feed me less

I removed a bunch of subscriptions from my Google Reader yesterday that I never really kept up with anymore, and it's kind of nice to have my unread items back in the hundreds again, instead of the thousands.

card me

When I left the law firm in 2004, one of my biggest and only regrets was that I hadn't stayed long enough to get business cards. My job in Switzerland didn't have business cards. I was pretty excited when I got my first business cards after moving here. I never use them, but it's still fun to have them. I just ordered new business cards with my updated title (from last year's promotion) and my new working group. Even after all these years of not really using business cards, they still fascinate me.

taking sides

Had another small meeting with the bigwigs today, and the founder and the head of the department totally agreed with my take on things.

trip recap

New Orleans was a great weekend. The food hit of the weekend was Dante's Kitchen, which had really good shrimp and grits, and the best chicken I've ever had in a restaurant (I'm generally very anti-chicken, and their chicken roasted under a brick was probably my favorite dish of the trip). Walked a lot, saw some jazz, went to the Museum of Southern Food and Beverage, the WWII Museum, caught up with my really good friends from college, met up with a high school classmate I hadn't seen since high school, and ate and ate and ate. I expected the friends and food parts to be good, but had no idea that we would enjoy the city itself so much, as well. I wish we'd had more time, but maybe that just means we'll have to go back again.

nawlins

Flying to New Orleans in a few hours to meet up with a couple of really good friends from my college and New York days, eat some good food, and catch some live jazz.

whew

I had my first small meeting (four people total) with one of the founders today, plus the senior VP of our group. It was impromptu (which is probably for the best, so that I didn't stress about it in advance), and I think I did OK.

Fiver was not worried at all. He sniffed the founder's foot for a while, then spent the rest of the meeting ignoring us.

tweak

So glad that we have an on campus chiropractor, and that I was able to get a same day appointment to try to fix my neck, which I had tweaked last night while engaging in the extremely athletic activity of... washing my face.

goggies

Hanging out while waiting for the humans to get ready and take them to work.

catch up

I managed to pop over to the Legal building today for a while (something that has been hard to do as of late, now that I'm mostly sitting with the product team), and it was so good to catch up with my office mate, let Fiver sunbathe on the couch, and have lunch with a few friends in the cafe downstairs.

like new

I took five sweaters into the cleaners yesterday to get some moth holes fixed. I haven't worn them in a year, or in a couple of cases, several years (that's how long I've been putting off getting them fixed), so it will be like having five new sweaters once I get them back.

cookie monster

I thought I had missed Girl Scout cookie season, and was kind of sad, but then the receptionist at the chiropractor at work had dinner, and I bought two boxes of Tin Mints and a box of Samoas. Jackpot!

peep

They make chocolate-dipped Peeps!

advice taken

My cousin swears by the bra ladies at Nordstrom's for getting the right size and the perfect fit. I was skeptical till I went in. She was right. Better fit and an ego boost.

brownie points

I think I scored about a million brownie points with my parents by throwing them a 70th birthday party last night, with 50 of their friends. True to Asian parent form, one of the highlights of the event for them was that it made all of their friends jealous. Also true to Asian parent form, their friends gave them the supreme trifecta of compliments: "she went to Harvard, she's a good daughter, and she has such pale skin!"

off the wagon

In over a year and a half, the only clothing I've bought was a pair of jeans, and it has been even longer since I've bought anything fancier than jeans and t-shirts. I went to Nordstrom's after work on Friday to buy a dress for my parents' birthday party, and had fun trying on dresses for the first time in ages. I had forgotten how social dress shopping is, even with strangers, with everyone giving opinions and compliments over a bit of retail therapy. I went in dreading the search, but happily walked out with two dresses.

finally friday already

Long week that paradoxically flew by. Glad it's almost the weekend, so that I'll have some time to relax a bit, but also glad that I did so much this week.

death and taxes

Filing taxes has never been a stressful thing for me. I find it oddly soothing, actually -- you just get all your tax forms and receipts and start putting in information until there's nothing left to be entered, and at the end, you feel like you've accomplished something.

It was especially fun back in student times, when I made little enough that I would always get a refund.

These days, however, it's kind of shocking to see my annual income lumped into one big number. I always end up having to pay extra taxes, but I don't really mind, because I still strangely enjoy the process, and it reminds me how fortunate I am to make enough money that I have to pay taxes, and can afford to pay them.

So yes, I enjoy filing my taxes, and paying taxes makes me feel lucky.

juvenile

Even after almost four years of working at a tech company, I still have to restrain myself from giggling every time someone talks about working on something "on the back end."

not my job

Working with outside counsel sometimes reminds me how glad I am that I'm not outside counsel.

facilities

One good thing about sitting with engineers instead of lawyers is that the women's restroom is almost always empty.

aw thanks

I know it's pretty much her job to say it, but I still think it's sweet every time I go in for a facial and the lady says I have "such nice skin, and so pale" (which, because she is Chinese, is a high compliment).

daylight saved

I love switching to Daylight Saving Time every year. The evenings are suddenly longer, and it feels like summer is just around the corner. Totally makes up for Daylight Saving jet lag.

checklist

Yay for motivating myself to do a few extra errands after work today (especially after three long days of meetings and drafting), which will give me a couple extra hours of lazy time on Sunday.

fresh paint

The only thing that can make a fresh pedicure look nicer is if that pedicure was long overdue. Hello, toes, I'm so glad you're not an eyesore anymore.

all systems go

Tons of work, long meetings, heavy drafting, candidate interviews, and general insanity and pressure may not sound like a normal person's idea of fun, but this week has been pretty great. Tiring and stressful, but it's good to feel like I'm starting to find my way, earn my keep, and help the team move into the next phase. Hope they think so, too.

Warp speed continues for at least another week or two after this one, I think.

Bonus: I lose weight when I'm busy or stressed.

chocolate hydration

Mint chocolate water. I'm totally on board.

ergo

My new desk has been raised to my ideal height, as approved by Ergonomics. Hoping this will make my recent headaches and backaches go away. Plus, adding a keyboard tray gives me more desk space to clutter up with my little knick knacks and doodads that make a desk feel like home.