So...this lack of snow is getting to me. At least in Nashville, it was FREEZING by Christmastime. What's going on with this weather? I think I'm the only person here who actually wishes for snow though. I'm sane enough to realize that I am slightly strange...
However, I have been in the Christmas spirit for a while. Ever since Halloween, I've been listening to Xmas music. I bought my tree before Thanksgiving, but I didn't put it up til the day after. Look at that restraint right there! Speaking of Thanksgiving, that was SO MUCH FUN! Jack came in, and so did Nico from Nashville! And then my friend Nicole from high school and her two brothers came, as well as Mark Kirkland who lives up in Berkeley and his girlfriend. Essentially, it was a feast! 8 people came over, and Jack and I somehow pulled the food off. The turkey was delicious, I will say. Of course, I did not touch that. That was Jack's doing entirely.
Now, the Christmas decorations are in place, the cookie scented oil in place to add flair :-) However, one thing is missing: my friends. I miss you guys so freaking much, it's insane. I went to an ugly christmas sweater party a couple of weeks ago and it was AWESOME - I wore a heinous sweater, of course - and I kept remembering last Christmas and the awesome sweater party we had in our suite last year. I made the best Wassail ever! If I only had a pot big enough now...
I'm coming back to Nashville this Friday night late (Smi-face, I will accost you, literally!), and then I come up to Columbus with Jack on Dec 23-26. Short, but it will be a fun Christmas. My entire family from all over is coming in. I LOVE Christmas in Columbus! I will of course go to Chipotle, Zuppa, and watch Love Actually with Lavs. Good times. Now, I just need to get through this week of hell that I have coming up. It will be a busy, busy week....wish me luck!
I love and miss you all to pieces. How is everyone doing?!
Ciao Ciao,
Sondra
Monday, December 15, 2008
Monday, September 29, 2008
It's been far too long!
So I know it's been almost a month, but so much has happened in the interim! I not only found a new apartment in Diamond Heights (far too expensive and far out of the way) but it's very nice and NOT managed by a crazy landlady! yay! I also moved in last weekend (worst day of my LIFE) and have been incredibly busy with work at the Goog. Insanity.
Oh, and yesterday was my birthday (gosh, am I really 22?!) and I was in Vegas with Jack! First time I'd seen him since the middle of August. RIDICULOUS (-ly terrible!) It was absolutely amazing. We stayed at our place at the Signature and guess what? On my birthday, like at 4:30pm while Jack and I are gambling at NYNY, I get a call from AMY GALLAGHER saying she's in Las Vegas too, right next door at the Monte Carlo!!!! OMG! She was randomly there on a last-minute trip w/ friends from Phoenix. It was the best birthday surprise ever to see her. She rushed right over in true Amy-style and we got dinner/drinks at Nine Fine Irishmen and then she later came over to see the Signature and get a late snack before she went to Zumanity. Awesomeness.
Jack and I saw Ka at the MGM on Sat night, my parents' gift to us for our Birthdays (his was on 9/25, mine was 9/28) and the night before Jack surprised me w/ tickets to see Fab Four Live - a Beatles' Review at Planet Hollywood. It was so sweet! I loveddddd the Beatles' music! All in all, an extremely bittersweet weekend because it was absolutely amazing to see Jack again, but it was so short and we had to part again so quickly and for such another long period of time. It literally breaks my heart, and is much harder than I thought it would be.
But ya...so I flew into work this morning and had the most intense day ever trying to catch up. Geez louise! I have to get my life together. Oh, and I left my fave pair of high heels in the damn hotel room. Great - they'll have to charge me an arm and a leg to fedex it back. I'm going to try to go get my security deposit back tomorrow also. Wish me luck, everyone...! We'll see if crazy linda goes for it. If not, we'll have to take drastic measures. Seriously.
That was SUPER abridged, but I think I got the main points in and sorry my phone was off most of the weekend because I left my charger at work and had to keep it off! Please call/email if you wanna catch up one-on-one. I miss you all like crazy.
