Like a Middle School Dance

That's how the division was on the live-blogging idea. Boys v. girls. Well here's something to make you both happy - I didn't watch (hence, no living blogging) last night because I got caught up in Planet Earth instead. However, it might still happen. Depends on my levels of dedication (nowhere near Alex's Gossip Girl liveblogging).

Anyways, many thanks to Ben, Nicole, Caitlin, and Ruddiger for the blogging feedback. Ben, I hear you on the matter of breaking up content-rich posts - look for a change there. Dan, just to make you happy, I'll be putting on pictures of Mona the cat. I'm also thinking of doing a video comparison of her and Will Ferrel. It works. Wait for it. And Nicole and Caitlin, I'll do my best to satisfy your RHNYC fix.

In other, briefer news, I had an interview at UCSF this morning for a volunteering position in the Child Life Services Dept. If all goes as planned, and I get my IDs/fingerprinting/training sessions sorted out, I'll begin a weekly volunteering stint working mostly with teens for a couple hours on the weekend. I'm really excited for the opportunity. I feel like it can be difficult to create a connection to a new community, which SF still is to me. I'm optimistic that becoming involved at the hospital will give me a greater sense of belonging here - my friends are my social web, and work is work, but I think creating a richer community network will instill a greater sense of belonging here. Fingers crossed!

What's Your Opinion

Should I start live-blogging Real Housewives of NYC? It is, after all, one of the more ridiculous shows on TV, and I'm starting to feel like I could add some sort of other dimension/layer to the blog.

Actually, let's open it up in general - what do you all want to see more of? Mundane recaps? Photos? Videos? Links? Leave it in the comments.

Let's Take A Poll

How old do you think this kid is? 10? 14? An awkward and underdeveloped 18?



Love it.

PS. Watch the whole thing.

Twitter Time

So last week I took the plunge and joined Twitter. What more could I want than for people to get a microblogged look at what I'm eating, what I'm thinking, and what I'm doing throughout the day? And yeah, it's way easier to update that to sit down and write a full blog post between meetings at work.

So, shameless plug time:

www.twitter.com/juliabee

You know you want to.

Stump

One of my favorite things is a dog show. Specifically, the Westminster Kennel Club that just happened. If you're with me when I'm watching this you can find me either ridiculing the more ridiculous breeds or cracking up at an equally hilarious and adorable dog. Stump, this year's Best in Show, is no exception.



What an old man dog.

Sap

I cannot wait to see Flippa again.

Many Good Things

Despite my last post, many happy, positive things have happened in my life lately. I'm going to do this out in bullet points for the sake of clarity, brevity, and keeping you, my loyal reader(s), from slapping your forehead onto your keyboard.

• I got a promotion! And a raise! I wasn't utterly surprised, but still completely flattered and pleased, especially given the pickle our government and economy is currently in. I am now a "Junior Associate" and have a happy little pay bump that'll make saving up a bit easier. What am I saving up for....?
• This time next year I will be in Thailand for a 10 week program that will 1. get me TEFL certified and 2. allow me to teach English in a community center in Ao Luk, Thailand. I applied a few weeks ago and was officially accepted this past week. My tentative plan is to go to Thailand and then fly to Europe afterwards to spend more time with my family and travel around a bit. I am so, so excited. More details will be discussed in the coming months, but that's another happy announcement.
  
• I'm moving apartments (again, yes, again)! I'm moving so that I can save up for said program and traveling. I'm moving to Noe Valley, where about 95% of my friends live, to a great house. I found the place on Craigslist, and will be living with 4 other people - 3 women, 1 man. They are teachers, architects, and students, and I got along with them really well at their open house. The house is fantastic - 3 levels, backyard, huge comfy living room, large sunny kitchen, all with a really charming, homey feeling to it. My room is the master bedroom - light filled, two (two!) closets, and best of all....my own bathroom. Lady readers of the blog, and men who need a little more room, you can appreciate this. This will be the first time in 5 years I will have a bathroom all to myself. There's even a window in it! Best of all, I'm paying about $225 less a month on average. It's really win-win-win.
• Last, but by no means least...my brother got into med school! I am SO proud, SO happy for him, SO excited that things are working out splendidly for him. He's going to med school in Germany - thus far he's been accepted into med school in Berlin, and is still waiting to hear back from a few more. He's already over there, and I can barely wrap my head around the fact that for the next few years my big brother will become a doctor all while living in Germany. I'm thrilled.

