All I Want for Christmas...

I can't seem to get my work to give me a size small t-shirt. I first asked my PM and she brought me a polo shirt. That's no good. Then I asked my recruiter who was nice enough to offer me several. However, he can't get them in size small. Sigh. My size medium is too baggy to work out in. Or soon will be. I like slightly snug shirts to remind me I have a ways to go. Sigh...

Nikki on 12.17.04 @ 02:57 PM PST [link]

Countdown to the Tundra

I can't believe that I leave on Tuesday for 10 days in the Frozen Tundra. I have about a ton of things that I need to do. Laundry. Packing. Shopping. Deep meditation in order to prepare my mind. :) I hear that it hasn't snowed yet, which is good. Please, don't let it blizzard while I am flying in or out or driving all the many miles that I have to!



When I go back to RC, it's like I am isolated. Well, not "like". I am! I have no cell phone reception. My mom doesn't have Internet access. She also doesn't have a DVD player. Thank goodness she has cable. But, she controls the remote, so I end up being forced to watch a lot of country music videos. And God forbid if a Toby Keith video comes on. She makes me stop and watch it. She is in love with him, I think. I don't even feign interest or patience with watching CMT. I constantly tell her, "Mom, I don't like this music and I don't care about the videos." But for some reason, it means a lot to her that I watch particular videos. One year, she even taped some ahead of time. Her "favorites." Hopefully she didn't do that again this year.



Another thing that she controls is my waking and sleeping time. For some reason, she has become a morning person. I distinctly remember as a child her sleeping until noon on weekends. But now she is up at 8 in the morning and gets really irritated when I sleep until 10, which is 8 Washington time. Sigh. And I sleep on the couch in the living room, because my old bedroom is now her sewing room and there is no bed in there, so it's not like I can hide.



It's not all bad. But some years are considerably worse than others, and I can never predict what is going to happen. At least this year, I have a good laptop to work on and so I can work on the novel. Since I am up to all hours of the night there, because of the time change and of being a night owl by nature anyway, that should give me plenty of time. I've been chastised recently for not writing, so I have to catch up. :)



But at least I won't spend the entire 10 days there. The last 3 or 4 I will be at Keely's. So probably, just when I am on the brink of insanity, I will get to leave. :)



Whenever I return to Seattle, I always feel like I've been gone months. Things look different. Better. I always figure I've missed a ton of important things. I generally haven't. But that's what it feels like when I haven't had normal communication with my "real" life for an extended period of time. I will check my voice mail from my mom's phone, so please, please, please! Call me so I can at least hear from you! :) You don't have to do that. But it might buouy my spirits a little.



Tonight the girls are coming over to decorate cookies. I tried to make "healthy" sugar cookies but they're not very good. They're okay. So I will go to the store and get some premade ones or maybe some premade full fat dough. I don't know. The batch didn't make very many either. I don't know how small the recipe maker expected these cookies to be!



I got the nicest cribbage board for Christmas! It's so pretty it could be hung on the wall! Oh and I also got Spiderman 2, so I can satiate my Toby need. Have I mentioned that he is so cute? Now all I need is Garden State (which comes out on the 28th) and my eye candy movies will be complete. Well, not complete. Fuller maybe. Zach Braff is so cute, too. Which would I choose if I had to? I just don't know. Toby has that innocent look going for him. That and he looks like a guy I used to date. And Zach has that dark hair big brown eyes kinda goofy kinda a geek looking thing going on that I really like, too. And, he looks like Noel, er, I mean, Scott Foley. I simply can't decide. I must have them all!!



Canada was fun last weekend. Got lots of shopping done. The most impressive thing I did was successfully navigate us, by sheer memory, back to the Cactus Club restaurant from the mall. I couldn't believe it.



Yeah, I know this is long but that's what you get when I haven't blogged in a long time.

Nikki on 12.17.04 @ 11:42 AM PST [link]

Slightly High

I've had four cans of soda today and my foot is just bouncing away. Imagine the high I could have if I went and used the $5 Starbucks' gift card that was given to me today!

Nikki on 12.09.04 @ 05:25 PM PST [link]

Weekend Stuff

It was a fairly good and busy weekend. Friday night, I guess, was not all that productive. Went to my last strippercize class and then went home and vegged. Saturday, I weighed in, went to work (gasp!) for a couple hours, and then went home briefly before the real drama began. I was on I-5 working my way through traffic to I-90, on my way to Judy's in Renton, when...my Service Engine Soon light came on. So here I was, in the midst of traffic. I didn't really want to pull over to the side of the road. In the rain. In the dark. So I kept on going, all the while praying that I could make it to Target at Factoria without the car blowing up. I made it and added some oil. I've been leaking oil, so I thought maybe this would resolve the problem, although my oil light never had lit up. Unfortunately, it was still on. So, knowing I couldn't just stay at Target, I continued on to Judy's, again praying all the way. The car didn't sound any different, so I was slightly buoyed by that. Once I got to her house, I called her mechanic who agreed to see me in the morning. I stayed overnight (both are in Renton so it made no sense to drive all the way back home when I had no idea if the car might explode or something.) and in the morning had him run some diagnostics on the car. He decided that it was indeed because of the spark problem issue I suspected I had all last week. He agreed to work me into his day that afternoon. Only 60 dollars later (and a tip because I want a happy mechanic) I drove away. I am pretty fatalistic about car problems. As soon as I have one, I convince myself that it will probably cost thousands of dollars to remedy. I plan on trading the car in within a couple months probably, so I don't want to invest thousands of dollars into it, but I need it to last at least as long as it takes before that time. So. I was fairly panicked for about 12 hours, but the story ended well. :)



Later in the day, I ordered a grande fat free caramel machiato at Starbucks and spend several hours higher than a kite. This has only happened to me one other time. I've drank this drink many a time without incident. It's gotta be the weight loss. Right? I guess on the rare occassions I drink coffee, it will be talls for me. The crash is no fun.



