journal
my life is so bizarre, or boring, but either way, i'm writing about it right here as often as possible!

sunday 31 december 2006 12:55am

"it's like freedom, it's like a trap
it's a short trip to heaven and a long ride back
dance on the ceiling and a crawl on the floor
love is everything and nothing i've been looking for" -- vince gill "everything and nothing"

sarah and i had a blast together in the city and really i think i could have stayed one more day (if my little christmas break were a day longer).  and now i am back in san carlos and not really ready for the new year or ending my little christmas break.  more fun lies ahead, however. :)

sarah and i slept in nice and late today and weren't out of the room by the 1pm deadline by very much. :)  and we left our bags with the bellman and set out for some serious shopping.  but first things first.  we had lunch in the food court at san francisco centre.  it's very fancy for a food court, and my lunch was so delicious!  and then there was the shopping.  yeah, i definitely did a bit more damage today!  banana republic had some wonderful things, including a hott black satin dress that i have no occasion for. ;)  and i also really love h&m and there aren't any in socal (yet), so i tried on armfuls of things and came away with plenty of fun new clothes.  i really like every new thing i acquired and i'm excited to get to wear everything!  then sarah and i did dinner at the cheesecake factory at the top of macy's in union square.  the wait was long(ish) but we waited most of the time one floor down in the furniture department, where there were plenty of couches for us to lounge on after so much walking/standing today! :)  and then we dined outside overlooking union square with a heater keeping us warm, and it was so nice!  and of course, i'm still so full from all the food!

then sarah and i headed out of downtown in her car that barely held our luggage and all our purchases.  :)  dad picked me up from sarah's friend's house (where sarah's staying tonight), and now i'm here back at home.  and i baked for adam's party tomorrow, though that really didn't take very long.

anyway, now i really need to get to bed.  back next time!  g'night! ;)

saturday 30 december 2006 11:06am

"i can't hide from the truth, this love i feel for you
it's the one thing i can't ignore
i know i can't explain the pleasure or the pain
love is everything and nothing i've been looking for" -- vince gill "everything and nothing"

good morning from s.f.! :)  i had a good day here yesterday and i have a few extra minutes this morning to write a little about it, so i thought i'd take advantage. :)

so i got up entirely too early yesterday morning so i could be dressed and ready when mom, adam, and i met up with auntie lily and theresa at 9am at sears fine foods for breakfast.  well we got there and the line was crazy long, so we went to lori's diner instead.  pancakes or pancakes.  didn't matter so much to me. ;)  so breakfast was good and then we did some shopping all around union square.  there was a lot to look at and i did just that.  but all i bought was a black sweater (i can never have too many) at levi's, which was 75% off and therefore only $12.  awesome!  so anyway, i spent all morning with all those people until around 1, when mom and adam headed home and auntie lily and theresa went off to do their own thing.

i came up to the hotel room for a nap and then some lunch while waiting for sarah to arrive in the city.  she did eventually get here, and we set out to do some more shopping.  we're bad influences on one another (mostly her on me, however ;)), so we bought plenty.  i found really adorable black patent wedges at dsw.  sarah bought 3 pairs of tennis shoes and a weekender bag all for less than what my shoes cost because hers were all insanely discounted.  so fun!  and then we spent a long time in fourth & towne.  it's the gap's latest brand and it's supposed to be a little older and more sophisticated than the gap.  it's not really like banana republic, though.  anyway, we both loved the store and they were having a massive sale, so that was fun!  we tried on lots and lots and they have the best dressing rooms there!  really cute and they give you bottled water (that's seriously the way to win me over in a store).  anyway, i ended up with a really nice pair of slacks and a really cute little dress that i think i'll be able to dress up or dress down.  anyway, we now love that store!

then we headed back to the hotel room for a quick change into cute dresses and heels and then went to kuleto's for a nice italian dinner.  mmm!  good!  and dessert there was also excellent!  and we were there a while just talking and whatever until we eventually decided we were tired and headed back here and crashed.

today there's lots more shopping ahead of us and then i'm headed back to san carlos.  i'll let you know how it goes! :)

thursday 28 december 2006 9:57pm

"it's coming home, it's lost at sea
it's a hopeless addiction to sweet misery
it's the poison, it's the candy store
love is everything and nothing i've been looking for" -- vince gill "everything and nothing"

greetings from the city!  if you don't already know, that means san francisco. :)  it's what it's called.  the city.  even herb caen, the truest of all san franciscans, said that's one of the few acceptable nicknames for this place.  no, frisco, is not on his list. ;)

anyway, mom, adam, and i headed up here this morning and got checked into our room at the hyatt right in union square.  it's in such a great place, and i'm loving the chance to spend a lot of time here and not feel quite so rushed as if i were on a day trip.  anyway, the three of us got a little breakfast on the go at starbucks and then did some serious shopping.  okay, well i actually only bought two shirts from forever 21 all day, but still.  :)  around lunch time, we met up with auntie joyce so mom could take advantage of her employee discount (it's her side job).  and we had lunch in the food court in the macy's basement and i had what i think may the the best plate of chicken tenders and fries i've ever had ever.  :)  so good!  and there was a bit more shopping in the afternoon before mom, adam, and i crashed in the hotel room for short naps.

then dad met us here and we walked down to buca di beppo's for dinner, which was so delicious!  i loved all the dishes we had, though i'd definitley say the garlic cheese bread and the chicken parmesan were the highlights.  i'm stuffed!  and we wandered into a few hotels to see christmas decorations on our way back to the hotel room.

it's cooold here, but i'm dealing. :)  at least it's sunny!  and i'm looking forward to two more days, which will include my cousin and sarah and lots more shopping.  hooray! :)

more next time.  g'night from ess eff! ;)

wednesday 27 december 2006 11:52pm

"it's like jail, it's like flight
it's a dream that wakes you in the middle of the night
it's like chains, like an open door
love is everything and nothing i've been looking for" -- vince gill "everything and nothing"

first of all, a happy 18th birthday to my baby brother, adam!  (he doesn't read this but i'll leave that here for good measure. ;))

it was a pretty mellow wednesday, actually, which is fine by me! :)  i slept in a little bit before eventually getting up and making a morning starbucks run.  mmm... marble mocha macchiato.  :)  such a treat!  anyway, i just hung around the house the rest of the morning not doing a whole lot.  i helped edit some college essays for adam and watched a bit of tv.  i also caught up with some email.  i eventually made a trader joe's run for some food (they keep this house so empty of food!) and found wonderful things but not the penne arrabiata that i was actually after.  oh, well.  everything else looks great! :)  the afternoon was pretty boring and i fit in a little nap that was sort of by accident.

eventually, though, i got all cleaned up and dressed and pretty for an evening out.  a random group of notre dame girls got together at chevy's, where some of used to go quite frequently for big group dinners out.  it was me, annahita, katherine, jackie, jessica, stephane, jen hogan, elisabeth pisano, and suzanne diggins.  anyway, we had a good time trading stories (and a little gossip) and were there until the restaurant was preparing to close.

afterwards, kath and i got ice cream at baskin-robbins for dessert on the way to my house, where we hung out for a little bit.  then kath had to get back to the friends from out of town that she's entertaining, and i had to get to packing and other chores.

i'm spending the next three days in the city, which should be awesome if sort of cold.  i'll need the computer to be functioning while i'm there, so i'll be around.  for now, however, g'night! ;)

wednesday 27 december 2006 12:21am

"why can't we
get back to the love we know
oh why oh baby why" -- vince gill "the reason why"

it was a pretty quiet day after christmas, and i must say that i quite enjoyed myself. :)

i got to sleep in a bit in a quiet house because both parents were off to work or wherever early this morning.  that was nice!  by the way, i'm loving this electric blanket i stole from my brother.  anyway, so i got a bit of sleep before eventually getting up and clean and dressed and all of that.

meg picked me up around noon and we went out to lunch.  we originally planned to go to ozuma because we both love that place but hadn't ever been together before, despite the fact that it's only a couple minutes from here.  anyway, i called and they won't be open until january, so we instead decided to go with another san carlos classic, sneakers.  and then we both ordered pizza and were informed that their pizza oven wasn't yet hot enough because it had been off yesterday.  anyway, our lunches were both still good and we got to exchange christmas presents, as well, which was fun! :)  we did have a bit of an odd experience, however, when a random old man asked if we minded if he sat at the other end of the 6-person table we were using.  we didn't know what else to say, so we let him.  he must be a regular because his food and drink were out like as fast as he sat down, so i guess it was alright.  just unexpected.  anyway, you never know what you might get in the small town. ;)

so after eating, we decided to go wander around the bookstore because we do love to do that together.  and actually, i found a book that looks like it'll be a fun read, so that's happy!  and then we headed out and it was pouring rain out, which neither of us were prepared for.  so we got a bit wet.  oops! ;)  haha!

so i spent the afternoon hanging out before adam and i decided that we should definitely go rent movies at blockbuster since nothing too exciting was going on here tonight.  we unded up with far too many (5!) and then headed back here.  he worked on more college essays while i thoroughly enjoyed "step up," which turned out to be a sort of cheezy mix of "dirty dancing" and "good will hunting," two of my very favorite films.  anyway, i wouldn't subject anyone else to it, but i really liked it! :)

then dad, adam, and i ordered toto's pizza for dinner (something i wanted before heading back to laguna for sure) and watched "little miss sunshine," which i enjoyed just as much the second time around.  love steve carell! :)

and since that ended, adam and dad have been doing more college stuff (which i have to edit tomorrow morning, by the way, so don't think i'm not involved at all) while i watched the first half of "haven" on mu computer tucked in bed.  it's entertaining so far and i'll get back to it either later tonight or tomorrow morning.

anyway, i guess it's been a movie-filled day!  we still have "jackass 2" and "thank you for smoking" left!  good stuff! ;)  so i'm off for now, but i'll be back next time.  g'night! ;)

p.s. new st. charles reunion photos are up on my flickr and our class of '97 flickr (we all have access to post reunion photos here)!

sunday 25 december 2006 11:37pm

"i'm dreaming tonight
of a place i love
even more than i usually do
and although i know
it's a long road back
i promise you
i'll be home for christmas
you can count on me
please have snow and mistletoe
and presents under the tree
christmas eve will find me
where the love light gleams
i'll be home for christmas
if only in my dreams" -- "i'll be home for christmas"

merry christmas, once again.  i hope you spent it with loved ones. :)

i was awoken before 9am this morning so auntie nancy and jeff could come over and we could get started with the christmas celebrations.  we had breakfast, and then opened some presents.  i got some cool stuff, including some books i'm really excited about and lots of things for my kitchen.

and then we raced to get dressed and ready and headed over to auntie lily's for the big christmas lunch.  it was great to see the whole family, especially since we weren't together for thanksgiving.  however, there's a small problem with lunch at their house.  i'm crazy allergic to it.  they have cats and dogs and other creatures and whatever kind they are, i'm very allergic.  so pretty much from the instant i walked in the door i was drugged and coulnd't breathe.  so really besides eating and reading the prayer (which theresa pawned off on me ;)), i napped on the couches.  at least i didn't feel miserable when i was sleeping.  anyway, still, great to see the fam! :)

and it's been quiet around here since then.  just hanging out.  and now i'm ready to go back to sleep.  g'night and merry christmas. ;)

sunday 25 december 2006 12:24am

"well if you're thinking 'bout getting me a present this year
let me put a bug in your cute little ear
how about two tickets to a tropical show
where we don't have to wear these winter clothes anymore
instead of turkey we'll have mahi mahi grillin'
and pina coladas in the blender chillin'
all i want for christmas is a real good tan
take me to the islands
put my feet in the sand
singing 'silent night' with the palm trees a blowin'
oh, don't you think it's a pretty good plan
all i want for christmas is a real good tan" -- kenny chesney "all i want for christmas is a real good tan"

merry chistmas!  love you!

i realize it's been a long time since i've updated, but i do have a little time tonight to write about the past week.  it's been crazy busy and i've really tried to make sure that resting was a priority, so other things fell by the wayside.  anyway, i am back on track now.  and i'm sorry about letting this slip.

last weekend ended well, with some shopping at both south coast plaza and fashion island, plus a fun night out in newport by the fun zone watching the boat parade.  it really is quite a unique tradition.  there aren't too many places in the county where it's not ridiculous to be outside at night watching yachts decorated in christmas lights in december.  love that! :)

work was so busy all week!  i was in the office a lot trying to make sure all the necessary projects got wrapped up before we closed shop for 6 days for the holidays.  and of course, there was also the fact that a lot of people around the office didn't have much to do this week and therefore were looking for distractions.  and then we all had to also prepare for melissa's departure, which feels a bit traumatic still, though i know i'll get used to her being gone and to having barry (the new guy) sitting at that desk.  anyway, i think i got it all taken care of, so that's great.

on wednesday night, melissa, lea, marke, katrina, marke's brother matt, and i went up to costa mesa for a fun night! :)  we had a delicious dinner at the macaroni grill there and then went up the street to the orange county performing arts center to see "the 25th annual putnam county spelling bee!" yes, i've seen it 3 times before (if you count the adult version i saw with sarah in the city).  but the tickets were cheap and it seemed like it'd be fun, so we went.  and i had a total blast!  that group of people is fun, and it seemed like everyone enjoyed the show, though it was different than what they had expected.  the show really is kind of hard to describe.

friday after work (1ish), i got in the car and drove 475 miles all the way home to san carlos.  the drive felt long because it took me three hours of stop-and-go traffic to get out of the la area, but then after that it was quite clear and i made it to san carlos before 10.  i spent a good amount of time on the phone with katie, which was awesome because it'd been sooo long since we'd had a chance to catch up.  plus, she informed me that apparently t-mobile is monitoring my number for trouble so she cannot call me.  what's that about?!?  everyone else can call me.  crazy.  anyway, it was good to talk to her and a few other friends, and the drive was alright.

once home, i was glad to discover a far more comfortable mattress on my bed in my room here.  and i found an electric blanket to keep me warm, too! :)  so nice!  so at least i can sleep okay here now, which is a relief.

yesterday was a big day.  it was finally the st. charles 10 year reunion we've been planning for months and months now.  oh.  my.  goodness.  it was so much fun!  i had a total blast!  i know, it seems a bit weird to have an elementary school reunion, but the same group of like 35 of us went to school from kindergarten through eighth grade together, and that's 9 years and a lot of growing up.  i was discussing with someone how it's like we actually know each other better than like high school friends because we didn't have our guards up back then because we were so young and didn't know better.  about 25 of us ended up together last night between the official dinner at gordon biersch and our unofficial afterparty at the old pro.  though there were many of them i hadn't seen in 10 years, it still felt the same, like we were just continuing with our story together.  we were so close back then that we just all click right back together.  everyone seemed to be loving it as much as i was, as well.  :)  seriously, i'm not sure what else to say.  we had a great time catching up and hanging out, and i would have loved even more time together.  we're for sure not waiting 10 more years to do it again!

and today was a christmas preparation day.  adam and i decided to do a bit of last-minute shopping (because he hadn't actually started his christmas shopping yet).  we ran into theresa in the best buy parking lot as we were on the phone with her, which is insane!  and so the three of us headed up to the mall together for some more shopping.  amazingly, it wasn't really crazy there at all, so that was cool. :)  we found some good stuff and then headed out.  theresa stayed and met up with some other friends there, but adam and i went to taxi's for a delicious lunch before heading home for a nap. :)

and tonight, we had dinner and then auntie nancy and jeff came over for dessert.  then adam and i met up with theresa for midnight mass at 10 at st. charles which was fine.  and now we just finished wrapping gifts and i'm about to crash.

have a wonderful christmas!  i'll be back again soon. g'night. ;)

sunday 17 december 2006 12:39am

"the lamp is burning low upon my table top
the snow is softly falling
the air is still within the silence of my room
i hear your voice softly calling
if i could only have you near
to breathe a sigh or two
i would be happy just to hold the hands i love
upon this winter night with you" -- sarah mclachlan "song for a winter's night

it's been a good couple of days.  yesterday was mostly just work (lots and lots and lots), but we did do a company potluck breakfast (delicious!) and yankee swap/white elephant.  i don't especially like this game and i ended up with a crappy (seriously.) present after at other points possessing things i actually wanted.  anyway, it was fine.  and after work, i came home and did some cleaning around the apartment and then crashed early.

today was fun! :)  okay, so i actually ended up getting up way earlier that what's normal for me for a saturday but i know that's because i went to bed early last night.  anyway, i spent my morning like really, actually cleaning the apartment.  it needed it and it looked a hell of a lot better when i was done. :)  so i think it was worth the effort.

then i headed out for some groceries and other things for tonight's dinner party.  my last stop was costco #2 (because #1 didn't have what i was after) and on my way out i picked up a slice of pizza for lunch, which they give you on a plate.  i figured i could get it all the way home before eating it, though.  so i walk outside and all of a sudden it's pouring rain.  great.  i parked at the farthest end of the massive parking lot and i needed to get my chicken and my pizza all the way there.  so i tried to cover my pizza as best as possible and just went for it.  i was wet but i saved my pizza, which i then just ate while in my car in the lot before heading home.  i figured, why not? :)

anyway, then i got myself cleaned up and made sure the apartment was in order for later.  and then annahita called.  she arrived in town this afternoon and was with jen.  so i agreed to meet them in downtown laguna for a little shopping.  i did find a couple really cool things and then it started to rain too hard there, so we just all headed back to my place where they made themselves presentable and i cooked dinner.  actually, though, this was a really easy meal: salad, pasta, chicken parmesan.  quick stuff. :)  but still, really delicious!  anyway, i'm getting ahead of myself.

so i had a small dinner party/game night at the apartment tonight, and it turned out so fabulously!  i had had kind of low expectations, but it was so fun!  it was me, annahita, jen, lea, marke, katrina, and marke's friend alex.  dinner was delicious, and we even opened up a couple bottles of wine that i'd had around the apartment.  and after dinner, we cleared up the table and got on with the game night portion.  annahita and jen had other plans, so it was just the 5 of us left.  we had such a good time playing hoopla and catchphrase. :)  we played for a few hours until it was suddenly midnight and everyone headed home.  now things are mostly cleaned up and i'm getting ready for bed in a few minutes.  anyway, it was a great time, and i'll be having more game nights in the future!

not sure what's in store for tomorrow, but hopefully it'll be fun! :)  for now, g'night. ;)

thursday 14 december 2006 11:14pm

"i've give anything to be there with you now
i'd cover you in kisses
hold you in my arms
that's all that i can think of
every minute we're apart
darling, i've been living
for the moment that we touch
so i can cover you in kisses
and wrap you in my love" -- john michael montgomery "cover you in kisses"

i used this song ages ago but i heard it today and i love it and i mean it.  so there you go.

once again, i'm not all about writing tonight.  it's just like i can't write what is really going on in my head anyway because this gets published on the internet.  so i'm just going to go with the brief version of things and we'll all move on.

work's crazy insane.  so much work right now.  more than i really know what to do with.  and it won't calm down tomorrow, either.  i'm considering going in early to get some work done before the holiday festivities.  and we're shipping a magazine and sending out a proof of the other.  geez.  we're so busy!  i got my "rtc" media kits back from the printer today and they look pretty good!  everyone else loves them, so that's nice!  and somehow i was there really late today.

and i haven't been up to much at all other than that.  i know, lame.  yesterday, i went to bed at 8 because i just had a really bad headache (i don't get headaches so much) and i was just so tired.  i did feel quite a bit better today.  but getting home when it's nearly 8 doesn't leave a whole lot of time for stuff.  anyway, talked to the fam and some friends online and i'm hoping to watch "the office" (yay for the christmas episode!) before getting to bed.  anyway, it should be a good weekend, so i'm excited about that!  for the moment, though, i'm off.  g'night! ;)

tuesday 12 december 2006 10:55pm

"i've been riding these blue highways
another night has made me stop
a weary bone can go no farther
and here's where they'll drop
in my dreams your arms will find me
they will hold me through the night
and release me to my journey
as another day grows live
i've got so many miles to go
and promises to keep
right now all i wanna do
is being anywhere on earth you are" -- alan jackson "anywhere on earth you are"

it took me a while to find the right lyrics tonight.  i should have just started with alan in the first place because he's one of the best.  so there you go.  they're just right.

quite honestly, i don't feel much like sitting here and writing tonight.  but i'm doing it for you anyway, though i'm thinking i'll keep it pretty brief.

tried to get to bed at a decent hour last night.  not sure exactly how successful i was, but you know.  anyway, got up with the alarm this morning, though it nearly killed me.  and i cut my finger last night when i was cleaning so that was so surprisingly painful in the shower.  ouch!  oh, well.  anyway, i got dressed (looked pretty cute, if i'm allowed to say that) and headed off to work, stopping at starbucks on the way because there is zero actual food in this apartment.

work was as busy as ever.  there's just a lot going on right now (with all signs pointing towards it getting crazier, not easier), so i spent all day working pretty hard.  stopped for a moment to have a salad from stillwater, which was delicious. :)  anyway, i think i worked until about 6, at which point i couldn't really see anything anymore because my eyes were just too tired.  so i headed home.

but on the way home, i distracted.  i mean inspired. ;)  i went to best buy to pick up a handful of christmas presents.  and so i totally found things i want there, as well, because that's pretty much just how it goes if you let me loose with the cd racks.  anyway, then i headed home.

i baked cookies from scratch in an attempt to avoid cleaning and doing other responsible things around here.  the cookies are so good, though!  and i had a little dinner, as well.  plus, i watched a bit of the tv that was on my recorder, including my boyfriend matt damon's perfectly adorable appearance on letterman last night.  geez, he's cute! ;)  you know, apparently word's getting out that he's my boyfriend because more than one person emailed me to tell me he was on.  rad!  soon, he will be mine! ;)

okay, and then i had a bit of a rough night because sometimes that's just how they go.  it's getting kind of late, but i'll probably do a bit of cleaning or something around here before crashing.  anyway, i'll be back next time to write for you.  g'night. ;)

monday 11 december 2006 10:05pm

"i'm tired of feeling my heart breaking
i'm tired of hurting 'til i'm shaking
i'm tired of things that i can't undo
don't you know i love you
baby, won't you come home, come on home
i've been a mess since the day you left me
i must confess that i've been unhealthy
please get on back here, baby, you will see
living without you is gonna kill me" -- jon randall "baby, won't you come home"

what a crazy monday!  had it's ups and downs, that's for sure.  but now it's coming to an end, and i'm ready for some rest.

i woke up with the alarm and wasn't ready for that at all.  i got cleaned up and watched the morning "news" (quotation marks because one of today's breaking stories was nicole richie's arrest) before heading off to work.  i had put on sandals and didn't realize it was raining last night, so the ground was all wet.  oh, well.  it was sunny, so i just went with them. :)

as soon as i got into the office and started making my list of things to do, i realized i had way too much to do.  plus, the number of emails i had waiting for me was disgusting.  but i sorted through everything and then got on with it.  i put on the headphones and had the music playing loud.  no distractions for me today.  and i worked really hard all day (and into the night).  ask anyone there.  they know.  ;)  though i did stop for a few minutes to pick up lunch at scpc and eat it with marke in the kitchen.  but yeah, mostly i just worked.  and there's lots more waiting for me tomorrow, though i feel like i got a lot accomplished today.

you know what?  i have the best friends.  like those magically connected sort of friends.  i received three lovely packages in the mail today, all of which cheered me up immensely on a day when i desperately needed it.   okay, so the first was a chris young t-shirt i bought myself, so that doesn't really count in regards to the friends (except chris young and i are friends, right?!? ;)).  anyway, kath sent me a really cute christmas card holder that i've already hung over the fireplace in my apartment.  and katie sent a lovely christmas present. :)  so i'm a happy camper, despite the crazy workday.  how'd they know i'd need it today?

so after work, it was pretty late so i just headed home.  i worked out a bit and then found a little dinner.  and then i did a bit of cleaning.  i have a small (read: huge) magazine addiction, and i need to periodically go through all of them and sort them out so i can throw lots of old ones away.  so i made a huge stack (okay, so it's actually three stacks so they don't fall over) of ones to go through and then throw away, and i even started doing that.  and the ones i want to keep are all put away.  yeah, the magazines were taking over the apartment, but i feel better about them now. :)

and seriously, that's about it.  it's been a nice day, when i think about it.  not sure what's up for tomorrow, but i'm sure it'll be just as busy.  until next time, g'night. ;)

sunday 10 december 2006 10:34pm

"i'm tired of lying 'bout you leaving
i'm tired of my friends not believing
i'm tired of my defenses crashing
and acting like i'm laughing
baby, won't you come home
i've been a mess since the day you left me
i must confess that i've been unhealthy
please get on back here, baby, you will see
living without you is gonna kill me" -- jon randall "baby, won't you come home"

heard this song on cmt today.  couldn't resist.  it's so good.

it was a very fun weekend with megs around and visiting and all that.  we hadn't seen each other in quite a while, actually.  we were talking today about how it's kind of weird how we went from seeing each other every day for like 13 years to going months and months at a time between visits.  i guess that's how it goes when you grow up and so do your friends and we're all living our lives.  anyway, it was a good visit.

she came down thursday, and i picked her up after an interesting day at work.  and we had a chill dinner at mangia bene's, which was so delicious, and then we just hung out here at the apartment.  i knew i needed to get some rest that night, so we tucked in relatively early.

friday, i had to go to work until 2:30, and actually i had plenty of things to do there to keep me busy.  and then i headed home to meet up with meg, who spent her morning here doing a bit of schoolwork (and watching some tv).  then we got all dressed up for our night out.  i decided on a red dress and knee-high black boots.  marke and katrina wanted to all ride together, so they arrived here a few minutes early.  meg and i weren't quite ready, but soon we were and the four of us headed out.  we went up to laguna beach to tivoli terrace for the rtc group holiday party.  it was a pretty nice night, and of course it's fun to see everyone dressed up and outside the office.  marke and katrina, brian and taylor, and meg and i chose a table all together and we enjoyed a nice dinner there.  there was also a raffle for prizes, but i didn't win anything.  no big deal.  they did, however, give everyone in attendance rtc group fleece sweatshirts, so that was nice, i guess.  anyway, i had a really nice time friday night, and i'm glad meg was able to come with me.

saturday, meg and i slept in a bit and then we headed up to the irvine spectrum to do some christmas shopping.  i actually did buy a bunch of christmas presents -- though i'm still not quite done with my shopping -- and meg found some presents for herself along with the ones for other people. ;)  and we had a delicious lunch at the cheesecake factory.  it was a good trip and we were tired of walking by the end.  so we headed home for a few minutes before deciding how to spend our evening.  we decided on beach cities pizza for dinner and then we rented and watched "an evening with kevin smith 2."  we don't really like most of the same movies, but we both really like kevin smith. :)  oh!  and we had golden spoon for dessert, too!  and by the time the movie was done, it was after 1 and i was quite tired.

and this morning we got up and went to rj's cafe for breakfast, and then i had to bring meg to the airport.  and then i went to costco to pick up a couple things and then headed home.  i've been here cleaning up and working on various little chores since then.  i finished wrapping all the christmas presents, so that's cool!  and they're all cute underneath the tree!  and i gave myself the pedicure i've been needing so desperately.  and i watched a movie, which was fine.  and that's about it!  i'm ready to go to bed now, and i'll be back next time with more.

sweet dreams.  g'night. ;)

oh!  p.s.  there are a few photos from the rtc party on flickr.

saturday 9 november 2006 11:40am

just a quick update...

meg's here and we're having fun!  we went to the rtc holiday party last night, which was a good time.  we're planning on shopping for today. :)  i'll fill in the rest of the details (and post a few photos) once meg's gone tomorrow afternoon.

hope you're having a good weekend! ;)

wednesday 6 november 2006 11:37pm

"true believers always find each other...
always knew that you were out there just waiting on me
for me to find my way
find my way to your heart
oh yeah
we can make this work, baby, i know it's true
i can't picture myself with no one but you" -- keith urban "got it right this time"

well i should be on my way to bed because i'm tired and i know i won't be catching up on sleep paricularly soon.  but i'm waiting on my brother to send me an essay for school so i can edit it.  yeah, i'm a good sister. :)  so i have a few minutes to sit and write to you.

i went to bed really late last night.  my sleep's all messed up anyway.  so i got up with the alarm just fine and then headed for the shower.  got cleaned up and didn't have any emergencies to remember while i was drying my hair. ;)  and then i headed off to work.

i brought some apple cider with me to work, which was a nice treat to sip on all morning.  something to keep me warm! :)  work was fine.  actually, it was pretty uneventful.  i accomplished some stuff, though probably not quite enough.

**ooohhh... essay time!**

okay, so i lunched with marke and brian at scpc, which was good and enjoyable and all those things.  and then we went across the parking lot to the used book store to browse for a few minutes, which was fun.  i did escape without spending any money, though. ;)

after work, i was planning to come straight home and get to work on my list of chores.  and then i instead decided to go out on a little mission.  small, black, evening bag.  so i went to kohl's, mervyn's, old navy, and target.  and i was successful!  only $10.  oh, and i might have also found a really cute sweater at mervyn's for $11.  so i bought 2. :)  anyway, it was a fun little outing.

and then i came home, and i've been busy ever since.  i did a quick load of laundry -- just some essentials. i cleaned up around the apartment, so things seem to be much more in order now.  i wrapped a ton of christmas presents.  all that good stuff. :)

and now i'm ready for bed!  tomorrow should be fun because meg arrives! :)  yay!  i'll be back next time with more for you.  g'night. ;)

tuesday 5 december 2006 11:04pm

"all of my life i've been looking for someone
who believes in love the way i do
and i know i've made my share of big mistakes
but i promise you
we can make this work, baby, i know it's true
i can't picture myself with no one but you" -- keith urban "got it right this time"

busy but fun tuesday.  not sure if i accomplished enough, but perhaps.

got up too early.  got cleaned up and dressed and even put on heels for the first time in like 4+ weeks.  looked cute!  and then as i was drying my hair, i remembered i forgot to put the spot varnish channel on the media kit that i thought i finalized last night and that was being handed to the printer this morning.  so i put down the dryer and headed straight to work with semi-wet hair and no starbucks breakfast in hand.

and once i got there (i went the fastest way possible), i was straight to work.  but i got it all taken care of just in the nick of time!  yay me! ;)  and then i made my starbucks run and lea ended up coming with me because she was in the lobby of the building as i was leaving.  she was happy to get out of the office.  and then i ended up working hard the whole rest of the day, as well.  there's just a lot going on.  i did take about three minutes to run up to stillwater to pick up a salad for a late lunch, though!  and we had cake to celebrate the december birthdays, so that was a nice little break, as well.  and at the end of the day, marke, brian, and i were the only ones left as we worked on this little site they're building.  apparently, they needed my artistic direction. :)

after work, i went to loehmann's in seach of cute party clothes and a little evening bag.  didn't find those things.  sad for me!  but i did find a couple le tigre tanks and a pair of sunglasses that's exactly like the pair i have but black.  awesome! :)

and then i've been home having a little food and talking to meg and sarah and the family.  and i did a little cleaning.  now i'm considering doing some christmas present wrapping but i know it's a little crazy because it's late and i should sleep.  but i'm not sleeping well between just not sleeping well and weird nightmares.  oh!  and i picked out what i'm wearing to the christmas party on friday, which is a relief! :)

anyway, i'm off for now.  sweet dreams.  g'night. ;)

monday 4 december 2006 11:23pm

"just when it feels you're on a dead end road
there's always somewhere left to turn
so don't give up now, you're so close to a brand new day
yes, you are
and if you just can't bare to be alone then i'll stay
'cause everybody needs somebody sometimes" -- keith urban "everybody"

crazy monday.  and i'm exhausted and already know i'm doomed to get too little sleep tonight.  oh, well.  i'll just be brief with everything.

got a good amount of stuff done at work, though i know there's still plenty for me to do tomorrow.  we got the cots calendar back from the printer today, and it got awesome reaction from everyone! :)  that's so exciting!  had lunch with marke and melissa at el torito to celebrate melissa's birthday.

after work, i headed home and did a little workout here.  then i planned to clean the apartment but instead got quite distracted by other things.  :)  i had some dinner and then found myself on the phone with sarah for quite a while, which was great because we needed to catch up.  plus, i had a great kirsten-is-crazy story for her! ;)  and then i made myself some apple cider (thanks to the great seasoning they sell at williams-sonoma).  and i enjoyed it while watching "studio 60" and chatting online meg and mel.  oh, and somewhere in there, i watched the first hour of "brokeback mountain" on hbo (in hd!) and talked to the family on the phone.  they want to know what i want for christmas.  i always think i'm easy to shop for, but apparently that's not the case.  so that's about it.  i need to go to bed.

haven't been sleeping too well, but i should give it a shot anyway.  sweet dreams.  g'night. ;)

sunday 3 december 2006 10:49pm

"arm-in-arm on some spring sidewalk day
laughing just because it feels so right
wrapped up under the blankets all cozy by the fire
as long as you're here close enough to touch
well i love the way you look
love the way you feel
and the way you roll your eyes at the kisses that i steal
love the way you stare
when you're staring right at me
and i just love your company, oh yes i do" -- keith urban "tu compania"

it's been a good weekend. :)  i could use another day, though.

so yesterday, i slept in nice and late to make up for all the sleep i haven't been getting lately, and i was finally awoken around 11:30 because mom called.  i didn't actually get up to answer it, but it still woke me.  and then i spent the beginning part of my day trying to clean up a bit around the apartment, which has been a disaster (that's been getting progressively worse) since i returned from hawaii.  anyway, so i took care of part of the apartment.

i also ran a couple little errands, picking up a christmas present.  and i needed apple cider for wednesday's party, too.  when i left the apartment, i was shocked to find it so nice outside.  like 85 degrees perfect nice!  awesome! :)  that alone made my day!

so then i got cleaned up and put on a festive red sweater before heading all the way up to la (like la proper) to wednesday's apartment.  it took me entirely too long to get there, but her tree-trimming party was definitely worth the drive.  besides wednesday, i didn't really know anyone else there, but they all went to pepperdine and were really cool, so that was fun!  plus, most of them are actors so they have huge, party-sized personalities, which makes for a fun time!  oh, and wednesday's apartment is really awesome!  she's right in the middle of everything there, and it's still a huge place!  we decorated her christmas tree and we played party games.  it was seriously really fun and it didn't break up until about 1am.  and then i had to drive all the way back down, which was actually a breeze and i did it all on cruise control! :)  anyway, good christmas party!

needless to say, i slept in late again this morning.  ahh... such a luxury! :)  and then i really was just bumming around the apartment all morning.  did some more straightening around here, though i didn't get to the scrubbing and vacuuming that i had planned.  :)  instead, i threw on some clothes (by the way, i had an awesome hair weekend!) and headed out to do some serious christmas shopping.  i went to a couple random places before heading up to south coast plaza, which was busy but not insane.  i made some progress, and i did find some good gifts, so it was worth the trip up there.  there are a few people left on my list, though.

anyway, that's about it. :)  it's been fun and mostly relaxing.  i'll be back next time with more.  until then, sweet dreams and g'night. ;)

friday 1 december 2006 11:59pm

"it makes me wonder what He was up to
was He thinking about me when He thought about you" -- keith urban "God made woman"

i love that second line, especially.

i think it's been a really good friday. :)  i'm sitting here in what i suppose is now the middle of the night on my big, comfy couch.  my apartment smells like christmas and i just finished getting the tree all together.  (you can see photos on flickr.)  and i'm feeling pretty good, not so exhausted.  and i'm looking forward to the rest of the weekend, as well.

getting out of bed on these freezing cold mornings is rough.  but i managed and i got cleaned up and threw on jeans and a sweater and headed out.  and i stopped for a marble mocha macchiato at starbucks on the way.  mmm... :)  that's such a treat!

work went pretty well today.  got quite a bit of work done, though i had wanted to get a media kit to press.  but i did all i could and then the rest is/was? really out of my hands.  anyway, monday.  and i lunched with marke, katrina, and melissa at tina and vince's and the surly old women there were in a very good mood today, so that was nice. :)  and then i had enough wrapped up by about 5:15 that i could head out and catch a g.o.r.g.e.o.u.s. sunset during my drive home.  love that drive! :)

i stopped at target on my way.  i wanted something to put on the top of my tree, and i found a really cool star.  and i might have also procured mint m&m's while i was there because i'm just a little bit addicted. ;)

and i spent the evening with christmas carols playing while i decorated the tree.  it was fun way to spend my evening, really.  and i'm happy with the result.  then i had a little dinner, watched and enjoyed "ugly betty" (my favorite episode ever?!?), and talked to the family.  that's about it.  it's been delightful.

but for now i'm off to bed... or at least just really relaxing.  g'night. ;)

thursday 30 november 2006 11:22pm

"you know, he put me at ease
and he loved me so naughty
made me weak in the knees
oh i wish i had a river
i could skate away on
i'm so hard to handle
i'm selfish and i'm sad
now i've gone and lost the best baby
that i ever had" -- james taylor "river"

is that his song?  i am not sure.  it's on the christmas album.  anyway, a christmas-y sort of song seemed right for today.  and this one did, too.

it was a pretty busy day, i would say.  got up too early (as usual).  headed to work early and arrived there to find nearly everyone already there for some weird reason.

work was busy, of course.  working on everything, it seems like.  at least i have melissa, brian, marke, lea, and diana to talk to through the day about all the madness, right? :)  and i lunched with brian and marke, which was wonderful and cathartic.  and at the end of the day, lea and i closed down the office together after a long chat that was also really good! :)

then i went to ikea looking for christmas decorations and christmas presents, both of which i found. :)  and then i went to target and ended up coming home with my very first christmas tree.  and it's bigger than i had really intended but i like it.  i got it into the apartment and into the stand, which was entirely too hard to do by myself.  but i think it's okay now.  i put on lots of lights and a skirt.  and i'll finish the decorating over the weekend, i'm sure.  i own exactly 3 ornaments and no topper, but i have an idea. :)  i'll put up pictures once it's actually done.

and now i'm just hanging out.  it's too late.  i need to go to bed if i plan to function at all tomorrow.  and yet i'm here doing too much thinking.  so anyway, i'm off for now.  sweet dreams, and g'night. ;)

wednesday 29 november 2006 10:05pm

"your feet propped up on that kitchen chair
morning papers scattered all around you
coffee brewing on that cast iron stove
and the pleasure of just knowing that you're mine" -- keith urban "tu compania"

i feel exhausted though i don't know that i've worked harder or gotten less sleep this week.  maybe it's the cold.  (i don't love the cold and am definitely willing to blame stuff on it without good reason. ;))  anyway, i fully intend on crawling into my cozy bed as soon as i'm done updating this so i can stay warm and get some rest.

i haven't been up to anything extraordinary the past two days, but they've been pretty good.  work's been normal, i guess.  just taking care of the smaller projects that seem to hang around.  i think i'm making progress, so that's good news. :)

my friends are awesome!  yay for them!  meg's going to be my date to the rtc group holiday party because someone else rsvp-ed for me for 2 people so then i felt like i really needed to bring someone since we'd end up paying for that person no matter what.  so anyhow, without me even asking her, meg volunteered to come down and spend the weekend with me, so i'm totally excited about that!  plus we'll get to do some serious christmas shopping!  and the weekend after that, annahita is headed down here to visit with me and her friend jen.  that should also be a good time.  lots of holiday fun around here!  everyone else has also been wonderful.  also, i got the invitation to the st. charles reunion (that i designed) in the mail today, and it looks great!  plus, i'm so excited to catch up with those people.  it's been nearly 10 years but then again, i spent nearly 10 years growing up with all of them.  anyway, that should be a great event!

i've been watching plenty of basketball.  the teams i choose to root for don't always win but it's still fun (and i have a propensity to choose underdogs). :)  the season is just getting underway and i can already tell it's going to be a good one.

and that's about it from around here.  there's a ton of reading i've been meaning to get to (a huge stack of magazines), so i want to make a small dent in that for the rest of my night.  :)

i'll be back tomorrow with more.  g'night! ;)

tuesday 28 november 2006 10:39pm

work was long, though i know i got a lot done.  basketball's always interesting.  my friends are the best.  i'm so sleepy.  you can find me in bed trying to keep warm and reading a book until i crash.  more next time.

i love you, and g'night. ;)

monday 27 november 2006 11:02pm

"if i could be anywhere with anyone
you know exactly where i'd be
under the covers waiting for the sun to rise
your head on the pillow next to me" -- keith urban "tu compania"

i'm freezing!  brr...

it rained quite a bit this morning.  that was unexpected.  it doesn't rain here, and it's never this cold.  i hear it'll be warming up wednesday.  i can hardly wait.  diana told me my coat was different than whatever kind of coat she thought i'd wear.  i corrected her.  she just wasn't expecting to see me wearing a coat. ;)  cold!  i am quite anxious to crawl into my warm bed.

okay, so today.  it was rough to get up so early.  i read the clock several times to make sure it was actually time for me to get up when the alarm went off this morning.  anyway, after getting all ready and everything, i headed out in my new pink hawaiian islands shirt, which i got tons of compliments on today! :)

so work.  work was alright.  kind of busy, actually.  sally called with an emergency before 9 this morning.  i put out her fire as quickly as possible.  and then i was working on media kit stuff pretty much the rest of the day.  the hours seemed to fly by and then all of a sudden it was 5:30 and time for me to get out of the office.  oh, and somewhere in the mix, i caught up with sarah, found lunch at scpc, and talked to diana a little bit.

so then i headed home and ended up doing a bit of strength training.  that went well (it'd been too long) until near the end i smashed my finger between the two dumbbells.  ouch!  and then after the workout, i was playing with makeup!  haha!  so i ordered a bunch of stuff from this company that sells cosmetics for $1, and it all arrived today.  of course i wanted to try everything out, so i was playing. :)  i know i looked ridiculous by the end because i had two different eyes but i wanted to know what everything was like.  i really like pretty much everything, so that's awesome news!  also, i helped adam with more college essays.  good times! ;)  and i caught up with mel online for a little bit, which was great (i knew she would want to know about the makeup).  and i talked to dad a bit, as well.  and then i watched "studio 60."  i think it was my favorite episode thus far!  i really, really enjoyed it!  how much do i live the jordan character?!?

and now i'm so cold i need to go to bed!  and i just learned (tragically) that it's not really going to get warmer this week.  just sunnier.  5-10 below normal.  bah!  okay, so i'll be back with more about the weather tomorrow. ;)  sweet dreams.  g'night. ;)

sunday 26 november 2006 10:38pm

"you stupid boy
you always had to be right
and now you lost the only thing that ever made you feel alive
she laid her heart and soul right in your hands
and you stole her every dream and you crushed her plans" -- keith urban "stupid boy"

it's been quite a nice sunday, i must say. :)  i once again have done very little, which is great!

first of all, i went to bed entirely too late last night, but that's kind of how it goes when i took that huge, long nap yesterday morning.  anyway, so i slept in gloriously late, which is so fun for me and seems to happen so rarely these days.  and even once i was awake, i hung around in bed a bit.

of course, i did eventually decide that i'd have to get out of bed, but really i just grabbed the newspaper from the doorstep and enjoyed that while on the couch.  and i discovered curling on tv!  pete fenson and the u.s. men's team!  woot!  hahaha! :)  so i watched that a while, and of course they beat the u.s. women's team.  because they rock!  anyway, so i really just hung out for a while.

eventually, i threw on some clothes so i could get out a little bit.  why is it so cold here?  it even smelled like winter outside.  and no, it's not just me being all used to hawaiian weather.  the high was 65 here.  it should be like 75.  and hawaii was like 90.  so what am i doing freezing here?  i don't get it.  (i know, it's not actually cold here.)  so anyhow, i went to the bookstore to look for a book they didn't have, but in the process i picked up a few magazines (mostly ones filled with pretty boys like the people sexiest man issue).  and then i went to trader joe's for groceries and also ended up discovering some fun things that looked delicious, like christmasy cookies. :)  mmm!

and really, i spent the rest of the day lying around.  i finished catching up on all the tv i had missed.  so fun!  and i gave myself a nice little manicure, which is nice.  and i helped adam with another college essay and started reading a new book.  plus, i had a delicious dinner.  and seriously, that's it.  i'm just enjoying what's left of my weekend before it's back to work tomorrow.

so i will be back next time with more. for now, enjoy the hawaii photos and have sweet dreams.  g'night. ;)

sunday 26 november 2006 12:06am

"well she was precious like a flower
she grew wild, wild but innocent
a perfect prayer in a desperate hour
she was everything beautiful and different" -- keith urban "stupid boy"

aloha! :)

every time i come back from the islands, i am desperately wishing i was actually a native instead of just constantly getting confused for one.  it was a fun trip and i was not ready to come back here at all.  but here i am, so i might as well fill you in on what i've been up to for the past week. ;)

on saturday i met up with mom, dad, and adam at lax and we all boarded a plane together straight to maui for our little family thanksgiving getaway.  pretty much, this was a trip planned around things i love, so i've known from the beginning that i was going to enjoy myself.  the trip there wasn't so awful and when we got off the plane in kahului i could feel the sunshine.  mmm!  i love that!  anyway, we had to do the whole rental car nonsense and the headed up to kaanapali to the hyatt, where we stayed.  it is in a really nice location there with a huge pool and lots of beachfront.  our room was tiny for the four of us, but we did somehow manage to have three beds in there.  plus, we tried not to hang out in there too much.  another fun thing about our hotel was that it was the main hotel for the maui invitational, which meant there were tons of players, coaches, and fans from all 8 teams roaming around all the time.  fun!

the maui invitational.  it's the excuse we used to get ourselves to maui for thanksgiving week.  it's a pre-season tournament featuring 8 men's college basketball teams.  this was its 22nd year, and it's become one of the premiere pre-season tourneys in recent years, which means it attracts the top teams.  this year, it was host chaminade, oklahoma, depaul, perdue, kentucky, georgia tech, memphis, and ucla.  awesome field!  that means that the tournament had 12 awesome games.  okay, so anything involving chaminade wasn't super spectacular, but still.  seeing the boys up close and playing great games was such a treat!  the lahaina civic center (1 mile from the hotel and with a shuttle that went back and forth in between) is really small.  smaller than most high school gyms with 15 rows of bleachers on the two long sides and temporary ones on one side and a media/scouts area on the fourth.  i'd guess 3,000 people max.  also, we had stadium club passes, which mean free food and drinks there all day long, plus tvs to watch the games when you were out there or catch up on other scores.  the way it was all arranged was pretty cool, too.  everything but the court and bleachers was outside, which was so nice.  it was great to be able to get fresh air all the time, especially with such awesome weather!  anyway, the tourney was awesome, and ucla ended up winning the whole thing, beating georgia tech in the final.

so what else did we do while in maui?  honestly, not a whole lot. :)  which is exactly as i like it, really.  i spent many hours lying by the beach and pool (pretty much right in between the two) on a lounge chair in the sun reading.  perfect!  it was quite warm in maui, so i was loving being about to get out there and just enjoy the sun.  we went into lahaina several times to walk around front street (the downtown area), do a little shopping, and eat.  we ended up a one of the two really premiere restaurants on the island for thanksgiving dinner, david paul's.  mmm!  it was so delicious!  and i love that in hawaii everything's so casual that despite us being in a pretty fancy restaurant we could dine in the casual clothes we were wearing.  :)  i didn't have turkey, but then again i never do.  normally i'm having lasagna with the whole family, and this year i had manicotti, which is kind of the same food.  though i will definitely say this meal was far more delicious than any thanksgiving i can recall! :)  and that's about it.  :)  it was fabulous!

and then i took a redeye last night to get back here and the family took theirs to san fran.  i slept for a while this morning (i couldn't get much sleep on the plane) before just hanging out here the rest of the day.  now i'm working on this and getting the photos from the trip posted on flickr for you.  you'll get a good recount of the trip there, too. :)  anyway, i am off.  back next time for more, though my sunday surely won't compare to a trip to maui. ;)

sweet dreams.  g'night. ;)

friday 17 november 2006 11:53pm

"i need a faster car now
i'm a rocket man in love with you
i need a faster way to
show you how much you drive me crazy
show you how much i need you, baby" -- keith urban "faster car"

aloha! :)

so it's my last entry here before i am headed off to hawaii for a week or so with the family.  i'm so excited about the trip i can hardly stand it! :)  we're headed to maui (kaanapali area) for some relaxation and also for the maui invitational, a 12-game college basketball tournament.  it should all be a wonderful time and a great way to spend thanksgiving.  so friday night i have a redeye back here so i'll be back in town saturday the 25th, at which point you'll be looking for an update with all the details and also lots of photos. :)

and really, let me just say that i have totally earned this vacation.  i've been working entirely too hard, including today, so i'm ready to totally forget about work for a week or so!  they'll live without me for a few days. ;)  so today, not only did we ship "cots journal" to press, i also completed and shipped the 2007 wall calendar that goes with it.  i'm quite pleased with how it turned out, actually.  anyway, i shipped it with a blank page for an ad that didn't come in until about 6:15 tonight.  yes, that means that i sat around until then waiting for it (while also bugging lea to bug her client to get it to us).  brian stayed and worked while i waited, so at least i wasn't alone.  anyway, it got in and that page got sent to press, as well.  so it's all wrapped up! :)  oh, and i had a really good lunch with melissa, brian, and marke.  a lunch we really needed to have, you know?  and we even went for frozen yogurt on our way back to the office!

so eventually, brian and i did leave the office, and i headed home.  i ended up on the phone with katherine for a while, which was good.  and then i ended up on the phone with the family for quite a while.  of course, there was packing to do, also, and i caught the stanford game on tv.  plus, i enjoyed the other things on my dvr, like "gilmore girls" and "ugly betty."  i can hardly wait for the new episodes of those shows! :)  and i gave myself a quick red pedicure so my feet will be okay in sandals or in the sand all week!  and i've really just been trying to take care of everything around here so i can leave before the crack of dawn in the morning.

anyway, that's about it!  i'll be back in a week!  aloha and g'night! ;)

thursday 16 november 2006 11:50pm

"it's a crime, it's a sin, it's a damn shame
but you're the cause and you're the cure of all my pain
there's never been a bigger fool for you
i can't believe my pride
you got me talkin' to an empty pillow in the middle of the night
i ain't slept in quite a while" -- keith urban "faster car"

hawaii is so close i can practically smell it!  but i have plenty to accomplish before i get to go saturday morning.  so anyway, i tried to get some stuff done today and have a little fun in the process.  so it was a good thursday, if also pretty uneventful.

okay, well today just became a bit more eventful.  hmm... i kind of wonder how much i should explain here.  my junior year of high school was an interesting one (for a variety of reasons, actually, but right now i'm talking about something specific) that forced me to deal with some stuff that i didn't see coming, stuff that some people will never get.  and so you know, i thought i was kind of done (or at least getting good at) dealing with that because it was like 7 years ago.  but then the same issue comes up with someone else (a friend of a dear friend) and i'm right back to 16 feeling all the same things again.  and in a way, i feel them more now because i have time to think about them.  back then, i was so busy dealing and coping and trying to be a good person that i was too busy to sit and reflect.  so anyway, my night just got longer unexpectedly.  not that i mind helping out in the slightest.  so anyway, i'll get going on the rest of this...

work was fun today, though i really didn't' accomplish as much as i had set out to, because we were in waiting mode.  can't exactly make changes to the magazine if i don't know what the changes are, you know?  so anyway, i took care of some other stuff throughout the day, but i kind of feel like i left myself with a lot to accomplish tomorrow.  but i think it'll be fine.  also, i helped brian design a garage for himself.  his new one is pretty much a blank slate for him and he wants a workbench and all that so we did some drawings and got it settled, i think.  fun, no? ;)

and i came home tonight and did tons and tons of laundry.  because that's just how i do it. :)  save it up and wash six loads at once.  anyway, that was a total success.  plus, i got to watch some basketball (how about that michigan state team?), "the o.c.," which was very, very good tonight, "the office," which made me want to throw my remote through the tv screen, and "grey's anatomy," which made me want a bath. :)

and then i was in this discussion with friends.  but now it's really late and i need to get at least a couple hours of sleep before the alarm goes off in the morning.  but it's only one more day of work and then i'm hawaii-bound, so i'll survive! :)  g'night. ;)

wednesday 15 november 2006 11:06pm

"i need a faster car now
a rocket ship straight to the moon
i need a faster way to
show you how much i need you, baby" -- keith urban "faster car"

it's been a fun couple of days, i'd say. :)  i mean, they are keeping me busy enough to make the week go by so i can be on my way to maui!  so what have i been doing?

yesterday (tuesday) was spent working a lot.  and hard.  and actually,  got lots of stuff done, so that's great.  and then i came home and ended up talking to katherine for a while as we explored our final list of options for a st. charles reunion.  so anyway, we finalized what we wanted to do and then i filled in all the details on the invitation.  and then i was lying on the couch and ended up falling asleep on accident (not that i don't enjoy watching gonzaga play, just that i was tired and the game was a blowout from the start).  so then i woke up like an hour later at like 10 and decided i should get on with finishing what neded to get done so i could go to bed and get some actual sleep.  so i sent those invitations to a printer (and got confirmation this morning that they've been printed and shipped to katherine) and then i headed straight for my bed.

and then i got up this morning and headed to work once again.  today was a bit of a crazy day at work, though i think it will be hard to explain.  it was just like everyone was on edge or something.  at times, i know it got out of hand.  i definitely got into it with lea a little bit (i believe marke said something along the lines of, "i've never heard you use a tone like that before" to be afterwards) and that wasn't the only yelling going on there today.  but i think we're all alright now, so i'm not too worried about it.

and then we all took off early for a fun night out together.  after traffic and worrying that we'd never all make it there, marke and katrina, brian and taylor, melissa and chris, and i met up at chili's in anaheim for a quick-style dinner before taking a shuttle from there (woot!  free parking!) over to the pond (okay, not officially called the honda center).  we watched the ducks play the flyers, and the game was pretty fun because they scored 11 goals total.  the only problem was that 7 of them were scored by philadelphia.  but still, hanging out together way up there in the cheap seats was fun!  and it's not exactly like i go to hockey games all the time.  so it was a really fun night, and i just got home.

and now i'm thinking i should probably try to get some sleep.  should be another busy day at the office tomorrow, and i have plenty of little chores around here to take care of between now and saturday.  i'll be back with more for you next time.  g'night! ;)

monday 13 november 2006 9:52pm

"any time that you want what you need
close your eyes, say my name, call on me
and i'll be there for you no matter what they say
rain, hail, or shine
i got my eye spy to the sky waitin' on your sign
roll the dice, take a chance, a chance on me
'cause you never can tell where a little bit of faith might lead
i got a you-shaped hold inside i swear it gets deeper by the day
flickin' cigarettes out the window goin' nowhere in this lonely rain" -- keith urban "faster car"

i think this is my favorite song on the new album.  you know, if i had to choose.  because why choose when i'm perfectly capable of loving them all? ;)  anyway, i love the words.

besides the fact that i've totally messed up my sleeping pattern and have no plans to correct it, i'm doing really well right now. :)  it was a really productive monday, which is exactly what i needed to have so that i can feel good going into the rest of my week and know that i'll be all set to go to maui come saturday morning.

okay, so total productivity doesn't really equal fun, but that's alright.  i mean, it was still a good thing to have happen today.  in fact, i kind of feel like a rock star! ;)  anyway, so i went to bed entirely too late last night, due in large part to the fact that i started watching my sunday night tv way late last night.  anyway, it was totally enjoyable and then i tucked in.  and had trouble falling asleep.  and then all of a sudden it was 7 (half an hour earlier than normal) and i was being awoken by my alarm.  i showered and got all ready pretty quickly and then i was out the door on my way to work bright and early.  i knew i'd need the extra time today if i wanted to get enough work done.

so i showed up like 45 minutes earlier than normal to the office and i was thinking about whatever random things i'm contemplating when i walk into the building in the morning.  and then i got to the office door turned the handle and pushed.  hard.  you know, hard enough to open a 9-foot door.  and guess what.  it was locked.  so there was like a big thud and me running into the door.  haha!  oops!  that woke me out of my daze.  i have a key to the door but cannot ever remember the code to get inside, so i waited.  and i heard maggie coming right behind me so she opened the door.  anyway, then i got inside and brian was there working away, as he had been since 6.  he said he thought the door was unlocked (it wasn't.) and i'm just shocked he didn't hear me ram myself into the door.  oh, well.  :)

anyway, i got straight to work and seriously, i was pretty much in the zone the entire day, except for a short break to grab lunch at stillwater with diana and another short break in the afternoon when i was playing with our golf set. :)  but mostly i just worked and worked and worked.  and it seemed like everyone else was doing the same, so it was really quiet.  and i was so productive!  i feel like my week is totally in control now, and this morning i thought i would never get all my stuff done.  so i win! :)  i even cut out all 50 rtc group holiday party invitations by hand with a ruler and an exacto knife.  that's hardcore, man! ;)  oh, what i'll do to have nice invitations.

so after work, i contemplated the gym, but i came home instead.  i really want to make sure my foot is healed before i go and mess with it, you know?  so anyway, i've been just hanging out here.  i had a little dinner and wrapped up some more stuff for bobby.  and i talked to the family for a little bit -- mostly about hawaii and basketball.  and i thought about starting a new book but decided it probably wasn't the best idea to start my vacation reading with 4 serious days of work still ahead of me. :)  so i read through some of the magazines i've had piling up around here, which was fun.

and now i'm about to go watch more tv. :)  "studio 60" and "what about brian" have become some of my favorites (and actually both just got picked up for full seasons).  and then hopefully i'll get some more rest before another busy day.  i'll let you know all about it again tomorrow.  g'night. ;)

sunday 12 november 2006 11:25pm

"and if you lose your way
on some rainy day
just look above
and i will be the sunshine breaking through
yeah, i'll catch you when you fall
'cause i'm the one who loves you
you'll never wonder if i care
i'll always be there
standing there in losing ground
i'm your best friend now
and i won't let you down
and every step along the highway
of your life
i'll be the man standing beside you
believe me that i will
don't forget you came and you saved me
you saved my life" -- keth urban "won't let you down"

i love this song.  especially this part.

i am not exactly ready for this weekend to be over.  i know there's a busy week ahead of me.  and already i'm late about getting to bed tonight, so you know.  oh, well.  it was a nice, quiet sunday around here, so i'll be just fine and i'll go ahead and get on with telling you about it.

i went to bed really, really late last night.  i started reading and then it was after 2 all of a sudden.  i was reading my hawaii guidebooks learning about beaches and roads and restaurants and all the wonderful things in maui.  i am so anxious to get there.  so anyway, that was fun but it also meant i slept through a lot of sunday. :)  aww... it's like i used to live!  bed really late.  waking when it's hardly morning anymore.  geez, it was fun! :)

so anyway, i didn't really get out of bed before what could be considered lunchtime, and even then i was just hanging out around the apartment, watching a little football, catching up on "the o.c.," enjoying the newspaper, and doing a little more design work.  and eventually, i got cleaned up and dressed so i could head out briefly.  i went to target and got myself in a little bit of trouble. ;)  found a couple new christmas albums (brad paisley and james taylor), which i've already listened to.  yes, i know it's outrageously early to be listening to christmas music.  i don't care. :)  it's fun!  and those men have totally classic voices, the kind that should sing christmas music.  that's good stuff right there!

tonight, i met up with bobby and ashlee a couple times as we're working out some design work.  i think we're pretty set now on the design for a new shirt, so that's exciting!  i also found some time to talk with kath about the st. charles reunion stuff, which is going well.  plus, i worked on the invitation some more, so that's good.  i want to get those things printed already.  and i talked to the parents.  and watched pepperdine's season opener at washington, which started rough but they ended up playing really well, losing by only 8.  not bad.  :)  and now i'm in the middle of the sunday night tv mini-marathon.  "desperate housewives" was so fun and now i'm enjoying "brothers and sisters."  so it's been good, if also terribly uneventful.

i'll be back with more next time, i'm sure.  should be a lot to get done before saturday.  g'night. ;)

saturday 11 november 2006 11:46pm

"sweet virginia, i still lay beside you
and when you're dreaming that's really me
and if you feel something there in the darkness
don't be afraid of what you can't see
just know that i always will be here" -- trent willmon "here"

i had a lot of time to myself to think today.  good or bad?  never sure.  anyway, so i can kind of get stuck in a weird introspective mood, but i think i'm doing alright.  nevermind.  i'm rambling.  okay, so it was a totally decent saturday with enough fun parts.

i went to bed kind of late actually last night, despite being totally tired.  and i managed to get some real sleep, making it until like 10 before waking up.  i'm sure i needed that after a week of practically not sleeping at all.  felt good.  :)

this morning i spent my time lounging around the apartment.  no surprises there, right? ;)  there was nothing on tv, so i have no idea what i spent my time watching.  anyway, it didn't matter so much because i spent my time working on something for bobby anyway.  i like how it turned out but i'm hoping bobby will agree.  sometimes i'm not sure.

anyhow, eventually it was time for some basketball!  :)  today was the season opening for my stanford cardinal boys, and they took on siena at maples.  after a bit of a rough season last year and then losing a bunch of guys to graduation, i was anxious to see how the team would look.  heck, i was just anxious to learn all the guys' names because it's a whole new team this year.  it's full of young guys.  that means you don't know what you're going to get.  well, the boys looked awesome!  i think they're going to be a blast to watch with their faster style.  and they look like they're ready and willing to shoot, too.  so anyway, they won and also scored 92 points, so that's great!  i'm looking forward to more now! :)  and yay for ringing in the start of the basketball season!  it should be a good one all the way around, so we'll see how it all plays out.  of course, i'm in for 12 pre-season games myself with that trip to maui next week!  eee!  i'm so excited about all of it!

after the game (and talking to my brother about it, as well), i threw on some proper clothes (the weather was very gloomy today) and headed over to the aliso theatre to see "babel."  i'd heard good things about it and about brad pitt's performance in it, so i figured i should go ahead and check it out.  i'm not sure what to say about it.  i'm not going to recommend it to many people, though i did enjoy it myself.  it's a bit long, not that it feels long.  it's just that you see all these individual stories and you have to watch a long time just believing there's a payoff coming.  they don't connect that quickly.  and so it's all a bit disjointed for a long time.  i really do think you have to be patient to enjoy the movie.  but it is an interesting story, and i think it was extremely well-acted.  so yeah.  it's good but that doesn't make it fun.

and then i came home and talked to the family for a little bit.  auntie lily was giving everyone flu shots (sad i missed that).  and i ordered dinner in, which was delicious. :)  and then i have just been hanging out here.  i watched pretty much the only interview keith urban did promoting this new album before entering rehab (with katie cook on cmt -- it's a special they're running all weekend).  good stuff!  and then i put on a trent willmon album nice and loud and have been dancing around the apartment to it! :)  oh, and i picked up around here, as well, because that needed to happen every badly.  and now it's the middle of the night but i'm not really ready for bed yet.  i think i will mess around on the computer a while and then maybe do a little reading before crashing.  i have no idea what i'm up to tomorrow, but i have no milk, so that's part of the plan. ;)

okay, well i am off for now.  i hope it was a good veteran's day for you.  g'night! ;)

friday 10 november 2006 10:31pm

"you said you needed your space
i wasn't where you wanted to be
i didn't stand in your way
i only want you to be happy
and so how surprised am i
to see you here tonight
oh, can't you see
that for worse or for better we're better together
please just come back home" -- keith urban "i told you so"

i think i've done it.  i've totally exhausted myself, and now i'm definitely willing to go to bed early tonight.  i guess this was my goal.  be so tired i'm guaranteed solid sleep.  so i'll just get on with this so i can head to bed pretty soon.  when did i get so old? ;)

i probably stayed up too late last night (again) reading a magazine and whatever but i did eventually get a little sleep before the alarm got me up this morning.  i got cleaned up and ready and all those fun things.  okay, not really that fun.  at least there's the morning "news" that's always full of entertainment information.  good stuff! ;)

so i headed off to work early and rocking out to carolyn dawn johnson (i'm just in a mood for her right now).  work was thoroughly entertaining today.  that's the point of work, right?  to keep me entertained? ;)  okay, actually, i got a ton of things done today and that's great but i know i still have a ton of things to take care of.  but really, that wasn't the good part of work today.  the good parts involved no work at all!  there was lunch, which involved fatburger and an art department trip to staples for new calendars and whatever other random supplies we'd been wanting to pick up (for me, a composition notebook).  and this afternoon found the art department and marina in a hilarious conversation that lea heard down in the farthest office.  apparently, some people (marina) think it's insulting if you go #2 in their home.  you're supposed to hold it.  hahaha!  um, yeah.  i love where i work!  and then after 5 when people were mostly gone, it was time for another round of that game involving the foam basketball, chipping wedge, foam baseball bat, and plunger.  good times!  and we came very close again. :)  so we were there until after 6 just hanging out with each other, which i love.  i mean, i love that i get along so well with (most of) the people i work with.  i spend way more time with them than anyone else, after all.  so anyway, good times around the art department. :)

and i came home and watched a little tv and found a snack.  and then i accidentally took a 2-hour nap.  oops!  that wasn't supposed to happen but it did.  so when i did eventually wake up (at like 9:30), i found a little more food, talked to the family, and watched a rerun of the gonzaga game (proper college basketball again!).  pretty exciting, no?

and now i'm planning on crashing pretty quickly here.  not sure what's up for the weekend, beside at least one movie.  probably responsible things, like cleaning or something. ;)  anyway, i'm off now but i'll be back soon enough.  g'night. ;)

thursday 9 november 2006 11:01pm

"i could want somebody else
i could need somebody else
i could love somebody other than you
but i don't want to
i could dream somebody else
be treated like a queen by someone else
i could love somebody other than you
but i don't want to" -- ashley monroe "i don't want to"

i just finished typing the above words and the video started on cmt pure.  rad! :)  i really do like the words of this song, so there you go.

it's been a good thursday, i think.  i feel like i worked hard and now i'm kind of exhausted.  but you know i'm so not interested in going to bed yet, so i'm here writing instead.  and really, i'm taking my sweet time.  no hurry.

read into the middle of the night yesterday but did eventually crash.  and then when the alarm went off this morning i was a little bit confused because i thought it was saturday for some reason.  then i realized it wasn't, in fact, so i headed for the shower.  i got cleaned up and ready and dressed and fed and all those morning things i do.  actually, it seems like i have been cramming lots of stuff into my mornings lately.  i should probably try to cut that out.  anyway, now i am rambling even more than normal, so i'll stop.  ;)

so work.  work went mostly reptty well today, though there were some weird things that i won't (can't?) write about here.  no big deal, though.  on dad's advice (because i know it's good), i'm going to just ignore them and move on because i can't really change that stuff anyway.  i spent the day working.  like really working.  and i know i didn't get quite enough done, but i'm doing what i can and i fully intend on working really hard tomorrow, as well.  there's just a lot to get done in the next 6 days.  my "cots journal" media kits arrived back from the printer today!  a whole piece i produced!  and they look pretty great.  of course, i see all the little design flaws i should have fixed so they're not perfect to me.  but i am getting lots of compliments on them, so that feels really great.  i am actually really proud of them.  :)  diana already mailed like 70 of them to clients today, so other people will be seeing my work, as well.  pretty awesome!

after work, i headed home.  it's getting boring.  i would rather at least go to the gym or something but you know.  soon.  my foot.  so anyway, i came home and dabbled with some little projects a bit but ended up not getting too involved because i was kind of tired of looking at the computer.  after a little dinner, i ended up on the couch watching entirely too much television.  i caught my favorite celebrity chef, jamie oliver, on letterman last night!  awesome segment!  and i learned that he has a new italian cookbook out!  italian!  my favorite!  that's definitely going on the christmas list this year.  and then i caught most of the thursday night tv.  "ugly betty" was so fun, though i hate betty's boyfriend because i think he's a loser.  i love love daniel, though!  he's a great character!  and then it was "the office," which i loved because i love that show.  it really just made me want to see next week's episode, though.  jim and pam back together in the same office.  i love that!  and of course, i rounded out my evening with "grey's," which was really, really good!  the men camping!  mcdreamy getting back together with meredith.  i love this stuff. :)  i'm a junkie.  i know. ;)

and then i talked to the family, which went fine.  dad always has work advice for me, even though i don't always want to hear it.  it's still probably better that he tell me because i can't help but listen to him.  and he does know what he's talking about.

and now here i am.  i'm just hanging out on the couch writing away and watching country videos on tv.  pretty cool, right? ;)  so i guess i should get to bed instead of just sitting here longer.  i'll be back next time with more.  what's planned for the weekend?  i don't know yet, but i'm hoping i'll get to a movie.  okay, i'm off for now.  g'night. ;)

wednesday 8 november 2006 10:24pm

"i could want somebody else
i could need somebody else
i could love somebody other than you
but i don't want to
there is no good out there for me now
there's nothing i can't do without, i can't live without
you make me feel like heaven's pouring down on me
i know i'm free" -- ashley monroe "i don't want to"

heard this song again tonight on gac.  love it. :)

i feel like today was a really good day, though i for sure had my moments.  but overall, i think things went pretty well.  i mean, it was wednesday and i didn't exactly escape from my daily grind, but still.  good stuff.

i forgot something yesterday.  it was hot here yesterday and the santa anas were blowing, which means all the crap gets swept out to the west over the ocean.  and dirty air combined with a setting sun means a perfect sunset.  the dirtier the better!  i swear.  anyway, the sunset as i was heading home from work along the coast last night was spectacular, one of the best i've seen in a while.  really red.  anyway, i stopped at capo beach for a moment just to appreciate it.  actually, i tried to take a photo but it turned out too dark (don't exactly have a ton of control on shutter speed with my point-and-shoot).  anyway, it was amazing, and i loved having a couple minutes to just stand and appreciate it.  i wasn't the only one there, either.  lots of people were sitting with their toes in the sand.  i love this socal lifestyle (as you didn't already know).

so on to today... i was up lateish again last night but did eventually manage to get a little bit of sleep.  and then i got dressed and ready quick enough this morning that i headed out early.  i knew i wouldn't have a lot of time in the office, so it seemed like a good idea to get in early since i was already ready to go.  so i headed out.

work this morning was short, though i did actually manage to get a lot of things done, so that's great!  i mean i wasn't there in the office much more than 2 hours.  and melissa and i had a fun chat with marina that makes me think she's beginning to loosen up a little bit.  she's a funny woman. :)

and then the whole art department (that's jason, brian, marke, melissa, and me) headed out for an afternoon seminar.  but first we stopped for (free) lunch at outback.  i'm not sure i'd ever even been to one before.  anyway, my chicken sandwich was totally decent, so no complaints from me.  and then we all went to the indesign seminar at westamerica graphics, a local print shop that puts on free sessions like 4 times a year.  anyway, the two ones i'd been to before (and had the same instructor) were totally valuable, so i was excited to go again.  and i did actually learn a few tips and tricks that will definitely come in handy.  i think marke and brian found it a lot less useful because they don't use indesign too much, but hopefully they weren't so bored they'd have rather been at the office. ;)  anyway, it was a good little department field trip!  plus, they draw business cards out of hat for doorprizes at the end, and i won the best prize available: a $10 starbucks card!  mmm!  i'm sure that'll get used pretty quickly! :)

afterwards, i drove brian back to the office (it made sense for us to carpool together, even though no one else did), and i only got us a little lost.  we just took a scenic route. :)  no u-turns involved.  and the real problem was that i didn't see a street i was supposed to turn on until i was at it and it was too late to get into the right lane to turn.  anyway, we found our way back just fine (because i'm good at directions?!?) and then i headed home.

i wasn't home for too long before i brought some art over to bobby at the salon.  a windmill, actually.  i think it turned out really nicely.  it's based on a photograph he took.  anyway, he loved it and has more work for me, so that's cool.  now i just need to talk to him so i can get a haircut soon.  (just a trim. :))

and since then, i've just been hanging out here.  a bit restless, really.  but i'm trying to take it easy until my foot feels 100% and i could probably use the mental and physical rest, quite honestly.  anyway, i seriously haven't done much.  read a magazine.  worked on the st. charles invite a little because i was still debating fonts.  talked to the family.  watched "everwood."  that's all i've got.  boring, i know.  and now i know i should go to bed soon, but once again i feel compelled to put that off a bit and read some more.  so we'll see.  anyway, i'll be back next time with more.  for the moment, g'night. ;)

tuesday 7 november 2006 10:25pm

"winter's weighing on your shoulders
it's hanging around a little to long
and i can see it in your eyes
you're taken on a load that's just too strong
oh but let me get down to the heart of the matter
baby, if you want i can make it better now
when the sun is hard to find
when it's raining in your eyes
when the shadows block those pretty little blue skies living inside you
when the falling of your tears make a candle disappear
when you just can't see the light
baby, i'll find a way to shine
i'll find a way to shine" -- keith urban "shine"

love this song. :)  love all the songs, actually.  happy new music tuesday!  the biggest new music tuesday of the year, i would say! :)  oh, and happy election day, as well.  today was good.  really good.  not sure what in particular, but i just feel like it was.

i went to bed ridiculously late last night, really.  i saw the start of carson daly.  and then i got up 20 minutes early this morning so that i could run an (excellent) errand before work.  so i got up and ready and all of  that.  i even found time to take care of my foot and have some breakfast.  and then i headed out on a gorgeous morning.  i think today turned out to be even warmer than yesterday, and it was fabulous!  though they tell me it's supposed to cool down significantly tomorrow.  sad for me! ;)

so i went to target and picked up the new albums from keith urban and sugarland.  and a bag of mint m&m's because i saw they now have christmas candy there and that's the only time you can get the mint ones.  mmm!  anyway, then i had to resolve the debate i'd been having.  which album would i listen to first?  i love both keith and sugarland so much!  well, i decided on keith.  i love love love love him, and i'd actually already heard the sugarland album before because it was streaming online at cmt.com.  and wow.  that's good stuff.  and i love having a first listen in my car because i can get it nice and loud.  and then i listened to the sugarland album at work on the headphones (loud again) and on my way home from work.  i love all of today's new music. :)  seriously, you must check it out.  even my rapper-loving brother wanted the whole keith album from me. ;)

okay, so then there was work.  work was good today.  i got a lot of stuff done and realized i had a day more than i thought for the magazines, so that's exciting.  i also made some progress on the media kits.  and other stuff is coming along, as well.  i just know it was a productive day.  also, brian's going to continue working at rtc, which is great!  i didn't want to lose a work buddy to another company.  and i lunched with a different group than normal today: john, cindy, aaron, and michael.  and we got into an argument about a political issue.  it was interesting and makes john like me more because he likes when people will get into a verbal sparring match with him.  fine.  whatever.  i'm just not that girl, but it was okay today.  oh, and john's mom was in the office briefly today and came to me to thank me for doing a great job on the st. jude newsletter (she sort of runs that), which is a nice compliment. :)

a group of us are going to a ducks hockey game next week (we got tickets today), so i'm looking forward to that.  you know, eating stadium food and hanging out with my work friends while watching a sporting event is totally a cool way to spend an evening. :)

after work, i've been hanging out here.  i had some dinner (mmm... macaroni grill leftovers) and talked to the family for a really long time on the phone.  my brother was bumming the keith album off me and chatting with me while we transferred.  and i caught tonight's "gilmore girls," which i enjoyed.  but i'm really looking forward to what i know will be an adorably cute episode next week! :)

and now i'm hanging out watching the news and trying to absorb some election results.  and the more i think about it, the more improbable it seems that i voted the way i did after being raised in san mateo county in california.  but you know, i have opinions and i don't always conform. ;)

anyway, i think i should at least attempt to make up for the sleep i didn't get last night.  but crawling into bed with a magazine sounds so much nicer.  so we'll see! ;)  anyway, sweet dreams, i'll be back next time, and g'night. ;)

monday 6 november 2006 11:43pm

"alone in this house again tonight
i got the tv on, the sound turned down, and a bottle of wine
there's pictures of you and i on the walls around me
the way that it was and could have been surrounds me
i'll never get over you walking away
i've never been the kind to ever let my feelings show
and i thought that being strong meant never losing your self-control
but i'm just drunk enough to let go of my pain
to hell with my pride, let it fall like rain
from my eyes
tonight i wanna cry" -- keith urban "tonight i wanna cry"

classic keith and i love it. :)  and i love him. ;)

okay, i'm just going to go ahead and let you know i'm a little bit crazy.  sure, you probably already knew that.  but tonight, i'm just proving it.  it was cma awards night (the biggest night in country music) and tomorrow's a huge new music tuesday that will find me up bright and early.  and yet i'm writing into the middle of the night because i have a feeling that i'm going to have a lot to say tomorrow night, as well, so i don't especially want to put off tonight's info until tomorrow.  anyway, the point is it's late, i'm writing, and i still fully intend on watching "studio 60" once i am done.

woke up too early this morning but managed to get back to sleep for the hour i had left, i think.  then i got cleaned up and ready and iced my foot while chatting briefly with annahita online.  i grabbed breakfast, threw on clothes and proper shoes, and headed to the office.

work was pretty normal today.  just the regular stuff and i was working on about an average level -- not working my ass off and not doing nothing.  so some stuff got done and other stuff will have to wait until tomorrow.  you know how it goes.  also, the vocabulary challenge continues, as marke and i chose our 10 new words for the week.  i learn most.  he learns them really well.  everyone else listens as we quiz each other and they retain what they can.  it's good fun. :)  i read one of our words over the weekend in something, so that's pretty cool!

for lunch, marke, brian, melissa, jason, and i went to scpc for some good pizza, and afterwards i went to staples in search of ivory-colored card stock for the rtc group holiday party invitations.  we already had cream colored envelopes and there was no way i was putting white cards into cream envelopes.  believe me, it's bad.  so anyway, i took care of that and then headed back to the office.  it was a gorgeous day outside, though.  perfect.  like 88 and dry and sunny.  perfect perfect.  :)  it was a beach day, hands down.  and i'd been driving around with the windows down.  so i was nearly back to the office but in no hurry to get back inside to my over-air-conditioned space, so i rang dad and hung out outside while chatting with him for a little bit.  i just needed to soak up some sunshine.  believe me, it makes me a happier person. :)

after work (it was me, marke, and brian closing the office down), i headed home.  i had a little dinner and then got started with my tv-filled night.  it started with the red carpet show for the cmas and then the actual awards ceremony.  i believe it's the first awards show i've actually seen in high-def, so that's awesome!  but the sound wasn't quite right, as pretty much all the performers' mics were too low.  anyway, the show was so fun to watch because it's pretty much all performances.  plus, it was a great year in country music and full of new(er) artists, which i love.  off the top of my head, the better performances were miranda lambert, faith hill, brooks and dunn, dierks bentley (sometimes i forget how good his voice is), and sugarland.  and the awards.  well, pretty much every year i get mad at these awards shows because i disagree with the winners.  this show actually got most things right, i thought.  i love that george strait got inducted into the hall of fame.  brooks and dunn deserved everything they won (both "believe" and "building bridges" are awesome songs, and they're consistently amazing performers).  i knew carrie underwood would win too many, but i don't think she deserves the female vocalist award (i'd have given it to faith hill no questions asked).  and i love sugarland more than carrie, so i wish they'd won horizon award, though i knew they were a long shot.  rascal flatts were the best group of the year.  i don't think anyone could really argue with that.  i loved keith's letter and that he won that award.  seriously, he earned that one this year, rehab or not.  and kenny.  oh, kenny.  he's the best.  and believe me, i love those nominees.  but it was for sure kenny's year.  (and he'll likely have many more years to come.)  so good show, cmas!  :)  i walk away totally pleased.

so now i'm going to watch "studio 60" before bed.  have to be ready to discuss at the office tomorrow, you know!  and then i'm getting up a little early tomorrow so i can go to target before work to pick up the new music!  sugarland and keith urban both have albums coming out.  my.  head.  might.  explode. ;)  i can hardly wait!

also, tomorrow's election day.  i already voted, so i'm good.  if you've taken the time to learn about the candidates and propositions, go vote.  if not, don't bother.  it's irresponsible. :)  happy election day!

okay, i'm off.  back tomorrow.  g'night. ;)

sunday 5 november 2006 10:36pm

"sleeping single in a double bed
thinking over things i wish i'd said
i should have held you...
now i'm the one sleeping all alone
sleeping single in a double bed" -- barbara mandrell "sleeping single in a double bed"

kind of a classic.  know what it means.

it was a pretty quiet sunday around here, but i did enjoy myself.  things felt better than yesterday.  i went to bed late last night, though it wasn't because i was doing anything in particular.  and i managed to sleep in later than yesterday, which was great.  i know i needed that sleep.  and even once i did get up, i just hung out watching football and reading the newspaper.  my toe was still hurting from last night, so i've been trying to take care of it (ice, elevation, those things).  i think it's probably mildly sprained, but it's not looking too bad and it is getting better.  anyway, so i really just hung out in the morning.

then i threw on some clothes and headed out for a couple little errands.  i had dvds (from tuesday) to return.  yay for doing that on time!  ;)  and i wanted to pick up a book at borders and i had a coupon that expired today, so i took care of that.  i'm gathering reading materials for hawaii.  there will be lots of hours in airports and on planes, aside from the time i plan to spend lying on the beach. ;)  and i wanted apples to make like apple turnovers with the crust i had leftover from last weekend.  anyway, so i stopped at the grocery briefly, too.  my toe wasn't up for a trip to the beach, which was where i wanted to be today.  it was like 85 degrees here.  gah!  i love it! :)

so after the errands, i came home and spent some time working on that st. charles reunion invite.  it looks awesome, if i'm allowed to say that about my own work!  and now katherine just has to finalize details so we can get those invites printed.  pretty exciting!  and we're tracking down lots of people, so that's coming along nicely thus far.

