Severe hit to the wallet

I just bought airline tickets to Hawaii for Thanksgiving. It was a fairly painful experience, as they cost roughly the same amount as my tickets to China (for half the distance and no free drinks since the flight isn't international!). All to be expected when traveling anywhere good for the holidays, I suppose. I was looking for the cheapest tickets available, so the flights are also with slightly sketchy airlines I found on Orbitz. I don't understand the airline industry at all, because odds are that my flight will be cancelled or delayed regardless of the fact that I spent a ton of money. And it won't matter. They might apologize, but probably not. Orbitz does make it a little bit better because they will call your cell phone in advance if the airline reports a cancellation or delay. I've already been on three flights that were cancelled this year. All different airlines. Only Orbitz called.

I may have extra bad luck when it comes to cancellations and delays. I am never on a flight that takes off and lands on time. Never. Dave won't fly with me because of it... or so I suspect. My coworkers also try to avoid it. Maybe it's a karmic thing? Hard to imagine having racked up worse karma than the airlines, though. I've never spit on anyone or kicked a pigeon.

LinkedIn is pretty awesome

I spent some time adjusting my profile today, and realized that they have really put some serious thought into how to make that site super useful. The job search and job listings are especially impressive since they are listed with specific contacts at the company and info about how exactly you are networked to that person. It's also a great resource for professional stalking, which I have to do a lot of at work. It's a step above any other networking site I've used.

Does anyone pay for the upgraded service? I'm wondering what extra bells and whistles it comes with, and whether or not it's worth $20 a month.

Send an email instead

Sometime over the last six months I have developed a slight phobia related to checking my voicemail. I hate checking my voicemail and will put it off for completely unacceptable amounts of time... days... occasionally weeks. Is it possible that in my late twenties I have acquired an entirely new social disorder?

This problem definitely started with my work voicemail, which is understandable since usually the messages waiting there for me are from someone who either makes me nervous, who I don't want to talk to, who have to say no to, or are in regard to some complicated matter that I'm not sure what to do about. Probably only 10% of the calls that come into me at work are from someone I'm excited to talk to, and because of the caller ID I pick those up, so there's no voicemail from them. Unfortunately, the phobia has now also spread to my personal voicemail. I absolutely dread checking any of it. I'm not sure why -- pretty much everyone who calls me on my personal number is someone I actually want to talk to.

Hopefully, this is a temporary phase and admitting I have a problem is the first step to recovery. Maybe I need to attack this on a behavior modification level and have everyone call and start leaving extremely positive, reinforcing messages, so I get excited about checking voicemail rather than apprehensive.

Pretty China pics

One of the guys on my China trip was a skilled photographer. He posted all of his shots here, in case you're interested in checking them out. They're kinda artsy and more interesting to look at than the usual standing-in-front-of-a-monument vacation photos.

Here's a sample:



I don't know how he got that shot, since we were banned from taking photos in that temple. Tricky guy. That buddha was about five stories tall and carved from one solid piece of sandalwood. Or maybe this was the one in the temple before that one? There were a lot of them. It's like the duomos in Tuscany. You've seen one...

It's over

Last night it was pointed out to me that Mercury is no longer in retrograde.

Knocked Up

I went to go see that Katherine Heigl/Seth Rogen movie yesterday and was pretty disappointed. Parts of it were funny, but the reviews had made it sound like it was going to be peeing-my-pants funny. It was more just a chuckle-here-and-there-and-now-I-am-for-sure-never-getting-pregnant funny. In fact, I was a little upset and grossed out when I left the movie theater. Not a lot, just enough that I wouldn't say I really enjoyed it. I still love both Katherine Heigl and Seth Rogen, though.

A tip

There should be a rule about no in-depth discussion of allergies on first dates. If you're a dude, it just makes you sound like a weenie. You have to be sure a lady is fairly smitten with you before you draw attention to any major flaw or weakness. Food allergies being a huge weakness, if you ask me. Nothing more high maintenance than a dude with food allergies.

If you can't eat cheese, then don't order cheese. Just don't talk about it. We don't want to think about your bowels coping with milk enzymes. Same for any problems involving a lot of snot. Not sexy.

Ugh

I have been hating life all week. Everything is going wrong and everyone is driving me crazy. There are four possible reasons for this:

A) PMS
B) Mercury in retrograde
C) Post-vacation blues
D) All of the above

I hope it ends soon, because I'm so pissy to be around that I'm annoying even myself.

I'll throw the panda shots up, too

There was SO much panda hype in Beijing, obviously, and I was pretty amped up about seeing the actual panda bears. I must say, they could not have been more disappointing. They all seemed to be suffering hangovers... passed out pandas. See for yourself:

Oh, and some zip line shots...

I've gotten lazy about posting any photos.

On the bus

This is the ride to the Great Wall, on my birthday. Really good way to celebrate a birthday, by the way.

An abridged email from Sally

Sent while I was traveling...

"Mom has been watching the news and wants to know if you were one of the 76 people who died in some floods they had in the Southern China. Dad and I tried to explain to her that there are about 1.3 billion people in China, so the likelihood that you were one of 76 who died in a flood is probably not very good. Anyway. She'll be glad to hear from you.

I have attached some photos from Dad's and my trip to So Cal. Pretty exciting. Despite the fact that it was 115 degrees there one day we had a great time. I like the desert. I brought home some cacti. Funny how they will let you on the plane with some really sharp plants, but I can't take my eyelash curler on board."

I want my long weekend

I'm going to go on record as saying that having Independence Day on a Wednesday is about the dumbest thing ever. As someone who has already managed to rack up a vacation-day deficit in less than a year of employment, I am incredibly bitter about being cheated out of a three-day weekend. It should be in the constitution that we have the right to a long weekend during the first week of July.

Speaking of three day weekends, I bought three plane tickets to Portland this afternoon. Yes, it's finally been arranged -- I'm taking the boys home to meet my parents. Both Dave and Sam. I must admit, I've taken a few boyfriends home to meet the parents before, and for some reason taking a kid too makes the whole thing a lot less nerve wracking and a lot more amusing. You wouldn't think it, but it's true.

Claim your shirt

Sometime back in May, Dave found a Banana Republic bag in his car. The bag has a brand new, extra small blouse in it, with the sales receipt. It was purchased with a debit card, but the receipt in the bag doesn’t list a name. After running through a list of everyone who has been in the car, neither one of us can figure out who it belongs to. No one will claim it. The other thing is, I really can’t picture anyone I know wearing it. It’s sort of a purple leopard print-esque pattern, but a very conservative, almost masculine cut.

The bag has been sitting on my dresser for weeks now, and I don’t know what to do with it. The shirt fits me, but I’d never wear it.

Overheard

A dude to his friend (also a dude), while sitting in a Noe Valley bagelry:

"So... I guess if we move here, one of us is going to have to get pregnant."