This is it! I’m leaving the office now and I won’t be back until January 16th.

I probably won’t be able to blog from Brazil, at least not until I get back to Sao Paulo. So, happy holidays everyone!

I’m not sure this is good, I feel objectified!

Leonidas Belgian Chocolates: 1

SA Confiserie Leonidas, Misc.,

Mmm … dark chocolate! Rich and luxurious, you’re the flavor of pure decadence. (In fact, we think we feel our hips getting bigger just thinking about you.) Utterly indulgent and as smooth as silk, you’re impossible to deny. Some might even call you addictive — and, truth be told, for those who love you, it’s usually a life-long craving. Poor saps. It’s not your fault you’re so irresistible. But you’re happy to let people worship at your altar — as long as they’re willing to wrap you up in gold foil (24-karat, mind you), you’re delighted to be adored. Sumptuous and intoxicating, you’re a truly tasty treat.

I think I like being a blueberry like Tina better or a mocha like Heidi.

Find out what flavor you are.

I am so tired I could close my eyes and go to sleep right now. I’ve been that way all day and I got up at 11:00!

This past week was a little crazy and I thought I would be able to catch up on my sleep and TiVoed stuff this weekend but that never happened.

Susan had invited me for a party at John’s house. So Friday night, Wendy picked me up and we headed over to the party. There weren’t too many people but we actually had a lot of fun. We were there until almost 3:00 am so I didn’t go to bed until 4:00.

Yesterday just flew by; I honestly have no idea what I did all day. Then Fariba came by to pick me up so we could go to Tom and Arthur’s party in San Francisco. It was pretty nice and their house was packed. There were probably about 10 girls and 60+ gay guys. And they were all so hot! Why is that?

We left the party around 1:00 and drove around the city checking out some of my old hangout places. It was very depressing, they all sucked. One of them used to be packed with cool people and last night they were closing at 1:15 because it was so dead. There were also cop cars all over San Francisco. When did it become like that?

We finally gave up and drove back. I didn’t fall asleep until 4:00 am again. I guess that would explain why I fell like a zombie today and why I’m still not over my cold.

This week will be insane again since I have to start packing and get everything ready for my trip. 10 days left!

This story is solely for Joel’s enjoyment.

When I first moved to this house, I was extremely happy that UPS would finally start leaving packages here. No more excuses about special policies for apartments. And that did happen. For about a year! Then all of a sudden, every notice I got said “signature required in person”. I was pretty pissed and I asked the UPS guy about it. His response: “they changed their policy so if anything gets stolen, I’m responsible for it. So now, I just check that box for most of my deliveries”. Unbelievable! I mean, FedEx and the USPS leave me packages all the time and nothing’s ever been stolen.

So I called UPS to complain. The customer service rep was a bitch and didn’t help at all. I then decided to take it one step further and wrote this huge long email describing the problem and telling them how I would always pick FedEx and USPS whenever possible and that I was even telling online merchants that they should offer options other than UPS and how driving 8 miles to pick up my package at the UPS Center took the convenience out of online shopping especially when the mall is only 4 miles away. Ok, so maybe I used a few punctuation marks and paragraphs on my email so I didn’t end up with a run on sentence.

Anyway, I sent my message Sunday night and the next day I got an email from the UPS customer service saying that it was up to the driver and that they couldn’t leave packages at apartments, etc, etc, insert canned response here, etc. Now, the surprising thing was that at the end of the email, they said a representative from the local UPS Center would be contacting me no later than EOD Tuesday.

And guess what? He did! On Monday morning, I got a call from John, the local UPS Center manager. We had a nice chat and he said he will come by my house this week to assess the situation and determine whether it is indeed safe to leave packages outside. I was totally impressed although the real test will be next time I get a package…