Bacci
Oh, and yesterday was my birthday (gosh, am I really 22?!) and I was in Vegas with Jack! First time I'd seen him since the middle of August. RIDICULOUS (-ly terrible!) It was absolutely amazing. We stayed at our place at the Signature and guess what? On my birthday, like at 4:30pm while Jack and I are gambling at NYNY, I get a call from AMY GALLAGHER saying she's in Las Vegas too, right next door at the Monte Carlo!!!! OMG! She was randomly there on a last-minute trip w/ friends from Phoenix. It was the best birthday surprise ever to see her. She rushed right over in true Amy-style and we got dinner/drinks at Nine Fine Irishmen and then she later came over to see the Signature and get a late snack before she went to Zumanity. Awesomeness.
Jack and I saw Ka at the MGM on Sat night, my parents' gift to us for our Birthdays (his was on 9/25, mine was 9/28) and the night before Jack surprised me w/ tickets to see Fab Four Live - a Beatles' Review at Planet Hollywood. It was so sweet! I loveddddd the Beatles' music! All in all, an extremely bittersweet weekend because it was absolutely amazing to see Jack again, but it was so short and we had to part again so quickly and for such another long period of time. It literally breaks my heart, and is much harder than I thought it would be.
But ya...so I flew into work this morning and had the most intense day ever trying to catch up. Geez louise! I have to get my life together. Oh, and I left my fave pair of high heels in the damn hotel room. Great - they'll have to charge me an arm and a leg to fedex it back. I'm going to try to go get my security deposit back tomorrow also. Wish me luck, everyone...! We'll see if crazy linda goes for it. If not, we'll have to take drastic measures. Seriously.
That was SUPER abridged, but I think I got the main points in and sorry my phone was off most of the weekend because I left my charger at work and had to keep it off! Please call/email if you wanna catch up one-on-one. I miss you all like crazy.
Bacci
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Whoa...Crazy Weekend
I literally have no idea where to start - this weekend was INSANITY. Anna, my friend from Berlin who Corbs and I met when we were on a Pubcrawl, came into town last Thursday and spent the weekend with us. It was so much fun! We saw a lot of the San Francisco sights, which was good for me because I haven't seen anything! We went shopping (Anna got to go to an American Supermarket and get Nike Air Max's!), to Dolores Mission Park (absolutely beautiful), to the Haight-Ashbury district, to Fisherman's Wharf, to the Golden Gate Bridge (it's a LONG walk across that thing), to the "Full House" house (which, btw, they have painted b/c too many people were taking pictures of it at night), we ran up Twin Peaks (I have GOT to get back in shape) and much much more. It was a full 3-Day weekend!
Oh, and the best part - CL (crazy landlady) called the cops, as predicted, on us last Friday night. We were having a small get together of friends, mostly new coworkers, and she woke up in the middle of the night b/c she does that. She noticed that the gate was open - someone had left it open when they left - and then she FLIPPED OUT, took the elevator up to our apt and just WALKED IN, started screaming at the few people that were left, and then went downstairs and called the police. Literally, she didn't stop screaming for like an hour and a half. We sufficiently scared the people that were there, and they obviously left. The police were clearly used to dealing with Linda, as she calls them regularly on the people below us for no reason. Basically, we tried to make nice with Linda the next morning, and things seemed to be going well until last night when we settled rent matters with her. She is insisting that we owe her more money for the flooring that was put in upstairs, and when we paid her the agreed-upon amount, she starting screaming again, called her son, tried to call the police (wtf) and general ballyhoo ensued. I literally almost lost it. After we left to go to dinner, I told Sarah that I could NOT live there for a whole year. After discussing things with her and Jack, we came up with a strategy. We got up super early this morning, and agreed to give her the the full amount that she wanted for the floors and then terminated our rental agreement. She almost didn't sign it, but thank goodness she did! Phew - we're outta there by the end of the month. I literally feel like the weight of the world has been lifted from my shoulders. I felt so suffocated there; I had a terrible gut instict about it. Even though it is a huge, nice, amazing apartment, NOTHING is worth having an insane person living below. Nothing. It was an expensive mistake to make, but I'm chalking it up to a learning experience.
