I'm Better

Just a quick update...

1. I'm not sick anymore. I was cured...by what, I don't know. Maybe it was just time.
2. Anonymous must be one of my "friends" and so I changed my damned blog name for NOTHING! (I'm more angry about that then anything else)
3. I'm so sick and tired of calculas that I want to DIE. Or cry. No, die.
4. I'm going up to Irvine to meet my friend ThaiTan for dinner and I'm super excited! Except that the drive will be long and in traffic, but it should be worth it.
5. Only 16 days until I see my sweetie again!

Be ready for a fun post...it might be tomorrow or Friday...but it will be fun.

A Day at Home

I stayed home sick today because my stomach is killing me. It hurts so badly I want to curl up and just cry, but instead I just keep sleeping and sipping 7Up. I've been awake for a little bit, for some tv and nice "get better" phone calls from Mircea, and I've discovered a lot about day time tv. First of all, its produced for idiots. There are tons of commercials for "money now" loans, etc., and sometimes it just makes me sad. But let's get into the real point of this post, the tv that I watched today.

Let's start with the Price is Right. First of all, how ridiculous are these people? Ok, I'm just being mean, because I would love to be on the PiR. The first person that played a game had to put 5 numbers with the prices in 5 different items. She got one right the first time, but managed to make changes to all of them on the second round (duh!) and then ended up winning a $27 turd. We also can't forget the extremely flamboyant and heavyset man who had everyone sign his t-shirt while they were in line. Well, he wanted to give this shirt to Bob. "Bob, I want to give you the shirt off my back". And did he ever. It was very uncomfortable for everyone. The heavyset man was trying to keep his other shirt down over this belly and Bob was like "please don't make me touch this sweaty item". It was a nice gesture but a little gross. Those were just some highlights.

Then I watched Family Feud. Oh Ray Combs, I miss you. I even miss Louie Anderson. On the Feud we had the Millers and the Piliski's. The Millers were this total whitebread family with the one daughter who managed to screw it up for them every single time she ever got to answer a question. The Piliski's were even better. This wonderful Indian family had several issues. 1.) They were all women who had no concept of a support bra. 2.) They were shouters! They kept waking me up (no, I wasn't going to turn off the tv) and 3.) They had the most insane answers for things. I've also discovered that the key to losing Family Feud is to FORGET THE QUESTION. They all seemed to forget the question. The last question I remember was "Name something you tell your children to finish". I think the people thought the question was "Name something you tell your children repeatedly," as people kept suggesting things like "Knock it off" "Come here" "Don't hit your sister". It was crazy!

Now onto a postive note. I watched M.A.S.H. today. This is the second time I've ever seen it, EVER. That show is amazing. I love it. I love love love love love it. I've always liked the theme song (Suicide is Painless) which Stewie hauntingly performed on Family Guy. This show is just great and I'm wondering if I'm going to start watching the dvds or just get lucky enough to catch it every once in awhile on tv. There are only 11 seasons to catch up on! I'm not sure I can be that sedentary. Who am I kidding? Ok, its time to take another nap. I had to cancel my personal training appointment but hopefully I'll get rescheduled ASAP.

Time for Some Housecleaning

I had a pretty nasty comment posted on Friday's blog. It really hurt my feelings and it brought a rush of guilt and pain back, not something that I need right now. My hurt over the post touched my current relationship and after a long talk, some tears, and some hugs, I've decided to make some changes.

I'm pretty sure everyone can clearly see that I took the link to Marc's blog off of here. Not sure if anyone visited it, it was definitely fun, but I'll put one last link on this post so that if you want to bookmark it for yourself you can certainly do so. He hasn't done anything to me, but it is time to really detach myself from him as well as detach myself from his family, whom only seems out to hurt me.

