Willo O'Brien

Hey guys – Heather just wrote me an email saying her house was broken into – and she’s unable to post to her blog for one reason or another, so here’s her message:

“they took my laptop & i can’t post right now at all…. so can you post something on our blogg letting our peeps know that if u see hezzie13 on the aim or hezekial13 at yahoo im that its not me! (and that they should give HELL to whoever is logged on as me!!)”

Totally I will Hez :( And I’m so sorry to hear that your house got broken into – that’s horrible!!!!!

this is awesome!!

check it out for yourself: spell with flickr! so. rad!

link from matt

OK, now that I’ve received this from 2 people (Sarah & Paris), here it goes:

Total Volume Of Music On My External Hard Drive Fatty Gigger:
18,845 songs, 82.92 GBs. Yes, it’s now become difficult to decide what I will put on my 60GB iPod. I should be so lucky to have such problems! :)

The Last CD I Bought:
Hot Hot Heat’s Elevator, however a few other more recent CD’s that I’ve “received”, that I’m really excited about, are: The Duke Spirit, Heartless Bastards (Ok, I technically did buy this one via eMusic), The Ladybug Transistor, Architecture in Helsinki, and Feist. I also had the new Spoon & the new Ponys, but I accidently deleted them! Do’h!

Song Playing Right Now:
Elements of Withdrawal by The Ex-boyfriends

5 songs I listen to a lot, or that mean a lot to me:
Ok, this is a hard one… sorta. I listen to a lot… so uh… OK, I guess I’ll do what Paris did & do a list of what I’ve been listening to a lot lately:

• Hey Boy by The Blow. I love this album. And I love this song. “Why you didn’t call me?” hahaa. Love it.
• Black History Month by Death From Above 1979
• So Stay in Love by Kissing Tigers
• One More Night by The Stars
• Save Button by Cathy Davey

Oh my god, that was difficult. I could spend all day on separating the lists into exactly what they mean and when I like listening to them most, etc… but there’s a good spattering of 5 songs I’ve been listening to and like a lot.

OK, now I have to pass this on… So go at it Jem, Darren and Karrie (new blogger!) But don’t worry… this isn’t like one of those painful chain letters where you’ll grow warts or have bad luck or something if you don’t do it. That said, give it a shot! :)

omg! I totally want one of these*! Even though I don’t bake (not like this requires baking skills), and I certainly don’t need to be eatin cake. But I think that looks cool & now I want one! hahaa

While I was on the plane (Jetblue w/ it’s DirectTV in every seat – pretty cool!) I watched this great show on this girl who used to be a clothing/pattern designer for Ralph Lauren (I think it was) and now she bakes these amazing cakes!! And they really are amazing. (I would link to her but I can’t find her online! darnit! Anyone know who I’m talking about? Yay! Karrie knew it: www.confetticakes.com) I would have her make me one of a Vargas girl. Or a drumset. Or… my powerbook. hahhaa. I’m such a dork, but I would totally love a cake that looked like a powerbook. hahhaa! UPDATE: After looking at her incredible cakes, I would totally do something like that sushi, or have her think of something creative & beautiful. Damn is she GOOD! I love em!

* link from ze oh so funny, mimismartypants

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Lastnight I went to a party at my neighbor’s house. Because what’s the closest thing to never leaving my house? Going right next door. Pretty convenient, eh?

So I workout with one of them now (there are about 6 people total in the house), and she told me they’d be having this big party/BBQ and I should stop by. So, I’m thinkin: Rager! House full of people! Keg! (she did say they were gonna have a keg and they totally didn’t! what a liar!) And I was actually looking forward to re-meeting her roommates and their friends. Especially because if I didn’t like it I could just walk out their door, take 10 steps & walk right back into my sweet house!

