sattadae

ahhh...Saturday mornings. gotta love 'em. Being kicked out by taichibums who don't sleep in later than 8am to hit the park. woohooo.....=(

as I turned onto University Ave this morning I looked at the sign confirming that 9am was the start time for The U-District's Farmers Market. *looking at my cell phone which read: 8:24am*

not good. hmmmm. i'm too far from home (laziness) to go and come back. Too cold outside to go wandering around looking for coffee in my dress and super thin sweater. I'll just read my "Stranger" and eat my kettle korn until then.

And that's when I sat and read and ate until 30 min passed. And boy, was it crowded when I got there.....at 9am. the lines for fresh produce were startling. I made my rounds, figured out why I usually don't buy too much produce at these things...considering I don't know how to cook. But I completed my first round when I overheard two gentlemen talking:

"what time does this thing start?"
"8am - they just changed it"
man looks to his wife "honey, see, i'm never taking your word for it again"

30 min wasted just because someone didn't want to spend the money and change the freakin' sign.

Trini

Sometimes i get gifts and they find themselves buried.
but alas, trying to make amends, i recently acquired a book "The Rough Guide to Trinidad & Tobago" (thanks!!!). My mom was born there and I have never been...at least not yet. The book was to remotely enlighten me. Flipping through the book, I didn't know where to start...or to start sharing. One section I thought was interesting was their "Language"....as interpreted by Bill Bryson.

Trini Expressions (pg 367)
"Man plans, God laughs" --> It doesn't matter what you plan to do, it never turns out that way.

"If you play with dog, you must get fleas" --> Hanging out with lowlifes will eventually rub off on you.

"Every bread have it cheese" --> Everyone, no matter how ugly, will find his or her matching partner.

"You've got size" --> You've put on weight.

"Yuh cyar play sailor an' fraid power" --> If you're going to be controversial you have to accept the consequences.

routine.

who moved my cheese?
why do i care?
dealing with change.
dealing with regularity.
understanding differences.
accepting indifference.
consumed in emotion.
coming to a common ground.
agreeing to disagree.
finding yourself.
losing them.
evolving into your future self.
reasoning with the misunderstood.

when the balls are thrown in the air - i have to learn to close my eyes and let them fall as they may and not focus on the ground.

reality

reality tv.
it comes.
and it's never going.
it sprouts out from mtv's bikinis and big boobies.
bachelor shows, fashion world, reality chef shows, uncovering what really happens in daycares - it's endless. and it dances around older males trying to "meet" 13 y.o. gals and getting arrested in the interim (Dateline - crazy! just saw that story the first time last night - disturbing).

reality - internet
shows you men who try to "meet" women on the internet.
It's called the "Craigslist Experiment"
http://www.encyclopediadramatica.com/index.php/RFJason_CL_Experiment#David_Foss
(not safe to open at work!) i actually recognized someone who emailed me too.
when my mother sends me emails about burglery right in their neighborhood.

reality - in real life.
when you volunteer to hand out tokens for beer at "Seattle's Oktoberfest" and ppl try to talk you into giving them more than they paid for, try to lie to get more, steal more when you bend down to restock the cups.

what happened to the fairy tales?
what happened to the silver lining athe end?
what happened to the rainbows?
what happened to the unicorns? =)

it's hard to be naive about the world when there's muggings, rape, men answering craigslist.org ads that only show a chick's "hole" and call her "hott".

life's random. it keeps me guessing~

Fun Facts: Seattle

1.) 1 - Ranking of Washington among US states with the highest per capita share of technology-dependent jobs.

2.) 1-Ranking of Seattle among fittest US cities, according to Men's Fitness magazine, Feb 2005.

3.) 1-Ranking of Seattle among US cities with the largest percentage of library card holders.

4.) 1-Ranking of Seattle among US cities where citizens buy the most sunglasses per capita.

5.) 3-Ranking of Seattle among the country's best walking cities, accoridng ot the American Podiatric Medical Association.

6.) The I-520 bridge (The Evergreen Point Floating Bridge) built in 1963 is the longest floating pontoon bridge in the world.
-"Seattle Visitors Guide", 2006-2007

low ball.

"if you expect nothing, you will never be disappointed."

but if you expect nothing, are you underestimating what you are worth? or what someone else is capable of? or what are all of the conditions where this can backfire?

where's the line between expecting nothing and settling? or is that a completely separate spectrum?

who is the decision maker on when you are expecting "too" much?

i feel like i need to comprehend that sometimes it's ok to feel disappointed.

Change of Pace

I went from power walking to and from work every day, up that "Hill" to walking from my car in the parking lot...

Below is an email to S as an attempt to redeem myself:

"I work on the 5^th Floor.

I have recently started taking the stairs whenever I leave for the day. A small step.

But today after lunch I had a few extra minutes and took the staircase back up.

And I was out of breath.

Right now I’m waiting for my badge to be effective for gym access, they said a few more days.

So, I’m going to start going after work for a bit. Start slow.

But before that I’m not going to take the elevator - anymore.

One step at a time!

(that sounds like a hook to an 80’s sitcom)"

license plate

"I got a ticket during lunch."

"wha??"

I think it was some time last week. Brian pointed out that my tags on my license plate expired. And then it came back to me, somewhere amongst my pile of paperwork at home, lay my renewal for CA. but it was due in June..........So ever since then (last week) I had been going to and from the Licensing Offices trying to get my WA plate and tags. I only got them yesterday during lunch, my 4th try. I kept panicking - what if i get pulled over? what if this? what if that? (not even taking into consideration I had been stress free for the last 3 months) but whatever it took to get me into gear.

So when my boss came in the office today and said that she had gotten a fix-it ticket for not having a front license plate AND that the police officer was just chillin right outside our company parking lot waiting for a reason to pull someone over - it just hit a lil too close to home...

airport day

today was another awesome day.

i had purchased a flight for 8:30pm departure from Sea-Tac but last minute we got a notice that today is a comp'd day company wide (sweet...wish i wasn't a contractor right now....) so i got today off. my items to take care of consisted of registering my car and getting my parking permit. i was done before it hit 930am this morning because i didn't have the "original Pink Slip" with me. so that left me to go to the zoo AKA. "airport on a holiday weekend". but surprisingly it was all perfect. I stood in line and chatted with a 80 y.o. lady who was on her way to Spokane. shared a table while eating my pasta with a family of three who collectively stopped eating when i was getting up and all said thank you at the same time. chatted with another lady in security line who was on her way to San Jose/Santa Cruz. Exchanged friendly hellos to 2 gentlemen separately while waiting in line to board. one even said hi to me when we landed in oakland and his wife. and lastly, spoke to a couple sitting next to me on board, they just came back from an Alaska cruise and they were heading home to Santa Rosa. it was sweet. sweet.

the only fork in the road was changing flights. since i had an 8:30pm. i thought, pretty much anything earlier and i would be happy. but the cost to change it was 90 bucks. even if i just changed one leg. so i changed both. so i would be able to go out tonight and stay all monday too. sweet. esp. considering i had no way to get home from Sea-Tac even if i didn't want to change flights. it would've taken 1+ hrs to do and doubled to come back. not worth it. but alas, here i am.