Googly-eyed

I can't believe I didn't post at all the entire month of February. I mean, I know it's a short month, but still. I was hoping I could get at least one post in (I tried last night, but I actually fell asleep beside my laptop. Not the first time that's happened, and surely not the last, either).

But wow, Feb. was really busy. I can't even remember half the stuff I did, at this point, but I know a not-insignificant amount of cleaning was done, a goodly number of movies and hockey games were seen, there was a friend's art opening I went to, a couple stitch 'n' bitches to attend, and Johnny & I started going ice skating with the gang from the unofficial Panthers board every weekend, which is awesome. It ain't roller skating (I miss my quads!), and it gives my knees a bit of hell, but it's still pretty bitchin'. All in all, a very busy month.

So anyway, to atone for being such an absent blogger lately, here are some tidbits of what I did this afternoon, in the bloggy spirit of oversharing. I do Google myself every so often (as I'm sure you all do, too - it's really sort of like good internet hygiene, y'know?), and this post linked by one of my Twitter acquaintances reminded me that it's that time again. I'm actually quite difficult to find via Google, as my name is common enough to return multitudes of hits - there's even a journalist (formerly of the Washington Post, now with the Wall Street Journal) who shares my name. I'm rather pleased with my Google anonymity. That's why you won't see my full name on this blog or on my Blogger identity. But even if it did end up on here somehow, it wouldn't matter, because I'd still get lost in a sea of like-named individuals, many of whom are way higher-profile than I'll ever be. I've got a couple friends who, if you Google their full name, pages about them are the only results that show up. That just boggles my mind. Here, on the other hand, is what you get when you Google for me:

If you Google my first name and last name, on page 3 of the results you'll get the LinkedIn directory for everyone with my name, which I am on (one of 39 people). On page 7 of the results, there is a link to a page which cached a link to my Twitter account when I still had my full name attached to it. I am nowhere else to be found in the first 10 pages of results.

If you Google my nickname and my last name, a link to my old blog url shows up on the first page. Pathetically enough, I have still not placed a redirect from my old url to here, so I'm sure there are still some folks out there who think I abandoned my blog in November of 2007.

If you Google my full name plus "twitter," the page with the cached link to my Twitter account is the first result.

If you Google my full name plus "blogger," I am not anywhere to be found in the first 10 pages of results.

If you Google my full name plus "blog," there is a link to my old blog url on page 5.

"My name".blogspot.com gives you the same page as "my name".org, which appears to be the online resume of a theater director out West (interesting projects she's worked on!). "My name".com gives a placeholder page. "My name".net does not exist.

If you Google my e-mail alias, you get 3 pages of results, none of which are related to me at all. If you Google my personal e-mail address, you get four results, two of which link to comments I've made on Threadless, one of which links to my old blog url, and one of which links to some site which appears to be for spammers, as it just contains a list of random e-mail addresses, and Google warns "This site may harm your computer" (this would explain the large amount of spam I get, all of which Gmail catches - thanks, Gmail!). If you Google my "grown-up" e-mail address, which is the one I'd use for any job application or anything, you get no results.

So. Thanks for giving me a boring name, Mom & Dad! Actually, I like my name alright - it's just a little long. At 19 letters and 7 syllables, it was kind of a pain when I was learning to write as a kid, and it's still a mouthful to say. It's not so weird that I have to spell it for people all the time, but it's not John-Smith common, either. It's got a "z" and a bunch of "i"s in it, and since those are two of my favorite letters, it's just fine with me.

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25 things

I did this meme on Facebook, and I'm re-posting it here because some of these things were things I've been meaning to blog about, anyway. I'll expand on the pertinent ones at some future point, if I can ever work up the motivation.

So, 25 Things:

We all know how this works, right? I think everyone else on earth has been tagged for this at least once, so I'm only tagging people I know have done it already. If, by some miracle, you haven't been tagged yet, and you wish I had tagged you, pretend I just did.

So, without further ado, 25 Random Things About Me:

1. Most people seem to profess vague annoyance with the task when they post these things - but I love them. Love reading 'em, love writing 'em. If you ever need to tag anyone for a "list a buncha random things about yourself" meme, I'm your girl. I wanted to be tagged for this one for like, two weeks before anyone tagged me.

2. Clearly, I spend way too much time on teh intarwebz. I'm trying to be better about this.

3. I do love to travel. I've been to 24 countries (26 if you break down the UK into its component parts and count them each separately). I can think of at least 20 more, just off the top of my head, that I'd really like to visit soon. Lifetime travel goals: all 50 states, all 7 continents, all of Europe - at least!

4. Once, at a party, I miscounted and announced that I'd been to 44 countries. Oops. I have no idea where that number came from. I seem to remember alcohol being involved.

