Tuesday the show opened and I worked in our booth until it was time to head to the airport.

Blah blah, Vegas is boring.

Last night, Paul and I went to Supperclub since Marisa had casually mentioned (ok, maybe she was begging :P) that she would be singing.
It's been the week of hip expensive restaraunts, so here's how it stacked up in my mind:
Bar: cool, I don't know what we overpaid for hipster drinks. I drank something that smelled like Robitussin, and something else that smelled like a cupcake.
Dining Room: The white was cool, I didn't need the marketing pitch that the cutting edge LED lights would produce 63,000 different colors in the evening. I work with color for a living, so this didn't do anything for me. the lights were cool, though. I'm just saying.
Beds: cool, but mostly because we ended up running into Dan and Irene and sitting with them. Would I have enjoyed being in bed that close to some greaseball hair-gel hipster trash and his fake Gucci girlfriend? Um, no. Whew! We dodged a bullet.
Performances: Marisa was awesome. Duh. The beatboxer was cool, but I was hoping for more variety or energy. Perhaps a vocalist ought to be paired with a dancer, or something to keep it less static? I heard about some cool aerialist performances there, so perhaps it was a quiet night.
Company: Wonderful. I adore Dan and Irene, and obviously Marisa. My boyfriend is totally hot.
Wait staff was fun and attentive. Vegetarian food was good (Paul thought some of it better than his meat-eater courses) and I didn't feel like I was getting the also-ran of steamed vegetables and polenta (as pointed out very correctly by Jesse, this is what you get 99% of the time when you are vegetarian at a nice restaurant). Dessert wasn't amazing. I like amazing desserts. It's sinful to forget chocolate!

I'd go again, particularly if I could afford it. I can't, so we'll probably limit ourselves, but I imagine we'll be back at some point.
At $60 per person, it's very reasonable for what you get. Really.
I even got to pinch the performer's ass. Twice!

Lost Week

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Bikini-Clad Robots

Last night we went to the Parkway and watched Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine. It was great. I want to watch it again just to see the San Francisco chase scene.

I drank a bunch of beer, and rode around on the back of my bike.
Paul is The Hotness.

The things you take for granted

I was reminded once again this morning of how much I love living in this city.
Watching the headlights and tail lights buzz through the Broadway tunnel before the sun comes up...
seeing the night turn to orange and pink as the sun begins to come up in the Financial District...
The morning opening of a coffee house on Hyde I'd never seen before...
Brownstones, victorians, and garden apartments each with stories to tell...
Everthing, and everyone, right here, living and breathing, mixing and growing...
The quiet before the daily storm.

Perhaps compromise is not in order?

From Bad Matt

1) Stickers on your car?
car?
My helmet has MotoJava Stickers. The dirt helmet says "We're all perverts," and the others sometimes have said "I HAVE CANDY."

2) What posters do you have in your room?
Posters... that's so cute.
Artwork hanging in my apartment: Brian Andreas stuff, a canvas collage thing I did for my senior collection presentation, and the map to GTA San Andreas.

3) What do you hear right now?
Someone in my office is playing oontzy music. It's faint though, and I don't mind it.

4) If you could drink anything right this second, what would it be?
Water would be the responsible answer. Beer would be nice but I can't see being in the office drunk.


5) Does anything hurt on your body right now?
My busted finger is a little stiff, but "hurt" isn't the right word.


6) Ever take candy from someone?
Yeah. When I was a kid, you could still trick or treat.


7) Whats your job position called?
My title is "Assistant Technical Designer." There is no Technical Designer though; I'm it.


8) What size ring do you wear?
No clue. Biggish, for a girl.


9) Do you own a camera phone?
No, I am a cheap bastard. I have my original free cellphone from like 5 years ago.


10) When's your birthday?
August 16th, 1977. The day Elvis died.


11) What's your elementary school mascot?
I changed schools so often, I don't remember most of them. All I remember is the mascot for Toyon, where I did half of 1st grade, 2nd, 4th, and 5th grades: Toyon TIGERS.


12) Whats your favorite bottled water?
I really do not care.
Except, I wish you could still get that AquaJava stuff, with the caffeine added.


13) What's the next concert/show you're going to and when?
Isle of Man TT!!!!!!!!!!! I am so cool.

14) What were you doing at 9 pm last night?
Wondering why Mandarin is so retarded, and then realizing that maybe it was just a really bad explanation of the particle in question.

16) Do you exercise as much as you should?
no.


17) Did you attend your High School prom
Haha, yes. Funny story. But mainly, it sucked.


18) Did you go to someone elses prom?
No.


*SOME STRANGE QUESTIONS*:

20) Something red within 5 feet of you?
Stickers with one of our brands' new log on them. Exciting, yes?


21) Your last bag of chips?
Tortilla "hint of lime" chips, but just the pathetic bottom of the bag that was left. Lime is sooooo good. I am addicted.

22) The weirdest thing you've seen this week?
It's sortof a toss up between the guy getting rolled around on a gurney in downtown Mountain View on Saturday, and the video last night for my class.

