Lit Wit & Mixed Musings

Haven’t written in over a year.

Not good.

Highlights:

• For the first time, I actually Quit a job.  It was hard.  It was scary.  I cried.  But I learned more of what I am capable of as a person. And I wouldn’t have been able to make the change without the unending support of my family and friends.  Holla.
• I got a new job.  It sort of landed in my lap at just the right time.  I was planning to take time off, refresh, write, ponder, etc.  But the opportunity was just too good.  The people are amazing, brilliant, warm, welcoming and hilarious.  The clients are fantastic and challenging and unique (can you say Bay Area startups?)  Yes, I’m in a cube for the first time in my career but it’s great hearing the teams around me.  I miss the privacy though.
• I flew down to see my dear, dear friend Holly several times.  It was lovely and re-energizing to get to see my friend of nearly 20 years so much.  And to give Antelope Valley a ridiculous nickname.
• I visited lots of places: the aforementioned LA/Palmdale, San Diego, Napa (several times), Sonoma, Seattle, New York, Virginia.
• I celebrated a decade with my significant other. Really.  10 years.  Dang, I’m feeling old.
• I got a year older.  Surprise.
• I entered a new industry (tech) at the beginning of the year.  And ended the year with a shocking amount of knowledge.  Things move quickly!
• I became obsessed with SF Soup Company.  It’s no Hale & Hearty but it does the trick.  I’m pretty sure I had soup every work day for months.  Which is why the salad I’m currently consuming is a shock.  I’ll be honest.  It’s a great salad but I wish I was having soup.
• I got Invisalign.  Bite problems.  My teeth hurt.
• My parents FINALLY made it out to visit the Bay Area.  It was lovely.
• I spent what seems like half the year sick.  Seriously.  I counted. 5 times sick.  Strep throat, food poisoning, cold, NASTY flu, cold.
• I went to my first professional football game.  I was an away fan.  My poor Giants lost to the Niners in November but MORE THAN MADE UP FOR IT WITH THE EPIC, NAILBITING REDEMPTION WIN FOR THE NFC CHAMPIONSHIP.  Superbowl rematch baby.
• I saw the Michael Jackson Cirque show.  It was unbelievable.  I cried three times.  Miss you, MJ.
• Books I was obsessed with via Kindle: The Hunger Games (BEFORE it was cool, people), A Visit from the Goon Squad, Misery Loves Cabernet, The Host, The Red Garden, Bossypants, Frank: The Voice.
• Had a kickass time at a certain wedding for a certain adorable couple with a certain amazing group of people wearing a certain awesome dress.
• And generally had a lot of fun with a lot of great friends.

The above is random enough.  I feel satisfied.

Until next year?

Might as well make a list, because I love lists.

• Go to Vegas
• Ski in Tahoe
• Cook a bunch of crap and watch the Superbowl with friends
• Host an Oscar party and watch Colin Firth take home the award for Best Actor, King’s Speech
• Visit with my friends in NYC
• Stay in wine country
• Rent a car more often just to drive around outside the Bay Area
• See lots and lots of concerts
• Go to the symphony
• Find a good jazz spot in SF
• Convince my friends to move to SF.  Liz.  Jen.  I’m talking to you.  CAVE already.
• Read a book per month.  Or more.  Why not? Let’s get crazy.
• See more foreign films in the theater.
• get up early enough to see the sun rise over Ocean Beach
• Submit something to Glimmertrain

And that’s all I want to tell you.  Voyeur.  Jeez.  Everything else I keep to myself.  Peace.

Second post in 5 hours.  Fits and starts, Deanna.  Fits.  And. Starts.

Or…I just REALLY can’t bring myself to finish the work I need to finish before I let my head hit the pillow.

But I had to air some thoughts that have been bouncing around in my gray matter.

1. I love Bob Marley.  He has a summer magic that brings warm feelings and metaphorical sunshine to my life even in the coldest of winters (both metaphorically and literally).
2. I think I may have actually come up with an idea for a book (that book I’ve been saying I will write; the book I’ve been wanting to write).  And this time, it’s something that I can sustain for weeks, even months or years.  I mean, my other three ideas were great.  Until I got to page 3.  And I still have that other work that’s festering.  Argh.
3. Bon Iver rocks.
4. Why is it that I only remember the best of things that I’ve moved past?  There were days in New York when everything grated on me, when I couldn’t WAIT to get out.  Now, with the distance of time and space, I find myself yearning for the city that I so loved and so hated.  And I only remember the love.
5. My cat begs way too much.  It’s like she still believes that even after two years of refusing her demands for more canned Fancy Feast, I might actually cave and she’ll get what she wants.  But oh how I know what a slippery slope that is.  Give it up, Boo.  Not happening, fuzzball.
6. Procrastination is an art.
7. My favorite movies of 2010: The King’s Speech (yes, I cheated since I technically saw it in 2011), Inception, True Grit and Red.  Yes.  Anything where Bruce Willis kicks ass will make my “best of” lists.
8. Favorite musicians that I listened to a lot in 2010: As Tall as Lions (Biz!), 30 Seconds to Mars (yes, it’s dorky but I can’t help what I love), Bon Iver, Mumford and Sons, Bat for Lashes, Antony and the Johnsons, Sonos, Fleet Foxes, Bear Hands, Daniel Merriweather, Nouvelle Vague, Passion Pit, Florence + the Machine, Grizzly Bear, Beach House, Blitzen Trapper and Kaki King.
9. Memorable live music experiences from 2010: Atoms for Peace, As Tall as Lions and Them Crooked Vultures.  Not to mention, the amazing evening I had at Birdland.
10. Memorable experiences from 2010:

