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.

Health, Life

10/18/2020 Update: Here’s another update since people are still landing on this post. 9 years later, my cyst is still in the same place on my uvula. It’s the same size and hardness. I never had surgery to remove it, and I hardly think about it anymore. 🙂

3/6/2014 Update: When I wrote this post back in 2011 I had NO IDEA so many other people would be searching for this same problem. I just wanted to give you guys an update- It’s almost three years later, and my cyst is the same size (quarter inch), and still hangs annoyingly in the back of my mouth, about a half inch to the right of my uvula. I poke at it with my tongue when I’m bored in meetings, and it can move around a little bit. Anyways, all this is to say, it’s still there, same size, and it’s still not cancer. Probably just a blocked salivary duct. If you’re really worried about a lump in the back of your throat, please please please go to an Ear Nose Throat doctor! Your health and peace of mind is worth it! 

I know that I mentioned my minor health complications (and corresponding mini depression) to close friends a few weeks back, but now that it’s over, I thought I would share the whole neurotic story with the internet. Who knows, maybe somebody in the same situation will find it and be less freaked out by reading a similar story.

Sooooo…

About a month and a half ago I noticed a small lump in the back of my throat, quite close to my uvula (I almost typed in “hangy thing that hangs in the back of your throat”  🙂 ). Well of course I instantly thought THROAT CANCER! and started poking at it with my finger. Then I remembered that I’m a hypochondriac and I let it go. Gotta keep the crazy at bay.

A few days later my monthly copy of Cosmopolitan came in (it was a present, don’t judge), and guess what was this month’s freaky health story? It was oral cancer! According to Cosmo, women in my age range are making up almost 25% of new oral cancer diagnoses, and it’s credited to rise in STD infections in the mouth (oral sex, duh). Nevermind that the annual # of new oral cancer diagnoses is about 1,200, and I had a VERY low chance of being one of those 300 women… I felt anxious.

I then proceeded to fall into a downward spiral of thought pattern that fellow hypochondriacs will understand all too well. I became slightly obsessed. In my spare time I conducted Google image searches, stared deeply into a mirror with my mouth wide open, read random health message boards and showed disinterested friends my throat… Oh it was bad.

Anyways. Weeks passed, and a wave of flu-like sickness passed through my house. My throat lump got bigger. I had a bright red sore throat and developed canker sore like ulcerations in the back of my throat. It was gross. I finally went to the doctor.

My GP addressed my flu symptoms and told me to come back if my throat lump was still there after my flu passed. The flu passed, and yet the lump was still there. I went back to the doctor, finally scoring a referral to an Ear/Nose/Throat guy. After checking my ENT’s credentials on Yelp I was a bit nervous, because his headshot was so unflattering. Does that sound bad? He just didn’t look very nurturing, more like Frankenstein.

It turned out that “Dr. E.” was actually a very kind specialist, who put me quite at ease (he was rather touchy, but that’s a whole ‘nother story).  He really didn’t do too much- he just took a look, sprayed some numbing spray on the back of my throat, and tried to pop my bump open with a syringe… Only  a little painful!

His verdict:  “It’s not cancer. If it was cancer it would be eating through your throat right now. It would look like  a herpes sore in the back of your mouth.”

AAAAAAAAAAA! Quite a visual! So, no oral cancer. But I do have a benign “lump thing”  in the back of my throat! It could be a blocked salivary gland, it could be virus related… he wasn’t really sure. Basically I’m just supposed to live with it. If it gets bigger I will go back for “minor” surgery to have it cut out. That is an unpleasant thought, but whatever.

Anyways, I’m fine now, but out $$$ from all the doctor visits. I suppose it was worth it just to learn this fun factoid: My tonsils are 3x larger than the average human tonsil. I am a freak. My ENT suggests that I get them cut out as well, since my “future husband will probably be bothered by my snoring….” ????!!!