I can't believe I forgot to post this!

San Francisco's Precious Cheese 2005 North Beach Festival was two weekends ago. It was SO fun:

-Food
-Live bands of all persuasions
-Sidewalk chalk art (my personal vote for most tacky goes to a really well done portrait of the mona lisa, with leonardo dicaprio added in beside her)
-Pizza tossing
-GREAT people watching.

HOWEVER, my hightlight (by far) was .........drumroll, please...............

Getting to meet Gianni Russo, aka Carlo Rizzi, Connie's jerk first husband, in The Godfather. I got my picture taken with him, as well as an autograph! AWESOME!!!

Thoughts

What a crazy week. Crazy in a good way, mind you.

I have been keeping myself busy. And, really, when I stop to think about it - which, I don't really want to do, but I've just started doing - I have to ask myself why.

Why do I fill my days and nights so full that I fall into bed (too late) only to wake up still feeling exhausted? I tell myself that it is worth it; that I am enjoying my 20's in the fabulous city of SF. And, in truth, I am. I am having SO much fun.

On the other hand, I am neglecting some important things. My aparment is a currently a catastrophe. I spent a little time cleaning the main room today, but my room is a disaster. I am not being disciplined in this area. Also, I'm not staying on top of some phone calls, organizing, etc etc which I need to do.

Basically, I'm playing really hard right now (again, in a good way), and I work hard during the day, but I need more balance. I know too, that I've been neglecting my relationship with God---I just haven't been making that time a priority.

In short (or long, as it were) I often find myself confused and constantly pondering why why why am I doing this or not doing something else. And, instead of seeking answers or prayerfully submitting my questions to God, I just sit with them, or worse, force them out of my mind.

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More random thoughts, not related to the more serious ones above:
1. Jazz at Pearls is a kick-ass place. You must check it out!

2. I need a good (upright) bass player in the SF area. Anyone out there know anyone? I think I'm going to put together a recital for the all, with some spanish, portugese, and possibly French (read: cabaret) music, and some straight up jazz standards. I need some instrumentalists for all of this!!

3. I had a friend send me an email, asking if I would consider marrying him so he could get his green card. WHAT? ummm....no way, man. That would be too weird. He was dead serious, too! My first reaction to reading the email was hysterical laughter. Honestly, I couldn't believe what I just read.

4. I have had several good conversations with a coworker, A, this week. Praise God for that!!

My feet are killing me

...but it is worth every single aching step. Went salsa dancing tonight. It was so much fun. A random group of us went. A friend from church, a friend from Carnaval, a friend from salsa class, and even my salsa teacher came! I also ran into this guy I've met here on more than one occaision.

Lots of good dancing tonight.
M, from the metronome, is a solid leader, easy to follow, and we are in similar skill levels.

J, from MCLAA salsa on tuesday game (sadly, though, without Tio) and he is doing great! He just has to keep his confidence up, but is improving as a leader everytime I dance with him. We had a lot of fun, as he is always up for a laugh.

Jaime himself. Wow. What can I say. It is so fun - and a workout - to dance with him. Man KNOWS what to DO on the dance floor. Talk about pro, man. Gets a little crazy, but worth it!

Adam, Adam and Matt were supposed to come, but last minute had something come up. Adam, however, has expressed his sincere desire to go salsa dancing, as well as the other two guys. Oh well. Next time.

As for me, I cannot speak highly enough about going early for the class. Not only do you learn some moves, but you also meet people, whom you can dance with later.

Hasta la proxima.....

Late Night Fun

Long time, no post, I know.

Thursday night, on my way to my new favorite jazz place, I was talking with a friend about age. We decided that, as mid-twentysomethings, we were now acting more like 21 year olds than we did when we were actually 21. And by acting like we were 21, I mean partying (or, staying out late) on a Monday. Or Tuesday. Or any eve before working the next day.

I've decided to embrace this fact. Sleep be damned. Well, that is, until I am walking down the street and just keel over from sheer exhaustion. Caffeine only works so much, before it starts making me feel sick.

I know I need a lot of sleep. But, at the same time, I am having a lot of fun just doing random things, seeing people, hanging out. If not now, when?

So, as a public service, here are some of my favorite late night places in SF:
Bruno's
Yoshi's
Cafe Cocomo (duh).
Red Devil Lounge
Caffe Greco

Not to mention a few hidden gems from AZ. But if I told you about those, I'd have to kill you :)
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I have to post this conversation I had last night. It is too funny not to.

Setting: Italian pizzaria, straight out of my favorite movies. Each table has a little jukebox. I selected "O Sole Mio", and the following conversation ensued:

*Bopsy: "Hey, isn't this Beethoven?"
Me: "pffffsshshshhthtthth (trying not to spew my food) HAHAAHHAHAHHAHAHAHAHA"
Bopsy: "Oh, no, wait. It was Elvis. He sang this." [true]

Hilarious. Simply HI-LAR-I-OUS. *some names have been changed*

I can now claim...

that there are pictures of me floating around on the internet.

