3/31/10

1. Hilarious hijinks throughout the day for an April Fool's joke planned.
2. Getting a ticket just in time for a planned shadowing session with DK.
3. Everyone in NY cooperating with me asking for a group photo for the thank you gift to the MTV team that I have in mind.
4. Realtor for apartments at 2nd and Monroe not being pushy, and the current tenant of one of them being really nice about us coming to see it.
5. Guy at 8th and Bloomfield being really flexible about us coming to see the apartment today instead of tomorrow.
6. Getting my financial stuff in order for the month.

3/30/10

1. Feeling supercute in one of my new dresses, a blue one with an Asian-y white print on it, belted (also a new belt), with leggings and my yellow rainboots (switched to gold flats during the day).
2. Being able to listen in on the feature overview for the spring release even though I was on a phone shift.
3. Being in sync with AJ about the quality stuff.
4. Sitting with AJ just working on other stuff in a quiet area off to the side.
5. Closing out a ticket that had just been sitting in my queue for awhile. That's satisfying.
6. Catching up on my missed JS class in the lab (for Passover) and getting out in just an hour and a half!

3/29/10

1. People being really nice in welcoming me back to the NYC office.
2. SF being in town for Passover with his gf's family in NJ.
3. Finally getting to writing up the final set of ticket reviews for quality for the quarter.
4. NA being really conscientious in explaining to me why a feature enhancement request I'd tried to push through got shot down by PM.
5. Shake Shack for dinner!!!
6. Unpacking all the stuff I brought back from CA.

3/28/10

1. Getting through check-in and security pretty much just in time, despite having to line up a second time to pay for my overweight baggage (from the shopping).
2. Sleeping for the first 3 hours of the flight.
3. Enjoying Rushmore for the last 2 hours. Somehow, I didn't get it until the credits that it was a Wes Anderson film, but of course, makes perfect sense. 
4. Getting home within half an hour of getting off the plane.
5. Watching The Rock streamed from Netflix with Dan. What can I say, watching National Treasure the other day just left me wanting more Nicholas Cage.
6. Not having trouble falling asleep, surprisingly (I usually don't adjust to different time zones very well).

3/27/10

1. Fresh dim sum with 7th uncle and aunt.
2. Beautiful, warm, clear day in San Francisco, perfect day for the observation tower at the De Young.
3. New favorite museum in the De Young! From the brochure: "Unexpected juxtapositions of artworks challenge traditional museum presentation." General admission is only $10, there's a bunch of free stuff just around it, and it's a good size to have enough stuff but not overwhelming like I always find the Met. Also, I figured out that really, I'm not much interested in paintings or other flat objects at museums, but I love sculptures, textiles, glass, furniture...especially larger scale stuff that you can immerse yourself in. Things you can walk around, that you really do get a different experience seeing up close than you could from a photo. Specific things I really enjoyed: Inuit art, Amish quilts (oh the texture!), Dale Chihuly glass sculptures, installation by Kiki Smith that had glass raindrops suspended from the ceiling, and Ruth Asawa's wire sculptures. If I lived in the SF area I think I would actually get a membership.
4. 7th uncle and aunt dropping me off at Fisherman's Wharf to take in the sights and crowds there. Saw the sea lions! They were mostly just chilling.
5. Great service and food at the Slanted Door. Got raw oysters, shaking beef, fresh squeezed navel orange juice, and a cocktail. They were super nice too about me being on my own, gave me a table on the patio and set the place setting so that I'd be sitting in the direction to look the at the bridge.
6. Managed to pack everything into Dan's suitcase that I brought along after all, though we'll see about the weight.

3/26/10

1. Biking the Stevens Creek Trail to work one last time.
2. SL, aka "The Oracle," teaching me surround sessions and an intro to the API.
3. Amusing group chat to decide evening plans. The boys have the attention span of 5 year olds.
4. Taking a quick nap while waiting for the others to come by.
5. Getting ramen for dinner with SP, EF, FJ, AZ, and RC (coming all the way back from the SF office to hang out).
6. Watching National Treasure for the first time, deliciously bad. AZ and FJ stuck around until the end, I've enjoyed spending time with them. Also, I want to watch The Rock now.

