8 Updates Since My Last Post

1. We attended our first same-sex wedding this weekend - Brian's coworker BW and her wife, Kieren, were married in a beautiful ceremony in Walnut Creek (about 45 minutes outside the City). The wedding was supposed to be outside in these awesome rose gardens by a fountain, but it rained so the festivities were brought indoors. I don't know BW well, but it's always nice to be present and support two people who are making a lifelong commitment to each other. Do you know what impressed me most? The dancing. These ladies could move! Apparently Kieren is a dance instructor, so they had this choreographed first dance that made Brian's and my first lap around the floor look like a middle school dance. I'm really glad we went. And I figured out what to wear, in case you were wondering.

2. We learned that Momo's has really good food - It's not just the crowded bar across the street from AT&T Park. We met Brian's Uncle Steven and some of his coworkers in town for Oracle World there Saturday night (much to my initial chagrin) and it was awesome. If you're local, I'd totally recommend it for a nice dinner. ($20-30 entrees)

3. We booked our Christmas plane tickets - FINALLY! Bottom line: Arrive in NJ Wednesday, 12/19 (Brian's birthday) in the afternoon; travel to KY Saturday, 12/22 in the afternoon; leave KY Tuesday, 12/25 (Christmas Day) in the afternoon. Not a ton of time with either family, but we're excited and grateful to see both this holiday season.

4. I got a prelude to the ugly sweater party - Tabitha is hosting an ugly Christmas sweater party this year, which I'm pleased to say we'll arrive just in time for Saturday night (see above). Almost as festive as I am, my mom has already helped me start planning for what we're going to wear. As I was walking down Broadway the other day (the mansions part, not the part by the Hustler Club), I spotted this guy wearing a sweater with a teddy bear on it. I'm not kidding. He was about 45 years old, walking his preppy King Charles Spaniel, wearing a Polo sweater with a teddy bear like the one pictured here. I wanted to ask him if Brian could borrow it for the party but then I realized it wasn't Christmas themed. I didn't know grown men wore those sweaters in real life. I hope he got it on sale.

5. We deep-cleaned the entire house - This is not interesting, but it does reflect how a significant portion of our Sunday was spent. I wish we had a Tony Micelli or a Mr. Belvedere.

6. Brian took me to Target - For those of you who are single or who live in suburbs, this is not a big deal. He never wants to venture outside the City on my little "I'm not sure what I'm looking for, but I bet they have their Christmas stuff out" trips, but he did last night. He even picked out a holiday pillow for us that has moose on it. He also almost broke a bunch of snow globes throwing this Spiderman doll, which would have been so typical. He rewarded his good deeds with Twizzlers, of course.

7. Dean & Phil are engaged - I'm so excited for a wedding next year. Yippee!

8. The oil spill made me sad - By now most of you have probably heard about the boat that crashed into the base of the Bay Bridge and dumped more than 58,000 gallons of oil into the Bay. In my opinion, the entire situation has been handled poorly. From the blatant omission of exactly how much oil was spilled (for more than 12 hours the Coast Guard said 140 gallons, then suddenly it was 58,000) to the lackluster response in protecting the affected wildlife, it's been a literal disaster. 485 birds have already died and another 650+ have been rescued. Some of my friends volunteered to help clean the birds this weekend, but they were turned away for not having proper training. A lot of people went ahead and did what they could, but a lot of locals are really disgruntled in the response. What really got me was when, in a press conference yesterday, a Coast Guard commandant said decisions not to disclose the vast amount of oil spilled more promptly were "errors of omission rather than errors of commission." He said they were so busy enlisting help, etc., but I can tell you that disclosing this type of information is exactly what the communications staff was concerned with at the time. They were probably just trying to figure out how to handle it. Too bad they did it poorly, in my opinion.