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December 24 No News is Good NewsStill no new content for you to read, but I have finally posted a bunch of photos over at flickr.
Oh, and it's now officially my birthday, so I updated my age. Sigh. December 19 I'll Be Home for ChristmasThis is the first Christmas that Mark and I will spend together. Our halls are now officially decked! Our little 3 foot fiber optic tree is out. On Sunday night, we glitter penned our names on our stockings and hung them by the chimney with care. There's a snowman candy dish filled (albeit usually for only 5 minutes a day) with dark chocolate kissables. And garland with gold ornaments hanging from the fireplace. Yaye! I'm pretty excited about Christmas this year. I've actually been listening to Warm 106 on the commute in the morning to hear their non-stop hour of Christmas songs. I'm totally dorking it up Xmas style this year.
I'm also really looking forward to spending the holidays with my friends this year. Given that they are the people that I spend my day to day life with, I'm closer to them in most ways than I am to my family, so it seems right that I should celebrate with them. I have all the presents wrapped and under the tree and I want to give them out NOW.
All that said, I do feel a little bit guilty to miss Christmas with the fam. Both my 15 and 17 year old sisters have told me that it doesn't feel like Christmas this year since I'm not going to be there and neither is my other sister, Kristie. I feel responsible on both counts since I'm the one who usually buys Kristie's ticket home, too. The little ones don't seem to have lost out on the Christmas excitement much because there will still be presents and that's what matters at that age, but I guess I didn't really figure the older ones would care. I'm also going to miss seeing my Grandma and her elaborate Christmas village. But I'll be going to see them all in January, and I think we'll have more quality time together without the Christmas hectic-ness.
You can't be in two places at once. And this year, I did what I want to do - that's my Christmas present to me. So from this moment forward, no more guilt about it! Time to get my XMAS on! December 13 Just Do It.Sometimes there are things I don't want to do at work or there's a difficult task I feel intimidated by, etc. I think that's safe to say about any job. When this happens, I get stuck in this weird paralysis where I can't stop thinking about how I MUST do this thing while at the same time totally procrastinating on doing that thing. So, in essence, I'm totally making myself miserable thinking about it and not doing it. Obviously, procrastination would work a lot better if I could successfully distract myself from the fact that the project exists. Alas, not so.
So. How do I deal with this when it comes up? It's totally a whole process I've unconciously created and I'm trying to decide if it's good or not. It works in the end, but perhaps there's a better way to go about things? What I do is I don't do it for awhile until I'm so miserable from thinking about it that actually doing it seems easier than thinking about doing it. From there, I get myself to start by telling myself that I only have to work on it for 15 minutes right now and then I can stop and do something else for 15 minutes. And then repeat. Eventually, it gets to the point where I'm engrossed enough that I stop doing anything else and finish up the project.
I guess the good part of this strategy is that the project gets done. The bad part is that I waste time feeling all anxious about doing the project. How can I make the mental leap to doing stuff from the outset rather than thinking about it and getting all mentally blocked? Now, that is the question. It's funny how a mental block can be so powerful and irrational. Like, rationally, the answer to the question is simply the old Nike tagline - JUST DO IT. Yet, the mental block is very nefarious and works in undercover ways to prevent that.
I guess it all goes back to willpower in the end. Willing yourself to do something. I wonder if there are, like, self-help books on building your willpower? That's a dumb question, cos this is America, land of the self-help book, so OBVIOUSLY there are books on it. I've never read a self-help book before and I don't know if I really want to go down that road. Next thing you know, I will start signing off my emails with "Namaste" or something. But I think I will try to remind myself how good it feels to be done with a project instead of having it hanging over your head. December 11 I HEART SFThis weekend, we took our annual winter sojourn to San Francisco. This was our second year, so now I'm going to call it a tradition. We arrived on Friday night and checked into our hotel which was considerably nicer than the Travelodge we stayed in last year. The rooms were tiny, but the beds were super comfy and that's the most important thing to me. Plus, the location was awesome - right in downtown and within walking distance of H&M and other Union Square shopping.
Friday night, we decided to go hit up the Mint Lounge for some karaoke. We didn't know anything about it except that there would be karaoke and that it was featured on CNN (so IT MUST be good). For some reason, we thought it would be a good idea to walk there. It was 10 blocks away, no big deal, right? Except that it was raining and they were 10 Market St blocks (which are LOOOOONG). 40 minutes later, we were soaked, failing at trying to hail a cab, and we finally took the bus most of the rest of the way there. We did indulge in a donut on the way there to keep our energy up. I forgot how many late night donut shops are in San Francisco.
The Mint Lounge delivered with cheap drinks, a good ambience, and a good karaoke system. We each sang a song, drank a lot, and took turns posing for ANTM style photos ("Look Fierce!"). We found a cab to take us back to the hotel and then I woke up the next morning with a crippling headache. Luckily, Peter and Chloe went to 7-11 and showed up at our room with Flaming Hot Cheetos and water and Tylenol. I was promptly back on the road to wellness.