3/25/10

1. Biking the Stevens Creek Trail in the morning to work again.
2. Extremely delicious sushi for lunch, particularly the California hand roll.
3. Having an easy in at the happy hour with managers due to my presentation.
4. Doing quite well at the mingling during the happy hour. I'm getting better at slipping into conversations with people and getting up the courage to move on to different groups too.
5. People on the team coming out for salsa dancing! Even SL & gf, RS, and SP.
6. Gossiping with AZ and FJ over boba tea.

3/24/10

1. Getting RT's help to finish up a weird In-Stream related question (kind of).
2. Somewhat hilariously scattered team meeting (EF predicted going in that it would last 10 minutes...we left after 50).
3. Catching up with SH, who I haven't seen since leaving Boston.
4. Making my way to downtown Palo Alto and having a great time at Empire Vintage Clothing with the owner, Tiffany, pretty much pulling everything that could possibly work for me. I bought a lot, a lot of stuff. 2 heavy kitchen garbage bags worth.
5. Managing to bike back from the MTV Caltrain with a garbage bag of stuff on each handlebar and get through the drizzle quickly.
6. Trying everything I've bought while here on again to separate into no need to alter, need to alter but will attempt myself (mostly just shortening), and need to get altered professionally. Again, so much stuff that this took over an hour, haha.

3/23/10

1. Having lunch (yummy Reuben sandwich) with MP and MK, old Boston folks.
2. Our pickup game of basketball (after our Capture-the-Flag tournament opponent didn't show) being fairly evenly matched on team: about 2 good/decent people and 1 sucky person each (I'm in the latter).
3. Even so, somehow made the winning shot!!
4. Getting In-N-Out for the first time with my cousin CW. My heart still lies with Shake Shack, but it's part of the California experience.
5. Biking back on a great route through quiet residential roads (the Stevens Creek Trail is only open during daylight), courtesy of Google Maps.
6. Getting to downtown Mountain View in time to check out the store Therapy, recommended by AJ and the Design*Sponge San Francisco guide.

3/22/10

1. Riding the Stevens Creek Trail to work and finding it quite empty of other bikers, mostly just a few runners.
2. Getting to the office early enough to scope out the conference room and go through my notes one last time, coming up with the strategy of putting the speaker notes in one Word doc and bolding the right words to make me think of the next thought.
3. The presentation being over much more quickly than I thought it would feel like, doing a good job of handling the questions that came in, and then getting a solar charge as my schwag! Best piece of schwag yet.
4. Quite a few people coming up to me in the break to tell me they really liked the presentation and thought I didn't sound nervous at all! Hooray!!
5. Having a great time at a salsa class in the dance studio on campus. More men than women, so never lacked a partner, and the class had been going on for awhile so most of the guys had at least some idea of what they were doing.
6. Having good long talks with my cousin CW over dinner on campus and then visiting her apartment.

3/21/10

1. Getting to the Caltrain station with a few minutes to walk through the farmer's market and buy a pint of fresh, sweet strawberries for only $3. Mmm, Californian produce.
2. Practicing the first two slides of content a great deal on the train ride into SF.
3. A woman offering me a gorgeous teal dress that was too small for her, leading me to discovering the 8-18 size rack at Empire Vintage, which I'd somehow walked past yesterday, and then finding two other beautiful dresses.
4. Not getting overwhelmed this second day at the Vintage Expo and walking away with quite the haul: 2 necklaces, a wool blazer, a little cream blouse, an ivory brocade swing coat, and nine dresses for ~$430 (dresses came out to be about $40 each). Some of the items need to be hemmed or fixed in some way, but I'm so pleased with myself.
5. Being amused by the little boy who just would not sit still and kept trying to climb up the seat on the Caltrain back.
6. Dinner with 7th uncle and family not being awkward and actually quite funny and fun.

3/20/10

1. Getting a solid 9 hours of sleep.
2. Getting a decent fish taco from a taqueria on the way to the concourse center.
3. Having a great time at the Vintage Expo! I am so very glad that Mena posted about it. Didn't see her, though I think I may have seen Effie in passing. I bought a pair of shoes from her once at a Boston show of some kind held at MassArt, I think. Anyway, I snagged two (!) dresses that fit really well, just need to be hemmed to be petite.
4. Learned a trick from a vendor at the Vintage Expo for how to quickly check whether something will fit in the waist: fold it over at the waist and place one edge at your belly button. If the other edge can reach your spine, it'll fit.
5. Getting the roast chicken at Zuni Cafe. Mmmm bread salad...I'll have to make the SK version at home again, Dan really liked it too.
6. Having an interesting conversation with an older Chinese woman (well, older than me, younger than my mom) on the Caltrain back from SF. I am generally not at all a have conversations with strangers kind of person but she was cool. Didn't grow up here but has adopted a pretty Americanized view on life and success and such.

