The Meetings Meeting in the Meetings Office.

This Friday I thought I'd bring you a smorgasbord of pictures from my trip to Atlanta. The picture below is in the Owner's Club at the Georgia Dome, home of the Falcons. Louise and I found a small room in the back of the club with a few playstations and went to town.

What a way to relieve some stress after our first real day of the meeting opening. We were both laughing so hard that we cried. I'm sure you all figured that I'd be a pro at video games and I hate to burst your bubble, but I'm not.

The one thing I am a pro at though is getting down on the dance floor. I also sing when I dance, in case you were wondering. Uzi, I have a feeling that you'll appreciate the following picture: (What am I doing with my hands?! ...I need to work on my moves. More shimmies, right?)

I walked outside to check my voicemail and the next thing I knew, our CFO was wanting to take a picture with me. I'm a poser after all, so why not?

And of course, a picture of me and Stout.

And for for old time's sake, here's a picture of me a few years back out on the dance floor and from the looks of it, I'm leading everyone in the electric slide. Oh, good times. Where would I be without the hundreds of stake dances I went to in high school?

Go figure.

Today I was in a meeting all morning. Sometimes, meetings are effective. This was not one of those times. During the entire meeting I wished so badly that I had my cell phone with me so that I could send my boss text messages about people around the room and their various levels of intelligence. But, we were sitting across the board room table from each other and my cell phone was sitting on my desk. Our only available method of communication was the occasional eye roll at each other, which at times, seemed more effective than the meeting we were in. Go figure.

And speaking of communication, did you notice that gmail got a new feature today? You can set a theme to your email page if you so choose. Mine was "beach" early this morning, went to "ninja" in the afternoon, then has settled on "candy" for the time being. Who knows what it will end up as by tomorrow morning. I guess some things will just depend on my mood. If I were a betting girl, I'd bet that in the morning, it ends up on "beach" again - I think I miss hearing the roar of waves in my sleep. Go figure.

Last night I was all scheduled to attend my monthly LAC activity, but somehow, at 6:30, I couldn't tear myself off the couch. Chalk it up to various excuses, but I was tired and proceeded to watch two movies, visit with friends who stopped by, and Kirsten and I ended the evening with a call to the police to get a random drunk man from Oklahoma off our front porch. How did I know he was from Oklahoma? Well, that's where he thought he was last night, according to the conversation I heard outside my living room window. That would explain the porch sitting. In an old nasty lawn chair, nonetheless. Go figure.

Now that its almost the weekend, let's talk about last weekend.

Let's pretend that I didn't tell you anything about Saturday already. And I sure wasn't as good at taking pictures as I wanted to be. The weather in SF this weekend was warm and somehow (as if I didn't know this already) I think that mother nature forgot that it is November. NOVEMBER, people! Late November at that!

Early Saturday morning, I headed up to the Oakland temple to help spread Christmas cheer and also, put up Christmas lights. There was quite the group there to help and service activities are always fun, no matter what you do. There were quite a few people moving items around from the life size nativity scene and when Dave and I saw the opportunity to move a giant pachyderm, we jumped at the chance. I know that my huge muscles make the camel look so light and airy, but be assured that it was not light OR airy. It was quite awkward and heavy.

After stringing lights for about an hour, Rachael and I went and took her grandmother to breakfast, which was nice. We hurried home and then Silvia came to my house a few minutes later to spend some time with me and give me a birthday present - an hour long massage! Woot! I'd had a long month with the half marathon and the stress of my meeting, so this came at the perfect time. And yes, for those of you who are confused about me having two birthdays in one year, my birthday is still in September and yes, I still accept gifts year round. Silvia lives in Santa Cruz so if you are in need of an amazing massage, let me know and I'll hook you up!

Feeling relaxed and rejuvinated, I headed down south with Peter to a wedding reception for some wonderful friends who live in Palo Alto. Their reception was beautiful and I was sorry to not be able to stay longer and hit up the dance floor.

We left early since our ward was having our Annual Jazz Thanksgiving dinner & dance and it has been FOREVER since I have:
a) been to a ward activity - I'm usually out of town
b) seen some of the friends pictured below:

LaNae & Ben,
and for real, I think I hadn't seen Andrea since like...September.

To top it all off, I got home around 11pm, went back out to Safeway and then climbed gratefully into bed at 12:30am. I won't even get into Sunday where I sat in meetings for over 5 hours. All in all though, I'm just happy to be home and back to life as usual. Sorry for my long absence.

Best & Worst

I thought I'd share the best and worst from Atlanta with you. While there a friend took me to the Buford Hwy Farmers Market. There you can find anything imaginable - deep friend sea creatures or even dried anchovy tea. I can't imagine many more things that are more vile than this.

