overfl/eoin with awesome

oscar noms

2009-01-21T10:25:00.001-08:00

my predictions for oscar nominations tomorrow morning.

best picture
the curious case of benjamin button
the dark knight
frost/nixon
milk
slumdog millionaire

best director
danny boyle
david fincher
ron howard
christopher nolan
gus van sant

best actor
clint eastwood
frank langella
sean penn
brad pitt
mickey rourke

best actress
cate blanchett
anne hathaway
sally hawkins
meryl streep
kate winslet (revolutionary road)

best supporting actor
james brolin
robert downey jr.
philip seymour hoffman
heath ledger
dev patel

best supporting actress
penelope cruz
viola davis
taraji p. henderson
marissa tomei
kate winslet (the reader)

Books in 2008

2009-01-12T17:23:00.000-08:00

here are the aforementioned 20 books that i read last year, in chronological order and with my top 5 at the end. let me know if you have any recommendations!

1. Matilda – Roald Dahl
2. Restless – William Boyd
3. The Law of Dreams – Peter Behrens
4. What is the What by Dave Eggers
5. A Thousand Acres – Jane Smiley
6. Fellow Travelers – Thomas Mallon
7. The Pacific and Other Stories – Mark Helprin
8. Billion Dollar Kiss – Jeffrey Stepakoff
9. 10 Days in the Hills – Jane Smiley
10. A Handbook to Luck – Cristina Garcia
11. Tender at the Bone – Ruth Reichl
12. When You Are Engulfed in Flames – David Sedaris
13. People of the Book – Geraldine Brooks
14. When Will There Be Good News – Kate Atkinson
15. Twilight – Stephenie Meyer
16. I See You Everywhere – Julia Glass
17. Slam – Nick Hornby
18. Flesh and Blood – Michael Cunningham
19. East of Eden – John Steinbeck
20. The Emperor's Children – Claire Messud

Top 5:
1. A Thousand Acres – loved this one from start to finish, resurrected my lunchtime reading isolation, and got me to try reading more by the author (though that foray was a disappointment).
2. Tender at the Bone – Ruth Reichl is a great writer and made me want to cook – I know! Me!
3. East of Eden – wanted to love this more as Grapes of Wrath is probably in my top 3 of all time. Still devoured this one, but wish I had read it in a class so that I could get all the many meanings out of it.
4. Restless – great spy novel I read at the beginning of the year – totally entrancing.
5. (tie) People of the Book and I See You Everywhere – two new novels by two of my favorite authors – neither one was extraordinary, but I love both of their writing styles.

third time's the charm, right?

2009-01-12T13:36:00.000-08:00

i started smoking on october 31st, 2000. minus one 11 month quitting period, and another 7 month quitting period, that's pretty much 8 years of smoking. disgusting.

one of my new year's resolutions was to quit... again. i had my coworker trish take some pictures of me trashing my last pack of cigarettes

january 8, 2009 was the first day of not smoking. being completely ill has certainly helped me have no desire to smoke in these first few days, which is awesome. wish me luck!

10 things i did in 2008

2009-01-05T15:08:00.000-08:00

1. read 20 books
2. accidentally started smoking again and then purposefully kept doing it
3. started taking happy pills
4. moved to san francisco
5. began working at an amazing job that quickly spiraled out of control ...
6. ... and then hilariously bombed an interview for my dream job
7. visited 4 states (and drove through 2 more)
8. made innumerable racist jokes
9. volunteered my ass off for a losing political campaign
10. lost my virginity

here's hoping to keeping this progress going in 2009!

oscar season

2008-12-04T13:59:00.001-08:00

i love movies and i love awards. hence, i love oscar season. i like checking all the awards websites and finding out what movies have "the buzz."

it's funny - before my former roommate was involved in an oscar campaign for her boss, i didn't realize that there are actually very few surprises when movies are nominated. if you don't follow all the info, you wake up that morning in february and say, oh, okay, weird, that movie or person or whatever got nominated. but it's all pretty predictable if you follow the info. anywayz...

so far, i'm fully behind "slumdog millionaire." the movie was fucking phenomenal. i thought "milk" was good not great (though sean penn was amazing). "the curious case of benjamin button" was intriguing, but really long and somehow... not very compelling. i only saw that one last night so haven't quite formed a full opinion of it yet. i might try to get to a "frost/nixon" screening tonight, but i have to do laundry so... yeah. probably not.

prop 8 and race: a community forum

2008-11-19T21:29:00.000-08:00

just in from an event at the san francisco lgbt community center. want to get some stuff down before i forget!

panelists included andrea shorter, co-chair of the bayard lgbt rustin coalition, northern california's largest black lgbt political organization; rebecca rolfe, executive director of the sf lgbt community center; sf city supervisor bevan dufty stopped by for a few minutes; reverend amos brown; the director of the northern california no on 8 campaign; a really funny black woman lawyer who has done a lot of community organizing; and the moderator, who was from stopaids.org (i am hoping to find other blogs about this event tomorrow - i will update the names if i can).

some things that came up:

- "the endorsements didn't come too late - the money came too late. i needed $40 million on september 1st, not october 21st. the next time this comes around, give early, and give often." the director of the campaign

- there was a lot of talk about individual efforts - people sharing stories about marching here, there and everywhere, and then finding out their parents or co-workers voted for prop 8 - it doesn't always need to be a big forum, a massive march, or a traffic-stopping event - you can always do something.

- "let's be honest here. there are knuckle-headed people in the black community who are homophobic. and there are knuckle-headed people in the gay community who are racist." black lawyer lady.