5. Pretty much any nerdy hobby you can name, I do it (or am interested in it to some degree). Where's George/Where's Willy? Yup. Geocaching? Uh huh. Philately? Numismatics? Check and check. I would bookcross more, but I really hate to get rid of books, even for the fun of spreading them around. I'm not hardcore enough to really know what I'm looking at most of the time, but I do enjoy planespotting and trainspotting. Comics, anime, sci-fi - duh. I even get nerdy about my not-so-nerdy hobbies (arts-&-crafty stuff).

6. Here is why I could never be a writer for a living, even though I've been told I'm good at it: it takes me forever. I've been at this for like, half an hour, now, and I'm only up to thing 6.

7. I can trace my dad's side of my family in this country back to a kid who landed in Virginia 401 years ago. On my mom's side, I'm in the first full generation born here - my mom's youngest sibling was born in the US, but my mom was born in China.

8. I love that - the whole Barack-Obama, nowhere-else-on-earth-is-my-story-even-possible-ness of my family.

9. I'm pretty obsessed with the salsa blanca that only Hampton Roads Mexican restaurants serve. You cannot get that stuff anywhere else. I eat at Mexican places as often as I can when I'm home for a visit.

10. Other things I miss about home: The Naro, everyone having personalized license plates, natural bodies of water everywhere (as opposed to man-made lakes & canals), The NorVa, all the artsy stuff (Chrysler Museum, Virginia Stage, etc.).

11. I don't tolerate heat very well, and consequently loathe hot weather.

12. Despite that, I don't dislike living in South Florida nearly as much as I thought I would. I've met a lot of really cool people here, and there's tons of interesting stuff to do. & OMG, I love palm trees! :D I just make sure to spend as little time outdoors as humanly possible. I actually like the reassuring sameness to the weather here, in a way. I don't need to consult the forecast, I can safely assume that it'll be hotter than I'd like for about 355 days per year.

13. If left to my own devices, I will stay up all night and sleep all day. I really have to force myself to go to bed at a "normal" time.

14. I want a house the way some women want a baby. I know it's a huge responsibility and an enormous expense, but I still want one so badly. I fawn over architecture and home dec magazines. I pore over real estate listings. It's a buyer's market right now - I just hope we can take full advantage.

15. I spend way too much time thinking about typography, the shapes of functional objects, and package design for someone utterly unconnected to the design world.

16. I'm allergic to cats, but I love 'em anyway. =^.^=

17. I'm also allergic to pineapple and penicillin.

18. There are 4 more tattoos I want to get soon.

19. 19 is my lucky number. :)

20. I'm amazed how much being 30 feels like being 12 again. For instance, I need braces (again).

21. I used to hate sports, but now I'm a pretty big hockey fan. I also sort-of, vaguely follow baseball and football (English Premier League, not NFL). When we're down at the pub watching the football, occasionally we catch a rugby game or a cricket match, & that is fun, too, if sometimes confusing. And I still love roller derby, even tho' I don't play anymore.

22. I have weird hearing. I can't hear soft sounds as well as most people, but I also can't tolerate loud noises as well as most people. I carry earplugs with me at all times.

23. At last count, I had 800-some CDs - and last count was, gosh, something like two and a half years ago now. It's high time to do another inventory, methinks.

24. I still have no idea - none at all - what I want to be when I grow up.

25. Probably about 75% of the time I spend on Facebook, I'm playing word games. Wordscraper/Lexulous, Scramble, Word Twist, whatever - if you want to play, please start a game with me!


Reading over everyone's 25 Things, I'm reminded again of just how remarkable y'all are, and how glad I am that I know you.

Cheers!

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two years in effing paradise

Two years ago today, I finally pulled up in front of this building, Lucy crammed full of boxes and stuff. That was it. Voila, I'd made it, I was now a resident of the Sunshine State.

It's simultaneously hard to believe it's already been two years, and hard to believe it's only been two years. Part of me still feels like I just got here, but part of me feels like I've been here forever. I guess the latter feeling is due mostly to how much has happened in those two years - it's amazing how much can happen in such a short time.

On the whole, I really have enjoyed living here a lot more than I thought I would. Enough so that, when it looked like we would be leaving the area by this summer, I was actually kinda bummed (tho' also rather excited at the prospect of living somewhere with four seasons, again, and being able to get my winter clothes out of storage). And now that it is entirely up in the air as to whether or not we'll be moving away at some point this year (we'll definitely be moving, but it may only be as far as Miami-Dade - long story, full of details and variables that rely on as-yet-unknown facts - I'll post something when we know anything, but until then, there's not much point), I am kinda glad there's a distinct possibility we may be staying. I'm sure that's at least somewhat due to my marked distaste for moving, but there's also the fact that, aside from the wretched weather and horrific traffic, this area has a lot to recommend itself. I've been meaning to post about a lot of those things... maybe this year I'll actually get around to doing that. Maybe I should join one of those meme things, like Things I Love Thursday - maybe that'll motivate me to post more often about actual things of substance, as opposed to my usual inane babbling. Eh, we'll see.

