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So last week I was just getting back to my old self (nearing 100%). I readied for a productive week with a lengthy list of to-dos and then what happened? As luck would have it, I got summoned to jury duty. A little over a year ago, I had also been summoned. Back then, when I called the night before, I was immediately dismissed; they didn’t need me. When I called this time, I expected a repeat. After having been out of the office a month in November and then a week between the holidays, I was eager to get back to full productivity. Wrong.

I was called in to appear the next day. I sat through jury selection the day after, and then bam, I was it. Fucking A. I mean, sure I had wanted out, but at the same time, I wasn’t going to lie and insist that I would be biased just so they would eliminate me. So long story short, I was selected as an alternate. And that’s all I’m permitted to say about the case. Apparently though, the alternate does all the work without reaping any reward. I’m now “on call” via phone in case they need me to go in. Whatev.

So that’s how my week went. Then this weekend– it was fun. The weather was dry and sunny. This weekend was fun. Tina came over on Saturday, and we started on Martha Stewart’s piggy bank project. For some reason, I was convinced this could be done in like an hour. I know, I’m retarded. Here it is Sunday night, and the piggies are still drying. Tina and I will have to resume next week with additional layers, painting, sanding, etc. Geez Martha, your damn videos always make everything look so frickin’ easy (not to mention clean)! Oh well, we had a good time being crafty, and I have to admit, piggy is coming along nicely. Meanwhile, John cooked up an awesome beef stroganoff in the pressure cooker (that was in addition to a tasty buttery brioche). Yeah, no wonder I still haven’t dropped the holiday weight!

In other news though, I’m getting into the racket sports… yard tennis was a huge hit at work. Last Monday, before I got called into jury duty, my coworker and I hit the foam ball around in the board room during lunch. We worked up a sweat and all! And this is a fun activity to do while watching tv too. John reasons he should get expanded cable now that we’re “active” in front of the tv. Nice try, buddy.

Tomorrow night a group of friends are heading over to a new badminton club. John and I have been practicing by hitting around at our usual “skating rink.” I love that corpo parking lot– it’s so multipurpose. Seriously, in-line skating, caster skating, dog arena, badminton… who even needs a gym? I was thinking we can even tailgate in that lot! Haha. Guess I’m the only one whose fanatical about my concrete playground though– my friends actually play badminton in proper facilities and shit. You know, places that have heat/AC, real nets, and super bright lights. Oh well, it’s a good training ground for John and me. And boy do I need more practice: seriously, since when has my hand-eye coordination been about as good as a blind person’s? John jokes that I’m swinging the racquet like Zorro swishes his sword. Ah well, I’m getting better… guess we’ll see how things go tomorrow in public. 🙂

Yeah, sounds like all play time this weekend. But hey, I’m off tomorrow, so from now until badminton tomorrow night, I’m gonna cross some work items off my list. Need to get the momentum going again by Tuesday.

I’m thrilled to report that Powerpill is finally back in action. The cough still persists, but whatever, other than that, I am feeling great. Seriously, “normalcy” is awesome! And now I’m back and ready to tackle the to-dos in full force.

For MLK weekend, John and I made a quickie trip back to Maryland. Since we weren’t around during the Chistmas/New Year holiday, this visit was in order. We caught up with a lot of the family– took a couple nieces to Chuck E. Cheese (and I actually had fun shooting the hoops), then met others for painting at a pottery studio. Later, the whole family (minus 3 people) plus my parents met up one night for dinner. John’s sister flew in from Irvine and I gotta say: thank goodness for her. She is a big-time doer. All those activities with the kids? She coordinated and organized. And though I’m not a big fan of kiddies, doing ANYTHING outside the house is so much better than farting around, lounging in the lazyboys chitchatting and watching the mailman run his route. Seriously. Sitting around only makes me more lethargic, so I welcomed my sis-in-law’s approach. John would never pull that kind of energy: he doesn’t organize activities; he doesn’t make phone calls… Both families are healthy and well. I dropped in and visited with the gramps. They’re going on a Caribbean cruise this week, leaving out of Baltimore I believe. Dunno how they have the stamina for all this traveling. Dad says they’re also planning a trip to Shanghai for the Expo! That’s like a 16-hr. flight! And my gramps are in their mid-80s. Insane. I’ve already started getting soft with just the east-west coast flight.