- rebecca rolfe talked about how the lgbt movement doesn't have the history behind it that the black community does, in that our movement is relatively young. she also spent a good deal of her time talking about how the lgbt movement has always been about white, gay men, and how we need to reframe the movement so that people of color, women, transgender people, everyone, can get involved and feel like this is our community.

- "you are going to win this eventually. because the people who are against you? they're going to die." lawyer lady. this sparked some discussion later about how we can't write off old people, faith based groups, and minority groups just because they don't agree with us now - yes, the old people are going to die, but that doesn't mean that we can't make inroads now.

- the 70% figure. andrea spent about 10 minutes dissecting the "70% of black folks voted for prop 8" thing that was happening immediately after the election. other than reiterating that exit polls are not accurate, and that pollsters now say the number is 56%, she lamented that the media focussed on that figure as a wedge issue. it was used to divide two minority groups that should be working together.

- supervisor dufty said he thought the no on 8 campaign was "culturally incompetent." i was a little offended by this statement, particularly since he came in late, and left right after he spoke. it was a little unfair to drop a huge amount of blame on one group and then leave before the campaign was able to respond (in total disclosure, he had a sick daughter at home, so it was great that he came at all, i just... wish he had stuck around a little longer).

- one guy cracked me up when he said that racism in the gay community needed to stop on all levels - starting with manhunt profiles. "don't tell me you don't want any asians - just tell me what you do want."

okay. that's all i got for now. i'll try to update this as more info becomes available, both in other outlets and in my brain.

eta this link: sfist recap of the event. they didn't catch the names of the people i missed. i'll keep looking. i had forgotten about bevan dufty railing against the sit-in last weekend, which was pretty funny.

the bathroom bookend

2008-11-18T09:47:00.000-08:00

yesterday began and ended in the same manner.

i woke up to the sound of one roommate fumbling around in the bathroom after showering. after she left, and as i lay in my bed trying to motivate to get in the shower, my other roommate jumped in there. fuck - this means i'm going to be late. to top it off, he started to take a shit, and since my bed shares a paper thin wall with the bathroom, i got to hear that. yay.

as i lay in bed last night about to go to sleep, roommate number 1 went into the bathroom to get ready for bed. she turned the hall light on because... she couldn't see? i don't know. but the light is right outside my door, and i have an inch and a half gap under my door, and my bed is really low, so it is kinda a nuisance. and then she went to bed and left the light on. wtf. oh and the toilet was running for who knows how long.

maybe i'm overly considerate, or just crazy, but... maybe don't stomp around the house and shut doors really loudly at 11:30p or 7a. i miss living with my friends.

i'm back

2008-11-17T14:07:00.000-08:00

... again. i seem to enjoy taking long breaks. it's not like i am overfleoin with work right now, so i have no excuses for not blogging so... here goes.

...

...

maybe it's because i have nothing interesting to say? i worked out today and then ate a shit ton. i am listening to the britney leaked songs right now. i have to go to the bank. i'm tired. it's so nice out all i want to do is go read. i am fat. my lungs hurt, but i really want to smoke. 30 rock rulz. twilight sux. making decisions is hard.

okay.

politicin'

2008-11-04T16:00:00.000-08:00

i've been MIA again.

politics have overtaken my life in the last 6 weeks. i've been campaigning like a motherfucker for the no on 8 campaign and today the day is finally here.

phew.

i will write more soon but... yeah. that's all i got for now.

go vote. no on 8. yes on obama. yes we can!

i can't believe i just wrote that.

fuuuuck

2008-10-08T11:42:00.000-07:00

do i need to move to la?

production jobs are few and far between up here, and it would be much easier to get that kind of work down south. but... then i'd have to live in la. and i don't like la.

i have thought about trying to take a 3 month gig down there and seeing how i like it. that might be the way to go if/when i get laid off and if/when this other job doesn't come through.

i am able to ignore the internal debate about sf vs. la until someone else, in this case another coworker, tells someone that for what i want to do, i should really be in la. and i know it's the truth. but i don't want to be there.

like i said. fuuuuuuuuck.

about last night...

2008-10-04T12:38:00.000-07:00

zoe and i went out. we drank more than a drivable amount, so she stayed over.

at one point in the night, she got up to go to the bathroom. when she returned, she thought, huh, eoin rolled over to my side of the bed, weird. that's not a very funny joke? except then she realized i was still where she left me.

so i hear zoe saying my name and hitting my leg and i'm all out of it and tired and drunk and try to ignore her, until i hear her say "YOU HAVE TO TURN THE LIGHT ON RIGHT NOW." which i did.

i looked at the foot of my bed, and zoe was standing there laughing her ass off. to my left? was my roommate.

what.

the.

fuck.

"oh," says eoin, "how did you end up here?"

