Out Door Solar Lights

I have been looking for outdoor lights for my patio ever since Alan and I moved to this apartment, approximately 6 months ago. My little patio needs lights, hanging lights (sort of like Xmas lights), because at night it is really dark in Mountain View. There is no power outlet in my little patio. Therefore, I have been looking for solar lights. There are none. None in the world. The only outdoor solar lights for sale are those that you stick in the ground, not hang.  It seems like a fairly straight forward concept. Why are there none? I'm sure the technology exists. I'm sure people would buy them if they were for sale.

Can you imagine how much electricity would be saved if people used outdoor Christmas lights that were solar? There is a whole untapped market waiting to be exploited. But aside from all the money that could be made, I'm just annoyed that my patio continues to be too dark to hang out in past 4:45 in the winter. Really, its just silly that I can't find any.

UPDATE: 1/01/08

I mean hanging solar lights that work. I got some for Xmas, and they don't work. :(

EggNog

Eggnog is a winter holiday fixture. This christmas we have discovered that Alan does not like it very much (further proof of his alien origins). I love having eggnog during the holidays! En Venezuela it is only sold with alcohol already in it, but for some reason this variation of it is really hard to find in California. Don't let this minor californian defect deter you. Below is my favorite recipe for Eggnog and brandy.

Get a tall glass, half filled with ice cubes

Add one part cheap brandy (you don't want to use the expensive stuff because the flavor of the brandy is masqued by the nog)

Add one part eggnog

Garnish with a dash of nutmeg and cinnamon

Mix all together and enjoy with friends

It is Dark!

Dark and gloomy and rainy. This weather is unacceptable. It is an impediment for outdoor activities that I enjoy, such as walking.

Ba-humbug!

So This is Christmas

And soon the New Year

My bank account empty

My hallacas too spicy to eat without tears

My work starts tomorrow, as if this day of imposed laziness and gluttony were a dream

My presents wonderful, abundant and with cheer

And soon the New Year

With school starting soon

With wars I don't understand

With elections and democracy?

With butterflies in my ear

And soon the New Year

So this one can end

So dignified was it?

So worth the 12 months of effort?

So crazy and changing, demanding and unforgiving

So much happiness it brought to me

So this is Christmas

And soon the New Year

Holiday Party  2007

Part III

Location: LallaPalooza Restaurant-Bar. Monterey, CA

Time Frame: 12/15 Saturday night 5-11 pm.

Food: Restaurant Menu. (From paella to hanger steak.)

Entertainment: Nothing in particular

Number of people: about 60-80

(Company hosting party was Alan's employer)

This is the third time Alan and I have attended this company's holiday party in Monterey, at this exact same venue. Out of all the parties we have attended this holiday season, this one felt the most familiar and cozy. We were pretty sure we knew what to expect when we arrived, and we were prepared to have fun with our friends. 

The food was OK overall: the appetizers included raw oysters and other fried goodies. Alan had the hanger steak, which was excellent. I had the seafood paella, which was OK. The desserts were nothing sensational, but after all the holiday eating I have done so far I wasn't too worried about the dessert platter. I will, however, point out that the cheese cake may or may not have been a little rancid, as this was a topic of conversation towards the end of the evening.

The drink situation was very disappointing. You could buy any drink you liked, since Lallapalooza is a bar. But this is one of those places where you need to know what to order. I didn't know any better and I ordered a lemon drop. Ohh well. The two wines you could choose from with dinner were free, at least initially. They tasted like the residue of fermented sour grape drink, but the merlot was a little less revolting than the shiraz. I found out the hard way that you only got one glass of this "wine" with dinner. When I asked for seconds of the merlot, I was charged 12 dollars. My jaw almost dropped off my face. 

There wasn't really much in terms of entertainment, but I don't think it was necessary anyway. People actually talked and made jokes and had fun enjoying each other's company. After we left the restaurant, we hung out with a small group of people from the party at a nearby bar.  

We arrived home tired and happy. We enjoyed every second of this holiday party. Monterey is a beautiful place full of interesting people, and I can't wait to go back and visit. 

Google Holiday Party 2007
Part II

Location: Shoreline Amphitheater, Mountain View

Time Frame: 12/08 Saturday night 8:00pm-1:00am

Food: Little things to munch scattered around the rooms.

Entertainment: There were three main rooms. Each room had a theme and a different type of entertainment: There was a DJ in one room, a live band in the next room, and ambient music in the third room. Each room also had a photographer stall, with a background for your pictures. The picture only took a minute to print, and the photographer-helper person would put it in a little frame for you. There was a big corner of video games in one room, and a wall dedicated to a virtual reality game in another. There were also two people in really weired orange costumes who liked to lie you down in a chair, strap you down with weights, and hit a gong. I think if you were in the chair you felt the vibrations of the gong. In other words, there was plenty of entertainment.

Number of people: 4-6 thousand. (I couldn't count)

The Google Holiday Party was a two day affair. The first half of the guests attended on Friday, and the second on Saturday. A total of about 11 thousand people attended between the two days. Alan and I went on Saturday. SO MANY PRETTY DRESSES. Almost everybody dressed up, especially the ladies, and there where beautiful dresses everywhere. I found it amusing that only 5 minutes into the party I was already seeing women take off their 4inch shoes or limp around. By the time the party was over many women were barefoot.

The food was OK. Not inedible, but definitely not spectacular. The presentation of the food was very nicely done though. Actually, the presentation of everything was very nicely done. It amazed me that this party was so big, and everything seemed to be running so smoothly. Trash was in its place, because there were many servers running around the rooms making sure everything looked nice. I spotted a couple of coordinator-looking people with headsets, checking things out. Obviously, there was lots of man power behind this extravagant party. The decorations, the parking experience, the bars and food, everything worked so seamlessly. As a guest, all you had to do was show up and be pampered.

The three rooms were very lavishly decorated. The first room we went into was dedicated to pink, white and red, with tall vases of water that had pink and red flower balls on top. Its hard to explain, but there were what looked like gigantic half circles coming out of the ceiling and they had light projectors inside of them, so the inversed domes were very pretty and beautiful patterns of light emanated from them. There were columns rising from the floor that were enveloped in white triangles. This first room had a DJ placed on a platform the middle of the room. The DJ ROCKED! The dance floor was packed the entire night. The food was basically little hors d'oeuvre and ravioli.

