Encouraging News

I was in SF last Friday on the occasion of my cousin's birthday. She invited a bunch of people to meet up at a bar called Mars Bar on Brannan Street. My friend K. met me and we went to dinner at Paragon. I learned that my cousin has a lot of friends - a lot of guy friends. She introduced me to one who I thought was pretty cute and apparently he returned the sentiment. We ended up hanging out for the rest of the night - my friend left early. He got my number and we established that we were going to see each other again in two weeks. Yay! I like him. He is cute, nice, respectful, intelligent, etc. At least he seems to be...

He called me on Sunday night and I finally talked to him on Tuesday after a couple days of phone tag. We made plans to meet up on Friday night, Feb. 20 in SF. I will be there for work already.

Then, my friend who lives in DC is trying to introduce me to some other guy in SF who is the best friend of her friend's husband. I think he is supposed to call me. I don't know anything about him or what he looks like, but I'm open to meeting him. Why not.

Stood Up

I encouraged (but did not start) a flirtation with a guy who I probably shouldn't be flirting with, but I admit I welcomed the attention, since my relationship with R. had recently ended. We agreed on an evening for him to come over and cook me dinner. We are friends, but he is super hot and I can't stop myself from fantasizing about him. I'm not sure what I thought would have happened when he came over, but I would have welcomed a variety of scenarios, including him having too much to drink and being forced to spend the night at my place. Where the couch would be way too short for him, seeing as how he's about 6 foot 5. And 24 (years old, that is). Anyway - as our date approached, I hadn't heard from him so was somewhat concerned. I figured he had changed his mind, but that it was unlike him to not even let me know or come up with some kind of excuse. The evening arrived and I assumed he was flaking, so I made other plans that involved going to the gym and making shrimp tacos for myself. Never heard from him. No Facebook, no e-mail, no text, no call. Hmmm. I waited a couple of days and sent him a note on FB that said something like "it would have been nice to get a call..." but nothing too mean. We were supposed to have dinner on a Wednesday night. I got a voicemail message from him on Saturday morning telling me he was sorry that he couldn't make it on Wednesday night, but that he had been "busy". Then he said that actually, he wasn't busy, he had been in JAIL! WTF? I was laughing. I wasn't sure if he was making it up or not. I waited a couple of days and called him back. He told me that he got pulled over for drunk driving on Sunday (Super Bowl Sunday) and he happened to have four guns in his truck. Apparently the police weren't too pleased about that and they arrested him and threw him in the county jail. He called his sister and thought she could bail him out, but then learned that his bail was set at half a million dollars. Guess not. He stayed in jail almost all week, until his arraignment. So I guess that was a pretty good excuse. He told me that he was telling his cellmate (a word he didn't think he'd use in reference to himself!) that he had dinner plans with a "lady" on Wednesday night that he was going to miss. Unbelievable. I guess this was a sign that it wasn't meant to be! Now the guy can't drive and he lives sort of far away, and I'm certainly not planning to go see him. The next time I see him (if he doesn't get jail time for the felonies he was charged with) will be next month at a mutual friend's birthday party in downtown.