"i have no idea" replies mark.

he promptly got up, said "i must have been there for a while" (except that zoe had been in the bathroom for... 1 minute), tightened his robe (i don't even want to think about the fact that he sleeps naked), and walked out.

zoe and i spent 2 minutes staring at each other, laughing, and just generally being confused. then we passed out again and zoe forgot it happened.

when i talked to mark this morning, he apologized and said he had no idea what had happened, that he must have gotten up to go to the bathroom and then just kinda sleep walked into my room and passed out. i don't know. it was hysterical slash crazy slash thank god it was him and not his boyfriend because i would have shit my pants if i'd woken up to a stranger in my bed. although......

favorites

2008-10-03T10:46:00.000-07:00

at an interview recently, i was asked "what are your favorite movies of all time?" what a horrible question. fortunately for me, given where i was interviewing and what industry i'm in, i had anticipated the question. after saying, "wow, that's a tough one, can i give you a few?" here is what i ended up with:

1) In America. an amazing, quiet little movie about irish immigrants in new york city in the 80s. without fail, makes me cry every time. as sara said at the end, between sobs, "that is seriously the best film i've ever seen."
2) Comedy block. i love a good laugh, so i threw mean girls, national lampoon (vacation, christmas vacation, and european vacation), 40 year old virgin, and freaky friday into a group. (also, apparently i'm a teenage girl).
3) the "i also love stupid movies" category. here we find national treasure, the day after tomorrow, and other rainy/hungover day yarns like casino royale and the bourne movies.
4) gladiator, brokeback mountain, and capote. the "i also like quality movies" category.
5) finding nemo. because ellen degeneres is awesome.

i'm diverse y'all!

another thing i'm good at

2008-10-02T10:51:00.000-07:00

i seem to have a knack for making people delete their online profiles. no joke.

last summer, in the midst of yet another unending office afternoon, i logged onto my friendster account for the first time in years. it was not exciting. however, i looked up a guy that i had dated for a couple months and sent him a message that amounted to "how are things?"

when i didn't hear back after 3 days, i decided to look and see if he had logged on (ah the "last login" feature on friendster, how i miss thee) and received my message. and what did i discover? he had fucking deleted his profile. my first thought was, "no no, that would be ridiculous," but i looked on all our mutual friends' pages and he was no longer friends with any of them. seriously. i'm apparently that scary and/or intimidating that instead of responding, or even just ignoring my message, he deleted his profile. DELETED IT.

the other day, cruising around facebook, i found another guy that i dated for like .2 seconds in new york (we made out once on the street and it was really really sloppy and he was a big raging fabulous fag so that ended that), and i thought, hey, why not, and requested him as my friend. i tried to find him today, and what do you know, but he's not there anymore. i'm thinking he probably blocked me or changed his name or something, but i mean, COME ON.

apparently not everyone thinks i am overfl/eoin with awesome.

So manly

2008-10-01T13:23:00.001-07:00

i switched cubes today so that i could be closer to the remaining members of my team (and not have the cfo sitting right behind me). after our computer guy switched my computer and phone, i told him i'd handle the rest of the stuff and began moving my scripts, notebooks, papers, etc.

i have four dolls on my cube wall - qui gon, jar jar, leia (who can barely keep her top on), and mace windu. oh and a tiny bust of darth mall. i had them stacked on my chair, and as i went to grab them, i saw what looked like a small plastic spider on mace windu's face. "huh," i said to myself, "i've never noticed the plastic spider accessory for mace windu."

yeah, that's because it was a real spider. i went to grab the "plastic spider" to look at it, and it jumped onto my finger. i screamed. like a little girl (except a manly girl, because it was at least a deep throat scream and not a girly scream). i jumped up and down. i yelled for jenn to come save me.

i think i managed to scare the spider, because it ran up jar jar's sleeve and then another coworker came and took jar jar outside and set the spider free. jar jar binks to the rescue!

points in my favor:
i was really startled the spider turned out to be real.
it had a fat white butt and little creepy legs - gross.
it was a spider.

points against me:
it was a tiny spider.
i screamed.
i jumped up and down.
it was about 20 minutes before my heart rate came back to normal.

so yeah. there we go. spider wednesdays!

therapy

2008-09-30T13:48:00.000-07:00

i have some issues. let's just start with that. i have been going to therapy for almost a year now (and on and off for the last... long time), and take anti-depressants. i also have anxiety issues and self-medicate too often with alcohol and cigarettes (but i don't do drugs! score one for eoin!).

monday nights are therapy nights for me, and last night my therapist kinda yelled at me. i'm not sure how i feel about it yet. well, i do know how i feel about it right now, which is that i'm mad at her. but i guess this is her job.

i have spent the last year working on setting up a life in california, and now that i seem to have finally gotten a base under me, i guess it is time to start looking at other issues. because i'm certainly not happy day to day - well that's not really true - but i know there is more work to be done.

i suppose i probably needed a kick in the pants to stop being evasive and waste my time and money (and my therapist's time) not really "doing the work" but... it still kinda sucks.

this reminds me of the season 3 premiere of veronica mars, where veronica asks mac how it's going with her therapist, and mac replies "i think she's bored with me." that's how i feel.

so now i have 5 days to experience like, feelings, or whatever it is that normal people do, so that i have something to work with as opposed to just being angry with her. although, now that i think about it, maybe part of my problem is thinking i need to go to therapy with an idea of what i'm going to talk about. maybe the point should be to just... be there.

le sigh. self examination is hard.

i'm late

2008-09-25T07:50:00.000-07:00

i shower after my roommate in the mornings. she is at least 20 minutes behind schedule this morning so... i'm sitting here, my clothes laid out, my towel in my hand, waiting for her to finish in the bathroom.

awesome.

update: since i'm sure you are all EXTREMELY curious to hear how this ended, i managed to speed my way to work and only showed up 10 minutes late. the best part was that i ended up behind the red toyota yaris that was the subject of one of my open letters. she still does not know how to drive.

holy fuck

2008-09-23T13:32:00.001-07:00

i just ran 9 miles at the gym. be impressed.