The second room we visited had black walls and black floors. There was a gigantic stage, where the band was playing. The band was very good. They played and sang everything from salsa to Maroon 5 and Santana. There were big projector lights hanging everywhere from the ceiling. And, all around the upper part of the walls there were gigantic circular projector screens that had images on them, kind of like a tv, the screens had live feed from the band and people dancing on the dance floor, among outer space and Google images. The food was Asian themed with rice buns, shredded pork, and things like deep fried green beans.

The third room was called "The Space Lounge" It had gigantic retro-looking T.V.s on each end of the room. The TVs played cheesy science fiction shows and movies, like Star Trek. This room was quieter, as there was no band or DJ. The food was more "americanized":little hamburgers and sandwiches and mini wrapped hot dogs. I remember seeing BIG buckets of shrimp too. The photo stall in this room was the best because they took your picture against a green screen while you were holding a Google flag. Then they replaced the green for an image of an astronaut on the moon. I think the photo stalls were my favorite part of the entertainment.

There was at least one bar located in every room, and all the bar tenders looked really cute because they were wearing little alien-antennas. However, this did not stop the drinks from being disappointing! The selection of alcohol consisted of mostly beer and three types of wine. I don't drink beer, and the wines tasted like One Buck Chuck. There was no hard-alcohol to be found... which was probably for the best because people got smashed out of their minds anyway. (Being the hard-core alcoholic that I am, I spent the night being totally sober.)

I have to say, there is one aspect in which this party fundamentally failed my expectations: when I left the party, I did not feel like I had just attended a Holiday party. It was big, beautiful and well coordinated, but it no way did it remind me of the holidays, or winter, or gift-giving, or giving thanks. There was no (cheesy) traditional uplifting holiday-speech. It just felt like a really big party, thrown for an unknown reason. The first room, with the red and pink and flower balls, reminded me of wedding decorations. So, if the purpose of the party was to celebrate the holidays, then unfortunately, Google failed. :(

Also, at least for Alan and me, there was something very impersonal about the party. This might have been because we are newbies, and we don't know that many people. But, there were so many thousands of unknown faces in the crowds. It was almost intimidating. The leaders of the company were nowhere to be found. I just felt like it was, well, random. And it didn't really matter if we were there or not. I guess Google would never have thrown such an amazing party if it did not value its employees, but I felt like it still needed to be said.

My Consumer Down Fall

Today I went to San Francisco. In this magical place, where every store around Union Square is playing Mariah's Christmas carols, I spent 4 hours buying three pairs of shoes. I'm not proud but I am happy, as my new shoes are quite fabulous. I really needed shoes too, because when I moved to Mountain View I threw a way a lot of old shoes that were uncomfortable/ hadn't been used for over a year. Recently I also had to retire my favorite pair of black pumps; they were so abused by my daily wanderings that they were peeling off my feet, literally. (OK, I'm done trying to justify why I spent $160 on shoes today).

Anyway, on my shoe-day I had several random thoughts:

- If I were to venture into retail, I would definitely open a boutique store dedicated to clutches. It is so hard to find a decent, well made, stylish clutch. Currently Payless has the market cornered, which is just sad.
- WTF is wrong with Starbucks? I had a venti non-fat latte and it tasted like swimming pool water, only made with milk while the 'barista' was thinking about coffee. I drank it anyway though. I couldn't let it go to waste.
- Malls = Cable t.v. There are too many stores with the same stuff. Malls make me feel like I'm watching tv sometimes: I keep flipping through the channels, hoping something interesting will appear, but nothing really happens and eventually I get bored.

Guess Who Got Accepted into Grad School?

ME!

I got the acceptance e-mail today. I start classes January 23, 3008. Yay! I'm a student again. It's official.  Merry Christmas to MM. Yay! Starting next year, I will slowly start chipping away at my masters degree in Business Administration from San Jose State University. I am so excited; I want to do a backflip.  Yay! I couldn't have done it without the support of my friends and family. I love you guys! Thank you for your help and understanding through all of my self doubt and essay writing crises. 

Holiday Party Review. 

Part I

Alan and I have 3 (possibly 4) holiday parties to attend this year, due to our various jobs. I've never been invited to so many job-related holiday parties in one holiday season. So, I thought it might be fun to compare them and highlight the things I found most interesting.  Last night we attended our first, for my company. 

Location: Hilton, Santa Clara

Time Frame: Saturday night 6-11pm

Food: Choice of salmon or steak.

Entertainment: There was a DJ, and a person from the office was in charge of getting us to play games, like musical chairs.

Number of people: 40-50 from my region.

At first, when we arrived, I was very nervous. I had no idea what to expect. I had a slight dressing emergency that day and I really didn't know anybody who was going to be at the party, as my office was recently realigned to a new region, and I was only person who was attending from my office. The first couple of minutes was a little awkward, as I went around the room saying hi to people. Thank the non-denominational holiday deities, there was plenty of alcohol. Everybody was happy and in a party-mood. I never once herd a word of work-related conversation. People danced to pop music, and played silly games for silly prizes. All in all, I think it was good fun.

In terms of food and drink, the salad was horrible: warm leaves of lettuce topped with two slices of tomato and  soggy sugar coated walnuts. The main dish was pretty good; I chose steak. However, eating the thick cut of steak with a butter knife was a little difficult. (come on Hilton! Inexcusable.) The dessert was a slice of chocolate cake, with cherry filling.  The cake tasted like it was made with box mix, and a little too much canola oil. The cherry flavor was strong, so it helped disguise the canola oil taste. In general the food, aside from the main dish, was pretty disappointing. The alcohol was good though. I had a very nice long island ice tea and some wine and, towards the end, my new Area VP invited me to take a generous tequila shot "for the road" with him and a couple others. (Don't worry, Alan drove). I haven't had a tequila shot in years. And,  I could probably go a couple more years before I have another. 

In conclusion: the Hilton servers were attentive, the party was fun, the food was mostly disappointing, and the new AVP is high on my "cool boss" list. 

Frosting = Sugar Farts

Its true: I'm not a big frosting fan. I avoid eating it. I avoid purchasing it. In my mind, it is a disposable, mildly decorative packaging, always surrounding or on top of more important treasures. Frosting is what sugar would do itself, if sugar could digest butter and fart.