I purchased my Christmas tree at Fred Meyer's last night. I payed much less than last year's! Only about $20 rather than over $40. So, after a lot of swearing and work, a friend put it up in my tree stand. It's now ready to decorate tonight and I am super excited! Mika was, too. :) Since most of my decorations are new from last year, they'll still seem new to me this year. Pictures will come maybe later tonight.



Sad thing, I managed to break that wonderful mug that I use for tea, which was a gift from Grace, a former student. What are the chances that Crate and Barrel still carries it? So now I have a saucer and no huge mug to match it. Argh. I have that nice mug that my secret sister sent me. But it's Halloweeny. Sigh.



Looks like I am not going to get to attend The Nutcracker again this year. I guess there's still time but then I have to go searching for tickets blah blah blah. Every year I say I want to go and I never go. And The Lion King is in town, too. My favorite Disney movie. What are the chances I will get to see that? Sigh. I am too much of a procrastinator.

Nikki on 12.06.04 @ 02:01 PM PST [link]

Work Complaints

I bet the place I work hates me. Today I had to complain to them. I don't really like complaining...or at least in a way that perhaps makes me look like I am a five year old throwing a temper tantrum. But sometimes I just have to vent my frustrations about things. Earlier in the week I signed up to take a PM class. Today I was told I didn't get into it. What? I responded to them e-mail within minutes of receiving it. Turns out, they don't fill the classes first come first serve but randomly and I just didn't get included. What is really annoying, because I understood basically why they do the lottery system for the classes, is that in four years of working here, this is only the second class that has come close to being related to my field. All the other classses are for programmers. I thought this class would maybe help me career wise and they don't offer tuition reinbursement if I go elsewhere. Classes are expensive. Sigh. So I sent mail to everyone I could think of: ER rep, past recruiter, PM, etc. The best I got was that I am on the waiting list. Sigh. At least I got to say what was on my mind. And they didn't fire me for it. :)



No big plans for the weekend. I have that ASL group tomorrow afternoon. Hopefully I won't forget. I have a writer's group I could go to on Sunday afternoon...not sure if I'll go to that one. Seems so silly for me to bring the novel to workshop when it's in such a state of rough draftness. And I am not really working on anything else. Well, I have some ideas for poems, but have only a really really really rough draft for one of them. So that's no good. Sigh. I might go get the Christmas tree on Sunday. I wonder if I can manhandle it again this year. How many pine needles will there be in my trunk this time? :)



Tonight is the last night of strippercize. I better feel sexy after tonight, otherwise I won't feel like I got my money's worth! :) I could've signed up for the exotic dancing class afterwards...but I didn't. I need to start spending my money on Christmas gifts, not stuff for me!

Nikki on 12.03.04 @ 01:58 PM PST [link]

Stiff Neck

Just like all the health magazine say, and also Melissa, I am trying to incorporate some weight lifting into my workout routine. A couple days ago I began lifting eight pound dumbells. The next day, I woke up with a stiff neck. It was actually okay for the most part, only pained me when I turned my neck to a certain spot. Today it's better. Maybe the hot bath helped, or maybe it just worked itself out. I still would like a massage, though.



Suganthi and I went to Vancouver yesterday. She had to get some Indian clothing for a wedding she's attending later this month. I even tried on this awesome outfit. It was kinda a cross between a prom dress and a wedding dress. :) I have nowhere to wear such an outfit and it was too expensive just to buy and save in case I ever do have an occassion. But it was so pretty. Sigh. Then we went to a mall, to Lush and then this other store that's kind of like a Victoria Secret. Much cooler stuff and more afforable, too. There was this funny paten leather bra in the back. Very funny. And the Christmas bra was amusing, too. I settled for a nightgown and some panties. There wasn't enough time for us to do any other shopping, though, unfortunately. She had a job interview that we had to get back for. I was too tired to workout afterwards (got up at 6:15) so I just went home and indulged in one of the Lush bathbombs. So nice. Ahhhh...



Looks like we're going to Nanaimo in two weeks finally. Coombs better provide me all the stuff I ned to buy people. I don't feel like traipsing all over, unless I am buying things for myself. Gosh, I've been such a shopaholic lately. I need to stop that.



Two new Netflix movies arrived yesterday: Godsend (I think that's the title) and The Butterfly Effect (director's cut). Can't watch tonight, though because it's ER night! Wahoo!

Nikki on 12.02.04 @ 01:01 PM PST [link]