an open letter, part 5

2008-09-23T10:18:00.001-07:00

dear prius owners,

isn't it awesome driving a prius? i know! me too! i love that i spend $30 a week on gas despite the fact that i drive, at minimum, 350 miles a week, although, really, i kinda hate having a car and constantly feel like i'm going to get in or cause a horrific car accident but that's not really the prius' fault so...

so you know that carpool lane? the one on the far left that we're able to drive in with our fancy stickers that make me feel so smug? it's awesome! here's the thing though. when it's not carpool hours, that lane is actually just the fast lane. so MOVE THE FUCK OVER YOU'RE DRIVING TOO SLOW. just because you CAN drive in that lane doesn't mean you HAVE to. that lane is for passing. and i want to pass you because i can guarantee i'm going faster than you.

the open letters have a motif, fellow prius drivers, and that is: GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY WAY.

all the best,
eoin

monday monday

2008-09-22T10:00:00.001-07:00

my sister came into town this weekend for my mom's 60th birthday (which is, actually, today). she arrived thursday. mom and i got her a burrito and hung out at the house for a bit.

i was "sick" on friday. we all met up for brunch at a new place in a weird oakland neighborhood - it was really tasty, but strange to think of how it "caught on" considering it really is in the middle of all these warehouses.

on friday night, nora, my mom and i went into san francisco and stayed at a fancy hotel (the mark hopkins) as a little vacation/treat. we went to the bar at the top of the hotel - top of the mark - with amy and had a couple cocktails. it was a bit of a tourist spot - kinda pretentious, expensive and weak drinks, etc - but still a nice time. nora, mom and i went to delfina for dinner after and had an awesome meal (i ate rabbit!). we finished with dessert and wine at nora's friend's restaurant down the street.

saturday = coffee and window shopping in noe valley; relaxation; the birthday bash; and nora and eoin out on the town with amy and victor (and by out on the town, i mean we went to one bar but stayed there all night).

sunday = waking up way too early; lattes from peet's and mexican pastries from the mission; football; cards; dinner; wine.

it was a packed weekend. have another birthday celebration tonight (i bought two tarts from tartine that i'm bringing by my mom's house) and then another dessert and wine party on thursday. you only turn 60 once!

jesus

2008-09-17T14:48:00.000-07:00

1) one of the cats i took care of this weekend is really really sick. potentially a fatal intestinal problem, or ... they don't know yet. holy crap.
2) has anyone noticed that the stock market exploded for the second straight day? and exploded in not the right direction?
3) i had an hour long battle with the copy machine this morning and it put me in the worst mood ever. while i won the battle, the fucking oil or lube or whatever the fuck they put on the machine got on my jeans and now they're stained.
4) i ran 7 miles and now my ankle and knees hurt and i can't stop eating candy that fucking jenn put in the kitchen.
5) i'm thinking about going to reno for the weekend before the election to get out the vote for obama. also, i am going to start phone banking for the opposition to prop 8.
6) wednesday.

work

2008-09-15T13:56:00.001-07:00

i'm on the job search again. things are a little up in the air at my current place, so i'm hoping to expand my options before they are expanded for me. i don't know if that metaphor worked but basically i'm trying to find a new job before i'm laid off.

in other news, i had a relaxing weekend at the kittens' house and it really solidified my desire to move out of my apartment. the place over in noe is just so comfortable, so bright, so homey, that i want that for myself. instead i have my dark dirty cesspool.

tonight = therapy.

jenn's birthday!

2008-09-12T15:04:00.001-07:00

woo! best friday ever!

i love birthdays.

party and decorating in the am.

awesome chili fun friday.

cake time this afternoon.

then time for the weekend!

today

2008-09-11T15:09:00.000-07:00

i don't know if i can face writing the 9/11 post i was planning on doing.

it seems so monumental. so huge.

the events of that day rocked everyone to the core, and i don't think i'll ever fully recover.

i know i'll never forget.

i got nothing

2008-09-10T16:21:00.001-07:00

i'm really trying to blog every day (or at least every work day... since i have so much time!), but today is hard because, well... i don't know what the hell to write about.

nothing funny has happened.
nothing dramatic.
nothing particularly disgusting.

i still have the beard. i ate some leftover chinese for lunch. i'm reading ruth reichl's "tender at the bone" and loving it. i ran 4 horrendous miles at the gym. i'm going to cook sausages and stirfry for dinner and watch battlestar galactica. oh! i had choir last night and there was a new guy who was kinda cute.

uhh... that's all i got. really.

is it friday yet?

beard of destiny

2008-09-09T11:13:00.000-07:00

i last shaved on august 10th. when i got back from new york, i could not for the life of me find my electric razor and so have just been letting my facial hair go.

i called it a "protest beard" for a while since my boss had her last day on the first friday i was back at work. but... i'm not really protesting anything.

over the past two weeks, i've started to notice that i'm getting more attention from guys. mostly bears. it's not exactly my scene, but i think the beard is magical and has transformed my appearance. if nothing else, i think i might look more gay. either way, i am giving the beard a try (and i started calling it the beard of destiny).

however, i'm at the awkward "i need to start shaving" phase and i'm terrified i'm going to fuck it up. i've been doing some online beard research - and there is a lot out there - and they recommend not touching your beard for 4-6 weeks at first so that you have something to work with. it's just been 4 weeks for me so i guess i have another week or two to go.

i might go to a barber for help on creating the neck shave line. i'm afraid i would either do it crooked, take too much off, or just generally make it look retarded and have to shave the whole thing off.

which i'll probably end up doing soon anyway, since my beard is a) patchy and b) multi-colored (brown, red, and, god help me, white).

beards.