With this in mind, I will tell you a cupcake story. The story is 100% true.

Yesterday Alan called me on his way home. He called me about cupcakes. He had two very special cupcakes that he got from "tea time" at work. He had been saving them for us, starring at them for hours as they waited patiently on his desk for the drive home. So delicious they were almost "sensual", he described. Alan, I might add, has never been a dessert or cupcake freak. I knew these cupcakes had to be amazing for him to be obsessing about them. And, I was touched that he thought about bringing two of them home for us to share. 

Alan asked me to unlock the door, so that he could just walk in. I did. When Alan got home, he rushed through the door, barley said "hi", threw down his backpack and opened the container with the cupcakes. They were small in size, dark orange wood colored, with a healthy hat of creamy frosting. 

"Here", he thrust one forward. 

"But I'm cooking [pointing at mushrooms and frying meat]... we should have them for dessert."

"No, it can't wait... you don't understand... I've waited so long. We must eat them NOW."

"OK, ok... Lets eat a cupcake then" [Big giggly smile]

I peel the paper away and make to take a bite from the bottom.

"NO, wait, you have to get a bit of the frosting with the bite."

"Umm, OK." I reluctantly follow cupcake-eating instructions.

-Dead silence-

The cupcake was, indeed, delicious, luscious and smooth. Pumpkin flavored, with surprise walnuts, and the frosting did compliment the taste of the cake to an extent that I have never before imagined fathomable (I'm not exaggerating). I thanked Alan for the cupcake. Reaffirmed its amazingness. Took the hat of frosting off and threw it in the sink.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING????"[FACE OF SHOCK AND HORROR AND DEVASTATION] 

"I threw the frosting in the sink." [Big, happy, satisfied smile on my face]

Alan looked like he was about to dive in after the sugar fart, so I made sure it fell in the garbage disposal and I turned on the faucet, for a good minute.

-Dead silence-

"What is wrong with you??"

"Nothing. I don't like frosting; it is unnecessary to my cupcake eating pleasure."

Then Alan spent the next two hours being mad at me. Seriously, he was upset. He could not believe that I had thrown that frosting away. He was, I believe, hurt.  Our love is strong though, so we were able to overcome this sugar fart with a couple more giggles.

The moral of this story is that you should never underestimate the power of a cupcake. Think about that, the next time you eat one.

Thanksgiving 2007

So I decided to stop winning, borrow Alan's camera, and finally open a flickr account. [Please refer to bottom right corner of the screen for my flickr badge] This weekend has been wonderful so far. The following is a summary of events of the last 4 days:
OMG! Its Thursday. I'm not at work, and the only thing I need to accomplish today is eating. Warm and fuzzy feelings. We drive to Santa Rosa for Bryden family Thanksgiving. Most wonderful Thanksgiving stuffing and cranberry sauces EVER. Uncle Robert smoked a turkey. Uncle Robert is "the man".
Friday: Meet with Jasmine and Aaron. Hang out in Berkeley, eat, drink, be merry, watch Bourne Identify with Riff Trax. Totally awesome.
Saturday: Reeves-Fortney family Thanksgiving. There are babies! So much food. We took home an entire pumpkin pie.
Sunday: Recuperate from eating so much turkey. Walk, drink water, do laundry.

Hairy Otter and Perfume for Dogs

Yesterday, Saturday, we went to Monterey. I took a couple of pictures:

Me, with my favorite flower plant (aside form Calla Lilies). It is called bougainvillea, and it comes from South America. Monterey has them all over!

I saw this on display: Only in Monterey, California.

Also, I discovered irrefutable evidence of the down-fall of Macys (Sorry Indra). I love Macys. It is a great place to buy shoes, stockings, suits, jewlery... and perfume. Alan and I were checking out perfume section, and I ran across this advertisement:

Its perfume, FOR DOGS! Why, Why on earth would they sell that next to where I buy my perfume. What are they trying to say... that I smell like a dog? How could dog perfume be worthy of being sold next to human luxury products? Its for DOGS; little for legged creatures who like to smell their own butts! Its almost an insult. Since when to dogs need boutique high-end perfume, from Macys? I don't care how many insanely-rich people there are living in Monterey county. Its just freaky and unnecessary, and the product would be better located at the local boutique PET store.

On the other hand, maybe Macys has always been a pet store... we just never realized it until now.

My Monsters

I have many, but these are my favorites:

They live beside the TV, and they guard the apartment.

