Older & wiser

MT is turning 30 on Friday. I'm having a surprise dinner party for him. He knows something's being planned, but he doesn't know what. 12 people are coming. I am so glad that everyone I invited (a carefully crafted list) is coming and I know MT's going to really love having everyone there.

"There" is our apartment. Our 1 bedroom apartment in Brooklyn. Does anyone see an issue with having 12 people for dinner in a 1 bedroom apartment? Yeah, well, I didn't think of that while I was putting together the carefully crafted list. The carefully crafted list of people who have basically nowhere to sit down and eat. Well, our dining table seats 4... so, um, I guess 8 people have nowhere to sit down and eat.

To remedy this situation I've come up with a few ideas.

• One was to put a few people at the kitchen island and get awesome floor cushions for 4 peeps to take the coffee table. That would work great for me, but I love sitting on the floor. I'm in the minority. Not to mention that it would inhibit conversation having us all broken off into groups. Idea scratched.
• Another was to rent tables and chairs. This lead me to the realization that not only do I not have seating, but I don't have enough place settings, either. Not enough plates, not enough glasses, not enough flatware. But renting when all said and done wasn't cost effective for the small amount I need to order. Idea scratched.
• What I decided to do is see if any of our friends have folding tables/chairs. I can get some nice linens and make it look cool. If I can't find enough equip to borrow I'm going to check out the various hardware and $ .99 stores around the neighborhood - I'm sure I can pick up some folding chairs and a table or 2 for not a whole lot of loot. Bonus: I found an old set of dishes in the hallway closet. Not the most awesome looking things, but I decided to go shabby-chic and mix & match colors and patterns so I think it's going to end up being kind of boho cool.

I think it's going to work out really well. Now I can just obsess about the menu... ugh. A lovely mix of vegetarians and omnivores. Luckily I know my way around the kitchen and can come up with something great. It's just a matter of getting that all done while MT is at work on Friday and I "work from home". Mmm hmm.

Speaking of the carefully crafted list - there's a bit of drama surrounding someone I didn't invite on purpose (last year she got wasted and made a drunken fool of herself at MT's party - just one in a series of alcoholic catastrophes she's been involved with). Another friend called me to ask if I forgot to invite her or if I forgot on purpose. I told him that I forgot her on purpose and he disagrees with my decision. You know what? It's MT's party. I'm throwing it. Tough titties, right? For the record, MT isn't too thrilled with her lately and would rather she not attend a gathering of a rather intimate group. He said that if it were a big bash he wouldn't mind if she were there because the buffer between her and the rest of the guests would be pretty big, but a small group isn't the best setting for her. I think I'm making the right call. Am I screwing this one up?

Where am I?

So tired. It's 1AM. I just finished working. I can't see straight. Too many nights of this lately. I'm still breathing, just haven't had much time for anything except work lately - let alone blogging. I promise something more, well... promising this week.

*I have a good job and I'm lucky to be employed... ohhmmmmmmmm*

Taking the pompahawk on the rizzoad...

Headed to DC... as soon as it stops snowing/icing/nastifying outside. *sigh* I want to be on the road already! Kristie is waiting!

I sported a pompahawk - combo pompadour/mohawk - all week at work. Good times. I was the talk of the office. That's kinda sad since this is New York city. Borderline weird hair shouldn't be that exciting in the city that never sleeps.

Re... births

This is on postsecret this week. It struck me that there have been a number of days in my life when I've felt really reborn. Or maybe not even reborn, but born for the first time. Days when something has happened and I've had a realization, an epiphany about my being and my existence that causes me to see the world with new eyes and hear the sounds of the planet with fresh ears. After a period of darkness it's always refreshing to see that other people can find their new selves in this mess, too, and that as long as we all keep trying there's a good chance that this hope I carry inside isn't for naught.

I'm happy for this new girl. From the stats alone she's a lot like me. I hope she has a wonderful journey in this new land she's found.

Fire up the Inspirotron!

People all around me are doing amazing things.

• The boyfriend is writing music that's so good it sticks in my head in the good way, not the Britney way that makes me go crazy.


• Kristie is going to Burning Man and planning her little tail off getting all the best costumes/outfits and activities planned and meeting cool people in the process.


• L. Britt is a genius and got into the Harvard PhD program (oh yes, that Harvard), plus, she's in love which makes the whole thing more fun.


• Rover's auditioning for super roles and auditioning well, and feeling good about it!


• Retro Girl has an art show coming up - an art show!


• Duke's becoming an expert at sleeping all day and taking massive dumps in the hallway when I least expect it... like right after we come in from a walk that involved a previous massive dump - WTF?

Basically, I'm surrounded by awesomeness. AWESOMENESS! What a spectacular feeling! It's always easier for me to get into my own awesomeness when I notice the splendiforous things my friends are doing. Thanks, friends.

2nd Blogiversary

It passed right by and I didn't realize until now. 2 years here. Wow. Cool.

From my first post a little more than 2 years ago:

"But, sometimes I feel rather alone in this big city all by myself. My love for this place is peppered with bitter drops of sadness that only reveal themselves at my weakest moments. I think that's pretty typical. Not sure if that's something that ever truly goes away. All New Yorkers carry with them some sort of conflict. It's a badge of courage, honor, stubbornness - whatever it is it's stamped into you the day you cross over the bridge, come through the tunnel, glimpse that Gotham skyline."

It's still true. I love this place. I love it and it beats me down sometimes and I love it even more.

Ow, my head

I have a headache. I've had it now for about 3 days. Gee, could it have anything to do with the ridiculous amount of hours I've been working lately? And by lately I mean the last month... and the next month as long as my client doesn't magically disappear from the face of the earth.

Magical disappearance might be nice. No, wait, I take that back. The people I work with on the client side are lovely, I like them all. Well, almost all of them. Anyway, the people are cool, it's the work that's killing me these days. It's not the peoples' fault.

12-14 hours a day worth of localization. That's a fancy schmancy way of saying translation. Ever gone to one of Google's international sites? Well, the company I work for makes those. Microsoft? You know that drop down menu when it tells you to pick your country? We make those. My client is a well known software manufacturer whose name rhymes with Schmadobe. They make PDFs possible. They're quite acrobatic, if you catch my crazily obvious drift. I make their products (web, print, documentation, packaging, all that jazz) go from English to Japanese, Chinese (traditional and simplified), Korean and Brazilian Portuguese. Yep, that's my job.

I actually like my job. I like the challenge, I like the million balls in the air and not letting any drop kind of environment. I'm just swamped right now. I'm in crunch time because I'm the sole project manager on the account and I'm responsible for more work than one person can manage. CS3 is launching this Spring and that means every Japanese, Korean, Chinese and Portuguese piece of paper, web page, box, DVD cover, you name it associated with any of the CS products (Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop, Flash, Dreamweaver, etc.) is produced by me and my global team. It's a lot. It's more than I can handle. It give me headaches. Ow.

I worked from home today. It's a nice perk. If I need to for whatever reason I can work from home now and then and it's totally OK with my head honchos. I've got access to my desktop at work right from my laptop. I worked all day in my sweats. Duke kept me company. He's a good co-worker. Except for when he farts in his cubicle. That's gross.

I did one thing to break the work monotony today - I took a nice hot bath and when I was done I styled my hair into a mohawk. Kristie had one when she came up a couple weeks ago and I wanted one, too. So I had a mohawk... that no one saw. Weird. I'm a strange kid, what can I say? It made me smile. I guess it's worth it.

P.S. That's a shot from the photo shoot. tee hee