oh my goodness…


Aubrey, me & Erik @ lunch yesterday

On Sunday night I thought “It’s Sunday night, maybe it’ll be chill… maybe I should go home early?” and by the end of the night I thought, “Whoa, are Sunday night’s supposed to be THIS fun!?”. Lastnight I thought “OK, it’s only a Monday night…” but I’ve now learned that at SXSW, it doesn’t matter the day. Every single day is SO CRAZY FUN!!


@ the Blogger party. Danny & I’s first round of drinks: double fisted, baby!


Aubrey & I give Eric some lovin


Meredith gives me some lovin


I love these boys!

Lastnight was full of many many many drinks, confessions (hi Ryan! *gulp*), and what every SXSW promises to deliver: debauchery! Oh my goodness… quite possibly nearing the “too much fun” category. ;) Let’s hope nobody got any incriminating photos of me. Umm, not to say that there would be any of course. hahha. *gulp again*

Regardless, my photos have been added, starting at #73 on this page. And even better, videos are to come soon, toO! SXSW INTERACTIVE IS SO FUN. I’ll miss it when all these people go… but next up: MUSIC! HELL YES! My life rules.

hail vs. hot

Oh! So one other thing I forgot to mention is that it is HOT here in Austin!! I’m so stoked! It’s really humid and warm, which means skirts – yay!

In stark contrast, Mother Nature pulled out all the stops in SF before I left and it HAILED!! holy sh*t! I think I’ve only seen that happen maybe 2 other times in all my 10 years in SF. And it stuck for a couple hours! WILD! Check it out:


See all the photos here

blogging from austin: SXSW!

If Day 1 of being here is any indication for how fun this week’s going to be, I have a lot to look forward to! :)

By the time I had arrived in Austin yesterday at 4:30pm, I’d already run into 5 people I knew – on the plane! Ev, Sara, George, Irina & Paul. I checked into my room (moved in, since I’ll be here for 8 days!), met up with the Erickckcks*, checked in & got my badge & big bags-o-shwag, and headed out for the night.

* Erik Benson – who will be my roommate for a couple days – and Eric Case, who just may get nominated for cutest Blogger boy of the year if he’s not careful. Well, they’re both adorable, see?

First we hit the Rails gathering @ Buffalo Billards on 6th where I ran into my buddy Ryan and met Aubrey Sabala finally!


Aubrey, Ryan (attempting to look at us both at the same time) and me!

Then after 2 drinks on empty stomachs we giggled our way to dinner @ The Spaghetti Warehouse. After getting a gazillion dodgeball messages about everyone being at the Frog party, and then subsequently a few about it being too packed, we all decided to skip it & go straight to the South by Northwest party @ the Iron Cactus where eventually *everyone* showed up. SO FUN!

OK, I must shower, get out of my hotel room & greet the world. Photos are here!

cozumel photos posted!

Highlights include:


The long awaited XXX iguana love scene. Actually I didn’t take one of the actual consumation… I try to keep this blog PG-13, people!


The sunburnt tops of my feet photo (I’m actually really stoked I managed to not burn anything else the whole time – yay!)


Me & Momma after our first dive!


Me & my Mom enjoying beautiful sunsets


Diving, day 2


Me: Underwater! We got filmed underwater, so instead of buying the video, I snapped some shots of the screen while we watched it. ha! Not the best quality, but fun to have some memories from it!


Lots of beautiful sunsets…

View the Cozumel Photo Album

:::

I’m pretty crazed this week, as I have about 48 hours left to do a ton of work for clients, and somewhere in between do laundry and repack for my Saturday departure to Austin for SXSW!

i am a fish!

I am one with the fishes! I´m so in love with diving!! I´ve had many drinks! I love Cozumel! hahhaa

OK, so I´m officially a CERTIFIED DIVER!! WAHOO!! I did 2 dives Saturday, 2 dives Sunday (my 4 open water cert dives) with an awesome divemaster named Ian, from Manchester… total CUTIE and sweetheart. My Mom got to come with me – the arm did great! – and we really lucked out on some serious 1 on 1 attention and dives. SO COOL!!! We dove Palancar Gardens, Columbia Shallows and today 2 more at Palancar Caves and umm, I can´t remember the other one… but wow was the current STRONG today!! Pretty cool because you just float along watching stuff, but you really can´t stop & check something out if you want to the current just cruises you along. It´s like floating in outer space! SOOO COOL!!!!!!!!!!! I want to live under the water with the fishies and never come up!

