Singapore Airport Con't

We just walked by a bar that had two monitors with sports playing - table tennis and EPL soccer. I think Will is considering moving here.

Singapore!

So we've safely landed in Singapore, and are now just waiting for the 7 hours of our layover to pass so that we can hop on our plane to Bangkok. Unfortunately, all the official sleeping places in the airport are booked up, (probably because it's 2am local time) but we found a lounge that has semi-comfy chairs, free food and drinks, and (most importantly) free wi-fi, so we're hanging out here for a bit. Will is passed out in a chair, but I'm up because I slept on both legs of our previous flight, so I'm not particularly sleepy at the moment.

doesn't he look comfy?

The LAX to Tokyo leg was pretty uneventful. We got bulkhead seats, which was pretty awesome because we had mad legroom, and the other guy in the section of our row was from Conroe, Texas. He works on oil rigs and his last stop is Indonesia. He's been all over the world - he said that he rarely works in the Gulf of Mexico, but instead spends a lot of time in Brazil and West Africa, as well as time in other places. Like Indonesia.

us in tokyo. do we look like we've been on a plane for 12 hours?

While we were waiting to check in they had those big screens with their advertisement pictures, and of course showed all the business and first class seats - recliners and little cabins that turn into beds and stuff like that. There was only one picture of coach, which we thought was pretty funny, since that's what we were obviosuly going on. The plane was pretty intense - we didn't do the A380, but it was still a 747 with personal monitors where 100+ movies and tv shows were on demand. So we entertained ourselves with that, and the food was pretty decent also. They only had two selections if you didn't pre-order (International and Japanese) but you could pre-order with a kind of ridiculous specificity. The people in the middle section of our row had gotten what I'm pretty sure was the vegitarian Indian, and it smelled amazing.

(Will is totally snoring)

When we got to Tokyo we originally thought we could stay on the plane but then they told us that we couldn't. Which caused momentary panic because neither of us could find our stubs of our boarding passes, since we'd not put them in a special place, because we were originally told we could stay on the plane. But we went through transit security and showing them our baggage claim ticket was enough, and then I found my stub and they just wrote Will out a new one. So that was pretty painless.

(Actually, it's the guy behind Will that's snoring, not Will)

The second leg was pretty easy as well - we had the same neighbor, and we both slept for a good portion of it. Now we're in Singapore, just waiting for our Bangkok flight. I kind of can't believe that it's 2am on Sunday morning, but I suppose that's the international date line for you.

Yay to the first part of the first leg of our trip being over!

Travel Prep

Okay, so in 2 days we leave for our summer adventure in Bangkok, Malaysia, and Singapore.

Amount of packing done? None. However, I called our credit card companies yesterday to tell them that we'd be abroad so that they wouldn't shut our cards down when we used them while we were over there. And it seems like we're going to be using them a lot, since at the moment it seems like our plan is to just bring nothing and buy everything while we're over there.

The dollar is strong right now, right?

#38 - Volunteer at the Bread and Roses Cafe

So this morning I went to the Bread and Roses cafe in Venice to volunteer with some of my coworkers, and it was a really great experience!

Bread and Roses provides food for the poor and homeless, but does it in a restaurant/diner type setting, rather than a soup kitchen format. Patrons need to call and make reservations ahead of time, and there are three seatings: 9:30, 10:30, and 11:30. Volunteers help with food prep or serve food to the people.

Today the meal was fajitas, and I helped with some of the food prep, as well as serving some of the food onto the plates. It was a lot of fun, and I got to chop cilantro, which I totally love. Also, it put me in the mood for fajitas, so that was what we had for dinner.

Also, when I was at the grocery store I saw that they had a sale for yogurt, so I decided to try all those crazy flavors that I've seen commercials for. So far I've tried the Chocolate Mouse Whips and the Strawberry Shortcake - loved the first, and the second was just okay. I got 8 different flavors so it'll be something fun to work my way through over the next few days!

Hump Day

Monday has been my most productive day this week. I cooked yesterday, and did some cleaning around the apartment, which was good, and I'm off to the gym this afternoon, but nothing as good as Monday was. Does downloading the first 5 episodes of Australia's Next Top Model count as being productive? Oh, and I've tweeted more today than I have any other day, I think.

I did get Will to compliment me on my doing nothing productive yesterday. I told him that I'd considered lying and saying that I'd done out of the apartment things, since he wouldn't know the difference, but that I decided not to. So that's how you get a compliment for doing nothing!

It thundered this afternoon, which was really weird as I don't think I've heard thunder here since I moved to California. Some rain, but nothing torrential like I'd like, but I'll take the thunder if that's all Mother Nature's going to give me.

Oh, and props to New Hampshire lawmakers for passing same sex marriage. Still disappointed in the decision that Cali made in November.

