So I am calling out to the 3 people that read my blog for help for a gift $15-$20 for a male co-worker that I do not know anything about. Anyone have any ideas? Just a gender neutral gift that might work. I thought about wine but I'm not sure if he likes wine or booze.....

I might have to ask his cubicle mate for some suggestions but thought someone out there may have had this problem before and come up with a solution. Any and all ideas are welcome. Ughh...I need to get this by Friday. Why am I going to the Christmas party again?

I recently started re-subscribing to Daily Candy and within the first few days I realized the reason I stopped. They keep showing me things I want that are out of my price range.

The other day they pointed out these wonderful bags by S Stein and they are exactly what I'm looking for. They've got millions of pockets and are made to be durable and long lasting and you can choose the color combination you want. While I admire many of the designer purses, I can never bring myself to even consider buying one due to 1. the price and 2. the fact that I beat up purses. My current seatbelt purses have only withstood the test of time because they are made of such durable material.

So now I've been spending too much time staring longingly at these purses deciding which design I like best and if I can bring myself to pay for one. I mean I could save up for it and buy it in a few months but do I really want to. Can I really be ok with spending what I find to be a little much for a purse. (in relation to designer purses these ones are not SO expensive, but more than I normally pay.)

For those interested I want the toolbag or the studio tote. I'm kinda leaning in the direction of the studio tote as it would be good for all the stuff I cart to and from work as well as for errand running in such when I find that my bag is overflowing with things like books, note pads, scarves, hats, etc.

So I'll just be over here, ogling a purse and cursing my salary.

Well I finally got my act together and made Garren take pictures. I posted them this afternoon around 1:15pm and as of 5:05pm they all been claimed. By tomorrow afternoon they will all be gone! There will be space in my hallway! And I will not be the annoying neighbor storing things in the carport (not that they were my things)!

Drunk on my power I tell you!

So finally the economic downturn has set its sights on me. With the hotel not doing as well as it had been expected at beget time last year due to the sudden wave of stock market suckiness, here at work we are being "encouraged" to use our vacation. While normally I wouldn't mind this, as any excuse to take some days off and go on an adventure would be welcome, other stock market suckiness shock waves are being felt by my better half.

Garren is being told that he will have to go down to a 4 day work week which he can either supplement with his vacation or go with the 5th day unpaid. This basically makes for the disappearance of our previously planned trip to Chicago as any extra use of vacation time is just not possible. It also means that we are both going to be wiped out of vacation time that we may not be able to accrue in time for a trip to Europe or anywhere else next year.

So basically I'm saddled with being told to take 6 days off before the end of the year and with no plans to go anywhere. I don't want to take them off all together as it will be too depressing sitting around the house doing nothing for a week so I think I might go down to a 4 day work week myself till the end of the year. While this is a nice thought, not being able to use my vacation time the way I would like is disappointing.

So I'm going to just go sit in the corner over here and watch my dreams of an actual vacation with Garren go down the toilet with the stock market. Boo bad economy! Boo!

I came in to work today at 5am to help with a systems upgrade, which I was happy to do, but I think I got about 3 hours of sleep and my head feels like it's about to fall off my neck.

Compounded with the head fatigue is the fact that it is slow today and they only thing I really have to do is work on SOPs (Standard Operating Proceudres). And let me tell you that is as fun as it sounds. I have always hated creating SOPs and now even more so that I have a set template which doesn't jive with how I normally process my SOPs. So not only do I have to figure out a way to fit the information in this new format but add the additional information required and also organize it in a comprehensive fashion.

So really this is all making my head hurt more. So I find myself distracting myself from these horrific SOPs after typing for five minutes just so I don't bang my head against something.

Never fear though. With this blog I've managed to waste at least 10 minutes and I've only got another 20 minutes or so until I can leave for the day, head home and take a blessed nap.

Anyone with any time bending powers, now would be a great time to press fast forward.

1. Any time "The Duke" (aka Mr. Fiennes) walked into the room we would scream JACKASS and take a drink.
2. Any time Bess walked into the room we would scream HUSSY
3. Any time Lord Gray was on screen we would scream LOVER and take a shot

These three things would make things a lot more lively and our inevitable drunken state would help make the movie a lot more cheery. Don't get me wrong. I did enjoy the movie. The actors were wonderful, but if the movie portrayed even a fraction of the truth of her life, man that sucks and I'm glad that women today have a lot more choices and rights.

Yea Votes for Women!

Want to know the saddest thing?

I get a thrill everytime I arrive at BART just as my train is arriving. It's awesome. There is nothing like realizing that you have arrived at the perfect time and that there will be no delay in your trip home.

Alternately it is just as frustrating to realize you have just missed your train and now have to wait 12 minutes for the next one. I usually curse the slow person in front of me who would not move more quickly down the stairs.

Oh the joys of commuting on BART.

"Not me", I thought "I am forewarned and prepared." And I was. I was very careful whenever using the stairs making sure that the latch could be turned from both the inside and outside of the door.

So much for my being careful. A week or two ago on a Friday it had been a busy day. There were only two of us in the reservations office and so I had come in at 8:00am and by 7:30pm I was still trying to get out the door. I finally was able to and walked towards the elevators tired and drained but happy to be making my way to BART finally.

I pressed the button to call the elevator to go down. My mind drifted thinking of things I would need to do when I got home and over the weekend. All of a sudden I realized that a few minutes had gone by and normally it takes less than a minute for the elevator to come. I looked at the call button and it was unlit....but no elevator had arrived. I pressed it again and saw that it would not stay lit. I tried to call the elevator to go up, same problem.