3/19/10

1. Successfully finding my way to the SF office before 9:30am.
2. Pockets of time opened up throughout the day that I could spend working on my presentation.
3. Was able to quickly solve an urgent issue AJ passed onto me before leaving the office East Coast time.
4. Getting feedback from RS and AQ on my presentation.
5. Getting dinner with RC, SP, and ND with conversation flowing the whole time.
6. Seeing my 7th uncle and aunt for the first time in a few years and catching up about the goings on with my parents and sister.

3/18/10

1. Getting to the office by 8am, despite my fears of missing the shuttle and not knowing how to get from main campus to the building where my team is.
2. Being able to slowly scope out the office before people started trickling in, so I could meet each of them without getting too overwhelmed.
3. Everyone being really friendly and nice and funny. Also, more relaxed--there's a Charlie Brown puzzle lying out that people work on.
4. Slow day of tickets, just what I needed given already needing to catch up from yesterday anyway.
5. A more productive skip-level with MG. That's what comes of being over-prepared with a list broken into categories and sub-categories of things to talk about.
6. Managing the Thirsty Thursday hanging out with people pretty well, actually talked to a few while gobbling up the McDonald's food brought in.

3/17/10

1. Having an arsenal of books to pass the time on the flight, plus did manage to take a short nap on the first, longer leg.
2. A young man at the airport running out with my phone, which I hadn't noticed dropping out of my purse. There are good people in the world.
3. The town car being really comfortable and the driver a pleasant sort to talk to.
4. Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous weather in CA. I regret not bringing flouncy spring skirts and flip flops!
5. Corporate apartments being impeccable, I can't believe my good luck in making this trip.
6. Sending over my rough draft speaker notes and getting encouragement on them from the director.

3/16/10

1. Woke up feeling really refreshed after oversleeping to a sunny day outside! Waking up to sunshine is highly correlated with a good mood for the rest of the day.
2. Despite having overslept and PATH announcing 15 minutes delays on the lines into NYC, got to work a few minutes before 9:30.
3. Encouraging words and help from BB on my presentation.
4. Enjoyable lunch with AJ discussing her career options and decisions.
5. A webinar I participated actually not going down in flames with technical issues! Hooray!
6. Good pace of getting work done in the afternoon. I'm trying this new thing of not constantly having my personal Gmail and Reader open at all times, just limited to a few times throughout the day for breaks, and it seems to result in much higher productivity. Interesting, innit.
   

3/15/10

1. Managing to get to the office by 9:30!
2. The voicemail that I picked up during my phone shift turning out to have resolved itself in the half hour since it was left, so ended up with no extra work there.
3. Another book on my hold list being ready for me at the library, I was expecting only one but walked away with two.
4. Made quinoa with an egg steamed in the same pot as the quinoa for dinner, inspired by not martha. I sprinkled a little salt and olive oil over the egg and it really was quite tasty. I forget that I really do quite like quinoa.
5. Read I, Robot.
6. It didn't take nearly as long as I thought it would to write up the speaking notes for my presentation, once I actually got into working on it.

3/14/10

1. Daylight Savings Time: I am always a fan because this means it will stay light out for longer and I generally don't get up early enough to notice the difference in morning light anyway.
2. Spending the majority of the day in a clean apartment! Usually we clean on Sundays but that means not being able to revel in the cleanness very much during the work week before it gets all dusty again. Need to consider this more going forward.
3. Lying around re-reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
4. Snacking on guacamole and sweet corn salsa with multigrain chips from TJ's.
5. Slightly less wrestling with the dough coming together than usualy when making cream biscuits.
6. Meeting GH at dinner at MG and AM's.

