Squeeze those ...

Not too long ago I moved into an office right next to a guy who happens to make the most ghastly sounds all day long, every day. He snorts and belches and, well, umm, makes ghastly sounds all day long. When I first moved I started closing my door during the work day, but my boss asked that we leave it open because he wants to make sure that everyone knows our department is really busy and really valuable in an effort to bullet proof our department from lay offs. So now I leave my door open and listen to music all day.

Yesterday morning I got to the office and started working right away. I hadn’t turned on my music and didn’t really notice until my noise making neighbor took a call. I heard him talking but wasn’t really paying attention. He continued on for some time and then his voice became rather animated and I could make out, “Squeeze those titties, Kill em’, squeeze em good.” I was a bit caught off guard so I turned and looked at another member of our department who is in the office. She was bright red and trying to hold back the giggles. I had heard correctly he was belting into the phone, “squeeze those titties, kill em’.” I did everything I could to not bust up laughing.

Today I was talking to the girl who used to be in the office I am now in. She had warned me that he would be an interesting neighbor, but I assumed he couldn’t be that much trouble. She listened to the entire story and then she said, “I think you heard this wrong.” I told her I knew I hadn’t because even Iris heard it and confirmed the accuracy of what I heard. She started laughing and explained that my neighbors wife is rather def and that each day they talk a few times on the phone and almost always discuss there cats. He hates the cats and is always yelling at her to “kill em’” so she thinks that he was probably yelling to squeeze those kitties, kill em’, squeeze em’ good.

My 2008 Library

My sister-in-law has kept a list of books she has read since 1999. In 2008 she read 35 books. I enjoyed checking out her list and decided that I would copy her and post my own. Like her list, those that are in bold are must reads.

I keep track of the books I've read on Goodreads.

Enjoy!

January:
Peony in Love, by Lisa See
The Executioners Song, by Norman Mailer, especially interesting if you are from or live in Utah

February:
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen, eww carnies give me the willies
Love is a Mix Tape: The Life and Loss One Song at a Time, by Rob Sheffield

March:
Disgrace, by J.M. Coetzee
Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Office, by Lois P. Frankel

April:
Scar Tissue, by Anthony Kiedis
Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time, by Greg Mortenson
Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books, by Azar Nafisi

May:
Alice Waters and Chez Panisse: The Romantic, Impractical, Often Eccentric, Ultimately Brilliant Making of a Food Revolution, by Thomas McNamee
Gilead, by Marilynne Robinson

June:
A Trip to the Stars, by Nicholas Christopher

July:
Junky, by William S. Burroughs, I read two books on drug addiction in 08 and that was two too many
Bonfire of the Vanities, by Tom Wolfe

August:
Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster, by Dana Thomas
Tongue Fu, by Sam Horne, give this book to your worst enemy, it is HORRIBLE

September:
All the Sad Young Literary Men, by Keith Gessen
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, by Lisa See
The Reluctant Fundamentalist, by Mohsin Hamid

October:
Downtown Owl by Chuck Klosterman
The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn’t, by Robert Sutton, all this book does is help in identifying assholes (which I have no problem with)
Sulla, by Toni Morrison

November:
Iran Awakening, by Shirin Ebadi
Twilight, by Stephenie Meyer

December:
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, by Junot Diaz

I'm a sucker for flowers, especially the unexpected and the unusual. Thursday evening I worked with a group who has hosting an event in our office space. I'm still not 100% sure what the event was for, something to do with Heidelberg and Economics … I do know that our team spent the entire day saying--in very poor accents--the German's are coming the German's are coming. Oh boy do we crack ourselves up. Siegfried, on the other hand, did not find us funny at all.

I worked with Hilla from HEDA--a mouthful, right?--to get all of the arrangements taken care of. Sometimes I referred to the event as the Hilla event and addressed Hilla as HEDA, it wasn't my finest moment. However, Hilla is one the most lovely people I've met, so of course it makes sense that first thing Friday morning she sent me over a very unexpected and elegantly unusual flower arrangement. Unfortunately, I was in Monterey for a work weekend and didn't get to see the bouquet until I was back in the office Sunday night. At this point the roses had died, but the arrangement still remains spectacular. I love the squash!

