Substance Abuse in the Workplace

This morning I went into the office kitchen and noticed an empty vodka bottle was tossed into the recycling bin. Vodka! As if someone was hitting the bottle at work, and then stopped to do the right thing by recycling the empty bottle!

Perplexed, I walked away. A couple hours later I went back to the kitchen and noticed that the bottle was gone. Gone! As if someone had decided it was perhaps not prudent to leave evidence of substance abuse in the office...

De-Pack Ratting

Today I'm suffering from massive allergies and a sinus headache, and I'm wondering if it's because I spent two and a half hours last night raising dust all over my apartment.

The slow, but sure process of de-pack ratting began last week when I found an abandoned Ikea shelf on the lawn (clean and practically brand new!). I finally had a chance to re-arrange my shelves, replacing an old collapsible plastic shelf with the newfound wooden Ikea one. Then I thought it'd be a good opportunity to consolidate books from other locations, re-organize, and at the same time, get rid of some books.

I used to save all the books I read as some sort of trophy of accomplishment. Like, these are the books I have read! Because I am well read! And look how smart I am for having read books like Crime and Punishment and Pride and Prejudice! Okay just kidding I kept those. But some books, you read them once, and you are never going to read them again. So get rid of them. Or books I've picked up used or were given to me by other people - some I'll never read. So why keep them?

The local library is getting picky. I had one tell me, "Sorry we have too many books right now" and another one tell me "We'll take them only if they are in mint condition." Harumph! I'll take the "mint condition" ones there and dump the old crusty ones in my office. Someone will likely take them....

De-pack ratting continues...

Dali Exhibit at LACMA

If you are in L.A., you might have heard about the new Dali: Painting and Film exhibit going on at LACMA until January 6.

Word of advice: Go on a weekday. Or wait a few more weeks. And go early in the morning. I went last weekend and it was jam packed with people. Not only was there a line trying to buy tickets, there was a line to get into the exhibit, and once inside the exhibit, you have to be in line just to move along the wall!

Tickets are $20 a person. The exhibit features a lot of his earlier works (pre-1950s), including perhaps the only really famous painting they had was the Persistence of Memory:

Much smaller than I expected! But nice to finally see the real thing after years of seeing imitations made for dorm walls.

Probably the best thing about the exhibit is all the films (or excerpts) showing. Including Destino, a 7-minute film 58 years in the making!

The Smoke Detector That Wouldn't Die

Smoke detectors beep when the battery is dying, so you know to change it. But does it really need to be that irritating? And, if you remove the battery, isn't it supposed to stop beeping?

So I was having a dream that the smoke detector was beeping. I was at some warped version of my parents' house when my dad asked me to change the battery. So I brought the smoke detector down and changed the battery. Except it was an unusual smoke detector. It was a smoke detector on one side, and then a clock on the other! The clock was tricky to re-install, and I ended up attaching the clock face backwards, and it was ticking counter-clockwise. I had to take it apart again to put the clock face on correctly. And then it beeped!

BEEP!

And I'm like, wait a minute, I just changed the battery. It shouldn't beep! So I kept fiddling with it and...

BEEP!

There it goes again! And it kept beeping and I started feeling annoyed. At this point I started hazily coming out of my dream, and I realized....that my smoke detector was beeping in real life!!!

It was only about 6 a.m., about an hour before I needed to get up. Of all the godforsaken times it needs to beep, it beeps when I am trying to get what little sleep I usually get!

I got up, turned on the light, grabbed my chair... all the while it beeped annoyingly and loudly, and pulled it off the wall. Tricky - it's one of those smoke detectors that is also attached electronically. It has an AC plus battery! (So what is powering what?!?)

I took out the battery and figured I might as well install a new one, but couldn't get the the AC plug back in, so gave up, took the new battery out and was ready to go back to bed. When it gave a ghostly, battery-less beep!

So then I took the whole device and left it out in the living room dining table, washed my hands of the dust, and crawled back into bed for what would be a precious 45 minutes of sleep.

BEEP!

Suddenly I became acutely aware of all the sounds surrounding me. The crows cawing outside my window. The dump trucks picking up garbage. The faucet where I just washed my hands dripping.

Drip. Drip. Drip. BEEP! Drip. Drip. Drip. BEEP!

So I got back up and turned the faucet really tight. Then I grabbed the smoke detector and chucked it out the window.

(Just kidding... I wish I did).

Needless to say, today, I feel one hour short on sleep....

Santa Barbara

[Trying to get back in the habit of blogging again...by starting fresh. Sort of.]

With the reddish gray skies and ash-filled winds, it seemed as if forces of nature were conspiring to keep us from having a perfect weekend.






But we still managed to have a lovely hiking trip, some wine tasting, and a fabulous meal at the Wine Cask - an absolute must if you ever go to Santa Barbara. I thought maybe to post about it on SoCalFoodies.com but feel as if I need to visit restaurants at least twice before posting about them... (an excuse to visit SB again!)





(Some of the most amazing food I've ever tasted!)

That's it for now...
Check out the rest of my pics here.

Snowing in Chicago!



I wish I had taken longer video clips....

Click here to view photos from my trip.


Enjoy!

Cabo!

Videos and pics from my long weekend in Cabo!


Yulin getting washed away (almost) by waves.



Parasailing (i.e., me freaking out).



Whale watching on the booze cruise.