Have you ever known someone that always has the unfortunate things happening to them? Well that's me. 20 marathoners run down the street, 1 person manages to step on a metal grate at just the right spot and ends up on her ass, that's me... I always choose the one stall in the ladies room that's out of TP, every time I buy anything glass that requires transporting for a further distance than 10 feet it winds up broken and at an outdoor event it never fails that if someone gets stung by a bee, it's me. Truly unfortunate but hey I'm used to it.
So, apparently my oh-so-charming apartment (I'll save the rant about the apartment for another day) has spiders. Spiders that lurk in my bed and gnaw on my feet while sleeping. Of course they don't move over 6 inches and gnaw on the boy... No of course not because these things only happen to me. And of course I didn't get just one bite... No, I got five... Four on one foot and one on the other. Yea me! Now suffice it to say that I am allergic to spider bites. I know, I know, EVERYONE is allergic to spider bites... That's why they itch. Right. I'm more allergic than that. When I get bit instead of small little pink bites that itch I get massive half-dollar size welts that burn. But this is my life and I've gotten used to it.
What I have not gotten used to is the fact that apparently you can get bacterial infections in spider bites. Yap. Pretty rare but lucky me... They do happen. And I got one (of course). Spiders being the sanitary creatures that you imagine they are... So now I have half dollar size welts that burn AND are black, forming blisters and spreading! You know what happens to you when you have a bacterial infection in spider bites? You get shots. 2 shots actually. Fantastic. And the nurse says to me as she's prepping the shots, "these can make some people swell a little". Great. Well I don't know what her definition is of "a little" but about an hour after the shots my feet are gi-normous! Lucky me.
Needless to say, I skipped my marathon training run (the Dr. looked at me like I was seriously the most daft person she had ever met when I asked if I could still go), skipped the weekend of back-packing and stayed at home icing my feet all weekend. What a terrific way to spend a sunny weekend...
BUT... I did miss out on the swarm of mosquitoes that attacked the boy and our friends while back-packing! Thank God for small miracles!
Monday, May 16, 2005
Wednesday, May 11, 2005
"Nice scent"
The permits for parking in the lot behind my building at work costs something like $400 a year. Which to me, the girl who is constantly budgeting and re-budgeting, seems insane given that there is free, all-day street parking in the residential area that starts 1 block away. Of course I generally park more like 2 or 3 blocks away but... I'm a marathoner! How sad would it be if I couldn't walk 2 or 3 blocks to work... Especially given that in Palo Alto the weather is fantastic 350 days out of the year. (One positive about living in the Bay Area.)
So, most days I park my car and start wandering through the streets back to my office. And I generally pass all manner of people on the way which provides an interesting internal dialogue. This morning's musings went like this...
I wonder if we'll have ants (or worse) when I get home tonight (due to beer "incident").
I hope the beer is good...
Oh yeah, we leave early today to have happy hour with the Lizes!
Damn, what do I need to get done then since I only have til 2:30...
(Insert list of projects I need to work on)
Oh! That is a super cute jacket.
I wonder where she got it?
Hmmm... She looks familiar...
Right she works for the title company
(not that I figured this out in my pre-coffee state, cute jacket girl walked into the title office = triggering memory)
Oh look someone is having a first time home-buyers seminar.
I should call friend who works for bank hosting above seminar.
Etc...
So here I am lost in my own little world when all of a sudden I realize that the older gentleman who just walked past me has made a comment. Do I want to know what it is? Don't make eye-contact, just smile vaguely in his general direction...
"I said, nice scent"
Why is it that random compliments from strangers still have an ability to brighten your day?
So, most days I park my car and start wandering through the streets back to my office. And I generally pass all manner of people on the way which provides an interesting internal dialogue. This morning's musings went like this...
I wonder if we'll have ants (or worse) when I get home tonight (due to beer "incident").
I hope the beer is good...
Oh yeah, we leave early today to have happy hour with the Lizes!
Damn, what do I need to get done then since I only have til 2:30...
(Insert list of projects I need to work on)
Oh! That is a super cute jacket.
I wonder where she got it?
Hmmm... She looks familiar...
Right she works for the title company
(not that I figured this out in my pre-coffee state, cute jacket girl walked into the title office = triggering memory)
Oh look someone is having a first time home-buyers seminar.
I should call friend who works for bank hosting above seminar.
Etc...
So here I am lost in my own little world when all of a sudden I realize that the older gentleman who just walked past me has made a comment. Do I want to know what it is? Don't make eye-contact, just smile vaguely in his general direction...
"I said, nice scent"
Why is it that random compliments from strangers still have an ability to brighten your day?
Tuesday, May 10, 2005
Accomplishment!
