Life

Still alive…

This picture sums up my approach to life quite well! “Eh…”

Things have been busy. I took a quickie trip to Santa Barbara (3 short days, 2 nights) and had a great time with Jill and her college friend Doug. A blog post on that trip is on the way.

I was supposed to go to Los Angeles to see my family last weekend (guilt! guilt!), but I had some issues with Southwest Airlines at the airport, so that trip is postponed. My mom was really understanding when I told her that I had to cancel.”Oh It’s ok Tracy ! I’m NOT DEAD!!!”.”  I am not proud to say this, but I was a little relieved when the trip was called off. It takes a lot of energy to make it to LA.I love my family, but they are a handful.

Oh! I’m going to Vegas during Labor Day to celebrate my Uncle Vay’s wedding. It makes sense that my uncle and his lawyer? wife would plan their wedding celebrations in the most efficient fashion, around a national holiday. Really excited about the 10 hour drive, taking a holiday with Ryan, and sneaking Jill, Joseph, and maybe Will into my hotel room. Vegas!

Other exciting news? I’m taking French at the community college with Jill. While I’m not learning as much as I did in Latin or Mandarin, it has been a lot of fun so far, and I’m really happy with it. Also, we’ve got a  few high school friends visiting over the next few weeks, so lots going on.

Life, San Francisco

Giants vs. Phillies

My first baseball game in fifteen+ years! I am not a sports enthusiast by any means  but I figured that I owe Ryan given how many operas, plays and symphonies I’ve dragged him to in the last year or so. Also I imagined that baseball would be more enjoyable now that I can drink.

Everybody is bundled up- SF in the summertime. BRR!!!

 

Sometimes I wish that I understood and appreciated sports, just so that I could feel like I belong. Every few years I make it a new year’s resolution to “learn sports.” It never really works out. You just can’t fake excitement.

What I can get behind, however is the crazy mascots. OMG it’s Lou Seal the Giants mascot riding around on a golf cart throwing free pizzas at people! I didn’t even know that you could throw pizza!

One cool thing about AT&T Park is the giant slide inside the “Coke Bottle.” This is the view from the line. I guess the slide was meant for kids- I barely slid down the tube and had to push myself down.

There was a fight!

But my personal high point: photo op with Lou Seal!

I’m looking forward to returning to AT&T Park for the opera simulcast of Turandot next month. I’m not sure when I’ll see a baseball game again… Maybe in my 40s?

Style

Taking the leap and buying glasses online…

I’d heard about Warby Parker and their Tom’s- like approach to eyeglasses a while back, but never had the urge to grab a pair of glasses. Eight months after losing my glasses in Toronto, I think it’s time to finally try it out. Before I started all of this, I went to my local eyeglass shop and had my face measured (so I knew which sizes to pick out).

To be honest, I was a little skeptical of this site. My friends have had great experiences with Zenni Optical, the “12 dollar eyeglasses” people. I’ve seen their glasses, they look great! Why should I spend $95 at Warby Parker? After spending some time on Zenni’s site, I’ll tell the truth. I got lazy, and I thought the process of just BROWSING frames was clunky and slow. So I was too lazy to sift through all the ugly glasses to find my diamond in the rough.

Instead I spent more time checking out this gentleman…

OMG Too much! Could I get Ryan to wear a monocle like Scrooge McDuck style? HE WOULD KILL ME. Maybe I need a monocle…

All of the glasses frames are classic/retro plastic, which is exactly what I was looking for. Plastic is always so comfy.

The virtual try on was pretty amusing (Zenni Optical has the same thing). Upload a picture or use a webcam to try on glasses.

Ta-da!

Here’s another priceless try on pic. Friends hover over you and question your taste. Just like in real life!

Bluefly has a copycat site- Eyefly, with a similar look and feel. I thought the frames were cool, but I didn’t decide to go with them.

Anyways, I’m doing the Warby Parker “home try on.” Basically you pick out five frames and they send them over for you to try for five days, $$ free. Fingers crossed that one of these pairs works out. I’ll update when my glasses come in later this week.

Beauty

July Birchbox

Another month, another Birchbox. Check out last month’s post if you don’t know what Birchbox is.

Last month’s box felt safe, I thought. This month’s was a little more out there. Every month has a different theme, and July’s theme was “designer picked.” Cynthia Rowley pulled together the pieces in this box.

Here’s what I got in my box, and my comments:

1.  Nuxe multi use dry oil- This was the wildcard product. It’s a face/hair/body moisturizing oil. I enjoyed using it on my face, and it has a pleasant timeless fragrance, but it really does nothing for my hands and body, and the residue feels gross on hands. And yet on the face? Kinda nice. I know, it doesn’t make sense. Unfortunately this product is pretty pricey, so I won’t be purchasing when my sample runs out.

2. Redken shiney hair spray- I wanted to like this, but it smelled horrid and didn’t make my hair any more luminous than usual. Either I have good hair or this product is snake oil.

3. Zoya nail polish in Pandora- I’ve been a little obsessed with painting my nails lately (stress reduction), so I was excited to try this eco-friendly nail polish out. It went on super creamy and seemed to dry quickly. The color left a bit to be desired. When I put it on my nails it made my tan hands look like creepy old claws. I was so bummed, but I wanted to give the color a chance. In Bikram, I thought the color looked sophisticated. By the next day the color had changed! The pinky beige was no longer shimmery, it had flattened out and looked disgusting. Man, Jekyll and Hyde nail polish. I liked the feeling of the formula so much that I’m willing to give another color a go, though.

4. Philosophy Purity cleanser- The surprise from behind. Smells great, feels great, and seems to be keeping my skin happy. I’ll be purchasing this one.

5. A Kind bar.- I already love Kind bars. They’re moist and yummy.

I’ve been really enjoying Birchbox, even with the major hits and misses from my last two boxes.

 

 

 

 

Life

Checking out AirBNB’s New Digs

So AirBNB recently moved into their new offices and decided to throw a party…

Ryan had kindly extended his invitation to me oh, about a month ago, but on the day of the event I wasn’t really feeling it. I didn’t want to schmooze in Potrero. A little yoga, sunny skies and a free ride changed my mind. I gotta say that I was really blown away by the offices. It’s a very inspiring space. My boozey party photos don’t really capture the excitement. It is worth it to see pretty photos elsewhere.

I thought that the conference rooms were a little kooky and homey, but on Monday when I debriefed with a coworker who had also attended the party I learned that the company had recreated three of its top selling apartment/spaces as conference rooms.

Really?

I guess that explains this giant treehouse dome thing.

It’s really quite cozy. You know that at some point something horrible is going to go down in this hut.

Then there’s a kitchen area…

Skeeball/etc area

My friend Doug posing with the marketing stunt that put the company on the map.

The offices were nice and all, but the real draw was the dance floor on the roof. The DJ was… MC Hammer???!! Yep.

Hammer seemed really really happy.

Ryan and the never-ending drink line.

 

This is a super blurry photo, but I think that I look cute in Jill’s porkpie hat.

I’ve got to say, I felt out of my element, but in a good way. Everything that night (offices, food services, people) was just a bit too slick. It was a very dreamy night.

I haven’t been to any events as cash flush as this in… ever? I mean, the experience of extravagance continued even after you exited the building- in the parking lot were two food trucks that were hired by the company to pass out free food. I wanted to grab a free taco badly, but we had to take off. All in all a great party.