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Posted by Julie at 04:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's a great day, may I help you?

Today was a nice day. I had to meet with some people for class and we had a fun time. I think it's amusing that everytime we have a meeting, we are always shrieking with laughter and screaming things like, "I'm Rick James, bitch" whenever the one guy's girlfriend calls his cell phone. That's graduate students hard at work, for you.

I didn't really do anything this weekend, as usual. Friday, Nate and I went to Fuel & Fuddle. I was cranky because of a miscommunication between me and a potential interviewer. I laid around all night and watched TV after that. Yesterday, we went home to Ford City and I took the loveliest little Honey Bun for a walk. She got super dirty and then apparently I forgot to take her leash off when I took her back home. Oh well, she likes the leash. It reminds her that she is my subordinate.

Our oven sucks ass. Only when making pizza. Somehow it is able to cook the top of the pizza and the edges, but never the bottom or the middle. So, you have to let it cook for like 47 minutes, and after all that all you get is a burnt top and a slightly done bottom. I like my bottoms to be CRISPY and DONE! Just like how I like them on my people.

We're going to look at an apartment on Monday. It's also with Mozart Management, who I rent from now. It is in Squirrel Hill. Not really my ideal place to live if I am going to be working in Shadyside, because getting from Squirrel Hill to Shadyside via bus isn't exactly easy. I think there is like one bus that has a direct route between the 2 locations, and it doesn't run very often. I hate Pittsburgh public transportation! And the people that ride it. Today I saw this douche bag almost get hit by a car because she ran out in front of a stopped bus when the light was green. I would have thoroughly enjoyed her getting hit because I'm evil like that.

Today when I came home from my meeting, Nate was playing a PC game and also had my Game Cube on with some other game playing itself somehow. I don't know. I asked him how many games he was playing at once, and he said 2. I got cranky again and said that I didn't want my Game Cube to be running all day, so I asked him POLITELY! to turn it off. He did. But I know he is pissed. He is probably composing in his head right now the anti-Julie manifesto.

April Fool's day is this week. I hope something funny happens, like that time on the Fresh Prince when they tricked Geoffrey into thinking he won the lottery and he was like, "I quit!" and broke a vase and told Ashley he would buy her 2 cars.

Oh yeah! I watched "The Cutting Edge" last night for the 234th time. Great movie! Toe pick!

Goodbye, cruel world!

Posted by Julie at 04:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It is spring now. And it is still snowing outside. BAH HUMBUG.

I had a, how you say, interesting weekend. Friday during my lunch break, I got a call asking me to come in for an interview for a job - a technical recruiter. They wanted me to come in that day, but I obviously couldn't, so they said they would make arrangements to meet me the next day, on Saturday. So, I got really pumped thinking this is the job of dreams, like how I think about every job before the interview.

So, I go to the interview, and it was kind of a whirlwind. It wasn't so much of an interview as a, "When can you start?" I didn't really know what to say... the guy made a nice offer right there and told me to go home and think about it and call him tomorrow. The next day! In fact, he wanted me to put in my two weeks where I work now on a Sunday. Ok, I'm not going to call my boss on a Sunday to put in my two weeks.

So, I went home and stressed about it. Pros were that it was way more pay than what I'm making now, it was a cool job that I was very interested in and that provided room to grow, and everyone who worked there was an MBA, so it was like, my degree that I don't even have yet is working for me. Cons? I would have to buy a car, which isn't a big deal if I'm getting paid a lot more, but it's a big financial commitment. I didn't feel right about quitting my job at this point in time... maybe that is stupid of me, but I just feel like I need to be here a little bit longer before leaving. Or even if I could give them significantly more notice than 2 weeks, that would be ok with me. The major con though were the hours... the guy said that most of the people in the office stayed until 7, 8, or even 9pm everynight. Everyone was given laptops and when they got home, they were expected to plug in the laptop and keep working on and off for the rest of the evening. Uh, yeah. Maybe if they gave me 20,000 more a year and bought me a car, it would have sounded a bit more appealing. I don't know. It seemed that I wouldn't have had time for school, and even if I did, I wouldn't have had any time to breathe. He asked when my classes were and seemed to be pretty understanding that I needed to be at them on time.

