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My parents are leaving me for the weekend starting tomorrow so that means I’ll be left to my own devices when it comes to feeding myself. I’ll only need to worry about 3 nights…considering that I’ll most likely just succumb to something simple like cereal or ramen tomorrow night but Friday is looking like an early release day at work and then there is Saturday and most likely Sunday since that’s when they get back. And by dinner I don’t mean downing a pack of King Hawaiian Sweet Dinner rolls just because I can.

Okay this is off topic but is another else annoyed at all the new ways airlines are trying to recoup some of the costs to cover the rise in fuel? Now American Airlines is planning on charging $15 to check a bag. Not a second or third bag, but your first bag. Man this is ridiculous. I wouldn’t care if it weren’t for that stupid size restriction of liquids in carry-on bags now. Stupid terrorists…always gotta ruin things for the rest of us. Sheesh. I remember when we used to be able to take two bags on free of charge. And that was when I was still in college! The thing that sucks is while the airlines [and not all of them] are finding new ways to fleece the customers in order to line their pocket; the service is just going to continue to deteriorate anyway. Its bad enough that on some lines you have to pay for their crappy food [and the offerings in the terminal, while better are expensive!], now I have to pay because I need more than 3 ounces of body wash to last me the week? I’m going to do my best to avoid flying American Airlines and hope that the other airlines don’t follow suit. Because all this extra fees crap is nonsense. NONSENSE.

This fuel crap is starting to make it hard to travel period. Gas is super expensive everywhere so you have to plan your road trips wisely. Then plane tickets keep increasing to cover losses from the rising cost of fuels and as the companies scramble to make up the cash they cut flights, services, increase fees, merge with one another and tighten the competitive market, completely oversell their planes and then make it impossible to pack [can’t fit that in the carry on? Well for just $15 we’ll be happy to take care of it for you…]. It is just frustrating. At this rate, it’ll go back to the days when you had to be rich to afford a flight!

Yes I also know that people are losing their jobs as well with the cut flights and grounded planes and whatnot but why not cut the salaries of the top executives? There’s got to be some extra money they can free up from there. Is that even possible? But this is the thing that gets me, if one airline does something, soon the other will follow meaning is this only a matter of time before the majority of the airlines are charging to check baggage? I guess I’ll have to start keeping an extra set of toiletries with the bf so I won’t have to worry about finding travel sized bottles to put stuff in. But by that logic I should just buy a whole new wardrobe to keep with him so I don’t have to pack anything!

So let me say this, as a survivor of working with the general public in an Unemployment office for one summer, people, be nice to the desk people. It’s not their fault the company is being stupid.

I made the executive decision last week [yes, on a whim] to start taking vitamins. I mean, why not? Taking the steps to be healthy doesn’t hurt at all. So I did a little poking around at all the vitamin offerings and decided to go for the Flintstones sour gummies.

I know there are plenty of vitamin supplements for adults and what not but have you seen the size of some of those pills? They’re huge and not at all tasty when chewed and in reality, why would you take something everyday if it was gross? I don’t see the logic so I went with the kid’s vitamins and I’m glad I did because they taste so good [I also saw they had gummy vitamins for adults but still went with Flintstones because they SPECIALIZE in making things yummy for kids] and honestly, I can’t wait for each morning so I can have some more. Which is really the point. If consuming too many vitamins in a short period of time wouldn’t cause any damage I’d probably already have downed half that bottle.

Moving right along, I found out another one of my former college roommates had recently gotten engaged! Yay! I’m really excited for her and I had a good chuckle thinking about how far we came from college. Man those were some days. She was a lot of fun to live with. I really lucked out with my roommates during college. I don’t have a single horror story to tell.

To be perfectly honest though, after it was all said and done, later that night I sat back and just thought about things and I was a little sad that it wasn’t me. And as soon as I had that thought I hung my head in shame. I never thought I’d become that person. I am sincerely happy for my friends who are engaged and married but seeing them in that new part of their lives reminds me of how much I want to start that part with the bf. And while I am starting to get frustrated with the seemingly never-ending long distance part of our relationship, I’m partly responsible for the extended time in relationship purgatory.