So, for those of you who actually know me (and let's be honest, who else is reading this?!) you guys know that I've been trying to lose weight and get back into shape for the past year... A year ago today actually. So far here's how I've done:
Pounds lost: 25
Miles run: 10-15 a week + longer training runs
Marathons: 0 (training for one 7/31/05)
Not too shabby I suppose! Although 25 pounds in a year seems like an impossibly small amount (considering I wanted to lose 25 pounds in 4 months when I first started) but in the words of my ever-so-charming boy...
"You know babe - things are definately starting to look a bit firmer"
Ah, Accomplishment!
Pounds lost: 25
Miles run: 10-15 a week + longer training runs
Marathons: 0 (training for one 7/31/05)
Not too shabby I suppose! Although 25 pounds in a year seems like an impossibly small amount (considering I wanted to lose 25 pounds in 4 months when I first started) but in the words of my ever-so-charming boy...
"You know babe - things are definately starting to look a bit firmer"
Ah, Accomplishment!
Sunday, May 08, 2005
Friday, May 06, 2005
"Well you realize..."
I love my hair-stylist. She's been doing my hair forever and I love that she knows what will and won't work with my hair. I love that she talked me out of, what I'm sure would have been, a horrific perming experience. I love it that random women come up to me at Starbucks (which totally happened this morning, good thing I had a fresh supply of business cards in my purse!) and ask me who does my hair.
I also love it when she starts sentences with "well you realize"... It usually occurs after I've shown her a picture of how I want my hair, cute layers all fanned into the face while I'm a habitual tucker (hair behind the ears). But anyhow, she had me in stitches (as we say in Texas) last night regaling horror stories of clients who just "had to have" their hair colored to match certain things...
Take for example the slew of women a few years back that "had to have" their hair the exact shade of Rene Russo's hair in The Thomas Crown Affair.
http://movies.yahoo.com/shop?d=hv&cf=pstills&id=1800381572
Now that shade of red is lovely... On Rene. But my stylist knows the woman who did Rene's hair for the movie and has the formula for that exact shade of red. Apparently, there are a few facts that one might miss if one were not a professional hair stylist...
1) That hair color is stop traffic red... In the Hollywood they can do things with lighting to make things seem softer or brighter than they are (who knew?).
2) It needs to be touched up every 3 or 4 days to maintain the ability to stop traffic... Say it with me ladies... Ouch! That gets expensive doesn't it?
and 3) Rene Russo is a natural red-head, has the coloring for red hair and didn't keep her hair that particular shade any longer than it took to shoot the movie (see the premiere photos for proof of her more sedated auburn hair color). Apparently there were a lot of pink cheeked or pale as death women wanting this hair color. That's a no ladies...
Then there was a story from the woman who requested that her hair be dyed to match her shoes. Now I've heard of dying your shoes to match a dress, but matching the hair to the shoes?? Interesting. I was slightly less horrified when I realized that the particular pair of shoes were really a lovely red-brown leather... But still. As a woman who's natural hair color can best be described as taupe... I just can't imagine!
And last but not least, the woman who wanted yellow hair. No, not blonde or platinum, yellow. Why do they even make yellow hair dye?!?! (a drop or two will "brighten" other colors is the answer apparently) And this for a woman with brown hair. So after a round of bleaching to strip all the brown color out of her hair, on goes the yellow, which unfortunately took really well, and out comes the finished product... Lemon Yellow Hair. My stylist described it as "painful to look at next to the skin". Yeah.
I also love it when she starts sentences with "well you realize"... It usually occurs after I've shown her a picture of how I want my hair, cute layers all fanned into the face while I'm a habitual tucker (hair behind the ears). But anyhow, she had me in stitches (as we say in Texas) last night regaling horror stories of clients who just "had to have" their hair colored to match certain things...
Take for example the slew of women a few years back that "had to have" their hair the exact shade of Rene Russo's hair in The Thomas Crown Affair.
http://movies.yahoo.com/shop?d=hv&cf=pstills&id=1800381572
Now that shade of red is lovely... On Rene. But my stylist knows the woman who did Rene's hair for the movie and has the formula for that exact shade of red. Apparently, there are a few facts that one might miss if one were not a professional hair stylist...
1) That hair color is stop traffic red... In the Hollywood they can do things with lighting to make things seem softer or brighter than they are (who knew?).
2) It needs to be touched up every 3 or 4 days to maintain the ability to stop traffic... Say it with me ladies... Ouch! That gets expensive doesn't it?
and 3) Rene Russo is a natural red-head, has the coloring for red hair and didn't keep her hair that particular shade any longer than it took to shoot the movie (see the premiere photos for proof of her more sedated auburn hair color). Apparently there were a lot of pink cheeked or pale as death women wanting this hair color. That's a no ladies...
