Buried Under Clothes and Paper

I have so many piles of paper in my apartment that have been accumulating the past few weeks. Half the time I haven't been home, and when I am home, it's only for a few minutes. Today my goal is to organize it all. If anyone has a system that works, please let me know. Mail, magazines, written notes, receipts, paid bills, waiting-to-be-paid bills, letters. I did cancel my New York Times subscription because that was just mean to all the trees. I couldn't keep up with reading all of it. Anyway, today is paper organization day.

The BoF students are returning home today. I've added my friend Gaby, from Argentina to my Friends list on the right. There you can see a picture of the group on a boat cruise and at an elementary school.

Taking It Global

I have been spending the week with a group of 15 students from around the world gathered together to discuss the future of work. They range in age from 19 to 24 and they are from the following countries: Kenya, Turkey, India, Italy, South Africa, Slovenia, Canada, Australia, US, New Zealand, Norway, Argentina, UK, and Japan. They were recruited from an organization called TakingItGlobal (www.takingitglobal.org) and I have been completely wowed. I am so grateful to have participated in discussions with this group. Listening intently, I have learned so much about what is going on outside of the US, what people care about, what people need, and our global challenges moving forward. I'm inspired to become more internationally involved myself. As a relatively rich American, I feel somewhat guilty for my lack of global involvement, but I also feel empowered. We are so lucky that we have the freedom to voice our opinions and our access to influential people. I'm looking forward to the last two days of the week. I've already learned so much, yet there are still plenty of issues to discuss.

Craving Internet Access

I'm having fun in Boston. Lots of hard work done this weekend in my apartment hunt. I think I found one. Who wants to be my roommate? I've only been able to get internet access for like 2 minutes at a time. Might be a problem with the wireless network or something. I've been craving internet access all weekend. I had no idea how much I relied on it. At least my phone works. That would be tragic.

Got to see Alexandra and Mike for too short of a time. They're still the same fun people that they've always been. We're going to have lots of fun in the fall.

I think B and I are going to Walden Pond today then back to Seattle tonight.

Don't forget to call your dad for Father's Day.

Van Gogh to Mondrian

Last night Scott Eblen invited me to an exhibit at the Seattle Art Museum: Van Gogh to Mondrian. He's a huge Mondrian fan. I'm a huge Van Gogh fan. The paintings were great. I love Van Gogh's color choices, and his brush strokes really help create a mood. There was a really sad painting of a man with his face in his hands. It's cool to go to a museum with someone who actually knows how to look at art academically. He's taken a bunch of art history classes. Apparantly ART101 has an entire lecture on Mondrian. I think I may have slept through that one. (I PDFed the class.) Anyway, I'm totally inspired to start drawing again. It's been a while since I've been doing any serious painting, so I think I need to draw first and slowly get back on the horse.

Tonight I have to start the packing process for a trip to Boston on Thursday. I haven't even started my lists yet. Lots to do!

If a girl "swoons" what is the male equivalent? Drools? Feel free to write in suggestions.

Movin' Out

With all my babble about wrecked feet, I completely forgot to write about the best part of Friday night. Walter and I went to see the Broadway musical Movin' Out at the Paramount. It was amazing!! Exactly my kind of show. Music by Billy Joel (they play lots of his greatest hits) and Choreography by Twyla Tharp. The dancers are amazing and it tells a good story too. There's this great scene where a girl in a red dress gets proposed to. It's cool to see that done through dance. There's another really cool dance where a couple is having a fight and they are kind of pushing each other around while still dancing. A few times the guy lifts the girl and looks like he's going to drop her. It does a fabulous job of getting across the emotional struggle between them. The *lights* were amazing too. I think my best part of the whole show was the very beginning. The music, and lighting were perfect. It left you with this exhilaration for the rest of the first act. I LOVED it and if anyone has tickets and wants to see it again before it leaves Seattle on the 20th, I'm in.
www.movinoutonbroadway.com

Cheers!

I was consolidating files from old floppy disks onto my hard drive when I came across a document from my cheerleading days. Take a look at a whole bunch of my old cheers. I'll show you the moves if you ask nicely (and if I can remember). I apologize in advance for the use of the term "Injun." as it was written before political correctness. These days, even use of the term "Indian" is controversial. I have the utmost respect for Native Americans.