A Day in my Life
November 13, 2007

1- Alarm sounds at 6:30 am. The clock is 7 min. early, and I know it, so I stay in bed until my phone alarm goes off. Turn blasted phone off. By the time the radio alarm clock has sounded again I decide I might as well get up, because of all the pain I just put Alan through.
2- Eat and make coffee, take shower, find clothes. I should really invest in new pants. Where on earth are my shoes? Three sets of keys, two cell phones, one stupid purse. -All of this in no particular order.
3- Say hi to the insane squirrels who live around my apartment, in the trees. (Think about how squirrels are creepy.) Drive to work, aprox. 30 min. Listen to NPR News or Sarah and No Name, whichever is less depressing. Today Sarah and No Name talked about hemorrhoids.
4- Arrive to work. J beat me to work, yet again. Wonder in awe: J lives in Hayward (substantially farther away than me) and takes public transportation to work, to San Mateo, across a bridge. Talk about determination...
5- Say hi to office, including all three of my coworkers. Ask about any developing crisis in the company/branch. More wonder and awe.
6- Make first cup of tea; necessary step in order to survive following 9 hours.
7- Work.
8- Work more, and eventually goof-off by talking about some crazy work-related incident with Branch Manager (BM).
9- Check to see if San Jose State has finally decided to accept me.
10- Think about San Jose State: Why haven't they accepted me yet?! AHHHH. Life must be more than just working!
11- Pretend to work, while really thinking about lunch.
12- Hunger is too pronounced. Must eat soon. Damn it! I'm out of cashews and cranberries. What is a person supposed to snack around here? Think about 2 bars of delicious chocolate I saw this morning while making breakfast.
13- Ok, I really should work.
14- Prepare lunch: Pick Lean Cuisine from 3 left in mini fridge. Heat. Consume while sitting at desk checking e-mail and proof-reading memos/work stuff.
15- Release front-desk-person so that she can take a lunch break. BM talks about totally random things. Use hour to relax and answer front desk phone. By accident, read in news that Paris Hilton is worried about drunk elephants in Africa.
16- Laugh uncontrollably for 15 sec.
17- Go back to my desk, in the back of the office. Work.
18- Proof read memo of BM, by unsolicited request of BM. BM gets offended. Explain to BM that I received formal training as a linguist and worked for a year as an English tutor. What did he expect?
19- Is it time to go home yet? Make list of things to follow up with tomorrow.
20- Time to head home.
21- Hybrid is empty. Fucking cheapest gas is $3.49 a gallon. Miss Venezuela.
22- Arrive home. It is dark. I am hungry. Go for chocolate bars: I taste the best chocolate I have had all year. Veneto Seeds of Change, dark chocolate with espresso beans and lemon essence is manna from heaven. I got this bar from hippy "green convention" in SF last weekend. The 5 dollar donation I gave to Family Farms was totally worth the chocolate I got in return.
23- Alan calls. He is on his way to school, after his long day at work.
24- Make dinner for self: shiittake "ugly" mushrooms sauteed with spinach, garlic and onion (all ingredients I found at the farmer's market!) over rice. Accompany dinner with wine from Chile: 2005, Panilonco Chardonnay from Colchagua valley.
25- Watch Farscape, my space-cowboy adventure tv series. It is so weird.
26- Sleepy MM puts away laundry that was washed yesterday. Why do have so much grandma-baggy underwear all the sudden?
27- Alan arrives, tired and still recovering from cold.
28- He reads me a chapter of "Option$; the secret life of Steve Jobs. A parody by fake Steve Jobs". More wonder and awe: WTF is wrong with this world?
29- Sleep. Sweet, well deserved sleep. Maybe life isn't so bad... if we could all just get a full nights rest, the world might be a better place. I didn't exercise today. Ohh well, maybe tomorrow I'll work off the manna from heaven, and actually use my lunch break to go on a walk. Sleep.

Halloween

For Halloween I was Miss Lame. I did nothing. That is right. Nothing. I don't live in Alameda anymore. I don't know Mountain View that well yet, so I didn't know where all the cute trick-or-treaters would be scavenging for candy. I don't know where all the decked out houses are. I didn't have the time or money to put together a costume. In conclusion, I was not prepared this year. I miss Alameda; it was my town, and at least I knew where to go to get some candy.

However, this morning, front and center of the newspaper, I read that some 15 year old girl from Alameda High was shot to death in Alameda Park. So maybe it is a good thing that I don't live in Alameda anymore. 

My Weekend

 Chinese Radishes, Dave and Busters, Birthdays and Friends

This has been an interesting weekend. It started Friday night, when a couple of friends visited from Monterey. It had been a while since we last hung out, so I was very happy to see them again and catch up on things. Alan took them to Google, for a Friday Social event, and then they all came over to our little place for pizza, beer and the hot tub. The gals were particularly enamored with Google's toilets, since they are temperature controlled and have several "exciting buttons"... 

Saturday morning I had to get up super early, at 6:30am, and attend a work meeting. This meeting lasted until 11am. (Yes, I know I work too much) When I finally got home, Justine, who had stayed the night, was getting ready to leave. However, I was able to convince her to stay and go on a walk around Shoreline Lake. We walked at least six miles, which was AWESOME. I finally found someone who likes to walk more than me! We talked mostly about boys and Mexico. [Have I mentioned that I have recently become Mexico's #1 fan? It is a country of many worldly wonders and natural beauties. I can't wait to visit and explore the Riviera Maya]. On our way back home we found a dying kitty in the driveway of my apartment complex. The kitten was gray, much like the pavement, so we assume it was an accident. I'm not particularly a cat fan, but I don't want to see baby kittens immobilized and agonizing in my driveway either. I had no clue what to do to help the situation. Fortunately, a cat-loving-lady who lives in my complex drove by. Justine flagged her down, and she took the barely breathing creature to an animal rescue center not far way. 

Now,  I know this is wrong, but I'll write it anyway: I have a horrible stereotype in my mind of "the crazy cat-lady" who has no social life, smokes too much, and carries the unique oder of cat urine, undoubtedly provided by the 4 billion cats that she owns. I couldn't help but wonder if the nice lady who tried to rescue the kitten was a crazy-cat-lady in the making. She had reddish hair, curly and frizzy, tied loosely in a pony tail. Her t-shirt was purple, and it had a cat design on it. Her voice was raspy, indicating years of cigaret abuse to her vocal cords. She was, from what I could tell, middle aged or older. And, she disclosed that she worked in a cat shelter. 

Since Saturday, every time I walk on my driveway I think about the little kitten. It was so helpless. I'm sure it died. Oh well, moving on.

Saturday night Alan and I went to Dave and Busters to celebrate Flor's birthday. She is 25. Yay! Hanging out with Flor is always fun. Dave n' Busters, on the other hand, is not really my scene or my crowd. It was dark and overpacked with people being way to excited and rowdy about outdated video games. This is the kind of place where you feel like you need to always keep an eye on your purse. I have to admit, what really disappointed me were the watered down "cocktails". Plus, the staff seemed jaded and full of apathy; you should have seen the look on their faces as they repeatedly gathered to clap Happy Birthday at almost every table around ours. I almost felt sorry for them, but then they brought me my drink. 

Alan and I left the joint around 1:00 am. We then proceeded to get lost. Thanks Google Maps, for being utterly useless and confusing. Dave n' Busters is located about 20 min away from our place. We got home, tired and cranky, around 2am.

Today I got up around 10:00am and went to the Mountain View Farmers Market. I love going to the Farmers market. Its my newest Sunday morning obsession. There I can find cute, happy, babies eating strawberries, beautiful cheap flowers, fruit, veggies, and many other lovely odd things. The Farmer's Market is truly a treasure. Today I bought, for the first time in my life, a Chinese Radish. It is long, white, and is shaped kind of like a gigantic carrot. The person at the stall told me that it is mostly used in stir-fries and soups. So, tomorrow I might make a stir fry. 

