Wednesdays!!!

Wednesdays are definitely in my 'Top 5 Fave Days of the Week'...

I mean, what other day is it socially acceptable to walk around telling everyone "Happy Hump Day"... even to your boss?!?!

And you know what else it is equally acceptable to start doing at this point in the week? Enjoying a nice adult-type beverage. (And since it's only the middle of the week, chances are your not going to get hammered so you won't wake up with a killer hangover, Sweet!) Now if you ask me, it is completely O.K. to enjoy one of these said bevvies any day of the week. Yes, I mean Mon - Sun, the whole sha-banging week. As long as these bevvies are drank in moderation. Please do not get confused. I do not condone alcoholism, my friends; however, I do believe in the motto that a glass of wine a day keeps the doctors far far away! :-)

It is also resident appreciation day every Wed in my apt building and they put yummy little treats out for us. Best part is - they're mini!!! So you don't even feel guilty about indulging a little bit!

You wanna know what else is so great about Wednesdays? There's a sweet fall lineup on the tube for Wed evenings right now. Looooove it (said in a sing-song voice!)

Next, you always know that the weekend is drawing near. Truth be told, Fridays are great and all but you also know that in 2 short days, it's going to be the end of the weekend. Oh contraire with Wednesdays --- you know that the end of the weekend isn't for another 5 WHOLE days!

Yes, my friends, I have decided that I thoroughly enjoy this day of the week. It has defo made my 'Top 5 Fave Days of the Week' list. But then again, if I'm being 100% honest, I enjoy every day of the week except for Monday and Tuesdays. Those days can suck it!

No Bueno!

Don't mind me, just polishing up on my Spanish speaking skills while enjoying my single last afternoon as a Desperate Housegirlfriend! I termed myself this after spending the last year and a half chilling whilst ('nother Irish term I picked up) being a live-in girlfriend with nothing else to do. I actually really enjoyed calling myself that. Too bad it's over.

Unfortunately we are not having that gorgeous weather that we have had for the last few weeks and its pretty chilly outside so I'm being a laze-o watching some awesome telly and yup, you guessed it... blogging away! :-) I'll give you my day in a nutshell... (Mmm, nuts - I hope they're cashews! *see appendix 1)

I woke up at the asscrack of dawn as Kevin was getting ready to go to work and couldn't fall back asleep. Grrr! So as we have a guest crashing on our couch and feeling quite content staying snuggled up in bed, I decided to play on Facebook for a bit (typical.) Fell back asleep for a bit and then finally woke up to go sign some paperwork and make this job thingamajig OFFICIAL!

My future boss (who is super hilarious btw, stamped - approved!!) takes me down to HR (who is super hilarious as well!) and we chat for a bit, etc etc. So after having to answer random questions like where my dream destination is, what my dream wheels are (btw, we came up with mercedes sedan, lol!!! ) I have to get my picture taken. "Put your purse down, Andrea. You need to do something with your hands for this photo!" (Sorry, Louis, Mommy needs to set you down for a minute.) So I'm like okay, anything I want? "Yes, anything you would like." Guess what I chose??? Oooh, I am actually going to start a poll so that you can vote on what I chose to do with my hands. That sounds like a fun idea!!

Anyways so I leave the hotel after arranging my orientation for the next day. How to enjoy the rest of my afternoon, now??? Decisions, decisions! It's entirely too cold to be putzing around the city. I unfortunately did not raise my 150bones to join Equinox (giant teardrops falling as we speak :-((( ) so I chill out at Borders for about 10 minutes before getting bored and heading home. Make myself a little egg sandwich for lunchy lunch (Kevin and I don't typically stock our apt with much food...) and chill with some Desperate Housewives and Kardashians on the telly. Now its almost 5 in the afternoon and I'm hella bored trying to tell myself it will be worthwhile to go work out in the fitness center located in our building. (I know, I told you, I'm an uber gym snob!!) But I'm tired and I'm thinking I might just take a nap and save the treadmill for later. Life is rough as a DHG, life is rough!

I will try to come up with some more randomosity later so that I may better entertain my virtual guests... sorry for the lameness. I'm already having a case of the Mondays.... Barf!

Appendix 1)
I don't know why I chose cashews, I really don't even like them.