Speaking of which, we took the red-eye, because I am determined to be able to conquer that flight. You know how there are always those biz types on the red-eyes? Decked out in their suits, with the makeup, high heels, everything done all perfectly? On arrival, they’re like the first to get off and it’s as if they were leaving the house after a restful night’s sleep in their own bed. I dunno how they pull that shit off! I imagine them getting their rental car all efficiently and shit and heading straight to the office for a presentation. I’m not in the corpo world, but I’ve decided that I need to master that kind of endurance. So before our flight to DC, I read up on jetlag and all the flight secrets. Hydrate. Don’t eat. On arrival, DO NOT SLEEP until 11p local time.

Theoretically, the red-eye should totally be doable, especially because I crash on the plane. In practice though, as soon as I get to my destination, I am wiped and I totally crash out. This trip, it took all the strength in the world NOT to fall asleep as soon as we got to his my in-laws’ house. John’s family was talking about Shakira or something in the living room, and I drifted off into lala land right there on the couch. But that was just a 10-min nap. I don’t consider that sleeping. 🙂 Anyway, we did manage to make it to 11, and the next day, we were right on eastern standard time. Awesome. The next few days felt pretty good too. So next time the challenge will be to travel all decked out. Maybe I’ll even ask for an upgrade in my suit. People say at a minimum, you’d better be looking spiffy if the airline is going to just give you an upgrade.

The flight back was ok, but damn, it was fucking long! Told you, I’m getting soft. The real kicker on this return journey was that I didn’t use the lavatory at all. By the time we were in that half hour critical time of landing, I was about ready to explode. And with this new muffin top, sitting in the seat made the pressure over my bladder unbearable. But I was in that special period where no one is allowed to leave the seat. So I just waited and focused on breathing. Well, had we landed on time, I would have made it. Would have been very close, but I would have made it. But no. Thunderstorms, rains, winds– they forced us to circle in a holding pattern. Fucking A. 30 minutes later and still no word on when we’re going to land. And then I thought about all the dumbfucks who poke around while de-planing. Fuck, relief was probably a good 45 minutes out of reach. I tried stretching up and back. Finally, I couldn’t take it anymore. I pictured myself getting UTI and that was it. I pressed the flight attendant button. Dude got out of his ejector seat. I explained that I needed to use the restroom. Yes, it was a goddamn emergency! John said as soon as I got to the aisle, I ran so fast. Whew. Let me tell you… next time, I will use the bathroom mid-way. Jesus Christ.

But back to my jetlag thing… yeah, we made it back to SFO, stayed up til 11p, and the next day, I headed back to the office all well rested and energized. See? I’m finally getting it!

In other news, I did two big activities this weekend. First, I went to that Spanish meetup group, and what do you know, it was awesome! About 8 people– all with different levels but I found a few in my range and it was so fun. We chatted the whole hour away. And the good thing is, this meetup gets together every other week, so it’s going to be frequent practice for me. I’m already motivated to cram so the next time I see them, I can start using past/future tense. Yay, that was such a pleasant surprise.

The second event I attended was the CrisisCommons Crisiscamp at the Yahoo campus. John went with me– basically, it’s a meetup with a bunch of tech people working on various projects to help with the disaster relief efforts in Haiti. The event organization was very similar to an un-conference/coding bootcamp style… a little too unstructured for my taste, but I was happy to do some data entry for their people locator tool. So overall, kind of a dud, but we still were able to help which was good.

Next week, I’m thinking of organizing a group to check out a new badminton club. Need to exercise more in the new year.

