I went to Tower Records with Rehe tonight, and I bought two CDs. One of them was the latest by Bic Runga... it's called BEAUTIFUL COLLISION (see photo). At first I was scared to even THINK about getting it, because her last one was a lil weird. OK - I ended up LOVING it, but at first it was too much to hear her sing about fire in her shoes. Too weird. But I took the gamble (hey, it's a GAMBLING weekend... eh?! LOL), and it was only $9.99. So... I got it, popped it in Gina's CD player, and WOAH!! GOOD CD!! Very different from DRIVE, but just as good! Even Gina liked it (she ain't one to be pleased easily when it comes to that stuff, you know). So now I am officially taking up an "I-LOVE-BIC-RUNGA" campaign, and I want you guys to go out and get a copy. LOL!

Oh yeah, I also got a CD of love songs by the legendary Etta James. Man, that woman's music is just INGENIUS. If only people could make music like that in this day and age, our music industry would mean so much more... (she sings a mean "At Last" now, doesn't she?) If you ever feel like listening to the blues, then pick-up an Etta James CD. She's timeless. Oh, and lots of great classic love songs, too. Planning a wedding? Ahhh - you can't do that without Etta...

Anyway. Can I just tell you how annoyed I am with the winter weather? Don't get me wrong - I really do love Fall/Winter, but I think with all the freakin' snowfalls, it's just taken its toll on me. I'm ready for a change. And I'm beginning to look forward to Spring/Summer (see photo of me and G @ Key West). Yup! I've been reminiscing about last Summer... had a blast, as usual. Shoot - can we just bring on the travel? I'm all set to go; doin' my jet-settin' as usual. I cannot wait until I go to LA in two weeks. At least it's a bit warmer there. And I'm looking forward to the smokeless clubs/bars. Goodness, you gotta love California for SOMEthing. Might as well be for the non-smoking, eh? J/K! But yeah, jettin' off to Cali in two weeks. I'm gonna be back there the weekend of my birthday - this time to attend a wedding. Haven't made any solid plans for Summer, but I'm sure that I'll have something in the works. Hawaii to visit Am?! Puerto Rico? SOMEplace?! We'll see. I really need to put my passport into good use.

[ASIDE: Ewww. That picture of me and G is totally "worst-quality..." Grainy and shit. And where are Romella and Debbie in this pic? Guess it was just the guyz. DUH, Wen!]

Oh yeah, what was I babbling about again? Oh yeah, SuMmMmMmmMmeR... yeah, just bring it already. I'm getting antsy. Just bored, I guess. What the hell am I talking about? Shit. Oh yeah - don't forget... blow me some luck for tomorrow. We'll see just how high the stakes will get. HAHAHA! OK - so that's quite unlikely. Whatever. Just get me to a WAWA and I'll be good. LOL!

I know, for one thing, my dear friend, FLORENCE, is gonna have a hard weekend to deal with. Her fiancee (is that how you spell it? asks the English major... *duh*) is off to join the Marines. And who knows what the military life may have in-store for him? Especially with impending war on our hands... Well, I am a firm believer that God takes care of all good people, and that definitely goes for both Flo and Jun. So keep your heads up, you two... God has a plan for you both, and you're both headed towards that plan. You just gotta have faith that His plan is what's best. FLO: I got yo' back! You know that I, along with all your other dear-hearts, will be takin' care of you while Jun is away. JUN: Serve and protect us, man! Best of luck to you, and hope this experience is everything that you hope it to be.

Aight, all mushiness aside... I hate situations like this. I mean, I'm not that close to Jun, but I've known who this guy was since our "olden" days of CCD (or FFP) at Bolling AFB. Now if you were a part of that, you were part of a tradition... a tradition that has since died out, but it's all good. We all got the memories. But yeah, I hate situations like this - where saying "G'bye" really means something. I mean, it's one thing to say "bye" and "have a safe trip" to someone who you know you'll most likely see again. But when this person is embarking on a "life-changing" experience, there's more at stake. Not that I don't think I'm never gonna see Jun again, because I'm most confident that I am, but there's just a lot that this guy is gonna go through. I'm sure that it's going to be an experience of a lifetime, and he seems SO ready for it. Man, I don't know if I could do that, and I give him MAD-PrOpZ for going for it. It's just an honorable thing to do, and I'm really happy for him.

