I am much too sensitive to do this Suspect Challenge, but I love watching other people get roasted. I can name a few people who would absolutely roast my ass—my sister’s husband, my dead grandma on my mom’s side (ok, on my dad’s side, too LOL), and Christine’s kid, Zoey. She once told our friend (who’s a girl), ‘I like your mustache!’ so I always make sure my shit’s threaded and on point if I know that crazy 6-year-old is gonna be there 😅 She really knows how to humble the shit of you.
They call me ‘Salami Mami’ (JK, no one calls me that LOL).
My friend told me once that giving birth to her kids ruined her tits and her nipple to breast ratio. I was like, ‘Are they like a pepperoni on an english muffin?’ and she was like, ‘More like a salami on a Ritz cracker!’ 😅 So now I can’t make a charcuterie board without thinking about her big ass salami nipples 🤣
I love Rice Krispie Treats. I used to pick up a Marshmallow Dream Bar whenever I’d go to Starbucks and wash it down with a venti Pink Drink. Nowadays, Nori makes me get an unsweetened iced green tea from Starbucks after splitting a donut from Randy’s. What has become of my life???
Pumpkin pie hack: I got a big ass pumpkin pie from Costco, used a biscuit cutter to cut out individual servings, and topped them with whipped cream and a sprinkle of pumpkin pie spice. Adorable!
My sister’s husband braved Costco, and I instacarted everything else I needed.
Whether it’s Thanksgiving, Grandma’s birthday, or a Thursday, I always make Furikake Chex Mix.
I will always pick a regular potato over a sweet potato, except when it’s baked into a casserole with candied pecans and covered with marshmallows.
My cousin’s wife’s name is ‘Kass,’ and she says it’s short for ‘Kassandra,’ but he tells people it’s short for ‘Casserole’ 🤣
My cousin threw a pool party for her 11-year-old son’s birthday today in San Diego. I spent the morning gathering all my shit because I planned on staying in SD for the week for Thanksgiving. The party started at 1pm, but I didn’t leave LA till 2pm, so didn’t get there till 5pm. I showed up 4 hours late wearing my bathing suit and ready to jump in the pool. The sun had already gone down, and the kids already went swimming (apparently I didn’t get the memo that none of the adults were swimming 😅). They heated the pool for me, and the kids got to go swimming a second time. Since I was the only adult in the pool with the kids, I made sure they all knew how to swim first before enjoying the jets and hard seltzers in the jacuzzi 😜
The bestie asked if she could call me this morning, and I knew something was wrong because she never calls, always texts. I think the last time we spoke on the phone was when her grandma died a few years ago. She calls me and tells me she got diagnosed with breast cancer 😔 She is my third good friend that has gotten breast cancer in the past five years. We used to joke that there was something in the water at our high school (my two friends who got breast cancer went there, and we know some other classmates who have also gotten various cancers) but Alicia didn’t go to my high school. I’m starting to think the common denominator is me 😅 Anyway, please keep her in your prayers 🙏🏼 She has an appointment this Tuesday to discuss stage and treatment. I’m hoping they caught it early, and she beats this just like my other dear friends who kicked cancer’s ass 💕
They found the lump during a routine mammogram, so please get your breasts checked regularly. I had my first mammogram last year, and when I saw my primary care physician this year, I asked her if I should do it annually. She said that my breasts were squishy and not very dense, so it was very easy to see there was nothing wrong during my first screening, and I don’t have to do one every year. So yay for squishy bewbies 🎉
I have no debt and no kids, and my job allows me to afford the lifestyle I’ve grown accustomed to 😅 In the end, you can only depend on yourself, and I’ve never wanted to be financially dependent on someone else, especially a man ✌🏻
Also, if these frequent earthquakes are an indication that the big one is coming, I should probably start wearing pants.
I haven’t had soda since the stroke, but I used to drink three cokes over an hour lunch with Nori, followed by a venti Pink Drink from Starbucks that I would finish before even going back home. Sugary drinks didn’t used to affect me back then. Nowadays, if I’m not drinking water, I’ll have an iced coffee or alcohol (only drinks with a purpose LOL). We were having lunch earlier this week, and of course I just got a water. We split a combo which came with a drink, so Nori got a soda. There was a beverage station next to us with various lemonades and fruit punch Kool-Aid. I was like, ‘If I were you, I’d get some of that Kool-Aid and add a splash of Sprite!’ She let me smell her cup before she drank it 🤪 What has become of my life???