And then when I got home, there were chocolate covered strawberries, and cookies and milk to greet me from a close friend to tell me that she loves me. Seriously? Totally made my day.

And while we're on the topic of great things....
Only 3 more days until THIS: squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
Come on. Fess up. Who out there already has their ticket for Friday EXCEPT me?

You say Ala. I say Bama.

It isn't very often that work takes me to a place that is within two hours of places like Alabama. I think that the last time I had been in Alabama was when I went to visit my cousins in Mississippi sometime in the mid 90's. The real reason that I went was to visit a dear, dear friend whom I call "Mama" and she ain't my mother. After talking the day away, we went to get some real Southern barbeque and to really celebrate my return to the South, we ate deep friend pickles.

Here's Mama showing me how to appropriately eat friend pickles. Sounds gross, but they were delicious. I almost ate the entire basket.

After dinner, we went to visit Mama's friend Phyllis and talk some more and then laugh a lot. And laugh we did. Between the three of us, I don't think you could find a more talkative bunch.

Spending the day with Mama was exactly what I needed. I almost lost my voice by Sunday from having talked so much! I hadn't seen her since I was in my teens and I have to say that it was like no time had passed at all.

Thank you Mama for having me! You're the best!

Did I forget to mention....

This weekend was packed - very tiring, but I enjoyed it thoroughly. Last night I could hardly keep my eyes open at 10:15pm, so I climbed in bed quite happily at such an early hour. With all the hustle and bustle that work has been the past few months, I'm not sure if I ever mentioned a little trip that I'm taking next week....

to Costa Rica...

Did I? Even my roommate didn't know I was going, so yeah. Next Monday I leave for 5 days and I'm heading to Central America. This week I need to find some shorts. Anyone know where I can buy shorts in November? I have a friend who once got a worm in his leg after going to Costa Rica - maybe I just need a new pair of jeans. And based on the weather forecast, a rain poncho.

Pictures from this weekend, coming right up.

Deal or No Deal

Ok so even though I'm back from Atlanta, I'm doing more important things like catching up on sleep and spending time with some much missed friends. I've been intending to tell you all about my trip to Alabama, so though my weekend is pretty slammed, how 'bout we make a deal? I take pictures of my madness and then you tell me how glad you are that I'm back.

Deal? deal.

Oh - and then I'll tell you all about my wonderful weekend in Alabama.

That's all for now. I hope everyone has a fabulous weekend - siz

I'm back. Stay tuned.

Coldlanta

I can't believe that it has been a week since I posted. The last week has flown by and I'm ready to go home on Wednesday. So much has happened that I will never blog about, but I have truly been humbled by the love of friends and the great humanity that connects us all no matter what our beliefs are.

Some of the great things that happened today:

• I slept in until 7:30. Considering that the past few days my alarm clock has been going off at 4:30, that is a huge feat.
• I was gifted with a foot rub and pedicure today from someone who loves me. After walking in heels for about 11 hours yesterday nonstop, it was exactly what I needed.
• I'm going to the melting pot for dinner tonight. Yum.
• This morning I shared a cab with a few ladies standing behind me in the taxi line. On our way to the convention center, I asked them if they knew a specific person in their company since it is someone I have worked with for years and never met. Who knew that she was sitting in the cab with me. I love when things like that happen. We hugged as soon as we got out of the cab.
  

And with that, I bid you adieu until I'm back in San Francisco. More love from Atlanta.

Blush and Bashful

Voting Day. I'm in Atlanta until next week and although I will try and post soon about my weekend in Alabama, don't hold your breath. Nothing personal, folks. My southern accent is just about full blown and I've eaten more delicious food in the past four days than the past few months combined. All fat free, of course.

The weather here in Atlanta is fabulous - I haven't worn a jacket once and how can you not love that? Fall weather in the South = awesome. Considering that I need to run a few miles in the morning, I'm heading to bed. At 9pm EST. I'll find out who won this election in the morning. I can't handle this right now. Must. Get. Sleep.

Hope everyone is well - wherever you are. Love from Atlanta.

Miles for Migraines

If you are in the San Francisco area and like to run - especially for a good cause, think about running on December 7th for Miles for Migraines. I have a friend who is getting her post-doctorate degree in migraine studies.

Here's some of the information she sent me today:

I have been working hard to start a new non-profit organization to raise awareness and funds for migraine research because it is the most common neurological disorder for women under 50 and can be completely debilitating. Migraine affects more than the number of people who are effected by asthma and diabetes combined and yet it gets less than a tenth of the money for research than either of those disorders. When migraine researchers pleaded their point with NIH-- NIH responded by saying that the public didn't care about migraine. This is a grass roots effort to show that we do care about it and want to do something about gaining more funding for migraine research.

Register here. I signed up for the 10k today!