As the comment says, my next "victim" Mircea and I had a very nice visit. On Friday we went out for some wine and then for some sushi. On Saturday we got up early and took a walk on the beach and looked for sand dollars and just enjoyed the beautiful San Diego weather. When had some yummy lox bagels and then drove up to La Jolla to kayak in the ocean, which was just awesome. We were in a tandem kayak and we both got totally drenched. It was awesome!! Then we came back to the hotel after picking up some fish tacos and just stayed in and watched some movies. Taking him back this morning was the hardest thing I've done in awhile. I'd cried so many unnecessary tears last night (over stupid people and then stupid me) that I didn't want to cry in front of him, but when he walked into the airport I started bawling my eyes out and couldn't stop until I was up in my hotel room again. I will see him in three weeks for his last San Diego visit and we have all kinds of fun things planned. We're going to go to Sea World and then tour the Midway, and then on Saturday night he has a "romantic surprise" for me, which I'm really looking forward to (he doesn't disappoint!) It will be another whirlwind trip, but its just great to see him and its great that we were able to work this out so we could keep seeing each other while I'm here. It is very comforting to know that my three months away didn't break our "so-very-new" relationship, and that makes me appreciate what we have even more. Ok, enough sappy stuff.

Hope everyone has a great week. I've got my first appointment with a personal trainer tomorrow and I'm really looking forward to it. I'm ready to get my body back into shape!

Missing Badge, Missing Teeth, Soup and My Inappropriate Outfit

This picture went around my office today. Nice catch on my sneeze-face!

Right before I left for San Diego I lost my precious blue badge, which is the way that most Pax River workers get on base and the way you unlock buildings. I have no idea what could have happened to it, but I have a feeling it has something to do with the Nazi-gym that I attend where Eva Braun checks the badges and won't let regulars through unless they present their badge (this is a new rule so no one had their badges the first couple weeks). So my blue badge wasn't in its normal place (buried in my purse) it was always out loose somewhere as I needed it for the gym. So I lost it. That's a pretty big deal as you can access base and buildings with it. I called the security office a couple of days ago (I know, I was lazy) to report it missing. Here's how the call went:

Me: I'd like to report my blue badge missing
Idiot on the telephone: You need to come in and fill out a report
Me: I'm sorry but I'm in San Diego, is there any way we can do this over the phone.
IotT: No, you need to fill out the form in person to report it lost.
Me: Well, I won't be able to do that until April and I'm a little nervous that someone can use it.
IotT: (clearly exasperated) Ma'am, it has your picture on it, no one can use it.
Me: (to myself: Yes, and if one of the guards ever looked at my picture in which I look like a moo cow they would ask me if I was actually the one in the picture.) What about the building access, you don't need to show it to anyone?
IotT: It has your picture on it.
Me: Yes, but when you walk up to a door and swipe your card the door doesn't recognize if the picture and the person are the same.
Dead silence
IotT: Well, it has your picture on it.
Me: Ok, thanks, I'll just call the buildings and have them remove me from the entry-list.

I wanted to scream! Sometimes we need to make exceptions. The best part is, when I get back I have to report it (and they put you under full interrogation) and then you have to wait 10 days until they reissue...OY!
_____
On Wednesday night I went to bed with a cough drop in my mouth. I do this a lot and oftentimes I wake up with the cough drop still intact on the roof of my mouth. Apparently I don't make a lot of saliva, whatever. I took two tylenol pm and went to bed. In the middle of the night I reached into my mouth and pulled out one of my teeth. I mean, I had to really yank hard to get this tooth out of my mouth and I rolled back over and happily fell asleep. When I woke up in the morning I started panicking. I was like "holy crap, I was so drugged up from the Tylenol that I pulled out a molar, oh lord oh lord) I looked over to my nightstand and there was a tooth sized piece of cough drop. Whew! I often wake up with my hands in my mouth trying to pull a tooth and I was scared that it had finally happened.
_____
This morning I had this conversation with my co-worker Carl.
Carl: Oh, I had this soup for dinner last night. It wasn't condensed...what the hell was the name of that?
Me: Progresso?
Carl: No, its like Prego or something. Prego?
Me: I think its Progresso. Prego is a spaghetti sauce.
Carl: Prego. No wait, isn't that a pasta sauce?
Me: Yes, I think Progresso is the soup that you had.
Carl: Silence
Me: Silence
Carl: Oh wait, I think that soup was Progresso and then he walked out the door.
_____
My boss walks into the office this morning and he's wearing khakis and a polo shirt. (He always wears ratty jeans.) We're all standing in the hall when he comes in and he says "Oh, i forgot to tell you to dress up for this meeting we're having this morning. " He looks at Rebecca, who is wearing a dressy top, jeans and heels and says "You look fine" and then looks at me and says "I guess you're ok" and then walks away. I'm wearing khakis and a nice sweater. I mean, I'm picking Mircea up from the airport-this is as cute as I get!! When he left we all laughed so hard...and he wonders why he doesn't get any respect.