and then i made those apple turnovers with some pie crust and apples.  they turned out just alright.  (by my high standards.)  i did have one for dessert tonight, though. :)  and i talked to the parents and gave myself a little manicure.  so i've been pretty productive.  oh!  and i watched the football game tonight: colts vs. patriots.  i rooted hard for tom brady, but it just wasn't his night.  at least it was entertaining!

and then it was time for the regular sunday night routine.  "desperate housewives" and "brothers and sisters."  both were excellent!  i loved "housewives" and the whole hostage thing.  and i've been meaning to mention how weird it is that the same woman who plays mary alice on "housewives" also played the dead mom on "everwood."  crazy, right?  anyway, i thought tonight was the best episode thus far for "brothers and sisters."  i also read that one of the "everwood" producers (i think producers) is now doing this show, so that could explain why it's getting better (as well as why treat williams is guest starring).  anyway, good tv today!

so i am thinking i should get to bed now.  i'll be back tomorrow with more.  tomorrow is also a big tv night: the country music awards! :)  don't forget to watch.  okay, g'night. ;)

saturday 4 november 2006 11:56pm

"i'd be happy, dearest
if you could only be here
and always be nearer
forever and a day
then we'd travel far
we'd be some big, shining star
just you and my guitar
and stay there, sweetheart, for always" -- lefty frizzell "i want to be with you always"

i can't decide what i'm doing so i figured i'd just go ahead and write.  my saturday's been kind of weird.  do i want to continue it into the middle of the night?  i don't know.

so obviously, i went to bed very late last night/early this morning.  and then all of a sudden it was 9:15 this morning and i was finding it impossible to go back to sleep.  stupid messed up sleep.  so i was lying there a while trying to get more sleep.  i knew i hadn't had enough.  but before 10 i had to give up and get up.

i ended up hanging out at the computer (which i've had at the dining room table since yesterday because i'm more productive there than on the couch) all morning.  i'm working on the invites for a reunion of all the st. charles kids, which requires some illustrating.  so i took care of that and am finally pleased with the result.  i still need to put the actual invitation together, though.  that's what i am considering staying up late to do.  and i found some time to catch up with annahita online, too, which i think we both needed.  and at some point, i found some lunch.

i watched a bit of tv in the afternoon and ended up asleep on the couch for a couple hours.  :)  i knew i needed more sleep!  so that was a nice little treat.  and then once i woke up i knew i needed to actually do something with what was left of the day (though it was nearly dark already at that point -- so depressing), so i got cleaned up and dressed.  and then i talked to the parents for a little bit before heading out.

i went to the toy store for a little christmas shopping, which was productive.  and then i went to target to continue that and also check out the new collection of clothes from behnaz sarafpour.  i found an awesome jacket.  crazy nice for what it cost!  and then i went up to aliso to the big shopping center there.  the plan was to order takeout from macaroni grill, quickly browse the bookstore while it was cooked, and then pick it up and take it home to enjoy.  well, something was going on there because there was zero parking.  literally.  like the mall on a saturday in december.  it was nuts.  so i drove around and eventually just gave up, parked in a macaroni grill to go space, and called and ordered food and decided i'd just wait on it.  i could skip the bookstore.  anyway, my order got all messed up and the waitress (she comes out to the car) was rude about teh whole thing, so eventually i had to get out of my car and go talk to the manager.  he turned out to be really nice and agreed that $25 was over-charging me (it was supposed to be $16).  and then i told him that it'd gotten so messed up and taken so long to work it out that now my food would all be cold.  so he immediately had the kitchen remake everything.  he was super nice about everything.  and i ended up coming home with two entire dinners.  double everything.  so now i have lots and lots of delicious leftovers!  i'm excited about that!  it should be good for work this week.  though really, i would have much rather not gone through all the trouble and just gotten my single order.  oh, well.

so then i came home and ate as much of the food as i could (not that much compared to the amount i had).  delicious!  i love their food!  and then i watched "the lake house," which i'd heard was good if you just suspend belief (because they live in different years, fyi).  well, that's true.  i did quite enjoy it.  it didn't bring the tears i thought it would.  not sure if that's good or bad.  and what's kind of weird is that right after i finished it, i ended up chatting with annahita online again and she just watched the same movie!  so random!  anyway, now i'm just hanging out listening to the music on cmt pure and writing.  i know i should probably go to bed but i don't really feel like it, likely because of my bad sleep issues.

oh, i forgot something.  before i started the movie, i was walking over to my computer and i tripped on something and i totally fell.  and not like funny fell like i was cracking up at myself but like a frustrating fall like nothing was going right.  and now my big toe/right foot hurts.  hopefully it's just sore and it'll sort itself out, but still.  not good.  i should probably go to bed and put an end to this day.  the things i thought would be easy (ordering take away dinner, walking) have been too hard.

i'll be back next time.  sweet dreams.  g'night. ;)

saturday 4 november 2006 12:57am

"i lose my blues, honey, when i'm with you
no one else can do what you do
you're in my heart to stay
when i'm gone and i'm all alone
i'll be singing this song for you always" -- lefty frizzell "i want to be with you always"

so i'm back to trying to soak in some old country music.  like lefty frizzell, who i'm totally enjoying.  and i love this song.  the words are perfect.  more of it will come soon, i'm sure.

hmm.  it turned out to be a good friday.  i'm excited about it, actually.  i mean, it's going to probably come out sort of boring as i write this, i fear, but actually it went really well.

i went to bed late last night.  or maybe i just mean later than the two previous nights when i went to bed exceptionally early.  i don't even know.  my sleeping schedule is all crazy.  so anyway, the alarm startled me when it went off this morning, and it took me entirely too long to figure out what was making such a racket and that it meant i needed to get up and into the shower.  :)  you know.  kind of out of it.  anyway, i did make my way to the shower and got cleaned up.  i found some clothes and got ready and headed out a couple minutes early so i'd have time to stop at the bagel place for breakfast once again (because i have no breakfast food here).  it was kind of a letdown this morning, though, because the regular guys weren't there so my order wasn't ready when i got the cashier.  still, my bagel was awesome, as usual! :)

work was fun today.  i got lots of stuff done in the morning, which is excellent.  i needed for that to happen.  we're already starting the november magazines.  that seems so crazy!  anyway, john, cindy, aaron, jason, marke, brian, melissa, and i went to duke's for lunch, which was fine.  not as good as it could have been, but you know.  and in the afternoon, we didn't find time for a frozen yogurt run, as i had hoped would happen, but we did have a poker game. $2 buy-in.  and i played awesome!  i never went down.  i started with 50 black chips and no one else was even in possession of any of them.  and in the end, we'd played so long and melissa, marke, and i were all close (i maintain that i was winning) so we decided to just split the $10 and go home.  so i did end up winning a little cash. :)  haha!  not a lot, but i take what i can get.  $1.  and then it was time to go home.

home's been good tonight.  in fact, i can hardly believe i am up so late, especially because i've felt tired a lot lately (i think it's mostly due to the time change and the fact that that i leave the office after it's dark every night now).  but i came home and watched some "everwood" and had a little dinner.  frozen penne arrabiata from trader joe's is totally good! :)   and i even made myself some cookies for dessert, which turned out really well.  i talked to the family for a little bit, as well.  so that was all good and really all i had planned for my night.

but i decided that i'd try to be productive.  i moved the computer from the couch to the dining table and got to work.  i have 3 projects sort of on my plate right now, so i worked on all three of those and made serious progress!  i put some country music in the stereo and turned it up nice and loud.  and i took little breaks to dance around the apartment in a random pair of high heels that were just sitting out.  :)  plus, i found time to catch up with meg and kath online, which i totally needed to do.  so everything's turning out nicely, which is great!  and i'm glad i was so productive!  and i seriously, i could stay up a couple more hours and wrap up the invite i'm working on, but i know i shouldn't and that is my most fun project, so i'll work on it later in the weekend.

so i'm going to try to get a little sleep now.  i mean, conan's nearly over at this point, and i'm not interested in watching carson. ;)  i'll be back next time with more.  g'night. ;)

thursday 2 november 2006 10:16pm

"doesn't he know that i've had him memorized for so long
he sees everything in black and white
never let nobody see him cry
i don't let nobody see me wishing he was mine
i could tell you
his favorite color's green
he loves to argue
born on the seventeenth
his sister's beautiful
he has his father's eyes
and if you ask me if i love him
i'd lie" -- taylor swift "i'd lie"

it's been a mix of a day and (probably mostly because i have lots of time to myself to think lately), i'm ending my day a bit emotional.  but seriously, it's been a fun day.  i laughed a lot and that counts for a lot, i think.

i woke up before the alarm again this morning.  that kills me.  it totally defeats the purpose of me going to bed early, as i managed to do once again last night.  oh, well.  so i hung out in bed trying to be sleeping until both alarms had gone off, and then i got cleaned up and dressed and ready and all those normal morning things.  the usual.  you know.  so i headed down to the bagel shop to pick up breakfast.  the line there is always crazy long on thursdays, and i always forget until i get there and it's too late to turn around.  so i got in line and eventually i was at the front of it.  the guy plopped a bag down on the counter, but i didn't know what was in it and i wasn't sure it was for me anyway, so i placed my order: combo bagel with a side of light cream cheese.  and then the two guys working the counter look at each other and exclaim, "aww!  light cream cheese!"  so the cashier guy opened up the bag, replaced the regular cream cheese with light and gave it back to me.  that's right, kids.  i've become a regular.  they had my usual order ready for me before i even was at the front of the line.  it's either awesome or depressing.  i'm not sure which. ;)  but you know, my bagel was so delicious!  i <3 bagels is the best.

work was pretty uneventful.  work.  lots.  you know, just the usual.  at least lunch was so delicious.  fatburger with all the boys: brian, marke, and jason.  and there were more silly games today.  though nothing quite as monumental as yesterday. ;)

after work, i headed for the gym and rang sarah on the way.  i wanted to hear about her weekend trip to oahu, and it sounds like it was fun. :)  and then the gym.  pretty uneventful, really.  i rode a bike pretty hard for like half an hour and read.  you know, the standard. :)

then i headed home and got cleaned up.  i talked to the family, and they're doing well.  actually, i talked to mom this morning because today's her birthday so it seemed like a good idea to call her right away. :)  and then i talked to dad and brother tonight, which was fun.  and since then it's been a bit of a tv marathon, as i'm anticipating future thursdays could be, as well. ;)  "ugly betty" was so good, and "the office" was even better!  and then "grey's."  i love that show.  and now it's "the o.c.," which had a great little surprise for me: chris pratt (bright abbott on "everwood," one of my favorite characters!) is on the show as summer's hippie friend at brown.  so fun!

and i should be getting to bed soon.  i'll be back tomorrow with more.  and for the moment, g'night. ;)

wednesday 1 november 2006 9:12pm

"first thought when i wake up is
my God he's beautiful
so i put on my makeup and pray for a miracle" -- taylor swift "i'd lie"

i wish this song was on the album.  good stuff.  makes me a little teary-eyed. :)

i went to bed so early last night (10:15ish) that i woke up before the alarms this morning.  the sleeping is kind of messed up with me.  whatever.  anyway, i hung out in bed until both alarms had gone off and then dragged myself into the shower to get cleaned up.  i got ready and dressed and headed out a few minutes early so i'd have time to pick up a bagel on my way to the offie.

work was mostly uneventful, i'd say.  i spent most of my day on media kits and the calendar, and i made serious progress, so that's great.  but that's the morning stuff.  it was actually fun around the office today.  marke, brian, and i were playing this crazy, impossible, somewhat dangerous game.  the goal was for person 1 to chip this little foamy basketball that's about 3" in diameter to person 2, who had a foam bat.  person 2 then had to hit the ball up and into the air and person 3 had to catch it with a plunger.  i swear.  we played for at least half an hour.  we came really close about 4 times.  it's pretty much impossible, though.  it was a good laugh, i must say!  and we all traded positions to see if we could get the best combination.  frankly, i don't think there was one! ;)  haha!  but it was fun to try!  and i don't think we broke anything in the process.  and after all that trying, the three of us were hungry, so we lunched together at z pizza, which was so delicious and made even more delicious by the fact that we ate it outside.  that's right, kids.  it's november and totally nice enough to dine outdoors.  i knew i loved this place! ;)

at like 4:45, all the girls headed out of the office.  diana organized a sushi outing for all of us to mosun in laguna beach.  it's really popular and hip i guess.  anyway, on wednesday nights all the food is half off for locals, so that made the orange chicken i had $8.  awesome! :)  and it was fun to hang out with diana, larisa, jessica, lauren, melissa, and stacy outside the office. :)  marke was giving me a hard time because it was girls only, so i'm thinking i'll organize an outing for everyone soon.  that would be fun, right?  and maybe not sushi so i don't have to explain to everyone why i'm not eating sushi.  cold meat.  i'm just not that interested. :)  anyway, dinner was great.  plus, it's laguna beach, so the place was full of beautiful people, which makes for great people-watching.  and!  the kids of "laguna beach" eat there on the show, so you know.  haha!  oh, i know.  i need to stop watching that show. ;)

and now i'm just hanging out.  i'm considering trying last night's early-to-bed plan once again.  i have stuff to do but nothing that can't wait.  i'll be back next time with more.  for now, g'night! ;)

tuesday 31 october 2006 8:09pm

"cory finds another way to be
the highlight of my day
i'm taking pictures in my mind
so i can save them for a rainy day
it's hard to make conversation
when he's taking my breath away...
if you and i are a story
that never gets told
if what you are is a daydream
i'll never get to hold, at lead you'll know
you're beautiful
every little piece, love, don't you know
you're really gonna be someone, ask anyone
when you find everything you looked for
i hope your life leads you back to my door" -- taylor swift "stay beautiful"

happy halloween. :)  i hope it's a good one for you!

i've had what turned out to be a pretty mellow day, and i'm totally 100% thankful for that because i was up entirely too late last night doing whatever nonsense i do and also helping my brother with his college essays.  so i got like zero sleep.  anyway, it was the kind of halloween i needed (not too crazy), so i'd say it went nicely. :)

i got up earlier than usual this morning because i knew i'd need some extra prep time. :)  haha!  so anyway, i spent the morning getting cleaned up and putting on my witch outfit: black gauchos, black knee-high boots, orange tank under a black top.  oh, and of course the orange and black hat that definitely made the outfit.  and i did my fun makeup that i put on on friday night.  so anyway, i was more of a sweet looking witch, rather than the evil sort.  plus, how could i be a bad witch?  i didn't exactly have a bad childhood. ;)  and so i was all set and ready to go exactly on time, so i grabbed my pie and headed out.  except that i didn't go straight to work because i stopped for cash and then a bagel first.  i was way hungry! :)

work.  oh, work.  halloween was a total waste of a day as far as actual productivity goes. :)  i don't think anyone really accomplished much.  instead, everyone at work had fun talking about everyone's costumes.  pretty much everyone there dresses up for halloween.  i wasn't the only witch because lea was one, too, but she was a scarier sort.  there are photos on my flickr with everyone so you can see the costumes.  and then we had a big potluck lunch together in the conference room, and we all ate too much.  it was so fun! :)  and the winners of the costume contest were marina at batwoman (1st), melissa as mario (2nd), and mike as a tourist (3rd).  it was a fun little halloween celebration.  and there was very little work done before 2:30, when john told all of us we could go for the day.

i wasn't exactly sure what to do with my free time!  last year, i went to the beach because it was so warm.  that wasn't happening this year; the weather just didn't cooperate.  so instead, i went to hollywood video and rented a few movies.  now i'm having a mini-marathon. :)  i came home and watched "the breakup," which was decent.  nothing amazing but not bad.  it was entertaining enough.  and now i'm nearing the end of "american dreamz," which is funny.  i have a feeling, though, that the original story was darker and funnier.  good, though!  totally entertaining.  :)  oh, and somewhere in the mix, i also had dinner, talked to the family, and helped adam with more college essay stuff.

once this movie is done, i think i'll crawl into bed early and read a bit until i crash, which shouldn't take too long at all.  hope you're having a great halloween, and i'll be back next time with more.  g'night. ;)

monday 30 october 2006 10:00pm

"you're beautiful
every little piece, love, don't you know
you're really gonna be someone, ask anyone
when you find everything you looked for
i hope your life leads you back to my door" -- taylor swift "stay beautiful"

i love the taylor swift album.  have i mentioned that before?  could you already guess? ;)  maybe it's that she's 16 and wrote all the songs and somewhere along the line my emotional maturity got stuck at 16.  or she's mature for her age.  or a little of both of that.  i'm not sure.  okay, actually, i'm not that far back but there's still something innocent (or do i mean idealistic and ridiculously romantic? ;)) about me.  so anyway, my point is that i relate to the songs.  and she can sing and the music's good and all those other things that make me love an album.  anyway, i love the record and these words seem pretty fitting.  so there you go.

so where should i start with monday?  i slept restlessly and woke up to the phrase (which was clearly the beginning of a very interesting sentence) "daniel craig's penis."  i turned the radio off before i heard the rest, though i was immediately disappointed i had.  i mean, don't you want to know what came next?  why was a dj talking about this at 7:20am?  honestly, i don't even know what station it was and i never remember what they're talking about in the morning.  most of the time, i can't even remember turning off the alarm because i go straight back to sleep for the next 10 minutes before the cd alarm goes off.  but obviously, i couldn't fall right back asleep because i was suddenly interested.  oh, well.  so i did end up getting up and into the shower with the second alarm, like usual.  i got cleaned up and dressed and all of those normal morning things.  hmm.  i just realized i have zero things to eat for breakfast tomorrow morning, which is particularly sad for me because i spent my last $2 in cash on lunch today  and i don't think i'll have lots of extra time in the morning to pick up a bagel because it'll take me longer than usual to get ready because of the whole costume thing.  what am i going to do about that?  not sure.  i'll probably figure it out tomorrow around 8:30am.  anyway, back to my morning.  i had a some breakfast and headed out, looking particularly cute (if i'm allowed to say that about myself, which i think i am because this is my journal) with a bright red headband. :)

work today went fine.  i spent most of my day working on the calendar that will get polybagged with november's "cots journal."  you know what?  making a calendar by hand (like i have to type in all the numbers and make all the boxes and everything) is a lot of work!  it's tedious.  i don't even know how many times i counted to 30 or 31 today to make sure the dates were all in order and right and everything.  it's just a lot of little stuff.  but actually, i'm liking the design of it thus far, which feels like a real accomplishment because it's such a simple piece that can't overwhelm the advertisements that go above each month (you know, the place where you expect to see a hott photo of keith urban or whoever).  anyway, good stuff, but just tedious.  and i learned i have some work to do on the "rtc" media kit because we're trying to get the page count down.  so i'm looking at cutting 6 pages (of 42) right now.  should prove an interesting and challenging task, i think.

i lunched with john, jason, and cindy, which is kind of unusual for me.  surprisingly, the conversation was interesting enough for me the whole time and i feel like i got to contribute to it, as well.  plus, my penne arrabiata was delicious!  love that! :)

you know, sometimes i hear people say things that make me so thankful to have been raised the way i was and to be surrounded by the people i am.  yes, i'll go ahead and take a little credit for making sure i have good people around me, but i know i owe most of all of this to other people.  so thanks.  and i already thanked the parents today.  oprah (with the help of bank of america) gave her 300+ audience members what the commercials have been touting as her "favorite giveaway ever!"  turns out that was $1000 and a camcorder to each person.  they're to spend the money doing something charitable and then document the experience with the camcorder.  frankly, i'm going to have to agree with oprah.  this is a great giveaway.  that's $300,000 going to charities and such.  that's a huge difference!  i realize that these audience members aren't going to get any actual physical free gift (though i'm betting they actually do get to keep the camcorders, which is not nothing -- i don't even own one -- but that's not my point here), but isn't the gift the opportunity to do something good for humanity or for the world and the great feeling that comes along with doing that?  i would love love to have $1000 to figure out how to spend on my favorite good cause(s).  i can hardly wait until i can do that myself.  i'm not going to lie.  it feels good to do something for someone else who really needs it.  maybe it's that sense of accomplishment that partially drives me to be what might appear to be selfless, but you know, i'm doing my best to help regardless.  and it destroys me a little bit inside to realize that there are people who don't see the value in helping others, who think that this gesture is lame and not nearly as cool as free cameras/ipods/computers/cars/etc., who don't get a good feeling when they do good for someone other than their own self.  and it makes it even worse to realize that these people are even raising their own children now, likely with the same selfish view of the world.  so this is what brings me to realizing that i'm so lucky.  the generosity is in me now.  and if you read this journal ever (why else would you have gotten this far into this entry?), you know i'm not bible-thumping or anything.  i doubt i've ever given you bible verses here.  but tonight i will (because this one is so bred into me that it wasn't to hard for me to find).  at pepperdine it was always "freely ye received; freely give."  in my catholic bible i just pulled off the shelf, it's "you have received without paying, so give without being paid" (matthew 10:8).  whether it's jesus's words in matthew or just knowing that it's the right thing to do, be generous.  help where you can.  contribute to this world.  i know you will.  i'll step down off my soapbox now. ;)

after work, i headed home because i forgot my gym bag here this morning.  no big deal, anyway; i have to drive past the apartment to get to the y.  so i picked up the mail and found a fun halloween card from mel (and family)! :)  so fun!  and then there was a package on my doorstep.  mom got me a present!  she's the best, you know.  she got me pink silicone bakeware!  how cool is that?!?  i've been meaning to try silicone bakeware, too!  so that's excellent and i need to bake something now.  i want to make a poppyseed loaf.  random, i know.  anyway, then i changed and headed to the y for a workout, which went well.  then  i came back home and put my apple pie in the oven and had some dinner.  i got cleaned up and watched (sexy sports celebrity boyfriend) tom brady win! :)  and i talked to the family for a while.  dad was up for a chat, and adam wanted help with college application essays he's in the middle of writing.  in fact, that's the reason i'm up so late (i've been writing for an hour and a half at this point).  i've been helping him edit.  and now i really do need to go to bed because i think i need to get up a little early tomorrow.  transforming an angel like me into a witch for halloween is going to take a lot of work, you know! ;)  hahaha!

have a great (and safe!!!) halloween tomorrow.  for now, g'night. ;)

sunday 29 october 2006 10:30pm pst

"don't know what's down this road but i'm walking
trying to see through the rain coming down
even though i'm not the only one
who feels the way i do
i'm alone, on my own, and that's all i know
i'll be strong, i'll be wrong, oh, but life goes on
i'm just a girl trying to find a place in this world" -- taylor swift "a place in this world"

did you remember to fall back today?  i forgot until about 11/12 this morning, but i've got it all figured out now. ;)  so good sunday!  i feel like i got everything done and with time to spare.  i totally win! ;)

i.  totally.  wasted.  my.  extra.  hour!  i'm so bummed about it!  if i had been good last night and remembered that i'd be setting all the clocks back this morning, i would have stayed up much, much later. :)  anyway, i went to bed last night and then woke up this morning (after not particularly great sleep) and looked at the clock.  it was 9:45ish, so i figured that was a decent time to get up.  so i did.  and i figured it was as good a time as any to finally do the laundry i've been meaning to do for at least a week now.  so i sorted it all out and put on 4 loads.  when i got back into the apartment, i checked the clock on the cable box.  it said 9.  what?  i was a little confused but figured i'd just read the time on the clock by the bed wrong earlier.  so i did my loads of laundry and at one point saw a clock in the kitchen that didn't automatically change.  suddenly i remembered!  daylight savings!  haha!  so anyway, i got up entirely too early (before 9 on a weekend is basically a tragedy ;)) this morning but at least i was totally productive this morning.  the laundry was a huge chore.

so all the laundry got folded and put away, and i got cleaned up and dressed.  then i found a few minutes to catch up with annahita.  it'd been a while, so that was fun. :)  and then i headed out with a list in hand.  first up was the grocery.  then it was costco.  that place is insane.  and why do i never know where to find anything there?  but i did manage to get soap, juice, and tampons, which was the point of me going there. :)  and then trader joe's.  that place was insane, too, but i needed some things, so that's just how it goes.  i wasn't in any particular hurry, so i was just trying to be patient and all laid back.  the gorgeous weather always helps me with that, too. :)  then it was back home for me.

i spent the afternoon doing a little cooking.  first, i realized i hadn't eaten all day, so i took care of that.  i swear, sometimes i don't know who lets me be in charge of myself. ;)  anyway, then i started with the apple pie i'm making for our company halloween potluck lunch on tuesday.  the fact that i'm baking an apple pie means you are so sad you're not here!  it's my #1 absolute specialty.  though, i didn't make the crust for this one because that's always the hardest part and it wasn't that imporant to me.  i just wanted to get the thing together today.  so anyway, the most time-intensive part is cutting up all the apples.  and when i was ready to mix them with sugar, i realized i had no white sugar, so i had to run over to the store to get some.  oops!   haha!  anyway, so i got my pie together and into the freezer so it's ready to bake tomorrow night.  i can hardly wait!  i haven't had my perfect apple pie in a while! :)  you know you want some! ;)

then i had a little time.  i caught the end of the colts beating the broncos, which is excellent.  i worked on a little design stuff.  i read a couple magazines that had been hanging out here.  basically, i just took it easy.  things all seemed to be in order. :)  and i had a little dinner, too.  tonight, dad called just as i was starting my manicure so i did it with him on speakerphone.  love that feature!  so my nails are all pretty now -- short and with dark polish.  it's the trend for fall... or something like that.  and i've been enjoying "desperate housewives" and "brothers & sisters."

so it's been a good sunday, and i feel like i'm caught up with myself for the most part.  so i'll be back next time with more.  g'night. ;)

saturday 28 october 2006 11:08pm

"drew looks at me
i fake a smile so he won't see
what i want and need
and everything that we should be...
drew talks to me
i laugh 'cause it's so damn funny
but i can't even see
anyone when he's with me
he says he's so in love
he's finally got it right
i wonder if he knows
he's all i think about at night
he's the reason for the teardrops on my guitar
the only thing that keeps me wishing on a wishing star
he's the song in the car i keep singing
don't know why i do
drew walks by me
can he tell that i can't breathe
and there he goes so perfectly
the kind of flawless i wish i could be...
he's the reason for the teardrops on my guitar
the only thing that keeps me wishing on a wishing star
he's the song in the car i keep singing
don't know why i do
so i drive home at night
as i turn out the light
i'll put his picture down
and maybe get some sleep tonight
he's the reason for the teardrops on my guitar
the only one that's got enough of me to break my heart
he's the song in the car i keep singing
don't know why i do
he's the time taken up
but there's never enough
and he's all that i need to fall into
drew looks at me
i fake a smile so he won't see" -- taylor swift "teardrops on my guitar"

the song's best as a whole, i think. :)  i love it.

funny how you can go way too long without talking to a friend and it doesn't even matter because you still love them because you know how incredible they are.  those are the best sorts of people. :)

it was a fun saturday for me. :)  though of course, it was pretty mellow because i'm still working on that whole unwinding from crazy life thing.  anyway, it all got started very nicely.  i stayed up too late last night reading a magazine ("blueprint," which i think has just beautiful layout, as well as pretty useful content).  i eventually crashed and got a sort of restless sleep until like 10:30.  and then i hung out in bed a while trying to figure out if there was any way i'd get back to sleep.  nope.  didn't happen. ;)

so i got up.  and i cleaned up around the apartment a bit.  i had stuff all over the place.  and all the while, i kind of watched whatever happened to be on the tv.  and then i sat down on the couch for a bit, had a little food, and enjoyed a couple episodes of "everwood," which were fantastic, of course.  but eventually, it was time to get cleaned up so that i could actually make it out of the apartment on a very sunny day. :)

before heading out, though, i realized that i needed to fill out and mail my ballot today if i wanted it to arrive on tuesday in santa ana.  so i called dad and did that at the same time.  though really, i had pretty much decided on what i'd be voting for (or against, as is mostly the case) before i rang him.  so anyway, my point is that i voted! :)  and i did refrain from voting on the things i know nothing about -- mostly people in positions that are local.  i don't know anything about any of them.  how would i ever choose?

and then i headed out.  i had some shopping to get on with! :)  yay!  okay, so i officially started the christmas shopping today because i made my first purchases!  actually, i did quite well.  i even picked up really rad wrapping paper, which i totally hadn't planned on doing.  but it was so cool i just couldn't resist it!  and since i was out and about, i also picked up some headbands.  headbands are everywhere and totally trendy and awesomely inexpensive, so i'm stoked about adding them to my accessories.  plus, i see them on people (like amanda peet on "studio 60") and they're so cute!  anyway, i got a few that i think will look nice.  and i also got a jamba juice, which i hadn't had in entirely too long!  delicious!

and since i got home tonight, i've mostly just been hanging out.  i read a little bit and watched some more television.  i talked to the parents.  turns out that adam's date to the homecoming dance tonight feinted when she was getting ready and had to go to the hospital, so he went to the dance dateless (though still with his big group of friends).  sucks for him.  i'll find out more when i talk to him tomorrow, i'm sure.  also, i put up some more photos from grandma's big birthday party.  they're from my mom's camera.  the ones i really cannot wait to see are on disposable cameras that were put on most of the tables for the guests to use.  we took some funny ones on those! :)  hehehe!  anyway, i am thinking i should probably get to bed soon.  it's getting kind of late by now.

i'll be back next time with more.  i definitely have plenty more to accomplish this weekend.  so for now, sweet dreams.  g'night. ;)

friday 27 october 2006 11:33pm

"i wonder if he knows
he's all i think about at night" -- taylor swift "teardrops on my guitar"

what did i even do with my day?  i don't even know. :)  it was a pretty good friday, though.  even if i know i have nothing to show for it. ;)

i woke up this morning to a smoky-smelling apartment.  but the window and doors were all closed so there wasn't so much i could really do about it.  so i got cleaned up and ready and fed and dressed and all those things i do in the morning.  and somehow i was ready early so i figured i might as well just head off to work.  it was pretty smoky out around 8:30 and i was pretty surprised to discover more ash on the car.  so sad.  i mean, if it's this bad here, way far from the fire, i'm glad i'm not any closer, you know?  there was a small brush fire in south orange county not too far from here this morning, as well, so i'm sure that contributed.  it wasn't consistently smoky here today.  it seemed to come in waves.  anyway, i went to work. :)

work was kind of out of control today in that really fun friday sort of way.  basically, it was like a major unwinding sort of day for the art department.  we played games.  all day.  okay, so actually we did a little work, too, but i think brian counted that we played 9 different games today.  something like that. :)  my personal highlights were bingo (i lost -- came in 4th of 4 -- when playing traditional bingo but won when we continued with the same game and played blackout bingo!) and connect four (i won the tournament, though admittedly, all that meant was that i beat marke and then beat brian).  other games around the art department included go, othello, darts, golf, baseball, and others.  good times!  also, marke, brian, jason, and i lunched at z pizza.  and i made an afternoon starbucks run because everyone wanted coffee or eles we'd all have just napped.  anyway, it was a decent day at work, though it still had it's frustrations.  you know.

after work, i headed home not really thinking about it too much.  i just didn't have much planned so i thought i might come home and get some other work done.  well, i got no work done. :)  but i have done some fun things!  first, i talked to megs on the phone for a while and we finally caught up!  that was great!  it'd been too long, really.  and i talked to the parents.  i had a little dinner and some leftover cheesecake for dessert.  and i watched "ugly betty" from last night, which i totally enjoyed.  however, i have one complaint.  henry the guy from accounting is was adorable and betty should have given him a a chance over that loser walter.  :)  and i did one other mildly crazy thing tonight.  hehehe!  well mom sent me a witches hat so i can wear it for halloween and i got it in the mail today (along with my ballot!!!).  so i put that hat on and then picked out the rest of my outfit and put that on so i could make sure i'd make a cute witch.  so far, not so crazy, right?   well, i had this idea of how i'd do my makeup with like smoky eyes and all that.  so i wanted to go ahead and try it.  i mean, i wasn't doing anything else anyway.  so i did my makeup all pretty and dark and ... frankly ... pretty hott. ;)  too bad i'm just hanging out here tonight!   my face is ready for a night on the town.  anyway, i'll attempt to replicate it on tuesday.

and now i know i should just go to bed but i'm thinking i'll pick up a magazine from my stack and read it before i crash.  anyway, i'm off for tonight, but i'll be back next time with more. for now, g'night. ;)

thursday 26 october 2006 10:20pm

"he's the reason for the teardrops on my guitar
the only thing that keeps me wishing on a wishing star
he's the song in the car i keep singing" -- taylor swift "teardrops on my guitar"

i'll get more of that song here another time.  it's a good one.  one of those songs that i heard and just reminded me of my life.  anyway, i love love this taylor swift album, and frankly i'm pretty surprised.  but it's quite the serendipitous surprise! :)

all day i've thought it was friday.  i'm really very confused.  and i'm not the only one, either.  at lunch john said it was friday and referenced the weekend being tomorrow and marke and i were all about playing along.  john shouldn't go to work tomorrow and neither should we! ;)  but actually, it's good news it felt like friday because that means it was really relaxed all the way around.

okay, so let me go back to the beginning.  for some reason, i ended up being up too late last night.  but interestingly, i'm quite glad about that.  things felt like they turned around sometime last night.   i started feeling a lot better, which is excellent news.  i am in a much better place now.  so eventually, i did go to sleep even though i really did not feel like doing it.

and then i did get up with the alarm this morning wanting some more sleep.  oh, well.  so i got cleaned up and dressed and all that normal morning stuff.  i caught some local morning news about there being a fire out near cabazon (near palm springs, out in the desert).  didn't think too much of it because it's pretty far from here and it's fire season.  plus, it was still new so i didn't know the damage it would do.  so i headed off to work on a normal-looking morning.

as i turned off pch and onto pico to head inland to the office building, i started smelling something burning.  i kind of got freaked out that it was my car because the check engine light went on yesterday.  so i was pretty much thinking the car was dying.  but i made it to the office and got out of the car.  and i could still smell it.  and i walked away from the car and it still smelled like burning, and more like wood burning.  so i finally looked around a bit and noticed it was hazy.  and i put it together that those same santa ana winds that were fanning the flames of that fire were pushing all the smoke right through san clemente.  awesome.  but what are you going to do, right?  so i went inside and got to work.

oh, work.  haha!  it's crazy.  but we're in a "lull" at this exact moment, so i wasn't going too nuts today, which is definitely a good thing right now.  i mostly worked on wrapping the st. jude's newsletter, which entails lots and lots of printing.  that took all day.  i did, however, get out to lunch.  john took the art department to the cheesecake factory!  :)  okay, so i know that i had dinner from there last night, but it's totally okay because the food is good.  and i must say that i planned to order something other than crusted chicken romano (what i had last night), but i saw it on the menu and i wanted it.  so i had it again. :)  mmm!  love that!  plus, today i got my strawberry lemonade, which is basically the best reason to dine there.  we talked shop most of the lunch, but that's fine.  it was pretty much just john making sure everything's going alright with us. :)

after work, i left the building to ash swirling around and an orange sky.  actually, the sky was an awful color all day long and the light was always orangey the way it is at sunset.  my car was covered in ash, as well.  i hadn't seen it like that since that fire in malibu a couple years back (though i was definitely in more danger then than i am now).  on my way home, i stopped at capo beach to take some photos because the sky was just an unreal color and the sun was so red.  i'm not sure they do it total justice, but they're pretty good.  it was just sort of eerie, and i definitely wasn't the only one out there trying to capture it with a camera.  then i headed home.

it wasn't too smoky here when i got home, but it definitely is now.  i just stuck my head out the door to see and it's bad.  anyhow, i've spent my evening here not up to too much.  i caught up with kath online for a bit, which was cool, even though she allows me to give into cookie cravings when i really should have had dinner instead. ;)  and not too long after that, sarah called, which is so awesome because

**eee!  my boyfriend chris young is on cmt pure right now!**

i never get to talk to her.  she's always at work or sleeping or unimportant things like that. ;)  anyway, she was making the drive from sacramento to san fran because she's flying out of san fran before the crack of dawn tomorrow to go to hawaii with her friends because one friend is getting married there this weekend.  i'm so jealous!  i want to go to hawaii!  (yes, i know i'm going in like 3.5 weeks, but i can hardly wait that long!)  so we got to catch up and dream about going back to london.  sarah gets no vacations from work, which is so lame.  so who's going to go to london with me??? :)

anyway, then i talked to the parents a bit and watched last night's "laguna beach."  and that brings me to now.  where did all the time go?  i'm not sure.  but i'm definitely going to tuck in pretty soon here because i'm sleepy and it sounds nice to lie in bed.  so i'll be back next time with more exciting stories.  g'night! ;)

wednesday 25 october 2006 10:49pm

"hold on, baby, you're losing it
the water's high, you're jumping into it
and letting go and no one knows
that you cry but you don't tell anyone
that you might not be the golden one
and you're tied together with a smile
but you're coming undone" -- taylor swift "tied together with a smile"

i'm having a hard time starting this entry.  i'm kind of absorbed in my music and in my thoughts, and really i kind of want to skip today.  i mean, it was that day, the one where things that never should have gone wrong go wrong and all i want to do is move on to tomorrow.  but it's not quite thursday yet and this tends to be therapeutic for me, so i'm going to go ahead and list a bunch of stuff that went wrong (and stuff that went right, too, i suppose) and by the time i finish, it'll be past my bedtime and i'll get move on.

by the way, i am loving the taylor swift album.  the above is one of those songs that somehow feels like it's about me today.  especially on a day like today.  somehow just hit home.

i got up this morning with the alarm, just like all the other days.  i got cleaned up and ready and found some breakfast.  then i put on an adorably cute outfit, dried my hair a bit (amazingly, it was a good hair day amidst all the other craziness), and threw on a little makeup.  that's all good stuff.  but just before i headed out, i talked (texted with) chris and found out he couldn't do dinner tonight (he has a legit excuse, no worries).  so i'd have to come up with my own plans for the evening after all.  not a huge deal, though; we'll reschedule.  so i headed off to work.

and in the process of heading to work, i found every single slow car/truck/bus/etc. to get stuck behind.  it seemed like it took me forever to get there!  not that i was all that anxious to arrive. ;)  and then!  my "check engine" light came on about halfway to work.  "but, kirsten, wasn't your light on last week?" you're asking.  why, yes.  yes, it was.  yes, i need to go back to the shop now.  so lame!  oh, well.

oh yeah, so then work.  work was kind of good and kind of bad.  let's start with the bad.  this issue of "pkg" is one of the hardest issues i've ever worked on.  nothing about it was smooth or routine or easy.  but thankfully, by 5 this afternoon we had that thing in the mail and gone!  hooray!  (okay, so i guess that was both good and bad.)  but afterwards, jason asked me if there's anything he could have done to make it go smoother.  i didn't know what to tell him.  anyway, i can't really elaborate.  so some good stuff... i finsihed the st. jude newsletter and i think it looks really nice.  the people at st. jude seem to agree, so that's awesome.  i'm excited to actually print those things! :)  i also made some progress on the next media kit and have a serious draft done, like one i'm ready to show other people.  so that's going forward, which is exciting!

i lunched with marke, larisa, and brian in the kitchen today, which was entertaining because we were going through the various propositions and discussing.  shockingly, marke and i agreed on a lot of things.  that always surprises me because we argue a lot (i know.  i don't argue with anyone.  but i do with marke because he just does it.  he loves it.  or something.  i don't know.).  and i feel like i now know enough to actually fill out my ballot (which is currently being held hostage in the apartments office because it's in a package my mom sent and i haven't gotten there to pick it up yet  because they're only open during hours when i am at work).

after work, i decided i would drive up the coast a little bit into laguna and grab dinner at gina's or something.  but as i was heading up there it was getting too foggy to watch any sort of sunset, so i got gas and headed for home instead.  and then i ordered curbside take out from the cheesecake factory because i wanted something delicious without having to cook.  and i needed a little pick-me-up after a long day, you know? :)  so anyway, i went to go get that but it was taking forever for them to come out to my car, so i had to go inside and get it, which isn't a huge deal but it's still kind of like now how it's supposed to work.  i mean, it's supposed to be fast, right?  it wasn't.  but i did get my crusted chicken romano and chocolate peanut butter cookie dough cheesecake and ate at home.  all of it was quite delicious and of course i ate like less than half so the leftovers will be great tomorrow! :)

after a little tv, i ended up on the phone with the family for quite a while.  :)  i really do adore them.  they're always good for a laugh at the end of the day.  and dad told me i should get some extra sleep tonight because he can tell i've been running myself ragged lately.  huh.  i didn't know he knew or realized really.  it's nice that someone noticed, though.  anyway, i'm already too late to think about getting extra sleep, but maybe i still have a chance for a decent amount.  so i'm off, and i'll be back next time.  g'night! ;)

oh, and so you know, i've started my christmas shopping.  admittedly, i haven't made any actual purchases but i've folded over catalogue pages with good gift ideas.  i'm going to attempt to be really early about that stuff this year so i can go to the mall like 2 days before christmas and enjoy observing the madness instead of being part of it. :)  wish me luck (because i'm going to need it)!

tuesday 24 october 2006 11:11pm

"you just might be that outside chance for me
yeah, you're the one good shot at redemption that i've got
yeah, there ain't much of nothin' in me
left to be saved but, baby, i bet
if you could love somebody like me
there might be hope for me yet" -- dierks bentley "hope for me yet"

make a wish. ;)

i woke up (with the alarm) this morning in a really awful mood.  see, i was in the middle of a very vivid dream that i thought was real when i was in it.  mom was smoking.  and i saw her doing it and no one else cared.  and i ripped the cigarette from her fingers and mouth, threw it on the ground, and stomped it out.  and i was pissed that she had taken up smoking and knew i was powerless to stop her because i don't live near her so i couldn't hound her to stop well enough.  (when i was a little girl, i'd wake mom and dad up when i had a bad dream, and they'd tell me that if i told them the dream i wouldn't have that dream anymore.  and for some reason, i now realize that i subconsciously still believe that).  so i woke up mad at mom.  and i did eventually realize it was just a dream and i had no reason to be mad at her.  but i do think it put me in a bit of a feisty mood today.  :)

so anyway, i got up and clean and all that.  i had some breakfast and threw together an entirely black outfit.  i used to wear a lot more black.  and now i'm wishing i had more in my wardrobe.  okay, anyway, i got dressed and headed to work.

work.  work felt kind of crazy today, though i realize i should clarify what i actually mean by that.  i was less busy than i've been in a long time.  that's not to say i didn't have anything to do.  it just means that i could put off my tasks long enough to read perezhilton and cnn.  (yes, in that order. :))  actually, i worked on some cool stuff today.  the st. jude newsletter is getting a makeover this month, which i'm working on right now.  i think it's definitely an upgrade, and it's really cool for me because i didn't do the previous design.  and i send the "cots journal" media kit to the printer!  hooray!!!  that's so exciting because i was beginning to think it'd never happen.  now i just have two more to push through.  wish me luck! ;)

i lunched with diana, lea, jason, and melissa at las golondrinas.  the original plan was marke, brian, melissa, and me at pedro's tacos.  i have no idea what happened.  at least they have really good chips (i ate too many) at las golondrinas.  and it was probably good to get out of the office.

oh, so back to why it was crazy at work today.  not only was i in a feisty mood, so was everyone else!  it was like just kind of like no one was afraid to say what was on their mind, so there was a lot of talking.  and not like friendly, nice talking, really.  so it felt crazy and i did resort to headphones and itunes radio at one point.  anyway, i actually considered just going home around 11:30 this morning but talked myself out of it (i'm going to need those vacation hours later, i'm certain).

after work, i headed for home.  or at least, not the gym.  the plan was to run a couple quick errands and then head home to take care of some of the work that's been waiting for me here.  other design projects, you know.  anyway, so i went to best buy to pick up the taylor swift album (so so so so good so far!), and then i went to the grocery for milk and olive oil (staples in this apartment).  and then i went home and it didn't take me too long as i started to get into the two projects before i realized i wouldn't actually be able to get much done on them tonight.  i just didn't have the materials.  so they'll have to wait until later in the week.  so that left me with an evening to myself. :)  i read a magazine (the latest "instyle," which was great!) and caught a little baseball (boring).   and i had some dinner and talked to the family.  and then i watched "gilmore girls," which i quite enjoyed.  :)  logan shows up on the roof!  and lorelai and chris are going to paris, most romantic city in the world (though i wouldn't know because i haven't had the chance to experience it in that way yet).  so sweet! :)

i think it was christmas catalogue day today.  seriously, my mailbox was filled with them today, which is awesome!  i love those!  i am just surprised so many showed up all on one day.  couldn't they have spread them out a little so i my joy can be spread out over time? ;)  oh!  and a new issue of "smithsonian," which i am totally saving for the hawaii trip (in 3.5 weeks and counting -- i'm counting down every second i'm so excited).

and now i'm just wrapping stuff up before i go to bed.  honestly, i don't really feel like going to bed but i know i shouldn't stay up too late because it could mean trouble for me tomorrow.  so i guess i'll tuck in.  though the rerun on chris young's appearance on leno is on tonight, so that's fun! :)  okay, i'm off.  g'night. ;)

monday 23 october 2006 9:20pm

"'cause when a man wants to be with a woman
there ain't no way of gettin' there too fast
when you know who you wanna spend
the rest of your life with you wanna start
the rest of your life
soon as you can" -- dierks bentley "soon as you can"

good monday. :)  i mean, really, just a sort of standard monday, but it was fine.  so that's cool.  i mean, mondays could be far more disastrous.

how much do i love that dr. brown from "everwood" (treat williams) is now on "brothers and sisters?"  so much!  i love him and he's kind of playing the same character, so that is awesome.  of course, i watch reruns of "everwood" all the time anyway.  actually, i'm watching the valentine's episode from season one right now. :)  i love this show.  and i love this perfect voiceover.  (i nearly used it in place of lyrics tonight because it'd be perfect there.)

okay, so i got a little sleep (not really enough because it was restless and inconsistent but whatever) last night and managed to get up fine with the alarm.  i even remember the first one! ;)  so i got into the shower and cleaned up.  i had some breakfast, put on one of the cute new tops i procured at the gap yesterday, and headed off to work totally early.

work.  there was a good amount of that today.  shocker, i know. ;)  but actually, things seemed to calm down a teeny, tiny bit, so that's cool. :)  we put together "pkg" for a first-round proof.  that included me taking over jason's little section, which was no big deal at all.  and i lunched with diana in the kitchen because i brought some leftover pizza with me.  we chatted for a while, which was great. :)  and then it was back to work all afternoon.  i even found some time to put together a brochure in record time and start with my changes to the "rtc" media kit.  so i got a lot done and don't feel like i worked my entire life away.  for the first time in a long time.   good stuff. :)

a while back, i ordered some cds online that took forever to arrive.  stupid media mail postage rates.  anyway, i finally got them today.  i'm in trouble, man.  :)  like adam and i were discussing earlier this evening, we consume music at a ridiculous pace.  lots and lots of music.  and we love it and don't plan to change. :)  so anyway, right now it's country classics: marty stewart, lefty frizzell, and the one i wanted the most, keith whitley.  gah!  so good!  i mean, they should be, right?  they're greatest hits collections from legends.  but still, i'm loving it.  i mean "when you say nothing at all" and "don't close your eyes?"  awesome!  okay, i'm done ranting and raving.  for tonight. ;)

so after work, i headed to the gym for a workout, which went fine.  nothing out of the ordinary.  then i came home and meant to get cleaned up right away but instead got totally distracted by other things. :)  like chatting online with marke about his new website that totally wasn't working on my computer and with sarah about her new house.  plus, mom called bugging me to call grandma, so i got a hold of her.  she was, of course, glad to hear from me and told me about how much she loved the party. :)  but i did eventually get a shower.  and some dinner.  and talked to the family for a while.  and i'm getting ready to watch "studio 60," which i'm totally looking forward to! :)  then i'll crash.

have a great night.  i'll be back next time.  sweet dreams. ;)

sunday 22 october 2006 10:27pm

"so maybe you could walk with me a while
maybe i could rest beneath your smile
maybe i could feel right beside you 'til i'm home
'cause it's a long trip alone" -- dierks bentley "long trip alone"

i can't help myself.  i love this song. ;)

it was a gorgeous sunday and really i could use another day just like this one.  and the weather.  just another perfect 85+ degree day around here.  nearly halloween and i'm wearing capris and tank tops and sandals.  yep.  there's for sure a reason i live in socal. :)

so i went to bed kind of late last night because i tend to do that whenever i have a good chance.  and i don't sleep especially well these days.  so anyway, of course i slept in late this morning.  and even once i was awake, i laid there trying to go back to sleep for quite a while.  i was in the inbetween stage, you know?  anyway, i was that way for a while but eventually decided i actually needed to get out of bed at some point today. ;)

well, lucky me, i got my chiefs on tv today! :)  because they were playing the chargers.  so anyway, i watched the game while cleaning up around here a bit (i finally unpacked from last weekend!) and having a little lunch.  i even managed to shower during halftime.  so anyway, the game was so excellent!  they played well and won with only a few seconds left on the clock, and so i'm stoked. :)  it's nice to actually get to watch them when they win!

then i headed out.  it was such a beautiful day that i wanted to go for a bit of a drive, so i headed up pch through laguna to crystal cove, this quiet little uppity shopping center i like to frequent when it's a nice day.  so i shopped a little bit at the banana republic there but didn't find anything.  and then i went to the gap, where i found some cute stuff on sale.  that was cool.  but i was also looking for project red clothes but they have like nothing.  what's the point of selling clothes for charity if there's only like 3 shirts left in the store?  i mean, i would think the more the better.  so they had none to choose from so i bought none.  oh, well.  anyway, it was a fun little shopping adventure. :)

then i headed back down the coast and all the way to the aliso movie theatre.  but i had a little extra time before my movie, so i stopped by the grocery to pick up movie candy and a soda, which i fit into my too-small purse and snuck into the theatre. :)  excellent!  so i went to see "flicka," which actually i'd been looking forward to since i first heard tim mcgraw was starring in it ages ago.  and it was really fun!  it's a very sweet story, the footage is beautiful, and there are lots of good actors in it.  and alison lohman's hair in that movie is like 110% perfect.  can i have it?!?  please? ;)  so yeah, it was a good time and totally worth my movie money.  oh, and it was interesting to be in a theatre with so many children (i have a habit of seeing very adult movies -- "the departed" -- lately).  i somehow didn't mind the background noise at all. :)  cool!  (and surprising.)  so yeah, "flicka." :)

then i came home to get on with the rest of my evening.  i cleaned up a bit more.  i caught a good portion of the baseball game.  i made myself dinner and cookies. :)  i painted all 20 nails so i'm not feeling so naked anymore. ;)  and i watched "desperate housewives."  and now i'm watching "brothers and sisters" because it just sort of comes on after "housewives" so now i always watch it.  anyway, it's been pretty quiet around here.  i feel like i got some good rest this weekend.  now i just need to get myself to bed before too long and i will be set to start my week tomorrow (if i have to ;)).

so i'll be back next time with more.  have a great night.  sweet dreams. ;)

saturday 21 october 2006 11:42pm

"it's a short piece of time but juts enough to find
a little piece of mind under the sun somewhere
so maybe you could walk with me a while
and maybe i could rest beneath your smile
you know we can't afford to let one moment pass us by
'cause it's a short piece of time
and i don't know where i'd be without you here
'cause i'm not really me without you there" -- dierks bentley "long trip alone"

it was a good first half of the weekend, though i think i actually managed to accomplish practically nothing when in fact i have some things to get done this weekend. :)  oops.  haha!  but you know, there's always a whole other day for those things. ;)

okay, so i went to bed at a decent time last night, and i tried to get some sleep.  it was a bit restless, but i slept in kind of late, so maybe i am actually catching up a little bit.  i don't really know.  i woke up with a stiff shoulder/neck/arm/wrist.  i know i slept funny on it.  anyway, i lazed around in bed a while this morning, which is a nice little luxury, and then did eventually get up and move around a bit.

really, i don't know what i did this morning. :)  i watched a little tv (nothing particularly interesting, however) and found a little food (not really breakfast and not really lunch, but food nonetheless).  and i picked up the newspaper from the doorstep but somehow never got around to actually reading it.

eventually, though, i decided to get cleaned up and head out and search for a couple accessories for my new ipod. :)  yay!  so i went to target and they actually had a lot of stuff!  i was kind of surprised, actually.  anyway, i found a case that i can use when i'm working out and i picked up a fancy cassette adaptor, though i'm not totally convinced i'll be playing it constantly in my car.  i mean, the cds still sound way better.  so anyway, that was totally a success and i kind of got distracted when i was there and picked up a new book, so the stack of books waiting to be read continues to grow. :)  then i went to best buy to see if they had anything better, but they really didn't.

this afternoon and evening i've just been here hanging out.  frankly, i'm not exactly sure where all the hours went.  i had the baseball game on, though it didn't go exactly as i had hoped seeing as though i'm now jumping onto the detroit bandwagon.  i gave myself the first half of a mani/pedi (took off the old polish and cut and filed all my nails).  polish tomorrow. :)  i talked to the parents for a bit.  i tried to call grandma because today's her actual birthday, but she wasn't home.  (probably out playing mahjong or something.)  and i learned some cool stuff.  i read that issue of "smithsonian" magazine, which is full of education articles.  and then i watched a documentary on frank gehry, which was really awesome and 100% convinced me that i need to go to bilbao, spain, to see the guggenheim musem there.  the building is so spectacular.  seriously.  and gehry.  what a crazy genius! :)

and now i'm just hanging out.  i picked up a pizza at stuft pizza, which was really delicious.  i forgot how good that place is.  anyway, i am thinking i'll probably get to bed relatively soon.  should be another gorgous day here and hopefully i'll get out at least a little bit.  for now, though, have a great night.  sweet dreams. ;)

friday 20 october 2006 11:21pm

"it's a long trip alone over sand and stone
that lie along the road that we all must travel down
so maybe you could walk with me a while
and maybe i could rest beneath your smile
everybody stumbles sometimes and needs a hand to hold
'cause it's a long trip alone" -- dierks bentley "long trip alone"

::yawn:: thank goodness it's friday finally!  i'm so tired and honestly can hardly wait to go tuck into bed and crash.  no, there's not a lot keeping me from that right now, but somehow i still haven't managed to get there quite yet.  anyway, i'm on my way pretty quickly here... ;)

got up too early.  got showered and dressed and fed.  went to work on another gorgeous morning, once again feeling like i should spend the day at the beach instead of the over-air-conditioned office.  but somehow steered myself to work anyway.

work.  there's more work than i know what to do with really, but i did make some serious progress today.  one magazine went to press.  another is ready for ad placement monday morning.  the smaller projects mostly got taken care of.  and the media kit is all together, edited, and ready to go to press as soon as the pricing is approved.  it came this close ::makes appropriate hand gesture:: to going to press tonight and i would have done it, but you know.  so anyway, it'll go monday.  woot!  of course, the list of things for monday is still quite long.

my new red ipod nano came in the mail this morning!  it's so adorably cute and small and wonderful!  i want to shop for a couple accessories for it this morning, but so far so wonderful!  i love it!  i put lots of music on it tonight, which is cool.

lunched with the whole art department, jason, melissa, marke, and brian, and wahoo's.  good stuff, except for the part where i disagreed with jason's extremely jaded and not altogether ethical stance on what it takes to be "successful."  i refuse to do it by being arrogant, selfish, or entirely self-centered, thankyouverymuch.  i am sure he didn't remember it happend like two seconds afterwards, but i still don't like that stuff.  whatever.  i'm still glad i said something when he expressed his opinion. :)  oh, and the food was especially good today for some reason. :)

after work, i headed straight home totally spent.  i watched some tv, found a little snack, and took a brief nap.  i seriously haven't been up to much tonight.  i've been catching up with the stuff on my dvr, playing with my new toy (ipod), and talking to the parents.  nothing spectacular, but that's fine.

now i'm off.  i can hardly even keep my eyes open.  i do need this weekend to recover from my crazy life. ;)  okay, i'll be back tomorrow.  for now, g'night. ;)

thursday 19 october 2006 9:34pm

"you're the center of my world
that place in my universe
to me you're every dream i dream
the air i breathe, my everything
a ray of sunlight shining down
the point my life revolves around
it's like i live to love you
you're the center of my world" -- chris young "center of my world"

thursday felt a whole lot better than wednesday did, though i'm not sure it was quiet or easy or relaxing in any way. ;)  anyhow, it was a good time, and i'm enjoying my evening of wonderful tv, so things are looking up.  plus, i'm less than 24 hours from the weekend!

i did manage to get to bed at a totally decent hour last night, before 11:30.  that's good compared to my normal habit of like 12:30.  anyway, i got a little rest and then all of a sudden the alarm was going off.  so i got into the shower and cleaned up right away.  i had some breakfast, put on a cute skirt and heels, and headed to the office perfectly on time this morning.  it was already a beautiful day, which i love!

i had a lot to get done at work today, so i went right to it.  i spent all morning on the figures for "pkg," which will all come together in the next couple days.  there were so many of them and they're tedious but don't require a whole lot of thinking.  so pretty much, i let all other things go for a couple hours and plowed through it all.  and then i got started on the other tasks at hand.  eventually, though, it was getting late and i was getting hungry, so marke, brian, and i went to fatburger.  i was craving it after realizing how good it was last night and when i suggested it, they both said they'd been thinking about going there!  rad! :)  so we went, and it was such a good lunch.  i mean, yeah, of course the food was amazing, but we had so much fun hanging out there.  it was just a gorgeous summery day and we were chatting and laughing and it was exactly what all of us needed after a totally intense morning.  eventually we dragged ourselves back to the office and got back to work.  in the afternoon, a fedex man showed up and brought my brand new 30" apple flat panel monitor!  woot!  :)  so of course i stopped what i was doing to plug that in and get it all situated on my desk (and moved away the two 20" tube monitors).  it looks awesome, and it's so fun to work on a screen that big.  it's bigger than my tv!  haha!  yeah, awesome!  and then i had a little indesign issue so i spent like an hour on the phone with adobe support.  actually, i was on hold and then it only took a couple minutes of actual help.  anyway, it eventually got fixed, so i really did have to get back to work.  and i was there really late, but so was the rest of the art department.  no big deal, though.

so then i headed home, and i took some work with me.  i did some serious work on another media kit, and i feel way better about it now than i did before i started, so that's great news.  i really have been meaning to push this one forward, so i knew taking some time tonight would be beneficial both for the project and for my own peace of mind.

and then i had some dinner and relaxed a little bit.  i got my first issue of "smithsonian" magazine, which i'm so excited about!  i even started reading it already.  and i got a prayer in the mail from grandma, which is sweet.  no note, but you know. ;)  and i talked to the family for awhile, which went well.  and "the office" was so excellent!  the whole jim-pam thing... gah!  it's killing me but i loved that they talked on the phone all night.  i love them!  :)  and of course, one of my other favorite tv couples is on "grey's," which i'll be watching as soon as i'm done writing this.  so anyway, i'm off.  i'll be back next time with more.  g'night. ;)

wednesday 18 october 2006 9:38pm

"little beads of light were dancin' off the wall
reflecting off the spinning crystal ball
in a dance hall down in texas where time slowed to a crawl
baby, it's just you holdin' on to me in the middle of it all" -- chris young "center of my world"

whoa.  and breathe.  i swear i feel like i'm going a hundred miles an hour constantly.  there's a light at the end of the tunnel, however.  it's the weekend, and it's only 2 days away, thank goodness! :)  anyway, it was yet another crazy day, which had it's highlights.  hopefully, i'll be able to focus on those as i write tonight.

i set the alarm for a few minutes earlier than normal this morning and got up with it still feeling pretty tired but knowing i needed to get my day started.  i got cleaned up and dressed pretty quickly, and then i headed out.  i went, once again, up to laguna hills to the volvo shop.  they forgot a bulb in my center console yesterday.  well, it was going to require a lot of labor, so it will have to wait for another day.  so i headed to work and i was going to make it there on time until i saw a police cruiser pull out onto the freeway with the sirens going.  he was doing that thing where they cut back and forth across all the lanes of traffic really slowly so another car can retrieve something off the roadway ahead.  anyway, i didn't even know they did this until i moved to orange county and now i seem to find myself stuck in the mess once every few months.  weird.  whatever.  another strange orange county thing: the emergency sirens testing, which happened today but which i did not hear (sadly).

okay, so work.  work's crazy busy.  we've got two magazines in the works right now, along with all the media kits and all the normal sorts of things that just come up all the time.  it's a lot.  believe me.  so i really did spend the whole day working my cute little butt off trying to get as much as humanly possible done.  and i know i did make some serious progress.  and i did stop long enough to pick up a take-away lunch from stillwater cafe.  and so the magazine needed to get to the ups store by 5:30, so i had to leave the office by 5:15.  that sort of cut my workday short and changed my plans, but no big deal.

so after dropping off our package, i headed toward the gym.  but i decided i wanted to do something else with my evening.  so instead, i went to the bookstore to browse for some real literature (not my usual pink-covered books), and actually i found some interesting stuff, so that was totally a success. :)  and then i went to ralph's because it's right there and there was seriously zero food in my apartment.  so i found lots of stuff there, which was good.  though the cashier/bagger was totally incompetent.  anyway, then i decided that i wanted to finally try fatburger.  it's right there, too, and i had been meaning to try it for a long time now.  so i ordered a take-away dinner and headed towards home.  wow.  i'm impressed!  it was a bit on the expensive side, but my chicken sandwich was awesome! :)  this could be the beginning of a very bad habit. ;)

and tonight, i've just been hanging out since i got home (which actually wasn't all that long ago).  dad told me i needed to get some serious sleep tonight, so i'm going to make an effort to get to bed soon.  i know i need the rest.  i have lots more ahead of me before saturday.  so i'll let you know how it goes next time.  and for now, g'night. ;)

tuesday 17 october 2006 9:43pm

"come and lay it on me
well that born to break hearts tattoo don't faze me
so stroll your sweet self over here and bring me to my knees
and we'll see who comes out on top now won't we
lay it on me" -- chris young "lay it on me"

well, it was certainly a busy tuesday, but i do feel like i made progress all the way around, so that's a nice feeling.  now if only i could combine that with feeling well-rested i'd be darn near set. ;)  so anyway, here it goes...

i managed to get a decent amount of sleep last night, which we all know i desperately needed.  and then i got up at my regular 7:30, but after getting all cleaned up and dressed and fed and ready and all that, i instead headed up to laguna hills to the volvo shop.  i had a check engine light on and something wrong with the air system.  plus, i was due for an oil change anyway.  so anyway, i started a new book ("everyone worth knowing") while they did a little diagnosis.  if it was going to be an easy fix, i'd just wait.  well they decided it wasn't, so the owner gave me a ride all the way to work, way farther than they normally give a courtesy ride.  so nice of him!  they're so nice there!  and swedish. :)  plus, he told me he'd just come from sweden and learned that volvo's releasing a new model smaller than mine (the c30, i later discovered online).

so work.  work was busy, as always (at least these days), but actually i ended up getting more done faster than i had expected, which is so rad. :)  i mean, it's nice to have my stuff together.  plus, it meant that i was ready to leave at 5 with marke so he could give me a ride back to the shop and get there before 5:30.  so i got my car back, which is great.  except they forgot one little thing (unimportant but if i don't take care of it tomorrow i will never get to it), so i'll be back (briefly, i hope) tomorrow.  sheesh.  at least they're really nice there and always speedy.

then i headed to best buy to feed my habit. ;)  the new dierks bentley came out today.  i've been waiting for that album for months, since i first heard "every mile a memory," which is an awesome song.  and the rest of the album is just as excellent.  i'm way excited about it!  good, good stuff!  dierks.  he's good.

then i headed to the gym for a workout on the bike, which went well.  pretty uneventful, really.  then i headed home, got cleaned up, and just lazed around.  i caught up on a lot of the tv that'd been building up on my recorder.  "the class."  leno and conan.  "desperate housewives."  all excellent, really.  oh!  and how much did i love "studio 60" last night?  so much! :)  that show is really good.  oh, and i talked to the parents tonight.  i think i convinced them that i should have a red ipod (part of project red). :)

so i'm off, and i'll be back tomorrow.  for now, g'night. ;)

monday 16 october 2006 9:31pm

"population 903
half of them are kin to me
and those that ain't, they know my name
we're like one big family
gather at that old camp site
to like about the fish and their size
uncle carl and his old guitar
singin' 'louisiana saturday night'
oh, my my, that's just the way we do it
cut-off levi's and kickin' country music
miles from nowhere, there ain't no city limits
and that's where you're gonna find us
havin' a small town big time" -- chris young "small town big time"

where am i?  i can hardly even remember, the past few days have been such a blur.  i'll try to touch on all the highlights for you (before i just fall over and pass out from pure exhaustion), and of course i started posting photos on flickr for you. :)

friday, i went to work for an interesting and sort of stressful day.  there was media kits controversy that took john to resolve.  but it did happen, and actually i had a really nice email in my inbox this morning with an apology and a major compliment (best media kit ever?  really? :)), so i think everything's fine now. :)  also, we had a big lunch with john at the yacht club to just sort of get an overview of all the projects in the air.  i didn't have high hopes for the fun-level of this lunch, but actually i'm really glad i went.  food was good and hearing about all the deals in progress was uplifting. :)

after work, it was straight to the airport, where i caught the late flight to san jose.  pretty uneventful, except that we were delayed.  i think it's good that i don't have anything to say about the flight. :)  dad met me at the airport, we got my luggage (so what if i had one piece i checked and one i carried on?).  then we headed home, and it wasn't too long before i crashed.

i got up relatively early on saturday so i'd have enough time to get ready and dressed and have some breakfast before heading up to woodland (near sacramento, like 110 miles from san carlos) to visit sarah.  so i did all that stuff and actually got to hang out with dad a little bit before stealing his car and heading out.  it was a bit of a rough drive out to woodland just because the traffic was heavy, but i made it.  i met sarah and her mom at sarah's new house, where they were stripping wallpaper.  they took a break, though, so we could go get some lunch and chat and all that.  then it was to home depot to get some more wallpaper stripping supplies before heading back to sarah's.  we spent the afternoon washing the walls to prepare them for paint.  it was the guest bedroom we were working on, so at least i'll get to use it when it's done! ;)  the house is really cute and old and totally right for sarah, so i'm excited for her.  it's not ready to move into yet, though.  but they're working on it! :)

eventually, i had to leave sarah in woodland and part of that drive back included many miles of a county road.  we don't have those near where i am from or where i have ever lived.  i drove in a straight line for a long time with only road and farmland in sight.  kind of trippy!  it really is a different world from the bay area, even though it's not that geographically far away.  it's like small town america.  anyway, i headed all the way to stanford to pick up katherine, and we met meg at the cheesecake factory for a late dinner.  it was so delicious, and of course we rounded things out with cheesecake.  and kath and meg both ate their entire pieces, which is pretty impressive. ;)  i brought half of mine home, but tragically never finished eating it.  it's still in my parents' refrigerator.  anyway, after dinner, i brought kath back to her new apartment at stanford and got a little tour of her new place.  it's cute! :)  then i headed home.  funny how quiet things are around there at midnight.  i was like the only person out.

i was once again up kind of early on sunday.  i had to be ready to go to grandma's big party by 10:15.  meg met at my house and auntie nancy picked us up.  we went to grandma's to get her to bring her to mass.  she was still in her nightgown when we arrived at 11 because she thought mass was at 1, not 11:30.  so she got dressed quickly and we made it to the church exactly on time.  mass went well, and then we had a huge party in the church hall.  there were well over 100 people there, and we actually had to get more chairs and tables because we ran out!  it was so much fun to see a ton of family members i hadn't seen in ages!  and i got a lot of "you're getting to pretty"s, whatever that implies. ;)  kind of strange, but you know, it's a compliment.  anyway, grandma had fun and i think the highlight was probably when they sang the filipino birthday song and everyone brought up flowers one-by-one until her table was covered in flowers.  i think it's some sort of cultural tradition, though i'd never seen it done before.  i like it a lot, though! :)  there was a lot of cleanup involved afterwards, but lots of people stuck around to help, which was really nice.  and then a big group of us went back to grandma's for a little bit.  grandma was on such a high, though, that she decided everyone was going out to dinner, so a lot of them went.

i already had other plans with friends, so meg, adam, and i took off.  (no one minded.  don't worry.)  we grabbed starbucks and headed home, where we met up with kath.  eventually, the four of us headed down to benihana in saratoga (our normal burlingame one is closed for renovation), where we met up with mel and tai, who were precisely 20 minutes late, exactly the number of minutes i bet adam they'd be late.  (he said 25.)  anyway, the restaurant was slow, so we hadn't been seated yet anyway, despite our having reservations.  anyway, the food was delicious, of course!  and we had so so so so much fun just chatting and laughing and all that. :)  it was a really great dinner, and we pretty much closed the restaurant down.

then i was up at 4:30 this morning so i could be at the airport by 5:30 for my 7am flight.  yikes!  so early!  it was still dark!  but i made it alright and finished "running with scissors" while i waited to board my plane.  it was excellent, and i totally recommend it!  and so i bought a "vanity fair" and read that until i got on board.  i slept most of the way but woke up with a left ear that i wanted to rip off it was hurting so bad.  stupid pressure changes. ;)  anyway, i tried my best to fix that to where it was tolerable and then it was too late to go back to sleep because we were nearly on the ground.  got my luggage and car and headed to work, stopping only for starbucks and a donut (plus the one i owed mark when i lost to him at darts last week) on the way.

work was busy, busy, busy today, as expected, but i made a good amount of progress.  then i came home and have just been relaxing.  i think i'll watch "studio 60" and then crash.  i need to catch up with myself after a very busy weekend!  more tomorrow.  g'night. ;)

thursday 12 october 2006 11:30pm

"well they say your kiss is like forbidden fruit
one taste of your sweet strawberry lips and i'll be hooked on you
say one day just like a dog you'll own me
i say lay it on me" -- chris young "lay it on me"

i feel kind of like my head is everywhere.  i've been keeping myself quite busy and trying to fit in some sleep whenever possible, and i know that things are going to get much crazier before they settle down again.  but i'm excited about it, actually! :)  so anyway, i'll just briefly catch you up on the past two days and then i'll tuck in.  oh, and somewhere in the mix of things, i'll catch my boyfriend chris young on leno tonight!  leno!  woot! :)

okay, so work is keeping me quite busy these days, as i'm sure you're already figured out.  but really, i've been working on two magazines and the three media kits, along with all the other little things that always seem to come up.  and on top of all that, the office seems livelier than ever.  the new darts i procured mean lots of games of darts (though we make up our own games a lot, including tic-tac-toe darts).  and it seems like lots of people are around or want to chat or something.  i don't know.  it's been really fun, though!  i like the atmosphere.  though i do continually feel like i'm not getting enough done (though in all actuality i am getting a ton done--i just have a lot to do).  anyway, work's going well, even if am spending too many hours there.

yesterday evening, i left the office late(ish) and totally exhausted.  i rang kath on my way home and ended up on the phone with her for quite a while, trying to make some plans for the weekend, catch up with each other, and get a st. charles reunion planned for christmastime.  anyway, while chatting with her, i made it all the way to target to look for a birthday present for sarah (her birthday was last saturday but i'm going to see her this saturday), and actually i found something perfect.  or at least i like it, and we pretty much like all the same things.  ;)  anyway, then i headed home.

i was exhausted last night.  i could barely keep my eyes open.  so i grabbed a bite to eat, chatted with the family for a few minutes, and then just crashed.  and really, it was great.  i woke up feeling much better this morning, which is good news.  i didn't need to wake up feeling worse, that's for sure. ;)

after work today, i headed for the gym.  "running with scissors" continues to get better and better.  i'm quite enjoying it!  and then i came home and really i've been trying to get a variety of things done.  shower.  dinner.  dishes.  put away clothes/shoes that were scattered around the apartment.  pack for the weekend.  quick manicure.  "the office."  "grey's anatomy."  and i got it all done in a relatively short amount of time! :)  yay for me!  hopefully something i packed will be cute enough for grandma's party or dinners out with the friends.  i have a hard time deciding what i'm wearing on any particular day, so it's like a real feat when i successfully pick something out days in advance.  anyway, that's all done and packed.

and now i'm going to tuck in as soon as i get to see boyfriend chris young on leno.  i'm so excited for him!  i mean that's the big time!  and his album debuted #3 on the country chart behind george strait (whose album came out the same day) and alan jackson (whose album is only a few weeks old, as well).  i mean, those two guys are living legends.  and chris has not only been compared to them at the young age of 21 but he's right up there on the charts with them.  wow. :)  rad!

anyway, i'm off.  i'm going to be home all weekend (i fly out tomorrow night, and i fly back at the crack of dawn on monday morning), but i'll try to update if i find a few extra minutes.  anyway, have a good night and a wonderful weekend! ;)

tuesday 10 october 2006 11:08pm

"so, girl, if you like a big heart
that's in this for the long haul
'til we're rocking on the front porch
and they're calling me papaw
'til the last breath you breathe
girl, you're gonna love me
just try it and see
girl, you're gonna love me" -- chris young "you're gonna love me"

somehow, i'm once again up too late tonight.  i mean, i've never asleep at 11, but i usually try to start writing this well before 11 because it's just one in many steps of my (overly long) getting ready for bed routine.  oh, well.  i'm kind of over it at this point.  i'll get 7 hours or something tonight, just like the past several nights.  that's just what happens when a girl who likes to stay up late has to be awake each morning at 7:30.

so yeah, i went to bed too late last night, as is normal.  i saw all of joy and the start of conan.  that's how i know. ;)  anyway, then i was up with the alarm, which i was sure had come too quickly.  i seriously checked the clock like 5 times to make sure it really said 7:30.  then i got showered and ready and all that.  i had those waffles for breakfast, and they were quite good, actually.  i have a thing for frozen waffles.  i mean, i'm all about real waffles but i don't have time for those on a tuesday morning, but the frozen ones are totally good, even if they're nothing like regular waffles.  plus, i totally have fresh orange juice (because i buy naked juice by the gallon at costco), so it was such a good breakfast that took like 0 minutes to prepare.  anyway, then i put on an adorable outfit (i even got compliments on it at work today) and headed out just on time.

work.  work was so fun today.  i'm not sure i've laughed at work like i did today.  there were just lots of funny moments.  and for a variety of reasons, marke, brian, and i ended up hanging out a lot together just like in the art department.  it was fun!  of course, i also feel like i didn't get enough accomplished today.  on the other hand, a magazine draft got completed and sent out for proofing, so we did actually get work done.  a lot of work, frankly.  i just thought i'd get a couple more hours to work on media kits.  but i wouldn't trade the fun from today for the hours of work.  so after all the looking for magnetic darts, i ended up just ordering them online.  and they arrived at the office today (way, way, way ahead of scheduled), so we had 18 brand new, really strong darts to play with.  we had fun and made up new darts games and i'm not so bad.  i mean, i think brian, marke, and i are all at about the same level.  so we had a new toy, which was awesome.  marke was especially possessive of the pink darts, though.  ;)

anyway, after work i headed for the gym again.  i picked out a bike and sat down and it turned out that the fourth inning of the a's game was just starting.  well, if you know about the game, you know the 4th inning went quite poorly for the a's.  i saw exactly that inning while working out, from first pitch to final out.  well, i read more of "running with scissors" too, but that's the amount of baseball that was played while i was riding that bike.  not so good. ;)  but i did have a really good workout, so that's nice.

then i headed home, showered, threw on some clothes, and headed out.  i went to best buy for the new heartland album.  it was so cheap it was worth the risk of only knowing one song ("i loved her first") from the band.  anyway, i've listened to a bit, and it's pretty good.  some songs are better than others, but it's still good.  it's hard for me because i've been listening to the chris young album non-stop for a week now, and they don't sound like him.  but anyway, yeah, heartland.  and then as i drove home past the krispy kreme, i saw the "hot now" light on, so of course i had to stop.  i mean, i can pass up a cold one because it might not be worth the calories, but the hot ones are so good i know they're totally worth it! :)  mmm!  so i had that before dinner.  yep.  backwards dinner.  and it was delicious all the way around!

what else have i been up to tonight?  watched "girlmore girls" and totally loved it.  i'll admit i have a bit of a crush on christopher, despite the fact that he's fictional.  his little speech about her being it for him.  gah!  makes my heart ache!  i'm a total sucker for all that stuff!  oh, and i also watched last night's episode of "what about brian," which has the same effect on me.  so you know. ;)  that dvr is taking over my life, just like i always knew it would.  now there's always something on tv for me.  i'm going to need to break away from it a little bit and do other things, like read! ;)  and also tonight, i talked to the family, which was good.  i'm anxious to see them on friday.

so anyway, i should really get going.  my friends kath and troy have successfully distracted me from getting on with my night and going to bed, but they're rad and so worth it. :)  but now, i really will tuck in.  more from me next time.  g'night. ;)

monday 9 october 2006 11:11pm <-- make a wish!

