i woke up this morning to the sound of my ringing cell phone. i looked at the clock. 9am. shit. it was my violin teacher, asking me if i was already in burlingame. nope. luckily, he was beat from being out last night until 3. we rescheduled for the afternoon.

in addition to not sleeping a lot this week due to tons of work (surprise, surprise), i had also been out late last night.

after work yesterday, i met jonas at the palo alto train station so that we could go to one of my favorite places, the rodin sculpture garden at stanford. apparently, it is the largest collection of rodin castings outside of paris. jonas hadn't been and we had to fix that. we also stopped by to see a piece by andy goldsworthy, who is one of his favorite artists. embarrassingly, i hadn't seen that while i had been there for school. i found a great map of the sculpture around campus and we hit a few other places before it got dark. before we headed back to the city, we decided to crash what we thought was a frat party, that was actually a talent show or something that was being held at the haas center for public service. it was so cute. there were troupes of teenage girls dancing to christina aguilera (according to jonas), and gradeschoolers reading aloud about how their mentors had helped them with schoolwork. adorable.

we had dinner at slow club, a mellow place with great comfort food. before i knew it, it was midnight and i called willo. we were going to meet up for a drink, but i didn't reach her. so, jonas and i drove a half a block to sadie's and closed down the bar.

we talked about the field day fest that's going on a couple of weeks. i had thought about going a while back, when my friend lanha told me about it. it's got an incredible lineup, but i'm not sure if at this late date i can get tix. she did reserve me some space on the floor of their hotel room if i want it. tempting...

i drove jonas home and walked him to the door :)

i left my computer at work last night. i rarely do this. however, it was already past ten, and i had to be back in the office for a 9am test, so i thought i'd do myself a favor and leave it.

i got home and realized that i had left my watch at the gym. in the small space between the gate of my apartment and the main door, i started to shuffle through my things. at first, i was calm, and then i became more frantic. i decided that i should probably go inside.

as soon as i got through the door of my apartment, i dropped everything and dumped my purse onto the floor. nothing. then my gym bag. nothing. shit.

i calmed myself down and thought that the people at work probably wouldn't want my swatch. yeah ... i was freaking out over a swatch. but it's actually more than a swatch ... it's the first watch i bought for myself in a long while... this was a couple of years ago now ... in preparation for a trip to thailand that was i never took. i was supposed leave on 9.18.01. it was the first vacation i would have taken without the guy i who had moved to san francisco with me. (of course he's no longer in the picture.)

i tried not to think about it before i slept, but i kept feeling my wrist for it. it, along with some jewelry that i never take off, is the only thing i wear to bed. i don't know if it's a neurosis.... my attachment to my watch. maybe just a mild one?

luckily, it was at the gym, where i left it.

there should be a 15 minute rule like there was in high school.

it's 7.15 and i'm still at work.
the participant is late (user testing).
i've been sitting in a dark room all day, typing ....
ack.

i didn't get a chance to write about the party i went to on sat night at my friend kat's. i went with my new friend, willo.

willo brought her camera and she took a slew of pictures. here are some of my favorites....


there are a few others .... but i'm not going to be the one to make those popular.

anyway, long and the short of it, had a great time, and the hangover the next day was worth it.

it's the end of a monday, but it was actually not a bad day. i guess that's what happens when you don't work ALL weekend. yeah, i worked on sunday, but who cares. i had fun the rest of the weekend.

friday started off with a drive up to yountville to the french laundry. yeah, that's right THE FRENCH LAUNDRY (pics coming soon). i went up with my friends matte, ande, and rick. matte is a friend from work and ande is his wife. they are a cool couple.

the french laundry was all that you hear about and probably more. i made the 9.30pm reservation about a month ago on opentable.com, which is a godsend for people like me. i go out to eat a lot, hate waiting around for a table, and earn points to encourage me to spend even more money on food. ok, but i'm getting off the subject now.... back to french laundry.

i arranged the weekend (as usual, but that's cool); we stayed at a little inn that was about 100 feet from the restaurant. we got to the restaurant a little early and waited in its garden. while we looked through the wine list (i was the sommalier for the evening), which was probably 50 pages long, our reservation time came and went without notice. apparently the staff knew because we were offered champagne and warm pastry puffs that hinted of cheese. yum!

since we had ample time to look at the menu, we ordered almost immediately. since we were all doing the 9 course chef's tasting menu, which started with mostly seafood, i chose a pine ridge chardonnay to begin the decadence. i'll post the menu soon ...

by the time dessert came around, i didn't think i could do it. after coconut sorbet, a velour chocolate cake, and then an order of 'coffee and donuts' that were too much for a neighboring table to finish, we were offered petitfors, truffles, and housemade chocolates to take home. yikes!

a little after 1am, our check arrived, along with some menus to take home. the damage: $953. it's cute form (a laundry tag) did not cut the bite of the amount, but it was an impeccable detail.

i have never had such an expensive meal. it was twice the price of blue ribbon in nyc, and that was for five people. however, it was quite the experience and i'm glad i went with people who appreciated the food and did not freak out about the cost. sometimes you gotta splurge.

it's still a little scary that it was nearly my monthly rent.