So at this point, I'm tired and starting to get cranky as I just want to head home. I could go to the hotel elevators and get down that way but as a good trained employee I hate doing that as it disrupts the guest service. So I think, I'm only 4 flights up, I'll take the stairs.....oh foolish foolish Nuala. Had you not heard the horror stories.

I even made sure that when the door closed behind me that I would still be able to open the latch well even with that careful though once the door to the stairwell closed I was stuck. I immediately tried to open it and was denied. With a heavy sigh I decided to head down the stairs and find a way out. When I got to the bottom all of the outer doors were locked and the only doors that probably were open would sound the alarm upon opening.

I walked back up a couple of flights to check the rest of the doors and then scrambled for my phone. If I had not had any reception I would have said screw this and I would have opened the door and sounded the alarm. No way was a I staying in the innards of the building over night let alone the weekend.

So I calmly called security and let them know what happened. I could pretty much hear them laughing at me. 15 minutes later someone finally showed up to let me out and took me down so I could thankfully get out of the building a mere 45 minutes after I actually finished work.

When asked why I took the stairs I explained that the call button had not been working and how I thought I was doing something easy by taking the stairs. Apparently stairs are only for emergencies in this day and age.

So lesson learned be lazy and wait for the elevator to start working next time something like this happens. Do not attempt to get yourself out of the building under your own power the gods of the building do not want you in the stairwells.

It's been freeing and limiting all at the same time. To not feel like a slave to the computer and really be away from one when not at work has been great, but not having the convenience to look up a fact, a movie time, a recipe or to settle a dispute between myself and Garren has been frustrating to say the least.

I just found out that AT&T has basic internet service (the slowest kind apparently, but a step up from dial up) for $19.95 per month. This is way more feasible than the $40 Comcast charges so I have slowly been mentioning it to Garren casually so that eventually the idea does not sound so new and expensive but regular and reasonable. So far it has not worked and I continue to make my sporatic weekend visits to the coffee shops on College Ave to do any misc internet errands. This is not as convenient as sitting in front of the TV in my pjs but it works for now. Maybe I need to show how much we are spending on coffee to get internet to make getting internet at home sound fiscally responsible….Anyone buying that?

Until I prevail and have internet at home, I am going to try to and work posting into my weekend coffee shop trips as I have many saved blogs to type. My sister with her insane amounts of interesting French life blogs has inspired me. Mine will not be as exciting but will make me feel better….maybe. I’m still not in France damnit, but at least I can pretend my life is interesting. Or maybe I should just celebrate the fact that it is boring….

More to come soon….as long as I can pull my butt out of the apartment on the weekends.

And then...then I have to find a job. Which seems so daunting and impossible right now being so far away and having no one call me after sending them my resume. I'm going to have to walk into Human Resource Departments, fill out applications and sell myself (I know it sounds dirty....it sometimes feels dirty).

But once these things are settled: moving, finding a job, finding a permanent apartment I think I will be ok, but right now I just don't want to think about it. Don't want to pack, don't want to say goodbye, don't want to move.

sigh. Can I just skip over this part and get to next month now.

ELF GARREN

We were planning on early February to give us some time after the holidays. Some breathing room. Then our roommate let us know that she was moving home in early January so then the decision became do we get another roommate and put off the move or do we bite the big one and just move up the date.

Well we moved up the date. I gave our notice to the landlord this past weekend and I'm giving notice to work on Friday. OMG! I'm sure your questions are, "Do they have jobs? A place to live? Any plan what so ever?". My answers are no, kinda and not really.

We've been applying, but everyone is looking for someone to start ASAP that I think they can't be bothered with people relocating from Santa Barbara. I'm hoping we'll have more luck once we're in the area. Mom has been great enough to offer up her 2nd bedroom to me and Garren and the two cats until we get settled with a job and can look for a place. Bay Area commute here I come!

So really the plan at this point is to 1. give notice at work 2. start packing 3. have a nice xmas and new years in SB 3. move the 1st weekend of January 4. find job or temp work until I can find a job and 5. find a decent place to live.

So on top of all the logistical aspects of moving there is the worry of what if I can't find a job? What if we can't find an affordable place near any job I can find? What if I still don't like living in the Bay Area? What if I don't like what I'm doing? What if I'm just miserable.

But then there is also mom, ady, erik, kristen, michele and other people I left when I moved that I will be happy to be close to again. I mean the though alone of being able to see dumb movies with michele so that I have someone else to giggle with is so great! Also to be able to go to dinner with friends who for the past 4.5 years I've only seen 2 times a year is also wonderful.

I mean this could all be good and great and the best thing ever, but until the cats, Garren and I are settled, I'm going to continue to freak out.

Some of my observations from the show include:

1. Do not rave to Dave. Really. There was some guy with glow sticks doing raver moves. It just...NO
2. Dave loves his surprise guests. John Mayer decided to come out and play a song. (Garren's favorite DMB song of all time in fact). Just for fun.
3. John Mayer looks like he's having an orgasm when he plays guitar....It's kinda disturbing.
4. John Mayer walked past me after his appearance on stage as he was directed to his seat. I could have hit him. (I now count him among the few celebrities I've been close enough to cause physical harm to.)
5. Dave Matthews fans have to be some of the happiest fans ever. Everyone is so bouncy.
6. Best song of the night was Exodus which the band performed with Steven Marley. A-Freaking-Mazing.

side note - I wrote out this post earlier and it was much better, but the computer decided to close my application and all of it was lost...sigh. Why is you can never remember what you originally wrote and are convinced it was so much better...