Around noon I met up with Flor, and we hung out for most of the afternoon. We drank home made coconut chichis, to make up for yesterday's drink fiasco. We ate Pha, at my favorite Pha restaurant on Castro street, and then we went to Ikea. I was able to get a couple of much needed picture frames for a very reasonable price. We went home, drank coffee, and hung some frenchy-poster-art on my walls. Now my walls are not as bare. :)

Tomorrow is Monday. Arg. I still have much to do to prepare for Tuesday, Alan's commemorative date of arrival to this world. I plan on making a carrot cake, from scratch, to celebrate. 

It is 10:30pm, and I will soon go to bed. Thus, my busy weekend now comes to an end. I still haven't done any laundry. Weekends should be three days long, not two. There is never enough time in two days. 

It is Done

After agonizing for a couple of days over my statement of interest, I was finally able to submit my grad school application. It was really hard for me to write coherently about myself, and what I could contribute to San Jose State. I do not know why. Maybe I'm shy. Maybe I hate writing about myself just so that other people can judge my potential for success. Maybe I'm rusty from being out of school for a year. Maybe, I was afraid to think about my accomplishments and how truly trivial they sometimes seem to me compared against the grand scheme of life. Maybe because this exercise made me think about myself in ways I usually don't, and I was forced to realize that my life, compared to a couple of years ago, has become more peaceful and appreciably more boring. I honestly don't know why San Jose State should pick me over another person. There is nothing truly original that you can write in a Statement of Interest for Business school, and I'm just as deserving as the next applicant.

I guess in essence applications are designed to determine how much you want to be accepted, not how much you deserve acceptance. If that is the case, then I hope they see how much I love school.

I miss the excitement of being a student, and thinking that nothing was beyond your comprehension or understanding. That knowledge was just a class away, and tomorrow you would learn to think about a subject in a way you had never imagined before. I miss the challenge of proving yourself capable of creating things, just because you can. I miss the satisfaction of getting a good grade on an exam. I miss my college friends. I miss being goofy around people who didn't judge you for being goofy. I miss being in a structured environment, where I knew how the procedures worked and what exactly was expected of me. I miss almost everything about school, and I want to go back.

Why do I want to go to Grad School?

Twas not until I started writing my Statement of Interest last night, that I realized why I want to go back to school so badly: I'm insane. I have, like, 50 reasons. Only three of them appropriate inspiration for Statement of Interest purposes. I would tell you what they are, but I'm feeling kind of shy right now.

I Am Just an Average Person

For what it is worth, the GMAT confirmed my averageness today. I took a 4 hour long test this morning, and I got a score of 560. The range in grading of the test is from 200 to 800. 500 is the average score. So, I guess I am actually slightly above average, but only barely. I hope San Jose State likes average people like me.

Also, now that I have taken the test, I can stop worrying about it, and feeling guilty because I should be studying more for it. Yay!

Also, my brain is fried and I need to sleep.

What somebody who cares about you,
and has your best interests at heart,
will NOT do:

LEAVE SNIPPY ILL INTENTIONED COMMENTS ON MY BLOG.

YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE.

FUCK OFF.

Disappointed and Depressed

Nope, I do not like paying rent. It is like flushing money down the toilet. And, apparently, once you are done flushing for a month, you already need to start flushing for the next. It is a constant flushing away of my hard earned cash, and I do not approve.

The only reason why I am not squatting somewhere in the amazon is because the commute to work would kill me, but don't think I haven't seriously considered it.

Maybe I wouldn't mind so much if rent didn't take up half of my monthly paycheck. HALF! I feel like crying. I work so hard and yet I am broke. Between taxes and rent and health insurance ... I might as well just go on welfare. At least then I wouldn't have to work 50 hours a week so that I can come home -through an hour of traffic- to eat Top Ramen. Refusing to be a productive citizen would allow me to skip the hassle and go straight to the noodles.

My life sucks right now. In fact, I hate California right now. For all its progressiveness, the availability of basic human necessities, like shelter and food, to the average person seem to be at the bottom of the priority list. -Just look at all the morbidly obese synthetic-corn-starch fed and/or homeless people, who are EVERYWHERE - I know that I have had advantages in life: I got to go to a good school and I have a good job. And even so, I find it hard to survive. On top of that, I feel so much pressure to be and do and have more. My head is going to explode. This is simply depressing. The entire country is one huge disappointment.

I will NOT forget to vote this coming election.

Male + Deep Voice = + Woman + Babies

Holy Smokes [squeaky voice]!!! This is one of the reasons why I love linguistics. Sometimes, linguists can do really cool research, like this : BBC NEWS. Although I think it was actually an anthropologist who conducted the study. Whatever. They could use a linguist anyway. 

Sorry guys with squeaky voices: you would find it hard to have plentiful babies if you lived 200 years ago, and/or in tribal Africa.

I Should Have Taken a Math Class

For those of you who are still in college: take a math class. JUST DO IT.

GMAT

Dear GMAT, Dear GMAT, I despise your existence. 

I do not agree with your values, or conditions.

I do not like the price I must pay

To sit for four hours, under pressure, to let you judge me,

and have others measure my worth through your percentile game.

I am not a number.

Destination Wedding?

WARNING. IF YOU READ THIS BLOG POST YOU MUST LEAVE A COMMENT.

I am not capable of not thinking about something that I want to think about. So here I am, back again on the same theme. (I'm sure Alan is sick of me asking him silly questions about wedding stuff.) ... but I have come to terms with my situation: not knowing what I am going to do for our wedding is a problem. I must fix this problem. To fix the problem I need your help: What do you think about a destination wedding? Would you be willing to travel to, say, Cancun Mexico for a long weekend? I think it would be super romantic! I've looked into it, and there are all inclusive resorts that offer gourmet cuisine, any kind of beverage you could possibly want, activities and luxurious beaches for about $200 a night.

If we hold the wedding in the US, many of the people who would attend our wedding would have to travel and pay for a hotel during a weekend anyway (plus food and stuff). The only difference Cancun would add is a couple of extra hours of travel time and beautiful beaches. It would be easier for my mom to obtain a visa for Mexico than the US. And, I really like the idea of our family and friends spending time together and getting to know each other in a relaxing environment before Alan and I tie the knot.

