Month of December, 2003

Not Motivated

It's 7:30am. I should be leaving for work right now. Instead I'm sitting in my pajama's surfing the net. I'm really not motivated to do much right now. Thank goodness tomorrow is a holiday and today practically is.

Ok, off to the shower...I've got to get rolling at some point.

Comments

Time Crunch

I feel like Santa Claus must be feeling right now. Christmas is only one day away and I'm not ready! You see, I'm making Christmas presents this year. Only I got started a bit later than I should have. It took me awhile to unwind from school and get inspired.

It wasn't until Friday that I determined what to do then I gathered supplies and didn't start until late Friday night. My pace over the weekend wasn't fast and furious, because I felt I had things under control. Of course, I quickly learned I didn't. One of the processes I thought I was going to use didn't come out quite right. (I have to be vague so I don't give it away before Christmas!)

Anyhow, I formulated Plan B and bought more supplies. New supplies always cause some problems and that's all I dealt with last night, which meant I didn't get any real production done. Tonight I managed to overcome the problem and production is back in full swing. (It sure feels good to think logically and figure something out.) I could probably get it all done tonight if I weren't so tired...and if I didn't have to go to work tomorrow. So I'm off to sleep and will figure out a way to get it all done tomorrow night even if it means no sleep before Christmas.

No big deal, it'll be just like art school...and just like Santa Claus.

Comments

Christmas Gift from the Team

Wow, my team just all filed into my office, sang me a Christmas carol, and gave me a Christmas present! I almost cried it was so sweet. I hardly know what to say other than I feel very lucky to work with such a neat group of people. I feel really, really lucky that they think highly enough of me to buy me a Christmas gift. Wow, I feel great.

Comments

Peter's Holiday Party

Last night I attended Peter and Kim's holiday party. I only knew three people there, but I still had a great time. It's obvious that good people stick together.

Peter is a photographer so he took portraits of everyone at the party. I was balancing a lime on my head. It was a lime Peter was previously juggling. I might have been a little drunk at this point, but who's counting?

There were some interesting conversations at the party. The first and most bizarre was one woman asking another about her work with cancer patients. Woman1 asked Woman2 if she knew how they disposed of the tissues and tumors removed from cancer patients. "Weird," I thought to myself and couldn't possible think of a reason she would need to know that kind of information. Ends up Woman1 is a professional dog trainer. She helps train "cadaver dogs" who (obviously) search for dead bodies. Apparently she needs body fluid and tissues to teach the dogs about the scent. However, it's really tough to get a hold of that kind of material. (Yeah, no kidding.) Woman2 agreed to look into it though I doubt I'll ever know the outcome.

The second interesting conversation was with a woman, Karen. She told me about a cosmic Las Vegas meeting she had many years ago. (It came up because Peter and I told the story of how we met in a Las Vegas elevator.) Karen saw a very attractive man on the plane as she was going to Las Vegas to meet up with some girlfriends. It was the 80's and she thought he looked like George Michael. She was disappointed to see him kissing another woman on the cheek when they got off the plane. A couple days later, she found herself playing craps across from him in the Stardust. He flirted...she flirted...they hit it off and had a fabulous weekend. Ends up he lived in Houston so they dated for awhile. Things ended and they lost touch. Three years later, she was driving on a major highway in Houston and he ends up being in the car one lane over. They stop, catch up, and dated again for awhile. Karen said things eventually ended between them, but it sounds so cosmic, maybe it hasn't really come to an end.

I had a lot of fun last night. I met some really neat people, like Patrick, Peter's new coworker. The wine was great. The host and hostess were amazing. All in all, it was a fabulous party. Of course, it didn't hurt that no less than three strangers complimented me on my clothing, shoes, hair, etc. I needed that.

Comments

Broken Hip and 3Forks

Grandma fell and broke her hip yesterday. It was shortly after my mom left for work so she laid on the floor all day waiting for someone to come home. Luckily Dad came home before his party that night and called the paramedics. She was in good spirits this morning when I saw her at the hospital. She felt bad she was "ruining Christmas" for the family. I assured her that she wasn't. We just wanted her to get better and come home soon. Surgery for her partial hip replacement was over four hours this afternoon. Luckily everything went as planned and she woke up. (Hey, she's 92. It was definitely a concern.)

Tonight had a fabulous dinner with my boss. He took me to a fabulous restaurant and we had a great conversation. Feeling good about work right now. Most importantly, I feel good about the opportunities that I have for the future. No hurry though. I like where I'm at.

Gotta go practice a presentation I'm giving in the morning. (How did I get the 8am spot?) Practice and then sleep.

Comments

Before the Company Christmas Party

Kevin and me before the company Christmas party.

Comments

US Troops Capture Saddam

Comments

3rd Annual Lucci House Christmas Party

The big holiday party at our house was Friday night. I had a great time as I believe everyone else did (judged by the laughter at least). I didn't get as many photos as I would have liked, but these will have to do.