We´ve seen beautiful sea turtles, mantaray, a huge green moray eel, some humongous grouper today, baracudas, huge lobsters, crabs, and tons of beautiful, beautiful schools of fish! The coral and sponge here is totally amazing!! A lot has been covered in sand from the hurricane, so my Mom said it was even more magnificent before, but it was really amazing to me regardless. I´d only been diving in Maui & Puerto Vallarta before, so Cozumel is a total treat ESPECIALLY in the coral reef department. Seriously, at Palancar there is this huge wall that goes down about 3000 feet and you can look down it and it´s so cool to think the ocean just goes down forever and ever till it´s pitch black. I´m in love with the ocean. Diving is the most amazing experience. Think about those dreams you have where you can fly… it´s like that. You think, ¨I want to go up a little¨ and so you take in a deep breath and you float up a little and then you breath out and you float down… it´s dreamy!!! And the little fishies just look at you like you´re a big fishy. You swim right along with them and sometimes they follow the yellow fins of the divemaster, thinking that he´s part of their school. heheehee!

Oh, funny side effect from being on the boat, is that right now typing this I sorta feel like I´m swaying side to side. But this time I´m not nauseous (sp), like I was with the rocking sensation after that cruise a year ago… this time it feels cool… like I´m on a waterbed. I´m giddy with love for the ocean and the sun and all the free drinks. hahaa. I actually haven´t been having that many – but today´s the last day, so I´ve had like umm… maybe 4 or 5 total. I just got done with a yummy margarita I sipped while I was in line for one of the 2 internet machines. :p

I loved all your comments and the few emails I got, too. I´ve been thinking of my friends a lot and how STOKED I AM FOR SXSW!!!!

Lastnight we went & had a yummy dinner in town and I bought some silver. I probably could have bargained the guy down more, but I am pleased with what I bought. AND I go back tonite and pick up a ring they custom made for me! yay! I love silver.

My Mom is getting ready right now and we´re heading out for our last night on the town. I gotta say, I don´t really wanna go back to working, when laying out in the sun – reading a ton (I already finished Perks of a Wallflower) – eating and sleeping whenever, and wearing hardly anything all day long is sooooo naaaiiiice. But I also must admit I am re-energized!! Plus, it´s not so tough that I really only have to work a few days and then I jaunt off to Austin for a week. Gawd I love my life!!

My Mom is here, so I´d love to write more, but I´m ready for dinner (and another margarita!). Can´t wait to show you all the amazing photos. It´s been the best best best time and I´d recommend this resort to anyone. Not to mention just a vacation all around. Vacations in sunny places at all inclusive resorts where you can swim with the fishes. A+!!

We fly out tomorrow. See you peeps on IM tomorrow night *wink* (cuz i don´t know where the semicolon is). xoxo

UPDATE: Photos posted

blogging from cozumel

You´d be so proud of me: I actually left my powerbook at home! wahoo!! they have free internet in this hotel, but tonites the first I´ve checked it. it´s feeling soooo good to relax.

they lost my luggage on the way here, but luckily I was smart enough to put a bikini in my carry on just in case. I´ve had my luggage lost 3 times in 1 year. what´s up with that!?

side note: this keyboard is making me work to find the right keys.

One thing that was in my luggage that I desperately needed was my PADI referral info… so unfortunately because I didn´t get my luggage till this afternoon (24 hours after arriving, and inconveniently approx 2 hours *after* the dive time) I can´t do my first dive until tomorrow. Bummer that it cut a day out of my diving. From now on I will be religious about packing a smart carry on! At least I had a bikini though… as I definitely took advantage of a beautiful day laying by the ocean, and the pool.

