renegadeRICEcracker

a/c vs. advil

i'm home sick today. apparently i have a fever. i had trouble sleeping the last couple nights, and after getting into bed at 11 and not being able to sleep until 4, determined that it was because i was feverish and too hot. i just called mimi to whine about how uncomfortably warm and cold-sweaty i am feeling, and she informed me that i should deal with this by taking some ibuprofen rather than turning on the a/c. which, truly, was my first impulse. fine. i just took two tablets. thank god i finally learned how to swallow pills.

incidentally, i suppose i was also sick and slightly feverish on saturday, when we were wandering around knott's berry farm (company picnic) at night and i was the only one who wasn't cold, even though i was the only one without a jacket. i am always too warm, though, so i didn't think anything of it when my almost steaming hot hands were being used as hand warmers by everyone around me. other than the sick thing, knott's was totally fun. ayumi and i were surprised to see that, indeed, knott's still seems to draw pretty big crowds, though they could certainly stand to learn something about efficiency and whatnot from disneyland or magic mountain.

but i have an awesome photo of us in the first row of the silver bullet, where we are all having an extraordinarily good time except for one of my coworkers, who is gripping the handles tightly with her head down, screaming like she is being attacked by a big scary boogeyman. it's awesome.

i can't fucking sleep

i was exhausted all today, drank too much coffee, worked late, and then came home and now can't sleep. i have to get up early tomorrow, too. this fucking sucks.

my CUTE AS PIE nephew alex!

as a newborn (first day of life):

around 3 months:

four months:

procrastination -- coming soon

okay. so i didn't make it to aaron brothers this weekend to frame my procrastination poster to go over my tv after all. this is not entirely my fault, as my dad talked me out of it because it would be cheaper to go to monterey park, or, alternatively, have him build me a frame. mimi points out that i can buy a cheap ready-made one, so that's the new plan. however, i'm still feeling less than motivated because i was disheartened by all the measurements and hooks and everything my dad explained i would need to hang this poster and the other little paintings i finally framed (after buying them in vietnam two years ago) and want to hang over my couch.

BUT, in preparation, i did finally build the second crate & barrel ladder bookcase i bought in june or so. in doing so, i had to rearrange the furniture into the arrangement i'd been kind of thinking about for a few months. AND, to clear a space for the procrastination poster, i took down the christmas wreath that has been browning on my wall since, well, christmas.

you see //k? progress is being made. my place will look entirely different by the time you come next to visit.

AB 849: The Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act

So. The California legislature passed State Senator Mark Leno's AB 849, the Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act by one vote. AB 849 amends the Family Code to define a marriage as a civil contract between two persons, instead of a civil contract between a man and a woman. The bill also reaffirms that no religious institution would ever be required to solemnize marriages contrary to its fundamental beliefs.

The bill now sits on Governor Schwarzenegger's desk. He hasn't said yet whether he will sign the bill, but has said in the past that he believes the issue should be decided by the people or courts (have you noticed that suddenly all Republicans want to leave everything to the courts?), and that he supports California's current domestic partnership laws. Cynicism around me is pretty strong and predicting that he will not sign the bill because, like every other governor, he harbors some notion of becoming president one day (even though this would require an amendment to the constitution), and signing the bill would effectively kiss his career hopes goodbye.

Ugh. I don't think it will make a difference, but I have been feeling antsy and depressed so I e-mailed the governor about my support of this bill. I guess all we can do is sit back and wait for another blow. *sigh*

Oh, and for some pleasure reading, here is an article about how Hurricane Katrina is negatively affecting gay families whose lives have been destroyed:
Katrina Delivers Second Blow To Gay Families

mmm... asian love sauce...

so, rehnquist died tonight. i am depressed and worried and upset, so i am not going to talk about it all.

instead, i will talk about how i am in philly right now. i am visiting sahar, who had an apendectomy last weekend, where the night before she was going to come back to LA she had stomach pain and had to have an emergency surgery. we are having fun. yesterday i got in late, and we went to some uber-trendy restaurant where for our appetizer we had a tuna tartare that came with an "asian love sauce." i told the waiter that it was just like the love sauce i used to eat growing up in the rice paddies when i was little. wonderful.

today we walked around philly and shopped on south street, and then went to some french restaurant. the food was very good, but for dessert we ordered the "strawberries with chopped baby basil in a balsamic vinaigrette with olive oil ice cream." i have a picture of this that i will upload sometime. the strawberries were not bad the but the ice cream tasted just like cold creamy olive oil. it tasted like a salad, and was really kind of gross, especially when you accidentally got some in your mouth when you weren't ready for it. yeesh.

tomorrow we are going to rent a car and drive to atlantic city. atlantic city! we will picnic on the shore, and then gamble and drink. yay!

shattered time-share dreams

the partner i'm newly working for convinced me that it would be a good idea to go to a time-share orientation for a free trip. he apparently gets a big kick out of the crazy salespeople, the hard sells, and the way they boot you out the door with your vouchers once they realize you're not interested. of course, he also bought two time shares in the past, though they are now in the custody of his ex-girlfriend.

anyway. he made it sound interesting and fun enough that when i got a message the other day saying i had been selected to receive a free trip to vegas, including airfare, two nights of accommodations, and my choice of tickets to vegas shows, i called back. i was told that the hotel choices were the sahara or the stratosphere, where we could see celebrity impersonators or the platters, drifters and coasters. i figured that, though this was a downgrade from a trip i would have planned myself, it didn't sound too bad in exchange for a couple hours of orientation where i'd get free food, so i signed mimi and i up for a friday evening orientation.

i was excited. it's not that i needed the free trip so much as it just seemed like a kind of funny way to spend an evening, and how can a free trip hurt?

later this morning, the partner told me i should check restrictions because often you have to go in the middle of the week or something. so i called back. it turns out that we don't stay at the sahara or stratosphere. we stay at a "tourist-class" hotel, such as howard johnson's. the shows are at the sahara or stratosphere. oh. AND we can only fly sunday-thursday. which means that if we fly out thursday and come back sunday, that's 3 nights and we only get 2 free nights, so to really use their plan we'd have to be there monday to wednesday or something like that. bunk.

i told him i'd have to check with my partner about whether she was still interested. he said they'd work with me if we didn't want to go to vegas, and that he'd call back when they had different promotions. i'm kinda bummed. hopefully they will have something kind of decent in the LA area. i still have high hopes of sitting through a horrible sale a la family guy, and getting something free and relatively decent out of it. oh well.