2008 September « sheilamia

Archive for September, 2008

Sep

Friday Bullets!

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Tags: Friday Bullets

I was going to post some pictures I took yesterday. There is an overpass in Lafayette where, each year in remembrance of the tragic 9/11 date, community members decorate the bridge with signs and American flags. It is quite an amazing sight to see.

Oh, but I don’t have a computer at the moment. I am using Pete’s computer to post this blog. Yesterday my computer decided that it did not want to charge itself any longer so the battery slowly went dead. After a tedious call with Dell technical support, they determined the problem to be my charger. The replacement charger was supposed to arrive today but so far nothing. It looks like I’ll be computer-less this weekend.

Oh well, it’s Friday, right? It has been a full day and it’s only 3pm.

First thing this morning, my boss breaks the news that one of our partner companies, NetPro, just got acquired by Quest (up until today a competitor). Here’s the announcement. Apparently it was one of those ugly takeovers where all the employees were told to report to a local hotel. There was a room for the “welcome aboard” group and there was a room for the “goodbye, you’re fired” group. Apparently the “welcome aboard” group was tiny in comparison to the other. This news really makes me appreciate that I’m no longer a part of such a cutthroat corporate environment. But it also makes me realize that nothing is a sure thing. The world is ever-changing. I need to be on my toes even in my seemingly secure job at a family-oriented company.
A-ha! The DHL truck has arrived. I am back at my computer ready to upload photos and sync my iPod, as I must upload my new Counting Crows playlist in order to prep for next week’s concert at the Concord Pavilion (yay!)
Lucy is licking the lotion off my leg at this very moment. Speaking of lotion, while we were up at Tahoe last weekend, Ayelet and I had to go look for a white bra for me (long story). We found a great shop in downtown Truckee where I found my bra and Ayelet found some crack cocaine for the skin: Epicuren. She bought a bottle of the lotion in a coconut kukui nut flavor. I musta slathered 1/2 the bottle on myself over the course of the weekend. I just went and ordered some for myself, ’cause it is the best lotion EVER. You know how most lotions feel at least a bit waxy on the skin? Epicuren? no waxy feeling whatsoever.
Here’s a fun quote from Anna, “basically I feel like summer is over now, all of the coffee shops have pumpkin flavored drinks and stuff like that”. Love that!
This weekend… really looking forward to checking out harvest season in Wine Country on Saturday. I’ll be joining Ayelet and her visiting friend from Italy on a little wine tasting excursion. We made reservations at The Girl and the Fig, which I’ve always wanted to try… so quite excited. On Sunday, plans for lunch or an afternoon get together with Kathy & Doug. Very excited to hear all about the pregnancy. Maybe Kathy will let me feel her belly. ; )

Have a great weekend everyone!

Sep

7 years later

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I will never forget that morning 7 years ago today. The morning started as usual with a run at 5am. Everything was normal as I sleepily plodded along, listening to 97.3 Alice, the radio station (I hadn’t gotten myself addicted to KNBR as of yet). As my hour long run progressed, the tragic story unfolded. When I got home, I woke Pete up and turned on the T.V. He thought it was a simulated video of what would happen if two planes crashed into the Twin Towers.

9/11/2001 was the eeriest, scariest, most chilling day of my life.

Doing some surfing online today, I came across this story of a gal who is extremely lucky to be alive. However, 7 years later, she is still undergoing physical therapy as well as psychotherapy to deal with the emotional scars from being a victim.

It makes me realize how fortunate I am that I was not affected personally by this devastating episode. I also know that I am in the minority.

Sep

I have always liked Matt Damon

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Tags: politics

This is a great interview. I could not agree more.

This is about as close to touching politics I will get on my blog, so please do not look at this as an opportunity to commence a political debate, thank you.

Sep

Facebook fanatics… pay attention!

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Tags: fun stuff

I found this list while surfing the web for something inspirational to blog about. Okay perhaps it’s not quite inspirational, but it is funny as hell.

Anybody who is a member of Facebook can relate to this list. Enjoy!

