Obligations

At times like this I miss being in school. I miss the long vacations and breaks. For weeks I've been holding off on buying plane tickets home for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Why have I waited this long? Well, it's all because of work. Considering I write about it all the time, I probably don't have to remind anyone that things are busy at work. I haven't bought my tickets home because I've been trying to figure out how to fit in a vacation and adjust all of my project schedules at the same time. Trying to adjust project schedules is next to impossible. And it doesn't help when someone schedules books to go to press the Monday after Thanksgiving and the day after Christmas. Who wants to work the day after Christmas? Anyway, I just broke down and bought a ticket home for Thanksgiving, and tomorrow morning I'll have to figure out how to make the schedules work. Then I have to figure out what I'm going to do for Christmas.

All of this would be easier if I wasn't such a Type A, workaholic, and if I was just able to let go and not worry about work. But I do worry about my projects. That's the type of person I am.

I really do love my job and I love the company I work for, but, in general, this adult, working life sure is overrated!

Current mood: stressed out (about work)
Current music: Tori Amos. Scarlet's Walk
Current drink: Remy Martin VSOP Cognac

Living Like a Rock Star

Even though I've been working long and hard hours at work for the past few weeks, somehow I managed to have a lot of fun over the past few days. I already wrote a post about a wonderful happy hour and dinner with some co-workers on Thursday. On Friday a co-worker/gorgeous friend and I had a happy hour of our own at the Corner Bar in Boulder. She has a few dirty martinis and I had a few Manhattans. Later in the evening I joined her and some of her friends for a very late night dinner at about 9:00. This past week was the First Bite Boulder week where some of the best restaurants in Boulder set up a special menu so that you can taste some of their best foods. Each diner gets a three-course meal for only $26 which is a great price considering the options you have. We went to L'Absinthe, the same place we went for happy hour on Thursday. On Thursday the wine was good and the food smelled great, so we thought we would have an actual meal there. For my first course, and to quote the menu, I had Grilled Asparagus and Portobello with herbed Chevre, truffle basil vinaigrette, and a balsamic reduction. It was wonderful! For my second course I had New York Steak Au Poivre, a dry-aged New York strip steak with Cognac (yes, Cognac), black peppercorn sauce, and pomme frites. This steak was unbelievable and one of the best I've ever had! Maybe it had something to do with the cognac. We had white wine and red wine throughout dinner and they were wonderful. The third course, dessert, was a combination of a mini raspberry creme brulee, white chocolate tiramisu, and a dark chocolate fondant. By this time I was pretty full, but the desserts were excellent. And when you end the meal with a good cup of coffee, you have the end to a perfect evening. I wish every night could be like that one!

Happy Hour

So we have a very cool dude in our office who is the social planner. He arranges the schedule for Special Treat Fridays and the occasional all-office happy hours. Tonight was a happy hour night, and initially I wasn't planning on going. I've been feeling tired and antisocial, so I was going to pass tonight. But a certain incredibly gorgeous woman convinced me that I should come out for at least one glass of wine. What a gorgeous woman wants, a gorgeous woman gets. I joined a few of my coworkers for a glass of wine and they also convinced me that I should have an absinthe (a fancy drink that I might explain later). After happy hour, this previously mentioned gorgeous woman and another wonderful woman and I decided to have an actual dinner. ...with more wine. We went to the Med here in Boulder and had a wonderful dinner and wonderful conversation. It was a good night, and I'm glad that such a beautiful woman convinced me to come out tonight because I had a wonderful time.

Daylights Saving Time

I never quite know what to make of daylights saving time. On the one had, when the sun wakes up earlier it forces me to get out of bed earlier because the light shining in my bedroom tends to wake me up. On the other hand, I like having light later into the evening. It always seems like you can do more and get more accomplished when it's still light at 7:00 or 8:00. The time change really struck me at work today. The sun started to set at about 4:00, and it was beautiful to watch. It was almost too beautiful to watch. It was actually quite distracting. But it was also dark by 5:00. And, naturally, when it is dark outside I feel like I should be at home with candles lit and a glass of wine in my hand. And, unfortunately, now that the sun is setting earlier while I'm still at work, I'm going to miss out on a lot of chances to take some pretty sunset pictures. But, I suppose I could wake up earlier to take some sunrise pictures. Yes, we'll see if that ever happens.

Meanwhile, I've recently had my 1,500 visitor view my blog. A loyal reader living in New Mexico. I know who you are... :) And to think that I reached my 1,500 hit without any scams or gimmicks or without joining any networks. I just have a few people who actually care what I think and what I have to say.

