i borrowed jon's digital camera this past weekend for stacy's wedding and i love it. i want one. i think i'm going to buy it for myself for my upcoming quarter century birthday. technically if i was a real shitty sister, i could take jon's back because 1) i paid for it 2) it was never a present and 3) he still hasn't paid me back but i won't. i should but i won't. i've never used a digital camera before and was always a firm believer in using my trusty 35mm but i'm now a convert. i love the fact that it fits in my purse and my pictures get posted the next day for everyone to see. it's even kind of fun to think up of captions however cheesy they may be.

i don't even really mind that it has no zoom. i just stick the camera in everyone's faces and no one can tell the difference. next up is for me to learn how to upload the pictures (i had jon do the ones from stacy's wedding) but i've been told it isn't very hard at all and that even i could learn it. i'm really quite excited about this. call me a sheep but i think i will have to copy jon and take pictures wherever i go and post them in my little yahoo folders. now i'll just have to decide on the color...black, blue (if i get blue though i'll be a double sheep as that's what jon has), or silver. the great thing about all this is that the camera has dropped $100 now so i may have to get it soon...in time for my week long vacation in cancun coming up.

now on to another topic. i was a bridesmaid at stacy's wedding in san diego and i loved it. not just being part of the bridal party but more getting my hair done with all the girls (there were 8 of us!) and getting to ride in the limo bus. i don't think i'll get sick of the saying "always a bridesmaid never a bride" because really, if all my experiences are like this, i'd be a bridesmaid forever if necessary. damn i should of gotten more girlfriends.

this would be my third wedding this year with two more on the way for a total of five. although going to weddings can get a wee bit expensive, ok more than wee bit, it's worth it i think. i'm starting to really enjoy seeing what decorations couples choose, what the centerpiece looks like, the bridal dress...all the little things i never really noticed before but am mentally storing away for when i get married. that is if i don't forget seeing how my short-term memory isn't the greatest.

i teared up more times at this wedding than i did combined for all the ones i've attended in the past. why? i'm not quite sure but i'm slowly becoming a softie. my favorite favorite part of the wedding was when marci (maid of honor) sang the song for the first dance. it was just so damn moving! a great great night although my dress did get tighter and tighter as the night wore on to the point where it was getting quite uncomfortable. so double thanks to mr jimmy wu for picking me up even though he was on crutches and for providing such a nice green shirt and black warmup pants for me to change into. note to self...don't eat so much at weddings when in a tight dress. could help in not having to suck in stomache so much.

i have a new crush. and this one blows the bachelor out of the water. i'd like to announce here and now that richard tillman is the new it guy. at least for me anyways. who you ask? richard tillman. younger brother of pat tillman, recent recipient of the arthur ashe courage award at the espy awards. i'm quite sure he's an unknown to most everyone reading this blog but i'm telling you ladies, he's hot! and it's very rare that i say that about anybody.

he's got the tall brooding good looks. a nice body...you can tell he works out but doesn't look like a meathead. the disheveled hair that i'm so into at the moment. the bachelor had that too but richard's is rumpled much better. definitely one of the cuter guys i've seen in a while.

now how did this new crush develop you ask? i actually only saw him on tv for about 5 minutes accepting the award on pat and kevin tillman's behalf but i was already smitten. andrew firestone just can not compare. let me backtrack a bit. bren has been telling me months and months about this pat tillman guy, a football player who turned down a multi-million dollar nfl contract to join the army rangers. the elite of the elite. of course when i heard the story i was a bit moved and intrigued because who does that in this day of greed and no values? every now and then i'd get updates from bren on him but i guess i never understood the magnitude of his actions. until now at least.

bren went to high school with pat tillman and his brothers which explains why he knew so much about the guy. the little bits and pieces that i would hear from him made me admire pat tillman that much more. how he didn't accept the arthur ashe award personally because he didn't want the media attention. how he didn't grant any interviews when he decided to join the rangers because he didn't want it to seem like a publicity stunt. how he doesn't feel that there should even be a spotlight on him because he isn't anymore important than the guy fighting next to him.

the espy awards were last week and bren taped the part where they were presented the award. and i finally got to watch it today. there was a video salute to the two brothers and i have to say, i got a little teary-eyed. it's something that i greatly admire but sadly could never see myself doing. i'm much too conservative for that. in either case, he is my new hero. not just because he joined the rangers and gave up on millions but more to do with the way he carried himself. that's the way it should be because really, athletes and tv and movie stars are no better than the average joe. they even received a standing ovation from the crowd.

