Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Down but College Bound...

   Lately I've been feeling down about my job and my future/retirement etc. I think it's because I'm turning 30 and I feel like I've accomplished so little up till now. My 20's with the exception obviously of my Husband and Kiddo just felt like such a waste. If I had to sum up my 20's in one word "Awkward" comes to mind. Not unlike my teen years I feel like I just haphazardly lived through an entire decade with no real purpose. I'm still discovering myself in many ways;  My view on Politics/Religion/Relationships/Style (or lack thereof) - things I feel I should have established by the time I was 30.

    The biggest regret I have is that I put off College. I got a job working as a contractor for NASA right after High School graduation. Being young and living on my own of course I didn't give up a nice paycheck to go back to school. I worked there for 8 years until I got laid off. By that time I was only working part time since I had just had my Son, but I was also working part time at my current job (a small start-up). My boss brought me on full time and I've been here ever since about 4 years. I LOVE my Boss, my co-workers and my schedule is something to be envied for sure, but I just feel like I've reached as far as I can possibly go and I just don't see myself doing this job 5 years from now. The only way out of this situation is going back to school. This clicked with me last night and this morning I got the ball rolling; Signed up to get my student ID and got the schedule for the placement tests. My dream is to be a Nurse. I think part of the problem after High School was that I had so many interests that I ended up choosing none. It wasn't until my time at NASA when I joined the rescue team did I decide that I LOVE helping people. Nursing just seemed to me like the perfect fit. I know I've got a long way to go and an uphill battle - Holy cow I've been out of school for 12 YEARS! - But I'm so ready for it...I'm Stoked/Scared/Happy/Excited/Petrified all at once....

Monday, February 27, 2012

America's Got Talent Re-Cap


    We arrived in SF about an hour before the posted start time. I should have known that was not enough time as we drove up the line was ridiculous! There went any hopes of getting on the first floor. We all looked at each other and almost decided to book it to Pier 39 instead, but quickly decided to press on. We parked and got in line, waited about an hour in line before we got in. We sat on the 2nd floor in the “TV Section” but I don’t think I ever saw the camera pan our way. About 45 minutes after we sat down the taping finally started. Just FYI the shots of the Audience Booing/Cheering/Clapping/Throwing up X’s is taped BEFORE the show starts. Yes, we did still react to the performances, but about two hours in we were pretty bored, Ran was nodding off - standing up and clapping was just not an option at that point so I understand why they do that. In the 4 hours we were there we saw maybe 8 acts. We left the taping at the break (which was about 3 hours in) but apparently we only missed maybe 2 additional acts.
     
    There were definitely a lot of Stern fans in the audience. I heard more Ba-ba-booey’s then I would have liked, so many so that I would have probably punched someone in the face if they were in striking distance. Howard as a judge was fantastic! He X’d who should have been X’d and let go those that deserved it. He also had the ability to tell the performer the truth no matter how awful they were, without being mean. He even managed to make them laugh while he was crushing their dreams. My Mom who is not really fan was a convert when we left the show. I think people will be pleasantly surprised by him. Sharon Osbourne also seemed pretty cool. Took her a few minutes to make it to her seat after her introduction because she was giving out so many hugs (To the dismay of Nick Cannon who looked annoyed) Both she and Howard interacted with the audience during breaks which was nice. Here are some of the highlights from the auditions:

Taylor Beckett: She was filming her “Intro” while we were waiting in line so it was no surprise when we saw her walk on stage as the third act. She has this beautiful BIG voice coming from this tiny little thing. She got some flak for singing so “Big” without any build up, which I agreed with, but she sounded amazing in the auditorium. She has a classic “I-can-sing-the-shit-out-of-this-song” voice, which is nice but I tend to like the singing acts that have some kind of interesting inflection to their voice.

Chadwick Johnson (At least that’s what I thought I heard): Another singer with an amazing voice. He was a surprise because he seemed kinda nerdy, a bit introverted which is weird because he’s a bartender. Howie kept mentioning what a “Winning Smile” he had, we couldn’t tell from where we were. He could sing for sure! He had great control of his voice. I think he’ll go far if he can get some personality.

“Turf” (Didn’t catch his real name): He was the “Hard Luck” story of our visit. He is a dance contortionist and I admit I was cringing in my seat - the things he was doing with his arms and legs was pretty cool to watch. He’ll never win, but he had a story that made you want to root for him. Homeless at one point, dancing on the streets of SF to make money he seemed genuine and someone you want to see succeed.

  After the taping we made our way to Pier 39. Ran wanted to stop by the Houdini Magic shop to pick up some trinkets for our kiddo. We ate at Louie’s Seafood – Food was “Eh”, but Ran did enjoy his crab. I had pasta which was my bad - ordering pasta at a seafood restaurant :/  We then headed to Ghirardelli Square and we managed to get one cell phone shot before my phone died. The real winner of the day was the SF weather. It was BEA-U-TI-FUL in SF!