So I go over there, and as it turned out it was just like 15 of them, hangin out, BBQ’in. Cool. I honestly was goin for dinner, cuz Nathan in the house is a superb chef and Emma always raves about it, and I could smell it from over here! So I was looking forward to his cookin, and it did not disappoint. Nathan is so talented it was turning me on. Even though he doesn’t meet the height requirement. Cook me amazing meals and tell me the reasons why it affects my palette the way it does. hott.

Ya, so none of the neighbor roomies disappointed. What was odd though is that the other 12 or so people there… their “friends” did not make one effort to meet me or engage me in conversation or introduce themselves or anything. And I even stood near them quietly and did that “I’m not really listening to your conversation, but I’m right here just in case any of you want to stop & include/introduce yourselves to me.” But nope. Nothing. So I ate, drank a beer and left. Thanks neighbors!

One of the neighbor girls though, I liked immediately. She’s nice and fun and cute AND she has 2 itty bitty kitties!!!!!!!! OH MY GOD!!!!! Seriously it is PAINFUL how frickin cute these kitties are!!!! PAINFUL!!!

I asked her if she’s been taking photos of them while they’re so itty bitty and she said, “no, we haven’t bought a camera yet”. HUH!?!? Who doesn’t have a camera?! hahaa (who me? a camera snob?) So of course, I demanded offered to take a complete photo shoot of her cutie kitties for her. :) And she is excited! yay!! I get to go take photos of cutie woootie kitty witties!!!! hahhaa Who better for the job, right?

Oh, and check out their names: fat pants and funny boots. SO CUTE!!!!

In the spirit of Lucia’s Goals for the Summer, I will also write a list of things I’d like to do, or have been wanting to do and dammit I will do them this summer:

• NEW! Go to Yosemite! Can you believe in all 9 years of living in this city, I’ve never been there!?!? OMG! This summer I *will* go there!
• Go to Napa or somewhere up north and go wine tasting. Nothing fancy, but I just haven’t been up there in FOREVER and that’s just silly cuz I live so close, and I really like wine! And there’s fun places to sit out & eat a sandwich in the afternoon, and it’s usually beautiful weather. Any friends who like road trips & wine are welcome. Or distant friends, maybe you want to come visit and then I can show you wine country? :)
• Go hiking more. Last year I hardly went hiking at all… well unless you count the many times I hiked Bernal Hill behind my house. But it’s seriously one of my favorite things to do… and it’s in the top 5 as to why I live in this incredible city, because we’re a stone’s throw from lush redwood forests that want to engulf you in their green arms.
• Go camping (ditto everything above)
• Play frisbee more. This is also one of my favorite sports… Wanna play?
• Sell my Trooper and buy a (hopefully red) VW Golf TDI < Turbodiesel, runs on biodiesel!! I’m really excited to GO GREEN! Speaking of – the World Environment Day is coming up and there’s a huge gala event here next weekend that looks amazing. Lyne & I are going to try to hit some of it!
• Take a class on CSS (I picked a zen garden layout that supported my wine country goal :). I use CSS for fonts and simple borders and such… but I need to learn more and get better at full site layout using CSS.
• Repaint tables and re-waterproof furniture. This has been on my list for about a year. I WILL make it happen this summer!
• Redesign this website. And the whole slew of other things I want to do for me… but that’s a whole other list! :)

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I had an AWESOME workout this morning, and now I’m finishing up a really fun illustration project! Hope you’re all enjoying your Saturday!

Somewhere between Lit & Misshapes I dropped my beloved pink iPod sock that I use to protect my camera (it’s the perfect camera holder!). And I suppose I could just break down & buy the 4 pack… but there’s got to be one of you that has an extra laying around, right? Worth a shot. Let me know if you have an extra you want to give me. Any color! xoxo

:::

Update: I love my friends. I have not one, but TWO on the way! yay! An orange iPod sock from Joe, which is totally rad because I always wished my pink one was orange. Red & orange are my favorite colors! And the other is actually a long overdue gift from the ever so lovely Sarah Hatter, who made it for me long before I even got the pink iPod sock, when I was desperately requesting a magical sewjob to protect my shiny hard thing. (Ya, I got perverted on that one on purpose – how can you not with a name like SewJobs? :) But I think she’s even making me a new one with this cool new baby blue & gray plaid fabric. AWESOME!!!!!