Now pardon me, but I’m going to go join the Facebook group, “people who love to eat French Fries” – I’ll “poke” you later!

Sep

Just an observation…

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Tags: politics

I am starting to see a trend amongst people I know who happen to be Republican ( I won’t call anyone out ).

It is pretty interesting, like a psychological study of sorts. I’m noticing that the Republicans I know seem to get extreme satisfaction out of spreading negative, slanderous information (ie: email blasts) about the Democratic party (ie: Barack Obama), whereas the Democrats I know have been pretty quiet.

Now, we all KNOW that it isn’t that there is no negative information to be spread about the Rebublican party.

Please do not take offense. This is simply an observation.

Sep

A weekend in paradise, 3 hours away

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Today has been a VERY long day, but I promised myself that I MUST blog. It isn’t right when work gets in the way of writing in my blog (akin to preventing a super-religious person from attending church every Sunday).

I am still riding the buzz of a fun weekend trip to Tahoe/Donner.

Our great friend Amy offered to let us stay at her house in Tahoe/Donner for the weekend. Originally, she planned to join us but she had to switch plans due to the fact that she is a responsible parent. So, Ayelet, Lucy, Pete & I drove up late on Friday and spent a short but super fun weekend up north. I really feel like the itch has not been properly scratched: I want MORE! I just love Tahoe, I am already planning the next trip. Oh… I am a summer gal, rather than a winter gal, so likely it will be 2009 before I’m back.

In light of the fact that I am exhausted at 5:09pm PST knowing my husband will arrive in moments with plans to drag me to the city to watch one of the last Giants games (yeah, the stud Lincecum is pitching but it’s Monday night for God’s sake!), I have decided to pilfer a post written by the fabulous and talented Ayelet. Really, I could not have described our strange but memorable Saturday experience in Tahoe better than she does here.

I will spend the time to talk about my mornings with Lucy while in Tahoe/Donner. Talk about religion! Instead of our typical moderately paced walk on the Iron Horse Trail each morning, we RAN around Donner Lake. Yeah, we ran. Now, back in the day (and I know that at least one of my readers can relate to this!), I was fully ensconced in the Triathlete circle. Back then, the words “Donner Lake” did not mean peace & serenity. Instead, the words meant adrenaline, perseverence, competition and willpower, as the reason to visit and stay at Donner Lake was to participate in the yearly Donner Lake Triathlon.

SOOOO, as a rapidly aging woman who strives to relive her youth anyway possible, I truly enjoy my time visiting Donner Lake. I can’t NOT run around the lake when visiting the area, and I’m happy to have Lucy to share in my joy. It’s fun to reminisce in the days when 6 miles was an easy jog in the park.

Anyhow, we did it — 2 days in a row (never mind that Lucy could have doubled around the lake without a problem). Today I am very sore and my appetite seems out of control. There are things I don’t miss about running. BUT, I do miss and appreciate certain things… like that moment when your breath evens out and you truly feel like you could run for days, and meanwhile solve all the world’s problems… truly priceless.

Sep

Friday Bullets!

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Tags: Friday Bullets

Gotta make this short ’cause we are taking off for the weekend in moments….

Yep, we’re off for a fun weekend away, staying at Amy’s house in Truckee (near Donner Lake). Amy was supposed to join us but she wisely made the decision to spend the weekend with her 13 year old daughter, they are both missing Amy’s 18 year old daughter who just started college in Santa Barbara. So it’s the Pete, Sheila, Ayelet and Lucy roadtrip. We’ll be meeting up with Jackie & Mark and the “I-L’s” as Jackie so fondly calls them. Looking forward to some relaxation, laughs with friends and good luck at the casinos!

I took the day off today and I am more exhausted than ever. Ran errands literally ALL. DAY. LONG. Phew! Took my car back for service, shopping at Target, lunch with Lucy at Sideboard, took Lucy to her dermatology appointment, got my nails done, packed and now I am wiped out.

