Q and A #2
i promised there was another list of questions i received over a week ago. yikes - i've been so behind! it's been really busy at work and i've also been really busy at home. i was also sick last week with a nasty cold. i quickly fought it off, though, and was back at work.
luckily, it's just been lingering on and it didn't affect the fun i had at my bridal shower this last weekend. i was actually anxious about it. i don't like being put on display or being the center of attention. i don't like people watching me or having to entertain or anything, so being put in that position was a little nerve-wracking. everything turned out wonderfully. despite the stress my sister and mom went through to put everything together, it couldn't have been better. originally, they were going to have the food catered, but they decided to handle all the food themselves. honestly, i'm really happy they did. we got a really eclectic mix of dishes. they started with an asian-fusion kind of thing, but with my mom being italian, she couldn't steer completely of the mediterranean. the big winner that day was the thai red rice salad. red rice is like a wild rice that puffs up, rather than gets softer (like white rice). the salad was simply rice and veggies, but it was very good. they also had a spinach salad with applies and curry dressing, HOME-MADE samosas, which totally rocked, vietnamese spring rolls (from a local vietnamese restaurant), fresh tuna tartar, which was also delicious, plus cheese wafers, olive cheese balls (my grandma's recipe and the BEST thing to come out of the home cocktail parties of the 50s) and kalamata olive tapenade. everything was so great and i finally was able to show one of my friends where i got my love for cooking. my mom NEVER goes half-assed on hosting and cooking and i always do my best to do the same. anyway, the shower turned out to be super fun. we played one game with the group: the toilet paper bride game (modeling toilet paper wedding dresses). i go to be the judge, which was fun. then i go to show the group just how well i know marshall. i know now his quiz questions are really hard! there were 20 and i got 12 correct, which is still considered failing. at least i got more than half right, but it didn't make the game any easier. for every questions i got WRONG, i had to put a giant piece of bubbalicious gum in my mouth. at the end of the game, i had 8 pieces of gum in my mouth. it was pretty damn disgusting, but it was fun nonetheless. dariosmonkey commented that it was amazing to see that i got smarter the more gum i had in my mouth. anyway, the bulk of the party was taken up by opening the giant pile of gifts i had. the theme of the party was "a day in the life". everyone was given a time of day and they picked a gift that was appropriate for that time of day. such as: my godmother got 9am and bought me my waffle iron (i'm so stoked about this!), 2 coffee cups, and 2 different types of waffle mix from bouchon bakery (owned by the famed thomas keller. i also got bath towels, a coffee carafe and measuring spoon, and pink bunny feetie pajamas during this time!! :D i was a busy girl at 9am... :P anyway, you get the idea. the day started at 5am and ended at midnight. i got so many cool things, but i have NO idea where i'm going to keep everything! we certainly need a bigger house... anyway, the day was awesome and everyone had a great time. it's a real compliment to get from my friends and family saying how wonderful and fun and friendly my other friends and family are. i had high school friends sandwiched between my godmother and future MIL AND having a great time! so yeah, it was an amazing day. plus, how often do i get an entire day to sit, chat, and laugh with all the women in my family (both ancestral and urban) and drink champagne?! :)
sunday started with more wedding-related activities. marshall and i headed to hollins house to meet with our events coordinator and pick out our menu. we also got to go over the overall schedule of the wedding day and how the seating will work for dinner. because of the number of people we're anticipating, we're going to have 2 tables (including our "sweetheart" table) on the dance floor, which will all need to be cleared once dinner is finished and the party starts. it's a little awkward, but i think everything will work out just fine. we might put our friends at those two tables or something and once the party ends they can move easily to the tables which will remain out in the dining room. anyway, i'm not supposed to worry about all of that. so, picking out the menu was fun. we're going to have 3 passed appetizers: pancetta-wrapped prawns, alsatian onion tartlets, and risotto croquettes. we decided to add a salad: mesclun salad with warm goat cheese and a mustard vinegarette. for dinner, we have three options for our guests: boursin stuffed chicken (panko crusted chicken with boursin cheese madeira white wine reduction, served with garlic whipped potatoes), corvina sea bass (lemon herb infused with a caper butter sauce and wehani red rice, and peppered new york strip steak (served with a roasted red pepper and potato hash with a brandy cream sauce). i'm really looking forward to it. i've already decided i'll have the sea bass and marshall's going to have the steak. :) everything went swimmingly and she has everyone's contact information and was very happy we chose the photographer we picked! :D
after that, marshall and i headed to downtown santa cruz for a vegetarian lunch at saturn cafe. i loved my veggie patty (house-made), but i think i would've liked it on a crispier roll. otherwise, they're fries are awesome and if i had ordered less i would've totally gone for one of their awesome milk shakes! after lunch it was back over the hill to BFF-sarah's place for a candle party. similar to the original tupperware parties and recent pampered chef parties, we got to enjoy smelling candles and looking at catalogs of candle holders and other candle-related decorating things. if i had more extra money, i would've sprung for a neat wall sconce, but unfortunately i need to save my current money so i can get people christmas gifts. this party, though, was more about getting together with friends and we spent the entire time chatting more than anything else. my mom had fun chatting with sarah's mom and marshall ended up disappearing to see BFF-sarah and mike's new imac. nerds! :P anyway, it was a great afternoon, but it was soon time to go home. the rest of the evening was spent being nerds and playing WoW. what's new, huh?
