Claddagh Ring

I found it today!!

In my ski bag, where I no doubt, "safely" stowed it away the last time I was at Brennen's house.

Wahoo! I'm a very happy girl indeed.

So here's a brief history about this ring for all of you:

The romantic story of the mystical and beautiful Claddagh Ring began way back over 300 years ago in the ancient fishing village of Claddagh just outside the walls of the City of Galway on the west coast of Ireland.

Legend has it that a fishing boat from the village was captured by pirates and sold into slavery, the property of a rich Turkish goldsmith. One of the crew, a man named Richard Joyce was to have been married the same week of the capture.

As the years went by neither married, Richard Joyce was put to work at the trade of goldsmithing. In time Joyce became a master craftsman, never forgetting his girl back home, he made a ring of gold for her, with a heart for love, a crown for loyalty and two hands for friendship.

Eventually, after eight years he escaped his captors and returned to his village, and to his great joy he found that his love had never given up hope of seeing him again. He gave her the ring he had made and they were married, never to be separated again.

Wear this ring on your right hand with the heart facing outwards and the world will know your heart has not yet been won. Wear it on the right hand with the heart facing inwards and it shows you have friendship and love under consideration. But worn on your left hand with the heart turned inwards it means two loves have joined forever.

The rings were kept as family heirlooms which were passed lovingly down from mother to daughter on her wedding day.

The Wall

I skied it today.

Chair Ten, Kirkwood. New skis, new boots.

Skied it three times, once in fog with a bunch of idiot people. I fell that time and slid for about six feet before i stopped and popped back up.

I'm super stoked.

The snow was great and I can't wait to get out there again.

Woot. I need a new word for that.

Another A-

Yeah!!!!

I'm stoked!

I love A minuses! They might just be my favorite letter grade ever.

Yay me.

The Beer with my Professor

turned into a few beers, of course.

And yet, the bartender/owner bought me three drinks, tapped into his very own private reserve to give me a shot of honey-jager (very good stuff!), gave me a t-shirt to promote the honey-jager, and a free cd!

woot!

I felt like I made out with quite the amount of loot last night.

Awesome.

Gah

Today was frustrating and annoying. Constant interruption, things not adding up properly, and just generally bad energy emanating from me. I'm glad I get to leave work soon and have it be over.

Plus, I'm meeting one of my professors for a drink and a talk. It should be fun. I could use a beer in a bad way.

Something nice.

Some lady in my office just had a delivery of flowers from her husband who is out of town taking care of his sick mother.

He sent her flowers during her appointment because she has a very serious phobia of the dentist and he normally comes with her and holds her hand to calm her down. He was so proud of her for coming in on her own (with the help of our good friend Valium) and he felt so bad for not being able to take care of her that he had the flowers delivered to let her know that he was thinking of her from all the way across the country during her appointment.

Now that, is very sweet.

That gives me hope.

**and, i just found out they've been married for 26 years**

good show.

Sleep disturbances

I went to bed early last night because I was so tired from partying until the wee hours at Kevan's house where I sang karaoke and met his roomate's friends. I had a good time but I paid for it yesterday with an incredible hang over. Ick. Playing Kings with wine is a very dumb idea indeed.

So I went to bed around 9:30 or so which is unusually early for me, and then I woke up to a man screaming, "You mothafucka! You mothafucka!! Goddamn bitch mothafucka!!"

Naturally this scared the crap out of me and I assumed it was like 3am or some weird time when it's more normal for things like that to happen. I sat up in bed and listened, confused as to where the irrational hatred and anger was coming from.

There were two (at least) other voices too - a man's and a woman's, but nobody could match the raw amount of rage that the first guy's voice projected. I thought it would at least come to blows if not somebody getting shot, that's how mad he was. The only real coherent string of words that I could get from all the shouting was something about how a woman needs to work and how guy number #1 shouldn't be blaming her for doing her job.

Maybe he just found out his girlfriend was a prostitute or something? I'm not sure but whatever it was it was bad.