World Time Clocks

Setting: The Yeager - Song household at 355 W. Berry St, San Francisco CA

Prelude: Kevin's mom is in town visiting from Korea. I will refer to her as "MS" aka: Mom Song.

MS: What time is it in Korea right now?

AY: Ooh, let me check. I have it saved under my world time clocks in my phone. (Please note that I have just recently gotten an iphone***, welcome to 2K9!)

AY: It's 10pm in Seoul.

KS: What other cities do you have saved in your little phone there?

AY: I have San Francisco, Chicago, Indianapolis, Dublin, Seoul and Paris.

KS: (laughing) Why do you have Paris saved in your phone?

AY: Uhhh...

I don't even really know the answer to this question. It makes perfect sense for me to save every other city here...
SF - Live here now, duh!
Chicago - Plenty of friends still there, need to make sure its not too late for those drunk txts to be sent! :-)
Indy - Parents live here
Dublin - Just moved from there, still have friends I may want to call!
Seoul - Kevin's family lives there
Paris - ??? I WANT to be there???? (Quite possibly my most favorite city in the world!)

***iphone - I have no idea how I have survived w/out this invention for so long! Ok, the gps system is a GODsend. A) I will never get lost again and B) I am now able to resist the temptation from creepy old men offering to be my "personal GPS device." No, grazie!

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and a Little Bit of Ching-a-Ling

I need to come up with $150 dollars before Monday.

Why? You might ask... because I need to join Equinox. I KNOW... I speak of this place called Equinox all... the... frigging... time!!! They seriously should just give me a job already with the amount of marketing I do for them through my buzzzzzzz marketing and WOM tactics.

So my girl there (no not my twinnie, that's a different gym) knocked the rate down to $150 for me to join but you see I have to sign up before the end of September. Okay so I guess I have until (what Wed???) to join but my ass is secretly telling me there needs to be a deadline of Monday. Ya feel me!

Anyhow, please feel free to make checks payable to Andrea Yeager. I am also open to accepting wire transfers and can receive payment via paypal. Otherwise, my boyfriend says he will give me a loan but it is coming out of my "ring" fund. Now we sure don't want that, do we...

I just had an idea. I'm going to go stand on the corner with a sign that says 'I lost my family to Ninjas, need $$$ for fighting lessons..." Okay, truth be told, there was a homeless guy in a wheelchair holding a up a sign that said this outside the ballpark after the game today. LMAO right now. What a creative little man. I would have given him a few ching-a-lings given my current situation were not so tight.

Word out, homies...

2 Truths and a Lie

Kevin and I got ENGAGED!!!
I got a job!!!
I'm sitting in Starbucks blogging right now!!!

TRUTH: I AM sitting in Starbucks blogging right now, yeah baby!

