So much for being back to regular blogging, eh? Oh well. I just wanted to check in before we go out of town for a few days. One of Thom’s nephews is graduating from college this weekend–ah, these young people, they grow up so fast–so tonight we’re on a redeye to Virginia, on Virgin America no less (flying SFO to Dulles, then driving a rental car a few hours to meet up with Thom’s family).
I can’t remember the last time I’ve been to a graduation, other than my own. I love all the pomp and circumstance, and sometimes irreverence, in the case of my own alma mater.
By the way, it’s May, and what does that mean? Yes, one week till my birthday!
I’m going to be working in an office again, mostly. And this is a good thing!
Let’s back up. When I moved back to California in 2006, I was fortunately able to keep my job (based in Maryland) and basically have been telecommuting from home full-time. I love the flexibility, but for me working from home is not all it’s cracked up to be. Some people can make it work, but I feel like I never made the 100% effort to create a dedicated workspace (and frame of mind).
Recently my manager floated the idea of me having the option to work from the office of one of our related companies in San Francisco. While I wouldn’t have any functional or reporting ties to the local staff, I would get my own workspace, office resources, and (to get all intangible) a re-connection to our larger organization.
There are three other major pluses: location, location, location! Our house is in suburbia — not very exciting. The office is in energetic downtown San Francisco, and surrounded by lots of places to eat, which is something I missed when I stopped working in Bethesda. What’s more, the office is three blocks from where Thom works. This morning he and I took BART together, and I went to go check out my new digs. After getting a tour and settling in a bit, Thom and I met for lunch at Bistro Burger, which has a location on the ground floor of my building. Ah, a gourmet burger place in my building: this could get dangerous.
Just to recap the weekend: On Friday night Thom and I went to Solstice for a fun little happy hour for our friend (and Thom’s former co-worker) Julie, who has left their former department and is starting a new job. (I like this photo of her and me looking talky, and this one with Thom is darling too.) By the way, Julie is in a band at Blue Bear; we saw them do a showcase at Café du Nord last week, and they rocked!
On Saturday Thom and I had dinner at Chez Panisse with a few of my college friends to celebrate Jennifer’s birthday. We ate upstairs in the café, and it was fabulous. There were five of us, and on the menu apart from appetizers there exactly were five entrées and five desserts — so of course we ordered one of each and shared them all! Definitely a treat.
Tangent: I have fond associations with Chez Panisse not only because we had eaten there a few times as poor but epicurean college students (how bohemian), but also because of the name. It’s inspired by Marcel Pagnol’s 1930s trilogy of films, Marius, Fanny, and Cesar, and the restaurant has many vintage posters. Panisse is one of the main characters. When I was a senior in high school, our spring production was Fanny, a 1950s musical based on these films, and I played Marius.
On Sunday night we met up with Thom’s friend Peg, who was visiting from the East Coast, and her folks in Oakland. We ate a delicious dinner at an Ethiopian restaurant, Red Sea, and had a nice time catching up and visiting their place afterward.
The Royal Mint held a competition to replace the reverse designs on UK coins, and the winning design by 26-year-old graphic designer Matthew Dent is pretty cool. Each coin denomination has a separate portion of the Royal Arms. You can’t literally fit them together, but as a whole they represent the entire coat of arms.
I love it. It’s traditional, but with the extreme close-ups, also feels really modern. In fact, looking at them individually, I think of certain movie credits, where the camera pushes in close on an object, and a name — in this case, the number of pence — appears along the edge. I want pretty money! (via Fredo)
Ah, poor neglected blog. I think this is the longest I’ve gone without writing an entry: over two months! Yikes. Despite the lack of writing, though, the site has still been getting a decent trickle of visitors from search engines and you few, you happy few who periodically stop by to see if the tumbleweeds have cleared. Bless you.
I will say that I have been using Twitter, so that’s something. You can catch up on my Twitter page, or find the most recent tweets reproduced in the sidebar here on my home page. Also, if you use Twitter, follow me, and I can stalk, er, follow, you too!