hmm

2008-09-08T11:15:00.000-07:00

my roommate emily is moving out. she told us last night that she is "ready to move on with her life." no timeframe yet though - she is considering buying a condo so it could be a while.

do i move into her room? that is the question. it is much smaller and the ceiling is low - those are the negatives. oh and it's carpeted which i always find a little strange. however, it's also at the back of the house, so it would be quieter, and has three windows - they're small but all get much better light than my somewhat large air shaft window. the rent is the same.

if i am planning on staying in the house for a longer period of time, i'm definitely thinking i should take the room. however, i've also been looking at craigslist for other rooms - so would it be worth it to switch rooms in the house if i'm also looking to get out? these are the things i'm thinking about.

in other news, i housesat this weekend and it was really hot, and the kittens were really meow-ey, but it was awesome. oh and i only slept 4 hours on friday night so i'm still in recovery. i think i'm off to the gym!

UPDATE: i went to the gym and ran 7 miles. then i realized that my nipples were chafing really badly and my shirt was soaked with blood. it was NOT awesome.

my week in numbers

2008-09-05T10:13:00.000-07:00

8 - episodes. i started watching battlestar season 3 and have burned through 8 already. i watched a really shitty episode last night, but i'm going to forge ahead and try and bang out a bunch more this weekend.
7 - days. one week ago was the last day at work for my awesome boss dina and my buddy brian. it is sad without them here. one week from today will be the one year anniversary of my departure from new york. so many feelings about that - maybe i'll save that for next week.
6 - pack. of pacifico. i bought two this week.
5 - miles. i got my ass to the gym 4 times this week and ran 5 miles each time. i'm feeling pretty smug right now.
4 - pounds. i seem to have gained 4 pounds. i was floating between 167 and 169 before i left for new york - now i'm floating between 171 and 173 (though this morning was even higher). the 2 pound variance seems to depend on how much beer i've drank that week and how big a shit i take in the morning. the 4 pounds is from not treating my body very well (ie not working out) and eating and drinking like i'm a fucking roman conquistador.
3 - beers. i drank 3 beers by myself on wednesday night after my aborted attempt to find a bar to watch the tennis match. not the highlight of the week.
2 - kitties! i'm housesitting this weekend and next for two ridiculously cute kittens at a fantastic apartment over in noe valley. i'm pretty pumped, and will definitely take pictures when i find my camera.
1 - cigarette. i smoked last night. i hit the cigs pretty hard when i was in new york (sara's fault) and had been good since i was back. but last night, sitting in delores park with anna, drinking beers, the time was right. we bummed two parliament lights from some dude whose girlfriend/wife kept screaming at their dog.

in other news, i have lost my electric razor and have a pretty scraggly pube-like beard thing going on. i can't decide if i should keep letting it go or if i need to do stuff to it. i'm definitely attracting a different type of attention - the other night a big old bear smiled and waved at me. i laughed - probably not the most polite response?

tennis

2008-09-04T10:24:00.001-07:00

i follow professional tennis to a weird degree. only a few people really know how big the obsession is, but it's there (i think i freaked my sister out when we went to the us open a few years ago and i went off on this russian girl and her myriad of injury problems. also, she had huge quads).

so i was really disappointed i couldn't watch venus and serena play last night. i wandered my neighborhood trying to find it on tv in a bar somewhere (another complaint about my apartment - we don't have cable), but couldn't and was too pussy to ask at the gay sports bar for them to put it on. instead, i popped open a beer at my house and followed the score on the computer. it was pretty pathetic.

after talking to nora on the phone, who kept saying it was an unbelievable match, i decided that if it went to a third set, i would gather my courage and go back to the mix and have them put it on one of the tvs. and then venus lost.

i've always liked venus more than serena - i think something about being the less athletically gifted sibling strikes a chord with me (although, obviously, nora and i are much more impressive athletes than these two) - so it was especially sad to read all the analysis this morning and see that she essentally choked.

i'm pulling for dementieva now - the best player never to win a major - or serena. on the men's side, i have a soft spot for roger, and would love to see andy roddick regain some of his luster. but i think we're heading to a novak - rafa final, which at least would be an exciting match (with the extra drama of novak crying after he lost the gold medal match to rafa at the olympics - that was pretty funny).

anyway. i love tennis.

jobby

2008-09-03T13:14:00.000-07:00

i need a new job. for many reasons, but right now, it's because i want to make more money. again, for many reasons, but i want to find a new place to live - my current apartment is too loud and too dark (like i can hear people shitting when i'm in my bed and i have to turn a light on pretty much all the time in my room).

when i did my first interview for this job, i was told the pay was 15 an hour, or more based on experience. two months later when i finally was offered the job, i was too excited to negotiate and so accepted that as my pay rate (the recruiter was pretty surprised, in retrospect). i realized my mistake pretty much immediately, but figured i could negotiate at the end of 3 months when my initial contract ran up.

the new offer at the end of 3 months? 17 an hour. boo. i went back and forth with hr, but there was really nothing to be done, and since we only get raises once a year, and they are percentage based, i'm totally fucked as long as i don't get a promotion. or a new job.

in related news, now that my supervisor is gone, i am going to the gym during the day. so far, i'm not sure i'm sold on it, but i'll keep trying. i am definitely liking not waking up so early in the morning.

this post was lame.

an open letter, part 3 and 4

2008-09-02T19:27:00.001-07:00

dear man in red jeep,

get the fuck off my ass. there were two cars in front of me. what the fuck did you want me to do?

all the best,

eoin

dear slightly overweight older woman in green car,

sorry i almost killed us. my bad.

all the best,

eoin

back by popular demand!