Happy Friday to Everyone! I'm looking forward to my weekend with Mircea here in town and I'm sure I'll have fun pictures and stories to tell. Tomorrow is kayaking in the sea caves and I can only imagine how it will turn out!

HELP!!

Ok, I need some help. I have a very sore throat today and I'd like it to be all cleared up by tomorrow. Any suggestions other than cutting out my own tonsils? (I tried that, it didn't work) Mircea is coming tomorrow and I have NEVER not been sick since we started dated. I was so healthy up until yesterday and now I'm on my death bed.

So I'm looking for sore throat remedies. Anything. I'll do any witch doctor remedy out there but I need help!!

Getting it Together

Last night was fun. I did the abs & buns class after work and although I wanted to die, it was pretty great. (And my abs are BURNING today, which makes me know that they are in there!) After class I talked to a guy that does free personal training there and although he seems like sort of a douchebag (he was nice to the very cute girls and sort of rude to me-I'm cute damnit!) I think he'll be great for me. At the very least he can help me get this show on the road.

I went home and had a very sensible dinner and talked to my sweetie-who will be here in two days! I'm so excited and I've got fun plans for us and yummy food for us to eat. After we hung up I had some popcorn and cereal, making me realize that night time is definitely my trouble time. I need to come up with something to get me out of the room from like 7-9 or keep busy or something. I may end up going back to the gym because the trainer says he usually works later than my 4:30 appointment. We'll see.

I miss my sweet little kitties. Marc has sent me pictures and told me lots of cat stories but I'm still missing those puffins like crazy. He sent me some pictures in the mail and I hung them at my desk so I have my little babies smiling at me all day. Ok, done being super lame. At least for now!

This Day is Not Going Very Well

So today sucks. It blows. It blows chunks, and monkey balls and goats. Ok, I'm done being crass, but I'm pretty pissy. Today was not so fun on the professional front with a possible career altering snafu (long story of miscommunication), my homework is driving me insane, and on my awesome Jared-esque walk to Subway to purchase the daily special of turkey and ham, I stepped in some goose poopie. I scraped it off, got to Subway to find that MONDAY is my turkey and ham day, and today is actually meatball sub (too many calories). So I paid full price for my sub, which is not something I'm a fan of doing when it costs a full $2 more in California for the same crappy sub. And who eats at Subway in San Diego unless its on sale? Many other options...damn damn damn.

So hopefully today will get a little better. I'm going to keep working on my homework, take the abs & buns class at the gym, hopefully hit the Farmer's Market for some treats for Mircea when he visits, and get a haircut. You know, maybe no on the haircut. My luck isn't going so well today. Haircut tomorrow!

I Shed a Tear ... of Happiness!!!

My precious Indianapolis Colts are going to the Super Bowl!! That had to be one of the most exciting games I've watched in a long time and although I fear I may have the stomach flu, I think it was the anticipation and anxiety of that game that made me feel that I could vomit at any time.


I'm not going to go into any game recaps-I'll leave those to people better equipped. There are some observations that I made though, that I'd like to share.

• Tom Brady may be pretty but he's still a bitchy little baby that needs a diaper change.


• Ditto for Bill Belichick. Don't you dare snub Peyton Manning. Don't you dare.

• Tony Dungy will share the honor of being the first African American football coach in the Super Bowl with Lovie Smith. I don't like making things a race issue, but I think there is a wonderful amount of pride and accomplishment there in a league where the winning coaches have historically been caucasian. Plus I love Tony Dungy. Damn I love him. This article has to be the best I've read on the whole thing.





• We have a good team this year, and Vinaterri just rounds it out nicely. Very nicely. I'm sorry that Edgerrin James can't be part of this Super Bowl team, but I love the team we have.


• Jeff Saturday and Dallas Clark maintain my personal MVP awards. And Jeff Saturday looks like my friend Ben-I don't care what anyone else says!