You know that lame commercial, the one where the old lady trips and says pathetically, “I’ve fallen… and I can’t get up!”? Well, for about ten days, I was that lady. Yeah, the holidays passed quickly and all the while, I was in a daze. The last day I had 100% self-awareness? Um, yeah it might as well have been like 1984. Seriously, feels like eons ago. Truthfully? I’d say December 23, the last day I was at the office.

I should have known something dreadful was in the air… Around the middle of December, I had stayed home sick– woman problems and all that inconvenient shit. Then, on December 23, I was starting to feel a bit fatigued, but we were hosting a party that night to celebrate Festivus, so I didn’t think much of it. Two days later, I was literally stuck in bed for DAYS! And the damn doctor was right on: around Day 4-5, fever would go away and then come back worse. All those days between Christmas and the New Year, the bedroom was like a germ lab– we had cranked up the heat turning on the ceiling panels and the heating blanket, but I just could not get rid of the chills. My nightstand was covered with lozenge wrappers and mugs and glasses and the thermometer and Advil, Tylenol, cough syrup… it was a mess. And I actually remember thinking to myself: wow, this is what it’s like to be really sick. Like so sick that 24 hours isn’t enough time for a day’s rest. So sick that I didn’t even care about showering, combing, changing, washing, anything. Did the dogs know? I’m sure they knew something was up, because they were getting totally gypped with their walks.

The doctor warned I would be laid up all week through the new year. Through my fever and chills, I scoffed. And then, as I slept the days away one by one, I realized, goddamnit, she knows what she’s talking about. I got a few hours of upright time in on Thursday and Friday. With my sudden albeit brief burst of energy, I went for a short walk and then started cleaning… Then, I was pooped again: back in bed. I miss having my full strength. I’m able to get out and about now, but I tire easily. Yesterday, I needed an afternoon nap. Today was better but I still zonked out before dinnertime.

Earlier today, John and I met up with a former coworker who’s out in California on vacation. It was really good to see her again. I think our last meeting was 2003. I’d say we both pretty much look the same as we did six years ago, but a lot beyond that has changed, and I was glad to see that both of us had outgrown our former place of employment and moved on to better, more suitable opportunities.

Well tomorrow will be my first day back at the office. I still can’t believe I was out for 12 days. Ugh, there is so much work to do. I sure hope I can last the whole day.

Btw, I know: new year, new resolutions. I think I’ll be lazy this year and carry over most of my resolutions from last year: language learning, reading, volunteering, cooking… I like breaking stuff up into quarters– it helps me pace. 🙂 Oh and this coming Saturday, I’m going to a try out a Spanish meetup group. Need to get that shit back on track for real. Ok, body slowing down again. Time for bed. Wish me superpowers on my first day back at the office!

Hello everyone. Hope you had a good Festivus/Christmas/Kwaanza. I’m not feeling very merry these days: I’ve been out of commission since about Christmas. First it was dry throat, then burning eyes, then wham! fever, cold sweats, body aches, and then I could not get out of bed! Pretty much my entire weekend was shot sweating buckets in bed. Sure, I managed to finish that fourth and final book of the year (a good read) but damn, I was supposed to be raring to go come Monday. You know, finish the year out strong! Well today is Monday, and I was still a goddamn mess. Four days, in bed. Enough is enough.

I thought maybe I had strep, because my throat hurt like hell. I was drinking so much tea with honey and lemon, I was peeing on the hour! Then I was hot, then cold, then hot, then cold. Fucking A! So I got an appointment with the doctor this evening. No, not strep throat. I have the fucking swine flu!! Can you believe this shit? Goddamn H1N1 in my house, in MY body! I’m so sick of my body letting me down, and boy has it disappointed this year. Seriously. First, I had random skin allergies, then I got food poisoning right around my friend’s wedding in June, now swine-fucking flu. Meanwhile my doctor was this preggers lady, but she’s still seeing sick people like me! Why can’t I have that level of toughness? I’m sick of this bullshit. I mean, I exercise regularly, I don’t do drugs, I hardly drink, I don’t smoke… what more am I supposed to do to optimize? I’m pissed. So the doctor says going into the office is out of the question the rest of the week. I just hope my body permits me a few hours of normalcy per day so I can get SOME work done from home. We’ll see though. Can’t have high expectations anymore. How’s that for new year’s resolutions?