I was fretting big time about putting sunscreen everywhere. Getting it all over my back, and around my bikini – so afraid of that *one spot* getting burnt where I`d missed. I was slathering it on everywhere. Well, guess what got burnt? The tops of my feet!!! gah!! I was wondering why my shoes felt so uncomfortable tonite… and after dinner I looked down & they´re bright red. DARNIT! The good news is you really don´t have to wear shoes here at all. Except to breakfast, and if we go out to a nice restaurant, of course. The best news is 97% of the time is bikini time. I´m loving it!

I bought 2 new bikinis before I left, the 2nd of which just arrived in my suitcase today and I love it soo much. I think when I get back I´m going to buy a 2nd one of the same design, just so I have it for when this one wears out. :p

side note: I hate obnoxious middle age men that think their coined *wootwoot* they do is so funny over and over and over and over again. DUDE. STOP IT.

Our resort is BEAUTIFUL!! We´re staying at the Iberostar Cozumel. And I don´t know if it´s the fact that they´re on vacation, but everyone´s so friendly. I´ve been caught off guard having to say hello to strangers. Oh ya! People do that when you´re not hustling & bustling in a city! (Uhh, or cooped up in your house all day only to leave to hit a rock show. ha!)

I finished Time Traveler´s Wife & it was sooo good. And in the Dallas airport (on my 5 hour layover yesterday morning), I bought ¨The Big Moo` and finished that today, too. It looked interesting in the store, but after reading it, I realize I totally didn´t really need to read it. I suppose I gleaned a few insights but it´s more for people in a corporation or a start up or something, but whatever. Next up is “Perks of a Wallflower^`. (getting lazy about fixing these weird keyboard strokes) I´m looking forward to it!

Other interesting vacation tidbits:

  • My diving instructor (today through a refresher course in the pool) is a nice girl named Lisa from Oregon. But you´d never know it because she has a slight accent from the last 6 years of travelling around the globe, working at various dive shops. Pretty neat, but she said she thinks she´s finally tiring of it. I´m not sure why I´m reporting this, but I like her & so far she´s made my stay better somehow. She even joined us for lunch today.
  • Sad: my Mom broke her wrist a week ago… so I´ve been helping her with everything. She´s pretty bummed, but her pink cast is cute & she´s going to try to dive anyway.
  • There´s pink flamingos here on this resort!
  • Today we watched 2 iguanas do it! Yes IT! XXX at Iberostar, who knew? ooh, let´s put in some of these: ¿¿¿¿¿¿
  • I fell asleep in my lawn chair & woke up to my Mom whispering to wake me in order to look over and see the most beautiful sunset over the ocean.
  • Today we saw a cute little crab in the water.
  • There are kitties here. Stray skinny cats, but they´re very friendly. So far I´ve made friends with 3 of them. They love me. But I got scolded for letting one drink my water. I wasn´t going to encourage them with food, but I was amazed at how grateful gatito was for fresh water. poor babies!
  • Tomorrow night we´ll go in & eat in the town at Carlos & Charlie´s – we ate at The Mission Restaurant instead, much more authentic. :)
  • My spanish sucks, but they act mildly impressed that I try.
  • This post has no smiley´s cuz I have to think about finding the keys to make the semicolons & parenthesis.
  • My skin is super soft from the moist air.
  • Tomorrow I dive at 1pm.

I love vacation!!!!

UPDATE: photos are posted

guess what?

In 48 hours I’m going to be on a plane headed for Cozumel! wooohoooo!! Then a short 4 days after I get back I head out for a week in Austin for SXSW!

Oh yes. Life is good.

Now if I can just somehow calm the workaholic in me to actually let myself take a vacation.

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Random tidbits: I had a pretty good lunch date on Sunday. Savor (where I seem to be finding myself a lot lately) was packed, so we strolled down the street and ate a delicious brunch at Mi Lindo Yucatan. I recommend it!

Afterwards I made a very short appearance at Dennis’ birthday BBQ (aww, I forgot to take a self portrait w/ you, D!) before coming back home to work. What was wild was when I walked in I saw this guy & was like “how do I know you!?” and realized he was Sarah’s roommate for a short time while I stayed w/ her in NYC last year! He (Korby?) just flew back into town for Dennis’ 30th, as apparently they went to school together. Small world!

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Did I mention how stoked I am about my Powerbook being back up & running? SO STOKED. :) Which is why I’m up so late! Ok. bedtime!