i'm rambling once again but basically i saw pat's youngest brother last nite and couldn't keep the smile off my face. i even had bren rewind the tape just to make sure that he was cute. and he was. my first impressions are off sometimes. bren said that when richard was in 5th grade he had sophomore ladies in high school attending his every little league games. now do i know how to pick them or what? and to top it all of, bren was friends with his brother. it just can't get any better than that.

i was a good samaritan today. i just donated blood for the first time evidenced by my proudly displayed "i'm a first time donor" sticker on my pants. nobody ever told me the extent you need to go to. my vision was you go in, they put a little needle in your arm and take what maybe four of five test tubes full of blood? how bad could this possibly be? i've been having my blood drawn once each week for the past three weeks and it wasn't so bad. the first time for my policy, second for my doctor's appointment, third time was today and then next week i'm supposed to give blood again for another test for another policy. i've never had so many needles pricked on my arm before. next thing you know, i'm going to look like a heroin addict.

i'm not quite sure why i never really knew what donating blood would be like. apparently everybody else knows but somewhere along the way, nobody bothered to tell me. did you know that you give one whole pint of blood?!?! one pint! when i was signing in, i asked the guy how big one pint was and asked if it was about three or four test tubes full and he just laughed. "you'll find out soon enough" he said. i hadn't been this nervous before in a really long time. the part that hurt the most was when they prick your finger to see if you're anemic. my finger throbbed for a good hour or two afterwards. i was secretly hoping my iron deficiency (i was iron deficient two years ago and had to start taking iron tablets everyday) would somehow save me from all this but nope, plenty of iron.

they ask you a whole slew of questions such as have you traveled outside of the US since 1980? 1980? heck that's practically my entire lifetime and so there i sat trying to remember everywhere i might of possibly gone to. have you had sexual intercouse with someone who's had sexual intercourse with a male? that was an easy no. and the list continues. the thing that i found very weird though was that after they prick your finger and do the initial test and ask all the questions, you're sent to a little private booth with two bar codes. one for "use my blood" meaning i've answered no to a lot of the questions and the other for "don't use my blood". meaning if you've done anything remotely kinky in your past, you better be putting on that bar code. i just found that so weird. does anyone ever put the "unsafe" bar code and if so, what happens? do they just tell you to leave? do they take your blood and test it for you? i never got the chance to ask. in any case, if you were unsafe, why would you volunteer to donate blood in the first place? yes please let me spread my AIDS to everyone.

by the way, did you know that when you donate blood you actually have an iv tube sticking out of you? and the blood runs through a little tube to the pouch? walking into the donating room was eerily similar to walking into a hospital ward. nurses and chairs and iv bags and needles everywhere.

the whole ordeal ended about one hour later and i suppose it could of been worse. the nurse had trouble finding my veins so it took three tries which didn't help lessen my fears much. then during the process i start feeling a little light-headed and they had to get me water and for a while there my blood dripping slowed down a lot...too much i think. so there i was, lying in this chair with three nurses around me trying to figure out if i was going to make it to one pint or not. they even went so far as to weigh my blood bag to see if it was heavy enough but i made it. thankfully. i would of been pretty upset if i went through all this for nothing.

so now i'm just left with a throbbing finger, a little wooziness and a nice baby blue bandage on my arm. to match my shirt of course because i'm fashionable like that. the only bummer is i'm not supposed to have alcoholic drinks for 24 hours and i'm going clubbing tonight. the last time i went completely sober i was bored out of my mind so let's hope this won't be a repeat.

but really, everyone should donate blood at least once. if i did it, i'm sure you can too. except ameer who is known to faint. apparently we're having a severe shortage this summer so go donate guys! you even get free cookies and ice-cream afterwards. and two if you ask nicely. rah rah rah...i'm a cheerleader!

it's hard waking up early and coming to work after a two week hiatus. but what a fun hiatus it was. it's been a while since i've been back to san diego for such an extended amount of time and it wasn't long before i got back into the groove of how we operate. which translates into no time constraints. got myself a tan finally. i thought i was pretty dark but then mr joe marshman didn't even notice this morning and curtis said "oh i guess you have a light tan". light? i've been swimming everyday for a light tan? i beg to differ but then again he is a guy so he's not supposed to notice these things and he's dark as hell so everyone is light compared to him.