I've taken out the dead yellow roses, but you get the idea … unexpected and unusual. Amazing!



I'm off to NY tomorrow (again and I'm SO EXCITED). I wonder if while I'm away celebrating Michael's birthday, Bean will kill my flowers again.

Speaking of … check out Michael's latest accomplishments. He covered the election from Harlem and Time Square. You can check out his web article, his slide show (AMAZING), raw photos and victory slide show. One day he will win a Pulitzer, I said it here first!

To Dream

When I was visiting Michael in New York this past weekend we started building our dream house one photo at a time. It was very fun and I'm quit excited to return next month to pick out other pieces for our house.

We decided on this amazing ceiling from Dean & DeLuca for our dinning room.

Dean & DeLuca's floor for a garden patio, maybe? However, I would prefer if mine comes without the crack down the middle.

The ceiling at Pete's Tavern would work well in our dream kitchen, again, minus the cracks.

I'm in desperate need for a carpenter to make me this bed frame (not found in NY, but I bet there is a copy there somewhere). Isn't it amazing?

I considered this gate for our entrance, but the hearts are a bit obvious, I guess I'll have an opportunity to pick a new gate next month!

I would love a tree house. We saw tree houses in Madison Square Park

But I think I would prefer this tree house

And of course I would need a view of either this:

Or this (prefered)

There was a lamp I MUST have that I failed to get a picture of, but I'll be back soon, very soon.

Welcome Home

Last Tuesday I bought flowers for the house. I love flowers and I try to keep fresh flowers around as often as possible. On Saturday, Bean (my housemate) sent me a text saying that my flowers were dying. I was out of town. I replied some snide comment back, because we communicate like adolescent siblings, and expected that he would give the flowers water or, if they were actually dead, throw them out.

I got back home Sunday night around midnight:










Monday morning, Bean asked me if I had come home from NY and played "he loves me, he loves me not" with my tulips.







The vase with just one dead sunflower is on my bedside table so I don't expect that my housemate would have thrown the poor thing out. However, the second vase is in our front room. I have a feeling he spent many hours looking at the vase this weekend, yet left the poor flowers just as they were.

Love is a Mix Tape

(I stole this picture from the cover of the book Love is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss One Song at a Time

by the Rolling Stones writer Rob Sheiffeld--it's an ok book)

Sadly, tonight I'm leaving New York and my Mr. Preston. I am headed home to San Francisco. When I arrived in New York early Friday morning I hid a mix tape in Michael's bedroom in his magazine organizer, let's see if he ever finds it.

Tracks include:

1. Now that I Miss Her . . . Elefant

2. I'm the Man Who loves You . . . Wilco

3. Paris 2004 . . . Peter Bjorn and John

4. Bad Things . . . Jace Everett

5. Every Day . . . Voxtrot

6. All I Need to Get By . . . Method Man featuring Mary J. Blige

7. Fidelity . . . Regina Spektar

8. Man in Love . . . Waterboys

9. She's My Lover . . . Kid Loco

10. Won . . . Beta Band

11. How Does It Make You Feel . . . Air

12. Hate it Here . . . Wilco

13. Bullet Lovers . . . Jesus and Mary Chain

14. Faraway Blues . . . Joe Purdy

15. Beloved One . . . Ben Harper

16. This is Heaven . . Madeleine Peyroux

Thank you for entertaining me babe, I already miss you and can't wait to see you next month! <3 Muwaa. Study hard!

New York Bound

(Ork posters, order one today. I have San Francisco in green)

One vice-presidential debate to go and I'm off to New York. I've been counting down since September 15th. I started counting down the actual hours to departure when they hit 80. Now I'm only 8 away! 8 HOURS … And then I'll be seeing this guy!