"i'll show you what i'm made of, baby
i can take it there
i ain't holdin' nothing back
i know it's right so
baby, i ain't scared" -- carolina rain "i ain't scared"

it was one of those mixed bag sort of days.  see, i feel like i had a good day, but i know there were some crappy parts, too.  i guess that's how it goes.  anyway, i'll just get on with it...

i went to bed at a decent hour last night, which is good news on a sunday.  and i got a little rest before that pesky alarm went off this morning. ;)  anyway, i got up and showered and dressed and all of that.  and because i had nothing here to eat for breakfast, i left a few minutes early so i'd have time to pick up breakfast at i <3 bagels, which was delightfully empty, perhaps because of columbus day.  i don't know.  i didn't have the day off.  and the traffic... there was none!

work.  i'm not entirely sure i want to write about work here tonight.  okay, that's not true.  i desperately want to write all about it.  the problem is, this is a very public forum, so i know i shouldn't.  at least not about the part of work that is more interesting.  sorry.  anyway, i worked all day.  jason and i met with john (and mike) about media kits.  he says they're looking good, which is awesomely good news.  that meeting ran long, so i ended up going to pick up lunch at like 2, which is whatever.  not important.  and i rang dad on the way for a little chat, which i'm sure was totally helpful.  and then i spent the afternoon working away on my section of "rtc," which is a little behind the mental schedule i had for myself, but i'm still totally on track with our official production schedule, so we're good.  and somehow, i ended up being the last one in the building at 5:45, when i was quickly abandoned by aaron and mike.  we're not really supposed to be there alone, so i wrapped up as quickly as i could and headed out around 6.  not too too bad, but still later than i should be there.

then i headed for... not the beach.  i ran out of light (or knew i would before i could get a complete walk in).  so i headed for the y for the first time in entirely too long, i'm sure.  and i changed and rode the bike really hard, which went surprisingly well considering how long i've been absent.  anyway, it also gave me the chance to start reading "running with scissors," which is really good, though i'm only about 40 pages in.  and you know, i like the gym in a lot of ways.  i end up really, really sweaty afterwards, which somehow feels rewarding, like a sign that proves i really did work hard.  anyway, good workout. :)

then i headed home, showered, and left again to get milk at the grocery.  and actually, i did something i really never do.  i went in my pajamas.  okay, not like flannel pajamas or anything, but black pants and a sweatshirt.  but the pants are pajama bottoms, though i will also say that if they were velour instead if sueded cotton, they'd be a juicy track suit.  anyway, i'm sure no one else cared, but i really don't advocate going out in public in pajamas. :)  anyway, i got milk and toaster waffles that'll make excellent breakfasts for the week and cookies. :)  good stuff!

and i've been hanging out since.  i had some dinner and talked to the family.  and i watched entirely too much tv.  i watched an episode of "everwood," and i continue to be impressed by that show, though i have actually already seen most of the episodes.  and i caught "the class," which made me laugh out loud more than once.  i enjoy it, even if it's not like big and dramatic and all that.  and then, of course, "studio 60."  did you know i love that show? ;)  so good!

and now it's like totally too late for me to be writing this.  i should be crawling into bed already.  so i guess i should get going.  i'll be back tomorrow.  g'night. ;)

sunday 8 october 2006 10:05pm

"i ain't holding nothing back
i know it's right
there's no monster in my head
making me think twice
all our phobias are fallen, were just lies
you make me crazy, baby, all shook up inside
the more you get to me, the more i'm terrified
but i ain't scared to fall in love
take my heart, i'm not afraid
to give it up to you, to you" -- carolina rain "i ain't scared"

it was a good sunday. :)  i don't have a ton to show for it, but maybe that was the point.  it's straight back to work bright and early tomorrow morning, so i'm glad i didn't do any work this weekend.  it'll all be fine.  (at least that's what i keep telling myself so that i might actually start to believe it. ;))

i got to sleep pretty late last night, but i managed to get like 9 hours of sleep and didn't wake up so early this morning.  however, i did the same thing this morning that i did yesterday morning.  i woke up in the middle of a very vivid dream, like startled.  not sure why, but whatever.  it does make it hard to laze around in bed afterwards, though, which is a shame on a sunday morning when i've woken up too late to go to church.  so i moved to the couch. :)

i hung out there for awhile. :)  i read the newspaper (and gladly discovered that heartland's album comes out tuesday and will only cost me $7.99!) and watched a little tv.  there were enough sports on tv to keep me mildly entertained.  but i also chatted with meg for awhile, just catching up, which was really nice.  we got to talking about benihana, though, so now i'm craving japanese food like crazy!  doesn't that sound so good right now?  anyway, hopefully we'll get some japanese when i'm up there next weekkend.  meg has lots of time to see me, so that's excellent!

eventually i threw on some clothes and headed over to the theatre.  i went to see "the departed."  wow.  it was really, really good.  yes, it is full of very attractive men, including my boyfriend matt damon, but it was actually, seriously good.  and i'd heard that it was super violent, but i wouldn't say it was excessive.  but yes, lots of people departed during the course of the film.  see it.  it's good. :)

then i've been hanging out here since. :)  had a nice dinner.  talked to the family (they're back from adam's volleyball tournament in sacramento).  watched a little baseball and football.  vacuumed the portion of the apartment that didn't get it thursday night.  gave myself a manicure.  and then watched "desperate housewives," which was excellent.  i loved john's return until the whole fiancee thing.  and mike!  awake! :)  yay!  and now i'm just watching "brothers & sisters" before i tuck in.

i'm going to attempt to get a bit more rest before tomorrow.  and i'm considering being good like dad and picking out my "britches" before i go to bed so i won't have to think about it in the morning.  we'll see. ;)  anyway, sweet dreams.  g'night. ;)

saturday 7 october 2006 11:58pm

"'cause i ain't scared to fall in love
take my heart, i'm not afraid
to give it up to you, to you
ain't no fear i can't fight
i'm okay when i look in your eyes
i like what i see in them
and i ain't scared" -- carolina rain "i ain't scared"

happy 23rd birthday to sarah, even though she never reads this. :)

i'm not sure where to begin.  it's been a super mellow saturday.  i didn't necessarily know that that's how it would go, but it's been fine.  and hopefully, i will manage to get fully rested before the week starts so i can get lots and lots done there.

okay, so last night i tuned into bed and decided that even though it was 1:30 in the morning, i wasn't ready to go to sleep.  instead, i wanted to start a new book.  so i started reading "living buddha, living christ," which has been in my stack of things to read for so long now i can't even remember.  and it'll be a fast read.  and it's way different than anything i've read in a while but in actuality fits right into my book collection.  anyway, it was good enough that i even got out of bed to get a pencil so i could underline and make little notes.  and then eventually i put the book down and went to sleep.

and then i woke up at 9 this morning.  way, way, way too early.  i tried to go back to sleep, like normal, but i ended up failing miserably.  i think it was a combination of me being kind of freaked out by a dream that i remembered at the time (i can't remember much of it anymore, but i do know that it involved people from work and a beach party or something) and the fact that i have too much stuff on my mind.  it's not quiet.  so i couldn't get back to sleep, despite trying for about an hour.  that was very sad for me.  i got like no sleep.

so eventually, i just got up and out of bed.  i lazed around and watched tv for a bit before i eventually decided that i'd throw on some clothes and take care of my day's errands.  i walked next door to the drugstore to get a couple big mailing envelopes, and then i came back here to address them.  i'm having my chris young album insert autographed.  because i can. :)  anyway, then i went to the post office.  mom sent me a purse that she bought me a few weeks back but told me i'd have to pick up myself when i go visit.  anyway, i guess she decided to mail it but for whatever reason the package was left at the post office instead of at the apartment offices, so i had to go get it there.  and i could mail my chris young thing, too, since i was there. anyway, the purse is so cute!  it's like a really nice purple color with a brown handle, and it's small-ish.  i really like it and have already put all my stuff in it so i can use it right away. :)

then i went in search of a little keith whitley.  and actually, i found a decent-looking album at borders, so i picked that up.  and while i was there, i got "running with scissors," which hopefully i'll get to reading before i see the movie.  anyway, it's in that supermarket paperback size, which i prefer even if it makes you look like you're reading something not smart.  it's a much nicer size and they usually are about half as cheap.  anyway, that was cool.  but i thought i'd check out best buy again just to see how what they had in terms of keith whitley compared.  well, they had nothing.  his little section was empty.  i was there on tuesday and there were at least two different greatest hits albums!  where'd they go?  are people seriously still buying his music that quickly?  he died 17 years ago.  anyway, so i left there and headed home.

the afternoon and evening were really quiet.  after lunch, i napped, which i know i needed since i only got like 6 hours of sleep last night.  and i read another huge chunk of my book, which was really good.  i'll be finishing that up pretty quickly, i think.  and i watched random pieces of various sports games.  the highlight was watching the tigers beat the yankees.  it was so fun to see them win!  it was fun rooting for them and seeing them be so happy and celebrating.  but i can only jump on their bandwagon for about 5 minutes because they'll play the a's in the american league championship series.  but still, fun stuff! :)

i picked up a take-and-bake pizza for dinner, but was sorely disappointed when i couldn't use my $5.99 for a large cheese or pepperoni pizza coupon for my large half-cheese, half-pepperoni pizza.  i mean, come on!  but whatever.  it ended up being like really delicious and i have leftovers that'll feed me for a few days. :)

i've just been reading and hanging out tonight.  which basically means, i've been doing nothing.  but that's cool. :)  but there was a huge highlight!!!  chris young made his fourth (second on tv) grand ole opry performance tonight, and he was so amazing and got a crazy good response from the crowd.  i'm telling you, that man is a born performer.  anyway, he was wearing the hott purple shirt he wore when i saw him at the house of blues! :)  if you get gac, watch out of the grand ole opry for the next week.  it gets re-aired often.  he sang "drinkin' me lonely" and "you're gonna love me," both of which were crazy good, and did two little interviews with the host, too.  yay for chris!  so awesome! :)  yes, my crush on him continues to grow out of control. ;)

so then i got on a little music kick.  i got on amazon, did a little browsing, and ended up getting greatest hits collections for keith whitley, marty robbins, and lefty frizzell, all country greats well before my time.  they'll be great additions to my cd collection and my country music knowledge. :)  i'm excited about them!

and now i am thinking i should probably go to bed.  i am trying to pay off some of my sleep debt, not add to it, this weekend.  anyway, i'll be back tomorrow.  g'night. ;)

friday 6 october 2006 11:32pm

"so, girl, if you like a handful of fresh wildflowers
a back rub on a bad day, talking for hours
i'm good company
girl, you're gonna love me" -- chris young "you're gonna love me"

i <3 chris young.

so i use this site, cowboylyrics.com, a lot for lyrics for songs.  they have almost everything i'm looking for, but they hadn't posted the new chris young album's lyrics yet, so i've been using the actual cd booklet, which is a little hard to read because the type is so small.  though it is more accurate.  anyway, so i thought i'd get on the site tonight and see if they'd added his stuff yet.  and i saw that they'd added a few of the songs.  and then below the listing of the songs on this album, there's a section of "other songs," which is just like songs not on an album or only part of a compilation or whatever.  so i see there are two songs whose titles i don't recognize in that section.  and then i thought i'd just read the lyrics to see what they were like.  so i click on "do you want me" and start reading.  and i don't even understand what the words are saying and i found cuss words only a few lines in.  i was very confused.  and then i put it all together.  this site lists artists twice.  once firstname-lastname and once lastname-firstname.  so that would be chris young and young chris.  well, young chris is a rapper.  so somehow his lyrics got put on chris young's page on cowboylyrics.  how weird!  anyway, i thought it was kind of funny just because i was so confused about why chris young would sing about louis vuitton and use the n-word.  anyway, not my chris young! :)

okay, so friday.  it was kind of different than i had expected, but it went fine.  i got a little sleep last night and then was up with the second alarm once again.  i showered, got dressed, and had a little breakfast before heading out just on time.  not sure how i spent all that time, but i think it was mostly just that i was moving pretty slowly.  because it's friday and why not? :)

then work.  work is the part of my day that did not go as planned.  i had wanted to spend more time working on the pkg media kit and talking to john and really pushing to move forward with that stuff.  well, for all intents and purposes, john was out of the office all day, so i didn't get to talk to him.  and the fact that everyone, especially melissa, was back in the office today made things busy and chatty and distracting.  i don't mind at all, really.  it's nice.  but it just meant i wasn't super focused all day and really didn't accomplish enough.  so now i won't be back there until monday, a day allotted really for just laying out my (huge) section of the magazine.  so we'll see.  i'll be busy.  i thought about actually bringing the media kit stuff home with me for the weekend, but i ended up not doing that.  i mean, it's my weekend, and i should probably stay away from that stuff for a bit.  it might leave me really fresh for next week, a week that will continue the trend of crazy busy-ness.  so anyway, yeah, i did some work on the media kits, including starting the pkg one, but i didn't get enough done.

for lunch, jenna came by the office and a huge group of us (jenna, diana, melissa, lea, marke, jason, brian, jessica, and me) went down to san clemente pizza company for pizza.  delicious!  and while there was entirely too much discussion of "lost," at least i got to read the san clemente newspaper and then catch the first few innings of the a's finishing up their sweep of the twins.  good stuff. :)  and actually, a really super nice lunch.

after lunch, marke, brian, and i began our quest for magnetic darts.  we have a magnetic dart board in the office and i do enjoy beating marke at prime number darts.  however, the vast majority of the darts have gone missing.  everyone asks me where they went when i say that, but if i knew that, i wouldn't be on a quest for new darts.  anyway, so we are now looking for more darts so we can play with more than the 2.5 we have left.  so we went to wal-mart and then placed a few calls to other places we thought might have some.  but no success.  so we returned to the office empty-handed. :(

so after work, i continued the quest and went to sports authority, toys-r-us, target (where i ended up picking up something for a halloween costume, a little candy, and another copy of the chris young album -- the reason for this is hard to explain so i'll just go ahead and let you think i'm completely crazy), and sports authority.  i don't really know where to look anymore.  i can't find magnetic darts anywhere.  ideas?  and then since i was up there, i picked up dinner for take away at boston market, which was so delicious. :)

and tonight, i enjoyed dinner here, and i've just been hanging out since then.  nothing too exciting.  i caught up on a ton of tv that'd been waiting for me, even an episode of "everwood," which they're now showing on abc family.  rad, right? :)  that show's always been very emotionally heavy, apparently.  i didn't realize.  i thought it got that way towards the end, not that i mind at all.  or maybe i'm just more messed up now than when "everwood" first started. ;)  anyway, i also caught "ugly betty," "laguna beach," and a short concert special featuring carolyn dawn johnson and !!! chris young! :)  he sang "beer or gasoline" and "drinkin' me lonely."  good stuff!  that's staying on my dvr.  actually, i noticed that the vast majority of stuff i save on there is music-related.  anyway, i also watched the first "character road trip," which aired during "meet the parents" on tuesday.  and then i decided that it really was easier to just watch the episode online.  i do love evan and jaron!  the show's like totally cheezy and goody and fun!  and they're so cute!  so anyway, can hardly wait until episode 6!

and now i'm just hanging out and watching leno.  nothing out of the ordinary.  not sure what's up for tomorrow.  i want to find myself a little keith whitley music, so i might do that.  i'm actually not sure where to look around here.  i'd need an actual music store for the best selection, i think, but do those even exist anymore?  i don't know.  but i'm thinking maybe borders will have a decent selection.  we'll see.  i'm sure i'll come up with something!  and "the departed" came out today, so i want to see that some time this weekend, maybe not at nighttime because i think it could be a little intense for my normal solo, late-night viewing.  anyway, i'm going to watch some more tv or start a book or something because i don't really feel like going to bed quite yet.  i'll be back next time with more.  for now, however, g'night. ;)

thursday 5 october 2006 11:27pm

"come and rest your head against my chest
'cause i'm the one for you
you don't have to look no more, your search is through" -- chris young "you're gonna love me"

seriously, the man's voice is like candy.  mmm... so good! :)  and believe me, i've gotten that album loud enough that i can hear every little sound.  it's like he's standing right in front of me singing, it's that crisp.  anyway, it's good stuff.  and this afternoon, i hard the art department to myself for a couple hours, so you know this album is the first thing i played. :)  okay.  you're probably wondering when the heck i'll stop talking about chris young and just get on with writing about something else.  so i'm done for tonight, but i'm still majorly in love with chris young, so expect to hear more. ;)

i actually got to bed sort of early last night.  okay, not early, but not late.  and i was really asleep when the first alarm went off.  but after turning it off and failing to be able to get back to sleep for the 10 minutes until the next alarm, i realized that that's the first time i could remember teh first alarm in a really long time.  i normally shut it off and fall back asleep and have no recollection of doing so.  crazy.  anyway, i got up with the second alarm and showered and got ready and all those things.  and then i checked emial and had a bit of breakfast before eventually deciding on something to wear.  my black pants that i bought a few weeks back when i went to the grove finally got their first wear, so that's happy. :)  i even got compliments on them.  really, though, they're just black pants.  and they're really long so i must wear heels with them.  anyway, i got dressed and headed out, enjoying mr. chris young's album the whole way. :D

work's busy.  really busy.  but you probably already knew that.  at the moment, it's loads of work on both the media kits and the first magazine of the month.  and i was definitely getting a bit restless with all the changes around the office.  i know i was getting a bit fussy today.  but melissa's back tomorrow and people will be back in the office (everyone was up in santa clara for the arm developers conference).  so anyway, it should settle me down a bit, even if the workload likely won't decrease.  i'm not even sure what i'm rambling about any more.  so i worked on the media kits and other various things in the morning, and after lunch with marke, jason, and brian, i put the media kits aside and focused all my energy on figures for the magazine.  i wanted to get melissa's half of them done today so that she could acutally start layout tomorrow, as scheduled.  well, i was kicking butt like a rock (country? ;)) star and did hers and mine!  all before 5:30!  i so win!

and feeling totally motivated and thoroughly accomplished, i headed home after work.  i wanted to clean the apartment and do some laundry.  so i put in 6(!) loads of laundry.  actually, i cannot remember the last time i did laundry.  like a month ago?  something like that.  so anyway, i got those done, and i also started cleaning the apartment.  like cleaning cleaning.  i got about half done, though.  i just ran out of time.  i talked to the family for a bit, which was cool.  plus, dad has lots of good work advice.  and i ended up chatting with annahita and sarah online for a bit.  sarah and i don't get enough time to connect these days because of our schedules, so it's nice when we can find a little time to chat.  and then all of a sudden it was 10, i hadn't had dinner yet, and there was some tv waiting for me.  so i made myself a little pasta and sat down to enjoy "the office" and "grey's anatomy," both of which were really, really good.  i love those shows.  thursday is definitely my favorite!  and i have a growing list of things waiting for me on the dvr for the weekend or whenever i have time, so that's also very fun. :)

anyway, now it's nearly midnight, so i need to tuck in and get a little sleep before tomorrow.  it should be another very busy day around the office, so i'm sure i'll need the rest.  i'll be back to let you know all about it.  for now, though, have a good night.  sweet dreams. ;)

wednesday 4 october 2006 9:40pm

"and if you like to slow dance to old keith whitley
long sunday drives out in the country
i'm your cup of tea
girl, you're gonna love me" -- chris young "you're gonna love me"

i.  love.  chris.  young.  he's rapidly ascending the list of top celebrity boyfriends. :)  and i adore this song.  awesome in concert, and still thoroughly excellent on the album.  i've been reading all the reviews (like from journalists, not just fans) of the album and everyone loves it.  that's so exciting!  i mean, i have an ear, but it's good to be reassured that what i like is what the critics are liking, too.  not that that's how i choose my music, but still it bodes well for chris when he's getting called the next george strait or a blend of alan jackson and trace adkins.  anyway, hooray for chris young! :)

it was a good wednesday.  it was a lot like me, if you understand what i mean.  anyway, i'm working on getting this day wrapped up so i can go to bed and move on to thursday.  but first, i do want to just give you an update on my day. :)

didn't sleep especially well, but there's no surprise there.  anyway, i got up with the alarm feeling pretty sleepy, but i headed for the shower anyway.  i got cleaned up and ready and all that.  i had a little breakfast while checking email, and i got dressed.  and since i was sort of dilly-dallying around the apartment, i got out of here on time instead of early.  not a big deal at all.  in fact, i quite enjoyed moving at such a slow pace around here this morning. ;)

work feels a bit hectic, though i'm really not complaining.  i'm just saying that things are busy, especially for me.  right now, i'm trying to get these media kits together, as you know.  and then i'm working on an ad for a client, and i actually got a draft of that to them today.  it's a very simple project.  also, i'm preparing to start work on the magazines.  the first one of the month starts friday.  marina, jason, and i met this morning to divide it up, like usual, but because it's jason's first month, melissa and i will each take half the book and jason will "see how things flow," or something like that.  whatever.  i get half a book including a huge special section that will get a look and feel separate from the regular magazine.  it's a lot of responsibility, and i'm wanting more of that, so i'll take it.  i just don't know when i'll get it all done!  i'm sure i'll figure it out.  anyway, yeah, like diana observed, i have like 3 people's worth of responsibility right now.  but you know, i'm getting my stuff done and "proving myself" or whatever they say.  i'm capable.  or crazy. ;)

oh, and i picked up lunch at san clemente pizza company, which totally hit the spot.  that place got a fresh coat of paint and a few other updates since the last time i was there.  that was weird.  but not a bad thing. :)

i left work on time today.  i figured i needed/deserved it after yesterday night.  anyway, so i went to change for a beach workout and realized halfway in that i didn't have a shirt.  sad for me!  so i left on the shirt i wore to work and the yoga capris that i had already gotten on when i was looking for a shirt and i headed to the beach for a stroll instead of my normal hard-core walk. :)  it was a nice night.  i didn't want to miss the sunset.  so anyway, i got to salt creek/strands/whatever that beach is called.  and i went for a walk along the beach (strands beach, i believe) with my toes in the sand and water.  and i walked all the way to the end where lifeguard stand 3 juts out into the ocean to divide strands from salt creek beach.  anyway, i think that spot is amazing in that edge-of-the-world sort of way, so i stopped there to watch the sunset.  i don't know how long i was there.  probably half an hour.  and seriously, it was amazingly gorgeous.  it was like a scene out of a movie.  me on the rocks looking out over the ocean contemplating life.  and in the movie the guy (you know the guy) would walk up behind me and surprise me and tell me he can't live without me and we'd live happily ever after.  but my life isn't exactly like a movie (whose is?), so tonight it was just me.  oh, until near the end a family showed up and were taking photos in front of the sunset.  they were too early, though, i think.  i mean, they were gone before the most amazing part where the sun just falls right into the ocean, the part where you can actually look right at the sun because it's more orange than blinding.  anyway, it was so beautiful, and i got lots of time to just watch and think and all that.  so me.  :)  and then i strolled back down the beach and then up the long set of stairs to my car.

i took photos of the sunset and sky because i couldn't resist and because i so often wish that i had a camera when i'm on one of my hard walks there watching the sunset as i sweat.

and tonight, i've just been hanging out.  i had one of my favorites (because i tend to eat like a 5-year-old) for dinner, macaroni and cheese.  :)  mmm!  and a couple cookies for dessert.  and that's seriously about it.  i watched the rest of "friday night lights" from last night.  i talked to the parents for a while, mostly about work and baseball, which was nice.  and now i'm just working on this and then i'll hopefully crash early.  or start a new book.  i need to start a new book.  actually, first i need to choose what that will be. :)

anyhow, i'll be back tomorrow.  have a good night. ;)

tuesday 3 october 2006 10:43pm

"if you like a man who you can put your trust in
you don't have to worry where he's been
then rest easy
girl, you're gonna love me" -- chris young "you're gonna love me"

hooray!  happy chris young day!  did you already go out and get your copy of the new album?  $10 at best buy.  and seriously, i've had a really good listen already (more on that later), and it's awesome.  like really, really good.  and as you already know, the man is seriously crazy talented.  for real.  go.  listen.  chris young.  brilliant. :)

okay, on with my day. :)  i went to bed a little bit late last night because i somehow got distracted by an array of things, including the headlines segment on leno.  monday nights!  it's the best! :)  anyway, i got a little bit of sleep and then all of a sudden the alarm clock was going off.  seriously, i'm trying to remember all this, but i can't.  i must have been really out of it.  not too surprising.  hehe!  okay, so i know that i got cleaned up and dressed and ready right away.  then i grabbed breakfast while checking email and those things, and then i was out the door.  for whatever reason, i've been early lately.  maybe because i haven't done laundry in like a month and therefore have very few things to choose from when dressing myself.  anyway, i was off to work.

work went pretty well today.  for me, anyway.  i mean, i'm just spending the vast majority of my days working on the media kits.  they're important and cool and different.  anyway, i like getting to work on them, but i'm also trying to get them together really quickly because they need to be printed like last month.  anyway, i spent all day on the media kit for "rtc."  i wanted to get it all together, just get everything on the pages so i know what i'm working with.  so anyway, i worked really hard all day on that, really only taking a break at lunchtime to run a very important errand and pick up a salad at stillwater.  and then all of a sudden it was crazy late and john koon and i were the only ones left in the office and he was ready to leave.  so that meant i had to pack my stuff up and head out with him.  so i printed copies of both media kits and brought those home for further review tonight.  and i did actually sit down with them for like an hour tonight and made little changes on the proofs.  i'm really liking them, though.  they're nice.  now i just have to convince everyone else of the same thing. ;)

okay, so that errand. :)  if you couldn't already guess, i went up to best buy (it's really not close to work at all) to get myself a copy of the chris young album, which came out today.  and i slipped it right into the car cd player, cranked up the volume ridiculously loud, and loved every note.  aaahhh!  so good!  i love love it!  it's seriously good, not like good because i've been anticipating it forever good, but like actually really good.  okay, okay, you get it right? ;)

so anyway, since i was at the office so late, i didn't go to the beach.  it was already dark outside.  so i headed home, grabbed some dinner, and talked to the family for a little bit.  then i wrapped up that work, like i mentioned before.  and then i watched a little of tonight's many tv offerings.  i loved "gilmore girls."  really interesting and fun and all that.  and then i started watching "friday night lights," but i am feeling pretty tired so i will save that for later.  my eyelids are heavy, so bed is sounding really good.  and then i also recorded the first episode of character road trip with evan and jaron.  i'll likely just watch the little parts with them one of these days.  they're super cute, though! ;)

anyway, so i'm going to go get ready for bed before i just crash right here on the couch.  i'll be back tomorrow with more.  and don't forget to get your chris young album!  g'night! ;)

monday 2 october 2006 9:34pm

"i got used to you whispering things to me in the evening
we followed the sun and its colors and left this world
it seems to me that i'm definitely
hearing the best that i've heard
so throw me a rope to hold me in place
show me a clock for counting my days down
'cause everything's easier when you're beside me
come back and find me
'cause i feel alone" -- kt tunstall "throw me a rope"

this song was on "brothers and sisters" last night, and i haven't been able to stop thinking about it since.  good stuff.  perfect for me and this journal.

i also want to just say that no matter how this entry turns out, i actually had a totally nice monday and i'm in a good mood. :)

i caught the final two episodes of "three's company" last night, which was cool.  they're not a part of the group of episodes i've seen a million times.  of course, me seeing them means i was up kind of late... like midnight.  but then i did get a little rest through the night.  for some reason, i woke up exactly at 7 and then couldn't quite manage to get all the way back to sleep before my 7:30 alarm, but i'm alright.  when the alarm finally did go off, i got up and showered.  and then i got ready and dressed and everything right away.  i already knew i was going to wear my shirt -- the lusk one that i designed myself -- today, so there were no decisions to be made.  that's good news for a monday morning when i'd rather be sleeping. ;)  anyway, i had a little breakfast and then headed off to work.

work actually went really well today.  i spent my morning filling some holes i'd left in the "cots journal" media kit so that jason and i could go through it and make whatever changes.  no one'd seen it yet so i had no idea how it'd go over with everyone else.  i just knew that i liked it.  anyway, i also had a couple of "emergency" projects to take care of in the morning, which was no surprise because i had warning about them last week.  no big deal. :)  for lunch, jason and brian wanted to go out so i brought them to super bowl for chicken bowls, which we ate back at the office because we were all busy and there were no empty seats in super bowl.  mine was pretty good, though i have no idea if jason and brian enjoyed theirs because we were all just working away.  so anyway, yeah, i got a lot of work done and then got distracted by fun chit-chat in marke's office with diana, jason, and marina.  good times! :)  i think we all needed that break and the laughter.  and then as that was sort of breaking up, diana said to me, "okay!  i'll go get frozen yogurt with you!"  as if i had invited her!  so we went because that sounded like a delicious idea! :)  and it was!  plus, i got to tell her my whole house of blues concert story.  anyway, at the end of the day, jason and i went through my whole "cots" media kit and made some changes and stuff.  he likes it, though!  so we'll try to wrap that up asap and i'm already starting on the next one.  my hours might be a little long until these get done, but that's alright.  i want them finished!  so that meeting went well, and we're going to just keep moving forward.  or i am, anyway. ;)

after work, i headed for the beach for my nightly walk.  it was a gorgeous night out, even if it's definitely getting cooler and the sun is setting earlier.  it was so clear, and the sunset was absolutely amazing.  and yeah, i continue to run out of daylight, but that's okay.  no big deal.  so good walk!

and then i'm on the beach heading back toward the stairs nearing the end of my walk when i notice really large, really fresh (because the ocean hadn't washed them away yet and the tide was coming in) dog prints in the sand.  i realized there were two women with their dog a ways ahead of me.  not on a leash.  on a beach where there are loads of signs saying dogs aren't allowed.  and so i caught up with them at the very top of the stairs, just as i had finished running all those steps!  huffin' and puffin'! ;)  and then it went something like this...
me: excuse me?  ...  excuse me?  ...  excuse me!
crazy #1: (after clearly ignoring me finally decides to turn around) what?
me: (really nicely) um, actually there are no ...
crazy #1: weknow.  weknow.
me: (still nicely)... dogs allowed at this beach
crazy #1: we.  know.  (turns away and is still walking away from me)
crazy #2: what'd you say?
me: (still being nice) there are no dogs allowed at this beach
crazy #2: are you a lifeguard or something?
me: (still nice) no, actually, i just work out here and i chose this place because there are no dogs allowed here.
crazy #2: (aggressively) what, you don't like dogs or something?
me: not really
crazy #2: well you should.  my dog likes people.
me: well i'm actually allergic to dogs
crazy#2: well so am i, but i have a dog
me: (still being calm and trying to offer a rational explanation) well i'm allergic so i like to workout in places were dogs aren't allowed, like here
crazy #2: well there are places where people aren't allowed, too
me: well people are allowed here (confused)
crazy #2: well people suck!
me: well your dog sucks! (walks away toward car)
crazy #2: well maybe you'd be less allergic at mcdonalds!

::sigh:: seriously.  that seriously happened to me.  and just for clarification, i'm allergic to pretty much any animals with hair, though i've just come to accept it.  and cats are way worse for me than anything else, though some cats more than others.  like sarah's family had a cat that i wasn't allergic to at all and slept in the bed with me when i stayed there, but i'm deathly allergic to my cousin theresa's cat and need to be medicated upon entering her house.  so what the hell is up with dog owners?  and why do so many of them think they don't have to follow the rules?  and i realize that this little incident should not have upset me in the slightest, but it did and sometimes i just can't help it.  i was trying to be polite about telling them, but it just didn't work out.  so when i got in the car, i called dad and explained what happened and ended up crying the whole way home.  he was good and just stayed on the phone with me, which was all i needed.  i know it's all ridiculous and i won't remember in a couple days, but it hurt in the moment.  plus, i think that last comment that didn't at all make sense was her attempt to call me fat, which is pretty much the last thing i want to hear when i'm just finishing a hard workout.  anyway, then i went home.

i showered and found a little dinner because that seemed like the best thing to do.  i got a coupon for a free pizza (no restrictions or anything) from pizza hut because i placed that complaint with them like a week ago about slow delivery and a cold pizza.  rawk!  i also got a new bathing suit i'd ordered a while back but was on backorder.  and it's cute!  and it was so cheap!  fall is definitely a good time to buy a cheap bathing suit! :)  and i'll get to use it next month in maui, so i'm stoked!  otherwise, it'd be like a totally ridiculous purchase.  but anyway, i like it!  it's simple and black but fits great!  i have an issue with finding tops that fit well. :)  anyway, that's good news that it fits and all.  oh, and i talked to sarah because she's good for telling crazy dog people stories to because she knows that dogs are dogs, not people. :)  and then i ended up on the phone with the family for like an hour.  adam and i were just chatting about whatever random stuff, i don't even know what.  it was good to talk to him. :)  and now it's time for "studio 60," which i'm sure will be great! :)  and then i'm going to bed.

so i'll be back tomorrow.  for now, g'night. :)

p.s. i posted a photo of my lusk t-shirt on my flickr for you! :)

sunday 1 october 2006 10:30pm

"i miss those times
i miss those nights
i even miss the silly fights
the making up
the morning talks
and those late afternoon walks
i miss my friend
the one my heart and soul confided in
the one i felt the safest with" -- darryl worley "i miss my friend"

weird that it's october, don't you think?

i'm boring.  or bored.  at least today.  but maybe that was the point of this sunday.  i'm not sure.  anyway, i'll just give you a little update, but really i did nothing.

i kind of feel like i slept all day.  i mean, i didn't actually, but that's still what it seems like.  i got some decent sleep last night, though it seems to come in bursts.  anyway, i got sleep through the night.  and i eventually decided that i'd get up in time for mass.  so i got cleaned up and dressed and whatever.  i flipped through the newspaper and then headed out on a foggy morning.

mass was... okay.  yeah, just okay.  it was the priest i don't like because he barely speaks english and therefore continually fails to give a decent homily.  oh, well.  going still gives me a little bit of piece of mind, i think.  and it did get me out of the house.

so after mass, i headed home.  i watched some football and though i didn't get to see it, my chiefs kicked some 49ers butt! :)  and i finished reading "lipstick jungle."  i thought i had like 80 pages left but it turned out that the last 40 or so were an excerpt from "trading up," which i've already read.  so anyway, that was a good book and now i'm working on deciding what i'll read next.  i have lots to choose from! :)  i'm thinking something a bit smarter.  or maybe not. :)  then i took a little nap even though i probably didn't need it.  sunday afternoon naps are just a nice treat.  then i watched some more sports... nothing particularly exciting.  i worked on a vollyeball logo for adam and came up with one i really like.  i didn't finish developing any others, though.  i gave myself a manicure and pedicure.  i needed both so now i have red red toes and like sheer/nude fingers. :)  didn't actually plan on the manicure but i wasn't doing anything else so i just went with it.  then i talked to the family for awhile, which was nice. :)  and i had a little dinner and rounded out my evening with "desperate housewives," which was so hilarious and wonderful, and "brothers and sisters," which is interesting enough to keep me watching and also has zero competition.

so anyway, the show's just about over and i'm going to start getting ready for bed.  more from me tomorrow.  perhaps i'll have even left the couch. ;)  for now, g'night. ;)

saturday 30 september 2006 11:20pm

"i miss the colors that you brought into my life
your golden smile, those blue-green eyes
i miss your gentle voice in lonely times like now
saying it'll be alright
i miss my friend
the one my heart and soul confided in
the one i felt the safest with
the one who knew just what to say to make me laugh again
and let the light back in
i miss my friend" -- darryl worley "i miss my friend"

in all honesty, i didn't love this song when it was big and popular 4 years ago.  i heard it tonight, though, randomly on tv and i really like it now.  so there you go. :)

i'm still freaking out about meeting chris young and evan and jaron, in case you were wondering. :)  mom told me today she saw a commercial for usa's character road trip with evan and jaron.  and i hadn't even told her that i discovered what show exactly was being filmed.  anyway, rad, right? :)  and i'm counting down the seconds until i can get the chris young album on tuesday.  i haven't yet looked up if there's somewhere i can get it before i have to be at work at 9, but i will. :)  don't forget to get yourself a copy, too! :)

okay, so my day. :)  it was a decent saturday, and some cool stuff happened.  but it started out very slowly, just as i wanted it to.  i got to bed kind of late last night, and i slept in late this morning, which was lovely.  i don't sleep amazingly well, but i got 9+ decent hours in my attempt to catch up with myself a little bit.  and i lazed around in bed awhile even after i woke up.

but eventually, it was time to get out of bed and move all the way to the couch. ;)  i did manage to pick up the newspaper from the doorstep, though!  and really, i just was hanging out.  i know i watched a little tv, but i couldn't even tell you what it was.  and i read a magazine and did the sudoku puzzle from "life" magazine.  and i found a little food for meal #1, though really i had like zero items to choose from.

in the early afternoon as i was just sort of waking up from a nap on the couch, bobby rang.  he wanted to see the latest work i did for him and just catch up because we hadn't talked in a really long time.  of course, i was still in pajamas and a total mess, so i told him to give me an hour (not that i needed an hour but just that he offered me that much time).  i showered and got dressed and then met bobby outside to show him the schoolhouse illustration i did.  that went over well and he has some new ideas for me to work with, also.  and then!  this is the exciting part!  he showed me the shirts he had printed of my design.  it's his first shirt for his company and obviously it's my first shirt design!  he had like 5 or 6 different color combinations printed, but i ended up taking one from him that's light blue with dark gray printing on it.  wow!  the shirts all look really awesome, and i can hardly believe that i'm like an actual fashion designer!  he's selling them like crazy basically from the trunk of his car.  he said he wants 4 solid designs before he puts them in retail stores, though he already has those connections lined up.  so anyway, people are buying shirts that i designed, and bobby said he's nearly sold out and is getting ready to reorder.  anyway, my shirt!  today after i was done talking to bobby, i put on my own shirt!  that's so exciting! :)

so after i changed into my new shirt, i headed out.  i went to best buy to look for a new phone for my apartment because mine was in sad shape.  the #2 button no longer worked, and i kind of need that button!  it's hard to buy a nice phone that doesn't come with extra handsets, so i ended up with 2 handsets.  i kept the extra one in the box.  i might need it some day, but my apartment's just not big enough to have two.  anyway, so that was successful, but i might have had a little episode in best buy, too. :)  so i came out with the carolina rain album and the new alan jackson.  carolina rain is a new band that plays really poppy country, which i do like.  well i mean, i like the traditional too, but i like the pop stuff also.  anyway, i've listened to most of that already and it's good.  and then the new alan jackson is all love ballads, i think.  i haven't listened yet, but i'll get there.  i've read really good reviews, too.  so yeah, didn't really go into best buy for music, but i couldn't help myself. ;)  i could have worse addictions, you know.  then i did a little grocery shopping because i had nothing.  that was successful, too, so now i can eat.

and now i'm back at home just relaxing.  i don't exactly know where all the evening hours went.  i watched some tv and did some reading and talked to sarah briefly on the phone.  i had some actual dinner.  i watched various bay area sports teams lose.  and i talked to the family for awhile., which was good.  adam wants help with a logo design, so you know i'm excited about that! :)  and really, that's about it.  nothing too crazy for me.  but i'm trying to stay mellow on the weekend.

anyway, i'm thinking i'll go crawl into bed soon.  more next time.  g'night. ;)

friday 29 saturday 2006 10:52pm

"who cares who's right or wrong tonight my better half is gone
and this whiskey's laying claim to all that's left
so i'll just order up another and pretend i'm all right
when the truth is i'm only drinkin' me lonely tonight
and Lord it's more than just thirsty that' i'm feeling inside
'cause these tears i've been crying have left me bone dry
and i wish the bartender had a cure i could buy
but the truth is i'm only drinkin' me lonely tonight" -- chris young "drinkin' me lonely"

did you read the previous entry?  did you imagine me so so so so excited while saying all of that, probably talking way too fast and way too loudly but with a huge smile on my face?  :)  yeah, because that's pretty much how the story goes when i tell it in person.  maybe there are more details (that didn't fit in the longest paragraph ever) and a question-and-answer session in person, but i did the best i could.  of course, i can still think of things i forgot to say.

okay, so as you might already be able to guess, i'm still on a total high from last night.  yes, the whole experience was that awesome! :)  and i've told several people about it today, which is so fun for me because it's like the closest i'll get to actually reliving it.  anyway, it's been an awesome friday because it was an incredible, unbelievable thursday night. :)

some other things i'd just like to say about the nashville star show (all jumbled together and in no particular order):
everyone's so nice!  i love that!  i love country singers!  and i love that evan and jaron are just like totally normal people.  i mean, yes, obviously they're just normal people, but you know what i mean.  it's so rad that chris young hung out with evan and jaron all day yesterday and gave them each cowboy hats (a black one for jaron -- my personal favorite color for a guy's hat and my favorite of the twins -- and a grey one for evan).  i wore heels yesterday for 14 hours.  and i was standing for many of those.  i'm such a girl sometimes! ;)  chris young is like just built right.  tall and stacked and manly.  mmm! ;)  and evan and jaron... did i mention before how hott they are in person?  like unreal sort of hott.  chris was wearing a gorgeous western-style shirt that was like dark purple stripes and had black embroidered flowers on it.  a man in that deep purple is hotter than a man in pink. ;)  and the black hat.  kills me! :)  what's that?   you get the point already?  too bad! ;)  kidding... maybe.  chris singing his original material is awesome and my favorite.  but i feel the need to share that that man singing "real good man" is like way too much for me.  i mean, come on!  could it get sexier?  i did a little research tonight and discovered what exactly was being filmed last night.  it's episode 6 of character road trip with evan and jaron on usa.  now hopefully this isn't too confusing but there isn't a show called that.  each week they show a movie and in between commercials and the movie, they have little clips of evan and jaron as they travel around the country meeting interesting people.  episode 1 airs tuesday night, and the movie is "meet the parents."  the wacky guest is a banana guy.  i don't know.  anyway, so i'm guessing episode 6's wacky guest (i mean, character) is my chris young.  so that's rad!  i'll be turning in each work for sure to see evan and jaron.  the movie... i'll watch it if i have time. :)  so anyway, if i learn more, i'll let you know.  also, on evan and jaron's official site, the latest blog entry from evan was written today about how they filmed in anaheim yesterday.  so that's cool!  i feel like a part of that entry, though i'm not like mentioned or anything. :)  have i mentioned the boys were so hott? ;)

okay, so on with friday, right?  i've rambled long enough for the moment.  got to bed around 2 last night/this morning, but i was still feeling pretty good when that alarm went off this morning.  rad, right? ;)  anyway, i didn't waste any time getting cleaned up and dressed and then just heading out like way early.  i stopped for a fully-caffeinated marble mocha macchiato and a donut at starbucks, and then i made it to the office considerably early.

i knew i wanted to get a lot done at work today.  i also knew that i was going to need some serious country music if that was going to happen (it makes me more productive because it keeps me from getting restless and helps me maintain focus).  plus, brian was out sick and jason had moved into jenna's old office, so that only left melissa to also have to endure the country.  and she usually is the last person to mind.  so i started up the nbox station on itunes radio, and i dove right into the media kits.  and i worked away pretty much the entire day.  for real.  i even worked through lunch, though i did decide to go with maggie and melissa this afternoon when they went to golden spoon for some frozen yogurt, which i ate at my desk while working some more.  i got a lot done today, so i'm stoked about that!  media kits.  forever.  ;)

then i headed home totally exhausted and actually kind of hungry.  i mean, really i had no real food in a long time at that point because i didn't even have dinner last night.  sometimes i'm a bit irresponsible about this stuff.  ;)  anyway, as i was just getting home, kath rang.  i left her a message post-concert last night because i knew she'd really appreciate my story.  she likes evan and jaron, too, and i can get her to love pretty much anyone i love so soon enough she'll be a big chris young fan, too.  so anyway, we chatted and i got to relay the whole story to her, which was so fun! :)

and then i had a little dinner and watched some tv, including the latest "laguna beach" and the premiere of "ugly betty."  you know, i think the reason i don't love "laguna beach" as much this season as i have in the past is that there isn't a guy i love.  they're all sleazy.  anyway, i enjoyed "ugly betty," though it was way more over-the-top than i had expected it to be.  but fun. :)  and after talking to the parents for a little bit, i've just been hanging out.  honestly, i thought i'd go to bed early.  now, it's nearly midnight so that's not going to happen but it's cool.  i don't have too much planned for the weekend, and i can totally sleep in tomorrow.

so i guess i'm off for now. :)  i'll be back next time with more.  g'night. ;)

friday 29 september 2006 12:38am

"i might have a reckless streak
at least a country mile wide
if you're gonna run with me
it's gonna be a wild ride
but when it comes to loving you
i've got velvet hands
and i'll show you how a real bad boy
can be a real good man" -- tim mcgraw/chris young "real good man"

(yeah, not so much about me but the song is incredibly sexy.)

aaahhh!  basically, my head is still exploding right now!  :)  and my ears are still ringing, which is so awesome.  gah!  i love my life!

okay, so i should start at the beginning of the day, right?  i did manage to get to bed at like 10:30 last night, which is like a record or something. ;)  anyway, i got some pretty decent sleep last night, which i totally needed, of course.  and then i got up with the alarm feeling pretty good.  i got cleaned up and dressed and put on some makeup and made sure i was all set to go for the entire day.  then i headed out about 10 minutes late.  oops!  and i had wanted to try to get out early this morning.  oh, well. :)  and i stopped for a bagel on the way, too. :)  delicious, by the way!

work.  i wasn't productive enough today, but i knew that was going to happen.  i spent the time i was working, however, on the media kit i've been working on.  and it was jenna's last day at rtc, so we had a big company lunch out at sarducci's, which has decent food but is awesome because we got to sit outside and it was a beautiful day!  and after a tiny bit more work in the afternoon, it was time for the poker session we'd planned.  okay, i wasn't so involved in the planning, but i knew about it.  marke wanted to play before jenna was gone, so jason, jenna, marke, brian, and i played.  and i did alright, but ended up going out third.  not too bad, right?  i even won a couple big hands when i was all-in. :)  anyway, then all of a sudden it was 5 and i headed out.

i made my way up to anaheim to downtown disney to the house of blues.  (this story will never be as good in writing as it was in person or as it could be if i were telling it to you in person.)  so i found the small group of people (less than 30) for the meet-and-greet and the house of blues staff gathered up and checked our tickets and gave us wristbands and all that jazz so we could be admitted before everyone else.  and then they told us no cameras.  tragic!  and meet-and-greet with no cameras is very sad!  so i had to check my camera (which cost me $3, by the way), and then i went up to the house of blues with the rest of the group.  they gave me my actual pass and made us all hang out for a bit until 7:20ish.  (show was at 8.)  anyway, people were being let in and stuff already, but no big deal.  so eventually we lined up and they brought us inside where we waited in a line along the edge of the balcony in there.  so it's hard to explain but we were in the venue on the top level.  and then the 4 nashville stars (matt mason, nicole jamrose, casey rivers, and chris young) were behind a curtain waiting to meet each person one group at a time.  i was like 4th or 5th or something.  and solo.  anyway, i was next in line so i could see chris young and co. and then the door next to me marked "no admittance" opened and there was a huge tv camera crew (like 4-5 people) came out to film part of the meet-and-greet.  and since i was just standing there, i looked to see who else was back there in that secret room.  that's when i spotted someone who looked remarkably like jaron of evan & jaron.  (they were popular in 2001 with the song "crazy for this girl," but i've loved them forever and i have all their music.)  anyway, so i kept looking because i knew that if another person looking just like him popped up behind him, it was totally jaron.  and evan.  they're identical twins.  so of course, there was evan like 4 seconds later!  so that was so rad because they were like right there and apparently had something to do with the camera crew.  so then it was my turn and i went and met the nashville stars and came up with not a whole lot of interesting things to say to them.  i get so nervous.  i did chat with chris a little, though, about his broken finger.  and that man is hott.  i mean, i knew that but in real life!  geez!  haha!  okay. :)  so i meet them and they signed my ticket stub and then i had to go so the next people could have their turn.  so i am coming back out from behind the curtain concealing the meet-and-greet from the rest of the concert venue when a man with the camera crew informs me that they recorded me talking to chris young so they needed me to sign a release.  so i did!  duh!  he told me he was with usa network and it's for some sort of special.  i asked if it was a special with evan and jaron and he said yes and also with chris young.  he told me to keep an eye out because i'd likely be in it.  cool!  so i signed my life away and everything and then started walking toward the back of the room so i could get to the stairs and get downstairs to the floor, where i planned to watch the show.  but like 4 feet in front of me were evan and jaron just leaning on the balcony rail and talking to each other.  and frankly, they're not that famous.  i really like them, but mostly people don't know who they are.  so anyway, i decide that i'm going to talk to them because they probably won't get harassed too much at the nashville star concert.  i normally don't bother celebrities, but they just for some reason didn't seem like they'd mind and i just thought it'd be a cool thing to do.  honestly, i don't know what got into me.  so i go over to them, apologize for interrupting, and proceed to tell them that i'm a huge fan and have been listening to them for ages.  they're happy to talk to me and jaron introduces himself and then evan.  i laugh because i already know their names, but i shake their hands and give them my name anyway. :)  rad!  so for some reason, they feel inclined to keep talking to me and about 2 minutes into our conversation, evan goes, "we need to get this on tape!"  so he calls the camera crew over and they film like 10 minutes of conversation between me and evan and jaron.  ohmygod!  aaahhh!  and it's like fun and chatty and really cool and apparently, i keep saying the right things because they get all excited like what i'm saying is going to work perfectly with whatever sort of special they are filming.  it was so rad!  i cannot even explain!  it's like a dream or something.  and holy jesus those men are attractive.  i mean, they're always been up there in my mind but in person i'm just like i cannot believe people this attractive are talking to me and seeming to not mind at all.  they're so into it.  wow.  okay.  anyway, so i think you get the point.  i like briefly hung out with evan and jaron.  and to prove it, it's on video somewhere and might even air on real tv.  awesome!  so when we were done chatting i headed off, really shaky.  i mean, i just met 6 famous people.  all i had counted on was 1.  chris.  but 6!  wow!  i was so overwhelmed!  but loving it! :)

so then i made my way down to the floor, got myself a diet coke, and found a good place on the floor about 5 feet from the stage and dead center.  and the nashville star show was so wonderful!  all four started the show with a song together with the nashville star band, and they they each got a set.  matt mason played 4 very country songs.  next up was nicole jamrose, who rocked so hard.  that woman can sing for real.  and then there was casey rivers.  casey is so crazy attractive in person!  i never thought he was super hott on tv but in person and singing and moving like he does, it's hott. :)  and the girls (and perhaps me, too! ;)) were screaming like crazy for him.  and the voice.  oh wow.  impressive on tv.  spectacular in person.  gah.  sooo good!  and then it was time for my man, chris young!  i <3 chris young.  i have since day one, really.  but i just couldn't help but grin the whole time he sang.  he did several songs from his new album (comes out tuesday), which was really cool to hear.  and basically he was like so perfect.  he can work a crowd.  he can sing.  he's got that whole smiling thing down. :)  he was (or acted) so flattered when the girls screaming (definitely me included) just wouldn't stop.  anyway, i'm not sure what else to say.  he was so awesome!  they all were, but chris.  that boy has it.  :)  and i want it! ;)

after the show, i decided i'd go ahead and wait in the autographs line.  why not?  i wanted to tell them how impressed i was with the show.  so i did that.  :)  and it was nice because it got a moment more with each of them.  chris was at the end and i got to chat with him for a minute (i even came up with something better than "i love your music") and got a big old hug.  so cute! :)  and then it was over and time for me to go home a very happy girl. :)

so that's that!  :)  i'm still so excited i don't know how i'll even manage to get to sleep.  oh, and i watched "the office" and "grey's anatomy" after i got home so i can discuss at work with everyone tomorrow.  they were both awesome.  they just don't compare to the concert.

so like i said, i'm off.  and i'll be back next time with an entry probably far less exciting. ;)  for the moment, though, g'night. ;)

wednesday 27 september 2006 8:45pm

"life could be a dream
if only all my precious plans would come true
if you would let me spend my whole life loving you
life could be a dream, sweetheart" -- the chords "sh-boom"

hello. :)  i'm writing at a much more decent hour tonight, and if i stick to doing not a whole lot, i might actually get to bed early.  we'll see, though.  never quite goes as planned. ;)  anyway, i'm trying.  i have some sleep to catch up on, and i will only add to my sleep debt tomorrow, i'm already certain.  so anyway, i'll just get on with it so i can get closer to bed.

so last night i ended up chatting with friends until kind of late.  oops! ;)  so anyway, eventually, people went to bed or fell asleep mid-conversation so i went to bed myself.  but morning came a bit too quickly, and i think i did all of my shower while still 80% asleep.  but that works.  anyway, so i got ready and dressed and everything.  love the new bras i got in the mail from victoria's secret yesterday.  too much information?  anyway, then i headed out a few minutes early so i could pick up breakfast at the donut shop.  ran into john there.  that always throws me, but he was in a good mood so it didn't bother me. :)

then i was off to work.  work.  wow.  i'm working hard, quite frankly.  there's a lot to get done on top of the fact that we're really still making the transition from jenna to jason.  i spent all day on the "cots journal" media kit, and that's coming pretty well.  of course, i wish there were more hours and that i could really sit and work forever on it.  but i only work so many hours in the office a day, so the rest of the work would have to be from home and i'm just not thinking i can sleep and do that both.  really, i think i just didn't make quite as much progress as i thought i should have today so that's why i'm worried or whatever this is.  but i know i'll be back at it tomorrow and maybe i'll get to a better point by the end of the day.  oh, and we had a fun lunch at wahoo's together.  jenna, jason, melissa, brian, marke, and i all went together, so that was cool.  so anyway, that was work today.  me at a computer trying to get the first media kit laid out.

mom called when i was in wahoo's.  she said she wanted to talk about grandma's party.  she said she talked to brenda (my cousin) and "our worst nightmare has come true."  so in my head, i'm freaking out and trying to figure out the plans for the funeral for grandma.  so i told mom to tell me what she was talking about, expecting her to tell me that grandma had died.  and she was so slow about talking.  it took her forever!  then she told me not what i had expected to hear.  she told me grandma found out about the party and is pissed.  wow.  that's not my worst nightmare!  i was so pissed!  but i talked to auntie lily tonight and she said jason smoothed things over with grandma and it's all cool now.  geez.  at least she didn't die!

so today after work, i headed to the beach.  it was way windier than i had anticipated, though, so it was a little bit miserable.  i needed a sweatshirt or something.  so because of that and because i was a bit sore from yesterday, i cut the walk a little bit short.  but the sunset was gorgeous.  so it had good points, too. :)

and tonight i'm just trying to get my life together and then i'm going to bed.  shower.  dinner.  a load of laundry so i can have something decently cute to wear tomorrow.  cookies.  family on the phone.  that's it.  so i'm off.  i'm working on getting some rest.  tomorrow night should be a late one with the nashville star concert at hob at downtown disney.  so anyway, i'll let you know how it goes! :)  for the moment, though, i wish you g'night. ;)

tuesday 26 september 2006 10:36pm

"i just spend another day telling myself i'm alright
and it's not gonna hurt to spend another lonely night
i guess i've lied so many times to everyone else
i'll be i think it's gonna work when i start lying to myself
but baby you and i both know the truth
i've been lost since the day that i lost you" -- brian mccomas "off my mind"

i am so far behind my schedule for tonight that i'm willing to go ahead and officially call my schedule blown. :)  yikes!  that means i'm not getting anywhere near 8.5 hours of sleep tonight (because that requires me to be asleep at 11 and it's already after that and i'm just getting started here, i haven't brushed my teeth or any of that, and i have an actual journal i keep).  so i'm just going to go with it.  it's a fun night, and that'll be worth the coffee/diet coke i need in the morning. :)

okay, so yesterday.  wow.  i suck.  because it's like so late and now i feel like i'm pressed for time again.  whatever.  i'll deal with the tired tomorrow.  i'm rambling, huh?

the media kit project that i volunteered to write last monday is done.  written.  together.  edited.  so that is awesome!  i looked like a superstar, so yay for me! ;)  now there's just that matter of designing them and getting them printed.  well jenna, jason (more on him later), and i met this afternoon, and jenna turned it over to jason.  so now it's looking like it'll be jason doing them and me helping.  should be a good experience, i think.  i'm actually looking forward to all of it, even though i pretty much know that it'll be crazy and busy and all that.  so that's the bulk of my work at this particular moment.

jason is my new boss.  he started yesterday, and it's going quite well so far.  jenna's last day is thursday, so they're overlapping so jason can really get into the swing of things.  his previous job is pretty different than rtc, so he's getting the feel for everything.  he's nice.  here's what i know about him thus  far: 35, married, has a baby girl, from orange county, lives near the mall in mission viejo, likes outdoorsy sports, wears his hawaiian shirts tucked in.  that's a lot, right? ;)  so anyway, jason's going to turn up here more often, like in the list of who i went to lunch with or who i had meetings with, and all those sorts of normal work things.

we did a big company lunch yesterday to welcome jason.  free gnocchi for lunch is definitely a good thing! :)

i did the beach both yesterday and today after work, and both times were nice.  yesterday, i was kind of late and running out of daylight faster than i'm capable of walking so i cut it a little short.  plus, my gas tank just felt very empty.  anyway, today i was feeling great and i ended up walking super fast, which is good.  i was all sweaty before i even did the run up the stairs at the end.  worked hard!  that's good news, believe me. ;)  and both nights i was just in awe of the sunset.  amazing.  both of them.  and the tide was so low that a lot of sand just stayed wet so the orange reflected on the sand.  i know i'm not describing this well but it's hard to explain.  you just have to see it.  perfection.

i've been catching up with friends, which is where i seem to lose all track of time.  yesterday is was mel and annahita.  today, it was a long-overdue phone conversation with miss sarah.  we're working so much that we hadn't caught up in sooo long.  it was crazy.  i like had to reintroduce myself to her just so she'd remember who i am. ;)  okay, so i'm being a bit dramatic, but that's what it felt like.  but we'll get better again.  and then tonight it was megs and troy.  enlightening conversations and good times! :)

i have admittedly incorporated tv into my busy life. :)  and loved every second of it, pretty much!  "the class" is a fun sitcom.  it's a sitcom so it's not like heavy and complicated.  and then there's "studio 60."  i'm pretty sure it's the same show as "sportnight," but that's perfectly okay with me.  i love "sportsnight" and aaron sorkin, so i'm totally happy watching "studio 60."  and tonight it was the season premiere of "gilmore girls," which i thought was excellent.  it's good even with a new writer.  that's awesome!  i'm happy!  oh, and i watched some monday night football last night from the superdome because it seemed like the right thing to do and it turned out to be really fun to watch the saints win.  who knew? ;)

alright, that seems like enough information for the night.  happy? :)  i'm going to go get ready for bed and then tuck in.  i've been sleeping especially poorly lately so i could use a little rest.  anyway, i'll be back next time with more, and until then, g'night. ;)

monday 25 september 2006 11:18pm

gah.  i can't seem to find the right words to start this with tonight.  i know what i'm feeling like but i just don't know what song.  and i'm tired and trying to get to bed and don't especially feel like continuing to look.  so anyway, that's why there aren't lyrics there tonight.  seriously, though, the sentiment is pretty much always the same so just scroll through some old ones.  you'll get the idea.

so on with today.  again, i'm not exactly sure why i'm still up.  so i'm going to kind of just go through stuff.  maybe i should do this tomorrow, instead.  i'm not sure.  and now i'm rambling.  okay, i think i would prefer to write it tomorrow, though know that i didn't forget you and am not neglecting you tonight.  i'm going to leave a quick outline here too (so what if i make lists? ;)) so i'll remember tomorrow.

1) media kits
2) jason's my new boss
3) huge lunch on john
4) beach & sunset
5) caught up with mel and annahita
6) "sportsnight."  i mean "studio 60 on the sunset strip."  ;)

okay, i'm going to take the extra 30-45 minutes i just bought myself and go to bed.  g'night. ;)

sunday 24 september 2006 10:18pm

"oh, california
please, come back to me
oh, california
and who i want to be
live inside of me
i know you're lying somewhere in the arc of destiny
your memory is still eager here and i'll never set it free" -- miranda lambert "oh, california"

saw these words on a lyrics site and they seemed right despite the fact that i haven't actually ever heard the song.  anyway...

good sunday! :)  got out, did a little stuff.  sat around.  relaxed.  anyway, it was the right way to spend the day, i think.  and i'm noticing that i'm feeling a lot better, so that's excellent.  and i know it's going to be another busy week, so i'll need to be feeling good.

okay, so i had a little trouble falling asleep last night, likely made worse by that nap and the fact i got lots of rest yesterday.  but i did eventually fall asleep.  and i got up this morning at a totally decent hour.  last night i considered going to 12:30 mass today because i wasn't sure i'd want to be up in time to get to 11:00 mass.  but i was up early enough, so i threw on some clothes and headed out.

mass at st. edwards was good.  different than expected.  i mean, mass is mass is mass, i know.  i could probably recite the whole thing for you myself.  but anyway, it was a little different today for a couple reasons.  first i was expecting very little from the homily (that's the part where the priest reflects on the meaning of the gospel reading.  it's the unscripted part of mass.) because the priest who was saying it today doesn't speak amazing english and i've heard some really uninteresting homilies from him in the past.  today's, however, was shockingly relevant and meaningful.  awesome!  :)  enjoying the journey.  anyway, the other reason mass was different was because the woman sitting next to me breast-fed her baby during mass.  actually, during the homily.  haha!  so anyway, yeah, she just did it in the middle of mass while sitting like 6 inches from me.  that's strange behavior, right?  and it didn't necessarily bother me; i was just shocked that someone would do it in the middle of mass, which is like an hour long and where people can easily leave whenever.  anyway, odd.  but anyway, i was paying attention to the homily, like i said before.  and it was a good mass on a beautiful morning, which means a beautiful view of the ocean. :)  glad i went.

then i had planned to just go run errands from there, but changed my mind.  i wanted to feel a bit prettier than i was at that time, so i came home and got cleaned up.  and then i ended up out on the deck relaxing with a magazine for a little bit because it was just so nice out.  and then i threw on a sundress and got back out of the apartment.

i just needed toilet paper.  but i wanted to go to costco for a couple other things, also.  so i ended up with a whole lot of toilet paper, shaving cream, and the second season of "grey's anatomy" on dvd. :)  fun stuff!  ;)  and by the way, that place is crazy on sundays, and i should not be allowed to go there.  and then i went to famous footwear in search of brown shoes.  but i didn't end up finding any that i couldn't live without.  i did, however, find some black peep-toe heels that were really nice and really on sale. :)  so those came home with me, and i'm working on what to wear with them tomorrow.

and i've spent the rest of my day here.  i did a little work, which was necessary, if not ideal for a sunday afternoon.  and then i just hung out.  i watched a little football.  i talked to the family for a while.  i made myself a decent dinner.  i gave myself a manicure (i needed that desperately).  and i watched the season premiere of "desperate housewives," which was so excellent!  i love that show!  and now i'm watching "brothers and sisters," which is decent.  i mean, it's not like there's anything else on right now anyway.  so i'm leaving it on.

and i'll hopefully be tucking in before too long.  tomorrow's going to be busy.  i'll be back here to let you know how it goes.  for now, sweet dreams.  g'night. ;)

sunday 24 september 2006 12:07am

"it's another kind of trouble trying to hang on to who you are
when all you wanna do is lose yourself in someone else's arms" -- leann rimes "some people"

it was a good saturday.  i did exactly what i needed to do for myself, i think.  and i'm not the only person who thought i needed to take the day off.  sarah, dad, and kath kindly informed me that i should probably take it easy today.  so anyway, that's what i did. :)

i kind of got distracted last night before heading off to bed. :)  it was a good distraction, though!  i caught meg online and we found a few minutes to catch up with one another, something we hadn't done in far too long.  and we have a good time chatting, and it was a good conversation.  so it was worth being up a little later than i had really planned.  and i was still in bed and asleep before 1:30.  not too bad. ;)

i actually slept pretty well last night.  it's the tylenol cold and sinus nighttime.  that stuff works on me for real.  :)  anyway, i got lots of rest, especially considering i'm not a great sleeper these days.  so of course that means i was in bed until like 11 this morning.  that's just about right for me on the weekends, i think.  seems like a good time to get up.  and even once i was awake, i was perfectly content just lying in bed.

of course, at some point i did need to actually get up and moving... at least a little bit.  so today, i had zero plans.  nothing at all.  though i knew i needed to pick up some milk at some point. anyway, so i ended up just hanging around the apartment pretty much all day.  yes, i know that is terribly boring but i needed to unwind from the crazy week and the cold/allergies i'm trying to fight off.  (can you fight off allergies?)  anyway, i wasn't up to much.

i worked on ripping more of my cd collection in my attempt to have a much cleaner itunes library, and i made some progress.  i love that all the album covers get displayed so nicely in the new version of itunes, but i hate that i have to track down some of the covers manually.  anyway, that massive project is coming along.

i also found time to chat with sarah and katherine online, which was good.  sarah's doing well and keeping herself busy.  and kath's getting moved into her apartment at stanford and gearing up for the official start of classes on monday.  i'm so excited for her! :)  and i talked to the family on the phone for a bit, especially adam who was up to about as much as i was. ;)

i took a nap.  i love naps.  no, i didn't exactly need one.  but i figured, why not? ;)

i was informed today that i will get a meet-and-greet pass to meet chris young at the nashville star concert i'm going to on thursday!  :)  rawk!  i'm way excited about that one!  i'll have to make sure i look cute for the photo! ;)  anyway, that should be fun.  have any ideas about what i should say to him?  i always come up with the dumbest things when i get to meet celebrities i love.  "um... i... uh... i love your music."  yeah.  :)  i get flustered when i'm too excited.  even if i'm talking to people i know.  i'm good at not coming up with the right thing to say.  anyhow, i should get to meet chris young, so that's rad. :)

i watched tv that i don't normally watch today.  college football.  i just wasn't really raised on college football like people from other parts of the country are.  i was raised on joe montana.  anyway, i was talking football (briefly) with chris on wednesday and since there wasn't anything else on, i ended up watching both the michigan game (they won) and the michigan state game (they tragically lost).  it was actually really good fun!  they run kind of crazier plays, like trick plays and stuff.  anyway, pretty enjoyable!

this evening, i ordered a pizza for dinner (because i have no food) and it arrived really late and really not hot, which was disappointing, so i threw a few pieces into the oven and filed a complaint.  not sure why i was inspired to do that but i was really sad.  at least once it was hot, it was really good! :)  and then after dinner, i headed down the road to pick up milk from trader joe's.  and since i was already down there, i got myself a little dessert at golden spoon. :)  so good!

and i spent the rest of my night just hanging out.  i watched a little more tv and ripped some more cds.  and i took a nice, long, hot shower, which i totally needed.  oh, and i caught the grand ole opry and a keith anderson special on gac, both of which were so good and made me want more live country music.  and a companion to go to shows with who also loves the music.  hmm... anyway... good stuff!  and now i still have one of the video channels on for the music while i am writing this.

haha!  i just remembered one other little thing i did today.  after dinner, i was in the kitchen and i was holding a large cup that had ice and a little water in it.  well, i dropped it and the way it fell, it hit the edge of the counter and bounced up before falling all the way to the ground.  well, when that happened, all the ice and water ended up on my head.  awesome.  actually, it was pretty funny because it seems to hard to get so wet from dropping a glass that was mostly empty.  but it happened!  all wet!  oops! ;)

okay, so now i'm off to bed.  i'm not exactly tired because i did nothing at all today, but i'll try to get some more rest anyway.  i'll be back tomorrow with more, i'm sure.  for now, g'night. ;)

p.s. the first socal h&m opened in pasadena on thursday with another to follow in fall in the beverly center.  but what's more exciting is that they're opening two in south coast plaza and one in the irvine spectrum in the spring.  those stores will definitely be trouble! ;)

friday 22 september 2006 11:22pm

"if you ever feel like lovin' me again
the door's wide open, baby, walk right in
i'll be waitin' 'til the end of time
heart and mind now just like back then
if you ever feel like needin' someone
who will love you like i've always done
i'll show you some things never end
if you ever feel like lovin' me again" -- clay walker "if you ever feel like lovin' me again"

because i can, i am using the lyrics again.

um, so i might be crazy.  or just too hard-working.  actually, it's probably both of those things.  it's been a busy friday and not so much in the have-fun-let's-party sort of way.  but i don't think it was a bad decision on my part.  plus, i don't know how to get what i want on a friday night, anyway.  so i might as well be here and be productive.  for now.

okay, so i caught a little bit of sleep last night but it really did feel like the alarm came too early this morning.  of course, i knew i had to get up and get showered right away, even if i could have lied there all day.  so i got cleaned up and ready and dressed and everything.  i grabbed a quick breakfast, and i was out the door around 8, half an hour early.

so that means i was to work half an hour early, as well, which was my intention this morning.  i had more media kit work to take care of, as well as the normal sorts of things, and i knew john would be in early, too, and i needed his help for a few hours at some point today.  but he wanted to meet in the afternoon, i found out, so i spent the morning putting together all the other stuff i could think of.  john also had an interview with another candidate for the position jenna's leaving vacant, jason.  john brought jenna, melissa, and me into the interview about an hour into it so we could learn more about him.  and we all really liked him, john made an offer, and he accepted.  he's starting monday, so i'll have a new boss.  i'm excited about it, surprisingly.  i think he'll be a good fit, but of course i'll keep you posted on how that all goes.  and then for lunch, it wasn't a nice day but we all went down to the parking lot for the bank (they're our downstairs neighbor and our company bank) barbeque.  fun! :)  and delicious!  and free!  they were even having a drawing for a gorgeous new longboard, and jenna actually won it!  crazy, right? :)  the afternoon was spent in john's office working on writing a couple more pieces for the media kits, which was a little tedious but it had to be done.  and actually, we got everything down on paper, which was my goal.  and i also put together a couple rtecc brochures, which was insane but it got done anyway.  so things are going well at work.  of course, i was at the office until 6 when i had to leave because the only other two people there, jenna and diana, were ready to go and no one stays alone there.  anyway, i picked up my stuff and headed home.

home.  should be time to relax, right?  i mean, friday nights are for unwinding.  no.  not tonight.  after a little dinner and a little tv, it was back to work for this girl.  i needed to edit (re-write) all the stuff that we wrote today.  it still needed a lot of work.  but i did get that done, as well, so i'm pretty happy with my progress.  though i think i have a couple more hours of work ahead of me this weekend.  oh, well.  it'll get done and so will the media kits and then it looks like i did a good job, which is the point of me doing all this crazy work.  anyway, yeah, i spent too much time tonight working.

but now i'm ready to relax and watch some late-night tv. :)  and i'm sure i'll crash sooner rather than later because i'm tired and perhaps sicky.  so i'll be back next time with more.  for now, g'night and happy weekend. ;)

thursday 21 september 2006 10:24pm

"i remember when it all began
you couldn't keep your body from my hands
i remember nights we felt so close
how we got so distant i don't know
so as you plan your brand new life
keep this one thing in mind
if you ever feel like lovin' me again
the door's wide open, baby, walk right in
i'll be waitin' 'til the end of time
heart and mind now just like back then
if you ever feel like needin' someone
who will love you like i've always done
i'll show you some things never end
if you ever feel like lovin' me again" -- clay walker "if you ever feel like lovin' me again"

that about sums it up, i think. ;)

it's been a good thursday, i'd say.  nothing particularly out of the ordinary, but sometimes that's alright.  and for no good reason at all, i'm excited/hopeful/something. :)

i.  had.  the.  best.  dream.  ever.  last.  night.  :)  ever.  so i wasn't especially excited to have to get out of bed this morning when the alarm went off because i wanted to stay wrapped up in that dream for at least a few more hours.  but you know, thursday mornings generally mean that i need to get up and straight into the shower.  so i did, being a good girl.  and i got cleaned up and all ready and all that.  i put on my new jeans and some heels (long pants necessitate tall shoes, you know!), and i was out the door early.  i stopped... you guessed it... at i <3 bagels for breakfast.  and i got stuck in high school traffic again because i forgot that's a thursday thing now, not a monday thing.  anyway, i made it to work early anyhow, so it doesn't matter much.

about 15 minutes from the office (not that my commute is really much longer than that), i rang my dear friend katie at her office.  :)  i just needed to her hear voice.  and so we did get to chat for about 15 minutes, which i was totally appreciative of.  they broke ground on a new house, which is exciting, especially because it'll mean i can stay there next time i go to san antonio!  :)  and i just caught her up on things around here as much as i could in a few minutes.  of course, we promised to properly catch up very soon. :)  i  miss my katie!

and then there was work.  i'm working hard these days, you know.  but i feel like i'm getting some things accomplished, and i'm doing my very best to push people without pissing them off so that the stuff gets done as quickly as possible.  it's coming together.  and john continues to tell me that he really appreciates what i'm doing, which is really nice to hear, especially on a day when i'm kind of feeling like i'm stuck to my desk trying to figure out what to write.  anyway, so work's going well, and i do like having this project that's filling all the minutes of my day.  and i didn't make it out to lunch today because i thought it was better i stick around the office in case i was needed for something.  anyway, diana offered to bring me lunch because she was going to this mexican place, las golondrinas.  anyway, i had a quesadilla and a bag of their famous chips.  i never intended on eating the whole bag (not that it was huge but it was more chips than i thought i'd ever eat in a single sitting), but i did.  :)  so good!  anyway, i worked all day, but i didn't work late, which was nice.  and i'll be back early tomorrow morning for more work, so it's not exactly like things are dying down.

after work, i considered a walk on the beach but the weather wasn't awesome and i'm still not feeling 100%, between allergies/cold and being tired.  so i headed home instead and decided that cleaning the apartment would be a really good thing for me to do.  it was a complete disaster.  clothes everywhere, both clean and dirty.  shoes everywhere.  catalogues and magazines everywhere.  everything else everywhere.  seriously, kind of unlivable.  but now it's looking quite nice, so that's excellent.  though i will admit that i took about a 20-minute nap before i started that whole chore. :)  mmm... naps.  naps are good.  okay, so after that, i had a little dinner, and then it was on to the night's main event.  i plan on having really boring, tv-filled thrusdays, i think. :)  haha!  anyway, this week it was the season premieres of "the office" and "grey's anatomy."  the jim-pam thing on "the office" continues to drive me nuts with anticipation/hope.  love that!  even though it kills me!  and mcvet-meredith-mcdreamy in "grey's anatomy."  what do i even say?  actually, after this week i have a strong opinion.  i.  love.  mcdreamy.  i pretty much always have, but the end of this episode sealed the deal for me.  i love him.  love love.  love love love love.  :)  and i only cried a little.  hehe!  oh yeah, thursday nights are fun in this apartment! ;)

anyway, after all that, i talked to the family for a few minutes, and now i'm just writing this so i can crawl into bed early.  okay, early-ish.  it's already too late for a proper night's sleep anyhow.  okay, i'm done.  i'll be back tomorrow with more for you.

with love from laguna, g'night. ;)

wednesday 20 september 2006 11:23pm

"i've kept my feeling under lock and key
couldn't let you see them even though it was killing me
you can't imagine all the time i spent wishing you were mine
i just know if we ever kissed we'd go crazy, baby, for the rest of our lives
i wanna be there when you wake up, be more than just your friend
baby, there's no mistaking, you're the love i wanna be in" -- jason aldean "you're the love i wanna be in"

i have previously posted these lyrics (like a year ago), but it's my journal, i was listening to the song again today, and they're what i choose for tonight.  love love this song. :)

today's been delightful. :)  i mean, i'm so exhausted and i know that really i won't get to bed for at least another hour or so, but it's all worth it.  it's what i have been needing, i think.  you know, just all the way around.  good stuff.  (don't get too excited.  nothing revolutionary.  just good.)

so i actually got some sleep last night, which is awesome, but you know my throat got worse.  i was having trouble with it, but i did manage to sleep all the way until the alarm went off this morning, which is more than i can say for the previous night.  anyway, then i got up and cleaned up and dressed right away.  i headed out early so i could take care of a few things before going to work.  i wanted throat lozenges i could suck on all day.  i'm starting to think this is allergies and not a virus because my snot is still clear.  anyway, then i also picked up a delicious breakfast at i <3 bagels.  i'm officially addicted to that place. :)  and then i needed gas.  today, $2.77.  nice. :)  then it was finally off to work on this gorgeous morning.

work.  work's busy, as i'm sure you are aware by now.  but you know, it's good busy.  it's kirsten-is-being-responsible-and-hard-working-and-a-leader busy.  so i'm getting a lot of stuff done, and everyone' excited about it and willing to help however they can.  so life is good!  john even said to me today, "you're wonderful!  i'd give you a hug but i'm not allowed to!"  haha!  true!  ;)  anyway, i'm working hard but i feel like it's so worth it and i'm still enjoying myself.

and after work (and a brief stop back at my apartment), i headed up to torrance -- my one-time stomping ground -- to meet up with chris for dinner.  so much fun! :)  we closed yet another restaurant down.  hehe!  just talking about everything and catching up.  it's good fun.  and dinner in a restaurant with a waiter (albeit one who asked us if everything was okay entirely too many times) is always a nice little treat. :)  so yeah, good evening!

i talked to the family on my way back home, which didn't take too long at all.  and now i'm just catching up with all this stuff and i'm hoping i'll get to bed in not too long.  i'll be back tomorrow with more. :)

what's up for tomorrow?  i have no idea, but i'll find out soon enough.  for now, though, g'night. ;)

tuesday 19 september 2006 9:07pm

"i've been tossing and i've been turning
i've been burning it at both ends...
so i'm taking my time
holding and hoping and driving
and dreaming and loving every minute of it
just enjoying the ride
slowly and soulfully feeling the wheels unwind
finding my way back home" -- leeann womack "finding my way back home"

those words seemed appropriate enough on an evening when i'm trying to recover from what i do to myself.  not that i have any regrets at all, because it's good stuff.  it's my life! :)  so anyway, i have a few minutes tonight to catch you up on the past couple days and then i'm going to make my very best effort to get some extra sleep tonight.

okay, so i guess i should start with yesterday.  work.  work was... kind of crazy yesterday.  i mean, lately i've had plenty of things to keep me busy all day long, perhaps even more than enough.  but you know, i like the responsibility and i'm motivated enough to get everything done.  and then there was yesterday.  the strong woman (you know, that same one who's more than willing to kick some butt should the situation necessitate it) in me volunteered to write the media kits.  there are three (with any luck, eventually four) full media kits, one for each of our publications.  i've never written a media kit before.  but sometimes, someone has to step up to the plate and bat because the person originally slated to bat just won't leave the on-deck circle.  (i carried that sports metaphor through really well, don't you think?)  so here i am.  the new leader on the media kits project.  actually, it's exciting to have this big responsibility, and i am even more motivated than my regular over-achiever self because i am in the process of trying to prove myself and demonstrate leadership abilities.  wow.  when did i become a grown-up?  anyway, so i left work yesterday with the old media kits, the magazines, and a notebook so i could start writing.

but first, the beach.  this girl has to clear her head sometimes.  there aren't many better ways to do that than to go to the beach, walk, watch the perfect orange sun sink into a deep blue ocean amidst a rainbow sky.  i mean, when i think work is the most important thing, seeing that puts things right back into perspective.  and you know what else?  the sunset is never the same twice.  sometimes it's more red, and other times it's more yellow.  sometimes it's amidst lots of clouds, and sometimes the sky is perfectly clear.  sometimes i can see the islands offshore, and sometimes i have forgotten they even exist.  but i always love to watch.  okay, i know.  enough already. ;)

so then it was home to clean up, grab a bite to eat, and chat with the parents briefly.  i also watched "the class" while eating because it premiered last night and i'd been looking forward to that one.  it was really fun and totally cute!  i'll continue to record it each week. :)

and then it was down to work.  for 4 and a half hours, which brought me straight to 1:30am, not exactly a time i want to see on a monday night (tuesday morning) when i have to work the next day.  and by the time i got to bed it was 2 and i really couldn't sleep because i hadn't properly wound down.  so my sleep was restless all night, and i ended up just getting up before my alarm even went off this morning.  oh, but tons of the writing got done last night, and i was definitely ready to let john know how much i'd accomplished.  (what's that?  there's something on my nose?  ::wipes nose::  did i get it all? ;))

and then there was more work today.  but not before i stopped for a full-caffeinated non-fat marble mocha macchiato from starbucks. :)  that place... mmm!  haha!  anyway, i spent a lot more time today writing and editing and figuring out what else i need still.  and i have the editors on board with me and ready to help and write and all of that, so that's exciting.  it seems to really be paying off to have john as my advocate with them.  i get cooperation! :)  i did lunch at my desk -- a salad from stillwater.  oh, and i had a bag of my favorite gourmet popcorn at my desk in the afternoon.  so good! :)  anyway, yeah, i worked really hard all day and even came home and did a little bit more.  but i'm done for the night and pretty close to tucking in.  i need to make up for last night.

so after work, i headed home.  i don't want to make myself more sick, so part of that is getting everything done early tonight and then sleeping.  so anyway, it's been a quiet night around here.  i did get to watch "studio 60 on the sunset strip," though and it was so excellent!  i'm anxious for more!  i just have some chatting with friends to wrap up and a victoria's secret order to place, and then i'm calling it a night.

i know it's boring, but it's what i've been up to.  work!  it needs to get done, though, and i want to be the hero, you know.  anyway, i'm off.  i'll be back for more next time.  g'night. ;)

tuesday 19 september 2006 1:26am

i wish i had time tonight.  i don't.  i'm already getting no sleep tonight.  hopefully... tomorrow.  g'night! ;)

sunday 17 september 2006 9:29pm

"and i said if there's any way you can
could you paint me back into her arms again" -- tracy lawrence "paint me a birmingham"

i kind of meant to do more with today, but i don't know exactly what that would have entailed.  so anyway, it was a relaxing sunday, and i'm perfectly content with that. :)  after all, i'm back to working hard come tomorrow morning, so i might as well take advantage of being pretty much responsibility-free for a day or two.

so i guess i went to bed kind of late last night, but that's what weekends are for, i think.  i mean, i love getting to be awake at ridiculous hours of the night/morning.  i just can't do it during the week too often because it kind of wrecks me to go to work on zero sleep.  so anyway, i was up late and then slept in a little late this morning.  though by about 8:30, i was only sleeping in little bursts.  no big deal, though.  i just hung out in bed for a bit. :)

of course, i did eventually get up and around.  i thought about going to mass, but i decided i didn't really feel like going.  so i didn't. :)  and i hung out and read the newspaper for a little while.  but i did decide that i wanted to get out and run a few errands around town before it got to be afternoon.  so i just threw on some clothes, and i headed out on a sunny morning. :)

i went to kohl's because they had these really cute red shoes in their ad this week.  they had like 2 pairs of them left in the store, though, and of course they were not size 11 (gasp!).  so i browsed through the other shoes but didn't find any i couldn't live without, so i moved on.  i went to payless because they had a designer do 4 shoes for them and in the 3 days since i'd heard about them (and nearly ordered them online) they'd completely sold out online.  anyway, the store had zero interesting items.  oh, well.  next stop was target.  i found a pair of cute, gray, dressy capri pants that'll be great for work. :)  and tin foil, because i'd run out.  and then i went to the grocery because i had zero food here.  the most exciting purchase there was either the newman's own lemonade or the everything bagels from the bakery that hopefully i'll eat all week.

okay, so then i headed home, and i've pretty much just been hanging out here since then.  i had some lunch and then ended up napping for a bit.  that "three's company" marathon is still going, so that was on for much of the day.  (there aren't exactly a ton of choices on sunday afternoons, and i didn't get the chiefs-broncos game here.)  i did a little work for bobby, so he'll be stoked when i get around to calling him.  i talked to the parents.  i read through some of the magazines and catalogues stacked up on my kitchen table.  i had dinner.  i read another chunk of "lipstick jungle."  and yeah, that's pretty much it.  boring, i know.  but you know, that's how it is sometimes.  and i know more adventures await.

so anyway, i'm thinking of tucking in early and reading for a bit.  and it's back to work tomorrow, which should be good, i hope. :)  so i'll let you know.  g'night. ;)

saturday 16 september 2006 11:50pm

"i am so tired of taking it slow
so tired but i'm not sleeping
i'm wired, about to pick up my board
'cause we're all headed out for the weekend
let's pack up and move to california
hop on board before we get older
raise your hands and shout for california" -- hawk nelson "california"

it's been a good saturday al the way around! :)  i'm tired now, though, so hopefully i'll be off to bed before too long.  anyway, i do want to take some time to write and tell you about it.

