Yes, but are you a full-service social host?

For those that don't know- I am leaving on Sunday for an Alaska cruise with my family for my grandparent's 65th wedding anniversay. I haven't had much time to prepare, but thought I'd check out the cruise-line's web site for some basic info.


Taken Directly from the Holland America Cruise Lines web-site:

"On most cruises of 14 days or longer, onboard Social Hosts welcome single women guests to dinner and dancing. "

Oh it's ON. It's on like Donkey Kong.


Hoping that they don't diss just becuase we're just going on a 7 day cruise...

Yes, I really AM that big headed.

Enough so to think that someone might want to read what I have to write :)

I have a sneaking suspicion that most people who try out for reality TV shows are really just in it for the fame. That they’d rather their film career get a kick-start than actually meet and fall in love with the next Bachelorette. (afterall, if you're a film star, you can meet and fall in love with ANYONE! Just look at TomKat! Why settle for some... civilian?!?) I have another sneaking suspicion that people who Blog are really just in it because they want to be the next Carrie Bradshaw/Dan Brown/Danielle Steel/John Grisham. Blogging gives us the silly notion that the world wants to hear what we have to say, and more importantly, likes the way we say it.

So if you know me, you know that “I’m writing a book” about a lot of things. Most of them of the “chick-lit” category. Have I put one word on a page? Well, no, but I have a lot of ideas. I’ve thought of a handful of clever titles, but I have no real direction as far as where to go from there. Some of my favorites, that I could certainly envision being discussed by a panel of Oprah identifiers are: “Stop Faking Orgasms at Work: How to get what you really want from your career” (my latest), and “Everything I Ever Needed to Know About Men, I Learned by Working on Wall Street.” (in which I will compare men to investment vehicles…ummmm, muni-bonds…)

My darling friend Dan, who is a sports writer by day, has also envisioned writing “his book” for many moons. Dan and I have good talks. He can talk about feelings and relationships ALMOST more than I can. Which is a lot. So we’ve been tossing around the idea of a he-said/she-said for a while now, and have decided to take the first steps. I didn’t know what the first steps were... But I think I learned when he gave me two topics/questions in a recent e-mail. The answer is: Answer the questions- just start writing.

So I’m going to start writing. He’s going to start writing. We’ll pow-wow later to see if our pieces of writing can do a little dance.

Dear Readers- please send your thoughts or suggestions.

Topic Numero Uno: Over-Analysis is Paralysis.

I want to dance with the stars!

This is a short post, made only to say this: Dancing With The Stars is the best show on TV. Ever.

For JW, the All-American Girl

I call this one: "Hi! My name is Sally, but you can call me Fer!"


For you? No need for a sitting. I have you in my mind's eye.

Thank God for creative outlets.

In efforts to alleviate the funk in which I seem to be stuck, I have decided to finally display some of the art work that I have created over the last couple of months. My primary medium is Microsoft “Paint,” and my subjects tend to be portraits. My themes are situation irony and human angst.

My first series is called “Shock and Awe” It is an essay on the human experience at the moment of realization that man-kind is inherently flawed.

My first subject is Justin: Please note the attention to his hair- it is a combination of both his Monday-Thursday hair AND his casual Friday hair, which is decidedly messier, in a trendy sort of way. He uses a subtle combination of Bellevue-Style and Ebonics to capture his emotion.

My next piece in this exhibit is my only self-portrait. Please note the orange hair. Also noteworthy are my eyes that really capture the essence of “blue eggs sunny-side-up.”



If YOU would like a portrait of yourself or a loved on, please leave a comment to request a sitting.

Once Upon a Time...

…there was a girl who broke up with her boyfriend. She was pretty sad about it. She thought that she did the right thing, but she was not sure. Just an all-over queasy, I-might-throw-up-soon feeling. The Dutch might say, “niet zo groot.”

So when she got to work and saw his sweet, smiling face looking at her from his picture underneath the glass on her desk, she wanted to get it out from there, and take it away. Tuck it safely in the back of a drawer or something. She first tried unbending a paper clip to see if she could wedge it under the glass, and pull the picture out. Just pushed the picture in further. Then she tried to fish it out again with a piece of paper. She tried and tried and the picture just kept getting pushed further and further in towards the center of her desk, inaccessibly lodged there, staring at her.

