Scarf Girl

So I’m just kinda chilling out in my small room at the guesthouse of our inn. It’s a small seaside town that is very quiet and quaint. This afternoon, a bunch of us headed to a local winery that uses apples and berries to make wine. We got a free tasting and ended up buying 2 bottles of it. I hope I can transport them safely back home!

While some others went on a short walk along a trail through the trees, J and I hung out under a tree and stayed cool in the shade. It was extremely quiet and peaceful. I wondered if I could do the “quiet life” like this. Every time I go on a vacation, it’s go go go from one tourist site to another.

I think it’s just in me to always be on the go, so slowing down and not having an itinerary was new and somewhat refreshing. My only concern with not having any solid plans is being bored and “wasting” my vacation.

I must say that so far, this “doing whatever” thing has been nice. Maybe it’s a sign that I should slow down and not necessarily have to plan so many things. A vacation is meant to be relaxing, and I suppose scheduling things can be not so relaxing at times. Tomorrow is our friend’s wedding, so it’s scheduled, but since it’s not until 6, we have all day to hang out and do nothing. Oh wait, I think we’re going to do some tea tasting with some fellow guests.
Scarf Girl, signing off.

Hooray! I’m off for a long weekend starting tomorrow. Looking forward to 5 days without work, my computer, or commuting.

Well, we have significant distances to travel, but I’m just a passenger this time. I don’t even know exactly what city we’ll be in nor do I remember what hotel we booked. It’s nice for a change to just be along for the ride vs obsessively planning every detail.

The funny thing is that I have some friends in town and they’re going to stay at our place when we’re not there. I think it’s funny because we won’t really see them except for tonight. They’re having a long weekend too!

Well at least somebody will keep our plants alive. hehe.

Scarf Girl, signing off.

I was at a Giants/Dodgers game recently and was enjoying the game for the most part (except for the Giants losing), and was totally shocked at a fan’s racist remarks. There was this Dodgers fan sitting nearby who was very enthusiastic (read: loud and obnoxious) who cheered and booed.

Well, their pitcher (I forget who it was, but he was Asian), was having a bit of a struggle, throwing balls and whatnot. Anyway, the guy, to my surprise, yelled out something to the effect of, “C’mon! Long Duk Dong!” [wtf!!]

If you don’t get the reference, it’s to a character from the movie Sixteen Candles. That movie did not portray the Asian man in a particularly favorable light, and I suppose whenever people want to throw out a “generic Asian name” they use his.

“Aiyah!” Is all I gotta say about that.

Scarf Girl, signing off.

So I have recently been going through our boxes and cleaning/dumping/donating stuff. I recently found our “box of wedding stuff,” which consists of some paper, rsvp cards, our mini dv tapes of raw wedding footage, and a mountain of cards/red envelopes.

Why have I kept all that crap? Well, I suppose I need the raw video footage in case I ever get inspired to edit a video for us. Then for rsvps, I don’t really know why. The papers are good souvenirs? As for the cards, they’re so pretty and sparkly. hehe.

I started digging them out of the box and realized there are TONS of them. Where f* did all of them come from?

So I piled them up and took a photo. I though the photos alone weren’t descriptive enough, so I took out my ruler and measured. Because my scale (fancy word for ruler) has an extra 1/2 inch on the bottom, you can subtract that from the number you see. Yikes, I have about 7-1/4 inches worth of wedding cards and red envelopes.

I can seriously open a greeting card store. Oh the trees that died in honor of our wedding. So throughout the wedding planning process, I was trying not to waste paper, but weddings are just a big consumption day. How much can you minimize but still have a nice enough wedding where people don’t scoff and judge?

Oh yeah, so I’m chucking the red envelopes and will probably go through the pile of cards and keep the handmade ones (yep, I have a few crafty friends), and the really cute ones. Eventually, I’ll probably recycle them all. Too bad I’m not crafty enough to make, like…. a piece of furniture or something with the cards. Hehe.
Scarf Girl, signing off.

So I finally got my act together and helped plan a trip to go see The Price is Right. We watched the 1pm taping on June 9th.

The process is VERY long, and you end up waiting quite a long time. Let’s see, our day went kinda like this:

4:00am - G, A, and K waited outside the gates to CBS Studios. We were numbers 42-51ish.

6:00am - Pages came out and passed out “order of arrival” numbers. Unfortunately, we didn’t know about this and our 7 other friends who we told to come at 7:30 couldn’t get the same numbers. We ended up going back to the end of the line and picked up numbers in the 200s for them. They passed out the numbers and told us to come back around 7:45.

7:45am - We set foot inside the outdoor waiting area where there were lines of benches. They made some announcements and herded us to line up in the order of our arrival.

8:00am - After they managed to get everyone in their proper order, they started giving out “priority numbers” by writing numbers on our paper tickets. Depending on what show we wanted to watch (1pm or 4pm), they would give you a number for that show. Each showing had 325 seats.
Based on the number of group reservations and other studio tickets, they determined the number of people that are guaranteed to get in, and everyone else will be on the waiting list. Since we got there so early, we were in, although our friends had to brave the waiting list.

9:00am - They reshuffle people on the benches.