GO COLTS!!!

Getting Back on the Wagon

Well, actually, I don't want to rely on a wagon-my feet need to carry my chunky body around for a little while. Until its not chunky anymore.

I am back to fighting the battle of the bulge. Apparently (I must have read this somewhere) beer gives you a chubby belly and Romanian food isn't all that healthy. Well what the hell? I seem to be putting on weight exponentially and I'm not drinking beer nor am I partaking in any delicious schnitzel. I'm also not moving my fat ass all that much which is really killing me. I need to make these changes because I don't want to be a chunky monkey. I feel so much better about myself when I eat right and have an active lifestyle. I have been very stressed out with homework but I have to remember that food doesn't make my homework any easier. It doesn't even make sense, does it?

I know I made some personal goals just a few weeks ago, but I haven't been following them like I wanted to. I decided to make some more drastic choices and I signed up for three races in the next several weeks. At the very least I'll run 3 times in the next two months (I'm kidding!) I signed up for the following races: 5k Super Run , San Dieguito 5k & Half Marathon and St. Patrick's Day 10k. My running advisor figured I could probably run the 10k by St. Patty's day and I trust his opinion so its a go. I also started doing aerobics classes at the gym on base. They are only $2 a class for civilians (sure beats the $8 at home) so I took abs and buns yesterday (and they hurt!!) and I'll be doing classes every day during the week to get myself jump started back into shape. I know I need to start running again, its the reason I lost so much weight before, but I have such an aversion to it lately. I mean, I get heart burn and a headache just thinking about running...ridiculous!! I need to get over that b/c I'm still signed up for the marathon in October, so hopefully I can overcome my ridiculous fears and get back into shape.

Enough bitching. I'm going to go make my workout schedule and STICK TO IT! I want to look cute in a bathing suit...hell, I want to look decent in jeans and a t-shirt!

Mexico Pictures

No, They Aren't Marking Their Territory

Last night I had a very strange conversation with my boyfriend, Mircea. I was joking around with him that something wasn't real (long story) and he said something like "well, the Easter bunny is real, right?" and we laughed and then he started telling me the Romanian tradition of Easter. I could hardly believe my ears-this would never fly in the United States. Well, it might, but there will be a lot of black eyes to account for.

This is how he explained it to me.

"If I was participating in this tradition here, I would go to a girl friend's house, let's say Lainie, and I would spray her with perfume and wish her good luck for the year." (Yeah, right before Jose punches you in the nose!)

I said "Excuse me, what are you spraying on my friend?"

"We spray perfume on women we know to wish them good luck for the year."

"So, are you like, marking your territory? Do you spray them in the eyes?"

"No, we just spray them." (This clearly did not answer my question.)

"Let me get this straight. On Easter, you're going to drive around town, spraying my friends with perfume?" (I'm giggling now.)

Clearly pissed he says "No, we don't drive around."

"You're going to walk to all my friends houses?"

"I am not spraying your friends. I was being hypothetical!"

"So you're not spraying my friends? They aren't good enough for you?"

"Oh Lord, we just used to do this in Romania. Its mostly for the young people."

"Wait, so are you trying to get laid?" (Now I'm getting a little upset)

"Ok, no more conversation about this. I won't be doing this."

"Ok, good. Don't mark your territory with perfume. Where do you get this perfume? Does your girlfriend get the half empty bottle after your travels around town? This is crap. What do I get? Do you spray me?- YOU DON'T SPRAY ME! I DON'T GET GOOD LUCK!"

"We are not marking our territory, other boys will spray you, and you can have good luck."

"Can I drive you around to spray my friends this year?"

"No"

"Can I spray all the cute boys in town with nice cologne?"

"Does it matter what I answer?"

"No"

I was laughing so hard after this because he was getting so angry with me. I kept telling him I was going to go and mark my territory on Robyn's husband Andrew (whom he calls Andrea-ew) and he was getting pissed that I didn't appreciate his tradition. We then wondered how the hell we ever started talking about this, and traced it back to that Easter bunny conversation. It was so weird.

I found a couple of links that talk about the tradition...it sounds weird but it seems to make sense and its actually a pretty nice and sentimental tradition. But if I catch him spraying all my friends...