Here are some SF Carnval pics, thanks to Juan Carlos Pometta Betancourt

Here comes the L.A.W. float down Mission street.

Yours truly third from the front.

Singing to J.Lo and, it seems, about to both a)lose my top and b)hurl.

Let's Get Loud!

Check out those falsies (eyelashes, that is)

Our fearless leader, Jaime. Also find him here.

El Brasileno, Sidney

Brasilian Birds in their Cage

The Girls who drank all the Jack Daniels, prior to starting the parade

[I didn't post any of the more scandalous shots here, but if you click on any of the above links, you can scroll through about 600 Carnaval pictures, about 50 of which are ours--just look for the red and gold.]

(side note)

[Is it just me, or are the ads on my blog really funny right now? "Looking for a girlfriend?"; "Date sexy rich singles"; "How to get your ex back"; and "Find a girlfriend". if there was only an ad that would read: "how to not be chickens*%t when it comes to casually handing your business card to a friend whom you'd like to see again, but apparantly he's too chickens*%t to ask for your number"]

Celia Cruz said it best

"La vida es un carnaval". That was my theme for a 'salsariffic' weekend.

San Francisco Carnaval 2005 was this past weekend. Talk about a BLAST! I have never been part of such a wild-crazy-fun-amped up-energy-driven event. Seriously.

First off, I am SO proud of our Latin American Workout float. It looked awesome. All red and gold and shiny in the bright sunlight. And a cage mechanism which opened up to reveal scantily clad Brazilians inside -- the photographers went NUTS! I have NO problem saying that had it not been for the efforts of a select few (myself included), that our firey float would never have made it to the parade. Lots of blood, sweat and yes, even tears went into that thing. And what took us days and days to build, took only 2 hours to take down. If I can ever figure out how to post a picture, I'll do so.

Secondly, our costumes: gorgeous. Sparkly, spangly, sexy, red/gold/yellow/orange concoctions of carnaval festiveness. Thanks to Estella, who worked day and night -- up until 6:30 a.m. on the day of the parade. We were on fire, as it were.

Thirdly, our music was *hot*, with DJ Bosco (Friday night regular at Jillian's) mixing our routine numbers with salsa and raeggaeton on the front truck while Victor kept it live on our second truck, playing the congas, djembe, shekere and surdo.

I have to also mention the CROWD of people who were lining the streets to see the parade. It was great fun to play off of them -- dancing, singing and flirting with the party-goers, all out to celebrate in the warm sunshine.

The only drawbacks from the whole experience? A slight headcold and the fact that I have Jennifer Lopez' "Let's get loud" playing over and over and over and over again in my head.
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MUSIC TAG (sorry about the delay, Jen....)

Total volume of music files on my computer: 939 bytes. Yeah, not much. Those of you who know me, know how lo-tech I can be.

Last CD I bought: Wellllll.....I can never buy *just one* at a time. The last few I bought: "Llegan...Van Van"; Madeleine Peyroux; and a 2005 Raeggaeton hits compilation.

Song playing right now: Well, if you read the entire post, you would know that the soundtrack of my brain is currently "Let's get loud" by J. Lo. .

5 songs I listen to a lot, or that mean a lot to me:

1. "Politik" by Coldplay (A rush of blood to the head). I just really love this song.

2. The entire Joshua Tree album and Simon and Garfunkles' greatest hits. COUNTLESS hours of my existence - esp. during high school - spent listening to these with my friend Ty. Seriously. Over and over and over.

3. "Dos Gardenias" from the Buena Vista Social Club self-titled album. Beautiful song. The whole album, in fact, is perfect to play while cooking.

4. "I will survive," Cake's version. Rock-out funky, yo. This was my theme song my sophomore year of college.

5. "In your eyes" by Peter Gabriel. This is just my all-time favorite song. Ever.

I'm supposed to pass this on to 5 people. But all the people with blogs whom I know have already done this. So, if you're out there in cyberspace reading this and feel like continuing the meme, go for it!

MY EARS ARE RINGING

...in as good a way as is possible, if one is going to indeed have ringing ears, thanks to this guy and also him.

Thanks to all my peeps who turned up at the club. We had a blast!

And, as always, more drama unfolds (but not in a bad way) in the whole ex-capade (I've been listening to Janet, can you tell?

AND she had the cutest shoes EVER!

I finally got to spend some *quality* time with H, P's new girlfriend, at the opera tonight.

We talked during intermission, and then again backstage while we waited for everyone to get out of costume.