3/13/10

1. I was actually ready to go a full 10 minutes before Dan's designated must-leave-by time. I'm pretty sure that's never happened before.
2. We were so early that despite the difficulties from the torrential downpour, we also got to our appointment 10 minutes early. First wedding-related appointment we've been early for, I think.
3. Met with Emily's Cafe and were very impressed by their ideas to keep within budget and willingness to customize--I think we're going to go with them!
4. Stopping at a Trader Joe's and a Target on the way back. Yay getting errands done altogether.
5. Grilled cheese sandwiches and creamy tomato soup for dinner really hitting the spot.
6. Getting a massive amount (4 loads at once!) of laundry done and cleaning the apartment rather efficiently.

3/12/10

1. Went to the gym again, hooray me! Caught the second half of a West Wing episode. I'll have to remember that Bravo airs these reruns so I have an option other than Charmed or Saved by the Bell.
2. Gross rainy weather = okay by me currently, as I got to debut my new yellow Hunter rain boots! Yellow was definitely, definitely the right color choice.
3. Feeling cute in my outfit of leggings, gray floral silk J.Crew skirt, black t-shirt, zip-up cardigan, and gold pointy-toed flats (to switch out for the rain boots).
4. Feeling like I successfully made my point at an internal meeting that they should not just tell the client to submit a ticket when they run into a particular kind of problem because they've already been doing that and we can never actually help them with it since we haven't had any training on that product at all (or access to it, even).
5. My very first client lunch going quite smoothly and casually. I hope this helps improve the relationship and make it more friendly.
6. Watching Ponyo with Dan. How does Miyazaki come up with imagery as he does?! It's better suited for a younger audience than I thought it would be, but I still enjoyed it for the artistry. Spirited Away is still my favorite, I think.

3/11/10

1. DSM prio meeting getting rescheduled so that I would have time to grab lunch.
2. Not letting another set of massive technical difficulties for a webinar I assisted to cause it to go totally down the tube. Somehow I ended up with the ability to advance the slides even though I wasn't actually the host.
3. Having a great time at the quarterly off-site 'fun' event: bowling at Lucky Strikes with drinks and snacks.
4. Plucking up the courage to go do a little bit of mingling with people from other teams. Found out that one of the new AdMacs, CL, is actually also getting married soon.
5. Using an invisible zipper foot for the first time, that thing is amazing! Must get one.
6. Though it took me the entire class to do it, finally got the invisible zipper installed such that the waistline matches up on both sides and the difference at the armhole isn't too bad.

3/10/10

1. Got to the gym in the morning again, yes!
2. Hilarious team meeting, as always.
3. Had a fun time collecting pictorial evidence of our management team being silly for my presentation.
4. Getting to the library just in time before they closed to pick up my holds.
5. Dan heating up dinner for me with perfect timing for when I got home.
6. Devouring (see? see me being clever?) Born Round: The Secret History of a Full-time Eater. Great read, I am not a fan of the 'weight is solely a function of calorie intake and output' theory as I don't think that's actually true for everyone and as a result causes a lot of harm, but I very much identified with his love for eating and feeling full.

3/9/10

1. My manager being on my side about a ticket which the client returned with a really low incident satisfaction score.
2. Finally getting to a couple project-related to-do items at the end of the day.
3. No JS class (spring break)!
4. Therefore could go to dinner at 'wichcraft with MS and MG. Had a good time discussing wedding planning and skincare with them.
5. Quite liked the glass of white wine I had with dinner.
6. MS covering the food portion of the bill for all of us.

3/8/10

1. Going to the gym in the morning after not having gone for several weeks.
2. An All-Hands meeting ending early so that I could get lunch with AJ & co.
3. Remembering at the end of the day to close out a ticket that wasn't going anywhere--I often forget until the day after, which just draws out the time until resolution in my metrics for no good reason.
4. Getting over to the optician with plenty of time before they closed for the evening to get my new glasses adjusted. The guys there are so nice, I really should write them a positive review on Yelp.
5. Getting my eyebrows threaded at Unique Threading's 23rd St. location for the first time and really impressed by this particular threader: she noticed of her own accord that my right eyebrow looks thicker and higher than my left and adjusted accordingly. Starred her name in my frequent threader card to remember to get her again.
6. Watching Annie Hall with Dan and making fun of how some of Woody Allen's neuroses sound really familiar...

3/7/10

1. Spending the afternoon sewing a Built By Wendy top.
2. Great light into the apartment all day.
3. Dan accompanying me to MG's Oscars party, mostly to keep me company on the travel there and back.
4. Not doing too badly in our choices for the Oscars pool, despite having done zero research.
5. Having a pretty good time at the Oscars party overall, I had been randomly anxious about it as a social event but it was fine, especially with Dan by my side.
6. The apartment smelling lovely from the beef noodle soup I started.

