pop culture. or more accurately hollywood gossip. i love it and unlike with everything else in my life where you tell me one thing and it goes in one ear and out the other, i have an uncanny ability to remember that so and so used to date so and so but then got dumped for so and so and now they're engaged and about to be married. ive actually had friends complain to me that my lack of memory on lots of things bug the crap out of them but for some reason or other, when it comes to celebrity gossip, i have no problems.

i have three websites that i check religiously everyday to keep on top of my news...actually one of them i just go to look at celebrity pictures but it's almost like i have an unnatural obsession with this thing. take last night for example. i had read that jennifer garner had accidentally revealed the sex of her baby on the jay leno show and then when i was watching extra or access hollywood and they were showing a clip of it, i felt a certain glee come over me because yes! i knew about this already and i just sat there in anticipation the whole time to see her reaction.

for the past month or so, jon g's been getting us weekly and star magazine sent to our apt for no reason at all and he can't figure out why meaning he doesn't even know who to call to cancel so in the meantime ive been reaping the benefits. it's so great. i can barely keep up. as soon as they arrive in the mail, you can pretty much count on me being silent for the next hour or so. i got a year subscription to us weekly recently for my bday present and it's pretty much the best present i could of asked for. a new gossip magazine arriving on my doorstep each week? can a girl ask for anything more?

i secretly love it when im the first to find out about something. i have a friend who sends me hollywood gossip every now and then but each and everytime ive already known about it before but yet he keeps trying. what a trucker. every so often i get a piece of news that shocks the hell out of me and when it does, i get all giddy inside. one of my really good ones a while back was when i found out portia de rossi was gay and laid that news on my co-workers only to secretly pride myself on their look of bewilderment. or did you know that diane keaton and keanu reeves used to date? supposedly of course. it's just great.

i get so involved and interested in their lives that im exactly the type of person celebrities hate because im the ones who will buy tabloid magazines or i love it when magazines have pictures of celebrities in their "normal" state so i can rag on how horrible they look. anything on e! is good too. especially when they do their countdown of 40 hottest hollywood wives for example or more recently the 50 greatest celebrity breakups and i knew about pretty much each and every one of them. i really did. it's a pathetic life i lead and between this blog and my last about laguna, i will have to restrain myself in writing about anything even remotely related to these two topics in the near future in order to shield myself from further embarassment.

im ashamed to admit this but just recently ive been addicted to laguna beach and i hate myself for it. this was one show that i always used to rip on saying how stupid it was and that it wasn't even a real reality show, the kids were all spoiled, who watches this crap anyways and now here i am, a faithful watcher. it all started on a lazy sunday a couple of weeks ago when mtv was having a laguna beach marathon and i sat and watched the entire thing. all of it. and now i can't stop. it's disgusting.

i do have one question though. this isn't a real reality show right? tell me it isn't please. i had a big debate with my friend over this and he was convinced it was real but there's no way it could be. no way. maybe the people are real but the situations are all staged beforehand including what's going to happen, who's going to hook up with who and so on. it has to be. otherwise wouldn't it just be another real world? but the look and feel of the whole show is completely different. if anyone has a definite answer on this, please let me know. im being serious too. it really bugs the crap out of me and i can't get a definitive answer out of anyone.

i mean what group of friends do you know hooked up among each other all the time or have so much drama going on all the time, or go off to college but not one minute is actually shown of them at school? what high school kids did you know got to spend their days going off to cabo or lounging around at the spa getting manicures and pedicures and doing nothing generally except shop and go out? this is not what high school was like. and i went to a private school too.

but ive watched the show enough that i even know them my name. my favorites are jason and kristin. jason because he's the bad boy of the show and he's hot in that brooding type of way. the one who will no doubt play you like the player he is but yet you always keep going back for more. sad but true. he's already broken jessica and alex m's hearts but those type of guys are just oh so irresistible. kristin because well she's fun. she's the type of girl you'd want around because she knows how to have a good time and well she's hot too. id have to say jessica probably wins my vote for the most annoying, it's no wonder jason broke up with her but to go to alex m? please...he can do better. im still secretly hoping kristin and stephen get back together but based upon next week's previews, it doesn't look like it'll happen.

but do you see how sad this is? that i can get all worked up over ficitonal storylines? i must find out the truth once and for all on whether this is a real reality show or not and then im going to slowly wean myself off of it. i must. but it's just oh so addicting...

i signed the lease to my place today and im so damn excited i could nearly pee in my pants. ill be moving right to the heart of yuppy land but it's jam packed with restaurants, bars and most importantly lots of cute shops. im literally half a block away from so many boutiques so any thoughts i had on saving more money each month is pretty much gone with me paying more in rent and with shopping so damn close.

ive been looking for an apartment for damn close to a month now and with moving day just weeks away, i was starting to stress and worry about not finding a place in time, so much so that i woke up with nightmares one or two nights. while everyone was like you've got time and it'll all work out and don't worry, i don't do too well with the unknown. well on certain things i could really care less about but when it comes to where you'll be living and where to move your furniture to, i like to get it all organized and tidy way in advance but they were right, it did all work out and not a minute too soon either.

