this is a long post so read at your own risk.

cancun 2003. just got back a little while ago from a week long vacation to cancun mexcio with two of my girlfriends from college and i'm now sitting in hotel pan blogging about it. there's plenty to say but no scandalous stories to reveal. sorry guys. i know it's a big letdown. it's a shocker but amazingly i only went clubbing one night and didn't get wasted and only had maybe three other drinks total the other nights. am i getting old? i certainly hope not.

my vision of the cancun trip was pretty much girls gone wild and being completely wasted all the time as i would imagine what spring breakers go through but the trip itself was pretty tame. a lot of fun still but certainly not as much partying or drinking as i was expecting. it probably helped that one of the girls i went with was recently engaged and the other had a steady boyfriend which translates into more touristy activities and being in bed by midnite but i think i enjoyed it better this way. i felt like i saw and accomplished a lot and another bonus is i actually remember everything as i have being known to blackout when very wasted. as some of you may have been privy to witness.

i took two tours which lasted all day and participated in one party bus night. one tour to chichenitza to see the mayan ruins and another to xcaret that was kind of like a mexcican version of sea world if that makes any sense. without any of the shamu and dolphin shows but complete with a petting zoo. the trip to chichenitza consisted of a three hour drive on a bus where the air-conditioning was working a bit overtime so i proceeded to freeze my ass off with no jacket to keep me warm. the ruins itself was pretty interesting though. not sure i would go on the tour again but i guess it's one of those once in the lifetime things you should just do. the weather was way too hot and humid for me to pay any attention to what the tour guide was saying and i felt like i was on a middle school trip where my friend and i lagged behind the group and just hunted for shade whenever we stopped. the highlight of the day was climbing to the top of the pyramid because damn i'm out of shape and it was so hot i had little pools of sweat forming in my bikini top. a lovely picture i'm sure.

then on the second day i went to xcaret where i went snorkeling for the first time. although jon now tells me that i've been before but i can't remember so i'm now pronouncing this officially as my first time. that was probably the best part of the trip for me. i snorkeled down a river and we could swim through caves with skylights and waterfalls although there weren't very many fish to see until the very end. i did get pretty excited a couple times though as i kept thinking i saw fishes swimming around until my friend pointed out to me that i was just looking at leaves. very sobering indeed. after snorkeling it was off to the beach and relaxing in the hamocks and trying to soak up some rays lying out in inner tubes on the lagoon but the weather just wasn't cooperating. then at nighttime there was a culture show that i wasn't quite sure what to expect from it but it turned out to be really good. if something can keep my attention for two hours you can sure bet it's somewhat interesting.

finally i was done with all the touristy stuff and could go out on the beach for a day of nothing but working on my tan. my plan worked a little too well as i got horribly sunburnt to where i had to buy aloe from the drugstore and for a day there i thought my back was going to breakout in blisters. but i'm a little better now thanks in case you were concerned although the back of my legs is still bright red. i probably wasn't too smart in deciding to go out in the sun for 5 hours in peak time using only a SPF 4. but in my defense if i even have one was i had to be certain i came home noticeably darker and i did go to cancun during thunderstorm season and it had been raining for a hour or so each day when we were there so seeing how the weather was so unpredictable i had to be sure to soak up all the sun i could. and well i am noticeably darker now but also in a great deal of pain. fair tradeoff? fuck no. i've been going to sleep in my bikini tops the past two nights since it was so painful. surprisingly yes hotel bedsheets feel much better on your skin than a cotton tanktop. future note of reference for you future vacationers out there.

now on to the scandalous part. or lack thereof. i went on the party bus where you ride in this double decker bus with music blaring from the speakers as you get taken around to three different bars/clubs for the nite with all you can drink. i had ten shots i joke you not as well as several jello shots and was only very tipsy. i'm sure it's not because my tolerance has gotten any higher either. damn those watered down drinks. the only guys my friends and i met was this 45 year old black man from missouri who had gone to cancun without his wife but with her permission. no he wasn't hitting on us...he was actually pretty cool and even bought us all two roses since it's not everyday three mid 20's tipsy girls are so willing to hang out with him. i did get to go to coco bongo which is supposed to be the best club there and i had seen it on wild on e! the weekend before i was set to leave for cancun so i was expecting lots but i suppose once you've become a club whore like me, all clubs seem to be the same no matter where you go. even in cancun.

the rest of the week was spent eating lots of chips and salsa, drinking pina coladas, talking to the locals and shopping for souvenirs. i have never been whistled at by guys so much in my life but i've pretty much determined anyone with a vagina will get whistled at so it wasn't all too flattering. it got to be quite annoying actually and while gift shopping the vendors would always say "come on senorita, buy something for your boyfriend?" to which i would reply well what if i don't have one and the response would be "buy one for your ex." can't win with them i suppose. while shopping, i thought i had found the perfect gift for the boys but boy was i wrong. well actually most of the boys liked it (ie. victor, gene and jimmy) while the other more girly boys (ie jon and james) actually turned down my gift and wanted something else. the gall of them! i had brought back these corona bottles with a clay figure of a guy and girl having sex attached on which i personally thought was hilarious and even went back to buy two more because i was so sure they were going to be a hit only to come back home to find out otherwise. although the girls (ie nancy, may and susan) thought they were pretty funny too. we can clearly see who the cooler ones of the bunch are now can't we and who the not so manly guys are? ahem.

so i took pics of them for your viewing pleausure and my question is do you find these gifts funny? i would think normal guys would love them but i'm clearly not hanging out with your run of the mill average guys i suppose. or am i just off my rocker and these gifts really are tasteless and i never should of bothered to lovingly hand carry them on my carry-on bag back to hotel pan?

if you've made it to the end of my blog kudos to you. it certainly was a long one but well i only go to cancun so often and must jot everything down while it's still fresh in my mind for future memory sake. it's gone quite down the drain these past couple of years. so kudos to you.

first annual hot dog eating contest. how this idea came up i have no clue but i was certainly going to be there to cheer everyone on. four contestants. all guys of course because we girls are delicate and don't do stuff like this. ha. yeah right. i scarfed down two hot dogs for dinner before the competition even started. looking back i probably should of waited as we ran out of hot dogs at the end but you can't blame a girl for being hungry. i believe we had 32 hot dogs which sounded like plenty at the time but we weren't prepared for mr caly nguyen. the official 2003 hot dog eating champ. nine hot dogs in twelve minutes. that's pretty impressive no? he actually kind of reminds me of the little japanese hot dog eating man (i'm sure you know who i'm talking about i'm just drawing a blank on the name right now) since they're both skinny but can eat a shitload and their stomaches stick out abnomally big afterwards. why i know this i'm not sure but i do.

in either case hope you like the pics. my first post with my new digital camera. more to come with cancun of course :)

i bought myself a digital camera at fry's today. the sony dsc-p32. for the past two weeks or so all i've been talking about getting was the sony u20 that jon has and how i wanted the same one but in black but finally...when it came down to decision time my logical and practical side prevailed over my wanting a cute compact camera that oh fits so easily into my purse. for a mere $30 more, my camera has zoom and 3.2 megapixels...whatever the hell that means. i just know the higher the number the better.

ultimately what won me over in getting this camera over the u20 was when bren found this little black camera case that showed that yes this camera was small and sleek and could very possibly be just as cute as the u20. maybe not as cute but close. because that is what is important in picking out a camera anyways. i had my heart set on this little white furry case they sell on the sony website and all i could think about was how cute my black camera would look inside of it but i guess it's just not meant to be. plus sujeet brought up a good point in saying everybody has silver cameras these days so a black one would be sweet looking but i guess my camera will just have to do with being average. why don't digital cameras come in multiple colors anyways? i feel like it really could suck the girls in no?

