Gangsta Mittens
Words combined to express thoughts. Pictures displayed to convey emotion. Opening my brain to the world.

Jul
08

I spent the day yesterday with one of my favorite couples here in San Fran. Imagine if you will, two foodies who enjoy being outside and laffing and having a couple of drinks… like they could be my bestest friends ever!

We ate at Sunflower, a Vietnamese restaurant near 16th and Valencia and the food was great. It was my first time eating Vietnamese food, but i gave it a try and was rewarded. We left there and went to Pride of the Mediterranean on Fillmore for hookah. Another first for me. I took a few pulls and enjoyed the strawberriness (not a word, i know). It was really smooth and i liked that. The highlight for me was the Arabic Tea (which we had two pots of).

From there we went to the Cliff House o lok at the Ocean (and freeze our asses off). Next was a couple of drinks followed by dinner at La Traviata in the Mission. After that I was BEYOND tired. I think i got into the bed at 9:50 and slept the night away.

Today should be a pretty busy day between Fan Fest and the XM Futures Game. I plan to pretty much be on the go from start to finish. Tomorrow is also going t be a long one with an early morning broadcast from the suite here at the hotel to Fan Fest to the HomeRun Derby. There’s even rumors of trying to get into the Jay-Z/Barry Bonds party at Roe on Monday night.

Needless to say my flight leaves at 6am on Tuesday so I will be doing my best to just stay awake thru the night so i can sleep the whole way home.

Jul
07

So after a rather uneventful flight, my coworkers and I landed in Oakland and drove to San Francisco yesterday. The air was crisp, the fog was rolling in and I immediately felt like i was home. As i tuned out all of the “it’s cold” nonsense, I looked out the window and enjoyed the sights/sounds of my favorite city.

For the next few days I’ll be a part of the madness that is All Star Weekend. A few of my coworkers have already done several things to give me pause, but i just remind myself that as of 6am tuesday, they aren’t my problem for the next 7 weeks.

This little business trip has me so amped for the “real” trip in a few days. For now though I’m gonna enjoy this nice ass hotel and the expensive ass food that my company will have to reimburse me for. I just wish BJ was here to enjoy it all with me. (that was ghey)

Jul
01

The weather this weekend was amazing. It’s almost like the weather is trying to convince me that DC isn’t as bad as i make it out to be. At any rate we got a lot accomplished this weekend. We cleaned the apt some more and even went to work on the car. I have about 3 more days in the office and then it’s time for a much deserved vacation. Yes, I will be working a few days for All Star Week but that really doesn’t count. Right now I’m trying to focus on washing clothes, cleaning up and getting ready to get outta here.

The plan is to continue blogging here and on the trip blog (www.bayandback.blogspot.com) hopefully we’ll have lots of pics and interesting stories along the way.

On Saturday me, leena, kayla and bj all headed over to my parents’ house for Googie’s bday celebration. I can honestly say that Kayla stole the show. She played with everyone, laffed, smiled and had a great time. I love how outgoing she is. She’s an amazing little girl and i’m so happy for leena and dennis. I can’t wait to see what the next two babies will be like!

**random**
I didn’t know Beyonce was in the “Happily Ever After” video.

Ok, bye.

Jun
29

So in ONE WEEK I leave… like i bounce and I won’t be back for a minute. Well that’s not true… I leave on Friday, come back on Tuesday and leave again on Wednesday. Anticipation is turning to nervousness. What if something happens while i’m gone? I’ve got a sick dad and a pregnant best friend on this coast. I’m trying to stay positive but i’m definitely making sure I have enough money for an emergency flight home.

Speaking of my dad, he’s so damned adorable. He calls my mom “kitty” and we don’t know why… i mean we *know* why (*insert shudder here*) but it’s a recent development. I went to visit last weekend and told him about my trip out west. He asked if there was anywhere i hadn’t been yet and I told him there were plenty of places… he laffed and asked me if i’d ever be done with school. I told him i had two more years and he smiled. He’s proud of me and that feels good. It’s funny that no matter how old and “independent” i get, i still look to my parents for their approval of most of what I do. To a certain degree i shouldn’t, but when their reaction is positive, i guess it isn’t so bad.

Jun
27

The closer I get to leaving for San Fran the more stuff I realize that I have to do. Now granted most of this accumulation is the result of my procrastination but there are a lot of other things that I legitimately need to get done. B has been a tremendous help. He’s cleaned damn near half the house and that keeps me sane.
I’ve handed in the last edit i’ll have to do before we leave and i’ve just been focusing on job stuff. I’m in the process of trying to narrow down my list of firms that i’m applying to and trying to figure out something to do with my life. I got exactly zero interviews last year, i’m not trying to do that again. This year I’m doing a lot more research into firms that I might be interested in but i’m also looking at Government Agencies, Non-profit orgs and a bunch of other places that might be suitable. I’m cautiously excited about the possibility of actually getting an interview this year.
Lately I’ve found myself wondering how different my life would have been if I hadn’t had to sit out of school. After my first year, I was denied financial aid. As a recently married person, I assumed, perhaps foolishly, that this man that had promised to love, cherish, etc would step up and offer solutions as to how “we” could afford to send me. I expected him to say something like “just get the federal loans and we’ll work out the rest.” All I got was, “well i don’t think you’re really putting in enough effort for me to put my money towards it.” “My money” We were never on the same page when it came to money but that was the straw that broke the camel’s back for me. That’s when i realized that I had no support system when it came to him. I realized that he didn’t see the marriage as a partnership and after some soul-searching I realized that we had never seen eye to eye on that. When I took a leave of absence from school I knew that it was only a matter of time before I would be getting divorced.
My mom mentioned to me recently that I don’t talk much about my divorce and I kinda just shrugged. I told her i really didn’t have much to say about the divorce or the marriage. I think my ex is a cool guy so I’m not gonna bad-mouth him. At the same time, I feel that at times the relationship was mentally abusive to a certain degree and that’s not something that I want to relive. I’ve grown a LOT since 12/18/04, I just don’t see the point of going back to that place right now.