Family

Was in LA this weekend for my brother's fiance's Bridal Shower. (It was lovely by the way.) At the shower I met someone... my brother's sister. Yep. My brother has a whole other sibling whom I've never met. (ahh, divorce) It was very strange to meet her. I was introducing myself to one of Brigid's (the bride to be) friends... and I was like "Hi, I'm Tyler's sister, Brigid's future sister-in-law" and then behind me I hear "Wait a minute, *I'm* Tyler's sister, Brigid's future sister-in-law"..... huh!?

"You must be Tracy!"
"You must be Courtney!"

Handshake... hug... laughter.

:)

My family is so strange. My other brother, Kris, ALSO has other siblings, whom I've never met... a brother AND a sister. (!!!) Me, Kris, and Tyler are all half siblings. One dad, three moms. (At least my sis and I are full sisters - so that helps keep things a *bit* simpler... Yes my dad had 4 children with 3 women... 3 marriages, 3 divorces... Don't ask)

But wait there's more! So I'm talking to Tracy, and she's telling me a story about her brother... and I'm like, "Tyler?" And she's like "No, my other brother... from my mom's first marriage." So then I realize that we're discussing my brother's sister's brother. Wow. Only in LA, right?
So that was Sunday....

On Monday, I went to a funeral for my step-grandmother. :( It was sad, but it was a really nice memorial. We scattered her ashes at my step aunt and uncle's ranch, which is where she'd want to be. Yes, I have a step aunt and uncle... From my mom's third (and current and hopefully LAST) marriage. At the service were my step aunt and uncle and step cousins and the rest of my step family's extended family. The only person who wasn't there was my stepdad's stepson (technically ex-stepson... but they still consider themselves father and son... so we do too).

I have the most convoluted family of anyone I know! (And you thought the holidays were difficult at YOUR house! Try organizing ANYTHING with this bunch!) But you know what, I love it. I love family. Blood related, half related, step, ex-step, extended, or otherwise. I'll take it in whatever form I can get it... Because at the end of the day all we really have on this planet is our family... so be good to them and be grateful for them... and tell them you love them, even if you can't quite remember how you're related. :)

P.S. Speaking of family... I'm off to Michigan today to spend a week and a half with the boyfriend's family (for the fourth and whatnot)... so I probably won't post again until after the 6th. Don't worry, I didn't fall off the planet - I'll just be in Michigan (which is a close second.)

Ass-Bra

I must come to work looking like a homely troll on most days... because today, in basic heels and a skirt, people cannot seem to pay me enough compliments. As though everyone is secretly thinking "look, she's actually dressed like a girl today! Quick compliment her so she won't show up in troll attire tomorrow."

...

My roommate, Glenn, and I ran into each other in the kitchen this morning. His reaction to my ensemble was three-fold:

1. Look of shock and confusion (Ahh! Wasn't expecting to see anyone in kitchen... and dear me, is she dressed like a girl?)
2. Speak first, think later - "Whoa! Heels!"
To which I respond with a standard "oh-no-do-they-look-bad... do-they-make-me-look-fat?" expression.
3. Fear (Ahh!!!! Not good, Not good! ABORT!) "No, I mean, they look fantastic! ... They're an Ass-Bra."

...blink blink...

Did he just say "Ass-Bra"?

Yes, yes he did.

What, like it lifts and separates??? Ewe.

Apparently, I have been in the dark all these years about the ass enhancing features of the high heel shoe. Have you? I'm here to shed light! Ladies, in addition to sexy calves and blisters, it seems high heels also give us a shapelier ass. Who knew? They're the over-the-shoulder-boulder-holder of the shoe world.

Solstice

Well it's official... today is the first day of Summer... the longest day of the year. Spring is officially over, and the days are officially getting shorter (thanks for pointing that out, Mr. Cup is Half Empty, Kyle!). Sigh.
If were 10 (oh, to be 10 again!) I'd be gearing up for summer camp and pool parties... at 15, I'd be horse back riding by day, partying my brains out by night ... at 20, I'd be trying to cram as many shopping days, beach days, concerts, and frat parties into one Berkeley summer as possible... at almost 25, well, it's the first day of summer and I'm already exhausted. I think I've spent the last 24 summers having too much fun. I'm done, spent... I've met my quota... I'd like a nap now. I find myself counting down the days till August when I can just relax and do nothing. (In standard Courtney fashion, I've booked myself solid with fantastic things to do till then... ugh.) Oh no, am I getting old?!?

Wall Of Shame

Oh the humanity! My name has been place on a "wall of shame" taped to the front door of my office building. Apparently my yearly compliance trianing is overdue. (*gasp*)
Every year, the underlings at my company are subjected to a host of 20 minute videos that are intended to make us better people (or, more likely, they are intended to the cover the a$$es of the company CEOs when someone like me screws up - "but we tried to train her to be a decent human being... We gave her videos and everything!")
Grr.
Anyway, it seems I'm shameful in the following areas: Work place harrassment, labor charging, insider trading, and of course... Ethics. I'm a walking lawsuit waiting to happen.
Consider yourselves warned.