The Golden Gate is behind us, but the sun and my crappy cell camera blocked it out :(

We got home fairly early and since we were sans kiddo for the night, we walked to a nearby restaurant/bar. This is my Holy-Cow-Long-Beach-Teas-Taste-Like-Pink-Lemonade and now I'm buzzzzzzzzzed face.


All in all a good day was had by all...

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Howdy Doody Tooty Fruity


      Hello Blogland! Been awhile since I’ve logged in…truth be told I’ve started a blog post a few times only to stop before getting a coherent sentenced typed out.  A lot of the time I sit here with my laptop staring at the screen with a cocked head thinking “WTF am I going to write?” I live a relatively boring, mundane life and envy those that can not only blog every day/weekly but actually have something interesting to say. In any case I suppose I could at least let you in on what I’ve been up to this past month. 
     
 As far as my diet I’m UP a few pounds WHOMP WHOMP. My drive and motivation pulled a “Thelma and Louise” - I’m kicking myself because I was doing so good! I tell ya this food has such a grip on me it’s unbelievable. I had a few pretty wild years when I was younger; tried just about every drug under the sun, had a really fun time, but never once found myself getting sucked in the way food seems to just encompass my brain. It’s the closest thing to a true addiction that I think I’ve ever faced. I have this all or nothing mentality when it comes to food. Either I completely deprive myself or I completely give in. I can’t seem to do the “have one bite and move on” that one bite always leads to me wanting more. I really need to find my happy medium, my 30th is fast approaching and I’m no closer to my goal than I was a month ago. I’m not delusional I know I won’t make goal in a month, but my overall goal is still attainable. I don’t want to waste another DECADE battling the bulge, I refuse to.

     Other than eating anything and everything this past month I’ve also been working like crazy - We just moved to a new office space and broke in a new intern from Singapore (From NUS studying at Stanford) fun times. I’ve also been working in my son’s class a lot.  Anyone that says Teachers are paid enough need to actually spend some time in a classroom – I’m exhausted after just a few hours. Still hitting up the thrift stores, garage sales and estate sales. My Mom and I went to one this past weekend - a total time warp. This was easily a two million dollar house, beautiful on the outside but a delightful mess of a time capsule on the inside. The woman that lived there out lived her husband and kids and hoarded everything after their deaths. It wasn’t filled to the ceiling with cat poop or anything but it was definitely a haven for dust and cobwebs. I chatted with the family for a bit, very lovely people and I’m always glad to see when family is present for these estate sales – It’s still a bit weird for me as a shopper and I’m sure for them, but a lot of the time I find they like to discuss their family member and the belongings finding new homes with folks like me. Speaking of thrifting I am a bit closer to opening an etsy store. I’ve been measuring and researching getting ready to finally photograph all my wares. All in all a pretty uneventful month - you see why I had a hard time keeping up with my blog? Pretty boring stuff…

On the Horizon…This weekend Ran and I are going to a taping of America’s Got Talent in San Francisco. Ran is a longtime Stern fan so I’m sure he’ll be trying to see how many times he can scream “BA-BA-BOOEY” before we get kicked out…

I did manage to photograph some of my recent thrifty purchases. Some things I’m keeping. Others will eventually be Etsy bound…

 
These little guys are cute, but have absolutely no business being in my house they'd be broken in no time flat. I think they would make darling little terrariums though.     

This is one of my favorite recent finds and I got a set of FOUR! that never happens. They are porcelain (Heavy duty) soup/salad sets. I've seen these priced $30-$50 bucks a pop I paid $3 dollars a set. Plus I think they might be vintage, the bowl has a GDR stamp on the bottom.

Cute little daisy coat hanger.


This vintage skirt screams "Marcia, Marcia, Marcia" but I couldn't pass it up. It has the cutest candy colored buttons. Unfortunately I'm not a waif so I won't be donning this skirt.
Super cute tribal print skirt falls mid-calf and I love it - Can't wait for summer.
I loved this skirt from the Target Missoni line but wasn't about to shell out the big bucks for it on ebay. I found it at Goodwill for $4.99. Yup, Goodwill gets Target merchandise that hasn't sold (clothing/shoes at least)  3 months after it hits the store floors. So if you missed out on the Jason Wu line check Goodwill in a few months.
This was a pretty sweet find too REAL Missoni shoes. $5 bucks whaaaat!


Oh I'm also babysitting this little guy and his two buddies (Dogs) I've currently got 4 dogs and 1 turtle in my little 2 bedroom house. I feel a bit like Ace Venture when they all gather around me. Luckily, they all leave tomorrow with the exception of my two loveable mutts.