Before my department joined the Digital group and had a Teams meeting last month, I hadn’t had a meeting since 2020. I haven’t even met most of my web team because they started after the pandemic. I want to make a good impression at our in-office meeting tomorrow, and my anxiety is through the roof, so I’ll probably take an extra dose of Prozac 😅
I’m really self-conscious about my voice. My speech was altered after the stroke. I worked with a speech therapist for a few months, but it wasn’t covered by my insurance, so it was $100 out-of-pocket per weekly session! I definitely sound better almost two years later, but my speech is still delayed and some people have a hard time understanding me. After the stroke, I sounded like Marge from The Simpsons, but now my voice sounds something more akin to Squirt from Finding Nemo 😅 Other than my voice, you can’t really tell I had a stroke. I have a hard time writing by hand and opening jars LOL, but I can still walk, drive, type, photoshop, etc.
Most people don’t know I had a stroke, and I always feel compelled to explain why my voice is like this when I meet new people or haven’t seen someone since before the stroke.
I have a friend in public health who has been WFH since 2020 (with the occasional in-office executive meeting), who got a new VP who believes face-to-face is better. She’s being required to go in 3x a week now (people managers 5x a week—her old boss quit as soon as the new VP announced the requirement). She’s allowed to pick which 3 days she’s in office (which tells me being in-office is arbitrary, because her team won’t all be in-office on the same days), and people who live too far to come in (whether they moved or got hired after the pandemic) will be out of a job and given a severance package, but must continue working there for the next few months to get that severance until the requirement is in effect. She’s a high performer, but the reason she’s so good is because she WFH—she’s able to attend zoom meetings at 6am with Europe and 6pm with Japan, all while being supermom to her three young kids. Another friend of mine works at UCSD and has a hybrid schedule, so has to go in a couple days a week and had to hire a nanny to watch the baby she had last year. My friend who works in the print department at my work has to come into the office every day, and she lives in OC! So me having to go into the office once a month for this digital summit is no bigs.
Update: I was anxious over nothing. The meeting was only an hour and a half, and the VP took the web team out to lunch at North Italia afterwards. Since some complained that the presentation shown on the TV was too small, the sound wasn’t loud enough, and parking sucked, the VP suggested the next monthly meeting be held in a private event space up the street at Topgolf! Now that’s a meeting I could get behind…
Hey, do you wanna come over
I got a record to play ya
Like back in the day
311 dropped their new album today, and I haven’t listened to them since I’d make custom Nokia ringtones to their songs in the early 2000s 😅
What I can appreciate about a band like 311, is that, like Red Hot Chili Peppers, they haven’t changed their sound since they were popular 20 years ago. I heard this new title track on KROQ today, and I couldn’t tell if it was an old or new song.
You live too far away Your voice rings like a bell anyway Don’t give up your independence Unless it feels so right Nothing good comes easily Sometimes you’ve got to fight
Random Fact: Nick Hexum (311’s lead singer) dated Nicole Scherzinger for 4 years and wrote Amber while he was with her.
I read some other unsavory details about Nick when I went down the google rabbit hole. Never google your heroes, folks.
311 was at Innings Fest this past year, but they were on earlier in the day, so we missed their set. I’ll be out of the country during Innings Fest next year, so I’ll have to miss Incubus, Fall Out Boy, The Black Keys, Beck, Neon Trees, Gary Clark Jr. and The Kills, among others (all of whom I’ve seen live before, but it’s been at least 10 years for most of them).
Coffee in a skeleton cup because I brought my Starbucks cup back to LA with me and forgot it up there.
We got our covid and flu vaccines a few weeks ago and it took both my sister and her husband out, but I had zero negative side effects as I usually do with any vaccines or drugs. When Pammie was like, ‘IDK why Mayan never feels anything after vaccines,” Dennis was like, ‘It’s because she’s dead inside.’ I mean, he ain’t wrong ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Welp, I’ve got no kids, and the unsweetened almond milk I put in my cold brew every morning is shelf-stable.