We spent the standard hour waiting to get seated at a breakfast joint (one of the downsides of SF is all the waiting at tiny restaurants), followed by shopping. Lots of cell phone coordinating on meeting times, lots of walking around in the rain, lots of crowded people out Christmas shopping - so when we finally all met up for tea at the very cozy Samovar, it was a welcome reprieve. We had tea and a snack - a cheese plate that featured honeycomb and blue cheese. Mixed together, the two make a heavenly combo. Who knew?
For dinner, we went to RNM Restaurant. I chose the restaurant based on a blog I read and the fact that they were able to accomodate a party of 9 on short notice. Thankfully, everyone liked it and the food was wonderful. After that, we headed to Japan town for karaoke (box style) and made it home around 1. I drank half a martini saturday night - after that morning's hangover, I couldn't really stomach the idea of alcohol.
Sunday morning, we had authentic crepes for breakfast (YUM) and went ice skating at Embarcadero. The best part about the ice-skating was totally the Carnie-Rock soundtrack they had blasting. Nothing like 70's butt rock to get you in the holiday spirit!
We arrived at the airport far too early (thinking our plane was at 8 when it was actually at 8:40) where we had drinks in the airport bar next to some mysteriously unattended bags. Mark and Chloe were really freaked out about the bags being bombs. Chloe refused to go to the bathroom until we all left together so as to avoid survivor's guilt should the bagbomb go off while she was gone. Her paranoia and concern about being the one left behind was endearing.
While Oakland airport has surprisingly limited food options, their security screeners are intense. Rob and Sarah had given us baked products to take home and we all got pulled aside because of the honey and apple butter included in our care packages. And our toothpaste was taken away. Apparently, Peter got yelled at by one of the security managers for lying. He didn't know what was in the bag of baked goods and answered, "cookies??" when asked. There were no cookies, so he was chastised. We were like one more condiment away from a full cavity search.
Even though we were super early, we still almost missed the flight as we walked from one end of the airport to the other to investigate food options. DUH.
I also got yelled at on the plane by an off duty stewardess as I was coming back from the bathroom during turbulence. She was all like "YOU NEED TO SIT DOWN NOW OR YOU WILL GET HURT!" - so I sat down. I didn't know the turbulence was that bad and it started when I was in the bathroom, not before, so it wasn't my fault! But I guess I should have know to just take the first available seat instead of trying to walk back to my seat. Ah, well. Luckily, I was not harmed. December 08 TidbitsWhat I've been up to:
1. Playing my brand new PINK Nintendo DS. An early birthday present from my friend Jen (shout-out!) that has me addicted. I've been playing Super Princess Peaches in any spare time I have and I really resent that I can't drive in stop and go traffic AND play it at the same time. I just sit there in my car aching to get home to play it. I've taken to carrying it with me in my purse so if any opportunity comes up to play (waiting in line, etc), I'm ready to go! I'm leaving for a weekend in San Franciso this evening, and I'm totally looking forward to many aspects of this trip - one of which is getting to sit on a plane and play. Normally I hate the plane, but now I am looking forward to two uninterrupted (except to talk occasionally with travel companions) hours of play time. The only downer is that I'm stuck on this one level right now and have been trying to beat it for a day. I MUST SUCCEED.
2. Finishing up the Christmas shopping. My 9 year old sister, Rebecca, inexplicably requested this with much enthusiasm. She's a very girly-girl, so it was surprising. My mom wasn't even clear where the idea generated from. Perhaps Rebecca wants to practice her boxing so she can beat up on Breanna (our onery 11 year old sister). It may just end up being a novelty item that she never uses, but it'll definitely deliver Christmas morning glee - and that's what big sisters are for.
3. I'm now officially a mentor and got matched with my student this week. I'm excited, but also feeling a little shy and nervous. We're supposed to hang out one on one next Tuesday and I'm trying to come up with something fun to do. So far, I've thought of: going to coffee shop and doing a craft project, mini golf, or bowling. I like the idea of going to a coffee shop (which my student told me she likes to do) and doing a little decoupage or something and talking. With my sisters, I've always found we talk best when there's a bit of an activity distraction (though a not too consuming activity).
December 06 BlushingWe have moved offices. In our old building, the women's room was on the right and the men's room was on the left. In this building, it's reversed, and everytime I go over there, I remind myself of this fact. However, today I was zoning out, thinking about something else. And I totally walked into the men's room.
As I walked in, here's how my thought process went: "I thought I'd already been in this bathroom, but it's much smaller than I remember...but we just moved here, have I been in this one? YES....Oh, dag, that's a urinal, this is the men's room, get out!"
Thank god no one was in there. |
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