the weekend and my sister's birthday
the weekend started off like any other these days: a guild raid through karazhan. unfortunately, we only made it past the opera even as most people had to go to bed. i was hoping we'd at least try and get to the curator so marshall could have a chance at his tier 4 gloves. i wouldn't mind seeing him get at least a few pieces from kara. i snagged a few pieces the previous time we ran kara and then my gloves dropped when we downed the curator. in any case, it made for an early end and we were still up for more. luckily, marshall's coworker and his coworker's wife logged on and wanted to run more stuff, too. we snagged our guild's druid and ran both the mechenar and botanica. this made for a much longer night than i had anticipated. i made up for the late bedtime by sleeping in until noon the next day...
saturday was our running-around-like-a-chicken-with-our-heads-chopped-off day. we had numerous errands to run in addition to going up to the city for dinner at an otherwise unspecified time. getting up super late didn't help matters any either. we stopped by my mom's before our errands to pick up a $10 coupon for sur la table, so i could get my sister's birthday gift slightly cheaper. we headed to santana row for lunch at wahoo's and started our shopping. it didn't take long for me to find the gift for my sister (silicone oven mitts, safe for temperatures up to 675F). then we headed across the street to the mall so i could pick her up some new nice potholders from william-sonoma. marshall and i both got coupons for victoria's secret (i forgot mine that day, though), so i picked out a new bra and a new pair of underwear. that was done, we headed back over to santana row to hop in the car and head to streetlight. marshall and i had a good trip there. he managed to find seasons 8 and 9 of friends for only $17 each. sweet! he also picked up zelda: windwaker for the gamecube (he rented it long ago, but never got to finish it) for a few bucks and also snagged kanye west's graduation (an awesome album, btw). i'm still buffing up my collection with albums i should've gotten long ago. i got foo fighters' there is nothing left to lose and their newest echoes, silence, patience & grace (teri gross on fresh air interviewed dave grohl a couple of weeks ago about this album...). i also picked up afi's decemberunderground (i found this to be less "emo" than their previous album sing the sorrow, which i have). lastly, i grabbed an album my brother-in-law loves: the flaming lips' yoshimi battles the pink robots. it's a really cool and quirky album. our last stop was dolphin pet mart for some new fish. we were going to check out brian's fish, recommended by celtcub and norcalpaco, but it was too out of our way. before getting to dolphin, though, we got a message from plug_in_tomato saying that dinner in the city won't work out, but, through a series of text messages later, did we still want to meet up anyway. sure. we got our new fish (little neon-colored pair, male and female, for which i cannot remember their names) and headed home. we still had one more stop at fry's, so we left the bag of new fish to acclimate in the tank and headed out again. i talked marshall out of buying a pair of headphones and just use mine (he was going to buy the same ones and since i don't use mine, why not he?), but then couldn't find something to buy instead with his gift card. i picked up a pair of $2 earbuds JUST FOR the little foam things to place on the earbuds (i lost one of mine for my ipod buds and simply cannot use them without the little covers - they won't stay in my ears). i just wish i could buy these things without having to just buy earbuds, only to throw them away...
getting up to the city was frustrating. actually the drive on the freeway wasn't bad, it was trying to find parking IN the city. i told my sister about the hassles we were having on sunday and she said we should've called her for assistance. well, anyway, once we DID find a parking space, we were so far away from where we were going to meet up, we had to get back in the car and drive and find another spot in that area. at this point, marshall was so frustrated, i took the wheel. pulling out of our spot, i nearly hit some jackass who had flown around the corner and his headlight on my side was out, so i couldn't see him. he laid on his horn for a good minute. whatever, i didn't hit him and he should get his headlight fixed. anyway, we made it across town and found a parking garage open till 1am. hot-damn! at this point, it's pissing rain, both of us are severely starving, i have a super bad headache and we simply cannot seem to get an actual location out of amanda to where we need to meet. then when we finally DO meet up, we still needed to find a place to eat. we ducked into a burger place a block away and ate. after that we headed up the street to a club where a cockblocker's event was going on that amanda wanted to go to. we got there early, so we had to wait outside while the dj set up. we had a drink and danced a bit before heading out. it was fun. i was worried that being with a hetero couple was cramping her style, though. anyway, it was late and we needed to head home. getting out of the city was easy. we did have to drive around a bit to help amanda find her car, but once that was taken care of, it was cake getting home. my headache still hadn't gone away...