I know that it will happen for us when the time is right but I just wish I had somewhat of a clue as to when. And yeah, I’ll admit that I’m completely antsy about it now. I’m really feeling that When Harry Met Sally line: “when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.” I’m there, totally and completely there. I am also sad to announce that I slightly pouted and whined, “When will it be MY turn?!” Hey, if I can’t be honest here then I have serious issues. Sometimes I feel like Veruca Salt if only because I do sometimes feel like pouting and yelling things like, “BUT I WANT IT NOW!!!” Not that I’m proud of it; it’s just how I feel.

Now if only our current situations were there too, which is the frustrating yet easily fixable part, but has partly been my fault. I completely stalled at agreeing to be open to moving so in all reality, we could have been actually closer to an engagement than we currently are now. And again, this isn’t supposed to be some weird rush to an altar. I just want this sooo badly. But before I was able to push myself into a deep funk, I hear a very timely message at church. The title of the lesson was “Faith to endure to the end” and let me just say it gave me renewed hope to just keep plugging away. I know that God is answering my prayers when I asked that He send me the man that I’m to marry and that His timeline is a whole lot different than mine and the basic little fact that I can’t rush Him nor can I tell Him how to do His job. I know my place. But in it all, isn’t it amazing that we hear things when we need to? Seriously, it was as if the clouds parted and light shone down on me and He was all, “Look, you need to relax and calm down before you hurt yourself. I SAID I GOT THIS!!!”

Duly noted.

So now I’m back to being content and just a slightly bit antsy. But not anywhere near as close to as antsy as I was this weekend. I call that progress.

But dude, when it does happen, I’m gonna be all out of my mind giddy. I can’t wait!

So if you were here today, you would have never known that we were just baking this weekend. Sheesh. The fog is back and I’m actually wearing a sweater. A SWEATER.

Anywho, I definitely needed the weekend to decompress from Friday’s events alone. It was a very busy day that started with an 8 am call time at work. And can I say just how much that extra hour threw me off for the rest of the day? Because I’d look at the time and it’d be 9:30 am and I’d feel like I was there all day already but was afraid because I had only been there for 30 minutes until I realized that I got into the office at 7:45 that morning so I was actually there for much longer. I did that all day. Not fun.

Want to know what else wasn’t too much fun? Not leaving the office until 6:30pm. Yes folks, I was here all day. I was tired by the time 5pm rolled around so stretching it to 6:30 was really stretching my patience but I made it in time to go straight to church even though I was still late. Once home, I tooled around on my computer for a little bit before giving up on life and going to bed at 10:30. I was feeling kind of nauseous and could feel a slight headache trying to start so I just prayed and went to sleep. And you know what, I had the best sleep ever.

I don’t know how long I would have slept if not for the flurry of phone calls I got from my mom and dad at 7:30 the next morning trying to figure out who called my mom from the house and why. I don’t know why they thought I would know considering that I was asleep the entire time but there you go. And that is why I was awake at 7:30 on a Saturday morning. And since I was up so early and knew I had a busy day ahead of me, I went ahead and did my hair. So that was done by 11 am and I felt like I had a super productive day. I ended up meeting Korede for lunch at Pasta Pomodoro and then did some browsing in Cost Plus, which turned out to be a lot of fun. Then I napped and worked on my Sunday school lesson before heading out to Cherry’s 80s centric birthday party, inspired by the New Kids on the Block reunion tour.

Let me say that I was going to get all dressed up for the event but ended up being lame [that seems to be a running theme] and not getting my act together in time but I did throw up a side pony tail with those jelly bracelets to match what I was wearing. But when I saw Cher…well she BLEW my previous idea out of the water. This girl popped out of her house in full 80s glory: a hot pink off-shoulder dress with matching pink leggings, black and pink leg warmers, one black lacy Madonna glove, a headband, plastic jelly shoes, various bangles and necklaces and CRIMPED HAIR.

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Animoto is awesome!

Hi. Hello. Konichiwa. Ahn-yong-HAsay-yo. [Lindsey's such a jerk] I have no idea if I spelled that right but I’m sure Lindsey will be here soon enough to chastise me for spelling yet another Korean word wrong. Sheesh.

Anyway, come gather ‘round as I regale you with a story of horror that I like to call my after work commute. What normally is an hour commute quickly turned into a TWO-HOUR ORDEAL from door to door.