Comments

Soaped Fountain

Walking to class on Saturday, I noticed the fountain had been soaped. It was rather beautiful and reminded me of snow.

Comments

200 Peanut Allergy Deaths

Today on the radio, I heard there are approximately 200 peanut allergy deaths a year. Wow, what a thing to die from.

Comments

FedEx MBA

Awhile back FedEx had a hilarious commercial running. As an MBA student, I find it especially hilarious.

Comments

Let Sleeping Dogs Lie

I spoil my dog, Tiger, and let him sleep with me. Normally it doesn't cause any problems though often he gets a little too close for my comfort. (I think it's because he's cold.) The only time there is a problem is when I startle him awake from a dead sleep. He growls and snaps when I wake him up. Apparently last night I did this while his mouth was only inches from my face. Naturally, Tiger bit me. This is the second eye-related injury from my dog. I don't have an abusive boyfriend...I have an abusive dog.

Comments

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving holiday was lovely, but it all went by so quickly. Now here I am over a week afterwards finally getting around to write about it. I’m so distracted right now.

Wednesday night after work I flew to La Guardia. The airport wasn’t as crazy as I thought it would be, but I wasn’t able to park in a cheap parking lot because they were all full. (Note to self – next holiday I travel, make parking reservations.) Kevin met me at La Guardia and there was much happiness. Even the taxi ride back to his place was happy. The taxi driver didn’t smell bad and I could pay with credit card!

We goofed around the apartment for an hour or so before tumbling into bed completely exhausted. Plus we had big plans to get up early the next day for the Macy’s Parade. Unfortunately, we were too tired to get up at 6:30am as planned. We did manage to drag ourselves out of the apartment before 9am though. Naturally we didn’t get a great viewing spot of the parade at such a late hour. But I now understand why they have balloons. It’s for all the people who are 10 people deep and can’t see who’s actually marching past. Those of us in the back can just look up into the sky and see the balloons. Speaking of balloons, I was most entertained by the crowd chanting “Charlie…Charlie…Charlie” when the Charlie Brown balloon floated past. When we were tired of watching, we strolled parallel with the parade, but a few blocks over. The weather was perfect.

After the parade, we made our way to Danny and Alyssa’s apartment in Brooklyn. They cooked an amazing turkey lunch for us. I don’t know Danny and Alyssa all that well, but I’m so comfortable with them. They’re unusual in that they’re very open and honest about their lives. They share what they’re thinking. It’s a good way to live and something I need to do more often. After lunch we played ate pie (apple and pumpkin!), video games, and drank wine. It was perfect. Later, Kevin and I dragged our very full, very sleepy, and very happy selves back to Harlem.

Friday we had big plans to sleep in. It was absolutely wonderful. There were also big shopping plans, but I got distracted. During breakfast I had an epiphany about the way Kevin’s apartment was organized (or not organized in actuality). I decided that shopping would wait; we had to get things cleaned up. Even though Kevin and I have been dating for a year and a half, this was the first time we had ever cleaned together. (Cleaning isn’t on the top of the list when we only see each other once a month.) Surprisingly, we make a pretty good cleaning team. I kept my nagging down to a minimum and Kevin didn’t fuss too much over me touching his stuff. After about 4 hours, we had the place looking 100% better. Then we ran around town and shopped.

Saturday was the big out-of-town adventure. Kevin decided we were going to Beacon. It’s a small town about 1 ½ hours by train from the city. Kevin lived there for a while when he first moved to the East Coast. Now it is known for the Dia:Beacon, a museum for Dia Art Foundation's renowned collection of art from the 1960s to the present. It was a very, very chilly day (at least for a Southerner), but luckily we spent most of it indoors. The museum was incredible to say the least. Getting to talk with Kevin about art was a great experience as well. We ended the evening at The Piggy Bank Restaurant where we had really good barbeque and the best cornbread Kevin has ever had. Kevin slept on the train back to the city while I read. Public transportation is wonderful, because I catch up on all my reading! Saturday night we ended up in Times Square trying to catch a movie. Our timing was off so instead of waiting for two hours in Times Square for the next showing, we went home and watched a crazy Japanese movie, Battle Royale.

Sunday was relaxing. We had a wonderful brunch at City Diner. We saw Macy’s, which was a madhouse. That evening we ended up at the airport. My flight was delayed over an hour, but I finally made it home.

Kevin and I at the Macy's Day parade on Thanksgiving morning.

Comments

Tetanus

On Monday I went to the doctor for a general health check. (Didn't they use to call those "physicals?") Since I haven't had one since high school, I was given a tetanus shot. A whole five days after the fact, I still have a welt and some soreness in my arm. It's a relief this shot lasts ten years.

Comments

Dinner with Jish

Jish, know online at www.jish.nu, will be visiting Dallas tomorrow. Some of us are getting together for dinner. If you want to come, drop me a comment.

Comments