Fish Sticks and Green Jello

Tomorrow is the first day of my three day training class that I'm taking at work for Test Leads. That means I have to be at work by 9am every day for the next three days. To some people this may seem natural but to people like me that work later hours, 9am is an ungodly time of the morning to have to physically be AT work. But alas, I'll suffer on.

So here's a little Turkey weekend update for you.

Wednesday evening, pre-turkey day we all headed to Shawn's loft space for the very last night of the 049 Karaoke night. They'd decided not to renew their lease on the loft space due to a very annoying neighbor. The end of an era. To think we started out the new year there last year with the first big 049 party EVER. I think it might have been nice to make it to new year's again but oh well. I'm sure we'll all find somewhere else to go cause trouble at.

Thursday was Turkey day which involved me spending part of the afternoon making a green bean casserole from scratch. Including hand grating the fresh parmesean etc. I got the recipe off of the Martha Stewart website. It tasted very cheesy and fresh. I'm not so sure I'm a big fan of green bean casseroles in general but it was good overall. My friend Kari and her husband Jason hosted this years dinner which involved Theo taking an entire ten pound bag of potatoes and mashing them. He didn't realize how many potatoes that really was. There were a WHOLE LOT OF potatoes! We also had fried sweet potatoes, mandarin orange jello salad, buttered/brown sugared baby carrots, stuffing, gravy, 21lbs of Turkey and tossed spinach salad (haha, Jeremy "tossed" the salad. ok fine we laughed at the time, had to be there I guess). There were 7 of us and a TON of leftovers. For dessert I brought a pumpkin cheesecake I had ordered from the Cheesecake Factory. Others brought carrot cake and ice cream. We ate until we were sick and it was GOOD.

Friday night we went to the Bottom of the Hill to see The Teenage Harlets, The River City Rebels, The Groovie Ghoulies and The Phenomenauts. The show was crowded, sold out and super FUN! Afterwards it was Atom's birthday so we headed to an after party at his warehouse which was also super FUN. Friday night rocked!

Saturday night we headed over to Albany to the Ivy Room to see The Teenage Harlets play again. I was pretty burnt out at this point and when they were done we headed to someone's house nearby to hang out for awhile then eventually back to SF. I think I was up all night ever night from Wed - Sat and slept until the afternoon everday.

I'd say I'm partied out but there's always the weekend!

Last night Chris and I saw National Treasure which was really really bad. Nicholas Cage needs to give up and go retire with his anonymous sushi waitress wife somewhere and never act again. Tonight everyone went bowling but I just couldn't muster up the energy to dust off the ball (yes I own a bowling ball!) and head back up to SF. There's a big party on Friday though. This one has a heavy metal head banger theme. Harkening back to high school with bands like Poison, Warrant and Twisted Sister. I told everyone that there is no way in hell I'm going to be seen in public in any acid washed clothing, thankyouverymuch!

Oh I also got this new cell phone this week that does everything like wash my clothes, feed my dog, you name it. It's a Motorola V710 that has bluetooth. It's awesome. I got this little Star Trek ear piece that's wireless and you can control just about everything from the ear piece. You don't even need the phone! Plus its got a ton of voice controls. It's amusing, when you click on voice mode the screen says "OBEY ME MOTO!" haha. Okay, once again, you have to be there. Anyways, I like it so far. Sweet.

Alrighty kids, the night is still young. I've watched every single Aqua Teen Hunger Force episode ever and I have to get up early tomorrow. Miss Insomniac will now attempt to go to bed BEFORE midnight.

Well I had a 50/50 fun weekend. That means parts of it were pretty fun but I'm left with an overall feeling of exhaustion and ponderings of if the whole thing was totally worth it or not. I think my biggest complaints would have to be too much running around, staying out WAY too late and the behavior and attitudes of the some of the people around me that really brought me down.

All in all it was okay. I think I need to go to bed early tonight to recover and try to not write off certain person or persons based on my exhaustion. I'm sure I'll feel differently tomorrow.

It's frickin' cold out. I can't find a winter coat AT ALL. SERIOUSLY. Any of the ones I like are either overpriced or sold out. Okay so even the overpriced ones that I'd probably buy just because are just plain sold out. OR, they're all ugly.

I was sick from work today. Some weird stomach bug thing. I'm hoping it's not long term and I get over it quickly. I got the first three seasons of Aqua Teen Hunger Force on DVD and now I'm obsessed with ATHF! Just as well because the last two new episodes of South Park sucked big ones.