The weekend before Xmas (and before my illness), John, the pups and I drove south for a couple days. We went to Hearst Castle, met up with some friends in Pismo Beach, stayed night in Santa Maria, then checked out Solvang, Ballard (Lake Cachuma), and Santa Barbara. I enjoyed the road trip, but it was probably just a tad too long in the car for me…

I’ve been back about two weeks now… my re-assimilation is mostly complete. I was surprised to learn that despite my month-long habit of eating late dinners (past 9 p.m.) in Spain, I had only gained a few pounds or so. Guess all that walking to/from school helped me burn off that bread, cheese, and fried meat. Of course, since then has been a whole other story. Seriously, I just cannot control myself with Bubbey’s cooking. It’s like when my brother was in college, he participated in this week long Outward Bound-type of activity. His body felt so starved during the week that after he returned, his body just couldn’t stop eating. It was like stockpiling for the next bout of hunger. I kind of feel like that– I had gone so long without that coming back to homemade French bread, pretzels, fried rice, HK milk tea… I sort of went crazy. I think I’ve piled on about 5 lbs. I know, normally whatever, it all comes out in the wash, but my pants/jeans are getting tight and well, to be honest, the muffin top is extremely uncomfortable. Think I’ll go board skating a bit today. It really has been ages.

So I have finally started my fourth and final book for the year. I know, I can see my bookworm buddies rolling their eyes right now. You don’t have to tell me: I’m pathetic. But hey, give me some credit for trying to finish the year out strong. I have two weeks to cram this final read: Waiter Rant. I finally cracked the shit open this morning… I swear I am the world’s slowest reader (probably because I do it so often, right?). I think I read like two chapters in an hour. But I just finished my first mug of milk tea. Man, if I ever found a substance on which I could grow addicted (besides internet, of course), I think it would have to be milk tea. John has truly mastered it’s making, and since I normally consume very minimal amounts of caffeine, drinking this crack is like giving me superpowers. I get a whole new wave of energy– Powerpill Amplified! Fucking awesome. But I don’t like the concept of addiction, so I think I’ll have to cut it back. Seriously, I’m that much of a control freak. I have to know I can cut it off just. like. that. So I’ll have one wave of superpowers today but after that, back to Powerpill regular. Boo.

What else. Work has been insanely busy. While I was away, I still did some work and checked my email and shit (surprise, surprise), so actually, when I got back at the beginning of December, I was mostly caught up. But damn, December is full of project milestones and I’m just busy– budget planning, newsletter production next month, videos… I do love this job though. Seriously, everyday, I thank my lucky stars for this miracle. I continue to be amazed. And I look forward to Christmas week when the office will be closed, but I’m going to go in. It will be so quiet. I’m so happy thinking about all the shit I’ll get done. I know, I’m a workaholic. But don’t worry about me: John and I are staying in town, and I’ll still be off on Christmas eve and Christmas day. That’s plenty of time off for the holidays. Bleck!

In other news, we’re heading to San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara next weekend with the pups. I sure hope this recent wet weather takes a break. I could use some sunshine, because the weather’s starting to influence my mood. 🙂

Oh by the way, the verdict on my new boots? Fucking awesome. Love them. Of course, since they are my priciest shoe/clothing purchase EVER, I’m wearing them 24/7 now– gotta lower the price per wear to something I can tolerate, you know? 🙂 Just kidding but boy, what a relief to finally have comfortable AND stylish shoes. Who the fuck knew this was possible? Like to this level of comfort, really. Plus they are waterproof and have awesome grip–I’m Wonder Woman in these suckers!

