I've made it through the first three months of my new job. I like it a lot; it's certainly much better and more rewarding than my former job. However, one of my bosses is not only a micromanager but very demanding. She's nice, but yesterday the following lyric was stuck in my head:
Hate is a strong word, but I really really really don't like you
The song is about a broken heart, but I really like that one line. Anyway, the reason she was driving me nuts is this: Monday morning, she sends an email to me and my other boss saying she wants to meet to find out what is on my plate for my other boss, because she has THREE mailings she wants to get out before the holiday break. Um, the holiday break started today, Wednesday, which meant she wanted these things done in two days! Additionally, their boss told me that I could leave around 3 or 4 on Tuesday to start my break early. So Tuesday went like this:
Arrive at work at 8:30 because woke up late and therefore took the late train
Approached by bosses asking if I have lunch plans because they think it would be great if we went to lunch together [I did, but I didn't bring lunch so I figured hey, I can hit the post office and the credit union when I leave at 3, right?]
Meeting from 10-11
Left for lunch at 11:45
After lunch, one of them decided they wanted me to see this cool shoe store, so we wandered in for 15 minutes [mainly clogs...]
Back to work at 1:20
Got big check that needed to be processed today since we're closed till Jan. 2
Left work at 4:15PM
So much for starting my break early. I was shipping a b-day gift, and that's why I had to go to the post office. I figured, hey, students are gone by now, right? Oh, wait, the faculty! How could I forget they're still around? The line was hella long. When it was almost my turn, one window closed, so that prolonged my errand...time of departure: 5:15. Sigh.
But I can't complain. I'm off till January 2, and that gives me 3 days extra to squeeze in my Xmas shopping because I always wait till the last minute.
Merci beaucoup to all of you for reading this crazy blog. Joyeux Noel and Bonne Annee!
20 December 2006
02 December 2006
So Cruel
Thanksgiving weekend was a whirlwind. Thursday, AC and I had breakfast at a new place before I took him to the airport. Then, I went to my dad's. We sat around watching TV until we headed to my cousin's for a brief visit. Just as they were about to eat, we left for another dinner. It was really awkward.
Friday, I was in the City by 8:30AM. Mom and I headed downtown to catch the Adidas sale, which ended at 9:30AM. Afterwards, we hit Nordstrom and Macy*s. [Note to white women: "bling bling" is SO outdated. You should be punched every time you utter those words. It's like nails on a chalkboard.]
After dropping my mom off around 1:30, I headed home, packed, got an oil change, and headed south at 3:07PM. AC had kindy gotten me a ticket to the ND-USC game via craigslist! A solo road trip is very interesting, mainly because you have to amuse yourself. I sang along to whatever I wanted to; saw cows that were colored like cop cars at 5:02PM; and found a radio station that called itself "one-oh-sexy-point-three." I tried to drive non-stop but had to heed nature's call at the foot of the Grapevine at 7:45PM, crossing the LA County line at 8:07PM. I stopped for gas a few minutes later and was shocked to find myself in 36 degree weather! I hopped back on the road, eager to finish the last stretch. Alas, I dropped my damn phone while I was listening to iTunes, so I had to pull over in Castaic. I finally made it to Pico Rivera [where AC's sister lives] at 9:23PM.
The next morning, we were up by 6AM and at USC by 8:30. We parked and headed to ESPN Gameday's booth.
We found Krypto and hung out with him and his friends till our other friends showed up. [Got that?] It was very awkward, because Krypto's friends were very cold towards us. AC had met them before, and they didn't even say hi. He tried to say hi and they acted like they didn't see him. He'd warned me that they had made some comment loudly to Krypto about AC and the other friends eating their food. At the beginning of the season, they even had a talk with Krypto and told him they found some of his behaviour unacceptable last season! Why he continues to hang out with them is beyond us.
Anyway, I was really surprised by the tailgate areas at SC: basically, any open area that has a hint of grass is open!
People tailgated in front of Engineering buildings as well as on a grassy strip of sidewalk near the Museum of Natural History's parking lot! The upside to this is that you can usually use the building's bathroom. This is the building whose facilities we visited:
Nice, eh?
Our other friends arrived, so we unloaded our car to tailgate with them, even though we had to cut through campus and cross the street. They had set up camp directly across the sidewalk from Notre Dame fans, so I was happy.
