Restless

Well, the first month of the year hasn't even ended and I'm already stir crazy and trying to get out of town. Is that bad?

My hippo-loving Africa traveling buddy, sent me this. Though it wasn't on my list of places to go and I swore that the next trip would be something more luxurious with no roughing it or strenuous activities involved, I am quite tempted.

So I got South Africa off my list, which was #1. Now where to this year...

1) Costa Rica - purely because I have a friend to go with and it's somewhere new
2) Japan - because I may get to attend a wedding as someone's date
3) Croatia and Greece - If Bizarro Twin can coordinate the right times with me...
4) Spain and Portugal - Can always go there alone if all else fails
5) China - it's cheap and if someone goes with me, why not?
6) Toronto, Canada - possibly family reunion and cousin's wedding reception. wheeeee!

As for travel within the US, I definitely will hit up:
1) San Francisco - because I skipped it all of 2007 and I need to go there at least once a year
2) New York - same reason as above
3) Seattle - because there's more to see and now I have people to stay with
4) Portland - because I've never been and there's people to stay with
5) Austin - same reason as #4
6) Vancouver - technically not in US, but only 2 hour drive from Seattle. Plus I can stay with cousins
7) San Diego - doesn't require flying, cousin lives there, and I have a wedding to attend

Anyway, at this point I would gladly even hit up Tijuana just to get away. We'll see how fast I can bolt!

On Hate and Other Horrid Things

I have seven projects to manage at work. Seven different clients, seven different schedules, seven different production trackers, and seven different deliveries.

I am angry. And I have told my tool of a boss just how angry I am at him and at the situation he's put me in. He apologized repeatedly and threw in a couple of "I understands" and some "I'm so swamped too." Which does nothing for me because it's not a solution.

What pisses me off even more is that it's the work of two people and my head is barely above water. He did this to me last year, I pulled it off, asked for a big raise, and they shafted me.

So I'm bellyaching to anyone who will listen to me until I get more help and the work load is more balanced. Supervisors, owners of the company, other artists... no one can dare complain to me if I fall behind. Or occasionally growl at people.

As a cherry on top, some of the clients on my biggest project, the one dealing with the yellow-colored cartoon family, are just A**HOLES. No way to mince words. One in particular, who I shall heretofore call the DICK is so abrasive, so aggressively rude, so much a waste of oxygen, that my blood boils after every interaction with him.

It's been a while since I've hated anyone so much, thought such horrible things during meetings (stabbing him repeatedly, baseball bat to the nuts...) cried at home partly from work dealings. Luckily, everyone else hates him too AND I have wonderful people around me who listen to my rants everyday. Until then, I'm counting down the days till this particular project ends, till every single one of these projects end and I can dream of my next vacation.

Oh Blog, How I've Missed You...

You know how something's got to give? So sleeping, reading, and writing seem to have given way to spending more time with this boy. And of course it doesn't help that work has once again become murderously insane at least for this month and next. And I sure as hell won't give up time with my friends.

So there we have it.

Not enough time in the day, nor energy to do everything I want to do. I'm already restless and itching to travel to my next destination...

Year End Travel

For some reason, of all the pictures I took in Seattle, this is one of my favorites. Probably because it looks so ominous and so unlike the fabulous weather and mood of the whole weekend up there. But on this particular night, we were also denied entrance to the Space Needle on account of some private holiday party. Pooh. I took this picture as we walked away from it and slunk back towards the hotel. Well we made it up there the next day anyway...

In Vegas over the holidays, I managed to drag my friends out looking for old neon signs. Here are the letters 'A' and 'R' from the old Sahara hotel, now residing at the Old Mormon Fort visitor center (yeah it sounds weird... but apparently it's where the city of Las Vegas started) until the brand new Neon Sign Museum is built later this year. Can't wait to go back and see the rest of these fabulous signs! Yeah, I'm a geek...