in addition to traveling down to LA this week for thanksgiving, i have my final group project for my class due right after the weekend. i'll be spending a lot of my free time this week trying to put together the group's powerpoint presentation together. i still have to get MY part finished and out to secretfanofu, who's managing our website portion. it shouldn't take me long, but i want to make sure everything is handled properly and the presentation is put together exactly the way we want it. we give our actual presentation next wednesday. it's only 30 minutes and it seems like a long time now, but i'm sure once we get started, it will just fly by. we meet tomorrow night to go over last minute details we need to make sure are in our project, as per the instructor's guidelines. we've got a great idea for our assignment, so hopefully it'll fly with the instructor. :) i'm nervous about it, though. when i don't actually see who i'm talking to, i'm worried they aren't getting what i'm talking about or all the technical parts are working properly. my part in the grand scheme of things is about 5 minutes, which won't be much time at all, and i also volunteered to handle the conclusion. so yeah... but once that's done i'm all set for the semester and will be taking next semester off. it'll be a nice break, but i know once next fall rolls around, it's totally back to the grindstone!
marshall and i leave for LA wednesday and will be driving. i suppose it's easier to drive, since we'll have my car once we're down there to do our own thing, but it's the 6-hour drive which is going to be a hassle. the trip itself will be great, i'm sure. marshall's aunt and uncle are coming down for thanksgiving, too, and it'll be nice to have a nice group together. i'm not sure if marshall's grandma will be joining us, but i'm sure we'll pay her a visit on thanksgiving and sneak her in a GOOD thanksgiving dinner! :) saturday night is marshall's 10-year high school reunion. it should be interesting. my high school had a 5-year reunion and only a fraction of the girls in my class showed up and i was the ONLY one who brought a date. i'm sure 10 years will make much more of a difference, though. i do feel a little anxious about it. i ALWAYS feel judged whenever i go down to LA. LA is chock-a-block full of pretty people and since i'm slightly heavier than the average person for my height, i feel like everyone's judging the fact that i'm wearing jeans that didn't cost $100 and my t-shirt is from old navy. i also may be wearing out-of-fashion sneakers and i'm not spending every waking moment in heels. so yeah, when i have to go to a fancy function that's labeled "cocktail dress", i'm feeling a little anxious. i know i should just go as weirdo me, but ya know...i want to make my husband-to-be good. is that such a bad thing?
anyway...i may have to put my Q and A in another post. this one ended up being rather long. oops!
oh yeah, i got yelled at work this morning because i was talking too loudly. someone in my group complained to my executive director about the volume of my voice. i was chatting with one of my coworkers about my weekend and since i had such a great weekend, i got excited and my voice may have been a little loud. i understand that we're packed in here like sardines and other people are trying to work, but if i'm being loud - ask me to my face to keep it down, don't complain to my manager's manager (reason being my manager is out of the office this week). i have a few people i think might've complained. if it's someone in my row, she had a lot of nerve because she leaves her freakin cell phone on full blast and it rang this afternoon and she wasn't there to pick it up. it then kept beeping periodically to notify her she had a missed call. the guy next to me commented "and she said my CHAIR was annoying." well, his chair was annoying, but yeah, i agree. anyway, i guess this person thought i was on the phone and so my manager's manager came over to my cube to tell me she sent me an urgent email. i'm sorry, but you could've told me right then and there that my voice was too loud. anyway, i've spent the rest of my day with my head down and working non-stop since this morning. i was having a pretty good morning up until that point...
