I am not a very picky person when it comes to food. I enjoy all kinds of fruits vegetables, breads, cheese, the list goes on. Before last night, I thought there were only two things on my list that I really hated. Those two things are olives and horseradish. Well I have confirmed that we can add one more to that list. Not only move it to the list, but move it all the way to the top. Goat Cheese!

About 6 months ago, a friend from work brought in a variety of cheeses and crackers for fun. Everyone dug in. This friend was into goat cheese, and asked me if I had tried it. I said no and he made me a cracker slathered with the stuff. Never having met a cheese I didn’t like, I was convinced it was heavenly and popped it into my mouth. What happened next was something that had never happened before. I was overcome with disgust, and he said “Isn’t it delicious?” I straight up said no, omg, this is the worst thing I have ever tasted and spit it out. I thought it was funny and we all got a laugh. I pretty much forgot about that day, but I kept in mind that I didn’t like goat cheese.

Last night at the EA party, appetizers were going around. A lady offered a plate of celery, half white filled and half red filled. J had the white one, I had the red one. It was yummy! Later that evening she came by again and I grabbed a white one and popped it in my mouth. I was happily enjoying my long island iced tea and I started to chew on this celery thing and I could tell it was cheese so I started swirling around my tongue trying to decipher what kind of cheese it was. Then it hit me, I knew immediately as that bitter taste filled my mouth that I had to spit this out NOW. I desperately made motions for “napkin” to J, and he didn’t know what was going on. I spit it out into my napkin with rocket speed and freaked out. I swear, goat cheese, in my mouth, tastes like poison. I am not kidding, it is like poison to me. I almost threw up right then and there. I couldn’t do anything to get the taste out because I had finished my drink. I couldn’t believe something as tame as goat cheese could be the worst thing I have ever tasted, but it is. This kind of sucks, because now I know I could never make it on Survivor, Big Brother or (the now canceled) Fear Factor because if I can’t stomach Goat Cheese, I could never eat goat balls, or goat intestines like they would make me eat on those shows.

I finally got out of bed at 12:30 and the first thing that I thought about was food. I thought Pho would be awesome and when I walked into the living room, J asked me if I would mind getting us Pho. How convenient! Was he in my head? I went and grabbed some (Chicken Pho for me and Beef for him) along with a few chinese pastries from the Sheng Kee next door to the Pho place. I ended up getting bored around 2 or 3 and drove down to Savers in Redwood City. Savers is kind of like a department store of used or broken stuff. I am very partial to Salvation Army type of stores and I have not been to Savers so today seemed like the perfect day to check it out. It was interesting…. I did not find any clothing that I would wear, unfortunately, but the store definitely has potential. I am always in the handbag and shoes section in those stores because you can find some designer purses for cheap if you look hard enough (sometimes). Today was definitely a bust in that department, however the store had so much stuff it was hard not buying crap simply because of how cheap it was. For instance, there were 3-4 electric sandwich makers that were like new and only $3.99 or something. I always thought that those were cute, but I do not remotely need one of those. We have a George Foreman that makes awesome sandwiches and everything else we could want.

The electronics department is a hoot. It is like the perfect example of where people’s stuff goes to die. There were 8-10 VCRs, 5-6 old scratched up George Foremans, Bissel steam cleaners with no cords, iced tea makers, etc, etc etc. It was good times. I spent probably more than an hour in there, keeping an eye out for valuables that were cheap but no dice today. I did pick out a Weight Watchers mug, I have been eyeing these online for some time. Basically it is a giant mug with a straw that has the day’s amount of water so you can make yourself drink your daily water easily. Hehe. It was only 99 cents, but when they rang me up it was 47 cents. Now THAT is a good friggin deal. Online they are 7 bucks plus shipping.

After that I was craving some coffee, and I realized we had nothing to eat for dinner at home so I hit up Safeway with a Starbucks inside. I swear, Starbucks makes grocery shopping so pleasant. I enjoyed a Peppermint Mocha and a Cranberry Bliss Bar. They were both heavenly. I grabbed a frozen pizza and some salad for dinner. I am going to the gym tomorrow so I am eating what I feel like tonight, dammit! Oh right, I never told you about that.

So I was researching gyms in the area and I stumbled across one, Powerhouse Gym. It has a $60 processing fee (39 dollars cheaper than every other gym), and $32 dollars a month (13 dollars cheaper than the next cheapest gym). The yelp reviews on the place were fantastic, and I emailed them to ask if I could get a free pass so I could try it out before I decide to join. They said sure, as long as I redeem his offer before Christmas. I figure it is best that I give it a try. There are 2 gyms across the street from my work but they are super expensive. I would love it to be more convenient but at that price it seems silly. I could technically still use the EA gym but I was not happy with the amount of machines in there. They also did not have an ab machine and I love ab machines. So, tomorrow morning I am going to get up early and try out the gym. It will be hard at first but I really need to get my ass into better shape. It is just sad how much extra fat I have on my body.