• traveling up the west coast with JR and finally fulfilling my dream to drive CA Highway 1
• seeing my sister and her hubby for the first time in almost 10 years… and having it feel like only 10 hours had gone by
• my first earthquake, a 5.5 point-er, which I technically slept through
• making the big decision to move…3,000 miles clear across the country from one coast to the next
• actually moving and doing it in just 4 weeks
• leaving my first job after college
• getting a new job
• picking my new health care plan; no easy feat mind you
• making new friends in San Francisco
• missing my dearest and oldest friends in NYC
• renewing Thanksgiving traditions with even older friends
• flying almost a dozen times
• getting over my fear of flying (sort of – daily battle)
• entering the new age of reading by actually using my Kindle, and sort of loving it (sorry to the lonely books on my shelves)
• buying a new couch (and for those of you who knew JR’s devotion to the red loveseat, you know how monumental this was)
• exploring Sausalito and Muir Beach with Liz and JR on a lazy Sunday
• experiencing the SF Giants World Series win in my new adopted home of San Francisco
• constantly explaining to my CA friends that when I say Giants, I mean the NY Football Giants
• missing the U.S. open (this is a sad experience) but getting to watch my favorite, Rafa Nadal, win the trophy via TV and regain the number one ranking
• acting jaded when it came to the Blue Angels show during SF’s FleetWeek but then actually getting super pumped when I got to hear and see them fly by
• EVERY SINGLE date with my lovely NY friends, but especially my “going away” dates because I’ll remember those forever
• Brooklyn BOWL.  Nuff said.
• that Brooklyn, Beer, Burgers film festival thing in the 90-million degree heat with Liz and Jen and Tom and Mayor Bloomberg.
• The fact that I went to Brooklyn more times in the space of 5 months than I did for the first 8 years I lived in NYC
• my last walk across the Brooklyn Bridge and every walk in Central Park

Ok.  Whoa.  I SO did not intend to get all “best of” in this post but look where I ended up.  Yeesh.  Time to get crackin’.

I’m bad.  If blog posts continue to appear at this rate, well… I have no ending to that sentence.  That’s how pathetic my writing frequency , or lack thereof, has become.  Too tired, too lazy, too uninspired.  But I did see a whole bagel in the bushes on the way to work.  And a gas cap in the middle of traffic.  San Francisco is weird.  So that’s something.

Boo rokz.

I can say the following: it never fails that upon the eve (or eve’s eve in tonight’s case) of my vacations, I end up working my ass off until the wee hours and on weekends to wrap up work projects.

Why, you might ask?

For a number of reasons.  Let me explain a few.

The economy is such that pretty much all companies are working at a staff-deficit.  That is, not enough people to handle all the work.  As annoying as that may seem to us worker-bees, it’s a long-standing truism of capitalism.  Money can’t be made if everyone is working just at, or below capacity.  For my fellow Gen Y-ers who’ve yet to experience the full-time grind, consider yourself warned.  You’ll almost certainly be working at 120% capacity.  Oooo, did I burst your bubble?

Additionally, I’ve been told (repeatedly) that 80% of the work is done by 20% of the people.  As in, there are a butt-load of employees out there on Facebook and Amazon while you pick up their slack.  Another fact of life.  I happen to be of that hard-working, don’t walk away until it’s finished ilk.  The ol’, Protestant work ethic that’s so famous (PS — I’m not actually Protestant). If you’re part of the massive 80%, I really hate you.  On the other hand, if you’re with me, slogging along with the other 20%, we should get drinks together.  I’m growing more and more convinced that the suited up folks you see sitting sad and slumped in the corner of the bar with a half-full martini in front of them… They’re part of the elusive 20%.  That might also explain my penchant for ordering Grey Goose martinis when asked, “Can I get you something to drink?  Perhaps a cocktail?”  Oh, yes please.  It’s been a long day.  But I’m a diligent lass that would never leave something unfinished to become someone else’s problem.  Consider it Karma evening me out for all the lovely things I get to have in my daily life (hey now, I didn’t say I wasn’t ungrateful even if this is a whine post).

To wit.

Here I sit.

All broken hearted.  (NO.  Not that rhyme.  Naughty.)

With my Mac in my lap

And my eyelids dropping.

Work projects?

Done.

But tomorrow is another day.

And the eve of my vacation.

Ugh.

Get me a martini (when the sun is half-past because I’m not THAT bad).