We'd heard that there was a Notre Dame tent set up with merchandise for sale, and luckily, the people who'd told us about it found us and led us to Irishfest. For $5, you gained a rally towel and access to an area primarily for ND fans, with a big tent o' merchandise, and beer & In-N-Out booths! Even the portapotties were blue:
Once we'd done some damage at the merch tent, we went back to our friends, who proudly showed me their purchase from the SC store. It was a red t-shirt with the Irish mascot, except his fists were the stupid two-fingered Victory sign and text that read, "If you can't beat us, join us!"
AC grilled some meat, which attracted the usual admiration and "that smells good!" [and, according to him, some little blonde SC fanwhore smiling and saying "Mmm, yummy!"]. Note how he's tenderly holding the 'tilla package:
I made myself a rum & coke, but should have eaten something first. The buzz hit me as soon as I stood up. That's when I noticed the ND cheerleaders and mascot had arrived, so I followed them back to Irishfest for the rally. I also got my face painted for a charitable donation to Hannah & Friends.
There were tons of creative signs and shirts, many referencing SC's felon alumnus [OJ Simpson]. One t-shirt read, "Catholics have no need for Trojans." And far too many heavy girls wore tight t-shirts that read "Got Booty?" [The SC quarterback is John David Booty.]
Finally, at 4:40PM, we got ready to enter the Coliseum. AC made sure that I sat with our friends so that I wouldn't be harassed too badly.
I quickly learned that SC fans are WORSE than my fellow Raider fans. That made it even harder for me to contain myself.
As we entered our row, people started booing me, and one guy actually pushed me [though not too hard]. Someone yelled, "Rudy was a Hollywood myth! He never existed!" Luckily, shortly after we sat down, attention was focused on a drunk girl who puked in the row in front of us. She was led out by her friend, but the people entering the same row were unaware they were stepping in puke...
There were a few other ND fans around us, and knowing that my mouth can get me in trouble, I lay low. Unfortunately, there was one guy who didn't know when to shut up. For starters, he was wearing a Celtics Larry Bird jersey. He was scrawny and wore glasses. I don't know what he was yelling, but the SC fans behind me kept saying "Shut up Larry Bird!" For whatever reason, he lifted the jersey to reveal a New England Patriots t-shirt, to which people started yelling, "Oh, a big sports fan! What a doofus! Siddown, four eyes!" And then he was called faggot several times, which really pissed me off, but I didn't say anything. I focused on being friendly to the fat, old, SC wetty fans next to me. They were telling me to "convert now!" to save my soul before kick-off. I'll spare you the gory details of the game, but the older white guy in front of me tried to high-5 me when SC scored and I flipped him off. Later, he said something else about Jesus [I am thinking it was in reference to Touchdown Jesus], to which I angrily said, "There is no Jesus." By halftime, things weren't looking good, and my friend asked why I made the bet with AC [details at the end of post]. I said, "To prove my faith in the Irish!" He said, "For faith I go to church!" To which I retorted, "There's no god!" Man, it's a miracle that lightning didn't strike me down at that game.
I took a photo of this little Domer at the concession stand during halftime:
I yelled profane word after profane word at the top of my lungs as the Irish let me down. By the end of the game, when the score was 44-24, the white guy in front of me again said something else. I was seething at this point, so as my friend leaned down to hug me in sympathy, I glared at the guy and said, "Fuck you, whitey." My friend hugged me tighter and whispered, "Be nice, now, be nice!"
After the game, I clung to my friend's wife so that I wouldn't get lost in the crowd [and torn apart by SC fans]. We returned to their car, where her husband thought it would be funny to hold the aforementioned "If you can't beat us..." shirt in front of me for a picture. I grabbed the shirt, and as he and AC tried to hold it in front of me, I clawed at them, scratched the back of AC's neck, and bit my friend [even breaking skin!]. There was NO WAY I'd get that thing near me.
That night, AC passed out, and I rubbed my ND facepaint onto his cheeks:
Needless to say, the drive home was a long one, especially when AC proudly pointed me out at Starbucks to another SC fan--he and two other guys looked at me while he said "Yep, she's a little disappointed today." As one of them walked past our car, smiling, I flipped off him and his saggy-boobed wife.
So the bet was this: if SC won, I'd eat meat whenever we go out for the next year. If ND won, then AC would eat no meat whenever we went out for the next year. I took the bet in stride, and ordered chicken at our Burger King pit stop.
I think AC feels bad, because he's been modifying the bet by saying that it's only when we have planned dinner outings, like dates, not on occasions where we are so hungry after work that we eat out instead of at home. But I'm not taking any chances. Crazy, maybe, but a die-hard Irish fan I am.
