Unsuccessful but surprisingly good

I lost my keys Thursday. Chaos ensued. It is turning out to be an expensive error.

As part of trying to remedy it, I rode the Metro out to near a key shop this morning that said they could do the secure key for the building. Turns out he couldn't (grr!) It was a beautiful day though, and I enjoyed my 6ish mile bike ride back home, especially because I took a break for a great hamburger in the middle.

Then I got on the Metro again and rode off in the complete opposite direction to try to register for the 5k for tomorrow, which I should've registered for ages ago. oh well. I got to that shop about half an hour after the race people had left. Grr again.

It was still beautiful though, and I'd packed some water bottles in my bag, so after stopping for a morale boosting milkshake about 3 miles into this route I continued on, riding through this huge protected foresty area (where Chandra Levy's remains were found a few years ago) that goes from Maryland into DC. It was by far the biggest bike ride of my life, and if I hadn't cleverly picked about the only way to go 20 miles essentially all down hill, I'd be dead now. As it is, I'm a little worn out and my butt is mad at me for sitting on the bike for that long, but it could've been Much Worse.

For a day where none of my errands worked at all, it turned out surprisingly good.

"Life Soundtrack" meme

The rules:

1. Open your library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, etc)
2. Put it on shuffle
3. Press play
4. For every prompt, type the song that's playing
5. To fill in the next prompt, press the next button (or stop and groove to the song before going to the next prompt, whatever). Keep going like this till they're all filled in.
6. Don't lie.

opening credits: Death Cab for Cutie - The New Year
From the Transatlanticism album -- imagine my mom lying about how pregnant she is in order to fly home from Switzerland

birth: The Decemberists - A Cautionary Tale
uhhh. This is just distressing. "She's standing in the harbour and waiting for the sailors in the jolly boat"

first day at school: Hem - Not California
No, really, it was California!

falling in love: Mike Doughty - Unsingable Name
"I want to be your absolute ultimate, I want to be your only one now" is perhaps a leeeetle extreme.

fight song: Aqua - Turn Back Time
What a lame fight song.

breaking up: The Decemberists - The Chimbley Sweep
oh my, "'O lonely urchin!' the widow cried,
'I've not been swept since the day my husband died.'
Her cheeks are blushing, her legs laid bare
And shipwrecked there, I'll shake you from your sleep "

school dance: They Might Be Giants - I've Got a Fang
Having a fang would be a good way to be unpopular in high school.

life: Track 9 - 5 year reunion mix from Taryn
aka Lisa Loeb - Do you sleep
My songs are all lonely. how sad.

mental breakdown: Sufjan Stevens - The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades is Out to Get Us!
I guess imagining (knowing?) that there is a predatory wasp out to get you could be some sort of indicator of a mental breakdown

driving: They Might Be Giants - Your Own Worst Enemy
Seriously now, I am not the best driver ever, but I am not my own worst enemy

flashback: Blues Traveler - Run Around
"once upon a midnight dreary, I woke with something in my head. I couldn't escape the memory of a phone call and what you said." I think that counts as a great flashback lead in.

wedding: Blues Traveler - Just Wait
This is more of a song about the concept of a wedding than a song to be played at a wedding. A coworker got "F your sister" for this category. That was funnier.

birth of child: Sufjan Stevens - The Tallest Man, The Broadest Shoulders
OK, so far my movie is a lot of loneliness, and now apparently the worst child-birth scenario in the history of the world.

final battle: Belle & Sebastian - The Rollercoaster Ride
"The rollercoaster ride of all the trouble kept her inside" -- yeah, I'll be sitting out that final battle.

death scene: Death Cab for Cutie - Death of an Interior Decorator
well, at least it's not my own death. Since I am totally not an interior decorator. But, "Can you tell me why you have been so sad?"

funeral: They Might Be Giants - Experimental Film
"I already know the ending. It's the part that makes your face implode"

ending credits: I'm From Barcelona - We're From Barcelona
I think the opening credits and ending credits were the most cheery of all of these.

Bike Commute!

I got new inner tubes for my bike yesterday and today I rode my bike to work! It was pretty easy, even though I haven't been on a bike in more than a year. I think it was also faster than the lazy bus/metro/walk route that I would usually take. yay bike!

If I ride it a lot this year, then next year, I might get a cooler bike.

Thanks, work, for sponsoring this trip to CA

I had an awesome vacation in California. Work shouldn't let me go on long vacations to CA because then I want to run away to there and live in the wonderful sunshine. As usual, after finishing the vacation I don't feel like I have the energy to describe it, but I'll make an effort, even though it's mostly a list:

Saturday - I flew out at the crack of dawn. Stupid US Air was having significant computer problems so I had to run to my flight that was leaving at 7am even though I arrived at the airport before 6. Even kiddie vitamins apparently can upset my stomach if I'm up early and don't eat anything. I got to learn some sympathy for people who get airsick during the flight to Phoenix. I felt fine for the second leg of the flight and by the time I met up with Andy in San Diego, I felt normal. We went out to Balboa park and took some fun pictures of pretty plants and natural history. I made Andy stand in the sunshine and watch stupid funny jugglers.

Sunday - A marvelously action-packed day that got started with drooling over stupid-expensive cookware at the Le Crueset outlet store. I don't need any more pans... but they are pretty and shiny... and pretty ... and shiny. Then we went to a stealth brewery where the food descriptions tasted better in my head than the food did. The room was amazing and I'd be happy to go back there, but it would be nicer if they had less fancy food done better. Then, we were most of the way to the Wild Animal Park!! So we went and watched pregnant elephants lumber around for a while and then squinted at giraffes. There was a super huge line to ride the train around, so I'll have to go back again some other day to be on a pretend safari. Also, next time I have to remember not to rub waterproof sunscreen into my eye during brunch. Apparently it takes many many hours of watery squinting for my eyes to be happy again. After Wild Animal Park, we went up to Temecula to have port in a chocolate shot glass which I remembered as being slightly better than it was, but I was very happy to have gotten to go back there. Then Andy (graciously and kindly) drove me all the way up to my parents house through the evil freeway terror of Riverside.