but before i get started with today, one little thing i forgot about yesterday.  when i was at hollywood video yesterday evening, i was looking for a movie i couldn't find, so i went to one of the employees at the registers and asked if she could check if they had it for me.  and you know what... it's really hard to get someone to type "y tu mama tambien" correctly.  how do you tell someone that what sounds like "e" is spelled as a "y?"  yeah.  haha!  pretty funny and she was really confused.  but then again, it's not exactly the smallest movie ever and she works in a movie place.  anyway, yeah, thought it was funny (though more so if you know how to pronounce the name of the movie in spanish).  and you know i wasn't about to tell her it was called "and your mother, too."  ;)

anyway, on to today. :)  i caught up on a little bit of sleep last night, which was definitely necessary.  and i ended up getting up and around the apartment around 10 or so.  not too late! ;)  and i discovered the start of a "three's company" marathon on tv land.  awesome! :)  so anyway, i watched that a little bit and eventually got cleaned up and dressed.  i grabbed a little food and made sure i was ready to go for the day. :)  i even took out the trash! ;)

then i hopped in the volvo and headed all the way up to la to the grove for a little shopping.  i'd only been there once before and that was during the winter where it never stopped raining, and really the grove isn't at it's full fun potential when it's raining because it's an outdoor mall.  plus, it's gained a few stores since then, i think.  anyway, it took me entirely too long to get there, but then again i wasn't really in any hurry at all and had nowhere to be.  and i did eventually make it there.  and i did some shopping! :)  it seems like it's been a long time since i've done that.  i found new jeans and new pants, and even a really cute jacket from anthropologie that was totally on sale and will be perfect for oc "winter." ;)  and i had a great time walking all around and taking it all in.  it was crazy busy there, but still nice.  i even went into the farmers' market, where i'd never been before.  it's kind of like a permanent farmers' market, and i found really excellent, really cheap fresh lemonade. :)  and eventually, i decided i'd probably spent enough money and been into enough stores, so i checked out what was playing at the (really fancy) movie theatre there.  "the last kiss" was starting in 10 minutes, so i decided to just go ahead and see it.  and actually, it was pretty good and didn't wreck me like it had the potential to.  it was a lot less like my life than it could have been, thankfully!  i did have a little trouble with the fact that there were so many moments where i wasn't sure if i was supposed to laugh or cry.  it's a little hard to explain, but anyway, that's what it was like.  so then after the movie, it was time for me to head back home, which took considerably less time than getting there (because the traffic is always going into la, and never coming out, despite the fact that that is illogical).  and on my way back, i picked up dessert (donuts at krispy kreme) and dinner (quesadilla from baja fresh). :)

and once home, i did enjoy my food, and then i talked to the parents for a little bit.  then i kicked back on the couch and watched one of the dvds i rented last night, "she's the man."  it was everything i wanted it to be, which is a cheezy teenager movie filled with pretty boys.  so fun! :)

but i'm thinking that right about now i should go to bed.  i'll be back next time with more. :)  g'night. ;)

friday 15 september 2006 10:23pm

"i'm so tired of everything here
the sun is calling me to the west
everyone's having fun out there
my bags are packed as i'm looking out the window
everything is so outdated here
i wanna move west to where the sun is shining
i want my friends to all be there
let's pack up and move to california
she's got lots of friends out there
we'll never get bored 'cause we can go boardin'
let's let the sunshine take us there" -- hawk nelson "california"

the words of this song seem right.

it was a good friday, though right about now i'm feeling totally tired and like i just want to get to bed as quickly as possible.  not exactly the plan i had for my friday night, which was to involve movies and a little design work and me staying up really late for no good reason.  but anyway, i'm going to write this and then crash, i do think. :)

i went to bed too late last night.  somehow it just worked out that way.  and i slept okay but definitely not long enough.  worked up more sleep debt.  but the alarm went off and i once again found myself getting up and feeling so tired.  but i got cleaned up and dressed right away because i knew i had a couple things to accomplish before getting to the office.  i stopped once again at i <3 bagels for breakfast.  it's good! :)  ask mel!  she loved that place, too!  anyway, i also needed gas (very badly, actually!), so i went down to my favorite gas station and was so excited to see the price was $2.85!  i cannot remember the last time i paid that! :)  awesome!  it was definitely over $3 the last time i filled up.  so that was a cool little morning surprise.

anyway, work went pretty well today.  i wasn't quite as overloaded as i'd been lately, which was perfect because no one wants to be overloaded on a friday, right? :)  we placed ads for "cots" and got that ready for the first-round proofing.  early, even.  and i took care of a few other little things here and there, but nothing major.  oh, and i lunched at juice it up!, where i got a smoothie and a pretzel.  not the most exciting lunch ever, but it worked.  also, john interviewed the last of the creative director candidates today and even brought melissa and me into the end of the interview, which was nice.  and lea, jenna, melissa, and i wrapped up the end of the week just hanging out chatting, which was nice. :)

after work, i headed to hollywood video to rent a couple movies to keep me entertained during the weekend, though i haven't actually watched any of them yet.  :)  i did, however, head home and watch some random tv.  and i found a little dinner, too.  and then i managed to fall asleep during "access hollywood" accidentally.  oops! ;)  and i have really just been hanging out here.  i talked to the family a bit.  mom bought me a really nice purse when she was out today, which is way cool!  i just have to wait to get it from her when i'm up there in october.  and i caught up on some of the tv on my dvr, including the latest "laguna beach" and "ace of cakes."  that's good stuff right there! :)

so like i said before, i'm pretty spent, so i am thinking i'll just go to bed now.  i do plan on doing something fun tomorrow, though! :)  i'll let you know.  for now, g'night. ;)

thursday 14 september 2006 10:26pm

"come on, baby, please, 'cause i'm on my knees
can't get you off my brain
but who would've thought that you could be the one 'cause i
i can't wait to fall in love with you
you can't wait to fall in love with me" -- justin timberlake "summer love"

watch out, kid!  if you're not careful i could kick your ass today!  ;)  strong woman here.  and stubborn.  and opinionated.  that's not to say it wasn't a good thursday.  it was perfectly nice.  so here we go...

i woke up very early this morning confused and mad.  at sarah.  now you probably could figure out by now that (1) i don't really fight with my friends and (2) i am never mad at sarah.  well, i had a dream that she basically abandoned me when she was visiting me and she was just generally being very mean.  ad i didn't know it was dream while i was having it.  so i woke up mad at sarah for acting like that, and it took me a while to sort out that it didn't actually happen.  thankfully! :)  i let sarah know about the dream when i was chatting with her online this morning.  she apologized.  haha!  anyway, it was weird then but is funny now.  so i got a bit more sleep before the alarm, and then got up with that.  definitely could have slept longer, though. :)  anyway, i got cleaned up and dressed and ready and all of that right away.  and i headed out, refusing to put on real shoes, even though i discovered it was drizzly outside. :)  and i stopped at i <3 bagels once again for breakfast.  it's becoming a habit.  probably not a good one, either, but really delicious! :)  traffic  was bad this morning, i think because the high school was starting late, which they don't generally do on thursdays.  weird.

work actually went really well today, on the whole.  of course, it also had its frustrating moments, but they're not my fault and i sort of just have to deal, you know?  marina was in and out of the art department all day with her crazy stories, as melissa and i just try to protect her from herself and the crazy men who seem to gather around her.  and i think brian was getting quite a kick out of it all.  and actually, so was i!  and melissa, jenna, and i did lunch at stillwater, which was really good but i do wish i could get some carbs with my salad there.  and oh yeah!  we did actual work today!  or at least i did.  it's hard to speak for anyone else. ;)  we shipped one magazine and i prepared my half of the next one.  i feel like i actually made significant progress getting things crossed off my to-do list today, which is so awesome! :)  i win!

after work, i changed and successfully made it to the beach for a walk! :)  something did happen in the transfer of the justin timberlake album to my ipod, however.  oh, well.  i think it'll be fine.  anyway, i did actually have a very good walk and i took a beautiful photo of the clouds and sun and ocean before i even got started.  yeah, that's why i love where i live! :)  anyway, my walk went well, but i was getting kind of annoyed with the dog people.  and i think it's fair for me to feel that way.  see, on the path, there are numerous signs citing the leash law and also asking people to keep their dogs on leashes and clean up after their dogs.  well, two dogs (with separate owners) were letting their dogs run free and they of course ran to each other like 3 feet in front of me.  and so i informed the owners, standing right there and smiling at me like i should think it's cute, that there's a leash law.  they said they know.  !!!  if you know then you should have the common decency to actually follow that law.  put your dog on your leash.  you're already holding it.  see, a leash law means that (1) your dog must be attached to the leash and (2) you must be holding the other end.  it's very simple, really.  you holding a leash to which your dog is not attached means you are not complying with the leash law.  plus, both of these (irresponsible) dog owners were holding those retractable leashes that are like 20+-feet long.  that's far enough (too far, in my opinion) for you dog to roam from you.  and then there are the dogs on the beach.  i cannot even explain to you how many huge signs there are that inform people dogs aren't allowed on the beach.  so many.  and yet there are always dogs on the beach.  it's gross!  i don't want to step in dog poop i never saw.  anyway, i did have a good walk. :)  despite the dogs... and their owners.

okay, so after that i came home and got cleaned up.  and then i ordered a pizza for dinner.  that's at least 6 consecutive meals that i have not cooked for myself.  wow.  too many.  but the pizza was amazing, and even more so because i was so starving after only having had a salad for lunch like 8 hours before that.  anyway, then i relaxed in front of the tv for a bit with every intention of doing a little design work for bobby.  i didn't. :)  oops! ;)  i did talk to the family for a bit, though.  and i caught matthew perry on last night's leno talking about "studio 60 on the sunset strip," about which i'm so excited.  it premieres on monday!  :)  and i also watched last season's finale of "the office," my favorite episode!  gah!  i love it, though it plays with my heart so much!

tomorrow... lots more work ahead of me.  and some fun stuff, too, i hope.  i need to come up with something remotely interesting to do this weekend, as well.  i was considering going to see "the last kiss," but i might hold off because i know the movie has the potential to rip the heart of my chest.  so maybe i need someone to prescreen it for me.  anyway, i'll come up with something.  :)

for the moment, however, i do need to get to bed.  and calm myself, i think.  you know, i probably shouldn't have had that diet coke at lunch. ;)  okay, back next time!  g'night. ;)

wednesday 13 september 2006 10:15pm

"good to go for wherever i'm needed
bags are packed and i'm
down by the door
you an have all the tricks up my sleeve
i don't need them anymore
good love is on the way
i've been lonely, lonely, lonely, yeah
good love is on the way
i'll be lonely but i know i'll be okay
good love is on the way" -- john mayer "good love is on the way"

it was a pretty good wednesday, though right now i'm feeling pretty drained.  i think that's due to lack of exercise, though, which i totally hope to remedy tomorrow.  and the gray weather today.  i'm so effected by that.  anyway, i'm doing just fine really. :)

i can hardly believe it myself, but i actually got to bed early last night.  i was asleep before leno started.  that's exciting!  and i got some decent rest, though i can definitely say that i was feeling very tired still when the alarm went off this morning.  i must have been in a deep part of my sleep cycle.  i was not ready to get up.  of course, i did anyway, and i went straight to the shower to get cleaned up.  and then i got ready, checked email, threw on khakis and a polo and heels, and headed out.  didn't waste any time this morning, really.

i stopped at i <3 bagels for breakfast again.  yesterday's was just so good that i couldn't really resist.  bad habit! ;)  and really tasty!  and then it was off to work on an overcast morning.  wasn't loving that so much.

work was busy today, and i didn't get too much crossed off my list of things to get done, but i still think i'm in good shape.  my ad that i designed got approved by the client and placed into the magazine, so that's exciting!  more of my advertising skills really helping out! :)  and i worked on more figures for the magazine, and i did make some good progress.  oh, and i might have had a few minutes to do stuff like chat with my co-workers or catch up on the latest news. ;)  hehe!  plus, i did stop working for a moment to pick up lunch at san clemente pizza comany.  good stuff.

after work, i headed to my car, got my bag of gym clothes out of the trunk, and went back into the building to change.  that's when i remembered that i forgot to pack socks.  so tragic!  i can't really do my walk on the beach without socks (sounds strange, i know, but i promise shoes are required for the majority of the route).  i considered going home to get some and then going to the beach, but i instead decided to just head home and so something else with my evening.  so i rang kath and headed home, and i actually ended up talking to her for like 2 hours.  :)  we really needed that time to catch up, i think.  she's doing well, and we crack each other up, so it was just really, really fun.  and then i went to best buy to pick up a couple things from yesterday's new music tuesday. :)  i got the new justin timberlate and the new john mayer, both of which i've listened to a few times thorugh already because they were streaming online early.  i do think that's totally a good marketing tool.  anyway, those albums should be fun for me. :)

i also talked to the family for a little bit.  my invitations and candy bar (hershey's bars) wrappers for grandma's party got approved, so mom's printing the invitations and we sent the wrappers to a printer.  so we'll see how that all goes. :)  glad it's done, though.  at least for now? ;)

and now i'm hanging out just watching "mythbusters" and writing this.  i want to try to get to bed soon.  they're trying to create a hole in the floor (like a 2' circle) using guns.  i guess there's a scene like that in "underworld" where she escapes by shooting a hole in the floor for her to fall though.  anyway, myth just got busted!  okay, i do need to get some rest now, though.  i'll be back next time.  g'night. ;)

tuesday 12 september 2006 9:32pm

"my love is overflowing
from a loving cup
i know you're down
but love will lift you up
my love
are you ready for my love, my love
my love, my love is waiting for you
if you're looking for a heart that's always true
only to you
then, my love
my love, my love is ready for you" -- little texas "my love"

nice, chill tuesday.  that's good news. :)  and i'm trying to get to bed at a decent hour tonight because... that didn't exactly happen as planned last night.  hehe! ;)

okay, so last night i went and tried to fix the zillions of broken links on the website.  really, i hardly look through it so i didn't realize they were all there, so i wanted to finally take care of that stuff.  and so i got started and then i really didn't get everything fixed until like midnight.  took a bit longer than i had anticipated. ;)  but i think everything's working now.  at least i hope so!  and then i finally got to sleep.  and the alarm clock rang way too early this morning.  i was pretty convinced it was incorrect.  it wasn't. :)  so i got up and showered and all that.  and as i was checking email, i realized i really had no interest in anything i have here for breakfast, so i got dressed and took off early and stopped at i <3 bagels for a very delicious breakfast.  so good!

okay, so work is very, very busy.  i have a long list of things to accomplish, and my pace is fine.  i just know a lot awaits me each day.  so i spent a good portion of the day working on this ad we're creating.  after several revisions to a couple different designs, we're in a place where i really like it and jenna does, too.  and i spent the rest of my day working on magazines.  lots got done.  i have lots more to do tomorrow.  that's all fine. :)  at least i know they need me!  and i did take a little time out of my day to have lunch with melissa, diana, lauren r. (in town from chicago), and mike.  we went to daphne's and my order got messed up, as often happens to me.  no big deal, and they totally corrected it for me.

after work, i changed into workout clothes with the intention of going to the beach for a walk.  it was a beautiful day.  instead, as i was driving, i decided that i really didn't want to go there and i want to make sure my beach walks stay fun, so i didn't go.  instead, i headed towards home, though i did stop at the beauty supply place for hair product.  and i'm also considering switching shampoos, so i bought a different one and will try it out soon and see how that goes.  anyway, then i headed home.

i havne't been up to too much here, though i was hoping i'd actually get some stuff done.  i did get a new version of that invitation done and sent out to the family for approval. :)  looks good, i think.  and i had some dinner.  i was starving!  i even also had a piece of the chocolate cream pie, which was delicious!  and i talked to the family for a while.  adam wanted to talk giants.  and then college applications.  that's a lot of stuff!  :)  so anyway, i've been just hanging out, which is nice.

now i'm off to bed hoping for some decent rest.  i'll be back again next time with more.  g'night. ;)

monday 11 september 2006 9:01pm

"when your world is standing still
i can turn it around
put your head up in the clouds
and pick your feet up off the ground
my love
are you ready for my love, my love
my love, my love is waiting for you
if you're looking for a heart that's always true
only to you
then, my love
my love, my love is ready for you" -- little texas "my love"

it's not a new song but for some reason i found it in my head the past couple days.  and it seems appropriate enough, i think.  fits right in with the general message.  anyway, let's get on to more important things tonight.

**note: the following two paragraphs are about me.  this is my journal.  it may not be especially profound, but it's just what's on my mind at the moment, and i wanted to share it here.**

it's september 11th.  like i'm sure you do too, i remember exactly how that morning (and rest of the day) went quite vividly.  i even remember the small things, like how there were no newspapers in the racks in my dorm and i was sad because i wanted to save one.  and i remember the call to my dad because i wasn't sure what else to do.  i'd already watched the towers fall with my new roommates, and it was too early to go to class.  it was a scary morning for me.  i'd just barely gotten into the routine at pepperdine, a freshman stepping out into the world for the first time.  and so to be so startled on that morning was especially shocking for me.  i really was out in the big, bad world now, and things seemed scarier than ever.  and i realize that life at pepperdine and in malibu is life in a bubble, but not this morning.  not when i was feeling so vulnerable to the world and having only been in it for a couple weeks.  i feel like that day did take a piece of my innocence.  there was more in the world than i was really ready to see.

and the course of things changed for me because of september 11th's terrorist attacks in a variety of ways, things i didn't really think about when they happened but that i recognize now.  less than a year after the attacks, i moved to london.  it was a cautious year there for the administration of the pepperdine campus there, i'd say.  and the iraq war, which technically doesn't have anything to do with 9/11 but was tied to it for political reasons, started while i was there.  i still can envision the anti-war protestors we saw on the way home from dinner at wagamama's.  it was my least favorite time to be an american, i think.  also, i went to new york earlier this year and saw ground zero for myself, making my heart hurt for those more directly impacted than i.  the heroes garden at pepperdine is a 9/11 memorial, and it wouldn't be there without the tragedy.  but it is definitely one of my very favorite places on earth.  definitely, it's my favorite place in the beautiful city of malibu.  it holds a very special place in my heart.  so while i cannot say that i lost someone in those attacks or anything like that, i know that a part of me changed that day.  so today, i reflect on the day and i remember.

**

so on with my day.  :)  didn't sleep especially well last night (surprise, surprise) and wasn't quite ready to get up yet when the alarm went off.  of course, i did anyway.  and i got cleaned up and ready and all of that.  and as i was getting ready, i watched the news, which in large part was coverage of various 9/11 memorials, mostly the one at the wtc with the reading of all the victims' names.  wow.  emotional.  and i had a little breakfast.  i wasn't hungry at all because hearing all those names made me kind of sick to my stomach, but i knew i'd be in trouble later if i didn't eat.  so i'm not sure i even ever tasted breakfast.  oh, well.  then i had a bit of trouble dressing myself.  was i supposed to wear something important today?  something black maybe?  or patriotic?  it sounds silly now, i realize, but caught up in the moment it seemed like a big deal.  clearly, it was not.  i put on a black tank and jeans and headed off to work.

my emotional breakdown came early today.  as i remembered calling dad on the morning of 9/11, i decided i should ring him again this morning, tell him i love him.  so i called.  and i started crying, of course.  and we talked for a few minutes as i drove myself to work.  and then we hung up and i had about 7 minutes to compose myself before arriving at work, which i did.  good times! ;)

work went pretty well today.  we got the magazine all together and ready to mail and then we forgot to leave to bring it to the ups store before 5:30.  we remembered at exactly 5:30!  tragic! ;)  so we will just put it off until tomorrow.  i also worked on some comps of an ad we're doing as part of our design services.  that's going well.  and i took care of a variety of other little things on my long list of tasks.  all-in-all, it was a productive day, and i even had time to chat with diana about making her own website.  showed her this one and realized i have a variety of broken links.  oops!  and picked up a very delicious salad from stillwater cafe for lunch.  so good!

after work, i headed for the beach on a visually beautiful night.  perfect sunset and gorgeous, broad beach (the tide was all the way out).  and i had a really good walk while listening to the old justin timberlake album.  oh, we streamed the new one a couple times through in the office this morning, and it was entertaining.  made me want to dance.  and for the first time ever, i stopped in a place i always pass because i always think i should stop there because i know the view from there is amazing.  (was that too confusing?)  it's out on the point where lifeguard stand 3 juts out into the ocean separating the strands from salt creek beach.  anyway, it's the perfect place to watch a sunset, and tonight's sunset was amazing.  i stopped for a few minutes and even stopped the ipod to just listen.  so perfect.  i love that place.  anyway, then i wrapped up the end of my walk and headed home.

i haven't been up to too much since i got here.  i cleaned up, and then i spent a little time chatting with some friends online (mel, kath, chris).  i had the leftovers of yesterday's lunch from boston market for dinner, and all of it was delicious.  and that's saying a lot from me, someone who doesn't really like leftovers at all.  i talked to the family a bit, as well.  and now i am watching the canadian country music awards which is cool because there's a lot of good country music up there and this actually introduces me to a lot of it, which mixing in some of my favorites, emerson drive, aaron lines, and carolyn dawn johnson.  :)  i'll be off to bed before too long, i hope.

more from me next time.  tell someone you love them today.  g'night. ;)

sunday 10 september 206 10:01pm

"'cause i need you
like a needle needs a vein
like my uncle joe in oklahoma needs a rain
i need you
like a lighthouse needs the coast
like the Father and the Sun need the Holy Ghost
i need you, oh, i need you" -- tim mcgraw and faith hill "i need you"

i.  love.  this.  song.  yeah, i guess the words are a little weird if you just read them, but they could not be any more romantic when i hear tim and faith singing them.  and... yeah... they're  my choice for the night.  they could be my choice every night, i think.

so sunday.  well, i would say it was a good one, though it wasn't particularly eventful, just like saturday.  but i feel relaxed and rested and that's often the measure of a good weekend, not how much i accomplish.  anyway, i should just get on with it...

i wasn't up too too late last night, but i also didn't sleep especially well last night.  i don't know how many times i woke up, but i'd say it was a lot.  whatever.  i tossed and turned until like 10, at which point i decided i might as well just get out of bed and come up with something to get myself out of the apartment for a little bit today.  i ended up reading the newspaper.  there's not a lot better than starting out a sunday flipping through the calendar section and the ads. :)  i got some ideas from there.

so i threw on some clothes and headed out on a sunny morning.  first stop: office max.  i wanted to pick up a new, bigger memory card for my camera because they were on sale there.  little did i know how crazy crowded it would be there at 11am on a sunday.  lots of kids (and their parents) were out getting school supplies.  oh, well.  i did get what i needed, so that's great!  next stop was coco's.  yeah, like the restaurant.  so i'd been craving chocolate cream pie since i was at that diner place with diana and they were out.  so i went to coco's and picked up a pie! :)  yay!  and the piece i had in the afternoon was totally good! :)  and i rounded out my little trip with a stop at boston market, where i picked up a variety of side dishes for lunch/meal #1.  also, very, very delicious! :)

so then it was back home for sports on tv.  i've been following the u.s. open (tennis) very closely this year, and i've enjoyed it immensely.  and my tennis boyfriend, andy roddick, was playing in the final today against the best player on the planet (perhaps ever), roger federer.  well, it was an entertaining match and got my heart racing, but andy just couldn't do it.  he's still on his way up with this big comeback, aided by legend jimmy connors.  anyway, andy didn't have enough to do it today, but he played a great match.  and of course, it is always fun to watch a really cute boy run around for a few hours. ;)  no, seriously, i think andy's awesome with his crazy tennis abilities and his adorable (media) personality.  so tennis.  it breaks my heart, but in a fun way, if there is such a thing.

then i really didn't have anything planned for the rest of my day.  i ended up watching the giants suck and giving myself a really nice pedicure.  that needed to happen, i know.  and i sat down with "lipstick jungle," the book i've been reading for too long now.  i was interrupted by two phone calls, but i did make serious progress.  it's good stuff.  i do like candace bushnell.  the first call was from auntie lily, who wants me to change the wording on grandma's invitation.  fine.  but then she wanted me to do it tonight.  and it's not that i didn't have the time, it's that she didn't understand that i didn't want to be designing at 7:30 on a sunday night.  it's what i do sooo many hours during my week that sometimes it's nice to take a break from it.  sunday nights seem like the perfect time.  anyway, i told her no and that i'll get to it once the week gets started.  and then i talked to the family, as well.  adam's trying to get on top of the college applications (he needs my help, though) and everyone else seems to be doing fine.  and then i went back to my reading.

now it's getting later and i know i need to get to bed if i want to be rested when the alarm goes off tomorrow.  i know, however, that i probably won't.  there are other things (or maybe just one in particular) on my mind at the moment.  a crazy distraction that seems to haunt me.  anyway... oh, and tomorrow's 9/11, but i think i'll write a bit more about that tomorrow.  i doubt i'll come up with someone more profound than what's already been said, but i do have a few thoughts.  so i'm off for tonight, and i'll be back tomorrow.  g'night. ;)

saturday 9 september 2006 11:11pm

"i wanna get lost in some corner booth
cantina mexico
i wanna dance to the static of an am radio
i wanna wrap the moon around us, lay beside you skin on skin
make love 'til the sun comes up, 'til the sun goes down again
'cause i need you" -- tim mcgraw and faith hill "i need you"

okay, so today i am like totally the most boring person on the planet.  (you're intrigued now.  you want to read further. ;))  and it was fantastic.  exactly what the doctor ordered.  definitely not a saturday wasted.

i was up a bit late last night for no particular reason.  just because it was friday and i could. :)  love that!  so anyway, that means i slept in late.  but you know, i didn't get amazing rest.  i kept having really stressful dreams and i'd wake up relieved.  i don't remember the dreams anymore, but i did remember each as i awoke.  anyway, so i slept in late, but not super late.  it was fine.

and then when i did wake up, the tennis had already started, so i turned it on right away.  i watched the federer match from bed for awhile  not the most exciting one ever, but no surprise there.  and i moved over to the couch around lunchtime (meal #1, for me) to watch the second semi, featuring my boyfriend andy roddick! :)  so so so so fun!  love that stuff! :)

**hooray!  the matt damon episode of "will &  grace" just came on!**

anyway, i seriously did like nothing today.  i watched lots of tennis (more to come tomorrow).  and i watched other random tv.  i don't even remember what in particular.  oh, i watched the "fashion rocks" special that was on last night.  it was just okay, and i ended up fast-forwarding through most of it, but i love loved the tim mcgraw-faith hill performance of "i need you."  that song is perfect.  amazing.  anyway, it's not really available to me anywhere, but i do believe it'll be on a new tim mcgraw album in november.  rad!

i also cleaned up the apartment and read a bunch of magazines that i had sitting around waiting for me.  and i even managed to take out the trash, my least favorite chore.  and i put together the candy bar wrapper mom wanted as a favor for grandma's party.  and brenda called me to tell me she loves the invitations i did.  so sweet of her to call just to say that! :)

what else?  really, not a whole lot.  i just got out of the shower a few minutes ago.  i decided that needed to happen, even though i didn't leave the apartment all day.  i think i will tomorrow, though.  anyway, for the moment i'm off to do a bit more reading and then i'll crash.

more from me next time.  hopefully a bit livelier!  g'night. ;)

friday 8 september 2006 11:47pm

"now if i wrote you a love note
and make you smile with every word i wrote
would that make you want to change your scene
and wanna be the one on my team
see, what's the point of waiting anymore
'cause i've never been more sure" -- justin timberlake "my love"

so what if i like justin? ;)  he's so rad!  and i like this song, all the way around.

it was a good friday, i think. :)  yeah, it wasn't the most eventful day ever, but i'm feeling good.  and this journal is about me and my day.  anyway, i don't know what i'm talking about anymore.  i need to just get on with it...

i went to bed early-ish last night!  hooray!  i never even saw the first guest on leno last night.  so i got like more than 7 hours of sleep, though of course i didn't really sleep the whole way through the night.  it just doesn't happen.  anyway, i wasn't particularly anxious to get up with the alarm this morning, but i did it anyway.  then i got showered and ready and all of that.  and i didn't end up hanging out here too long because i wanted breakfast from sc donuts. :)  so i put on jeans and a sweater and headed out.  and my donut breakfast was quite delicious!

work went pretty well today.  i got loads of things done, but i know that a lot waits for me next week.  that's fine.  it's a million times better than having nothing at all to do.  so i am keeping myself busy with the magazines (there are so many figures to be created and lots of pages that need laying out), as well as the other smaller projects going on.  it's just busy.  but good.  and for lunch, i headed out with diana.  we had a coupon so decided to try a new (to us) place called tommy's diner.  it was pretty good, though i was sorely disappointed when we were told they were out of their cream pies when we ordered a slice of chocolate cream pie.  tragic!  now i have a total pie craving, and i'm not sure how to feed it.  baker's square?  any other ideas?  anyway, ended up working kind of late, especially for a friday, but i got lots done, so i'm fine with it.  plus, i had the country music going in the office, which is always good news. ;)

after work, i headed home.  pretty exciting, no? ;)  anyway, i caught up on a bit of tv because lots of things were waiting for me on the dvr.  love "laguna beach," even if it's not as good as the first two seasons. :)  and i caught up with meg because it'd been like a million years.  she's doing well, so that's awesome!  i talked to the fam and had a bit of dinner.  and i finished the invitations for grandma's party, so i sent it over to mom to get final approval from everyone and so they can print it.  yay!  they turned out to be really cool!  and that's about it.  did some reading and might do some more.  but really, i want to get to bed and catch up on a bit of sleep.  tomorrow... tv. :)  it's bad.  haha!

for now, g'night. ;)

thursday 7 september 2006 10:04pm

"i can see us holding hands
walking on the beach, our toes in the sand
i can see us on the countryside
sitting on the grass, laying side-by-side
you could be my baby, let me make you my lady
girl, you amaze me
ain't gotta do nothing crazy
see, all i want you to do is be my love
so don't give away my love" -- justin timberlake "my love"

okay!  more time for me tonight.  :)  of course, that kind of means that i wasn't up to a whole lot today and therefore don't have a whole lot to write about.  oh, well.  that's never stopped me before! ;)

i went to bed quite late last night.  i saw the beginning of that show that's on opposite conan, craig someone, which started half an  hour late because they had tennis coverage in between letterman and it.  anyway, by my calculations, that made it after 1.  that's not good news when my alarm goes off at 7:30, but whatever.  so i got a little sleep and all of a sudden it was morning already and i had to get up.  so i got clean, as much as i wanted to still be in bed.  and i had a little breakfast, got dressed, and headed off to work a couple minutes early.  the traffic's still kind of heavy (is this how it normally is and i just got used to summer traffic?), but it hasn't really been taking me extra time, so i guess it's fine.  anyway, yeah, got to work.

work.  um, lately, it's been a lot of that.  there seems to be a lot to get done, so i really did spent pretty much my whole day at the office working away.  i do feel good about today, though.  i got a lot of stuff done.  i crossed things off my list.  i made serious progress.  and really, that's what i needed to have happen.  and i had a fun lunch out at wahoo's with melissa, jenna, lea, larisa, and lauren.  needed that for sure! :)  i meant to find a time to escape for frozen yogurt, too, but it just didn't happen.

after work, i came home (and talked to dad while driving pretty much the whole way, which was perfect).  no beach or walking or anything.  i just needed an evening for myself to get my life in order a little bit.  i've just been so busy that everything seems to be a mess.  so i came home and put on the federer-blake match and straightened things out.  i can see the kitchen and living room now! ;)  and the match was pretty exciting, even if i didn't love the outcome.  once it was over, i went to the grocery store for my staples: milk, lemonade, and chocolate. :)  and then i went down to golden spoon to feed that frozen yogurt craving.  so good!  and now i'm hanging out.  i've been working on a nice, simple design for invitations for grandma's party, but i still don't have the text i need.  and i talked to the family, including proofing an essay adam wrote about a book i've never read.  i'm so good! ;)

and now i'm hoping to do a little bit of reading and then just crash.  it won't be early, but it'll be much earlier than i've been getting to bed lately.  so i'll be back tomorrow with more.  not sure what friday or the weekend have in store for me.  i'll let you know, though!  g'night. ;)

wednesday 6 september 2006 11:59pm

i don't really know how to explain today, and it is actually quite late for me to be writing on a wednesday night.  i've been quite busy.  (and as i looked around just now, i've also managed to make quite a mess of my apartment tonight.)  my head's still spinning a little bit, so that won't make writing any easier, either.  anyway, i'm just going to make note of some highlights from the day.  that should be enough to tide you over until tomorrow, right? ;)  in no particular order...

1. i accomplished some actual work today.  i may have also seriously added to my to-do list, however.  we're not sure yet.  but yay for work getting done.  and double-yay for fun chats with diana in her office in between!

2. the lunch i picked up from daphne's was so good.  though i wasn't even in the mood for eating.  still, it was good.

3. i saw the chris young video for "drinking me lonely" for the first time ever!  love that!

4. i went for a walk at the beach tonight and the sunset tonight somehow miraculously managed to surpass the beauty of last night's.  or maybe it was that i was about 30 minutes later than i normal.  still, it was spectacular.  i couldn't help but stare. :)

5. sarah has a house all her own!  that's so rad!

6. oh, the tennis.  i cannot stop watching.  i <3 tennis (and my tennis boyfriends -- in order -- andy roddick and lleyton hewitt)!  tennis!  tennis!  tennis!  :)

7. i may have come up with a good idea or two tonight.  we'll see.

8. i ordered pizza for dinner.  so delicious! :)  it was a little, spontaneous splurge, and i think it was totally worth it.

9. i'm totally in charge of invitations for the party auntie lily is throwing, which means i have ultimate design freedom!  she's cool that way, i guess! :)  now i just have to get inspired and create them and the matching candy bar wrappers.  in my free time?  (wait, what's "free time?")

i know you're loving the list and will now want lists instead of paragraphs every night.  too bad. ;)  okay, i really do need to go to bed or i'll be completely useless tomorrow.  g'night. ;)

tuesday 5 september 2006 10:45pm

"who dreams of you at night
and longs to kiss your lips
and longs to hold you tight
oh i'm just a friend
that's all i've ever been
'cause you don't know me
for i never knew the art of making love
though my heart aches with love for you
afraid and shy, i let my chance go by
a chance that you might love me too
you give your hand to me
and then you say, 'goodbye'
i watched you walk away" -- ray charles "you don't know me"

i'm watching a rerun of the tribute to ray charles on the grand ole opry and i do love this song.  it's so sad.  anyway, yeah.

i know it's tuesday, but it sure felt like monday.  and now i'm quite tired all the way around, and i'm definitely looking forward to crawling into bed a in a few minutes.  but i do have some time to write about the day.  it went somewhat differently than i might have planned, but it was totally fine.

i got to bed too late last night, and i didn't get enough rest before the alarm went off this morning.  i was sure it was a mistake that it went off so early.  oh, how a long weekend can really destroy any sort of normal sleeping habit i might have. ;)  anyway, i got up and showered right away.  i had a little breakfast and put on a cute outfit and even dried my hair a bit before i had to head off to work.  and i'm not sure if it's that people are returning from their summer breaks or what but the traffic seemed heavy (though it didn't take me any longer to get to work).

work went fine today.  i had plenty of things to keep me busy, and i even added more to my list today.  i think i have enough time for everything, though.  but i do want to get in on time tomorrow and really buckle down and have a very productive morning.  that seems to be the most productive time of the day at work for me.  anyway, work was fine.  just normal.  nothing revolutionary and no big breakthroughs.  and i had lunch out with jenna, melissa, and diana at san clemente pizza company, which was delicious and not over-air-conditioned. :)  we even hung out there a few extra minutes because it was nice.  and i worked through the afternoon.  my allergies or something were acting up and my eyes were killing me.  eventually, i just left.

i changed and headed out to the beach.  on my way, it was 95 degrees outside and i was getting a bit worried that it'd be too hot for me to really walk that hard.  and in the 1.5 miles from the office to the ocean, the temperature dropped about 15 degrees.  that's a lot!  so i ended up having a really good walk on the beach, where it was about 80 and very, very windy.  the sunset was absolutely gorgeous, and the beach was very quiet.  it was really nice.

then i came home, got cleaned up, and did 4 loads of laundry.  yep.  that's about it.  and i just now got it all put away so i'm ready to call it a night.  oh, and i talked to the family for a few minutes, too.  pretty exciting, no? ;)  anyway, i needed to do the laundry because it'd been many moons.  i love having all my clothes to choose from when i get dressed in the mornings.

okay, so i'm done rambling.  i'm off for now.  back tomorrow.  g'night. ;)

monday 4 september 2006 9:40pm

"red sun down out across the western sky
takes me back to the fire in your eyes
texas stars in a purple night
not seeing 'em with you, baby, oh they never do it right, no
every mile a memory, every song another scene
from some old movie going back in time to you and me
every day a page turned down, every night a lonesome sound
like a freight train rolling through my dreams
every mile a memory" -- dierks bentley "every mile a memory"

so tonight i think i'll take a few minutes to sit and write about the whole weekend.  it's been a total blast, and i hope yours was, too.  and um, oh yeah, it's hot here right now.  like really so warm that i can't keep the laptop on my lap because i'm sweating it's so warm.  not that i'm complaining.  i'll take summer as long as i can get it! ;)

i guess i need to go all the way back to friday.  friday at work was really fun, though i'll admit that that's mostly because of the time spent not working. :)  though i did get some stuff done, too, just for the record. ;)  jan came over to the office for a special lunch.  jenna, jan, melissa, marke, brian, diana, and i went to mr. pete's for lunch.  and not just any lunch.  we spent the swear jar money!  so fun!  and so delicious!  and it wasn't too long before it was 3, when we were all dismissed early for the long weekend. :)  excellent!

i met up my dad back at the apartment and then we went up to costa mesa to the oc performing arts center to see "dirty rotten scoundrels."  i got half-price tickets like a week ago and didn't know exactly what i was getting myself into.  it was a really good show, very funny!  and it stars this actor, norburt, that sarah loves, so that's cool.  plus, i got to see the new concert hall they're about to open.  it's gorgeous!  so that was a really fun outing!  and we capped it off with late-night dinner at macaroni grill (we had had dessert before the show: milkshakes at ruby's diner!).

saturday morning was supposed to be spent on the couch with dad watching some  tennis.  and then there was ernesto, which meant that the entire day of the u.s. open was rained out.  so i got to sleep in a bit. :)  then dad i went for breakfast at 1 <3 bagels, which was so good!  and then we baked tons of black-bottom cupcakes to surprise uncle ken and theresa.  we made enough that they could bring them back for all her teammates, too.  (oh, so okay, uncle ken and theresa were in town all weekend because theresa had a soccer tournament at a park like 3 minutes from where i live.) 

so eventually, dad and i went over to the soccer fields to watch theresa play and then the four of us went down to san clemente for some lunch.  well, it took us forever to get there (nearly an hour) because there was a massive crash on i-5 and so the traffic on the freeway and all local streets heading south was insane.  so anyway, we got a very late lunch and then tried to go to the rainbow factory store, but that was closed.  anyway, then we hung out at the apartment and uncle ken and theresa were excited about the cupcakes.  then dad and i had to bring them back to the fields for another game.

dad and i decided to wanted to find our way closer to the beach.  it was a very hot weekend here.  so we went down to salt creek beach and walked along the path where i always go walking.  dad wanted to see it.  and we veered off on a path that i'd never taken before through some really fancy houses.  it was really fun, and we saw a gorgeous sunset.  it was a great walk!  then we once again did dessert first!  dad's such a bad influence! ;)  we stopped for frozen yogurt at golden spoon.  we were each going to get a small, but dad realized that that would cost the same as a whole quart so we did that instead and brought it back here to enjoy while watching "the bourne supremacy."  good stuff!  and at some point we also had leftovers for dinner. :)

sunday was really fun.  it was like a totally summer sort of day.  dad and i watched a bit of tennis in the morning, but we also had a couple errands to run.  i had a broken external hard drive that needs to be replaced.  we got a krispy kreme breakfast.  and i needed gas in my car desperately.  anyway, then we hung out until uncle ken and theresa came over after theresa's morning game.

the four of us headed up to laguna beach to spend the afternoon.  we did lunch at bj's, which was perfect for us.  so delicious!  and then we walked across the street to main beach and joined the thousands of other people hanging out in the waves.  we waded in the ocean for a bit.  it was perfect!  then we walked around the shops a bit, which was fun.  laguna's packed on the summertime weekends.  and there are a few photos from laguna up on flickr for you.

then dad and i hung out and watched some more tennis.  in case you haven't yet noticed, i'm pretty hooked on the u.s. open. :)  anyway, then we went to mangia bene for a really good dinner, which we enjoyed while sitting outside.  and the waiter was very cute! :)  hehe!  anyway, that was a really good way to sort of wrap up dad's stay here.

dad left early this morning so he could beat a bit of the holiday traffic, and he made it home safely. :)   i went back to sleep. :)  i did eventually get up, though.  i had a very quiet holiday monday.  and i really enjoyed it!  i watched a ton of tennis.  an obscene amount.  but really, there wasn't anything else on and i was enjoying it!  and i laid out for a little bit while listening to tennis on the tv.  because i could. ;)  and then i watched more tennis.  i'm telling you, that's like all i did.  okay, so at one point i did actually get cleaned up and headed out.  and i went up to old navy and tried on tons of pants.  i always need pants.  but none of them fit right.  lame!  i did, however, end up with a new really cute purse. :)  like i needed that!  oh, well.  anyway, then i went to get a jamba juice and the line was so slow but the drink was totally worth it.  and then more tennis.  and i talked to the parents and spent a while on the phone with kath catching up (it had been a million years!).  and i caught up with sarah and troy online, which was good fun.  oh, and i gave myself a manicure because i needed it. :)

so it's taken me 2 hours to get this written (because of the chatting), so now it's late and i need to get to bed to mentally prepare myself for another week of work.  i'll be back tomorrow to let you know how it goes.  for now, g'night. ;)

sunday 3 september 2006 11:35pm

once again, i think i'll just write a brief entry and let you know what i've been up to.  i'll fill in the details later (and this will help me remember everything, too).  it's been a great sunday!

watched some tennis with dad and had a delicious breakfast.  met up with uncle ken and theresa again and we all went up to laguna beach to hang out.  had a fun lunch.  put our feet in the ocean.  walked around the shops.  then dad and i finished watching tennis.  we had a fun dinner out.  and we just hung out.  he's headed home tomorrow morning, but it's been a great visit.  more soon.  g'night. ;)

saturday 2 september 2006 11:33pm

just like last night, a few highlights until i can sit down and write about all the fun stuff more thoroughly. :)  sorry, but i know i'll get to writing soon enough.  for now, i'm trying to spend the time enjoying myself.

wanted to watch some tennis this morning, but it got rained out (stupid hurricane), so i slept in late instead.  and then dad and i baked tons of cupcakes for theresa and her teammates.  then we went to watch my cousin play soccer and then uncle ken, theresa, dad, and i went to lunch and hung out and stuff together all afternoon until we had to bring them back to the soccer field for her evening game.  then dad and i went for a long walk at salt creek beach, had frozen yogurt for dessert, watched a movie here, and had a little dinner.  fun stuff! :)

more coming soon... g'night. ;)

saturday 2 september 2006 12:57am

"oh, every mile a memory
every song another scene" -- dierks bentley "every mile a memory"

it's late and i'm quite tired, so i thought i'd just do a quick update and promise more to you later. :)  so here it goes...

work was fun because i got some stuff done, i hung out with the co-workers, we had a fun lunch at mr. pete's with jan and spent the swear jar money, and we were dismissed at 3 for the holiday weekend. :)  then dad and i went up to south coast and walked around before having milkshakes.  then we went to the oc performing arts center to see "dirty rotten scoundrels," which was so excellent!  then we had late night dinner at macaroni grill.  and now i'm back home and ready to crash.  good stuff! :)  g'night. ;)

thursday 31 august 2006 11:15pm

"second chances, backward glances
most people just say no
world keeps turning, heart keeps yearning
i keep holding the hope
one day you might answer with my name
is anybody loving you these days?" -- dierks bentley "is anybody loving you these days"

it's been an interesting day, mostly because of work.  and i'm glad that i'm back home and ready to go to bed and start a new day tomorrow.  it wasn't even that it was hard or stressful or something; it was just a lot.  anyway, interesting...

i was up too late last night.  i saw the late-night wrap up of the u.s. open that comes on after letterman.  oops! ;)  anyway, then i crashed and got a bit of rest before the alarms this morning, which i frankly cannot even remember anymore.  weird.  anyway, i got up and ready and dressed and had breakfast and checked email and everything, all without waking dad.  and then i woke him just before i was leaving the apartment.  so i went to work and so did he.

work.  wow.  it was just a lot today.  and i accomplished zero.  i couldn't cross anything off my list all day.  that's likely because i spent the vast majority of my day away from my desk.  after just wrapping up loose ends and dealing with email and all that normal morning start-up stuff, i went into a meeting about the pkg website.  we're reviewing it and seeing if it's meeting our needs.  and then i went straight from that meeting into a meeting with our printer, publishers press.  that lasted a couple hours because there was just a lot of talking.  fine.  they only come out here (from kentucky) like every 6 months, so we knew we'd end up spending a lot of the day with them.  and we went straight from that meeting to lunch at the harbor grill in dana point, which i'm sure is actually a very good restaurant but they specialize in seafood, which i don't especially care for.  so i had a chicken sandwich which was just okay (but free).  by the time we got back to the office, it was 3.  then we had more to talk about with publishers press just like on our computers in the art department about issues and whatever.  and by 4:30 things were wrapping up and i wanted a little chocolate, so i went to talk to diana for a few minutes.  and then jenna pulled me out of there and into a meeting.  she's moving to san francisco (a city i love!) so that leaves a hole in the top of our department.  should be interesting to see how this all plays out.  i, uh, don't know what else to say.

then diana and i decided to go for a walk together at the beach.  i called sarah on the way to chat for a bit, which was good.  we needed to catch up.  and then diana and i had a really great walk on a path we don't normally take, though the st. regis and by the ritz-carlton.  very cool!  i really needed it and totally enjoyed it!  it did get foggy and kind of dark by the end, but that's okay.

then i headed home and got cleaned up and then dad got back here.  we went next door to baja fresh to pick up dinner and then enjoyed just hanging out here eating and watching "the office." :)  and now he's sleeping and i'm working on getting myself to bed before the alarms go off again in the morning.  one more day of work before the long weekend and a lot to accomplish.  we'll see how it goes.

for now, g'night. ;)

thursday 31 august 2006 12:06am

"i wonder how you are
constant question pounding in my brain
is anybody loving you these days?
lonesome pillow, sun come yellow
i reach across the bed
should be hurried, working, worries
i lie there instead
with the thought that's driving me insane
is anybody loving you these days?" -- dierks bentley "is anybody loving you these days"

so i'm a little late writing tonight, later than i planned on being, that's for sure.  but i'm still up and ready to go ahead and fill you in on the day.  jay's on and new, so i'm perfectly content. :)

okay, so i got to bed last night and i didn't sleep too poorly.  it was just that it was late when i did get to sleep, so i didn't get enough hours in before my 7:30 alarm clock.  too early!  oh, well.  i got up and showered and ready.  i had some breakfast and discovered a nice little line of ants in the kitchen.  awesome.  so i had to deal with those.  lame!  but anyway, then i threw on jeans and a tank and headed to the office.

work today was fine.  kind of normal, actually.  not too light, not too heavy.  anyway, i heard this morning that we did the wrong number of pages for that ee times arm guide.  great.  so i'd have lots of reformatting to do, which is sad for me.  but i put that off until the afternoon because i didn't know yet whether i was adding or subtracting pages.  well, i inquired about it again the afternoon and was informed that it was all taken care of and the page count was right.  um, hello?!?  shouldn't someone have told me that so i could stop worrying?  oh, well.  at least it's all done! :)  and i designed a sort of oddly-shaped piece for shows in china at someone else's request and then showed it to them and then they decided i should go back to a normal size.  okay.  so i'm still working on getting that redone.  and i found images of the mars rover for an upcoming cover.  the editor and jenna loved them, so that's good news.  yay for me! ;)  oh, and melissa, jenna, brian, and i did a fun lunch at z pizza, where we ate outside.  it was delightful and my pizza was free!

after work, i headed to the beach.  geez, it was beautiful there.  and i ended up listening to dierks bentley, which i wasn't sure was going to be good as walking music but it turned out to be quite nice.  also, i don't think i ever really noticed before that his entire first album is breakup/lost love songs.  all broken-hearted songs.  that's some good stuff, right there! :)

then i came home to do my strength training, and i watched andy roddick win in the second round of the u.s. open on about an hour delay.  almost live!  :)  and that was so fun!  i was totally yelling at the tv.  and then i got cleaned up and had a bit of dinner.

then i ended up just sort of hanging out until dad arrived around 10:15.  he's down here for work in anaheim today, tomorrow, and friday.  and then he's going to just stay and hang out with me for the weekend, so that's rad.  so we caught up for a bit and now we're both off to sleep.

more from me next time.  g'night. ;)

tuesday 29 august 2006 11:25pm

"every night i'm lyin' in bed
holdin' you close in my dreams
thinkin' about all the things that we said
and comin' apart at the seams...
but here in my heart i give you the best of my love
oh, sweet darlin', you get the best of my love" -- the eagles "the best of my love"

heard that song on the radio on my drive home (since when does that get played between toby keith and the wreckers?) and it just seemed right. :)

it's kind of late and i'm really tired, but i did want to take a few minutes before bed to fill you in on a really fun tuesday.  it starts off a bit rocky, however, with last night turning out to be a late night and the rest being hard to come by, once again.  oh, well.  i got up with the alarm, as much as i really wan't ready to.  i got cleaned up, had some breakfast, put on a cute outfit and a touch of makeup, and was out the door just in time.

work went really well today because the guide i'd been working on got approval and got sent to the magazine it'll be inserted into.  awesome!  that thing was way less sweat than everyone made it out to be.  or i'm just a rock star.  either way. ;)  anyway, i'm glad to see that thing gone, and i'm ready to move onto the next projects.  they're waiting, believe me.  though this afternoon, i wasn't particularly productive, and it seemed like no one else was either.  we hung out and chatted and whatever.  it was actually pretty fun.  oh, and my lunch was so delicious, despite the fact that i ate it at my desk between phone calls regarding that arm guide.  anyway, it still tasted so good!

and i didn't linger late at work today because i was feeling tired and was really antsy.  i needed to get out of the office.  so i headed home for a little bit, just long enough to prop my feet up for a few minutes and get really relaxed.  but then i headed out again, up to laguna beach.  i even found a kind-of-decent-but-totally-free parking spot.  and then i got out.  and there was no sidewalk but instead just sand where i needed to walk what was probably about a third of a mile to the festival of the arts.  and i was wearing peep toe heels.  awesome.  so there was sand everywhere, but i made it anyway.  but i'm totally willing to say that my feet are kind of wrecked now.  they'll need a few days off.  between the walking and the standing and everything, it was just a bad shoe decision.  i mean, there's no way i would have anticipated that, though.  who knew it was sand?!?  anyway, i even drove home barefoot, which i never do.  oh, well.

anyway, i went to laguna to the festival of the arts to see the pageant of the masters.  it's an annual show (in its 74th year) that runs all summer in laguna.  people recreate famous pieces of art on stage and it's set to music and narrated.  when i say they "recreate" these pieces of art, i mean that people are dressed like the people featured and stand like the people in the pieces of art are standing.  i do not mean that people are like on stage painting copies of works by the old masters.  confused yet? ;)  anyway, before the show, i got to wander the festival grounds, where 150(ish) artists are selected and get to show their work.  there was some really impressive stuff (i especially loved the photography), and none of it was bad.  that was cool.  and they showcased kids' work, too, which was incredible.  there are some really talented kids out there.  anyway, then it was time for the show, so i took my seat in the way, way back, glasses on a binoculars ready.  and it was different than i expected but really cool!  (though i know there aren't that many people i'd drag to it.)  it was hard to tell what was real and what was part of the set, but they did show one getting put together and how it all fit together.  also, i think the recreations of the sculptures were my favorite part, which is surprising to me.  i loved the rodins, in particular.  anyway, that was really fun, and maybe next time i'll get tickets super early so i can see things a bit closer up.  but all-in-all, really neat, especially for an art junkie. :)

and now i'm so totally ready to crash.  i'm spent.  g'night. ;)

monday 28 august 2006 9:36pm

"if heaven were a train it sure would be a fast one
that could take this weary traveler 'round the bend
and if heaven was a tear it'd be my last one
and you'd be in my arms again" -- andy griggs "if heaven"

good monday. :)  nothing extraordinary, so don't get your hopes all up, but it was a good day.  why shouldn't it be, right?  anyway, here's kind of how it went...

i went to bed at a totally decent hour last night and i even managed to fall asleep quickly, even though i could have stayed up quite late watching the post-emmys coverage on e!.  anyway, it all didn't last that long, as i ended up tossing and turning all night long.  it wasn't like stress-related or anything, but whatever.  and when the alarm went off this morning and it was time for me to get out of bed, i had a stiff neck.  lame.  anyway, i got up and showered.  then i had a really good breakfast: english muffin and fresh oj.  mmm!  and then i got dressed and headed out totally early.  i wasn't planning on stopping for gas (i was going to put it off until tonight after the beach), but i had time and i was closer to empty than i had remembered.  anyway, i stopped for gas.  plus, it was a gorgeous morning.  might as well spend like 5 minutes outside enjoying the ocean.  you're so jealous of where i get gas. ;)

anyway, then i was off to work.  i was actually expecting today to be more work than it turned out to be, and this is totally good news.  i had lots of random normal things to take care of, so those were no big deal but did take some time.  and then i was planning on spending a big chunk of today (and tomorrow) making changes to my arm guide that's going into "ee times."  however, i talked to cindy and she only had minor changes, all of which i made in like an hour.  awesome!  so another round of changes for that and hopefully it'll get to print tomorrow.  awesome!  we also had a nice little workload meeting today, so we're all up-to-date on the ongoing projects.  i always find that helpful.  i did lunch solo: picked up a chicken bowl at super bowl that was quite good.  and i enjoyed marina's crazy weekend stories.  and i stayed away from stacy's kitty because i'm allergic and was not properly medicated.  oh, and john hired a new consultant, michael (or mike?), who seems nice enough.  he claims not to like country music but is a rock fan.  um, has he heard country music these days?  same thing.  anyway, we'll see.

so after work, i headed for the beach, where it was absolutely beautiful (though noisy because of the construction going on there).   i had a very fast, hard walk because i was feeling pretty good and i wanted to work out kink out of my neck (a good walk can sometimes do the trick).  plus, i was enjoying aaron lines on the ipod, which was blasting when i ran the stairs back up.  good fun! :)

then i came home and got straight to the strength training and then stretching out.  i needed that, but i do feel much better now.  oh, and the hot shower probably helped a lot, too. :)  then i made myself a little dinner: salad and turned some of the bread i bought impulsively yesterday into garlic bread.  mmm!  and i've really just been hanging out.  i caught up with sarah a bit, and i'm currently chatting with troy, who starts his first actual classes at harker tomorrow (he's nervous).  and i talked to the family for awhile.  had to talk sports with dad (i got to listen to the radio broadcast of my boyfriend andy roddick beating serra in the first round of the u.s. open today while i was at work) and also convince him to stop by the office when he's down here at the end of the week.

and now i'm hoping to tuck in early and make up for a bit of the sleep lost last night.  or read.  or something.  also, i put a couple new photos up on flickr from melissa's luau.  anyway, g'night. ;)

sunday 27 august 2006 10:31pm

"for as long as i live
there will always be a place you belong
here beside me
heart and soul, baby, you only
and i promise you now you won't ever be lonely" -- andy griggs "you won't ever be lonely"

i nearly forgot to write this.  how weird!  i pretty much don't do that.  anyway, i'm just watching the end of the emmys, so i have some time to write.  i'm only watching to see the beautiful gowns, anyway. ;)

last night i thought i might be a bit too awake to fall asleep.  i thought i might read or something in bed awhile before crashing.  well, apparently i was tired enough because all i had to do was switch off the light and i was totally out.  i slept okay.  good enough.  whatever.  and then it was like 10 and i could not sleep any more, as much as i wanted to and tried.  anyway, so i got up and really had nothing planned so i just lazed around the apartment.  i got to watch part of the arthur ashe kids day festivities, including andy roddick playing andre agassi, officiated by ellen.  so fun!  and my boyfriend andy roddick won! :)  because he's cute! ;)  or because he's good at tennis?

by the way, the jim-pam "the office" promos for the season premiere kill me as much as last season's season finale did!  so cute!

anyway, i did eventually get cleaned up so that i could run a few errands today.  then i threw on shorts and headed to the carwash.  and i had my car washed.  and i need a new place because when i got home, i spent about 25 minutes cleaning my car, taking off the pollen and grass and things like that.  though i'll admit that i did things like the clean the cupholder, too, which i never expected them to do.  anyway, i do still need a new place because i am really not getting my twenty bucks' worth.  also, i don't get my money's worth from the guy who washes cars on tuesdays behind the office, and he's also $20.  anyway, after the carwash and before i cleaned the rest of my car, i went to costco for a few little things.  i shouldn't have gone there hungry, but i did, so i came home with fresh bread.  what am i going to do with all that bread?  i'm not sure.  eat it as quickly as possible?  but it's so delicious!

then i sent some time around the apartment seriously straightening things.  honestly, the place had been a disaster since i got back on monday.  i hadn't even fully unpacked my suitcase!  so i got all the clothes and shoes where they belong, and even got the magazines in order, which is an ongoing problem for me. ;)  and then i went through my ridiculously large collection of makeup.  i had too much and a lot of it was really old, so i threw out all the old stuff.  it's much better now, especially considering i don't even wear makeup every day.  anyway, i took care of all those little things around the apartment and even managed to take out the trash! :)  yay for me! ;)

this evening, i had planned to relax and read or something.  well, i kind of got sucked into e!'s coverage of the emmys red carpet.  and now i'm watching the emmys, which is so silly because i watch so few of the shows nominated.  and the ones i root for never win.  but i do love conan (he's hosting) and all the pretty dresses (giant yay for all the purple right now!).  and when these are done, i'll crash.

should be another busy day around the office tomorrow.  i'll be back to let you know.  for the moment, good night. ;)

saturday 26 august 2006 11:52pm

"sometimes she cries on my shoulder
when she's lying next to me
but she don't know that when i hold her
she's really holding me, holding me
she don't know how much i need her
she don't know i'd fall apart
without her kiss, without her touch
without her faithful, loving arms
she don't know that it's all about er
she don't know i can't live without her
she's my world, she's my everything
and she thinks she needs me" -- andy griggs "she thinks she needs me"

okay, so at this particular moment, i feel like i had a big saturday.  in all actuality, i didn't. :)  but i must say that i enjoyed myself throughout the day, so i am totally satisfied.  it was fun!

i wasn't up especially late last night, but i did get some reading in.  eventually, though, my eyes just failed me and i crashed.  and i slept decently well and had some weird dreams (i can't remember them anymore but as i awoke from each of them i could remember and they were strange).  and i slept in nice and late, as i'd been wanting to do for ages!  it was great!  and i lied in bed awhile just relaxing for a bit.  i did eventually get up, though. :)

i pretty much spent my afternoon (yes, it was afternoon technically by the time i left bed) hanging out around the apartment.  there were lots of sports on tv for me to enjoy. :)  swimming.  skateboarding.  freestyle motocross.  golf.  :)  good stuff!  and i had a little lunch and talked to the family.  i also got cleaned up.  then i spent a little time giving myself a nice little pedicure.  red red.  looks nice, if i'm allowed to say that about myself.  (actually, now that i think about it, i'll likely say several things about myself in this entry that you're probably not supposed to say about yourself.  i apologize if it comes out arrogantly, but i don't really mean it that way.)  so yeah, i needed a pedicure. :)  i did also throw on clothes and head down to trader joe's to pick up a few groceries.  i didn't think about it being a bad idea to go there on a saturday afternoon until i was already there.  oh, well.  i already knew what i needed anyway so it was just a quick trip.

then i spent some time getting myself ready.  i pulled my hair back loosely but up so that i didn't have to deal with with all night.  and i did my makeup all cute (mel would be so proud of me and my dramatic, smoky eyes!).  :)  and i decided on a black sundress, black earrings, and killer black heels. :)  i looked totally hot.

then i headed up to yorba linda to melissa's dad's house (and $4.50 split between two different toll plazas on the same road seems like a lot!) for her wedding reception luau.  the view from the yard was gorgeous, and i loved just getting to watch the sunset over the hills.  and mostly i just hung out with people i already know from work: diana and her husband tad, lea, tim and his wife lisa, jan, marke and katrina.  and we did have a good time!  dinner was really good, and there was dancing, though i just sat and watched with the other people i know.  and i forgot my camera, which is a total bummer because the only reason i forgot it was that at the last second before i left the apartment i was deleting old pictures from it.  anyway, i'll get them from someone else.  so anyway, it was a good time. :)

and now i'm just watching a little tv and relaxing before i crash.  i really am working on relaxing this weekend, and it's going well so far.  anyway, i'll be back tomorrow.  g'night. ;)

friday 25 august 2006 10:13pm

"i close my eyes and i see you standing right there
saying 'i do' and they're throwing rice in our hair" -- keith urban "once in a lifetime"

my eyes are starting to go right about now.  i must be really tired.  or spent too many hours looking at computer screens today.  or both.  okay, definitely both.  it was a thoroughly productive friday, not like how i prefer fridays to be.  but sometimes, you just have to get the stuff done, you know?  anyway, i feel good about today, even though i'm so ready for bed at 10 on a friday night, like an old lady. ;)

by the time i crawled into bed last night, it was after 11, but i did read for a little bit before crashing.  and i got a little bit of rest but the alarm went off too early this morning.  i got into the shower really quickly and got cleaned up.  i got ready and had a little breakfast and checked email and those sorts of normal things i do in the mornings.  i put on some clothes and headed out the door quite early, actually.

work today was insane.  i mean, it wasn't bad like dealing with people or any of that that it sometimes is.  it was just that i had 3 big projects all on my plate for today and that needed to be concluded today.  three really important things.  literally hundreds of thousands of people will see the work i did today.  that's so exciting but it also means i don't want to screw anything up too badly.  anyway, first up this morning was an rtecc brochure.  normal turnaround, which happens to be quick as it is, is 2 days.  i turned that thing around in a couple hours and it went to the printer this afternoon.  next in line was getting the arm event guide finished and out the door.  this has been melissa's project but the last changes were coming in today and she was off today, so i made them.  and then i shipped that big guide off to the printer.  awesome!  and finally, i prepared my special version of that arm guide for placement in a big industry paper.  a draft went out for proofing before i left this afternoon, half a day early.  so basically, i win.  i did work all day non-stop but i got it all done with time to spare, so i'm stoked about it!  it actually took lots of loud country music going in the headphones and a short break to get a smoothing from juice it up!, but i did it.  :)  yeah, i'm good.  i promise this was so so so so much work.

okay, so after work i headed home because really that's all i wanted to do after a long friday at the office.  and seriously, i've just been hanging out.  i caught up on some of the tv on my dvr.  i had a little dinner and talked to my parents.  i picked out what i'll be wearing tomorrow night to melissa's wedding reception.  (so cute! ;))  i did sudoku.  and i'm about to have a little dessert.  then i'll tuck in with my book and see how long i last before crashing.

i'll be back with more for you tomorrow (probably post-party).  for now, g'night. ;)

thursday 24 august 2006 10:23pm

"everybody's looking for what we found
some wait their whole life
and it never comes around
so don't hold back now, just let go
on all you've ever known
you can put your hand in mine" -- keith urban "once in a lifetime"

::yawn::  i'm getting sleepy!  i guess i should go ahead and update so i can get to bed at a decent hour.  it was a good day but i really do like the idea of curling up with my book (still working on "lipstick jungle") and reading for a while.  sounds good, right?

actually, that's basically how i spent last night, and it was so excellent!  i read for a while and then it was just past 11 when i crashed.  that's quite early for me, so i working on the sleep debt some more. ;)  and actually, i slept alright, which is good news for me.  and i woke up fine with the alarm this morning.  got showered and had some breakfast.  and i got my stuff together and got dressed so i could head out a few minutes early.  and i will just throw it in there that citrus burst crest is working out nicely as a morning toothpaste because the taste doesn't linger all day.  i chew gum anyway, so i don't need toothpaste flavor in my mouth for 12 hours.  too much about toothpaste?  okay, i'll move on. :)  so i tried to leave that art for bobby at the salon, but no one was there and the door was locked, so that didn't happen.  and i needed to stop at the drug store.  yesterday, i had a candy craving in the afternoon, so i stole some from diana's desk because she wasn't there and i knew she had it.  so i picked up some reese's to replace hers. :)  then i was finally off to work.

work today was fine.  i spent a lot of the day still waiting for the arm info to be complete and ready for me, which is fine.  i took care of other small stuff that was waiting for me, so i had enough to keep me busy.  i did also take a little time to catch up on the latest news and celebrity gossip, so that was fun. ;)  and really, it wasn't that eventful of a day around the office.  i picked up lunch at san clemente pizza company and read a cool article on the guy who started rainbow sandals.  yes, i am totally addicted to mine now.  they're from san clemente, which makes it even better, right? :)  anyway, if you don't know how amazing they are, go get some. :)  anyway, i worked more in the afternoon.  and i got the stuff i needed around 4.  yeah.  so i started working on laying that out but i'll really get into it tomorrow.  oh, and this morning john had johnny cash playing in his office, so i stopped to talk to him about that and we ended up playing music trivia.  i knew all the modern stuff he had on this "john's party mix" discs, but not a lot of the older stuff.  anyway, that was fun, and i ripped his cds so i can listen and learn the older stuff better.  so that was good. :)  love the country music!

after work, i headed for the beach.  gorgeous out there!  i know i'm so lucky to get to go there all the time.  i walked hard and listened to some of the andy griggs tracks i don't always get to, so that was nice.  and anyway, i had a good walk.  uneventful.  and it was like an obstacle course running back up those stairs with all the other people meandering up at a snail's pace, but i did it!  i think trying to pass them all the time might actually motivate me to go faster.  i don't know.  now i am just rambling, i think.  anyway, i dropped off bobby's art for him at the salon and then went home and did some strength training.  and then i got cleaned up right away.  bobby said he'd come over after work (8ish) to discuss.  well, i haven't seen or heard from him, so i don't know what's up.  he probably got sidetracked by something else.  anyway, i've just been hanging out here.  i talked to annahita, sarah, and troy (very briefly because he just disappeared) for a bit, which was good.  actually, at one point i was multi-tasking like crazy, working out, listening to the new john mayer album (it's streaming on clear channel's site, and i listened even though clear channel is evil), watching the score of the giants game online, and chatting with annahita.  too much?  no. ;)  anyway, now i'm just hanging out.  i talked to the family for a bit and did a very hard sudoku.

but i want to go and read soon, so i'm off.  i will be back next time with more.  there are a few photos from last weekend on flickr.  back later.  g'night. ;)

wednesday 23 august 2006 9:37pm

"no fear, no rules
we'll be love's fools
just like we were that night
the moon so bright
we took the chance
we danced the dance
your touch, your kiss
let's keep it like this
i wanna grow young with you, baby
and cheat old father time
i wanna grow young with you, baby
make sure that sun keeps shinin'
on those crazy barefoot lovesick kids
with fearless hearts and souls
i wanna grow young with you, baby
too young to ever grow old" -- andy griggs (featuring coley mccabe) -- "grow young with you"

today was my break day for the week, i think, and i still feel like i worked hard and got a ton of stuff done.  there hasn't been much kicking back lately, really.  and i am not particularly complaining.  i think i prefer it this way, even though i know my sleep debt is entirely too high right now.  i am doing some good work -- both actually at work and here on the floor of my living room -- and i'm loving that.  and i think there's more to come.

i wasn't too too late getting to bed last night, but i still know i contributed to the sleep debt instead of paying part of it off.  oh, well.  no big deal.  so i slept alright and woke up on my own right near the same time as the alarm, which makes waking up less painful, i think, even though i probably could have used the extra five minutes or whatever.  anyway, i got up and went straight to the shower.  i got cleaned up and ready and had a bit of breakfast.  then i put on a cute skirt and heels and headed off to work just on time. :)  beautiful morning out!

work went well today.  after getting some smaller stuff out of the way this morning, i was (and actually still am) in a holding pattern.  i need some information finalized because i can move forward with my big project for the next few days: a special version of the event guide for the arm developers conference.  anyway, the text isn't quite ready.  but i did get some good information about the layout and size and stuff, plus all the ads, so that was helpful in preparing the document.  anyway, that'll all be coming to me starting tomorrow and i'll be chugging away trying to get that done as fast as possible.  so anyway, i know today was the slowest day of the week for me.  of course, i did have other things to get done, like preparing my section of "pkg" so it can go to press tomorrow and working on the digital subscriptions.  anyway, i was working, even though it may not have been quite as hard as the past days.  and i did take a break to go to lunch at wahoo's with jenna and scott, which was quite delicious.  more than usual, in fact. :)  or maybe i was just in a good mood because it was such a beautiful day and i was stoked to be out of the over-air-conditioned office! ;)

then after work, i headed straight for the beach.  i even drove there with the sunroof open, windows down, and radio blaring emerson drive. :)  love it!  and i had a great walk, despite feeling like i have a bruise on the top of my right foot for some unexplained reason.  anyway, i had a good walk. :)  it's such a beautiful place, how could i not?

then i came home and got cleaned up.  and i went straight to work finishing up some art for bobby.  i did a line drawing of an old schoolhouse and a silhouette of a girl (actually his wife) on a swing, both of which i think turned out really nicely.  and when i called to tell him it's ready for him to look at, he was stoked.  he's also having my previous shirt design printed right now so i got to give him a shirt size for me and all that.  fun!

and since then, i've been reading, though i did take a short break to talk to the family.  dad's back home from denver safely.  he's headed down here in a week, so that's exciting!  but yeah, i'm just taking it easy.  i'm thinking of tucking in early and crashing.  sounds delightful, don't you think? ;)  well, i'll be back tomorrow with more, i'm sure.  until then, g'night. ;)

tuesday 22 august 2006 10:42pm

"don't fear it now, we're going all the way
that sun is shining on a brand new day
it's a long way down and it's a leap of faith
but i'm never giving up
'cause i know we got a once in a lifetime love" -- keith urban "once in a lifetime"

in case you hadn't already noticed, i'm loving the brand new keith urban song.  i read a review somewhere that said it's like sunshine in song form.  i'd agree. :)  and it's delightful!  plus, i love the lyrics.  anyway, expect to see more from that song in the very near future.

i'm not really running late today; i just have a lot to accomplish.  and i'm totally exhausted but have now given up on getting a full night's rest tonight.  that would require me in bed by 11, which clearly is not going to happen.  i am anxious to get there, however, so i'll just take a few moments to update this and then i'm going to crash and quickly as possible.

so i did actually manage to get a full night's rest last night.  eight and a half delightful hours of sleep (well, as good as it gets these days), happy to be in my own bed and totally over running on so little sleep from the previous night.  anyway, i wasn't ready to hear the alarm this morning but i shut it off and got into the shower.  i got cleaned up, ready, and dressed.  then i headed out pretty quickly because i needed to pick up breakfast and stop at an atm (in the reverse order).  anyway, i went to i <3 bagels, which was great.  by the time i got to the office, however, i had a small problem.  i was going to break in those new tennis shoes today.  well, i should have chosen different, more substantial socks because they didn't go between my heel and the top of the shoe so i had already worn a sore spot by the time i got to work.  sad!  so i ditched those and the small socks and put on different socks and my workout shoes.  fine.  no big deal.  i didn't like today's outfit anyway.

okay, so work.  well, it's still as crazy as ever.  frankly, i like it this way.  i like having a  never-ending list of things to do.  it's so much better than cruising cnn.com looking for the hottest news stories.  anyway, i spent the morning working on "cots," "pkg," a brochure, and an ad.  that's a lot for a morning.  and i did take a break at lunchtime for a meal out with diana at a diner called mollie's.  we both had breakfast and it was super cheap because diana had a coupon (how we decided to go there in the first place), plus my food was totally decent.  anyway, then it was straight back to work for the afternoon and by around 2:30, i had my day's work taken care of.  so i offered jenna and melissa my help.  after some discussion, i have been given some of melissa's arm (like the company, not like the body part) project, which i'm glad to take on.  the more the merrier at this point.  bring it on!  that's what i'm saying.  anyway, so i had enough to keep me busy until about 5:45, at which point i decided i needed to leave if i was going to accomplish anything else tonight.

i changed and headed for the beach for a walk.  it was a gorgeous evening for that.  and i felt like my walk was going really quickly, though in fact i think it was going only slightly faster than usual.  anyway, it was really good to get out there and moving and everything.  and i'm feeling better running all those stairs!  it's a long way up but i can definitely do it.  anyway, i am still addicted to the andy griggs while walking right now.  good stuff. :)

then i headed for the drug store, which i never do after working out because i feel bad going out being all sweaty and everything, but i needed to get there and i knew that was the only way.  i forgot my razor at home.  so sad!  i've had that thing forever (since high school) and hadn't managed to forget it until now.  oh, well.  so i picked up a new one (maybe it was really time) and a few other little things.  i'm going to try out a different flavor toothpaste in the mornings because my super-strong spearmint that i do love is kind of ruining how anything tastes for like 8 hours after i use it.  anyway, we'll see how citrus burst goes. :)

then i came home and finished up my workout with strength training and stretching.  then i got cleaned up and broke in that new razor. ;)  and i had a little dinner and talked to the family.  and i've been working on stuff for bobby, as well.  it's coming along quickly, thank goodness, though i'm still not quite done.  i had wanted to finish tonight, but i've decided a little extra sleep will be worth putting off bobby for a night.  anyway, i also talked to meg on the phone for a bit because she was driving and we hadn't caught up in a while.  so it's been a fun evening but now all of a sudden it's getting late and i really want to get some sleep.

so for the moment, i'm off.  i will be back soon, though.  and i want to get photos from the weekend up soon.  but anyway, for now, g'night. ;)

monday 21 august 2006 8:38pm

"but i loved her first and i held her first
and a place in my heart will always be hers
from the first breath she breathed
when she first smiled at me
i knew the love of a father runs deep
and i prayed that she'd find you someday
but it's still hard to give her away
i loved her first" -- heartland "i loved her first"

okay, i am completely exhausted to the point where i think i've given myself a headache (well, i know for sure my head hurts, but i'm speculating that my tiredness is the cause of it).  so i'm working hard to get to bed early tonight, but i do have a few minutes to sit and write here for you. :)  hopefully, i can stay focused.

okay, so yesterday (sunday) was so much fun, and i know i didn't do it justice with the pathetically short previous entry.  i got up kind of early and lazed around the house awhile.  no one was around, which was strange and unexpected, but whatever.  no big deal.  anyway, dad eventually got home and decided he should make me waffles for breakfast. :)  mmm!  excellent!  and while he did that, i got cleaned up and dressed.  breakfast was good (duh), and then i hung out a little bit not up to too much.

eventually, sarah came over in the early afternoon, and we went down to downtown san carlos to the best bakery there, chocolate mousse.  last time i was home, we discovered they have an all-you-can-eat desserts special on sunday afternoons.  we were so down!  so we went and we ate way too many desserts!  i had a cookie dough cannoli, a piece of triple chocolate mousse cake, and an apple handpie.  everything was delicious and i was crazy full by the end.  i haven't eaten myself sick like that in as long as i can remember, but it was totally worth it! :)

then we did a little shopping just at hillsdale.  i discovered in the morning that i had forgotten to pack anything to wear today.  oops!  of all the things to forget to pack, that is one of the most unlikely, especially because i usually like to pack at least one extra outfit.  anyway, i did forget, so i had an excuse to look for something to wear with my jeans.  and actually, i found a pretty rad shirt with guitars on it at american eagle, so i wore that today. :)  and then we knew we needed an actual meal for dinner, even though we weren't especially hungry at all, so i took her to taxi's for a savory (not sweet) meal.  it was good! :)

then we headed up to the city, right to downtown.  we were a few minutes early, so we went to dsw to do a little shoe shopping.  it never takes sarah long to find anything there, and i found a really cute pair of super-preppy sneakers that were on the clearance rack for $16.  awesome! :)  i will break them in some time this week, i am sure.  and then we went to see "the 25th annual putnam county spelling bee!"  yes, i realize i'd already seen it twice (and i think sarah's seen it more times than that), but it was a special performance.  the sf cast worked up an adults-only rendition with horribly racist, overly sexual, and generally just offensive.  so hilarious!  :)  a huge percentage of the show was different jokes than normal, even an entire song.  good stuff! :)  then sarah brought me back home, i packed up my suitcase, and i crashed.

this "morning" i was up at 4.  yes, 4am.  yes, hours before daylight.  i got cleaned up and dressed (in my new t-shirt!), and mom and dad brought me to the airport.  it was admittedly a long drive there because i was so tired and not anxious to leave.  but i said goodbye and headed into the airport.  the line to check in my luggage was longish, but manageable, and security was normal.  and then i read until my flight boarded.  it was about half full, so no one was in the seat next to me.  i slept most of the way on the tray table, though i did get to look at the sunrise over the clouds, which was quite extraordinary.  and we landed without incident.  i had to wait on my luggage, then i got to my car and headed to work.

of course, i had an important stop to make before arriving at the office today.  i picked up starbucks and a donut.  actually, i generally only driving decaf coffee (there's enough caffeine in it for me) and i went for a venti drink full-caf.  that kept me going for the entire day!  until i crashed around 4:30.  but anyway, i made it into the office only 45 minutes late.  not bad, really.

i worked hard today.  very hard.  two magazines.  a brochure.  checking ads.  lots and lots of stuff.  and i worked straight through the day, without the normal sorts of breaks that we normally take.  it was just one of those really busy days, you know?  but i had the country music going and i was focused so i just worked until it was all done.  actually, i did stop long enough to pick up a smoothie and pretzel from juice it up!, which was quite a tasty lunch.  that place could quickly become a habit.  anyway, i did lots of work.  just thinking about all that work makes me tired. ;)

then i headed home, fully tired.  i've done a bit more work since getting here, stuff for bobby that i'm hoping to wrap up tomorrow night.  and i caught up with sarah, who started her new job today.  she has to wake up very early, like a real grownup! ;)  and i talked to the family, as well.  dad's actually in denver on business, but he had enough time to take my call.  and i caught up with a few friends online, too.  so it's been a good evening, but i'm anxious to crawl into bed and crash.

i'll be back with more later.  g'night. ;)

sunday 20 august 2006 10:55pm

"just keep on moving into me
i know you're gonna see me
the best is yet to come" -- keith urban "once in a lifetime"

i really only have a few minutes because i actually have to get up in 5 hours, but i just wanted to write a little entry to tide you over until i can write a proper one tomorrow or something. it was a delightful sunday!

dad made a delicious breakfast, sarah came over and we had sooo much dessert and did a little shopping. then we had dinner, despite not being hungry. went up to the city to see spelling bee adult style! :) so hilarious! and now i have to get up so soon, fly, and go to work. yes, there will be coffee. more next time! g'night. ;)

saturday 19 august 2006 10:47pm

"it's a long shot, baby
yeah, i know it's true
but if anyone can make it
i'm betting on me and you" -- keith urban "once in a lifetime"

it's been a very busy saturday, an even though it's not even 11 yes, i'm anxious to get to bed and get a little rest before another busy day. but i have a few minutes to fill you in on how today went. :)

i got to sleep in at least a little bit, which was nice, but i don't sleep that well, especially in the bed i have here. it's just not mine, you know? anyway, i got a little rest but eventually had to get out of bed and cleaned up. i got dressed and it wasn't too long before mom and dad were assigning me various tasks to help them get ready for today's party. i don't mind so much, though.

eventually, the family all gathered here for a big barbeque lunch to celebrate dad's 60th birthday! :) what fun! it was really good to see the whole family, and it was a gorgeous day out here. the food was really good, and dessert was excellent. and then we spend a little time playing blackjack before grandma wanted to pla6y mahjong. we broke in brenda and jason's new set of tiles. i am not so good at mahjong, but at least i understand the rules! :) and after all the hours of games, i gave up my last two quarters (grandma gave everyone lots of quarters to start) when i lost the last game. yeah, i lost them all. i never got mahjong. i guess it was a bad day! haha! oh, well. it was pretty funny, actually! :)

and tonight, katherine picked me up here and we went toto's for a little pizza dinner. so good! :) and i had been thinking about that place since it was closed when we tried to go there the last time i was home. and of course, it's next to baskin-robbins so we stopped there for a little ice cream. :)

but now i'm off to bed. tomorrow will involve lots of sarah time and lots of eating! :) i'm already excited about it! but for now, g'night. ;)

friday 18 august 2006 11:17pm

"i can see it in your eyes
and feel it in your touch
i know that you're scared
but you've never been this loved" -- keith urban "once in a lifetime"

okay, so friday has been totally exhausting, but i made it through all of it successfully and am now up in san carlos visiting the family (and friends). anyway, i'm not so good at using adam's computer (i just don't like how it's set up), but i'll do my best to just fill you in on a few things in my day. :)

i was up pretty late last night trying to get everything ready so i could leave the apartment for nearly four days this morning. anyway, i didn't end up getting a whole lot of sleep and wasn't at all ready for the alarm this morning, but i did get up and get clean. i got my act together, had some breakfast, and was out the door with a few minutes to spare. awesome! ;)

work today was insane. it's busy and so that makes it's a little bit nuts. but today involved even more, between an intereting discussion amongst the sales team (which i think is actually finally resolved now) and me sort of being trapped in a media kits situation. but it'll all work out just fine. anyway, i was completely worn out by the end of my day. at least i got some actual work done. also, i had a really good lunchw ith diana. we went to juice it up! for smoothies. i'd been meaning to try this new place because it's totally a jamba juice ripoff and there's no jamba juice close enough for me to get lunch at. anyway, my smoothie was an adventurous choice (it involved no oranges at all), and it turned out to be quite good. i will likely go back there. anyway, we brought those back to the kitchen and i had a couple small corn muffins and some of diana's leftover pasta. it was a good, hodgepodge lunch. :) anyway, yeah. work.

then i went straight to the airport because the john wayne website informed me i needed to arrive 2 hours before my flight. it took me 10 minutes to get my luggage checked and about 1 minute to get through security. that left me with nearly 2 hours of sitting around, though i did talk for sarah for a bit and i had a little dinner. whatever. no big deal. i started a new book, too. candace bushnell's latest finaly came out in paperback, "lipstick jungle." and my flight was uneventful and now i'm all the way back to the house. i'm exhausted and hoping for a little rest before what i know will be a busy weekend.

so i'm going to crash soon. i'll be back soon with more. g'night. ;)

thursday 17 august 2006 11:17pm

"but if You can make a blind man see
and change the water into wine
well surely You can keep her from
tearing out this old heart of mine
so please don't You have a miracle
just lying around
one small miracle nobody needs
send it on down
i'll never make it through this night
thinking she's with someone else
please don't You have just
one small miracle left" -- bryan white "one small miracle"

it was another totally decent day around here, though there was one big tragedy that i'll get to later.  anyway, i'm up late once again and just trying to get things wrapped up around here so that i can head out for the weekend tomorrow morning.  anyway, so here's a little recap of thursday. :)

i was up entirely too late last night.  oops!  but actually, a great day is always worth a little less sleep.  i don't get good sleep anyhow. ;)  so anyway, once i did make it into bed, i crashed pretty quickly.  but it wasn't long before the alarm was going off again and i needed to get out of bed and into the shower to clean up.  then i got ready and checked email and such.  then i was having breakfast and trying to burn a cd for bobby with some t-shirt designs and it just wasn't working so i was messing with the computer before i finally got that working.  and then i had some breakfast and got dressed.  and i made it out the door just barely on time, though i did have to stop to drop off that cd at the salon next door.  anyway, then i was finally off to work.