So Lucy’s new dermatologist ruled out a bunch of possible allergies (mites, scabies, fleas – phew!) She strongly suspects Lucy has a pollen allergy. They took some blood tests and we’ll get the results back in 1 month. For now, Lucy must follow a strict venison/sweet potato diet (no table scraps, bones, snacks, etc), Benadryl once a day and medicated shampoo. My poor baby!

I learned something about myself this week – the left side of me feels pain more acutely than the right. I realized it at acupuncture the other day, then today at the nail salon, it definitely felt more painful when the nail technician scraped off my callouses on the left foot than the right. It is good to know things about oneself, right?!??! : )

Have a great weekend everyone… just so you all know, next week is going to SUCK big time. I am already way behind at work and I have a LONG list of tasks to attend to before I do anything else.

Sep

A mystery guest blog post

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Tags: guest blog

I am having day two of *that kind of day* so I have decided to use part of a great friend’s email to me (I won’t reveal the writer for privacy sake!) as a “guest blog post”… enjoy!

I am afraid to visit your blog again since the last time I was there I connected over to Penelope Trunk, where I spent 45 minutes reading career articles! That was definitely one of my favorite pitstops on the web last year when I was sick of my last company. But it’s fun to check in on you and see what’s new.

Have you read that book Eat Pray Love? I guess I am thinking of it because it’s sort-of in line with your topic of that blog post, and I just saw the author on Oprah on Monday afternoon. I ended up reading the book as one of the few English language books that sounded interesting and were available in the apartment in Paris. It’s about a woman who is going through a terrible divorce and is having the dark nights of the soul when she finds a few threads to hang onto in order to move forward. I thought I would just read the Eat part – she goes to Rome and learns Italian and eats amazing meals, which seemed appropriate since I was in Paris – because I don’t go for the woo-woo stuff like Donna and Kim – but I really got into it, and I liked her writing style.

The biggest thing I liked was that she was able to completely shed the idea of “my marriage should have worked out – I should want the house in the suburbs and the white picket fence” and she said “No, I am not buying into what everyone thinks I “should” want – what do I really really really want, deep down inside? That’s all that counts”. Of course it helps to have a book deal signed to pay your way around the world to do all these things that she does, but I still like the heart of the book.

So back to Oprah – they had women on who’d read the book and it had changed their life in some way (some clutching it to their chest and saying “It’s my bible!” which to me is always scary because not even the Bible should be your bible like that!).

I am taking a long time to get to my point but it is that I was surprised how many of these people were living lives where they never thought about what they wanted and what was right for them, not until they read the book. It just surprises me because it seems like you, me and most of the happier women I know are constantly reviewing, considering, moving towards what makes them happy and trying to fill their lives with it as much as possible; as well as figuring out how to get through the tough stuff.

And back to your blog – it seems like it’s a good way to go over your thoughts in writing – just the process of the pen in hand or the keyboard makes my thoughts more real, and seems like it helps you sort through stuff to figure out where you’re supposed to be.

A very long paragraph that boils down to a book recommendation and a compliment on your blog!

How easy was that? Control-c + Control-v and voila! I need to do this more often, as I am fortunate to have very thoughtful, intelligent and excellent writers as friends.

Sep

Having one of those days

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Tags: career, rant

It really makes me unhappy when work gets in the way of one of my favorite hobbies: blogging. But, dammit, I’m on a mission!

I am having one of those days where the phone keeps ringing and I’m playing phone tag with the people that I’ve left messages for, who have left me messages back. Does that mean everyone is having the same kind of day as me?!? Yikes.

My boss told me today that he wants me to “take on more responsibility” — after probing further, it turns out he wants me to handle some of the admin tasks that he doesn’t have time to do anymore. WTF! Just ’cause you are too cheap to hire someone to help (reference my recent post titled Rant) don’t throw that crap on me.

Plus we are increasingly getting worried about Lucy. Her skin condition seems to be getting worse. Pete spent a ton of time doing research on the Internet yesterday and I made an appointment with a pet dermatologist. A friend of a friend lost their 5 year old dog suddenly and since hearing the news, it has weighed on my mind.

And now, I’m prepping for our weekly company/sales meeting. No doubt the “fun” will continue…. (sigh)

Sep