I didn't get the chance to really say "good-bye," or wish my cousin, Art, well before he went off to the military. But that's entirely my fault. Wendel and his all-too UNATTAINABLE schedule: always has something to do, someplace to go. Can't help it, you know? But yeah, in hindsight, I'm really proud of Art for going off and doing what he did. I'm proud of his lil bro, Arnold, for taking that step a while back. I'm so proud of my Godsisters, Amelie & Lenore, for finally getting off their butts to GET TO SCHOOL (in HAWAII & SAN FRAN of all places!!). I'm proud of my boos, Liza and Jen, for stepping up to plate, to take on the responsibilities of the world, and raising my beautiful Goddaughters (see photo of my Goddaughter, Kaila, and her lil sis, Ave... Li's girls...). Man, I love my friends, and it's just so weird that Jun's leaving made me realize how much these people mean to me.

I just wish THEM all the best... I wish US all the best. While Jun and Art are off serving the country, while Am is bustin' her tail to get that paper @ UH (and Len @ USF), while Li and Jen are workin' hard to raise their families, and while WEN continues to struggle to find what it is HE wants from HIS so-called-life (law school, business degree, Broadway aspirations, breakin' out into TV/film in Hollywood, starting a business... W-H-A-T-the-F-U-C-K-ever it is that he figures to do!!!)... I think we should keep in mind that at the end of all this, life will totally be WHAT WE MAKE IT TO BE. If we continue to sit on our asses, then shit ain't gonna happen. NOTHING will happen to us unless we MAKE it happen.

So while "GOOD-BYEs" are being said, let's not think of them as life-long sentences. It's just another way of saying, "until next time..." And hopefully, for all of us (God-willing), "next time" will be lingering just around the corner. =)

So ANYway. Enough of the teaching, because that is so not what I've had on my mind the past day and a half. I was driving home yesterday when a Celine Dion song came on the radio. Goodness-gracious, I totally loathe her. I think we ALL do, and we all think that she's just totally "soft rock" queen... (more like elevator music empress) So yeah, I'm driving along and her song comes on the radio --- what do I do?! TURN TO ANOTHER STATION, you ask? NO, Wendel turns up the volume...and in a fit of bewildered fright, starts singing along. OKAY - WHY does this happen?! Everyone and their mother hates Celine Dion, and her overly-melodramatic~ness, AND her conceitedness to boot... But as much as people hate her music/songs, people JUST AS MUCH know her music/songs. It's like a disease or something; an alter-ego, perhaps, that we all subconsciously possess. Yes, Celine Dion is embedded in our heads FOREVER, and we are SAD for it. So the next time you're sitting in the car, and her song comes on and you realize that when you want it the most there's no easy way out...you know it's because Celine Dion has fetched water from the moon to make you love me, make you love me! Celine-Celine... lay it down, boo. LAY IT DOWN so that we may live again.

Oh another thing. I was perusing the internet for airfares to Los Angeles all day yesterday (btw, I'm going to LA on March 21st! *WoOhOo* TODAI, BEVERLY CENTER, SANTA MONICA, SADDLE RANCH --- heRe i CoMe!@!), and I came upon some airline names. [ASIDE:Wow, didn't know that the Philippine's Cebu Pacific Airline is doing pretty well now!! Has codeshares with American Airlines. Anyway.] I came upon this one airline, whose name totally makes me feel ill. I've hated it ever since I realized what it reminded me of. It's Ireland's airline: AER LINGUS. I don't know about you, but to me - that name has always reminded me of "cunnilingus..." And let me not even get into a story about the "C" word that happened to me in college. O-M-G! AHAHAHAAH! Yeah, just thought I'd share :)

So - American Idol will sport 12 finalists? INTERESTING!! From the wild card show, it HAS to be between CLAY, CHIP, TRENYCE, and perhaps KIMBERLY ~ although she picked a poor song to sing. I'm sure she felt the earth move under her feet, and felt the sky tumbling down after wearing that black dress and singing that poor song so substandardly. Oh well. Strike 2, Kimberly. Strike 2.

