Abnormal Sleep Patterns

For someone who loves sleep as much as I do, I sure don't need it these days. I slept a precious 4 hours last night, then worked til 10 tonight and went out til 2 AM. Not bad. Got to wake up and play basketball tomorrow, then work the majority of the day and night. Good times.

I am going to eat a slice of pizza before I go to sleep in the hopes of reaching my goal of getting incredibly out of shape by the end of the summer. I think I can do it.

Dinner

I'm fairly sedentary these days at work, probably only getting to the gym 4 times a week. So, why on Earth would I feel the need to eat approximately 8 pieces of bread before dinner tonight? Seriously, I must be TRYING to get fat. Fantastic.

New Topics

It was brought to my attention the other day by a good friend and fellow glutton for punishment that my posts, infrequent as they are, all seem to revolve around the topic of sleep or the lack thereof. I suppose he's correct in making that statement, and I'd like to think of some new things to write about, but it's amazing how prevalent the idea of sleep becomes when you don't get any.

I've been giving some further thought as to what I want to do with the rest of my life -- or at least the next immediate three years. There are certainly a myriad of options out there -- I had lunch today with an entrepreneur who has his own lunch spot in the Financial District. It's this fantastic, organic salad joint called Mixt Greens. Everything down to the presentation is clean and just a well-thought out concept. Anyway, he was saying they do 700 lunch customers per day -- based on a quick, back of the envelope calculation, that's probably a yearly revenue number around $2M. Not bad considering produce is a commodity market and labor is relatively inexpensive. Plus he actually gets to be around people all day, makes his own decisions and is fulfilled by it. Not a bad deal. I wonder if he'd let me franchise?

Anyway, I suppose I should celebrate my freedom of leaving the office at 10 PM by actually sleeping. But I always need some time to wind down. It's been an interesting couple of days.

Write more later.

Sleep?

I have a lot to write about after this weekend, but since I just got home from work the only thing I can think about is whether or not its worth sleeping for 2 hours before getting up again? I think I'll stay up and go work out and hope it gives me some energy.

Four Seasons Aviara

One of my best friends is getting married this weekend and I am headed down to North County in San Diego for the festivities -- I even get to leave work early on Friday to attend the rehearsal dinner (knock on wood). Should be a good time as I haven't seen a lot of my friends this entire summer, so looking forward to just hanging out by the pool and relaxing. I do, however, need to return early on Sunday to get get back to the office -- too much work to do...

Laundry at 2 AM?

Nothing like doing laundry at 2 AM on a Monday night to make you realize that there is not enough time in the day -- and I still have two more loads to do. Oh yeah, I also have a 7 AM conference call, work all day and then take a 10:20 PM flight. To make things even more interesting, I then have a 6 AM breakfast meeting followed by a 7:30 AM meeting. I finally get to fly home at 11:30 and head straight back into work.

I wish I had more to report. I keep waiting to see if the Warriors will trade for Al Harrington, but nothing thus far to report. Not that I think he is that great, but at least he would make them more interesting to watch.

I have decided that sleep is overrated. Who really needs it anyway?

The Weekend That Was

Well, Friday night got off to a bad start as I had to stay at work til 9 or so. The evening got markedly better as I ment some friends out and proceeded to have a good time out on the town. Saturday morning came much too quickly, but it felt good to play basketball for the first time in 4 weeks -- that might be the longest time I have gone without playing since I dislocated my ankle 4 or 5 years ago.

My brother and his girlfriend had their going away party at Crissy Field and we all had a good time bbq'ing and just hanging out. My parents made it there, so that was cool as well. I thought I had to go to work that day, but alas, the entire computer system was going through an upgrade so I had the entire day off. I then proceeded to take the best 2 hour nap I have had in awhile -- this, of course, was by process of elimination because I haven't had a nap in a long time and I have had night's of sleep that were less than 2 hours this summer. That evening I went out to dinner and had a great meal at Fresca -- can't beat a good meal with a great bottle of wine...

On Sunday, I even got to play basketball again -- alas, my good luck ended there. As I write this, I just returned from work -- 1:00 AM on a Sunday. Good times.

Traveling for work in the middle of this week, so that will be a nice respite and a good experience.

Anyway, that's it for now. I need to wake up at 6 AM to do laundry or face going to the office without socks or underwear.

A wise man once told me that time is the only currency there is -- I think that's quite true.

River Rafting

I am off for a river rafting trip for a couple days so will be out of pocket and no exciting posts in the meantime.

One quick thing to note -- school starts up again in about a month and a half...the summer has gone by fast.

Italy Wins the World Cup

A few thoughts on Italy's win today:

1.) Even though I know it's likely the only solution barring blatant disregard for players' physical health, but winning a game on PKs seems cheap to me.

2.) Seriously, something needs to be done about the diving and faking in soccer. These guys get brushed (by a 150 lb Frenchman, no less) and they go down like they've been gunned down by a sniper. Get up and stop whining, you sissies. They're incredible athletes -- start acting like it.

3.) Zidane's headbutt was classic -- what a terrible way to go out. The only thing I have to ask is what language was the Italian speaking to Zidane? He must have talked dirty about his mom to get Zizou to react like that. Personally, if I knew I was going to get kicked out, I would have made sure to really hurt the guy -- why cheap shot someone, get kicked out, but not really inflict the damage you wanted? From a purely pragmatic standpoint, it doesn't make sense (not that I am advocating violence of any sort).

Anyway, those are my brief thoughts on the game.

