california knows how to party

Babies don't need a vacation but I still see them at the beach. I'll go over to them and say, 'What are you doing here, you've never worked a day in your life!'.
-- Stephen Wright

8 more days until california.

things i love about california: a list

seeing the california niece and nephew
pinkberry
seeing the fam and friends
disneyland
traffic
feeling nostalgic
the getty
mexican food (any chance i'll be able to get california burrito from san diego?!)
la
palm trees
knowing the stations on the radio
the california missions
acting like a tourist in a place i lived for over 23 years
being allowed to say things like "the 57" and "parking structure"
farmers markets
the village
24 hour donut stores (especially freshhh donuts and manna donuts)
jack in the box
red tide
feeling like i'm home <3

i'm already sad about coming home and i haven't even left yet!

that's b-awesome

ok so i took this fabulous picture today while waiting at a red light. the yellow car is sitting in oncoming traffic... pretending that it is the correct place for waiting at a red light. you will notice the black car on the right hand side that his driven past... very slowly. no one wanted to drive past the yellow car. i think everyone was just too stunned. i was not too stunned to pull out my camera and snap this photo. i mean i can totally understand how it can happen... it's not like the directions of traffic are separated by an island with trees and plants... oh wait, it is. well the lady was old so i'm sure that's what her excuse was. 'what?!? i'm old!' after i took the picture i looked over at the car next to me where they were pointing in the 'do you see what's going on' fashion and i was like 'i know, i took a picture ::shrug::' and then the old lady's light turned green and she turned left just like you would if you were in the correct lane. it was awesome.

speaking of old people, one time laurel & i went to see a taping of 'freddie.' the episode was about freddie's grandma dating and i turned to laurel and said something along the lines of 'ewww no one wants to watch old people date.' at which point the woman in front of us turns around a yells at laurel 'YOU'LL BE OLD ONE DAY TOO!!!' laurel was just like 'i didn't even say it!' old people always want me to get stuff off the top shelf at the grocery store for them. i'm ok with that.

people are always saying that the grocery store is a good place to pick up on people. one time this happened to me. or at least someone tried to make it happen. i was picking out some yogurt and a man comes up behind me and says something along the lines about how much he loves yogurt and that i should stock up b/c it was on sale blah blah blah. and i was like ok thanks good bye. anyway he finds me again later in the grocery store and says 'whats your favorite flavor of yogurt?' and i said 'uhhmm strawberry.' and he said 'wow! look! i got STRAWBERRY BANANA!' i was like gee that's awesome, i've gotta go creepy. you probably had to be there to understand why that was so creepy.

ok so one more story of something awesome that has happened in the past:
so, this one time in high school i was at disneyland. we were riding on the jungle cruise and these asian people were sitting next to me and across from me. they were all in a big tour group together. anyway, i'm sitting there minding my own business checking out the backside of water when the woman across from me holds out her camera and says 'picture?' thinking she wants me to take her picture, i gladly agree, at which point she snaps a photo of me and the man sitting next to me. the man sitting next to me then switches with the man next to him and we have another photo op. THEN (no it doesn't end there) the woman pulls out her video camera and they start taking live footage of the men pointing out the animals to me... elephants, zebras, hippos... only the finest in jungle cruise action. finally the ride is over and we're getting off the boat and my friends are giving me the WHAT IS GOING ON look and the asians ask us to all gather round for a group photo and then they hand out lapel pins and keychains as a thank you. i imagine that in some wall in some office in some asian country some man proudly displays the photos of the time he pointed out a fake elephant to some american girl. what more could he possibly want?! i am excited to go to disneyland in a couple weeks for obvious reasons.

almost the weekend!

i live in the world's stinkiest apartment complex. i went to get the mail tonight and twice i almost puked. i'm very proud of myself though b/c i didn't.

i'm going to california in less than 2 weeks. i can't wait. i need this vacation like... well i can't think of a good finish to that... but i really need to get out of virginia for a bit. it will be good to see the family and friends and to go to disneyland. YAY. asia told me today that going to disneyland with me is on her bucket list. isn't that sweet?

my gm cracks me up today he randomly sent me an email that said:
the phone, the phone is ringing
i didn't know there were hillbillies in arizona

he enables goofy in the workplace. i think we work very well together. he has managed to get that the phone is ringing song stuck in my head every day for the last week. driving me nuts.

happy calzone day!

today was calzone day at work. which is funny b/c we ate calzones for dinner last night too. and actually we ate strombolli today and we just called it calzone day. at any rate calzone day is a very special day.

so this morning i walk into my office and my boss is sitting there and he says 'so do you want the good news or the bad news first?' at which point i sit down, put my head in my hands and tell him i'll go with the bad. he waits a long time thinking and he turns and says 'uhhh, i can't think of any!' at which point i'm crackin' up mostly from the relief. and i say 'ok great, what's the good news?!' and he hands me a paper and says 'YOU'RE NUMBER ONE!' ok so i realize at this point that no one will know what i'm talking about but i am number in the company in guest pulse results for the quarter!!! i nearly started to cry.

