2009 - Year of the Crazy, Er Year of Change

I'M STILL ALIVE!!! Blog I've missed you but been otherwise sidetracked with a couple of things.

1) Getting laid off from work. Yippee!
2) Dealing with unemployment, cobra healthcare, and other misc paperwork
3) Running amuck routine-free, sleep deprived, and pulled in a million directions
4) Fleeing and hitching a free ride up to San Francisco the first week out of work
5) Trying to get back into exercising at the Y
6) Catching a nasty cold the second week out of work after a particularly tough cardio class at the Y. Grrrrr. Exercise=evil
7) Exacerbating said cold by going up to Mammoth Mountain for a snowboarding/sledding on butt trip last weekend
8) Battling extra gnarly cold which came back with a vengeance as an upper respiratory infection
9) Becoming big fat lethargic Whatchamacalit all short of breath and chronically tired this past week
10) Making good on my promise to flee to Paris (and Belgium) this year. Leaving next week!

Gonna touch on each subject a little more in separate posts!

Still Restless

Because the "tool" made it impossible for me to take more than a week off this spring, I am taking several mini-vacations until October when I'm hoping to hit up New Zealand with the Bourgeoisie friend on this tour.

So out of this previous list, I've managed to hit up #7 San Diego so far.

This Friday, I'm back at #3 Seattle (more on that later), mid-May I'm off to #2 New York and #1 San Francisco by end of next month. Almost veered off to Portland or Austin instead of NY because of scheduling conflicts with friends, but in the end I can't stay away from New York and all its glorious shopping and food.

As for fleeing the country, #6 Toronto is still a possibility this summer and Bizarro Twin mentioned Croatia possibly next year. I still have no idea what's going on with Japan.

Darn work gets in the way of fun and travel. But I guess I need to earn enough funding to actually go places.

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!

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...

Winter Whimsy

It's only been about two months since I flew off to New Mexico for the birthday celebration with Miss Flip Flops, and yet it feels like it was eons ago. Thus, restless me has booked a weekend trip up to Seattle to visit Princess, cold weather, rain/snow and all. Maybe I'll bump into Loofa, who's been AWOL from the blogosphere for awhile. Maybe I'll luck out and have beautiful sunny albeit freezing cold weather. And maybe, just maybe I'll get further insights into the latest boy, who has decided to tag along with me up north, under the guise of visiting his hometown friends and hopefully being Princess's and my personal tour guide.

The trip may have been last minute and somewhat whimsical (the airline ticket probably reflects the cost of whimsy) but I feel so sneaky. I have it all plotted out. Tomorrow night is our company holiday party. A good chunk of the company usually calls in sick the next day due to massive hangovers and illness. Perfect excuse to call in sick myself and fly up Friday morning. However, I do have this worst case scenario in my head: a snowstorm strands me and the boy in Seattle Sunday night. We have to let work know we'll miss Monday and somehow expose all the lies and fraud of the sick day, the weekend, and our relationship. Gulp.

But then again, if that's my worst case scenario, that's really not so bad. Whoo hoo!

Birthdaypalooza

No dreams about work. No wanting to strangle anybody. Imagine that. The escape to New Mexico with Ms Flip Flops was just what I needed. For the first two days, we stayed in Santa Fe at this wonderful spa where we got wrapped, massaged, and scrubbed till we were shiny and new. To quote the masseuse, I got a new birthday suit for my birthday!

There were crazy thunderstorms on our first night but downtown Sante Fe was small and quaint, fun to walk through, and you couldn't walk five feet without stumbling over an art gallery. In our room entitled the Rising Moon however, these two city girls couldn't start a proper fire if our lives depended on it. This was just us burning paper. We burned all the starter sticks, threw about 40 strike anywhere matches in there, and burned all the paper we could get our hands on by the end of our stay. Including some of our maps.


For the last two days, we headed over to Albuquerque, coincidentally in time for the first day of the International Balloon Festival. Unfortunately, on the first day, winds were so powerful that the evening balloon glow was cancelled. The Sandia tramway was also closed. So we got some delicious BBQ and called it an early night.

Just in time to wake up at the crack of dawn in the bitter bitter cold to catch mass ascension - when all the balloons rise up into the sky at sunrise. Was it worth it? Well, for the one time, I guess so. Though a hat, mittens, thicker jacket, camera with better zoom lens, and a mug of hot coffee will be a requirement if and when I make it back there.