Customer Service Isn't Dead (Really, I Mean it)

Let me share my wonderful Tivo experience with you. As most of you know, I am currently staying on Coronado Island at the Navy Lodge on base. And yes, I was crazy enough to bring my Tivo because a) I paid for the service and b) I'm not sure that I could live without it. (Really, I might actually die if I have to watch a commericial. Try me!) Well, when I get to the Lodge, I realize that they have a private cable station, one that I can't program in to the Tivo. So I'm manually recording things, and believe me, I'm screwing it up at all possible instances. (I swear to you that Law & Order: SVU was supposed to be on Wednesday night and when I went to record it I ended up with Medium, which appeared to me to be a pretty lame show. What the hell? Editor's note: Apparently SVU is on Tuesday nights. I clearly need a machine that is smarter than me to record this stuff!) Enough about my idiocy. While I'm doing the guided setup there are instructions on whom to contact to enter a new cable station. I figured "why not?" and emailed them. They emailed me back within the day to ask me to send a copy of the station guide. I faxed this to them with a letter explaining that I was only there for three months but that I figured others might want this as well, that is, if they are psycho enough to bring their TIVO on travel with them. I get a call on my cell phone at the end of the Chargers-Patriots game and this very nice lady says "Ms Reed, this is Jennifer from Tivo. I just wanted to let you know we updated all your stations. You can just go ahead and run the setup again." I thanked her profusely and got off the phone just completely impressed. They set up a new cable station for a silly little girl who is on travel. That is just awesome.

So thank you Tivo, thank you.

Once Upon a Time in Mexico: Part I Getting There

Yesterday was an eventful day and I'll post pictures if Bill ever gets back from our friend Darby's house with his camera. (Bill is my friend from home who is visiting the area because he's considering a move out to the West coast and figured he might as well come out when he has a free place to stay.)

Bill and I started out the morning something like this.

Me: "So do you want to go to Mexico?"
Him: "Yeah, definitely if I can be home in time for surfing" (4:00 pm)
Me: "Ok, but I've been thinking that I want to park at the border and walk across so we don't have to get the car insurance stuff and wait in that long line."
Him: "Sounds fine."

So the upshot of the story is that we drove down to Rosarito and Puerto Nuevo. We didn't get out of the car in Rosarito because we were obsessed with finding PN, but Bill didn't want to look at a map until I was officially in panic mode. Yes folks, I was the one driving in Mexcio. I can barely drive here where the streets are clean, fancy and semi-labeled. For some reason, Mexico just hasn't chosen to spend what little money they have on the roads.

Let me describe a couple of the events that happened, which I realize may be funnier to us because we were there, but they really made us laugh.

When we first get to Puerto Nuevo there is a man with a red flag and a whistle adamantly directing us to the right and there is another man doing the same on the right. With tears of fear in my eyes I said "Well Bill, if I don't go to the right this man can actually strike the car, so I'm going with him." It was $3 to park and they gladly took our money. I had been forwarned about "Chickle? Chickle?" so I had some dimes in my pocket to give to the MASS OF CHILDREN that decended upon us. After shaking them with my silver treasures, we made our way through the town. Thank God that Bill knows some Spanish otherwise we'd be in trouble. People just sort of chased us down the street telling us to come into their shops and restaurants. My favorite part was that they all seemed to have a favorite American phrase. "What's it gonna hurt?" as in "What's it gonna hurt if you just stop in here and I push my cheap products on you while you attempt to haggle having no concept of the real value of this crap". Following our tradition of sticking with the plan (I wanted to eat at the lobster shack that the Mexican in the knit Corona hat had haggled us down to a $9 full meal and Bill had agreed) we naturally made our way up to the third floor of this shanty that had no Corona hatted men in it...only people that looked at us with crazy eyes and sheer excitement. (And yes, we got charged about $15 a person, but frankly I don't care. These people clearly need that money more than I do and I had a great meal while we were there.) Our free margarita and tequila shot (the best I've ever had) loosened me up enough that I relaxed my grip on both my wallet and my rectum. I had been so nervous about going there but people were pretty nice and I was actually learning all the Spanish I needed to buy the shitty merchandise I desired.

And did I ever desire some merchandise...

