My grad school roommate was in town visiting this week… Like me, Grace is very low maintenance: she doesn’t have a list of demands regarding things to do, where to eat, and where to go. When I visited her in August, we went shopping, ate grilled cheeses for dinner, and watched a DVD. And it was fine.

Although work’s been super busy lately, we still squeezed in some chill time: watched some TLC WNTW, went through some magazines, shopped (no luck), etc. During the day, she slept in, went running, got sucked into Comcast On-Demand (those bastards!), worked on the computer. She also hung out with some friends in the city– all in all, a full couple of days.

This trip though, I sensed she was a little bothered by my B.A. (bad attitude) on life. She’s an optimist– always has been. On the other hand, I’ve always been the “glass is half empty” kind of gal… but she says this time my attitude is worse. Is that possible? Yes. Certainly, I’m disgruntled and disappointed: idealistic yet pessimistic. She suggested that I look into CBT, cognitive behavioral therapy. I’m not sure what to think. I’m a realist and cynicism just goes hand-in-hand with that. It’s not as if I walk around hating everyone and everything. I just don’t get that excited about things… none of this is anything new, really. I’ve just always been a somewhat drab and depressed soul. I don’t mean to drag everyone down; I just can’t relate to exuberance and I refuse to feign it. Is that so wrong? Is that why I’m losing blog readership? 😛 Too much complaining and not enough action? Hmm. Are they complaints or matter-of-fact reports on happenings? I admit: I do let things get to me. Definitely need to work on that. Step back and chill out about things that cannot be controlled. Jesus, the amount of self-work is endless.

Anyway, in other news, I started listening to Pimsleur Spanish on the drive in. At first I was skeptical about the audio only format, but it’s not bad. And Grace was impressed by my progress (in one short week). I’m on to the second set of CDs now. Hehe. I should pat myself on the back for making it this far on a few of my New Year’s resolutions:
– Stop eating out for lunch everyday at work (they go to the same boring places)
– Start learning Spanish
– Cook more at home

I still have a long way to go with self improvement but all in due time.

So yesterday John and I took the pups to Fort Funston Park in South San Francisco. Fort Funston has an off-leash dog park right on the beach. Remy waded in the Pacific Ocean! She’s such a goober though– she kept snapping at the small waves and she ended up swallowing a bunch of salt water. But the pups had a fun time running up and down the beach. There were so many dogs– we saw an Irish Wolfhound who wouldn’t stop licking Martin’s ‘nads. Poor Marts. Gets harassed every damn time.

Today’s shaping up to be a good day. I’m going to hit the hot tub (gotta start the day off right). Then we’re going to Costco to get a HEPA air filter. My allergies have been really really bad lately… and we now think there’s something in the new house that’s triggering it. Maybe the former tenants had cats upstairs. I dunno. But John was determined to pinpoint the problem. Consequently, for two days, I was not allowed upstairs. He brought everything downstairs for me– my clothes, my contacts, my laptop. The idea was to see if that would stop the serial sneezing (15-20 in a row). It did. So now we know it’s something upstairs… John and the scientific method. Freak.

On Monday, I’m scheduling a visit to a different ENT. I may opt for the full-board allergy test just to know more about my “condition”… already I’m a pretty big wuss, with allergies to pollen, grass, and cats. I just hope I’m not allergic to like wheat or pizza or cheese… that would be a total killer.