sunday i woke up early to start our day of celebrating my sister's birthday. we did a spa day with my mom, sister, sister-in-law, and i at santana row. we all got pedicures and hung out. we met up early for coffee and breakfast. our pedicures were very nice and relaxing and fun just chatting. there were only 4 stations for nails, we sorta dominated the place for a bit. we shopped around a little afterwards and then headed for some lunch. originally we were going to go to the same place we went to before my mom's birthday dinner, but it was chilly and the seating inside wasn't accommodating for us. instead we went to the left bank for appetizers, drinks and salads. we were seated in the bar, but we weren't really recognized by the bar staff and since we weren't in the main dining room, we didn't have an actual waiter. AND during that time, they were in transition between lunch and dinner staff. it took a lot just to get our order put in and then to get our food... the food was fantastic, though. we were a little rushed since we had to get home to set up for dinner. my sister and i badgered our mom for micromanaging instead of delegating tasks and leaving it alone while we finished it up. it was all in good fun, of course. people trickled in and dinner was really nice. i will say this, though...[begin rant]
my sister simply doesn't have the capability to hold her tongue. in some cases, this is an admirable quality. she has the ability to just speak her mind, whether or not it will be received well, but she speaks the truth. however, this becomes a problem when she receives gifts. you can't give her a gift without her saying something bad about it. she's not one to say "oh, what a lovely sweater - thank you!" no, it's "umm...thanks? i'm not quite sure about the color, i think i look better in red, not green...especially not this SHADE of green..." and her face says it all. even when she tries to just be nice and accept the gift, she can't hide it in her expression. my gift was received with "wow, i love how mom knows what i want." yes, i got the idea from mom, but she said that the gloves were on my SISTER'S wish list. it's like, i should've run it by her first before i bought them. it was like i didn't feel like she was happy with what i gave her. she said thank you, but it didn't feel like she meant it. this happened later when my mom presented her with one of her gifts: one of my grandma's christmas cactus plants my mom had. my mom transplanted it in a brand-new, really cool looking, pot. my dad brought it into the room and my sister said "wow, that's kinda big, isn't it?" no "wow mom - thanks!" my mom worked hard to transplant and find that pot and stand. all my sister had to say was "thanks mom!" and she didn't. my sister wanted it, too. then when she gets it, she isn't appreciative at all. it's really frustrating getting her gifts, even the ones she wants. i got her slippers last year and she questioned the color i got her. at this point, i don't want to get her anything, just a gift card and she can pick out whatever she wants. of course, i know if i get her a gift card, she'll be put off by the impersonal feeling you get from a gift card. it's like you can't win. later that night, when my sister was getting the little ones in their pajamas before going home, she was talking about her plant with my mom. at one point my mom, in an exasperated tone said "just say 'thank you!'"
this candidness came out earlier in the night. her dad's long-term girlfriend complimented me on my necklace. it's nothing special. a metal skater-type necklace i picked up from a shop along the venice boardwalk. i thanked her and said i liked it, too. my mom whispered to me that she thought my sister didn't like it. so, i yelled out to my sister and asked "you don't like my necklace?" "umm, actually, no." "why not?" "you aren't a surfer." so? i wear a volcom stone sweatshirt and i'm not a skater/surfer/snowboarder. i also wear a thrasher magazine sweatshirt that her husband gave me and i'm not a skater. she has one, too. i pointed that out and i said "when was the last time you were on a skateboard - 20 years ago?" her retort was drowned out by my mom's "okay, girls..." so, according to her i can't wear anything related to a kind of lifestyle if i don't live that certain lifestyle. seems a little stupid to me. i wear what i wear because i like it. it just really got under my skin. i've been wearing necklaces like these since i was in high school. i like them because they look cool and go with almost everything i wear. i told my sister, if she thought better, buy me one that she deems worthy. for some reason, her comments like this, either how they're phrased or the way she says it, just cuts through me. it's like the comment she made when i was in high school and i let her borrow my shirt to wear because she forgot hers. at one point, her husband asked what he should wear and she said "i dunno - i'm wearing an over-sized baggy shirt." i came back with "at least i have boobs." i found out later that this is a very sensitive subject for her. well, too bad, my weight at that time was a sensitive subject for me! it just gets me all angry whenever i think of it.