Anyways, I called him yesterday and said it didn't seem like it was right for me at this point. I think I made the right decision. I always seem wary of jobs that want to hire you on the spot like that. And I figured if I really wanted the job and if it was really right for me, I wouldn't have stressed about it at all and it would have been a no-brainer on whether to take it or not.

So that's that. In other news, the semester is almost over - only 3 more weeks. Hooray! Then next semester starts 2 weeks after that. I'm taking Ethics, Advertising, and Economics. Sounds like a fun filled summer. Not that it will ever get warm or anything.

Oh yeah, in other, other news, I went on a tights purchasing rampage this weekend. Nate took me to The Soxx Shop at Station Square, and I bought five pairs of tights. Hell yeah. I need to be in the Tights of the Month club or something and they can just send me like 2 new pairs every month. Maybe I should start that business myself. Hmm.

Nothing else to talk about... Nate's dad is in town tonight and I think we are going to eat at Joe Mama's. Toodles.

Posted by Julie at 04:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sooooy milk, is a very very very fine milk.

Hello, I am doing a "quickie" before Survivor starts on its special night at 8 / 7 Central. I sold out to "the man" and put my San Francisco and Christmas pictures on a photo gallery website deal, Fotki. It made a bit more sense than to spend the hours it took to put all my pictures up like I used to.

My face is peeling. Also, it has been snowing for 2 days. Snowing! On my turf! Snow has a lot of balls to do something like that.

So, I have this database project due next week. I was going to work on it tonight, but I am super sleepy and not in the mood. I'll probably be might sad this weekend when I have to finish the whole thing, but it isn't like I have plans to do something else like GO OUTSIDE since it is CRAP outside. I want to spend a loving weekend with Paige, Ty, Doug, Frank, Christie, Gen, Hildi, and Kia and eat snacks and nap a lot.

Here is a general rant about things that I hate about my clothes / clothing in general.

It really makes me mad that all of my light colored tights have crazy dirt spots all over the foot area. And not even like just the bottom, like all the way around the ankle and in weird splotches everywhere. This means I can't wear certain pairs of shoes or else the dirt splotches will show. However, I think it is the shoes I can wear that are the ones that are making them dirty!!! Quite a catch 22, if you will.

I hate ironing. Actually, I don't mind ironing. I guess I could say that I get really mad when I screw up a brand new clothing item. I was ironing a black button down NEW shirt last night to wear for today, and I scorched the shirt a little and got a big faint outline of an iron right in the middle on the back. Bitches!!! I was infuriated. Not only because it was a new shirt, but because the LAST black button down shirt I owned was retired to the Salvation Army Sack of Fun because it fit weird and the shoulder width was not wide enough. Grr!!! I have certain skirts that cannot be worn without a black button down shirt, people! I ended up wearing my other black shirt instead, a black short sleeved shirt with a pocket, but it wasn't the same. I read on some helpful hints site that a warm cloth with vinegar is supposed to solve the iron scorching woes. We'll see about that.

I also hate shoes. I like the idea of shoes, but shoes do not fit my feet. I have large feet and apparently a wide set of toes. The inside of my big toe is always sore and tender after wearing anything but slippers for more than 2 hours. :( Someone make custom shoes for my crazy feet.

Nate is snapping at me to come watch Survivor now since I HELD HIM DOWN WITH A KNIFE to make him stop playing his video game so I could have the TV for 1 precious hour. See ya.

Posted by Julie at 04:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So, here is the highly coveted San Francisco recap.

Thursday morning we left for the airport at like 8am or something. We flew to San Francisco without a hitch. I played Game Boy, read some of my book and looked out the window. They played "Something's Gotta Give," which I didn't watch because you had to pay 5 dollars for the headphones. Five dollars!