She sat, exhaled and thought to herself, “damn.”

The Coffee Dialogs: Part One

Close your eyes and picture it: You’re at the condiment bar of your local gourmet coffee retailer (is it really called a condiment bar? Are Splenda packets and half and half really considered Condiments? Joe says that it’s more of “a tuner shop- you know, where you go to get all of your after market stuff”). As you’re pouring a moderate amount of sugar and cream into your coffee, you look over at the guy next to you and notice that he has more “room” in his venti drip coffee than you’ve ever seen before. Seriously, this guy’s enormous paper cup is less than half-way full. And to top that, he’s pouring a little more coffee out into the garbage can, which is fairly standard practice when the barista doesn’t give you quite enough room for cream as you’ve requested. You mutter to him in tone conveying coffee-addict fellowship:
“Wow. Now THAT’S room!”

“That’s Rude??”
“No- that’s room”

“Yeah, well, it’s all the carbs I get in a day” he smiles, filling the empty space with whole-milk.

“Yeah, and after all, you’ve gotta get your calcium somewhere,” you reply as you walk away, ending the politely brief condiment bar encounter.

You get back to your office and try to get the day started. You know deep down that your brain is going to be stuck on this for a good hour or so. You just can’t let it go. The question is clamoring to jump out of your head: Does this guy seriously pay for a venti drip coffee everyday and pour out half the cup? The price differential between a short and a venti is actually pretty small compared to the fluid ounce differential. But even if the difference in cost is only 10 or 20 cents, it’s the principle behind it. And let’s just say 15 cents, times 5 days a week, times a career’s worth of coffee drinking? These numbers start to become significant!

Okay. You can open your eyes now…. Oh, hi!

So I was stewing on this topic and decided to ask a barista: Could a customer ask for a short or tall drip coffee in a Venti cup and only be charged for the short/tall?

Answer: Yes, but no one ever does.


So my question of the day to all of you out there is this: If coffee is a symbol of life (and that’s a big “if”), how much of life are we missing out on, or wasting every day, from major to minor, simply because we haven’t thought to ask the right questions?

This is why I'm scared to ever have kids...

I got to work this morning and as I was waiting for the elevator, I had a realization. “wait a minute self, you forgot to get Daphne up this morning!”

Daphne is my dog. Every morning, I have to wake her up and (almost literally) drag her out of bed (off the couch) and take her outside to pee. Then she comes back inside, goes back to bed, where I give her a couple of morning pets and a kiss on the nose. I give her 1 ½ cups of dry dog food, change the water, grab my keys and a granola bar, and I head to work. I do this every single day, have done it ever since I got her, over 4 years ago.

This morning I did my normal wake-up, get dressed routine, gave her food, changed the water, grabbed my keys and left for work. Woops. Forgot to involve her in the process. I didn’t wake her up for have her go out to pee. Didn’t pet her or give her a kiss on the nose. It's like I forgot she even existed, until I got to work 20 minutes later. And I forgot to get a granola bar (remembered to feed the dog, forgot to feed myself).

I think I’ve been staying up too late pissing my time away when I should just got to bed early…. Need more sleep. And heading home in the middle of the day to let the dog isn't a good habit to get in to.

But really- what if I did something like this with a human child? Its not like I’m going to get any younger or more energetic? Sheesh…

I just don't get it.

Robert Blake gets acquitted, barks at the media like an insane (wife killing) maniac, and is left alone.

OJ's probably golfing right now. And when it came down to it, didn't the glove end up fitting after all?

Michael Jackson didn't even get charged with giving alcohol to minors. Oh good, that means he can go back home and open a day-care if he's so inclined. I mean really, in Any College Town, USA, you even think about being at a party with alcohol and 20 year olds at the same time and you're likely going to at least get a citation for contribution to minors. Actually had a friend who got two MIP's within a couple of years and had to spend the night in jail for it.

Martha Stewart? One ill-timed phone call to her broker's assistant, and was sent to the big house. What an evil-doer.

Why can't y'all listen this well when we say things like, "please don't forget the dry cleaning"??