Speaking of clothes/shoes, remember Esprit from back in the day? Can’t believe they are still around. I randomly came across them through some Google Adsense link… a little young but not bad for ideas! See what I mean? My brain is practically on crack with this milk tea shit!

Another restless night in Spain… since I had to awake before the crack of dawn this morning, I went to bed early to ensure a full night’s rest. No such luck. The street outside my hostal was quiet compared to the cacophony of Saturday night, but I was simply too damn excited to sleep. It’s been 3.5 weeks– seemingly long and yet still kind of short. I should say, I was surprised that my taxi ride was freaking 40 euros for about 20 minutes. That’s the downside of Madrid– no decent mode of transportation to/from the airport, particularly outside the metro/airport bus operating times. I suppose it’s easy money to get the tourists. But just a minor annoyance.

Last night, I skipped dinner and grew so hungry dreaming of all my favorite foods– Thai, Indian, California, Chinese, pizza… I couldn’t decide whether right off the plane in SFO I would grab an In N Out burger or pizza. I gotta give props to all the doner/kebab shops– they provided welcome respite from salty, heavy tapas and bocadillos. I actually had a salad with a dressing other than oil and vinegar!

Hmm, interesting. I’m actually catching a British Airways flight (not Iberia) into London. Yay, that means free pillow, blanket, food, and drink. The Brits are living it up, I tell you. I was so focused on scoring my max legroom seats on the long haul, that I totally skipped over getting good seats on the 3-hr leg to LON. Duh. Oh well. Hopefully, I’ll just crash either way.

I just arrived in Madrid. My dig camera is out of juice (the battery sure doesn’t last long), so I’m catching up on blogging while charging the cam and airing out the room (which smells of wet dog). Unfortunately, I was slow on the draw when reserving my hostal in Madrid, so I ended up having to resort to an alternative travel site, Venere.com for reviews (Usually, I go with my travel guides + Tripadvisor). Needless to say, the location is very good (super close to Puerta del Sol) and who can resist free wifi, but well, its a tad dingy and I won’t even say what was on the bedspread. Cringe.

Last night, I didn’t get a good night’s rest in Salamanca. I dunno, my mind has just been so restless lately thinking about continuing my Spanish, traveling more, earning more, just doing more. I look back at my resolutions for 2009, and I think I’ve done fairly well considering in my mind, I assign the items different weights, but still, in the simplest evaluation, I’ve done maybe only 6/10 or so. I dunno, I’m just manic or something. On one hand, I’m super happy with this immersion program. I think I learned maybe 500 or so Spanish words, and my evaluation came out mostly positive. On the other hand, I met so many people who speak like 3-4 languages, and it makes me wonder what I’ve been doing with all my time? Where did it go? What new skills did I learn? Ugh.

Oh well, in the very least, I think this trip was a good self test. Honestly, I am amazed how much Shanghai taught me in terms of traveling and figuring out new systems. Like the other day, I was in Carrefour in Salamanca, and when I bought fruit, I knew that I had to remember the produce number, put the items on the scale, and print out a price ticket. Seriously, what consumer in the US has to do that much work? You just bag the produce and the cashier weighs/prices it out. And now I know all about skirting ATM withdrawal fees and international credit card fees… And I know about purchasing a prepaid local SIM card. And I can figure out taking public transportation… I’m not bragging, I’m just saying that past experience makes traveling so much easier now. Like I don’t have to be a full-blown tourist taking taxis everywhere and needing to be handheld, you know?