Anyways, when we got there, we had to figure out how to take the subway deal to the city, which we did. When we got there, I was somewhat overwhelmed by all the peeps everywhere... it was way busier than I thought it would be downtown. We survived though and ate some pizza and bought a "City Pass" thing for a 3 day pass for public transit. We then waited in a big line to get on the cable car to ride up the massive, massive hill to our hotel. I guess I'm a retard or something because I didn't realize how steep those hills were. I became very familiar with them over the next few days.

Anyways, I also learned that it seemed that only the touristy people rode the cable cars. Understandable, because they weren't the speediest forms of transportation, nor did they make you feel very safe! I feared for my life several times hanging off the side of the thing because you go by the other cable cars with people on them so closely that you could reach out and grab them. Anyways, we got to our hotel to find that it had no a/c, but that was ok once we closed the blinds and turned on the fan.

After that, we took a cable car over to the San Francisco Real World house. I was a little confused because I knew what it looked like, but it had undergone major renovations and didn't look the same anymore. I took a picture though and verified that it was indeed the same house when I got home.

At the top of the giant, giant hill that the Real World house was on was Lombard Street, aka the "crookedest street in America" or something along that lines. We didn't walk up it, but we took pictures. After that, we walked through China Town, which was very large compared to other China Towns I have been in. However, I've never been a huge fan of China Towns in general. Nate bought some Pocky (a graham crackery chocolate stick thing), which is actually Japanese, not Chinese. I think we headed back to the hotel after that because we were getting very tired. We took showers and went to Millennium, an "upscale"ish vegetarian restaurant that was downtown. It was nice to go to an all vegetarian restaurant that wasn't just Asian style food. I like that kind of food, but I want something different at a restaurant. I had "Seitan Au Vin" with mashed potatoes, broccoli, and some other random root vegetables. Nate had some kind of empanadas and envied my mashed potatoes. Ha! I enjoyed it a lot and we even contemplated going back there to eat the next night. But we didn't. We headed back to the hotel just in time to see Survivor and The Apprentice! Excellent. Even 2,000 miles away I still make time for my favorite TV shows.

The next morning, we got up early and ate our free continental breakfast, which wasn't as expansive as I would have hoped. Still good, and free. We took the cable car (after being passed up by several full ones) to Fisherman's Wharf where we took a ferry over to Alcatraz and toured it. That was a lot of fun, I thought, even though there were a bunch of annoying kids on the boat talking about how "tight" things were, "holla." Anyways, we got to go in cells and stuff.

We spent the rest of the day after that just walking around the various piers and seeing the "world famous" sea lions. That was really cool... there were like a hundred of them all just laying around, arfing. We went into this cool magnet shop and bought a fake doughnut magnet. We also ate crepes at this cool crepe place... Pittsburgh needs a crepe place. Oh yeah. There was also a guy dressed all in silver there dancing to rap music and dancing like a robot, complete with robot noises. Liz Yount told me about him! That must be his full time job. We also saw this other guy doing a crap imitation of him, except he didn't have a robot suit and he couldn't do good robot moves either. There is only one ultimate robot dancer!

What's next... we walked around forever and then went back to downtown and had some pretty good burritos at this burrito shack. Most of the places downtown were pretty upscale and expensive, but this place was cheap and good. After that, we went home and went to sleep.

Saturday morning, we got up early again (well, I slept in until 8am!) and ate breakfast and took the cable car to Japan Town. It was pretty early though, so nothing was open there. We were a little disappointed, so we decided to walk over to the Full House not-really-house and then come back later. So, those houses that are in the opening for Full House - none of them are the house that they "lived" in on the show. I just figured that out today when I saw the beginning of a Full House episode. I always just assumed that one of them was theirs, but no. They just ate in the park there (Alamo Square). I got my picture taken in front of the houses anyways, and then we hopped on a cool, electric bus back to Japan Town. Electric buses rock! The buses had a really smooth ride compared to our crappy Pittsburgh buses.

