0500 – Wake up with a sinus headache.  WTF?  Drag ass out of bed to swallow the two Excedrin I should have taken last night.

Dog:  Huh?  Up?  Time to play?   Wheeeeee!

0510 – Hmmmm.  Not passing out.  Will try ‘relaxing’ Yoga Nidra on iPod to see if a little guided meditation (not as crunchy as it sounds, according to well, ME) will help.  Is way too early to get up.

Dog:  Wha?  No play?  Bummer.  Is v. cold in here, so I will now attempt to curl up to the size of a 3 year old’s soccer ball and sleep.  *sigh*

0535 – Hmmm.   Meditation not working.  Now finding instructions to ‘become aware of my right calf’ funny.  Not snot-bubble funny, but ‘I really need to effing sleep-PLEASEOMFG’ funny.  Headache gone.  Sinusy-crap NOT GONE.

Dog:  WOMAN!  Quit MOVING!  Pick a sleep position and for the love of god, SLEEP!

0600 – Shit.  Maybe need a Sudafed to rid myself of the sinusy-crap.  Drag ass out of bed to swallow the two Sudafed I should have used as an Excedrin chaser.

Dog:  OMFGJESUS!  Are we up?  Play?  No?  Play?  No?

0610 – OK.  I’m up.  Let’s go see if ResumeGodess has resurrected my resume from the black hole of despair that the rest of me has been crawling out of for the past few weeks.  She’s on east coast time.  As my aunt Sylvie always says…You never knows!!

Dog:  OK.  I can deal with this.  Paybacks for you, woman.  Will now lick myself solely because IT FEELZ GOOD.  Know this irritates the shit out of you, probably because it’s more action than you’ve gotten lately.  HA!

0630 – ResumeGoddess is a no-show so far.  Sinusy-crap reduced to something I can deal with, but NOW AM WIDE AWAKE.  Current television options:  Nutrisystem, Murad acne medicine, Insider Secrets, TurboJam, or colon cleanse.  Outstanding.

Dog:  <has passed out.  Go figure> Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

0700 – If I wasn’t me, would think this was pretty amusing.  Should write post about it since am not bad at self-deprecating humor.  Should also include cool pictures of the Dale Chihuly exhibit at the Phoenix Desert Botanical gardens taken while on vacay with Mom&Dad, coolest parents in the world.

Dog:  <props an eye open>  And one of me?  Playing?

_______________________________________________________

In other overdue news, here’s some pics of the Chihuly installation at the Phoenix Desert Botanical Gardens.   I had a ton of fun shooting with a photographer friend of my parents.  She actually makes spending money by taking rich tourists from the local spa/golf resort out on photo strolls.  I wanna be her when I grow up.

You can check the rest on SmugMug.

If you’ve gotten this far and want to check the rest, check my SmugMug site.

It’s very rare for me to comment publicly on political or social issues.  Usually it’s because I don’t feel articulate enough to adequately express what I know in my bones is right (or wrong, as the case may be).  While I don’t have a personal stake in the passage of California’s Proposition 8, the decision absolutely floors me.  Especially on the heels of electing a poster child for equality and change to lead this country.

That said (and given the fact that I’m a cynic and a smartass), it’s even more rare for me to be moved at all by political or social commentary from the mainstream media.  And if I close my eyes, ignore Olbermann’s overloud sighs and the switching of camera angles for dramatic effect, I hear the words I wish I could have come up with myself:

To echo my friend Rebecca: 

What he said.

J

(By the way, it took me 2 hours to write re-write edit this post.  Just sayin’)

Last weekend I was in New York to see the

VS.

game.

But first, I flew to Philadelphia and headed straight to my friend B’s bar

to meet some friends from my old SuperSecret job for some outstanding Belgian beer before we headed to

for tapas and martini’s.  On the way back to B’s apartment (a whole two blocks away), we stopped by

for some mint chocolate chip. 

Two hours and about $30 in tolls later, we arrived at B’s parents house in Long Island.  When I woke up in the morning, I went outside and found the coolest thing.

All of the houses on B’s parents block backed up to canals that led to the bay.  Mom, Dad, can I move to Long Island? 