Those are my new, happy updates. Also, it's finally raining here in CA. After a long drought I felt the first rain drops hit my head this afternoon, and now sounds of cars swishing over wet pavement are coming in from the street. It's Sunday evening, and I'm warm in my living room. As I said, many good things are happening.

Better Days

The title of this post isn't to say today was awful. It was just one of those days that drags on forever, with minor mishaps casting a pretty negative pall on an already-boring day.

To start, I could barely get out of bed this morning. I decided to treat myself to a coffee on my way in from work - normally, I try to make coffee something I really enjoy on the weekends, something I take my time with and that eases me into a lazy Sunday morning. Today though it was just a desperate move to jolt me awake. I head into Specialty's for a small plain drip, and as I'm going to sprinkle a little cinnamon on my coffee (if you haven't tried this, do it) my gym bag swoops in like some sort of angry hag determined to keep me from starting my day well and coffee gets everywhere. On the counter, on the sugar packets, dripping into the barista area, and onto the cup lids. Ugh. I apologize profusely and offer to help clean up. The girl at the counter was really sweet, and I gingerly refilled my cup and hustled out of there. I didn't want to risk another mishap.

The morning crawled by.

At lunch I headed to Subway to get my normal lunch. About 2 hours after the fact, when I start thinking about what I want for dinner, I remember: I packed my lunch with the tofu stir fry I'd made last night. Bum.Mer. I took a bite of the stir fry, and my crappy work mini-fridge had morphed all the delicious flavors into "fridge taste." You know it. It tastes kind of like cold plastic and coolant. Gross.

Afternoon........snail's pace.

At this point I'd really gotten myself riled up and ready to get to the gym. I get changed at work and what do I realize? I forgot my gym shoes. All I had was my shirt, spandex (yeah that's right), and socks. And black ballet flats. It was atrocious. Can you imagine me on the rowing machine in ballet flats? With white ankle socks? Okay, I'm stopping there before I vomit in my mouth. Needless to say, the gym didn't happen.

So where does that leave me? At the end of a long Tuesday with laundry and a shower still on my to-do list. Can it be the weekend? Please?

Back in Action!

Hello loyal readers!

So the big report is done, work has slowed down a TON, and lots of exciting things have happened here lately. Where do I even begin? I suppose I'll break it out into sections, writing more when I feel like, and sticking to bullet points when I get lazy (often).

So, let's see....

Alumni Weekend
So. Great. I got to spend all of Friday with my Button, and we even made the trek out to Court House to see Linds, watch movies, chit chat, and basically act like it was senior year all over again. Seeing them was so good. It felt like my life had been on pause from graduation til that Friday, and being back in DC started everything up again.

Friday night was not nearly as relaxing, but excellent. I got to see everyone, going from Marshall's to Froggy's (classic), ending with a cab ride back to Mt. Pleasant (one of many from the weekend). Many pictures were taken, lots and lots of hugs were given and received, and a necessary dose of Ruddiger was had. It was a great kickoff to the weekend.

Saturday was COLD. That is the best way to describe Saturday. I barely played at all, due to the weather and my hangover, and spent most of the time trying to get warm. Saturday afternoon we watched Wedding Crashers and I got the most pathetic grilled cheese ever. That night we trekked to Hillel for dinner and trivia, and made Pete's birthday video (hey Pete!). I headed to Naomi's with Kanika for a bit, pounced on Ryan (who was out cold thanks to a sleeping pill), and got to catch up with two of my favorites from GW. Excellent times. Saturday night's party was great, with a reprisal of jello shots and me accidentally (I swear) putting a tiny (miniscule) dent in the wall. It was tiny, seriously.

I made it to brunch on Sunday only a little late, and equally miserable as Saturday morning. Afterwards I saw Ivey for a bit, then made my way to Chinatown to hang out with the guys from my year. After lying down finally I realized I wanted to spend more time in DC so I changed my flight to early (I mean EARLY) Monday. We spent the rest of the day hanging out and watching football before I crashed in Dan's bed. My flight was a little miserable, with some major delays, but Delta was nice and gave me back $100. Woop woop!

Thoughts on my experience: I miss and love DC and my friends there. Like I said, sometimes it feels like I put life on pause moving out here, and it was just so comforting being back in a place that I know and where I feel at home. I know I'll be back soon, soon soon soon, and in a way that makes being away a little bit easier for now.

Okay, I'm signing off earlier than I thought I would - I've got some things I need to get sorted out tonight that you'll be hearing all about in the next couple of days. More updates are back, I promise!