Birthday kisses are the new awesome

Hey Brigham?

Happy birthday!
xoxo

p.s. we owe you 28 more

Being Carless is the new awesome

After 21/2 years of owning a car in San Francisco, I decided that it was time to give going carless a try. Although to my Berkeley friends I might try to play this off as my desire to get a little more exercise and save the environment, it actually has a lot to do with the fact that my car smelled like it was going to explode every time I drove it, and that I paid more than its value in parking ticket and towing fees last year alone. Plus, have you guys seen the price of gas these days? Sheesh.

I decided to donate the Mercury Mystique. Initially, I wanted to give her to some self-sufficiency program, where she would be donated to homeless (or financially compromised persons) in a rehabilitation program in need of a vehicle. But those guys never got back to me about taking my car, so I ended up donating it to a program for “underprivileged youth” (which conveniently gives you a 3 day hotel stay at a location of your choice in the bargain. Ah, charity).

I had this car for 10 years. Here she is, in her natural San Francisco habitat:

My car has not had an easy life. She had to live on the street the entire time I owned her, had many a torrid affair with a tow truck, had her bumper tried and tested here in the city, and has been affectionately dubbed the "Mercury Mistake" by my auto mechanic. She even had to endure the bumper stickers that have been on there since college:


Cleaning the Mystique out was kind of like unearthing a time capsule. I found mix tapes and cds from old boyfriends, every pen I have ever lost, and stickers, photos and other mementos from the last 10 years.


So what do you do when you are donating your car to charity the next day?
Well. First, you bake a cake:


Then you get all your friends to pile in the back seat of the Mystique...:


... and drive up to Twin Peaks to use the last of the gas in the tank and sit on the hood eating cake while overlooking the city!



It was pretty good cake, but too cold for forks.

right paul?

this is us pretending we are at EFY.


I would like to point out that betsy ignored all counsel to bring a jacket to the car party because she said that "her outfit really wouldn't accommodate any bulky outerwear." But, once we got to the top of Twin Peaks, it was so cold that she had to wrap herself in this stylish blanket, and you can't see her perfectly preserved ensemble anyway!


You were a good car, Mercury Mystique. Look how happy I am to drive you.


This morning she ran off with another tow truck. And if I know her, it won't be her last.

Tune ups are the new awesome

Sometimes you love your ibook so much.
But sometimes your ibook gets so tired.
And when it gets so tired it starts to tell lies.

"Hey ibook! I'm so glad you're fully charged with a glowing green power cord light thingy!"


Wait a second...that doesn't say 100%!


I tried this remedy provided to me by my own personal Genius.

Instructions:
1. If the computer is on, turn it off.
2. Reset the power manager by simultaneously pressing and then releasing Shift-Control-Option-Power on the keyboard. Do not press the fn (Function) key while using this combination of keystrokes. (Because why? But, ok.)
3. Wait 5 seconds.
4. Press the Power button to restart the iBook computer.

It didn't work. So it was time to break up with my old battery and buy a new one.

"Hey ibook, I'd like to introduce you to new fancy battery. I think you two will be very compatible."


100% has never looked so pretty.



Also, what was up with the super odd voice-over commentary on tonight's lame Lost clips show?

Also Part II, all the Mission Impossible 3 commercials are making me so excited!

San Diego Weddings are the new awesome

So, obviously I missed out on quite a bit of fun in my apartment since i ditched my roommate and our houseguests and flew down to San Diego for my friend Charity's wedding over the weekend. I did all sorts of things while down in Southern California, but because I went for the wedding, that is what this blog is going to be about.

Behold! This is what matrimonial bliss looks like, for all you people that were wondering:


It was a pretty standard event. The weather was cooperative, the happy couple said all the right things, and no one fainted.

The bride wore a beautiful custom-made dress, though the dramatic gathering of fabric at her knees reduced her mobility to turning in small semi circles, which made it fun to watch her try to dance when the party got started.


I brought my little brother to the festivities. He is stationed down in Coronado at the Navy base, training to be a Navy Seal. Mostly I brought him so that if anyone tried anything funny with me at the wedding, he could break their arms.


We learned that there are a few small guiding principles that if followed, are guaranteed to make your wedding reception a raging success:

Provide a variety of foods for your guests
I knew that the groom worked for a chocolate fountain company, so I had been secretly hoping that each person would walk in to find their own personal fountain at their place-setting. It turns out that I just had to settle for three huge chocolate fountains in the foyer, each spouting either dark, milk or white chocolate onto a plethora of fruits, angel food cakes, or crème puffs.

Dream. Come. True.

