05/01/2006: "Vandals and Sandals"

music: Squirrel Nut Zippers
mood: Brighter than Sunshine

Oh what a glorious weekend. The sandals and flipflops I have been wearing all winter have been flung off, and its barefoot time! The sun was out, the house relatively quite (roomies still skiing, in Stockton, or in Davis, so just Justin and I until Sunday evening) and spring was sprung in many most excellent ways. It becomes apparent each time this year how much I really love the sun and what a doofus I am for thinking I could seriously live anywhere where there wasn’t a good 9-11 months of sun. High 80’s projected for my 3 day excursion to Florida, oh yeah, even better then the mid 70’s that kissed the terra firma at the highland palace this weekend.

Vandals: Sun even makes me deal with crisis better. I walked out after getting groceries (filet mignon, mmmmm) and found someone had slashed at some point during the day my back window. Had it still been raining I’m sure I would have been angry, I mean I LEAVE the doors unlocked so vandals won’t do that. If they want the stuff in my car, they can have it, (they took my ashtray, stupids, now I have no place to put change for you to steal) but don’t friggin slash my window you tools. But the sun tempered my response. So I shrugged and though that’s a shame, but hey, it’s sunny. It’s time to take the windows out soon anyway, the top will come off (of the jeep, you naughty people you), I’ll win the lottery and then $300 to replace the gapping slashed section won’t be a big deal. I don’t care for the poop head that did the dead, but hey, if it makes them happy, super. I have to focus on harvesting my freckles. Priorities.

Speaking of priorities, I supposed it was football draft weekend because I kept getting sports alerts from yahoo on my phone. One day I will figure out how to unsubscribe to that whole enigma. Until then, did I mention it was sunny? Ah yeah.

Ticket: Alas, my poor deluded vision of the superior court clerk having a heart and not cashing the check for my speeding ticket, was of course bogus, all hopes of meeting Officer Apollo were dashed as the speeding ticket was indeed cashed. Relieved to know the wait is over true, disappointed I suppose a bit that witty writing loses out to the letter of the law but no matter….I like to at least think it gave the clerk a second thought, and that perhaps Officer Apollo will show up to take me to a very expensive dinner as an apology for having to enforce the law on one such princess as myself. Just a second...that doesn’t sound like I have given up the ghost…hmmm…points for tenacity and persistence? Ever the optimist…sigh. NEXT…

Mexicans: I was a bit disappointed in our (San Jose’s) Mexicans up till now. Cleveland and Detroit had bigger protests in connection with the immigration “rights” and they got their acts together quicker. With the exception of LA and San Diego, I would think we could have done better. I’m almost embarrassed, I mean come one SAN JOSE…over a million people….and over 30% Hispanic or Latino. Don’t get me wrong I think if you are illegal you don’t have a right to DEMAND anything, but as far as protesting goes….I was just a little surprised we didn’t make the news. Perhaps all the illegal immigrants had to work that day. Don’t get me started about the Star Spangled Banner in Spanish either. Though probably an improvement…please…I HATE that I agree with our president, I promise it won’t happen again, but please, Do we sing the German anthem in Turkish? Do we sing the Italian Anthem in Romanian? No. NEXT.

Movie Recap: When I wasn’t warming my feet on the cement, sipping tropical drinks in the hot tub, grilling marinated chicken and steak, or sleeping in I was watching movies. I wiped out the Netflix last week and was slow to return so a trip to Blockbuster provided me with a veritable plethora.

Just Friends: Love Ryan Reynolds. Funny and good looking. Predictable movie, but some awesome lines. A no brainer but a solid 3 ¼ RRD’s.

Memoirs of a Geisha: Just okay. Not as sexy or moving as I would have liked. Great fan dances, so good acting, pretty true to the book, but over all, I wasn’t riveted. 3 ½ for Mr. Ken Watanabe, meow, a great score, and kimonos.

Shopgirl: Painful but in a real way. Ouch. Surprised it came from Steve Martin, a tad darker then his usual work. A well put together movie, and yet…brought the mood down a bit. Think Lost in Translation kind of depressing…poignant particularly with lines like “ so I can hurt now or later.” A tad close to home I suppose.

Loser maneuver: In my effort to garden the hell out of the side yard so that there would be optimal aesthetic view for hot tubbing I ran into lots of nature, lizards, snake, many a mating bugs, cats, spiders and….an extension cord. I was being SOOOO careful but the grass was so tall in some areas the chord was hiding and well…in addition to the weeds and grass I ended up hedge trimming the extension cord. At least I didn’t set the grass on fire. Good news is I live with an electrical genius. So rather then buy a 50 foot extension chord, he can fix it. I don’t think anyone will miss 6 inches. If I had a dollar for …

Lobby: So a few months ago, you may recall they were redoing our work building lobby like FOREVER? Well, the redid the lobby then sold the building to another company and then THEY tore up the new tile, carpeting and the walls…oh and the ceilings. It looked like a horror film or a sci fi set. Pretty cool, except they were working very loudly for the last two weeks and the dust and paint is everywhere. This and there was no warning or reason given for this. I’ll be interested to see if the finished project is any better then it was before. Something tell me, not.

PANIC: so here’s a funny tidbit. Monday afternoon a man walks in the office with a HUGE, just HUGE beautiful vase of flowers. Big, fragrant lilies. I’m thinking, whose birthday next door? The man reads the card, flowers for Susannah Greenwood. And I nearly have a heart attack….what the hell did I DO last weekend?! Oh…my…god. And I start to read the card … “Thanks for a wonderful weekend…” My heart is racing…WHAT is going on…?Wait for it…..It was great working with you….Espe…my sister in law and my brother. Seems the redecorating and cleaning/rearranging Espe and I did was a success and because they are the sweetest people ever they rewarded me with flowers, which are still going strong. I would have liked to see my face though…

Winners of the week: Margaritas because, hello, margaritas, the weather, cause, hello, sunny, drumsticks, cause YUMMY and Scott, cause he knows why.

Dinner with former roomie and still new mommy Anu, Poker where I attempt to win a speeding ticket work of quarters, lunch with Matt Singer (Starbuck from Rainmaker last year) and Dinner with the roomies at the LOFT bar and bistro crammed in before Florida Thursday night.

Later skaters…