As for diet, I am going to stick to a relatively simple lower (but not too low) calorie diet. Egg whites and toast for breakfast, lots of tuna and chicken. I will do 5 days on/2 off for the eating so I can still drink and eat junk on weekends. Even though its better to stick to a diet 100%, I am being realistic and I will want beer and eat along with J on the weekends. If I try to act like I wont, I will just fall off. So we shall see how that goes! I am sick of trying new things and bringing up diets all the time but I will just have to keep trying until something works!

So, the party was not a bust exactly, it was just so…. boring! I am not even sure I should talk about it on the blog, it’s not like I would get fired but I don’t want to get in trouble either…. Ok I will share. Well this was my 4th EA party. The 1st one was held at the St Francis in San Francisco and it was pretty bad ass. Part of the reason that I think it was so bad ass was it was touted as “formal” which, for a female like myself, is great. Not only do all the guys look like studs but you get to go pick out a “prom dress” all over again. It’s rare to have the chance to get all gussied up once you are over 18. So it was fun - they also had monte carlo style gambling which at the end of the night the top 3 people with the most chips would win cool valuable things like gaming systems. The 2nd and 3rd year were the same kind of party - except semi casual dress. Which was on one hand nice, but on the other hand less thrilling. Not to mention, they were held on campus, so it was nice to be closer to home but I think we all realized EA was trying to save lots of money by not renting out a place, which is a bad thing to think!

Well they still did monte carlo nights and still offered prizes and still had tons of food. Well this year they rented out the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium- which was quite a step up! I had high expectations. The place was decorated so nice, and the BGCA is generally a concert hall so they had a 70’s cover band and then an 80’s cover band. On stage with dancers, that was the shit! Good music there.

Then it came time to want drinks. It took 10-15 minutes waiting in line per drink. That in my opinion is unacceptable. My feet were killing me in those heels dammit! lol - The food was not bad, but they definitely had a more interesting and better spread in past years, probably because they saved so much on the venue before. They would have rooms where you would walk from room to room with a different country food. Crazy, extravagant and very cool. Well my final disappointment with this year’s party was the casino part. They have roulette, Texas hold em, and blackjack (this year, even fake slots machines!) - However this year you were just given free chips and it didn’t mean anything. Isn’t the only fun in gambling is you get something?! I heard rumors that they gave out trips and things to local indian casinos if you sat there long enough and/or won a big amount while at one time. I didn’t even try, which is *highly* unlike me. I was bored, I wasn’t drunk enough and my feet were killing me. So, whatever.

I am glad I went, I saw a lot of my old friends/co-workers which was my main excitement for going and there is one totally cool thing that was going on there - free face painting. HOLY SHIT! I saw the lady in the blue sparkly wig drawing a star around some girls eye, then I got in line. (There was no line, so I was next) I told her that I wanted a Hello Kitty on my face. She said she knew what she looked like kinda, but she asked for a hello kitty and I didn’t have any reference in my purse. But she drew a very cute dollar store Hello Kitty and I loved it. (Dollar store hello kitty is like one of those knock offs of Sanrio products that dollar stores sell, like Hello Kitty looking cartoon stationery with (for example) a different shaped bow so you just know its not real Sanrio but it is cheap and a 4 year old wouldn’t know the difference). In my case, the dollar store spot is that she has a mouth. WTF? Never, ever has Hello Kitty had a mouth! I loved it anyway. She has a pink sparkly bow, and everyone thought it was cute (as I did as well!) I also shook hands with the CEO (something I never got to do when I actually worked there - I was about to write his name but then he might google his name, find this blog, kill me, then hire my company to take it off of the internet). He was really nice! He commented on the Dollar Store Hello Kitty face paint and asked where I got it. (I guess he isn’t in touch with Event planning :P) That was pretty cool though!

Oh, on the way home from the party, I walked into the liquor store to grab cigarettes and all these people were staring at me. You would have thought I had a booger. I didn’t get it, then I got home and looked in the mirror and realized, oh, the Hello Kitty. haha. It was fun, and I guess I will tell you later about those things I promised to tell you about before.

Here are some of my pics, one of the outside of the venue which I thought was cool, and a few of me posing with my Dollar Store Hello Kitty.

Cute! Banner!

It looks like a nice sexy bed, but it’s just a cute square sitting chair. (Hello! Kitty!)

I am famous for bathroom pictures on MySpace and possibly Flickr too. I am too vain to trust random pictures most of the time. Mirrors are good for getting the cute, happy shot you want. Even so, these pics are terrible. I guess it is ok to look bad once in a while. Haggard Post-Party Kitty!

Haggard Kitty!

Close up of my kitty. (HA! ^_^)