If I Only Had Wings...

I hate flying. I hate the act of traveling. It tires me out either from the glut of people or the lack of oxygen on the plane. Then there's the layovers and the delays, like the 7 hours my family and I spent at the Chicago Midway airport just last weekend because of bad weather on the east coast. Yet, I'm always restless to hop on the next flight for another trip. I like going to new places and being temporarily away from my normal routine.

Unfortunately, short of sprouting wings, there's no other quick way to get to all the places I want to go. I wish I could apparate into a new place, ala Harry Potter but it sounds difficult. Then there's floo powder for beginning wizards but you need a fireplace. Finally, I could hope for beaming technology like Star Trek. But I'm a little frightened of what could go wrong. What if I'm reassembled with my arm on top of my head or worse, inside out as in Galaxy Quest? Not pretty...

Until something quicker and better comes along, I do have two free flights to go anywhere I want in the continental US, courtesy of all the frequent flier miles I've accumulated. Hoorah! The choices are endless... another trip to San Francisco to see the pregnant best friend before she explodes? New York city again for a birthday indulgence? Seattle to visit Princess while she's up there on a project for the summer? Or maybe Austin to see my old boss, purely because I've never been to Texas and it would check off another state in my quest to see all 50 states one day. Or if I was feeling especially masochistic I could fly to Vermont for the Boy's wedding since I did receive that dreaded invitation. Ha! I'd rather chance beaming technology and be turned inside out.

A Quick Note on Hawaii

I have tons of pictures to share, but that will be another longer post for another longer night. For now, the highlights: seeing a beautiful rainbow while driving across part of the island (see picture on the left), McDonald's fried apple pies, finding Whatchamacallit bars at stores everywhere, snorkeling, and living with all my old roommates again, one last time before everything changes forever.

Dreaming of My Next Trip

I'm fantasizing about playing hooky tomorrow and sleeping in, figuring out those darn finances, and putting some kind of plan in motion. Whether it be a plan for leaving work, coping with work, creating my next trip, or just actively trying to be happier with my life. Unfortunately as it stands, I've only accrued three vacation days so far and only have one or two sick days left for the year. I've gotta hoard these things like gold if I'm ever going to have a break.

In the meantime, I'm going to list the places I want to go next and see if anyone wants to join me. Trekking through Scotland, Scandinavia and France alone last October was great and all, but I did get lonely at times. You have no one to turn to and share those unique experiences with at the time nor anyone to relive them with later on by reminiscing.

The goal before I die is to step foot on every continent, all 50 states, and visit at least 50 countries. I'm halfway there.

In no particular order:
1) South Africa - my friends there just wrote me asking when I'll ever go visit. I'm dying to go on a safari, touristy as it may sound
2) Australia and New Zealand
3) Spain and Portugal - It's the only part of Western Europe I haven't visited.
4) Croatia and Greece - my friend has an apartment there and goes every other year. Any place where there's free room and board, and a local guide who speaks the language rocks.
5) Brazil, Argentina, and Peru - those are the main countries I want to see in South America

Those are the top 5 though I think I'd only visit the first three by myself. Ooh, Iceland and Ireland too. After that, I'm game to revisit Italy, France, most of United Kingdom, and Japan. I'm intrigued to see Antarctica, China, Turkey, Galapagos Islands, Cuba, India, Russia, Alaska, and the deep South though not as urgently.

It Was Just One of Those Days...

Sometimes, when you're a kid growing up and struggling to make it in this world, there's just not enough simple adjectives to describe a day when everything seems to be going against you. This was one of my favorite childhood books and I still think of this description when I'm having a bad day.

Friday was one of those days. It was not one for the record books by any means, but from the minute I stepped out the door, everything was a bit off. First I slipped down the stairs of my front door, the first in over four years that I've lived here, turning my ankle into a bloody mess and pretty much preventing my plans of lounging in the pool this weekend. It's been 3 days and my ankle still hurts!

When I got into work, I managed to spill half of my morning iced tea down the trash to start the work day. I did entertain and mesmerize a couple of coworkers as they watched me clean my ankle wound in the kitchen. "Oh man, were you skateboarding? Did you fall off your bike? What were you doing?" Uh no, just clumsily fell down the stairs people, no need to gawk.