(Conjunction Junction) What's Your Function?

I'm going to have a heart attack at the ripe old age of 26. I am working on my intermediate analytical methods class (or calculus) and it makes me want to shoot myself. I hate this so much. It makes me feel like an idiot. I don't have a pencil either, so I am permenantly writing my errors in pen for the world to see and watch me scratch out. My paper actually has tear stains on it from the heartbreak I had over problem 16.

Ok, I'm going to go back to it. Here's hoping someone calls me for a distraction...

7 Minutes in Heaven?

I have myself cracking up here so I am going to describe the past 7 minutes of my life, as I came home from work to eat lunch in my hotel room.

0:00-0:20 Think to myself "am I really this messy?" (everyone answer "yes" in unison)
0:20-1:00 Unwrap Lean Pocket sandwich, giggle about stupid "tales from the scales on the back" 1:00-1:10 Eat some unwashed alfalfa sprouts before reading "wash before eating"
1:10-1:12 Spit into trash can
1:12-2:00 Wash alfalfa sprouts and wonder if those are little bugs in them and if they are now in me
2:00-5:00 Looking for salad dressing. Not finding salad dressing. Wondering where the hell I could have lost salad dressing in a 10 x 6 room
5:00-5:10 Found 6 skittles on the desk. Ate skittles. Enjoyed them
5:10-5:30 Ate more unwashed strawberries while reading the [redacted] blog
5:30-6:00 Prepared strange little udon noodle microwavable disaster
6:00-7:00 waited patiently for noodles, snacked on some baked lays, worried if I'd eaten too many points, talked to drqshadow on AIM, checked MySpace (lame) and heard the sound of tortured kittens from under my bed.
7:00 Verified that those were not kittens under the bed, but did not determine what they are

The highlight was definitely the skittles. There were much funnier things that happened but managed to forget between now and then (which is later in the afternoon back at the office-I'm spending your tax dollars wisely.)

I Laugh in the Face of Danger

I was living on the edge last night. I went to a little Farmer's Market on the bay in Coronado. I bought 3 pints of beautiful strawberries that were "fresh picked from Oceanside this morning", though I've been told that they were probably from Mexico. I also bought some yummy clementines and a couple of apples (because the taste tests of both proved to be worth it). I was starving as I'd just returned from the gym so I said "I'll just eat one strawberry and then wash the rest at home". Two pints of unwashed strawberries later (that's right, two pints!) I'm here to say that they were wonderful and juicy and I'm not dead yet.

I'm a rebel without a cause, huh? What will it be next? Not washing my hands after the bathroom (not likely)? Running barefoot in glass? Time will tell...

Awww!

I had to make a quick post tonight before I head to the gym...where I should have been a long time ago but I was instructed to go home first. Commanded to go home first is more like it, but I was happy to do so (any excuse not to work out-though I'm going as soon as I'm done with this!)

Look what beautiful surprise was waiting for me.

Ok, off to the gym, but thanks to Mircea for the wonderful surprise and little note. Can't wait to see you! Off to the gym now!!!

Wowzers!

I don't want to bitch at all today (or really any day) because I'm really quite happy in my life lately. But holy crap! I put on a skirt (the one with the leaves Lainie) and that mofo is TIGHT. By the end of AMO school it was so big it would fall off and now it is very very snug. I had planned on working out this week (and all subsequent weeks) anyway, but now I'm officially kicking it into over drive. I gained so much weight (surely it was all the good cooking from Mircea) and didn't work out at all over the Holidays. So now little Miss Powerhouse is back in action. My friend Robyn made me a workout plan so this gal is going to be buff when she returns to Maryland. I've got good goals too, which I will now share...

• Return to pre-holiday weight (none of your business!!)
• Run at least 3 races while I'm in San Diego
• Run at least 5x a week
• Lift 4x a week following Robyn's plan
• Participate in a group class at the gym 1x a week
• STOP EATING LIKE A LITTLE PIGGY.

My biggest weakness lately is beer, which is just ridiculous because the fat goes straight to my belly which is not attractive on me. I have a couple of microbrewery tours set up for when Mircea is here, but I've already designated myself as the driver so I'll be consuming less calories.

Wish me luck on this-I sure need it!!