After meeting B’s lovely parents, we caught the train into the city for the game.  Last time we went to a Yankees game, we started out at this New York institution:

This time, we met up with B’s friends at a tailgate for chicken and eggplant parm and BEER.  (was too busy drinking BEER to get permission from everyone to plaster their faces on the internet, so no pic for you here)

Once we were nice and liquored up, we stumbled to our seats to watch the game.

 And what amazing seats they were!

Thankfully, I drank enough BEER to survive this score

If the score had been reversed, I might have had to fight the ultimate Yankees fan.

I figured that if I can take 14 five year olds, I could handle him.  But I’m not sure that wasn’t the BEER talking.

 After the game, we met up with B’s friend Cat for dinner.

The restaurant was called Lotus.  And it was empty because we had the first reservation of the night at 7pm. 

I’m sure that the place was very Zen, but I kept getting distracted by the BIG SHINY THING hanging from the ceiling.  Cuz you know, disco balls are a decidedly Asian influence. 

After dinner, we stopped by a cool little bar for a(nother) drink.

 After McKenna’s, we were going to catch a comedy show, but between the fact that we might miss the drunk train back to Long Island by the time the show was over and the sad fact that I HAD A HANGOVER AT 11pm, we decided to head back to B’s parents house.

Because in the morning, it was time to go here

to pick out dinner! 

Since B’s an expert at lobster-wrangling, she did the honors

 She totally needed a LOBSTERTRICIAN tshirt like the guys that worked there were wearing.

Speaking of the LOBSTERTRICIANs, they cooked up our dinner for us,

and split and cracked them for us to take home

By that time, we were seriously hungry, but it was too early for dinner.  So B’s amazing parents took us to lunch in the nearby town of Freeport, home of the Nautical Mile.

After lunch on the deck with an unexpected free performance by the Blue Angels, we strolled down the block to play some

Here I learned two interesting facts; waterfalls in Long Island look like either blue cotton candy or blue toilet water AND B’s mother uses creative counting methods to win at miniature golf.

The rest of the evening was spent hanging out with B’s parents and learning the proper way to eat lobster.  Not a bad Sunday night!

The next morning it was time to head home.  But first, I had to experience one last New York specialty

We took our yummy breakfast bagel sandwiches to the beach. 

While we were walking the boardwalk, I looked toward the Atlantic Ocean and saw this

Speedos in May.  This confirms that New Yorker’s are insane.  And have interesting fashion sense.

After the beach it was time to head back to Philly to catch my plane home.  As we drove, I threw a huge thanks to New York and the Statue of Liberty for a great time.  And go figure, NYC had the last word:

**A huge thanks to B and her parents for being such great hosts.  I had a wonderful time and can’t wait for B to come out to Seattle in September!

Holy God what a weekend!  I took exactly 612 photos while I was busy burning myself to a crisp and am furiously digging through them to give you a first-hand look.  Hopefully I’ll have my shit together by tomorrow.  I managed to make my “glimpse” come 100% true and then some, so check back in with me on Wednesday, okay you two three?

This weekend I’ll be in 

to see the

VS.

game on Saturday.

But first, I’ll fly in to Philadelphia so I can go to my friend B’s bar

and have dinner at

and probably several of these:

with some of my friends from my old SuperSecretJob before we head to

to stay with B’s parents.

In

most tourists would check out

and

but I’ll probably be trying to avoid being made to eat a

from one of these:

and spending LOTS of time in places like this:

trying not to get into arguments with these:

since I’ll most likely have no idea what I’m talking about.

I hope we make it back to 

because I hear we’re going to feast on

(heh, not THAT one)

that we get to pick out of a tank and maybe relax on the

while we nurse our inevitible

Sound like fun?

Oh what a fabulous weekend!  Seattle was gorgeous outside, and although the entire city is very anti-air conditioning, it was the kind of weekend that makes people decide to move here.  Rain?  What rain?

Friday night I was supposed to meet the girls downtown at Fado, but the weather was screaming for drinks on a deck somewhere, so we met in Kirkland.  Mmmmm,  margaritas!!!

