gangstaswan

For the life of me I cannot remember the name of it, but I went to some crafts show with Koleeta. While in line to get in, I saw this dress:





Not sure why, but I love it. No idea who made it. Oh well.

requiem came down to celebrate with me. He surprised me with a 7 a.m. Segway tour of Disney's California Adventure.



He likes to think he's threatening:



I got a free ticket of course, but he upgraded it so we could go to both parks. We certainly had a blast.





He made us dinner reservations at the Napa Rose at the Grand California Hotel. I had some amazing soup. I wish I had had a second bowl, but my stomach was acting up so I refused to give it more fuel, so to speak. We then had dessert on a balcony in the hotel where we could see the tip of the Matterhorn and Space Mountain. If the fireworks had been going off, it would have been incredibly romantic. As it was, when he was uncorking the champagne I asked, "You aren't proposing are you?!" He laughed and said we needed to have a few talks before then, which really was the perfect answer.

With my dad acting as financial backer and me acting as his representative, I helped my brother's girlfriend pick out long boards (one for my brother's birthday and one to replace hers, which he ruined).

Hers is the blue one. We returned the orange and bought a black and white one off the Internets for him. Hopefully he likes it.



I framed and matted the picture of my cousin and grandfather hugging at my cousin's graduation from Marine bootcamp to send to my grandmother. I haven't sent it yet 'cause I keep missing pieces (first I couldn't find a box, then thought I had a box but forgot the address label, now I realize it won't fit in said box and that I should probably write a little note in the box or else grandmother might think me rude).



Oh and we celebrated Dad's 53rd birthday at Buca di Beppo. He tried dividing the cake, but out of the six of us, he ended up eating most of it.

requiem and his brother decided we should do another family vacation, this time in celebration of his mother's birthday. It was cold and rainy, but that wasn't so bad so long as I had my jacket, which I normally didn't because requiem would say "Oh we're not going on the deck" and I'd believe him. He lied every time. The bastard .

We started out in Seattle. As I got in three hours before req, I met up with a friend from high school. He works at NBC as a late night producer:



Saw the famous gum wall:



Saw the library (and went to the top where I got a nice case of vertigo):





Once we got on the boat, they gave us champagne:



Remember I said it was cold:





Juneau was quite pretty:





Strange staircase:



Sure we saw some glaciers, even saw 'em calve:



But I liked the granite more:



Kayaking was amazing. No pictures as I was afraid I'd drop my camera in the water. But we saw eagle's and their nest; hermaphroditic sea stars; a gray fish with black spots so close we could have reached out and grabbed it; a seal popped up very near our kayaks and looked incredibly worried; ducks that can dive up to 50 or 100 feet and porpoises.

All in all, it was amazing to have a week of doing nothing and not having to worry about all the stresses of work.

Made it to Club Suicide Friday night and had an absolute blast. Hopefully pictures will be posted soon.

SGOC brunch yesterday was delicious as always. Went to the movie with Koleeta and saw "Night at the Museum, Battle of the Smithsonian." It was cute fun movie. During the movie my mom called. When I listened to her message, I had a slight panic attack that something was wrong. I called her thinking the worst, but no, she was just calling to ask about Alaska.

THe only real bad news is that grandpa has been diagnosed with dementia. I'm relieved that they have made a decision because now we can begin treatment. Or rather, they already have. I guess the doctors put him on medication and he's doing better. He doesn't talk about "John" (I'm not sure if this is a family friend or the salesman he latched onto, but "John" is the man he accuses my grandmother of having an affair with) and I think he's stopped talking about the house being bugged. Grandma also met another woman having the same problems with her husband so now they're friends and can support each other. All in all, I think the situation is improving as best as it can. I mean, it's not going to get back to how it was, but at least they're a little more comfortable.

After the long conversation with mom, Koleeta and I went to the grocery store. I was making dinner for friends and she made dinner for OctEgon's party. The food was a smashing success all around.

It's still sucky. It doesn't help that the top editor wants to move Douche Bag Editor into a web editor position (something he really cannot handle) and put another editor in charge of the daily. This other editor is also unqualified. I mean the man cannot figure out how to google something so how in the world will he handle a daily? And who will take care of the weekly when he's doing the daily? Really the two of them should be fired. I've begun calling all three the Troika of Retardation. The top editor actually told me that because the weekly editor didn't tell him there was stuff to read, he didn't read anything. I mean it's his job so he needs someone to tell him to do his job? It's aggravating. This is what makes me want to leave journalism completely. While in Alaska any time I saw something journalism related, I wanted to throw up. I never wanted to see any of it again. How sad is that?

I haven't made up my mind whether I will move yet. Landlord says we'll go month to month when our lease ends and our rent won't increase. So for now, I'll stay put until I figure out what I want to do.