The rest of the day was spent managing extra projects that my boss (out on vacation Fri and Mon) had left me. His supposedly "easy" project that I started for him and now have to deliver Monday proved to have a bit more high maintenance clients than he thought. I ended up having to check in with the artists and clients all weekend - while in Phoenix for my friend's bridal spa weekend.

One of my kind, well-meaning coworker friends (the depressed one) insisted on driving me to the airport despite being swamped with work and despite the fact I had someone else lined up to take me. I feel like a heel even bringing this up but when I got in the car, he realized the car needed gas. I also forgot that his poor manual transmission car is on its last legs, has issues going over 40 mph and lurches to and fro, rendering me nauseous before I even got on the plane. Needless to say, I stressed all the way to the airport wondering if I'd make my flight on time.

At the airport, about thirty minutes before boarding, the Southwest rep announced on the PA system "Folks, look around you. See who's standing in front and in back of you in line. Now be nice and move over to gate 10." We all scrambled twenty feet away and I ended up standing in front of an Indian family with a two-year old kid who would be the bane of my existence for the next 2 hours.

In line, he insisted on having water to drink. He drank too much and spit out half of it on the floor, on my foot, and on my bag. On the plane, they ended up sitting across the aisle from me. When the kid wasn't running back and forth and yelping with joy, he CRIED, WAILED, and SCREAMED at the injustice of being held down by his parents throughout the entire extremely turbulent flight until landing. When I had my Ipod on, it was somewhat bearable. But for those last 30 minutes of descending when you're forced to turn off all electrical items, longer than usual since we circled around and around in the air until dust storms subsided, I wanted to hurl that kid out the window. I settled for plugging my fingers in my ears and glaring at the parents, like most of the miserable passengers on the plane.

After sprinting off that plane, Miss Flip Flops came to my rescue, bearing gifts of delicious Chick-fil-a nuggets in the car. A block from her house, we got pulled over by the cops. "I'm bad luck!!" I exclaimed. "I'm dragging you down with me!" I hysterically cried. Luckily, her good luck seemed to overcome my bad karma with cops (me and cops, that's a whole other long entertaining story for another time). She got off with a warning for rolling stops at two stop signs.

We chugged along that last block to her house. As I walked in, I was greeted enthusiastically by her 13 week old half Akita/half wolf puppy. She was so excited to meet me, she peed on my foot.

I finally managed to settle down for the night and decided to take advantage of the fact that I had the office as my room. I checked all my email accounts once more and wrote for the next hour about my day. When I went to hit spell check and then save my post, the whole thing disappeared. This is my second time writing about it.

Spelling and Singing

My childhood friend, the first friend I met when I moved out to LA when I was 8, got roped into participating in a spelling bee for charity. She invited me to go based on the fact that we were competitive little nerds way back when and because I could vouch for her intelligence if she misspelled a simple word. Unfortunately, even though I got to the venue minutes after the scheduled start time, she was already out. Done in by the word "occurrence." "Two r's," she said. Though I couldn't watch her on stage, my spelling friend proceeded to spell every other word out to me as they read them to the contestants. Yup, she's still smart!
So we blew the joint after the rest of her company flunked out and headed over to Palm Tree LA in Ktown. Her old law firm was hosting a karaoke night for their summer associates and her friends were in charge of shepherding those 2nd year law school younglings around all summer. For us, it was free dinner and entertainment.
"Maybe you'll meet a boy," she remarked.
"A boy younger than my brother?" I replied.
We parked ourselves in a prime spot at the table, chowing down on chicken wings and dukboki while the summer associates sang their little hearts out. The Speller had to work for our free meal - she mingled amongst the hopeful associates while I sat back and watched how fresh and unworn-down from law they were.
It was refreshing to hang with non-creative industry people for a change, a roomful of outgoing, A-type personalities, unlike the usual scattered-brained, moody lot I see all the time. I THOUGHT OF actually making an effort to chat and mingle, but my shy and lazy nature got the best of me. It was a huge effort on my part to even go to an event like this. This is me half-heartedly going out, trying new things, possibly meeting new people.... (baby steps!)

Local Tourist

It's too hot to live. Anything over 75 degrees is no good for me. How I survived in Phoenix as a child, I don't know. But right now, I have every single door and window open in the sauna that is my air-conditioning deprived apartment. I'm thisclose to just walking around nekkid, modesty be damned.
Anyway, been trekking out and about all day, playing the local tourist. I joined SLY on a free metro art tour of the LA redline and finished it all before lunch. Impressed with this lazy sleeper? We started at Union station where Lucille and Dan provided commentary and led us through the Gateway Transit Center, which manages all public transit in LA.

