pancakes

I'm pretty sure that my boyfriend has made me breakfast more than the rest of my ex-boyfriends combined. I love waking up and being told to keep snoozing in bed until the pancakes are ready.

unmanic sunday

Perfect weather on a Sunday, lazy picnic in a park, lazy TV at home, and Monday is a holiday.

forecast

Dare I say that summer has made it to California, just in time for Memorial Day weekend (and a random picnic tomorrow)? It's a little bit late this year, but today was absolutely gorgeous.

number three

Also, my sister had her third kid today. I'm happy for her, since she wanted one more kid and also wanted to stop being pregnant, and I'm even happier for myself, because I don't want to be pregnant or have a kid, and so far, so good.

tmi

There's nothing quite like a good zit pop.

yay

It's a holiday weekend, I bought new flip flops that replace a pair I loved that I thought could never be replaced, the sun is out, and I'm going to get a pedicure and finish reading a brainless fluff novel.

date night

Meeting a couple of law school friends for drinks after work tonight, and we're going to a tapas place where I always order lots of datiles endiablados -- "devilled" dates: filled with chorizo and wrapped in bacon. Yum.

Also, I decided to return all but one pair of the shoes that showed up yesterday, but I ended up ordering another thirteen pairs to try out. They'll come in the next day or two, and even though I'll return almost all of them, that still means that there will be more exciting packages and shoe parties.

shoe party

In anticipation of a friend's wedding, in which I am a bridesmaid, I went online to shop for shoes that will go with the dress I'll be wearing (wearing jeans and sneakers to work every day is awesome, but it means that I'm often woefully under-equipped for fancier occasions). Zappos and Endless both do overnight shipping and free returns, so twelve (yes, twelve) pairs of shoes showed up at my office today, and a few of my female coworkers (and a couple of male coworkers who probably wouldn't admit to it) and I took a few minutes out of our day to have a little shoe party to judge the contenders and make a first-pass thinning of the herd from twelve pairs down to four. I'm limiting myself to keeping two pairs, so there are two more eliminations to go. I am also having a small personal celebration, because it turns out that one of the styles I picked is a near twin for a Jimmy Choo shoe that costs ten times as much as what I paid. 

This shoe party was brought to you by cheap shoes, online shopping, overnight shipping, and fun coworkers.

recommendation

Today, I got to look at a recommendation a friend is writing for a college student who is applying for a scholarship for medical school. I remember reading the recommendations I got from teachers and professors when I was applying for college and law school, and hearing some of the things my mentors and bosses said when I was applying for jobs, and it's such a warm, fuzzy feeling to read or hear someone list out all of the reasons they believe you will succeed. This is the first time I've been on the other end of the recommendation (although only indirectly), and it really was a pleasure to read through all these wonderful things that my friend wrote about the student, and try to come up with ways to make them sound even better.

sunny sunday

I slept in this morning, after having a shockingly good dinner at a nearby restaurant last night (who knew that they could do molecular gastronomy in the suburbs??). We arranged to have lunch with a good friend, and while we were waiting for him to come over, I had a brief chat with a couple of my best friends about possible plans to get together this summer. Lunch was at a nearby cafe where everyone goes when the sun comes out, and we immediately scored a great table, which was completely unexpected. We ate and basked in the sun for two hours, and then I came home and took a long and satisfying nap. This is what Sundays were made for.

jasmine

A friend from Zurich stayed with me last night, on her way through California, and we went out to dinner and then came back to my place to have some people over for cocktails and Rock Band. This morning, we woke up early (for me), so I could drop her off at the train station. I got home and took a nap that felt even better than if I had slept straight through the morning. Then I took my dog on a walk (which I rarely do, but it was sunny out, and I thought we might enjoy it).

I forgot that it's jasmine season! I love the smell of jasmine, and it proliferates here, so as you walk down the street, you might get a sudden whiff of fresh jasmine if the sun is warming the flowers and the breeze is blowing the the right direction.

surprise

I'm usually a planner, in that I like having a general idea of what my schedule is going to look like, so that I can mentally prepare myself for the tough things, and look forward to the good things. Even so, a good surprise is fun every now and then. I was on a call this morning, and my sister pinged me to see if I was free for lunch -- she'll be bringing my niece down to my office, and we'll have lunch. She's about 14 months pregnant, and we've both been really busy lately, so this may be the last time I hang out with her outside of her house for a while, so it's a happy surprise. It's a gorgeous day, and my sister is coming to lunch :)

recovering

safe

I took my dog to the vet to get his teeth cleaned today. Dogs have to go under general anesthesia to get their teeth cleaned, and you leave the dog there all day. I was a little bit anxious, and felt his absence under my desk all day, especially after the vet called to say two teeth had to come out. I've never been so happy to see my dog after a short separation as when I went to pick him up today. He's groggy and gap-toothed, but he got a clean bill of health and much better breath. Even a few hours' absence makes the heart grow fonder.

closer

I love when lots of work pays off at the same time. Fourteen of my deals closed today. Fourteen! Weeks of work all came together in one day.

monday morning

I mentioned before that there were some exciting new snacks at work. I didn't see them again for some time, so a week or so ago, when I ran into the guy who stocks our snacks, I asked him if there were anymore. He said he'd keep an eye out for them, and then I promptly forgot about it.