3/6/10

1. Dan coming back from his trip to the 'burbs for a dentist appointment with various groceries I needed, including lime chips for an Oscars party.
2. Having a long talk with Dan about the wedding budget and coming to an agreement about it.
3. Getting my new glasses! They got them back far sooner than I had thought. I feel a little bit like I'm wearing a superhero face mask, but I think they're just the right amount of funky. Really love them.
4. Having dinner with MG and AM at their apartment. It's really nice to have couple friends!
5. Playing the board game Scotland Yard with MG as Mr. X and AM, Dan, and myself as the police. Lots of fun to see the others' thought processes.
6. Catching The Incredibles on TV when we got back, after which Dan would periodically make fun of me with the line, 'Your identity is your most valuable possession' (said as the mom hands her kids their face masks).

3/5/10

1. Getting to work on time for my 10am phone shift despite having overslept by a rather long time.
2. Feeling sassy in my red booties.
3. Getting the sweetest email from Mama G offering unconditional help for the wedding weekend. Love her.
4. Only need two ingredients from the overpriced grocery store between the office and the 14th St. PATH station to make baked tomato sauce for dinner.
5. Making slightly more complicated dinner than just noodles for the first time in a week.
6. Watching Pride & Prejudice with AL, both of us companionably on laptops but putting them aside to squeal together over the best parts.

3/4/10

1. Confidence boosting call on forecasting with a Canadian client who was also really nice on the phone. I love our nice clients :)
2. Grabbing a BBQ eel/avocado sushi box for dinner.
3. Getting to my sewing class right on time.
4. Being able to help one of my sewing class classmates who was behind because of machine issues.
5. Not needing to do any fitting on the dress I'm making in my class.
6. Chatting with one of my sewing class classmates on the subway ride back, she was very sweet.

3/3/10

1. Getting up early enough to stop by the library before work.
2. Getting a PDF copy of the published paper that incorporated my senior thesis work from TG. I'm the second author on the paper, whoa!
3. Lunch with AJ and BB, I wish BB still sat closer to us.
4. Getting notified that Endless got the yellow rainboots I've been coveting in my size back in stock!
5. Participating in a well-facilitated feedback session around career development at work.
6. Grabbing a thing of BBQ eel and avocado sushi so I wouldn't just have pizza for dinner (stayed late for work session).

3/2/10

1. Wearing my thin zebra stripe scarf in a floppy bow tie.
2. Actually feeling the effects of having practiced the content of a presentation to Sales while presenting--it's true, practicing does help a ton! Who knew.
3. Client call going really well, they received my comments that I often need more information to get started on working quite positively and weren't defensive about it at all, really.
4. Finding time in the afternoon to follow up on a few small items that had been languishing on my to-do list for over a week.
5. My sister emailing me just to say she'd been catching up on my wedding blog and thought it was awesome.
6. Paying attention to the first half of my JS class enough to fix up my homework.

3/1/10

1. Realizing that I could snooze for quite a bit this morning as my phone shift has now been changed to 10-12. Yesssss.
2. Therefore having the time to put on a bit of makeup (we had to get new badge photos taken for our work IDs).
3. Dan finally confirming that 6/18/11 won't conflict with an annual school tournament his mom chaperones.
4. Booking The Date with the venue, my fears about losing our choice date did not come to pass.
5. Lunch with AJ after a busy, administrative-y morning.
6. Spending the evening clearing out my personal inbox a bit.

2/28/10

1. Lazing around in the morning.
2. Getting to our appointment with a potential wedding photographer just about on time (well, would've been exactly on time if we'd known that the Starbucks was hidden to the side of the building, but no matter!)
3. The salon being able to take me earlier than my appointment. Love the blown-out perfect hair for a day.
4. Getting to M&J Trimmings to buy a zipper for my sewing class. That place is a wonderland of trims and accessories, wow.
5. Watching an Olympics closing ceremony for the first time.
6. Dan and I settling on that when I ask him for his opinion on an artistic vendor like a photographer, what I really mean is that I want him to have an opinion that backs up mine. But he will also try to be less fun-squashing in his approaches to these kinds of decisions.