So, what do you think? I am trying to take a survey to determine if anybody would actually come. I know that it is a lot to ask of guests, and some may think it is a little self centered... so I would appreciate your honest opinion.

GMAT PROCRASTINATION!!!!!!!!

!!!!! Apparently everything in my life is more exciting than studying for the GMAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The date is approaching to take the test. I paid $250.00 to take this thing and I haven't studied a lick. I will be very disappointed in myself if I do not do well... but I am too burnt out after work to study, and on the weekends I just want to play and have fun and drink excessive amounts of wine.

Damn. I can't focus. Deep down inside a part of me is done with standardized testing. I hate it. I do not want to be a part of it anymore. I just want to experience life through living instead of measuring my accomplishment through test scores. But, at the same time, I want to go to grad school and get my masters.

Ugggg.

This month, I have become the queen of procrastination. THE QUEEN.

I have never been a procrastinator in my life. This is a very strange period for me. Maybe I should get off my butt and study... or maybe I should have another glass of wine.

SUPERBAD

I saw it. I laughed. I guess the theme of two inept boys being stupid together and longing after girls will never get too old for the cinema. Alan looked like he was going to pee in his pants, he was laughing so hard during a couple of scenes. My brother also told me that he had loved it. Maybe this movie tapped a deep-emotional "guy thing" that I fail to see as excitingly imaginative. Overall I thought it was funny, but I do not know if I would pay to watch it again.

Buff Dirt On My Face

I just bought Bare Mineral Makeup! I found the Bare Mineral store in the San Mateo Mall, close to where I work. I walked into the store, and a young lady wearing WAY to much makeup greeted me. Her perkiness combined with her ruby red eyeshadow was kind of scary at first, but I decided to persevere. I walked out of this store with my "starter kit". I spent 82 bucks on this kit, which consists of a few "essentials", a DVD, and three brushes. I have never spent so much on makeup in my life.

I do not really have that much of an opinion on makeup, because I do not use much of it and for the most part I do not understand how it works. But I ran out of powder last week (which I use to make my oily skin not shine so much) and I decided that since I was putting this stuff on my delicate facial skin I should probably try to buy something natural looking that was not make out of chemicals I cannot pronounce.

When I got home, I showed Alan my DVD and proceeded to explain how my makeup was high-tech and cool. I though this would impress him, since he is in to things that are high-tech and cool. He was only mildly amused. I told him that my makeup was made out of colored minerals, no preservatives or chemicals of any kind; this is a good thing. As I said this I realized that my makeup was basically very expensive colored dirt. Alan then replied "Yea, girls will buy anything".

Whatever, I swirled. tapped, and buffed my face today. It was awesome.

GroomZilla, Cont.

Since I have Wedding Block, I have obsessed about finding a wedding location. I figure that the best way to start planning our wedding is to find a great location. Depending on the location we can figure out a date, and how many people we can invite. A beautiful location might inspire me out of my Wedding Block. Unfortunately, everything boils down to money: the places that we really like we cannot afford, the places we can semi- afford Alan detests, and the places we can afford are righteous dumps that we cannot make our family members and friends fly across the country to sit in. After two weeks of combing the internet and visiting places, I am done. This is too hard, and not healthy. All this wedding crap is getting on my nerves. I just moved and I am broke. Therefore, I am giving myself a break starting now from all things wedding related for at least until the next month.

Do NOT talk to me about wedding stuff for a month, please. This task is going to take a lot of mental effort on my part, since I love my groomzilla and I want to marry him.

GroomZilla

I have wedding-block (much like writter's block, only about weddings) and, my dear fiancee is groomzilla. More to follow shortly.

It Is About Time

It is about time that I start getting serious about my grad school goals. I'm looking into MBA programs. Guess what? They are expensive. This makes me mad for the following reasons:

1- Money is generally scarce among poor and middle class people.
2- Poor and middle class people need to go though grad school programs in order to increase their salary potential, and thus not be so poor anymore.
3- The good MBA schools (and grad schools in general) are expensive. Regular people cannot afford to attend "the good" grad schools. Therefore, logically, expensive MBA programs are designed for rich people to get richer.

I hope you are as outraged as I am. This brings me to the following noble cause: The Margaret Needs Help to Go To Grad School Charitable Fund. Would anybody like to donate about 65,000.00 dollars over the course of two years? Think about it as investing in the future of America, and the good of the world... something that the US government seems to believe is not important at this time.

Come and Visit

Dear Friends and Family: please come and visit! I really want to show you our new place. We have a pool, hottub, sauna, gym... and we are within walking distance of downtown Mountain View, where all kinds of little shops and restaurants are. I would love to make you dinner, and I need an excuse to bake a cake.

New Life

I am starting a new chapter of my life: I have a new job and new living arrangements! Alan and I found a cute little one bedroom apartment in Mountain View, just 2 miles away from Google central. We are currently in the process of opening the last of the moving boxes and decorating. We finally hung the hammock that my mom gave to Alan in April of last year... And, to make our new place seem more like home, we hung the Mona Lisa in the bathroom. We have a small, framed, Mona Lisa poster that we hung in the bathroom of Alan old apartment. I purchased this poster from the Louvre in Paris a couple of years ago. It was strategically placed facing the toilet, so that it looked at you with a knowing smile no matter what you did. Unfortunately, we were not able to hang the Mona Lisa in the same location in our new home, but the overall "Mona-effect" is still quite charming.

I cannot count how many times Alan and I have been to Ikea in these past couple of weeks. Almost everything in our home is from Ikea, and we still have more things that we need to purchase. We will probably be going back next week to buy a dresser for me. In general I would have to say that Ikea stuff is cool and affordable, but then you have to build it. The durability of the items that we have purchased is also somewhat questionable. However, for the prices I am paying I will not complain. One major purchase that we still must make is that of a couch. Couches are expensive! and Ikea does not offer a couch that we would like to habitually sit on and/or look at. So, we are on the look-out for a comfortable, reasonably priced sofa. I am especially interested in sofa-beds, because we only have one bedroom in our place. (If you have a nice sofa that you need taken off of your hands, please contact me.)

My new job is, ahhemm: Human Resources Manager for the San Mateo Branch! Thats right, I'm officially a manager now. I can't wait to start. The branch I am going to is about 1/3 of the size of the one I am working in now, so I expect to see a slowing down of pace. I'm so happy. I'm sure I have a lot of work ahead of me. I start in my new position this week.