[end rant]
my monday hasn't been that great. i really want to go home. i even got up earlier today and, had i not had to go to buy coffee this morning, would've been in the office earlier than usual. *sigh* i haven't eaten lunch so far, i should probably do that. i found out suddenly last week that marshall's going down to l.a. for thanksgiving. he leaves next tuesday night and comes back the following monday. i'll be staying at my mom's, i think, for the majority of the holiday weekend. *sigh* i'm done with today.
saturday was our running-around-like-a-chicken-with-our-heads-chopped-off day. we had numerous errands to run in addition to going up to the city for dinner at an otherwise unspecified time. getting up super late didn't help matters any either. we stopped by my mom's before our errands to pick up a $10 coupon for sur la table, so i could get my sister's birthday gift slightly cheaper. we headed to santana row for lunch at wahoo's and started our shopping. it didn't take long for me to find the gift for my sister (silicone oven mitts, safe for temperatures up to 675F). then we headed across the street to the mall so i could pick her up some new nice potholders from william-sonoma. marshall and i both got coupons for victoria's secret (i forgot mine that day, though), so i picked out a new bra and a new pair of underwear. that was done, we headed back over to santana row to hop in the car and head to streetlight. marshall and i had a good trip there. he managed to find seasons 8 and 9 of friends for only $17 each. sweet! he also picked up zelda: windwaker for the gamecube (he rented it long ago, but never got to finish it) for a few bucks and also snagged kanye west's graduation (an awesome album, btw). i'm still buffing up my collection with albums i should've gotten long ago. i got foo fighters' there is nothing left to lose and their newest echoes, silence, patience & grace (teri gross on fresh air interviewed dave grohl a couple of weeks ago about this album...). i also picked up afi's decemberunderground (i found this to be less "emo" than their previous album sing the sorrow, which i have). lastly, i grabbed an album my brother-in-law loves: the flaming lips' yoshimi battles the pink robots. it's a really cool and quirky album. our last stop was dolphin pet mart for some new fish. we were going to check out brian's fish, recommended by celtcub and norcalpaco, but it was too out of our way. before getting to dolphin, though, we got a message from plug_in_tomato saying that dinner in the city won't work out, but, through a series of text messages later, did we still want to meet up anyway. sure. we got our new fish (little neon-colored pair, male and female, for which i cannot remember their names) and headed home. we still had one more stop at fry's, so we left the bag of new fish to acclimate in the tank and headed out again. i talked marshall out of buying a pair of headphones and just use mine (he was going to buy the same ones and since i don't use mine, why not he?), but then couldn't find something to buy instead with his gift card. i picked up a pair of $2 earbuds JUST FOR the little foam things to place on the earbuds (i lost one of mine for my ipod buds and simply cannot use them without the little covers - they won't stay in my ears). i just wish i could buy these things without having to just buy earbuds, only to throw them away...
getting up to the city was frustrating. actually the drive on the freeway wasn't bad, it was trying to find parking IN the city. i told my sister about the hassles we were having on sunday and she said we should've called her for assistance. well, anyway, once we DID find a parking space, we were so far away from where we were going to meet up, we had to get back in the car and drive and find another spot in that area. at this point, marshall was so frustrated, i took the wheel. pulling out of our spot, i nearly hit some jackass who had flown around the corner and his headlight on my side was out, so i couldn't see him. he laid on his horn for a good minute. whatever, i didn't hit him and he should get his headlight fixed. anyway, we made it across town and found a parking garage open till 1am. hot-damn! at this point, it's pissing rain, both of us are severely starving, i have a super bad headache and we simply cannot seem to get an actual location out of amanda to where we need to meet. then when we finally DO meet up, we still needed to find a place to eat. we ducked into a burger place a block away and ate. after that we headed up the street to a club where a cockblocker's event was going on that amanda wanted to go to. we got there early, so we had to wait outside while the dj set up. we had a drink and danced a bit before heading out. it was fun. i was worried that being with a hetero couple was cramping her style, though. anyway, it was late and we needed to head home. getting out of the city was easy. we did have to drive around a bit to help amanda find her car, but once that was taken care of, it was cake getting home. my headache still hadn't gone away...