i'm hoping there aren't too many buttons or functions with this camera. i normally like my gadgets to be very simple...point and shoot. i have a feeling i'll be quite happy with my purchase. plus i bought a 256mb memory stick with a $15 rebate which translates into me taking 200 some pictures with it all of which will become quite handy i'm sure when i'm in cancun next week. so expect to see tons of pictures from me. nothing scandalous of course. come now, what were you expecting with three girls running amuck in mexcio?

there was a time during my stay here in san jose that i had three of my ex's living within a twenty mile radius all at the same time. but now they're all gone. one moved a while back to do a residency in pharmacy in los angeles. another is a doctor in indiana. and the third recently has left to make the big bucks in real estate in ohio. and i do mean big bucks. out of all my ex's (not saying i had a ton or anything) these were the three that i got along the best with so i thought it was kind of funny when they began moving to san jose one by one. lucky me.

the topic of ex-boyfriends is always a touchy one. there seems to be this universal thought that once the relationship ends, so does the friendship which often times do but i'm a big proponent of remaining friends. sure it might not always work out but i'm batting about 50% right now which isn't too bad i suppose. i often run into the dilemma when referring to them in conversation if i should just call them my "friend" or my "ex". because really they are my friends but when you stick the word ex in there, it carries so much more significance.

i find it pretty amazing how you can be so close to someone for a couple of months or years and then poof just like that it's over. the person that most likely knows you better than your friends and sometimes siblings and yet all of a sudden there is no more talking or seeing each other. it's almost as if the person was never a part of your life. i've heard people say that they learn something from each relationship which is true but are relationships meant to just go away? for myself, my longest relationship was for about a span for four years and in looking back it seemed so long ago and he had such a big impact on my life (one of which was getting me later curfew hours and climbing out of my second story window in the middle of the night) but if i were to see him now, i would have no clue what to say except for the usual polite talk reserved to strangers. very sad indeed. all i have of that particular relationship now is a box full of letters and memorabilia that i came across during our move out of the san diego house and as hard as i tried, i couldn't bear myself to throw it away. why i don't really know but it's now sitting safely in a storage room in del mar. if anyone is in need of a velvet rose i've got one you can have.

i'm all for keeping in touch with your ex's and remaining friends. i'd say that two of them i'd consider my close friends since they know me pretty well and can pretty much see where i'm coming from or what i'm thinking sometimes before i even say it. and that is a rare thing to find so why throw it away just because there's a stigma attached to hanging out with your ex? pooh pooh to that i say.

i'm sunburnt again. i seem to just never learn my lesson. one would think after i was fried red my last time snowboarding i'd be slathering on sunblock but no. once again i didn't put any on and am now burnt on the stomache, shoulders, back, face and even my scalp. and the worst of the worst...i have a sunglass tan. i hate those.

this past weekend was spent driving from san jose to huntington beach with bren, maggie and rob. there was a surfing competition there but it was more so to hang out with the voltrons and company. it's been a while since i spent an entire day at the beach and i forgot how much fun it is. walked around the surf competition for a bit. hoped for a glimpse of kelly slater but who am i kidding. got myself a fake tattoo on the small of my back which makes me want to get a real one if it weren't for the pain. watched skateboarders in the half pipe (is that what it's called?) which was actually really cool since we were right on the railing but after about five mintues, we were told to move. then it was on to three blissful hours of beach volleyball. a sport that i love to play but am horrible at. it is here where i proceeded to get sunburnt but hey i didn't miss any of my serves except one i believe which i was pretty proud of. there was plenty of messing up on my part which made bren to comment "you're not very athletic are you?" which i found to be quite offensive because hey, i wasn't that horrible now was i? there was plenty of me running around to find my sandals as the sand was so freaking hot and during the process i managed to give myself quite a nice little cardio workout to where my butt was a bit sore the next day.

surprisingly we all had enough energy to go clubbing that night and it was off to century club i go. never been there but i've heard lots about it so i was pretty excited. the venue was really nice. very spacious and upscale (it better be for the $20 cover although girls were only $10. i love being female at times) but for some odd reason, lots of short asian guys there. i wasn't even wearing my highest heels and i could easily see over the head of half the people there. why are asian boys so short anyways? i don't care how hot a guy is...if the height isn't there it could be a lose lose from the very beginning. after all what girl doesn't love wearing heels? i know i do. by the way, i've discussed this with my many girlfriends (so that means one or two) and we all agree. the guy must at least be the same height as when we're wearing heels but no shorter.

then after eating some pretty good congee complete with pig's blood and cow tongue sunday which i gladly passed on to vi, it was back up to san jose we go. in rob's slammed car which i got to drive. for those in the dark, a slammed car is one that has been lowered i believe. now i've been to a many car races when i was younger and seen plenty of lowered cars but never one that bounced this much. it was almost like we were on a roller coaster. the ride up was quite uneventful much unlike on the way down when we were literally stopped in traffic for 45 minutes. it was almost like a scene out of rem's "everybody hurts" video except for the guy who came streaking out of his rv. of course i missed all this as i was passed out in the car after having been drinking since 3pm friday but that is another story in itself.

another great weekend although i did play phone tag with ameer all weekend long and we still never saw each other. next time i hope. at least i have my sunburnt body to remind me of the fun times. oh joy.

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.

tonight will mark my being in san diego for one entire week and i've loved every minute of it. well except for when my stmache blows up to the size of a balloon after each meal but that's another blog entry. for those worried (yes i know there are many of you out there. ha), i am going to the doctors as soon as i get back to san jose under my mom's strict orders.

i'm not even quite sure why i'm loving my stay in san diego so much. i haven't done all that much. made several jaunts to downtown to watch hong being macked on and show off his dancing skills but besides that...being the dutiful good daughter i am i've come home each night to just hang out. but really, i think i've said this several times before in my other blogs, it's just being surrounded by family and friends. we started off strong hanging out each night with rock bottom, islands, niban, fumari's but then slowly weaned off towards the latter of the week but tonight it'll be picking up again. tonight marks gene's cd release party of which i plan to be a raucous as i can. oh how he wishes he never told us about it. but everyone will be down. i think anyways. ameer should be in town. amit came in friday. ms sharon kim is here for two weeks. and of course the old crew (with the new and improved jimmy!) with the exception of grace who ditched us because we weren't fun enough. and oh we're missing sagging monk because he's traversing the mountains camping somewhere.

yesterday i met up with my girl's group from college and out of the six of us, one is married and pregnant, one is getting married in less than a month and another just got engaged. it's really crazy actually. talk yesterday consisted of how much weddings cost, where the best florists are and essentially all wedding advice one could ever want. seeing how i'm nowhere in the vincinity of anyplace close to getting married, they all promised to keep their wedding books for me. pretty convenient really. and of course there was baby talk and talk of sonnograms and i even went maternity shopping for a bit after dinner. very different than my usual conversation with the sd group which mostly consist of yo where you at? when are we meeting? let's go eat. ha. but you know i love it.

besides all that i went on a huge shopping spree yesterday with jen and well, let's just be glad i brought a big suitcase down here.

hot diggity damn. don't know where i got that from but it's been running through my head for two days now. in either case, i think i can get used to living in a mansion. in the mornings i wake up to my own suite, take a shower, take my sweet time getting ready because the conference room is only a two minute walk away, come to work, and sit at my desk by myself listening to launchcast until the simulation starts. and i'm actually having fun with it. not being rude because i've decided it's beyond impossible for me but just seeing them try to figure out what's going on and the overwhelming looks on their faces. pretty similar to what i have even now at times. the class even clapped for me when i walked into the room at the end of the day. thank you thank you...i'm sure an oscar is in the works somewhere. ha. yeah right.

breakfast consists of basically anything and everything you could think of. well, not scrambled eggs and such but more along the lines of tons of pastries to choose from and fruits and drinks. i've also been drinking coffee the mornings that i'm here too. very unusual for me as i try to refrain as much as i can. maybe because we have a start time of 8am here and we all know my day never starts that early. then after a couple hours of playing client and internet browsing in between, it's off to lunch where yesterday i had chocolate covered strawberries for dessert. big strawberries too.