Saturday was as delicious as the day before.  Since I was working on a project in another building most of last week, I had to leave the dog at home.  NOT something she’s used to at all (I know, *sob*, *sob*, poor Chloe.  Tell me that after she craps all over YOUR house in protest).  The initial plan was to make it up to her by heading up to Marymoor park (this insane 16 acre off-leash dog park about 5 minutes from the house), but mamma needed a break too, and one without the potential of getting knocked over by muddy paws, licked upside the face or being bonked on the head by a tennis ball (not necessarily in that order).

So I packed up Chloe, a blanket, some water and my new boyfriend Kindle and headed for the park a few blocks up the road.

“IM GETTIN HAIRCUT, I PROMIZE”

 We set up camp under a huge evergreen tree and Chloe spent a few hours playing with every human and canine that came by while I attempted to spend quality time with Kindle.  God I love that thing.  As an only child I grew up with a book in my face.  No joke I have an entire dresser full of books instead of clothes.  So when Amazon came out with this new book reader, I knew I had to have one. 

“My new boyfriend”

And now that I have one, I totally want to marry it.  Is that wrong?

“I HAS COMPETISHUN”

** First one to find the reference to the post title wins a $25 gift certificate to Amazon.com. 

Almost every winter my list of things to do both at home and at work slowly piles up and gets to be so long that I can’t seem to do anything at all.  It’s not that any one of these tasks is so hard to accomplish, it’s just that the thought of all of them together is so overwhelming that I just want to bury my head in my pillow and hide.

Logically I know what’s going on when this happens, and it totally pisses me off that I can’t do much about it but ride it out. Seasonal depression, sometimes known as Seasonal Affective Disorder (S.A.D.) has reared it’s ugly head.  And in Seattle, S.A.D. is the soup du jour of winter.

This year has been particularly bad for me, since it’s been about two years since I’ve actually spent an entire winter at home and not either alternating weeks between Seattle and sunny SoCal or flying back and forth to the East Coast.  Couple that with the fact that Spring seems to be playing hide-and-seek in the Northwest and DING! DING! DING! We have a winner.

 Check out the symptoms, which typically begin in the fall, intensify in winter, and subside in spring:

• Decreased energy and activity. CHECK
• Tiredness, sleep more CHE..ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
• Sadness, anxiety OH YEAH
• Appetite changes (usually increased appetite) OF COURSE
• Carbohydrate craving DUH
• Weight gain DON’T WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT
• Loss of interest in sex (although I wouldn’t know, as my sex life has been as dry as the town I grew up in, probably due to bullets 1-5 up there, dammit) MOST LIKELY
• Withdrawal from friends and family UNFORTUNATELY
• Difficulty concentrating and accomplishing tasks WITHOUT A DOUBT

So how do I fix it?  Sunlight and activity.  All I can hope for is that beautiful Spring days like today start becoming more frequent.  In a small victory in my quest to make friends both inside and outside of work (more on that later), I was invited for an afternoon dog walk with a co-worker (YEA!).  Since it was still sunny when I left, I took Chloe by this dog park down the street from my house I’ve been meaning to check out.  Too many big dogs for her to deal with, but there’s a people park attached, so we took a stroll to see what was what.  This, this, this and this.  That’s what. 

See?  I already feel better.  What a great day. 

I’ve always been able to tell my mother everything.  As I usually have a problem with my filter between brain and mouth (I have none), this usually works out pretty good for me.  But in the past year or so, mom has become increasingly anxiety-ridden.  About everything.  And not in that cute little old lady way, but more in that “holy crap we need to figure out how to medicate that woman” kind of way. 

Kidding.  Mostly.

This weekend I headed over to the other side of the state to dump the dog off with my parents while I’m on business travel.  Armed with the best intentions of heading out directly from work on Friday, I realized that I had left my purse at home right around the time I figured that I’d best get something to eat from the cafeteria before it closed.  There’s nothing like a lunch of leftover Valentines Day candy to put a girl in a good mood.

When I was finally able to take off for the day, I called my mother to let her know I would be a liittle later than planned (the trip involves three hours of boredom and two mountain passes).  Affter connecting the dots that this would mean I would be going over the first of the mountain passes after dark, she hit what I lovingly call Defcon 3 - Increase in stress above normal stress levels. 