2008-09-02T11:39:00.001-07:00

and by popular demand, i mean 2 people asked me what happened to the blog. so yay! i have readers! thanks!

so much has happened in the last month, but really, nothing more exciting than the passive-aggressive battle my roommates are waging against each other right now about our cat.

a few months before i moved in, there were a few mice running around our apartment. gerald, who used to live in my room, and my female roommate E decided to get a cat. mice problem = solved. the problem is that the cat is kinda lame. she sits on E's bed all the time, meows whenever anyone is in the bathroom, and is just generally kinda a wet blanket. M, my male roommate, has long made it clear that he doesn't like the cat. he's been hating on minna since i moved in (sidenote - i don't even know how to pronounce the cat's name, that's how much i don't interact with her).

i guess M has a new "boyfriend" who is allergic to cats. when he went in the bathroom (where the litter box lives), he started sneezing. M's reaction was to tell E to move the cat box to the kitchen. which... i don't know, that's kinda gross, but whatever. so M tells me this and i'm like, who cares, whatever, i'm so not getting involved.

but then. when i got home last night, there was a loooooong letter on the fridge from E to M saying, and i quote, "Dear M, After giving it some more thought, moving the cat's litter box into the kitchen is not acceptable to me." she then proceeded to lay out all the steps she was going to take to try to make the apartment less "cat-y."

i had so many thoughts. 1) i love that they are conducting this battle in letters on the fridge. 2) if you have a boyfriend who is severly allergic to cats, isn't the natural response to go to his house more often and not have your roommate de-cat the whole apartment? 3) i don't care enough to get involved and i hope i'm not dragged into this. 4) the new cat litter box is gigantic and has a swinging door and looks like a mini-house.

so i'm also thinking now isn't going to be a great time to let the roommates know that i told sara i would take our old cat connor. heh.

Friday

2008-08-01T13:17:00.000-07:00

Today is... nervous.

Tonight is my choral concert!

Thursday

2008-07-31T17:06:00.000-07:00

I was the victim of a hate crime this morning.

As I rolled through a stop sign on my way to the bridge, a pedestrian that I (allegedly) almost hit yelled, "There was a stop sign cocksucker!" I was still in the midst of drinking my coffee so didn't think about opening my window before flipping him off and responding with "Shut the fuck up fucking fuckface fucker." The inside of my car was very impressed with my insult.

Now that I think about it, maybe he was hitting on me?

In other news, in an effort to run back to my coworker's desk to hide and scare her when she returned (she screams so fucking loud it is hysterical and I love doing it), I had some sort of physical freak out that ended with me punching myself in the face. My nose really really hurts - like I think I might have broken it. It's apparently really red.

Pretty eventful day, I'd say...

an open letter, part 2

2008-07-15T09:51:00.000-07:00

dear woman in blue honda,

thank you so much for teaching me how to merge this morning. it's weird - in 10 years of driving i never quite figured out what the arrows on the ground meant. at first i was a little confused by your hand motions - were you trying to figure out how large my penis is? were you saying i had lost some weight? but then i realized you were just showing me that i have a larger brain than you because i'm a man. it was very instructional.

anyway, i don't know if you saw my thank you present. it was my middle finger and some lewd hand motions that i know you'd enjoy. you seemed a little scared that i was driving so close to you, but i just wanted to give you a love tap to let you know how much i appreciated our pantomime conversation.

all my best,
eoin

ps... that shit stain should come out with some bleach

an open letter

2008-07-10T10:22:00.000-07:00

dear woman in red toyota yaris,

that wasn't me that honked at you. sure, i was frustrated you didn't move when the light turned green, but i didn't honk. it was the guy next to me. and i know you don't believe me, as evidenced by the flipping me off, and then turning around to shake your finger at me and yell and then flip me off again, but really. i didn't do it. since you didn't seem to want to roll down your window when i drove up next to you around the corner, here is what i was saying:

"hey cunt-face. that wasn't me. do you hear this (honk)? that's not the fucking horn from back there. now i wish i had honked, or bumped you into the intersection so that the camera flashed and you got a moving violation, just to piss you off. i hate you. why don't you go back to fort jesus-town patriot-ville or whatever bumblefuck town you learned to drive in, and get out of my way. because bitch? i'm late. suck it."

sincerely,
eoin

things that happened to me today

2008-07-02T22:11:00.000-07:00

my one hour meeting stretched to three.

my boss cheered me on as i chugged a beer.

i learned (learnt?) some names at choir.

i squeezed my red wine colored car into a tiny parking space (no joke i went back and forth probably 10 times getting in there) ... and promptly walked around the corner and saw a gigantic free spot. if all the necessary cars are still there in the morning i'll take pictures.

made plans to see "wanted" and meet some dogs... probably the highlight of the day.

funny story...

2008-07-01T11:02:00.000-07:00

i use the gym at work in the mornings. usually there is one other person there - occasionally 2. extremely rarely 3. so when i made the decision yesterday morning to wear short shorts and a t-shirt that says "GWENYTH" across the back, i thought i'd be okay.