TRUTH: I DID get a job!!! Yippee, yippee, yippee! I am so unbelievably excited right now.
So let me tell you all about it... You may be asking yourself right about now, 'What does my friend Andrea even do???' Well I work in the hospitality industry. Hotels to be specific. I started out in the hotel biz about a year after graduating college and have not managed to get out ever since! I've worked for Starwood for the past 4 (HOLY CRAP!) years now working for both the Westin and W brands. Back and forth AND back and forth again! So I've done pretty much everything under the sun but what I really want to get into is the Marketing side of the business bc I yearn to be an uber-marketing guru... Best of luck to myself in this endeavor!
Anyways so after moving to SF with no job in tow, I started contemplating what exactly it was that I wanted to do that would make me happy. Now my ultimate dream job (for this period in my life, lets be realistic, ultimate dream job IN LIFE would be to spend $$$ shopping all day!) would have been to get in with a company like TripAdvisor, Yelp or a company with a broad focus in online marketing. I mean after all, I think its obvious the amount of time I spend online everyday updating my social media outlets!! So I was lucky enough to score an interview with Yelp (but they didn't hire me... bitches) and I was not lucky enough to get an in with any other social media websites. Ok, I'll keep trying...
So with those options hanging on by a thread, I was also contemplating my second dream job. Working for Equinox (fitness)! I am completely obsessed with this company it is not even funny. So I applied for a membership advisor position but they also did not call me for an interview, WTF. It must be because my boobs aren't big enough.
Feeling quite frustrated, I turn to what I think is my safest bet for getting a job in this volatile economic environment... dunh dunh duhhh, HOTELS! Anyhow so I check out StarwoodOne and see there is a position for a Citywide Sales Coordinator at the W. Now I know that I am way past my stage of being a sales coordinator but I am no longer being picky at this point. I just need something to keep me busy and keep me from going to jail for not paying my bills. So I apply. Ding, rejection email. WHAT. THE. F*#@!!!! I know I am totally overqualified for this position so why do I not even get a phone call for a courtesy interview or something??? So having my bf in the same company often works in my favor... He kindly asks the HR Director at his hotel to get the scoop on the position, see if they filled it internally and pass on my resume at her upcoming area meeting. Ahhh, thank you again boyfriend, YOU ROCK!
Back to the big picture...
So a week later I get a call from the W asking me to come in for a general chat/pre-screen interview. Great, sign me up! Few days later I go in and meet the HRD and tell her what I really want to do, give a brief synopsis of what I did in the past, etc etc. So they ask me to come in for an interview the next day so we can get the process started so that I can at least get in somewhere and start working in some area for the time being. Interview goes awesome. (Schwing!) Go up to meet with the GM (oh and from my previous interviewing experiences, if you go to meet the GM at the end of the interview, you're pretty much golden I might add!) So he is a really cool guy and after we chat he is telling me basically whats going on in the hotel, where they have availability, etc. (They wanted to put me @ the desk and I said awwwww helllllllll no!) So he mentions that there may be an opportunity to create an F&B/Marketing type of role. This makes me so excited, I almost had to check my panties. Hahahahaha, I can't believe I just wrote that in my blog! Totally inappropriate. Sorry Mom & Dad, you did raise me right, I promise! :-) Ok so anyway I talk to the Operations Director before I leave and everything sounds extremely promising. They say they are going to call me early next week. So next (this past week) comes around and I'm waiting, waiting, waiting, waiiiiiiiiting... and still no flipping call. Mother F'er, they dirty rushed me!
So I'm just jabbering on with entirely too much information at this point and I will cut to the chase... they did end up creating the role for me! I'm so excited! So I go in on Monday to accept the offer and get the ball rolling but this is fabulous news for Miss Andrea. You can bet your arse, I will be having a celebratory drink (or 7) this weekend. Don't worry... NO SANGRIA! :-)

LIE: Kevin and I did NOT get engaged. :-(
Awww boo, and that would have made for a much much better story for the ole bloggie blog! If you would like to harass him about this so you can hear ANOTHER terrific story, he can be reached @ 555-5555. Thank you in advance for your cooperation.

Get excited, in store this weekend is a Giants/Cubs game and a 5K Breast Cancer Walk where surely many a blog-worthy moments will occur!

Toodles and Oodles!!

Bob Vance

Hola! I'm back... clearly I ran out of ways to occupy my time today and I actually really enjoy this blogging biz. It's a bit o fun, lemme tell ya!

I'm also discovering that its quite easy to make friends here in SF. People here are extremely friendly unlike in some other parts of the USA. Oh, with the exception of the one grumpy and unhappy woman that works in the BART turnstile off Market St. See, the BART system here is not as user-friendly as the El in Chicago or even the tube in London or the whatchamacallit in Paris. No, you see I was trying to go to the airport only I didn't know which train/direction I was going and so (in my most friendly and sweetest voice, I might add!) I say to the lady, "Hello, I'm trying to go to the airport." And Grumples McGrumplegus raises her stubby little fingers and points to the ticket machines. "You buy your ticket over there." Uh yeah, no shit Sherlock (pardon the french but it was truly needed here!) I figured that much out... eejit! Try again, "Um yes but could you tell me which direction I need to go?" I'm assuming smiles are not free from this woman but I did finally get the information needed from Ms McG so I just footed it on thru to the train as fast as possible after that!

Anyways so I've gotten a little off-track here. Most people I've met are uber-friendly! Case in point...

Meet Bob Vance. That's not really his name. I just think its funny to call him that. Actually his name is Liam and I mentioned Mr. Vance in my earlier blog today as the new bestie who is the old guy in my building. Please note that I will still be referring to him as Bob Vance, Mr. Vance, Bob, BV, etc bc I think that is cooler and more fitting for this guy than his real name. I think you would agree. So yes, I saw Bob again this afternoon when I was coming home from a walk with my fake dog. (Aka: Andrea walks solo around the park next to us.) BV and I are waiting for the lift after I get back from the walk and there are free mini cupcakes by the lift today so being an avid lover of cc's, I help myself to one (and one for my FD) which is the starter for my next conversation with Bob.