and i think im going to love the place. more importantly once again i get my own bathroom which is pretty key for me but even more so is that it comes with two parking spots. i never realized how difficult it was to find a place with two spots in sf and i hate street parking. partly because im not the greatest parallel parker and who wants to come home at night only to circle around the block...

i think part of my problem in finding a place is that im really picky. ive always said that i like living in sf but hate the type of housing here. im more used to san diego places that are newer, cleaner and more spread out. here a lot of the places i looked at were old or small or dark and depressing and well you get the point. and this will be my first time living with a girl in three years but my mom was pretty excited when i told her. apparently living with a girl in her mind equates to me going out and meeting guys together and potentially fulfilling her dream of me settling down soon.

and oh, this place is a lot bigger than my place now so i'll have lots more room for visitors and crashers so ill expect people to come visit. and to top all this off, today is friday which means drink time is just around the corner. juuuuuuuust kidding.

i went with two of my co-workers during my lunch hour today to go watch the symphony perform at the park for free and boy was it nice. it's been a while since ive been to anything like that and watching wicked does not count but the guys were all dressed up in white tuxes and sitting there on the semi wet grass trying to look over the people standing in front of me (by the way, isn't it common knowledge that if you're in the front row and there's people behind you sitting down, it's rude to stand and block their view?) i was once again reminded of how i wished i had stuck with my piano lessons in high school but back when i was young and immature, boys were much more important than staying home to practice a hour or two a day.

but ive forgotten how great the symphony could be and apparently they're selling individual show tickets this season so im going to try to get in at least one concert hopefully. i have a godsister who went to juilliard for harp and now plays for the nyc opera and as if that wasn't enough, she's also an awesome pianist and sometimes i wished i could play like her. but alas i can't. the crowning achievement of all my years of piano lessons was getting honorable mention at a sonata competition in high school. my piano teacher always said that i didn't play with enough "dynamics" and needed to loosen up and feel the music. i would have annual piano recitals where you played in the order of worst to best pretty much and i was usually second to last only to always be followed by this guy who got up there and would start playing with his whole body leaning in and back and around in a circle and i would always stand in the back in awe of how someone can become so enthralled while playing. because honestly he looked pretty goofy to me but he certainly put me to shame.

my piano playing these days pretty much consists of me going home to san diego and playing the five or so chinese songs that i remember for my mom and as all my pinao books are packed away in the garage, that's pretty much the extent it goes. but maybe with the purchase of my new keyboard (yes i am going to get one!) ill start practicing more and putting in the time i never did back in the day.

see what one day of being 27 can do to someone? ha. of course i tend to lose interest pretty quickly so this could just be a fad for the next couple of months but i did contribute my lunch money to the red cross today. now that's pretty grown up of me isn't it?

so im officially in my "late" twenties now which ive been told falls between the range of 27 to 29 so thankfully im still in the first stage but the thing about being in your "late" category for anything is that you inevitably feel like time is running out. and in some sense it is. the twenties are the best years of your life (keep in mind i said the same thing in my teen years) and knowing that there's only three more years left can stress a girl out. funny because i always thought that by 27, id be a lot further along than i am now. for one i thought i would be going to the gym regularly...don't ask me why but i just always figured by the end of my 20's id be in shape but that's certainly not true. i thought for sure id start acting like an adult or at least have a better idea of what i wanted to do with my life and what traits im looking for in a guy but instead, i find myself just as confused as ever.

job wise i know i don't want to do accounting for the rest of my life but can't think of anything else i would want to do and still get the same amount of pay. i pretty much knew i didn't want to do anything accounting related my first year post college and here i am six years later still burning the midnight oil except now i work for a cooler company but am still chugging along like the little corporate worker that i am. suddenly being a housewife doesn't sound too bad. i could pull off baking cupcakes for pta meetings i think...or at least store bought cupcakes.

living wise i knew i eventually would end up in san diego but intially when i first moved up here in 2000, i thought for sure id move back down before i turned 30 but in thinking about it now...30 is right around the corner and im even starting to rethink if i even want to move back there. would i still like it as much as ive built up in my head or will i just inevitably get bored?

and finally guys. im no closer than when i first started dating to figuring out what im looking for and one really can't afford to waste any time in their prime years. one thing that always stuck with me was an ex who commented to me several times after we broke up that he really wished he would of known we weren't going to work out earlier because we basically dated right up till the end of his prime and while he didn't consider it a "waste" he did say it made things tougher for him.

i thought for sure once i hit my late twenties id start feeling like an adult but i don't. i wonder if im always going to feel like this...a kid at heart but forced to grow up and act my age. but ive decided to take a new approach and instead of lamenting to everyone about being old, ive decided that i need to embrace my late twenties instead of freaking out about it (which will be easy seeing how i really only feel that way when talking to my mom who conveniently is on a three week cruise at the moment) and in the meantime, maybe i'll even try to hit the gym once or twice a month. after all ive still got two more years to get in shape.