So you people who haven't visited yet (all of you) I guess you'll see my new apt when you come! What a busy and eventful weekend. Fun, stressful, and busy all at once. Work, here I come!
ciao ciao
Oh, and the best part - CL (crazy landlady) called the cops, as predicted, on us last Friday night. We were having a small get together of friends, mostly new coworkers, and she woke up in the middle of the night b/c she does that. She noticed that the gate was open - someone had left it open when they left - and then she FLIPPED OUT, took the elevator up to our apt and just WALKED IN, started screaming at the few people that were left, and then went downstairs and called the police. Literally, she didn't stop screaming for like an hour and a half. We sufficiently scared the people that were there, and they obviously left. The police were clearly used to dealing with Linda, as she calls them regularly on the people below us for no reason. Basically, we tried to make nice with Linda the next morning, and things seemed to be going well until last night when we settled rent matters with her. She is insisting that we owe her more money for the flooring that was put in upstairs, and when we paid her the agreed-upon amount, she starting screaming again, called her son, tried to call the police (wtf) and general ballyhoo ensued. I literally almost lost it. After we left to go to dinner, I told Sarah that I could NOT live there for a whole year. After discussing things with her and Jack, we came up with a strategy. We got up super early this morning, and agreed to give her the the full amount that she wanted for the floors and then terminated our rental agreement. She almost didn't sign it, but thank goodness she did! Phew - we're outta there by the end of the month. I literally feel like the weight of the world has been lifted from my shoulders. I felt so suffocated there; I had a terrible gut instict about it. Even though it is a huge, nice, amazing apartment, NOTHING is worth having an insane person living below. Nothing. It was an expensive mistake to make, but I'm chalking it up to a learning experience.
So you people who haven't visited yet (all of you) I guess you'll see my new apt when you come! What a busy and eventful weekend. Fun, stressful, and busy all at once. Work, here I come!
ciao ciao
Friday, August 29, 2008
TGIF!
Wahoo! I've made it to the end of my first week - well, almost. I'm just on the shuttle to work now. Still! Orientation ends today and training begins today - craziness. I'm excited to dive into work stuff - but I know it will be long, and hard (that's what she said). I'm pumped!
We're planning on having a housewarming party/coworker party tonight at our apt. It's going to be awesome! We just have to be careful of crazy landlady on the bottom floor. Screw it - we're going to have a blast~! I will admit, though, that I toyed with the idea of having a sippy cup party b/c we have carpet downstairs, and I KNOW we are going to have several stains on the floor by the end of the night. And crazy landlady (henceforth to be named CL) will be PISSED about that!
Hm what else? Like always, I miss you all SO SO MUCH and I've only heard back from Ami (thanks for the update, lady!) - so please keep me updated, peeps! I'm going to make the effort to keep up my blog and I want to hear from you all too. Esp w/ me not able to make homecoming - I need to keep up w/ your lives.
LOVE YOU!~~
We're planning on having a housewarming party/coworker party tonight at our apt. It's going to be awesome! We just have to be careful of crazy landlady on the bottom floor. Screw it - we're going to have a blast~! I will admit, though, that I toyed with the idea of having a sippy cup party b/c we have carpet downstairs, and I KNOW we are going to have several stains on the floor by the end of the night. And crazy landlady (henceforth to be named CL) will be PISSED about that!
Hm what else? Like always, I miss you all SO SO MUCH and I've only heard back from Ami (thanks for the update, lady!) - so please keep me updated, peeps! I'm going to make the effort to keep up my blog and I want to hear from you all too. Esp w/ me not able to make homecoming - I need to keep up w/ your lives.
LOVE YOU!~~
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
The Super-Long Blog ab. the move & work thus far...
So! Wow...I don't even know where to start. I know a lot of my friends have been keeping everyone posted on their lives this summer til now via mass emails, but I've been super busy and am going to keep my life up and running with this blog. It will be easier that way. I'm hoping that everyone can post as well and keep ME updated on things...I miss everyone like crazy! I know that Lavs has started Law School and I've talked to her...but everyone else, I need details! Lots of them!!!
Let's see here...I spent this summer working at Signature Worldwide, Inc. in Columbus in IDesign, like I did last summer. Pretty much every weekend I saw Jack - he came up to Columbus a few times, but mostly I was in Nashville. I even went to Louisiana over the 4th of July and then went camping in Arkansas at the end - crazy, huh? I then went out to San Fran and found an apt, and a month later (as in Aug 21!) I moved out here and just 2 days ago I started work at Google in Mountain View.