The record heat in the Bay Area [it turned out to be 97 degrees in San Francisco yesterday] made the BART system go all nutty and cause system wide delays starting at about noon yesterday. I really wish they could have said something on SFGate or something because I had no idea what was going on when I finally left the office [I religiously check SFGate all day]. I happily crowded onto a packed Muni train because that’s usually how it is anyway and made my way to the BART station. I was standing in line to buy a new ticket when I glanced at the station board and noticed that a Richmond train was coming in 4 minutes with another one 33 minutes later. I wondered why that was but decided to walk very quickly to try to make that first Richmond train. I get downstairs to discover a packed platform and to a packed Pittsburgh-Bay Point train. Then I watched a Richmond train make its way into the station, already filled with passengers and then watched an unholy surge towards the open doors. I was not one of the lucky ones who got on.

But then again, it was 90-something degrees and incredibly uncomfortable and hot and sticky and being crammed into a tiny space with tons of people, some of who don’t handle the heat well at all, is not my idea of fun. So I waited. Then waited and waited some more. I overheard one gentleman trying to figure out which train to take and ended up striking a conversation. Which turned out to be a godsend later on since we ended up being travel partners. After a few minutes I decided to hop on the next Millbrae train and then go up a few stops to try to beat the herd and I ended up running into an old coworker in the process. We always run into each other in the most random of places. Anywho, the next available train was also packed so we hopped on the Fremont train and got off at Lake Merritt to learn that the next Richmond train would come to our rescue in 25 minutes.

Ugh. It had already taken me almost an hour just to get out of the city by itself and then I was stranded in Lake Merritt. Thank goodness for Mike. He was a very interesting guy, in the City on business doing medical research on neuro…something. I feel bad for forgetting but dude, it was interesting, then again I’m fascinated by stuff like that [is it morbid or macabre that I’m dying to check out the Mutter Museum? I know this is one place the bf will definitely be passing on]. It’s a wonder that I turned to business instead of medicine. Oh yeah, I didn’t like chemistry. But I digress, I just wish I could explain what it was in a more eloquent way other than saying he’s trying to use neurons to help treat autoimmune diseases. Actually I think that’s pretty close in layman’s terms.

It was also cool to learn that he used to ride with Greg LeMond when they were younger. And he used to be a short-track speed skater until he got hurt during training. Then we talked a little bit of baseball then golf and then onto my surfing exploits. It was a great conversation and it made waiting on BART so much easier. To that, I say, thanks Mike. Good luck on your project!

So after I wrangle myself out of the vise-like grip of BART [where it took me roughly an hour and 45 just to get from San Francisco to my station] I happily hopped into my car and made my way home. It was smooth sailing until I crossed the bridge and ran smack dab into MORE TRAFFIC.

I was devastated. Because it was already such a hassle just to get that far. Apparently there was a motorcycle accident a few miles up, which was the cause for the backup. Thankfully I still had time [and room!] to maneuver to the first available exit and just took the city streets home. At least I didn’t have to contend with roving packs of cows like my coworker. That would have sent me over the edge.

I was so relieved to come home. Even though the house was a steamy 94 degrees INDOORS. But that just meant I got to break out my remote-controlled fan.

Cuz that’s how I roll.

It is a hot one in the city today. The weather people have been predicting the bay cities to be in the 90s today with the inland areas reaching the 100s weather wise. I didn’t even need the jacket that I toted along with me this morning [I always try to bring a jacket because the weather here can be quite temperamental]. You really just never know for sure.

Anywho, I’m still at a loss of what I want to do for my birthday; that’s in August. I know I have plenty of time but you know what? May is half over and then it’ll be June and then the next thing I know it’s going to be the last week of July and I would still have no clue! With my birthday the first week of August!! At first I wanted to do a cocktail type party, alas since I live at home with the parents, any late-night entertaining just wouldn’t work. So that’s out. Then I thought “FONDUE!!!” but I can’t find a good place that’s not too expensive. I found one that was fairly cheap but the reviews on Yelp weren’t that encouraging. Then I thought about horseback riding and then drive go-karts but that is too expensive [I’m actually not too sure about the horseback riding since I didn’t delve too deeply into that one]. And then I thought maybe doing laser tag in Concord or at Scandia but I don’t know how those things are [and I don’t want to go back to Stars for the second year in a row] which led me to a real winner of an idea in a trip to the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk because you have the beach, the rides, AND mini golf, laser tag and the arcade [and for $30 if you buy online, you can get an unlimited rides bracelet PLUS admission to two of the other activities – total bargain and something I plan on doing with the bf whenever we figure out our vacation plans] but with the way gas prices have been lately I felt bad about having people drive all the way down to Santa Cruz; especially the people coming down from Sacramento.