9:30am - They took our paper tickets with the numbers on them and handed us a small paper ticket with a printed number. We also filled out some basic information like our name, address, and SSN.
10:00am - They came down the line and checked our ID and gave us our handwritten name tags.

10:30am - They came down the line again and verified our IDs and proof of SSN (if we brought it). This is where they tore off part of the paper ticket that had our names on it.

11:00am - They came down the line and snapped a photo of each individual.

11:30am - They start taking groups of 12 at a time and line you up in front of the producer. The producer goes down the line and asks you your occupation and where you’re from. I suppose this is the part where they figure out if you’re TV material. This took a really long time as they had to talk to everybody.

12:45pm - They finally let us into the studio.

1:00pm - People are settled into their seats. They start playing some fun music to get the crowd dancing and singing. After a bit of time, they finally start the show!

I haven’t watched the episode yet, but it’s on my Tivo, and from what I could see on the monitors, my group definitely got a lot of camera time. We sat in the middle section only a few rows behind Contestants’ Row. Whee!

Scarf Girl, signing off.

With all these crazy gas prices lately people are probably doing what they can to save a buck or two. I’ve noticed a lot of new cars on the road are not suvs, but instead, are hybrids or sedans. Sites like gasbuddy.com are gaining popularity.

Then there’s that driving slower thing. I normally drive the typical flow of traffic, depending on if I’m in a hurry or not. Lately, I’ve noticed that the average speed is around 60-65, whereas before, it was 70-75.

How much do those last 10 mph make? Well, my friend told me that on a recent long drive he made, he got 42mph versus the normal 32mph he got before.

Imagine that. 33% more miles. That would save $20 on a $60 gallon tank.

I think the 2 good things to come out of the crazy gas prices are smaller cars and slower driving. I bet that could equate to fewer deaths on the road. If only high gas prices could fix idiot and overly aggressive driving.

Scarf GirlM signing off.

I don’t know what it is, but when people talk on cell phones in public, a lot of them end up talking in a loud volume. Is it because they don’t know their own loudness? Is it that they can’t hear themselves talking above ambient noise? Or, is it just that they’re oblivious and inconsiderate?

This morning on my train ride up, I was blissfully napping when I jolted awake. What I was hearing was pretty much “BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH.” Some lady was talking so loudly that I woke up. Half the people who talk on the train talk somewhat quietly, but the other half, OMG, are so annoying. Don’t they realize that it’s the morning and people want it quiet?

Anyway, I figured if it was a short conversation, sure, but it kept going on. So I got fed up to the point where I anonymously “SHHHHH!”d her, which worked as she quieted down, and then shortly after, hung up. Sheesh.

Scarf Girl, signing off.

I read recently that now United Airlines has jumped on the nickel-and-diming bandwagon that American has started. What am I referring to? Well, they’re going to start charging you for the first bag that you check in.

Also, I was reading that some airlines are considering (or will put into action… I forget exactly the details), charging you to book a specific seat in advanced (window, middle or aisle). Oh, I was reading they might even charge for any beverages they give out. Are they SERIOUS?
I’m waiting for the coin-operated lavatories or the barf bag vending machine. Oh, I know, they should totally charge you for carrying on any luggage. Afterall, it does add extra weight to the plane, which means that the plane will use more gas.

At the rate they’re going, people would be better off shipping their clothes to their hotel if they start charging you for carry-on luggage. Then you can have your liquid containers in excess of 3 ounces. You also get to skip baggage claim, which could take up to 40-60 minutes.
Someone needs to build a high-speed rail train line in the US. Look at Japan and their bullet trains. They’re freakin awesome, efficient, and gets you from point A to point B in a timely manner.

Scarf Girl, signing off.

I remember hearing on the radio once that someone was saying how it cost a lot to be fat. I thought about it and came up with a few items that occurred to me that fit the bill.

1) You likely eat more.
2) You use more gas when you drive, because of the weight.
3) You’re likely to buy or rent a bigger car because compact ones don’t fit you; which uses more gas sometimes.
4) If you’re really big, you’ll need to buy two seats on an airplane.
5) The driver’s seat in your car is likely to wear down sooner, which will become uncomfortable to the point where you replace it or buy a new car.
6) You need to buy bigger luggage since your clothes are bigger; which means you might have to check in luggage, for which American Airlines will start charging for soon, and likely others will follow.
7) If you’re really overweight your health probably isn’t as great and you have more medical expenses. Some insurance charge you a premium for being overweight.

I’d say most of these items can apply to very tall or ‘big guys’ as well. I read once that an NBA guy had to make some major adjustments to his car in order for him to drive. I think he had the back seat taken out.

Scarf Girl, signing off.

So I went to the post office recently and wanted to buy a few 1 cent stamps. I figured it’d be quick since I could use the vending machine. Well, the vending machine has been replaced with a bigger and more automated mailing station.

Instead of looking through the glass like a candy vending machine, you get an ATM-like machine. So, it appears that you can now print stamps of any denomination using the machine. Pretty, neat I’d say, but when I got my extra stamps, they were printed on individual sticker sheets.

Seemed kinda wasteful to me, but I suppose the plus side is that it doesn’t have to be restocked, and stamps won’t have to sit there in the machine perhaps never being bought.

Scarf Girl, signing off.