luckily, it's just been lingering on and it didn't affect the fun i had at my bridal shower this last weekend. i was actually anxious about it. i don't like being put on display or being the center of attention. i don't like people watching me or having to entertain or anything, so being put in that position was a little nerve-wracking. everything turned out wonderfully. despite the stress my sister and mom went through to put everything together, it couldn't have been better. originally, they were going to have the food catered, but they decided to handle all the food themselves. honestly, i'm really happy they did. we got a really eclectic mix of dishes. they started with an asian-fusion kind of thing, but with my mom being italian, she couldn't steer completely of the mediterranean. the big winner that day was the thai red rice salad. red rice is like a wild rice that puffs up, rather than gets softer (like white rice). the salad was simply rice and veggies, but it was very good. they also had a spinach salad with applies and curry dressing, HOME-MADE samosas, which totally rocked, vietnamese spring rolls (from a local vietnamese restaurant), fresh tuna tartar, which was also delicious, plus cheese wafers, olive cheese balls (my grandma's recipe and the BEST thing to come out of the home cocktail parties of the 50s) and kalamata olive tapenade. everything was so great and i finally was able to show one of my friends where i got my love for cooking. my mom NEVER goes half-assed on hosting and cooking and i always do my best to do the same. anyway, the shower turned out to be super fun. we played one game with the group: the toilet paper bride game (modeling toilet paper wedding dresses). i go to be the judge, which was fun. then i go to show the group just how well i know marshall. i know now his quiz questions are really hard! there were 20 and i got 12 correct, which is still considered failing. at least i got more than half right, but it didn't make the game any easier. for every questions i got WRONG, i had to put a giant piece of bubbalicious gum in my mouth. at the end of the game, i had 8 pieces of gum in my mouth. it was pretty damn disgusting, but it was fun nonetheless. dariosmonkey commented that it was amazing to see that i got smarter the more gum i had in my mouth. anyway, the bulk of the party was taken up by opening the giant pile of gifts i had. the theme of the party was "a day in the life". everyone was given a time of day and they picked a gift that was appropriate for that time of day. such as: my godmother got 9am and bought me my waffle iron (i'm so stoked about this!), 2 coffee cups, and 2 different types of waffle mix from bouchon bakery (owned by the famed thomas keller. i also got bath towels, a coffee carafe and measuring spoon, and pink bunny feetie pajamas during this time!! :D i was a busy girl at 9am... :P anyway, you get the idea. the day started at 5am and ended at midnight. i got so many cool things, but i have NO idea where i'm going to keep everything! we certainly need a bigger house... anyway, the day was awesome and everyone had a great time. it's a real compliment to get from my friends and family saying how wonderful and fun and friendly my other friends and family are. i had high school friends sandwiched between my godmother and future MIL AND having a great time! so yeah, it was an amazing day. plus, how often do i get an entire day to sit, chat, and laugh with all the women in my family (both ancestral and urban) and drink champagne?! :)
sunday started with more wedding-related activities. marshall and i headed to hollins house to meet with our events coordinator and pick out our menu. we also got to go over the overall schedule of the wedding day and how the seating will work for dinner. because of the number of people we're anticipating, we're going to have 2 tables (including our "sweetheart" table) on the dance floor, which will all need to be cleared once dinner is finished and the party starts. it's a little awkward, but i think everything will work out just fine. we might put our friends at those two tables or something and once the party ends they can move easily to the tables which will remain out in the dining room. anyway, i'm not supposed to worry about all of that. so, picking out the menu was fun. we're going to have 3 passed appetizers: pancetta-wrapped prawns, alsatian onion tartlets, and risotto croquettes. we decided to add a salad: mesclun salad with warm goat cheese and a mustard vinegarette. for dinner, we have three options for our guests: boursin stuffed chicken (panko crusted chicken with boursin cheese madeira white wine reduction, served with garlic whipped potatoes), corvina sea bass (lemon herb infused with a caper butter sauce and wehani red rice, and peppered new york strip steak (served with a roasted red pepper and potato hash with a brandy cream sauce). i'm really looking forward to it. i've already decided i'll have the sea bass and marshall's going to have the steak. :) everything went swimmingly and she has everyone's contact information and was very happy we chose the photographer we picked! :D
after that, marshall and i headed to downtown santa cruz for a vegetarian lunch at saturn cafe. i loved my veggie patty (house-made), but i think i would've liked it on a crispier roll. otherwise, they're fries are awesome and if i had ordered less i would've totally gone for one of their awesome milk shakes! after lunch it was back over the hill to BFF-sarah's place for a candle party. similar to the original tupperware parties and recent pampered chef parties, we got to enjoy smelling candles and looking at catalogs of candle holders and other candle-related decorating things. if i had more extra money, i would've sprung for a neat wall sconce, but unfortunately i need to save my current money so i can get people christmas gifts. this party, though, was more about getting together with friends and we spent the entire time chatting more than anything else. my mom had fun chatting with sarah's mom and marshall ended up disappearing to see BFF-sarah and mike's new imac. nerds! :P anyway, it was a great afternoon, but it was soon time to go home. the rest of the evening was spent being nerds and playing WoW. what's new, huh?
