‘tis the Season

With an extended break from the office I decided to pick up my paint roller and finish what I started almost six weeks ago when I initially moved. With a paint sample in hand I headed to my local home improvement store to grab a gallon. I went with a knock-off shade of Restoration Hardware blue in hopes that it would compliment my knock-off Pottery Barn green living/dining room. With an hour of masking the molding and built-ins I cut in the edges and loaded up my roller. Mr. Miyagi would be proud of my skills with a brush.

Two coats later my initial doubt subsided and I was happy with the color balance. Here are a few pictures of how things turned out. The colors are not a perfect representation since the iPhone is 2 megapixels and without a flash. The pictures make it look a little bit Caribbean but it is more subdued in person. At some point I will have to start having people over for some house warming parties.

As for the rest of my holiday break I had plenty of quiet time. I slept in for the first time in years (past 8:30 is sleeping in for me but in the past week I haven’t gotten out of bed until 10:30). It was slothfully blissful. My sister and I spent Christmas with friends from San Diego and caught up on our nap schedule.

I had a moment of bravery and decided to go see the BodyWorlds exhibit. With sister in tow and a plastic bag in pocket we headed to the Leonardo to see the human body in all its glory (and strange positions). I made it through without passing out (girls faint, guys pass out) or having to vomit. When I saw the cross-section of the obese man I almost lost it but with a little Lamaze breathing and counting down from 10 I was back on track. After an hour we were shunted through the exit and concluded that it was nice of all the circus people to donate their bodies (there was the archer, some copulating acrobats, the swinging trapeze lady, and others). All in all I am glad that I got to see what I missed out on when the exhibit was in NYC. But just like a meal at an overhyped restaurant, you visit once – say you’ve been there and opt for another venue when it is brought up again.

The highlight was a contraband photo of the placenta. One girl had to explain to her boyfriend that Tom Cruise made a meal out of Kate’s and another group of teen girls traded stories of how their teacher in Draper made pills out of hers. All I could think about is how it was a round placenta lasagna, a freakin’ plasagna right there in the display case. Eeeewwww.


PS: The white elephant gifts found a new home and are greatly appreciated. They outlived their use protecting my car on the road – they looked too much like a bong collection.
PS: PS: I have busted through the 100 page mark on Atlas Shrugged. Only 950 or so more pages to go. Kirk might get it back by 2010. True Story

Where to begin - how about nowhere?

I need to get on the ball with this blog, I know. I have a variation of the same excuses each time I upload my monthly tales. So as this falls of deaf ears, I'm sorry. I will try to do better (let the vicious cycle of procrastination, an overwhelming amount of topics, and an aversion to sitting at a keyboard while not at work repeat once again).

Sorry!

October continued in my need to vacation, and vacation I did. I want to thank www.delta.com for sending their last minute fare alerts. This go-around it got my butt in a seat headed for LA. I knew that I couldn't get away during fall break but I could disappear the week before so I used guilt to find two of the worlds greatest travel companeros and we we in the Magic Kingdom of Disney by Saturday morning. The beauty of this spontaneous trip was that we had little planning and still had a great time. My friends even downloaded a program to map out our days in the park - in three days we stood in line for only about 2-3 hours (total!). By the time we got our photo with Mickey that first morning it was destined to be a great trip - it makes all the difference when the people you travel with are simpatico. I left my camera in my bag for all three days but I have a few pictures that I captured with my phone...hope they satiate your appetite for pictures.

Oh Mickey - you're so fine, you're so fine...

The highlight was definitely having the Haunted Mansion decked out for the Nightmare Before Christmas

In case you wondered where candy corn came from. It grows in stalks and in trees. Duh!

Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil. I got soaked and spent the next two hours with a severe case of swotch.

California Adventure was fun but not as cool as California in general. Especially when we (I) lost my ticket and had to halt the fast-passes.

Changing gears, work is work and that's all I'm going to say. It has me exhausted and up to my eyeballs in foreign affairs. I'm living the dream of "don't ask, don't tell" so please don't bother asking me what I do. Truth is, I don't even have a strong grasp on it these days and it's different everyday. One thing I can tell you is that we are decorating for Halloween at the college and I expect it will be a crazy week of butcher paper, masking tape, and people trying to figure out what we are doing. The front office has decided to go with a "Birds" theme - like the horror movie. It's cool but we did a major chunk of it while the bosses were out on Friday - can't wait to hear the reactions (and curse words) as they see it for the first time. Not sure if my boss will go for it but at least it was a nice distraction from the work we have been doing (yet again, nothing I can really talk about but if you read the paper you can figure it out on your own).

Here is a taste of what we have been doing to the front office at work. I am the master of making trees and birds now - who knew I had it in me to be so creative?

My big news for the month is that I will be moving out in the next few weeks. The time has come and it's time to live without roommates. I have mixed emotions on the topic of flying solo, mostly I'm sad that I won't be living with Scott anymore. Scott is one of the world's nicest guys and I don't want to leave him high and dry. I have a few housing options in the city but need to make a decision this week on where I will end up by mid-November. At least that will serve as a teaser to check back on where in the world "Matthew SanDiego" is.

I will make sure to post pictures of he Halloween party and my costume. You might need to check the following link to get up to speed on who I will be: www.drhorrible.com (I won't tell you what character I am planning to be just yet - it's a surprise)

Until next time...feel free to place bets on when I will update this again. I have a feeling that JoLynn and Katie have a running wager on it. Let me know who wins.