The biggest tragedy about the whole situation? Under different circumstances, H and I would totally be friends. She's really cool. Go figure.

However, P did mangage to piss me off tonight.

H was in the bathroom when the man himself comes out of the dressing room. He proceeds to introduce me as his "ex" to a couple of people. (I was like, okay....). Then, as a nicely juxtaposed comparaison, cue the "Baby, come meet these people" directed to H.

Talk about feeling like chopped liver. Boooooooooooo.

My brother would totally kick his ass for that. HA!

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In other news, I met up with Giovanni yesterday for the first time. We meet at *$ and then went and had a beer. It was...interesting. Jury's still out.

Ever wondered...

...what you're worth? As in, if someone had to purchase you?

I bet you're all thinking this is going to be one serious post.

Not!

I was working as a temp for the nice people over at SHD for the last few months. This week was my first official 'non temp' job. I was hired over at the Fund. Now, basically, SHD gets paid because I was hired. They sold me. Seriously. I saw the invoice (I pay all the bills)!

My purchase price was $7,000.00. However, probably since I am available only in limited quantity, they slashed the price and let me go for $5,000.00.

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!

I also come with (no kidding) a "one-year guarantee". Funny, eh?
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In other news....
I met my ex's new girlfriend last night. He swung by to pick up this package from his mom at my house (he doesn't have an address at the moment) and she was in the car. He's all, "hey, do you wanna come meet my girlfriend?"

I looked at him, and I KNOW I had some sort of funny, pained, and slightly panicky expression on my face. But I couldn't stop myself, I said "ummmm...sure?"

So, we go to the car, where H proceeds to give me the one over before pro-offering her hand. P joked that perhaps the two of us could exchange notes (Lucky me, I get to see her again on Sunday when I go see Madame Butterfly).

I don't know if she knows that I'm "the republican" aka the ex-girlfriend who voted for Bush. But I sure know who she is, and damned if there wasn't a twinge of jealousy that reared its ugly head deep down inside of me last night.

All I have to say is I'm gonna look good when I go to the opera Sunday night. HA. Is that really so wrong? nahhhhhhh.

Being an adult is not for wimps.

Is it just me, or am I sensing a theme for the week...

You're the United Nations!

Most people think you're ineffective, but you are trying to completely save the world from itself, so there's always going to be a long way to go. You're always the one trying to get friends to talk to each other, enemies to talk to each other, anyone who can to just talk instead of beating each other about the head and torso. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't, and you get very schizophrenic as a result. But your heart is in the right place, and sometimes also in New York.
Take the Country Quiz at the Blue Pyramid

Pleasant surprise

The daily morning email check brought me a great surprise today.
Thanks to Gill for picking me as her blog-of-the-day!

I'm NOT the only one

...who gets random songs stuck in their head. For no reason whatsoever.

Witness This Fish's April 27th entry "sing a happy song".

I'm so glad I'm not the only one!!

"From my point of view," said the polyglot, "it is open to many different interpretations."

AZ and I went to see "The Interpreter" last night. I loved it (big shocker). Great film, with only a few lines that are too cheesy to be reprinted, even in this blog.

Love Sean Penn. Great in his usual on-the-brink-of-falling apart-but-must-plow-on-and-get-the-job-done-dramafest-intense-gazing-prodding-eyeballs-etc

Nicole K - love her. Strong-smart-but-in-over-her-head-with-cool-nationality-mix-and-determination-for-justice-and-peace-and-also-plays-the-flute.

And, of course, this movie made me want to drop everything and go work at the UN. Or really, just bolstered me on in the pursuit of learning languages and studying culture. Yes, they also help me in singing. (It's very frustrating to have to sing something, without really knowing what you are saying. And don't even get me started on trying to translate a language when you don't even know rudimentary grammar. Practically impossible).
And yet, it goes deeper than that for me, and always has. It's that 25-years tug-of-war that continues in my brain, my heart, my gut, between music and language. I've written about this before (see October 21st), and it is something that waxes and wanes. It is a skirmish (not quite a full-scale battle) that I have to keep in check. I don't know yet how to reconcile the two parts...we'll see. I'll keep you "posted".
As for now, I've started taking Spanish classes, which I love despite the fact that half my answers come out in Italian. Ack.

AA for cell phone users

"Wherever your business takes you, count on more bars in more places."



Was this tag line for Cingular conceived during a night of heavy drinking, or what?

how to meet people in the city

At work we are in the process of going through stacks of resumes. Stacks and stacks and stacks which I go through because I am the Administrative Assistant and that is my job.

It's actually rather fascinating.

If there were no ethical reprecussions, I would totally cull some of these for my personal file. Some of these people look - at least 'on paper' - soo interesting! I just want to meet them, and ask them about their life experiences.