This morning, he stopped by my desk with a box of cashews made by the same brand, which was super-nice and completely unexpected. I asked if I could take a few before he stocked the kitchen, and he said they were all for me! All fifteen bags!

It was so nice of him, and I'm looking forward to trying them out. They aren't the exact same snack, but I'm sure they'll be tasty, and it totally made my day.

tipang

My favorite dish of all time is my mom's Chinese pork roast. I'm trying to make it tonight. The pork has to simmer for a few hours, so the whole house smells of pork and memories of all of the pork I've had in the past. Yum.

junk in the trunk

Because we get free meals and snacks at work, I rarely go to the grocery store to buy things, but once in a while, I'll go to the store to pick up a few things, and I'll buy some random junk food that they don't stock at work, and it somehow becomes very exciting. Cheetos and Pepperidge Farms cookies (especially the Brussels variety) have never found such a loving home as in my belly.

quack attack

When my dog gets excited, like when we're getting ready to go to work, or I'm getting a treat for him, he runs around in fast, ecstatic circles.When he's really excited, like when my boyfriend comes over, he starts making an odd little quacking noise and waving his front paws in the air while doing his happy circle dance. When he is so excited that he's about to explode, like when my boyfriend comes and brings his dog, he starts yelping and quacking and whining like some sort of alien duck in distress, and his circle dance is so punctuated with paw-waving that he looks like he's doing a bad impression of a rearing stallion. It's pretty awesome.

food folks and fun

It was girls' night last night. We had fourteen people out for sushi for dinner, and then fifteen people came over to my place for wine, snacks, and games, and six people stayed for a sleepover and breakfast. Even though we're all grown up with real jobs, it's still so much fun to play goofy games like Cranium and Celebrity.

possession

I got my custom-made necklace on Tuesday, and I've been loving it. The initial idea, the collaborative process, the anticipation, the special feeling of having something that was made just for me, wearing the necklace and periodically remembering why it's special, getting comments on it, it's all been so much more fun than wearing any other thing that you can just walk in and buy at the store. I'm not generally a jewelry person, in that I tend to wear the same things every day: one of two watches, the same pair of earrings, and nothing else, but I've already started thinking about what else I could ask my friend to make.

inside joke

I'm listening to a CD of a concert that my college choir (or, more accurately, a recent roster thereof), produced. My college conductor always was and still is a character. And this is a live recording. I just laughed out loud at my desk as one of the tracks started up, and he is shouting the the audience, "Sorry about the wrong numbers... I have no idea how that happened, it's 245!" I actually laughed at loud at my desk when that gem blared out in between the otherwise serene choral works. I'm so glad this moment was captured on CD.

It's up there with the recording in which, during an especially dramatic pause in the Brahms Requiem, he was so wrapped up in conducting that he dropped his glasses and nearly tipped over his music stand, so instead of a pregnant pause, there is a very brief pause with a click (the glasses hitting the floor), and a scuffle (my conductor fighting to keep his music stand upright). You wouldn't know what the sounds were, if you weren't there, but that just means that even in the midst of a heartfelt performance of a wrenching piece about death and loss, there can be secret hilarity.

clarity

This really is the tiniest of things, but it feels big when it happens. You know how when you're really sick and completely stuffed up, and you miraculously have a five or ten minute window when your nose magically clears up and you can breathe normally for a little while? That window is pure bliss, because you really notice how great it is to just breathe. 

in the red

I almost never wear open-toed shoes, partly because I wear jeans to work, partly because my feet get cold without socks, and partly because I'm a slave to comfort.
Even so, I get a pedicure every month, partly because it's a little treat, partly because I love how pedicures last forever, but mostly because I like knowing that underneath my sneakers, my toenails are unapologetically red, and they wink at me every day before I put on my shoes to go to work, and when I come home and take my shoes back off, and it makes me secretly happy.

feast or famine

Just when you think you've hit a dry spell and need to make the one good book you've got last longer, you come across reviews for two books that sound really great, and suddenly, you have way too much reading to do. Not a bad situation.

ration

Good books are uncommon, but books that are so well-crafted that you are torn between reading slowly to savor every word or tearing ahead to devour the book in huge gulps are exquisitely rare. When I was younger, I almost always took the second option, perhaps naively believing that there would be many more perfect books to come. Now, when I come across such a book, I try to take a more measured pace, sifting through it more slowly and re-reading a line here, a page there, in order to bask in the book for as long as possible. The pleasure is more muted, but it lasts longer, and I can always devour it if I decide to re-read the whole thing later.

custom

My creative and talented coworker made a necklace (it may look like two, but it's one) that captures a lot of the things in life that make me happy. I can basically wear the whole concept behind this blog around my neck as a reminder of how good life can be, if I just stop and notice it.