The screaming continued for what seemed like hours, even though it was less than ten minutes for sure. I almost called the cops because I really thought someone was going to take a beating with a lead pipe or something. It was bad.

I got so scared I brought my laptop to bed - like it could protect me from the irrational screaming people outside. It was barely after 11:00. That seems awfully early for such drama.

I'm still not even sure where the voices were coming from - the street or the complex - all I know is that they were so loud and full of hatred that it felt like they were standing in my living room duking it out.

Weird.

Oh, and, welcome to Oakland.

My Toaster Oven

Is a lethal combination of brushed-nickel and evil.
It gets immense pleasure from burning my flesh
when I reach inside to remove my english muffin
because I am greedy and hungry.

My Toaster Oven -
I call it "The Punisher"
because it punishes hungry women who have worked out too hard
and are impatient for dinner.

My thumb has been burned twice in a week from that farking thing.

Perhaps next time I will wait until it is *done* toasting?

No, probably not.

Shout out to Steve Kinsey!

For calling me at work on a boring Friday just to say hello from Ohio!

Woot.

You rule.

And congrats on passing your exams. Of course I wish I could come to your party tomorrow, but yeah - Ohio is a bit far on one day's notice.

:)

Ka

The new Cirque Du Soleil - Ka - looks really cool. I think I want to go. I haven't been to one since Quidam, like 9 years ago or something, and I've never been to one in Vegas. I think this year, for my birthday, I should take myself.

Just like in Swingers. Hah. Vince Vaughn at his finest.

The TV Guide Channel

was totally my secret pleasure until fugging Melissa and Joan Rivers came along and ruined it.

I could tune it in when I wanted, and tune it out when I wanted. Check to see what was on the Food Network, but not change it if UnWrapped was on, because I can't stand that show.

Due to the unfortunate giant mouthed women who never shut up on the TV Guide Channel though, I suppose I will learn to love all filler shows I never really liked, including UnWrapped, Rachel Ray's 30-Minute Meals, and American Choppers on Discover.

An alpaca car coat

smells *exactly* like you imagine it would when you wear it in the rain and then it dries.



Some advice from someone who did:

1) Don't.

2) Avoid puddle-jumping on your way to work. (Unless it's absolutely mandatory because the puddles are too large to cross otherwise)

3) Just because you are wearing a floppy wool hat that keeps your head dry, does *not* mean the rest of you is dry. Nor does it mean you should forego using your umbrella even if you *are* carrying way too much stuff. The walk from Union Square to the transbay bus takes a long time in the rain.

The coat reeks of barnyard animal. I need to dryel it just to wear it again.

happy valentine's to me...

in addition to my mylar balloon that Jesse gave me last week, I also found this:

What Makes You Sexy? by eva71
Name/NickName
Gender
Sexy Body Part Is	Your Lips
Special Talents Are	Everything (Multi-talented)
Quiz created with MemeGen!

now I really feel like a rockstar!

I have a headache though and I want a shower but I think I'm almost too tired for one.

Yes indeed

2% milk is definitely way better than that greyish blue crap I've been drinking all these years. Ick. I can't believe I didn't know it.

I've reached a stopping point in my accounting project because I literally don't know how to find out how many outstanding shares of stock the two companies have. I've only got about three formulas left though. And then a two page analysis write up thing. Bang-a-rang. I should be just fine.

I hung up a few pictures today - they aren't perfect, but they'll do. I need to do some laundry and I still haven't excercised, but I'm sort of about to get into couch mode and I'm afraid it's all over from here on out.

Maybe I'll shower today.

Me and my man Howie

Just listening to a little Howie Day on a Sunday afternoon and thinking about hitting up my accounting project again. It's cold in my apartment and gray and rainy outside and I scored the best parking spot on the street today. Woot!

I also got a free breakfast courtesy of Kerry's husband-to-be, Mark. Yahoo for free eggs florentine. Yummy in the tummy.

Grocery shopped and the house is clean and now it's time to start annoying the neighbors by hanging up some pictures I think. Or hitting those accounting formulas (bleh) again.

I think it will be the former.