The move itself was extremely exhausting and nerve wracking. I feel like ever since I left Vandy I've been a nomad. Between the millions of flights btwn Nashville and Columbus this summer, and then to California and back, and then out again, I'm exhausted! Then packing up my life and shipping it out to CA and now moving in...NOT FUN. However, my stuff came soon after I arrived and I have a bed. That's all that matters! The rest will fall into place. It has to! I currently cannot afford furniture, but I'm okay with that...and when you all come to visit me (YOU HAVE TO) I at least will have an aero bed, a futon, or a spot in MY bed (!) for you :-)
I'm living in North Beach, San Francisco right on the edge of little Italy. I can see the bay and lots of sailboats from my window---it's super nice, I'll admit. The city reminds me of Europe in so many ways, what with the hills, cliffs, buildings, cafes, restaurants, coffee shops, etc. It's absolutely darling. I've met a ton of new people so far, and that has been so much fun. Oh! Random awesome moment - my second day here, Sarah and I had been moving all day and were super depressed and tired, and we stopped at a cafe 2 steps from our apt for some coffee. I sat down, and looked up and guess who it was at the table next to me? Emily Occhi! And Tori Edgecomb, who I'd heard was coming to live out here (she was Jenna Maniatis' roommate and bf at Vandy). They are both living in North Beach too and working in the city. It was so nice to see them! SO RANDOM. My roommate, Sarah Gordon, is a girl I met at interviews here last Dec. It's been great so far - she's from London, and super fun and very energetic. The other kids that we met at interviews, David and Will, are in my training group too and I still have yet to meet up with Vijay and Kaili (the latter is from Vandy too).
Okay I want to stop rambling soon, but I have a lot to blog about in this first segment. I'll *try* to keep it snappy. Work is INCREDIBLE. The first day was very overwhelming, as it was purely administrative stuff. Getting an ID badge, filling out forms, attending presentation after presentation etc. Not fun. I didn't see my desk or anything. However, day 2 of orientation left me feeling much better. The free food everywhere is just as everyone says - it's unreal. Wherever you are, there's a rule that within 150 ft. of you there is a microkitchen full of coffee/espresso, cereal, chocolate, granola bars, chips, snacks, fruit, sandwiches, nuts, cheese, soda, water, NAKED juices, etc. There are also over 20 cafes with gourmet chefs preparing each meal. It's pretty awesome. Oh, and I saw one of the gyms yesterday (it's right next door!) and so I brought my gym clothes today to take advantage. I might try a spinning or kickboxing class once I'm done with training. That gives me 8 weeks to get back in shape...and boy, do I need it! My walk to the shuttle stop is ridiculous. It's all uphill - REALLY STEEP- and Sarah and I are dying by the end of the trek. It's insanity. At least the shuttles are awesome - wifi, black leather plus seats, tables, blah blah blah. Too bad the commute is (on a short day) an hour and usually about an hour and a half. Each way. Boo.
But yeah - I'm in the AdWords division, which means that I will be working with Google's huge money-making team - advertising! I will be working with those fun "ADS BY GOOGLE" that you see all over the place. Specifically, I'm in small business development. I start adwords training this Friday - complete with lectures, elearning, modules, tests, simulations, practice calls, etc etc. It will be like school all over again - fun! It's the most intense training in OSO (Online Sales Operations) but I guess it's important - we have lots of clients! Once I know more what I'm doing I'll add more. But not too much - info can be confidential too :-) But yeah - I hope I can stay in shape with all the food around. It's cute - they have bikes at each building that you can just take when you want to go around campus (like instead of waiting for a shuttle). Pretty cool!