Salt Lick

I suddenly have a craving for Salt Lick brisket. Which is weird, because my favorite things there are the sausage and ribs.

SO GRUMPY that the grocery store near us that used to sell their barbecue sauce stopped selling it. And I find it very unlikely that I'm going to be able to find another place in LA that does.

Monday, Monday...

Yesterday I attended my first yoga class, and in doing so gained a greater respect for my sister who does this sort of thing regularly, for fun. There were various parts throughout the class where I was shaking from having to hold a pose, and though I didn't get as dizzy as I thought I was going to, it was just not an overall pleasant experience. I'm going to try to keep it up throughout the summer, but I don't see it becoming a regular thing.

I also went to the nearby branch of the Los Angeles library and got a library card! I haven't had one since maybe high school, when I had one for Austin, so I figured 10 years was a long enough break. I want to read more this summer since I don't really get to during the year, and time spent away from the computer and breaking that habit is a good thing.

Today I'm scheduled for day 2 of running in the couch to 5k program, but I'm still really sore so it's going to take some effort to get it done. I also need to do my apartment cleaning, since I didn't get to it yesterday, and a few other tasky items around the apartment and the building. Oh, and I want to swim laps at some point, but the weather has been all gray and overcast (June gloom) so it hasn't happened yet. It's a heated pool, but getting up the effort to go swimming is hard enough, much less when it's all icky outside!

Weekend in review

I had a very productive weekend! Things I did:

1) Made a list of all the things I'm going to get done Week 1 of my summer leave, and figured out which one of those things I'm going to do on Monday.

2) Bought a new camera for our upcoming trip to Bangkok, Malaysia, and Thailand (my old camera was a Christmas present in 2003, so I figured I could justify getting an upgrade).

3) Bought a netbook for our trip as well. It's a 10 inch laptop that we'll use so that we don't have to carry around either of our big ones, and is supercute (and is also faster and has a larger harddrive than me regular laptop. The speed at which technology improves is kind of ridiculous.)

4) Did the first workout for Couch to 5k. A few friends and I are hoping to do the Disneyland 5k (you run through the park!) so I need to be able to keep up a 15 minute mile pace by my birthday.

5) Started watching season 3 of How I Met Your Mother, because, who doesn't need a little HIMYM in their life?

See? Productive!

Finally, I bring you the first picture I took on my camera:

And a picture of Will using our supercute new laptop:

Summer Vacation!

So unlike the other post-grad jobs that I've had, my current position is a 10 1/2 month position, which means that I have the summer off. When I found that out I was kind of mixed - I liked it because, who doesn't like 6 weeks off, and I was a little concerned because I felt like I'd be totally unproductive during the summer. However, the 'liking it' part totally won out, so I didn't pursue the summer positions that were available (and though I did pursue a summer position in other departments, none ended up being available) so for the second year in a row, I'm starting my summer break! I know that it's very possible it'll be my last one because who knows where I'll be a year from now, so I'm going to take advantage of it!

To celebrate the end of the contract, the 8 of the Resident Directors that were in town went to The Melting Pot where we had half-price cheese and chocolate fondue (yay happy hour!) and a drink or two. It was lots of fun, and a good way for us to send off Patrick, one of the RDs that is going to be working on Semester at Sea in the fall, to the envy of most of us.

So now it's summertime! However, I'm still going to make an effort to be productive. I have this whole FitWell thing for work, which I'll hopefully keep up with, and a couple of my coworkers and I have been talking about volunteering at the Bread and Roses Cafe in Venice. I also have vacation plans for Southeast Asia with Will, and Austin to visit family. And there's work stuff I need to do, such as cleaning my office and working on revamping the lesson plan for the theme community I run.

So... here goes nothing!

The Summer of Fitness!

So one of the benefits of living on campus is that you have a gym right near you. However, I've been living on a college campus for the past 9 years, and I've never really taken advantage of it.

I went to the Trinity gym maybe 2-3 times while I was a student, and twice when I worked there. I went to the Texas State gym once for a class (classes were free the first week of the semester) and then 3 more times for a personal training thing that I got as a present from my parents. And then I've been to the LMU gym twice for a spin class (only attended one class, though - the other was full) and then maybe another 2-3 times, usually kicking and screaming as Will dragged me.

But! The plan is to start going regularly this summer. To ensure that I do this, I've paid $75 for 10 small-group fitness classes that I can take throughout the summer. And as some more motivation they did a body composition analysis whose results I won't share, but I will note that they were unfavorable enough that I decided to go ahead and DO something about it.

Also, I'm doing it with a buddy, Jen, who is way more upbeat/optomistic/generally happy-type person than I am, so that will help. And I even used the treadmill for half an hour today! So I think I'm off to a good start.

Now, just hoping that this will last for more than a week...