then around 3 or 4pm snacks come out. the first day we had freshly baked cookies and little tins of ben and jerry's ice-cream. i had the cherry garcia flavor. on top of that, it was one of the new hires birthday so we had this huge chocolate cake and well, it was only right to take a piece. yesterday we had nachos and more chocolate cake with coconuts inside and i'm usually not a fan of coconut but it was there and i was bored so why the hell not.

i'm then regulated to a couple more hours of getting some actual work done and going around trying to find blogs to comment on as me, suj and jon are mired in this commenting revolution. but it seems our efforts may be harder than i first thought. there just aren't enough updates these days but we will prevail! i never thought i'd say this but browsing the internet gets pretty boring after a couple hours. there's only so many news articles, gossip columns, fashion pictures, and blogs to read before i run out of places to go. plus i'm no longer addicted to friendster.

but moving along, night time consists of a gourmet cooked dinner and afterwards it's so nice to walk into your room with the towels all folded and tidy with your bed turned down with two pieces of ghiradelli chocolates waiting for you. is this the life or what? the staff here are all so helpful and even drove some of the new hires to the nearby long's and safeway as they didn't have a car. what service!

to top it all off, i don't need to go back to work monday as i'll be at training again, this time as a participate in san diego. of course i'm sure the amenities won't be quite as nice and i'll have to share with a roomate but no complaints here. everyone should live in a mansion sometime. even better if it's free.

so today marks the first day of my role playing instructor for our new hires. it's not bad actually. mainly because i haven't had to do much yet but i will in a bit. i've arrived, gotten my conference room, received a ton of handouts i'm not quite sure what to do with, databases with too much information and was served lunch. to top it off, training this year is at the hayes mansion (for those who know, the place where josh had his wedding reception). i'm actually in the same building but just downstairs in the conference room. and i've been told i'm allowed to stay here for my two night duration. hopefully i won't get a roomate. after all, i'm not a participant this time, i'm an instructor. i've moved on up...a bit anyways.

as i meet the other two instructors, they both seem pretty young and hip. like me of course. and as i was making my little speech introducing myself and telling them exactly why i'm here (my role is to be the client. hence the role playing. i'm told to be rude, sarcastic, mean but that is yet to be seen whether i can pull it off or not. that's just not in my nature...at least not when it's make believe), i look around and don't feel like an instructor. the room is filled with recent college graduates and basically i don't feel much older than them. i wish they weren't so formal when talking to me. can't they see that i'm fun? one of them?

i feel like it's a bunch of kids leading a bunch of kids. if that makes any sense. i don't really have any clue what i'm doing. nobody told me there would be this much prep work. a whole binder of materials to learn for only three days of training? that does seem to be a bit on the excessive side. plus i'm supposed to role-play four different people and i can't even remember their names much less who i'm supposed to be and when. maybe i should have read my binder a little more closely.

i remember when i went to training, one instructor stood out in my mind because he was so laidback and wasn't uptight and yuppity like the others. actually, the other two instructors are actually both pretty young and i like it. it's a fun atmosphere. beats sitting in my little cube for eight hours a day that's for sure.

either case, it's only for three days then i'm off to sunny san diego for one blissful week of training. but first up is our social event for tonight. ropes course for teambuilding at city beach fremont. an event that i've already made perfectly clear to everyone that i will not be participating in. flashbacks of sixth grade camp ran through my head and although those ropes courses were fun looking back, there is no way you'll get me into a harness again.

i decided at 1am last night to take the iq test jon sent me. i found myself guessing on a lot of questions mainly because i wasn't in the mood to exercise any brain power. i mean, memorizing street addresses and doing addition is not my idea of a good time. of course all this defeats the purpose of taking an iq test in the first place but at the time it seemed like a good idea and having already started there was no way i was going to quit. for those of you that took it, how annoying was it to have to wait for the timer to run out before going on to the next question? but moving on.

just really how much correlation is there between scoring high on a test of this type and intelligence? there's been tons of articles and studies done so i won't go into much scientific detail...not that i'd know it in the first place but really, ever since the first time we step into a classroom and even to this day, we're conditioned to take tests. tests for finals, tests to become certified in a certain field (in my case the dreaded cpa exam which i can not for the life of me get motivated to sit down and study for), and the king of all tests...the SAT's. i remember back in high school when jon would give me his sat review books and was always telling me to study (what a role reversal we have nowadays don't we?) but i never did. i would go into the tests blind and not really care. all the while everyone else would be taking review courses and their scores would jump a couple hundred points but if anyone could go in and just study the type of questions and memorize vocabulary words, how is this a measure of how smart you are? it's really more of a reflection of how good of a test-taker you are.

back in college, getting good grades wasn't entirely about knowing the material. it was also about being able to read the instructor to see what type of exams were given and the type of questions that would be asked. everyone knows this. to achieve a high score on standardized tests, there is systematic way to study for them. how else does kaplan or becker's earn so much money? why are students and even professionals so willing to plop down thousands of dollars to attend?

for me, i see any type of tests as being pretty useless. how many tests, finals, quizzes, pop quizzes have i taken over my lifetime and without a doubt, i know i don't remember half of what i memorized anyways. i do remember sohcahtoa...how handy was that little acronym. everything was crammed for that one or two hour duration and then the minute i walked out the classroom door, poof, it was gone. and i haven't really had to recall on any of that information anyways. so what was the point?

sure i like watching the history channel or learning about it but i'd much rather do it without worrying about the the specifics. half the time i don't remember the year it took place or which countries or persons were involved. who was fighting who or who signed what treaty. i just don't remember. or maybe my short-term memory is just not all there. that wouldn't be surprising to me either and i know why. looking back i never really got to enjoy the books we were assigned in school because i was more concerned with remembering names for the quiz tomorrow or the essay i had to write. but nowadays, without anyone on my back telling me to finish chapter five by the end of next week, i find myself wanting to go back and re-reading those books for my own curiosity. the classes that i learned the most in were surprise surprise pass/fail and taken because i wanted to take it not because it was a requirement to move on to the next grade/year.

our culture of measuring everything by a number or grade leads to students who think inside the box. i'm a victim of this myself i believe. but no one ever gets famous or rich by thinking inside the box. it's those who can succeed by thinking outside of the norm that really are the most impressive. otherwise, the xbox may never have been invented and where would all those halo die-hards be then?

is it possible for someone to learn to be a good hip hop dancer? i went to hip hop class last night and it wasn't as hard as i thought it would be. of course my class was at 24 fitness and not at a decked out dance studio with professionals but details details. did i also mention that i was surrounded by older people who obviously had never heard of any of the songs being played before?

in either case, is this type of dancing something that can be learned? can you practice and practice and be good? or is it something that you're born with? by the way, i've said this several times before. if you've got the gift of dancing, use it all you can. you must not let it go to waste. if you're trying to pick up a girl or guy, dance around them a bit. dancing ups the attractiveness factor by a ton. more than a ton.

even though i was able to get all the moves last night i just didn't feel it. i'm not sure what it's called but certain people have that sass or spunk to them that catches your eye. i don't have it. my hips shake funny and when you start adding the arms with the foot movements, i get a bit confused and just make up my own. it's too bad i couldn't be more like mr hongshin and make it to the top 40. my point is this. i've seen people dance that know all the moves but they're almost a little too on the beat. does that make sense? sure they've got all the moves memorized but it's a little too perfect. i tend to like those that are a little off-beat and put their own oomphs into it. what those oomphs consist of i'm not quite sure seeing how i don't know how to dance but i know it if i see it.