I won't go into full detail on the explanation, because it probably only makes sense to me, but for me, this necklace is a physical representation of all that is frabjous: sun, moon, stars, blue skies, clear water, diving, my dog, freedom, self-determination, wonderful things coming from not-so-great circumstances, luck, the color red, food, loved ones, good times, and the very meaning of happiness.

delivery

Food is good. Company is good. Delivery service is good.

A boyfriend who picks up food on his way over, thereby providing delivery service for both food and company? That transcends good to become great.

vicarious thumb

Flowers are beautiful, but I never try to grow any, because I am unable to keep them alive. My new landlord hires a gardener to come by the house every week, though, so I get to enjoy flowers without worrying that I'll kill them.

respite

Nonstop action, that crazy mix of work, travel, play, and friends that I've had for the last few weeks, can be fun and exhilarating, and it makes the first empty day afterwards feel relaxing, rather than boring. I love quiet Saturdays, with just a few little tasks thrown in to pretend I'm still being productive.

burbs

I'm more of a city girl, and coming here was my first foray back into suburbia since leaving for college. Although I rail against the parking lots, the weekly trash pickups, the humdrumness, and all those other suburban things, I secretly do really enjoy a few things about the suburbs.

(1) I've never had so much space to myself before. And every room has windows and skylights.

(2) It's so quiet. Any noise I hear is the noise I make.

(3) On Friday nights, I don't feel pressure to do something exciting. If I want to go home, wear pajamas, and watch TV, that's OK. Or if I want to go to a big, suburban cineplex and watch a mindless move like Ironman 2, that's OK, too. It's the suburbs.

girls girls girls

I have tons of space in my new place, and I'm having ten or fifteen girls from work ("women," if you prefer that term) over for a good old-fashioned sleepover next week, just like we had when we were little, except that we'll have wine and no parental supervision.

par

Don't you love that feeling of quiet relief when you are temporarily on top of your work? When you're all caught up on every project, and you're just waiting to hear back from the other team members, or the other side of the deal? Even if it's just for a few hours, it's nice to have all of the balls in other people's courts, so that you can do whatever else you feel like doing, even if it's just to sit around and breathe, without guilt or worry.

hi ho

My dog is about ten years old. I've had him for almost eight years, and he has gone to work with me (at two jobs in two countries) for six of those years. In dog years, he's probably about retirement age, and he's been "working" for about 40 dog years.

Nevertheless, every morning (and especially on Mondays), he is so excited to go to work that he can barely wait for me to get ready. If the car ride is too long, he starts to whine impatiently, because, COME ON, PEOPLE, IT'S TIME TO GO TO WORK! He trots impatiently through the parking lot, takes the steps at full speed, which is impressive for a senior citizen, and when he gets to our floor, he can no longer wait for me, and he sprints to our office. Sprints. That's how excited he is to get started on his day.

I love my job, but I still don't sprint to my desk. I love watching him sprint, though, and I love how it gives passersby a little lift to see how excited he is, as well.

preview

I'm meeting a good friend from Zurich for dinner tonight. Just by coincidence, he started working in our Zurich office just a couple of months after I started working here at headquarters, and he has come out a couple of times for work since then. He is doing an internal transfer and will be moving here in about a month, so tonight's dinner will just be a quick preview of lots of hanging out in the future (and I'll have a little reminder of it until he moves, since he's leaving some of his stuff with me in the mean time). It's wonderful making new friends, but it's even better when old friends show up, as well.

flower power

I love that the climate here permits flowers to flourish riotously, and I love that my company takes advantage of that fact.

redo

I've been monitoring my Facebook feed to see all of the pictures and status updates recapping the weekend my college friends and I just spent in Cambridge. Although you can't go back in time and relive an experience, at least you can see it as it was viewed through someone else's eyes (or lens).

tivo

I bought a TiVo with the first paycheck from my summer job after my first year of law school, nine years ago. I said it then and I still say it now, that the best things to ever happen to TV were color, remote controls, cable, and TiVo, and of those four, TiVo is the coolest. It combines laziness and convenience with efficiency and gadgetry. You can watch more TV shows per couch-hour, and you can do it whenever you want. Still frabjous after all these years.

puppy love

It's hard to come back from a great trip, but on the way home, I always get excited that I'm going to see my dog again, and it always gives me a big kick when he's excited to see me, too. Rationally, based on the many times that I've left and come back to an overjoyed dog over the eight years that I've had him, I should know that he will still recognize me and love me when I get back, but it's always such a moment of pure pleasure when I do see him and he's all wiggly because I'm there.

(This is a picture that my cousin took while she was watching him for the week -- look at what a sweet old grump he's turned into.)

the best thing

Is there anything better than seeing lots of old friends, catching up with them in person, and rehashing all of the old stories and inside jokes?

two words

Brahms Requiem.
It was the first masterwork I sang in college, and we sang through it today at the retirement celebration for my college conductor. It was a perfect full circle, and I admit I got a little choked up a few times while singing it, much like I did when we sang it in Lincoln Center 14 years ago.