Stuff in Japan Town was jumpin' by then, (well not jumpin', but open) and we walked around inside the malls and ate at a place called Mifune. I was a little disappointed with the food selection... I assumed that a lot of the noodle dishes would be vegetarian, but unfortunately they were all cooked in fish based soup. Gross. Nate and I both ended up getting the same rice / fried vegetable dish which wasn't really that spectacular. Our waiter was helpful though with pointing out the veggie friendly dishes.

After that, we took a bus to the Haight area, which is where the Haight / Ashbury St. dealy is. It was a fun street... a lot of touristy shops selling stereotypical "hippie" stuff, but also a lot of cool shoe shops, tattoo places, burrito shacks, etc. We went to Amoeba records, which was this giant record store that catered to lots of different tastes. It was kind of overwhelming though and not really organized that well, so we kind of browsed around and then left. I wasn't really interested in buying anything anyways.

Next, we walked to Golden Gate park which was at the end of the street. It was really big and tons of people were there juggling, banging drums, laying out, playing soccer, and playing frisbee and stuff. Also, I have now concluded that every person in San Francisco has a dog. It made me sad because I wanted to hang out with my dog too. That is also where the punky / squatter kids hang out who very rudely try to get money from you. Ok, I understand for the most part the whole "punk culture," but it really irritates me when kids act like total bitches and expect you to give them a dollar. You don't have to give in to "the man" and get a real job, but don't piss me off when I'm trying to have a good time. And that's my rant.

We sat in the sun there for awhile, and then took a bus back to downtown and did some kind of random shopping. I found the "Shoe Pavilion" and the angels sang. Nate wasn't too interested in shoe shopping with me, but I did find a cute pair of black Mary Janes for like 20 dollars. The place was a giant discout shoe warehouse. Totally rockin'.

After that, we went to Macy's just because I have never been to one before. I was like, oh yay tights, my favorite fashion accessory. So, I picked up a pair of tights and they were $44! I thought that surely I must be delusional, so I picked up a second pair, and they were $50. Jesus lord. You know, I really like tights but I'm not about to blow that amount of money on a pair of things that will just tear or get stinky foot disease in a month anyways. Jerks. Needless to say, we immediately left Macy's.

We headed up to one of the many corner convenience stores that sells all of life's necessities like soy milk, beer, batteries, and chips and bought some tostitos and salsa for a snack in our hotel room. I will admit that I was quite cranky at this point from all the walking and the fact that we would have had to wait like a half hour for a cable car to get up the hill, so we walked instead. Walking up those hills takes a lot out of you, but at least we surely burned off every single calorie we consumed there, and probably every calorie from a week prior too. Anyways, we got back to the hotel fairly early, maybe around 6, and just decided to call it a day and ordered pizza and sat around and watched Queer Eye for the Straight Guy and a thing about why the 90s ruled. I don't know if I agree with the Internet being number 4 and Seinfeld being number 1, but that's why I didn't write the show. We went to bed REALLY early, at like 8:30, 9 pm. We had to though because we had to get up at like 5:30 to start the long journey home.

And this is where things get crappy.

The cab ride to the airport was quick, but a little pricey. We didn't want to have to deal with accidentally getting on the wrong train or something on the way there and missing our flight. Anyways, we got there at 7 and our flight was at 8. We took off and landed in Chicago around 2, where we were supposed to wait until 5 for our connecting flight home. Things didn't quite work out though that way. It was really bumpy on the way in and Nate had his puke bag in hand. No puking was had though. Anyways, our flight got delayed twice and we didn't take off until 7pm (8pm EST). Sucks. I was quite cranky because I wanted to be home to watch Alias and eat something before going to bed. Oh well. That didn't happen.

We did get to watch School of Rock on the way out and they gave us biscotti and stuff... that was pretty sweet. School of Rock was a funny movie. I didn't want to give it a chance. You're not hardcore unless you live hardcore.