I feel like I need to write about my crazy landlady. Literally, she is a NIGHTMARE and psycho lady. She is this 85-yr old Asian lady who acts like a toddler. The communication is hard enough with her, but she is ornery and when she doesn't like something she will literally start yelling like a toddler, fold her arms, stamp her feet, sit down on the ground and start pounding her fists on the floor. WHAT THE HELL?! I can't deal with her. It was a fight to get the god-awful bright orange carpet up from upstairs, but then there's toxic black mold all in the walls (esp in my room and upstairs) and terrible old 70's wallpaper (literally put in in the 1970s) that is only one TWO walls in my room - the other two are pink. The wallpaper is this awful brown asian fan print. Sick. We had to pitch a fit to get her to paint it - under the pretense that the mold will be fixed. Which it will not be. It has to be removed from the dry wall, which is costly, and of course she wouldn't pay for it. So we are going to get a super intense air purifier that zaps mold spores and viruses in the air and put it upstairs. She is entangled in lawsuits with the tenants downstairs (too bad she lives on the ground floor) and apparently calls the cops on them all the time, opens or steals their mail, or just goes into their apt when she's gone. WHAT THE HELL. Oh well - we'll stay for a year, then leave. Too bad though -it's a HUGE place for a fairly good price (expensive, but so is San Fran) and it is a great space. And we were so lucky to find it - we got it like 3 hours after she posted it on craigslist. A billion people wanted it. And it's a superb location - safe, beautiful, everything. Trader Joe's is super close so we've been drinking a lot of 2 buck chuck. Amazing.
Okay that's enough ranting for now - Overall, I love work, the people, the weather (sunny and cool - perfect!), the city, everything. I miss Vandy, all of YOU lovely, people, and of course, Jack so much. I hope that you will respond in kind and keep me and us all posted on your exploits and I'll keep you updated!
PS I'm doing this as part of my training - ads will probably be involved, and they want us to acquaint ourselves with google products - and choosing this topic b/c I love you all so much and wanted to keep in contact for sure. I will hunt you down if you don't come visit me by next aug - b/c then my lease is up and I don't know where the hell I'll be! You're all beat by my friend Anna from Berlin - she is coming tomorrow night! WOO HOO! Corbs - she was our pub crawl leader in Berlin, remember? TOO FUNNY!
CIAO CIAO, BELLAS! ~Sondra
Let's see here...I spent this summer working at Signature Worldwide, Inc. in Columbus in IDesign, like I did last summer. Pretty much every weekend I saw Jack - he came up to Columbus a few times, but mostly I was in Nashville. I even went to Louisiana over the 4th of July and then went camping in Arkansas at the end - crazy, huh? I then went out to San Fran and found an apt, and a month later (as in Aug 21!) I moved out here and just 2 days ago I started work at Google in Mountain View.
The move itself was extremely exhausting and nerve wracking. I feel like ever since I left Vandy I've been a nomad. Between the millions of flights btwn Nashville and Columbus this summer, and then to California and back, and then out again, I'm exhausted! Then packing up my life and shipping it out to CA and now moving in...NOT FUN. However, my stuff came soon after I arrived and I have a bed. That's all that matters! The rest will fall into place. It has to! I currently cannot afford furniture, but I'm okay with that...and when you all come to visit me (YOU HAVE TO) I at least will have an aero bed, a futon, or a spot in MY bed (!) for you :-)
I'm living in North Beach, San Francisco right on the edge of little Italy. I can see the bay and lots of sailboats from my window---it's super nice, I'll admit. The city reminds me of Europe in so many ways, what with the hills, cliffs, buildings, cafes, restaurants, coffee shops, etc. It's absolutely darling. I've met a ton of new people so far, and that has been so much fun. Oh! Random awesome moment - my second day here, Sarah and I had been moving all day and were super depressed and tired, and we stopped at a cafe 2 steps from our apt for some coffee. I sat down, and looked up and guess who it was at the table next to me? Emily Occhi! And Tori Edgecomb, who I'd heard was coming to live out here (she was Jenna Maniatis' roommate and bf at Vandy). They are both living in North Beach too and working in the city. It was so nice to see them! SO RANDOM. My roommate, Sarah Gordon, is a girl I met at interviews here last Dec. It's been great so far - she's from London, and super fun and very energetic. The other kids that we met at interviews, David and Will, are in my training group too and I still have yet to meet up with Vijay and Kaili (the latter is from Vandy too).