sunday i woke up early to start our day of celebrating my sister's birthday. we did a spa day with my mom, sister, sister-in-law, and i at santana row. we all got pedicures and hung out. we met up early for coffee and breakfast. our pedicures were very nice and relaxing and fun just chatting. there were only 4 stations for nails, we sorta dominated the place for a bit. we shopped around a little afterwards and then headed for some lunch. originally we were going to go to the same place we went to before my mom's birthday dinner, but it was chilly and the seating inside wasn't accommodating for us. instead we went to the left bank for appetizers, drinks and salads. we were seated in the bar, but we weren't really recognized by the bar staff and since we weren't in the main dining room, we didn't have an actual waiter. AND during that time, they were in transition between lunch and dinner staff. it took a lot just to get our order put in and then to get our food... the food was fantastic, though. we were a little rushed since we had to get home to set up for dinner. my sister and i badgered our mom for micromanaging instead of delegating tasks and leaving it alone while we finished it up. it was all in good fun, of course. people trickled in and dinner was really nice. i will say this, though...[begin rant]
my sister simply doesn't have the capability to hold her tongue. in some cases, this is an admirable quality. she has the ability to just speak her mind, whether or not it will be received well, but she speaks the truth. however, this becomes a problem when she receives gifts. you can't give her a gift without her saying something bad about it. she's not one to say "oh, what a lovely sweater - thank you!" no, it's "umm...thanks? i'm not quite sure about the color, i think i look better in red, not green...especially not this SHADE of green..." and her face says it all. even when she tries to just be nice and accept the gift, she can't hide it in her expression. my gift was received with "wow, i love how mom knows what i want." yes, i got the idea from mom, but she said that the gloves were on my SISTER'S wish list. it's like, i should've run it by her first before i bought them. it was like i didn't feel like she was happy with what i gave her. she said thank you, but it didn't feel like she meant it. this happened later when my mom presented her with one of her gifts: one of my grandma's christmas cactus plants my mom had. my mom transplanted it in a brand-new, really cool looking, pot. my dad brought it into the room and my sister said "wow, that's kinda big, isn't it?" no "wow mom - thanks!" my mom worked hard to transplant and find that pot and stand. all my sister had to say was "thanks mom!" and she didn't. my sister wanted it, too. then when she gets it, she isn't appreciative at all. it's really frustrating getting her gifts, even the ones she wants. i got her slippers last year and she questioned the color i got her. at this point, i don't want to get her anything, just a gift card and she can pick out whatever she wants. of course, i know if i get her a gift card, she'll be put off by the impersonal feeling you get from a gift card. it's like you can't win. later that night, when my sister was getting the little ones in their pajamas before going home, she was talking about her plant with my mom. at one point my mom, in an exasperated tone said "just say 'thank you!'"
this candidness came out earlier in the night. her dad's long-term girlfriend complimented me on my necklace. it's nothing special. a metal skater-type necklace i picked up from a shop along the venice boardwalk. i thanked her and said i liked it, too. my mom whispered to me that she thought my sister didn't like it. so, i yelled out to my sister and asked "you don't like my necklace?" "umm, actually, no." "why not?" "you aren't a surfer." so? i wear a volcom stone sweatshirt and i'm not a skater/surfer/snowboarder. i also wear a thrasher magazine sweatshirt that her husband gave me and i'm not a skater. she has one, too. i pointed that out and i said "when was the last time you were on a skateboard - 20 years ago?" her retort was drowned out by my mom's "okay, girls..." so, according to her i can't wear anything related to a kind of lifestyle if i don't live that certain lifestyle. seems a little stupid to me. i wear what i wear because i like it. it just really got under my skin. i've been wearing necklaces like these since i was in high school. i like them because they look cool and go with almost everything i wear. i told my sister, if she thought better, buy me one that she deems worthy. for some reason, her comments like this, either how they're phrased or the way she says it, just cuts through me. it's like the comment she made when i was in high school and i let her borrow my shirt to wear because she forgot hers. at one point, her husband asked what he should wear and she said "i dunno - i'm wearing an over-sized baggy shirt." i came back with "at least i have boobs." i found out later that this is a very sensitive subject for her. well, too bad, my weight at that time was a sensitive subject for me! it just gets me all angry whenever i think of it.
[end rant]
my monday hasn't been that great. i really want to go home. i even got up earlier today and, had i not had to go to buy coffee this morning, would've been in the office earlier than usual. *sigh* i haven't eaten lunch so far, i should probably do that. i found out suddenly last week that marshall's going down to l.a. for thanksgiving. he leaves next tuesday night and comes back the following monday. i'll be staying at my mom's, i think, for the majority of the holiday weekend. *sigh* i'm done with today.