My car is STILL in the shop! Can you believe it?? YEESH. I'm still working with the insurance company to get my claim paid too. It's ridiculous. The registered owner of the car's insurance company is probably going to wind up paying it even though they claim they sold the car two weeks before the accident. Yeah. Whatever. Just pay the claim please.

Other than that, there's a ton going on this weekend. I hope I'm up for it! I have insomnia, this is why I'm up so late, regardless of how I'm feeling right now which is a bit queasy.

Well another year has come and gone since I was reunited with the gang. Boy what a year it's been! Suffice to say I'm happy to have such a great group of friends. They're pretty much my family here since my blood relatives live so far away.

So here's the photo roundup. This year we went to the Phenomenauts Annual Zombie Party in Oakland on Saturday the 30th. We then followed that up by going to a party at the Bayou in SF and then one last Party at Shawn's 049 space. Sunday night we went to see The Teenage Harlets (Chris' band), The Sore Thumbs and The Lucky Stiffs play the Lost and Found Saloon in SF. Halloween also happened to be Chris' birthday, but it was more of a birthday weekend for him.

Everyone's costumes turned out great and it was a really fun weekend all in all. Thanks everyone!



My Cheerleader Costume for Saturday Night

Jackie and Liza aka Stewardess and German Girl

Jeremy and Jason aka Twisted Sister!

Chris and I at the Phenomenauts Annual Zombie Party on Saturday night

Kari aka Madonna and I outside the party

Jeremy and I - Rock on!

Zombie Boy Scout Theo and Stewardess Jackie

The Crazy 88 from Kill Bill Sunday night at the Lost and Found Saloon

Chris and I at the Lost and Found

Jackie and I

Dear Marian,
Here is your horoscope
for Monday, November 8:

You've been having an internal discussion with yourself lately. The subject is this: Are you willing to give it a go for a second time? Better think this over carefully. You know how you are about retracing your steps.

Dear Marian,
Here is your horoscope
for Sunday, November 7:

Quickie:
This grumpy mood you're in can't last forever. So stop being so pessimistic, already.

Overview:
Thinking about moving in with someone, getting married or taking that giant step toward intimacy? Well, there's no time like the present to do just that. All the lights are green. Go for it.

Dear Marian,
Here is your horoscope
for Saturday, November 6:

The melodrama of past days is gone, but not without leaving behind a bit of leftover tension. Settle down and refuse to feed any more energy into this, and it will be over sooner than later.

Sometimes I wonder what it's all about. What's the whole point of everything that we do from day to day? Where is it all leading? Is there that point that we get to where we say, finally, I've made it, here I am?

Each year that passes by for me I wonder that more intensly than the last year. Each year I try to improve circumstances in some way in my life to get me to this magical point where I say, ahh, that's that. If that even exists.

I used to be an impatient, quick to anger person. Sure I still have my moments but I've changed a lot over the years. I try to be a kinder more understanding person. There are times when I will get upset or angry but I will always try my best to be a good person.

The problem I face more often than not is that no matter how hard I may try I can't overcome a situation. No matter how much I put into something I'm never going to get the return out of it that I'm looking for. So I wonder, why do I always invest so much into things that aren't going to pay off for me? Maybe it's me being optimistic or hopeful. Trying to see the good in things and not look at the bad as much. I wonder though, with an attitude like that how long I will run around in circles until I figure out a way out.

I don't think I'll stop being a giver or having hope. I will continue to look for the good in things, the diamonds in the rough and with that I will hope that one day that will eventually lead me to a good place. It sounds very Pollyanna but I've always believed that if you put positive energy out you'll get positive energy back. And I don't mean that in some hippie tree hugger type of way. Just common sense is all.

Have you ever been asked what your favorite band or movie is? I've never really been able to answer that until recently... honestly. My favorite movie of all time is Baz Luhram's version of Romeo+Juliet. I have no idea why per se, I just know I love it so. So much that I've always wanted an Immaculate heart of Mary tattoo. Oh and a plague on both your houses by the way.

If you had to choose just one, what would it be?

Love or Money.

And the poll results are:

Love - 42
Money - 16

Wow... 16 people actually chose Money over Love.

I finally put a new poll up ----->
Have at it!

We're lucky to live in a country where we can vote. We may not always get the outcome we're looking for but it's good to have a choice. You may think your vote doesn't make a difference but it does.

So please go out and vote tomorrow, Tuesday, November 2nd. Do your civic duty! There should be no excuse not to vote. If you don't go out and vote tomorrow I don't want to hear a single word out of you about why this president or that measure sucks. You didn't vote so you can't bitch about it!

I am an absentee voter so I already sent my ballot in last week.

I voted for Kerry. It's up to you who you want to vote for, just as long as you get out there and vote!