Monday, May 29, 2006

Much needed long weekend

I could get used to this... .

It's the last day of a kind of, four-day weekend. I didn't exactly get much work done on Friday. We were encouraged to work at home by our director. How nice. So basically I checked e-mail, thought about work, and then ran down to the big mall to shop at Anthropologie. It was great to hit the store at 11am and pick through the racks while they were all still neatly organized and get into a dressing room with virtually no wait.

Friday night, I went out with friends to watch "X-Men: The Last Stand." I won't mention any spoilers. Suffice to say there were some surprises and, as to be expected, some gaps in logic and lack of character development. Still, we all had a good time. We're all pretty geeky. We sat through all the credits and discussed the plot in detail. A couple of people present have read all the comic books and provided us with comparative insight into how different the story was from the true history.

Saturday, I headed out to meet my cousin and friends for a birthday outing. We went to the a wonderful hotel spa that sits upon the local hills with a marvelous view of the city. I always love going there because I consider my college town home. Someday, somehow, I'd love to own a house there.

It was good to catch up. The other three gals all have boyfriends, so there was an update of goings on. Is is doing well with the guy she's dating. There's some question over when and if they have reached "boyfriend/girlfriend" stage yet. She wasn't sure how to introduce him. A couple weeks ago, she introduced him as "friend." We all agreed that she only need say, "this is xxxxx." She's bothered by the fact he drives a pick-up truck, doesn't have a college degree (or it's from some mediocre college), and has not traveled much outside of the area (grew up here). I can understand why it bothers her... it's hard to shake the ideal that you've grown up to expect (and what you know your parents want). Sometimes I think she's pickier, less sensible, and higher maintenance than me, but she also seems to have a much easier time meeting men - go figure.

Ci has been living with her boyfriend for a little less than a year now. I couldn't hear everything over the spa jets, but my guess was that she's waiting for him to pull the trigger. She wants to have children and I didn't get the sense that he is up for that yet. I recall her saying, "if I could wait another ten years to start, I would." She had even checked into the cost of freezing some of her eggs: $30,000 - yipes.

Jew probably has it the toughest. She's now been dating Matrix for nine months. Her retired parents keep visiting her for extended periods of time. We can't help wonder if her mother is doing this on purpose to make it more difficult for her to spend time with him. Her mother is very strongly against this relationship. All for the fact that his skin is very dark. He's smart, he's incredibly good to her, etc., but nothing will change the fact that his culture and physical appearance are not acceptable. I would say it's likely that Jew and Matrix want to get married to each other someday. Unfortunately, I think it will have to wait until Jew gets some minimal amount of acceptance or tolerance from her parents.

Sunday was mellow. I carpooled with friends to attend a BBQ. Afterwards we headed over to another friends' house to chat and play board games. Tim and I tied for first place in Ticket to Ride.

Today is stay-at-home and do chores day. I played DDR for an hour this morning to make up for missing a hike. The laundry machine is loudly churning away in the hall. If I'm going to have the termite treatment done anytime soon, I've got to clear out this bedroom. Ugh. And then it might be nice to vacuum. Tim will drop by later to help me install a second hard drive into my new computer. I love quiet days at home.

Next weekend, I'm off to DC for a friend's wedding. That will take me away for another four-day weekend. Ahhh.

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