Taking off from Chicago at night was really nice though... it's so cool to see that city from above because it is all these perfect grids, and at night they are perfect squares of light as far as you can see. Pittsburgh is such a wimpy city compared to places like Chicago, size wise. Oh yeah, the flight from San Francisco to Chicago was awesome too, because we flew over all these snowy mountains and stuff. I took pictures, which are in the picture section that is linked at the end of this entry.

So, we finally laned in Pittsburgh at like 9:30 and had to get off the plane, get to the car, FIND the car, drive home... we didn't get home until like 10:50 and then we went immediately to bed to get up for work the next day. BOO. I so wish I had taken today off. I could have, I just didn't think it would have been a big deal.

So yeah. I am back here now and I left 70 degree perfect-Julie weather only to find out it is supposed to snow like 6 inches tonight. Sigh. Why can't it not be cold as crap here?

My final thoughts on San Francisco... the weather was great for the time of the year we were there. I love t-shirt and jeans weather, with the occasional sweatshirt in the evening. My face did, however, did get burnt to a crisp as was noted by everyone at work today. The homeless population was a lot more visible there than in Pittsburgh, but they had no Sombrero man, unfortunately. People seemed happy in general. I would be happy if I didn't have to deal with weather that made me want to die all the time. I don't know that the weather stays nice like that all year round, but if it would, that would be awesome. I also don't really like extremely hot weather as much as I don't like really cold weather, so I don't know what my perfect place is. I hear San Diego has great weather year round. Maybe that will be our next mini-vacation destination. I definitely couldn't handle walking up those hills everyday, but I'm sure that if you lived there, there would be no real reason that you would have to walk up them all the time like a tourist does. Someday I think Nate and I would both like to move out of Pittsburgh but I'm just not sure when that will be or where. It definitely won't be to Dayton, Pennsylvania and that's about the only thing I can say for sure!

Find pictures here: San Francisco pictures.

Posted by Julie at 04:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm going to San Francisco tomorrow! I am really excited. It is supposed to be in the 70s there... that will be a lot nicer than this crap 20 degree weather we are having. Nate and I started packing last night and started to think about the all important decisions, like what Game Boy Advance games we are taking and whose battery charger we are taking. You know, the basics.

I prepared my TiVo to hold down the fort for me for our 4 day trip. I made sure it wouldn't go and delete Survivor before I came back or anything like that. We might go back to the hotel tomorrow night at 9 to watch The Apprentice. Yes, even on my mini-vacation, I schedule my life around prime time reality TV.

Speaking of TV, I was watching an old episode of Felicity last night. I forgot how much I HATE Felicity... the person, not the show. She is so stupid. I can't believe that she went home and went back to school to be a freaking doctor after the whole thing. The end of Felicity was probably the worst end of any TV show ever.

Woo! I guess my next update will be sometime after I get back Sunday evening... lots of pictures will be shared, hopefully.

Posted by Julie at 03:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's like 75 degrees out right now. I can't believe it. Nice weather rocks.

Tonight I think I am going to some Katz happy hour thing. I don't really feel like going.

San Francisco is next week! Woo hoo. I was checking out weather.com and apparently the weather there right now is really similar to what ours is here. Except I think their weather is consistenly in the upper 60s this time of year, whereas our weather is not consistent at all.

In other San Francisco news, I just saw that NOFX and some other bands will be playing 2 minutes from our hotel on one of the nights that we will be there, but it is sold out. Oh well, no big loss. I've seen them before and was kind of let down. It would have been fun though.

Fun things we DO have planned are going to Alcatraz, going to the Full House and Real World houses, and uh, other stuff. It's all written down at home.

I got an 80% on my accounting midterm, which was really what I expected. That ended up being about the average for the class, which means I did good. Yay.

I'm hot and thirsty. And tired. It's Friday! Woo.

Posted by Julie at 03:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)