oddgirl’s blog

Maybe I’m entering a reclusive phase. Maybe I’m giving in to the fact that work is starting to take precedence over everything else. Maybe it’s the fucking rain that doesn’t seem to let up.

Even a month ago, I was going out 6 nights out of 7. My liver was barely on speaking terms with me. Now, it’s all I can do to make myself get out of the house once during the week and maybe once during the weekend. Maybe. And actually I don’t even want to go out. Just not in the mood.

I’m nesting I, guess? Calming my life down. Getting back to myself. Settling in for the crunch. Going to order a table and chairs very, very soon if I can just make up my mind. Finally got around to buying a matching bookshelf to the one I’ve had for years to make my apartment feel like it is not so sparse.

Someday I’ll find the balance. Some going out. Some staying in. But for now, I’m in.

Every now and then my satellite decides it can’t find the signal. Unfortunately that’s the situation right now. It usually comes back in a day or so, but since it’s the same box as my DVR, I can’t watch anything I have saved either. Like the last two episodes of Heroes… grrrrr.

Good thing I got a new book yesterday. Or I could work for awhile tonight. Or I could play a game. Many options for my “was supposed to have dinner with a couple pals, but they didn’t feel like going out, plus I didn’t feel like going out after going to the Cal game and it’s freakin’ raining out anyhow” night.

Oscar’s are tomorrow night. Hope the TV signal comes back before then…

I’m ok with the busy weeks, but I don’t love the ones that end with a room full of game producers looking at each other wondering if the building is going to fall down if there’s a real earthquake. The itty-bitty one today was just a reminder that we live in earthquake country, and how much do I love our Sr. Producer for not even missing a beat in the meeting we were in. “Ok people, moving on to the next point…”

Some fun, some work this weekend. Best part of all is that I get to sleep in tomorrow – nothing specific until I get picked up at 1:15. Yeah, buddy.

Hey you. Yeah, you. Look over there in the sidebar. Scroll down… down… yeah right below the Search box. There’s a new little widget there from Twitter. In my casual exploration of new social networking widgets, I’ve signed up for this one – and it lets me put in a one-liner about what I’m doing from the web, IM or my phone. I’ve been looking for a way to post quick blog snippets by phone and this looks like a pretty easy way to do it.

I’ll probably be changing my theme again. I think it’s time to move to a 3-column layout…

And I actually mean that… I stayed until around 9 tonight and spent the last couple hours writing some docs and getting caught up with some bits and pieces that I didn’t do over the weekend. I chose to have a Wii play date on Sunday instead of working through and it was totally worth it. Played a bunch of Wario Smooth Moves. It’s way more fun than Wii Play which didn’t hold me or my 8-year-old pal’s interest for any length of time.

But tonight I got to put my iPod on and just grind on some of the stuff I care about. I go to so many meetings and I really don’t want my legacy on this project to be, “Yeah… she was in a lot of meetings” so I’m trying to jump back into feature development again.

Tomorrow I meet with some of the people from the Spain office. And the really good news is that I don’t have to go to Spain. They’re coming to us. I wouldn’t mind heading to Spain sometime, but not this week.

The weather today was absolutely stellar. I got to wear shorts and a t-shirt and feel the warmth of the sun. Headed out to the beach, drank a few beers and enjoyed getting to live in the best city on the planet. Couldn’t stop talking about it and I imagine it drove my drinking compatriot a little nutty – my joy at not having to travel for a bit and for living in a place where it is in the 70’s in February. Hell yeah.

I want to try this sushi place….

It is so great to be home.

And to have valentine’s day behind me. I now have another 364 days to try and find a valentine for next year. Well, I should probably subtract a couple hundred days for work since it’ll get progressively difficult for me to reallly actively pursue meeting girls. But, hey if one fell in my lap… (actually that’d be really cool – if a great girl just fell into my lap… yeah. cool)

but i digress…

Not that another trip won’t get sprung upon me, but it looks like I’m done travelling for a bit. Which means hanging out with pals, playing games and pruning my Tivo list – it fills up pretty quick when I’m out of town. It’s getting to be serious basketball watching time with Staz and the Engineer; the rain is abating some so it could be hiking season again soon and I’m starting to eye my deck with an eye toward an early flower planting and BBQ season. Lots of fun things to do when I’m not working….

This is an admonition to be extra kind to your date-less friends tomorrow. Especially the ones like me who really, really enjoy Valentine’s Day in years when they have a valentine. The years where we don’t have one just kinda suck.

And there really isn’t anything we can do about it – since by the actual day about the best you might be able to do is find a one-night stand. Which is very different from having a valentine, in case you didn’t know that.

At least I get to go home tomorrow. That’s a good thing.

Checked into the hotel and asked the Concierge about possible dining/shopping options. She was very helpful, gave us maps and a guide to cool independent local shops and when I was asking about walking routes to some other neighborhoods, she warned us to not walk through Chinatown. J. and I looked at each other and thanked her and wandered out to find some grub.

Ended up finding a terrific place called Chill Winston’s. The owner was a cool guy who gave us lots of advice on where to go to bars, to shop and when we told him that we were warned away from Chinatown, he kinda snickered.

Then J. and I realized that most of the people who stay at the hotel we’re at probably don’t see homeless people or other random city life much and that’s why the Concierge warned us.

But me? I fear no city’s Chinatown.