Highlights of The Past Month

The past month = 8 Christmas dinners and parties (not including Christmas Eve or Day), 1 huge wedding, 1 job promotion followed by 1 job resignation, nearly 1 month of train and subway rides to 1 new job on the 18th floor of 1 big tower. Deep breath...

Here are the highlights (though the wedding deserves its own big post, later)!



End of November - Some old coworkers/friends from UCR and I reunited over an overpriced Italian dinner. Gabi (center) came all the way from London to visit, and we re-hashed old memories and talked about our new lives. Gabi and her British boyfriend have promised to introduce me to all of their single British guy friends when I visit next year - by then I'm sure I'll be ready to let someone sweep me off my feet!



End of November - Over the past year, I've shared with you my joys and my trials when it came to my job. I shared with you my desires to move on, branch out into new forums, and possibly a new company. After a lot of interviews and prayer, I now share with you my deepest gratitude for State Farm, and all of the opportunities that the company has afforded me, as I close the year with a permanent goodbye. The photo above was 1 of 5 farewell lunches I had with my favorite coworkers. My emotions during the last week on the job were indescribable. Resigning from the company was one of the hardest and most thought-out decisions I've ever had to make; but also the smartest and best decision I could've made for my career (and my sanity). It felt as though I was breaking up with a long-time boyfriend: it felt awkward, I felt unsure, but the decision was right. I was sad to go, but so ready to move forward.



Early December - I started my new job just in time for all of their holiday festivities! Our company Christmas party was a black and white masquerade ball at The Biltmore Hotel. People were pickled by 5:30pm (drinks were free), the food was okay, old people were getting jiggy on the dance floor, and the guitarist in the band was smokin' hot! Yay, proof that I work with corporate big-wigs now!



Jackie (above) is one of the ladies in my department (and also the lady training me for my new gig). Unfortch, I wasn't able to take any pictures of our department Christmas lunch at The Crustacean, where they make killer 1.5 lb crab dishes! I had to sip my wine slowly, as every time it hit a certain point in my glass, the waiter would refill it as though it were water. Man, these people live to wine and dine! The entire first week on the job, it was one expensive restaurant after another - and I didn't have to pay once!



December - My good friend Lamar had a Christmas dinner at his home, where my team kicked his team's ass at Catch Phrase - 4 times! Just like how the Lakers kick Denver's ass every time they play too. Mwahaha!



Late December - This was my 2nd to last pre-Christmas dinner celebration. I (again) reunited with my good friends from State Farm... See Eva, I told you there would be no such thing as a goodbye between us.

So... that sort of lets me catch up on my story telling. I have so many blanks to fill in - with tales of crazy people on the subway, the ex-love of my middle-school life who rides the same train to work, and the bills I drop while shopping on my lunch break (Express and Macy's are downstairs, crap). Stay tuned!

The Past Month In Pictures

The past month has been crazy - with parties, work, and misc. social events. And although I'd love to share hundreds of photos and stories with you, a few favorite pictures will have to suffice.



October 20 - One of my best friends threw an obnoxiously early Halloween party. After convincing two of my closest guy friends to dress up (above), they decided to show up wearing very ambiguous costumes. To clarify: no, they are not gay; yes, Justin's prongs are clapping in this picture.



October 31 - Katie and I made a huge effort to rush from the wildfire evacuation center (where we had been stationed for a short time) to the office in time for the Halloween festivities. Work shut down at 3:30pm to welcome [what seemed like] hundreds of children to tick-or-treat through all of the cubicles. Katie and I were determined not to be the only costume-less employees! 1 trip to Target, $7 of craft supplies, and 30 minutes later, we turned ourselves into awesome bags of jelly beans. Sooo dope!



Late October - As mentioned, Katie and I took lead at one of the wildfire evacuation centers for a couple of weeks. We got to see a lot of the homes that burned down in the mountain areas, and got to meet a lot of our customers affected by the devastation. Above is a photo of my work BFF, Katie, giving one of our customers a "good neigh-bear".



Mid-November - We didn't place in the annual chili cook-off this year. But on the bright side, the corn bread I made from scratch (pictured on the right) was a big hit! Not bad for my first try at homemade corn bread.

Haroweena!

Halloween, by far, is one of my favorite holidays. Candy corn conduced by the stir of a witch’s cauldron fills me with exquisite joy so wrenching, and youthfully intense. There must be something potent in that elixir...

The garage serves as archive for the library of costumes I’ve collected through the years. Proof, that even as a child, I would never allow memorable moments to pass me by. Especially the one night a year where it was communally acceptable to careen down a sloped neighborhood runway called Walnut St; not really having to look both ways because everyone filled the pavement like stars filled the sky. The one night a year where my older brother and I would trade candy while mom took pictures of us pouring heaven out of our jack-o-lantern treat buckets. Candy that we thought would last us eons would be gone by November 2nd.

You’d think at age 22, I’d be somewhat over the front porch fog machines and strobe lights. But no. I’m sure that at 32, I’ll use the essence of my future children’s youth to justify the decorations I will hang, the pumpkin I will carve.

This year was to be a big hoorah! Since I didn’t celebrate Halloween last year, I wanted to surround myself with reckless hooligans, costumed fiends, and the best homemade getup EVER. So without haste, my dear friend Helen and I planned out an itinerary to attend party after party. I was sure to get some good use out of my costume that consumed 3 full days of my hard labor, and $14 worth of pleather and vinyl. Drumroll please...

Photo: Tada!

THEN, on October 31st, we took our giddy selves down to West Hollywood Carnaval. Yes, that's carnaval with an A! BIG MISTAKE. Why? Well, let's just say that it's no place for a group of single gals to gallivant without the accompaniment of some strong men. We were too sober to be there. Too normal to be there. Catherine spotted Andy Dick; and may I say, a dick he was. I can only thank God that we stopped chasing him for a picture. Otherwise he may have bitten us.

Tahoe

4th of July at Lake Tahoe was great. I spent some time with my best girls at our (well, Jodi's) own private cabin and beachfront. So naturally, I felt like a complete snob all weekend. Jodi, you are the master sailor, and I thank you for not knocking me over with the boom. Arrrgh maytey.


Photo: Pubbing and Karaoke


Photo: Look at that view!


Photo: Le Big Hats