That said, I have committed some interesting faux pas in the last three weeks:
1. Even before I arrived in Spain, I had trouble keeping “want” and “have” straight in Spanish. In Spain, they charge extra at the supermarkets for plastic bags. Since I took my backpack with me everywhere, I never needed a bag. Well, early on in Salamanca, I went to the market and I kept telling the cashier, “No tengo una bolsa.” I had meant to say, “I don’t want/need a bag,” but I was saying the opposite: “I don’t have a bag.” She kept trying to offer me a bag, and I just kept firmly repeating my line. It wasn’t until I left that I just laughed. So retarded.
2. After that horseback riding escapade with my friend Inke, I thought I had a great story to tell my host family. So I said Inke’s horse kept misbehaving. After several attempts to throw her off, Inke got very scared. The word for fear is miedo. But I thought it was mierdo (with the r) and a verb instead of a noun, so I conjugated it for 3rd person singular. The result? “Inke shits.” Mierda is the word for shit. I should have used “Inke has (tiene) fear.” And of course, I only know present tense, so please bear with me… Anyway, I didn’t make any sense, but through my hand gestures, I suppose they got the picture.
3. On paper, I’m pretty good with verb conjugations. In regular conversation though, it takes a few more seconds and I sometimes still think “yo” means “you” instead of “I.” So the other day, the lady told me to ask her hubby if he wanted soup with dinner. Simple enough. So I go into the living room and say, “Quiero soupa?” He says no. I got back to the kitchen and realized I just asked him, “Do I want soup?” Fucking A, right? So then I go back and ask him properly, explaining that my earlier question was incorrect. Same answer, but god I felt dumb. Ah the joys of speaking a new language on the fly.
4. There was this Japanese dude at the school, who lived with the same family as one of my classmates. Ok, so both students are Japanese, and Yusuke only speaks Spanish and Japanese. Nevertheless, every time I ran into him at school or at the internet cafe, I started speaking to him in Chinese and then for some bizarro reason, I kept saying goodbye to him in English. And not just “bye” but like, “catch you later” and shit. Yeah, exactly. Muy confusa, I tell you.

Btw, did you hear? It’s supposed to SNOW on Sunday in Salamanca. Holy shit. I need to get out of this cold weather. And in Madrid, the forecast is calling for rain and temps in the 40s!! Eek. I hate the cold. I’m gonna have to pull out my second set of thermals and double up!

Ok, so what’s on tap my first night in Madrid? It’s only 2pm right now, but I’ll probably head out shortly to walk around and then tonight is the flamenco show. Hope it’s not too crazy.

Ugh, I’m so glad that tomorrow’s my last day… I mean, I wouldn’t mind staying at the school, but my classmates are really starting to irk my nerves. Yesterday, this daddy’s boy in class complained that one of our former teachers used to spend the whole class talking, like talking to ME… uh, excuse me, but I actually study and know my shit so sorry if I actually have real questions that can’t be answered just with the dictionary. It’s not my problem you don’t care about learning grammar… it’s not my problem you still can’t distinguish 1st, 2nd, and 3rd person. And it’s not as if the professor and I were just chitchatting, we were actually talking about usage, like when to use muy vs. mucho. Pay attention, and maybe you’ll actually learn something. Ugh, so annoying. Seriously, fuck off.

As for the others, everyday the same group of kids skip out on the cultural class. Today, this one kid who had been absent the last few days returned with a monster black eye and the left side of his face all scraped up. Are you fucking kidding me? Yeah sure, people do stupid things when they’re young. Still, is getting sloshed to the point of getting your face all fucked up really necessary for an authentic adolescent/young adult experience? Juveniles.

Thankfully, my new housemate is a serious language learner. The dude is only 19, but he really is quite precocious. Like he gets that he has to work to pay for his travels around the world. He gets that when he stays at a friend’s house when he travels, he has to pay for groceries and help with cleanup. I share the bathroom with him, and he’s so clean. Plus he helps with food prep, setting the table, cleanup… I’m amazed considering I know several people in their 30s who still don’t get this. And then of course, these other jokers in class are crybaby brats. Haha. Just one more day of class. I’ll try to get pics of my profs. They’re awesome.