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday - I lazed around my parents house. There was much sleeping. The cats were happy to see me, and I was happy to be in the sunshine. I ate two Rosa Maria's burritos, which are some of my favorite food in the world. Here are some pictures of me and Fatso (the cat) enjoying the sunshine, and some flowers in my parents backyard:

Thursday - I took the train to meet up with my friend on the other side of LA. We road-tripped up to the fancy hotel in Pebble Beach with a stop in Santa Barbara for lunch on the pier. Surprisingly, there was a small whale splashing around in the harbor! I hope it went further out to sea eventually. I really enjoyed riding up PCH with her, but it got dark before we got to Big Sur, so it was a little scary riding around all those curves and cliffs in the dark. The hotel was truly amazing. We had a fireplace in the room!  

Friday - I had a day of official meetings that were the main reason work paid for my flight out to CA. It wasn't too bad, and my friend and I were able to go over to The Inn at Spanish Bay to watch the sunset bagpiper. I was surprised at how enjoyable I found it to sit in the evening sun listening to the distant bagpiper watching the sun go down. I'm sure that the Raspberry Lemon Drop martini had nothing to do with it :) Friday night was a big fancy dinner with lots and lots of drinking. At the dinner they announced a special award to two employees who had made a difference in our corporate community work, and I was one of them! Yay big check! Part of it is totally going towards my new and exciting mortgage. Then I ended up staying out with some coworkers until 3am. Good bonding time, and lots of fun.

Saturday - After staying up late, it was very satisfying to show up to the morning meeting at 7am bright and perky and to giggle to myself at the people groaning and holding their heads with hangovers. Meetings got out at noon, so we had lots of time to go sightseeing around the peninsula. I maxed out on social time sometime in the afternoon and greatly enjoyed sitting in the lounge on my own with a tasty cappuccino and chocolate/pistachio biscotti. For dinner, a lot of my coworkers met us over at the bagpiper hotel for drinks and outdoor fireplace-time. It was very very nice to have so many people come over to hang out with me; I just told where I was going and then left them to decide what they wanted to do, and apparently, seeing the bagpiper beat out sitting on their own, or coming up with something else. It was not a late night; I was pretty exhausted by 10.

Sunday - I took a shuttle from Monterey up to the Bay Area to meet up with Rachel. It was great to catch up, cuddle her cats and to get In-N-Out for dinner.

Monday - I entertained myself joyfully with a Tivo and some Gilmore Girls for the morning, and then we went out in the afternoon to walk around SF for a while. Golden Gate park was pretty even though it was cloudy and the Haight was very satisfyingly San Franciscan. Then to Berkeley for my favorite deep dish pizza. mmm i love food.

Tuesday - I almost missed my connection in Phoenix, but thankfully only had to go over a few gates. Other than that, it was a nice, uneventful trip home. Now I'm home and still worn out from all that vacationing.

I guess that wasn't such a brief summary. Now I'll probably not update this thing for another few months :)

Except to be joyful about figuring out how to set up a git server (versioning control system) at work and how to instruct other people how to work with it. go me!

C25K (again)

I can't believe that in One Week I will own a mortgage and in 8 days, I will have moved there.

If the mild winter from December and January had continued, I'd be able to start biking to work right away, but since there are piles of ice and snow around, I think I'll start off riding the bus.

I'm also terribly excited that I've made it up to jogging (slowly) a whole 2 miles without a break in my most recent adventure with the nifty couch to 5k program. My new place is 3 miles from work along a trail, so I have been day dreaming about being so ambitious and organized as to jog to or from work some times.

I started packing yesterday and I own a whole lot more stuff than I did when I moved out here a 2 years ago.

Bike Commute?

The house stuff is going ok. I'm petrified of screwing something up about the mortgage.

I made a spreadsheet to figure out how I should split up any extra money I can put towards payments in order to minimize the long term interest accrued, which made me feel smart for a while.

I've also figured out how long a bike-commute to work would be. There's a bike trail that goes along the river, so it would be pleasant except when it's hot or cold (which leaves about 2 months of the year)

Ownership??

I'm making an offer on a condo! It's entirely conceivable that, soon, I could be the proud owner of a mortgage.

My productivity at work has gone Way Down since I started seriously pursuing this idea. Hopefully it will perk up again for a while soon.

I also finally have a local bank account -- inspired by the fact that I just used my very last check from my California bank account to give an earnest money deposit on the condo. Gah. Realizing that I was out of checks right before I have to start writing them made me spend part of the afternoon worrying that I'm too disorganized to try to own a house (or condo, whatever).

I hope I get it! I'd been planning to wait a bit to convince myself that I really wanted this one, but then someone else made an offer today! So I had to rush! I hate rushing! Gah! It's been a very exclamation filled day.

Maybe this year I'll also get a car. And a tv. The idea of buying house then car then TV totally cracks me up since it's so backwards of how anyone else would do it.

Update! They've accepted my offer! Apparently I provided a nice amount of ernest money, had a good desired closing date, and wrote a nice letter about how excited I am to live there in the future. So next up is home inspectoring and more detailed talks with the mortgage company.

PS Here's a link to the condo.

And when I live there, I can get a kitten!