Bob: "Boy I don't know who always bakes these little snacks they put around here but they sure are good."

Andrea: "Seriously, if I don't get a job before too long, I'm going to get fat!" (Yes, I'm not quite sure why I felt the need to mention this to an old man!)

Bob: "Marketing, right? What kind of marketing work are you looking for?"

Side-Note - If you paid me for every time I've been asked that question in the past 3weeks, I wouldn't even need a job anymore!

Andrea: Same answer as the last 82730862 times I've been asked. I'll spare YOU the details of having to listen to it again at this point! You are very welcome!

Bob: "You know, I have a friend who is the Director of Marketing for the San Francisco Tourism Board. Next time I see you, I'll give you my card so you can send me your resume and I can pass it on for you."

Andrea: "Oh that would be fantastic!"

SCORE! Thanks Bob Vance, erm, I mean Liam!

Adios, now... Kev's home so I have a new friend to play with!

In the words of John Mayer...

"Waiting on the world to change" orrr shall we just say waiting on a jobby job!

People, I know some of you may think I'm living in this glory dory world right now. Got no job, live in a cool city, play in the sunshine, drink coffee and work-out all day. Ok, rrrrrrr (that is the sound of the tires screeching) hold up, now that I write this out loud, it does sound like I have one helluva life right now! And and and I'm sure once I do get a call to go back to work, the grass is TOTALLY going to be greener back on this side.

But I am BOOOOOOOORED! You have no idea. I don't sleep anymore bc I'm too ancy/anxious wondering if the next day is going to be the day that my life will change. I shop around all day and find tons of great things; however, I have no moolah to actually purchase these items that I'm sure will make me an oh-so-better woman! :-) I'm eager to get my life back on some sort of schedule so that there is a little bit of regularity going here. I've become besties with an old man and the German leasing man in my building.

Now what is a girl to do??? I don't think its that I'm being too picky. I mean I've sent out 27 resumes and have had only 2 interviews. Oh and 1 really dodgy job offer to stand outside and market timeshares @ Fisherman's Wharf. Um, no thank you, I think I've accidentally come into the wrong building. Seriously in all honesty I think the worst part of this whole 'job search' game is that I feel so completely worthless! Kevin was joking around (or so I think he was joking!) this morning and called me lazy and I cried when he left for work bc I do feel lazy. But don't worry I got him back by calling him an a$$hole (maybe not so jokingly :-)) I heart you, Kev!

Ok this blog is depressing now. I am going to go try and get some endorphins flowing thru my bod now. Maybe I will get some entertainment viewing pleasure while I am out that I can later share with you.

Cross ur fingers, I think its going to be a GOOD day!!! :-))

Dear USA

Dear United States of America,

I love you. Please do not get me wrong. However, after spending a year and a half in another country I have come to the conclusion that there are some things about you that need to change.... ASAP! :-)

1) WHY WHY WHY does the pricetag on a product not include taxes? It just doesn't make sense. I mean, seriously, it makes life so much easier and eliminates so many tiny coins. If I'm buying an outfit in the store I don't want to think I'm spending 200 dollars and then when I check out find out its +16.82.... thank you very much! (Not like I'm speaking from experience or anything??? :-)

2) Ok, dryers, I thought they were cool for like 10 minutes when I came back UNTIL I put on a mother flippin pair of pants and they fit me like my 10-yr old niece's pants fit me. Apparently its true, drying racks do preserve your clothes in the long run! Let's make it the norm to use them, please! :-0

3) Really? The work/life balance is this bad??? Comeon, 10 days of holidays for a full-time employee is just wrong! Oh yeah, and prego friends get this... in the EU you get 6 months of maternity leave. And plus some. I don't really remember I just know its awesome enough to make me want to have a child in the European Union!!! Mazel Tov!

4) While I appreciate and love the number/choices available of anything and everything you could ever ask for in life... I just ask myself, is this all so neccessary??? Costco - ridiculous. Jerks were running me over they were so excited to buy their 16lb bag of Cheez-its. And while I enjoy the fact that I can choose natural/organic/half-blend/full-blend/hazelnut/french vanilla/cinnamon/regular/decaf/mocha/etc, coffees please just give me a basic blend... I just need the caffeine flowing thru my body already!!