the funny thing is that when i'm out clubbing, i feel like i have rhythmn. of course those who have gone with me can beg to differ. i don't ever feel awkward dancing and i think i move my arms and legs in time to the music also. i'm always surprised at people who just seem to have no coordination or a dancing bone in their body. aka white guys. most of them anyways. ever go to a white club and stand on the second floor and see the people swinging back and forth? like trees on a windy day almost. very amusing.

i think i've come to the conclusion that hip hop dancing is something that you're born with. i don't care how much you practice or redo the steps, it won't look the same. it'll either look too perfect or too awkward. one must have that little hip hop and a shake to set them apart. make it unique. not very many people have that. at least that i've seen anyways. but for those that do, and i think you know who you are, you must work it. do it for us non-dancers or dancing challenged folks. i beg of you.

as if aim, yahoo and now friendster wasn't enough to kill what little productivity i had, i've now been introduced to yahoo launch. it's a radio station where you can customize and rate the songs played and then based on that, it decides the type of music to be played in the future. jason wallace told me about this last week but i've only had the chance to try it today. and guess what i've been doing all day. this radio station thing has basically rendered me useless at work. it's even better than friendster. i think i'm pretty much over that obsession now.

but this radio station thing. it's great. you're probably thinking, gee it's only a radio station. it shouldn't cut into your work time THAT much but oh it does it does. i'm pretty horrible at remembering artists and song titles but with this, it shows you exactly what song is being played and i get to give it a rating between 1 and 10. i keep going back and forth to make sure i rate each song and to see what the title of the song is. to increase my limited knowledge if you will. it gets pretty addicting. plus the more songs you rate the higher you move on up in the levels. right now i'm only a newbie but jason is already an enthusiast having rated more than 300 songs. i'm not even sure what benefits you get as you move on up the rankings...probably nothing but i like seeing the countdown. only 112 songs until the next level!

another great thing about this is that you can listen to other people's radio stations as well. get a peek into what type of music they like. and you can rate their songs and that also influences what songs get played on your customized radio station. ingenious. because really why would i want to be listening to someone else's radio station while i can be working on my ranking but ranking your friend's songs benefits you too! they've thought of everything. well almost everything. everyone should really try this. just don't forget to give me your yahoo id.

if only i can get rid of the commercials now, this thing would be perfect.

purely hypothetical of course. if a friend is interested in another one of your friends, are you obligated to set them up? or at least make the initial introduction? if both parties were interested, this would be a no-brainer question but what if without even asking your friend (the one whom the other friend is interested in), you already know there's no chance. well let's not be absolute here. let's just say very minimal chance. very. is it rude to just say so? after all, you are friends and friends can be brutally honest. in theory anyways.

nowadays with members of the opposite sex so hard to meet, friends of friends is your best bet. but being the middleman, what is our duty? can i help it if all my friends are just oh so hot? but being hot also comes with certain criterias to be met. in other words, they don't just want to be hooked up with anybody. and it's for this reason mainly that being the middleman is not very appealing. not at all.

is it enough to come up with a lame ass excuse? but those get old over time. should i at least set up a group gathering as a foiler to the first meeting? do i go so far as to exchange numbers? all very important questions i'm sure. i can only hold one's hands for so long but at some point or another the relationship has to blossom on its own. sad but true.

at least once a week i get the standard old question, wow you have some really cute girl/boy friends. hook me up. HOOK ME UP. i believe i've blogged about this before but as long as the same topic isn't broached twice the same year, i've deemed it to be ok. my standard answer nowadays is nothing. silence. and just wait until the next topic comes along. you'd be surprised at how long i can be silent for. looking back over the years, my success rate in setting up my friends isn't all that great. in fact, i can really only think of one couple off the top of my head that i've been the middleman for. i do take great pride in it though. partly because well...i didn't have to do anything and i still get the credit. i do get the credit right? and my handsome reward is a nice fat piece of juicy steak.

i'm not really expecting any answers and no, i won't lash at you if i hear the words hook me up again. or any variation of it. but just know deep down that the job of the middleman is not an easy one but seeing how we are all friends to others, it must be done. we should not shirk from our responsibilities although i really would like to. one can wish right?

i had quite the domestic little weekend. it all started with an impromptu jaunt to target to buy patio furniture. patio furniture! can you imagine me getting excited about this but alas i was quite the happy little shopper. images of me basking in the sun all the while sipping my ice cold drink. so i came out of target with two plastic chairs (high-ended ones too for only $8.99) and a foldable white table. my favorite of the three items. not to shatter my image i insisted on buying some country time pink lemonade mix to round it all out. so there you could find me, on a nice sunny sunday afternoon with my cup of pink lemonade on the table, sunglasses as to not harm my eyes and my current reading by dave eggers. can't you just smell the the freshly cut grass and the white picket fence? ha. of course i only lasted about a hour before the sweat getting into my eyes and the little bee buzzing around forced me to duck instead but all was not lost. i got sunburnt and my feet are no longer a pasty white. at least i don't think so anyways.

if you think my domestic-ness ends here...you're in for a treat. for some odd reason, i received recipe cards in the mail and in a fit of ambitiousness...decided to make the sirloine steak. and for good measure i decided i'd try to make the ketchup rice as well. my favorite item in all of san jose. the rice came out tasting like well...rice with ketchup poured over it. not quite the effect i was going for but it's still a work in progress. i did learn however that flipping rice can get very tiring especially if you have no arm muscles. the sirloin steak was perfect. p-e-r-f-e-c-t. of course i really should not take credit for it as my only job was to brush on the marinade but still..it was my idea. that deserves a little credit no?

i even ordered 24 more recipes to be sent in the mail for only $5.95 plus shipping and it comes with its own filing box with pre-made dividers. i'll look like a professional for sure. actually, the recipes are really easy. one recipe per card so it easily fits in your purse (or man purse if you happen to be a guy) to bring to the grocery store and i actually have heard of most of the ingredients unlike other cookbooks i've seen. and the best part is, if i reply within ten days, i get a free wok! i may have missed the deadline though. in either case, you have an asian martha stewart in the making. pretty soon sagging monk and i will be throwing poolside barbecues and he'll supply the homemade patties while i slave away at everything else.

iron chef watch out!

enid has officially moved to the big apple and for some reason her move affected me more than i thought it would. at least when i first found out about it anyways. i find this very strange as prior to start of college, jon moved away to michigan and i didn't shed a tear until i saw his very depressing video roaming the halls of the dorms. but then i came to visit during xmas break and all was better in the world. james moved to irvine, gaga moved to berkeley, victor and jimmy moved to la and not one tear. more like a wave of a hand. i can't even be too sure we hugged. grace stayed close but i still never really saw her. maybe because i just knew we would all eventually end up in san diego again and my prediction basically came true. everyone is back and now it's me that lives the furthest away.

but for enid it was different. i felt like it was the closing of one chapter and the beginning of another while in the other instances, the chapter never closed. i'm not quite sure what it is but maybe it's because she's my first close friend to move post-college. first little dent in my bubble of san jose. i felt the need to plan a big clubbing nite (of which i forgot my id and the doorman had napoleon syndrome and demanded i leave because i was causing a disturbance), make her a scrapbook and sing our hearts out on karaoke night. there's no doubt in my mind we're going to keep in touch but it's different. maybe this is the difference between one of your childhood friends moving away versus a friend you met later on.

or it could be all of our parents live in san diego so we're bound to be back one time or another. whatever it is...i don't like it but i know it can't be helped. many more of my friends will be moving from san jose in the next couple years, myself included possibly and well, i guess it's just part of growing up.

i miss new york but more importantly, i just miss everyone. it was a ridiculously fun trip and i probably spent a little bit too much money but it was all well worth it. my effort in getting jon drunk by buying him corona after corona failed miserably but hey you can't fault me for trying. i did however succeed in getting myself quite tipsy along the way. us stupid californians (with the exception of the sagging monk) decided to leave sunday and missed sam's bbq but james has promised me he'll be photoshopping me, jon, victor and tien in. isn't he a great brother? we'll all be one big happy family now.

