hear me roar!

i was talking to a fellow bruin at a recruiting event yesterday. even though he had gone to ucla much later than me, we still geeked out over the classes we both took in pchem (e.g., “oh my goodness, you took molecular spectroscopy, too!” yeah, i admit, that was nerdy.

i was trying to remember the name of my prof for the molecular spectroscopy - i could not remember, although i could easily picture him. he was briliant, probably in his 60s, and not all at intimating, even with his 40+years in academics. not even intimating for a freshmen. he didn’t use text books, and always used a reader with his own notes and outline, which i found more useful.

i remember his name as i drove home. so i looked him up, but i didn’t expect him to be teaching any more at ucla. sadly, he is not.

just as i had received a pleasant surprise in the mail last week from WW - i was able to do the same for someone else. my package wasn’t sweet or thoughtful, and apparently, the content was “awesomely bad” (the commented said in was in the “best possible way,” of course).

halarity ensued in the emails following that comment. i was actually pretty tired around midnight, but got all worked out over the funny emails and i couldn’t sleep. so i got up and did some more work. that made me tired again very quickly.

i had to work all day saturday, in order to save my sat night dinner plans for JS’s bday, and sunday “dates.” either i was not productive on saturday, or whatever i was doing was just hard, because i didn’t complete nearly enough. but i still had to work out, and go to dinner, and i wasn’t gonna flake on the dates on sunday. i did end up sacrificing outdoor vball, which is sad, since the summer is coming to an end. but something had to go…

in the late morning on sunday, i met up with ML for brunch at cafe coupa. the pa arts and crafts festival turned out to be this weekend, we ended up strolling around downtown for at least two hours. i really enjoyed his company-he seemed to have enjoyed mine as well, considering he suggested that we walk around (even though he knew i still had work to do). i still don’t have a good read on him. but at least for today, it went well.

i rushed back to work-since i stayed out longer than i should have. i actually got a few good hours in. of course then i ran late to dinner, which meant we were also late to the concert. but KC is good-natured about this stuff, as usual, although he probably secretly thinks that i have the worst ontime record ever. but he, out of all people, would understand that sometimes work can be all -consuming.

i love hanging out with these two guys. they are sort of the opposite, but then similar on many levels. when we get to together, they invariably gang up on picking on me. but i understand it’s in a loving, brotherly way. well, sort of.
we had dinner in san mateo instead, because they were heading to tahoe early the next morning for a biking trip, so we wanted to avoid driving around. dinner conversation of course got out of hand -my blog is PG and inappropriate to go into further detail here. but let’s just say that it was a good thing we had a corner table and not too close to other guests.
afterwards, we hung out the b street & vine wine bar with some live jazz. we enjoyed a lovely evening in the patio and closed the place down. and we had some serious laughs. seriously, my stomach hurts just thinking about how hard we laughed.

friday just before 6 pm-my office phone rings. i looked up, and saw a 415 number. i thought it might be the restaurant at which i had a dinner reservation calling to confirm. i was gonna let voice mail pick up, but then i remember that i needed to cancel, so i answer reluctantly.

boy was it a pleasant surprise! the voice on the other end said ” this is your old friend NB from SM ( another law firm).” it immediately made me smile. he was one of the judges i met at the moot court competition a few years ago. back then, i was completely mesmerized by his amazing blue eyes and superb sense of humor. our brief yet witty encounter was highlighted by his comparison of the moot court competition to american idol (ok, you had to be there, but trust me, it was funny).

he called because he had a quick work-related question, which he could have easily just emailed me about. but am i glad he called instead! it was just that much more, well, personal. we digressed many many times from why he actually called, and laughed whole-heartily the entire time. at the end, i had to go (i was late for my dinner engagement), and he said to look him up next time i am in the city to collect on the favors he owes me.

i thanked him for making my day better, and apparently i did that for him as well. me, i had a tough day researching a topic that became more and more confusing, and he apparently had a hard morning in court where the judge told him his arguments lacked merit. it turns out that our timing was quite perfect.

on the way to dinner- i had a huge smile on my face, and thought how important it is for me to connect with another person in conversations. things that important to me are the things i should never compromise on.

a few days ago i went to a hearing with a senior partner-the hearing was at the court where i had my externship. but it’s been several years, although the security officers downstairs remained more or less the same. it wasn’t a particularly busy day, and as we were going through the security check line, there were two others ahead of us, and they were chatting with the security officers, and i think they were externs for a particular judge in that court house.