Google News Flash

For the last 7 months I have gone through a love-hate relationship witht he idea of Alan working for this company. All of my friends and family know of the painful and dramatic saga that Google's HR has put Alan through. Finally, yesterday morning, Google reached the decision to hire my genius fiance. Alan and I are very happy... and we will soon be moving the the area of Mountain View CA.

I have been gloating about this non-stop for 24 hours; I am so proud of Alan. I could write for hours about Alan's virtues, but he would probably kill me so I will stop here.

YAY!

To Quell Complaints of Lack of Pictures

I give you... ME :

Pictures courtesy of Ms. Gwen, who bravely spent an afternoon trying to make me pose in interesting ways while working her camera magic. And, to Mr. Alan, for making me laugh.

4th of July and Random Ramblings

Yay! 4th of July! Oh, the overwhelming sense of patriotism that invades me as I eat my fill of ribs and chips, while watching things explode in the air. There is nothing like blowing things up and overeating to make you feel in unison with your fellow Americans.

(For those of you who know me, you would identify that passage as belonging to my slightly-off sense of sarcastic humor.)

We hosted the annual Bryden 4th of July Party, and I think it was a success. My friends came, which made me incredibly happy... especially since I haven't been able to see many of them due to work, and them moving away, and the general responsibilities of life that slowly take over your free time making it impossible to coordinate spontaneous activities with friends. So many people came to my house. My room was turned into "the bag room" and it was barely big enough. I spent hours cleaning my little house so that it would be presentable, and now I shall spend hours cleaning up the mess that the 50-odd people left behind. (BTW: A special thanks to those who took the time to help out a little before they left.)

I saw the Alameda Parade, which is always a joyous experience. I see the same parade every year, and every year it touches my heart. I love the small-town feel that it marches down the main streets of my little island.

The one thing I absolutely abhorred about this 4th of July was the day it happened to fall on. It should be illegal to celebrate national holidays in the middle of the week. Alan couldn 't come, and everybody kept asking me about him so I had to explain, what felt like a million times, that he was sick and he lives in Monterey and he has to work tomorrow... It was so hard to get up this morning; I barely got any sleep at last night. And today I am probably going to stay late at work because I have so much work to do. Ugg!

My Digestion Today

Dear avid readers: I am in Monterey this weekend, with Alan of course. Today is Sunday, it is about 7pm, and I am still recuperating from lunch. From my lunch experience I have derived a worldly truism that you should take into consideration effective immediately: "Stay Away from Indian Buffets". They are good and pleasurable at first, but then they turn into an evil source of torment after ingestion, especially if you are like me and can't help but to overeat at buffets. Why? Why are Indian buffets so good? Why can I never have my fill of naan bread? Why do their spices always dance in my mouth so nicely, so as to make me want to never stop eating.

Alan, seeing the state that I was in, tried to cure me by feeding me a Sugar Free Rock Star. Then he tried to chase me around the block. Needless to say, his well-intended efforts only slightly alleviated my distress, and gave me a serious case of the burps... which he then regretted.

Engagement Party

That right folks; we had a wonderful party with all of our family and friends to celebrate the engagement. The food theme was sushi (because Alan and I love sushi)... there were also plenty of cheeses and crackers. We had cases of wine and champagne. We had little sweet treats and servers who wore red bow ties. I wore a dress. Alan wore a suit with a black tie that had little white death skulls on it. One of the highlights of the party was when I got to dance with my grandpa (no small feat given his two artificial hips).

The week before the party was kind of stressful because I had so much planning and ordering and arranging to do. But once the party started, it was so much fun! I'm so glad all of my friends and family could come. I spent the entire night saying "I'm so happy".

Sinamaica

I did a little tourism around Maracaibo... and I found -after much crazy driving- the town of Sinamaica. The town is basically located inside the river Limon. Population aprox 5000. It is beautiful. People live primarily off of what they fish and tourism. For less than $50 (including tip)I got a private 1.5 hour tour on a boat with a local. It was amazing.

Pictures!!!

Here are a couple of pictures from my recent trip to Venezuela... check out the crazy tree growing along the river...

I went to Venezuela!!

It is true. I went for one crazy week of vacation to the land of Cocos Frios and Green Jungles. Aside from a few minor mosquito bites the trip went fairly well. I had lots of fun: I hung out with my mom, we went to Merida (one of my favorite Venezuelan towns), and -best of all- my brother Max has decided to come to California and go to school here for a while! Yay! He will be here by the 19th of May, just in time to attend my engagement party.

On the down side, since my brother is coming to live with my dad I will have to find new living accommodations. My dad's apartment is too small for the three of us. At first I was apprehensive of the idea of my own dad telling me I need to leave the house so Maxwell can have a bedroom. After all, I thought I had made very clear to my father that I wanted to live at home with my family until I married. Besides, I am the only daughter. How could he even think about kicking me out? Had he no heart? Had he no soul? There are millions of families around the world that have three times as many family members who all live under a roof smaller than our little apartment. Why couldn't we be a loving little family in a little home?
However, after careful thought, I have come to the realization that I probably do not want to live in such close proximity to multiple slobs anyway. I would just end up cleaning up after them all the time. And, I do not need to explain how much I hate cleaning. So screw them! I'm getting a place of my own... and they can come to visit.

On Things Frivolous

Alan is asleep so I am bored; I have been trying for the last hour to paint my nails with a "French tip" design. I never knew my hands were so unsteady... I am typing as my nails are letting dry the fourth layer of polish, and they look horrible. But, since I have invested so much time in making them look this way I think I shall leave them this way for a while. Maybe with practice I will get better, or, maybe I will decide to hand over the matter to professionals.