Rafting 2005 Pictures

As promised...
http://share.shutterfly.com/osi.jsp?i=EeANnDRw4cs2zGbg

Oh No! You Caught Me!

If, as you live your life, you find yourself mentally composing blog entries about it, post this exact same sentence in your weblog.

I Have Arrived!!!

OMG!!! The greatest thing EVER happened to me today - I discovered that someone else's blog officially links to *MY* blog! WOW. I feel like I have truly arrived - at least in the blog world.
I lead such a pathetic existence... when said blog linking was discovered, I literally gasped and let out a squeal of excitment... then I completely lost it... I ran up and down the "hallways" in between cubicles jumping for joy and sharing with anyone within earshot (and let's face it, I'm not exactly quiet, so were talking quite a few people here) that little old *me* had officially been linked to!!! I made like 6 people crowd into my cubicle and witness the linkage. It was truly magical... for me, anyway. My co-workers, on the other hand, are now thoroughly convinced that I am in need of some serious psychological help. Oh well, at least the blog world loves me!!!
:)

This Is Why I Love My Friends!

I have the funniest friends ever! The following is from my friend AJ's blog-type-thing... (Yes AJ's an engineer)

How Big Is A Google?

Dan, Britt, Laura, and I started trying to figure out how big a google is. A googol is "1" with a hundred "0"s. That is a lot. What's there a googol of on earth? Ants? Grains of sand? Dan said nothing; said there aren't even a googol atoms on earth. The rest of us politely disagreed. Not a googol on all of Earth!? A mole is 6.02x10^23 molecules, and a mole of salt is nothing. Surely a googol atoms exist on Earth. After much googling, Dan found that there are only 4x10^79 hydrogen atoms in the UNIVERSE. And hydrogen is 90% of the universe. So we lost. There are a googol of nothing on Earth.

But that is almost a googol hydrogen atoms...right? We next considered the parts of the atom. There are about 10^9 photons and neutrinos for each hydrogen atom, more googling tells us. That gets us to 10^88 photons, neutrinos, and hydrogen atoms. Sounds close, but it's not. We still need one trillion universes to get a googol of those atom parts!!! DAMN! That order of magnitude stuff really messes you up. No wonder they invented log-log paper.

Next we got a little abstract and counted time. How many nano seconds since the beginning of the universe? 10^9 nanoseconds per second * 10^2 seconds per minute * 10^2 minutes per hour * 10^1 hours per day * 10^3 days per year * 10^10 years since the creation of the universe = 10^27 nanoseconds. NOT EVEN CLOSE!!! And that is overestimating. Then, the geniuses we are, we figured it out. There are a googol one-googoliths of a second in one second. In the time you read this, about 45 googol googoliths of a second went by. You can read our paper in the next issue of the journal Nature.

What will they think of next! :)

Oh My Achin' Back

Woo-Hoo! Survived my 3rd annual SAMPC rafting trip. (Note, due to the stupid RE-ORG at work, it is techniclly also the LAST SAMPC rafting trip... next year it'll have to be the PTS&M rafting trip... hmmm just doesn't have the same ring to it) :(

We had the brilliant idea of turning 3 small rafts into one large party barge - as a result, I now have the biggest, darkest, most heinous buise on my lower back/ass. It's so ugly! (Tying our boats together seemed like SUCH a good idea at the time...) Although, after being launched 3 or 4 feet in the air over a rapid I guess I'm lucky I didn't end up with more injuries - A big thanks to Isaac Clemens for trying to "save" me by holding onto my arm as I was pummeled by rocks under his raft... for the love of all that is good and holy, LET GO!

You know what... just once I'd like to wake up on a Monday and *not* be in excurciating pain from some idiotic thing I did over the weekend. Sheesh, when will I ever learn? On the up side, I did manage to not gorge myself at dinner Saturday night. Every year I fill up on appetizers, and then proceed to keep filling up to point of wanting to explode at dinner. (Gross, no?) Well, not this year... I was sooo good. I took a nap through dinner! Got in some quality snuggle time with Mr. Dave, caught up on some much needed sleep, and didn't eat three times my body weight in steak, chicken, and baked potatoes! Go me. All and all, it was a good trip... tons of drunken debauchery, some minor girl on girl action, a few scandalous rumors, some seriously innappropriate story sharing, and the oogling of couple 14 year old chicks... just another day in the Product Center, no?

Anyway, pictures to follow - I took two whole roles of film! (Yes, I still use rolls of film... I'm old school/lame like that with my throw away cameras.)

Bay to Breakers Pictures - Finally

The results are in... and we didn't win... I'm not even sure we finished... But we definitely had a good time!
Here are some pictures to prove it!
http://share.shutterfly.com/osi.jsp?i=EeANnDRw4cs2zGTA
Enjoy!!