Current mood: well, my head is feeling better
Current music: T.A.T.U. Dangerous and Moving

Am I Dead Yet?

This was supposed to be a beautiful weekend. The weather was going to be nice and I had plans on grabbing my camera and running around to random places just to take some pictures. The weather was beautiful, but I wasn't feeling so hot. On Saturday I got knocked out by one nasty headache. And, no, it wasn't from a hangover. It was probably from working too hard these past few weeks. Anyway, it felt like my head was about to explode and I didn't eat much because it didn't feel like I could keep much down. I slept for most of the day, but no matter how much I slept or how much medicine I took, I didn't feel that much better.

I'm feeling slightly better today. My head doesn't feel like it is going to explode, but it still feels like my brain is throbbing and I'm still having the occasional dizzy spell. And I must have been tense when I slept last night because every inch of my body aches and feels sore. I literally feel like I've been run over and dragged behind a chariot for about a hundred miles. And, yes, getting run over by a chariot is my classical reference/metaphor for the day.

There is nothing more I would rather do than just lie on the couch or in my bed all day, but I need to go out to do some shopping. I suppose I should try to cook and eat something today.

Ouch...

Plato Rocks!

Plato's cave...Plato rocks! Get it? Ha...Haha...Classics humor. Either way, I must buy this shirt...

Search Engines

When I look at the stats for my blog visitors I'm able to see how people entered or stumbled upon my page. I have a few loyal readers, but occasionally someone finds my page by accident. Usually their search terms are "vivamus atque amemus." This is the title of my blog, but it also happens to be part of a Catullus poem. My guess is that these searchers are looking for a translation to the phrase (let us live and let us love) or a translation to the entire poem (I'll post the complete translation another day). So, out of curiosity, I searched on my blog title. When you Google "vivamus atque amemus" and when you put the quotes around it, my blog (as of this time and date) shows up second in the list. If you don't put the quotes around it, it still shows up fifth on the list. When I searched it via Yahoo, it showed up first. My huge ego likes to think that these "rankings" actually mean something. So, with this and as I close in on 1,500 visits, I suppose I should thank my loyal four or five readers (and casual stumble uponers--yes, I made up that word) for giving my little blog weight and meaning. Because we all know this random stuff weighs and means so much!

Seasons??

So, I'm not sure what season it is lately. It has been fairly chilly this past week, and they were predicting some flurries or snow this weekend. Right now it is an absolutely beautiful, sunny day, and the temperature is in the 70s. This is such a strange state. But, you never know, we could get a blizzard tomorrow.

But are the celebrities okay??

I'm sure by now everyone knows that there have been a ton of wildfires raging in California over the past week. Thousands of acres have been burned. Thousands of people have been evacuated from their homes. Smoke has been filling the air making it impossible to breathe. There have been several injuries and deaths. And, of course in our idiotic society, several (but not all) TV stations and newspapers were reporting on all of the celebrity homes that were threatened by the fire. They kept saying how Malibu is home to several celebrities and that their homes stood in the path of the fires. They would rattle off the names of these famous celebrities who stood to lose everything in their homes. Who the hell cares? These people have multimillion dollar homes, and they could probably rebuild or buy another one the next day. One celebrity said, "it's just a home, it can be rebuilt easily." Another celebrity said that her housekeepers and assistants were busy gathering her personal items like photos and such. It must be nice to have domestic help to help you evacuate. For a while the spotlight was placed on these idiots when the "regular" people were suffering in the same situation. And once in a while you would see a very brief story about elderly people who were taken out of their nursing homes and relocated to a shelter, probably in the gymnasium of some high school. Every now and then you would see a story about people who had to leave their animals, like horses, behind. That's what really kills me, because you never like to see helpless animals left behind. But, then again, I like animals more than people most of the time. You almost wish they would leave the celebrities behind and rescue the animals instead. Let the idiot celebrities find their own way out of a burning canyon. As the fires got worse, you saw less reports about the celebrities, which is good, but it is annoying that the media made such a big deal about it in the first place. Do people really care about these soulless, idiot celebrities who whine and cry if they don't get paid a million dollars to do one episode of a TV show or who are famous for doing absolutely nothing that contributes to society? IDIOTS!

Hello, Birdy!

Some photos

Taken at the Table Mesa Park & Ride in Boulder, Colorado

Taken at Davidson Mesa in Louisville, Colorado

Yawn...