I'll just leave it as my lesson learned:

Guys really DO listen. But like silly hounds named Daphne, they listen a lot better when you’re shaking the treats.

All comments now welcome.

But I reserve the right to refuse service for the shirtless and shoeless.

Changed my settings to allow for anonymous comments. Fire away!

You think you know someone

I talked to Jose today. He's on land in an undisclosed/I-could-tell-you-but-I'd-have-to-kill-you type of location. Chatted for a while, which was mostly me apparently putting relationship pressure on him, as per our normal routine of

me: What the heck are we doing here?
him: I thought we weren't going to talk about this right now. So I haven't been thinking about it.
Me: Yeah, well, we're talking about it cause I need to figure some stuff out.
him: Damnit Woman, I don't want to get married right now!
Me: Either do I! Why can't you accept that?? What's your problem??
Him: ....Silence
Me: For the love of Pete, SAY something!

Yeah, so that went well.

But ANYWAY- to the topic at hand... I remembered to ask him about the Crown Prince of the Netherlands. What was he like? Was he even on the ship at the time? How was it?

him: Oh. Yeah. I was there. The guys he flew with said he was pretty cool.

WHAT?!? THAT'S IT!!??? As if this no big deal?? Wow- really made me realize how different we really are. But then again, I guess most normal people don't get excited about the Dutch Royal Family. But most people aren't me!

All in all, it was a very unsatisfying conversation. And if you know me, you know how much I dislike things that are unsatisfying.

Blech.

In other news: my dear friend Kari e-mailed me with troubling news that she was unable to leave comments or sign in to Ginapalooza. She also said that she couldn't leave an anonymous comment- I wonder if I have control over this? Ack! Pushing the limits of computer know-how! But, being that this is The World Wide Web's Premiere Spot For All Things Gina, I hope that this was a one time problem. And I hope it can be remedied soon...

Peace out Yo.

Golly it feels good to have such an appealing plan B...sigh...

So I got to thinking… If things don’t work out with my ultimate plan to meet and marry Patrick Dempsey while he is in Seattle on-site, shooting an outside scene for Grey’s Anatomy, I’d like to officially announce my Plan B: Become a Dutch Princess!! I think I’d be the first red-head in the House of Orange- which is, by its very nature, almost tragically ironic.

Come to think of it, I hate to even call this “plan B:” because that sounds so… second rate. This would be a true top-shelf plan if I could pull it off:

My first step was initial research and fact-finding. I’ve found two unmarried Princes of a suitable age to marry. They are both Nephews of Queen Beatrix herself (their mother is the Queen’s younger sister). But I must make haste: they’re both already engaged! The clock is ticking.

Option Number 1) Prince Pieter-Christiaan van Vollenhoven. He is engaged to Anita Van Eyck. She looks more intense than me. She wears bold colors. If he’s into super savvy women, I may be to low-key for him. They look like a good match. I’m not encouraged. The only sliver of hope that I see is that she clearly didn’t ensure that her outfit and his tie would compliment one another. Maybe she’s too focused on herself?


Option Number 2) Prince Floris van Vollenhoven. The youngest of the four boys. He too is engaged, more recently, to a lovely lady named Aimee Sohngen. But do they look happy? I’ll let you decide. All I’m saying is… if you don’t see this as my opportunity to go in for the kill, then you’re un-American and most likely hate freedom.

Holy Fabulosity Batman!!

For those of you who don't know this already, I have a facsination with the Dutch Royal Family (which is ALMOST as huge as Allison's facsination with the same family).

What you are about to see to too phenomenal for words, so I'll spare you an attempt.


USS Carl Vinson (June 7, 2005)-- The Crown Prince of the Netherlands, His Royal Highness Willem-Alexander Claus George Ferdinand, departs the Nimitz class aircraft carrier through the rainbow sideboys. The Carl Vinson Strike Group is currently deployed to the Arabian Gulf. The strike group is conducting operations in support of multi-national forces in Iraq and maritime security operations in the Gulf in order to set the conditions for security and stability in the region. USS Carl Vinson will end its deployment with a homeport shift to Norfolk, Va., in support of a three-year refuel and complex overhaul.


