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.