blog? what blog? I don't see any blog

is this thing still on?


*tap tap*
*blow blow*
*testing 1-2 testing 1-2*


(mental image of Bridget Jones testing the mic at the launch party of Kafka's Motorbike, "one of the top 30 books of our time, anyway"... and Lord Archer, yours, aren't, bad, either)

erm... despite what this blog may have led you to believe, no, the cowboys have not abducted me and taken me away to wear boots and eat barbecue and listen to songs about trucks and dogs and missing girlfriends. in fact, I am still alive and kickin', just insanely buried under messy work situations and overly long biz trips (you know, because covering LA, Miami and NYC in one week is a piece of cake) and Major Life Decisions. there are some changes a-brewin' over here @ JMWT HQ, and I'd rather not talk about them because talking about them makes them Real and Real=Scary=Potential of Failure, so for now let's just say I'm finally putting my $ where my mouth is and putting some effort behind plans that I've been yapping about for a long time now.


(vague enough for you? good, I thought so.)


in lieu of substantial updates on what I've been up to I will talk about the weather. yes! that's a good idea. let's talk about the weather. let's talk about the fact that late Oct/early Nov in Austin is abso-freakin-lutely gorgeous and that I went jogging in shorts after work today and swam laps in my outdoor pool on Sun afternoon and took these gorgeous pics while hiking Enchanted Rock on Saturday (we climbed all the way to the top and then climbed back down to loop around the base - a fantastic hike with views that bordered on other-worldly):































let's also talk about the fact that I am officially broke and will heretofore be known as Frugal Fanny: the girl who does nothing but work on her secret plans, jog/swim laps, and avoid spending $. I shouldn't complain, though, because the $ is going toward good causes like 1) going home for turkey day, 2) a beautiful new necklace (I couldn't resist; don't worry, I won't be shopping for anything else anytime soon) and 3) my upcoming trip to PARIS BABY WOOT WOOT (where I will land in a flurry of excitement only to realize that oh wait, it's time to start getting raped by the horrible exchange rate - awesome!).


yes indeedy folks, la famille Kim has chosen gay Paree as the destination for winter trip 2K7: special Dad's 60th birthday edition and I am sooooo excited! I haven't been in several years and can hardly wait to stroll around the city and hear all the French accents and eat crepes and soak it all in. we'll spend about five days skiing in the French Alps and then come back to the city of lights to party it up for New Year's Eve before heading back to.... Tejas, which will be a sad homecoming after the glitz and glamour of Paris. oh well.


I will end this rambly post with the necessary caveat that posting may be rather light for a bit while I try and get my shit together... I promise to update with really important news, like geckos in my shower or glamourous job offers that just magically appear out of thin air (hey, a girl can dream). in the meantime, sleep well, eat good food, get regular exercise, and take care. OH! btw. I read a few good books lately that I must pass along:


The Other Boleyn Girl - great storytelling, especially if you like historical fiction. I'm very curious to see what they do with this movie. I just can't see the casting (Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johanssen). Scarlett Johanssen has done well in period pieces before (I loved Girl with an Earring) but I'm still skeptical...


Feast of Love - a fantastic book. I smiled after reading it and was tempted to read it all over again. amazing how the author develops all these drastically different characters and makes you care about each and every one. am also very curious about this movie although I can definitely see it doing well.


Atonement - finally got around to reading this after much poking and prodding. definitely a bit of a harder read but also worth the effort. you have to dedicate some time to get through this but the book will reward you tenfold. rich imagery, incredibly skilled writing. another one being turned into a movie (weird, I usually don't read so many "being made into movie" books but oh well) that I will want to see.


also, if I haven't said it on here already, go and see the movie Once (if you can still find it playing somewhere). I swear you will absolutely fall in love with it.

signing off for real now. crap it's past midnight. you see how much I love you people??