Other thoughts:

4.) Patrick O'Bryant is 7'2" and he corraled 4 rebounds in 2 games. Seriously? He should get 4 rebounds by accident.

5.) Gorgeous weekend in SF -- can't complain about the weather.

A Brief List

You know your life is skewed when you get home at 11 AM and celebrate (well, internally at least) the fact that you are off work early. That and the fact that North Korea didn't successfully launch a missile that hit the west coast. Must admit, happier about the second than the first.

I got to thinking the other day, I wonder how many people read this blog? I am guessing approximately 4 people. So, I made a decision to cater my postings to those 4 people. After all, I have to be devoted to my audience -- without them, I'm nothing (that was a joke, for both of you out there that don't have a sense of humor).

Item #1: The Warriors made a trade today sending Derek Fisher to the Jazz for some flotsam and jetsam (in basketball parlance that = crapsters). Now, I actually don't have a real problem with this trade because they got rid of a player, while good, made way too much money for WAY too many years. As my good friend pointed out, it must be difficult being a GM when you are stuck with crappy players, sign more crappy players, then have to get rid of the crappy players in hopes that your judgment has improved to the point where you don't keep signing crappy players. And we wonder why the Warriors have missed the playoffs for 12 straight years -- its a self-perpetuating cycle of crap.

Item #2: I think I am definitely going to try and go to the Austin City Limits music festival. Sounds like a lot of fun and I'll need a little stress relief.

Item #3: My sister is finally getting hit with a dose of reality in NY -- in a way, I feel bad for her. However, the other side of me thinks this is the best preparation for what will be a very long two years for her.

Item #4: Who wins the France-Italy game -- my mind says Italy, but I really think Zidane and anyone who can be a stud while being named Thierry Henry has my support.

Item #5: I wonder all the time what I am going to do with my life. At this point, I have no clue...that frightens me.

Item #6: Crap, I have to iron a shirt for tomorrow.

Item #7: Crap = word of the night.

Item #8: Time for bed.

Independence Day

Happy 4th of July to everyone. It's pretty gloomy in San Francisco as it usually is for the 4th of July -- although last year was quite clear and you could see the fireworks in all their glory. I think this year will be a different story as the fog is expected to ruin an otherwise spectacular show.

It's crazy, but my brother is moving to Austin with his girlfriend very soon -- it's unbelievable how fast time flies. It doesn't seem like that long ago that he was stressing about applications and calling me every single day asking about the process -- now, he's almost en route to Texas. That said, there are benefits to him moving to that strange state. First of all, I'm looking forward to visiting to attend the Austin City Limits Festival in September. It is supposed to be an awesome time and this year there are artists like Gnarls Barkley, Thievery Corporation and Massive Attack -- and those aren't even the headliners. Aside from that, there is also the possibility of visiting for UT football games which should be a great time.

Although many people are celebrating Independence Day with BBQs and the such, I have to go into work for a few hours. Yes, I know -- it sounds like great fun and you wish you could join me. However, unfortunately for you, you'll have to settle for drinking a couple beers and hanging out with friends as an alternative.

Then its back to the work week -- I've got a bunch of deadlines looming over my head, which never feels fun. It's almost impossible to make weekend plans these days because work has a funny way of interfering.

Enjoy the fireworks wherever you may be watching them.

The 4th of July

Again, I feel so liberated after leaving the office at 8:30 today -- granted downtown was deserted all day, but I've learned to take small victories where I can get them. I spent the greater part of yesterday at the Fillmore Street Fair with a few friends -- it was my first entire day off in the past 3 weeks, so I managed to have a few cocktails. And all the fried food any human should eat in one day. I mean, I had a corn dog. Who eats corn dogs past the age of 12?

Today was uneventful -- going out tonight with a few friends, so that'll be mildly entertaining I'm sure. I just want to venture out and enjoy the precious free time that I have.

Anyway, I'll manage to post something non-work related in the near future -- hopefully soon.

The Aftermath

Well, last night was the big dinner -- not surprisingly it went well. Her family and I have always gotten along great, so it was no surprise that we were able to pick up like nothing had ever happened. They even invited me to her sister's birthday party tonight, but I politely declined because I don't want to make things harder for my ex. I'm not one to go into much detail, so let's leave last night it at that. Bottom line: Doing something like that is never easy and maybe not even the smartest thing to do, but sometimes you have to ignore your rationale and do what you want to do.

Anyway, no work for me today for which I am grateful. Will probably get a workout in and head to the street fair by my house. Then it's back to the grind tomorrow.

Departure from the Norm

I know my posts are usually quite vague and probably somewhat bizarre, but today I am going to post about something less ambiguous and more personal.

I was invited by my ex-girlfriend earlier this week to go to dinner with her parents and her sister/brother in-law this evening. I'm not going to delve into the personal side of things between me and said ex, but will say this will be the first time we have seen each other in two months. To compound it, it'll be in front of her whole family -- to say the least, I am pretty nervous/anxious. Debated quite a bit if attending was the right and best thing to do for me from an emotional point of view. Am I intentionally leaving out details/emotions? Sure, I am -- but that is none of your (both of you loyal readers) business!

Bottom line: I love her family. Absolutely adore them and always have. Outside of my own family, I have never been treated better or more kindly by anyone in all my 31 years. So, if the opportunity arises to see them, I am going to take it b.c they mean a lot to me. Regardless of the situation between the two primary actors, I hope to always keep in touch with them b.c they hold a special place in my life.