It's like dangling a carrot in front of bugs bunny, you know?

SO, here's my thought. Call it an idea for social change (albeit, a tongue-in-cheek one). You know we all carry around business cards, right? To hand out when we meet someone interesting, either for business or pleasure. Why not just carry around extra copies of a resume to hand out as well? That way, you know some background on the person, and could really decide whether or not you wanna go have coffee/drinks/dinner/business lunch. This would practically eliminate the need for smalltalk, and would give you some great conversation-starters.

I'm just suggesting....

How to enjoy a Tuesday night

5:00 - 6:00 Spanish lessons in the Mission with Carrrrrlos.

6:00 - 6:25 Drive down 101 (yes, fun!) listening to drumming music.

6:30 - 7:00 Hear about AZ's crazy weekend in Seattle, while going back UP 101.

7:00 - 7:25 Head back toward the mission with AZ.

7:25 - 7:33 Circle. Look for parking. Repeat as necessary.

7:33 - 7:35 Find a spot. Parallel. 1/2 a block from destination (MCCLAA)!

7:40 - 8:45 Salsa class with AZ, J'aime [sic], Adonai (yes) et al!

8:45 - 9:00 Drive down Mission. Find *sweet* parking for dinner at...

9:00 - 9:45 ...Baobab restaurant. Drink "rose" (vodka, ginger and cranberry).

9:45 - 9:55 Double back down Mission to Mitchells.

9:55 - 10:05 Enter, taste and order ice cream. Notice the LACK of line!

10:05 - 10:30 Drive down Guerrero, Fell and Lincoln all the way to AZ's. See large, red, London-style double decker bus coming through Golden Gate Park.

10:30 - 10:45 Head home.

Thanks AZ, for a fun Tuesday night!!

April fool, part II

I would like to comment on the previous post. That post was written BEFORE I saw my ex for the first time since we broke up. I was nervous about it, I think.

I don't know if any of you have been in the situation of being friends with an ex. I'm told it's rare. It's kinda nice - if not a little surreal.

We're now just playing games with each other.

And, of course, I mean that literally. I kicked his ass in Trivial Pursuit over at Albatross, and he kicked mine in scrabble. We have a rematch/tiebreaker scheduled for the near future sometime.
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ETC.

-I would like to point out that when spellchecking my last post, the word "blog" came up as unknown to the blogger [natch] spellchecker. Now THERE'S a proper use of irony for ya, Alanis...

-Spent an enjoyable couple hours at the Red Devil Lounge last night, hearing M.O.V.E.. They are the bomb, check out their site.

-I bought a t-shirt with Johnny Depps' picture on it. Rock on.

April fool

So I notice it's been awhile. I've even emailed myself (more than once, mind you) with things to blog about over the last two weeks. I've just not had any time!
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Here is something I wrote on March 28th, unedited and posted here for posterity:

"The bottom line? Don't deny your feelings; deal with them. Attraction is a megawatt force that can sweep away your good sense, and even your values. That's why you need to respect how powerful chemistry truly is, and work as hard as you can to avoid letting your physical desires unravel your life."
The above was taken from this article

So, i happened upon this in an MSN women article on line today, and it just struck me.....b/c i know exactly what it means. For a long time, i thought i wasn't prone to this -- i mean, c'mon how stupid is that?
maybe i just didn't believe in something so powerful as just unbridled animal attraction -- all that talk of pheromones and stuff? you know....

a few posts ago, i let loose a torrent of french. towards the end i said (for those who can't read french -- and even if you can, it was written hastily and full of errors!) "that my head, heart, body and soul were all in a war against each other". a feeling that i have felt, perhaps, before in my life, but just not quite so strongly as at that particular moment.

in romans, paul often writes that he knows what is right --he KNOWS it, and yet, he continues to do what he does not want to do. the flesh and the spirit are opposing forces. Obiviously, the applies to the statement from the MSN article -- how, when left unchecked, physical desires can indeed unravel your life. isn't it amazing how people are wired? highly intelligent, rational beings with the capacity for greatness, genius and discovery....and yet we are completely susceptible to dissolving into piles of mush when the right person just even glances at us. crazy. and fun. a lot of the fun in life stems from the chemistry you have with others (and not just sexual chemsitry, either)....

anywho. I'm with Paul AND the article. i know that "working as hard as i can" not to let my physical nature win me over will never be enough. i will never, ever be able to work hard enough. i know myself too well to claim that. So, I will call on G's help for this. it is through His strength only. "Therefore, be transformed by the renewing of your mind..." Rom. 12.

Detail

I forgot to mention that my friend Ayelet and her husband have a large, blue hookah on their back patio. Awesome. It makes me think of the opening song in "Aladdin" --


"combination hookah and coffee maker! also makes julien fries..."