Well, this has been quite a week at work. Right now things are really busy and really crazy. Everyone seemed stressed and on edge. But we have a great group, because whenever we get stressed and whenever we feel pressured, we always find a way to laugh at the situation. And I suppose it is comforting for all of us to know that we're all feeling the same pressure. Misery loves company.

After work a friend/co-worker and I went to a place in north Boulder called Maruca Designs. They sell purses, handbags, tote bags, cosmetics bags, etc. that are made out of various fabrics. They say that the bags are made in the "Jacquard tradition" where the designs of the patterns are woven into the fabric with different colored threads. They are all very cool. Normally I'm not the type of girl who goes crazy over purses, but I had a beautiful woman standing next to me telling me how cute it would be for me to have a little red purse. So I bought it. Yes, I'm a sucker. And, yes, I'm whipped. At least I'll admit it. It is very cute, though, and now I have two purses. I'm officially becoming "cute."

Current mood: tired but okay
Current music: Loreena McKennitt. Nights from the Alhambra
Current drink: hot chocolate with a shot of rum. Many thanks to my friend, Renee, for introducing that one to me!

Just Plain Tired

This has been another long week. And, yes, I realize that it is only Wednesday. Things have been busy at work. We have a new project editor that started on Monday, so this week has been full of training. I spent the majority of the morning with him, and that mean that I had to stay at work late to catch up on what I wasn't able to do. My guess is that it will be busy like this for the next few months. The end of November, the end of December, and all of January will probably be the worst months. I'm trying to plan vacations home for Thanksgiving and Christmas, so I've been figuring out how to adjust my schedules to make everything work. I'll just have to work some long and hard hours now so that I can enjoy my vacations later. All I need to do is buy my tickets.

Current mood: tired
Currently watching: CNN to get updates on the California fires and to see what is happening back home
Current drink: Calming Tea by Yogi Tea

Photo Day

I went out earlier today just to run a few errands. But the sky and mountains looked so beautiful that I turned around, went home, and got my camera. I was able to snap a lot of nice pictures from around the area. Something is wrong with Blogger and I can't upload any photos here. So until they fix it, you can see my pictures on my Flickr page.

Happy Hour

Tonight we had a department happy hour. We met at Southern Sun, a wonderful brewery and restaurant in south Boulder. I spent many, many nights at Southern Sun during my grad student days. This happy hour was to welcome a new employee and to say good bye to an old employee who will be leaving next week. Mostly it was just an opportunity to get together, to blow off some steam, and to have a good time. And we certainly had a good time. We had a wonderful time in fact. There's always something cool about getting a bunch of gals together to drink and talk about anything and everything. It's definitely something we plan on doing more often, because we have such a great group of people in our department.

And as an added surprise for the evening, I ran into two of my grad school professors at Southern Sun. It was nice to see some familiar faces that I haven't seen in several years. And they told me that there will be a lecture on campus next Monday night. Since one of these professors will be the one speaking, I just might check it out. And, of course, the other professor who was there, an older, crazy German guy, told me that he wanted me to be his personal guest and that I would have to sit right next to him. How can one say no?

Wish I Had My Camera

I wish I brought my camera to work. The view from my window is beautiful!

That's all for now. I'll write more later.

Killer Raccoons

I just went outside to throw away some trash and it was a near-death experience. Our garbage dumpsters are surrounded by walls, and I casually walked into the area to toss my trash in the dumpster. Little did I know that a HUGE raccoon was walking on top of the wall. He was right in front of me, and I guess the bag of trash falling into the dumpster scared him, so he tried to run away along the wall. The only problem is that he ran directly toward me. And, let me remind me that he was HUGE! I got freaked out and I scurried away. Naturally, because I'm a drama queen, I had visions of him jumping on my back and chewing off my head, but fortunately I got away.

I was scared...

Quiet Weekend

This has been a quiet weekend. It's the first weekend I've had where I didn't bring work home with me. Actually, I probably could have brought work home with me, but I chose not to. So what have I been doing this weekend? Absolutely nothing. Although, I have been sleeping a lot if that counts as something. Mostly I've just been taking it easy and I've been trying to relax. I did buy one of those instructional DVDs for beginning T'ai Chi, because I'm trying to fine tune my body and mind. It's a pretty cool DVD, but I think that it will take a lot of practice before I get the movements down. T'ai Chi really is like a dance, and I'm not the most coordinated or graceful woman in the world. Plus, when you watch it on TV, you're normal tendency is to mirror what the instructor is doing, but when you're moving your left leg to mirror him and when he starts talking about moving the right leg it gets really confusing. At least it is confusing to me, since I obviously have understanding the difference between right and left. But maybe I'll get the hang of it. I do have to day that it is very relaxing when you're not struggling to understand the difference between right and left. I also want to try something called Budokon which combines yoga and martial arts. I think the martial arts would be easier for me (I'm much more coordinated when it comes to kicking and punching!) and it would be a way to get into yoga.