SOOOOO - Battle of the Sexes... The numbers are dwindling, and that's okay. It's just so funny how things are going. Last night's mission was so funny, but I think that some of those girls (Emily and co.) were totally taking the whole issue way too far. All that morality/God mumbo-jumbo should have TOTALLY not even come into play. HELLO! This is freakin' MTV! And it's the Real World and Road Rules for Pete's sake! Since when did they worry about morality and Godliness on that show? *ShEeSh* Emily was bein' all wah-wah about the game when all you had to really do was just play it, and NOT answer anything if you didn't know what to say! SIMPLE AS THAT. You so could've gotten off withOUT having to take off any clothes (they played a sorta strip game show; strip off a piece of clothing if you answer something wrong). But yeah Emily, Tonya, Ayana, Christina, and Anne were the ones who "sat out" during this mission. Whatever. Anne was all in tears about the mission, and Christina was just acting like super-PRUDE. Goodness-gracious, I'm beginning to be really annoyed with how the show is portraying Christina & Anne. They look like Emily-cultists. Anyway... So Veronica moves up to the Inner Circle - *WoOhOo* Well, I thought that Veronica was going to be the one to totally bump-off Emily, but apparently Veronica isn't that trife.

Anyways... I can't believe how into this show I am. It's kinda scary.

Back to that whole thang about the inner circle. Well, it's funny, because the issue of cliques always comes up when I'm talking with friends. We usually joke about it and stuff, but sometimes thinking about it makes you realize some very interesting things. I think in ANY given situation at any given time, there will be CLIQUES, or - as I have now decided to call it - an "INNER CIRCLE." Call me a biter, but yeah - I'm totally using this term (which I took from BOTS - ahahah) to refer to this. But yeah, in any group of friends you'll have an inner circle, or a clique. It's usually never really designated or decided on (that would be outright ridiculous and cult-ish to even consider), but there always is some kind of manifestation of a "clique." At school, you have people hanging out in their cliques. At work, you have people hanging out in their cliques. Even in social gatherings -- groups are divided into cliques. Certain people may not call their group a "clique," but who the hell are we kidding here? It's a freakin' CLIQUE.

Honestly speaking, I don't see anything wrong with cliques. I think it would depend on how you would go about handling the "clique." If you're gonna be high school about it, then that would be stupid. If you're "high-school" about it, then you either (1) close off your group to others, making it totally exclusive, or you (2) sit there and worry about whether or not people in another group are worrying about you or your friends or what you wear or what you do for fun, etc.-etc.-etc. Personally I think that being that way is stupid. Why would you even care about what other people think about you? If you're friends with someone, then you're friends with them. Plain and simple. If you're close with someone, then even better. Now if you're boyz or gurlz with them, then it's practically family. There are many degrees to friendships, and the clique is just the manifestation of these degrees... and to me, that's healthy. I personally don't go worrying about what another group of friends are thinking when I walk into a room. I simply mind my business, and "play" with MY friends. And if I make an acquaintance or two with people from another group, then why the hell not?! It really is no thang.

Then if you notice further, there's that "inner circle;" that un-designated entity of "leaders" in a group --- usually the ring-leader, or the head-honcho. Sometimes you don't even really entitle them with that, but when you look at the scheme of things, that's just what that person (or persons) is. Every group needs a leader (leaders), right?

It's just funny to look back at things and fizzle through my mental "who's who" among friends' inner circles. I, for one, am a person with many different groups of friends. I've never been one to be "exclusive" to a particular group. I've always belonged to several, which is what makes this issue such a trivial one for me. I've had several groups of friends with several inner circles, some of which even I have been privy to. Like in college, I remember the original Allegany ZOO Crew (not the newer Zu Kru - which actually stemmed-off the original crew). Originally, the "Zoo Crew" were that bunch of crazy guys who lived in 2101-Allegany: Steve, Rithy, Noel, myself... and our band of crazies - including the H-Phi-H sistas (ahaha), the AASU (gosh, we were so politically driven back then - NOT!!), the FCA (ahahah), Sharonda (she stands alone - ahahah), the Phi-Beta-Flys, the "FAM," and anyone else and everyone else. You could say that the "inner circle" of that OG Zoo Crew was definitely made-up of Steve, Rith, Noel, and myself.