The Crucial Difference Between a Cupcake and a Muffin

Is frosting? I was not sure, and this questions has nagged at my very soul for quite some time. This Friday, when I made cupcakes for the office, the question resurfaced. Alan swears that the only difference is frosting, but I am not convinced. After all, cannot a muffin be more healthy for you because it can contain wheat and bran? A cupcake by nature would never be as healthy for you.
Isn't a cupcake a little cake? Where as a muffin was not originally created to be a little muff-cake? Aren't muffins more related to bread?
I was talking about this with my new Admin person at work, and it occurred to me that maybe muffins are originally from Brittan. After all, I am positive that English Muffins existed before the (American?) Muffin did. Maybe the present day version of the muffin is a knock off of the English Muffin, made bigger and better by adding more fat.
I turned to Wikipedia for an answer. Unfortunately this website was not extremely insightful. It did not mention that Muffins originally came from England, which kind-of discards my hypothesis. However it did mention that in recent decades muffins have become almost indistinguishable from cupcakes because the fat and sugar proportions have increased dramatically. The true origin of muffins is lost, but it is believed to be related to cornbread and breakfast. Cupcakes were invented in the 1800s. They started out as mini, individual, cakes that measured a cup.

Where to begin?

On March 2 Alan and I went on a weekend of debauchery with my family. For the purposes of transportation during this weekend, my dad made a big point of renting a van that could seat 12 people. We all fit in the van, which looked like some sort of white church van, and drove everywhere.We went to Sonoma and explored just a tiny bit of Napa. We drank our hearts out while participating in the Russian River Wine Tasting Event. We ate tons of exquisite food. And, basically, we hung out for an entire weekend with nothing better to do than stuff out faces and relax. It was wonderful. -Especially because work has been kind of stressful for everyone lately. - My grandmother even visited from Portland! This weekend was her birthday weekend, so we had fun celebrating that as well.

Work has been crazy. My coworker quit last week... so I have been slightly freaking out about my workload. However, so far so good. Life continues, and there will always be more work.

I am in Monterey this weekend. My company is sending me to a seminar so that I can learn more about CAL OSHA. I am very excited about this learning opportunity. I am also very excited about the location of my seminar: Monterey, CA! I get to stay in Monterey for two extra days. Yay!

It is late now and I must get my beauty rest.

Cake Update

Yay! I am making a cake! A lemon cake it is! I am experimenting with Lemon Curd and frosting. We shall see what happens...

This weekend I will celebrate two birthdays: my dad's and my future dad-in law's. They both have birthdays this week. The cake is for Alan's dad. I think I will buy my dad some doughnuts, because in general he doesn't enjoy cakes.

Fun and Not Fun

It is fun to go to Trader Joe and buy cheap wine and taste a sip of all the bottles you bought. It feels like a grown-up thing to do. I would like to learn more about wines...

It is not fun to scrape your arm on the velcro of your own skirt, repeatedly, while at work. It looks like a cat got me.

Getting Married 101

So now I am totally engaged, and thus totally obsessed with "marriages". I do not even know where to begin to explain how complicated and ridiculous getting married is. Here is my first attempt:

First: getting married is a social event. There is no way to get around this. The entire reason "marriage" exists is for the continuation of society; this is the foundation of the concept of marriage (This is at the root of why people get pissed off at people who elope). Therefore, if you are under some strange delusion that entails your marriage is actually only about you, you are helplessly wrong, and you do not understand the concept of marriage.

Second: Based on fact #1, A marriage involves having a party of some sort where all your family and friends celebrate the beginning of your new life in society.

Third: Since this marks the beginning of your new life, and a social event with the gathering of all the people you care about, you feel obligated to host the best party you have ever thrown in your entire life, in order to impress everyone. This is where things get complicated and ridiculous.

Fourth: The average marriage in California costs around 27, 000 American dollars. That alone is enough to make me sick. A wedding celebration usually only lasts 5 to 6 hours. To spend the amount of money that some people do not earn in one year, over the course of six hours is mind boggling. This is a problem. This problem can be solved in several ways:

4.1: Make the father of the bride pay. As my wise father clearly pointed out at my meager suggestion of his involvement in the celebration: this is an ancient ritual that dates back to the times when fathers (and men in general) paid to have their useless female descendants married off, because women were burdens that made no money. My father was clearly against this sexist ritual, me being a feminist and all.

4.2: Make any parent pay. After all, there are four. Surely one of them will be moved enough by your young love to help you out in this time of need.
I have several issues with this solution. I do not like taking money from people. And, people who contribute lots of $ to your event will inevitably have ideas or suggestions that you may not enjoy... but since you are not paying for it, you must oblige. This is clearly a not-modern solution to a modern wedding.

4.3: Pay yourself. After all, it is your wedding. In order to claim that your marriage is truly an event revolving around you and your fiance (thus tweaking and modernizing the concept of marriage as a social event), this is the only way to proceed. But starting off your new life in debt is not very appealing. Therefore, you must either be rich or very frugal.

4.4: You must reach a compromise between being a feminist, a modern bride, a modern couple, what society means to you, and what your dream wedding will be.

Fifth: There is a lot of coordination after #4 has been dealt with. Now the wedding planning can begin. I have always laughed at the idea that it takes some people 12 months to plan 5 hours of their life. However , based on #3, this should come at no surprise.

Details, Details

I’m getting Married! To the most wonderful man in the world!!! I’m sure by now you have all read the wonderful fairy-tale like story of the night Alan proposed. I would like to add a few details of my own:

OMG! It was the most romantic evening of my life! I ate and drank and celebrated the New Year completely oblivious to Alan’s designs. Looking back I should have seen the signs… but I think marriage was the last thing on my mind that night. Therefore, I was even more surprised when he proposed.
After my answer, and a couple moments of utter brain-numbing-surprise-space-out, I came to the realization that I was engaged. I started hyperventilating.
Have I mentioned that I ate and drank quite a bit, and that I was wearing something very similar to a corset, and that I was obviously very excited. I thought I was going to faint. I had to rush off of the boat once it docked, through the streets of Paris, underneath the Eiffel Tower, to the Hilton Hotel, to take off the awful garment that was not allowing me to breath (All of this in high-heels).
We spent the rest of the week wondering through the City of Light, enjoying all the sights and complaining about how much people smoke in restaurants. I love traveling during winter; it is much more calming and relaxing. Besides, after all the Christmas hectic-ness and consumerism it is nice to just get away from everything.

Chuck Berry - Johnny B. Goode

TALENT

MY RING!!!!

I cannot begin to explain how awesome my ring is. (Sapphires are my favorite stone!)

Paris

Paris it had to be. Alan’s blog has pictures. The trip was absolutely wonderful… and incredibly romantic! I think I must be the luckiest girl in the world!