4 people in the gym. only 1 of whom i say hi to on a regular basis.

today, in my regular soccer shorts and old volleyball t-shirt - 2 people in the gym. both buddies of mine. figures.

by the by - i ran 5 miles this morning. i'm a monster!

my fitness

2008-06-25T13:59:00.001-07:00

over the last year i have lost about 25 pounds... what i like to think of as my beer weight. i was not overweight really, just kinda, well, puffy. when i moved to california in september i started eating better, working out more, and drinking less.

but now i'm in a rut. i run 4-5 times a week and while i'm maintaining my weight and eating pretty much whatever i want, i still have a little belly.

so i made the decision to rededicate myself to working out for the next month in anticipation of my dad and ralph's wedding. i don't have a goal weight or waist size or anything, i just want to look and feel better.

here is the plan:
- drink less beer. this is probably going to be the hardest part for me. it will require more wine during the week and more mixed drinks on the weekend. note that i said drink less beer, not stop drinking beer - i'm not crazy afterall.
- run more. i've been doing 3 or 3.5 miles the last few months. today i bumped up to 4 miles.
- do 50 pushups and situps. pretty self explanatory.
- eat less sugar. i have a sign at my desk that says "go to the gym and stop eating cookies u fatty!" that worked for a while, but i've been slipping recently and need to cut back. so far this week, the sweetest thing i had was an emergen-c and a luna bar.

and that's it. i'm not going to go crazy, but i'm sick of always having an average body. i want to have a good body damnit! if the wedding doesn't work as a goal, then nora's lakeside 30th birthday bash in august is another good target. nothing like working your ass off to look good for the end of summer. whatever.

kinda sad

2008-06-22T20:35:00.000-07:00

a new year's resolution for 2007 was to read 40 books. i emailed myself every couple weeks when i finished a few more books to keep a list of what i had read. it's interesting to look back on the list now and remember where i was, what job i was working, what country, state, state of mind i was in when i read each book.

i made it to 36 books. i had given up on the goal of 40 books around thanksgiving, and was happy enough that i had kept track of everything i had read throughout the year. so i decided to keep doing it for 2008.

but here's the sad part.

i've only read 6 books so far this year - almost halfway through 2008, and i've averaged one book a month. by this time last year, i had read 14 books! the problem is that i drive to work now instead of taking the train, one of the many things i miss about new york and have been missing more lately.

a 45 minute commute to work is just barely my limit in the car - days when there is traffic really test my patience. there are definite advantages to driving over taking the train (not having to worry about how much stuff i bring with me to work, being able to sing at the top of my lungs... well that's about it actually), but i miss my reading time.

i'm a nerd.

my week in numbers

2008-06-20T11:28:00.000-07:00

5 - times i went to the gym before work

4 - drinks i had by myself on wednesday night

3.5 - miles ran at the gym each day

3 - episodes of battlestar gallactica watched

2 - homemade lunches my dad gave me

1.10 - my tab at the corner deli when i was short on cash for beer

1 - car accidents avoided (a bumblebee flew in my open window on the freeway and i did a lot of swerving while trying to get it out of my car)

0 - cavities i have after a 4 year absence from the dentist

weekend

2008-06-16T15:08:00.000-07:00

anna came over on friday after work. my roommates were both out of town for the weekend, so we took advantage by hanging out in the living room, drinking vodka and looking at the internets. flash forward an hour and a half and we stumbled out of the apartment to start the evening.

we had dinner at firewood, on 18th st. just west of castro. it's a brick oven pizza place that was pretty decent - nothing amazing, but we shared a pizza, a salad, and each had a glass of wine and got out of there for $17 each. there are so many amazing restaurants in my neighborhood, but i only seem to know the really pricey ones, so it was nice to go to a place that is on the cheaper end.

we walked down 18th st. to the mix, which is my favorite bar in my neighborhood. we met anna's friend from high school there and sat out back on the patio for the rest of the evening. we made a few friends (one of whom told a homeless man he looked like pocahontas before dubbing him "pocahomless"), smoked some cigarettes, drank some beers... it was great.

after a stop for a last drink at moby dick's (none of us is still totally sure why we decided on that), we stopped at 7-11 for some snacks and called it a night.

anna and i went to sleep at 2a - and at the bright hour of 7:45a she got up to go for a run. i know. she's crazy. she left around 10a to go wine tasting (again - crazy) and i pretty much spent the day recovering. i'm not young anymore and that night and that level of drinking took it out of me.

i went to the east bay saturday and had dinner with my mom. we found "bridget jones' diary" on tv and then i passed out at 10:30p. we woke up the next morning and started cooking brunch for my dad and his partner for father's day. it was delicious!

the house my parents moved to when they came to california is for sale, so we went to the open house. two main thoughts - 1) the house is so much smaller than i remember it (i was about 3 when we left so it's understandable) and 2) it is in a bad neighborhood. i can't even imagine what it was like then but... whoa. east oakland.

when i was younger i was in a children's choir, and the current group left for tour today. last night, they had their final concert of the season, mostly for the parents before they lost their kids for 2 and a half weeks to st. petersburg, slovakia and estonia. it brought back some good memories, and i saw a couple friendly faces from the past.

anyway... now i'm back at work. wheeeee!

so the message is...

2008-06-14T12:15:00.001-07:00

write shorter posts. got it.

i'm hungover.

but it was worth it.

How do they get away with this?

2008-06-13T10:40:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, I just get depressed about the state of our country. How is this allowed to happen?

The "Get to Know Eoin" Post

2008-06-12T10:29:00.000-07:00

i decided to do one of these questionnaire things to get this blog rolling. and yes, it occurs to me that anyone reading this already knows me so this is pointless, but i have to start somewhere (and i just made the executive decision to capitalize as little as possible in this blog).

i stole this from someone else. i don't know what the etiquette is on these things - am i supposed to credit him? well - it's from Big Don's Blog and i think he stole it from somewhere else.