everyone can rest easy. i am one happy happy girl! my faith in the bachelor has been restored. so he strayed a bit but he came to his senses. even during kirsten's speech in the limo after being r-e-j-e-c-t-e-d all i could shout was bitch. you lost. yes go throw up. nobody cares. i'm being so mean and spiteful that even i'm a little scared of myself at this point but jen's engaged and that's all that really matters in the end isn't it? don't forget to watch the interview with the newlyweds wednesday night.

i know it's sad that i get so riled up about a tv show but i can't help myself. i'm sitting here now watching my taped finale of the bachelor and i find myself rolling my eyes each time kirsten comes up on screen and i'm even shouting at the tv because i want jen to win it so badly. i mean guys please tell me. is it just me that finds kirsten so fake and bitchy? while jen on the other hand is genuine, warm, sincere...and the list goes on and on. a lot of my guy friends think kirsten is hotter but i honestly don't think so. even taking out kirsten's bitchy attitude and basing it only on looks i find jen much better. i've rooted for her from the beginning.

just to show you how addicted i am to this show, i had bren tape it for me while we went bowling and i haven't taped anything since college. i really should be packing for new york or getting rest as jon says since i'm sick but i can't. i must know who wins and it's all i can do right now to not check it on the website. when i see jen and andrew together i get all giddy but with him and kirsten i can feel the anger boiling in my stomache.

i guess what i'm trying to say here through my ramblings and my anger is how how how can andrew be so blind? can he not see how fake she is? is he that blinded by her looks that he cares about nothing else? i mean even his brother had doubts about her and her sisters inferred in a very polite firestone way that she has no substance. hello mr andrew firestone. please wake up! i'm watching kirsten right now trying to bullshit her way through her lie and andrew is falling for it. does he have blinders on?

ugh...i can't blog anymore i'm getting so upset. i must concentrate on the show but let's just say depending on the outcome of this i will either be a very happy girl or very bitter. i just hope i still have the energy to pack after this is all over.

sororities and fraternities. what is the appeal really? not only are you someone's bitch for a month during initiation but you can't even complain about it because well...you voluntarily asked for this. going through hazing or whatever it's called now and then one month later those people are supposed to be your sisters? or brothers? give me a break. and those hazing activities i've heard is no small feat either. why would your future friends even want you to run and chug beer until you puke? and that's just the easiest task. why would you want to be friends with them anyways? i never had to make a fool out of myself for my closest friends. i do that out of my free will (something i'm quite proud of by the way). i never quite understood why sororities and fraternities were so popular in college. i suppose it's good for meeting a bunch of people right away but couldn't you just join one of the clubs on campus instead? for free? and it sounds impressive on your resume. especially if you join a dorky sounding one like student accounting society. and volunteer to be an officer. as weird as it may sound, i met all of my close friends from college at SAS. i'm even a bridesmaid at one of their weddings this summer. who says accountants aren't cool.

i did foray into the initiation world of sororities my sophomore year at state. not quite sure what came over me but there i was, among lots of blonde girls in cute little sundresses. and then there was me, a lone asian in jeans. i wasn't quite sure what to expect going in but at the very first meeting who do i see...katie abbot. seeing her there threw me for a loop because she was so unlike the type of girls i imagined in sororities that it instantly threw a little bit of my stereotypical image out the window. we bonded and endured the week of rush coming upon us. i went from house to house watching their acts and sitting through boring interviews with perky girls asking me "where are you from? what's your name? let me tell you why you should join alpha chi omega". there was one where they did a cowboy song and dance number and there was haystacks all over the house with the girls dancing on top that i thought was pretty cute but that's about as far as it went.

it was pretty funny actually to see what each house was known for. this little piggy has the sluts. this little piggy has the hottest chicks. and this little piggy gets straight a's but no boys. that house was virtually drooling to have me join. their winning pitch was "we all have gpa's above 3.7, study hour is from 7 - 9pm and we even have old exams you can study from!" wowzers i must join then!

i lasted all of one week. went to all the houses, met all the girls, put down my rankings of which i liked the best and just didn't show up one day. my leader called to express her disappointment in me but i didn't really care. i wasn't expecting any of the houses to want me either...i'm sure they could see me rolling my eyes but surprisingly i got a lot of callbacks. so i thought i'd give it one more try and went to dessert night and i'm sure you can guess how that went seeing how i don't think very highly of sororities and fraternities to this day.

i don't know very many people in sororities but the ones i have met were all very cool. i think maybe it's only when they get in groups the girls become catty and the boys become obnoxious. my perception has been even more solidified by watching sorority life and fraternity life recently. however, if i did join, i'm sure my guy friends would all be very happy as i would certainly have more girlfriends than i do now and wouldn't their heads just explode if i joined one of the hot ones?

xbox live. this has got to be one of the most exciting inventions to date. i've spend a good part of the night watching tri and bren play wolfenstein, halo and now nhl hockey 2k3. i've heard bren rave tons of times before about how great xbox live is going to be and how he can't wait until it comes out but i never really listened. i've gotten quite used to tuning him out when necessary. this is the first time really where i'm actually seeing this xbox live thing in action and the seriousness of it all is coming clear. how ridiculous is it that you can now play video games with other nerds all around the world? and you can even talk to them! back in the days of mario and contra did anyone ever fathom this day would come? i certainly didn't. what can possibly be next for video games? virtual perhaps? or is that out already and i'm just behind?

bren keeps wanting to play hockey or halo while i talk on the headset so the person getting whooped will think he's getting beat by a girl. but i just wouldn't know what to say. i don't know any video game lingo.

i must say i am in awe. just a couple weeks ago i was playing tennis on his gameboy advance sp and marvelling at how tiny it was. and now this xbox live thing.

i can't wait to get my "opening the xbox" book in the mail. bill gates is a genius no doubt.

what is it like to grow up hating your face? i'm sitting here watching extreme makeover and i'm fascinated. i don't even know where to begin. everyone has things here and there they wish were different (unless you're a hot sexy mama like hugh jackman...my newest vavavavoom guy) but over time you learn to accept what you're born with and appreciate those things that make you unique. but what if you're just not good looking? am i being too harsh? everytime you look in the mirror the person looking back at you in no way whatsoever reflects the mental image of what you think you should look like. what to do? the answer apparently is to call extreme makeover and beg. and hope your face is sorry enough to be chosen. but this is no fashion emergency. you can basically request anything. want bigger boobs? done. want a smaller nose? done. want a facelift? done. heck why don't we just transplant gisele's face onto yours? sure why not.

what happened to the days when you just accepted what you were given? the before and after images of these people is unrecognizable. is cosmetic surgery the answer to our insecurities? are we so narcissistic that changing our outward appearance is a direct reflection of our self-worth and self-esteem? the answer to this is yes. we live in a time where what exists on the outside is more important than that of the inside. to strangers at first glance anyways. it's a well known reality that good looking people get special treatment whether it be at work or something small like a bigger scoop of ice-cream. it's no wonder then that we're so willing to go under the knife to achieve the coveted look of what society deems beautiful.

it's sad really but the reality is i can't wait to see what they look like at the end of the hour.

online dating. i asked sanford over the weekend if he would ever consider joining match.com or a similar service and his answer was an emphatic N-O! i would have to agree. over the weekend i was watching this mtv special on speed dating and i have to say, most of the people they interviewed seemed pretty normal. sure some of them seemed to be geeky and perhaps really did need a little help in the dating scene but overall, seemed ok to me. there's such a stigma surrounding online dating that even if i did participate, i would deny deny deny. no i am not a member...i swear!

