Since I've Been Gone

Every week for the last two months, I have thought to myself: "ACK! I really need to write a blog post this week... I'll get to it later tonight, after I browse the Internet for a few hours, go for a swim, attend a few office events, exercise, do some work for AsiaWheeling, watch my favorite TV shows, have dinner with my boyfriend... shit it's 1am and I have to go to bed. There's no time to blog!"

I know, I know. I could have made time. But here is what I was doing instead....

SHN, the company I work for, began Peter Pan performances on April 27 and we had the official opening for the show on May 12. Combined with the three or four other shows I was working on, along with the 10/11 Season marketing campaign, I had little to no time at work to accomplish anything that wasn't work-related - Facebook being the only exception because that actually counts as work.

When I wasn't working or attending fancy events for work - like the opening of the Birth of Impressionism Exhibit at the DeYoung Museum - I had several visitors coming to town. Three of my closest girlfriends from college cam to San Francisco for Bay to Breakers weekend. Also joining them were two other friends of mine from college and although one opted to stay at a hotel downtown, the other four made a home out of my living room for the weekend. There was lots of fun had, lots of pizza eaten, lots of booze drank - and one very cute clay mate. A couple weeks later my best friend, Lucy came for a visit! We accomplished pretty much everything on out list of activities: brunch at Park Chalet, semi-matching tattoos behind our ears, Sex and the City 2 (loved it), spoonful of happiness at Sushi Koo, fancy hotel party at W, mucho bar hopping, Napa Valley wine tasting, late night burritos, celebrating the 21st birthday of one very drunk boy, and a near-disaster ride to the airport. Ahh, the joys of hosting.

As some of you know, I tore my ACL back in January when I was skiing in Lake Tahoe. I didn't find out it was torn until March when a MRI was finally ordered. Since then I have been working to strengthen the muscles in my legs to prepare for the surgery on July 8. I've been biking more, doing physical therapy exercises, some moderate elliptical and upper body strengthening, and swimming! Swimming is my new favorite form of exercise. I swam when I was a little girl, and my boyfriend got me back into it when he started to dabble with training for a triathlon (side note: he has since decided to first run the San Francisco Marathon). I've found that swimming is really the only form of exercise where I am completely relaxed, yet the level of adrenaline that surges through me is incomparable to anything I have experienced at the gym. The first day I swam, I did 6 laps (12 legs) - which was more than I expected! Now I am swimming 30 laps (60 legs) combined with 10 laps (20 legs) of kick boarding interspersed between every 10 laps of freestyle. In short, I feel great! I recommend swimming to anyone who is looking for a new and easy way to exercise.

Because of my ACL tear, I was unable to play on my softball league this spring - but that didn't stop me from being a part of the team, the one and only Master Batters. I started Master Batters (which is part of a social/beer league in San Francisco) last year when I was looking for something to activate my social life. I took on the role of Captain/Manager/Coach and played catcher for two straight seasons. But this year when I was sidelined, I took my Coaching role much more seriously and with the help of my team, developed some new strategies and recruited some new players. Though we only won two games this season (one was a forfeit from the other team), we managed to make it to the B League playoffs. After clobbering the #1 seeded team in the first round of playoffs, we were sent to round 2 to play the #4 seed. The Master Batters beat them pretty badly, and we were sent to the finals on the next field over where we were to play the #2 seeded team. And wadaya know, we beat them too! WINNERS OF THE GOLDEN GATE SPORTS AND SOCIAL CLUB SOFTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP! A true Cinderella story for you, folks. Just goes to show that teamwork and enthusiasm always make a winning combination (a good bat makes a difference too). And the icing on the cake? We won the championship on the night of my 25th birthday.


Yes, that's right. I turned 25 this year. I'm a quarter-century old. I had a short-lived, but intense, panic attack two days before my birthday. Some may call it a quarter life crisis. There was hyperventilating, crying, incapacity... some may have even mistaken me for a hobo as I laid on the grass outside of the Civic Center listening to Bob Marley to try and cool off. I did, and I continued to draw out my birthday celebrations for an entire week; including, but not limited to, dining out every night of the week, indulging in expensive wine, taking off work for my birthday and spending the night in a hotel downtown, and of course an elaborate party filled with friends and blackout punch. Thank you to all my friends and family who provided me with such a wonderful birthday celebration! Same time next year?

Some other minor highlights:

• I got a haircut.
• I purchased a few new pairs of jeggings.
• I've been doing freelance marketing for this great adventure-travel blog called AsiaWheeling (check it out!)
• I quit smoking.... cigarettes, that is.
  
• I learned how to cook scallops.
• I visited New Orleans and had a fabulous time!
  
• I didn't get iced.