Now here’s where I went wrong:  in my wisdom, I blithely added that there was a new light blaring on my dashboard, and huh, maybe it meant that my tail lights were out, but probably not.  Holy shit, she skipped a level and went straight to Defcon 1 – Maximum force stress.  God forbid I went OVER THE PASS.  AT NIGHT.  WITH NO TAIL LIGHTS!!  I was a goner.  After bumbling around trying to backpedal my way out of that mess, I rapidly told her I’d call when I got on the road and got the hell off the phone. 

Collecting my purse and other random crap that I had forgotten, I bundled everything into the car and took a look at the offending light again.  After realizing that it was, in fact, the “hey dipshit, you pushed the wrong button on your key-fob and the damn trunk is open again” light (good God i’m a moron), I called mom to tell her that all was well and I was on my way.  It went something like this:

Me: I’m on my way.  We’re all good, the light just meant my trunk was ajar.  I’m still trying to learn the lights on this stupid car.  You can dial it back to Defcon 3 again, given that I’m still going over the pass in the dark.

Mom:  Oh thank God.  DAD!! She still won’t make it over the pass until dark, but at least she has tail lights!!!

Me:  Dad?  Can I talk to him?

Dad:  Hello?

Me:  She’s killing me.

Dad:  Don’t be lonely (said wistfully, and with total understanding)

Me:  She’s standing right behind you, isn’t she?

Dad: Yep.

Me:  I love you.

Sometimes I forget they’ve been married for 40 years and that I have nothing to bitch about.

Damn tax season.  It never fails that that influx of cash from my tax return pushes my “instant gratification” button and I Just.Have.To.Buy.Something “for me” (read: expensive).  God forbid I do something smart like pay off that last credit card.  Oh no.  That’s definitely not the American way.  Who needs an economic stimulus package when I can just blow my entire tax return?  Nevermind the fact that I’m just getting back all those taxes I overpaid over the course of the year.  Huh.  Maybe I’ll just start calling it my Federal savings account.  One I only take a distribution from once a year.  Ugh.  Nevermind.

Anyway…I’ve really never had a hobby that was mine alone.  Volunteer firefighter:  group thing.  Boat races:  again, group thing.  One of the things I love the most about reading a few of my staple blogs is their amazing photos.  I’ve had a jealous streak a mile long over those gorgeous photos (by the way, I’m a professional “lurker”, so if any of the owners of those fabulous photos makes their way back here, “HI!”).  Whether it is just images of day to day life or composition shots, I love the crispness of the photos.  The common thread here is they all use a SLR camera vs. a point and shoot.  So, I’ve been kicking around the idea for a while about getting a beginners Digital SLR camera and playing around a little myself.

After hours of slogging around on research websites, I’ve settled on a Nikon D40.  Since I’m hit or miss on if a new hobby will stick, the combination of raving reviews (it seems the D40 is the go-to camera for professionals who want to take “everyday” pictures) and price seems perfect.

My first real test will be in a few weeks.  I’m off to Paris and Orleans, France for work for a week and a half, so we’ll see what turns up.  More on that trip later.

The sky is falling!  Oh. Wait.  It snowed in Seattle last night.  Better stay home and cancel school.  And for the love of all that is Holy DON’T DRIVE ANYWHERE. 

I will probably never understand the mentatlity of the Seattleite.  I swear I’m going to rig a billboard on my car that says “Attention all Seattle Natives…The I-90 speed limit is 60mph.  Try it.  You might like it.  Attention everyone else:  My SINCEREST apologies for these fools.  Please don’t shoot.”

In other news…I left for work early this morning and hadn’t parked in my usual parking space the night before.  As I walk out of my building, I see a very nice BMW sitting out front.  I think, “Nice ride.  I wonder whose car that is?”  Uh.  MINE.

God, I’m a dork.  And that billboard?  Nevermind.

* By the way, no, this is not my actual car.  It is, however, the same year, make, model and color.  The weather has just been too shitty to take any good pics.