in addition to traveling down to LA this week for thanksgiving, i have my final group project for my class due right after the weekend. i'll be spending a lot of my free time this week trying to put together the group's powerpoint presentation together. i still have to get MY part finished and out to secretfanofu, who's managing our website portion. it shouldn't take me long, but i want to make sure everything is handled properly and the presentation is put together exactly the way we want it. we give our actual presentation next wednesday. it's only 30 minutes and it seems like a long time now, but i'm sure once we get started, it will just fly by. we meet tomorrow night to go over last minute details we need to make sure are in our project, as per the instructor's guidelines. we've got a great idea for our assignment, so hopefully it'll fly with the instructor. :) i'm nervous about it, though. when i don't actually see who i'm talking to, i'm worried they aren't getting what i'm talking about or all the technical parts are working properly. my part in the grand scheme of things is about 5 minutes, which won't be much time at all, and i also volunteered to handle the conclusion. so yeah... but once that's done i'm all set for the semester and will be taking next semester off. it'll be a nice break, but i know once next fall rolls around, it's totally back to the grindstone!
marshall and i leave for LA wednesday and will be driving. i suppose it's easier to drive, since we'll have my car once we're down there to do our own thing, but it's the 6-hour drive which is going to be a hassle. the trip itself will be great, i'm sure. marshall's aunt and uncle are coming down for thanksgiving, too, and it'll be nice to have a nice group together. i'm not sure if marshall's grandma will be joining us, but i'm sure we'll pay her a visit on thanksgiving and sneak her in a GOOD thanksgiving dinner! :) saturday night is marshall's 10-year high school reunion. it should be interesting. my high school had a 5-year reunion and only a fraction of the girls in my class showed up and i was the ONLY one who brought a date. i'm sure 10 years will make much more of a difference, though. i do feel a little anxious about it. i ALWAYS feel judged whenever i go down to LA. LA is chock-a-block full of pretty people and since i'm slightly heavier than the average person for my height, i feel like everyone's judging the fact that i'm wearing jeans that didn't cost $100 and my t-shirt is from old navy. i also may be wearing out-of-fashion sneakers and i'm not spending every waking moment in heels. so yeah, when i have to go to a fancy function that's labeled "cocktail dress", i'm feeling a little anxious. i know i should just go as weirdo me, but ya know...i want to make my husband-to-be good. is that such a bad thing?
anyway...i may have to put my Q and A in another post. this one ended up being rather long. oops!
oh yeah, i got yelled at work this morning because i was talking too loudly. someone in my group complained to my executive director about the volume of my voice. i was chatting with one of my coworkers about my weekend and since i had such a great weekend, i got excited and my voice may have been a little loud. i understand that we're packed in here like sardines and other people are trying to work, but if i'm being loud - ask me to my face to keep it down, don't complain to my manager's manager (reason being my manager is out of the office this week). i have a few people i think might've complained. if it's someone in my row, she had a lot of nerve because she leaves her freakin cell phone on full blast and it rang this afternoon and she wasn't there to pick it up. it then kept beeping periodically to notify her she had a missed call. the guy next to me commented "and she said my CHAIR was annoying." well, his chair was annoying, but yeah, i agree. anyway, i guess this person thought i was on the phone and so my manager's manager came over to my cube to tell me she sent me an urgent email. i'm sorry, but you could've told me right then and there that my voice was too loud. anyway, i've spent the rest of my day with my head down and working non-stop since this morning. i was having a pretty good morning up until that point...