Lara Hopwood profile picture

Lara Hopwood

Hi. I like you.

About Me

Let me think. What could you possibly want to know?
I am a Southern California native, who moved to Berkeley for school, who then moved to Vail CO to be a snowboarding bum, who then moved back to San Francisco because I absolutely love Northern California.
Things I have been called more than once: organized, nutty, too apologetic, silly, serious, and a steamroller (get out of my way, you've been warned).
I've taken the Myers Briggs Type Indicator twice. I'm an INTJ / INFJ. I scored exactly equal in the Thinking and Feeling categories. I've been told this is a blessing, but my heart and mind sure do spend a lot of time duking it out.
Jobs I'd like: department store window dresser (it would be like creating a giant diorama), puppeteer (but their mouths have to really move, full range, not just open/close), experiential educator (life is not learned through a book), talent scout, master gardener, and film director (I know zilch about directing, but I would love to show you what I see in my mind's eye).
I love twisted humor, especially if it borders on slightly bizarre. If you love Peanut Butter Jelly Time, we're gonna be friends. If you tell a good pirate joke, we're gonna be friends.
If you've ever watched one of those funniest home video shows, someone always takes a hard fall or nasty spill. I laugh. Then I feel incredibly bad when I realize that they likely broke their tail bone or nose but the truth was edited out for my entertainment.
Humor at a significant cost to others does not amuse me. This includes humor at a cost to animals as well.
What does amuse me is what other people think about on a daily basis. Sometimes I think we're all living the same life. Sometimes we are so very different. I am not so interested about the things you ate for lunch and where you went so much as how those things affected you - what you were thinking about and feeling while you did those things. Thus, I read blogs.
I also post blog entries when the mood strikes. You can glean a bit about me there.
I often ask for an answer to the question of what my purpose is in this life. I'm still asking. In the meantime, I've joined MySpace.
Okay. That's enough for now. Drop in and say hello.

My Interests

Halloween
Frank and Emme the cats
My morning cup of coffee
Sunrise from the Bay Bridge
Sleeping on memory foam
The smell of fire
Growing giant pumpkins
The stillness of early morning
My slippers
Santa Ana winds
(can't get 'em anywhere but So Cal)
Having no deadlines
Backpacking
Ghost stories
Mexican food
The green flash
Red wine
Dining outside in the yard with good friends
Just once I'd like to wake up in Hawaii on Christmas morning
And one day see all the animals in the Galapagos Islands

I'd like to meet:

Joseph Campbell, Joan of Arc, Lewis & Clark, Abraham Lincoln, Buddha, my mother's birth family. And you too, of course.

Music:

There's too much to list, really. About the only thing I don't listen to is rap.
In my car at the moment:
Sufjan Stevens
Imogen Heap
Tori Amos
Nick Drake
Louis Armstrong
Ella Fitzgerald
Miles Davis
The Dandy Warhols
Radiohead
The Shins
Rosie Thomas
Catherine Feeny
Cary Brothers
Etienne de Rocher
Cat Stevens
Death Cab for Cutie
Aimee Mann
Elliott Smith
The Fray
Aqualung
Foo Fighters
The Secret 6
The Killingtons
Tom Petty
Coldplay
LAGQ
Nickel Creek

Movies:

American Beauty (all time favorite!)
Big Fish
Dumb and Dumber (possibly the funniest movie ever)
Elf (also great for a laugh)
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Forrest Gump
The Game
Garden State
Harry Potter (all)
The Last Unicorn (I kid you not; I own it on VHS)
Office Space
Poltergeist
Rear View Window
The Secret of Nimh
The Shawshank Redemption
Sixteen Candles
The Sixth Sense
Star Wars trio (but only the original three)
Thelma and Louise
Wild at Heart
And so many others....

Television:

Grey's Anatomy
Six Feet Under (RIP)
The Office
Family Guy
The Simpsons
Ghost Whisperer
South Park
I'm an HGTV junkie.
You must get a Digital Video Recorder (DVR). Control your television instead of it controlling you.

Books:

Here is a very abbreviated list of favorites. What's listed here is good stuff and you should give it a try it.
Sula
The Awakening
Play It As It Lays
Geek Love
A Wrinkle In Time
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Anything by Hans Christian Andersen
Poetry by Robinson Jeffers and Gary Snyder

Heroes:

I don' t know if I've ever had one. Maybe my expectations are set too high.

I was named after the heroine in the movie, Doctor Zhivago, but I have never watched the movie. There's too much pressure in being named after a heroine.

My Blog

Goodbye sun

I don't have a window view at my office. The skylight above my desk is my window to the outside world. Today at work the facilities crew laid screenlike fabric over the skylight above my desk. The f...
Posted by Lara on Wed, 24 Jan 2007 10:39:00 PST

It's freezing and I'm wrapping pipes with water lilies

We've had a cold snap hit in the Bay Area for the last week or so.   Last night, temperatures fell into the low 20s.   The television news warned people to wrap their water pipes with insula...
Posted by Lara on Mon, 15 Jan 2007 10:22:00 PST

Holidays are for juvenile antics until you see your year ahead in a can of cheese

Hey party people.  I've been catching up on what you've all been up to.   It sounds like many of you had a good holiday season and rang in the new year in all sorts of festive ways.   ...
Posted by Lara on Mon, 08 Jan 2007 05:56:00 PST

Goochers, mothers, and B-grade movies on the winter solstice

So it's December 21.    Winter solstice.   The shortest day of the year in terms of light.   I have a hard time with the day.    I'm not a winter person.   Or at...
Posted by Lara on Fri, 22 Dec 2006 12:03:00 PST

Whoa, Nelly! I think that was an earthquake.

Just had a little earthquake here. I can only hear one coworker hanging around the floor. Everything shook. I grabbed my desk. I work in a cubicle. The whole cubicle moved. The windows rattled slightl...
Posted by Lara on Thu, 21 Dec 2006 08:18:00 PST

Buckle up because you never know where a cab driver's story will take you

Last week I took a cab with some of my coworkers to a hotel on Union Square to attend a seminar.       When we got into the cab, one of my coworkers reminded us to buckle up.  &nb...
Posted by Lara on Fri, 15 Dec 2006 03:51:00 PST

Close your eyes and plug your ears and we'll go for a drive

A couple of weekends ago, my husband and I were in San Diego to attend his company's holiday party.   We also attended a strong ale beer festival.   After socializing with beer industry pr...
Posted by Lara on Tue, 12 Dec 2006 11:08:00 PST

What to say when the turkey is dry and Grandma is harassing you about your weight

Hello there. So Thanksgiving is tomorrow. My husband and I got tired of spending outrageous sums of money on airline tickets and the frustration of flying at the busiest travel time of the y...
Posted by Lara on Wed, 22 Nov 2006 09:32:00 PST

Bartering brown velour sofas to lecherous toll agents when you've forgotten your wallet

In all the ten years I've been commuting across the Bay Bridge, I've never forgotten my toll money.    Until today.       Over the weekend, my husband and I went to a wareh...
Posted by Lara on Mon, 06 Nov 2006 02:39:00 PST

Gazing into the eyes of my classmate and humming Hungry Eyes

During my writing class, the instructor has us pair up with someone to engage in a generative exercise.   First, he asks us to get up from our chairs and wander around the small room packed...
Posted by Lara on Mon, 06 Nov 2006 07:20:00 PST