And I thought it would be cool to do a group scavenger hunt but I can’t seem to find a good public one that would be way cheaper than holding a private one. Then I thought a fun little group cooking/baking class but those are expensive too. I could just do a beach thing but I don’t know if I really want to do that. Speaking of beaches, I’m getting antsy about getting back out there to surf. Plus it didn’t help any that the CFO was asking if days like this makes me wish I was there surfing. I don’t need any ideas mister.

Buuuuuuut if anyone else is up for learning how to surf I’d be down for doing that for my birthday. That is always fun.

So, again, what should I do for my birthday? Its gotta at least be as much fun as bowling was last year.

This is a lesson learned: so my new shoes I got…well I have learned [the hard way] that I am to wear these shoes with my little dress socks AT ALL TIMES. I adore them and they are finally starting to break in [yay!] but today I ran out of the house without putting any of my dress socks on [they are the no-show kind] and I came to work to discover that the back of the shoes rub up against my heel! No fun limping in those. Plus I had to walk everywhere today. Sigh. Thankfully I was [hopefully] able to head off any real blister by putting on band-aids over the sore spots. May I never do that again. The band-aids do make it bearable to walk though which is all that matters. Hopefully that spot doesn’t form into a full-fledged blister by tomorrow or else I’m gonna be mad. At myself for not wearing socks.

See people, this is why I always wear socks!

I’m going to be without my Mom for the rest of the week while she stays with Tammy to help her out for a bit. And I’m sad. Who is going to sit on the couch and watch Food Network with me on Saturday and make me not feel like a schmuck for still being in my pajamas at 1 in the afternoon? Well, I wouldn’t be doing that this weekend since I have plans but still. She’s my buddy.

So I’ll be subsisting on cereal for most of the week since honestly, I get home too late to want to cook. Okay, I don’t get home late a couple times during the week but I’m really kinda lazy. I’ll make some pasta and all but meh. Which is fine since I love cereal way too much and we’re fully stocked at the moment. Though I am sad since I just finished my box of Cookie Crisps this morning [so sad]. But I have no problem eating cereal. Actually both my dad and I have been resorting to eating cereal most nights. My dad because its his way of getting around the not as flavorful foods he’s been stuck eating since being put on a restrictive diet due to his health [he’s getting much better though] and me because I get home too late a few days out of the week to warrant a full-fledged meal when I’d just be going to bed soon so cereal is the perfect light yet filling enough to get me through the night meal to eat. Which has included the added benefit of keeping my weight in check since I’m technically only pigging out one meal out of the day [this is the logic of the Special K diet] and have a pretty low calorie count for the other two [because a bowl of cereal is nothing in the nutritional game].

But I also need to remember that just because I’m eating cereal two times a day doesn’t mean I get to pig out on kettle corn just because it’s there. Why must you be so delicious kettle corn? Curses!

Anywho, you know this is completely random, but I’m getting a bit tired of people making Vallejo out to be some kind of rough and tumble town. You’ve got the union folks saying if we don’t pay our police whatever insane amount of money they want to give their members then all hell is going to break lose and then you have other people who don’t even go to Vallejo except to pass through on their way to Tahoe saying how bad of a town it is. And you know, as much as I talk crap about Vallejo [because I do, I’ll be honest] I still like it enough to know that neither of those things are true. It’s not like Vallejo is some inner city rife with issues. Sure folks are ghetto here but the city isn’t on the same level as the hell that’s breaking loose in Oakland, Richmond or in parts of San Francisco. Puh-lease. The town isn’t that bad and y’all know it. Sure there is that one street I wouldn’t walk around by myself at night but other than that, it’s fine. And there’s always a street like that in every town. I don’t ever feel any sense of fear or urgency when I’m tooling around town. Honestly, the city needs to take this opportunity with the Chapter 9 bankruptcy and figure out how to better spend its funds. It’s a shame that I’ve had to watch public services and programs geared towards the kids living here get cut mercilessly over the years. The schools, while they weren’t top-flight programs, weren’t jokes like they are now. I’ve watched youth programs decline and disappear. The city library isn’t worth the time to try to find a parking spot to visit [and I honestly hated going there while I was in school myself]. Heck, the library at the high school was a joke even while I was there. These things are essential yet they’re always the first to get money cut from.

