Categories
Awesome Being a girl Family Friends Memoir Sentiment

What’s “film”?

Also in the boxes from my room at my parents’ house – 3 rolls of undeveloped film.

One of the rolls is not a typical canister, and Walgreens told me they don’t develop that stuff anymore.

One of the rolls ended up being blank (bummer).

The third roll (or the first roll, depending on how you look at it), ended up being random pictures from…2001? 2002?  Who knows?  It’s all pictures around my house, or Kirsten’s (my high school bff) house, those are her ducks, that’s my brother on the ground, having apparently been bested by Kirsten’s dog…I don’t know what this is.

Actually, this is the exact reason that I’m so grateful for digital cameras.

And no, I did not get doubles of this.  (I actually just got the negatives and a photo CD – yay 2011!)

Enjoy.

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Categories
Being a girl Sentiment

Cleaning house

Every time I think I’m making headway on cleaning up all my childhood stuff left in my room at my parents’ house…I find another box or bag filled with angsty poetry, drawings of faces, or birthday cards from ten years ago.  Last time I was home I brought back 3 or 4 boxes to go through.  I have just done so, and filled a box with trash.  But there is some interesting stuff mixed in.

Unfinished cross-stitch
Drew and I agreed to keep the dinosaurs.
So much paint!
The colored pencil version of the watercolor painting that is my header.
Categories
Endings Not awesome

RIP seagull (and maybe other seagull)

Yesterday I was walking from Bart to work, and waiting for the light to change at the corner of Grove and Larkin, across from the library.  There was some junk in the intersection, and as I stood there not really paying attention, two seagulls swooped down to eat the garbage on the street, and then a car zoomed through the intersection to make the yellow light.  I saw the seagulls look up and see the car, it happened so fast, and then the car took out both gulls.  One was smashed dead like that.  The other one flopped around for a little while.  This other woman and I just stared at each other.  Omg.

When I walked back past there that afternoon, the first seagull was practically a memory,basically  just some feathers in the street.  There was no sign of the second one.  It’d be nice to think it collected itself and flew away.  But I fear that the thuggish guys who hang out in front of the library released their pit bulls, and the dogs killed the second gull.

It was one of the weirdest things I’ve seen lately – it looked exactly like it looks in a movie when someone gets hit by a car.  The car itself never slowed, and I can hardly blame them, since who even knew you could hit a bird with a car?

So RIP seagull, and probably other seagull.  It’s the circle of life.  Except your life didn’t go to something noble like the food chain, unless the pit bull thing happened.  I suspect your bodies were just swept up by a street cleaner.

The scene of the crime
Categories
"Other people" Beginnings Exercise

The Eleven

Yesterday I did something that I had been putting off all weekend:  I went to the gym.

All weekend, I wanted to go to the gym – at least that little part of me that enjoys the endorphins and feeling good afterward did.  But the rest of me thought, It’s my last weekend of vacation.  I went 7 times already over my break, one more than my goal.  I’m tired.  I should hang out with Drew while he’s home.

Not to mention, it’s New Year’s weekend (is that a thing?) and all the well-meaning New Year’s gym resolution makers will be flooding my little corner of 24 Hour Fitness.  Do I really want to get bumped to a treadmill because all the ellipticals are taken?

So I waited until Monday and then went around noon, when I figured everyone would be at work already.  I was still a little anxious about getting in there, but it wasn’t bad at all.  I don’t look forward to trying to go after work, but if I can just stick it out for now, everything will probably be back to normal in a month or so, right?

This is the first time ever that I’ve been able to start the new year with such a sense of superiority and satisfaction.  I’m not trying to create any new impossible habits or anything.  I’m just trying to keep up the habits I’ve been enforcing lately.  I like this feeling.  I lost twenty pounds over the last year, and that was all in about 6 months of actually trying.  So I’m upping the ante a little this year, and shooting for another thirty.  (That’s my resolution #4.)

On that note, Drew pulled out a coat he hasn’t worn since New York, and found a receipt in his pocket.  It’s from April 2009, deep in our Atkins phase.  Disclaimer: the Atkins website does not say that when you do Atkins you can just eat butter and bacon.  The official program promotes limiting carbs, and eating lean proteins and vegetables.  If you eat the way they say you should, it’s super healthy and nice.

The problem is, no one can live like that forever.  Which Drew and I discovered quickly, as you can see, since we started Atkins in March, and by April we had already figured out all the ways to eat Atkins-friendly junk food.