I must be on another health kick, because yesterday I was trying to cook up something new with a new recipe I found. Tofu Chili. The chili I've always made in the past usually involved browning ground beef, adding tomatoes, and throwing in one of those ready-made spice packages. But, I thought it might be interesting to try to make chili from scratch, and I got the crazy idea to try tofu chili. This recipe involved chopping up carrots, green bell peppers, onions, garlic, adding individual spices (i.e. not in a handy package), and cooking it up all together with tomatoes, black beans, and tofu. Well, it wasn't as good as I wanted it to be. I love tofu, but it just wasn't working in the chili. Maybe I need to experiment with the spice combination, or maybe I should have tried it with meat first. Sigh... I'd make a lousy vegetarian.

In other news, the weather has taken a turn. It was cloudy all day yesterday, and then it started to rain late in the afternoon. It has been raining on and off ever since. Once again, it is a sign that winter is around the corner, but it is feeling quite cozy today.

Current mood: relaxed
Current music: Melissa Etheridge. The Awakening. (An awesome CD)

This, That, and Everything in Between

Today was a strange day. At work we found out that someone accepted a project editor position we had open. So we replaced two editors who left a few weeks ago. But we also found out that someone else will be leaving our department at the end of this month. It's too bad for us, but she'll be doing something that will be good for her, so you can't be too sad.

Things in general are good, though. I went out this evening to do some shopping, and I saw the most beautiful sunset. The sky was still a pale blue, the mountains were all silhouettes, and the sun was just starting to dip behind the mountains. The clouds were beautiful, and it looked like someone painted them bright orange. It was also one of those nights when I was kicking myself for not having my camera with me. I need to be better about bringing it with me where ever I go, because tonight I lost an opportunity to take some beautiful pictures.

Sadly, I continued on to do my shopping. I went to Target because I needed "just a few things." Yeah, we know what happens when you go to Target to get just a few things. I got what I needed, but I also brought home three CDs with me.

I needed to get some "face stuff" while on my shopping trip. Moisturizer. You always need moisturizer in Colorado and the stuff with SPF, too. Don't know why I'm telling you this, but now you know. Anyway, these days there is a whole assortment of moisturizers. I recently tried something from Olay, and it was part of their "Definity" line. It's part of their "anti-aging" line. Yes, I know, I'm only 32, but it couldn't hurt. Anyway, I decided to not buy it this time. It's really expensive, and, let's face it, I'm never going to be radiant and luminous no matter how hard I try and no matter what I put on my face. I'll stick with the basics and be content with just being moderately dim rather than radiant and luminous.

I just noticed an error on one of my CDs. They forgot to list one song on the back cover, now all of the other songs are numbered incorrectly. Damn editor in me.

Current mood: flirty and naughty
Current music: Faith Hill. The Hits. Faith is in love with me, she just doesn't know it yet!
Current drink: Barq's Root Beer. Yes, that's right, ROOT Beer.

Seasons Changing and Other Stuff

Seasons: You can tell that the seasons are starting to change. The leaves are turning yellow. The air is starting to get really cold at night and in the morning. The sun is setting earlier. I love the fall. Although I still believe that the best fall seasons I've seen have been in Michigan. In Colorado the leaves turn yellow--a very pretty yellow--but then they quickly turn brown before falling to the ground. In Michigan the leaves turn yellow, red, and orange. It looks like the trees are on fire. The fall in Colorado is still nice, though. But the coming of fall only means that winter is right around the corner, and I hope that it is a mild winter this year. I am not ready for another blizzard!

Other Stuff: On another note, I've recently gotten into Facebook. Yes, another Internet distraction to suck the life out of me. It's like MySpace, but I'm learning that it is a lot better. I originally signed on to Facebook because I knew that one of my friends was on it. It turns out I found a bunch of other friends who are on it, too. So now I'm reconnecting with some old friends. Pretty cool.

Current mood: feeling pretty good
Current music: Lisa Gerrard. The Silver Tree