1. Last kiss? oh god. that is depressing to think about. next.

2. How do you flush the toilet in public? with my foot because i'm a bit of a germaphobe. (heh, spell check wants me to change that to hermaphrodite)

3. Do you wear your seatbelt in the car? definitely. and i yell at my passengers if they try to get away with not wearing their's.

4. Do you have a crush on someone? sure, why not.

5. Name one thing that you start to get tense about if you are close to running out of it: this is a horribly constructed sentence. anyway, i'll go with coffee.

6. What famous person do you (or other people) think you resemble? i hate this question because someone once told me i look like justin timberlake and then it just sounds like i'm really conceited to say that to people. also, i look like him in that we both have short hair and are white. i've also been told i look like jason bateman, and one time when i was in high school, someone asked if i was ben savage from boy meets world. so there you go.

7. Favorite pizza topping: pepperoni.

8. Finish this sentence: if my life was a sitcom my theme song would be... i thought this question was asking which sitcom theme best matched your life, and i was going to answer the ukulele-tinged song from "arrested development" because that show is awesome. instead i'll say... "the way i are" because why not.

9. Do you pop your knuckles? oh yeah. and my toes, my back, and occasionally my chest pops too.

10. What song do you dislike the most when it gets stuck in your head? i had leona lewis' "bleeding love" in my head for about 3 days a few weeks ago and it killed me.

11. Did just mentioning that song make it get stuck in your head? kinda.

12. What are your super powers? is "always saying the most inappropriate thing ever" a superpower? or is that more of a super character flaw?

13. Peppermint or spearmint? who cares.

14. Where are your keys? sitting on my desk so i can use my securid thing when i log off my computer. i'm high tech! ... and totally doing this at work.

15. Who's answers to this questionnaire do you want to hear? a) who's = who is. you were looking for "whose." b) no one is going to even read this so... no one.

16. What's your most annoying habit? if i knew what it was, i wouldn't do it. i'm sure i have tons.

17. Where did you last go on vacation? oh! disneyland! just this last weekend and it was fucking amazing. i already want to go back.

18. If you could punch one person in the nose and get away with it, who would it be? fergie? star jones? whoever was responsible for the movie "crash"? maybe just george bush.

19. What is your best physical feature? the whole thing. i'm a fucking adonis.

20. What CD is closest to you right now? my coworker probably has something in her computer but she's gone today so i can't ask her.

21. What 3 things can always be found in your refrigerator? milk for coffee; carrots; cheese.

22. What superstition do you believe/practice? i knock on wood so much that my knuckles are cut up.

23. Does size matter? this seems not to fit in with the rest of the questions.

24. Paper or Plastic? paper! plastic = bad for the environment.

25. Do you talk on your cell phone when you drive? yes. and yet i yell at anyone else i see on the phone because i'm convinced only i am good at driving and talking at the same time. 3 weeks until the hands free cell phone law goes into effect!

26. What are your favorite sayings? i say "awesome" a lot. also, "suck it."

27. What song(s) do you sing most often in the shower? i don't.

28. If you could go back or forward in time would you and where would you go? dinosaurs! actually, i might go to athens circa 500 bce and find out what the frieze around the parthenon signifies. i had a professor in college who had an amazing theory about it that totally made sense to me but she was basically dismissed by academics for her "feminist theory." but i think she's right. so i'm going to go back in time to prove it!

29. What is your favorite Harrison Ford movie? i think i'm contractually obligated to say either a "star wars" movie or an "indiana jones" movie. which is probably accurate, though "the fugitive" and "working girl" are both classics as well.

30. What CD is in your stereo? madonna's "hard candy" album is in my car stereo right now.

31. What OCD qualities do you have? where to begin? i make sure the stove and oven are off before leaving the house or going to bed. ditto the locks on the front and back doors. i have a hard time leaving work because i always think i've left confidential trash in my trash can or my computer on. i got yelled at once for hitting the automatic lock on my car too many times (it makes a loud beeping noise). i'm on medication for this, don't worry.

32. how many kids do you plan on having? i fucking hate kids. i'm planning on having dogs. if i was forced to have kids, i would adopt black babies because they are the cutest.

33. If you could kiss anyone famous who would it be? jake gyllenhaal.

34. Would you really want to kiss someone you didn't know? isn't that how all good evenings start?

35. What do you do when no one is watching? kiss myself in the mirror.

36. If they made a movie about your life, what actor/actress would play you? denzel. obviously.

37. Would you rather die in a blaze of glory or peacefully in your sleep? that is an awesome question. my instinct is peacefully in my sleep, but the blaze of glory thing sounds kinda fun too. huh. i don't know.

38. What candy, from when you were a kid, do you miss the most? you know they still make candy, right? it's not like... out of business.

39. what is your favorite movie? tough one - "in america," "mean girls," "national treasure," "finding nemo," "glaidator," and "the day after tomorrow" should give you an idea.

40. Favorite musician(s)/bands you've seen in concert? kelly clarkson, and colin meloy of the decemberists. and the decemberists proper. and kelly clarkson the other time i saw her.

41. Have you ever been in love? see: question #1. next.

42. Do you talk to yourself? doesn't everyone?

43. Is there anybody you just wish would fall of the face off the earth? i am a judgmental person who says some fucked up shit, but i don't wish death upon anyone. even george bush.

if you made it to the end of this post... get a hobby. even i am tired of eoin right now.

also, can we talk for a second about how blogging is totally self-indulgent?

yay!

2008-06-11T15:46:00.000-07:00

blogging is awesome!