Now, I really do not mean to seem ungrateful for these choices and materialistic things in life that I have been granted but I'm just suggesting Mr/s America that maybe its time we make some changes for the well-being of our citizens?!?!

Hugs and Kisses,
Your #1 Fan :-)))

found: identical twin to andrea yeager

Yup, you read correctly... I found someone EXACTLY like me today. It's uncanny. Now I'm not talking lookwise. Nosirree, there is not quite anyone as dashing as myself ;-) out there in this world, phew! It was just like having a conversation with yourself. I have to admit I've often wondered what that would be like. Well. Now I know! Read on for further details...

So I'm putzing around the city center today and heading toward the drycleaners that I needed to pick something up from and I see a Crunch fitness center. Ooh I should go in and check them out I think to myself. Now for those of you that know me well enough, I'm slightly a fanatic about working out these days. I am uber addicted to classes and quite the gym snob (Thank you, Julie Moran-Byrne for introducing me to Equinox oh so long ago!) Anyways so I hear that the classes are pretty dece at Crunch and I'm struggling in my head with whether or not I want to pay flipping 123USD/month for a membership @ Equinox so I thought why not see what kind of deal they have.

Enter Crunch. 'Hello, I was wondering if I could take a peek at the facility and get some info about a membership here.' The nice little lady at the desk says Oh yeah, let me just get one of the membership advisors for you. Excellent, thank you nice lady. A few minutes later, twinnie walks out and introduces herself to me. Lindsay is her name. My initial thoughts were this girl seems a little bit flighty. (Hmm... now I'm wondering if I come off that way!!) So we're chatting away and then we start walking thru the gym and she's showing me this cool thingie called a TRX system. She's like well I'm not going to do it because I trained yesterday for a marathon*. I like to run marathons! So I don't initially reveal that I too am a runner and continue on with the tour. She tells me I can blow off some steam after a tough day and shows me the giant punching bags. (Now I reveal that I'm a runner and this is how I blow off steam!) Bobbing along now she asks what I do. I mention that I'm currently unemployed looking for work but that I have been in the hotel business previously. 'Ohmygosh, that's so funny, I used to work in hotels too!'* Twinnie says. And you will never flippin guess which company she worked for!!! Nope, not Starwood... had ya there for a minute didn't I??? :-) She worked for the Kimpton hotel group but that part is irrelevant. So she asks what I did and I explain how I'm a hotel ho-bag and have worked in pretty much every department. I then inform her that I want to get into 1st choice: Marketing, 2nd choice: Sales. THEN she tells me that she was the Sales Coordinator at her last job.* Un.be.lievable! Me too!! (This is prior to Dublin for any Ireland friends reading that did not know this about ASY.) She then tells me she just switched over to this job bc she's passionate about working out/fitness and wanted a change in industry.* Uhh Dolce & Gabbana... hello!! I have been thinking of doing exactly the same thing! Sooo ironic! Continuing back up to the desk, I ask her if she's training for the SF Marathon. She says no, she just ran that one and is training for LA.* Yup, Los Angeles was the first one I ever ran. And so it is at this point that I reveal that I've ran the LA and Chicago marathon and she's like would you want to train for another marathon and I'm like yeah you know at some point in the near future I would like to. So she gets super excited and is like ahh that would be so cool if you join, you can start training with us. (New best friend!) So we make a date to meet after I try one of the classes out next week for a chat.

Yup, I met my twin. A blonde-haired, blue-eyed version of myself. W.E.I.R.D.

Now no more poison for you for the day. You've had a double dose! :-))

Sobriety and Sangria

Well helloooo there followers! Welcome back to my life. :-)) So its currently 11am on a Saturday morning and to be honest with you I am very much... hung. over. End of discussion. What did I do to myself last night to get in this state you might ask? Well that's a very good question.

Calm enough Friday night looms ahead, meeting up with Kevin after he finishes work for a few simple bevvies with one of his friends (who funnily enough lives just a few apts over from us!) So I'm taking my sweet ole time getting ready. Texting people asking if denim skirts are still cool enough to wear out. (General concensus is no!) Shush it, I still own one. And I think if paired right, its still sorta cute!! :-/

Oh my gosh, side note - So there was this family viewing the apt complex just now and the mom was asian and the dad was white and they had the MOST adorable little girl. So precious. I love seeing mixed babies like that, makes me picture what mine and Kevin's child will look like some day!!