Valley Cottage Indians Cheerbook

Insensitive Boys and Wrecked Feet

Why don't guys understand that girls' dress shoes are not conducive to distance walking? It's such a simple concept. They should teach guys this in middle school. It's just polite. If there is one or more woman in the group and you're out at night or at some event that's not super-casual, ask before taking a long walk. This has happened to me a few times, and I'm sure it's not because the guys in the group are mean. I think they truly don't get it. I've been told to "toughen up" and "it's not much longer." Well F*CK YOU! If someone was in pain, I would recommend sympathy and/or encouragement. Or FIND A CAB!

So as I woke up this morning and felt the pain of my feet before touching them down to the carpet, I was angry. I had been waved off when I asked for a cab. I was told it's ridiculous - it's only 4 more blocks. I'm not kidding, it was like 14 more blocks from that point. My shoes are actually very comfortable for going out. They're just not made for long walks. I had the appropriate band-aids on my pinky toes for an evening out. I don't want to have to wear tennis shoes when I go out, and I don't want to change my friends. I don't like to be the demanding, needy girl in a whole group of comfy-shoe claden guys. Next time I hope whoever I'm with will be more sensitive, more aware, and polite. In reality, I will probably have to shout a little louder.

Drinking at Work

They often have alcohol at morale events at work. I just had 2 beers right in the middle of the day. It reminds me of college. Ah, those were the days. Today was a very good day. It started out with a mysterious 1:1 I had with my manager. He said we were going somewhere but wouldn't say where. Turns out we went for a ride in his 1958 Mercedes 190SL to go pick up a basketball. Then we came back to my building and shot around on the court outside. What a fun meeting! And we did do some talking, so there was some business aspect to it. Sort of. I'm pretty lucky. I'm sure this isn't the norm for most workers of America.

Yesterday I had a bad experience. I took this all-day class called Strategic Planning. I learned a lot, and I'm glad I went, but there were these two guys in my group that were over-the-top argumentative. They are the epitamy(sp?) of someone you do not want to work with. By the lunchtime, one person left our group. Before another hour went by, another guy walked away in disgust. I would have left the table too, but I was hoping to make the situation better and finish off the class. After having them talk at each other for 10 minutes or so and ignore suggestions from the other 3 of us, I suggested they couple off and work separately. That helped a little. They didn't couple off but they quieted down a little. People like that don't realize how unproductive their discussions are. Why repeat the same thing 50 times. We heard you and we wrote it down. Let's move on.

Workout

I don't have much to say today. I went to the Pro Club to work out tonight. There were a lot fewer people there tonight than the last time I was there, in January, with the rest of the New Year's Resolution people.

I made B smile today.

Props from School

Great day at the elementary school today. Almost makes me want to quit my job and become a teacher... Some students were behind in typing up their biographies, so I helped out. Compared to the average second grader, I type at lightning speed! As I was leaving, a small, blonde, freckled girl complimented me on my little pink purse. There's nothing like a trip to the second grade to give you a little confidence boost. The girls give me lots of compliments on my clothing and accessories. Some people even ask where I got certain things. I try and return the favors. One time I noticed that a girl got her ears pierced and she was so excited. The teacher hadn't even noticed. At school today, I also got to hear a little more of the BFG story. The parts I've heard are all broken up but I think it has something to do with storing dreams in jars. Some of my dreams I certainly wouldn't want to put in a jar and keep forever. I think I'd rather keep real-life moments.

I'm going to see Harry Potter 3 tonight with Jason. It was sold out when I tried to see it with Chris Dicken's Movie Nights. I actually know the Chris Dickens, so you'd think I would have been able to get in, but I didn't try that hard.

Secrets

Everybody has secrets. Deep dark secrets.
Some people tell everyone their secrets, so they're not even secrets anymore.
Some people announce that they have a giant secret and make you guess.
Some people tell you they have a secret, and they tell you who knows their secret, but they won't tell you the actual secret.
Some people tell you you're the only one that knows their secret then you find out that all your friends already know.
Some people pretend they have a secret just to get on your nerves.
Some people never talk about their secrets.
Some people don't even know they have secrets.
I don't have any secrets that would ruin me if they got out. I don't think.
I won't usually tell a secret of mine unless I'm prepared to deal with the consequences.
Most secrets are only really important to the beholder.

I told a secret today and I feel great about doing it.