**geez, i just got so distracted.  anyway, i need to get un-distracted (tracted? ;)) and get this written so i can get to bed.**

returning to work today was like returning to total madness.   okay, it was madness when i arrived because just marke and brian were there, but the day got crazy busy very quickly. it was melissa's first day back after her wedding/honeymoon, so not only did i want to hear about it but so did everyone else.  individually.  so there were tons of people in and out of the art department all getting the same info about her trip.  anyway, sounds like melissa had an awesome wedding, so that's great!  while there was lots of chatting around the office, i still had tons of work to be doing, more than i'd ever accomplish today.  i worked hard pretty much straight through my day.  marke, brian, jenna, melissa, and i did go to san clemente pizza co for lunch out, which was a nice break.  but then in the afternoon, lots more of me working while everyone was chatty.  and i ended up getting just barely enough done for today but i was also there pretty late.  but no big deal really.  oh, and in the afternoon i was having great hair! :)  i just like threw it up really quickly while doing something else and then i looked in the mirror like an hour later and it was so cute and curly and kind of just everywhere.  anyway, i love when that happens! ;)  (so what if i'm crazy?)

after work, i headed for the beach for a walk, which was so excellent!  i really just enjoyed myself and got lost in thoughts about various things.  and i even spotted a hummingbird.  they're amazing.  and the light was just perfect out, like a dream or something.  i think because it was later than i normally go.  anyway, i did have an awesome walk and i'm killing those stairs on the way back up from the beach!  :)

oh!  i nearly forgot.  katie rang in the middle of my day, like 3:30, which is after work for her but not for me.  anyway, i've been anxious to talk to her because it was her birthday last weekend and i just love getting to catch up with her.  so i fielded her call and went out to the lobby to chat with her for a little bit.  she's doing well! :)  we need to talk more extensively, i know, but i enjoyed the serendipitous call in the middle of all my work.

okay, back to my evening.  so i stopped off for gas and then headed home.  and then i was straight to my strength training regime.  and it felt kind of hard today, but i completed it and got cleaned up right away.  i had things to do tonight, you know!  i put on four loads of laundry and then dashed over to longs drugs to pick up a few random things.  then it was back home, i put on dinner, and i switched the laundry.  i also talked to the family (not adam, though, because he was at the 10pm screening of "snakes on a plane") and chatted with sarah online.  i got all the laundry folded (though not quite all of it is put away yet).  and i packed a suitcase for the weekend, though it seems quite empty compared to how i generally pack.  and i had to remember that anything liquid or gel that i want to bring with me needs to be in my suitcase.  and i did dishes and cleaned up a small ants emergency in the kitchen.  and now i'm finally here and writing (and getting distracted by things online).  and soon i will be going to sleep because i need to actually be kind of functional tomorrow.

now back to that tragedy i mentioned earlier.  i was driving home and i switched from my cd to the radio to see what was playing.  i pressed my #1 button and heard a old(er) christina aguilera song.  huh?  they don't play her on kzla.  nor do they play black eyed peas.  this was getting weird.  so i did a bit of research when i got home and discovered that this morning at 10:25 kzla died and it has become movin' 93.9.  ugh.  19 years kzla was the country station in la.  and lately at least, it's been the only one.  no.  more.  country.  music.  in.  la.  it's a tragedy!  what am i going to do with that #1 button?!?  i might have to move the other country station i sometimes get to that position.  i can get a san diego station (us 95.7) when i'm close enough to the ocean.  anyway, watch out!  your station could be next and similarly without warning.  emmis communications also owns power 106, my #6 button and the best rap/hip-hop/r&b station in la.  anyway, i'm sad to see kzla go, but maybe i'll still attend the kzla bash in october.  it's still going to happen and tickets go on sale next weekend.  anyway, lame.

okay, i really do need to try to get some sleep.  tomorrow i got from here to work to the airport to the parents' house.  should be a busy day!  more from me next time.  g'night. ;)

wednesday 16 august 2006 11:38pm

"i think he can see through everything but my heart
first thought when i wake up is
my God he's beautiful
so i put on my makeup and pray for a miracle" -- taylor swift "i'd lie"

today.  was.  awesome.  :)  and that is not something that i say about all wednesdays.  i mean it.  i love today.  things just went right, and i had so much fun!  anyway, i should just get on with it...

so i got a little bit of sleep last night (not amazing but not awful) and then all of a sudden the alarm was going off.  ugh.  but i managed to get up and into the shower to get clean.  i got ready and had a little breakfast, and then i just threw on some jeans and headed off to work.  pretty uneventful, really, but i was early yet again! :)

i didn't do anything like park next to someone parked in two spaces today. ;)  i just went into the office like normal and i pretty much got to work right away.  we got the vast majority of the materials for our magazine, finally, so i had plenty to work on.  marina, jenna, and i had a magazine meeting and divided everything up and then i was working pretty much the rest of the day, though i did catch the occasional piece of celebrity gossip. ;)  i like being  so busy because it makes the day just fly right by.  anyway, for lunch i was going to go out with diana, but john was bugging me to join his group for lunch, so diana and i ended up going with john, brian, aaron, and cindy to rubio's.  actually, i'd never been to a rubio's before, but it was pretty good!  and john was grilling brian about everything from his parents to his dating habits.  it seems to be more entertaining for me when i'm not the one being grilled! ;)  finally, he has someone new to pick on!  and then more work all afternoon.  i was really alone today because even jenna was gone.  i was holding down the whole department solo!  which means i was working with the country music playing nice and loud.  love that stuff!  and scott discovered that we (melissa and i) were using an email program of which he does not approved, so i had to switch back.  no big deal to me.  but then he also informed me that my mailbox is too full so i had to delete a bunch of stuff, so i was working on that until it was 5 and i headed out right on time.

i headed to the bank for some cash, put a little money on my laundry card, and then headed home.  i was there really just long enough to change clothes and throw on some mascara and lip gloss before i was headed back out again.

i drove up to torrance, which isn't the easiest drive at like 6pm.  actually, the toll road was nice and empty and cost me only $4, which i know i saved in gas.  and the rest of the drive wasn't horrifically bad.  i think in all it look me about 80 minutes.  definitely not more.  not bad for about 48 miles.  anyway, i met chris at red car brewery for dinner!  yay!  finally we met up since he moved out here like a month ago.  and dinner was great and we sat and talked for a long time.  it was just really good to see him and catch up and everything.  he's not totally digging working in the call center but he only has to stick it out for a few months because he can do something more exciting.  be he's loving cali and living like a block from the beach, so that's great!  so we'll get together again soon, i think.  he's a good guy, and we have fun.  and then eventually the waiters were putting up the chairs onto the empty so we took that as our cue to leave.  so good dinner! :)

and then i headed home and actually ended up on the phone with the family nearly all the way, which was entertaining enough.  and it took me less than 50 minutes to get back here and i didn't even take the toll road shortcut. :)  so it's not actually so far to hermosa.  just depends on the time of day.  anyway, the family's doing well.  i'm anxious to see them in a couple days.

and then there was yet another important little event tonight! :)  the season premiere of the third season of "laguna beach," my favorite guilty pleasure!  and so far so good!  i was glad to see some veteran cast members in it, too!  and you know i'll be tuning in week after week no matter what.  plus, the boys are way hott.  is that wrong that i say that? ;)  oh, well.  hehe!

and now i'm up way past my bedtime.  i know i should get to bed soon or else i'll be very sad when the alarm goes off in the morning.  i'll be back tomorrow.  g'night. ;)

tuesday 15 august 2006 10:26pm

"he stands there then walks away
my God if i could only say
i'm holding every breath for you" -- taylor swift "i'd lie"

how in the world is it already the middle of august?  i'm like still way back in february!  :)  i think i've been so busy that i forget.  but anyway, wow!

i was up too late last night.  i got distracted by kath and sarah online and all of a sudden i was crawling into bed as letterman (jay was a rerun) was ending.  oops! ;)  so anyway, i got a little bit of sleep.  was it a little chilly last night?  anyway, i got some rest and wasn't ready to get up when the alarms went off.  in fact, i have no recollection of turning the first one off, though i know i must have.  anyway, then i got cleaned up and ready.  and before i even got around to breakfast, i got temporarily distracted.  then i had to hurry with the rest of getting ready, but i still got out the door on time!  rad! :)

i got to work just fine.  and as i pulled into the lot it seemed for full than normal.  i did see there were two spaces toward the end of the side lot where i prefer to park, so i headed that way.  then i discovered that it was actually 2.5 spaces because a corvette was parked in the two end spaces, straddling the line.  the corvette is often parked so rudely in this crowded part of the lot (there are non-crowded spaces where i could care less if he parked in 4 spaces at once).  now you might remember a few months back when i caught someone else doing that so i pulled in right next to them.  it's a statement.  anyway, that time, i realized the driver was still in the car (honda crv) and i was kind of embarrassed that i got caught making my statement but i left my car there anyway.  well.  lightening can strike twice.  the guy (and his orange shirt) was still in the 'vette!  but i left my car there anyway, once again.  don't be a rude parker! :)

anyway, work.  haha!  work was fun today because i had enough stuff to keep me busy all day but also left holes where i could catch up on news and such. :)  perfect!  of course, it was supposed to be more busy than it actually was but we're still waiting on those magazine materials that are late.  anyway, so we shipped the other magazine and i worked on checking ads for an upcoming event guide.  oh, and there might have been some chatting with diana and other nonsense things in my day, as well. ;)  plus, i took a few moments to pick up food from scpc.

after work, i headed down to the beach for a walk.  it was a good one!  it seemed to go by really quickly for some reason (not that i was walking faster than normal).  maybe it was the andy griggs and josh gracin on my ipod.  :)  anyway, it was a really good walk!

and on my way home, mom called.  she's so excited about maui!  she loves to call and chat about it, which is fine with me because i'm excited about it.  of course, it's several months away so she cannot keep calling every single day.  but she confirmed all the reservations today, so now i officially have flights, a hotel room, and tickets to the maui invitational.  so awesome! :)  oh, and she wanted to talk about carrot cake for dad's party, as well.  as if i care where she gets the carrot cake!  i don't especially like carrot cake.  who thought it was a good idea to make a vegetable cake? ;)  anyway, it's fun to chat with the family, especially when everyone seems to be in a good mood.

anyway, then i got cleaned up and made myself a little dinner.  i put on a load of laundry because it seemed like a good thing to do.  and i got caught up chatting online.  i do live at this computer sometimes.  anyway, troy wanted to show me his new harker website, which is so funny because all that's on it is his name and email address.  and he told me that i just need to get comfortable cute shoes, as if it's just so easy.  boys know nothing about shoes, huh? ;)  and sarah's busy with a variety of things.  and i hadn't talked to megs in ages, so we caught up a little.  and auntie lily called just to say hi, which is rad.  i'm looking forward to seeing her and the rest of the fam on saturday.  and now all of a sudden it's kind of late and i'm still in the middle of things.  oh, well.  my friends are worth the lack of sleep. :)

and now i am going to try to wrap things up and get into bed.  another fun day ahead of me tomorrow!  i'll let you know how it goes.  g'night. ;)

monday 14 august 2006 9:59pm

"whole world could change in a minute
just one kiss could stop this spinning
we could think it through
but i don't want to if you don't want to
we could keep things just the same
leave here the way we came with nothing to lose
but i don't want to if you don't want to
never waste another day
wondering what you threw away
holding me holding you
i don't want to if you don't want to
we could keep things just the same
leave here the way we came with nothing to lose
but i don't want to if you don't want to
but i want to
but i want you" -- sugarland "want to"

it's been a good monday.  and it isn't always so easy to say that about a monday, returning to work after a nice weekend.  but i did have a good day.  i got to catch up with some people.  and work was pretty mellow.  so anyway, good monday! :)

i got a decent amount of sleep last night.  i almost made it all the way into bed by 11, which had been my goal.  and it didn't take too long for me to crash, though the diet coke at the movies probably wasn't helping any. ;)  anyway, i slept alright and got up with the alarms this morning.  pretty normal, really.  and i got all ready and had breakfast and all that.  and then all of a sudden i was ready to leave and i was running like 15 minutes early.  how did that happen?  i have no idea.  but i headed out anyway because i didn't have any reason to sit around watching 15 more minutes of cnn.

anyway, the drive to work seemed more treacherous than usual with all the crazy drivers out, but i still managed to make it to the office safely.  so i got started with work until i discovered that we didn't have the majority of our magazine materials, which was going to make it quite difficult for me to finish all the figures for the magazine and start laying out my pages.  ::sigh:: yeah.  late again.  whatever.  so i worked on some other stuff and also found some time to catch up on all sorts of news, whether it be world, local, or celebrity. ;)  and for lunch, diana, jenna, and i went to daphne's.  we were pretty much done when ish came in and sat down with us so we ended up there while he ate, too.  kind of weird, but whatever.  and in the afternoon, between working on various little projects, i found a little time to talk to theresa, which was fun.  we pretty much never talk on the phone, but it was good to catch up with her for a few minutes.  i'll see her saturday for dad's party, too.

after work, i changed and headed to the beach for a walk.  it went really well and i was loving the andy griggs on my ipod.  :)  and it was a nice day out there, though kind of windy.  and still haven't spotted a snake, so that's good. ;)  ::knocks on wood::  and i'm rocking those stairs at the end!

then i came home and did the strength training.  i wasn't loving it today, but whatever.  at least i got to watch the giants game while i was doing it.  they're in san diego now for a couple days.  and so i got through that and got cleaned up.

and pretty much it's been a mellow evening.  i talked to the family for a while.  they're doing fine.  and i had some dinner and hot cookies for dessert. :)  and i've been watching the giants (i can hardly believe they just won!) and reading a hawaii guidebook.  i'm getting more excited about the trip! :)  i read about dining in west maui tonight, which should be handy information whenever we're hungry!  and now i'm just chatting with sarah as i start to get ready for bed.

i need to get some sleep tonight.  i'm better if i have a little rest in me.  anyway, i'll be back with more tomorrow.  for the time being, g'night. ;)

sunday 13 august 2006 10:07pm

"i got your ring around my neck
and a couple of nights i don't regret
you got a dream of a degree
and a shirt that smells like me
yeah, we both got dreams we could chase alone
or we could make our own" -- sugarland "want to"

what a good sunday!  :)  i did enough to keep myself busy but nothing so much that i tired myself out.  i just did things that seem like good sunday things. :)  and now i'm just working on getting myself all ready for bed (writing this is generally my first step toward bed).

i woke up at 9:30 all on my own this morning after a sort of tossing-and-turning sleep.  anyway, that's weird because i kind of wanted to be up before 9:40.  somewhere in me there's an internal alarm clock that i'm able to mentally set or something.  anyway, i lied there for 10 minutes at then got up and into the shower to get all cleaned up.  i had a little breakfast and threw on jeans and a polo.  i had about 10 minutes to spare, so i started reading the newspaper until it was time to leave.

then i headed down to st. edwards for mass.  it seems like it's been a long time.  mass was good, though the kids seemed to be at their most antsy, which is sometimes distracting for me.  but whatever, it was a good mass and it was a gorgeous morning to be looking out across the pacific. :)  (that's reason enough to go to mass, right? ;))

then i headed up to vons, planning just to get a jamba juice (that's the nearest one with easy access).  of course, i wanted groceries, too, once i got there, so i picked up just a couple things.  and actually, i did quite well, saving over $5 on a $19-total.  rad!  anyway, then i got my citrus squeeze and headed back home.

i'd been looking forward to watching the men's final of the manhattan beach open on tv (in high-def!) this afternoon.  of course, the nascar race on before it ran half an hour over, so that meant the middle game of the volleyball match got cut out.  so sad!  but it was still fun to watch, and i chatted about it with my brother online.  we were rooting for lambert-metzger, but they lost.  oh, well.  still a great match! :)  and i enjoyed a baked potato, because that just sounded good. :)

after a little power nap (15 glorious minutes), i headed up to the movie theatre to see "little miss sunshine."  i'd been wanting to see it since i saw the trailer in a theatre ages ago.  anyway, i got there and bought a ticket.  i had decided earlier that i wanted to treat myself to movie popcorn today, so i ordered a small popcorn and a small soda.  and then the cashier asked me for $9!  what?!?  that's SO much, right?  but having already ordered it, i paid.  $5 for a small popcorn.  that's why i almost never buy concessions, i guess.  i ate the whole bag and drank nearly all of the soda.  anyway, then it was time for the movie, which i found to be totally good.  it was funny and emotional and about a real family that actually loves.  and i only cried at one part, and not the saddest part of the movie, which i never saw coming, by the way.  anyway, that was a good movie. :)

and i've been hanging out here tonight.  i watched the giants blow yet another baseball game after 8 awesome innings by schmidt.  i gave myself a hot little manicure. :)  i straightened up a bit because things had gotten a little messy after i went through all those magazines last night.  and i had a couple cookies.  mmm... :)  plus, i found a few minutes to catch up with troy, but he got distracted by something else.  anyway, now i'm watching randy travis and josh turner perform together (i recorded it last night, i think), and it's quite good.  their voices are... mmm... :)  hehe!

so i guess i should get going.  i wanted to be tucked in by 11, so that gives me less than 30 minutes now.  i'll be back tomorrow with more. :)  g'night! ;)

saturday 12 august 2006 11:32pm

"whole world could change in a minute
just one kiss could stop this spinning
we could think it through
but i don't want to if you don't want to
we could keep things just the same
leave here the way we came with nothing to lose
but i don't want to if you don't want to" -- sugarland "want to"

it's my katie's birthday!  30!  whoa! ;)

when did i get so boring?  ;)  okay, so i'm not totally boring but really my saturday was, largely because i got no rest last weekend and i don't plan on getting any next weekend either.  so rest was the goal today, so i didn't do anything.

i was up kind of late last night, as i saw leno and conan.  :)  and then i slept alright through the night.  i had a couple nightmares, the scariest of which involved my cousin, theresa, dying tragically.  and it was one of those dreams that i didn't know was a dream when i was in it.  it was just like this life.  so weird!  and i was so relieved when i woke up!  and i woke up around 10 and thought about getting up but thought better of it and went back to sleep for another 90 minutes. :)  excellent!  i'm catching up with myself a little bit!

but then i did get up.  i lounged around the apartment a bit and made myself meal #1.  as i was channel surfing, i discovered a "laguna beach" marathon on mtv, so i tuned it.  both seasons!  in their entirety!  woohoo!  haha!  okay, so i know i actually have all those on dvd but i still watched.  anyway, i hung out a while.

eventually, the time was right and the sun was in the correct spot for me to go outside on the deck and lay out in the sunshine for a little bit while reading and also listening to the giants lose (yet again) on my tv.  guess it really is true that my generation is addicted to multi-tasking. ;)  anyway, that was entertaining enough for a while.

then i came in and got cleaned up and dressed finally.  i went over to the bookstore to look for birthday presents for my dad.  he's been reading lots of history books lately, so i found a couple interesting-looking ones, as well as a couple hawaii/maui guidebooks (i want to know what else i should do there).  there are so many books there, though, that i had to get out before i got myself into too much trouble. ;)

then i have just been hanging out here the rest of the night, watching episode after episode of "laguna beach" and trying to catch up on the stack of magazines that i hadn't read yet.  i got through lots, actually, because i'm not really doing anything else.  and i had a little dinner and chatted with the family.  and actually, that's about it.  i considered watching a movie, but i'm totally content with "laguna beach" instead. :)

and i think i'll read a while longer before crashing.  i have no idea what i'll do tomorrow.  something interesting, perhaps. ;)  okay, i'm off but i'll be back soon enough.  g'night. ;)

friday 11 august 2006 10:37pm

"i've packed a cooler and a change of clothes
let's jump and see how far it goes
you got my heart and your daddy's boat
we got all night to make it float
we could sit on the shore, we could just be friends
or we could jump in" -- sugarland "want to"

because this song is perfect for what i'd choose to write here and perfect just in general, i'll be using it the next few nights. :)  go!  listen!

it's been a mellow friday but also one of those days where i know i laughed a lot.  that's a great feeling! :)  i'm happy with it.  i don't know.  it just seems right.  (or maybe that's just because i'm once again listening to the sugarland song. ;))

i was accidentally up later than i had really wanted last night but i did still get to sleep before i saw the musical guest on leno.  that gives me about 7 hours of sleep, definitely enough for me to be functional the next day, even if i didn't sleep especially well last night.  i know i had a weird dream, but i no longer have any clue what it was about.  oh, well.  anyway, eventually the alarm woke me up and i managed to get up and into the shower successfully.  i got cleaned up and ready.  i even had breakfast (thanks to the milk and the very cheap box of cereal i procured at target last night)!  and i checked some email and things like that before getting dressed (so cute! ;)) and heading out.  i needed fuel desperately, so i went down to my favorite station and got gas and cleaned my very dirty windshield.  and i then headed down pch to the office.

work was really fun today because it was friday!  people just work less on fridays, i think.  anyway, i definitely had enough to keep me busy: figures for "cots" and a giant rtecc brochure for one of our two biggest shows of the year.  plus just the normal everyday tasks.  but in between getting all that stuff done, i also had some fun with the boys.  we were discussing how i would die if i couldn't have any of my belongings with me on a flight from london to la (12ish hours).  then brian started the sentence "at least you weren't flying to..." but then wanted to know what place is exactly opposite la on earth.  anyway, marke and i determined that he really is fitting into the team as he looked up our longitude and latitude in san clemente and then mapped the exact opposite.  assuming he did it correctly, the closest large city would be perth, australia.  that's nearly 20 hours of flying from here.  anyway, it was a funny little conversation! :)  and for lunch, i picked up a chicken pita (so delicious!) from daphne's and ate in the kitchen with diana, marke, and larisa.  it was entertaining. :)  oh, and i might have done the sudoku in the "life" magazine that came in the newspaper at some point. ;)  i win!  hehe!  dork.  i know.

after work, i just headed home.  i've really just been hanging out here.  i started working on fixing up my catalogue of all my cds, but i'm not really near done yet.  there are a lot, you know!  also, i had a good dinner and chatted with the family for a while.  i did lots of dishes to try to keep the ants at bay.  and i watched last night's leno and conan.  choosing to record them was such a good decision!  they're much better than whatever else is on at 6pm on a friday.  oh, and i also watched the giants blow yet another game.  at least i got to see noah lowry pitch 7 good innings in high def! ;)

after dinner tonight, i went down to golden spoon for some frozen yogurt, which i ate once back at home and couldn't really finish.  too much!  but it was really tasty! :)

and now i'm just hanging out.  i'll likely watch more tv or read or something until i crash at some late hour.  i'll be back soon enough with more for you.  don't know what's planned for the weekend.  g'night. ;)

thursday 10 august 2006 10:34pm

"i wish i had a four leaf clover...
i don't want to be away from you
and all my thoughts are lost in the dark
but i know they won't get very far
i'm in love with you, yeah you" -- cheyenne kimball "everything to lose"

first of all, my daddy turns 60 years old today! :)

thursday.  it's been... um... up and down but mostly up.  and now it's coming to an end faster than i am really prepared for because i'm not in bed yet and it's quickly getting late.  anyway, here goes...

last night i crawled into bed before 10, switched on "america's got talent" and fell asleep pretty much immediately.  it wasn't exactly compelling tv. ;)  and then i got lots and lots of sleep, especially for a work night!  like 9 hours!  i so win!  haha!  anyway, i could have slept longer but that pesky alarm woke me up at my standard time of 7:30.  so i got up and showered and dressed.  then i headed out just a few minutes early so i could pick up breakfast at the donut shop (it's totally trouble that it's so convenient to work), where i ran into cindy, also getting herself breakfast.

anyway, it was much better to be arriving at the office at 9 instead of 8, and i even had time to catch up on some news.  i had watched cnn while getting ready this morning (instead of my usual "good day la"), but i wanted to find out more about the british breaking up that terrorist bombing plot.  anyway, i brought it all back around to me.  will i be able to take my luggage on my flight with me next friday when i fly home?  or will they be back to letting me carry on liquids and gels?  and will i be able to find a cheap flight to london because no one wants to fly there (and back here) anymore?  i hope so!  :)  i'm all about going.  actually, listening to all the british people talking and all the reporters in london makes me want to go there even more!  i miss it!  anyway, so i caught up on some news. :)  and i did some work, but i was back to a normal work level, which is good.  for lunch, i just picked up pizza.  nothing too exciting.  anyway, lots of work for me today but just normal magazine stuff.  i don't know.  in the afternoon, though i got to listen to my music nice and loud again.  i was listening to one of the country radio stations in itunes and they played what i have now learned in the brand new sugarland single from their upcoming album.  it's called "want to" and it's one of those songs i already know i'll love forever.  and it has the perfect title.  i love that phrase.  anyway, that's good stuff.  and i love that my first listen was loud enough that i could enjoy it, not like respectable elevator volume. :)

a few moments before i was ready to head out of the office, sarah informed me that she has a new job!  yay for her!  that's exciting!  :)  i knew she'd find one.

then i headed down to the beach for a walk.  i have the best walks when i have a lot on my mind or my heart or both.  i really walk like a woman on a mission.  and that was me tonight, with a lot going on in my head.  but afterwards, i felt way, way better.  the only thing that really changed was my frame of mind, but that's all i needed.  i just needed to sort through my own head.  anyway, i had a very good, very fast walk and then headed home for a round of strength training, which completely physically exhausted me.

so i got cleaned up, which took longer than normal because i wasn't moving very fast anymore. ;)  i threw on some clothes and headed off to target.  i'd been wanting the cheyenne kimball cd for a while now, so i wanted to just go get it finally.  plus, i really needed milk, and i knew i could get it there. :)  and amazingly, i spent like $15 there.  that's like impossible.  i win!  and then i stopped at wendy's on my way home for dinner because i was hungry and that just sounded good.  sometimes deep fried dinner just sounds so excellent! :)  and i ate that here while watching last night's leno and conan, which i've started recording now.  anyway, that was good stuff.  also, i talked to the family for awhile.  they seem to be doing well. :)

and now i really do need to go to bed.  it's late and i do actually have to show up to work tomorrow.  i'll be back with more next time, though.  g'night. ;)

wednesday 9 august 2006 8:08pm

"in my soul i can hear you
as i cross the mississippi
you're the river flowing in me coming home
i count each heartbeat
'til the moment we're together
and the distance can't be measured
that's all that keeps me going
and i'm gone" -- john michael montgomery "'til nothing comes between us"

it's early but i'm writing already.  that's because i'm so tired and i finally plan on making tonight the night i pay off a little sleep debt.  tomorrow, i don't want to be tired anymore!  :)  so i'm going to try my very hardest to be in bed very soon, and i'm not getting up early tomorrow.  okay, anyway, today was good, even if i really didn't do a whole lot.

i spent some time chatting with friends last night (chris and i finally have plans!  he's so hard to schedule stuff with!).  and then i did actually get to sleep last night just as leno was starting, so i got some rest.  i didn't sleep amazingly well, but i did get a little sleep.  so anyway, i got up early with that alarm again, and i got cleaned up right away.  i got dressed and headed out right away.  finally!  out the door with time to spare for the first time this week! :)  and i stopped at starbucks for my drink with an impossibly long name (grande nonfat decaf marble mocha macchiato no whip) and a piece of coffeecake.  "breakfast."  ;)

and then i was into the office before 8 and got to take a few minutes to catch up on the news i've missed in the past few days.  and then it back to work.  and actually, i got a ton of stuff today, so much so that i could even go into jenna's office and offer to help her out with whatever she needed.  i win! ;)  hehe!  anyway, it was a busy day, but i did stop long enough to run to stillwater cafe with jenna to pick up lunch, which i ate with the girls in the kitchen instead of at my desk.  and then it was more of me working through the afternoon.  i did get to chat with sarah a bit, though, and mom called to tell me how the plans for maui are going well.  and of course i've been enjoying all the hours i can spend with the country music going in the art department because it's just me in that room.  i love that i can turn it up loud enough to really enjoy it.

hmm... what else?  well, after work i decided to just come home.  good choice!  and i tried my hardest to stay awake but i think i accidentally fell asleep on the couch (it has that effect on me) for a few minutes.  i'm not really sure.  you know how that happens?  anyway, i had some dinner, i talked to the family for a bit (dad has agreed to the sunrise bike ride down haleakala with me!).  and now i'm going to bed.  yeah, it's like 9 and i'm going to sleep.  i'm that tired!  but it should make tomorrow better if i sleep tonight, don't you think?

anyway, i'll be back tomorrow.  g'night. ;)

tuesday 8 august 2006 9:05pm

"there will finally come a moment
when one man and one woman
give everything that they've been waiting for
oh, i'll take you in my arms again
feel your skin against my skin
and let the sheet fall slowly to the floor
'til nothing comes between us anymore" -- john michael montgomery "'til nothing comes between us"

i'm working on making sure that i stay as tired as possible.  or at least it seems that way!  there's a lot going on and i'm working hard to keep up.  and i am.  but i'm also really tired.  but tonight i will once again attempt to get a little extra rest and work on paying off that sleep debt... or at least just not make it any worse. ;)

last night i was up kind of late, actually.  i saw most of leno, which is what i'd normally see but then i got up early today.  and i didn't actually sleep that well, but whatever.  i did get a little rest and i was very much asleep when the alarm went off at 6:45 this morning.  so early!  and i showered with my eyes closed as much as possible, i was that tired, even with the wreckers album playing!  anyway, i got cleaned up and ready.  i found a little breakfast and checked email really quickly.  then i got all my belongings in order (gym bag, snacks for work, the packages i needed to mail).  and i was off to work once again 15 minutes late.  oops! ;)

and i made it to work just fine.  marke and brian were already there because they're on an insane 6-2 schedule, at least for right now.  yikes.  that's what i say! ;)  and i had a lot of things on my schedule for the day, so i dove right in and got to work.  i needed to finish my "pkg" pages in the morning so jenna could do ad placement and we could get page proofs out today.  so she did that but then the magazine got put on hold and we're waiting for more editorial.  oh, well.  i was busy with a whole host of other projects for the rest of the day.  i did all the rest of the figures for "rtc," which i'll be laying out tomorrow.  i put together one of our biggest rtecc brochures of the year, the san diego-los angeles shows.  and i checked all the ads that we received today, which was a lot actually.  and then there was one more big, important project for the day that really stands out.  last week i was assigned the task of creating an ad for a new advertiser, one of diana's clients.  it's a big compliment, as far as i'm concerned.  anyway, after a couple drafts, it was approved this afternoon and will run in this month's "cots!"  hooray!  an ad i actually made will run in an actual magazine!  it's very cool! :)  so anyway, i worked long hours and only took a break to go to the post office (it was miraculously empty!  no line!) and pick up a couple slices at san clemente pizza co.  the rest of my long day was work.  but at least i got to rock out to country music all afternoon because it was just me in the art department room. :)

after work, diana and i went to the beach for a walk.  it was very mellow because she's pregnant and has to be a bit more careful.  plus, she hasn't exercised much in the last three months.  but we had a nice walk and a nice chat, and it was a gorgeous evening out there!  i swear one day i'll just sit and watch the sunset instead of working my butt off! :)  i live in a nice place.

then i picked up conditioner (remember last time when i accidentally bought shampoo instead of conditioner?  well i totally ran out of conditioner) and headed home.  i got cleaned up, had a little dinner, dealt with a small ant problem, and found a couple of friends to chat with online (chris, sarah, annahita).  and i gave myself the pedicure i'd been needing, so my toes now look way more presentable! ;)  haha!  oh, i am such a girl sometimes!

but i'm hoping to sneak off to bed early, read a little bit, and then crash early.  another early morning for me tomorrow.  i have a lot to do and that extra time when the office is quiet is so useful!  i'll be back tomorrow with more for you.

g'night. ;)

monday 7 august 2006 9:52pm

"wondering if a single soul on earth
would care at all
miss me when i'm gone" -- emerson drive "moments"

there seems to be a lot going on.  i suppose that it's mainly at work right now, but seeing as though i'm spending like 10 hours a day there right now, that's a huge part of my life.  and actually, i'm kind of really enjoying it all!  it's madness but good.  it's a challenge and i'm willing to work my butt off to prove to myself (and others, i guess) that i can get everything done.  so anyway, here's my life... :)

last night i ended up being up a little bit later than i had planned, but it was fine.  i enjoyed myself just watching a little tv, having some dessert, and doing a little reading.  and i got a little bit of sleep, though the alarm did go off really early this morning.  it's a little rough!  but i got cleaned up and ready and had some breakfast.  i even put on some of that makeup i bought yesterday with mel.  (i looked way cute! :))  and i headed off to work only 15 minutes later than i wanted.  oops!  and i got on the freeway in an attempt to make up some of that time, but it was a disaster, as i almost died twice (neither my fault).  but i did make it to the office safely.

marke was already in, and brian was only a step behind me.  it's going to be an early-morning office for the next 5 weeks, i think, with marke arriving at 6 and brian trying to do the same.  crazies! ;)  anyway, i got straight to work.  there are a million things to get done and new things keep popping up.  the bulk of the work right now is in preparing two magazines: "pkg" and "rtc."  that's a lot of stuff, especially with melissa out.  i am excited about "pkg" in particular because it's only the second issue and i didn't do any layout for its first issue.  so this is my first time!  pretty cool!  though i did have to make sure i have all the fonts and everything.  but i got started on my section this afternoon, ahead of my mental schedule.  and i also got through a huge section of "rtc" figures, though there are many more still waiting for me when i get back to my desk.  so yeah, i worked really hard all day long.  there were some fun, more social parts of my day, as well! :)  this morning, diana announced to everyone that she's pregnant!  woohoo!  that's so exciting! :)  she's due in february!  yay!  i'm so happy for her!  and i'm a little bit jealous because she's always hungry and always eating, which would be fun, i think! ;)  and at lunchtime, marke, diana, and i went to wahoos and ended up sitting with a big group of other rtc people.  john grilled me the entire lunch about my family and friends and stuff.  whatever.  not surprising. :)  and my food was really good!  and i spent a little time chatting with diana and lea here and there just to take little breaks from all the work to maintain my sanity. :)

after work, i headed for the beach.  it's become quite the habit, hasn't it? :)  and i was having a great walk, rocking out to the wreckers on my ipod.  then a couple ladies walking the opposite direction said something to me as we passed.  i couldn't hear, so i took out one earbud.  "there's a snake," she said.  yikes!  of course, like the girl that i am i squirmed and stood on my tiptoes, as if that was going to make something better or keep me safer.  haha!  when i asked where, they pointed in the direction i was walking and informed me that it probably had gone into the bushes now.  of course, i was so creeped out and walked in the very middle of the path until i got away from where there are bushed.  i never saw the snake but i think that'll stick in my head for many more walks in the future.  great! ;)  hehe!  anyway, the rest of the walk was good, even though the tide was really high.

then i headed home.  katie left me a voicemail, but i couldn't reach her when i tried to return her call.  so i went home and got on with my strength training.  it's getting easier, so that's good news!  and i ended up chatting with troy online while i was doing that and then afterwards.  he got his new classroom at his new school, harker, today, so that's exciting for him!  i also caught up with the family for a bit.  the giants won.  and we're going to maui for thanksgiving.  that's all good news! :)  and i just finished getting cleaned up and am just hanging out now.  i need a pedicure, but i'm not sure if i have enough time tonight.  we'll see.  and then i'm off to bed for some more sleep.  today was busy, and i'm feeling tired!  plus, i'll be up again early tomorrow morning.

7 august, also one of my favorite days.

more tomorrow.  g'night for now.  ;)

sunday 6 august 2006 8:14pm

"why am i always playin' nice
it isn't easy tryin' to tell you
oh oh, exactly what's on my mind
i've been wrong but i've been changin'
i've been wonderin' what to do
here i am alone and waitin'
for you
i've been wrong but i've been waitin'
for you" -- the wreckers "hard to love you"

what a great weekend! :)  i'm so exhausted i can hardly see, and i know i'll be crashing very early tonight, but it was worth every second of sleep i didn't get.  having the girls around all weekend was so much fun, and i really do have the coolest friends.  they come all the way here to visit and hang out and everything.  rad! :)

so i crashed around three last night/this morning and then all of a sudden i was awoken by the most annoying alarm clock ever (mel's cell phone).  meg got up at 7 and headed back up to monterey because she had to work this afternoon.  and so i went back to sleep until my own alarm went off at 9.  i got up and showered and then woke up katherine and mel, who were both sound asleep.  aww!  but we had things to do today!  so we all got cleaned up and ready and everything, which takes a long time in one bathroom with three girls.  :)  but mel (who is a makeup pro) helped teach kath how to put on makeup a little better, so at least there was some learning going on! ;)  and actually, she did look really cute!

then the three of us headed down to dana point to rj's cafe for breakfast.  it's my favorite place around here to go for that, as you might have noticed from previous entries. :)  anyway, we waited about 15 minutes for a table, which was not a problem at all.  and in that time, the skies really cleared and it warmed up a lot.  love that!  breakfast was so delicious!  we were all hungry!  i had pancakes, which were so perfect!  and the other two enjoyed their meals, as well.

then we tried to go to the rainbow factory store (mel promised her boyfriend sandals from the oc), but they were closed, so we just headed to our next destination of the day: fashion island in newport.  mel had wanted to do a little shopping, so we wandered all around there.  i think the highlight was probably this random little makeup store there (the face shop, i think it's called), where mel was choosing and applying makeup like a true pro.  (she used to work at the lancome counter and taught me everything about makeup back in the day.)  anyway, i found a couple new shadows, so that was fun!  and i did also find a new book to add to the ever-growing stack of books i plan on reading soon. :)  and then all of a sudden it was nearly 3, and i needed to take kath and mel up the road to john wayne so they could catch their planes back home.  i was sad to see them go, but i did have a really great time with them.  just having them around and all the chatting and everything is comfortable.  i miss them most of the time!  so yeah, i love having my friends visit! :)

then i headed back home dead tired.  i have just been hanging out since i got back.  i put up a ton of photos from the weekend on flickr already, which was good fun!  i talked to both troy and sarah online, which was good.  i needed to catch up with both of them.  i had a little dinner.  i watched a couple episodes of "the hills."  i read a bit more of the trashy romance novel i'm working on.  and i tried to clean up a little bit here, but really there's not too much to do and i'm not currently that motivated.  and after i find myself a little dessert, i'll probably just write a little bit and then crash.

i was in a very good place exactly two years ago tonight (same goes with last night).  it's fun to think back on, and i continue to wonder how to get back there.  hmm...

anyway, i need to go to bed.  i'll be back tomorrow with more.  g'night. ;)

sunday 6 august 2006 2:11am

the weekend has been so wonderful thus far! :)  it was a great saturday, and i'm looking forward to more on sunday, as well.  and i know i should be sleeping right now instead of up writing this but it's just what i do. ;)  all for you!  plus, it seems like there's a lot to say right now (though i'll probably be a little brief so i can get a few zzzs before morning.

obviously, mel, meg, kath, and i were up very late last night. :)  it was just us sitting around talking until about 3, at which point i told everyone that we do actually need to go to bed.  and so we all did.  and i ended up sleeping really well (i'm assuming because i didn't start sleeping until after 3am), and then i woke up, looked at the clock, realized it said 11 (that took a few tries to make sure i saw it correctly), and freaked out because i was late for work.  but then i remembered it's saturday and that my friends were in the living room still sleeping.  so after making sure that i was actually awake, i woke them up as well.  we all showered and got dressed and everything.

then we headed down the road to i <3 bagels for meal #1, and my everything bagel with cream cheese hit the spot perfectly.  so good! :)  and then we headed down to capo beach in dana point/san juan capistrano for some quality beach time!  it was mel's request and she doesn't visit all that often, so it seemed like a good idea.  plus, it was a gorgeous day out there, like 80s and a breeze was going.  the waves were really coming in, too!  so we lied out there and sunbathed and occasionally also got a little wet in the chilly water.  it was so fun and i do think that at one point i was so relaxed i fell asleep.  :)  the other girls got a little sunburned, but i think they'll survive.

then went to trader joe's to pick up a couple last-second things and then came home.  we spent all afternoon and evening cooking a huge meal!  it was so nice to have helpers, though!  and also, mel was doing everyone's makeup because she's a pro at it and always does a wonderful job!

and then i had a nice dinner party! :)  it was mel, meg, kath, jenna, marke, katrina, diana, lea, and me feasting on fried polenta, caesar salad, gnocchi in a cheesy white sauce, penne arrabiata, and bread.  oh goodness, it all turned out deliciously and everyone ate too much.  there was chianti going around, too, i think, though i did not partake.  and after a little digesting and lots of chit-chat, it was time for dessert.  meg and kath made me a fun birthday cake so they like a zillion candles and sang and i got them all out, i think! ;)  and there was also this cookie-carmel-chocolate thing (that has no good name) that is so delicious i think it could actually kill.  it's a josh scott favorite.  anyway, we all also ate way too much dessert and it was fantastic! :)  and then lea and diana had to leave, but the rest of us broke out apples to apples and played for a while.  i ended up winning, though i really couldn't get any to agree with me that i won because i'm funny! ;)  i am funny!  hahaha!  anyway, that was really fun, even if i am a total sucker for people who throw cards when it's my turn that they know i'll pick even if they have nothing to do with adjective card (like the johnny depp card.  i was never going to not pick johnny!).  :)  and then once jenna, marke, and katrina were gone, we spent some serious time cleaning up but it seems to all be totally under control now!  i got a serious ant infestation tonight, so i had to clean everything up to prevent another problem.  so now i think we're good! :)  and then meg crashed because she was so tired, but mel, kath, and i stayed up longer just chatting and everything.  it was so fun.  they're sleeping now to prepare for another busy day.

i think i will crash soon, too.  tomorrow (technically today, i suppose), i'll fill you in on the rest of the weekend.  g'night. ;)

saturday 5 august 2006 2:34am

okay, so it's the middle of the night and we're still very much up and chatting and everything.  but i can sit and write for a few minutes as we're just hanging out.  it's been an awesome friday, i must say!  crazy, but so excellent. :)

first of all, today (friday, 4 august) is katherine's 23rd birthday, so that's exciting!  and she's here with me to celebrate, so yay!

okay, so i was up into conan last night, which is too late but i had to get everything around the apartment ready for the weekend.  and i didn't get a whole lot of sleep, but whatever.  i don't need it this weekend.  with the girls around, it doesn't matter at all.  i mean, i'm up at nearly 3am.  life's good. :)  so anyway, i did get up with the alarm this morning, got clean and dressed quickly, and headed to the office, stopping just for a bagel on the way.

work today was... well... insane.  mostly that's my own fault, though.  it's hard to leave early on a day when there's a big company lunch out.  anyway, i spent the morning working on comps for an ad for one of our clients, and it's a real privilege to get to create this ad.  i'm stoked about the chance! :)  and actually, for the amount of time spent they look pretty good!  and i believe the drafts went to the client today.  and then all of a sudden it was time for lunch.  it was jan's last day, so we all went out to the salt creek grille, which is cool because i've been wanting to go there and free is good. :)  so we like all went out, and it was fun being with diana and lea, who are so ridiculous together!  it cracks me up!  and then i raced back to the office, wrapped up everything, fit in a little diana gossip, and was on my merry way.  only about 35 minutes late! :)

then i picked up megs at the apartment, and then we went up to john wayne to retrieve katherine.  and it was errands in the afternoon.  we did target, trader joe's, and ralph's for things for tomorrow's dinner party.  very exciting.  and then after a little hanging out at the apartment, we headed back up to john wayne to get mel.

then the four of us headed down to laguna beach, found a place to park freakishly close to where i parked last weekend with adam, and headed down to bj's.  we waited a bit longer than i had really anticipated, but our dinner to celebrate kath's birthday was excellent, full of entirely too much pizza, hot waiters, and enough pizzookie to fill me to the brim.  wow.  so full.  and the we walked across the street to main beach for a little walk, and then  there was the walk back up the hill to the car.  it was good to get moving after all that food. :)

and now we're hanging out here.  and seriously we've just been talking and stuff for hours!  yeah, i tried to do a little cooking somewhere in there, but yeah.  anyway, the bulk of that will still be tomorrow.  and i'm trying to convince everyone that we actually do need to go to bed now.  so i'm off.  more tomorrow!  g'night. ;)

thursday 3 august 2006 11:29pm

"as long as i got me a couple trees
to hang my hammock underneath in a summer breeze
i'm a lucky man
as long as i got me a dream or two
and a little bit of faith that one day they just might come true
i'm a lucky man" -- emerson drive "lucky man"

i'm running a little late tonight, but that's okay.  i know i'll survive. ;)  i'm totally looking forward to tomorrow, so it really won't matter how little sleep i'm running on.  but i suppose first i should get to today.  it was a good one, i would say, though really i've been running around all day.

so last night i ended up polishing off that cheesecake while watching the season finale of "the hills," which made me cry.  don't judge me. ;)  haha!  actually, i just thought it was sweet that jason was so supportive of lauren.  also, it was awesome to see malibu throughout the show.  i love that town, and i do really miss it.  so that was a fun way to round out my evening. :)

then i slept really poorly last night, which is not especially surprising, so no big deal.  and then i was up with an early alarm this morning.  i got cleaned up and dressed and fed as quickly as possible, and then i headed for work.  i have been trying to get some extra hours in because tomorrow will be short and the next few weeks will be insane.  so anyway, it was a very quick morning and i got no morning news, so i don't know what's going on in the world today. ;)

okay, so work today went really well, though i sort of have a feeling that even though i worked way more than i normally would, i didn't actually accomplish enough.  i'm a little worried about tomorrow, but i know it'll work out.  i just have to stay focused.  anyway, i arrived around 8 and worked hard right away.  and around quarter to 9, the new guy, brian, arrived.  before marke!  oops!  so he got settled in for a few minutes until marke got there.  anyway, i worked hard for a few hours.

then i took off and headed to the salon for an 11am appointment with bobby.  yay for a haircut!  i really needed it, and it was just a trim to keep the ends looking neat.  :)  i love getting a haircut, though!  it was great, and i also got to chat with bobby about new design ideas and everything, so that was great.  but then it was straight back to work.

of course, by then it was nearly noon and we decided to take brian out to the waffle lady for lunch.  oddly, it was melissa and me and 4 boys.  that's never happened before!  (jan, marke, brian, and ish).  and lunch was fine.  ish talked the entire time and told the same stories i heard at lunch with him last week (though i'm the only repeat person in the group).  and so i also learned nothing about brian, but considering he sits about 10 feet from my desk, i'm sure i'll get more information pretty quickly.  he seems nice enough, anyway.

and then i worked hard all afternoon again.  the end of the day when it was just me, jan, melissa, and jenna was especially fun, though.  it's weird that tomorrow's jan's last day!  we're going to miss him so much!  but eventually it was after 6, so i figured it was time for me to get out of there, especially if i was going to get anything else done tonight.

so i went to the beach and had a walk.  it was not especially nice out there tonight, as the sun never came out today.  but it was warm enough and i got a good walk in.  :)  and then strength training when i got back home.  actually, in between, i talked to sarah on the phone for a bit, which was so fun.  she's helping a friend move this week, so we haven't chatted in ages.  so it was good to catch up for a minutes or two. :)

anyway, then i got cleaned up, put on three loads of laundry, and made myself a little dinner.  no time for rest around here tonight!  then i cleaned the whole apartment, so it's all ready for the weekend when it'll be full of people!  the laundry's all put away now, and things are looking good. :)  i'm stoked!  also, i had a few minutes to catch parts of "the wedding planner," which was on tv and to chat with the parents, who seem to be doing just fine.

but now i really do need to get to bed.  i'll be up again early tomorrow!  i'll fill you in on everything again next time.  g'night. ;)

wednesday 2 august 2006 10:20pm

"maybe i'm not in your arms
but you still own my heart" - emerson drive "you still own me"

goodness gracious!  as i just sat down to start writing this, i realized how many more little things i need to accomplish around here tonight before i can crash (and then wake up early tomorrow).  yikes!  but all things i'm capable of taking care of.  and so i will get to those as soon as i am done updating this for you.  :)

okay, so i crashed during leno last night, which is great news.  if i never see the musical act, then i'm generally in good shape for the next morning and day.  so i got a little sleep (not amazing, but you know) and then got up just fine with the alarm this morning.  i got cleaned up, had breakfast, got dressed, packed my gym bag, did the fluoride trays (those things seriously make a dent in my morning routine because they take about 7 minutes from start to finish), and headed out, and i was still about 10 minutes early!  i totally win!  somehow i was just on this morning.

and the quickstyle work continued once i arrived at the office.  as i believe i've already noted this week, i have a growing to-do list at work, which is great for me because it means i have lots of responsibilities and lots of things to keep me busy all day long (and then some).  so i was straight to work, getting a show brochure off to the printer an entire day early.  awesome! :)  and then it was small things here and there for the rest of the morning, plus helping marke to process some raw images.  anyway, then we decided we want to continue our trend of trying new places for lunch, so we went to s.c. cafe, a place i read about in the local newspaper (to which i am obsessively devoted).  and i think it was a pretty good choice!  diana, jan, jenna, marke, melissa, and i had a fun lunch in a local diner sort of place.  and the staff (i think a father and son) was cool.  so i think it was a good choice, especially when doing something risky like trying a completely new place.  so yay for fun lunch!  and then it was back to work for the afternoon.  i got some good stuff done, though i was also somehow in the office until about 6.  it's fine, really.  i don't mind so much.  and then it made my little commute from work to the beach very, very fast!

so i was at the beach and i had a really good walk.  today i was listening to ryan cabrera, which i decided makes really good walking music.  all the songs are pretty much the same and mid-tempo, so great for a walking pace.  and anyway, it was so gorgeous out there, so that made the whole experience even more enjoyable.  also, my leg feels normal today, because i know you were worried. ;)  and then i headed straight home from the beach for some strength training, which felt like it kicked my butt today, though in a good way.  ::flexes her muscles:: ;)

then i got cleaned up and have been trying to take care of little things around the apartment.  i had dinner and soon will polish off that leftover cheesecake for dessert.  i talked to the family for a bit.  i wrapped/packaged the gifts i bought last night.  i baked the potatoes that i'll use to make gnocchi.  all i have left is emptying the dishwasher, loading the dirty dishes into the dishwasher, setting out clothes for tomorrow morning, packing a gym bag for tomorrow, and taking care of my eyebrows. :)  and i want to watch tonight's season finale of "the hills," (which got picked up for a second season!  hooray!) but i'm not sure i'll actually have the time for that one.  i'll get up early tomorrow and head to work early so i can take a little time out of my morning to get a haircut from bobby.  just a trim!

anyway, i need to get moving.  more tomorrow.  g'night. ;)

tuesday 1 august 2006 10:44pm

"i was up all night 'cause i couldn't sleep
instead of staring at the ceiling i hit the beach
took a long walk, it didn't help me much
i saw down in the sand with a handful of shells
kicked off my shoes while me, myself, and i watched the sun come up
lookin' out across the sea it's finally dawned on me
i can go where i wanna go, do what i wanna do, be who i wanna be
but baby, you still own me
say what i wanna say, hear what i wanna hear, dream what i wanna dream
but baby, you still own me" -- emerson drive "you still own me"

today was a little bit odd, and i also have no idea where all the hours went because it seems like there's no possible way it's already this late.  but here i am writing and then i'm off to bed.  i think i'm pretty ready to move on to wednesday, anyhow.  so yeah, weird tuesday.  but not especially bad, so i'm doing just fine.

i got to sleep at a totally decent hour last night, not even seeing the end of leno.  that's good for me! :)  anyway, i remember turning off the first alarm and trying so hard to go back to sleep for the 10 minutes until the second alarm.  and then all of a sudden the second alarm was going off and i was totally asleep and did not want to get up at all.  i even laid there for a minute before getting up, which i never, ever do.  so painful to get up so early!  but i got up and into the shower, like a good girl. ;)  and i got ready and then went out to the kitchen to get a little breakfast.  i discovered lots of ants all around.  suck!  and the annoying part is that they didn't get into anything.  they're like just around.  so finding and killing all of them is a bit harder.  but i did the best i could.  and then had breakfast.  and i got dressed and went to put a little aloe on the tiny little part of me that got sunburned over the weekend and it peeled and was all gross.  so sad!  but now it's doing alright.  anyway, then i finally headed off to work, a few minutes late because of the various little things around the apartment this morning.

work went really well today, so that is exciting.  i feel like i now have a very long list of things to accomplish, which is exciting to me.  i am anxious to be really super busy again, and i know that time is coming now.  this morning, melissa, jenna, and i sat down and had a workload meeting and laid everything -- all the projects and each of their components -- out on the table.  and now we all are clear on what we need to do and when.  these really are the best sort of meeting.  so useful!  anyway, so the next few weeks are going to be quite busy with three magazines on top on one another and melissa out for a huge chunk of time to go to hawaii, get married, and honeymoon.  and then, of course, there are all the other projects that seem to come up and that are just ongoing.  so it'll be great.  i'm ready. :)  for lunch, i ate the leftover pizza from bj's in the kitchen with diana, which was cool.  it did mean that i didn't get out of the building all day, though, which can make me a bit insane.  and by 4, marke and i were definitely anxious to get out.  also in the afternoon, i had a little episode.  i maintain that i'm not crazy, though! :)  my right calf/lower leg was feeling tight and just a little weird.  i thought maybe it was swollen but everyone else (diana and melissa) assured me that it didn't look swollen at all.  i even called dad on my way out of the office and he said my muscle's probably just a little bit sore from the weekend or something.  anyway, once i noticed it was weird i just couldn't ignore it, you know?  so yeah, weird leg.  i don't know.

after work, though, i changed and headed for the beach with hopes of working out that leg and getting things back to normal.  it wasn't painful at all, so i walked nice and hard.  and i did have a great workout there, and it was beautifully warm out there tonight!  i love it! :)  and then i headed home and did the strength training and stretched out really well.  and my leg seems to be a lot closer to normal, so i'm relaxing about it now finally. :)  anyway, i got cleaned up and had a little mac and cheese for dinner because i was starving.

then i headed out to run a couple errands.  where do my hours go?  why was it already 8:30 by the time i was heading out?  i have no idea.  but anyway, i went to target to look for a few birthday presents for friends.  that was successful, perhaps overly so.  but when the cashier rang up my stuff the total was significantly higher than i had anticipated (or wanted).  but i paid and headed out.  in the parking lot, though, i read the recepit and i was triple-charged for an item.  that's a lot!  good think i'm a little neurotic and good at math and add up the total of my basket in my head as i add each item to it.  haha!  so then i had to wait at customer service and have them give back my $36.  and then i finally headed to the grocery to pick up most of the ingredients for saturday's dinner.  that was mostly successful, but i have a few things left.  also, i am still unsure about the dessert.  also, i was shocked at how abandoned vons was at 9:45.  weird.  but whatever.  it made my shopping easier, really.

and finally i returned home and chatted with the family while putting away the groceries.  and meg's bugging me because she thinks i'm hard to shop for.  and i need to get moving and to bed because it's late and i'm tired and i know i need the sleep.

i'll be back tomorrow with more.  for right now, though, i wish you sweet dreams and a good night. ;)

monday 31 july 2006 10:21pm

"i bought a one-way ticket on a westbound plane
four hours later i was wearing shades in california just hangin' loose
i didn't pack one memory and even though i'm free
i can go where i wanna go, do what i wanna do, be who i wanna be
but baby, you still own me
say what i wanna say, hear what i wanna hear, dream what i wanna dream
but baby, you still own me" -- emerson drive "you still own me"

i'm in total denial about it already being the end of the month.  but then again, i still think it's like february, so maybe what i think doesn't count. ;)  i just can't believe how quickly things seem to be flying by!  but it's been really good so i'm doing alright.

i loved watching "good will hunting" with my brother last night!  i love that movie so much, and it'd been awhile.  and oh yeah, my boyfriend matt damon is so great in it!  adam also really enjoyed it, thinking will hunting is totally kickass.  anyway, that was great and then i was so tired that i pretty much crashed immediately.  i got a little rest but wasn't at all ready for the alarm clock this morning.  monday morning came way too quickly!  but i got up and into the shower to get cleaned up a bit.  then i got all ready and dressed and woke up adam.  i had him drive me to work so that he could have the car all day.  we stopped on the way for breakfast at the donut shop.  :)  good stuff!  he had a cinnamon roll just like grandpa always had, which made me smile.  and then he left me at work (nervous that my car wouldn't survive the day in once piece! ;)).

so i spent the morning working away on various little things here and there and also taking a little time to catch up on the latest world news (no cease fire in israel/lebanon) and celebrity news (pam and kid rock married).  it was a good morning, i would say.  marke's around all week because he has no class this week, so that makes things seem a bit more lively.  and then adam came up to the office at lunchtime to check it out a little bit.  then adam, jenna, marke, melissa, and i went to san clemente pizza co. for a little lunch.  i figured that was an easy enough place and the pizza's generally good. :)  and then adam headed back to my apartment for his afternoon nap (lucky duck!) while i continued to work for a few more hours.  it was a good afternoon around the office, though i can't especially say why.  also, i got a bit of the leftover frozen yogurt from friday, which was delicious even the second time around. :)  and before 5, adam was back at the office so that i could take him to the airport.  i will admit that his visit was too short, but i'm grateful it happened at all, especially because it was so last-second and because we had such a great time.  so we headed up the road (yay for the carpool lane!) and i got him to john wayne with plenty of time for him to check in a get through security.  and then i headed back home myself.

but i had a couple errands to run once i was back in my own neighborhood.  i needed shampoo, so i picked up a bottle at the beauty supply place.  and when i got home and went to put it away i remembered that i need conditioner, not shampoo.  great.  oops!  haha!  so i guess i'll be back at the beauty supply soon.  i also stopped for milk so i can have breakfast here.  and while i was there, i also bought myself a small sourdough round because i can't really resist good, fresh sourdough. :)

and i've been hanging out here all evening.  i feel like there's a lot to take care of around here, so it seemed like a good opportunity to take care of a few things.  the kitchen and dining room were messy, so i cleaned everything up.  also, i wanted to straighten out the bookshelves, which were messily littered with books and cds, so i got everything put away properly.  and i even took a few minutes to integrate a stack of new cds into the cd books i have (all the discs are in alphabetical order -- how else would i ever find them?), so i feel great about that!  yeah, a dorky, neurotic thing to do but it needed to happen.  and the i went through my huge stack of recipes and recipe books for ideas about what to make on saturday night for the dinner party.  i'm pretty much decided now, though, with dessert being the most unsettled part.  do i make just any dessert that'll be great?  or do i make a cake?  or both?  or do i pawn off the cake onto someone else because it's my birthday and apparently it's strange to make your own cake?  i don't know.  anyway, i'm still considering, but at least i have the meal part settled.  and i talked to the parents tonight, as well, and adam made it all the way home safely. :)

i did also want to mention that i got a few minutes to chat with meg on the phone today, which was great.  she's happy, so that makes me feel happy! :)  yay for her!

and so i think i will post a few photos from the weekend on flickr and then crash.  more next time!  g'night! ;)

sunday 30 july 2006 9:29pm

"do you wonder about me like i'm hoping you do
are you lonesome without me, have you found someone new
are you burning and yearning, do you ever get blue
do you think of returning, how's the world treating you?" -- elvis presley "how's the world treating you"

happy birthday to megs!  23!  old like me! ;)

i'm in total, one hundred percent denial about the weekend coming to a close in just a few hours.  i cannot believe it.  or perhaps more accurately, i just don't want it to be true.  i've been having such a good time, and i'm not ready to return to the office tomorrow morning.  i know i definitely needed a crazy great weekend like this one, so i'm stoked. :)

i crashed at a totally decent hour last night, and i don't remember a whole lot between then and when the alarm clock started going off this morning.  yeah, my wonderful weekend has involved alarm clocks.  but there was stuff to do, so i got out of bed and headed for the shower.  then i put on a bikini, tank, shorts, sandals and grabbed a little breakfast.  then adam and i headed up to huntington beach and found a place to park, significantly closer than yesterday's because we were much earlier. :)

so yeah, i wrote about it plenty last night, but let me just reiterate that the u.s. open of surfing and the accompanying bank of the west beach games are great events and wonderful to attend.  okay, so we found a nice spot on the beach to lay out our towels and catch a few rays.  actually, it was still quite overcast all morning but cleared up around lunchtime.  there was surfing just starting when we arrived, and we watched several heats.  men's quarterfinals, semis, and finals, men's junior finals, and men's longboarding finals, my personal favorite event.  watching surfing is so much fun!  it's like hanging out on the beach with added in entertainment of really awesome surfing!  and it was so fun to see a local boy win the longboarding and surfing celeb rob machado win the men's finals.  i got a bit of sun, too, so that's great except for all the tan lines. ;)  also, they did an event where loads of great surfers surfed and also helped handicapped surfers ride, too.  all for charity.  it was fun.  anyway, hanging out on a crowded beach taking in surfing is pretty much the perfect way to spend a sunday.  and after all the surfing was over and all the awards were handed out, we grabbed lemonades and found a couple seats in the stands to watch freestyle motocross best trick, which was quite casual but really fun to watch.  the guys were using a tiny little ramp and space to pull off some pretty awesome tricks, including all sorts of variations on a backflip.  seriously, this is how awesome x-games used to be.  so fun!

eventually, though, the games were over so we headed back to the apartment to get cleaned up.  i was so sandy!  and then we hung out a little bit watching tv and doing nothing.  but we eventually decided on the cheesecake factory for dinner, so we headed up there.  and we had a really good dinner outside there, though our waiter was strange and so were the girls at the table next to us.  but my food was good, and i brought home a piece of cheesecake that i plan on digging into as soon as i am done writing this.  adam and i are now just hanging out on the couch watching "good will hunting" because he's never seen it before and because i love it.  (and it features my boyfriend matt damon!)

so what an awesome weekend!  i get a little more time with my brother tomorrow, though i do also have to go to work.  anyway, i'll be back soon with more. should be a busy week.  g'night. ;)

saturday 29 july 2006 11:04pm

"every sweet thing that mattered has been broken in two
all my dreams have been shattered
how's the world treating you?" -- elvis presley "how's the world treating you"

what an awesome day! :)  have i ever mentioned before that i love living in so cal/orange county? ;)  because i totally do!  it's the best.  and days like today prove it.  i have a few minutes, so i'll try to sum it all up well.

so i got up this morning and got cleaned up and everything and headed out immediately.  i had to retrieve adam at the airport at 11, and that wasn't so difficult because our timing was perfect.  :)  and then we headed straight to huntington beach, where we planned to pretty much spend the whole weekend.  the u.s. open of surfing is going on there, which is a big deal as far as surfing goes.  we found a place to park (sooo far from the pier but as close as we could find) and then started walking towards the pier.  the bank of the west beach games is really the whole event.  it's highlighted by the u.s. open of surfing, but there was also a freestyle motocross area, a volleyball court, and a bowl for skating and bmx bikes.  plus, there were all the sponsor booths giving out free stuff, some of it more interesting than others. ;)  anyway, when we got there we walked all around to check out everything that was going on.  we found some good swag, including target binoculars, deodorant, and a rad t-shirt.  and then we found a little lunch from a place on the beach.  eventually we decided that it was time to actually watch some surfing, so we found a place on the grandstands (huge ones set up along the whole beach south of the pier for watching the contest) to watch the girls junior finals and the women's finals, both of which were interesting.  watching surfing like that is so fun because it's totally chill.  the surf isn't amazing so there weren't tons of rides in each 30-minute session.  but you can entertain yourself in between because it's on the beach.  and the weather was perfect!  and then we decided to walk around some more and watch a little volleyball.  but then we headed up into the grandstands built to look down into the bowl.  we watched some pretty sick skating, which was really cool!  the whole event reminds me so much of what the x-games used to be, like back when they were in san francisco.  it's free and super chill and you can wander from one event to another at your leisure and you're nice and close to all the athletes.  also, all the announcers at all the events were really good, which i was impressed with.  and as events were werapping up and adam and i were getting a bit tired, we headed out.  we did decide to walk a couple blocks up main street just to check it out because neither of us had done that before.  cool stuff and amazing surf shops!

then we headed back to the apartment to get cleaned up and rest for a few minutes.  then i put on a cute sundress and we headed up to laguna for a late dinner.  turns out it was pretty much impossible to park there, so we parked in a weird place but it ended up working out really well actually.  it wasn't as far away from main beach as i had thought.  so we walked over to bj's and had dinner, which was so good!  i had too much pizza and too much pizookie!  :)  and then we went and briefly walking on main beach in the dark just because we could before heading back to the car.

and now we're back home relaxing.  tomorrow should be more fun, too! :)  we're planning on staking out a piece of beach all day and watching lots of surfing. :)  it should be wonderful!

i'll let you know how much fun we have up in huntington tomorrow.  g'night! ;)

friday 28 july 2006 11:05pm

"but in a box beneath my bed
is a letter that you never read
from three summers back
it's not hard to find it all a little bittersweet
and lookin' back on all of that it's nice to believe
when you think tim mcgraw
i hope you think my favorite song
the one we danced to all night long
the moon like a spotlight on the lake
when you think happiness
i hope you think that little black dress
think of my head on your chest
and my old faded blue jeans
and when you think tim mcgraw
i hope you think of me" -- taylor swift "tim mcgraw"

friday has been nice, though different than expected and with a little mini crisis.  but now i'm hanging out relaxing on a lovely summer night, and really i don't mind so much that this is where i am at this moment.  friday's been good. :)  though i will definitely admit to being so exhausted right now.

so yeah, last night turned out to be a bit later than i really wanted with booking adam's flights here for this weekend and stuff so i was up kind of late.  i saw all of leno and then totally crashed.  and i actually don't remember too much between then and the second alarm this morning.  i do remember that i was having some sort of dream in the 10 minutes between the first and second alarms.  that's weird.  and i don't remember what it was about.  anyway, so that went off and i had to get up and into the shower to get clean.  i got all ready and dressed and everything and then headed out way early because i was ready and knew i needed to stop for breakfast somewhere.  i decided on i <3 bagels.  and when i pulled my bagel out of the bag when i got to work, it was still hot!  i mean, he just put it in the bag that way, not like it was toasted or anything.  a hot bagel and some cream cheese and fresh oj, oh my goodness that's definitely the best breakfast! :)

work was fun today because it's friday so there was a lot of chatting and whatever along with all the work stuff.  plus, i had a little extra time to do things like clean out my email inbox, which was messy!  ;)  so it was fun.  for lunch, we decided to try out a place we'd never been and decided on a little hole-in-the-wall place in san clemente called el jefe.  very authentic, though they did also serve fish and chips.  anyway, it was probably too authentic for this cali girl who likes her quesadillas with grilled chicken breast and part-skim cheese, but you know. ;)  at least the french fries were good.  haha!  yeah.  and after a little more work, it was time for the company's celebration of july birthdays: diana, larisa, lea, and me.  diana and i convinced shannon (who is in charge or procuring the birthday cakes) to get frozen yogurt from golden spoon and toppings from the grocery for a frozen yogurt sundae bar, which was a total hit!  it was the best birthday celebration i've ever had there!  and my mix of vanilla, cheesecake, and chocolate yogurt with hot fudge, reese's, and m&m's was so good!  anyway, that was a great way to cap off the week. :)

and except for a brief stop at the grocery for lemonade and cereal (huge staples in this apartment), i have been home just hanging out.  you're wondering what happened to my brother, though.  he was meant to arrive tonight.  well, we figured out this morning that i accidentally booked tonight's flight for tomorrow night.  giant oops!  and believe me, i feel awful about that mistake.  :(  but i spent some time on the internet and phone and eventually rearranged a few things so he's flying in tomorrow morning instead, so it'll work out just fine.  and we'll still get to spend all weekend in huntington watching surfing and hanging out.

so tonight, i've been here.  i might have fallen asleep briefly earlier while lying on the floor watching "anderson cooper 360."  :)  and i have read a few magazines to cut into the stack that i always have waiting for me.  and i also did a major cleaning in the bathroom.  i got a new shower curtain, so i replaced the old one and i scrubbed the whole tub, which definitely needed to happen!  and i dropped a new tablet into the toilet so the water's now blue.  it's been good, i think. :)  and i'm really quite tired and know i'll be getting up relatively early all weekend, so i think i'll tuck into bed, watch jay, and then crash.

i'll be back tomorrow with an update on how much fun i'm having with my little bro!  for the moment, have a good night. ;)

thursday 27 july 2006 9:39pm

"and after the smoke has settled on this town
you're gonna know why true love won't back down
'cause when the wild hairs have turned to gray
i still will feel this way
and if it's crazy to think maybe
all you need is a love that's true
then call me crazy
'cause i do" -- lost trailers "call me crazy"

i'm exhausted!  i should have known the lack of sleep throughout the week would catch up to me by thursday night, but it still seems to be hitting me pretty hard.  but it was a nice thursday so i'll sit and write about that for a few minutes.  life's good.  i know because i'm tired. ;)

so do you remember how last night i was going to crawl into bed early, do some reading, crash, and catch a few extra zzzs???  well, things didn't go exactly as planned. :)  haha!  of course!  so i had just finished getting ready for bed and i came out to the living room to pick up my book so i could take it to bed with me.  i was like one foot in bed when my mobile rang.  katherine.  so then i ended up on the phone with her for a while working out plans for next weekend and seeing if it was possible for her to get down here to celebrate both our birthdays.  and then all of a sudden it was midnight, i hadn't read a darned thing, and i was totally tired.  so i read about 10 pages out of pure stubbornness and then crashed while watching the end of leno.  and i slept alright until the alarm was going off this morning and i had to get up again.  more dierks bentley music played in the shower while i got cleaned up and continued to play while i got ready.  i decided on something cute to wear and then headed out.  there's no breakfast here because i ate the last of the cereal yesterday.  so i stopped for a donut and made it to the office a few minutes early.