beach correspondent

Coming to you live via blackberry from hermosa beach, California. Let me set the scene for you guys. I'm sitting at a sidewalk cafe on "the strand" in hermosa beach after a restful 8 hours of sleep and a rejuvenating jog from hermosa beach pier to Manhattan beach pier and back (don't google it, I have a sinking feeling it may only be a mile or two total). The background music is switching from norah Jones to corinne Bailey rae and now bobby brown (?). The table next to me has four very young at heart senior citizens. One is still wearing her bike helmet. Another is wearing those huge old people sunglasses that block out every single possible ray of sun. I have a view of the ocean, including surfers and hopeful fishermen. The restaurant is called "good stuff," and the wait staff are all wearing shirts that say "you are what you eat... So eat good stuff!" I am eagerly awaiting my order of a California omelette (made with egg whites, of course- when in Rome, after all) and fresh fruit with an English muffin to top it off.

Yesterday (seven hours of watching focus groups in a dark room, eating way too many cookies and listening to crazy LA people talk about cruising) is completely forgotten.

not bad for an airport hotel

view from my hotel room balcony:

every time I fly into LA I am disgusting by just how thick the smog is. it can't be good to breathe that shit in every day... it's just not natural (like much of LA).

also, my hair? is freaking SHORT y'all! it pretty much sits on my shoulders, although it's angled/layered in a way that the front is slightly longer than the back. I don't think I've had it this short since... middle school? I would upload a pic of the first day I had to style it for myself, but all my blackberry camera self-portraits have turned out pretty horribly... alas.

back to work. it's going to be a long day...

I got my hair did

(warning: crappy photos ahead)

in lieu of regaling you all with tales of how my wound is not healing as quickly as it should (gory details: I can't get it to scab over, it insists on remaining all weepy and gross), I will instead post a pic of my new haircut!

(please ignore how crappy/tired I look. I had one of those nights last nights where I just could not fall asleep. I think I got into bed around 11ish and I know that I was lying there, completely awake, until at least 1:15 in the morning. I kept on telling myself, "okay now! now is when you bite the bullet and just fall asleep! come on! you can do it!" it didn't go very well. needless to say, when my alarm went off @ 7:20 so I could go get my hair cut I was not very happy)

(also, another side story in which I use too many parentheses -- there was a moment of scariness this morning when I went to the hair salon (who knew hair salons could be scary places?). I was the first app't of the day and my stylist and I arrived around the same time. apparently someone had completely vandalized their storefront last night so when we showed up at the front door it was kicked in and shattered. scary! the door was unlocked, so we walked in and cautiously stepped around all the glass to take inventory of the place but nothing was taken. flat screen TVs, computers, overpriced hair products = all accounted for. she guessed it may have been the scary ex-husband of one of the stylists that works there. a bizarre thing to be confronted with @ 8:15 in the morning when you thought you were just going to a hair salon, not a crime scene.)

okay, so onto the cut already: she chopped off about five inches or so. I hadn't really gone in with much of plan beyond "OMG IT'S TOO LONG CUT IT CUT IT CUT IT" and she asked me if she could do as she pleased. I said yes, so this is what she gave me:

compare, if you will, to how long my hair is in this pic, snapped back in August (please ignore the fact that my bangs are lazily pinned back and that I have food in my mouth):

so there you have it. btw, I'm disappearing to LA for a quickie biz trip for the next two days so my Officially Sucky Blog will probably Officially Suck Even More. am hoping to squeeze in a jog on the beach near Santa Monica... fingers crossed.

this just in:

confirmation that this blog Officially Sucks.

sorry, people. I got nothin'. last week was the work week from hell. this past wknd was detoxing from hellish work week. this week is trying to catch up on everything I missed during hell week.

exciting, no?

I am also completely preoccupied with the fascinating process that skin goes through in order to heal itself. I tore off a good chunk during a hike this wknd and can't stop staring at it and watching it go through the various phases of cleaning itself out, scabbing, growing new skin, etc.