And then maybe a rainy day three mile jog thing - that should be fun. And a toasty hot shower before I really crack down on this stuff again.

Due to the excellent parking spot I think I can't drive anywhere for the rest of the day -- I'm actually sad I have to go to bart tomorrow because I want to keep this spot all week.

Things are sorted,

unpacked, and mostly put away.

I am breathing color and life into this apartment and it's starting to feel like mine. I will enjoy it here eventually -- once I infuse it with myself. Though after a brief introductory phase, I am learning to like this apartment and vice-versa, though we are a long way from understanding each other's quirks and idiosyncracies.

I'm still jumpy late at night and not used to the late night squeaks, creaks, and groans, but this apartment and I, we're starting to mesh.

It's good to have my happy things looking at me again and reminding me of who I am and how I got here.

My telly suffered some minor damage in the move -- I'm starting to think it's on it's way out, slowly. Maybe it can be the "second" tv in my next place.

So yeah. Time to stagger to bed. I'm supposed to walk the lake with Kerry in the morning -- good luck getting up for that one, bonehead.

2% Milk

I have this thing with milk. Normally I think it's horribly disgusting and gross, but then again, normally I buy non-fat milk - you know, the blue milk.

However, one morning on my trip with David and Stephanie over new year's, I got tired of heavy fattening breakfasts and decided to order some Frosted Flakes (yum!) via room service. That morning I really liked the milk and I couldn't figure out why except that maybe it was because it was 2% or higher in fat.

So recently I purchased some 2% milk and tonight I am eating some Frosted Flakes for dinner (because I found a single serving container in a duffle bag while unpacking - yes I am seriously that low on food again) and I poured my 2% milk all over them, and I don't hate this milk either.

Although I did just noticed that my fridge was turned down to the lowest setting possible so now I'm sort of freaking out on the inside even though it tasted and smelled fine. Thanks mom, for making me paranoid about everything rotting. Good job.

Anyway, I think maybe I might not hate milk anymore. I'm not sure I could up and drink it out of a glass for a snack or anything like that (except maybe with a peanut butter sandwich because that's always sounded good to me) but I might *try* it under the right circumstances.

K2 Burning Luv

I found my ski this weekend.

And I'm going to buy it tonight from REI.

I'm deliriously happy. Like so happy I can't focus on work, happy. Like the pit of my stomach is quivering with excitement, happy.

Holy shit - I'm buying the skis I'm in love with. So I guess while I'm there I will buy boots too.

woot.

the skiing was phat today. i love it. love love love it. can't wait until tomorrow even though i ate nearly my own weight in pasta and i'm wicked tired.

yahoo.

i tried some skis today called K2 Burning Luv's - awesome.

Stomach is making funny noises

Body doesn't want to move. Hrmm. It's days like this that I wish I was Plasticman and I could simply stretch my head and arms out to the kitchen to find food and bring it back to bed. (Seriously, I don't know why because at this point it's Doritos or stale Raisin Bran and no milk)

But yeah - Plasticman - now that would be cool.

I'm sick again

but I'm still going skiing. I know - I'm very bad, and horribly addicted. I'd rather get a full blown case of bronchitis than miss the skiing though.

In order to prevent that I am just staying at home and resting to get better.

I was about to walk out to the kitchen to get my "warmy" (it's some herbal thing that you can microwave and it totally feels good on your chest when your chest hurts) when I realized that - doh! I have no microwave yet.

Crapbags man. That sucks. It also severely limits my options for dinner. I'm thinking that maybe I could just sleep through dinner or drink some Thera-Flu instead, but that's probably not the healthiest move I could make.

I think I have a can of soup somewhere.

I may have lost a sweater,

but I got a newsboy cap at a much lower cost! And in wearing it today I feel completely validated about losing my poor sad sweater which I will never see again.

Yay hat, I love you.

My new apartment is so quiet I'm having trouble sleeping. I kept waking up wondering where all the street noise is. Weird. It's nice and dark in my bedroom too.

I do need to figure out the water temperature when I shower though - I can't get it quite right - it's either slightly too hot or slightly too cold ... hrmmmm.