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a few thoughts for today

My grandmother would be 94 today if she were still alive. This is the first time her birthday's passed without her being here. Happy birthday, Nana. I miss you.

Picked up the cat from the cat hotel today (or, as Johnny might put it, I sprung her from the kitty jail). She certainly seems happy to be home. :) She didn't put on that much more weight while we were gone this time, but combined with what she gained while we were gone in November... well, let's just say that Prue needs to make a new year's resolution to lose some weight. She is a tubby, chubby kitty. Some of it will drop pretty quickly now that she can run around and jump up on things and play with her toys all day again, but I'm wondering if perhaps we'll have to put her back on the diet food, too, even if just for a little while.

Sadly, I am feeling as tubby as my cat these days. Eating like crap and not really exercising for about two months will do that to you, I guess. I will definitely have to go on the diet food for a bit, plus make sure to run around and jump up on things and play with my toys. And hey, maybe even go back to the gym one of these days. I'm not quite sure how that will work out, tho', since I'm looking at my schedule for the next few months, and this year is shaping up to be potentially even busier than the last. Yikes.

Edited to add: Oh, oh, I almost forgot! This is apparently my 200th post on this blog! Wow. Sure doesn't seem like it's been that many (then again, I clearly forget the vast majority of crap I post about, roughly 2 minutes after I hit the "Publish Post" button). That is a lot of incoherent babbling and rambling on. Here's to at least 200 more posts I also won't recall! ;)

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ZOMFGWTFBBQ salsa blanca yes!!!

So, for the past, I dunno, however-long... 8, 10 years... however long ago it was that we had that explosion of Mexican restaurants in Hampton Roads... anyway, for however long it's been since that happened, most of the local Mexican places have served two kinds of salsa with the chips they give you to munch on while you're waiting for your meal - a typical, tomato-based red salsa, and a white salsa, which I have never encountered in any other Mexican place I've ever tried, anywhere else in the world.

And I LOVE this white salsa. It's the #1 reason I have to go out for Mexican at least once on any trip home. Mom and I once asked our waiter at one of these establishments what was in it. He was an older guy, and did not speak English all that well, so all he could really tell us was "Miracle Whip, cream, spices." While that was helpful in explaining why I find it so delicious (I loves me some Miraculous Whip), it was not so helpful in allowing me to, say, reproduce the sauce when I am in Florida and feeling homesick.

I'd Googled for a more specific recipe a few times, but not come up with anything useful. Today, however, on a whim, since I will not be getting to visit my beloved El Parian in their new location at 4848 Virginia Beach Blvd (and let me tell you, I freaked out when I saw the Independence Blvd location closed until I learned that they'd just moved, not closed entirely), I tried Googling "salsa blanca" again - and voila: one Salsa Blanca Recipe, courtesy Efitobx. The person is from the area, and the recipe is basically Miracle Whip, sour cream, and spices, so I'm guessing this is it. YAYNESS! I can't wait to get home and try it. Can. Not. Wait. :D

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Happy new 2000-what? Rarr bleah stumble *crash*

Seriously, it's 2009 already? I... am so out of it. Like, wow. Being sick out of my mind right now is not helping things any, I guess.

So new year's resolutions are a crock of shit, but anyway, here are some things I really would like to get done this year.

Blah Blah Blah Resolution-Cakes


• Post and caption my gigantic backlog of pictures. And when I say GIGANTIC backlog, I am not kidding. I want 2009 to be my year of the photo.


• Clean up this god damn dump of a blog. Maybe I'll actually use it more if I finally fix my template and all.


• Get rid of a bunch of stuff. Particularly old clothes I don't/can't wear anymore. I can't find anything to wear half the time because our bedroom is such a huge mess, and it's really driving me crazy. Well, crazier.


• Buy a house and pack up and move into it. But first we have to figure out if Johnny's going to law school, and if so, where; or if he's getting a new job, in which case we won't be moving very far. I have no control over either of those things, tho', so I'm kind of spinning my wheels on this one (except for the packing part - gotta start on that the minute we get home - no matter what happens, we won't be in our apartment for too much longer).


• Somewhat corollary to the last point, we've got this big list of stuff we need to do in South Florida before we leave, if it turns out we will, in fact, be leaving. I'll probably post that list somewhere so we can keep track of it, and so other people can suggest things we may have forgotten or overlooked.


• NaNoWriMo. I'm gonna plan for it this year, goddammit! This stupid story has been percolating in my head since 2006, fer cryin' out loud. I need to get it out and be done with it.


• I should probably get around to learning to play bridge, since I didn't do that this past year.

That is all. Happy new year, all three of you who will ever read this! :) Now I'm gonna go stuff tissues up my nose in a vain attempt to stem the never-ending tide of mucus that has been snaking down my upper lip for the past 3 hours or so. Ugh.

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