A Day in the Life

I thought today was a fairly typical day, so why not share the mind-numbing details. I woke up at 7 a.m. but was really already awake, because my roommate was getting ready and I could hear her. I took a shower - even washed my hair. I decided to wear my glasses today because I knew I was going to be spending a lot of time staring at the computer monitor at work. Lots of writing and editing to do on a report I'm working on. I wore a cream-colored turtleneck sweater that I bought a couple years ago from Macy's. It's INC brand. With that, I wore a pair of brown slacks that is part of an Anne Klein suit I got on clearance at Ross last year, and a pair of gold flats from Target. Mossimo brand. I packed a lunch - frozen entree, naturally - and headed to the light rail. Got to work around 8:30 and briefly considered going to get a coffee and something fattening to go with it for breakfast, but my co-worker convinced me to eat oatmeal instead. I worked a decent amount today, in between checking my personal e-mail and facebook accounts. I forgot that I had signed up to attend a luncheon seminar that included a free lunch. I went to that with two co-workers and listened to an economist talk about the recession. Nothing new. Had some decent salads, some delicious bread and a cookie. Afterward, I walked a few blocks to the central library because I needed something for my class, but when I got there and tried to open the front door, I realized what I already knew: the library is closed on Mondays. Durr. When I was leaving, I ran into a friend who was on her way to the courthouse. She thinks she'll get selected to serve on a jury. Kind of cool to see her. Went back to work and decided I needed a treat to help get through the afternoon. I went to Chicory, a close-by coffee place I like, and got a non-fat caramel latte. I found some cookies in the fridge at work and ate one of those. Mmm. I got down to business and before I knew it, it was 4:30 pm. I figured, I'd done enough work for one day and spent the rest of the "work day" doing personal business, like planning social engagements for the next two weeks. I felt pretty accomplished by the time I left at about 5:10 pm. Took the light rail, got home and fed the cat. Changed into workout clothes and went to the Y. Stopped at Safeway afterward and bought food for dinner and then some. Came home, turned on the oven, popped in some fish (coconut-crusted tilapia, yummy) and took a quick shower. I changed into some comfy sweats and prepared dinner. I made a spinach salad with carrots to accompany the fish. I watched the second half of a Two and Half Men re-run and then settled in to watch The Bachelor, one of my favorite Guilty Pleasures. My roommate watched too. Nice way to learn about American culture, huh? She's from Japan. During commercials I did stuff around the house, like wash dishes and change my sheets. I'm very productive in 4-minute spurts. On occasional commercial breaks, I maintained my position on the couch and read sections of the Sunday paper that I didn't get to yesterday, such as Parade and the Forum, Business and Travel sections. I also played with the cat, who was seeking attention. The Bachelor ended at 10 and I figured I'd go to bed, but wanted to check my e-mail (yes, I am obsessed). I logged on to the computer, synced my Ipod and then started typing in the blog. Then the phone rang (??) and it was my friend C. calling from her hotel room in SF. I chatted with her for 42 minutes. Now it is 11:36 p.m., about an hour past my usual bedtime. I'm tired...will head upstairs and take out my contacts, brush my teeth and probably forgo my usual few minutes of reading before bed. Good night!

Writing Class

I signed up for a journalism class at the local community college and tonight was the first class. I'm thinking that this may be the best $66 I'll ever spend. First and foremost, the instructor is kind of cute. AND he's not wearing a wedding ring. Hmmm. There do not appear to be any attractive male students, however. The people in the class are really interesting and come from an amazing variety of backgrounds. They are people who I would ordinarily not encounter, and we're all going to get to know each other really well because we are going to be reading each other's article drafts every week. Students range in age from 19 to 60+ and are a mix of ethnicities, including Asian, Latino, white, black and mixed races. Apparently, Sacramento City College is one of the most diverse colleges in the country. Most of the people in the class already have some experience with writing or journalism. It's a class specifically geared toward writing for publication. We're going to learn how to write articles for magazines and get paid for it. Or, at least, that's the goal. I have some ideas already but I'm hoping to get inspired and the class will help us to learn about developing unique story ideas. Tonight we had to interview one of our classmates and give a short introduction about that person. We came up with our own sets of questions. One of the more creative questions was "what's your favorite curse word?" Rather clever. For homework, we have to bring in a magazine that we'd like to write for, and find out what their writing guidelines are. I have homework! For the first time in...I guess 4 years or so, since the last time I took a formal class. That would have been a German class, in Germany.

The Pros of Being Single

Becoming single again after having been in a relationship, I've come to recognize a number of positives:

1) no sharing a bed with a guy who snores = being able to get a full night's sleep every weekend
2) no waking up way early on the weekends because he wakes up early
3) not having to be so concerned about "maintenance", i.e. grooming (very time consuming)
4) definitely no need to worry about the possibility of getting pregnant!
5) no more stressing about whether he's into me or not (clearly, that question has been answered)
6) no worries about vacuuming and lint rolling up all the cat hair before he comes over (allergic)
7) saving gas by not driving to his place in the 'burbs
8) not feeling guilty about fantasies involving a hot 24 year old former co-worker
9) having more free time to spend with people I truly care about
10) I'm sure there's a 10th reason...it'll come to me!