the guest pulse is a phone survey that event hosts take rating the event process from beginning to end. and the results of this are really important to the people at whq. and i am NUMBER ONE... for the QUARTER... for the ENTIRE COMPANY. i've never been number one before. it couldn't have been better timing either b/c i had been feeling really down on myself b/c there is tons of work still to be done and i'm constantly drowning in work and i can't ever get everything done that i need to get done but i'm trying... i'm really trying. at any rate it was just incredible to see us ranked number one. whenever i think about it i feel like i'm going to start crying. what a girl!

so i start working on some stuff and for some reason i turn to james and asked him how much vacation time i have left and he said he didn't really know and i told him i thought it was around 8 days and he said 'well, i need to talk to you about that... we were talking about it this morning and i'm requiring you to take a week off before october b/c you work too much.' i don't know why i feel so validated when people tell me i work too much. ::hahaha:: i think it might be a sickness. definitely a sickness. but now i'm all day dreamy about the week off that i get. i've been imagining all the wonderful things a person could do if they had an entire week off! it just seems to wonderful to be true!

this is what has been going on in my head all day: 'oh, a-week-vacation! you want to take me to the ball?! why whatever will i wear?!' at which point a-week-vacation and i dance around and fall madly in love and live happily ever after in elaina-has-lost-her-mind-land. the worst part about this daydreaming is i'm not able to stop myself from acting out my daydreams... so my coworkers see me sitting at my desk making moony faces and acting like a disney princess. luckily they are already totally aware that i'm insane... they totally expect at this point that i will spend the entire day talking to myself, singing and doing motivational chants. i often have to remind them that they have to worry if i start using different voices when i talk to myself.

sweet home... virginia?!?

today i became a little worried that maybe i love richmond a little too much. i had a meeting in downtown and as i walked through the streets on my way i just was struck by the fact that i really love this place. i love the way the air feels. i love the buildings and the people. it's very different from ca here. people can say things you can't say in ca. even within the business community. actually especially within the business community. over the weekend a friend asked me what my favorite thing about richmond was and my answer is the business community. it's small, it's home town-y, once you meet a few people you're pretty connected. it's supportive and the people want one another to do well, to succeed, to become better for the sake of the community. by no means am i saying the city doesn't have it's issues but it's driven by a group who desires to make things better for everyone.


so what worries me? i want to stay here. that's never happened before.

these are the days when you wish your bed was already made

this is a story about why living in the south is awesome. saturday i went to a french restaurant called can can in carytown. i had a ham and cheese sandwich. with an egg on top. COVERED IN GRAVY. it was FABULOUS.


after we ate lunch we went to a shop called i love chocolate... because... well, i DO love chocolate! i mostly just walked around smelling things. and then i bought a present to send to little dan. he will love it. i almost died laughing when i saw it. it's perfect for little dan. next we went to the byrd for the screenings of the films from the 48 hour film project. that was pretty interesting. we saw 20 minutes films that were made completely within 48 hours right here in richmond.


this city is amazing.


i was thinking about how everybody always says sense of humor is like the most important thing. so anyway a few weeks back i was in the car with someone and it was probably the most excruciating car ride of my entire life b/c they just seemed so serious and not to be having any fun at all even though i was trying really hard to have fun (and fun normally comes so easy for me... i mean i AM the ambassador to fun after all). anyway, this person starts talking about dating and says that the most important thing to them was sense of humor and that they couldn't imagine a life without laughter. at which point i had to do everything i possibly could to keep from laughing. i just thought it was hilarious that i had spent the last half hour wanting to poke my eyes b/c this person had no sense of humor and here they are saying that sense of humor is the most important thing. i suppose really you should be looking for compatible sense of humors.


speaking of being the ambassador to fun... UGH. so at work i sign my emails "your ambassador to fun, elaina" and i get comments all the time from, mostly, dudes about it. one time i had some guy ask how much it would cost for me to be his personal ambassador to fun (it came out way worse than he expected, i'm sure, b/c he was really embarrassed after he said it). at any rate last week i was at a networking meeting and they decided to have everyone stand up and introduce themselves and i got really distracted and flustered and words just started coming out of my mouth and i ended by yelling "I'M YOUR PERSONAL AMBASSADOR TO FUN" simply b/c my brain knows that is the worst thing i could've yelled. at which point everyone busts up laughing and i sit down and thinking good gracious woman what is wrong with you?!?


man i thought james was going to have a meltdown today. so 30 minutes before a party is supposed to start i walk by the room and notice that it is set up totally wrong. and so i grab the servers and start rearranging and taking care of business. i was sweating and running all over the place. i'm really glad we're not allowed to wear high heels anymore. at any rate about half way through james walks by and is like what are you doing? i think he thought i just randomly decided to go in and mess up the room. and i was like hey this room is set up wrong and i'm taking care of business b/c that's what i do yo (i'm not totally sure but i feel that is possibly an exact quote of myself). at any rate he got very upset that it wasn't done right but i was thinking 1. you should be happy it was me that discovered it and not the party host 30 minutes from now and 2. be glad i'm not some neurotic party planner who yells at people (neurotic? yes. yeller? no). so you know, count your blessings bud!


this is what winnie the pooh says: you can't stay in your corner of the forest waiting for others to come to you. you have go to them sometimes.


thanks winnie the pooh. that is valuable information for life.


and one last reason why virginia is great:

so i've been talking about this for ages now. here are some pictures from the dance last night. i didn't take my camera with me so that's all i have for now. and here is a picture of me on a segway in case you were wondering what that was like.