Two packs of salami, garden vegetable cream cheese, Diet Coke, Coke Zero Cherry, and sugar-free chocolate pudding.  Yum.  This is what I like about weight watchers – not to sound like their commercial or anything, but it is a way of life.  I just keep thinking, “Stop dieting, start living.”  Good slogan.

I still shudder when I pass the sugar-free candy in Rite-Aid.  Ugh.

Categories
Sleep talking

Look who’s sleep talking 4

Last night we went to bed around 10:30 and then I ended up reading for an hour.  When I snapped off the light on my side of the bed, the following happened:

Drew:  Wwwwwwwhat happened?
Me:  I just turned off the light.
Drew:  That’s it?
Me:  Yup, that’s all that happened.
Drew:  The light? You’re sure?
Me:  I’m sure.
Drew:  Okay.  Merry Christmas.

Does it still count as me disturbing him if he doesn’t remember it the next day?  I always feel bad for keeping the light on, but when he’s awake talking he says it’s fine…

Categories
Awesome Endings

2010 in review

WordPress just sent me this email, and I like summarizing information, and bragging, so I’m clicking the “post to my blog” button.  I mean, they went to all this trouble…

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

Healthy blog!

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.

Crunchy numbers

Featured image

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 6,600 times in 2010. That’s about 16 full 747s.

In 2010, there were 99 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 102 posts. There were 172 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 31mb. That’s about 3 pictures per week.

The busiest day of the year was November 18th with 2,306 views. The most popular post that day was Be aggressive, be-be aggressive.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were wordpress.com, facebook.com, itsjenblue.blogspot.com, digg.com, and en.wordpress.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for sychela, sychela wordpress, tomato plant, tumble dry low, and hugh jackman.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

1

Be aggressive, be-be aggressive November 2010
129 comments and 50 Likes on WordPress.com

2

About December 2009
1 comment

3

Nov 13 November 2010
5 comments

4

Saturn: Calypso November 2010
1 comment and 1 Like on WordPress.com,

5

A funny thing: a challenge! September 2010
14 comments

PS. I can’t remember writing anything about Hugh Jackman.  Oh yeah, one time I said he was being kind of racist on some late-night show.

Categories
Awesome Beginnings Family

The biggest surprise of all is that he really had no idea

My dad was born on New Year’s Eve, 1950.  Last night my mom threw him a surprise 60th birthday party, which she has been planning for about a year.  We were about 97% sure he knew something was up, since she’s never done anything like this before and we’ve for sure all heard her slip at least once in front of him.  Luckily he’s pretty imperceptive, and was completely surprised. 

He’s also pretty laid back, though, so instead of turning bright red and crying (like Lauren at the surprise bridal shower earlier this week), he kept his hands in his pockets and went “Oh…wow.  Surprise!”  Here’s a picture of him being taken completely off guard (I was across the room so it’s pretty zoomed in):

There was eating and picture-taking, and I grilled him to try to figure out if he was just pretending to be surprised.

Afterwards we went back to our house (haha, I don’t live there anymore) for cheesecake and presents and a slideshow of amazing photos my aunt and uncle assembled.  A surprising amount were slides from the 50s and 60s.  It was an appropriate amount of embarrassing for a 60th birthday celebration.

We toasted the New Year at 9:20 (for some reason) and then the regular guests trickled out.  My aunt and uncle stayed the night, and Drew and I drove Robb back down to San Bruno so he could get to the airport this morning.  But we waited to leave until 11:00 so we wouldn’t be anywhere near San Francisco near midnight.  I passed the time by taking pictures.

We got home just after 2:00 last night.  This morning I drove Robb to the airport at 8:00, then came back and went back to sleep.  When we got up, we made coffee for the first time using our Christmas coffeemaker, and a paper towel instead of a filter. 

Hunger Games book #3 + grocery shopping = a lazy day, recovering from this whirlwind week.  In the last 7 days, I’ve spent an entire day’s worth of hours in the car.  It’ll be really nice to go back to work, having a schedule and eating real food (although living primarily on cookies has been fun).

2011 FTW!

Categories
Awesome cars Family Not awesome

I promise this is the last “Dear Diary” entry for the year.