Strictly adhere to your wedding colors
The rest of the food was quite tasty as well, though they did serve purple mashed potatoes, because that is the bride's favorite color.
Sure enough, the potatoes matched the dresses of the bridesmaids perfectly, though I believe we all thought it a rather odd accessory.

Never skimp on the entertainment
Rather than a boring old four-string quartet or a band, they had gotten an electric cello player. And not just any electric cello player. This one looked like he had just stepped straight off the pages of a harlequin romance novel - long white coat and black leather pants, towering on enormous black boots and looking quite tan with his long, flowing blonde hair. Apparently when he is not doing weddings, he also wears a full metal breast-plate and carries his own wind machine to really give him the ultra-romantic look while he completely tears his cello apart.

I know I was probably supposed to be paying attention to the wedding vows and cake cutting and all that other stuff, but all I could do was stare at the cello player and his dramatic overtures the entire time. I made sure to grab his card (appropriately, he can be found at LordoftheCello.com). Do yourselves a favor and watch some of his videos to see this guy in action.

And that is how you get married. Thanks for the pointers, Charity.

Bi-coastal best friends are the new awesome

I know everyone is on the edge of their seats waiting to see how this whole SF vs. NYC weekend finishes up so here goes. Friday night we met up with Jeff and Paul and went to eat at Chow, my favorite neighborhood eatery.

While we were waiting for our table we learned some interesting things. Did you know Karisa's real name is Karizma?


Di, Karizma and I are so excited to eat dinner at Chow!


Paul's Members Only jacket was working wonders on Di.


If you're lucky you might know a girl named Tessa. Maybe right now you're thinking "is it the Tessa I know?" My Tessa is sometimes so sassy you might think she hates you but really she loves you and you love her so much too. We were lucky because we found Tessa wandering aimlessly at the top of Twin Peaks! (Di, Is that you? I can't really tell with your hood, and my scarf and Rebecca's jacket.)


Jeff was so happy to be the creamy middle of a Paul/Karizma sandwich cookie!


No middle.


We got up on Sunday morning and got ready for church...church was so great!
After church we picked up burritos at El Faralito. Every time I think I might want a giant painting of a meat stick in my apartment I go to Faralito and get reminded that in fact I do!


Look how cute everyone looks at the Mexican restaurant in their church clothes! It's almost like a prom photo!


Wait, no, these are more like prom photos.
Di wins at prom photos. She had obviously been to the most formal dances.



A quick family photo before we head out for the airport.


It had to happen. Di & Karizma had to go back to New York City. Even though we wanted them to, they couldn't stay in San Francisco forever.
"Hey girls! How do you feel about leaving?"


Totally understandable.
p.s. We miss you already.

Scary things and Saturdays are the new awesome

So I get home from work on Friday night and my neighborhood was crawling with cops, robbers, PG&E trucks, angry neighborhood residents and honking cars. I was so worried about my houseguests! Turns out having spent the day shopping on Haight Street, they were doing just fine, but the power situation was not so fine. Crazy neighbor lady informed us that a transformer had exploded right outside our building and power would probably be off all night. Great. In the battle of SF vs. NYC, this puts SF at a slight disadvantage.

Thank heavens Emily Cox came and picked us up and took us to Pluto's for dinner.


Emily and Karisa decided to go see the Elected at Bottom of the Hill. When they dropped us off it was still dark and PG&E was working on the exploded transformer. Suddenly my neighborhood looked like a fancy movie set! Di and Karisa were like "yawn...bright lights and movie sets happen all the time in NYC."


Di and I took advantage of the power outage and had girl talk by candlelight. Girl talk by candlelight started at 10pm. The next thing that happens in girl talk by candlelight is you both fall asleep mid-conversation at 10:30pm. Then I woke up at midnight and looked out the window and saw PG&E had moved down the street. Hello n-judah. Hello spikes that keep the birds off our ledge.

Then Di and I went to sleep in our beds but I woke up again at 1:00am when Karisa got home and look how PG&E had moved again!

Final update: power was restored to our block at 2am and all is well.

Saturday morning Di, Karisa and I headed to Dolci Beauty Lounge for manicures and pedicures.


Next we met up with Cameron and rode the train to 24th & Mission.


La Taqueria has the best tacos and quesadillas in town for sure but not the best burritos. Those will happen later. Di sold her soul for the most delicious carne asada taco in San Francisco.


In honor of Rebecca (who ditched us for San Diego) we rode BART downtown. Cam and Di were playing games the whole time.


We stopped at many historic landmarks including Forever 21.


We stood in Union Square


and sat in the park across the street from the Marina Safeway.


Self-portratis are the new awesome.


(Cameron's self-portrait would go right here if it was appropriate for posting.)


There were other things that went on in that park that were not appropriate for posting. But know they happened. And they were so so funny.