Breaking Up Sucks

One of the worst things about a break up is having to tell all your friends and family members about it. You're essentially forced to repeat a depressing tale over and over again.

Time to be Thankful

Things I am thankful for:

On a macro level, I am thankful to live in the United States. This is not a perfect place, and there are a lot of problems, but less fortunate people all over the world would love to live here. I'm also thankful to be a Californian. Sometimes I identify more as a Californian than as a U.S. American. I say U.S. American because that's what they called me in Germany, to distinguish us from other Americans - Canadians and Mexicans. Makes sense!

I'm thankful that Obama was elected President!

I'm thankful that I live in a nice place, have a comfortable bed to sleep in, and have more than enough food to eat every day. Seriously - way more than enough food!

I am thankful for my family - they are living close by, they are successful career-wise, and healthy. I am lucky to have a mom and dad who are very supportive. Sisters – have become friends and are cool people to talk to and spend time with. Brother – need to work on re-connecting with him.

I'm thankful for my awesome and amazing group of friends, in Sacramento and far beyond! My friends ARE my family. What's great is that I've gotten to choose them and hopefully – they choose me too. I love them so much and have such a wonderful network of close and peripheral friends who are great people and enjoy going out and having fun and spending time together. I don't know what I'd do without them – they mean the world to me.

I am thankful for my pet cat – so cute and adorable, even though bratty and annoying sometimes. How sweet to have a cute and warm cat curl up and sleep at the end of your bed every night and be a cuddly little companion to love.

I am extremely thankful for my job, at a time when many people have an unsure financial future and the unemployment rate is growing every month. Sometimes I complain about it, but I know I'm incredibly lucky to have this position. A lot of people would like to be working where I'm working. I'm thankful for earning a (relatively) generous salary with great benefits while working regular hours and not being stressed out. I am thankful for the opportunity to have a good work-free time balance and not have to worry about working on the weekends, or whether my organization is going to have enough funding to keep me around (hopefully). I'm thankful that my position allows me a great deal of flexibility and opportunities to travel, both within CA and overseas (2nd China trip coming up in February!).

I am very thankful for my house – after one year, I'm still loving it. I adore the house, think it's very cute and cool, and love going home to it every night. I am thankful that I have a little yard to spend time in, trying to get things to grow and stay alive. I'm thankful that I don't have a big yard to take care of, as that would be too much of a burden. I never thought I'd have a house all on my own, I always thought it was just something you invest in when you get married. Thank goodness I saw the light and realized that home ownership wasn't some romantic thing, it's an investment and usually a wise one.

I'm thankful for my freedom and independence. I'm glad that I have occasional romantic relationships (emphasis on occasional) because it's a nice ego-booster when a good-looking guy wants to spend time with me, but I am so used to being on my own, it's hard to imagine all the sacrifices and compromises I would have to make in order to make a long-term commitment to someone else. I still hold out a little bit of hope that I'll meet someone one day who will have similar or the same goals and ideals as me, and who wants the same things out of life. Until then, I'll just appreciate what I have while I have it and enjoy my freedom.

We all get frustrated and annoyed at little things every day - that's human nature. When this happens, I try to remind myself how lucky and fortunate I am, compared to most other people in the world, and my problems seem so miniscule in comparison. For example - look at what is happening right now in Zimbabwe and the Congo. Horrifying - and looking at the situations over there makes me realize I have nothing to complain about. Even here in Sacramento, people are going hungry and waiting in lines for hours at the food bank to get a holiday meal package. There was an article in the paper today showing a long line of people, mostly elderly, waiting in line for their Thanksgiving food package. One of the ladies was crying, she was so frustrated and tired from standing in line for hours. How heartbreaking. On Thanksgiving morning, thousands of people, including me, will be participating in a charity run/walk with proceeds going to the Food Bank. I can't donate much, but it's something.

Keeping things in perspective is important - gratitude and thankfulness is something that should be part of our lives every day, not just on Thanksgiving. It's so easy to be selfish because that's what our culture encourages.