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Riddle me this, how does one describe how their professional goals have been significantly influenced by events happening around them? More specifically, how can I say what has influenced me and how when half the time I literally wake up and decide I want to do something?

This was the weekend for weird dreams but I don’t even want to remember the one I had this morning. Ugh. It was just too gross. So gross that I was completely grossed out when I woke up. I don’t want to talk about it. So let’s move on shall we?

Friday night I had a dream that I owned a dog. In a dorm. And this dog, he was an adorable little puppy that I, for some reason, named “Pig.”  I don’t know why I named my dog Pig but you know, I almost want to get a dog and name him Pig. After I name the other one Bear [“like Bear!”]. But there was something so cute about telling Pig to sit and watching him sit. He was the best-behaved puppy ever.

Maybe I’ll just get that puppy game on the DS and pretend I have a puppy. Okay, I totally wouldn’t buy that game but I wish there was a way to have a dog without really having a dog. Hmm. Too bad they don’t make the Sony Aibos and that they weren’t so freakin expensive because I would have gotten one of those. I think it would have been fun!

We finished up the hats Friday night for the Mother’s Day gifts the Sunday school classes were making. Even with help, I was still overwhelmed by the volume of hats the kids kept bringing up, several of which had already made 3 or 4 hats previously. They claimed they were for other people but I suspect they just wanted to make hats. Because they liked it. And then I went to Jacki’s parents’ house to meet her so I could get my new shoes that she managed to find in Sacramento. I was super excited and they are cute but now I have to break them in. Is there a way to stretch out the toe area? I’m thinking maybe I could stick some rolled up socks in there because I just need to raise the top of it on my left foot is all.

After hanging out with my Mom Saturday morning, I went back to church to practice for the Day of Pentecost skit we were going to do the next day. Laketa, being the drama queen that she is, got really into it which made the rest of us laugh uncontrollably. But we eventually got it down after many attempts and were good to go. I stand later to go over my little speech for the Mother’s day portion of the morning where we presented our gifts. The rest of the day was spent convincing myself I had napped long enough and then rewriting my speech and committing it to memory. I live such the glamorous life.

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I have done a lot of deciding this week. What kind of car to maybe buy in the future [that Honda Civic Hybrid since I am still boycotting Toyotas because of the plethora of slow drivers in Toyotas] even though I’m fully aware that I’ll be contributing to that thing with Asians driving Civics but you can’t really argue with and average of 40 mpg now can you?

Then I decided, with the help of Jacki and Tammy, on my mom’s Mother Day’s present of a new Coach purse. I am so glad I live within 30 minutes of TWO Coach Outlets. Say what?!  Yes, I am quite spoiled y’all. I get great weather practically 90% of the year, live about an easy hour’s drive from several beaches – and these are real beaches, not like the “beaches” around some lake, I don’t have to switch to a heavier coat until late November, AND I am in close proximity to two outlet shopping centers. Now if I could only get my hair to cooperate with me most of the time I’d be all set.

I wonder what kind of life I would be living [and the kind of person I’d be] if my sometimes moody hair were my biggest problem. Can you imagine? I don’t think I would even want that kind of life. The last thing I want to do is trip about my hair every single day. Ugh. Now that would just be hell.

But then I also decided that I don’t think I want to get that Lasik eye surgery anymore. I know the idea and promise of 20/20 [or better!] vision was appealing, especially since it’s been years since I last been called “Hawk Eyes” but it’s also been years since I was teased for wearing glasses and have gotten to the point where I think I look pretty darn cute in them too. I LOVE my new pair of glasses so much that I’m actually giddy to take out my contacts just so I can wear them. But I am really excited about my glasses this year.

And that’s pretty much the end of my decisions this week. Now I just have to finalize how much money I’m going to put into savings once my rebate check clears [yay for direct deposit…I think since I started getting direct deposit, the last time I saw the inside of a bank was like, maybe a year or two ago because I had to go in since my ATM card got stuck in the machine]. And I just checked my account and it has cleared! Yes. Now commencing with the saving strategy.

I also need to start looking into new cell phones since mine is coming up on my next upgrade. And I need to figure out what I’m going to do for my birthday this year. Getting older is a lot easier when you have an awesome birthday party. The party is the spoonful of sugar that helps the medicine [getting older] go down. So I guess my decision-making isn’t done yet. I’m taking suggestions for party ideas. Maybe I’ll organize a group to go go-karting? I need ideas people!