A day in the life.

Wednesday. 6:30am. Woken by an abrupt projectile pillow to the face.
7:45am. Missed the shuttle.
8:00am. Made the shuttle.
8:15am. Arrived at work to be called to a breakfast meeting with my boss, who informs me that the project we've been slaving away at for a month has encountered a "major scientific hiccup" and must be essentially rewritten in two days.
8:30am. Scrambled and stressed for hours.
2:37pm. Told off for talking to Aya about the opera. We both do this o_O and all laugh.
5:32pm. Receive yet another weird and wonderful package from odd finance manager, this time stuffed with a million different sachets of tea. I'll take it.
6:25pm. Catch shuttle the hell outta there.
6:40pm. Board BART to Richmond.
7:15pm. Arrive in Berkeley, get burger on the way to the DC. Informed at this point that the flat has secured a virtual treasure trove of Encyclopedia Browns. Rejoice aloud on the street, questioned by a vagrant, move on.
7:30pm. Arrive at the DC, which is in end-of-cycle-esque chaos. And it's Sept. 24. Do the robot, learn about the FAIL blog from Skyler, play with hermit crabs.
8:00pm. Start working. Disasters abound. News loud and obnoxious. No photos to be had. New methods for all my work but no training for me because I can figure it out.
9:30pm. Can't figure it out. Call chain of command. Chain of command AWOL.
11:23pm. Reporters also AWOL. No one to answer questions. Dance break in the newsroom. Matt swings baseball bat dangerously close to head.
Thursday. 12:25am. Start putting paper to bed.
12:31am. Matt asks for quick glance at column to check if anything is "well, you know, libelous."
12:40am. Whole column is libel. Paper pulled back, fuming fuming, Jo swings baseball bat dangerously close to Matt's head.
12:57am. Put paper to bed.
1:03am. Jo and Laura make five year plan. Year of work for Jo, year of school for Laura, year in Senegal for both, brush up on french, then admittance into LSE/Sciences Po joint Masters in Economic Development and Economic History, one year in Paris, one year in London, rest of life in London/New York with Economist.
2:00am. Put online to bed.
2:06am. Laura leaves. Matt and Sam work. Jo loafs.
4:00am. Good morning to Philly component of team Encyclopedia Brown.
5:17am. Goodbye to Sam and Matt, trudge to BART. Sky black.
5:40am. Board BART for San Francisco.
6:13am. Lose phone on BART floor. Enlist help of four strangers to crawl around on BART floor to locate phone.
6:15am. Locate phone in purse. Scuttle shamefacedly off train at Montgomery.
6:30am. Read Onion, laugh myself to tears in sleepy funny delirium, guy across from me in Starbucks does this o_O, laugh more.
7:00am. Curl up for 17 minutes of blissful sleep in big purple chair in Montgomery Starbucks.
7:17am. Emerge from Starbucks fully rested and walk down Market Street to the Embarcadero, alternating between whistling, humming, and fully singing Paper Moon.
8:06am. Arrive at work. Back to earth. Repeat.

Thank. You.

I appreciate Lisa and Ashley right now, because in their own crazy and different ways, they're not afraid to come out and say it, whatever it may be!

For now, though, I have nothing to say, so I'll let Augie speak for me. A tribute to my top fives, a romp in punctuation and proudly owned contradictions, here's my number one introduction of all time:

"I am an American, Chicago born - Chicago, that somber city - and go at things as I have taught myself, freestyle, and will make the record in my own way: first to knock, first admitted; sometimes an innocent knock, sometimes a not so innocent. But a man's character is his fate, says Heraclitus, and in the end there isn't any way to disguise the nature of the knocks by acoustical work on the door or gloving the knuckles."

Got 300 spare hours and a life that needs changing? Read it.

Si je t'aime, prends garde à toi!

L'amour est enfant de Bohême,
il n'a jamais, jamais connu de loi,
si tu ne m'aimes pas, je t'aime,
si je t'aime, prends garde à toi!



Office #3

And Out

Nothing like the feeling you get when you know your boss is hurtling away from you in a shuttle at breakneck speeds (max 25mph).

My discussion with Mike yesterday has my top-fives swirling around in my head in true High Fidelity fashion. Why are we so naturally inclined to shout from the rooftops the five things we like best in a mish-mash of mundane categories? Whatever the reason, here's me on the ledge:

Movies:
1. Moonstruck, no bones about it, my one and only unequivocal #1
2. Love Actually (I know I know I know I know I know)
3. Good Will Hunting
4. Some Like It Hot
5. A Fish Called Wanda

Books(/Plays):
1. The Adventures of Augie March
2. A Tale of Two Cities
3. Ross
4. The Fountainhead
5. The Catcher in the Rye

Characters from Books:
1. Rob from High Fidelity
2. Augie March
3. Bridget Jones
4. David Copperfield
5. Helena from Midsummer Night's Dream

Songs:
1. Happiness is a Warm Gun by the Beatles
2. The Way You Look Tonight by Tony Bennett
3. In An Aeroplane Over the Sea by Neutral Milk Hotel
4. Kodachrome by Paul Simon
5. Weird Science by Oingo Boingo

People at the DC:
1. Skyler
2. Ashley
3. Laura Nightly
4. Bryan
5. Nathan!

Sounds:
1. The cello-trumpet combo early mornings at 16th Street BART
2. Long strong nails clicking on a surface
3. Anderson Cooper's voice
4. The door to the house from the garage swinging shut at home
5. Andi making a sound that sounds like "humph"

Words in any language:
1. Jovenes
2. Bally-hoo
3. Nary
4. Reticent
5. November

I hate it when people make song lyrics an entire post. Does anyone actually go through the whole post and read the lyrics? I sure as hell don't. They are cheap freebie posts to me. So, um, sorry I guess:

Honey you are a rock,
Upon which I stand,
And I come here to talk,
I hope you understand.

That green eyes, the spotlight shines upon you,
And how could anybody deny you?

I came here with a load
And it feels so much lighter now I’ve met you,
And honey you should know, that I could never go on without you.

Green eyes...

Honey you are the sea
Upon which I float
And I came here to talk
I think you should know.

That green eyes, you’re the one that I wanted to find
And anyone who tried to deny you must be out of their mind.

Cause I came here with a load
And it feels so much lighter, since I met you
Honey you should know, that I could never go on without you.

Green eyes...
Green eyes.

Are there any other songs out there for us greenies? And is it just me, or are the blue-eyed among us disproportionately represented?

Piccies from the Phone

Emergency Choc.



Frida.



Crabby. Teddy Roosevelt.



Llamas and Bryan.



Flatatatat



Office #1



Office #2



Slow Food



September High Tea (I say September because High Tea is now a monthly ritual of the Finer Things Club).



Outside of having sex with men, the Finer Things Club is the gayest thing I do.



Slow Food Nation 2008



Me and Hughes on Tightwad Hill.

Bingo.

Someone told me recently that it sounds like I'm holding back in my blog, like I'm more timid and reserved here than I am in real life.

Here's me, wishing that were true. Instead, this one's the real me. Timid, reserved, trite, swayed by popular opinion, generally and decidedly ambiguous. The other one's an actress. And kind of a jackass.

Not exactly the affirming post I wish I could write tonight.