i wonder, will there ever be a time when it gets so hard to meet new people or you feel like the people you're meeting aren't just cutting it that you'd resort to chatting and scouring profiles online to find the "one". one of my friend's roomate met his fiancee on match.com. only success story that i know of. one thing is for sure, the older you get the harder it becomes to meet interesting and cute people to date. ideally you'd like to meet them through your friends but over time, that avenue will be exhausted. ditto for clubs and bars. i don't care how nice you are, if you try to pick up a girl at a club, she's going to think you're slimy. at least i do.

one thing i noticed from the special is that everyone got along great on the phone and chatting online but when it came time to meeting in person, one of them always felt the other wasn't attractive enough. and everyone always lists personality as the number one wanted trait. please. call me shallow but physical attractiveness has got to be up there...if not number one on my list. i don't care how nice or charming or great a guy's personality is, if i'm not attracted to him physically, there's really no hope. now this isn't to say that i have the greatest taste all the time or that guys can't move up on my physical scale but for the most part, when i first meet someone i can usually tell right away if he could be a "potential" in the future.

in this day and age of the technology boom, online dating is one arena i don't really care to participate in. i'll take my dates the old fashioned way thank you very much. although they did show this one thing where you meet 25 guys or girls and you sit and talk to them for 5 minutes each and then you rate them yes or no. at the end of the night you turn in your sheet and if there's a match, the service will send off the email addresses for you to contact. i found this kind of intriguing. not so desperate and even if it doesn't work out romantically, it seems like a cool way to meet new people.

of course come back to me in 5 or 10 years when i'm older and maybe i won't be bashing on online dating. i'll be a proud participate in all dating services out there. ha.

thomas kinkade. i recently found out that one of the reasons why he is so popular is because his paintings usually show light coming out of a house or some other object which symbolizes god. "painter of light". i've definitely heard of thomas kinkade before but never really knew just how popular he was until now. the client that i'm on for the next month or so is the only company that has the rights to manufacture, produce and distribute his prints or paintings.

the building that i'm working in is surreal. i pull up tuesday morning to two huge buildings that resemble more a museum than a corporation. walking in there's plush chairs and kinkade paintings everywhere on the walls along with a shelf filled with mugs, photo book albums, christmas tree ornaments, pillows, picture frames...basically anything you can plaster his paintings on while still being considered classy.

to all my artistic friends, tell me...why is thomas kinkade so popular? call me ignorant but i thought he was dead up until a couple days ago. you would think for such a nice building they would put us in a decked out conference room but nope. we're stuck in the "licensing" room where we're surrounded by little knick knacks everywhere although we do get nice leather chairs. that's a lot better than some of the other places i've been put in. and oh, another plus...we have a hub. whee! someone save me...i'm stuck here for a month doing 404 work and to my fellow work friends who read this site (i know who you are), lemme tell you, you're in for a treat.

oh the glamorous life of an auditor.

so i was screwed over on friday afternoon and i decided that instead of hiding my face in shame i should share my stupidity so you don't end up making the same mistake as i did. of course if you even have one ounce of sensibility, you probably would never fall for this type of scam anyways but before i carry on, i'd just like to say...in defense of my actions, all of this occurred just a couple hours after my hit and run as mentioned in my previous blog, it was friday afternoon meaning my mind wasn't all there and um...let's see what else...my salad had an ill effect on me?

for whatever the reason, i start from the beginning. a couple of days ago, i received an email proclaiming that i've won a 3 day and 2 night stay to either vegas, ft. lauderdale or orlando. my choice. now we all have heard the horror stories but my mind flashed to caro when she received something of a similar nature (or at least i thought she did) and she partook in a glamorous cruise to the bahamas with quite a little discount. well maybe not entirely glamorous but i do remember specifically that when she came back i asked how the accomodations were because i was quite the skeptical little monkey and she said everything was great.

so lo and behold i get this email and against all my better judgement i decide to call in and redeem my certificate. as soon as i do, a message appears proclaiming that i need to call within 48 hours to reserve my spot which really should have been warning sign numero uno but i do. i call in and proceed to spend 30 minutes or more on the phone. "m'am if you like for $400 we can extend your vacation to 7 days and 6 nights and as a bonus we'll include a free rental car with unlimited mileage." i hesitate and before i can take a deep breath a manager is on the line with me. "m'am we'll knock off $100 on your package and if money is an issue we'll bill you the $150 now and the other half later." ferverishly i aim to nancy and brian c….should i do it? what do i do? images of me sitting on a beach with a pina colada in my hand melts away any doubts i may have had. looking back, second warning sign should have been when i asked if i could decide later and received the classic response "m'am this is a special promotion and such a good deal that i'm afraid once you get off the phone your reservation will go on to the next customer". need i continue? i'm sure you know what's coming. so i agree to the extended package and the $150 on my credit card while little beads of sweat are forming on my forehead. hey i'm a virgo and i don't do rash impulsive things. we're practical creatures. bill the mastercard please.

as soon as i'm off brian c responds did they have a website? is there a number? did you research? uhhh..let me check on the website. so i google in "ramada resorts plaza" and lo and behold what do I find? "ramada resorts plaza - SCAM!" i couldn't believe my eyes. i was in denial. this couldn't possibly be the same ramada that i just got off the phone with? as they say in AA, number one step is denial. i sent the link to nancy so she could share in my shock and as i read horror story after horror story detailing exactly what i did i was forced to come to terms that yes, i have become a statistic and can now join the millions of americans who despite all the warnings and news stories, continue to fall for scams. i guess it is true what they say...if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.

so the moral of the story? if you get a solicitation email from RAMADA PLAZA RESORTS hit delete. i'm actually not that upset about all this since i haven't yet tried to get a refund so i'm still convinced that i will (there were lots of successful refund stories on that website which nancy will attest to) and at least it was only $150 maximum. which is still a lot don't get me wrong but after reading the website and finding out that most people had been duped of $700 or more, i can laugh at this situation and blog about it instead of ranting and raving as i did with jon's my so called life dvd debacle. for which i still have not received my credit. ahem.

i was involved in a hit and run today during lunch! i was sitting in sabrina's car driving to zanotto's (a high class supermarket in case you don't know) and as we're driving along this white van that was making a left from the oncoming traffic suddenly appeared in front of us. i felt as if everything was happening in slow motion. i just remember the van getting closer and closer and me thinking i'm going to get hit, i'm going to get hit and i better move my legs up so they don't get crushed. sabrina slams on the brakes and we hit. BOOM. actually it was more like boom. the hit really wasn't all that bad surprisingly. double props to sabrina's brakes.

so we pull over and we're expecting the van to also but next thing we know, it just takes off. what?!?!?! all these bystanders come running over yelling "did the van just take off? are you ok? you need to contact your insurance company." and THEN this sheriff car pulls up next to us and was like "was it the van that hit you guys? stay right here and i'm going to try to find her." apparently the sheriff was waiting at a red light and saw the entire incident.

so sabrina and i climb back into her car and we wait. and wait some more. all the while we're chit-chatting and then we noticed 4 or 5 police cars just pass us by. what's going on? it's like 30 minutes now and nobody is coming back for us. we're afraid to just leave since we were told specifically to stay. stay spot stay. then this lady who goes around in her little car issuing tickets stops in front of us and was about to write us a ticket so we jump out and explain the entire thing to her. she talks through her walkie talkie and she's like yup yup they just arrested someone. my eyes are big at this point. wow...this is just like a movie. yup yup it's a lady in a van (that must be our girl!). we're told to wait once again and that a cop is coming for us. then she just takes off.

we climb back into her car again and sure enough, five minutes later, a cop pulls up behind us. i jump out again and we're asking about the lady that was arrested until we realize, this cop has no idea what we're talking about. in fact, he stopped to ask us what we were doing parked in a freight loading zone. another cop stops by. and i say out loud "maybe this cop will know what's going on" which seemed to make cop #1 not too happy. so, sabrina and i go over the ENTIRE story again...this time with our arms flailing and a witness even stopped by to pronounce that yes he saw the entire accident happen and that contrary to belief, these two girls are not nuts.