Art Deco-like lighting fixtures in the GTA.



On the way down to the Red Line, there is a hypnotizing light piece called "Atrain" by Bill Bell. If you watch the different lighting configurations, you're supposed to be able to see and hear a train, taxi and famous faces. I only saw a train.



So we finally get to ride the Metro. Wheeeee! My first time riding on the LA subway system! Right away I notice that
1) it is super clean
2) no rats scurrying about in the tracks
3) it's really quiet down there




This is probably the reason why. There's no smoking, eating, drinking, littering, gum chewing, gum spitting, skateboarding, rollerblading, razorscootering, music playing, nor loud talking allowed. Subject to $250 and 48 hours of community service. Sheesh.






My favorite piece on the tour is "Into the Light" by Therman Statom. It's the pieces suspended in the skylight of the Westlake/Macarthur Park station, pictured at the very top. Beautiful as the MacArthur Park area is during the daytime, it's also the Rampart district. Lucille warned the women on the tour not to come here at night because of the rampant drug dealing - this used to be the area where Shrewlady prosecuted pimps, prostitutes, and drug dealers. How lovely to see her old workplace...



Some aspiring musicians waiting for the next train.








Last stop of the tour, Hollywood and Vine. This is the interior of the station - no joke. Film reels cover all of the ceilings.


By then, I was starving and ready to head back to Union station. SLY and I trekked over to Chinatown for some quick takeout dimsum and boba tea. We walked along Broadway where I bumped into a distant relative (go figure) and managed to whip out enough Chinese from who knows where for a quick conversation. I think she's my mom's brother's wife's sister, or something like that. She didn't even know my mom's name, only her birth order and title! "Ninth sister." haha! Gotta love the Chinese formality of names and titles.
After we headed our separate ways, I made a quick jaunt through some shopping plazas. My peoples has really stepped up with the trendy shops! Munky King is like the Chinese version of the Giant Robot store. Cool toys and uber friendly staff that greet everyone with a loud shout "WELCOME TO MUNKY KING!!!" But don't mention the GR word around them. They pouted at me in mock indignation. Next door was another fun novelty shop Realm. I definitely need to go back and explore some more, maybe on a less sweltering day, say October.
I also managed to see my friend's ballet recital and run some errands, including picking up a pair of new hiking shoes. I'm exhausted! I've decided that if the metro ever came out to West LA, I'd try to use it. I really like the idea of subways, even if I feel dirty riding on public transportation. Kinda like how I really like the idea of camping, hiking, carpooling, eating healthy, and having a boyfriend, even if it's the wrong boy.

Chi-Town

They call it the City of Big Shoulders. Is it because it's known as one of the fattest cities in the US? There certainly are enough steakhouses around to feed everybody! Yum...

Anyway, I love this town. Tall beautiful buildings, like the Wrigley Building pictured above, H&M shopping, delicious food, and wonderful museums. There is a great Leonardo da Vinci exhibit going on at the Museum of Science and Industry, where they built several of his inventions. They also have original manuscripts from his notebooks!

My brother indulged me by driving me throughout Chicago as we ate our way through the city. There was Scooter's Frozen Custard, creamier and smoother than any ice cream or gelato I've ever had, Gino's East deep dish pizza, the best tapioca mango freezes at Joy Yee's Noodles, and a great little sandwich chain named Potbelly's that kicks Quizno's ass. Potbelly's even has musicians playing. This particular one we went to, they stuck the poor guy up in the rafters.



Here are two other buildings I loved - big recognizable names such as Bloomingdale's and McDonald's, but not your usual building structure.




Tried to tag along to my brother's business school class, but was strongly shut down by my mortified brother. Frank Lloyd Wright's Robie House is across the street from the business school, but they only had guided tours for $12. No wandering around at your own pace kind of deal. Because the guy at the Robie House bookstore was rude to me and on principle, I refused to pay that much to tour the house and settled for taking a picture of it.



It's my third time in Chicago, and I'm still not sick of it. It's one of the places I don't tire of visiting, like New York, San Francisco, Paris... :) Can't wait to go back next year for my brother's graduation!