I think it’s a rule.  That if you didn’t need a vacation in the months before you planned it, you’ll surely need one just to make up for the sheer stress of trying to finish everything before go.  Which (sadly) reminds me that I didn’t get a chance to write out my Christmas cards or go to LensCrafters to pick up my new lenses.  Curses!

To those who usually receive my annual Christmas card (and JR picked them out — they are so friggin amazing but perhaps next year?)… consider this my message to you.  I love and miss you very much.  Happy holidays, my friends.  May your vacation always arrive just in the nick of time.

I’ve been woefully ignoring my blog for the last century so I’ve created a list of things that have happened in my life lately (Cliff’s Notes).  Can you guess which thing(s) don’t belong?

• Turned 27.  Felt older but wiser.  Thank god the person who coined that expression wasn’t lying (this time).
• Completed (successfully) a major project at work and finally settled in.
• Had dinner with Thom Yorke.
• Flew to LA and saw Ben Lyons of mini-E! fame during my Italian dinner with Hols and Bens and JRs and loud, prostitute-looking mother-daughter combos.  Ssssssss.
• Froze my ass off in the desert.
• Cooked a very large turkey for a dozen people without cursing or spilling or boiling the potatoes over.
• Had too much wine (what? me? never…)
• Made the best turkey gravy of my life.
• Learned to speak with animals.
• Drove a motorcycle.
• Learned what a chiminea is and watched Jiffy Pop being made over one which is more entertaining than it sounds.
• Heard the best rendition of “Happy Birthday” in my life courtesy of a Red Lobster server.
• Embarrassed myself (what? me? never…)
• Likely embarrassed other people, many of them relative strangers.
• Figured out what I want my next tattoo to be and where I will be inking it.
• Taught myself how to tattoo.
• Went through the TSA body scan machine of death.
• Finished my Christmas shopping.
• Did not finish shopping for my office’s “Yankee Swap” gift exchange.
• Helped one of my parental units win one of Conan’s pine tree air freshener wrapped in a 2011 Chevy Cruze cars.
• Was pulled onstage during Liza Minnelli’s performance at the San Francisco Symphony.
• Got an eye exam and learned my eyesight actually improved over last year.
• Started reading W’s “Decision Points” and found it less painful than I thought it would be though still validating in my previously formed notions about Dubbya.
• Made plans with my favorite people to visit somewhere that I’ve never been for one weekend.
• Went vegan for one day.
• Got an A on my spelling test.
• Woke up on a Tuesday and was convinced it was Friday only to be disappointed when reality set in.
• Met some very nice, very thoughtful people.

Ok so that’s long enough to make up for the lack of posting.  I have approximately 4 more days of work before flying to Detroit then Johnson City for a very early Christmas. Man, I can’t WAIT to see Inception again.

My dad brought this to my attenion today and having recently posted the audio version of the Rachmaninov piano concerto that stands to this day as my crowning achievment, I thought I would share.

So to start: Rachmaninov had big hands.

How big were they?

THIS BIG…

I tested Google today.  I asked it to find me the most perfect photographs.  And boy did it do me proud.  Check these out and tell me which was your favorite — that is if you’re even able to choose one from some many gorgeous pictures.

The following is a list of things I noticed on the sidewalks during the 5 block walk from my apartment on Gough to my office on Franklin.

• Shell pieces from a hard-boiled egg
• 1 wilted leaf of lettuce
• 5 banana stems sans the actual bananas.  And yes, the stems were still all connected to each other.
• 1 pair of jeans minus the legs (and everything else) of the owner of said denim
• 1 half of a brown broken beer bottle
• 1 homeless person in a shrub

And a partridge in a pear tree.  Not really but I wouldn’t have been surprised at the rate I was going.

San Francisco packs a lot of fun and interesting things into its sidewalks.  I wonder what I’ll find tomorrow?

I’ve been living in San Francisco for, well, officially 8 weeks.  2 months.  60 days.  Lots and lots of minutes and even more seconds.  One thing I’ve picked up on is the glass.  As in broken glass.  There seems to be broken glass (of varying origins — beer bottles, apartment windows, car windshields and so on) on virtually every other block.  And to be honest, mamma bear doesn’t exactly wear shoes with the thickest of soles.  I have a flimsy soul. Sole.  Ha.

So I’m just wondering why.  And when does the SF Sanitation Department plan on cleaning this stuff up?  Because if they don’t, I might just get the bright idea of injuring myself and suing the city.  But don’t quote me.

It’s almost 1am on the East Coast and I’m up, working in the dark of San Francisco’s warm night.  I feel wonderfully alone.  It’s quiet.  The country is sleeping.  I never feel more safe than when I’m up late, solitary except for my glass of wine and the light of one soft lamp.  People are warm and snuggled in their beds and I’m awake, thinking of them. It’s times like these when I can’t help but look inward to find some new kernel of self-understanding or awareness.  It’s just me and my thoughts, buzzing while the world sleeps quietly, wrapped in their dreams.  Shhhh.