now both cops are staring at us like we're stupid. he takes a look at the damage...very minimal...just a little black mark and he's like well, i don't know where the sheriff that told you guys to wait is, no one was arrested recently so if you want, you guys can just leave.

what? i'm all for leaving because really this has gotten to be much more trouble than warranted but i did leave scratching my head. what happened to the sheriff and why did the traffic lady say someone was arrested for our accident?

there is a fairy tale ending to all this. we made our way safely to zanatto's and chowed down on a big green salad with arizona raspberry ice-tea.

i missed the bachelor last night. first time since the premiere episode. but don't worry, i caught myself up this morning by reading the episode guide. i've determined that the bachelor reminds me a little of vi...they wear the same type of clothes, similar hair except vi's isn't that rumpled although it should be and they both move their mouth the same way when they talk. this was all confirmed by both bren and vu so it must be true. sanford informed me that the bachelor was having a private party up in sf and i considered for a brief nanosecond to crash it but what's the point. he could very well be married by now but just to get a glimpse to see if he's all that in person. i guess i'll never know.

in case you were wondering, my two favorites, jen c. and tina fabulous are still in the running. although i'm convinced that kirsten is going to get picked which would just crush mr bachelor's image in my eyes. i don't like her and yes i'm being catty.

is it just me or do white girls seem so much older than they really are? half of the girls on that show are 22 or 23 and they look way older. not that they're not good looking or anything but heck i'm 24 and still get carded to drink champagne at weddings. i wonder what it is. even contestants in miss teen usa look older than me and most of my girl friends. the few that i do have. not that i'm complaining of course. these days i'm all about being young and carefree...anything to avoid the "over the hill" comment. bleh.

is honesty always the best policy? i've been accused of making inconsiderate and hurtful statements and when confronted i always follow with my catch phrase "well, it's true isn't it?" this came as surprise to me since i consider myself to be very passive aggressive and rarely get into confrontations or during my times of annoyance (which is very rare of course...uh yeah), i just dial up grace, have a bitch session and everything is lovey dovey again.

but i've been told by more than one person that i'm very blunt or say things that come off as rude without even realizing it. but well, as they say, the truth hurts. i suppose i should think twice before blurting something out but really what's the fun in that. half the time i don't even know i'm doing it so how do you expect me to change? in truth, when people say just be honest with me or tell me as it is there's a little part of them that doesn't really mean it. i'm guilty of this myself. to take the all time cliche, when i try on clothes and ask, does this make me look fat? i'm not really expecting a yes answer. i'd much prefer the go around of it doesn't fit you properly or the color isn't right or whoever desgined that must be an idiot. anything as long as it doesn't mention the gut hanging over my pants.

however if you say my face over the years has become as round as a pumpkin then that's just plain mean. because well, sure i know my face has rounded out over the years (i used to have a sharp chin i swear) but really to compare it to a pumpkin? there must be something better to compare it to.

so to those i'm rude to. i do apologize. it's not on purpose. and for those times that it is, well can you really argue with truth?

i no longer have a favorite dj. for the past two or three years i've always tooted the horn of donald glaude and whenever possible, i'd go watch him at different venues. i even got a couple of my friends to like him but tonight, such a disappointment. i have cd's in my car that sound better than he does. actually i know i do because we were listening to them on the way back. he didn't even pump up the crowd like he usually does. that's the best part about him, when he goes nuts and the crowd reacts but i like to just stand in the corner and giggle to myself but not tonight. such a shame.

if i seem a bit out of it or repetitive, well it could be because i'm a little tipsy. i'm sitting here, on a thursday night forced to leave the club early because some people were bored and i guess i couldn't blame them. now i'm watching bren and sanford play tiger woods 2003 ps2 with a techno cd playing in the background that is actually really good and i'm trying to figure out if it's my cd or not because if it is, well damn don't i have good taste. actually i'll have to thank hailin for all my techno cd's and jon for all my non-techno cd's. and the chinese ones are purely my own selection. i rarely buy cd's since i think they're a waste of money and usually only listen to the radio (hence my horrible taste in music) so any donated burnt cd's is well received. in fact i think the hand me down cd's i get from jon is my only real foray into "good" music or so i'm told. who can understand those lyrics anyways?

there was a time when i used to go clubbing almost every thursday night but that stopped during my first year of work as i soon found out waking up friday mornings was no joke. james once said that when he thinks of clubbing he thinks of me. do i really club that much? yes i guess i do. but seriously, what do people do besides go clubbing on weekends? i always hear people rant left and right about how they're so sick of clubbing and yes i get that way too but what else is there to do? movies? dinner? lounge? i always get the itch to go after a couple of weeks away and well i figure i better get it out of my system now before i'm old and clubbing in my 30's or 40's. i know i always lament whenever i see old people at clubs. and i'm talking old. i saw this one guy once that was in his 60's i think with this big ass glowstick and dancing around in circles and it was just too much. i couldn't decide whether to stare in bewilderment or just laugh. i think i did a little of both.

i've always wanted to write a blog when i was tipsy just so i can re-read it the following morning and well i guess this is it. let's hope i'm able to wake up for work tomorrow morning.

what could be better than sitting here at work with a hot krispy kreme donut in my hand and a berkeley farms chocolate milk next to me. for some reason i've been having quite a penchant for chocolate milk recently. it all started when bren's mom made some homemade milk last week and ever since then i've been hooked. maybe it reminds me of the good old days when i would mix nestle quick (or is it hershey's?) into my milk and stir until my arms would get tired. ah the good old days. there was a brief moment at the counter when i contemplated getting the low fat chocolate milk to combat my krispy kreme but thankfully i came to my senses just in time.

this was my first trip to the krispy kreme store ever. the person i'm working with at the moment is from the UK and just working here for a couple months so last week i showed her in n' out and today it was krispy kreme. we both just wanted to see what all the fuss was about and personally i wasn't too impressed. i've had krispy kreme donuts before mind you but everyone keeps raving about the store and the sign that blinks when the donuts are hot (which i never saw by the way) and it was just hyped up way too much. it tastes just like ordinary donuts to me and the only cool thing maybe was getting to see them being made in the back but it certainly doesn't warrant a drive all the way to mountain view.

i'd much rather drive to cupertino village for my boba and ketchup rice. yum yum!

everyone says your early 20's is your time to party it up, let out your inhibitions and basically get it all out of your system so you won't regret anything later on. i'm 24 now so in a couple more months time i'll be starting my mid 20's phase. the thing is, i'm not sure if i'm ready to let go of my early 20's yet. i like the fact it still hasn't been that long since college (3 years isn't long right?), i still consider myself a relatively newbie in corporate america and i don't really need to think about the consequences of my decisions because well, that's for later when i'm older.

questions like where do i want to go in my career? where do i want to live? is this really what i want to be doing? who will i marry? etc etc. and the list is endless. my answer to all those is i'm only 24. i have plenty of time. but in truth my endless time is slowly creeping up on me. it doesn't seem so long ago that i remember moving into my studio by san diego state or purchasing my first car with my dad or being semi-nervous about starting work. and now it's three years later and it's gone by in a breeze. where does the time go?

everyone says age is just a number. yes it is but i have little mental timeframes of where and what stage people should be at depending on how old they are. this is all ingrained in me of course from watching too much junk tv. early 20's is partying. mid 20's is starting to figure out your career, who you'll marry and starting to settle down. late 20's (meaning 28 and 29) is when you're basically settled, no more dating and the start of raising a family.

i feel as if i can no longer revert to my same old excuse of "i'm only 24" and don't know better. but i don't want to think long-term as i'm quite happy in the present right now. my mom's words "you do know you're not young anymore right?" keep reverberating through my mind. i guess my saving grace is that most of my friends are same age or older and i quite like being the young one in the group. it makes me feel as if i have more time. as in so and so is two years older but is at the same place i am so i must have two more years extra time.