Then slowly things started to shift, and when Noel and I graduated, the "new crew" pulled-in the younger bunch, and evolved with some of the older guys who were still around... and, of course, the inner circle changed with people like Rak and Vid taking over Noel and me. And even to this day, the "Zu Kru" has an even newer band of people. SO interesting how things turn-out, eh?!

Another example would be the H-Phi-H sistas - which, at one point, was headed by the inner circle of Ning, Anna Liza, and Tes. And then somehow that would shift and change with the times... Then there was even the time before that when I was younger, and we had our group of friends with the inner circle being myself, Gina, and Sharonda. Then another group with the inner circle being myself and my cousin Romelee; then another group with... ahhh... the list goes on. It's funny to look back and remember these things; esp. ALL the good/great times. *sigh*

I guess what I'm trying to say is that no matter what it is - no matter what the clique is, no matter who is in the inner circle...it's all about love and fun. Fun and love. That's the name of the game, right? Ahahahaha... that's why I love my friends... *wink*

Speaking of violence, I watched a play with my Godsis today @ GWU. It was called The Laramie Project, and it's about that hate crime against this dude in Laramie, Wyoming. Where the hell that is, I have no clue. Nor do I really care. It was aight. I was expecting a lil' more from the production team, but I guess that it just wasn't to be. Anyway... Yeah, it was about a hate crime against the gay community. It was good in that it was a real eye-opener for the realism of hate crimes. To me, a hate crime is a damn hate crime. No matter what the root of the hate is: race, gender, sexual preference, your freakin' accent, the way you dress, the way you make a face when you smell something nasty... whatever. HATE is HATE; it's simple as that. I'm so against that. Even though I almost committed a hate crime against sheer stupidity the other day, I knew I had to hold back cause that just isn't me. Let's just stop the hate already. OH - yeah, the point of me bringing that up was to say that you should def see the play if ever it comes your way. Very interesting.

Anyway. Sunday is REST day. I was gonna go to the gym again, but I held back. My arms are SO freakin' sore. I haven't done any weights in ages, so I decided that I'd do them yesterday, instead of doing cardio. So yeah, I'm paying for it now. Actually I started to pay for it last night at Dream.

SPEAKING OF WHICH... Dream started off aight. I mean we got in for free, and we got free food, and we were on the brink of coming into our buzzes, but DAMN! They had to hold-up, wait-a-minute and stop the music as we watched the most boring JONES/Latino-dude fight. YES, it was boring. And since when did people go to Dream to watch a fight?! The music was cut short, and by the time the fight was over, we were ready to leave. So we left. Didn't get our groove-on, and got lost going home. We ended up near College Park, and while the flashbacks of undergrad life was becoming ever-so-evident by the minute, it was a no-go, and I somehow got our gurl on track and back in the direction of home. Made it home safely. I smoked too many cigarettes for my own good last night. NO MORE. Smoking gets worse and worse with each experience. I guess that's what happens when you become a "social smoker."

Oh, anyway. So today I saw an okay play (great message, mediocre production), ate TRIFE Malaysian food at J Street's food-court style Malaysia Kopitiam (I'd rather eat at the real restaurant), and I'm ready to vaccum my mom and dad's house. Cleanliness is a virtue (at least I think it is).

Ooooh... the sun's comin' down. Time to go.

All I know is that it was sorta weird how things lead me to find out about my stolen "merchandise." I just all-of-a-sudden got this gut-feeling in my stomach to look somewhere, and when I did --- the answer was right there in front of my face. IN FRONT OF MY FUCKING FACE.

Sometimes we do need to trust our instincts, especially when it comes to things so personal... so detrimental to having to have to face a person regarding whatever kind of trife shit you've got going on with them. You have to trust ALL your instincts.

At that moment of rage, I was ready to do some major damage. But something told me to hold back. But whatever, in the end... the story goes well for ME (luckily, and SORTA...). But for the thief, life will never be the fucking same - not with me, anyway. The sad thing is that the thief chose this way. I didn't do anything but find out the trifeness that the thief was trying to pull over my own damn eyes.

I so can't wait for tonight. Gonna hit the club, and I'm gonna get my drink on. As for the thief --- just get out of my face and go to hell.