i was able to bond lots with miss sharon kim and she was nice enough to go along with jon to drop me off at the airport. saw gene perform at his cd release party and i was actually listening to his cd last night when i was unpacking. visited babbs a ton at fumari's and found out that smoking hookahs is hazardous to your health. not quite sure why i thought that it wasn't in the first place but i think the nice smelling flavors threw me off. saw jb and helen for a bit and actually carried a conversation with jb that lasted longer than two sentences. amit came down two weekends in a row...one weekend with his cowboy hat and the next without. eric flew in from michigan for his bachelor party (or at least jon and hong's version of a bachelor party and we know that consists of lots of balling and video games) and i did volunteer to jump out of a cake for free but nobody seemed too keen on that idea. at least i tried. rambled on and on to victor on the way back from e street and what i said i don't even know. heard ameer freestyle rap for the first time which was hilarious. saw evan again making this twice in one year. that's got to be some kind of record. got no lobsters from hong but i'm still wishing and waiting and saw his shadyness in action. or at least i think i did. had nancy and jimmy to keep me sane at times and if it wasn't for jimmy, i don't think we would of finished packing on time. james and connie came back from camping and i got to seem them all of a ten minutes before it was time to get ready for the airport. but at least i saw james being thrown into the pool. that was a double plus. you sure you're wearing boxers under there?

i learned i dance like a white girl which was agreed upon by almost everyone. found out or actually told that i have no rhythmn and can't keep track of an eight count. or ten count in my case but at least i know what a down beat is now. the white girl dancing theory is still yet to be proven though. we must have a dance-off next time. i have rhythmn dammit! i learned it is possible to gain five pounds in one week and jon eats like an anorexic. i learned or realized how lucky i was to have lived in senterra for so long and i guess all good things must come to an end at some point or other. at least temporarily.

surprisingly, i was pretty sad to leave last night but i think it's more a combination of moving out and my mom going away for a couple months. i guess i'll be staying at hong's a lot more now. at least i'll get first dibs on the lobster this time. thanks for a great two weeks guys.

i had a very lovely day in san diego yesterday. i won my bet with jimmy (told you i wasn't gullible) so he treated me, nancy and my cousin hailin to brazilian for lunch. all you can eat buffet too. i love going to new restaurants or trying different types of food and this was pretty good. i especially like the big knives that the waiters walk around with dumping loads of meat onto our table and of course the lychee jelly which we stole and put in my purse to be eaten later. although everyone forgot theirs so i ate two of them myself. very good. i miss the lychee jellies that you can pop in your mouth. remember those? a girl choked and died while eating one so it's no longer being sold. i am sympathetic of course but why must everyone be punished?

then it was off shopping in pacific beach and i had such high hopes but the stores weren't as good as i remembered. but i did make one very important observation. i must say or rather exclaim...san diego really is home of the beautiful! perhaps it's been too long since i've gone anywhere near the vicinity of a beach so i was easily impressed but i've never seen so many well toned and tanned bodies before.

everywhere i went i saw girls in little itty bikini tops and tiny shorts walking around the stores and the guy themselves were often shirtless. with muscles too which is an added plus. i suppose this is the norm for a beach city but damn. do these people just workout and tan all day long? i was quite in awe and i heard lots of cat calling as well. if i was a guy, i think i'd be cat calling too. who knew i'd be sight seeing in my hometown of san diego.

afterwards we went swimming of course (i think i've gone almost everyday since i've been here. must take advantage before we move) and then after a filling dinner at niban of which victor tried to kill me with wasabi it was off clubbing to e street alley. i'm not complaining or anything but a certain someone told us outside that yes there were cuties (he was talking about girls but still...) and it was really crowded. both of which were not true. i saw no cuties and it wasn't that crowded at all. in fact, everyone in there was abnormally short and i felt like a towering giant but it all worked out. made it very easy to spot jon in the crowd at least. another observation i noticed is that i need to pee quite a lot when i'm drinking. i made so many trips to the bathroom but at least i got lollipops for everyone. go me.

if it weren't for jimmy dragging me to take a shot every ten minutes the night would of been very boring indeed. and i had my first drink with my cousin who's a newly minted 21 and i could see my serving as a good role model vanishing out the window. oh well what else is new. at least i had late night eats at keith's of scrambled eggs and toast with butter. lots of toast and lots of butter. what a great day.

packing is a bitch and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. especially when it's ten plus years worth of your childhood that you're packing. we're moving out of our house in san diego or actually renting it out so i've been packing. the movers came last weekend for round number one and took away a lot of the furniture which means one of two things. one we have way more room now in the family room to hang out making it very condusive to large friend gatherings. twister anyone? or two, since we don't have any furniture tv watching is relegated to two very uncomfortable chairs making me watch much less tv than i normally do. which is actually a good thing seeing too much tv gives me a headache anyways. yes big revelation i know.