Okay I want to stop rambling soon, but I have a lot to blog about in this first segment. I'll *try* to keep it snappy. Work is INCREDIBLE. The first day was very overwhelming, as it was purely administrative stuff. Getting an ID badge, filling out forms, attending presentation after presentation etc. Not fun. I didn't see my desk or anything. However, day 2 of orientation left me feeling much better. The free food everywhere is just as everyone says - it's unreal. Wherever you are, there's a rule that within 150 ft. of you there is a microkitchen full of coffee/espresso, cereal, chocolate, granola bars, chips, snacks, fruit, sandwiches, nuts, cheese, soda, water, NAKED juices, etc. There are also over 20 cafes with gourmet chefs preparing each meal. It's pretty awesome. Oh, and I saw one of the gyms yesterday (it's right next door!) and so I brought my gym clothes today to take advantage. I might try a spinning or kickboxing class once I'm done with training. That gives me 8 weeks to get back in shape...and boy, do I need it! My walk to the shuttle stop is ridiculous. It's all uphill - REALLY STEEP- and Sarah and I are dying by the end of the trek. It's insanity. At least the shuttles are awesome - wifi, black leather plus seats, tables, blah blah blah. Too bad the commute is (on a short day) an hour and usually about an hour and a half. Each way. Boo.
But yeah - I'm in the AdWords division, which means that I will be working with Google's huge money-making team - advertising! I will be working with those fun "ADS BY GOOGLE" that you see all over the place. Specifically, I'm in small business development. I start adwords training this Friday - complete with lectures, elearning, modules, tests, simulations, practice calls, etc etc. It will be like school all over again - fun! It's the most intense training in OSO (Online Sales Operations) but I guess it's important - we have lots of clients! Once I know more what I'm doing I'll add more. But not too much - info can be confidential too :-) But yeah - I hope I can stay in shape with all the food around. It's cute - they have bikes at each building that you can just take when you want to go around campus (like instead of waiting for a shuttle). Pretty cool!
I feel like I need to write about my crazy landlady. Literally, she is a NIGHTMARE and psycho lady. She is this 85-yr old Asian lady who acts like a toddler. The communication is hard enough with her, but she is ornery and when she doesn't like something she will literally start yelling like a toddler, fold her arms, stamp her feet, sit down on the ground and start pounding her fists on the floor. WHAT THE HELL?! I can't deal with her. It was a fight to get the god-awful bright orange carpet up from upstairs, but then there's toxic black mold all in the walls (esp in my room and upstairs) and terrible old 70's wallpaper (literally put in in the 1970s) that is only one TWO walls in my room - the other two are pink. The wallpaper is this awful brown asian fan print. Sick. We had to pitch a fit to get her to paint it - under the pretense that the mold will be fixed. Which it will not be. It has to be removed from the dry wall, which is costly, and of course she wouldn't pay for it. So we are going to get a super intense air purifier that zaps mold spores and viruses in the air and put it upstairs. She is entangled in lawsuits with the tenants downstairs (too bad she lives on the ground floor) and apparently calls the cops on them all the time, opens or steals their mail, or just goes into their apt when she's gone. WHAT THE HELL. Oh well - we'll stay for a year, then leave. Too bad though -it's a HUGE place for a fairly good price (expensive, but so is San Fran) and it is a great space. And we were so lucky to find it - we got it like 3 hours after she posted it on craigslist. A billion people wanted it. And it's a superb location - safe, beautiful, everything. Trader Joe's is super close so we've been drinking a lot of 2 buck chuck. Amazing.
Okay that's enough ranting for now - Overall, I love work, the people, the weather (sunny and cool - perfect!), the city, everything. I miss Vandy, all of YOU lovely, people, and of course, Jack so much. I hope that you will respond in kind and keep me and us all posted on your exploits and I'll keep you updated!
PS I'm doing this as part of my training - ads will probably be involved, and they want us to acquaint ourselves with google products - and choosing this topic b/c I love you all so much and wanted to keep in contact for sure. I will hunt you down if you don't come visit me by next aug - b/c then my lease is up and I don't know where the hell I'll be! You're all beat by my friend Anna from Berlin - she is coming tomorrow night! WOO HOO! Corbs - she was our pub crawl leader in Berlin, remember? TOO FUNNY!
CIAO CIAO, BELLAS! ~Sondra
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