**okay, i just majorly sidetracked for a while there but i'm back :)**

work went pretty well today.  i was working mostly on small things like article reprints and such.  a few of them are from really old issues of the magazines, years before i started working there and back when they were still using quark instead of indesign.  ancient!  ;)  anyway, i got those taken care of, which is great. :)  at lunchtime, i went out to calypso cafe with diana, stacy, larisa, and new guy ish.  he's interesting.  but mostly i went for the good food and to get out of the office for a bit. :)  and the afternoon was more work, though i somehow got distracted by diana in her office for a while at the end of the day.  it's a good way to push through from 4:30 to 5!  haha! ;)

then i changed clothes and headed for the beach once again. :)  it's so nice there!  i just can't stop!  hehe!  so anyway, i had a wonderful walk while listening to the second half of the "rent" soundtrack.  that's some good stuff right there!  ;)  i'm a beach junkie.  i know.  and so i then headed home and did the strength training.  it's rough, but i'm okay with it.  i'm trying to get in better shape, so it's hard work if i'm going to get there.  and then i got cleaned up.

and then it was 8 and i was starving so i had a little dinner.  there's not a lot on tv, so i've been watching gac/cmt/cmt pure for good country music.  and i talked to kath for a bit.  she's coming down, too, next weekend for the dinner party and a good birthday celebration for her, too!  :)  and i have been chatting with sarah online for a while  now, which is great because it's been a while (2 days) and she'll be gone all weekend and a lot of next week.  so it's good to catch up. :)  and then i started talking to the family.  and my brother and i decided that he did actually need to come down here this weekend for the u.s. open of surfing.  so i got online and we ended up booking flights for him this weekend.  it's crazy last minute, i know, but i'm so excited!  plus that'll keep me nice and busy all weekend!

but now it's much later than i (once again) had anticipated.  i need to get to bed.  i'll be back later with more.  and fyi, there are a few photos on flickr that i posted tonight of me as a little girl. :)  back from when i was at my absolute most adorable! ;)  okay, i'm off.  g'night. ;)

wednesday 26 july 2006 9:47pm

"night comes calling, you're with me now
and i'm at peace within my dreams
'cause sometimes dreaming is wiser than waking
where nothing's ever as it seems
i'm never gonna let you go
i'd be lost without you now
i'm never gonna let you go
you're the one sure thing i've found
so you better stick around" -- reckless kelly "stick around"

it was one of those days full of good stuff.  :)  i'm excited about it, even if it was actually a normal wednesday.  i'm in a good mood, i might get to bed at a decent hour, it feels like summertime here, and the dinner party is shaping up just fine.  so... yeah... wednesday.  it has been a good one. :)

i was in bed by the time jay came on last night!  yay!  that was my goal, and then i was asleep not too long after that.  that's what exhaustion will to do a girl. ;)  anyway, i got a bit of rest last night, which i clearly needed because i never do get quite enough sleep during the week, no matter how hard i try.  then the alarm was going off and i was sad because i could have stood for another couple sleep cycles.  but of course i got up and showered and all that.  i polished off that box of rice chex while checking email and things like that.  put on a sweater (it's a cold office!), bermuda shorts, and flats and headed out looking surprisingly cute despite the fact i spent about 3 seconds picking out my clothes. ;)

work was really fun today because we had a big event in the middle of the day.  but let me start at the beginning.  i spent my morning working on a small show brochure for three shows we're doing in china.  pretty cool, right? :)  they're in english, thankfully!  haha!  anyway, that went well, so i also took care of printing and cutting those notecard stationery pieces i created for the salespeople.  when i bought lea and diana their sets, they were so crazy grateful!  hooray!  that's a great reaction i got for something that really only took a few moments to design, create, print, and cut.  i win! ;)  they're just like totally loving those, so it's cool.  and then at lunchtime we had a wedding shower for melissa and chris.  they're getting married in less than two weeks now in hawaii (on maui).  so we had a big catered lunch from stillwater.  melissa was even thoughtful enough to have a special caesar salad ordered just for me from there because she knows that is my favorite!  that's so nice of her!  and it was actually quite delicious!  and then she opened a bunch of gifts from the company, which was cool, too.  makes me want to get married just for the neat kitchen/home stuff people give you! ;)  it's always a little bit chaotic with so many of us all gathered in the conference room, but it was still fun. :)  and then in the afternoon, it was back to work.  good stuff.  at least i know i got some things accomplished today.  and there's more waiting for me tomorrow.

eventually, it was time to go!  i got distracted in diana's office for a while at the end of the day, which is fun. :)  anyway, so i changed and headed to the beach.  i had been tempted to just head home instead, but i knew i would feel better if i got a workout in.  anyway, on the way, i gave mel and quick ring because i wanted to know if she had set plans to come down to visit.  and she did today!  she'll be down next weekend to hang out and attend the dinner party, so i'm totally excited!  and then i was at the beach so i let her go and got on with my walk.  today it was the "rent" soundtrack in my headphones.  :)  that was pretty good workout music!  it's upbeat!  and it was hot and humid (and cloudy) out there, so i was sweating like mad but i still got a good walk in.  and then i came home and finished up that workout with the new strength training stuff here.  man, it's kicking my butt but in a good, doable sort of way. :)  then i quickly got cleaned up because i was too sweaty to really do anything else.

and i've mostly been hanging out here since then.  i had a little dinner and talked to the family for a bit.  sent adam this song called "read a book" that is absolutely hilarious (though i think it's supposed to be a serious commentary on the state of the young, black male).  found out meg's also for sure planning on being down here for the dinner party next weekend because she rocks.  read a magazine that's been hanging out too long here.  and am now planning on working on that romance novel for a bit before bed.  "the hills" and "cheyenne" are on tonight, but i think i'll let the dvr record them and i'll watch them another time.  oh, and i scanned a handful of baby/little girl photos of myself and cleaned them up slightly because i realized i don't really have any photos like than in a digital format.  i was so cute! :)

so i'm off for tonight, but i'll be back again soon enough.  for now, g'night. ;)

tuesday 25 july 2006 9:46pm

"invincible and strong until you came along
and touched me with your gentle hand
when i look into your eyes there's a force i can't deny" -- josh turner "gravity"

tuesday was fun.  :)  nothing too crazy or out of the ordinary, but i just generally seemed to enjoy myself, so it was good.  and i am going to make an attempt to be in my bed by the time leno starts.  i have some sleep to catch up on (as usual).  so here goes...

so like i told you last night, i was up too late talking to kath and whatever.  the time just seemed to get away from me.  so i was kind of late going to bed, but at least i got to see conan.  too bad it was a rerun of one i've actually seen before.  still, so funny!  and then i crashed.  and i slept alright until the alarm clock went off this morning.  got up and into the shower.  listened to a little dierks bentley while i got cleaned up.  and i spent a few moments getting ready and having some breakfast.  rice chex.  boring.  but still good.  and i put on a cute skirt and was off.  you know, i thought that white skirt was a little expensive (even on sale) from anthropologie, but it has turned out to be such a good purchase.  it's so easy to throw on with whatever top.  it's always cute! :)  so anyway, then i was off to work.

the office wasn't quite as packed today, it seemed.  or maybe it was but i didn't notice because i was busy doing random little things all day long.  marke was back in the office today, so we got to harass each other a little bit.  it's just what we do, i've come to accept. ;)  he's looking for a cohort in crime (meaning someone to take jan's place), so he gets to read resumes and call people.  very exciting. ;)  i told him someone male (duh--most web guys are), single, cute, mid-twenties, and at least 6-foot.  hehe!  can't blame me for trying, right?  rtc is all women right now!  anyway, what did i actually do today?  helped melissa look for images for a brochure she's designing.  put together a little notecard sort of piece of stationery for the salespeople.  i'm sure there was other stuff, as well, though it doesn't come to mind at the moment.  chatted with diana a bit.  had lunch at z pizza with melissa and jenna, and jenna treated us to individual size ben & jerry's there, too!  so i'm feeling good about today.  i know it was a good time.

then i changed and headed to the beach, where it was plenty warm and humid but also very overcast.  weird.  not the normal summertime weather here, that's for sure.  anyway, i had another really good walk.  today i was rockin' the keith urban on my ipod.  that guy is good! ;)  i'm getting better at running all those stairs, too, which is cool to me if to no one else. :)

then i headed home and had just walked in the door when bobby called.  he wanted a small change to the piece i did yesterday (he liked the version i designed better than the one he had described for me to do, which is great!).  so i did that and then hopped into the shower to get cleaned up.  and he stopped by again really quickly so i could give him that new piece.  he's going to have it printed up tonight, so that's neat, too.

and i've pretty much just been hanging out since then.  i watched the rest of the "laguna beach" bonus disc i started the other night.  so fun!  and then listened to some music and had a little dinner.  it's been very chill.  there's likely something responsible i should be doing, but i'm not.  not tonight. :)  and now i'm just writing while i watch "anderson cooper 360" because i've become quite intrigued by the "crisis in the middle east" or whatever they're calling the israel-lebanon thing right now.  i don't know why this.  i'm not generally interested in middle eastern politics.  but anyway, i've been watching anderson because he's my favorite and he always gives a good idea of what it's like to be just a normal person in the area.  so yeah, that's what's currently on my tv.

all that's really left for my night is a phone call from the family.  haha!  that reminds me that mom rang my mobile this morning (i was at work but answered anyway) to tell me that nordstrom rack has tons of stuff right now.  um, ok. :)  so random!  so anyhow, i'll talk to them and then crash.

for tonight, i'm off.  back tomorrow, though.  g'night. ;)

oh yeah, a few new photos of katie's wedding are on flickr because katie finally sent me to the link to her (900!) photos online today.  i found 6 good ones, but i had to settle for pretty small versions because that's all her photographer posts for free.  anyway, they're there. :)

monday 24 july 2006 11:41pm

"you are the promised kiss of springtime
that makes the lonely winter seem long
you are the breathless hush of evening
that trembles on the brink of a lovely song
you are the angel glow that lights the star
the dearest things i know are what you are
some day my happy arms will hold you
and some day i'll know that moment divine
when all the things you are are mine" -- frank sinatra "all the things you are"

you'll be glad to know i'm feeling much better today.  things seem back on track, and it has been a very busy monday indeed.  i'm up too late.  i should have been writing this a long time ago, but i'm just now getting to it because i got a bit distracted, and i don't mind one bit. :)

last night i was up too late.  i really was.  i ended up talking to meg online and watching that "laguna beach" dvd and doing a bit too much reminiscing here.  not that it was bad, just that i probably should not have been doing that before bed on a sunday night.  it's just not good for getting me to sleep.   so i did end up being up quite late last night accidentally.  that tends to happen to me a lot, it seems!  other stuff just gets in the way of bed.  but anyway, i did eventually crash.  and i slept alright.  there was a baby crying at 6:30 that woke me up and clearly no one was going to try to stop if from crying, so that was kind of sad for me and my sleep, but what was i really going to do about it?  so i did my best to get a little sleep before the alarm.  and then all of a sudden it was going off and i needed to get out of bed.  i showered and found a little breakfast while checking email and various things like that.  and i put on a cute outfit and headed off about 10 minutes early.  i desperately needed gas, so i needed to factor in some extra time. :)   dork.  i know.

so then i was off to work.  the good thing about working frantically on a friday to get a magazine out the door and off to the printer is the monday that follows.  totally mellow.  rad!  but then again, today still felt a bit hectic because we have sally and cindy h. in from out of town and john returned from his 3+ week long vacation, as well.  plus, for some reason scott was in the office today (he normally works for us on wednesdays).  so it was just crowded with people, all busy but also all very chatty.  it was totally fine with me, though.  i got some work done, and i got some chatting done.  so it was an all-around balanced sort of day. :)  for lunch, a big group of us went out of romano's, which was good in and of itself, but was made better when john paid.  free lunch! :)  love that!  plus, salad and pasta makes a very good lunch when i get to about 6 and i'm staring a hard workout and i'm still feeling full of energy.

so yeah, after work, i headed out into the hot and humid day and went to the beach.  actually, it wasn't so bad once i got all the way to the ocean, though it was admittedly more crowded than i would have liked.  but i had a really great walk and rocked out with emerson drive on the ipod.  :)  at the top of the stairs that are in the middle of the walk (not the huge set at the end) i finished running up and was taking a couple seconds to stretch out my back before heading back down when an old lady i passed on my way up said to me, "i just can't do it like you can."  aww!  rad! :)  hehe!  anyway, i had an awesome walk and it was so gorgeous out.  then i headed home and started the next phase of that strength training program i've been working on.  a whole new set of exercises.  i like this set way more than the last one, which is good news for me, i'd say! :)

then i got cleaned up and there was more work ahead of me.  i had some stuff that bobby wanted to pick up from me tonight, so i had to devote a bit of time to that.  actually, what i did turned out really nicely, so i'm pretty happy about that!  and then i gave it to him and he seemed pretty pleased. :)  did i mention before that melissa told me she saw one of my stickers on an electrical box (or something like that) in laguna beach?  so rad! :)

i also had time for some fun stuff tonight! :)  i finally got to chat with chris online.  he's out here and just started working at toyota, which is pretty exciting but also pretty crazy for him.  he left a lot behind in michigan.  but he seems to be adjusting alright.  and i talked to sarah a bit, as well.  and megs.  and i spent a long time on the phone with kath, which was totally what i needed for tonight.  she's so rad! :)  and she's also the reason i'm like an hour behind in getting to bed and all that.  oops! :)  haha!

but i think i'm ready to crash now.  or else i'll be so sleepy tomorrow!  i'll be back next time with more, though.  and for the moment, g'night. ;)

sunday 23 july 2006 8:33pm

"finding your love i've found my adventure
touching your hand my heart beats the faster
all that i want in all of this world is you" -- frank sinatra "all the things you are"

it's not actually sinatra's song, but whatever.  it's been recorded lots of times and is actually from some old musical, i believe.  more of it tomorrow.

i'm um... well... fine.  actually, i believe i'm a bit restless.  i don't know what i should be doing instead of chillin' here on the couch watching the special features discs of "laguna beach."  actually, though, they're quite entertaining.  but anyway, i can't have quite this mellow of a weekend next weekend, i think.  i need something to keep myself busy or to distract me or whatever.  not that i did nothing at all.  but anyway, yeah, pretty quiet weekend, including today.

i was up pretty late last night watching "mrs. henderson presents," which was again enjoyable.  and then i crashed pretty quickly after that was over.  there's nothing on tv on saturday night at like 1:30.  and i slept alright, though i really did want to sleep in later than about 10:30 but just couldn't.  it was too bright or too noisy or something.  so i was lying around for a bit trying to sleep more but eventually just decided to get up and out of bed.

i lazed around the living room for a bit.  really, i was doing not a whole lot of anything.  i talked to dad and adam for awhile, which was entertaining enough.  and i had a little lunch/meal #1.  and i decided i should lay out for a bit.  started a new trashy romance novel just because it's july and i can. :)  this one's going to be good!  i can already tell!  haha!

then i got cleaned up, threw on some clothes, and headed out.  i went to the mann to see a new documentary called "wordplay," about the new york times crossword puzzle.  it was even better than i had hoped! :)  it's about the famous people who do them and also the hardcore people who enter the big tournament in connecticut every year.  that's good stuff right there! :)

then i went to target to look for jeans (found nothing) but ended up finding the scent of laundry detergent that i have been looking for forever and thought maybe had been discontinued.  so yay!  now i can be back to my normal laundry smell. :)  oh, and i picked up a jamba juice at von's, which was so fantastic!  that's an awesome treat on a day as hot as today. :)

and i've been home hanging out since then.  that's when i started feeling like i have too much time to think sometimes.  whatever.  my issue.  anyway, so i've just been lounging around here.  i did my nails.  twice.  i didn't love how the red came out, but the sheer nude color seems to be sufficient.  i talked to dad and adam a bit more.  i wanted random crappy tv.  and that's pretty much about it.  now i'm just watching that "laguna beach" extras disc, like i said before.  i love this show! :)  haha!  it's bad.

it's back to work tomorrow, but i do want to get some sleep tonight.  we'll see.  anyway, i'll be back tomorrow with more from laguna.  g'night.

saturday 22 july 2006 11:13pm

"i wanna be the one
when all is said and done" -- emerson drive "a good man"

um... i'm trying to think about what i should actually write here tonight.  in a way, i did nothing at all today.  i mean, i did stuff and it was perfectly fine, but really there wasn't anything exciting.  but i'll just start at the beginning and go from there...

i slept alright last night.  i was tucked in before carson started and i don't remember much after the show came on.  and except for waking up a few times in the night/early morning, i slept.  and then it was noon and i figured that i probably should not sleep any longer.  plus, getting up to use the bathroom means i'm never getting back to sleep. :)  hehe!  too much info?  so i got up and moved to the couch for no particular reason other than that i figured i had spent long enough in bed.

i lounged around a while.  seriously, i really wasn't doing anything.  i munched on various things here and there and was sad that my apartment contained no lemonade.  but yeah, i did pretty much nothing.  eventually, though, the apartment was dreadfully hot and the sun was in the perfect place, so i went out on the deck, threw a towel down, and laid out in the sunshine for a bit while reading the trashy romance novel i've been working on for the past week or so.  it was hot out there, as well, but i seem to mind less.  anyway, that's what i did for a while.

then i got cleaned up because i was incredibly hot and sweaty.  but i found that the shower didn't help so much with that problem.  oh, well.  so i threw on some clothes, took out a huge stack of old catalogues to the dumpster, and checked the mail.  a package was waiting for me at the apartments office!  hooray!  i knew just what it was, so i drove down there to get it.  the new emerson drive album, countrified.  i had to order it from canada because it doesn't come out stateside until september.  i slipped it into the cd player in the volvo and started enjoying it from the very first note.  :)

then i went to the grocery store for some lemonade, since i was already out and groceries are heavily air conditioned. ;)  so i picked up a few things, including a gallon of lemonade.  then i headed back to the apartment, which i've been trying to keep as cool as possible without actually using the air conditioning.  i know if i ever had people over, though, i definitely would have turned it on it's so hot.  :)

anyway, then i hung around the apartment some more.  i finished off that novel, which was delightful! :)  the hopeless romantic in me loves every page of those.  and i worked on organizing some papers.  or all the papers.  there just seems to be so many of them, but i walked over to the drug store, picked up a binder, and filed everything properly.  i feel much better about that all now! :)  yeah, a lame thing to do on a saturday, really, but i'm glad it got done.

i also got a really good first (and second) listen of the emerson drive album on my proper stereo here in the apartment.  that's some great stuff!  i love it! :)

i considered going out to the beach tonight for a moonlit walk but decided it'd just make me all angsty and that wasn't really what i wanted.  so i stayed here and just hung out.  i watched the latest episode of "the hills," which was delightful!  and now i'm watching "mrs. henderson presents," which i'm loving the second time around as much as the first.

so it's been a quiet saturday, but that's fine.  maybe tomorrow holds something exciting, but i'll be back to write more regardless.  g'night. ;)

friday 21 july 2006 11:19pm

"i don't like you
but i love you
see that i'm always
thinking of you
oh, oh, oh
you treat me badly
i love you madly
you really got a hold on me
you really got a hold on me, baby" -- the beatles "you really got a hold on me"

it's only taken me all week to remember what song it was that i heard at marke's wedding that i wanted to remember for this.  i really like this song.  though it might be blasphemous, i think i might like a non-beatles version better than their original, but that's just me.  anyway, good stuff right there.  and you really got a hold on me. ;)

i think i just put myself in the mood for oldies.  good thing i have a small collection somewhere that i can dig up and listen to for a bit, especially since this is the second time i've seen this episode of "anderson cooper 360" tonight.  good stuff, let me tell you! :)  it's like going back to my very young days (2nd grade or so) when i was obsessed with these cassette tapes my parents bought me from the shell gas station.  there were three, i believe, though one of them was my favorite.  the series was called cruisin' classics, and of course it was all oldies.  so i have a special place in my heart for that stuff! :)

anyway, i slept last night.  pretty well.  i went to bed early(ish).  i definitely didn't see the guests on leno.  anyway, i was feeling alright by the time the alarms went off this morning, and i got cleaned up.  i'm liking having a little music to shower to, though i have learned that it works better now that i hung it outside the shower.  anyway, that's fun.  then i got cleaned up and ready, had some breakfast, and got dressed.  and then i got distracted.  i had been trying to remember that song (like i said before) since marke's wedding and i couldn't.  i couldn't even remember how the song went or what the words were.  but it finally came to me in the shower this morning.  then i called dad to ask him who sang it originally (we decided the beatles).  and we got caught up in music chit chat.  so by the time i left the apartment, i was late for work by about 7 minutes.  oh, well. ;)

so i made it to work and was all ready to go on changes and ship day.  that's not normally the same day.  i took care of some stuff first thing in the morning while marina was getting all the corrections to the magazine.  and we also learned of a new figure that i needed to create.  so i got all that stuff done and all of a sudden it was kind of late and i was hungry.  jan, marke, melissa, and i went down to baja fresh for some lunch.  oh!  i nearly forgot.  we listened to various kevin smith things in the office today, like him on a radio show talking about and with joel siegel, who stormed out of the critics screening of "clerks 2" and kind of started a scandal/fight and him telling the story of working on a new superman movie (he didn't end up finishing that project, obviously).  anyway, he had us laughing. :)  and in the afternoon, melissa and i got the magazine totally together and sent it off to be printed.  yay for us!  we win!  and then diana and i went on a frozen yogurt run to goodies.  mine was way too big and i couldn't finish it (that never happens to me!  i'm not that girl!), but it was really delicious. :)

then i thought about going to the beach tonight to read or something but i figured i would get there soon enough and i was feeling tired.  plus, i needed to do laundry.  or something.  i don't actually remember why i decided not to go. :)  haha!  okay, so i went to hollywood video because i wanted to rent "she's the man," "city of god," and/or "an evening with kevin smith."  they had none of those.  so sad for me!  so i ended up browsing the dvds in the 3 for $25 section and ended up with some new dvds for my collection.  not exactly what i had planned, but i'm excited about them. :)  "something new," which i've been obsessed with since i watched it the first time, "pride and prejudice," the new one, and "mrs. henderson presents."  fun!  and i guess kind of a girly set.  oh, well!

then i headed home.  i don't remember the last time i did laundry, but i believe it was in june.  so that's a long time ago!  so i had 5 loads to do.  but now everything's clean and put away and smells good, so i'm excited about it all.  even if laundry is entirely too much work when the machines aren't in your actual residence.

and now i'm just hanging out.  not up to a whole lot.  it's hot.  i'm chatting with sarah online.  leno's on now so i turned off the oldies.  there is a large stack of magazines i haven't read yet and that may actually be my plan for the weekend (because i'm in a boring sort of mood at the moment, likely because i'm tired).  and once i am done tracking down a digital file of the song and talking with sarah, i will head to bed for some rest.  thank goodness for weekends! :)

i'll be back with more tomorrow.  for the moment, g'night. ;)

thursday 20 july 2006 9:39pm

"now i wait
for a break
in the silence 'cause it's all that you left
just me and these four walls again" -- cheyenne kimball "four walls"

i never should have been up until after 2am last night.  :)  oops!  haha!  but i definitely got carried away chatting with sarah and we had fun, so it's alright.  but that means i'm trying to get tucked in early tonight to try to pay off a little of that sleep debt.  don't worry.  it never happens during the week. ;)  anyway, it was a good thursday, especially considering how little sleep i'm running on.

so yeah, i was up really late last night.  i saw "boy meets world."  that pretty much never happens because it's on at 2.  so i eventually crashed and actually i crashed pretty hard.  the five hours of sleep i got last night were totally decent!  though there were some weird dreams in there that i only vaguely remember.  anyway, i got that bit of rest and was back up again with the alarm.  i got cleaned up and and ready.  cereal sounded okay for breakfast, and the i put on a tank, skirt, and heels (just like yesterday but different actual items).  then i was all set to head out. :)

work today was a little bit weird but i still know that i got plenty of things done.  i had some random little things to take care of, which kept me quite busy all morning.  and then jenna headed off at lunchtime because she's taking a long weekend that started today, and jan, melissa, and i went to lunch together.  they wanted to go to the rainbow factory store again, so we did that.  then we had a relaxing lunch at san clemente pizza company, where we read the local paper and chatted and just took it easy.  and then it was back to work.  we were meant to get changes back on the first draft of the magazine.  we didn't.  not sure why not.  so that left time for waiting, and just more random work.  so it was alright, but i know i'm going to have to jam on those changes tomorrow because we also ship to print tomorrow.  that's crazy!

after work, i was feeling really tired and wanted to just come home and crash, but i changed into the workout clothes anyway.  and i talked to meg on the phone and drove myself to the beach.  and of course, kind of like how it so often goes, i had a great walk and felt much, much better afterward.  so i'm glad i went, even if it was so windy out there today and still very hot.  it was good. :)  i love the beach, so really no complaints.

then i came home and was about to get cleaned up when i found myself in a chat with andrea, someone i knew in college.  she's getting started with her career now, so we caught up a bit, which was pretty cool! :)  and then i did get cleaned up, put my outfit back on, and headed out.  i wanted to go to target for a new shower curtain liner, a pirate t-shirt, and a half-gallon of milk.  i came out without the pirate shirt (couldn't find it), a gallon of milk, cookies, that shower liner, and a few other random little things.  it was fun to wander, though i never planned on being out until 9.  oh, well. :)  then i made myself a quick dinner and watched a little tv.  and that brings me to now.  i'll read a bit, i think, and then crash.  exciting, no? ;)

more tomorrow.  g'night. ;)

wednesday 19 july 2006 10:11pm

"i've got a heartache
don't wanna think about it
and every time i try to smile i cry so
i'll just hide my face
get out of my way
don't wanna talk about it
and i'll be fine
i just need some time" -- cheyenne kimball "hanging on"

it was a wednesday i didn't expect, but i must say that it's been fun. :)  and i'm completely distracted by sarah at this point, so it'll take me longer than normal to get this written.  but i'll get to that later.  for now, good hump day in this neck of the woods...

okay, so the sleeping... it's going alright.  not great.  it's been worse.  whatever.  i'm not that worried about it so i guess it's not the biggest deal ever.  but i was really sleeping when the alarms went off this morning, but i did manage to get up and into the shower anyway.  i even managed to start the cd player. ;)  so i got cleaned up and ready and everything.  i even checked email and that stuff, like always.  i wasn't really that excited about rice chex, though, so i skipped breakfast, threw on a skirt, tank, and heels, and headed out the door.  i stopped off at sc donuts for a little breakfast.  bad, i know, but so delicious.

i got into work this morning and read a little news and worked on the showcase ad proof that i needed to send out today for approval.  and before it was even 10, melissa and jan were discussing where to go to lunch.  i was so confused!  it wasn't even close to lunchtime.  but then they reminded me that we were going to an afternoon seminar in foothill ranch so we were going to lunch up there.  how i forgot when we discussed it yesterday, i'm not sure, but jenna did the same exact thing. :)  so then i had to get to work right away to get everything done for the day, mostly just that showcase ad and making sure the ads in the magazine are okay.  anyway, it got all done and then all of a sudden it was time to leave.

so jenna and i headed up to foothill ranch to this random restaurant called kuta grille (that sounds like a dirty word, don't you think?) for lunch.  jan and melissa left a bit after us because they drove together and melissa had to send a project to press this morning.  so we all met back up at kuta grille, which had an excellent chicken parmesan, even if that's super random because they're not really an italian place.  then we dashed over to our seminar and made it just in time.  it was the same guy as last time (about six months ago) with the british accent.  i found out he's not really british at all but grew up in south africa and western michigan.  his accent is british, though, for reasons i still don't understand.  so whatever.  it just means he's nice to listen to.  and the seminar was about photoshop cs2, and it was quite interesting.  good little bits of information. :)  and it wrapped up around 4 and then i was free for the rest of the day! :)

i rang kath and started driving home.  somehow i ended up on the phone with her for a long time, which was really fun.  we hadn't talked in quite a while, and it's harder for us because she's pretty much never online because she's at her parents' house, where they still use a dial-up internet connection.  anyway, i talked to her all the way home and for a while after i got home.  fun. :)

and then i decided i should get with the program and actually properly clean the apartment.  yesterday, i straightened everything so everything was put away.  today i broke out the cleaning supplies and properly cleaned.  like with windex and 409.  so everything's all sanitized and whatever, and then i vacuumed and mopped and all that.  i even swept off the doorstep, which had tons of leaves (stupid eucalyptus trees) and sand.  so everything's wonderful around here!  finally! :)  i love it!

and then i had a little dinner and talked to the family for a bit.  and then i settled in to write this when i also started chatting with sarah online.  at this point, it was nearly 2.5 hours ago.  we've been having quite the conversation tonight!  all new topics!  haha!  i didn't know that was possible after like 4 years of being great friends.  anyway, it's pretty funny and i'll just leave it at that. :)

so i'm off to continue chatting with sarah now and then i'll go crash.  it's already too late to get a good amount of sleep, but definitely it's worth the sacrifice. :)  more tomorrow.  for now, g'night. ;)

tuesday 18 july 2006 10:34pm

"your angel face
and how you say my name
that magic way your kisses linger
that sexy laugh
and that electric hair
it's all got me wrapped around your finger" -- jace everett "gold"

i'm still getting used to twenty-three.  not sure yet if it feels different at all.  but so far so good because i had a lovely tuesday. :)

i slept better last night than the night before, but i definitely didn't sleep well.  i think it's a combination of me just not sleeping well and it being quite hot.  those two factors add up to be being tired and perhaps a little bit cranky. ;)  no, i'm not actually cranky at all.  but i am feeling pretty tired, and i'm not sure how it's already so late and i'm still not in bed.  anyway, i'm getting off track and rambling, likely because i am writing whatever pops into my head.  it's my journal and i'll do what i want. ;)  okay, so i didn't sleep that well but i got up with the alarm anyway, just like always.  i hopped into the shower, but this morning i got to listen to a little joe nichols as i tried out my new shower cd player.  it's nice to have a little showering music. :)  so i got clean and ready and all that.  and then i had a little breakfast and checked email.  and then i had a hard time deciding what to wear, but eventually ended up in a tank, jeans, and a cardigan.  boring but sufficient.

i headed off to work this morning knowing that i would likely be plenty busy all day long, which is fine.  it makes the day go much faster when i have lots of things that need to get done.  so right away i found myself working on more product figures.  and then i needed to place all of those into my section.  that was what i had left myself at the end of yesterday to get done this morning.  and i did take care of that.  so that left jenna to place all the ads into the magazine, though that didn't get finished up until pretty late into the day, which meant that as soon as i got my section back to make all those changes, i really had to work very quickly.  i ended up having a huge section of the magazine, which is great if you ask me. :)  but it meant i had lots of changes and adjustments and ads to place in like an hour's time.  but i got it done just before 5!  so i win! :)  oh, and there was a break somewhere in my day for lunch with jan and marke at super bowl, which was definitely delicious! :)

so at 5, i packed up and headed straight home.  i needed to be at the apartment office before 6 to pick up a couple packages and put some money on my laundry card.  two dollars just wasn't going to cut it. ;)  so i got the bonus disc that goes with the second season of "laguna beach," (not sure why those didn't ship together, but whatever) and a sweatshirt mom got me from her and adam's trip to minneapolis for junior olympics.  cool. :)  and then i came up to the apartment and discovered a huge box on my doorstep.  it was a birthday present from katie.  i knew because she mentioned it yesterday and her presents always seem to come in enormous boxes. :)  she sent way more than i ever expected, all of it wonderful!  a really cool platter (i'm not sure how to describe it but it's really nice and totally matches my style), a gorgeous birdhouse that (for now, at least) will look wonderful sitting in my bedroom, which it matches perfectly, and a little herb garden that's so perfect because i've been wanting to grow my own basil forever.  she's good! :)

but i after i finished opening up the beautiful gifts, it was time for me to change my clothes and head back down to the beach for a walk.  it continues to be quite hot and humid here, but i was alright out on the ocean.  my walk went really well, just like yesterday's, so i am pleased with myself.  and the surf was looking really nice today, so there were lots of surfers out for me to watch while walking. :)   perfect!

then i came home and got cleaned up.  i had a little dinner, but then i was ready to get on with what i really had planned for my evening.  so i know i've mentioned in the past week and a half or so that i have been trying to get this apartment clean.  well i was failing miserably.  it just kept getting worse.  so tonight i did it all.  everything's in its place.  all of it.  even the clothes, which is what i generally avoid.  and the shoes.  i even took out the (3 bags of) trash.  so the apartment now finally looks great and i feel like i can breathe and relax again.  so i win! ;)

then i talked to the family for a while.  they took a tour at stanford today, so dad's topic of choice tonight was adam's college search, which is fine.  and adam was chatty, which means he was super bored.  i even got him watching anderson cooper on cnn for a bit.  that's crazy! ;)  and as i started to write this, i got temporarily distracted by troy online.  i discovered his food pickiness, which i find so excellent because i like knowing i'm not the only one who's "discerning." :)  and i've been watching dierks bentley at summerfest on cmt, too, which is fun.  he's a great performer, even on tv. :)

but i really should get moving.  my bed calls.  i'll be back next time with more.  g'night. ;)

monday 17 july 2006 10:58pm

"i still can feel the softness of her hair
falling on my face
my arms all around her
there's always something 'bout this time of year
that takes me to that place
and i remember" -- emerson drive "november"

happy birthday to me! :)  twenty-three.  crazy.  i'm hopeful for the year to come.

i couldn't sleep at all last night.  i'm not really sure why not, but it was just impossible.  i tossed and turned and still felt tired when the alarm finally went off this morning.  whatever.  it was not going to ruin a perfectly good day.  i got up and hopped right into the shower to get cleaned up.  then i had a little breakfast and checked email and those sorts of things.  i eventually put on a touch of makeup and dried my hair a bit, and slipped on a beautiful white sundress that sarah (luckily) convinced me to buy a couple weeks ago when we were at stanford shopping center.  i put on a couple long strands of beads and heels and headed out.  i was about 10 minutes late, but it was a monday and the day after marke's wedding so i knew it wouldn't be an issue at all. :)

so i showed up to work to birthday greetings, which was nice.  and when i went into marina's office to ask her something she was on the phone, but she stopped her conversation and exclaimed, "oh.  my.  goodness.  you look like an angel!"  :)  i, of course, responded with a big smile and, "thanks!  i am and angel."  awesome.  so the dress was a good choice! ;)  anyway, i had lots of work to get done today, which is why i went into the office at all.  the first draft of the magazine is going out tomorrow and pretty much we were starting from the beginning today.  and we normally take a whole lot longer than that.  but i really jammed through figures this morning and through my section layout this afternoon, so i just have some small things to take care of tomorrow and then ad placement.  so i am in great shape!  awesome!  so i know it was a good thing i went into the office today.

and for lunch, a group of us went out to pizza port in san clemente to celebrate my birthday.  i'm easy.  i wanted pizza for my birthday lunch.  and it was quite tasty, and i ate too much. :)  excellent!  and i appreciate everyone wanting to come out to celebrate with me.

after work, i headed for the beach for a walk.  the weather's getting pretty wacky around here.  it is still hot and getting more humid.  there was even a threat of thunderstorms today, which is pretty rare.  so anyway, it was hot and humid at the beach but no lightening in sight, so i went for a walk.  and i ended up going quite fast and feeling great.  i'd say it's one of the best workouts i've had in quite a while, actually.  so good for me and my old body! ;)  and i was rocking out with joe nichols and jace everett, two guys i hadn't listened to in a while, so that was fun.

then i headed home, but as i was driving i discovered a very cute voicemail from katie on my phone, so i called her back.  i hadn't talked to her since her wedding day, so it was good to catch up a bit, hear what she thought about the wedding and everything, and hear about their trip to vegas.  and really, i just have a total blast talking with her, so that was so fun! :)  she says i need to break down that wall i have up.  whatever.  i have no wall. ;)  right...???  okay, so there's a wall.  but i'm just trying to be discerning! ;)  anyway, i adore katie!  she's so rad!

and then it was like 8 and i needed a shower desperately, so i got cleaned up and put my cute dress back on.  i headed off to best buy to spend a little of my birthday money.  the new josh turner album, which i started listening to and am enjoying.  and i also bought a shower cd player, which i was eyeing a couple weeks ago when i was with adam because it seemed too inexpensive.  but i'll give it a shot!  it'll be fun to play some music in the shower, i think.  got to work on my singing skills! ;)

then i got curbside take away food at the cheesecake factory so i'd have a nice birthday dinner.  mmm!  strawberry lemonade (the best thing in that whole restaurant, i swear!), crusted chicken romano, and chocolate peanut butter cookie dough cheesecake.  so delicious!  it was a great dinner.

and i've just been hanging out here since that.  i talked to my brother for a while, which was fun.  and i watched some random tv.  and i chatted with sarah a bit online, too.  it's been pretty quiet, but that's fine.  i need to get some actual rest tonight, so i think i'm about ready to tuck in.

my first day at 23!  wow!  katie said it was her favorite year.  i hope it'll be mine, too!  for now, g'night. ;)

sunday 16 july 2006 10:49pm

"someday maybe somebody will love me like i need
someday i won't have to prove to somebody who'll see all my worth
but until then i'll do just fine on my own
with my cigarettes and this old dirt road" -- the wreckers "cigarettes"

today went even better than expected! :)  it was a good sunday as far as sundays go, and i'm happy about that.  and tomorrow's the big day!  my birthday!  but for tonight, i have enough to fill you in on, so i might as well get started with that.

somehow, i ended up staying up really late again last night.  i think i was talking to kath online for awhile.  i don't know what else i was doing.  i was watching "mythbusters," too.  that show really is so rad!  haha!  anyway, i ended up falling asleep pretty late and slept alright.  it's hot here, like i think i've mentioned before, so not perfect conditions for sleeping but whatever.  and then i woke up around 10 and strongly considered going back to bed but eventually decided that i should get up and go to church.  so i dragged myself out of bed and found an appropriate churchgoing outfit. ;)  and then i tried to make sure i was fully awake before heading out.

it was a gorgeous morning in dana point!  i love it! :)  and i found a seat in church and prayed away for about an hour. ;)  haha!  anyway, the mass was good.  and i hadn't been in forever, so it was nice to get back there finally.

i spent the afternoon around the apartment.  i was not really up to a whole lot.  i talked to the family for a bit.  i chatted with kath online some more.  i am not really sure what else i did.  :)  not a whole lot, i'm sure.  i started watching that mtv show "cheyanne," which i knew i shouldn't do because i'd get hooked.  well, i was right.  hooked.  :)  haha!  it's bad.  don't watch it.  it's fully of catchy pop music that you know you aren't supposed to like but secretly do.

eventually, though, i decided i should get a move on and start getting ready.  i showered and did my hair and makeup.  and i'll just go ahead and tell you that i looked adorable! :)  i put on that same bright pink dress that i wore to katie's wedding and the necklace mom and dad got me for my college graduation.  diamonds are good at weddings, right? ;)  and i was ready a few minutes early but i hung out for a bit before leaving to pick up jenna.

jenna and i then headed up through laguna to hotel laguna.  it's right at main beach in the middle of laguna beach.  the valet lot was full but we batted our eyelashes enough that the valet took my car anyway.  and we found seats.  and eventually, it was time for marke and katrina's wedding.  the ceremony was cool because marke's dad (who's a pastor -- i think that's the right word for him, anyway) said it.  and katrina and marke tied the knot! :)  good for them, those kids!  and the ceremony was at hotel laguna, too, in a room right on the beach.  dinner was good, and so was the dj who played lots of music the rest of the night.  i hung out with the work people (jenna, melissa and fiance chris, jan and tey, and diana).  we spent a lot of time out on the patio outside the room watching the sunset and the waves crashing on the beach.  at one point, diana and i even went down onto the beach for a walk along main beach, toes in the water.  it was so excellent!  because it's been so hot, it was a perfect night out there on the beach!  and really, i'm so happy barefoot with my toes in the ocean. :)  of course, when we wanted to go back inside, the shower thingy didn't work so we had to find a random garden hose and my shoes ended up a little wet and sandy.  that's a small price to pay, of course.  so i had a really nice time at the wedding! :)  (pictures should be on flickr in the next few days, but i'll let you know when they are.)

and now i'm back home.  i talked to the family again (who doesn't want to hear wedding details? ;)) and sarah online.  and i know i should get to bed soon.  it should be a busy day at work with a magazine that needs to get created!

of course, tomorrow's also special because it's my 23rd birthday! :)  it'll be the first time i haven't had the day just for me (no work, no school), but that's fine.  i think i'll take a less busy day at work for myself later.  anyway, i love birthday wishes, so do call! :)

on my last day as a 22-year-old, g'night. ;)

saturday 15 july 2006 11:32pm

"damn this river that i've cried
and damn this callling our your name
damn these lonely streets i walk
and damn this louisiana rain
i can't stop knowing that you're gone
like i can't stop this louisiana rain" -- trent willmon "louisiana rain"

today was one of those super, super mellow days.  it's hot here.  like hot hot.  like i love it hot but it's even a bit too much for me.  so i think that inspired me to just lounge around and try to keep cool.  but it's been enjoyable.

i was up quite late last night.  :)  i was just hanging out not up to a whole lot, but it was fun.  of course, i did eventually crash, but it was like 2:30.  and then the phone rang at 11 this morning.  ugh.  lame!  i didn't get out of bed to answer it right away, but i did get out of bed then within a few minutes, sad to be awakened when i need proper sleep but knowing i wouldn't get any more even if i tried.  so it was annahita "calling to say 'hi.'"  too early!  but anyway, then i ended up chillin' on the couch and watching skateboarding (which is so awesome in high-def, by the way!) and chatting with katherine.  and i cleaned up around the apartment some more.  little by little it's getting better around here. :)  i'm being lazy about it, though.

eventually, the sun was in just the right place, so i went out on the deck, threw a towel down, and sunbathed for awhile.  and i got some reading in, so that was nice. :)  it's becoming quite the habit, going out there to work on my tan a little.  oh, well. ;)  it's just so easy and i wasn't doing anything at all, so it was a cool way to spend a little time.  that was when i realized just how hot it was out there, though!  but anyway, that was a successful little session in the sun.

then i came in and got cleaned up.  there were a few little errands i wanted to take care of today.  first i picked up a package for me from the apartments office.  it was my "laguna beach second season" dvds that dad bought me for my birthday and weren't supposed to arrive until tuesday!  awesome!  i was so excited! :)  and then i went down to aaron brothers to get a frame and mat for the poster of the london tube map i bought when i was in carmel with meg.  and it ended up turning out really nicely but larger than i had anticipated with the mat and then a wide frame.  now i just have to figure out where i want to put it. :)  rad!  and then i went to the mall for the nordstrom anniversary sale but found nothing except a platter from crate and barrel.  random.  and then i headed home, briefly just stopping for gas and at the drug store.

i talked to the fam for a bit.  they're well.  and then i ordered a pizza and settled in on the couch with my remote control in hand.  first up was the latest episode of "the hills."  the new year's episode.  it was wonderful! :)  haha!  and then i slipped in the first disc of "laguna beach" and i've been watching that ever since.  i gave myself a french manicure at one point but didn't like how it turned out so i took it all back off.  and i've been chatting with sarah and with kath, too! :)

and i am thinking i should probably get to bed soon since it's late now that it's taken me like an hour to write this.  tomorrow should be busy enough with marke's wedding.  i'll let you know how it goes!

and for now, stay cool.  g'night. ;)

saturday 15 july 2006 12:59am

"i couldn't make you change your mind
couldn't stop that morning train
i can't stop knowing that you're gone
like i can't stop this louisiana rain" -- trent willmon "louisiana rain"

i haven't written at such a late hour in a while now, i guess.  that's okay.  i got lost in what i was doing and now all of a sudden it's quite late.  i'm not feeling desperately tired and conan is on and entertaining me, so i'm good to write for a few minutes before i do actually head to bed.

the sleeping.  again.  really not so good.  oh, well.  i'm still doing alright with getting up and functioning and everything, so i guess it's okay.  it's just kind of frustrating.  it's not that bad but it's not perfect.  never mind.  now i'm just rambling about something that really doesn't matter.  i'm fine.  i got some sleep.  and then the alarm clock went off and i had to get up and out of bed.  i got cleaned up and dressed and all that.  it was a beautiful morning once again, which i'm loving.  i don't want to need a sweater to walk to my car in the morning.  so i put on bermuda shorts and a tank and headed off to work.  actually, i stopped for breakfast on the way.

work today was good.  a little frustrating at times, but still good.  we had a magazine to wrap up and ship today, and it went extremely well.  too well.  we're all waiting for something to come crashing down because we had no problems.  i think perhaps the punishment will be the magazine we're just starting work on, though.  the materials are crazy late but we expected them today.  but we still don't have them.  so awesome. ;)  anyway, so i spent too much time just waiting for those materials since i didn't have them and the other magazine was already together.  could have been a worse day! ;)  and for lunch, melissa, jenna, and i snuck out for a bit.  we got a little food at z pizza and then went for pedicures. :)  yay!  i really needed someone to properly clean up my feet, and it was absolutely delightful!  and my toes look great!  also, in the afternoon we had a little company bachelor party for marke in the kitchen that consisted of us hanging out and eating cupcakes, which melissa made.  he and katrina getting married sunday!  and the big office discussion today centered around a summer company retreat, which no one can agree on.  so it was an interesting day around the office.

after work, it was still delightfully hot out, so i changed into a bathing suit and went to the beach.  it was still warm when i got there so i laid out there reading for awhile.  it was such a nice way to unwind a bit. :)  eventually, it got too windy to be enjoying myself out there, though, so i packed up and headed home.

i'm not sure where all the hours of my evening went!  i had some dinner, and i talked to the family a bit.  and then i was working on invitations for my dinner party, and those took awhile.  they're done now, though, besides addressing them.  they turned out nice, i think.  and i was chatting with sarah for a bit, too.  and all of a sudden it's the middle of the night!  so i am thinking i should try to make my way to bed soon.

i'll be back later with more.  i have no idea what i'm going to do with my saturday, but i'll let you know.  for now, g'night. ;)

thursday 13 july 2006 10:21pm

"what she don't know is
before she came along
i was going nowhere
so close to being gone
just another drifter lost at sea
until the day her love surrounded me
now i'm her rock upon the shoreline
i'm her piece of solid ground
and i'm the one that she can lean on
when her waves come crashing down
and she's afraid that with the rain
i'll drift away and i'll disappear
but she's my ocean and i'm her island
i ain't going anywhere" -- trent willmon "island"

i told you last night this song's a keeper. :)

it was an interesting thursday, i'd say.  i mean, just a little off or something.  not that it was a bad day.  it's quite gorgeous here right now, so i'm trying to take in as much of that as possible and it keeps me in a good mood. :)  anyway, i'm not sure what i'm rambling on about at this point.  good thursday.

i'm like sleep handicapped.  or maybe it's my own fault because i stay up too late.  i don't know.  i just haven't really been getting quite enough rest.  but i'm managing anyway and hoping to play a little sleep catch-up over the weekend.  anyway, i stayed up reading last night and then didn't really get enough sleep. :)  yeah.  and then i got up with the alarm, which was quite startling this morning.  but of course i had to get up and showered and everything right away.  and i found some breakfast and put on a cute skirt and sweater and headed out.  i had to leave a cd for bobby (more stickers for him) at the salon, and then i was off to work.

work today went a bit differently than i had anticipated.  i had forgotten that one of our editors, ann, was going to be in the building today.  she wanted to see the magazine production process (or perhaps more accurately, john wanted her to see it), so she ended up hanging around the art department a lot and watching over our shoulders as we worked on bits of "rtc" today.  i guess that's fine.  not my favorite thing ever, but it was only for one day.  and we did a big lunch out -- well, a lot of us but not in a fancy place or anything because we just went to daphne's.  it was good food (like usual there), and the conversation i ended up in was... weird.  so i just ate and kept my mouth shut.  whatever.  :)

after work, i changed and headed for the beach.  it was quite hot out there today, not that i especially mind at all. :)  and i had a great walk and listened to a couple old lila mccann albums.  and there were some amazing surfers out, which was cool.  it was perfect out there and my head was everywhere so it was less painful than normal to be walking my butt off! ;)

then i came home, got cleaned up right away, and put dinner on.  and then i ate dinner and watched "something more" again.  the dvds were due tonight to hollywood video, but i wanted to watch it one more time because i enjoyed it so much the first time around.  and it was wonderful the second time around, as well.  :)  so that was fun!

but then i had a couple errands to run.  the weather's wacky here right now and we're having warm nights along with our hot days (normally it cools off dramatically no matter what), so i threw that skirt back on with a couple tanks.  it's rare i can out like that at 9:30.  anyway, i went to the store and then went to return the dvds.  and then because i could, i stopped at golden spoon for some dessert. :)  so delicious!

i talked to the family tonight.  i hadn't talked to adam in like forever!  and mom, too.  so it was good to catch up and hear about the mall of america (adam confirmed what i had guessed: my head would explode if i went there ;)).  sounds like they had a good time at junior olympics.

and now i'm just watching a little tv and (randomly) chatting with marke online.  i'll crash soon, though, and we'll be on to friday.

more next time.  g'night. ;)

wednesday 12 july 2006 10:16pm

"but i'm her rock upon the shoreline
i'm her piece of solid ground
and i'm the one that she can lean on
when her waves come crashing down
and she's afraid that with the rain
i'll drift away and i'll disappear
but she's my ocean and i'm her island
i ain't going anywhere" -- trent willmon "island"

i am addicted to this song.

today was excellent.  it was one of those days that seems to just be filled with great little surprises, and i'm grateful for that.  it came at the right time, i think.  i'm feeling great. :)

i once again ended up getting distracted before making it to bed last night.  oh, well.  the strange little chat i had with troy was totally worth it.  and i maintain that the best people are at least a little bit crazy.  that's why they're interesting!  anyway, i did eventually head for the bed, but i read the first couple chapters in a new book before crashing.

and then i was up 30 minutes early this morning and straight into the shower and then running around like crazy to get all dressed and ready and out the door on time.  i brought the volvo to the volvo shop for a little maintenance (really just an oil change) and melissa met me there and brought me to work.

work today was alright.  the building was absolutely freezing today, though, so i was dying.  i just had goosebumps and there wasn't really anywhere i could go to get warm.  i did eventually remember that diana was out of the office, though, so i stole her space heater and ran that on high for the rest of the day.  thank goodness for that!  anyway, i had a little work to do on the next magazine but not as much as i had hoped because it's just not in yet, not ready for me to get my hands on it.  so there was news reading and stuff like that, which is fine, i guess.  and for lunch, i needed to go to the post office, so i walked over there (yes, i know people don't walk in so cal, even if it's like half a block, but it was an absolutely gorgeous day out) and then walked up the road a little bit to stillwater cafe to pick up lunch.  i've likely said it before, but they make the best caesar salad ever.  so good! :)  and scott picked up chocolate digestives at the british food store during his lunch break, so i got one of those when he got back, which was so so so so good!  it was like totally what i wanted!  and it was warm enough outside for me to defrost!  and then in the afternoon i was just doing whatever when jenna told me she wanted to bring me to my car.  (i mean, she was in charge of that today.  it's just that i expected it to be after work, but it was only 3.)  she told me it'd be easier if she did it in the afternoon and then she gave me the rest of the afternoon off! :)  awesome!  2 whole hours of stolen time.

so i got my car.  and then what?  well, i wasn't quite sure what to do with the extra time, but since i've been wanting to have just a bit more relaxing time doing nothing, i went home.  and i did hang out there for a bit doing totally nothing.  and then i went to staples because i needed some paper.  dinner party.  here.  5 august.  real invitations are coming soon.  though everyone's invited anyway.

anyway, then i went to the beach for a walk.  it was quite crowded for a wednesday at 6, but that's fine.  the people aren't in the way so much.  and it was quite windy out, so i wasn't overheating or anything.  and because i was loving the beach, i walked barefoot on my final stretch of beach, toes in the water.  it was delightful! :)

i really haven't been up to too much since i got home, either.  i got cleaned up.  i had some dinner.  i talked to dad for awhile (adam and mom get back from minneapolis late tonight).  and then i spent a while watching "failure to launch," which was a cute little movie! :)  my least favorite part was the animals, but only because it was so outrageous.  but anyway, it was fun. :)  and i've been chatting with sarah and adding a few random new photos to flickr for you.  and that's about it!

i'm off to bed.  more tomorrow.  g'night. ;)

tuesday 11 july 2006 9:56pm

"she's like the ocean that takes my breath away
endless and open and in a moment she can change
like water flowing and filling up my soul
no way of knowing how deep she really goes
and sometimes i can predict her like the tides
and some days her storm'll take me by surprise" -- trent willmon "island"

i love this song.  it's likely my very favorite out of trent willmon and it just seems to fit. :)  love it! :)

okay, so i didn't get to writing much last night because it got late quickly and i was so tired.  so anyway, i'll just fill in a few more details about yesterday and then give you some more about today, as well.  you're so excited! ;)

i have this problem.  i get too much rest on the weekend and then when it comes time for me to fall asleep and stay asleep on sunday night, i can't.  so then i get up monday morning totally exhausted.  but it doesn't matter all that much, i suppose.  i had to get up and go to work, no matter what anyway.  there was plenty of work to get done.  it's the magazines time of the month, and i had my whole section to lay out.  but i did take a break for a nice lunch outside at baja fresh with diana and jenna. :)

after work, i went to the beach for a walk.  i got to the top of the stairs to start my walk and noticed a sticker put on one of the signs that says "no dogs" or whatever.  about a step and a half later, i realized that's my sticker!  one i did for bobby!  how awesome is that?  i even took a photo (still on my camera, though).  bobby said it was probably one of his buddies.  rad! :)  oh, and i had a great walk.  it was an absolutely gorgeous day at the beach.  and i wrapped up that workout once i got home with the strength training.  it's hard but getting easier, thank goodness!

after a bit of dinner, i ended up on the phone.  all night.  :)  it was exactly what i needed for my night, even though it wasn't at all what i had planned for my night.  first up was dad, but just briefly.  and then it was kath.  she's working on the st. charles reunion, among other things.  plus, i want her down here to visit.  :)  (i want everyone down here to visit.)  so it was great to catch up with her a bit.  it's weird to have her around a lot for a few days and then come back down here.  we're too far apart, really.  but i'm so excited about her starting at stanford in the fall, so it'll be alright.  anyway, next up was mel.  i want her down to visit, too, and we really never get to just chat and catch up.  but you know, she's a very good person to chat on the phone with because we can end up talking forever.  really, if she wasn't studying for a bit test, that could have gone on much longer. :)  she's doing well, though, which is awesome!  and then meg, who was a bit distracted but that's okay.  sometimes we just need to hear each other's voices and know that we're alive.  and then all of a sudden it was the middle of the night, and i was deliriously tired.  so i crashed.

today started out okay.  at least i know i got a bit of sleep last night (more than can be said for sunday night).  got dressed.  had breakfast.  looked around the messy apartment.  left. :)

work today ended up to be really fun! :)  i did actual work in the morning.  and then at lunchtime, jan, marke, diana, and i went to the rainbow sandals factory.  it's right in san clemente like a mile from where we work (i drive by it every day), and they sell factory seconds there for 1/4 off.  and then we picked up lunch and ate back at the office.  it was a nice little lunch break. :)  and then there was more work to be done in the afternoon, wrapping up the draft of the magazine so it could get shipped to the copy editor tonight.  but that got done earlier than normal and marke and i were playing games online.  i rock at family feud! :)  i swear i'm so good at that game! haha!

and the day ended at work and i headed home (in a clean car, thanks to the car wash guys that wash cars in the parking lot on tuesdays!), stopping just for shampoo and envelopes on the way.  i've been trying to take care of stuff around the apartment since i got home.  straightening.  sending out mail.  getting in a quick session of that strength training regime again.  dinner.  chatting with a few people onlie.  putting together a little more stuff for bobby.  it's been productive.  the only thing that didn't quite fit in was a movie, but that's okay.  maybe tomorrow.  and i think i'll start a new book when i crawl into bed tonight, so that should make up for it. :)

anyway, i'm off for now.  more next time.  g'night. ;)

monday 10 july 2006 11:45pm

it's already too late and i need to go to bed before i just collapse right here at the computer, but i wanted to write a very brief little update for you. :)  today went well.  work.  lunch outside.  walk on the beach.  my sticker used as graffiti on a sign.  the phone with kath, mel, and megs for hours and hours on a night when i definitely needed it.  good stuff.  i'll write more next time.  sorry it's so brief.  g'night. ;)

sunday 9 july 2006 10:12pm

"don't leave me begging on my knees
since you're gone my heart says something's wrong
how long can this keep going on
i'm building bridges straight to your heart
and all of this distance won't keep us apart
won't keep us apart" -- brooks & dunn "building bridges"

when i chose these lyrics i didn't realize how similar they are to last night's, but i still mean them, so i'm going with them anyway. :)  it's my journal and so i'll write what i please.  what more do you want?

this weekend has been delightful!  i have accomplished nothing and rested lots.  really, though, it's hard to believe that it's so quickly coming to a close and nearly time for me to return to work.  i could definitely use another day!  but here i am on sunday night lounging on the couch with the country music going on my tv and snuggled up to what seems to be my most constant companion: my computer. ;)  and i'm ready to write about today.  it was a good sunday.

i was not roused from my sleep early this morning, thankfully. :)  i slept in delightfully late before eventually getting myself out of bed and all the way to the couch.  i had a little breakfast and read a bit of the newspaper.  pretty much, though, i did a whole lot of nothing.  that's just what i wanted. :)

of course, i had something to do today, so i had to get myself cleaned up.  that didn't take too long, though, so afterward i had a little time to sit on the deck and read my book for a while.  it was a very nice morning (i'm loving this totally summery, sunshiny weather!) so that seemed like an excellent way to spend it.  eventually, it was almost time for me to leave, though, so i threw on a strapless white sundress and some sandals and headed off to a party.

today was the big celebration for lucas's (jan's son) first birthday! :)  it was at jan's mom's house in tustin.  i'd never been there before so i wasn't totally sure what to expect, though i'd heard it was nice.  i had no idea!  the place was absolutely gorgeous!  i am not sure even how to describe it except that it's totally european with a courtyard and murals painted on the walls and just exquisite.  i mean, it's not even my style, but it was just beautiful!  and of course, then there was the party.  i have zero recollection of my first birthday, but i can assure you it would never measure up.  just off the top of my head, the exciting elements were the magician, the bouncy house, the train that went around the neighborhood, the sno cone machine, the cotton candy machine, the clown, the elmo, and the 3-layer custom cake.  oh, and the balloons with lucas's face on them.  and the food!  there was so so so so much food, all of which was really good!  and pretty much, lucas is like the cutest baby ever, so there was that! ;)  i had fun mostly hanging out with co-workers, though the abundance of little, filipino people made me feel right at home!  one even looked (way) up at me and asked me how tall i was, then guessed 5'9" (i'm 5'8.5", so she was pretty close, though i was also wearing heels), then asked me if i was still growing.  so cute, those little filipino ladies! :)  anyway, it was quite the party!

then i headed back home and spent the rest of my afternoon reading.  i'm nearly done with the trashy romance novel i've been devouring all weekend. :)  hehe!  they're just fun to read.  anyway, i did eventually also make myself a little dinner.  and i spent some time talking to dad.  i miss him!  and then i watched "something new."  that movie was so good!  i loved every minute of it! :)  it's a romantic comedy but different than the standard.  good stuff.  i may watch it again before returning it to hollywood video. :)

and now i should be getting to bed.  i have about 30 pages left in that book, and i would like to go ahead and finish it.  and then i'll crash.  i'll be back tomorrow with more, i'm sure.  for the moment, g'night. ;)

saturday 8 july 2006 11:03pm

"since you've gone my heart said something's wrong
how long can this keep going on
i'm still blue over losing you
what else am i gonna do
i'm building bridges straight to your heart
and all of this distance won't keep us apart
won't keep us apart" -- brooks & dunn "building bridges"

i didn't even know brooks & dunn had a new song on the radio.  i seriously need to listen to the radio more often! ;)  this song is... fitting.  i heard it this afternoon, part of my really lovely, really lazy saturday. :)

for some reason, i was up too late last night.  i was mostly just reading and then all of a sudden it was later than i had really planned on being awake.  and so i went to sleep.  and the next thing i recall is my apartment phone ringing at 9:30 this morning.  actually, it took me a long time just to figure out what that noise was and so by the time i answered it, the person had hung up already.  then i looked at the clock.  9:38.  and then i freaked out.  i was already late for work!  so i ran to the dining room and found my mobile phone and rang the office so i could tell jenna i'd be late.  and as it was ringing, i realized it was saturday.  no work.  oops!  so i hung up and managed to go back to bed. :)  and eventually, i woke up at a much better hour, nearly noon.

i lounged around awhile reading and munching and really doing pretty much nothing.  that's kind of what i really wanted for my day. :)  eventually, there was enough sun on my little deck, so i threw on a bathing suit and layed out there for awhile while i had the giants game on the tv so i could listen to it.  my (pepperdiner) noah lowry was pitching against the dodgers.  plus, the game sort of turned into a shootout, so there was lots of action.  anyway, i (perhaps) tanned a little and listened to the game.  lovely!  and then i did a bit of weight training that i'd meant to do thursday and then yesterday but didn't get around to until today.  better late than never! ;)

i decided that i did actually need to get cleaned up eventually.  i had a couple places to go today and i couldn't go all sweaty in a bikini. ;)  so i showered and threw on a tank and shorts because it's really quite hot here right now.  my hair loves it! :)  anyway, i talked to dad for awhile.  adam and mom are in st. paul for volleyball, so dad has time to chat with me.

then i headed out because i had a few things i wanted to take care of today.  first i went to hollywood video to rent a couple dvds to keep me entertained the next few days.  i knew there'd be lots for me to choose from because i hadn't been there in a while.  and actually, i did have a hard time selecting just a couple.  the next stop was borders.  tomorrow is jan's son lucas's birthday party.  he's turning 1!  so i needed to find a cool present, which was a bit of a challenge for me because i don't really know what 1-year-olds want or like or can use.  but lucky for me, borders has books for babies, so i picked out a few that looked excellent!  then i was off to the grocery.  there was no food in the apartment, so i wanted to pick up enough to keep myself fed for a while.  and then i went to trader joe's with the same mission. :)  and i did find lots of delicious things, so it's looking good!  and my final stop was at golden spoon for some frozen yogurt, which i took home with me for after dinner.

once back here and with all the food put away, i decided i should get around to eating a proper meal today, so i made myself a little dinner.  and then i sat and watched "dave chapelle's block party," which was even more excellent than i thought it would be!  it's just about him throwing a big concert/block party in brooklyn and the little stories of the people there and everything mixed in with the musical performances.  it was really fun! :)

and now i'm just hanging out.  i am feeling tired, so i'll probably get to bed soon.  should be another nice, hot day tomorrow.  i'll let you know how it goes.  g'night. ;)

friday 7 july 2006 10:50pm

"i can't fool my crying heart
'cause it knows i need you so
i could tell my heart that i'm glad we parted
my lips could tell a lie, but my heart would know" -- hank williams "my heart would know"

pirates!  woohoo!  "pirates of the caribbean: dead man's chest" opened today.  i've been waiting for this movie since the first one ended and i was sitting in that theatre wanting so much more captain jack sparrow and will turner!  and today's the day! :)  and because i wanted to be among the first to see it, i decided to go to  midnight showing last night.  plus, i knew it'd be exciting to watch it with other die hard "pirates" fans.  so i bought a ticket online and went to the midnight screening of the new movie at aliso last night.

i wasn't sure how early to arrive, but i decided to get there around 9:30.  if there were tons of people around, i'd just get in line with everyone.  if not, i'd go hang out in the bookstore or get frozen yogurt or something.  well, when i arrived, there were people everywhere!  there were even official pirates entertaining the crowd by scaring them and posing for photos and things like that.  plus, there were more official pirates fencing.  rad, right? :)  i learned that all 20 screens were showing the film at midnight and that my theatre assignment was on my ticket.  so i found the line for theatre 10, which was kind of in an alley.  i got in line with the rest of the crazies, who were dressed up and freaking out and all sorts of fun stuff like that. :)  and it was 9:30.  that left me with a lot of free time, so i called my brother, who was headed to a "pirates" line of his own up in mountain view.  but he wasn't up for too much of a chat, so i rang sarah.  and she entertained me for quite a while until i was informed that we'd be let into our theatre.  i got an awesome seat in middle(ish) of the first row of the stadium seats.  turns out i was sitting next to the people who were very first in our line.  see?  great seat! :)  but it was only 10:30 and the commercials on the screen don't even start until 20 minutes before showtime.  good thing i brought a book with me!  so i read.  okay, i admit that it's totally dorky and maybe even a little lame, but it turned out to be a really good way to pass the time, so whatever.

and then the movie started!  (well, first there were trailers, the most notable of which was for "transfomers," after which the audience applauded because it was so well done.)  i loved every moment of the movie, really!  it was so much fun!  i don't think you can ask for more from a summer popcorn movie, except perhaps an ending.  it's definitely only half a movie, and the rest will come a year from now with "pirates 3."  i can hardly wait!  anyway, johnny was once again totally kickass.  there's not a moment where i wasn't wishing i could be as rad as captain jack sparrow.  and davy jones was also really cool, which all the tentacles on his face.  and i loved all the rum jokes and allusions to the theme park ride.  so great! :)  and i want to go see the movie again, though i'll wait for the crowds to die down a little before going back.  anyway, the middle-of-the-night show was so much fun! :)

and then i went home and crashed around 3:30.  and the alarm went off again 4 hours later.  ugh.  i was totally disoriented when it went off, actually, but i did manage to figure things out.  i showered and dressed and everything.  really, i was just on autopilot because i finished everything very quickly.  so then i headed out a while early.  i stopped off at starbucks for full-caf coffee (marble mocha macchiato, actually) and at the donut shop for a cinnamon twist.

and then work. :)  oh, work.  it's a good thing i had plenty of stuff to keep me busy all day long or i might have just fallen asleep at my desk.  but i had lots to do, including mostly stuff for the magazines, which are getting underway right now.  so i worked away the morning.  and then it was time for the art department to decide on lunch.  everyone else chose thai food, so i decided to skip that and find something else myself.  so after they were gone, i headed down to scpc for a couple slices of pizza.  i'm in a pizza mood lately. :)  anyway, i was going to take them to go, but i saw the giants-dodgers game was on tv so i decided to stay.  and then i started watching as i started eating and realized it was just a replay of last night's game, and it was the same innings i saw last night.  oops!  it was still a really nice, quiet, relaxing lunch and was totally what i needed, so i am glad i went there to hang out a little bit.  and then it was more work through the afternoon.  around 3, however, i totally lost focus.  but i accomplished enough today that i'll be in good shape next week, so i'm not that concerned. :)

then i headed home.  after finding a little snack, i spent some time cleaning up the apartment a little bit.  or at least getting started with that large chore.  the place is just messy because i haven't fully unpacked from last weekend and there's just a lot of stuff that needs to be put away.  so i made some progress.  then i had a little dinner and hung out in front of the tv for awhile.  i talked to the family for a bit.  adam also loved "pirates."  adam and mom are headed to st. paul, mn, tomorrow morning for volleyball junior olympics, so that's cool for them.  :)  and then i decided that i needed to give myself a proper manicure with proper polish, so i took care of that.  the fingers look great with fresh, coral polish on them. ;)

and now i'm just hanging out.  it's later than i meant to be up, really, but that's alright.  i don't have too much planned for tomorrow, so i'll be sleeping in and probably just lounging around reading or something. :)

so i'll check in again tomorrow.  g'night. ;)

thursday 6 july 2006 8:45pm

"it's a sin to make me cry
when you know i love you so
i could tell my heart that i don't miss you
my lips could tell a lie, but my heart would know" -- hank williams "my heart would know"

life's good, as i continue to mess with my own sleep schedule so drastically that i really don't know when exactly i will manage to get it back to something normal.  and i'm loving every moment of this life.  it's fun. :)

last night, i tucked into bed around 9 and read for about an hour, at which point i fell asleep.  yes, i went to bed at 10, a gloriously early hour. :)  admittedly, i haven't been good at sleeping for long amounts of time for awhile now, but i managed to get more rest than any night in recent history.  i needed that because i was so totally exhausted yesterday. and when i got up with the alarm this morning, i was feeling good.  that's the point, right?  so i got cleaned up and dressed and all ready for my day.  there's not a lot in the apartment to eat right now, so i took off a few minutes early and stopped at sc donuts to pick up breakfast (the cinnamon twist and chocolate milk was a delicious choice, if not a healthy one).

work went very well today.  perhaps too well, if there is such a thing.  i spent all morning working away on the figures for the magazine, which we officially start laying out tomorrow.  i wanted to get all of the figures for melissa's section and jenna's section done today.  well, by lunchtime, i was done. :)  so that was excellent for me, but it meant i was less busy than i wanted to be through the afternoon.  of course, i still managed to keep myself busy enough, anyway. :)  but before an afternoon of minor tasks and reading news and celeb gossip, i took a little lunch break to pick up a couple slices at z pizza.  hadn't been there in awhile!  that was tasty.  and then yeah, i worked through the afternoon like normal.  in the middle of that, though, melissa wanted frozen yogurt and jenna and jan still hadn't eaten lunch, so the four of us went down to goodies/chronic taco.  goodies was so delicious, like usual! :)

after work, i changed and then headed for the beach.  i had a really good walk, and it was a gorgeous, warm evening out there in dana point.  more people than normal were out and about.  and i was totally tired by the end of my walk.  i headed straight home and got cleaned up right away.

since then, i've been watching the giants(/dodgers) game.  i had a little dinner and talked to the family briefly.  and my nails were looking bad, so i took off the old polish.  then i tried out that new nail polish avon is advertising.  it's like little strips you just put on like stickers.  i really wanted them to work well!  i was ready to become an advocate.  but, they don't.  the polish would already be back off again if i didn't want to leave it on just to show the girls at work tomorrow.  it's not smooth enough, it's too sheer, and it doesn't cut nicely.  plus, the sizes were really too big for my nails, and i don't have small hands.  anyway, it was worth one try.  soon, back to the real polish for me. :)

and in just a little bit, i am headed back out again.  the second "pirates of the caribbean" movie comes out tomorrow, so i'm off to the movies for the midnight show.  i can hardly wait, i'm so excited!  i'll be wearing the new pirate sweatshirt and pirate watch mom and dad me for my birthday! :)  so yeah, i have a hot date with two of my boyfriends tonight, johnny (depp) and orlando (bloom).  awesome! :)  it just means that i'll be totally spent tomorrow.  oh, well.  pirates are totally worth the sacrifice! ;)

so i'll report back tomorrow.  for now, g'night. ;)

wednesday 5 july 2006 7:32pm

"it's a wide, wide world looking out this window
thirty thousand feet above the ground i grew up on
just a small town girl out here chasing rainbows
doing what i can to stand up on my own" -- julie roberts "mama don't cry"

i had a wonderful weekend at home, and it was really hard to head back down to laguna (extremely early) this morning.  but now i'm back in my own apartment, fully relaxed and seriously feeling just how worn out i actually am.  but i've had a busy enough day, so i figured i'd take a few minutes to write and fill you in. :)

but first, i totally forgot a great part of the story yesterday!  so after the fireworks ended, we were trying to get from the park to the street and there were tons of people everywhere, of course.  so i decide we should walk through the plants a little bit because it'd be quicker and loads of other people had already done it.  so i was walking through like the 5-foot-long path through the flowers and i totally fell!  like my feet came out from under me and went forward, leaving me on the ground on my butt.  giants oops!  hahaha!  i mean, i didn't fall hard and i didn't get hurt, so it was pretty hilarious!  and adam, of course, gave me a hard time about it.  oh, yeah.  super. ;)

anyway, i got to sleep around 12:30 last night.  and then all of a sudden dad was waking me up at 4:45.  rough!  it is killer to get up that early (it's still dark out!), but i managed to shower and get everything packed up and into the car and all ready to go.  then mom and dad brought me to the airport in san jose.  the security line there was longer than i've ever seen it before ever, but thankfully, it went pretty quickly.  and then i got on my plane, which was about half full.  i had my whole row of three seats to myself, and i managed to sleep pretty much the entire flight.  perfect! :)  and then i landed, got my luggage, and headed to my car.

from the airport, it was straight to work.  as i was leaving the airport parking lot, i spotted a kenny the printer van.  they do a lot of our print jobs.  i didn't think much of it, really, until the kenny's van was getting off the freeway in san clemente right in front of me.  turns out, they were headed to the office because they had a proof for me to approve.  crazy, right?

anyway, work today was fine.  i took care of minor stuff because i was just so tired.  and all of us got to catch up with each other and see how the long weekends went.  we all had lots going on.  :)  so i guess it was totally a decent day of work.

for lunch, jan, jenna, melissa, and i went to san clemente pizza company and shared a big pizza and watched the second half of the soccer game.  well, i just hung out.  i was tired, so the soccer was kind of the right pace for me today. ;)

and after work, i headed straight for home, totally spent and ready to just curl up on the couch.  and besides the few minutes i spent making myself a little dinner, that's where i've been. :)  i'm trying to make sure i can tuck in very early tonight and catch up on some sleep because tomorrow night is going to be a little bit crazy. ;)

i'll be back soon to fill you in on more.  g'night. ;)

tuesday 4 july 2006 11:55pm

"i remember standing at the end of the driveway
looking down that highway wondering how far it goes
and i can feel your hand resting on my shoulder
hear you saying, 'baby, don't forget when you're grown
that road will always lead you home'" -- julie roberts "mama don't cry"

i am up too late.  i have to be up in less than 5 hours and then work an entire day.  but it's totally worth the lack of sleep.  i have had an amazing trip home and am not at all ready to get back to work, even if it is a short week.  i've really loved being here. :)

i tried with all my might to sleep in this morning.  but i still ended up waking up before 10.  ugh.  stupid grown up sleep schedule i have in me. ;)  so i got up and wandered around the house a little.  eventually, dad returned from home depot (he likes to go there because he likes to do handy work in his free time) and we decided to go for a nice walk.  and he wanted to go over to belmont and redwood shores, so we drove over there and found a place to park.  there's a long walking trail along the bay there, which is quite nice but it's such a huge open space that it sort of feels like you're not getting anywhere because you just keep walking and it's just more and more bay.  but it was a great walk! :)  and then we came home, i arranged lunch plans, and i finished my workout downstairs in our little home gym.  weights.  not too rough.  and then i had to shower really fast and get dressed.  i did end up looking really cute in my new green v-neck tee from j.crew. ;)

annahita, meg, and kath all met me here.  we tried to go to toto's for lunch, but they were closed, so we went to amici's instead.  wow.  my pizza had pesto sauce, tomato sauce, cheese, and bacon on it, and it was absolutely divine!  like crazy good.  and because the waitress thought the first one she brought me was too burnt (it was questionable whether or not that was true) she brought me another a couple minutes later.  so i ended up with two pizzas!  and then meg was driving and she wanted frozen yogurt, so we went to yumi yogurt, which was also really good even though i was crazy full by the end of that!

it was just kath and me for the afternoon, so we decided that wandering around a bookstore for awhile could be entertaining enough for us.  there were lots of books i could have bought and had i not already been anticipating a packing issue, i would have probably found 4 for their 4-for-3 offer.  but instead, i just found one little book and a magazine with johnny depp on the cover. :)

tonight, after hanging out at the house a little and chatting with a couple people online, we headed out for a proper fourth of july celebration.  kath, dad, adam, and i went to foster city with lots of layers of clothing, a few chairs, a blanket, and a couple sleeping bags, and we found a nice little spot on the lawn in the park there, right along the bay.  it's cold here on the 4th.  i always think of that holiday as freezing cold.  i guess that's not true for everyone. :)  anyway, once we got settled into a nice spot, kath and i walked a couple blocks to boston market to pick up a whole bunch of food for dinner.  it ended up that we got the last chicken!  :)  and we got tons of delicious sides, which is the best part about eating there.  ;)  and then we brought it all back to the park and we enjoyed eating dinner together like a picnic.  and soon it was time for the fireworks show, which was quite excellent.  we were very close to where they shoot them off up over the bay, so they were all right over our heads.  it was really cool and very loud.  so it was a great way to celebrate the holiday.  it's a holiday that has a lot of memories attached to it for me, and i feel like i added to that at least a little this year.  fireworks over the bay.  that's good stuff. :)

and now i really need to get to sleep!  i'm sleepy and i know i won't get much rest.  but i surely must try.  i'll be back in so cal tomorrow.  until then, g'night. ;)

monday 3 july 2006 10:55pm

"what i need is medication
in the form of a vacation
what i need is skies of blue
what i need is a perspective
one that's healthy but objective
what i need is a point of view
what i want is you" -- julie roberts "all i want is you"

today.  was.  excellent!  it was a wonderful sort of san carlos summer day.  and i'm really glad sarah was here to partake, as well. :)

i got to sleep in, which is always good news (though at some point early this morning, i could hear the family talking and it woke me up).  so i got some decent rest, though actually it was quite late last night before i actually fell asleep.  anyway, when i did eventually get up, no one was around.  so i wandered around a bit but eventually decided to get cleaned up and dressed.  and i arranged with sarah when she'd be arriving and everything.  then i spent some time touching up (adjusting color, mostly) the photos from yesterday, and now they're on flickr for you. :)

sarah arrived at lunchtime, so we went down to downtown san carlos for lunch.  we had delicious lunches at sneakers (likely my favorite san carlos restaurant) and then we went over to vivaldi's/chocolate mousse (i'm still not sure what that place is now called) for slices of triple chocolate mousse cake.  so so so so good!  and we ate that outside on the sidewalk, like at a proper cafe.  and we discovered that that place has an all-you-can-eat dessert bar on sundays!  how did i not know and how have i never been to that?!? :)

then we decided that we fulfilled requirement #1 of us hanging out (eating) so it was time for #2 (shopping).  so we went down the road a bit to stanford shopping center.  it'd been awhile since i'd been there and there were lots of new shops and stuff.  and it was a beautiful day to be out and about.  plus, sarah and i just have a good time walking around and all that.  also, she talked me into a very pretty white sundress from banana republic that was on sale.  so pretty!  i think i might wear it tomorrow just because i can. :)  so it was a fun trip to stanford.

and then we met up with mom, dad, and brother at macaroni grill for a very delicious dinner.  i ate way too much.  and it was so good! :)  and then we all came back to the house for a bit.  i had a (late) graduation present for sarah, and she had an early birthday present for me, including very rad playing cards and the purse i had been eyeing at the coach outlet a couple weeks ago.  she wins!  :)

and i've just been hanging out since sarah headed back home.  it's been lovely! :)

now i'm exhausted.  i'm about to crash.  and i'll be back later with more.  g'night and happy independence day. ;)

sunday 2 july 2006 11:59pm

"'cause your memory is chained to my mind
it's there all the time
and that ain't a crime" -- julie roberts "that ain't a crime"

well, i must say that so far is has been a wonderful weekend! :)  several people are up here in san carlos hanging out, so it's really a very nice opportunity for me to see as many of them as possible.  and so i've been having a great time trying to mix relaxing and visiting with people.

yesterday, i got to sleep in a bit, though i was awoken by a phone call around 10.  i arranged to have lunch with mr. bright, a friend of my mom's who is a financial planner.  i just wanted to get a sort of basic education on what i need to be doing and i kind of get my career started and all that.  so we met for lunch at sneakers, which was busier than i had anticipated because of the world cup games going on.  but we met anyway and lunch was delicious and i learned some important stuff.  i feel like i have a better understanding of what i need to do now to prepare for the future.

then adam and i spent the afternoon hanging out.  we did normal stuff that we do.  we wandered around best buy (i managed to walk out with just the new trent willmon album) and got smoothies at skinny sippin.  and we even wandered around old navy for fun and adam found some rad t-shirts that were totally on sale. :)

and after a family dinner, kath picked me up and we went out for dessert and a movie.  we stopped at krispy kreme, which was doubly exciting because the "hot now" light was on, which meant free hot donuts for us.  and then we went to see "the devil wears prada," which i'd been looking forward to since i heard that they were making it a movie.  i read the book two years ago and really enjoyed it, and it translated well to the screen.  good stuff! :)  and also the reason i don't work for a fashion magazine. ;)

today was the big party day!  i was up earlier than i had really wanted because i don't really sleep well here and it was noisy with everyone else already being awake.  so i got up and lazed around the house for awhile.  in an effort to prevent mom from getting totally frustrated with me (she always stresses out on party days), i got showered and cleaned up and dressed and everything relatively early.  and then the rest of the morning and early afternoon was spent helping get all the food and everything prepared for this evening.

everyone came over around 5 or so.  it was the family -- mom, dad, adam, auntie lily, uncle ken, theresa, auntie joyce, caroline, jason, brenda, grandma, auntie nancy -- and a few friends who happen to be around right now -- mel and her boyfriend tai, kath, annahita, meg, and jessica.  we barbecued hot dogs and chicken and loads of different types of vegetables, and of course there were all the other things that you eat at a bbq.  so we had lots and lots of food, and everything was delicious!  right after the prayer, but before we started eating, they surprised me with crowns.  the party had a surprise princess theme.  haha!  mom's never been big on throwing parties with themes, but i guess she was inspired or something this time around.  so crowns all around!  and we had a great time just eating and hanging out and everything.  even my birthday cake had a big crown on it.

after too much eating and getting some cool presents, adam, theresa, kath, annahita, jessica, and i went down to palo alto for karaoke bowling!  how cool is that?!?  it was fun, though i was having a rough night as far as my bowling was going.  it was still loads of fun, though, and a great way to celebrate my birthday a little bit early but with lots of the people i love.

there are more fun things in store for the next couple days.  i'll be back again with more.  g'night. ;)

friday 30 june 2006 11:28pm

"believe me, this ain't no fun
waking up with just the sun" -- julie roberts "a bridge that's burning"

greetings from the big san carlos! ;)  haha!  oh, back to my "small" town.  and actually, i'm quite excited to be home for the weekend, even though i really don't have a whole lot planned.   maybe that's a very good thing for me right about now.  so anyway, i'll just give you a little update on today...

got up too early.  well... just at the normal time, but it felt way too early, as it so often does.  :)  and so i got up and into the shower.  i got all dressed and ready to go.  i finished the last-second packing.  and i even did the dishes because there were lots waiting to be put into the dishwasher.  and then i grabbed a bite to eat and headed off to work.  another beautiful morning in the oc! :)

about 10 minutes after i got to work, john arrived and announced that we could all get an early start on our holiday weekends and just leave at 1.  awesome!  except that if i had known that before i left the apartment this morning i would have worked out a different schedule for my day.  but that's alright really.  i just called up southwest and put myself on a 4:30 flight instead of the 7:30 one i was scheduled for originally.  and then i worked away for those 4 hours i was in the office.  i actually got a lot done, which is good.  that will hopefully put me in good shape next week when we resume magazines.

after work, i headed home, stopping to pick up lunch at wendy's on the way.  and then i ate and read a magazine and hung out for just a little bit before heading off to john wayne.  and i got parked and checked my bag and got through security just fine.  and i read and talked on the phone until it was time to board.

i ended up in a window seat in the second row.  it was an excellent seat!  it was so clear that i could look out at the california coastline the whole way.  i even spotted malibu and pepperdine and point dume.  awesome!  also, i was sitting next to an old lady, who was really nice.  we chatted the whole way and exchanged phone numbers after the flight.  she wants to be my friend!  hehe! :)  babies, old people, and animals are attracted to me. ;)  anyway, it was a good flight and then mom picked me up curbside.

mom, dad, adam, and i went to chilis for dinner together, which was fine.  i was hungry and now i'm not, so i guess mission accomplished. ;)  and then we've just been hanging out at home since then.  nothing too crazy.  but now i'm totally spent, so adam and i will watch leno until i fall all the way asleep.

i'll be back later with more.  g'night. ;)

thursday 29 june 2006 10:57pm

"so i stayed and watched the sunrise
like it was waking up my life
to what love was, i can still see us" -- julie roberts "too damn young"

you know, i was thinking life was a bit slower this week but it's really not true at all.  i've been keeping myself as busy as ever and i'm gearing up for a really fun weekend, too! :)  so i guess that all means that things are going well for me at the moment.  that's good news!

i kind of got distracted last night and didn't end up actually getting into bed until conan was already on.  that's definitely past my bedtime!  i ended up chatting online with sarah and we just kept talking and all of a sudden it was quite late.  oops!  :)  she's totally worth missing some sleep for, though, so it's cool. ;)  anyway, so that meant i did not get a whole lot of sleep last night before the alarm clock was going off, which was kind of killer.  i think the beautiful weather makes up for the lack of sleep, though.  waking up to it immediately puts me in a good mood, no matter how poorly i slept the night before.  so i got up and into the shower.  and somehow i managed to get all ready and dressed and fed really quickly, so i just headed off to work a few minutes early.

work today was good.  i have lots of things that just need to get done, so i am managing to keep myself busy enough that i'm entertained without being overwhelmed.  great!  i was mostly taking care of brochures and printing stuff and normal sorts of things like that.  and i did work all day, except for the moments i was playing with that astrojax toy and when i was chatting with diana in her office.

at lunchtime, jan, marke, and i headed out.  i needed to pick up a tray from the dentist, so we stopped there really quickly.  now i am officially done with that place for 6 months.  hooray! :)  and then jan needed to stop at the bank, so we went there, too.  and finally, it was time to eat, so we went to super bowl for chicken bowls.  mine was especially delicious because it had been ages since i'd been there.  plus, there was an added bonus!  they had wimbledon tennis on the tv there, including matches featuring my two tennis boyfriends, andy roddick and leyton hewitt.  :)  awesome!  hehe!

after work, i came home.  when was the last time i said that???  i don't even remember!  but that's what i did.  i wanted to take it easy a little bit, and i also had lots to take care of around the apartment.  in fact, i thought i had everything done by now already, but then i realized i need to do dishes still.  that might wait until morning, though.  anyway, i came home and chilled for a moment.  and then after a brief chat (i needed a weather update) with dad, i had some serious packing to do.  i'll be home until wednesday morning, so i needed to get all those clothes together.  and it's hard to decide what i want to wear 4 days from now.  i will want a couple options. :)  so i didn't exactly pack light, but i've definitely packed worse before.  and i'm pretty sure that everything's mostly all together now, so i should be set to get on that plane tomorrow night.

and then i couldn't go home for a summertime weekend with old polish on my toes!  and i definitely needed that pedicure i gave myself.  red red.  hot! ;)  and then i figured i might as well go for the manicure, as well.  sheer light pink.  so everything's looking pretty now, which is a nice little luxury, i think.  and somewhere in all that time, i caught up on the last couple episodes of "the hills," which i'm loving.  i love love that jason came back for lauren.  even though they were apart for awhile, he found her and he got her back.  :)  oh, and i also helped sarah look some stuff up online because apparently it's what i do.  haha!  her and her family think i can find anything online.  i have no secret!  i just use google like everyone else!  hehe!  but anyway, that was funny!

and now i'm just writing while trying to distract myself from the bleach trays in my mouth.  75 minutes feels like forever!  but i'm 50 minutes in now!  anyway, i need to try to get totally ready for bed in the next 25 minutes.  i'm bringing my computer home with me for the weekend, so i'll be back soon.

for now, g'night. ;)

wednesday 28 june 2006 10:47pm

"there in his arms it finally made sense
in that moonlight he saw my tan lines
and every time my feet are dangling in the water
i can't help but think about him
lying there with his wet hair
didn't know what we were doing but we didn't care
that old wooden dock was warm on our backs
t-shirt for a pillow and just like that
he kissed me like he meant forever " -- julie roberts "too damn young"

back to the normal life, and that's definitely keeping me busy enough! :)  and it was a fun sort of standard wednesday, so i'm pleased.  now if i could just figure out a way to get to bed earlier each night, i'd totally be in business.  but it's fine, actually.  i think i'll be able to catch up (at least a little) over the weekend.  and i'm feeling fine for now.  anyway, wednesday...

it's hot here.  i am not sure if i wrote about that last night.  hot.  and yesterday was humid, too, which we don't normally have.  anyway, that meant i was sleeping with the windows open and it was warm in the bedroom.  but i think i was just so tired it didn't matter so much.  i got some sleep, crashing just as leno was ending.  and the alarm went off!  so sad for me! ;)  so i got up and headed for the shower.  i got clean, had some food, picked out something to wear, and all that stuff.  just normal.  and then i headed off to work on a very nice morning.

work was good today.  i had just the right length to-do list, which is great.  everyone was back around the office today, so it was far less quiet and it kind of felt like we all had catching up to do for some reason.  anyway, i spent the morning working away, like a good little employee. ;)  and the i had a couple errands to run at lunchtime.  i needed to pick up the fluoride/bleach trays from the dentist and actually ended up having a new top impression taken because she didn't like how that one turned out.  fine.  no big deal.  and i still took home everything and am in fact sitting with them in right now.  i'm whitening for a few days before i start with the flouride.  not something i especially had a desire to do, but they told me i could so now here i am.  at least i know that i'm doing this the right way, not like the drugstore way.  this way seems harder to mess up.  anyway, i also needed laundry detergent and food, so i took care of those things at lunchtime, as well. :)  and then i returned to the office for some more work.  but late afternoon, however, we all kind of agreed it was feeling more like friday than wednesday and we ended up hanging out and chatting and other things like that, which is cool.  and i discovered that jan had this toy tucked away somewhere.  it's called astrojax and it's like three balls on a string.  i'm not sure how else to describe it, but i had fun trying to figure out how to play with it.  i made serious progress! :)  fun times in the art department!

after work, i headed for the beach.  it was absolutely perfect there!  just the right temperature for a really good walk and the beach was broad because the tide was out.  it was surprisingly crowded for 6pm on a wednesday, but that's okay.  there was still plenty of room for little ol' me. ;)  so i got in a great walk, and i'm back to running the stairs, which is huge.  it's hard.  i promise!  and i ended up finishing faster than normal, which is cool.  perhaps it was the emerson drive on the ipod. ;)  and then i headed home and did the second portion of the workout, strength training.  this routine i'm on right now is hard, but i can tell it's getting a tiny bit easier, so that's encouraging.  i have a week and a half of it left before it changes, i think.  anyway, then i cleaned up.

the apartment was a disaster.  and it's been that way for far too long.  so i put in a few loads of laundry and had a bite to eat and then got to straightening.  i found the dining room table!  it had disappeared under magazines and papers and other junk.  and i got the laundry done.  in fact, i still had clean laundry from the last time i did it that hadn't yet been put away!  so i got to that, as well.  and things are now much more in order, which will make me feel better when i leave again on friday.

and now it's late.  and i want to go to sleep.  more from me tomorrow.  g'night. ;)

tuesday 27 june 2006 10:42pm

"i woke up today
woke up wide awake
in an empty bed
staring at an empty room
i have myself to blame
for the state i'm in today" -- kelly clarkson "i hate myself for losing you"

lucky for you i promised you i'd write this tonight.  otherwise, i'd be one foot in bed by now.  i'm spent.  and it's late.  and i don't know how the hours seem to constantly be slipping away from me.  it's been crazy lately.  that's not to say that i've been miserable.  not even close.  it's been awesome, and i definitely wouldn't trade the madness in for life on the 12-12 split (that's where you sleep 12 hours and are awake for 12 hours, for those of you who haven't ever tried it).  so life's awesome!  i'm just super tired.  but i do definitely want to fill you in on everything!  so here it goes...