23) Ever done the Electric Slide?
What is that?

24) How much French do you know?
Nearly none.

26) Ever crash a car, been in accidents?
I was in a car that got hit by a red light runner bitch.
My dad was one of several parents driving kids in my 6th (?) grade class to Monterey Bay Aquarium. Some ancient woman ran a very red light and hit the car, so we all missed our field trip.
Motorcycle accidents? Oh, yes, many. Some tiny, some bigger, but I've always walked away.

27) Do you look good in yellow?
Probably not.

28) Do you sing?
Yes, frequently. But only when you're not looking.

29) Ever sang in front of a crowd?
Yes.


30) Do you dance?
Used to, not really now.


32) Least favorite color?
most forms of pink.

33) Favorite kind of car?
One that stays the hell out of my way.

34) Ever had Dippin Dots?
No. I don't see the appeal. If the appeal is the shape and appearance an novelty, that's just not a factor in my interest in food.

35) Ever make fun of a homeless person?
I've made fun of all kinds of people. And given my time spent in dirty squats in San Jose, I think the fun I made was well-deserved.

36) How old were you when you got a cell phone?
I think around 23? I don't remember.

37) How old were you when you got your first car?
Hopefully, I will be at least 95 when that happens.


38) How many driving tickets do you have?
currently, zero. I've gotten two though, both for speeding. I hate the CHP.


40) How many parking tickets?
Currently, zero.


41) Do you own your own car?
No. What is this "car" you speak of?
I own two motorcycles, though, which seems downright restrained, if you ask me.


42) Do you want to get married?
Are you coming on to me?


43) At what age do you want to get married?
12 1/2.

44) Have you ever been married?
no. I know, I'm so far behind. Other women my age are on #3 or more... Damn.


45) Have you ever received a restraining order?
mmmm, no.


46) At what age do you want to have kids?
12 3/4


47) How many kids?
Depends on how hungry I am.


48) Ketchup or Mustard?
Spicy mustard is the best.


49) When is the last time someone deleted you from their Myspace friends list? Um, I don't know that anyone has. I guess I haven't really kept track though. I really tend to only add friends, or a few strangers that really wanted to be my friend for some unknown reason.

50) How many times a week are you on Myspace ?
I don't know, it's on a lot.

51) Ever been kicked out of your home? My home?
No. My parents did change the locks shortly after I moved out, but they claimed that was just a coincidence in their scheduling.


52) Favorite character on Friends?
I have no idea.


53) Ever eat Spam?
No. I did dress as spam for halloween once, but the costume was actually made by my friend Abby, who was incredibly creative.


54) Have a crush on a teacher?
No. Well, maybe one, slightly, in college. But not really.


55) Favorite store?
It's fun to graze at the Pasta Shop.
Otherwise, maybe just a good bookstore.


56) Have a best friend?
Hmph.


57) If you could call anyone right now who would it be?
I've been wishing I could track down a few old friends... Monique Haugland and Abby Wittman.

58) Have a Boyfriend?
Yes, and he is the best. Truly.


59) Have a girlfriend?
No. Girls are trouble.


60) One place you want to travel to?
There are a lot of places. But Isle of Man is next on the list, and I am actually going there in May-June of this year. I rock! Bitches!

61) If you could have anything right now what would it be?
I already have so much.
I've been talking about wanting a whole city block in my neighborhood though.

Mandarin 12B 2/6/06

tonight's "goofy" count: 0
mentions of eating dog: 0
threats that "chinese people will be 'ha, ha, ha'": 0
discussions of the word "xiaojie" being used for prostitutes: 1 (long one though)

Actually, the "xiaojie" thing has been discussed in each of the three classes we've had so far this semester.
Otherwise, last night was a disappointment. NO "goofy"'s?!??!?!

weekend

This weekend we went down to San Jose for a bit and loafed hardcore at my folks’ house. Not a lot else to do down there, I guess. I felt a little bad about letting such a nice Sunday get away from me, but if you’d ever sat around the Turner Compound in the afternoon, you’d understand how this could happen.

Paul put new brake pads on the DRZ Friday and then we spent Friday night playing Katamari Damacy. What? We had Thai food first, so it’s not like we never left the house or something!

Saturday we headed to San Jose to meet my parents and go to dinner, and then to see Bill Maher at the Flint Center. I don’t have cable, but he looked familiar to me. Usually, you have to be drunk to enjoy a comedian. Nope, this guy was funny, and right on the money most of the time. I caught my MOTHER laughing at jokes that included the word “pussy.” Paul claimed he was uncomfortable with sitting next to my mom laughing about jokes involving anal sex. (to be fair, here’s another, opposite-bias article about the same guy) Some of the political comment gave me a little food for thought, some of the man/woman stuff was junk, but it was mostly interesting.

Sunday we did finally make it home, just in time to get pizza and beer with Daniel before bedtime. Sometimes I drink beer and end up letting slip what I really think of people. Oops. It’s because my pizza didn’t get to me in time to shut me up.