oddgirl’s blog

So the town that I visited a couple weeks ago is basically gone. The road and the bridge that we drove back and forth from the hotel to Big Daddy’s mom’s house are washed away and a couple towns down the way are littered with boats, barges and casinos that have washed ashore and to the other side of the highway.

The news about New Orleans is awful to be sure – I loved visiting that city – it sounds like it’ll be months before people can return to it. And some of the towns along the Gulf Coast are just gone. Amazing.

I didn’t love Mississippi but I hope the people there find some relief from this tragedy.

if Big Daddy and I were in MS right now, we’d be trying to get outta the way of a hurricane. or we’d be eating.

kayaking down in Half Moon Bay yesterday – totally great day. saw an otter, some herons, and ate good cheese. lazy rest o’ the weekend. having dinner with staz and the engineer tonight. first meetings galore this week.

for those who have been wondering, “oh god, is work already eating up her entire life???” please be re-assured that it hasn’t. i’m still leaving around 6 or 6:30 most days and still enjoying both Saturday and Sunday off every week. plus, i’ve taken a couple of random days off in the last month to burn some of my outstanding time off. and i’m taking some more time off next week to head up to Tahoe for a few days to get in some hiking, maybe some kayaking and the annual Labor Day Cooking of the Meat.

rather than keep you in suspense… and some of ya already know this…. but i’m datin’ someone. yup. and she’s some kinda one.

so, if i’m an even worse blogger than usual it’s because i’ve got other wonderful stuff going on. go read The Onion or some gaming news if you’re really bored.

Quickies:
Just finished watching the final Six Feet Under. Alan Ball did an amazing job of closing out the series. i cried and i laughed and i felt pretty satisfied by the finality. RIP.

Work is going great – I’m still loving the project and the stuff I’m doing currently is fascinating and challenging. I can see the clouds of busy-ness on the horizon, but I’m hoping we’re going to find some better balance than the last project.

i’ve been rowing and going to the gym, hiking when I can and heading out kayaking this weekend. i feel pretty damn great.

not only was it the annual trans-bay pub crawl on saturday (close to 10 hours of drinking and carousing involving bars in the City, on ferries, and in Sausalito) but we followed up with a trip today to the Ritz Carlton in san francisco for their crazy good, hedonistic brunch. there was oysters, caviar, crab claws, shrimp-y goodness, heirloom tomatoes with truffle vinaigrette, rack of lamb (sorry, pennywiggles!), dreamy mini-waffles, lobster-y things, apricot pot de creme, orange madelines, many cheeses, made-to-order omelettes, champagne, bellinis, and much much more. so good. soooo full.

a pleasure to spend so much time with my friends. a great crew my mates are. i’m a lucky girl.

I took a mental health day yesterday and spent it falling back in love with my City.

From wandering around the Castro and having lunch at the Ramp to enjoying tea and dessert after dinner at Samovar to going up to the water and looking out at Alcatraz across the Bay I had as close to a perfect day as I could have hoped for.

After living here for so long I guess I’m a little jaded about SF. Well, maybe not jaded exactly, but I don’t always remember to notice how damn beautiful it is here – the views, the weather, the people who look normal here but wouldn’t look normal many other places, the amazing food (!!!) and the more specific pieces like my friends, my job, my cat and my home.

So this blog entry is my love letter to San Francisco. Thanks for everything – you mean the world to me.