Thanks you two! I’m feeling very loved! yay!

:::

Update #2: Joe DHL’d it to me & it’s here today. This kid will be a CEO before he’s 30.

Wow, I can’t believe today is Friday already! This week has flown by.

I’m feeling better now that I’ve had a few days home. I was really out of it by the end of my trip. Seriously. I suppose that’s what two crazy party weekends in a row (uh, plus about 4 other nights on the town in between), staying in 3 different places in 3 different cities in 12 days will do to you.

Honestly going into to the trip, I thought I was more flexible – and I suppose overall I am… because I made it w/o totally freaking out… but man, I love being home so much right now. Having my routine here, I feel much more in control of my life, ya know? I can go to my gym every day and eat my Special K Red Berries with soy milk, double shot soy latte’s, listen to my music (bagel radio live show today!), grocery shop & eat yummy meals at home, etc. Uh oh! I’m becoming a creature of habit! hahaa… and boy does it feel good. Habits are good.

Here’s my Habit To Do List:
– Make working out a habit.
– Make working hard a habit (again).
– Make listening to yourself a habit.
– Make hanging out with friends a habit.

:::

Lastnight I chased a possum away from some trash I had left out on the porch. He was kinda weird about it though… they’re blind, right? He kinda moved away slowly… after first standing there looking at me, almost as if to say, “Hi, my name is Possum and I live downstairs. Would you mind if I dug into your trash & scattered it across your porch?”

At 1:20am, I couldn’t grab the camera (and make sure Kazoo didn’t go out there to greet him when I opened the door) fast enough.. but here’s him hobbling down the stairs:

Since most of you have probably never seen a possum in person, I zoomed in on the little bugger.

Overall it was just so surreal to see a possum on my porch. I’ve seen a lot of racoons here, but not many possums. They’re funny little creatures! It seemed really sweet and cute… which immediately made me think I didn’t want to see it not looking so sweet & cute. He is a creature of the wild, and I can imagine he’s got a mean side.

Alright. That’s about all the excitement happening in my life right now! Back to work. Oh & have a great long weekend everyone!

It feels SO good to be home. I hardly recognized the place! And yet all at the same time it gave me an understanding embrace, reminding me of who I am everywhere I look. I love my little home sooo much!!!

It was, of course, absolutely amazing to see my baby kitty again, too. I think this is the longest ever I’d been away from him… and it’s so much different than kids, family, lovers, friends – because it’s not like I get to call & touch base w/ him and catch up while I’m away. I even had my phone forwarded, so I couldn’t even call to leave shmoopy messages on the machine so that he could hear my voice. (yes, I’ve totally done that before)

Needless to say, we’ve been having SnuggleFest 2005. Which is DREAMY! At first I had to totally re-adjust to being home. Kazoo had tracked in a bunch of the garden, making the couch look like it’d been sitting out amongst the trees and me continually finding bits stuck in his fur – that probably unless you’re his momma he wouldn’t let you pick out. So, being the semi-clean freak that I have learned I am occasionally – and being totally stoked to be in my own place where I’m 100% in control of all levels of clean in every nook & cranny – one of the first things I did was vacuum.

Something super shitty that happened however, before my even getting into the comforts of my wee little cottage, was that upon arriving to my parked car – I find that someone thought it’d be cool just to see what it was like to bash out one of my windows. Nothing says Welcome Home like a $275 broken window, eh!? All I could think of was, “well, thank goodness I didn’t go shopping in SOHO after all!” Which is crazy – I didn’t go shopping at all while I was in NYC… which I think is considered sacrilegious or something… but obviously it’s good I saved up hundreds for senseless window bashers to get their kicks at my expense! AWESOME.