Friday, I was in the City by 8:30AM. Mom and I headed downtown to catch the Adidas sale, which ended at 9:30AM. Afterwards, we hit Nordstrom and Macy*s. [Note to white women: "bling bling" is SO outdated. You should be punched every time you utter those words. It's like nails on a chalkboard.]
After dropping my mom off around 1:30, I headed home, packed, got an oil change, and headed south at 3:07PM. AC had kindy gotten me a ticket to the ND-USC game via craigslist! A solo road trip is very interesting, mainly because you have to amuse yourself. I sang along to whatever I wanted to; saw cows that were colored like cop cars at 5:02PM; and found a radio station that called itself "one-oh-sexy-point-three." I tried to drive non-stop but had to heed nature's call at the foot of the Grapevine at 7:45PM, crossing the LA County line at 8:07PM. I stopped for gas a few minutes later and was shocked to find myself in 36 degree weather! I hopped back on the road, eager to finish the last stretch. Alas, I dropped my damn phone while I was listening to iTunes, so I had to pull over in Castaic. I finally made it to Pico Rivera [where AC's sister lives] at 9:23PM.
The next morning, we were up by 6AM and at USC by 8:30. We parked and headed to ESPN Gameday's booth.
We found Krypto and hung out with him and his friends till our other friends showed up. [Got that?] It was very awkward, because Krypto's friends were very cold towards us. AC had met them before, and they didn't even say hi. He tried to say hi and they acted like they didn't see him. He'd warned me that they had made some comment loudly to Krypto about AC and the other friends eating their food. At the beginning of the season, they even had a talk with Krypto and told him they found some of his behaviour unacceptable last season! Why he continues to hang out with them is beyond us.Anyway, I was really surprised by the tailgate areas at SC: basically, any open area that has a hint of grass is open!
People tailgated in front of Engineering buildings as well as on a grassy strip of sidewalk near the Museum of Natural History's parking lot! The upside to this is that you can usually use the building's bathroom. This is the building whose facilities we visited:
Nice, eh?Our other friends arrived, so we unloaded our car to tailgate with them, even though we had to cut through campus and cross the street. They had set up camp directly across the sidewalk from Notre Dame fans, so I was happy.
We'd heard that there was a Notre Dame tent set up with merchandise for sale, and luckily, the people who'd told us about it found us and led us to Irishfest. For $5, you gained a rally towel and access to an area primarily for ND fans, with a big tent o' merchandise, and beer & In-N-Out booths! Even the portapotties were blue:
Once we'd done some damage at the merch tent, we went back to our friends, who proudly showed me their purchase from the SC store. It was a red t-shirt with the Irish mascot, except his fists were the stupid two-fingered Victory sign and text that read, "If you can't beat us, join us!"
AC grilled some meat, which attracted the usual admiration and "that smells good!" [and, according to him, some little blonde SC fanwhore smiling and saying "Mmm, yummy!"]. Note how he's tenderly holding the 'tilla package:
I made myself a rum & coke, but should have eaten something first. The buzz hit me as soon as I stood up. That's when I noticed the ND cheerleaders and mascot had arrived, so I followed them back to Irishfest for the rally. I also got my face painted for a charitable donation to Hannah & Friends.
There were tons of creative signs and shirts, many referencing SC's felon alumnus [OJ Simpson]. One t-shirt read, "Catholics have no need for Trojans." And far too many heavy girls wore tight t-shirts that read "Got Booty?" [The SC quarterback is John David Booty.]
Finally, at 4:40PM, we got ready to enter the Coliseum. AC made sure that I sat with our friends so that I wouldn't be harassed too badly.
I quickly learned that SC fans are WORSE than my fellow Raider fans. That made it even harder for me to contain myself.As we entered our row, people started booing me, and one guy actually pushed me [though not too hard]. Someone yelled, "Rudy was a Hollywood myth! He never existed!" Luckily, shortly after we sat down, attention was focused on a drunk girl who puked in the row in front of us. She was led out by her friend, but the people entering the same row were unaware they were stepping in puke...