The "L" Word

It may be too soon for me to be saying this, but I'm going to go out on a limb and be completely vulnerable here. I've said it too soon before and I've gotten burned, but I think that although we've been together for a short time, I am ready to use the L word...

I LOVE SAN DIEGO!! This place rocks! The beaches, the weather, the nightlife, the events-its just great! I love that everyone runs and has an active lifestyle (though I feel like a whale here) and there is just so much to do. I love the food-everything is fresh and wonderful and damn I love this place.

Today I'm going to venture out into town in search of some provisions, as my authorization to use the Commisary and Exchange are taking much longer than they ever have in the past. I am also going to stop for sushi at this little dive sushi place that apparently has the best on Coronado, so I'm pumped!

Notes from the West Coast

Thank you to all of those that wished me well on my travels. They have definitely been interesting and I'm sure that they'll only get better. Here are some of the highlights...

• Although I love Southwest, I am angry at them for charging me a total of $50 for my over weight bags. At the least they could have let me combine them. I complained that I was on Government travel, but they did not care (apparently they don't realize that their tax dollars are paying for that baggage fee) and then later found out that on Gov. travel you have up to 70 lbs so I shouldn't have been charged at all. Scammers!
• The man that sat behind me on the plane had to get up to go to the bathroom about 40 times on the flight. This wouldn't bother me at all, but he was the kind of guy who had to grab the back of my seat in order to stand up and get around, so he woke me and my row mate up pretty much each of those 40 times.
• Since we were already up we got to listen to the hacking, burping, belching, vomiting cough of the guy in front of us. He was making everyone quite uncomfortable on the plane and you could just see people holding their breath. It was the most amazing display of germs I've ever been privy to.
• I have been upset about going to California because I didn't want to be away from all of my friends. Well, I got off that plane, took one breath of fresh air and I was like "well, I guess I can make the best of this!" The weather was 72, sunny, breezy and just plain beautiful. Wild horses couldn't drag me away from this place!! And the irony is that they were prepared to let me stay out here permenantly. I keep telling myself, that California will always be here and that my friends are much too important to leave right now!
• My room kind of sucks and it makes me depressed.
• I'm still coughing and I'm going to the doctor today, which is an adventure in itself because I have a Maryland HMO, which means I have to go to an urgent care or emergency room to get assistance. Oy vey! If only I had gone to the doctor two weeks ago when this hit me instead of thinking that I was "all better". Although it was great, I shouldn't have relied on my Romanian health care plan, which consisted of orange juice and movies!
• My cell phone doesn't work worth a darn in my room. So I'll be sending out an email soon with my phone number and po box if anyone wants to send me mail!
• My friend David and I are picking up my TIVO today. It came in last night. I'm very excited and that will definitely make this trip a little better.
• Oooh, I ran about a mile yesterday before I wanted to die. Maybe I shouldn't have tried it while I was sick and maybe I shouldn't have eaten so much over the Holidays. I feel like I felt when I first started running at 210 lbs.

Ok, enough whining. David just brought me a running pamphlet that has all the local races. There is one this weekend...I wonder if I can hack my way through it!

The Eve of California Dreamin'

Tomorrow is the big day when I hop on a plane and travel to California for three months. I'd like to make some predictions.

• Something terrible is going to happen with my suitcases. Here's the problem. I have two, weighing about 60 lbs each, which means I may be looking at $50 in overweight charges. I'm pretty sure I can sob story them out of charging me, but still...the other part is being able to handle the two suitcases, plus the two carryons, plus my freaking head, which will be crazy spinning at that time of morning.
• I will get a shitty rental car when I get to California. Everyone else always gets a free upgrade. I get the free "bend over" discount and get the car with the trunk that won't latch.
• Work is going to be busy, but fun and I'm not going to want to leave.
• I will make lots of nice friends while I'm out there.
• I will do a great job with running and getting in shape. Not just losing my holiday-schnitzel spare tire either, finally getting in shape!!
• I will take the time to take care of myself and get myself in a better place.

Oh, not sure how things will go with email while I'm out there. Here is the email address you can reach me at, well, that is if you know my last name.

kathleen.r.(mylastname)@navy.mil

Happy New Year!!