Anyways sorry bout the slight sidetrack there for a second! Now where was I??? Ahhh yes, the denim skirt discussion. Well okay maybe they are not cool anymore but I am quite fashionably challenged anyhow so need I say more?! Didn't think so.

I'm going off on another tangent again, I was telling the story about how I got to the state of being extremely hungover this morning. See folks, this is what drinking does to you! So I finally end up leaving the place say around 8'ish and I'm walking over to this bar that is maybe like 6 or 7 blocks away (long blocks) and once you pass 5th street the area starts to look a bit dodgy (term I picked up in Ireland) so I'm like I better call Kevin to keep me company while I'm walking by here. So it turns out he is about a block behind me (he works late!) so we meet up and walk over there together. The bar is a pretty chill local neighborhood kind of dive. We join his friend(s) on the patio. Its his friend, friend's brother, friend's friend from college and brother's co-worker who is like 45 I might add. I will refrain from their names bc I don't know them all that well and I'm not sure they'd be so stoked about being in some random girls blog. So the brother and co-worker are quite schwasted at this point. Whatever, the rest of us got a few giggles out of the situation. So while the rest of the crew is sipping on some shots of Jameson, I myself was a good girl and just indulged in a few blue moons (yummalicious!) and then the decision was made to go get some food.

We head out to the Mission district which apparently is the best neighborhood in SF for Mexican food (again, yummalicious!) and we go to some tapas bar/restaraunt. I convince Kevin we need a LARGE pitcher of sangria. (Well there were 5 of us! Co-worker had since departed from the group outing.) And as I'm ordering the sangria this guy at the bar is chatting to me and says be careful, the sangria is lethal. You'll be drinking it and then all of a sudden it will hit you! So I'm like haha, k thanks for the advice. We finally get our table and for some reason everyone else is more interested in the food than the sangria (except me :-)) Are you getting where I'm going with this??? Lethal sangria + Andrea = One drunk blogglehead. So anyways we finish eating and the food WAS good (Sorry don't remember the name of the place. I'll get back to you on that one!) and the 3 dudes wanted to go out somewhere else but since Kev had to work in the morning, we flagged a cab and headed home.

See, I told you it was a chill night, no major drama. SO why the flip did I wake up and feel like I've been ran over by a speeding train?????? I guess we'll never know.... Hmm, and I thought living in Ireland had trained me well!

Off to recovery!

my 'not so wild and crazy but interesting' life

Ok so I was inspired to start a blog for a number of reasons...

1) Read the title of my blog... mayyybe that's a bit of an exaggeration and only two of my friends have blogs that i really know of and read (insert shout-outs to Al & Emily here!! woowoo) I started a blog when I moved to Dublin but was either too busy learning the Irish culture in a pub or too lazy :-)) to actually keep it up. Maybe a mixture of both! So we'll see if I can keep this one going a little while longer!
2) I have a tremendous amount of time on my hands these days! I'm currently looking for full-time employment but while I'm waiting for this thing called a job offer and work to begin I might as well use my time creatively. I mean seriously you can only spend so much time in a gym and prancing around this hilly city! Oh and reading magazines too, tehehe..
3) I don't know why I get this impression (Yelp.com) but this city is mad about social media, online reviews, blogging, etc so I thought I might as well hop on the bandwagon! (Hop!)
4) And I want my friends and family to be able to keep up with my journeys throughout life without posting my entire life on facebook. So if you are a facebook friend reading this it means u either think i'm interesting or care enough about me to check out my blog. Thank you! :-) I heart you too!!

So thus are the inspirations for my new blogging fetish! Now I'm sure your all really hoping that I go straight into the past 28 years of my life and start telling you the ups and downs, ins and outs of what makes Andrea S. Yeager tick but unfortunately because it is such an amazingly gorgeous day outside I am going to cut your poison off for now and go work on my tan/legs by going for a run. I hope you will check back for more adventures in my 'not so wild and crazy but interesting' life... ooh I think I want to name the change of my blog to that!!!

Toodles!

PS: I need an alter ego name to go by... suggestions???