There were a few other ND fans around us, and knowing that my mouth can get me in trouble, I lay low. Unfortunately, there was one guy who didn't know when to shut up. For starters, he was wearing a Celtics Larry Bird jersey. He was scrawny and wore glasses. I don't know what he was yelling, but the SC fans behind me kept saying "Shut up Larry Bird!" For whatever reason, he lifted the jersey to reveal a New England Patriots t-shirt, to which people started yelling, "Oh, a big sports fan! What a doofus! Siddown, four eyes!" And then he was called faggot several times, which really pissed me off, but I didn't say anything. I focused on being friendly to the fat, old, SC wetty fans next to me. They were telling me to "convert now!" to save my soul before kick-off. I'll spare you the gory details of the game, but the older white guy in front of me tried to high-5 me when SC scored and I flipped him off. Later, he said something else about Jesus [I am thinking it was in reference to Touchdown Jesus], to which I angrily said, "There is no Jesus." By halftime, things weren't looking good, and my friend asked why I made the bet with AC [details at the end of post]. I said, "To prove my faith in the Irish!" He said, "For faith I go to church!" To which I retorted, "There's no god!" Man, it's a miracle that lightning didn't strike me down at that game.
I took a photo of this little Domer at the concession stand during halftime:
I yelled profane word after profane word at the top of my lungs as the Irish let me down. By the end of the game, when the score was 44-24, the white guy in front of me again said something else. I was seething at this point, so as my friend leaned down to hug me in sympathy, I glared at the guy and said, "Fuck you, whitey." My friend hugged me tighter and whispered, "Be nice, now, be nice!"
After the game, I clung to my friend's wife so that I wouldn't get lost in the crowd [and torn apart by SC fans]. We returned to their car, where her husband thought it would be funny to hold the aforementioned "If you can't beat us..." shirt in front of me for a picture. I grabbed the shirt, and as he and AC tried to hold it in front of me, I clawed at them, scratched the back of AC's neck, and bit my friend [even breaking skin!]. There was NO WAY I'd get that thing near me.
That night, AC passed out, and I rubbed my ND facepaint onto his cheeks:
Needless to say, the drive home was a long one, especially when AC proudly pointed me out at Starbucks to another SC fan--he and two other guys looked at me while he said "Yep, she's a little disappointed today." As one of them walked past our car, smiling, I flipped off him and his saggy-boobed wife.
So the bet was this: if SC won, I'd eat meat whenever we go out for the next year. If ND won, then AC would eat no meat whenever we went out for the next year. I took the bet in stride, and ordered chicken at our Burger King pit stop.
I think AC feels bad, because he's been modifying the bet by saying that it's only when we have planned dinner outings, like dates, not on occasions where we are so hungry after work that we eat out instead of at home. But I'm not taking any chances. Crazy, maybe, but a die-hard Irish fan I am.
My Hero
Well, now I have two heroes: Oregon State and UCLA. Both teams beat USC this season, and the latter knocked USC out of the BCS Championship title game! I am so thrilled. FUSC!!!
Of course, that's even more so because of last week's pounding of Notre Dame. A post on that is to come, as I witnessed it starting with a tailgate at 9AM. I asked an SC fan if he'd rather lose to Notre Dame or UCLA, and he said, "Well, despite the fact that you can't really compare the two, I'd rather lose to Notre Dame."
Meanwhile, Stanford put up a good fight in The Big Game today. I was hoping they'd go all the way, but they fought hard. Here are some photos from the campus in preparation for the big game:
This is the fountain that's across from the Visitors Center.
This is across from the Bookstore. Note the bear impaled at the top. There was also red paint made to look as if the bear's blood was running down the sculpture.
Meyer Library:
This is the Arrillaga Alumni Center:
And finally, I took this shot as I waited for the shuttle Friday evening. It's of Hoover Tower, lit with a red light.
I passed a football player on campus during lunch one day, and he was wearing a large button that said "I Believe. Big Game 2006." Maybe next year, kid. It was also interesting to hear people asking, "Why is the fountain pink?" I forget that not everyone follows football, much less big rivalries.
Of course, that's even more so because of last week's pounding of Notre Dame. A post on that is to come, as I witnessed it starting with a tailgate at 9AM. I asked an SC fan if he'd rather lose to Notre Dame or UCLA, and he said, "Well, despite the fact that you can't really compare the two, I'd rather lose to Notre Dame."
Meanwhile, Stanford put up a good fight in The Big Game today. I was hoping they'd go all the way, but they fought hard. Here are some photos from the campus in preparation for the big game:
This is the fountain that's across from the Visitors Center.
This is across from the Bookstore. Note the bear impaled at the top. There was also red paint made to look as if the bear's blood was running down the sculpture.Meyer Library:
This is the Arrillaga Alumni Center:
And finally, I took this shot as I waited for the shuttle Friday evening. It's of Hoover Tower, lit with a red light.
I passed a football player on campus during lunch one day, and he was wearing a large button that said "I Believe. Big Game 2006." Maybe next year, kid. It was also interesting to hear people asking, "Why is the fountain pink?" I forget that not everyone follows football, much less big rivalries.
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