friday morning, dad and i got up at the crack of dawn.  i got cleaned up and had a little breakfast, and then he brought me to john wayne so i wouldn't have to leave my car there all weekend.  so nice! :)  the airport was a breeze, as usual (i'm getting spoiled flying out of there all the time), and i soon found myself on a plane headed for phoenix.  not a problem at all.  in fact, i mostly just slept.  and then all of a sudden i was on arizona soil for the first time in my life!  it's just like how i can claim i was in germany when really i just had a long layover in dusseldorf one time and i bought a purse in the airport there.  :)  anyway, i digress.  so i had a couple hours to kill before my next flight.  at this point, i was getting hungry for lunch, so i had a pizza.  it was technically 9:30am.  but there was pizza to be bought (it was delicious and hot), so i did.  it was lunch for me.  it'd been many hours since breakfast.  :)  anyway, while i was sitting eating, i ended up talking with two guys waiting around the same gate.  both texans.  both unabashedly conservative.  it was quite funny to listen to how they talk, really.  didn't bother me so much that they wanted to shoot the shit about various political issues but hopefully no one was around who might be easily offended.  anyway, that was plenty of entertainment until i could get on my plame to san antonio.  i found a window seat (normally, i prefer aisle seats, but it seemed like a good place to sleep) and i slept awhile.  i did watch out the window for about the last 20 minutes while we landed.  there is a whole lot of empty space out there!  and katie was there to pick me up curbside once i landed.  that was very nice of her, considering she was getting married the next day!

we headed for downtown san antonio to get checked into her hotel room at the hotel valencia, right in the heart of downtown and right on the riverwalk.  and she was in such a hurry that she actually didn't even make it up to the room with me.  she left to go continue with her errands and such.  and i got to check out the extremely beautiful hotel!  first of all, it's definitely a luxury hotel, one of the nicest i've stayed in.  and it's decorated in a very contemporary style with harsh lines and dark wood.  it was perfect, really.

so once i got myself settled a little bit and found a map of the city, i headed out for a little walk.  i had about an hour before i needed to get back, so i walked along the riverwalk.  at some point, i had to go up to street level (the riverwalk is right on the river, like a story below street level) and then i just got lost.  so i ended up at a very different part of the river and just walked back along the riverwalk.  it was actually a good way to get my bearings.  and i saw a good amount of the city in that hour! :)

i spent a little time getting ready and then i was all set to head to the church for the rehearsal.  katie asked me to do one of the readings in the ceremony.  katie was meant to pick me up so i could just go there with her.  she was running late herself, however, so she sent her best friend stephanie to come get me.  of course, that meant that stephanie and i were quite late, but it was really out of my hands so i didn't worry about it so much.  and no one seemed especially bothered when we arrived.  the rehearsal went well.  i got my reading (a passage from song of solomon) and was told how to get from my seat to the lectern and back.  katie's parents were both excited to see me there, which is so sweet!  first i saw her mom, who told me she didn't recognize me at first and that i looked great.  :)  and then i saw her dad, who told me he hardly recognized me and that i looked great.  that's excellent! :)  they're both very nice people.  and then we all headed to a mexican restaurant called los barrios (i believe that translates to the neighborhoods) for the rehearsal dinner.  i got to meet lots and lots of katie's friends and family, which was good news.  i needed to know people there so i wouldn't be bored through that dinner and through the whole wedding.  everyone was really nice to me, which i'm so thankful for.  and dinner was pretty good, especially considering i'm a bit of a picky (though i prefer "discerning") eater. ;)

then i headed back to the hotel room with katie.  we had to make a little stop first, though.  katie needed a manicure and pedicure.  i don't ever give those to other people.  but katie was getting married and needed it and i know she'd do the same for me, so we went to the drug store, picked up everything we needed, and went back to hotel valencia.  and then katie and i got to catch up and hang out while i did all her nails, which actually turned out quite nicely, if i do say so myself. :)  and it needed to be done!  and then we crashed.  kaite needed to get as much sleep as possible the night before her big day!

we got up at a decent hour and got cleaned up and dressed.  then i brought katie to her parents' house so that she could go from there to her hair and makeup appointments.  that meant i could use her car the rest of the day, too, which was very good news.  of course, her parents and grandma were chatty so i hung out there for a little bit before heading back downtown.

i wanted to do a more thorough tour of the riverwalk and i had a few hours, so that's what i did.  there are lots of little shops and restaurants all along it, and then there's also a huge shopping mall at one end.  so i spent the day walking all around and looking in various shops.  i found lunch at the mall and even picked up a few little items for myself and others.  it was fun! :)  that area is quite unique, i'd say.  it's a river!  in the middle of the city!  haha!  okay, so anyway, it was fun. :)

then i had to get back to the hotel to get myself ready.  i got all cleaned up and made up and dressed up for the wedding.  i wore a bright pink dress from j.crew and pulled my hair back so i wouldn't have to worry about it with the heat and humidity.  frankly, i was feeling like i looked very pretty! :)  and then i had to get all my stuff packed back up so i could move out of katie's room and check into my own room for that night.  (couldn't stay with katie on her wedding night, you know!)

then it was time to head to the church.  i arrived just a little early, as the wedding planned had asked me to, so i could get the proper seat for myself.  and the wedding was really nice!  katie wore a strapless, ivory dress that looked awesome on her!  and her bridesmaids wore black dresses and carried green bouquets.  and the groom and groomsmen all wore black tuxes.  it was very nice.  the reverend was a family friend, which made what he had to say pretty special.  and i made it through my reading just fine, and even got compliments on it later on at the reception.  i hung around awhile after the ceremony while all the photos were being taken in the church, but eventually i headed over to the reception at the country club.

the country club was gorgeous!  they kept everyone in the foyer area while they served hors d'oeuvres and drinks.  i actually took a little break in the powder room to talk to sarah on the phone for a few minutes.  i just needed to talk to someone i know for a bit, you know?  but then i got back to the party.  a mariachi band played while everyone just mingled, which was really cool.  and then they eventually let everyone (like 300 guests) into the ballroom, where we were all seated for a full sit-down dinner.  i was at a table with 7 of katie's co-workers.  they were nice and definitely willing to chat with me, which i appreciate, especially at a couples event like a wedding.  dinner was fancy!  there were various courses and even sorbet in between to cleanse your palette.  and katie's brother's band played for the first dance and a few other songs.  after dinner, everyone went into a different room where raul and katie cut their wedding cake.  it was quite a cake!  it was orange and then was surrounded by green ones that were lilly pads.  the cake topper was two frogs (frogs are their thing).  so it was a whole frog theme.  and that's very katie! :)  it was perfect!  and then we all returned to the ballroom.  a salsa band (that's three bands, in case you're keeping score at home) played into the night as everyone danced.  i just danced a little bit because the people i was sitting with weren't all about the dancing and then left early.  so then i found some other people that i met the night before to hang out with, but they weren't really dancing either.  anyway, i still had a good time.  and i even got moments to talk to katie here and there, which i hadn't at all expected, so that was happy! :)  it was a very nice wedding!  and eventually, it was quite late so i headed back to the hotel and crashed.

sunday, i was up again at a decent hour.  i got all cleaned up, and then went to a little cafe called sip for breakfast.  it was very cool looking, and actually my cinnamon roll and hot chocolate were quite good. :)  and then i had a few more sights to see before leaving san antonio.  first up was the alamo.  it's likely the most famous thing about san antonio.  i got there only a couple minutes before they opened for the day, and so i took a couple photos and then headed inside.  and i got to listen to the first docent talk of the day.  he told the whole story of the alamo and why we must "remember the alamo," which was very educational for me because i honestly didn't know all that much.  but now i do!  and then i wandered around the grounds there for a bit because it was very interesting.  and then i walked all the way across the city to the other side of downtown to market square.  from what i read, it's the largest mexican market outside mexico.  there were lots of places to eat, and the area was filled with shops and vendors selling various mexican trinkets.  it was a lively area to just wander. :)  and then it was time to get back to my hotel and pack up and check out.

the trip back to orange county was alright.  it was bumpy.  phoenix was having weird dust storms or something, which made landing there pretty miserable.  and then planes couldn't land for about 90 minutes, so the plane i was trying to get on to go to orange county landed an hour late.  so i was an hour late getting into john wayne, and also feeling a bit sick from a thoroughly bumpy ride.  but i made it, and dad was there to pick me up! :)  he brought me back here and i crashed pretty quickly.  it was a great, but tiring, trip to texas!

and i've been pretty busy since i've been back here.  i  had a dentist appointment yesterday morning, and then i was off to work, on what turned out to be sort of weird day.  both jenna and melissa called in sick, so it was just me holding down the art department.  i got some stuff done, but nothing too crazy.  and then after work, i walked on the beach.  it's back to normal, all broad and beautiful.  well, it's always beautiful, but whatever.  anyway, then i came home, finished up the workout with weights, and got cleaned up.  then i desperately needed groceries, so i did that.  and then i made dinner, talked to the family (who made it back to san carlos safely), and crashed.  it was a full day!

and today, i got up and went to work.  work was busier but melissa had to go home with a migraine, which sucks for her.  and jenna and john are back in the office but both sound sicky still.  but i had work to do, so i was mostly at my desk all day long.  i did have a lunchtime dentist appointment (the last, thank goodness!), and i took some time to eat the lunch i brought with me with diana in the kitchen.  and then more work.

after work, i headed for the beach, getting to talk to kath on the phone for awhile while i was driving.  it'd been forever since we'd found time to catch up with each other, so that was excellent!  and then i had a really good walk, which i know made me feel better than i was feeling before i started.  and then i headed home and got cleaned up.  i had planned to head out to target right away but got distracted by talking to troy online for awhile.  it'd been a long time since i'd talked to him, as well, so it was good to catch up.  and i got him all worked up when he found out i didn't gamble in vegas.  apparently, i have failed him.  so sad. ;)  and then i did get to target, finally!  got the new julie roberts album, which i have already listened to.  so excellent!  she's really good at breaking my heart with her song choices and that bluesy voice.  so nice!  and then i made some dinner and cut up that pineapple i bought last night.  and i talked to the family briefly.  and now i'm here writing.  so that's it!  now you're all caught up! :)

i'll be back tomorrow with more life.  g'night. ;)

monday 26 june 2006 10:44pm

tomorrow.  i promise.  the full update on the trip to san antonio and the rest of the days i've missed. :)  i need some sleep.  for now, there are photos of the trip on flickr.  g'night! ;)

thursday 22 june 2006 10:51pm

"maybe i was much too selfish
but baby you're still on my mind
now i'm grown and alone
and wishing i was with you tonight" -- the wreckers "tennessee"

it really was a good thursday.  it felt a whole lot like friday, which is definitely a good thing.  and now i'm so excited about a long weekend in san antonio -- a new city, a lovely wedding, and a great friend. :)  so anyway, i'm trying to get tucked into bed because my alarm will got off in approximately 5.5 hours.  yikes!  that's so early!  so here's how my day went...

i barely heard the rest of the family get up and dressed and ready this morning, and then dad woke me at 6 to tell me they were leaving.  (they had to be at usc very early this morning for a campus tour and it's not a quick drive during rush hour.)  and then i got a few more minutes of sleep before my own alarm went off and i had to get into the shower and cleaned up.  i got dressed and ready and everything, and then i headed out.

my first stop of the day was the dentist's office.  not the best way to start the day, really, but it had to be done, so that's fine.  everyone is actually quite nice there and it turned out fine.  mostly i just lied there with my mouth wide open and my eyes closed while i said the rosary in my head and tried not to pay attention to what was happening in my mouth.  and then i was done.  and then i was told to take a carnation from the vase on the desk and i was free to go.  how random is getting a flower at the dentist?  haha!  oh, well.

and then work.  it was a super mellow day at work, which was probably very good news for my coworkers because i was a bit cranky.  my mouth was half-numb and i was starving because i didn't have breakfast but didn't much feel like eating because of my mouth.  after awhile i went into the kitchen to see if there was any food there and to get some water.  turns out it was my lucky day! :)  diana was in there with a bag of biscuits she was only going to eat half of, as well as some other little random items.  so i ended up having a couple biscuits, a granola bar, and half a banana for breakfast, which is totally decent.  i love diana!  yay for her always having plenty of food!

for lunch, jenna, jan, marke, melissa, and i went to sarducci's and had a working lunch.  melissa and i gave informal presentations about the sessions we attended at the how design conference so that jenna and the rest could benefit, too.  my lunch was just alright.  i didn't much feel like chewing it, so i ate very little.  stupid teeth. ;)  but we did have a good time discussing all the things we learned at how, and it was a good review for me, cemented some of the concepts in my mind. :)  plus, it was a gorgeous day, so i was happy to be outside.  and we didn't actually get back to the office until about 4, which meant just an hour of work before my week was over! :)

after work, i headed straight for the beach.  there was definitely that surf competition going on tonight, with announcers and uniforms and everything!  i watched as much as i could while still walking at a very fast pace right there along the beach.  :)  it was nice out and it seemed like there were a lot of people out.  i didn't get my feet wet for the first time in several walks now, so that is good news, too!  anyway, it was a good evening on the beach, though i was feeling very tired by the end.

i headed home and got cleaned up right away.  and as soon as i was just dressed again, dad arrived.  he's staying the night with me so he can take me to the airport in the morning so i don't have to leave my car there.  rad! :)  so anyway, we headed down to mangia bene for dinner, and we split the gnocchi and a pizza, both of which were absolutely delicious, especially because i was so starving by this point! :)  and we got to sit outside, which dad and i both totally love!

then i had a couple little errands to run, including finding something for breakfast tomorrow, getting a snack for the plane(s), and making sure i had cash.  and then we headed back home.  and then it was time for me to pack.  that meant making decisions about what to wear to the rehearsal and the wedding.  but i did decide and i think that'll all work quite nicely.  and the rest of the clothes are like shorts and tanks because it's super hot and humid down in san antonio and i'll be outside, i'm sure.  but i have everything together and ready to go now. :)

so i'm going to crash.  i'll be back from san antonio sunday.  more then.  g'night. ;)

wednesday 21 june 2006 11:17pm

"it's so hard when it doesn't come easy
it's so hard when it doesn't come fast...
i can live for the moment
when all these clouds open up for me  to see
and show me a vision
of you and me swimming peacefully" -- dixie chicks "so hard"

happy summer!

um, so, yeah.  life picked up again very quickly!  i hardly even have time to be writing this, though i pretty much always cut into my sleeping time to write this anyway. :)  so it's been very fun around here but i really just don't have a ton of time for stuff.  and no time for just sitting around.  but i think i need the busy-ness right now.

i got a little sleep last night but really not that much before the alarms went off this morning.  actually, i cannot remember the first one at all, though i know i must have turned it off.  so i got up with the second one (like usual) and was very tired.  but i still managed to get cleaned up and dressed and ready and all that.  and since i still have no food in this apartment, i stopped off for a white mocha and a donut at starbucks on my way to the office.  not the healthiest breakfast ever, but it was delightful! :)

work today was busy busy busy.  which is good.  and it was mostly just full of random little things, like creating a promo piece for a special edition of one of the magazines or making rtc group logo labels for some sort of meeting that's held with the editors monthly or something like that.  and then i am still working on designing a small piece of stationery for the sales people, which is a cool little project. :)  so anyway, work was good.  i mean, it's work.  so yeah. :)

for lunch, i just wanted to get out for a little bit.  i went back to san clemente pizza company.  stop judging me for eating lunch at the same place two days in a row. ;)  hehe!  it just sounded really good and i like how chill it is there, so that's where i went.  and i had a magazine with me, so i read that.  it was just nice to escape for a little bit, you know?  and it was a beautiful day out!  love that, too!

after work, i headed for the beach for a walk, and on the way i took care of a little business, including arranging a meeting with one of my mom's financial planner friends for monday (we're doing lunch!) and arranging to meet up with bobby tonight to talk about a couple new designs.  so that was a productive drive.  and then my walk was really nice!  it was again gorgeous out and tons of surf.  and there was some sort of surf competition going on (or just ending), which i think was the high school championships, though i haven't really verified that information.  anyway, good walk!  i love the beach! :)

then i headed up to the salon to leave a t-shirt design for bobby (and ashley) and he loved it!  yay!  so that's exciting and hopefully it'll go to the t-shirt printer very soon!  awesome!  and i love that bobby and i seem to always be on the same page as far as design stuff goes.  that makes doing stuff for him even more fun. :)

then i headed home and finished up that workout.  it's killing me how hard it is right now, but i'm stubborn enough to make myself do it all and do it all well.  i will be strong!  i will do it! :)  so i did that and then got cleaned up.

and i desperately needed to get some laundry done so that i'll have clean clothes to pack tomorrow night as i prepare for the weekend in san antonio.  so i put in a couple loads and the the family called.  they had arrived here, so they came up to the apartment.  and then they quickly discovered that i have no food.  and it was like 8:45.  so we picked up dinner for everyone at baja fresh next door.  and so we ate and watched a little tv together and i finished up the laundry.  it's even folded (though not yet put away).

and now i'm trying to get myself to bed.  the family's getting up at 5 and i'm getting up at 6:45 (though i'll likely be awoken long before that, honestly).  so more from me next time, but for now i need sleep!  good night! ;)

tuesday 20 june 2006 10:41pm

"hey, it might never be the same
we might never live those days gone by
but we can try" -- dixie chicks "baby hold on"

it's been quite a while since i've had a normal, run-of-the-mill day.  which is great, actually!  i love all the madness because it's be so much fun!  but today felt good because it was just normal.  i can just go through the standard routine.  no thinking required.  awesome!  and so today turned out to be very nice, and it's back to the madness tomorrow. :)

i can hardly believe it, but i managed to be asleep before midnight last night!  that's excellent news. :)  my only mistake was that i accidentally left my alarm set for 6:45 instead of 7:30, so it went off too early.  but i reset it for 7:30 and went back to sleep.  but anyway, i slept alright through the night, so i'm doing alright.  and i got up at 7:30 and got cleaned up.  i got all ready and dressed and checked email and everything.  and then i headed out because there is absolutely no food in my apartment and therefore nothing at all to eat for breakfast.  i stopped off at i <3 bagels for a bagel and juice and then made my way to work.

work today was actually really fun!  i mean, i am not sure exactly why it felt that way, but it did. :)  the morning was spent taking care of normal sorts of things that i had waiting for me, printing stuff, and sorting through various things.  it wasn't especially exciting, but it wasn't especially hard either.  and then i spent some serious time sorting through all the stuff that i had picked up at the how design conference.  i have loads of paper samples, typography books, and brochures for stock photos, among other things.  it's all rad to look through and hopefully will provide some good inspiration for upcoming projects.  and in the afternoon, it was more organizing and starting to take care of other little things.  we also had a little workload meeting so we could make sure all the projects around are getting taken care of.  so there's enough there to keep me busy. :)

for lunch, i just wanted to sit somewhere nice and have a little food at read my magazine.  marke wanted to go out, too, and he wanted to watch soccer.  why?  i'm not sure.  but he did.  so in the end, jenna, marke, and i went to san clemente pizza company because they have lots of room to chill and they always have a couple tvs with sports on.  so jenna and marke watched england and sweden tie (there should not be ties in sports!), and i read my magazine.  and the pizza was delicious! :)  it was actually a really nice lunch.  and later in the afternoon, the three of us plus melissa went down to goodie's for some frozen yogurt.  so good!

after work, i headed for the beach for a walk.  it had been ages since i'd gotten a proper workout in, so i was excited to be back.  and it was an absolutely gorgeous evening out.  i love it!  the tide was higher than i have ever seen it and the waves are extremely big right now.  this is all perfectly fine with me.  except that it meant i ran out of beach.  it was all water!  so i ended up getting pretty wet actually,  especially my shoes.  and i managed to have a great walk.  and all the surfers were out and even all the photogs.  it's a big deal how good the surf is!  and on the end part of my walk on the beach, i just took my shoes off so they wouldn't get any wetter.  and really, my toes in the sand and the water is not a bad thing at all! :)  so yeah, i had a wonderful walk.  and then i came home and did the strength training portion of the workout.  and i'm on that glamour magazine routine and so the exercises changed for me this week.  they're hard but i can just barely finish, which is perfect.  i might be a little sore tomorrow, though.  oh well. :)  then i got cleaned up because i needed that desperately. ;)

i talked to chris for a little bit tonight.  (he answered his phone because he didn't know it was me. ;))  he's stressed out about moving in a few weeks and just trying to make sure that everything's ready and organized.  but he does have an apartment waiting for him in hermosa beach and he's arranged for movers and all that.  it's just stressful moving across the country.  anyway, he's super stoked to be coming back to cali, too!  and i'm excited to get to see him because it's been quite awhile.

and i've kept myself busy this evening.  i worked on some stuff for bobby, which i'm liking a lot.  i just need to get that printed out.  but i think he's going to love that.  and i have more stuff i'm working on for him, as well.  i just need more time sitting at my computer to get it all done.  but anyway, that's going well.  and i worked on a pirate shirt, as well, though i'm not really done with it.  and i also got new photos on my flickr, so you can check those out.  they're from my trip to monterey with meg (they're of us hanging out in carmel-by-the-sea) and from my trip to vegas.  and in between all that somewhere, i got to chat with sarah, as well. :)

but now i need to get to bed.  it's already kind of late and i'll be busy again tomorrow.  the family will be in town and crashing here tomorrow night.  :)

so i'll be back tomorrow with more.  and for now, g'night. ;)

monday 19 june 2006 10:17pm

"and see the love we almost left behind
so lead me by the hand and let's make up
let's make up for lost time
baby, hold on
let's start this over
baby, hold on
we're not much older
baby, hold on
if you still what i see
keep holding on" -- dixie chicks "baby hold on"

wow.  it's like i have a night that's free!  i have no actual commitments or things to be doing at this moment (other than try desperately to get to bed early because i'm quite tired).  it's kind of weird.  it won't last long.  it's back to the madness on wednesday.  but for now, i'm enjoying a little time to just be with me. :)  not that it hasn't been wonderful, because it has!

i had trouble falling asleep last night, and i definitely blame it on the diet coke i had at benihana last night.  it's not something i'm really drinking these days and the caffeine does effect me.  anyway, i did eventually fall asleep but too late for me to get enough rest last night before a very busy monday.  the alarm went off very early this morning, and i had to hit the shower immediately.  and then i got dressed and ready and everything and had a few minutes to check email before heading out for the day.

alright, so the day had a bit of a rocky start.  i hit every red light possible between here and san clemente.  and i was going to my 8am dentist appointment, so that made it even worse.  but i made it there fine and was greeted by an absolutely wonderful staff.  i was thoroughly impressed with the entire visit, actually, and that's not something i often say about a visit to the dentist.  but really, it was great.  and i had been very anxious about going because it's a new dentist for me and that could have turned out horribly, i know.  and they did actual dental work on me today, which i wasn't sure was actually happening today.  i'm glad it did.  so yeah, the dentist was as good as the dentist can be. :)

then i headed up the road to work.  work felt busier than it actually was today because the melissa and jenna were working on getting a big project out the door this morning.  but i was just making sure my section of the latest magazine was all together and right and everything, so i had work to do but wasn't at all overwhelmed.  and i also took care of my expense report from the vegas trip.  i was sixteen cents over the cash they gave me before the trip.  that's excellent!  i'm so good! ;)  and the afternoon was full of more work, including getting the magazine off to the printer.  so lots of stuff did get done today!

for lunch, diana, lea, and i headed up to my apartment to pick up sarah and then the four of us went to baja fresh.  it's very close to where i live.  anyway, we had a delicious lunch, and lea and diana were both on today so hanging out with them was fun because they were non-stop chatty but it was also exhausting.  but i had fun, and i think sarah did, too! :)  then sarah came back to the office with us, i showed her how to get to some fun places on a map, and i turned her loose with my car while i worked all afternoon.  and then she picked me up after work.

sarah and i headed back to my apartment so she could pack up all her stuff.  she might have bought more stuff than she could pack this weekend, but we made it all fit with the help of a shopping bag. :)  haha!  oh, this is a huge sign we really did have an excellent weekend!  anyway, then we headed to mangia bene for some dinner.  it was a beautiful night out and we even got to eat our dinner outside.  i love that!  and my gnocchi was so great!  and sarah liked that place, too.  it's a for sure winner.  and then, sadly, it was time to take sarah to the airport.  so we headed up to long beach and she was on her way.  hopefully, i'll see her again soon now that she's back in california permanently. :)  we had a wonderful time together!

and i've just been hanging out here since i got back home.  i talked to the family for awhile, which was really nice.  i miss them!  but i'll see them wednesday.  oh, i also talked to katie briefly today.  her wedding is this weekend, so she's freaking out a little bit.  but it'll be great!  she'll be great! :)  and i have my fingers crossed that i'll get to drive her little scion tc around a little bit this weekend! ;)

so i'm going to try to get tucked in early tonight.  i'll be back tomorrow.  for now, g'night. ;)

sunday 18 june 2006 11:22pm

"hey it might never be the same
we might never live those days gone by
but we can try...
baby, hold on
if you still see what i see
keep holding on
hold on to me" -- dixie chicks "baby hold on"

sarah and i have been very busying having a wonderful weekend together, and now i'm totally exhausted and not at all looking forward to getting up so so so so early tomorrow morning.  but i suppose that's just how it goes.  anyway, i need to get into bed if i plan on getting any sleep at all, but i just wanted to write really quickly and fill you in on what we've been up to. :)

we slept in again this morning, though not quite as much as yesterday morning (afternoon, technically).  anyway, so we lazed around a little bit but then got cleaned up and dressed so that we could head out for another fun day in the oc. :)  first, i took her to rj's cafe, what has become my favorite place for breakfast around here, even if the meal is at like 1pm. :)  they have the best breakfast!  and it's been really awesome weather around here, so we had a perfect table outside.  so great!  and it was quite a delicious meal and rj himself was hanging out.  apparently the restaurant had been running out of food all morning so rj had to keep going to the market.  that's awesome!  i love that this place really is a tiny local cafe.  so fun!

then we headed up the coast through laguna and into newport.  we wanted to do some more shopping, especially since i bought absolutely nothing yesterday, so we went to fashion island.  anthropologie was having a big sale, so i managed to get myself into a little bit of trouble there.  i found a really cute skirt, and then i also spotted a really fun table cloth that'll be perfect on my little dining room table, so i got that, too!  i love that store!  and then we wandered around the shopping center a bit more and even stopped at the gelato place.  we both ordered half double chocolate, half dulce de leche in our ongoing attempt to recreate the best gelato we've ever had, which came from a stand somewhere in athens, greece.  yes, that's the wrong country for the best gelato ever, but it's the truth. :)

anyway, then we went up to ikea because we knew they were also having a very big sale and it sounded like a fun place to browse a little bit.  :)  i found some wonderful stuff, including a pink and white flower put for $1, a throw pillow for $5, and a little candle holder for $4.  awesome!  and sarah found a few little things, too.  now she just has to figure out how to get all the things she's bought this weekend back to woodland with her.  hehe! :)  we've had tons of fun shopping!

and then we went to dinner at benihana.  it's father's day, which meant lots of families, but that's fine.  we ended up seated with a japanese family, which meant i could tip my soup and rice bowls to eat out of them, which is so great!  that's the best way to get food out of them and it's the traditional japanese way, but i just can't do it with people who aren't japanese because they think i have bad manners.  anyway, the food was excellent, and it's so weird that sarah and i hadn't ever been there together before.  but it was really nice!  (though now i smell like benihana.)

and then we came home and relaxed in pajamas and watched "clueless" because sarah hadn't seen it in awhile and i am always up for watching that movie! :)  it's so funny!

and now i know i need to get some rest.  i have a dentist appointment in the morning and then work.  so lame.

so i'm off for now but will be back tomorrow with more.  g'night. ;)

sunday 18 june 2006 1:11am

"noisy streets and the sleep bars
and the neon signs and the rusty cars
how many nights have i wondered how
one goes through life without seeing the beauty of love
whoa, the beauty of love" -- dixie chicks "i like it"

again i write at a very late hour.  it was a wonderful saturday, and i think sarah and i managed to make the most out of the day, even if we will end up only being awake for like 13 or 14 hours today. :)  we did lots, so it was lovely.

first of all, i got to sleep lots last night, even contributing to my efforts to pay off that huge sleep debt i have. ;)  i woke up around 10:30 but it was still quiet, so i went back to sleep.  same goes for 11:30.  sarah eventually got up at 12:30, so i did too. :)  that's a nice hour to get up on a saturday, especially considering all the early mornings i have had lately.  and we lazed around for a little bit, but i did get cleaned up and dressed eventually, and so did sarah.  we came up with a nice little plan for the day.

first off, we were hungry so we went to t.g.i.fridays for a late lunch.  it was decent.  just normal, really.  :)  at least we got to sit in a sunny window.  i prefer that to somewhere over-air-conditioned.  oh, it's quite warm here right now!  like summer! :)  i love it!  we're even having warm nights, which is a nice change from the generally very cool evenings out here.  anyway, so we had some food and then got in the car and headed north.

sarah and i went all the way up to pasadena.  i'd heard and read that their downtown area was really nice for shopping and dining and things like that, things like what sarah and i like to do, so it seemed like a good place for a little saturday adventure.  neither of us had been there before.  it took a little longer than we might have liked for us to get up there with some strange pockets of heavy traffic, but we made it and it wasn't too hard to find a place to park.  and then we started in on some shopping! :)  there were actually lots of cool places to shop.  sarah bought some really great stuff, including a very adorable pink kate spade purse at loehmann's.  neither of us had been to a loehmann's before and i didn't even really know they were around california, but apparently!  they had lots and lots of adorbale kate bags, actually, and all discounted!  so that was cool!  and we wandered around a large dsw which had way too few pairs of size 11 shoes, sadly.  and anyway, we walked all around colorado boulevard until it was late and time for dinner.  we tried out an italian place called louise's trattoria, which was absolutely delicious and really nice inside.  it was very cool, and i'd love to go back.  and there are an abundance of chocolate and ice cream shops along colorado boulevard, so we went to ghiradelli for ice cream sundaes, which was so so so so good!  and we got to enjoy those while sitting at a table outside, which i love! :)  and then we headed back home and got back around midnight.  so we've been quite busy!

and now i am thinking that i should tuck in.  but i'll be back tomorrow with another update.  g'night! ;)

saturday 17 june 2006 12:47am

"driving down the highway
the wind is in my hair
and if i hit a traffic jam
i swear that i won't care
living the lows
makes the highs that much higher
and the sun will shine through
the smoke and fire of love
oh, love" -- dixie chicks "i like it"

so i'm a little late in writing tonight, but that's only because i've been busy having lots and lots of  fun (amidst a full day of work).  and it's late now and i should be getting a little rest, but i want to write about my day because it went so well.  and i can sleep in tomorrow. :)

i got a little rest last night, though i did find it a little hard to fall asleep last night, and then i woke up in a bit of a panic because i could see it was getting light outside and i hoped i hadn't overslept my 5:50/6:00 alarms.  well, i looked at the clock at it was 5:49.  crazy, right?  so then i slept between the two alarms and then got up and hopped into the shower.  i got cleaned up and dressed right away and headed out.

i needed to be at the long beach airport, which is 45 minutes away without traffic.  so i headed out and it turned out that really the traffic wasn't a problem at all, so i was quite early because i had allotted plenty of extra time.  so i found a little starbucks and got some coffee (meaning nonfat decaf iced white mocha) and then headed for the airport.  i had to circle a couple times before sarah came out, but it's so small and free of traffic that it was no big deal at all.

sarah and i headed back to my apartment, and then i had to leave her there so that i could go to work.  she was tired from being up since like 4am, so she just chilled while i was busy at work.  and actually it was quite a busy day there between taking care of all the email and stuff that piled up while i was gone and trying to make lots of changes to the next magazine that's going out, and just trying to keep things all in order.  but i did actually get everything done that needed to be done today. :)  so i win!  for lunch, i went home and picked up sarah and we went to z pizza down in san clemente for some lunch.  she's trying to learn to like pizza with sauce, so we even had sauce on our pizza!  haha!  i love my crazy picky friends!  so then i brought sarah back to the office to show her around so she could see where i work and meet everyone and all that stuff.  and then i let her take my car and she went down to downtown san clemente to wander all the little shops and everything while i continued work and then she came to retrieve me at the end of the day. :)

then we decided that we should head up to south coast plaza for a little shopping. :)  we first went to nordstrom rack to look for shoes and handbags (our favorites, i'd say), but we didn't really find so much.  so we headed for the mall and did a bit more shopping.  i didn't find much, but sarah did buy a very cute dress at zara.  and all of a sudden it was quite late so we went to maggiano's for dinner, which was absolutely excellent.  we had to wait awhile for a table, but it was an absolutely beautiful night outside, so we had no problem sitting out there and chatting until our table was ready.  and dinner was quite delicious. :)  we both had ravioli.

and now we're back here.  sarah just went to bed and i'm getting ready for that myself.  i'll be back tomorrow with more on what fun i'm having.  g'night! ;)

thursday 15 june 2006 9:05pm

"i can hear the voice inside my head
saying you should be with me instead
every time i'm feeling down, i wonder
what would it be like with you around" -- dixie chicks "voice inside my head"

wow.  i.  am.  exhausted.  i'm for sure running on empty right now (though i do plan on getting into bed as soon as i am done writing this little update).  the trip to vegas was awesome, but i had basically no internet access the whole time.  how hotels can pull that off, i have no idea.  but in the end, i was never even in my hotel room with time to write so i guess it doesn't matter all that much.  but i am now back home in laguna, so i'm here and writing once again. :)  so vegas...

i left off monday night/tuesday morning (see previous entry).  so i crashed after writing.  hard.  i was really very tired (that's the theme of moment, i guess).  and then the phone rang at 7am with our wake up call.  so melissa and i got cleaned up and headed next door to mandalay bay to the conference center.  they provided breakfast each morning, so we had a little to eat and chatted with other conference attendees who were also hanging out and eating breakfast.

and then we dove head first into the conference!  i had a really great time attending all the how design conference sessions.  the opening session tuesday morning was my favorite of all the sessions.  he spoke about creativity and inspiration and those sorts of things.  really, that was the theme of a lot of the sessions.  i attended other sessions on tuesday, as well.  one was about color.  the one after lunch was about branding, using the building and maintenance of the starbucks brand as an example.  that was a great session, too!  then i had one about typography, which was informative.  fonts are still a huge design issue, so trying to figure out how to manage them is a big deal.  and finally, the bonus session tuesday evening was regarding following passion to do work that is important.  the speaker told his story of having a premature baby and then using that to inspire him to create a piece that hospitals give to parents of preemies to help the parents understand all the issues and things they need to know.  very inspirational!  yesterday was full of good sessions, as well! :)  the morning speaker was really awesome!  she spoke to how designers can have a big voice in business, how they can have a seat at the table.  and should have a seat at the table.  the woman who spoke is really smart.  then i went to a session on animating using aftereffects, which was just something i wanted to get a gist of.  it was really good, and i feel like i could get started with that right now.  and the afternoon sessions were again wonderful!  i went to one on creativity and the web and how so many more people can create so much more stuff with all the new technology available.  and then i had a session on two-color design, which was full of loads of beautiful examples.  i feel like i could create a masterpiece in two colors now (instead of the usual 4). and there were two more sessions to wrap things up this morning.  my first one was a panel of four big designer names basically just giving their best advice about the industry and jobs and learning and everything else they could squeeze into 75 minutes.  this was a highlight session!  i left feeling great!  and the closing keynote was about creating a career that's right for you, even if it means taking huge risks.  it was (mostly) inspirational.  so in all, i had really wonderful sessions and can hardly wait to use all the information i have received.  and it's definitely a good thing i took lots of notes, so i can go back and refresh my memory as needed. :)

of course, melissa and i did lots besides sit in conference sessions all day long. :)  i mean, this was my first time in vegas, and i wanted to squeeze in lots of fun stuff.  there is so much to see!  on tuesday at lunch we strolled through the shops at mandalay bay and had lunch there, as well.  (thank goodness for 2-hour lunch breaks!)  and after our sessions, we went to the forum shops and walked around.  those are pretty cool because it's like you're strolling the streets of rome, but it's indoors.  and we had dinner at a cool italian place there.  and then melissa and i went to the mgm grand (which i think it my favorite at night for just how it is so perfectly lit that it glows green) to see the cirque du soleil show "ka."  oh wow!  it was absolutely amazing!  i cannot really explain how visually arresting it was, but i was stunned.  the acrobatics are, of course, spectacular.  and the set was so incredible!  there was no stage, just a big hole.  and then they used these platforms that would rise or fall or turn on change angles as needed.  anyway, i loved that show! :)

yesterday, we were busy, as well.  we went to the bellagio to walk around in the evening.  that hotel is beautiful, and they have a big dale chihuly (glass artist) piece in the lobby.  and i love the fountain there.  i realized that everyone does, but i definitely could have just stood and watched all night.  it was so cool!  anyway, we also wanted to have dinner at the bellagio but we came across a confectionary/bakery first, so we decided to have dessert first! :)  hehe!  i love it!  so we split a chocolate crepe and a napoleon, both of which were wonderfully delicious!  and then we did eventually decide on a place to have dinner: the buffet at the bellagio.  there was a long line, so we had time to get hungry again.  i am not a huge buffet person because i can't actually eat my money's worth, but wow.  i ate way too much and everything i had was delicious!  and i was disgustingly full by the end.  so that was a nice meal.  :)  and then we watched the fountain there some more before walking up to treasure island to see the pirate show, which was super cheezy and totally fun!  and then we walked next door to the mirage to see their volcano eruption, which was neat, too! :)  and then it was well after midnight and me and my cute sundress needed to get back to the hotel for some sleep.

and today after melissa and i wrapped up our conference, we took a cab up to the venetian, the last hotel i really wanted to see before leaving vegas.  it is so cool!  it's one of the neatest ones i saw, and i love that they have a grand canal.  (though i love real venice better.)   actually, a couple in a suit and wedding dress were getting a special ride up and down the canal in a fancy white gondola and then they were getting married in a little ceremony on one of the bridges over the canal.  that's a cool vegas wedding! :)  so we grabbed lunch and gelato in the venetian before heading back to the luxor to get our bags and head for the airport.  and i made it all the way back here tonight.

so vegas was awesome and busy and informative and fun! :)  i'm so glad i had the opportunity to go to the conference and the city.  and how's going to atlanta next year! 

and tomorrow... well i'm picking up sarah at the long beach airport at like 8am and then i'm off to work.  but i'll get a great few days of fun in with sarah, which is so exciting! :)

ok, so that's all for now. i'll be back soon with more.  g'night! ;)

tuesday 13 june 2006 12:30am

well, i finally made it to vegas! :)  it really is hard to believe i'd never been here before considering it's so close to la and nearly everyone i know has been.  however, my closest friends haven't.  maybe i should blame them. ;)  anyway, now i'm here and i'm burning the candle from both ends.  (i think i'm using that phrase correctly, anyway.)

so i got up early this (monday) morning and got all packed and ready and everything.  then i had to drive all the way down to the office in san clemente to pick up my business cards.  at an event like this, they're totally essential, so i figured i'd just suck it up and go get them.  said hi to marina.  got the cards.  and headed for melissa's house.  of course, i was stuck in crazy rush hour morning traffic, but i got there with some time to spare.  then her fiance, chris, brought us to the airport.

it was an uneventful trip across the desert, for the most part. the end of the flight was turbulent and we were crammed into a short last row, but we made it here fine.  and the vegas airport was a little nuts (there are casinos in it!), but we managed to get our luggage and grab a taxi to our hotel.

the check-in line at the luxor was like a line at disneyland!  so crazy!  dad should never come here.  he'd just freak out! ;)  but anyway, we got checked in and they even had a room ready for us.  we're in the pyramid, so we took an inclinator up to the 16th floor (it moves at an angle, not just straight up) and our room has one slanted wall.

anyway, after getting settled in for a few minutes, we headed out.  i want to see as much of vegas as i can really in the few minutes i have free, so we headed up to the monte carlo for some lunch at the brewery there.  it was nice and then we wandered back down the strip through lots of hotels: new york, paris, aladdin, excalibur.

eventually we made it all the way to mandalay bay, the site of the how design conference.  we checked in there and then we had just a little time before the keynote speaker.  he was basically a really talented genius juggler, and it was pretty cool! :)  then we went to the exhibit hall where all the sponsors have booths set up and give away lots of free stuff.  we have tons to sort through before we decide what should come back to san clemente with us. :)

then we needed to bring all that swag back to our hotel room before finding dinner.  and by the time we made it all the way to treasure island for dinner it was almost 11!  yikes! :)  we're doing this trip vegas-style for sure.  so we had a very excellent mexican dinner, more adventurous than i had anticipated but also really delicious.  and then we wandered down the strip again.  we were right on time for the last pirate show of the night but it was cancelled due to high winds.  oh, by the way, it's like 100+ during the day here and 80s at night.  anyway, so we walked down the strip and caught the last fountain show at the bellagio, set to "the star-spangled banner."  awesome!   just like in "ocean's 11!"

and now we're just getting back to the room.  i am so spent.  more next time.  g'night! ;)

sunday 11 june 2006 10:55pm

"would you lay me down beside you
tell me everything i want to hear
like that was your favorite year
like that was your favorite year
holding on to the memories
of when we were younger
i can't forget
'cause when we were together
that's when i was at my best" -- dixie chicks "favorite year"

well, i didn't mean to go quite so lone between writing and updating this, but it just sort of happened.  but i'm here now and ready to write all about my really fun weekend! :)  so i'll try to recount all of it for you.  i have a few minutes before i need to crash.  i'm just here for the night before heading off again.  though i really want to do more writing for this site while i'm in vegas.  anyway, the weekend...

friday went well.  i got up and headed for work on what was actually a very rainy morning.  that's odd around here this time of year, but whatever.  i had lots of stuff to wrap up around the office so that i'd be totally prepared to be out of the office most of next week.  and actually, i do believe that by the end of the day everything was all put together.  jenna's ready to take care of all the stuff that's going on around there while melissa and i are gone.  and for lunch, john must have been in a good mood because he decided to take everyone out to sonny's for lunch.  i had gnocchi that was absolutely perfect! :)  so perfect, in fact, that i ate entirely too much.  oh, well.  it was wonderful!  and as far as i know, the only thing i forgot before leaving work was that i needed to take a big stack of business cards with me to how, so i'll be in the office very briefly tomorrow morning to pick them up.  ::sigh::  oh well.

so after work, i headed for home.  i just needed to wrap up the few last things that needed packing, so i took care of that.  and i still had some time before i needed to get to the airport, so i had some dinner and just sat for a moment.  and then it was time for me to gather my things and head off.

i made it to john wayne without incident and got parked and to the terminal.  and then it was pretty much just a matter of waiting for my plane to board, so i sat and read awhile.  and i got on the plane, found a nice seat, and read until i finished "annie freeman's fabulous traveling funeral," which is one of the best books i've read lately.  it's kind of a woman book, but i'd recommend it to anyone anyway.  and the flight to san jose was fine.  pretty empty so no one in the middle seat.  love when that happens! :)  and landed right on time (maybe a couple minutes early).  meg met me curbside and we were off to her apartment near monterey.  we were up kind of late just hanging out and talking and doing whatever.  it was cool to just have some time to catch up.  also, her roomies noah and joey were there, as well as kiwi (who likely has a real name that meg's never told me) were around.  i'd met noah before briefly but it was the first time for the other two, though i'd heard lots about them.  eventually, we just crashed.  they have a guestroom of sorts, so i got a proper bed and everything to sleep in. :)

saturday morning, we got up and lazed around a little bit before decided to get cleaned up and dressed and everything.  carmel (officially carmel-by-the-sea) is one of my favorite towns to wander and i hadn't been there in ages, so i made meg take me there.  that was the big plan for the day.  but first, we wanted to eat, so we went to a cool diner sort of place called rosine's (i think) in downtown monterey.  we both ended up having breakfast, despite the fact that it was like 12:30, which was very delicious!  and then we made our way to carmel.  it was a cloudy day there, as it generally is, but that didn't stop us from wandering all around the town.  it's so nice!  there are tons of little shops to check out, and the area is quite nice.  we walked all the way down ocean to the beach, where we stopped for a bit, as well.  you can see the pebble beach golf course from there, as it is really close to there.  and the shops were a little dangerous, though more so for meg than me. :)  i found a few things at the british candy shop, at lush, and at this random store.  it's a print of a vintage london underground map.  i'll frame it, but i'm not exactly sure where i'm going to put it.  but i'm sure i'll find somewhere! :)  anyway, i also saw a brand new shelby mustang in person!  awesome!  crazy, crazy hott!  :)

so then we headed back to meg's place to just sit down and rest for a moment.  but we were starting to get hungry again, so we decided on our usual, benihana.  and we had to wait a bit for a table, so we checked out a local bookshop, where i found a couple things to read (since i finished my last book on the ride up there).  i started "small island" today.  anyway, then we had a delicious dinner at benihaha, and we were seated with a group of 6, 3 young couples.  five of them were wearing rings.  they might have all been married, but it's debatable after overhearing parts of their conversations.  the weird part is that they were all probably younger than meg and me.  so young!  but anyway, they were having fun with their sake bombs and celebrating all three guys' birthdays.  it was a good time. :)  and dinner was great!

then meg and i went to the grocery.  meg bought an ice cream maker at sur la table when we were in carmel, so we had to get the ingredients for frozen yogurt.  and then we went back to meg's place and ate the cheesecake from rosine's while whatching "real genius."  that was the biggest piece of chocolate chip cheesecake ever!  ever!  and it was amazingly good!  and then it was really late, so we both crashed after a tiring day. :)

i ended up waking up before meg this morning so i decided to just get cleaned up and ready and i read a bit while meg was getting herself up.  and then we put together all the ingredients in the ice cream machine and let that go for awhile.  and it turned out really nice!  i mean, it's really soft when it just comes out of the machine but it was good, and even better with reese's shell on it.  and i got all my stuff packed up and and together and then meg and i were off.

we met up with my parents and my brother at applebee's in gilroy at the outlets there.  meg and i had perfect timing because we were a little late and the rest of the family was just getting seated when we arrived.  so we had a good lunch there.  it was really great to manage to cram a little family time into my weekend up north!  so we ate and then we did lots of outlet shopping.  my favorite way to go outlet shopping is with the parents because then they'll buy me stuff! :)  of course, i had to be a little careful about what i picked out because i had to squeeze it into an already-full bag, but i got everything in it in the end. :)  actually, all i got was a few things from j.crew.  i found a couple adorable sundresses (i'm so addicted to sundresses right now!) and a sweater.  i'm happy with my selections.  and i had a great time hanging out with the family!  i miss them when i'm gone!  and then meg headed back to monterey and the family brought me to the airport in san jose.

it was more of me just waiting around for a plane.  then i got on and spent the whole time reading.  the book's quite good so far.  it's like a real piece of literature, not the junky romance novels i sometimes read. :)  and the flight was full but still really uneventful.  i made it to john wayne, made it to my car, and made it home.

and now i'm just trying to make sure everything's in order for me to leave again tomorrow.  the suitcase is together.  i got a quick pedicure in because my old polish was getting too chipped.  i talked to meg and kath briefly online.  and i'm just trying to figure out quite how early i need to get up in the morning!  yikes!  early!  i'm going to the office to pick up business cards, and then i'm headed up to melissa's house.  i'll leave my car there, and her fiance will take us to the airport.  and then i'll be in vegas, baby! ;)  haha!  i'll be attending conference sessions between lots of other fun stuff, i'm sure!

so i'm off to bed now.  i'll be back as soon as i can! :)  g'night! ;)

thursday 8 june 2006 11:03pm

"we knew a love like ours would always save the day
and that we'd always be okay" -- dixie chicks "favorite year"

it was yet another busy day, but i once again got lots of stuff done.  now i'm just settling down and have some time to write to you before i tuck in for the night (or just get distracted by something -- perhaps a book -- for far too long). ;)  i'm looking forward to the upcoming days, which should be extremely busy, as well!

okay, so first i'd like to write about a couple things that i forgot last night.  :)  first, i was listening to power 106 on my way to work in the morning (it's the big rap station in la) and xzibit was on.  i like him because he does "pimp my ride" and seems nice and also because he uses his arms to form an "x," and we use that when we go bowling.  actually, he had three signature hand moves (though i think just the "x" is official) and we use all of them when getting a strike! :)  hehe!  anyway, he world premiered a new song, which i believe is called "the black and the brown," (or something like that) that was really good!  this surprises me immensely, but also makes me happy!  so hopefully that'll be getting some play on the radio in the future.

also last night, the tide was extremely high on the beach.  i actually got me feet (still in my running shoes) wet!  oops!  anyway, it wasn't exactly nice conditions for just strolling casually.  so as i was nearing the end of my walk and was just approaching the bottom of the stairs back to the parking lot i saw a woman coming down onto the beach.  that's not weird.  what was weird was that she was wearing a three-quarter-length fur coat.  and then i realized she was wearing a tacky, overly-revealing (especially for someone so... full-figured) evening gown.  why was she going to the beach at 7:30 in the fog by herself wearing that outfit?  it couldn't have lasted long.  odd.

anyway, let's move on to today.  or actually, i'll start with last night.  i was watching leno and writing a bit when the news broke that al-zarqawi was dead.  interesting news, i though.  so i got distracted watching that report.  and then i read awhile.  and then i did eventually crash while watching the beginning of conan.  and i slept alright.  i don't think i had any nightmares last night, which is a total relief.  so anyway, i got up with the alarm and went straight to getting cleaned up and ready.  i had some breakfast and then headed off to work.  and it's another day of june gloom.  i'll be glad to escape it a little bit soon.

work today was once again very busy, as i try to make sure everything is in order for me to be out of the office four days next week.  hopefully, everything will get done.  :)  actually, i was working on my section of the magazine this morning and i thought it would take me longer than it actually did.  i got it all done and ready for ad placement in the morning, so that's a relief.  and so i moved onto other projects, including some "emergency rush" reprints of previous articles, as well as the figures for the next magazine.  i didn't really get enough done, though, this afternoon.  still, on the whole i was very productive today. :)  i think part of my afternoon problem was that i took lunch too early.  before 11:30 this morning, diana was in the art department looking for companions for lunch out.  so early!  but we did actually head to downtown san clemente around 11:45 to a place i'd never been before, cafe calypso.  it was actually pretty good.  i had a pesto melt bagel. :)  anyway, i am more productive in the morning but since more of my day was post-lunch, i had a longer period of reduced productivity.  or at least that's my story for today. ;)

and by the end of the day, i was feeling anxious to get out of the office and do something else.  i changed and headed straight for the beach, excited to be going there, even with the crazy marine layer that just won't burn off.  and i had a really great walk!  and i was on britney watch because on the "people" magazine website today they had a photo of britney at the dana point st. regis hotel yesterday and that's right where i walk!  but, sadly, no britney sighting.  still, it was a really nice walk and i'm so so so so glad i went.  and i continue to run the stairs, though i haven't felt it getting easier yet.  soon, though, right? ;)  i cannot stop taking advantage of the fact that i live (and work) so close to the beach.

then i headed home, wrapped up my workout, and got cleaned up.  i had some dinner and then spent some time packing.  and then packing some more.  i need a bag to go to monterey this weekend and then a bag to go to vegas monday morning.  the second one is ridiculously full and i know i'm bringing way too much.  (it's just that i am not sure what i'll want/need while i'm there.)  the first one is packed with just enough to last me the three days.  and i am currently planning on having my computer with me for everything, so i'll be online and stuff like that.  you'll still hear from me here. :)  so anyway, that took while but i think things are as set as they can be tonight.  and then i talked to the family for awhile.  somehow, adam managed to distract me for like a whole hour!  i was supposed to be writing this!  but he was chatty and we had fun so it's okay. :)

but i should get moving.  i'll be back as soon as i can.  g'night. ;)

wednesday 7 june 2006 11:21pm

"for all i've been blessed with in this life
there was an emptiness in me
i was imprisoned by the power of gold
but one honest touch could set me free
let the world stop turning
let the sun stop burning
let them tell me love's not worth going through
if it all falls apart
i will know deep in my heart
the only dream that mattered had come true
in this life, i was loved by you" -- collin raye "in this life"

this is the first time i've really sat down at the computer all night, besides briefly checking for new email.  but now i finally have a chance to sit and write before i crawl into bed once again.  it's been a very busy day and i feel like i've always been running late (despite the fact that i left for work early), but i also know that i have accomplished loads.  so it has been a good wednesday because it was the wednesday that i needed it to be.

::yawn::  i'm tired!  i got to bed a little bit too late last night because i was reading.  i'm still trying to get my book finished by tomorrow night, though my hope is dwindling at this point.  anyway, so i was up reading and kind of half-listening to the election results on the news.  and then i crashed.  and i did actually get some decent sleep, but when the alarm woke me up this morning i was in the middle of yet another nightmare!  what the heck is going on here?  this time, i was checking myself into jail.  great.  anyway, so i was kind of freaked out, but i had to get up anyway so at least i wasn't left to try to fall back asleep.  so i showered and got cleaned up and everything.  i had a bagel for breakfast, though it was not as good as i wanted it to be, and then i put on a sweater, jeans, and heels (broken in ones that wouldn't force me to change at lunchtime!) and headed out.  more fog.  june gloom.  so sad. ;)

i knew that work was going to be busy.  i even arrived a few minutes early, but i really did end up working quite hard all day long.  and for awhile there in the middle of the day, i thought i might not even get to start my section of the magazine today because i'd spend my entire day on figures.  however, i really got jamming on the figures and ended up finishing all of them by about 3, which left me with some time to work on other things, including the magazine. :)  so i am actually quite pleased with what i got done.  and i even found some time for other random stuff, like lunch in the kitchen with diana, helping lea burn an audiobook onto cds (it took 5), and making a frozen yogurt run to goodie's with melissa.  (her car has newly tinted windows -- a surprise from chris, her fiance -- that are so dark!)  and just as things seemed to be winding down for me for the day, jenna asked me about a figure i made for her.  turns out that the finished version of that somehow got saved in a hidden volume in my computer.  luckily, it is wednesday, which means scott was in to help in locating it.  even he didn't know how to search the hidden volumes, but he has a buddy he called who helped him.  after about an hour of looking and typing and black screens with green type, he found it!  yay!  so i saved it in a normal place, and all is now well. :)  however, all this searching means that i was at work especially late today.  this is how i ended up feeling late all day.

so i changed and headed for the beach, where it was so foggy i could have been on ocean beach in sf.  but i was not.  anyway, i went for a really great walk and was feeling awesome, rocking out to miranda lambert.  and there was a party just barely starting on the beach.  so rad!  rad rad!  it was very formal, with 10-person round tables and beautiful linens but all in the sand.  and they had a small stage set up, as well as buffets and a bar.  and the whole thing was bordered with tiki torches.  i want to throw a party like this!  it was like straight out of "the o.c."  i know, i actually live in the o.c., but still!  so cool! :)

so then afterwards, i headed home.  how is it possible that i didn't get home until 7:45?  so late!  so i immediately got cleaned up and then sorted all the laundry.  then i put in 3 loads.  and then two more.  and i made dinner, which was delightful. :)  and i baked cookies.  even more delightful! :)  and i got all the laundry folded and put away and everything, which means the apartment looks way better, because there aren't clothes everywhere.  so tomorrow, that leaves mostly just lots of packing for all the upcoming travel.  oh!  and i talked to the family.  i don't think anyone's too mad at me, so that's good news. ;)  and i am finally now sitting down to write and relax and stuff.  i need to go to sleep but i want to read some more of that book.  so we'll see how the rest of the night goes.

and i think that's enough from me for right now.  i'll be back soon with more.  g'night! ;)

tuesday 6 june 2006 9:36pm

"as you wander through this troubled world
in search of all things beautiful
you can close your eyes when you're miles away
and hear my voice like a serenade
how long do you want to be loved
is forever enough, is forever enough
how long do you want to be loved
is forever enough
'cause i'm never, never giving you up" -- dixie chicks "lullaby"

um, so i am not exactly sure where today went, but i do think the day went well.  i feel like i accomplished a lot, which is always a nice feeling. :)  and my head is a bit more together as i sit down to write tonight, so i guess it's going just fine.

after updating this journal for you last night, i headed for the bedroom and switched on the tv.  and i caught leno, which was so good.  likely, it wasn't really better than any other night of leno but i was in a weird mood and it switched me right back to happy and laughing.  i love headlines, and that's a monday segment, so i got to see that.  and then jessica alba was on, and as much as i would like to hate her because she seems too perfect, she was actually really cute!  and the ludacris was really cool, especially when him and jay teamed up to tease jessica.  anyway, it was a good show and totally what i needed.  and then i caught conan, as well, because i just happened to still be up.  and i'm not often up late enough to catch conan but it was a rerun of one i'd seen before.  but i watched anyway and enjoyed that, as well.  another rapper i like on tv/film, xzibit, was on.  but i eventually just crashed, as i know i needed to do.

so no nightmares last night!  yay!  thank goodness.  i have no idea what i would have done if i had had them again.  gone crazy, likely.  so anyway, i got a little bit of decent sleep before the alarm went off this morning, so i was pleased (as pleased as i can be when awoken at 7:30, anyway) to get into the shower.  i got cleaned up and ready and had a little breakfast.  and i put on jeans and cute heels that i'd never worn before.  then i headed out on a cloudy morning.  welcome back, june gloom.  suck.

work today was quite busy for me.  i have figures, figures, and more figures to create for "rtc" this month, which is totally fine.  it just makes for a couple super busy, very hard-working days where i don't do much away from the computer.  just a lot of me clicking and typing and trying to make sure everything looks decent.  but i did make a huge dent in the figures today, so that's awesome.  and i even continued to offer my opinion in the ongoing saga of jan's search for the perfect computer/messenger bag.  he's worse than i am! ;)  bags, bags, and more bags!  he's obsessed.  but it's all good fun because it's not my money being spent.  and for lunch, i ate with the girls in the lunch room.  more leftovers.  which is fine.  plus, diana had extra salad, so i had some of that, which was delicious! :)  oh!  and i munched on the pirate m&ms i found at the store last night!  pirate m&ms!  they're so cool!

okay, so after work, i headed for the pool because i didn't even make it there once last week.  i wanted to get back.  plus, i know i won't be there next week, either, while i'm in vegas.  so anyway, i got there and found out that they're closed for a week starting tomorrow, so today was my last chance until like the 20th.  anyway, i was a few minutes too early and had to wait for swim practice to wrap up before getting in.  and it was just me, dick (yellow shorts guy) and another guy for about half my swim.  i had empty lanes on both sides.  rad!  and actually, by the end of my swim, only 2 other guys had come along and i still had one empty lane next to me.  so empty!  but i had a great swim!  i'm really glad i made it there!  and then i headed home and immediately did the rest of the night's workout.  good stuff, but i'm totally exhausted now.  i'm not sure my arms or legs work at all. ;)

then i got cleaned up and put dinner on.  and i had to clean up the kitchen, which i couldn't even see anymore beneath the stuff.  dishes.  trash.  everything else.  but it's way, way better now!  thank goodness!  and dinner was good, too.  and i've just been hanging out around here.  i got caught up watching this awful new teen drama on abc family, "falcon" something.  it's bad but somehow entertaining enough. :)  and i'm watching "sex and the city" now just because i can.  but really, i want to crawl into bed and read some more of my book.  i want to finish it by thursday so i can start something new this weekend.  so i think that's the plan.

i'll be back with more tomorrow.  this week has just a lot of chores and stuff, so not so exciting.  but that's life and i am good with that.  g'night. ;)

monday 5 june 2006 11:11pm

"i'll walk halfway around the world
just to sit down by your side
and i would do most anything
to be the apple of your eye" -- dave matthews band "steady as we go"

make a wish.  i already did.

so, um, i don't really know what to write right now.  my head is a total disaster, as i pretty much knew it would be right about now.  i'm trying to focus.  bear with me.  also, it was actually a totally decent monday.  i want you to know that in case that's now how this comes out.

please tell me that the nightmares are going to stop.  please!  again i had nightmares last night.  ugh.  different ones each time.  but all scary.  traditional scary.  but it is totally ruining the small amount of sleep that i do manage to get each night.  so i'm kind of a zombie.  i function fine on little sleep, but i'm still kind of out of it, you know?  so anyway, i had nightmares until the alarm went off this morning.  actually, waking up and trying to get back to sleep over and over was a bit like torture, so it was a relief to just get out of bed and into the shower, as tired as i still was.  so i got cleaned up and ready.  then i had a little breakfast (cereal for the first time in a long time, and it was good), and got dressed.  i wanted to wear nothing i have.  especially because it was foggy out and i wanted it to be sunny.  so anyway, i decided on something.  then i made a dentist appointment, something i've been avoiding for long enough, and then headed off to work.

work today was pretty normal, though i do know that i waited to long to get the figures stuff that i needed to work from.  oh, well.  i will have lots and lots to keep me busy tomorrow, that's for sure!  anyway, i got started on other stuff this morning, and even found time to clean off both my actual desktop and my virtual one.  they'd both been cluttered for far too long.  and for lunch, i heated up leftovers from last night's dinner and read a magazine while eating in the kitchen.  it makes me a little crazy because i'm in the building too long, but whatever.  my larger problem today was that i was freezing all day long.  i couldn't ever get warm enough and it didn't occur to me until right  now to go steal diana's heater. ;)  so cold!  it shouldn't ever be that cold in a brand new, temperature-controlled office building.  anyway, i did get plenty of work done and i saw/heard some money falling into that swear jar.

after work, i changed clothes and then headed for the beach.  it was still a bit foggy but a nice enough evening anyway.  the tide was high and getting higher, which meant lots of me sinking in the sand.  and the surf was amazingly high, so there were more surfers out than i'd ever seen there before.  and lots of non-regulars.  they stick out like sore thumbs heading down from the parking lot without wetsuits or wearing shoes or holding longboards or other strange things.  hehe!  it's quite entertaining, actually!  so i wasn't all about walking when i started out, but i was enjoying the music (the latest dixie chicks album, which is thoroughly excellent) and so i had a very long walk.  and i once again ran the stairs at the end.  it's hard, i promise!  and afterward, i headed straight home and finished my workout with the resistance training.  getting easier, though still hard.  at least i'm getting it done.

then i cleaned up and threw on some clothes (nothing clean) and headed back out.  i stopped at ralph's for a few small things (breakfast, milk, lemonade) and the picked up fro yo at golden spoon. :)  oh, i'm totally addicted.  this is bad.  bad bad. ;)

and let's see.  what have i been up to tonight?  well, i talked to mom and adam for a little bit while having a little dinner.  and then it was time for the main event of the night.  the series finale (tragic!) of "everwood."  ::sigh::  amazing.  even better than i could have hoped for.  you know how finales tend to be not actually that good but just kind of settling things for the fans?  well, it was an actually very good episode, just as all the previous ones were.  and it was two hours long.  thank goodness, because i would have died had it been any shorter.  and in a little personal success, i made it through the first 90 minutes before the sobbing started!  that's crazy! ;)  and i'm kind of surprised that it was the nina-andy-julia storyline that did it.  but boy did it do it!  i was crying.  a lot.  like i don't normally while watching tv.  enough that i had to pause it and write a bit in a notebook i write in.  and just as i was writing about the people i love who continue to save me when i need it most, even though they don't know that i need saving when they do it, meg rang.  insane!  that's insane!  and in the middle of talking to her, dad rang!  and he doesn't generally ring at like 10:30.  i love the people i love.  (that's redundant, i know, but it's the truth and i wanted to express it.)  so then i composed myself (at least a little bit) and continued watching the last half hour.  and i cried through most of that.  i love those characters.  part of me is in each of them.  or part of each of them is in me.  and their words move me.  they're so from the heart.  they are how people need to speak, truthfully and openly.  but anyway, i absolutely love how everything ended.  perfect.  :)  i'm going to miss that show like crazy.

and now i'm better.  back more to normal.  my nose is still running and i'm sure my voice is still hoarse, but i'm better.  i'll be alright to get to sleep, i think.  though i definitely don't want nightmares again!  so i'm off for the night.  tomorrow's election day, though i voted a long time ago.

i will be back next time with more.  g'night. ;)

sunday 4 june 2006 9:54pm

"they didn't have you where i come from
never knew the best was yet to come
life began when i saw your face
and i hear your laugh like a serenade
how long do you want to be loved
is forever enough, is forever enough
how long do you want to be loved
is forever enough
'cause i'm never, never giving you up" -- dixie chicks "lullaby"

i meant to start writing this about an hour and a half ago but somehow the time got away from me, mostly because i was on the phone.  but i'm here now writing.  and i have a little fear inside of me, telling me i should probably not be doing this in the quiet of this empty apartment.  i should have the tv on or the radio on or something to distract me from just the straight, pure thoughts inside of me.  it can be dangerous when i'm left alone with just that.  but tonight, i write.  just me.  and meg, who's on instant messenger just in case. ;)  and perhaps katherine, too.  so off we go.

there's an awesome new cooking show on tlc.  i generally don't even watch tlc (because i really have only so much time for tv and other things have become priorities, not because i don't like tlc), but i started watching "take home chef."  basically, it's this 30-year-old, attractive, blonde, australian guy who finds people in the supermarket and goes home with them and cooks them an amazing meal.  pretty much, he's the show, not the random shoppers and not the food.  he's lovely and funny and single and in la and calls london home and really good at what he does.  so yeah, that's great tv! :)  haha!  so i watched some of that today.

let's see, though.  what did i actually do today?  not a whole lot actually.  i slept extremely poorly last night.  i had a little trouble falling asleep but was eventually successful.  then i awoke at 4am from a nightmare and couldn't get back to sleep because i was so scared.  but i guess i did eventually fall back asleep because i awoke at 6:30 from an entirely different nightmare.  awesome.  and then i was supposed to go back to sleep again?  well, i tried and tried and slept on and off until the alarm went off at 9:40.  so then i got up and showered and got ready.  i put on a skirt for mass, grabbed a little breakfast, and headed off.

mass today was good. :)  pentecost.  i guess i should have known that was today.  but i didn't. :)  anyway, it was today and one of the priests i like said mass and it was all-around very good.  lots of time for me to sit and think and pray, which is what i needed.  seems that's always what i need.  plus, i know i wont' make it to mass for awhile now, between all the trips and the visits with friends and everything.  that's fine, too.  i don't need the church to ... um ... what's the phrase i want ... find some peace.  and my friends and family are my world, so i love missing mass if it means i'll be with them.

anyhow, after mass i went to the mall to the gap to exchange my dress that i bought yesterday because it had a broken zipper.  that was not going to work, but my new one will. :)  so cute!  and i browsed in papyrus because they have the most adorable notecards in there, though i didn't buy any.  but then i just headed home.

i spent my afternoon and evening taking it extremely easy around here.  i laid out on my desk again, which was absolutely delightful!  kath's scolding me for not loading up on the spf, but you know. ;)  it was nice and warm -- though not as hot as yesterday was -- but very foggy at the beach.  i know because i went to church in dana point in the fog.  anyway, so i laid out here and definitely added to the tan while working through another large chunk of "annie freeman's fabulous traveling funeral."  no tears for me today, though. ;)  just me and sun.  that was nice.

of course, i did eventually have to come back inside so i wouldn't totally roast. ;)  and i read some more and i had a little food and i watched some tv.  oh, and i might have squeezed in a nap at some point because i was tired from last night.  and i watched the e! true hollywood story about the women of "sex and the city," which wasn't  as enlightening as i had hoped it would be, but it was on and nothing else was.  and i talked to the family for awhile.  actually, mostly just my brother.  i have no idea what we talked about but we were on the phone for ages.  we just like hang out.  it's like how it'd be if we were in the same location.  we talk but we do other stuff, too.  it's just us.  i enjoy it.  oh, and at some point i read the newspaper today, too.  so basically, i just hung out all day.  good way to spend a sunday, i suppose. :)

and now i'm starting to think about bed.  i'll be back tomorrow with another installment.  tonight, i plan to continue to stay a little bit lost in my own thoughts and then just crash.  g'night. ;)

saturday 3 june 2006 10:43pm

"well you shook me like an earthquake when i looked into your eyes
kissed again a thousand times, then said our goodbyes
the words i whispered in your ears on the night we met were true
memory of our sweet love just breaks my heart in two
california angel, i dream of you each night" -- the derailers "california angel"

i love summer.  okay, so technically it's not really summer yet and i cannot even use the excuse that now i'm out of school for 3 months so it's summer.  i'm going to just go with using memorial day as the official start.  i won't use labor day as the end, however.  that's not long enough. :)  i love summer, and it's summer here right now.  i can tell because i'm sitting here at 11 o'clock at night with the windows and doors open for the fresh air and i'm not wearing more than little shorts and a cami.  it's gorgeous here right now.  it's deliciously hot, just the way i like it!  and i plan on basking in every day that is summery.  some years there are more of those than others, and i already did a lot of may gray this year.  so you'll find me here, basking in the sun as often as possible. :)

i was kind of startled when i woke up this morning.  i never anticipated sleeping for 11 hours.  yes, there were the times i woke up in the night, as i do pretty much every night, but that's still a ton of hours for me.  but i know i needed that.  my body needed that.  and perhaps more than any other part of me, my mind needed that.  so it was nearly 11.  i was pretty sure i wanted to get down to the beach today, as it was clearly very hot out, which means a great beach day.  and there aren't as many of those as you might think.  and having one on saturday does not at all guarantee one for sunday.  so i got up and fixed some breakfast and retrieved the newspaper.  and i decided to go to the beach.  and i know it gets very crowded, especially for parking, so i wanted to make it there by noon.  so i put on my new bathing suit and covered myself in tanning oil (don't worry, spf 15), and packed up a little beach bag.  then i headed for the car.

it was hot.  my thermometer in my car confirmed it.  and so i drove down to salt creek (or the strands or whatever that beach is called).  and when i was about to cross over pch to the beach i hit a wall of fog.  damn!  thick, dense fog, and enough of it to make a true san franciscan proud.  this would never do.  it was noon and i was guessing it would take another couple hours for that to burn off.  and just to make sure i wasn't in a tiny patch of it, i drove both north to laguna and south to san juan.  all socked in.  if i was going to get in some tanning, it was not going to happen at the beach today.  waiting until 2 to start is less than effective for tanning.  so i headed back home.

once at home, however, things got better!  my deck gets some really great afternoon sun, so i hung out out there with a new book, "annie freeman's fabulous traveling funeral."  the (cheap plastic) adirondack chairs were good for sunning my front while still being comfortable enough to hold a book to read.  and then i moved the chairs out of the way and laid a towel down to lie on while sunning my back.  and i even had the audacity to untie the straps of my top so i won't get tan lines from those on my back since i was just on my own private deck.  excellent!  anyway, i enjoyed the book and enjoyed the hot sun before heading back inside to revive myself.  i was all sweaty and whatever.  but it was quite clear that i was much tanner than when i started. :)

so i got cleaned up and dressed.  and after a little tv and hanging out and whatever, i headed back out.  by about 4 the coastline had cleared up nicely and it was a beautiful drive through laguna to crystal cover.  and it was hot out, again confirmed by my car, which read between 95 and 85, depending on my proximity to the water.  perfect!  i just wanted to go to the gap for a sundress i knew they had on sale and because i had a coupon.  so i found that, as well as a couple tanks, all of which should be fabulous summer items! :)  then i headed back home.

i've mostly just been hanging out here this evening.  in fact, i hardly know where all the hours went, though i know i have enjoyed them.  i talked to both sarah and annahita briefly.  i talked to the family for a bit, including getting caught up on all the sports scores.  i had some dinner.  i had some frozen yogurt (you are definitely not surprised).  and i read some more of this new book.  i am thoroughly enjoying it.  every page.  it's a bit hard to read, though, just because it's emotional.  lots of ups and downs.  but i would definitely recommend reading it to anyone, though to women especially.

and now i am just writing while listening to a little country music on the tv.  it's lovely. :)  and i plan on going back to some more reading before tucking in.  there isn't anything planned for tomorrow yet, but that's fine. :)  i'll come up with something.

back later.  g'night! ;)

friday 2 june 2006 9:53pm

"well since we met i can't forget the sweet taste of your lips
every time i think of you my heart just goes a-flip...
i only hope to hold you in my arms again someday" -- the derailers "california angel"

it's been a mellow friday.  i'm tired from the week, really, so that's cool.  and i am saving up some rest for the several weeks to come.  it's been chill, and that's fine by me.  so here's how the day went...

i was up too late.  i got distracted by that marathon of "the office" and whatever else happened to be on tv, i think an episode of "sex and the city" and then "friends."  i was just up and hanging around, which i realize is a bad idea and doesn't help with the sleep thing.  but whatever.  it was nice to just hang out for a bit.  and then i finally did get all tucked in.  and i slept alright off and on but i was wide awake at 6:30.  i did eventually force myself back to sleep and i was in the middle of a weird (though i don't remember the details) dream when the alarm went off.  i was way out of it but still made it to the shower and managed to get cleaned up.  i got all ready and made sure that everything that needed to come to work with me today was together.  and i got dressed and headed out.

work today was super mellow.  no magazines right now (though we're about to jump right into two next week!) and it was a friday with a party.  so everyone was just hanging out, taking care of the odds and ends but nothing too crazy serious.  and that's a nice vibe for the office. :)  and we instituted a swear jar in the art department this morning.  no swearing or you have to put a quarter into the jar (1 quarter for each swear word).  yesterday afternoon, we came up with a list of cuss words.  :)  apparently it's very funny for everyone else when i read that list because i was cracking them up.  it's not that long of a list, but it definitely covers all the bases.  so anyway, i put a little sign on an empty bottle that lists all the forbidden words.  it's in crayon.  is that wrong? ;)  anyway, there's already like 6 or 8 quarters in there, none of which are mine. :)  and when the jar's full, we'll use the money for pizza or something fun for all of us like that.

for lunch, we had an office potluck as a farewell to lauren r.  she's moving to chicago and is going to work for rtc from there.  the food's always pretty good at these things, but the main problem is that no one ever really brings the main part of the meal.  so i always end up being still kind of hungry by the end, like i've just been snacking too much.  but we had fun sitting around the conference table chatting and all that. :)

after work, i was invited to a party at lauren h.'s apartment to play a drinking game that was basically playing a new song each minute for an hour and taking a shot of beer each time the song changes.  i'm not sure how this is a game exactly.  and since i don't drink, i figured i'd be better off skipping instead of trying to drink 60 shots of lemonade, which is really entirely too much lemonade, despite my love for it. :)  so i didn't go.  there will be other parties, right?  i'm not against the drinking games if there's a game involved.  anyway, i didn't go because i didn't really want to.

i talked to sarah awhile online this afternoon about a variety of things, including how she's planning on staying in the bay area when she moves back to california in about a week.  i pretty much knew that was coming but it still kind of sucks, just out of my own selfishness.  i'd love to have her down here so we could hang out all the time, but she has more friends and family up there and just me here in so cal.  so i lose.  and i'm not ready to move to nor cal.  this lead to a whole other conversation (part on aim and part on the phone) with annahita about deciding where to live and what to do and stuff like that.  i just needed to talk stuff through because in a way it's strange that i live here where i only know a few people instead of up there, where i know lots.  but i'm here.  i love it here.  i can do the things i want to do here.  so here's where i am for now.  not sure what the future holds, of course.

so i was supposed to go to the beach with diana for another walk after work, but she had to cancel again.  she's not like that normally, but she's done it a zillion times in like the last week.  it's all just random stuff that's come up that she needs to take care of.  and since i really wasn't feeling like working out because (1) it's friday and i don't usually work out on fridays and (2) i wasn't feeling that hot after a weird "lunch."  so i came home. :)

i've mostly just been hanging out.  i talked to annahita, like i mentioned before, and totally enjoyed doing that while sitting out on my deck on a warm night.  it was hot hot here today.  :)  love that!  and i'm looking forward to a warm weekend, as well!  should be good, relaxing fun!  also, i talked to the family while hanging out out there.  there are bugs, though.  how should i fix that? ;)  i had a little dinner (finally a real meal!) and watched a little tv.  and i eventually decided to feed my frozen yogurt habit but checking out the other golden spoon near me.  turns out that one is way less crowded but also only has fat-free hot fudge (maybe that's a good thing ;)).  so that was delicious!  and i'm a junkie.  but we already established that.  and i plan on (finally) watching the premiere episode of "the hills" before catching some zzzs.

ciao for now!  g'night! ;)

thursday 1 june 2006 10:27pm

"california angel, i dream of you each night
i'm back here in texas, but you're still on my mind
we were in the golden state when we held each other tight
california angel, i dream of you each night" -- the derailers "california angel"

thursday was good.  not in an extraordinary way but in a way that life seemed just comfortable, and i love that feeling.  it was just normal.  and normal good, not really normal boring. :)  so that's how it goes, and i'm glad.

i wasn't up late last night, but when the alarm went off this morning it startled me right out of bed.  not exactly the best way to be woken up, you know?  it's killing me.  i hate that thing!  but really, i'd never get anywhere without it, so it lives. ;)  anyway, yeah, my sleep schedule and everything is all messed up, likely because i am stubborn and wish i were on a college student's sleep schedule still. :)  so yeah, i got into the shower and got cleaned up.  i got all ready and had some breakfast.  i put on a cute skirt(!) and headed out.  there was still a thick marine layer as i was leaving the apartment, but it cleared up pretty early in the day and really stayed gone. :)  awesome!  though a clear morning would have been totally perfect. :)  yes, i'm spoiled after a week of good weather and now want it every day forever. ;)

okay, so work went well.  i had enough things to keep me busy between the chatting and jan obsessing about the size of his new laptop bag (bigger than he expected) and jenna trying to wrap up "pkg" so it could go to print today.  i worked on some reprints of articles that we've published before for our clients.  and i put together the response card that goes in "pkg" that you fill out and send back if you want to subscribe.  that was a random, cool little project for me today.  and the whole magazine did go to press today, so that's exciting!  a new magazine!  and a new size.  it's cool, i think. :)  so yeah, i got lots of stuff done, which is excellent.  oh, and i didn't neglect the trashy celebrity blogs, either, so i am all caught up on the latest "news." ;)  and for lunch, we went out to super bowl for chicken bowls.  pretty good today, i'd say! :)  and it was delightfully warm in that tiny little place, which was an excellent break from the office.

after work, diana and i headed for the beach! :)  yay!  she was finally able to make it with me.  that's excellent!  so we went for a long walk, mostly on the beach, but also on the path and around the golf course where we don't normally walk.  it was good fun and leaves lots of time for us to chat.  we always end up talking endlessly, so it's good that we can do it outside the office and while we're getting in a bit of a workout! ;)  and she's good at appreciating just how amazingly gorgeous it is out, so that's always nice.  so it was fun!  and i think we're going tomorrow, as well.

afterwards, i did something i never do.  i stopped at the grocery on the way home.  no cleaning up.  no shower.  no change of clothes.  but i needed a couple quick things and i figured it would just be so much easier than going home and then going back out again.  so i picked up a few little things.  i had a little project for the night.

then i made it home, finally, and finished up my workout with the resistance training and stretching out.  and then i got cleaned up and had a little dinner before getting on with my night's work.  tomorrow we're having a potluck lunch at work because it's lauren r.'s last day in the office (she's moving to chicago and working for rtc from there).  i signed up for brownies, so i made those.  and then i made rice krispy treats because i saw marshmallows in the grocery and thought of rice krispy treats and then wanted those.  so i made both. :)  and both seem to have turned out quite well.  so those are all set for the morning.  and then i spent some time on the phone with the family.  i was reading an article on mackinac island (michigan) at work today and now i want to go there at some point.  i asked dad if he's been there, but he said not since he was a boy and he doesn't remember much.  but i think it seems cool!  :)  and now i'm just hanging out watching tonight's reruns of "the office," which are fun!  i <3 jim and pam!

ok, but i realize that i need to go to bed if i want to function tomorrow because i spent a lot of today feeling very tired.  so i'll be back tomorrow with more for you.  g'night. ;)

wednesday 31 may 2006 10:09pm

"tell me that someday you'll be returning
and maybe
maybe i'll believe
it's just enough to see a shooting star
to know you're never really far
it's just enough to see a shooting star
to know you're never really gone
oh, please don't go
let me have you just one moment more
oh, all i need
all i want is just one moment more" -- mindy smith "one moment more"

katherine's right.  we don't tell the people we love that we love them often enough.  for tonight, i hope they all know.

wednesday was good, though kind of exhausting.  it shouldn't have been.  it was meant to be a day for me to rest up a little bit.  it wasn't.  but i'm doing alright and tomorrow is quickly approaching.  so i'll try and tuck in a few minutes early, though i realize this isn't' something that happens all that much, no matter how hard i try.  anyway, i'm not sure what i'm rambling on about anymore, so i'm just going to start at the beginning of my day, as i tend to do.

i slept like not really at all last night until i got to like early morning.  then i slept.  and i was definitely out of it when the alarm went off this morning.  that's so messed up.  i need more hours in my night.  how do i make that happen without going to bed earlier?  ;)  so anyway, i got up and was all groggy but just went through the motions of getting cleaned up and ready for work.  i had some breakfast.  i packed up my gym bag.  and put on a cute skirt and heels (definitely adorable ;)).  and then i headed out on another fabulously sunny morning, though i did it a crazy patch of really dense fog near dana point harbor.  but i was out of it in like half a mile.  weird.  but anyway, it was lovely out once again, which is a great way to start any day! :)

work.  work today went well.  it was kind of noisy around, which is most enjoyable on days like today where we all have a bit of free time to chat about whatever comes up.  and i'll just say that we definitely took advantage.  i'd say today's main topic was the corruption in the diamond business.  it's true.  people die.  hehe!  okay, it's not funny that people die, but it's funny that we talked about this all afternoon.  anyway, we also went out to lunch at z pizza, which was fine.  some days it is more delicious than others.  better than nothing, that's for sure! :)  and it was nice to get out of the office for a little bit.  i always like that.