but in this packing frenzy, i've come across lots of things from my past that i've either forgotten about or just had no clue where it had gone. found all my old diaries and actually found the key to one of them. needless to say i had a good laugh reading my entries from 1993. let's just say it all surrounded around boys and whether he likes me or why he doesn't like me. ah the good old days. found lots of old love letters because you know i had so many suitors when i was young. ha. more like lots of love letters from two specific boys. haven't had time to read them all yet but you can bet i will be soon.

found my stamp and sticker collections which i'm keeping. i basically have four piles. one is to keep and put in storage in san diego. second is to keep and bring it up to san jose as if i don't have enough junk in my room already. three is to donate to the kids of poverty because you never know when they might need a snoopy alarm clock. and fourth is just to trash outright. it's harder than you think. some things i know i should part with but just can't. take for instance my barbie and my little pony collections. it wasn't so easy racking up eight barbie dolls with different outfits and accessories and i have a ken as well. when we were younger i would make jon play barbie with me and of course he was ken while in return i played g.i. joe and transformers. now what would i do now with barbie and the my little pony's with their own house to boot. nothing except take up space. my desperate plea to my mom was "but but they could very well be worth money on ebay!" she wasn't buying that one. so away they go.

i've thrown or given so much stuff away that all i'm left with is one little box that i'm bringing back up to san jose. mainly cd's and xmas cards i found but haven't used. so expect some xmas cards this year from me. and then for storage, just two boxes and that's it. everything i own pretty much is crammed into my room up north or sitting in storage somewhere on del mar heights.

so as that song says "growing up is hard to do"...it's a 60's song i believe in case you're trying to hum it.

so i'm back in san diego again. sitting in front of jon's computer that i literally had to beg and plead to use. he's not cool like that. in either case, i flew back to san jose sunday night, stayed a little over 24 hours and now am back in sd. why you ask? no it's not because i missed my sd friends too much although that could very well be the case. i've realized during my stay here this past week that i've been experiencing withdrawal from them but that will have to be explained in another blog...maybe. the real reason is being the irresponsible little worker that i am...i forgot my laptop at home. i didn't even realize it until my mom was dropping me off at the airport and asked where my laptop was. needless to say i had the deer in the headlights look on my face. laptop? oh yes...that is why i came down to sd in the first place. but i wasn't too worried since i knew i wasn't scheduled to be on any clients for the rest of the week.

monday rolls around and i decide to just take the day off as what's the point of even going in if i don't have a laptop? besides i had my car to tend to, needed to make a doctor's appointment and give a blood test for my new policy. lots to do. i'm a busy girl after all. ha...yeah right. at this point i still wasn't quite sure what to do about my laptop. should i have my mom overnight it? possible but expensive and plus who knows what could happen. i've got sensitive shit on that thing. it's almost like my baby after my cell phone. very nerdy i know.

during this time, i decide to check my work voicemail and got 7 new calls. 7! that's quite a lot for not being on any clients. and of course what happens. shit hits the fan and i'm thoroughly stressed out for a good 3 hours at least. got a couple calls from managers, the big boss of hr herself and some other folks. all over this training course we were supposed to complete by june 30th and currently i'm shown in the database as not being in compliance. which means i could face disciplinary actions. whatever that means exactly i have no clue. but noncompliance my ass. i completed that thing two weeks ago but without my laptop i had no way to prove it. in either case, they make me call the national 1800 number of which i'm on hold for over a hour and the whole time i thought my battery was going to die. not fun. to top it all off, the guy that finally answered promised to call me right back but never did. bastard. doesn't he know i'm on a tight deadline here?

so i just leave it at that. hey it's not my fault no one called me back and i know i completed it. and well seeing how i was in dire need of access to my laptop (briefly flirted with the idea of jon accessing my laptop for me and even called him in a panic but decided it was much too complicated for him to handle. ha) i called hr and basically just asked if i could take the rest of the week off and was approved. gotta love them at times.

i was supposed to fly down friday for july 4th weekend anyways so i just upped my flight a couple days earlier (the change fee was only $28...i was really expecting at least $100 these days but hey...gotta love southwest) and now i'm here. and of course when i got a hold of my laptop i was able to show them my report saying that yes i had in fact completed the course on june 11th. take that suckers. so i fired off a nice but curt email with the attached report which is the least i could of done. seeing how they caused me so much stress and trouble. don't need anymore wrinkles.

but i'm not complaining. i don't mind being in sd another week. it's almost as if i live here now but the only downside is a waste of my vacation time. even with my five weeks a year i think i'm running out. amazingly. but i'm expecting a lot more swimming and tanning, maybe even the beach, jamba, roberto's and shopping. plus jon's not working now and my cousin gets in tonight so i'll have constant play buddies. aren't they lucky.