The glass that has to be replaced has to be special ordered because of the year of my car, and the rare tinting. great. So not only do I have to go down there once for a temporary glass, but then go again to swap it out. Everything is just time & money, huh? I’m really trying to let this one go… cuz really – what’s done is done. Maybe I’ll parade around in some invisible new $150 shoes and an invisible new $125 jacket and act like I really got something great for myself.

Ya, so yesterday I came home, vacuumed, unpacked, and then after trying to do some kind of work and realizing I really just needed to soak in being home… I took off my pants and hung out in my underwear. :) Ahh…. the comforts of being in MY home with just ME and MY stuff all by MYSELF!

I didn’t answer the phone (sorry I missed your call Kat!), made dinner and I caught up on all my TiVo’d shows. Well, not all.. mostly I just had a Grey’s Anatomy marathon. I love that show!! And I had 3 of em waiting for me… so I was stoked! Kazoobie loves it when I hang out on the couch, too… so I got lots of snuggly visits.

I’m having an urge to check out from life and never talk to anyone again (aka hermitsville). But instead, after a conference call, I will be going down to get replacement window #1 put in – and while they do, get some MUCH NEEDED exercise in, taking a long walk along the Embarcadero. It’s gorgeous weather here!!! Then later tonite I have BAM.

I have a TON of work to catch up on, so the whole check out from life deal isn’t an option. It never really is, it can just sound all Calgon-take-me-away fantastic. Instead, my plan is to:

1.) Get on a regular workout schedule again. For my sanity (mostly) and to kick these extra lbs. that I’ve so conveniently put on to pad my wee little heart that’s been needing extra spoonfuls of brownie mix to make it feel loved.

2.) Work my bootie off on all my client projects so that I can feel on top of it, caught up & make everyone happy. Plus, clearing up my schedule more for me, me, me. And future projects, of course.

3.) Connect with friends, go to movies, and go visit my brother. It’s very tempting to hermit up… but because I will be working, I’ve learnt these last few months that working + hermiting makes Willo a dull girl. I love my friends and am really excited to have some girls nights, craft nights, BBQ’s, movie nights and reconnect w/ my brother who I haven’t seen in what feels like forever.

4.) Somewhere in the midst of all of that I need to do laundry, repot my plants (yes, still – it’s so bad… they’re sick and holding on for me.. but it’s got to happen asap), and watch more TiVo :)

After 5 days in Toronto, and another 7 in New York… I’m on my way home today. I’m really looking forward to it! :)

We interrupt this stream of ridiculously fun posts for a very important message regarding our screwed up country:

I just signed MoveOn PAC’s emergency petition to stop the “nuclear option” the far right wing’s plan to seize absolute power to stack our courts -– and I hope you will sign too.

Starting Monday, the petition will be delivered straight to Congress every three hours until the final vote, and many of our comments will be read aloud on the Senate floor.

Please sign right now at:
http://www.moveonpac.org/nuclear (it just takes a second!!)

Why is this an emergency?

This Tuesday, the Senate will vote on Republican Leader Bill Frist’s “nuclear option” to break the rules of the Senate and give the Republican Party absolute control over appointing federal judges.

For 200 years the minority’s right to filibuster has kept our courts fair, by making sure that federal judges needed to get at least some support from both sides of the aisle before they were given life time appointments.

If Frist eliminates the filibuster, his next step would be to force far right partisan judges onto the powerful U.S. Courts of Appeals. The real targets, however, are the four seats on the Supreme Court likely to become vacant in the next four years.

With that much power on the Supreme Court, the far right could strike down decades of progress on labor rights, environmental protections, reproductive rights, and privacy.

The “nuclear option” will live or die by a final vote, probably on Tuesday, and the vote is still way too close to call. There are at least 6 moderate Republicans still on the fence and only 3 more votes needed to win. If we can get enough of our voices into congress and into the streets in the next 72 hours, we can still save our courts.

Thank you