Archive for January, 2006

Hotlanta in the winter

Thursday, January 12th, 2006

So I leave for Spain in a little over a day and a half. I’m pretty excited to be the one chosen from all of the people that could have gone in the office. I’m going with a principal, a project manager, a senior associate and another staff member. We arrive after an overnight on Sunday morning and we are staying right in the heart of the historic center of Valencia. We jump right into a full week of Charrettes to design what is essential the equivalent of a small city… 35,000 units. They are all mostly fancy second home type deals for Brits who want to come down to the citrus region of Spain. We’ll be working out of the hotel mostly, but hopefully it will give me enough time to fulfill my all liquid diet quest… hot cocoa, café con leche and sangria. Perhaps I can squeeze in a churro or two as well… if you don’t know what that is it’s like little piped sticks of fried dough dipped in cinnamon and chocolate. I said diet… I didn’t mean it would be good for me.

So Regina arrived… my horsey I’ve had since I was 11, and who I won all those titles with. Anyway, she and I are getting back in shape together. By that I mean that the other day to “give her a break” I decided to ride without a saddle. We only went around about a dozen times, barely did anything more than trot, and yet for the next two days my inner thighs were screaming out in pain. Perhaps soon enough I’ll get back to being able to pop a persons head off between my knees… oh wait, that’s not the end goal I should be going for is it? Anyway, on top of the firey loins I went into McDonalds to get my dinner of fries and a diet coke, and luckily enough I stopped to watch the smell of horses off my hand when I looked in the mirror and realized I could no longer see the seat of my pants through the half-inch layer of dirt that must have been lying in wait on my horse for me to very literally make an ass out of myself.

It has been freakin beautiful here for the past week. Now I know why I moved to the South. It has been 60 and up, 70 today. I was wearing short sleeves. Even the daffodils got confused and started coming up. It’s supposed to be just miserable this weekend… in the 40’s. Can you believe it? Me either. Anyways I am off to bed now… in my futile attempt to go to bed on time, get up on time, and actually make it to work on time… and when I say on time I mean within the first half hour of being late. Oh well, I end up staying late on the other end everyday anyway… so I figure it all works out in the end.

Sam’s New Years Resolutions

Friday, January 6th, 2006

1. And most IMPORTANT…. To be completely selfish… I know you all are saying “Now how would that be any different from the usual”. But seriously, it is all about me. I will do what I want, spend my time where and with who I want. If I want something bad enough I’m going to go after it until it’s mine. Case in point… I hounded my project manager so much that he finally gave up and asked me if my passport was ready because we are en route to Valencia, Spain in one week. How fucking awesome is that? I will be in a charrette for a new urban live/work community in the third largest city in Spain.

2. Maintain… this one I stole from Lauren. The deal with this one is that I will attempt to maintain a happy, healthy lifestyle and not allow myself to clutter and become messy. This means all aspects of my life, from laundry to personal hygiene… because if I feel better about myself it will show to others.

3. Be Healthy… this means that I will ride more… Regina got dropped off yesterday… I am hoping to be able to show our 5 year old gelding Ty in the summer. I will also continue my belly dancing classes, because why the hell not.

4. Minimize… this means get rid off the massive amount of shit I have collected over time that I don’t really need/use/care about. Aka things like trashy novels I’ve already read or tacky going out tops that I will never fit into/wear again.

5. Be safe… this means no more speeding tickets. I already spent one evening in the municipal court of Decatur. I was able to get out of extra points on my insurance, although I had to listen to a man in shackles explain that he had been coming out of a nice little establishment called “Pin-Ups” with a pocket full of money and after relieving himself on the street he was unnecessarily “shanked” by five police cruisers and although the ounce bag of marijuana was his the articles of meth found must have been left there by the previous owner of the rental car.