(sorry. you weren't eating lunch or anything, were you? you WERE? my bad. think about bunnies and rainbows for a minute and you should be set.)

aside from that, I am spending my time thinking about valuable questions like:
a) how is it that Mad Men is the absolute best show ever?
b) how long until my skin heals?
c) why hasn't Texas gotten the memo that autumn has started?
d) what should I do with my life?

you know, important stuff like that.

this may the death of this blog as we know it... stay tuned...

filler

my head is spinning at work these days, and oh how I wish I could be doing this instead:









(I call this: "Pensive Girl with Drink")


or this:









(this one: "From Pensive to Drunk: A Study in Transition")


I'd also settle for this:









("Um. Does This Girl Have a Problem?")

daydreaming

there is much drama afoot at ye olde office, and every night I come home and find myself fantasizing about just picking up and disappearing someplace. I look at my stack of travel books and all my old travel photos, and I wonder why I am sweating it out in Tejas when heck, I could be caving in Belize again or hiking glaciers in Argentina or roaming the streets of Venice, gelato in hand... or maybe discovering a new place like Cambodia or Kenya or Ireland.

(side note on sweating it out = I'm not kidding. yesterday it hit 95. in OCTOBER. WTF? this state needs to be introduced to the concept of four seasons. it's not just a fancy hotel!)

I had some very good pals in town last wknd, and as the four of us sat in a corner booth and drank our margaritas we talked a lot about our futures and where each of us might be five years from now. I'm not really much of a life planner -- I tend to float around between having some goals, working hard, never burning bridges, and mixing it up once in a while -- but it was fun to imagine how things might change in the next few years. it boggles my mind to realize that I'm already at a stage where friends of mine are making huge life decisions. in fact, babies and diamond rings and houses were popular topics of conversation that wknd. I found myself amazed to even be involved in the discussion, since there's still a very large part of me that feels very unsettled. kids? husband? buying a house? um... howzabout I take some shots and bat my eyes at that cute guy down at the end of the bar instead? (I'm kidding. I don't really do that... much.) I guess you could say I've made some big life choices as well, though. it's funny: sometimes I get so busy marveling at the fact that everyone around me is growing up so quickly that I lose track of the fact that I'm doing the same thing in my own special little way.

so, then, to go back to the margarita-soaked conversation, I was surprised to discover that I am expected to strike it rich as a corporate whore and live a fabulously privileged life of international vacations and posh habits. um, what? me? the girl who made the impressive post-college salary of $25,000 while her boyfriend at the time was making closer to $60k? surely you jest.

it definitely got me thinking, though. putting babies and diamonds and houses aside for a minute, do you have a dream job? is there such a job or do you think your definition of a dream job changes all the time? or does it change as you go through different life stages? and if you can quickly name one dream job off the top of your head, why aren't you going for it? I don't think I really have one -- it goes back to my whole I'm not really a planner shtick -- but I think I'm getting to a place where I'm realizing that Tejas, it's been fun and all, but it mayyyyy be time to move on to the Next Great Adventure. bring it on!

now if someone could just tell me what that will be...

a post that is not about the cockroach

(I know! surprising, huh?? but for those of you that have inquired, the cockroach has since been removed from his comfy little set-up and has gone on to cockroach heaven, which, in case you're wondering, can be found by flushing yourself down the toilet.)

instead, I will write a very brief post about how I had house guests for the past five days and am now exhausted, poor, and possibly sick -- yet it was worth every minute/dollar. exploints included texas two-steppin' at the broken spoke (where, apparently, I danced with a man that someone called "Austin music royalty"), breakfast tacos at mi madre's, jogs along town lake, shopping in my SoCo neighborhood, pepper-crust burgers at woodland, seafood-stuffed chile rellenos and pomegranate margaritas at manuel's, champagne flights at cru, gospel brunch with the river city christianettes at stubb's bbq, champassion cocktails and cheese plates at my beloved hotel san jose and, of course, all-you-can-eat bbq at salt lick out in the hill country.

(honestly, it makes me full just thinking about it)

hope your wknds were as fabulous as mine. now, if you'll excuse me, I need some coffee and preferably a nap... wait, what? you want me to WORK? dude. you must be kidding.