We (just barely) survived the four years Trump was elected before, we’ll survive the next four…
If not, I have a friend and old coworker who’s a digital nomad. She works completely remote (like I have for nearly 5 years now), so has spent the past year living abroad. The only downside is she has to work US (PST) hours, so depending where she is, her schedule could be completely out of wack. I looked into countries with digital nomad visas. Thailand seems the most lucrative with their visa being good for up to 5 years. Being out of the country for the duration of Trump’s entire presidency, plus I get to see Moo Deng??? Win-win ✌🏻
…or me doing an everyday task and thinking about the roadkill I saw on the freeway last week.
me: OMG! That was a dog! Pammie: Are you crying??? me: No 😭 Pammie: (trying to make me feel better) I think that was a raccoon… me: But I like raccoons 😭😭😭
After the stroke, I was staying at my sister’s and Christine came by to walk with me. I was still rebuilding my stamina, so we paused on the way back at a bench around the corner. This big ass raccoon came out of nowhere. He looked like Rick from Shirt Tales, and I’m pretty sure he waved at me. I’ve never seen Christine run so fast 😂
Sometimes when I’m sad (all the time), I make myself sadder by watching this video of a raccoon trying to eat cotton candy:
Also, on this one episode of Chopped, one of the secret basket ingredients was a whole ass suckling goat, and when they took that baby goat out of the basket, I changed the channel and cried LOL. I still think about it from time to time and get misty eyed.
But there’s a place where we’re together
That’s what I’ll keep on telling myself
I was supposed to see Kevin Garrett tonight at Hollywood Forever Cemetery. He’s one of my favorite artists and that’s one of my favorite venues. He was the first concert I went to after the stroke and the last concert I went to before everything shut down because of covid. I usually try to catch him whenever he’s in LA, but I sold my tickets, because my cousin who also lives in Redondo got a nose job today and needed a ride to and from the hospital. LOL ok it was a procedure to correct her deviated septum, but still a nose job 🤪
I took her to the ER once, and we were there till two in the morning laughing and eating vending machine pop tarts. She told me I’m great company, because I took her mind off of being at the hospital.
Anyway, even though I was having a shitty day doesn’t mean that everyone else should have a shitty day. My cousin’s surgery was pushed till after 5pm and she couldn’t eat anything for the whole day before it, so I got her her favorite food from Jon & Vinny’s, her favorite ice cream from Jeni’s, blueberry pop tarts and homemade molasses cookies for when she could eat afterward.
I woke up today to the news of Trump winning, and I got my period, ironically. It’s like my uterus was revolting against Trump’s stance on reproductive rights and abortion. How anyone could vote this convicted felon, rapist, sexist, racist, and misogynistic narcissist back into office is beyond me 🤯
I was driving behind this idiot Trumper last weekend who had the sticker ‘Proud American, Embarrassed Californian’ (among others) on their car. I’m about to cricut a ‘Proud Californian, Embarrassed American’ sticker for my car. So disappointed in America today, but especially you, Nevada, Arizona, Georgia and Pennsylvania 😔
Anyway, I might move to Spain for the next 4 years and work on a sunflower farm, IDK.
I see you want a taste,
But don’t wanna wreck your life
I think you know the game,
So go ahead and take a bite
The stars have aligned, and Chino’s side band, Crosses, announced a show at The Observatory North Park. Crosses’ music is softer than Deftones, but still fronted by Chino 😍 Just bought my tickets this morning. See you next month! ✌🏻
Update: Originally had tickets to the Saturday show, but the bestie wants to have dinner that night, and I haven’t seen her once this year! Just bought tickets to their Sunday show 😅
Just sold my GA floor ticket to the (sold out!) Dia De Los Deftones festival in San Diego this weekend on Stubhub, because I don’t know anyone on this lineup except the Deftones (among other reasons).
I was hoping to catch them on tour next year, especially with The Mars Volta opening (a band I haven’t seen live since 2008 @ SDSU!), but they’re gonna be in LA the week I’m in Japan. Pammie has to be back in the US after that first week for a work conference in Scottsdale, but I might extend my trip a few days to go to Thailand to see Moo Deng 😆
Deftones – Risk
I know what to say to take you
Higher, higher
No one else can take you higher
But I will try
The Mars Volta – The Widow
Freeze without an answer Free from all the shame Then I’ll hide ‘Cause I’ll never, never sleep alone