Then there was a story from the woman who requested that her hair be dyed to match her shoes. Now I've heard of dying your shoes to match a dress, but matching the hair to the shoes?? Interesting. I was slightly less horrified when I realized that the particular pair of shoes were really a lovely red-brown leather... But still. As a woman who's natural hair color can best be described as taupe... I just can't imagine!
And last but not least, the woman who wanted yellow hair. No, not blonde or platinum, yellow. Why do they even make yellow hair dye?!?! (a drop or two will "brighten" other colors is the answer apparently) And this for a woman with brown hair. So after a round of bleaching to strip all the brown color out of her hair, on goes the yellow, which unfortunately took really well, and out comes the finished product... Lemon Yellow Hair. My stylist described it as "painful to look at next to the skin". Yeah.
Tuesday, May 03, 2005
What's in a name?
I'm sure you are all dying to know (or maybe it's that I'm dying to tell the story...) of how someone as obviously exciting as yours truly got the title of "the boring one".
Let me preface this story by saying that I have two girlfriends who are insanely into make-up. We're not talking trying the new spring colors into, I'm talking buying the entire product line of a particular brand into... Suffice it to say that, well, I'm not. Not to say that I'm a slob who completely lacks any ability to "define my best features", I'm just... well... I think I know what works for me so why mess with it?
I'm still not quite sure what possessed me to agree to attend a workshop (given at "the" make-up store)... It was either just that I wanted to hang out with my friend or that I had some momentary need for change, you pick. But never the less I find myself in a make-up store (not a counter like at the department stores but an honest to goodness whole store of one kind of makeup) listening to quite possibly the most fabulously attractive man ever teach me how to make "smoky smudgy eyes".
I might add that this very attractive man 1) greeted my friend by name with a huge hug and a comment on the new stuff he had been "meaning to call her about", 2) asked about our other equally make-up obsessed friend by name and 3) knew more about women's make-up than I could ever have thought there was to know! *sigh*
I actually think I did quite well in the class... I did look mildly like I had two giant black eyes (only they were green) but I was assured that it looked fabulous and was really much more of a night look anyway (this being 5:00 in the afternoon on a Sunday). So what the hell, maybe I'll buy the stuff to attempt this at home (which by the way, I have done, exactly twice, with not even close to the same results I had the day of the class, but that's a separate story all together).
So I'm standing there with this little list in hand to purchase make-up with odd names (what ever happened to plain old eye-shadow??) when the afore-mentioned fabulously attractive man comes over to help...
FAM: Did you have fun today? (As he starts looking at my list)
Me: Sure... But this isn't really my speed...
FAM: What kinds of make-up do you normally wear?
Me: Well you know, browns and natural shades mainly by Bobbi Brown and stuff...
FAM: Oh (with a look that implies pre-existing knowledge of me gained through my friends and a sort of apologetic, yet smug smile...) you must be "the boring friend"...
DOH!
Let me preface this story by saying that I have two girlfriends who are insanely into make-up. We're not talking trying the new spring colors into, I'm talking buying the entire product line of a particular brand into... Suffice it to say that, well, I'm not. Not to say that I'm a slob who completely lacks any ability to "define my best features", I'm just... well... I think I know what works for me so why mess with it?
I'm still not quite sure what possessed me to agree to attend a workshop (given at "the" make-up store)... It was either just that I wanted to hang out with my friend or that I had some momentary need for change, you pick. But never the less I find myself in a make-up store (not a counter like at the department stores but an honest to goodness whole store of one kind of makeup) listening to quite possibly the most fabulously attractive man ever teach me how to make "smoky smudgy eyes".
I might add that this very attractive man 1) greeted my friend by name with a huge hug and a comment on the new stuff he had been "meaning to call her about", 2) asked about our other equally make-up obsessed friend by name and 3) knew more about women's make-up than I could ever have thought there was to know! *sigh*
I actually think I did quite well in the class... I did look mildly like I had two giant black eyes (only they were green) but I was assured that it looked fabulous and was really much more of a night look anyway (this being 5:00 in the afternoon on a Sunday). So what the hell, maybe I'll buy the stuff to attempt this at home (which by the way, I have done, exactly twice, with not even close to the same results I had the day of the class, but that's a separate story all together).
So I'm standing there with this little list in hand to purchase make-up with odd names (what ever happened to plain old eye-shadow??) when the afore-mentioned fabulously attractive man comes over to help...
FAM: Did you have fun today? (As he starts looking at my list)
Me: Sure... But this isn't really my speed...
FAM: What kinds of make-up do you normally wear?
Me: Well you know, browns and natural shades mainly by Bobbi Brown and stuff...
FAM: Oh (with a look that implies pre-existing knowledge of me gained through my friends and a sort of apologetic, yet smug smile...) you must be "the boring friend"...
DOH!
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