as the security officer handed me by backpack that had just been scanned, he smiled and said “do you work for judge ___ as well?” i was confused. then he went on to say, “well, you know how all the fall externs start right around now?” (as that was the first week of law school for most places). then it all made sense–he thought i was a law student/extern! i shook my head and then explained that i used to work here as an extern.

as i went up in the elevator, i gasped silent “OMG-he thought i was an extern!!!”

yesterday was a much needed work-from-home day. but since i didn’t step out all day, i went to the new club one after dinner to work out. it’s pretty new andnot very crowded, and i never see anyone i know.

except for last night! apparently the porche guy now works out there. i haven’t seen him around SR in a long time, but we dont keep in touch or anything. to be fair, he was never a pest and backed off as soon as i stopped being friendly. but it’s been a while since i have seen him, and i didn’t really have any desire to say hello. he was initially in a different work out area, and managed to make his way over to where i was, WHERE IT WAS JUST THE TWO OF US.

it was not easy, but i managed to never make eye contact. i was having a good work anyway so i didn’t look like i wanted to be bothered. and he knew better (he works out pretty hard, too, which is something i can appreciate). i am not even saying that he made his way over to where i was because he wanted to talk to me. it could have been that he needed to use a piece of equipment that was there…

but in any case, i “escaped” without having to engage in a conversation. but encounters like this are always awkward for me. so please, no more.

i meant to work out after my massage-but iw as too relaxed, and even the therapist was telling me not work out, “sort of defeats the point [of a massage]”, she said.

i did have a tough day. a tough few days. actually. more than few even. so i figured, what the heck, it’s a nice night, i’ll join JS for a quick bite at straits (she had her massage before me and went to dinner because she didn’t have time for lunch). we sat outside, and it was a very pleasant evening out. as we were leaving, we walked by two waiters who were taking their break outside. one was cute. i saw him earlier. i looked up as i walked by- he smiled, and said ” have a good night.” i politely responded “you too.” as i walked away, i heard his next comment (and he didn’t say it in a sleazy or otherwise offensive sort of way)- ” you have great legs, by the ways.”

normally, i would just ignore stuff like that and roll my eyes. tonight was different- i turned around, smile and said “thanks. i’ll have to come back to visit more often.”

good ending to a tough day…

JS said she was surprised that i did that. she shouldn’t be! i never have problems flirting with boys that i think are cute and pleasant.

a fed ex package awaited me as i arrived at work - i figured it was work-related. i never get anything good.

i opened it, and it has a piece of paper of “instructions,” a hand written note (very neatly written, btw),and 2 rolls of sports tape. i knew immediately it was from WW.

a few weeks ago he was here, visiting from NY, and subbed for my vball team, we were horsing around and he threw a ball at me and jammed my right pinkie. it’s been sprained since and because i don’t ever rest it, it keeps getting reinjured. believe it or not, the pain is quite substantial. anyway last week i told him about it- and he felt really bad. hence the package.

i thought it was a really thoughtful and creative thing to do. thanks WW! in fact, when i saw the contents, i laughed out loud. it was a nice way to start an otherwise super hectic and somewhat annyoing day, which ended with a below-average performance on the vball court and an ungraceful exist from this season’s playoffs.

i had long committed to the charity dragon boat race today. however, it has been a crazy week, and as of yesterday afternoon, i had still yet to begin a brief that i had to send out today. so i had no choice but to work most of the night, since i knew i would be out of touch all day. i managed to sleep for 3 hours and got up early, finished up, and then go ready and headed to the race site in foster city.

it was a great turn out-lots of corporate-sponsored teams, including 5 genetech teams. but since its a race to raise money for cancer research, that seems to be appropriat. too bad there were not a lot of other biotech companies that participated-otherwise they can duke it out on the water, as they would normally in science.

i raced with the xlinix team-HY”s gf works there, she recruited him and he recruited MS and i because each boat needs a minimum of 8 female paddlers. i didn’t know much about dragon boat racing before, but from the practices and the race, i learned that the single most important thing is for all the paddlers to be in sync, at all times. the teams where the paddlers did not sync well were so much slower, and looked really sloppy. but when everyone’s paddle hits the water at the same time, it looked really polished and boat just glides. this race ruly represents the spirit of team work.

our team came in second in the two preliminar rounds we did, and barely missed advancing. i had a lot of fun, even though i was pretty tired from the lack of sleep. xlinx did a really good job organization the team and i would totally do it again next year.