I've gotten lots of responses about the reunions pics. Lots of people think they look funny. One person said: "I couldn't tell if that was me or some spastic man-beast that barely grasps the english language." I'll let the readers decide who it was. I've also gotten "There's one where I look pretty weird!" and "I've always looked like a strange dancer." This is what strange dancer says about man-beast: "He does kind of look like an odd creature." My favorite comment: "Ooh- I love the photos! And such a cute one of you with the purse/ben with the shoes! What a dynamic duo - so Batman and Catwoman, so Lucy and Ricky, so Kermie and Piggy (okay, I'll stop)." Notice the "Ooh." I've been told that I overuse the term "ooh" in my blog. I'm not sure that's possible.

Now's the paragraph when I share some deep revelation I had today. It's a secret. If you close your eyes, I'll whisper it in your ear...

Tony Soprano

Mood: tired
Reunions pics below...
I just got home from Soprano's night at Dan's place. For those of you not in the know, tonight was the season finale. I think Tony Soprano is softening up in his old age. Kind of like Bill Gates did when he had kids. Either way, the show is still good. I like the way they show the human side of everyone. A lot of that stuff actually seems realistic. At least realistic enough for me.

I saw Mean Girls yesterday, and I thought it was really funny. Some of it reminded me of the kind of stuff I'd pull in middle school. In particular, we did a lot of the three-way calls where the third person didn't know that someone else was listening. We did it mostly to guys. I remember asking a guy "Do you think Amanda is pretty?" while she was listening to every word. Luckily, the guy said "I guess so." We'd also fake "beeps" (call waiting) a lot when we wanted to politely get off the phone.

I had brunch with CJ today at the Jitterbug Cafe in Wallingford. We talked about life plans, specifically how much separation we'd want between work and life. I don't want work to be the reason I get up in the morning. CJ wants his job to be such that it is intermingled with his everyday life. I think it really depends on what kind of job you have.

To bed, I said!

Princeton Reunions!

I got my pictures ready from reunions, so if you've never had the pleasure of attending a Princeton Reunions, here's a tiny glimpse into the atmosphere. I'll let the pictures pretty much speak for themselves.

Daytime:



The P-rade:



Nightlife:



Enjoy!

Highway

Mood: Chipper

Had a dream last night where M&Ms melted in my hand. Then a guy named Ed ate them anyway.

I love driving across the bridge around 8:45 am when you can watch the endless string of UPS trucks on their way into the city to deliver all the people's packages.

Today's a skirt day but I didn't think it was worth it to waste a skirt when I'm in a class from 9-5.

Roommate Interviews

Mood: Anxious
I decided that I want to live with some roommates in the fall, so I posted my name on this list. I was contacted by these girls that are looking for a third roommate. They said something like "You said you like to socialize and are easy to get along with, and that's what were looking for." It made me realize how silly and generic my profile sounded. Well I suppose it worked. I scheduled a time and went to meet the girls and see the apartment. It's a really nice place. I was totally nervous to meet them. I'm not sure why. It felt like Tower bicker all over again. Make a good impression in only a few minutes so that you can be one of the chosen ones. But you also want to be yourself so that it actually is a good match. If you're going to be a psycho roommate, I'd say you should just lay your cards down up front. Anyway, I think it went well. They were friendly and it seemed like a good match to me. I needed a big hug after it since the whole meeting had been kind of stressful. Maybe it's because girls are harder to impress than boys. I'm a little nervous to find out if they picked me. B said that I shouldn't take it as a negative mark on me if they don't want to live with me. He says not every item on the grocery store belongs on every shelf. He's a good boyfriend.

I'm Just a Girl Who Can't Say No

Music: Garth Brooks
Mood: Happy

I have so much to say about the past few days. I'm going to hold off on talking about reunions until later tonight when I can post my pictures.

B and I went to see Oklahoma! on Monday and I loved it. My favorite song is the subject of this blog entry. Maybe I'll buy a shirt that says "I'm just a girl who can't say no." Such a happy musical! I'm a big fan of those super happy shows. I don't like shows with sad endings. That's why I like the WB and chick flicks. The set of Oklahoma! was really cool. It was on a rotating stage with lots of other pieces that rotated. Sometimes I miss building sets for theater. My favorite musical is A Chorus Line. I think it's because it's about dancing!

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. When we were just sitting in our seats waiting for the show to begin, this woman sat down next to me and she had the most horrible really strong perfume. It was HORRIBLE. That's one of my biggest pet peeves. It's SO RUDE to wear so much perfume when you're going to be in an enclosed space with other people that can't move to different seats. B was more forgiving of this woman, but he didn't have to sit next to her. He said that she probably didn't realize she had too much perfume on. I said I thought her husband should tell her these things, and he didn't agree. I hope when I have a husband he'll let me know if I'm stinking up the place.