so to my older friends i do thank you. actually i guess another saving grace is that i look young so maybe i can push my but i'm only 24 excuse a little longer.

i wonder, is it possible to only want to be friends when two strangers of the opposite sex meet? i've noticed lately that if you have a boyfriend and meet a guy for the first time and you both exchange numbers, there's the connotation that one of you is interested. is this true?

i've pretty much determined that once you have a boyfriend, your guy friends are pretty much set for life. and vice versa perhaps. all the guy friends you've met prior to meeting your boyfriend is deemed "ok to hang out with". but after that, forget it. this really is a shame.

you can meet all the girlfriends you want, in fact i'm sure boyfriends encourage this but when it comes to guys. it's a no no. after all, why else would he ask for your number or want to hang out? it must be because he's interested. or i suppose the other scenario is if you meet new guys through a sibling. that i've deemed to be ok as all of jon's friends immediately become mine at some point or another.

it's really too bad jon has more girlfriends than guys.

anti-war protesters. don't like them. whenever i hear stories about anti-war protests in san francisco or people lying down on the streets of manhattan it really irritates me. i mean, we're already in the war the least we can do is support our troops. imagine, these are basically kids who have been sent to protect us and citizens in middle class surburbia are rioting against them. how absurd is that. the pow they rescued recently was a 19 year old girl who looks more like she's 12. what were you doing when you were 19? certainly not fighting for your life i can bet you that.

if you're like me, you're too chicken to ever enter into the military. so i rely on those men and women who do have the guts to go out there and protect us from an event like 9/11 ever happening again. and truth to be told, if you're reading this, you were probably brought up in a well to do middle class family whose children would more likely than not need to enroll in the military. why? because those who enroll in the military usually are fresh out of high school, need money to go to college and basically it's one of their only options to be independent. this isn't entirely the case of course but based on my experiences at camp pendleton.

it's so easy to get lost in our everyday lives of going to work and hanging out with friends and the war may seem like a million miles away which it is but the least we can do, i mean bare minimum least is support them. i don't care if you agree with the reasons of going to war or not, the fact is, we're there. we're not pulling out so be supportive and think twice before participating in any anti-war rallies and imagine the soldiers meandering their way through sandstorms, being homesick and sacrificing their lives so we can continue to live in our carefree ways.

and that's my two cents on the war.

i am red. like a lobster that has been cooked over and over again. me in only a t-shirt and pants with the sun blazing overhead snowboarding and no sunblock on my face. the thing is, i completely forgot about it and didn't really think of it again until the car ride home when my face kept getting hotter and hotter. anyone who has seen me recently knows how pale i've become and well...now i'm red. my face feels as if it's on fire, it hurts when i scrunch my nose and putting a towel to my face is torture.

even at lunch yesterday the waitress was like "is the reason why your face is so red because you were out in the sun?" uh yes dummy. and she just gave me this sad pitiful sympathetic look. i feel as if everyone is staring at me and i have this huge deformity on my face but all i can do is slather on some more after sun lotion and pray the peeling process comes soon.

you can bet next time i won't be forgetting my sunblock.

i have butterflies in my stomache. why? my newest crush is andrew firestone, the bachelor. i had seen pics of him online and my first reaction was wow, he's pretty cute but then after a couple more glances decided he really wasn't all that. but now, after sitting through the premiere episode, i've changed my mind. he's definitely the best bachelor to date. dark hair, cute dimples, nice bod (not too big but yet has muscles), wears a suit nicely, and there's just something about his smile. he even has a twinkle in his eye! but the clincher was the shot of him in his tinted blue sunglasses which just seemed to fit oh so well. a guy who can pull off tinted color sunglasses definitely has my vote.

i wasn't too impressed with the past two bachelors. alex. ugh. he's boring and too feminine. aaron. sure he's successful and has his own business but i just wasn't digging him. seemed too cocky and his smile was crooked. but andrew. i was completely giddy by the end of the one hour episode. it's yet to be seen of course whether this crush will last and as jon will tell you, i do develop them quite easily but fall out of them just as easily.

another thing i learned from watching this show. makeup does wonders. wonders i tell you. when they first showed the girls in their natural state i was quite disappointed cause andrew deserves better but then once they put their makeup on, i was floored. are these the same girls? whenever i put on makeup i look exactly the same or i just look like a painted clown with colors on her face. but i digress...we're talking about the bachelor here.

i can't wait until the next episode. now you know where i'll be wednesday nights at 9pm. parked in front of the television.

online shopping. i think it's going to be my new addiction. as if my shoe frenzy wasn't bad enough before. i purchased my first pair of shoes online yesterday and originally it was to be sent within 5 to 10 business days but today i get an email thanking me for my business and informing me that my shoes are packed and ready to be sent priority mail as a thank you for being a customer. can't beat that. so now i should be getting my shoes in 2 to 3 working days.

i don't know why i never thought of this before. buying shoes online. i've held off on buying any sort of clothing type stuff for so long mainly because my size differs so drastically from store to store. but not for shoes. and with online buying, you can see all your choices right in front of you without walking all across the mall and you're exposed to all these different styles which may not currently be in the stores due to the season change or it being out of fashion. not to mention that the prices are usually cheaper online also.

with just a click of a button and a couple types of my credit card number, the shoe purchase is done. finito. and if you don't like it, they even pay for your shipping costs to return. this could be detrimental to my shoe buying habits. i have so many pairs of shoes that half the time i don't even remember what i have anymore and i don't even wear most of them but there's just so many cute shoes out there that i must own them all.

another eye opener to the world of online shopping.

would you believe it if i told you i had the most fun playing bingo in vegas this past weekend? yes. bingo! b-i-n-g-o, b-i-n-g-o, b-i-n-g-o and bingo was his name-o. i haven't played since high school and jon just laughed at me when i mentioned that i would like to play bingo in vegas but alas, i now have a bingo team! we're the fastest stampers around. and if you don't believe it, we're up to the double pack on our first try.

so what if the entire room was filled with the elderly and it took a good 20 minutes of explaining before we finally figured out the rules. hey, those single and double bingos ain't easy. and don't even get me started on the X and the powerball bingo. but by the end of the 3 hour night, we were a well oiled machine. holding the stamper inches above the paper while our eyes quickly scanned the page for the number. stamp stamp. and we even learned how to eat and drink at the same time. all in two games! which means...you too can be a bingo player.

i came home one hundred dollars richer all due to the system and on top of that, got to hang out with everyone again. what's not to love?

now can i get a clap clap pointpointpoint?

i've become quite soft. not to say i was ever toned in the first place but i now have a beer belly even though i don't drink beer. i'm starting to get teacher arms even though i don't teach. my three years in corporate america have only served to make me lazier and more unfit. my face seems to get rounder and just when i think my cheeks can't get any bigger i'm proved wrong from my pictures. how can this be? i'm not even a quarter century old yet.

the sad thing is, what do i plan to do about this? nothing really. one of my first tasks when i moved to san jose was to renew my gym membership and as i forked over the money i somehow convinced myself that the card would come to be in good use. why i thought this i'm not sure considering i've been a 24 hour fitness member since high school and nothing has changed except for the fact that i'm now rounder. what i need i think is a good swift kick in the butt but i'm not even sure i want that anymore.

i've determined that there is no way i can possibly ever wake up at the butt crack of dawn to go to the gym because i just like sleeping way too much. then after work i always run into the dilemma of 1) i can go to the gym and sweat and run my butt off or 2) i can go home, eat some take-out and park myself in front of my favorite television shows or 3) i can go to a nice meal with friends and have a boba after. hm...guess which two usually wins.

maybe the working out phenom will just magically hit me as it did curtis and in 7 or 8 months i'll have a flat stomache just like him. but for now someone please hand me a blue m&m.