Oh, and there’s Facebook. I’m always up for a round of Scrabulous, which I think I’m reasonably good at, or Scramble, at which I rate myself somewhere between horrible and mediocre. Still, it’s fun. Got to stave off the Alzheimer’s somehow.
OK, now that the “we had a good time but I never called you and oh look at us randomly meeting here on the street” awkwardness is over: we good?
Now a quick year-to-date in review, which is pretty easy as 2008 is only about a week old:
New Year’s Eve party: What I thought was going to be a little get-together turned out to be a good-size house party. They had Dance Dance Revolution (which I must get now for our Wii), karaoke, champagne at midnight, etc. Lots of fun.
On New Year’s Day I went shopping at Tanforan: Old Navy (hoodie and khakis; thank you, 50% off sale), Barnes & Noble (I Am America (and So Can You!)), Target (sweater; mmm, argyle). That evening we watched Colma: The Musical on DVD. It’s a charming little musical, and half the fun for us is the fact that it takes place in a neighboring town Colma, locally known for its many cemeteries (as well as car dealers and big-box retail). But much of the “Colma” shown in the movie was actually filmed in Daly City; some scenes take place at the hill at Westmoor High School at the end of our street, and in one shot (though not in the trailer, below) you can even see part of our house!
The worst of the recent storms came Thursday night into Friday, and that morning our power went out. Since I couldn’t work at home, I went along with Thom to his office and was able to use the internet there. We had lunch down the street at Roy’s, which was fantastic and just the thing counteract a dreary day. The highlights were crispy lobster potstickers to start, and carrot cake cheesecake (yes, cheesecake on top of carrot cake) for dessert. Oh, and the main course (macadamia nut encrusted mahi mahi) was good too.
The power came back on at the house in the wee hours of Saturday morning. In the afternoon I took down most of our Christmas decorations — the window lights are still up though turned off, and I left the garland (minus lights and ornaments) around the fireplace. It’s wintry! That evening we met up with some of my relatives at Paradise, a Chinese restaurant in South San Francisco. My, that was a lot of food.
On Sunday evening we brought in some fast food and watched Wordplay, which we’d recorded on PBS a while back. (Trailer below.) It’s a documentary about crossword puzzles, New York Times puzzle editor Will Shortz, and the annual crossword puzzle tournament. Thom and I are both crossword lovers, and so we both found it fascinating. I used to do puzzles more regularly, especially on my commute to work; I really should get back into it. (On a related note, to any Facebook folks out there: I’m always up for Scrabulous!)
There are only a few hours left in 2007, at least here in the U.S. The days sure go fast, especially during the last weeks of December. It’s hard to believe Christmas was a week ago. Thom and I had a nice time visiting his family in Covington, Virginia (photos); actually, it was the first time he and I have spent Christmas Day together, since in the past few years we’ve spent the holiday with our respective families on opposite ends of the country.
But we’ve always been together for New Year’s. Tonight we’re off to a little party with my mom, cousins, and other relatives. Cheers to a happy new year and see you in 2008!
Here are a couple of photos of our house, decorated for the holidays. I put the window lights up just a few days ago:
It’s pretty simple and classic. Next year, I’m thinking music and laser light show. (Kidding … sort of.) And here’s the fireplace, with garland, stockings, and ornament trees. (To the left is our recently acquired Victrola, courtesy of our good friend Harold!)
Thom and I will be spending Christmas in Virginia with his family, and our trip begins in less than ten hours. Eep. We’re pretty much ready; it’s just kind of surprising how fast the holiday has sneaked upon us.
We’ll be back on Thursday; in the meantime, I’ll try to update Twitter when I can. As you might have noticed, I’ve added a Twitter badge to the sidebar of my home page, which pulls in the most recent updates. Yes, my friends, it’s come to this (cartoon by Hugh McLeod of gapingvoid):