Okay.  So on Tuesday I was supposed to drive up to Davis to meet up with Molly (who lives in SF but was spending Christmas in Reno) and Liz (who until last week lived in NYC but now has moved back to Stockton).  I had made it to about Richmond when my car started making weird feelings again, and I got too freaked out that I wouldn’t make it to Davis.  Or that I would make it to Davis, but not from Davis to Lakeport.  So I drove back home, and Drew’s dad looked at my car, and he replaced all the spark plugs and two of the spark plug wires.  And now, I promise (this isn’t like after I changed the oil and “thought it felt better”), it is running like before again.

The funny thing is, when it was all shaky on the freeway, I was desperately trying to figure out how I could fund getting a new car, and I was like, “I’d be sad about losing this one, but happy to get one with no problems and less than 190,000 miles on it.”  Then after it was fixed, I was super happy and sentimental about it, thinking, “I couldn’t imagine getting rid of my baby!”  I’m a hypocrite?

Okay, so then I had my car but it was too late to meet Liz and Molly, and my brother was flying in from Colorado.  My dad was supposed to come down and pick him up but I called him and said I’d pick up Robb.  So then Robb and I drove up to Lakeport in the pouring rain.  My family – like, just the four of us – hung out for the first time in maybe like 8 years.  It was really nice, until I got kind of bored of the constant stand-up comedy routine and went in my room to read Catching Fire (the second book of the Hunger Games series).

Also, from being home on Christmas, to being home on the 28th, our bathroom was completely torn up.  They are fixing the floor and the entire bathtub area, so that was a surprise…  So then on the morning of the 27th I woke up to strange men’s voices in the hallway, my bedroom door not really shut, and all of my regular clothes (besides pajamas) in the dryer.

In the afternoon my high school best friend was throwing her sister a surprise bridal shower, so I went over there.  Her sister was completely surprised, which is always fun, and there were a bunch of people there I haven’t seen in years.  It was awesome.  But then there were snow warnings so I had to take off so I could get home without dying.

And that is basically my second Lakeport trip.  Here’s a slideshow, since I just learned how to make them.

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HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

(And happy 1st birthday to my blog!)

Categories
Drew Sleep talking

sleep talking!

The other night I was having some trouble falling asleep. Drew did not. Then we had another sleep talk conversation.

Drew: (giggles) Ice stand.
Syche: What?
Drew: Ice stand.
Syche: What’s an ice stand?
Drew: Where people go. To get ice.
Syche: Where is that?
Drew: Back, over there.
Syche: LOL
Drew: …What?

Categories
Family Friends Religion

Christmas 2010

This year we did Christmas Eve with my parents, and then Christmas dinner with Drew’s family.  On Christmas Eve we went to my family’s church for the candlelight service, and I met their new pastor.  She seems cool and new.  I think she’ll be really good for their congregation.  Being at church made me really want to go to church regularly again.  So I think I’ll add that to my New Year’s resolutions.

Christmas night, after dinner and everything, we went to see 127 Hours.  Every year Drew and I have gone to the movies on Christmas day, and I’m really glad we were able to keep that tradition alive.

2005 – The Producers (we didn’t yet know the tradition would be “movies that come out on Christmas day)
2006 – Dreamgirls
2007 – Sweeney Todd
2008 – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
2009 – Sherlock Holmes
2010 – 127 Hours (nothing came out on Christmas this year!)

127 Hours is not the most Christmassy of movies.  But it was good.  I see how it’s a good movie.  There was a part where I felt sort of sick, and I covered my eyes for a minute, but then I thought, This is practically the point of the movie, I don’t want to miss this.  Then a little later I cried a little bit.  Because it was either that or throw up.  It was good though.  I kept thinking about it the rest of the night.

This afternoon while driving to Fort Funston to walk with Erin, Drew said something about today being Monday.  Then I got to tell him today is only Sunday.  He was so happy!

That cat so does not care about me.

We are one week into Christmas Break and this is what I’ve accomplished of my Christmas Break Resolutions.

-Hit the gym 6 times.  I’m up to 4 so far.

-Do some deep cleaning of the apartment.  We even fixed our toilet by ourselves!  The tank’s had a slow leak forever, and we’ve just been cleaning up after it.  But then we finally teamed up and fixed it.  What a rush, right?

-Organize my iTunes and sync up my iPod.  Done!  I got lots of new stuff.  Including podcasts.

-Manage to make a dinner that makes Drew go, “Mmm!  This is DELICIOUS!!”  Does reheating the leftovers from his mom’s Christmas dinner count?  I did make my own mashed potatoes.