There are many more photos of Willem Alexander's visit, but this was one of my favorites. There are no news articles about it yet though, which is beyond sad. Hopefully one will be posted shortly. But- to see more photos, click on my "what's happening on the ship" link, then go to the "photos" link which is on the right-hand side of the Carl Vinson homepage.


** PS- why isn't there a gay bar or boy-band named "Rainbow Sideboys" yet?

Napa-licious weekend

Ahhhhh, back from the weekend…. and frefreshed...

However, I came home at around 10PM on Sunday night -after a great, but exhausting weekend- to a messy, tiny empty apartment. Daphne was still at the dog lounge, I was coming down from the joy-high that I’d been on all weekend, and I got an e-mail from Jose that his deployment has been extended by about 20 days or so. Juuuusssst when I was starting to let myself get excited for him to be coming home soon. So- I guess I have ALL of July to myself after all, and not just the first couple of weeks. 20 days isn’t really that bad in the big picture, but when you finally feel like the end is in sight, it can be an annoying addition. Like running 5 miles, and then finding out that oops- you’ve only gone 3. Only another 2 miles to go. Could be worse. So I felt lonely and sorry for myself for the night (two emotions that don’t look very good on me) and now I’m over it. After all, I’M not the one stuck on the dang ship for that extra time. Poor guy.

So anyway… Back to Napa. Flew down to San Jose on Thursday night, stayed with Baum (Kristin) that night along with 3 of the other girls. Friday morning we packed up, met at Beth’s in Mountain View with the other half, and were on the road to Napa. Got to our place, got settled in, had lunch out and dinner in. Saturday morning, Ray (our very nice driver) came to pick us up in a white stretch limo (that mind you, was only $10 more per-person than a 10-passenger van. Way to shop Beth!). We toured several wineries, took lots of photos, and had a ball. That night we cooked some food on the grill (I was in charge of the coals. Had a few set-backs, but figured it out), drank several beers, and packed as much quality girl-bonding into one night as humanly possible. There were dance moves (I learned that the snap-clap is all the rage with Mothers-in-law in Vancouver, WA), card games, rounds of “I never,” wedding ring show-and-tell, and more. There were even marital-aid reviews and recommendations. It was all just fabulously girlie. I loved it!!

If you want a link to my ofoto album, let me know, but here are a couple pictures to set the tone:

At Beth’s on Friday Morning- meet, greet, pack:


Heading over the Gold Gate Bridge:


Me, giving a little love to the Navy monument at a Golden Gate Bridge over-look area:


All of us at our place:


Our Place, “Maison Bleue” come on… say it with an accent. You know you want to! But whatever you do, do NOT confuse this with Maison Blanc, where the Evil Stefano held up Hope for years (in the swampy Louisiana bayous) after brainwashing her on Days of Our Lives!


Lindsey and me, kicking off cocktail hour:


Here’s one from Saturday. By the time we got here, to Niebaum-Coppola, we decided to skip the pre-set tasting and just buy a couple bottles to enjoy on the grounds J


More Neibaum-Coppola:


Our patient driver, Ray- taking our group picture on all of our cameras (well, except for mine…)

Esteban, el Intelegente

Ole!


Steve, thoughtful, wise one. He of Proficient Spelling Abilities, Mighty art thine ways! You are the wind beneath the wings of Ginapalooza. Thank you for alerting me to the fact that I had been omitting a key "e" in the word "premiere" in my sub-title.

Feeling like an alcoholic mother....

Arggg.... I'm going to Napa. Leaving tonight. Woo Hooo!! Yes, I am very excited, but I'm feeling guilty cause I have to leave Daphne in a Kennel while I'm off in the wine country having a grand time with the girls.

Normally she can stay at Chez Grandparents' house, but they are going to be out of town this weekend too! Dang! So I've arranged to have her entertained for the weekend at Seattle's primire dog daycare facility: The Downtown Dog Lounge.

Here is a link to her web-cam, so that the whole world may observe Her Royal Fattness over the weekend:
http://www.downtowndoglounge.com/belltownweb2.html

This is of course, assuming that she'll be kept in the "big dog" room. But who know's, maybe she'll fit in better as the nanny in the puppy room?

Okay- off to throw another pair of flip-flops in my bag and hop a plane to San Jose.... Pictures to follow!!!