this afternoon, diana was once again meant to come to the beach with me for a walk, but she realized this morning that she had a hair appointment.  fine.  she rescheduled for tomorrow, which should be fun.  so then i debated about whether to go to the beach or the pool tonight, but with the help of annahita decided that i should go to the beach.  i love the beach.  and the working out is about doing what i enjoy to keep myself healthy.  so beach it was.  and i went.  and with some things on my mind, i walked and walked and walked and walked.  it was really great.  i walked that stress out of myself, which i definitely needed.  i walked farther than normal down the trail and then once back on the beach, i walked way, way farther, going all the way down to the opposite end of the beach to the rocks.  awesome.  it felt great.  and i once again ran the stairs because it seems like a good habit to get into.  so great workout on a great evening at the beach.  i love it here.  it's so beautiful.

then i came home and got cleaned up right away.  i was too sweaty and gross to really do anything else.  then i ended up on the phone with katherine, which was good because we did need to catch up.  so i talked to her for awhile while trying to scrounge up a little dinner.  and i talked to the family, as well.  adam was more talkative than last night, likely because he was trying to avoid the finals studying that needs to get done tonight.

it's an addiction.  i might need to seek help. ;)  i went down to golden spoon for a little frozen yogurt once again.  it's so good!  i can't stop myself.  and it was a nice night.  i wore shorts and a little sweatshirt down there.  at night!  that's awesome!  oh, i'm so feeling summer right now.  so i came home and enjoyed it (so good!) while watching the most useful episode of "mythbusters" ever!  they tested ways to prevent seasickness.  the only thing they found to work (besides the traditional drugs, which have side effects -- mostly drowsiness) was ginger pills.  rad!  i might have to give that a try next time i am traveling and know i might get sick.  i made mom watch, too. :)

and now, i want to tuck in.  there's nothing on tv really, and i kind of want to start another book.  i'm tempted to make it some girly novel again (because i especially love those in the summer) but maybe i should choose something more intelligent.  not sure yet. :)

okay, so that's enough out of me for right now.  i'll be back next time with more.  oh, the stars were out tonight because it's so clear.  i love that.  okay, g'night! ;)

tuesday 30 may 2006 10:08pm

"minutes and hours and years may go by
but my heart knows nothing of time
so don't cry, just keep me right there
in your dreams
and hold on to these words on mine
forever love
i promise you
someday we'll be together
forever love
i won't give up
no matter what
i'll be waiting for you
forever love
love is the road to our destiny
nothing can change what is meant to me" -- reba mcentire "forever love"

i live here for days like today.  seriously. :)  it's too beautiful.  i'm like on overload, but i'll quickly admit that i'm loving it!  so it was a good tuesday.

ok, so clearly i have issues watching "everwood."  did i know even before i started watching last night that it'd likely be bad news and that i'd end up crying?  yes, yes i did. :)  i wasn't fully prepared to be totally sobbing, though.  i love that show.  there's only one more episode.  then what am i going to do?!?  (i'm not sure yet.)  anyway, so i ended up being a total mess and then i got on the computer to just check email really fast (i need to stop that habit) and i ended up reading some old email.  that did not help the situation in the slightest.  so there i was alone and crying in the middle of the night.  of course, i rang meg because she's good for that stuff.  and she did make me feel better -- mostly because she's just random and funny -- and even got me to book flights to go see her in a couple weeks up in monterey.  i'm really excited about this trip, actually!  i haven't been up there in ages, and carmel is definitely one of my favorite places to just stroll around and do some shopping and eating.  it's gorgeous.  so i'll be up there in like 10 days or something.  should be great!  and after getting that stuff done, i went through more old email because that's just how i am.  and then i went to bed.

it wasn't great sleep, but no matter what it was never going to be good sleep.  whatever.  i can really mess up my body's clock with a three-day weekend.  and i was really awake at like 7, which is too early.  i would have liked to sleep through the next 30 minutes before the alarm.  but anyway, i laid there until the alarm finally did go off, and then i hopped into the shower.  i showered, got out, and was drying myself off when i realized i forgot to shave my legs.  oops!  and then i found out later today that i'm a little (or a lot?) crazy for having a shaving schedule.  it's just who i am. ;)  at least i do it (except for the rare occasion when i forget).  i likely thought it was a monday or something.  i don't know.  anyway, i wasn't getting back in so found long capri pants to put on. :)  haha!  no one would notice anyway!  so i finished getting ready and dressed.  and i burnt english muffin #1 on accident, so i had to make english muffin #2, which turned out deliciously. :)  then i headed out on a gorgeous morning.

work today was super mellow because we're kind of in between things right now.  i have little stuff to take care of, but nothing major and nothing that would take hours on end. :)  so i caught up with the coworkers on what they were all up to over the long weekend.  heard some good stories! :)  and around lunchtime, i had to go to the post office to mail a (belated) birthday box to annahita.  i hate that place, in general, but it wasn't outrageously bad today. :)  and then jenna, jan, melissa, and i went to wahoo's for some mexican.  and then jenna wanted frozen yogurt, so for the fifth(!) day in a row, i had frozen yogurt.  today, we went to goodie's, though.  man, it was delicious!  i am really obsessed, aren't i?  but today it wasn't at my suggestion that we went there!  i was just along for the ride! ;)  mmm!  anyway, the afternoon was more work.  the office is so cold i can hardly stand it.  it gets worse as the temperatures outside get higher and it was very warm today.  so for a little bit, i went over to diana's office to chat and hang out and be not freezing.  she has a huge window and gets lots of sun, so it's not icy cold there.  so that was a nice little break for me.

this evening, i left work with every intention of going to the pool.  i drove that way and everything.  but as i was cruising up pch with the sunroof and windows open and my outside temperature gauge said 80ish, i knew i couldn't not go to the beach.  it'd just be wrong.  so i headed to my apartment, changed, and headed back down to the beach.  and when i rolled in there around 6 and i was seeing ocean and the temperature was still 80ish, i knew it was the right decision!  oh, wow.  it was fantastic out there!  so i went for a really good walk, going faster and longer than usual.  and it wasn't crowded so i didn't have to weave around people or anything.  it's like an oh-wow-do-i-even-deserve-to-live-in-a-place-this-awesome sort of walk. :)  and at the end, i was still feeling great (though extra sweaty -- because of the heat) so i ran up the stairs again.  i was spent by that very last one, but in a good sort of way.  excellent.  the beach was definitely a good decision. :)

then i came home and finished up the workout.  the weight training is going well.  it's getting easier.  i guess that's the point, right?  and then i got cleaned up (and even remembered to shave! ;)).  anyway, i've been hanging out around the apartment tonight.  i briefly talked to the family.  they all seemed busy with various things, especially adam, who starts finals tomorrow.  and i talked to sarah online for awhile.  that was great, and she even solidified plans to come visit me in a few weeks, which is super exciting!  one more week and she's done at syracuse!  i can hardly wait!  i can't imagine how she feels! :)  anyway, i am not sure what we'll be up to when she's out here, but i'm sure we'll have a good time!  i've also been adding some newer cds to my itunes library, which isn't really so much work but just takes attention to switch the discs out when they're done ripping.  and there's nothing really on tv, so i'm just hanging out listening to some of the music i've been ripping, which is cool.

i should tuck in soon.  i'm not really tired, but i'll need the sleep later.  i'll be back next time with more.  for now, g'night. meet you in my dreams. ;)

monday 29 may 2006 11:40pm

"and i'd drown here in this ocean
just to have you float my boat for a while" -- pat green "feels just like it should"

i'm a mess.  ::sigh::  should i be allowed to watch "everwood?"  no, no i should not.  it's too much for me.  it's like their issues are my issues.  their lives are my life.  it's a lot to handle on a very quiet monday night.  and you know what else i shouldn't be allowed to do because it only makes me being a mess worse?  read old emails.  yeah.  so i got on the phone with meg because it's what i tend to do in such situations and just talking to her helps.  she's out partying with work people but was still nice enough to talk to me until i calmed down.  and i officially booked my trip up to monterey to see her in less than two weeks.  i'm not sure how i'm going to sleep now...

monday 29 may 2006 9:42pm

"they oughtta give me the wurlitzer prize
for all the silver i let slide down the slot
playin' those songs sung blue
that help me remember you
i don't wanna get over you
a fresh roll o' quarters, same old songs
missin' you through and through
i don't wanna get over you
i don't wanna get over you" -- waylon jennings "wurlitzer prize"

hi. :)  i can hardly believe that my gloriously long three-day weekend is coming to a close.  it's been really nice, even if it seems that pretty much i've done nothing at all.  i've enjoyed the rest and just having so much time to myself.  i'm rejuvenated.  this should make the work week ahead (a short one) even better.  anyway, here's how i spent yet another very quiet day.

though i never sleep especially well, i sometimes manage to sleep a long time, including last night.  ten lovely hours is quite a lot for me!  especially because i wasn't even that tired when i crawled into bed last night.  but that's how it went, and when i did wake up this morning i was surprised to see how late it was already. :)  and i was also pleasantly surprised to see just how sunny it was out.  memorial day!  unofficial start of summer!  i love it!

so pretty much i lazed around the apartment for the bulk of the day.  but i was not just sitting here staring at the walls.  i was doing lots of stuff.  the first task i took on was cleaning up my address book.  basically, i'm trying to get everything into gmail, so there's a lot of gathering stuff from various sources and then making sure everything and everyone is in my contact list.  but after a couple hours, i think i successfully got everyone in there.  it's a lot of information!  well over 100 people's worth of data!  and the cool thing is that i can export that list if i need to use it elsewhere, which i am sure i will at some point.  and it's cool that i'll be able to access all of it wherever i can get online.  good for traveling!

anyway, i had one other pretty big project today.  baking cookies.  mom sent me a recipe a couple weeks ago for a recipe for the best chocolate chip cookies ever chosen my some magazine or something.  well, i wanted to see for myself!  they turned out great!  they are definitely very tasty.  but they're not a traditional chocolate chip cookie, by my standards.  the dough part is also chocolate.  and there's cinnamon.  they're different.  you'll like them, but they're not at all just a chocolate chip cookie.  anyway, so i did that and the kitchen still needs a little clean up. :)

later in the afternoon, i knew i needed to get out for a bit and get into the summery sunshine. :)  and i also knew that it was monday, a day i'd normally work out.  so i headed for the beach, like i tend to do. :)  hehe!  i knew it'd be crowded, but i was hoping it'd be less so because it was like 5pm.  well, it was definitely crowded, though i still managed to get in a really nice walk.  the hardest part was weaving through all the people climbing the stairs at a tugboat's pace with their 10 kids and 2 coolers and 5 beach chairs and umbrella.  but mostly, it was lovely.  it was gloriously warm out!  i love that!  and i went extra long, though i only added about 5 minutes in time, so i must have been hauling it.  well, actually, i know i was at the end.  the only way i could get people out of the way on my way back up the stairs at the end was if they realized i was running.  so i ran all 142 stairs.  and the hill.  and the flat parts.  and wow, it's hard work!  but i did it successfully, so i'm feeling rad at the moment. :)  i loving having the beach so close.  i love that, like everyone else there today, i could go chill there for a few hours.  there was a man in a wheelchair there.  and i think he was with his wife.  anyway, he was sitting on the edge of the path just watching the ocean.  if i'm stuck in a wheelchair, please just wheel me to the ocean's edge so i can sit and watch. :)  anyway, i am rambling now, aren't i?  i went to the beach.  it was rad. :)

then i came home and finished off the work out.  tiring!  but good. :)  and i got cleaned up so i could head out again.  i needed a couple random things.  and then i got golden spoon because i can. :)  oh, i really am a total junkie!  so? ;)

then it was back home for a really good dinner of a couple ears of corn (cooked much better tonight) and a huge chunk of garlic bread.  so delicious!  and so easy!  and i ended up talking to kath for awhile.  she went camping, as she does every memorial day weekend.  she invited me every year for as long as i can remember.  i've always said no.  tonight, i told her i want to go next year.  i'm ready for a little adventure like that!  and i finished off that frozen yogurt while chatting with her and attempting to start planning a birthday bash. :)  you know you want to be there!

and now i'm going to go watch tonight's "everwood" and then make my way to bed.  i am not tired at all.  this is going to be trouble when i try to fall asleep later.  oh, well.  it was worth it to have a good, restful weekend. :)

so i'll be back tomorrow with more.  for now, i wish you a good night. ;)

sunday 28 may 2006 11:15pm

"give me
just one part of you to cling to
and keep me
everywhere you are...
all i want is just one moment more
you've got to hold me and keep me" -- mindy smith "one moment more"

good evening. :)  it's been an extremely mellow sunday, which really is fine.  i got out, did some stuff, and and got some stuff done around the apartment.  i'm not sure where the hours all went, really, but it's already after 11 so i guess they went somewhere.  anyway, it seems like as good a time as any to start writing this for you, so here it goes... ;)

once again, i was up late last night for no reason in particular.  i was messing around on the computer a bit, watching a little random tv, and really just hanging out.  all of a sudden it was 1 and i figured that i should actually to bed if i had plans of getting early (relatively) this morning.  and so i did get a little sleep.  and magically, somehow my body knew to wake me up this morning.  i woke up and looked at the clock, which read 9:36.  my alarm was set for 9:40.  geez, i am good! :)  haha!  so i turned off the alarm and hopped into the shower.  it really is much better to wake up naturally than to be woken up by an obnoxious alarm. :)  anyway, i got cleaned up and had a little breakfast.  and then i put on some clothes and headed out, even remembering to take the 3 shopping bags worth of clothes that i had cleaned out of my closet yesterday with me.

mass this morning was kind of crowded and i was later than i normally am (though not actually late for mass) so i ended up farther back than normal.  it's not that i need to be close.  it's that i am less distracted when close because there are less people that i can actually see.  anyway, mass was alright.  it was the priest i don't like that much (he really can't formulate a homily that's coherent or meaningful), so it was more about what i could glean from the readings.  fine.  it was still good to go, and it was also great to give all those clothes to the st. vincent de paul people. :)

then i figured since it was such a beautiful day out, i'd take care of some random things around town.  i got my car washed, which desperately needed to happen! :)  and i continue to hone my skills of negotiation, as i always talk the guy down on the price.  hehe!  i'm nowhere near as good as my mother, but i am pretty good with the carwash guys.  anyway, so since i was in the direction, i decided to go to sportsmart or sports authority or whatever that store is called these days.  i wanted some new workout clothes because i really don't have much a lot of it doesn't fit right anymore.  actually, i was supposed to be looking for a bathing suit (the kind for laps in the pool, not lying on the beach), but they didn't have anything that interesting for me.  anyway, i found some cool summer workout clothing, the vast majority of which was on sale!  yay!  and there's a borders in that neighborhood, too, so i wandered around there.  i even picked up cool greeting cards there, because they have papyrus and paperchase stuff there, which i love!  and then because i have an addiction, i stopped at golden spoon for an afternoon does of frozen yogurt. :)  so delicious!

i've spent the rest of the day around the apartment.  like i said earlier, i am not exactly sure where all the hours went.  what have i been doing?  i wrapped up a couple presents.  i read a magazine (this week's "oc metro" has a big dining guide in it, so i'm excited to try some of the restaurants in there!).  i talked to sarah and megs online.  i talked to the family for quite a while and planned a trip up there for the fourth of july.  i'll actually get 5 nights up there, which is really cool!  i had a little dinner, though i accidentally undercooked the corn on the cob.  i cleaned the kitchen, which moslty involved me washing a lot of dishes.  and i wrote a big, long email updating the family and friends on life, something i hadn't done in ages but have been meaning to do for awhile now, especially since tracking down a bunch of very old friends on facebook.  and really, i think that's it.  i know it sounds boring, but it actually has been good.  i have a very busy couple of months coming up, so i should enjoy the quiet time while i can.

of course, there has been a constant soundtrack of country music throughout my day.  i love it! :)  but for now, i will likely mess around online for awhile longer and then crash.  not sure what's in store for tomorrow...

g'night! ;)

saturday 27 may 2006 11:45pm

"the first time i laid my eyes on you i know
we'd spend this life side by side
i still feel the same way though you're so far away
i swear that you'll always be my
forever love
i promise you
someday we'll be together
forever love
i won't give up
no matter what
i'll be waiting for you
forever love" -- reba mcentire "forever love"

i feel like i accomplished a lot today, but i know that as i write it will become quite apparent that i in fact did absolutely nothing with my saturday.  but you know, it was thoroughly enjoyable, so i'm alright with that. :)  it was a good way to kick off a very mellow holiday weekend.

um, like i predicted, i was once again up late reading last night, though this time it was a book instead of a magazine, which makes it even harder to put down because it juts keeps going and going.  i mean, it's a fast-read sort of book so i knew i could read a lot of it before crashing out.  and if i read enough of it, i'd be able to finish the rest today.  anyway, yeah, way too much thinking.  so the point is i stayed up late reading and then watched the beginning of conan and recorded the end so i could see anderson cooper.  i happened to watch that today, and it was so hilarious! :)  basically, anderson was laughing through the entire interview, except when he was making deadpan jokes.  so fun!  conan is the the best in late night, i swear!

and then i did get some sleep.  not amazing, but still i felt rested when i did get up this morning.  and i was shocked to discover that it was sunny out!  what a nice surprise! :)  but mostly, i just lazed around the apartment for what was left of the morning.  i read a lot, which was pretty much all that i had planned for my day.  and i made serious progress in my book, so that was fun!

of course, i eventually got a little bit restless and decided that i should get cleaned up so that i could get out of the apartment for a little bit.  so i did that and i got dressed (so cute in my jeans and new tank top from old navy!) and made a little list of places that i wanted to go to and in what order. :)  so i didn't mess up!  crazy, i know.  anyway, then i was all ready to head out on a sunny afternoon.

my first stop was mervyns to return something, and then i went across the street to costco.  i know it's insane there on weekends, but that's still the most convenient time for me to get there.  so it was crazy, but i did manage to get the few things i needed and also a little father's day present for dad.  :)  cool!  next stop was the mall to return something.  check!  and then next was the grocery.  i wanted bread and lemonade, both of which i got.  but i also got corn (yay!  that means it's summertime!), bagels, and reese's peanut butter cups.  :)  and finally, i stopped at tcby for some frozen yogurt.  it's right next door to my apartment complex, but i'd never been there before because i always go to golden spoon or goodies.  so i gave it a try, an it was alright.  but not as good as either of the other two places i frequent, so i won't likely be switching my loyalty. :)  they do get points for having white chocolate mousse as a flavor, however.

anyway, i did eventually made it all the way home again. :)  and then i decided that i really needed to clean up the apartment and the first step to that would be to do the laundry.  basically, the place was a mess because of the clothes everywhere.  so i did a few loads of laundry, which went okay.  only one load had to get rewashed because apparently that washer was broken, as it never spun.  whatever.  anyway, the laundry got done and folded and put away.  and what's even better is that i also took the opportunity to clean out some old clothes and shoes to donate to st. vincent de paul tomorrow at church.  i win!  that left some spare hangers to hang up some of the new stuff that's never been hung up before because i had no more hangers and no more room for more hangers.  but now everything has a good place, including all the shoes!  yay! :)  i even organized all the drawers, too!  i so win! ;)

i did a few other things tonight, as well.  i finished reading "good girls do."  i enjoyed every page of it!  it was exactly like a romantic comedy in book form, and that's exactly what i had wanted it to be.  i do think, however, that i'll need to read something a bit smarter next.  i haven't decided what yet, though.

i also talked to the family for a bit and had a nice dinner.  and i've just been hanging out.  not up to a lot, really.  all the reading and the cleaning pretty much took up my entire night.  i did see that the giants won, however, so that's cool. :)  now how can i get myself to a game...?

so it's kind of late i suppose that i should tuck in if i'm going to get up for mass tomorrow morning.  i'll be back tomorrow with more for you.  g'night! ;)

p.s. i cannot believe i've never used the song above.  it's like... perfect.

friday 26 may 2006 10:35pm

"i'm not here to forget you
i'm here to recall the things we used to say ad do
i don't wanna get over you
i don't wanna get over you
i haunt the same places we used to go
alone at a table for two
i don't wanna get over you
i don't wanna get over you" -- waylon jennings "wurlitzer prize"

fri-day!  fri-day!  fri-day!  woohoo!  thank goodness the weekend is finally here.  and as a little bonus, it's a 3-day weekend.  i'm exhausted from a long week, so i'm looking foward to kicking back a bit and just taking it easy.  i have new reading material to keep me occupied for hours on end. :)  and i'd say the weekend got kicked off in pretty good fashion today...

i have a problem.  i can't stop reading something once i start.  like i started reading a magazine last night before bed and then all of a sudden it was after 11:30 and i had already blown all hope for getting 8 hours of sleep.  oh, well.  i was enjoying myself, so it's okay, right?  i'll sleep when i'm dead (or this weekend). ;)  anyway, it's not like i got a great night's sleep anyway once i did finally tuck in and crash.  it was just alright.  and i got up with the alarms once again much too early (the standard 7:30).  these grown-up hours are not my favorite, even if i put up with them.  anyway, i hopped into the shower and got cleaned up.  then i got all ready and had a little breakfast.  i put on a cute outfit and headed off to work on (tragically) a cloudy morning.

it never did clear up today, which is sad.  and i hear that i have a cloudy weekend in store for me, though it should clear up again tuesday.  just in time for more work.  super. ;)  anyway, work was fun today because it was a friday before a long weekend and i had nearly everything done that i needed to have done.  that meant that i worked away the morning but had time in the afternoon to do stuff like read design magazines and catch up news and fun stuff like that. :)  of course, some stuff came in just as i was leaving, but nothing that can't wait until next week, thankfully.  for lunch, i got out of the office long enough to pick up pizza at scpc, which was so delicious because it was just out of the oven.  :) and not too long after i had finished eating lunch, melissa and i decided to make a little trip down to goodies for some frozen yogurt.  it was so so so so good! :)  the lady who runs the shop, however, had some sad news.  she's looking to sell the place.  hopefully, it'll continue to be delicious, no matter who's running it.  and because it was a friday before a holiday weekend, we took off early.  i left around 3:30, which meant that i had an hour and a half of stolen time (time that's reserved for something but you end up getting to spend however you'd like).  awesome!

oh, and i got the nick in my windshield repaired today, which is awesome!  they came to my office and patched it up and everything in like 10 minutes, so i can stop worrying about it running!  yay!  :)  i'm all responsible and getting stuff done! ;)

anyway, so i wasn't sure how to spend my stolen time.  i started out by ringing dad to see if he had any suggestions.  he was in a meeting, so he didn't.  he did, however, inform me that grandma had one of her anxiety attacks today (likely because grandpa's birthday is coming up) so mom was visiting her today.  so then i rang grandma, and she was in a good mood!  she was happy to hear from me! :)  she's never chatty on the phone, so it was like a 2-minute call.  but still, she was very appreciative.  and then i had one more important call to make.  it's annahita's 21st birthday and i knew i needed to get my call in before she was totally wasted and she's in washington, dc, so it was even later there.  anyway, she was thankful for the call and just about to have her first shot of the night.  and i talked to jen, who's out there for all the birthday festivities, as well. :)

then i decided that i'd head up to the bookstore for a little browsing.  that's a totally decent way to spend stolen time, don't you think?  and i happened to discover lots of things i'd like to read and even picked up a couple.  the anderson cooper book excerpt that i read in "vanity fair" was really good, so i picked up the whole book (plus, it was on sale!).  and i found a cheezy, girly romance novel called "good girls do" that should be lovely entertainment over my long weekend.  not exactly a fine work of literature, but i know i'll enjoy it.  actually, i've already started and it's totally fun! :)  and then i did a little browsing in some other shops while i was up there, including mervyns (hadn't been there in ages but they have loads of cheap clothing), old navy (i can't stop going there), and tilly's (where i accidentally purchased a really cute piece of green and white luggage -- just a little weekend bag).  so in all, it was a fun little trip out there. :)

and i've just been hanging out since i got home.  i talked to my brother for awhile, until some tv show he likes came on and he was so over talking to me.  i talked to sarah online about how she only has 11 (torturous) days left in syracuse.  and i talked to troy about how he's all lucky getting to go to giants games and eat garlic fries.  and i've spent time reading, which is nice and which is how i plan to spend probably a couple more hours tonight. :)

so i'll be back later with another update, though i actually have zero things planned for my weekend.  for now, g'night! ;)

thursday 25 may 2006 9:47pm

"i need something to believe in
breathe in sanctuary in the
easy silence that you make for me
it's ok when there's nothing more to say to me
and the peace you create for me
and the way you keep the world at bay for me
the way you keep the world at bay" -- dixie chicks "easy silence"

first of all, i'd like to say how much i am enjoying the wreckers' new album.  they rock!  and as for the dixie chicks, i'm impressed.  it's good stuff right there! :)  so yay for new music!  it's all good (and surprisingly, all women).  of course, just so you know, i chose the lyrics above because i like what they say (they are representative of what's on my mind, as always).

ok, so let's see... thursday.  thursday was admittedly a little rough on me, but after all of it i'm feeling pretty good. :)  so i am doing alright.  and i'm tired but i know that tomorrow should be a good day and then i have a 3-day weekend coming right up! :)

i ended up listening to country music and reading a couple "budget travel" magazines before heading to bed last night.  actually, i was probably up a bit later than i probably should have been.  i mean, i wanted to catch up on some sleep, but really i just took care of one night's worth of sleep.  and apparently the alarm went off in the wrong part of my sleep cycle because it was hard for me to get out of bed.  but i got up and showered and ready and everything.  i thought i was even running early, but by the time i had breakfast and picked out something to wear i was actually running a couple minutes late.  oh, well.  me and my cute skirt headed to the office. ;)

it was another sunny morning, which means another morning i was sad to be stuck in an over-air-conditioned office.  but really, i had plenty to keep me busy, including wrapped up the figures for "pkg," which happened before lunchtime, thankfully!  of course, i was pretty much confined to just working (not office chit-chat) because everyone was geeking out about last night's season finale of "lost," which i don't watch.  so that's all everyone wanted to talk about, so i just kept right on working.  perhaps this was the source of my dull headache? ;)  anyway, i got lots done in the morning and then in the afternoon worked some more on random stuff.  plus, we got the new "rtc" magazines in, and everything looks good.  that issue had crazy figures for me, but it seems like everything looks nice in print, so i'm pleased. :)  and i even found a little time to catch up on some world news, which definitely needed to happen!  so it was a productive day at work, though i still have things to take care of tomorrow.

diana brought me lunch today, which was really nice of her!  we had planned to go to the dmv together (we both had errands to take care of there) and then go out to lunch, but in an effort to save a little money she brought lunch for both of us instead.  so nice!  so i had a good caesar salad and leftover pepperoni pizza.  that's a totally decent lunch, especially when it's free to me! ;)  and then we went down to the dmv.  the highlight for me was that we rode in diana's little convertible mercedes with the top down, cruising down pch.  awesome!  i should totally have a convertible! :)  anyway, i took care of changing my voter registration, which is great!  now i can vote in orange county, instead of san mateo county, though i kept my status as permanent absentee.  that was probably more information than you need, huh?  anyway, that's what happened, and i was especially excited because they didn't make me change the address on my driver's license!  yay!

ok, so after work, i wasn't feeling amazing but i forced myself to go to the pool anyway, and that was definitely a good decision.  it wasn't crowded when i got there, but it was a little busy by the end.  a woman joined me in my lane about 1/3 of the way through my swim.  people do weird things in the pool.  like her swim was not a traditional cardio workout of lots of laps, mostly freestyle.  it was a lot of her swimming underwater for the length of the pool.  that's not really aerobic exercise anymore.  whatever.  she kept to her side of the lane, and that's what matters most. :)  and dick was glad to see me coming more regularly again.  he's so chatty sometimes!  i don't know how to break the conversation and resume swimming.  oh, well.  anyway, i was feeling tired as i swam, but by the end i knew i felt better than before i started my swim.  great how exercise can do that, right? :)

then i came home and did the rest of my night's workout and then got cleaned up.  can't sit around in a wet swimsuit all night, you know! ;)  and then i made dinner and talked to the family awhile.  that went well. :)  they miss me! ;)  and pretty much i have just been hanging out around here.  haven't been up to much.  i talked to annahita for awhile online while she avoided cleaning her apartment. ;)  and i put on my new dress that i bought last weekend and pranced around here looking pretty just because i could. :)  yeah, i'm that crazy.  i have the tv playing the local country radio station (93.9 kzla) and i'll likely read some more before bed.  this whole tv-free nights thing is going well right now.  it's peaceful.  plus, there's not a lot on tv during the summer anyway.

so i'll be back with more tomorrow and i'll be all stoked because it'll be the weekend! :)  for now, good night! ;)

wednesday 24 may 2006 9:33pm

"i'm talking about you and me wild and free
flat out down a winding road
and i'm not sure just what we'll find
but i won't stop until you're satisfied
so climb in, baby, and enjoy the ride" -- marshall dyllon "enjoy the ride"

this is a much more reasonable hour to be writing. :)  hehe!  ok, so i didn't write all that late last night, but i was up long after i wrote so i got like no sleep and i think it messed me up a little today.  but actually, it was nice day.  all i really need to be in a great mood the beach and a big dose of sunshine. :)  so i'm good...

ok, so the academy of country music awards last night were really fun! :)  yay!  let's see, what were some of the highlights?  the first thing that comes to mind is keith urban making me cry like a baby singing "tonight i wanna cry" and then winning the award for top male vocalist.  could he be more adorable?  no, no he could not. :)  we were totally in a fight (he's apparently getting married to someone who's not me), but we're all made up now.  i love him!  ok, there were lots of other great performances.  rascal flatts and kelly clarkson singing "what hurts the most" together was really amazing, even if kelly's hair was super weird.  also, carrie underwood crying at the end of her performance and also while accepting an award was really cute.  :)  i love that travis from blink-182 was in the buck owens tribute.  and i thought little big town did an amazing job with just their 4 voices and two acoustic guitars.  i think they really proved their talent.  ok, and the awards.  well, really i was quite pleased.  perhaps more so than any awards show in recent history.  kenny, keith, rascal flatts, jason aldean, brad paisely, and brooks & dunn's song "believe."  very good, academy!

so anyway, i was watching the awards until after 1am, so i didn't get to bed until carson daly was coming on.  giant oops! ;)  and i got a little sleep (but definitely far from enough) sleep before the alarms went off this morning.  i'll admit that it was a bit of a rough morning as i showered and got ready.  but i found breakfast and managed to pick out a cute outfit.  then i headed off.  i discovered today that lots of people get dressed more than once in the morning because they have a hard time picking out what to wear.  i'm not alone! :)

work's really busy at the moment.  i'm working on all the figures for the new magazine, "pkg," the first draft of which is meant to go to our copy editor tomorrow.  if i had the same number of figures for "rtc" or "cots" i'd be done by now, but the figures for this magazine are insane!  so crazy!  all of them!  they're all super complicated, even the ones that are just photos.  so i ended up working on those all day long.  no news.  no celebrity gossip.  no goofing off.  just me working.  and my eyes were failing me a little, staring at the screen so intensely for so long, but they'll recover.  i'll recover. :)  i wasn't even really planning on leaving for lunch, other than to pick up food that i could eat at my desk while working, but i ended up going out with matt, jenna, and jan to super bowl.  and actually, it was a great lunch, eating good food and sitting out in the sunshine. :)  i know i needed that little break.  because i worked all afternoon, too.  i eventually had to just stop because it was way past when i normally leave.  there's more for me to finish tomorrow, however.  and of course, there's also the other stuff i didn't get to today because i was working on all those figures.  so i have stuff to do! :)  i'm sure the day will fly right by once again.

after work, i headed for the beach to work out.  diana was meant to come with me but she forgot all her stuff at home so she bailed.  no prob.  i had my ipod loaded with new music to keep me company today.  it was absolutely gorgeous out!  like 75 degrees at 6ish.  so i went for a nice walk with the wreckers album playing in my ears.  and i must have been walking particularly hard because i went farther than normal but added barely any time to my total workout time.  cool. :)  the beach portion was crazy once again, as the tide was so i high there wasn't any dry sand in some parts.  anyway, it was totally fun!  i love being able to go there.  i'm lucky. :)  and then i finished my workout once i got home.  i could barely finish i was shaking so much, but i did and that's a sign i'm working myself hard, so i'm okay. :)  then i got cleaned up because i was sweaty sweaty.

i talked to katie.  i had lots of questions about her wedding weekend, but i feel great now!  i think i know where i'll stay, i'll get to see lots of katie, and my dinners will be free. ;)  no, seriously, i'm looking forward to getting to see her a bit more and also getting to see a new city.  i'll be busy the whole time, i think, which is good news for me since i'll be traveling solo.

and tonight, i've really just been hanging out here.  i had a little dinner and talked to my brother for awhile.  and then i did some straightening up around the apartment because it was seriously a disaster, with stuff everywhere!  i couldn't live like that anymore.  so i did dishes, picked up lots of clothes and shoes, and threw away a bunch of stuff that needed to go.  it's much better now.  not perfect, but livable.  and now i'm just hanging out listening to a little country music on the tv and writing away.  the plan for the rest of my evening is to read one of the magazines that came in the mail today. :)  sounds excellent, don't you think?

ok, i'm off.  i'll be back again tomorrow with another exciting entry.  g'night! ;)

p.s. giant congratulations to the pepperdine men's tennis team, who won their first ever national title last night!  go waves! :)

tuesday 23 may 2006 10:53pm

"i tell myself to hold on tight
any day now it'll be all right...
one heart waits while one heart breaks...
and it hurts so much to want someone so bad...
what can i do to make you want me too
the way that i'm wanting you now" -- marshall dyllon "so bad"

ok, so i kind of chopped up the song to put the words i wanted to right here, but whatever.  this is my journal and i'll chop up songs if i want to! ;)  and it's kind of late.  it's definitely later than i meant to write.  and i have more planned for the rest of the night, too.  yes, i continue to voluntarily sacrifice sleep. :)  so let me just get on with it.  today was busy, so i feel like there's a lot to write.

it's easier for me to make the decision at night to sacrifice sleep when i haven't been sleeping well anyway.  i mean, i might as well use the time to do something fun instead of just lying in bed wondering why i'm not actually asleep, right?  so i was up kind of late last night.  i watched "everwood."  :)  and i cried like a baby, as i so often do while watching that show.  it was a really good episode with lots of stuff happening in everyone's lives.  and i love how they continue to become even more intertwined.  what these people do effects a lot of other people.  anyway, it's a great show and i'm loving each episode even more now that i know there are only a few left.  so i was up doing that and then tried to get some sleep.  and i did actually get a little sleep before the alarms went off this morning.  so they made me get out of bed and into the shower.  and i got cleaned up and ready.  i had some breakfast and got dressed.  actually, i looked way cute today in a polo and white skirt.  it was sunny this morning (pretty much unbelievable) so i took the opportunity to dress like it's summer, even though i know perfectly well that our office is about 30 degrees.  i really am ridiculous sometimes! ;)

so anyway, then i headed for work.  and i was quite busy with things today.  i got approval on my layout of the latest st. jude newsletter, which meant i spent the entire day trying to get all the copies printed so they can have them asap to mail.  and in between checking the printer, i was working on figures for the very first issue of our new publication, "pkg."  it's really cool to be working on it, though i must say that the figures are insanely complicated and i am just crossing my fingers that they all get done.  so i worked away my morning until lunchtime when jenna, jan, melissa, and i went up the road to stillwater cafe.  i suggested walking because it's so close, but jenna was in heels so we drove.  but we still got to sit and eat outside and my salad and chocolate chip cookie were amazing, so it was a good lunch all around. :)  and then i froze my butt off and worked more through the afternoon.

and all of a sudden it was well after 5, so i headed out.  i finally made it to the pool at the y!  wow!  it'd been so so so so long since i'd swam but i knew i needed to and would feel good if i did it.  so i got changed and headed out to the pool.  all the lanes were full (some with 2 people) but dick (the yellow shorts guy who now wears red shorts) was in his lane solo, so i shared with him.  he was so excited to see me back in the pool!  oh, the old people crack me up! :)  so i had a great swim.  and dick was trying to keep up with me (he really can't), so i swam even faster.  and it was a good swim, even with the sun in my eyes and having to share a lane.  so i am glad i went there instead of the beach for once. :)

then i raced home and got cleaned up and dressed again.  and i headed over to target for a little new music tuesday celebration! ;)  somehow, though, i got distracted by the shoes.  they have so many cute ones there right now, and tons of them in my size!  i think they're ripping off more shoe designers by the day, which is awesome for me because i love shoes that are only $20.  so i tried on lots and settled on a couple that'll fit perfectly into my wardrobe and lifestyle. :)  and then i headed over to the music section.  no dixie chicks albums to be found.  so i asked the guy working there and he told me he just sold the last copy a few minutes before.  no!  if only i'd never looked at shoes!  but they did have the wreckers album, so i picked that up.  and then i headed down the  road to best buy, where they still had the chicks' album in stock.  i'm stoked to get good, loud first-listens in tomorrow! :)  hooray for a double dose of new music tuesday!

then i got home and heard someone im-ing me just as i was walking through the door.  sarah! :)  so i ended up chatting with her for awhile, as well as with annahita.  i grabbed dinner and started watching the academy of country music awards (the acms) pre-show.  (by the way, everything i watched tonight was recorded because i am just running kind of late tonight.)  and then i started watching the awards, which were going great.  i got interrupted by a phone call from dad and then another long conversation with my brother, however.  i was telling him how other people don't think our jokes about me being fat and him not being able to read are funny.  it's funny!  :)  i guess it doesn't make sense though if you're not me or adam.  but i swear, it makes me laugh and him, too!  anyway, he wants to make pirate shirts to wear to opening day of the second installment of "pirates of the caribbean," which sounds like an awesome idea!  and i want to design them because i'm a design dork like that or something. ;)  so i'll do an illustration and some design work and hopefully we'll really get those printed. :)

anyway, that about brings me to right now, where i'm still running a zillion miles an hour so i can get the rest of the awards show in tonight.  so i am off to go continue my watching, and i'll be back tomorrow with more (plus probably a celebration of tonight's winners because i love stuff like this). :)  g'night! ;)

p.s. are the song lyrics "i'll do anything if it'll bring our hearts together, i'll stand and fight or get down on my knees" really that dirty??? ;)  oh, people twisting perfectly innocent words.  dirty, dirty minds!  haha!

monday 22 may 2006 9:43pm

"am i a fool to wait for you
i keep pushing for you to pull me through
a little taste of love is a bitter pill
i can't make it without you
no, i never will" -- marshall dyllon "so bad"

monday seemed to fly right by, and i really did enjoy it quite a bit, especially considering it's monday, which can easily be the least enjoyable of all the days.  but really, i had a fun day, so i'm totally pleased. :)  or maybe i'm just easily satisfied.  i mean, a great lunch and lots of sunshine is enough to put me in a good mood.

i slept quite poorly once again last night.  it's like just what i do or something.  whatever.  anyway, it doesn't matter all that much because i was up late messing around (reading, watching tv, using the computer) so i never was going to get a whole lot of sleep.  i don't need it.  whatever.  so when the alarms went off this morning, i was okay getting up.  not like i was accomplishing a lot being in bed. ;)  so i got cleaned up and all ready for my day.  and then i had breakfast (i finally have the right food!) and got dressed and headed out.  i was sad to discover that it was kind of drizzling outside, but there's not a lot i can do to change the weather, regrettably. ;)

i had enough things on my desk to keep me busy all morning.  and so i just got started with that right away when i arrived at the office.  working is a good wya to get the week started.  it puts me in the right frame of mind, or something.  i can stay motivated.  anyway, i'm not sure what i'm rambling about anymore. ;)  so at like 11:30, diana came into the art department and convinced us all to go out to lunch with her.  she was hungry really early, so we used a long discussion about where to go to delay her so that we weren't eating lunch by 11:45 and then starving again by 4.  :)  anyway, we talked it over awhile but eventually decided on san clemente pizza company.  there were 7 of us, so we ordered a couple pizzas and just shared, which was a great idea!  it was cheap and fun and i liked hanging out with everyone for awhile. :)  plus, that place has a nice, big, mellow seating area where we could just chill.  :)  it was a very nice lunch!  but then of course it was back to work for the afternoon.  i had more to accomplish, and actually by the end of the day i know i got lots of stuff done.  i'm totally pleased with myself! ;)  reprints.  st. jude newsletter.  more magazine figures.  it's all keeping me plenty occupied.

after work, i was so excited to see that it was still very sunny out!  hooray!  i was for sure headed to the beach, so i got changed and then headed there, sunroof open and music blaring. :)  that's the best way to drive, really. :)  and i had a great walk there.  i pushed myself especially hard and even did an extra set of stairs.  plus, the tide was coming in and was very high, so the beach portion of my walk was hard because the sand was so soft.  and a few times i had scramble out of the way of the water.  but anyway, it was a great walk!  sunshine!  i love love it! :)

then i headed home and got straight to that resistance training  and stretching routine i'm trying to adopt.  it's not my favorite thing in the world, but i'm trying.  and so that went well, and then i got cleaned up right away.  i chatted with annahita online for awhile (she seems to be doing well) and had a little dinner.  actually, she busted me having a single girl dinner of a can of green beans and a big slice of garlic bread. :)  it was good, though, and also really easy and fast. :)  so yeah, i spent some time talking to her and hanging out.  and then i talked to the family for awhile.  actually, i talked to adam for ages.  it was really fun!  i think he was just using me to put off doing his homework, though. ;)  that's ok.  i 'll take what i can get.

and now i'm writing this before i watch tonight's episode of "everwood" and then try to get to bed at a decent hour.  i love that show, you know! :)  ok, so i'll be back with more next time.  g'night. ;)

sunday 21 may 2006 11:18pm

"i don't have to tell You what i'm going through
i know You can see it for yourself
but in the early morning hours
in the darkness of this room
i've never been so desperate for Your help" -- marshall dyllon "is she gone"

hmm.  i am not sure what exactly i want to say about today.  it was good.  i mean, it was sunday and i really didn't do all that much, which is pretty much a good thing for a sunday, right?  and i'm tired now but don't really feel like going to sleep.  so i'll write this for a bit and then probably do some reading.  i'm not sure i'm ready for another week of work, but i don't know exactly what i'd do with another free day.

i stayed up late reading last night, which was really nice.  i'm getting back into more of a summer rhythm for myself, full of unnecessarily late nights and lots of reading.  and really, i prefer that way of life. :)  and then i got some sleep, but it was very restless.  i woke up between every sleep cycle, which is way too often.  and i did eventually just get up around 9:30.  i wanted to go to 11am mass anyway, so i needed to get ready.  i hopped into the shower and then got ready.  and i only got dressed twice, which isn't bad for me. ;)  i never can decide what i want to wear, especially when it's not especially warm out.  my favorite clothes are summer clothes.  anyway, i briefly flipped through the newspaper and then headed out on a gray morning.

mass was good.  i forgot that it was fiesta weekend at st. edwards, which means there's a whole carnival set up with rides and everything.  it's way more elaborate than the carnivals at st. charles that i remember from my childhood.  anyway, that meant that the parking lot was crowded, but i did find a space and headed inside.  and today's mass was about love, which was cool. :)  anyway, i know i needed to go to just settle my head... at least a little bit.

then i signed my lease for the next year here.  guess that means i'll be staying 12 more months.  and then i was going to go to costco but got distracted by kohl's next door.  so i looked there for dresses (they had none) and discovered a really cute pair of shoes for $15.  can't pass that up! ;)  they're brown wedge heels with peep toes and cutout details.  they're cute.  anyway, then i decided that i really didn't want to go to costco because it's so nutty around there on the weekend, but i did stop for groceries at von's.  and i remembered the english muffins and popcorn.  in fact, that's nearly all i got.

i eventually headed home.  i was kind of bored just hanging around here so i watched a little tv and then tried to take a nap.  i tried really hard, but it just didn't work out.  oh, well.  i'm not sure what i was up to really.  not a whole lot.  and eventually i did take some time to read the newspaper, which was cool.

i eventually got started on the manicure/pedicure.  i trimmed all 20 nails to perfection. ;)  and then i decided i wanted to talk to some friends.  so i talked to kath on the phone for awhile because it had been ages and ages.  we needed to catch up. :)  and i talked to some people online.  chris says he can't go with me to katie's wedding next month, which is a total bummer, but i understand because he's moving out here like a week after that.  either way, i am excited to see him!  i think this means i'm going to katie's wedding in san antonio solo, which should be an adventure.  sarah's doing well and got some shopping done today.  annahita's turning 21 in a few days but cannot even come up with what she wants for her birthday.  and she baked a cake from a box for the first time ever!  it's like my little girl is growing up! ;)  and to get the real gossip, i talked to her sister, roxanna, who knows everything that's going on around notre dame.  she's keeping track of everyone for me! ;)  oh, and i talked to my family for awhile, which was totally great!  the brother is keeping me informed on the latest nor cal slang, yadadamean?  haha!  i'm not actually cool enough to say that, right?

and then i put on the 2-hour "desperate housewives" season finale and gave myself a pedicure and manicure.  i used both of those new colors i got on friday, a purple on my toes and a bright coral on my fingers.  and everything looks nice and they're dry enough that i'm now typing. :)  and "housewives" was good.  lots of answers to questions but also some more new questions that make me anxious to see next season.  i'm glad to see the applewhites gone, too.  and i love mike!  he's cute. :)

so i guess i should be going now.  i'm going to try to get some rest.  g'night. ;)

saturday 20 may 2006 10:51pm

"'cause no one ever brought me closer to heaven
no one ever made me feel like you do
no one ever made it seem like religion
no one ever loved me like you" -- marshall dyllon "closer to heaven"

as much as i enjoy fridays, they can't really compete with a sunny saturday with absolutely no plans. :)  i loved today.  it was purely me.  i got to do whatever i wanted whenever i wanted, and it managed to be an absolutely wonderful day!  and i think i successfully managed to tire myself out, which is totally good news. :)

i stayed up late last night reading magazines, as i pretty much knew i would. :)  it was fun and i like staying up late, in general, so it was good.  and then i eventually crashed just as conan was ending.  didn't really need to see carson daly, you know. ;)  and i got some sleep before eventually deciding to get up this morning.  it wasn't too, too late. :)  and as soon as i discovered that it was sunny out, i decided to get cleaned up right away.  i showered and got dressed and everything.  then i grabbed a little food.  but mostly, i was just trying to get out of the apartment and into the sunshine.  this place has been sun-deprived lately, so i really did not want to waste a good day of sun!

i love days that are entirely mine.  i had absolutely nothing that needed to be done, nowhere that i needed to be.  no deadlines.  no plans.  just me and whatever the heck i wanted to do all day long.  that's perfect. :)  so what did i do with a sunny day in the oc?  i went shopping! :)  haha!  actually, it's more complicated than that.  first, i drove up pch through laguna beach and into newport to get to fashion island.  fashion island is the perfect place for shopping on a sunny day.  it's a beautiful shopping center, all outdoors, and people are always lounging around in the sun near one of the many fountains.  i was on a mission for a couple gifts, as well as a dress for myself.  i looked everywhere.  i tried on dozens of dresses.  i went in a huge range of stores.  and i really enjoyed myself. :)  i took as long as i wanted everywhere, including in dressing rooms.  so i was there for a few hours, basking in all the beautiful clothes, beautiful people, and beautiful weather. :)  and miraculously, i bought nothing.  not a thing.  i couldn't find exactly what i wanted.  yes, i'm just as shocked as you. ;)

but then i decided that really, i didn't need to go home after that.  there are more stores and i had plenty more time. :)  so i headed down to crystal cove, not far down pch from fashion island.  there are some cool stores there, and it's so mellow.  i love how it's so gorgeous, right across the street from the ocean, but there are hardly any people there.  it's rad.  :)  and so i tried on a more dresses in various stores there.  and i actually ended up finding a really cute blue one in the gap and it was even on sale, so that's awesome!  and it's simple enough that i'll be able to wear it lots.  yay!

but even after all this time shopping, i really wasn't done yet.  :)  i had more shopping in me and i'd been meaning to get to the shops at mission viejo, so i cruised back down pch through laguna and all the way to mission viejo.  and i did some more shopping there!  actually, plenty more.  i was there until the stores were closing down at 7.  i found a few random things.  so it was great!  and by the time i left there, i was actually quite tired.

i wanted frozen yogurt for dessert tonight.  and i knew that if i went home and had dinner, i wouldn't work up the energy to go back out again and get it.  so... since it was my day... i went to golden spoon and picked up frozen yogurt.  dinner backward is awesome!  i had my dessert first, and it was totally delicious!  and then i talked to the family a little bit before making myself a little macaroni and cheese for dinner dinner. :)  this is a big benefit of living alone.  no one else cares what i eat and when. :)

and now i am just hanging out.  the apartment is still a little messy because there are clothes everywhere.  but i'm just hanging out on the couch reading and watching a little tv instead of doing anything responsible like picking that stuff up.  oh!  and i pranced around in pretty new clothes because that's what i tend to do after i go shopping.  and i think i'll actually just read some more and then crash.  weekends are good.  let's hope for more beautiful weather! :)

ok, more next time.  g'night! ;)

friday 19 may 2006 10:34pm

"all i ever wanted to be is where you are
whenever you're not with me you're just too far
i close my eyes and i am lying next to you
and i grow breathless when i hear your name" -- marshall dyllon "closer to heaven"

it's friday night, i'm stoked to be home chillin' in the apartment watching tv, reading magazines, and all thsoe fun things that i'm totally obsessed with, and and i think the people across from me are having a party because the music is louder than usual.  pretty much, life's good. :)  i love fridays!  they're all chill and i don't have to do anything to make it enjoyable. :)

i am not sure exactly how, but once again i was up last night later than i had anticipated.  :)  oops! ;)  actually, i think i was just reading and surfing the web and then all of a sudden it was kind of late and i was kind of sleepy.  so i headed for bed and got a little rest before the alarm this morning.  and then i had to get up and get dressed and everything that i do in the morning.  it's a routine.  i don't think about it so much.  anyway, i somehow was ready like 20 minutes early.  about 10 of those minutes came because i didn't have breakfast here.  i don't know where the other 10 minutes came from, especially since it took me an extra 10 minutes to decide what to wear today.  weird. :)  but anyway, i was ready so i just headed out, stopping for starbucks on my way to work.  shockingly, it was very sunny this morning, even at 8:30!  that's crazy!  i cannot remember the last time it was like that!  but i was thankful for it today, that's for sure.

work was interesting today. :)  i spent most of my day working on the st. jude newsletter, which was entertaining enough.  and it's not at all like the magazines, so it's fun to work on after a busy couple of weeks looking at the magazines.  i also had my first annual review at rtc this morning with jenna.  that went really well!  all my marks were really high, so i am totally pleased!  yay!  i like my job and they like me! :)  haha!  we kind of already knew that, but it's still good to have it in writing. ;)  and then i worked some more this morning before lauren h. invited me to join her, jenna, and jessica for lunch at la siesta.  sounded good to me, and it's good to get out with a somewhat different group of people. :)  and my lunch was pretty good.  also, they had a magazine i'd never seen before outside the restaurant, "happy magazine."  it's a skate-surf tabloid-size, full-color, full-bleed magazine.  and it looks awesome!  there's hardly any written content, but it is nice to look through.  it's published in costa mesa.  it's cool to keep discovering publications that are published locally!  especially really different ones.  anyway, after lunch it was more working for me.  however, because it was friday it was a little crazy around the office, so there was a lot of chatting and hanging out and goofing off, which was totally fun! :)  i like fridays!  they're totally relaxed by like 2pm.  and by 5, i was totally ready to head out of the office.

oh, and at some point in the afternoon, i chatted with sarah for a bit while i was working.  it's like we hadn't talked in awhile because i kept thinking of things to tell her. :)  it was fun.  she's nearly done at syracuse and then will be headed back to california.  i can hardly wait!

after work, i had nothing planned, actually.  :)  that was fine.  but then i realized it was a good time to run a few errands so that's what i did.  i bought a tank of very expensive gas.  and then i headed to a different beauty supply store where now that i'm in their database i will always get 20% off.  awesome!  :)  i needed face wash and practical things like that, but i somehow also ended up with a new shade of nail polish, and a bonus gift of yet another new shade of polish.  sunday night should be fun! :)  anyway, so that was a success!  then i stopped by the drug store for lotion and more lotion.  and i went to the grocery store for english muffins and popcorn but somehow picked up a basket full of items, none of which were english muffins or popcorn because i forgot those things.  oops!!! :)  haha!  i guess i was just distracted or something.  i don't know.  and then i picked up a take-and-bake pizza for dinner because it's cheap, easy, and tasty.

once i finally made it home, i realized what a mess the apartment was, so i cleaned up a little bit.  i had like a week's worth of dishes piled in the sink, so i got those into the dishwasher and ran it.  i talked to the family briefly.  i had some pizza.  but mostly, i've been around here reading and just hanging out.  i saw that "bend it like beckham" was on tv, so instead of watching it from the middle with the commercials, i put in the dvd and watched that.  i love that movie!  it's so so so so cute!  and jonathan rhys meyers is definitely high on the celebrity boyfriend list because of this movie. ;)  and now i'm just sitting around watching country music videos (the gac top 20 countdown) and typing away.  the plan for the rest of the night includes more country music, perhaps leno and/or conan, and more magazines.  i'm working my way through a huge stack, after all! :)

ok, enough out of me.  we'll see how the weekend turns out.  i'm still not sure what i have planned for myself. :)  for now, g'night! ;)

oh!  one more thing... i'm tragically heartbroken about the fact that this will be the last season of "everwood."  :(  how the cw (the new network formed by the joining of the wb and upn) could pick up "one tree hill" and "reba" and ever resurrect "7th heaven" but not pick up the most compelling family drama on tv i am not sure.  it's a great show, and i'll be all about watching the episodes that are left.  plus, i'll keep my eyes open for the show on dvd (the first season is out already but not 2-4).  so watch "everwood" while you still can! :)

thursday 18 may 2006 10:28pm

"if you only knew what i'm going through
lovin' you
i'm trying to hold these feelings back
but it's no use, can't you see that
my life's outta control
but right now all i know
even though it's crazy
i just can't resist taking this chance
at a moment like this
all i wanna do
all i really wanna do is kiss you
i wanna feel that fire i see in your eyes
all i wanna be
all i really wanna be is with you
forever and ever but, baby, tonight
all i really wanna do is kiss you" -- marshall dyllon "all i wanna do"

ok, so i'll definitely admit that tonight's lyrics are cheezy, but i will also admit that i love a good, cheezy country love song! :)  and you know... thinking about the words of the song puts a smile on my face! ;)  it's a whole perfectly romantic scene in my head, like something out of a movie, but starring me.  anyway, so yeah.  cheezy.  :)  but i love it!

ok, so me not watching tv and instead reading is not at all helping me get to bed any earlier.  it was supposed to!  :)  but last night by the time i was through chatting with sarah online and done reading the magazine i was working on ("shop, etc.," in case you care in the slightest), it was kind of late.  oops! ;)  actually, it was really fun.  it's getting to be more like summer, when i have the windows open and the tv off and i'm reading.  bring on summer!  i'm sooo ready!  anyway, so i was up a little bit late and did in face see the bits of leno and letterman as i was tucking into bed.  but i got a decent amount of sleep and was okay to get up with the alarm.  i discovered a spider in my shower but quickly drowned him. :)  i love nature! ;)  anyway, then i cleaned up and got dressed.  and actually, i'll just say that i looked really cute today in khakis, a navy cami, and a white shirt. :)  kind a throwback to the notre dame belmont uniform colors, but that's ok.  anyway, then i passed on breakfast here because actually i don't like those english muffins i mistakenly bought at all.  i figure eating them is just a waste of calories if i'm not going to enjoy them, so instead i stopped for a bagel on my way to the office.

work today was fun.  actually, i was surprised that no one (meaning no one in the art department) was there when i arrived because melissa and jan have shifted their schedules to earlier in the day.  so we all ended up working the same hours today, which means there were lots of distractions. ;)  i actually did get a lot of stuff done in the morning, so that was great!  and for lunch, i went up to z pizza and picked up food and brought it back to my desk.  turns out i accidentally got some root beer in my lemonade (i hit that little switch thing by accident) and it was really bad, so i bought a diet coke when i got back to work.  don't tell because i'm off soda!  :)  ssshhh...  so anyway, my lunch was good, as was the magazine i started reading.  plus, the cover story for this week's "sc times" was about how san clemente is the headquarters for all the big surfing magazines.  it was a cool article. :)  anyway, then i was back to work for a little bit, but eventually melissa decided she wanted to go down to goodie's for some frozen yogurt.  fine with me!  plus, they have a buy-7-get-the-8th-free frequent buyer card, and mine had 7 stamps on it! :)  free fro-yo for me!  mmm!  and then i worked some more (and chatted and other fun things that people do when they live in an office all day) until it was time to head out.

it was foggy all day in the office, and it was foggy when i arrived at the beach, as well.  but i went for a walk anyway and enjoyed watching all the surfers out there.  the waves were very big and they were riding them all! :)  so anyway, that was a good little way for me to get some exercise.  clearly, i go through phases with my activities, and right now it's walking at the beach. :)  i love living here.  did you know? ;)

then i headed toward home but stopped at the salon.  bobby called and let me know that he had the buttons i had designed for him, so he gave me some.  they look pretty awesome, if not perfect because some of the patterns got a little messed up.  but really, everything turned out really cool!  and he said he's giving lots of them away to clients and stuff.  my designs!  other people are wearing them!  geez, that is so rad! :)

then i headed home, did a little more exercising and stretched out (i really needed that) before getting cleaned up.  i talked to the parents briefly and then tried to find dinner for myself.  too bad i have no food in the apartment right now, save for those english muffins. ;)  so i had a terrible dinner of poporn (it was tasty and really all that i had).  and then i read for awhile.  eventually, though, it was time for the season finale of "the o.c.," which i enjoyed watching.  it was actually a really cute episode, even if the death of marissa was totally predictable.  i liked it, in all. :)  and then it was back to reading for awhile.  plus, i'm kind of looking for dresses, so i was surfing for those.  it's hard to shop online, though.  how am i supposed to know if it's going to look cute on me?  everything looks good on models.  so i'm still not sure if i'll buy anything or what i'll buy.  but for now, i'm looking and that's fun. :)

but i guess i should head for bed, especially if i think that i'm going to do any more reading tonight. :)  so i will be back next time with more.  g'night! ;)

wednesday 17 may 2006 8:08pm

"i'm strong enough to handle any situation
but honey, true love has no pride
i can say without a moment's hesitation...
i'll do anything if it'll bring our hearts together
i'll stand and fight or get down on my knees
if we can fix what's wrong and just go on in love forever
baby, i'll be begging please, please
boy, you know your love's my one true weakness
when it comes to you i'm helpless" -- the kinleys "please"

hello! :)  i'm writing very early tonight because i am once again trying to get myself into bed early.  plus, there's not a lot on tv for me tonight, so i want to read.  and i know i'll get caught up reading something (i haven't even decided what i should read yet tonight) and be up later than expected.  so i'm writing this and then i'll go read and then i can just crash.  so anyway, i'll get on with it... ;)

so last night, i ended up reading a magazine for awhile.  actually, until kind of late compared to what time i thought i would go to sleep. :)  oops!  i enjoyed it!  so i actually ended up getting like 8 hours of sleep, which generally is a lot for me.  but i was really tired.  getting up at 7:30 nearly killed me this morning (and actually i think i was too tired to be a safe driver on my morning commute but i made it with the help of some loud music).  anyway, the alarm was killer but i got cleaned up and dressed.  and i had some breakfast, though it was not as good as i had hoped because i guess i accidentally bought the wrong kind of english muffins last night.  oh, well.  then i headed off to work, again enjoying a loud shedaisy album because singing at the top of my lungs helps me wake up. :)

(right now i'm watching yesterday's "bonds on bonds" and they're showing serra high school -- the brother school to my all girls school -- which is so cool!  it was just as while back then!  haha!)

work went well today.  i have lots to keep me busy right now, and i was multi-tasking like a star all day! :)  "yes, sure, i can get that done for you" was my motto.  and i did get a ton of stuff done, and we even got our draft of the magazine together really early today.  awesome!  we're all working hard.  and for lunch, we all went out for a huge group lunch at romano's to celebrate lauren r.'s birthday.  it was a delicious lunch and i had a good time hanging out and chatting with everyone.  and then it got even better!  normally even on the big lunches we still pay for ourselves, but john treated everyone today, which was really nice!  i love free lunch. :)  and then it was back to the office for some more work, though i'll admit that i didn't work quite as hard in the afternoon as i worked all morning.  there was news to read and fall tv line-ups to check up on. ;)  so anyhow, it was a good day of work and i know that there's more waiting for me when i arrive tomorrow morning.

so i know i haven't been to the pool in awhile now.  actually, i was planning to go yesterday but then diana wanted to go walking so i didn't.  and then i thought maybe today but by 5 i was so ready to leave the office and i would have had to stay until 5:30 if i wanted to swim because the pool doesn't open until 6.  anyway, then i thought about taking the night off, but instead went to the beach for a walk.  and i ended up enjoying that way more than i had anticipated.  and i was listening to marshall dyllon on the ipod, and i hadn't listened to that in forever but i still love that! :)  they're so fun!  so anyway, it was a great walk, and the surf was up so there was tons of great surfing going on!  rad!

then i came home and got cleaned up.  i threw on pajamas and made myself some dinner.  and then i talked to the parents for awhile, which was good. :)  and now i'm just writing this and chatting with sarah online.  there's an ever-growing stack of magazines waiting for me to read them, so i think i will start in on that.  and i'll try to pay off a little of my sleep debt (though i doubt this will actually happen). ;)

ok, so more tomorrow. ;)  g'night!

tuesday 16 may 2006 9:48pm

"i won't wait until it's too late to recover so
let me tell you how i feel
i'll do anything if it'll bring our hearts together
i'll stand and fight or get down on my knees
if we can fix what's wrong and just go on in love forever
baby, i'll be begging please, please" -- the kinleys "please"

i seem to be making a habit of wearing myself out lately, which is great.  :)  it means i'm working hard and it means i sleep a little bit better at night.  and it's generally good fun, so i'm pleased.  and so that's where i am right now.  totally tired.  i nearly fell asleep talking to my brother on the phone just now.  but i'm awake again and writing and ready to wrap up my evening. :)

last night was so fun with all the tv and everything! :)  so i talked to sarah for awhile online after "grey's" was over.  i'm not exactly sure why she was awake and available to chat with me from 2-3am her time, but i'll take whatever time i can get. :)  and she didn't seem to mind!  and then i eventually left her and the computer so i could focus on watching "everwood."  so good!  seriously, it doesn't get better that that on tv. :)  i love love that show, week after week.  anyway, of course i cried because i totally adore bright. :)  and anyway, it was totally enjoyable and worth the sleep i sacrificed to watch it that late.

then i crashed out.  it was late because conan was on when i fell asleep.  and i slept okay, which is nice.  i wasn't ready for the alarm when it went off this morning, and i must have been very much asleep because i can't remember the first alarm.  but i got up and showered and everything.  i got dressed (in cute gauchos and a sweater and heels), and this morning i remembered that i didn't have any breakfast food here.  i checked email and then headed out.  i stopped at the donut shop for a cinnamon twist and chocolate milk (because i really do eat like a 5-year-old), which was a delicious breakfast. :)

work today went well.  you know what i think, though?  my lesson of the day for you?  designing is a privilege, not a burden.  if you're' going to do it, love it.  i love it.  i love when people ask me to design something for them.  yes, there's pressure that goes with the responsibility of designing something for someone else, but that's okay.  i might also come up with something that i love.  anyway, i did get some work done today. :)  i got my section of "cots" together so it's ready for ad placement tomorrow morning.  and i have a list of other things i need to accomplish, as well, so i'll be busy enough the rest of the week, i think. :)  for lunch, everyone was going to wahoo's but i wasn't in the mood for mexican (i had it yesterday) and i was in the middle of working on my section, so i skipped.  and then when i was ready, i picked up food down at scpc.  and i called dad because i wanted a chat but he was busy procuring lunch himself.  and apparently then he got all worried that something was wrong, even though nothing really was.  so he called me in the afternoon to make sure everything was alright.  and then later he told mom i had called and so she called me after work to make sure everything was okay because dad was worried.  i never meant to worry the parents, but it really is adorable that they care. :)  anyway, so i ate lunch at my desk and read a magazine for awhile and actually it turned out quite nicely.  and i worked more through the afternoon.  i had a good day at the office.

and then diana invited me to go for a walk at salt creek after work.  awesome! :)  so we changed and then headed down to the beach.  and we ended up walking way farther than i'd ever been before and actually we walked for like an hour and a half.  it was pretty nice out and i got to see what's farther along the trail.  plus, diana and i could talk and talk and talk.  it's so fun! :)  we talked about all sorts of stuff, which was cool.  i just wish she weren't so busy so we could walk like that more often. ;)   but anyway, we had a great time!  also, tons of surfers were out because the surf was looking pretty good today.

then i headed home and did a little more working out.  and then i got cleaned up because i needed that very badly! ;)  and i needed breakfast food and milk, so i decided that i should just walk over to the grocery store.  on my way, i ended up stopping in the drug store, too, because i needed a couple greeting cards.  and then i picked up a few groceries.  it's funny to see who's there at 8pm on a tuesday.  lots of men.  and it's weird how they stand far from the checkout stand and far from each other when waiting in line.  but anyway, i just picked up a couple things.  also, i ended up getting the issue of "los angeles" magazine that i'd been eyeing for awhile.  it had 52 weekend getaways, and the article's not online.  i want to know the cool weekend trips i could take! :)  so that should be some good reading material soon.

and then i made myself a little dinner and talked to the family for awhile.  i heard about barry and how he got nailed by whoever was pitching for houston tonight.  so lame.  when your team is getting smoked, what are you really going to accomplish by throwing 5 straight 90+mph pitches at barry's head?  it just got him and his manager ejected (and likely fined).  where's the sportsmanship?  anyway, we talked about whatever else, too. :)  it was cool.  and that brings me to now, just sitting on the couch typing away and listening to some country music. :)

i think i will read a little bit and then crash.  i'm pretty tired and could of course use the beauty sleep.  g'night! ;)

monday 15 may 2006 10:29pm

"it's all about you
everything that i do
it's all about you
my mission in life
my purpose on earth
to make sure you get all the love you deserve
it's all about you" -- emerson drive "it's all about you"

i must say that i wasn't really that anxious to get back to work after a really fun long weekend hanging out with katie and just doing cool stuff.  but it was time to get back to the office, and it went just fine.  plus, there's more tv than i really know what to do with tonight, so that's making things fun for me right now. :)  so monday went well and i'm up for tuesday.

i did quite enjoy my sunday night television last night. :)  "housewives" was fun, like usual.  they're nuts on wisteria lane, and i love it! :)  and "grey's" started out rocky, i thought, with characters making decisions i never thought they would, but by the end i loved the episode and was stoked for tonight's 2-hour season finale.  of course, i got started on my sunday night tv late last night, so that meant i was up later than normal watching it.  but really, it was just fine.  i was asleep around midnight.  and i slept... well... just okay.  normal, i guess.  anyway, i got up with the alarm and headed straight for the shower.  i got cleaned up, put on one of the two new white shirts i bought this weekend, and tried to have breakfast but realized the bagels i had were now moldy.  tragic!  so i left the apartment early and stopped at i <3 bagels to pick up breakfast on my way to work.  delicious! :)

work today went well.  because we pushed back the dates for "cots" this month, today was our starting date.  and all the stuff i expected to be in and needed to be in was in. :)  hooray!  so i got to work on all the figures that needed to get finished up, which wasn't many.  this will be a light magazine because we're running a big chunk the same as "rtc" for a special issue.  anyway, so i got the work done.  and of course, there was lots of catching up with the coworkers. :)  they missed me!  ;)  actually, this morning after i switched on teh computer and went to the kitchen for water, i walked past marina's office and she said something to the effect of, "goodmorningeverythingisinforthemagazinehowwasyourweekendyoulookbeautifulwemissedyou!"  :)  haha!  for reals!  rad! ;)  and for lunch, jan, jenna, and i didn't know where we wanted to go so we decided to go somewhere we'd never been before.  we ended up at el ranchito, a mexican place in downtown san clemente that i had thought looked cool but had never been to before.  and actually, it was pretty good.  the chips were excellent, so i definitely love that! :)  and it was cool to try a new place.  and the afternoon was spent getting more work done, as well as reading news and talking with everyone and whatever else it is that we do around the office.  also, jan's mom brought his son, lucas, by the office this afternoon.  so adorable!  and he's so much bigger than the last time i saw him!  he really is a very cute child! :)

after work, i headed out.  still foggy here.  but i headed for the beach anyway for another good walk there.  it's becoming quite the habit, no? ;)  and i quite enjoyed myself yet again.  i keep forgetting to write about how there are rabbits on the trail, and lately i've been seeing little bunnies.  they're so cute! :)  they just hang out on the grass until someone walks by and then they go hide in the bushes.  they're so little!  anyway... haha... i had a great walk and the surf was great so the surfers provided some great entertainment, as well. :)

then i came home and did a little more working out.  and then got cleaned up.  believe me, i needed it! ;)  and i briefly talked to chris online, which was cool because he's generally mia.  and then i spent awhile on the phone with the family.  mom sent me a package with a book to read, a magazine, a ballot, and some coupons for costco.  she's so rad! :)  oh, and i had some dinner.  not that exciting, really. ;)

and then there was tv! :)  three hours of "grey's anatomy" for the season finale.  i only watched the end of the first hour because it was just a rerun of last night, but i wanted to see the part where addison discusses how derek loves meredith.  and then the new two hours!  so good!  so so so good! :)  i loved it!  and i loved that they threw a prom!  that's a great way to get everyone looking especially beautiful! :)  and when the niece said, "i was loved."  eee! :D  and derek and meredith... well... i want them to be together.  derek might not be a great guy but i love love him.  "i would give anything not to be looking at you."  yeah.  ::sigh::  and finally denny died!  i know i'm a bad person but i have been wanting him to die for so long now.  it's about time!  and finally someone else besides me will recognize that alex is rad!  i love that character.  in fact, i love all the characters (except denny, who's now dead so it doesn't matter).  and the end with meredith trying to choose between mcdreamy and mcvet!  perfect cliffhanger!  so basically, i love "grey's anatomy!" :)

and now i'm busy chatting with sarah online about "grey's" and other stuff. :)  i'm not exactly sure why she's up at nearly 3am, but whatever. :)  i'll take whatever time i can get!

and next up is tonight's episode of "everwood."  i should just put it off until tomorrow but i love that show and cannot wait to see what happens in the episode!  i want to know!  and it's fun to watch (even if it almost always makes me cry).  so that's next before i crash.

ok, more next time.  hopefully with a little less tv. ;)  g'night!

sunday 14 may 2006 10:08pm

"sometimes i wanna scream your name out loud
sometimes i need to cry but i don't know how
tonight, i wanna slip away and hide out on the moon
... i can't stop loving you" -- matt jenkins "bas as i want to"

so pretty much, it's been a wonderful weekend, and i feel like i'm rested enough to face another week of work. :)  i totally enjoyed katie's visit, though of course i was sad to see her go.  but at least this time i know it won't been forever until i see her again because i'll be in san antonio next month for her wedding.  so anyway, great weekend!  yay!  :)

katie and i were up kind of late last night, and then my alarm totally startled me when it went off at 6am this morning.  that's super early!  but anyway, i needed to get up and get katie up.  she got all dressed and ready and i tried to make sure i was conscious enough to drive.  that was harder to accomplish than i had planned! ;)  and so then i had to bring katie up to john wayne.  and i got her there fine and dropped her off and said goodbye.  i had such a good time hanging out with her!  we got to reminisce and also make some fun new memories.  i seriously would love to have visitors more often, too.  i really enjoy the company and entertaining and all of it.  so if you want to come stay, come stay! :)

anyway, then i headed back home through the fog and crawled straight back into bed. :)  i wasn't totally sure i'd be able to fall back asleep, but i totally did!  and i got several hours more sleep.  it was delightful! :)  hehe!  and i eventually woke up to a sunny afternoon.

really, it was a very chill day.  i just wanted to take care of little stuff around the apartment and relax a bit.  the giants game was just starting, so i turned that on.  and so i watched that but also took care of some other stuff.  i took a little time to clean out my storage closet today.  i was looking for something in it the other day and it was kind of a mess, so i had wanted to clean it up.  and now it looks way, way better!  i can find stuff in it, and boxes don't fall on me when i open the door! :)  and i swept up the deck so i can put it to use better soon.  those eucalyptus leaves were taking over! ;)  and then i watched the rest of the giants game.  they lost, but baseball is so chill it hardly even matters.  i enjoyed it regardless.

today's mother's day.  and i didn't make it home (obviously) to celebrate with mom and grandma and the rest of the family.  but they did all gather without me at grandma's house.  and so they called me so i could talk to everyone.  :)  i love that!  grandma was happy to hear from me.  plus, i got to say hi to auntie lily, uncle ken (he's super jealous about the fact that i have black-bottom cupcakes in my apartment and has requested i get some to him somehow for father's day), theresa, auntie lily, and of course mom and adam.  everyone's great, and grandma's backyard got some major cleanup, so i guess it was a good mother's day! :)

then i spent some time cleaning up some more around the apartment.  i had a stack of magazines i needed to go through.  plus, i read a couple other magazines that had been waiting for me. :)  it was really not especially very exciting.  i just didn't have much to do and i was perfectly content with that. :)  and i also talked to dad for awhile.  that was good. :)

tonight i watched the sharks game (it was a rough day for bay area sports, because they lost, too) and made myself some dinner.  delicious!  and it was more of me just doing whatever.  i put up new photos of my celebrity boyfriends on the refrigerator.  i tried on dresses because i felt like it.  i took out the trash.  really, pretty boring but fine. :)

and now i'm catching up on the night's tv.  i'm in the the middle of "desperate housewives," and i fully intend on watching "grey's anatomy" tonight, as well.  plus, there is a cupcake or two in my future tonight.  oh, the tv on sundays is so excellent!  and then i suppose i should get a decent amout of sleep tonight, so i'll head to bed.

so that's all from here for tonight.  i posted a couple photos of katie and me on flickr.  more from me tomorrow night.  g'night! ;)

saturday 13 may 2006 11:57pm

"lay me down in the tall green grass
be still and let the world go by
baby, let our minds wander like the river does
or find a place we can hide away
where all we do is take our time
making life and loving sweeter than it ever was
take the whirlwind that life has been
and trade it for the freedom of
blue skies and amber sunshine
as far as i can see" -- little big town "fine with me"

today was perfectly lovely! :)  i had so much fun hanging out around the o.c. with katie.  and i am pretty tired now, but a good kind of tired, like i've done a lot with my day and now i'm just ready for some rest.  today was exactly what i'd been needing. :)

katie and i had no plan for today when we went to bed tonight, which meant we slept until we woke up.  what a perfect way to start my saturday! :)  and honestly, we didn't really sleep that late at all.  i was up before 10 and i got myself all ready.  and katie was awake by then, so i let her have the bathroom while i tried to come up with a fun and exciting plan for our day. ;)

first thing's first.  meal #1 (breakfast).  there's a random little place in dana point, rj's, that i basically think is the perfect place for a relaxing and delicious breakfast. :)  it's just a little place, and it's crowded with locals.  and they serve great, inexpensive breakfast (and lunch).  rj himself seated us and we had a delightful meal.  oj, pancakes, eggs, bacon.  it doesn't get better.  and it turns out that both katie and i love to go out to breakfast but neither of us have good company to go with us.  so it's great that we occasionally find ourselves in the same place and looking for breakfast. ;)  she liked the place, too, which is good news.

after we were sufficiently fed, we headed up the coast through laguna and up into newport.  i wanted to explore the peninsula some more, because really i still don't know my way around there.  the hardest part of the trip was trying to find a place to park my car, but i did eventually find a place on the street and it was even free! :)  we walked to the newport pier and found a place to rent bicycles.  so we had matching red beach cruisers, and we rode them up and down the boardwalk between newport pier and balboa pier.  that was so fun! :)  i hadn't been on a bike in a very long time, but it was a great way to get around!  we both had a lot of fun, though katie claims she's old and her knee is tired now. ;)  and after we returned the bikes, we walked up the newport pier past all the fishermen catching and cleaning their fish.  it's a bit much for me, but still actually kind of cool.  also, it provides a beautiful view of the newport coast (think opening credits to "the o.c.").  also, while we were riding down the boardwalk, we discovered a dodgeball tournament going on at a schoolyard (which happened to be a section of beach that was paved over).  grown men.  playing dodgeball in cages made of fence pieces.  it was actually quite awesome! :)  we stopped and watched awhile because it was so cool! :)

eventually, we decided to leave the peninsula for another popular newport destination, fashion island.  it really is a great shopping center!  plus, the fog finally burned off for the first time in what seems like ages so it was a beautiful day to be outside. :)  we walked around the shops and stopped for a little gelato, which was quite good. :)  it was just nice to hang out there.  we had a really nice time!  and because katie is a good san antonian, she is a big spurs fan.  they are in the playoffs and were playing tonight at 5, so she wanted to find a place where we could watch.  red robin turned out to be quite perfect, actually.  we found a little booth right in the bar area in front of a tv, so she could watch the whole game.  we had dinner and dessert and just hung out talking and whatever and all of a sudden it was the end of the game, which was very close.  the spurs ended up losing by one, but it was still an exciting ending.  and then we figured we should free up that table!  ;)  we'd been there forever!

we decided to see a movie, and since we didn't know movie times or even what we wanted to see, i decided that aliso was a good place to go.  they have 20 screens and tons of movies and a book store to hang out in if we had a little extra time on our hands.  so i got on the toll road and we headed there.  katie was shocked to find out it cost $3.50!  hehe!  yeah.  and so we decided on seeing "friends with money."  actually, i decided because katie said she didn't care what we saw and i've been wanting to see it and it was playing at a decent time.  and we did have some extra time before we needed to go into the theatre, so we went to barnes and noble and just wandered around for awhile. :)  and then we went to the movie.  it was very good!  and it was funnier than i had expected! :)  it was so true to life, with all the complications and not really knowing what's right and wrong.  i really enjoyed it, and katie said that she did, too.  :)

and now we're back here.  katie's already sleeping and i'm just about ready to crawl under the covers and get a little sleep.  we're getting up at 6 in the morning so katie can catch her flight back to texas.  it's been a great visit with her! :)  i'm so glad she was able to spend a little time with me.

so for now, i'm off.  g'night! ;)

saturday 13 may 2006 12:25am

"i'll love you like i'm gonna lose you
i'll make you never want to leave
you'll know how much i love you
baby, i believe" -- rockie lynne "love me like you're gonna lose me"

ok, it was quite a friday, especially considering how i'd normally spend a friday (sitting at my desk in the icy cold office working away all day long). :)  and i had a great time and am now thoroughly exhausted but looking forward to whatever tomorrow holds.

i love "the office."  seriously, i love it! :)  so i stayed up late watching that, and even after it was over, i considered watching it all over again because i loved it so much!  but mostly i just cannot wait until the next episode!  bah!  i have to wait for like ever.  ;)  anyway, then i watched conan in chicago and went to sleep.  and the alarm went off this morning, but two hours later than it had been going off earlier this week.  so i was fine. :)  and i got up and showered and found a little breakfast.  and about 15 minutes before i had really planned on leaving for the airport, i thought i'd check katie's flight status just to make sure she was on time and all that.  and so i pulled it up online and it said "arrived."  fifteen minutes early!  i was still in my apartment and i wasn't even wearing pants!  so i finished getting dressed very quickly and headed for john wayne!

it wasn't too hard finding katie.  i think she was only waiting for me for a few minutes, because she called when i was on my way there and i was nearly there.  so i found her, and she hopped in the volvo.  i drove her back to my apartment through newport and laguna because it's a cool way to see all that coastline pretty quickly.  anyway, we made it here and hung out for a few minutes before deciding that a little shopping sounded like a good way to spend the day. :)  after all, she told me we should just do whatever i might do with a free day and that sounded excellent.

we headed up to costa mesa to south coast plaza.  i hadn't been there in ages, but i'd been meaning to get up there for just a little browsing and shopping. :)  so we ended up walking all around that mall.  and we found a really nice lunch at the back bay rowing and running club.  delicious!  and we did a little shopping.  we actually did more browsing than shopping, but i did find sunglasses.  two pairs.  oops! ;)  but they're both really cute and i think they'll definitely get lots of use because i wear sunglasses all the time.  and i found a cute little white shirt.  so it was a definitely a successful trip!  and we were pretty worn out several hours later, so we headed back to teh apartment.

we sat around and relaxed and stuff for awhile.  and my new computer bag came in the mail, and it fits perfectly!  i'll look all cool and stylish carrying this monster of a computer around in that!  ;)  i'm very pleased!  anyway, we just sat around chatting and catching up and whatever for awhile.  it was really fun!  katie and i haven't seen each other in forever, so there's a lot to catch up on!

we did eventually decide to go get dinner.  i had been meaning to try this place right near here, mangia bene.  italian. :)  of course!  and it was a pretty cool place!  i'm sure i'll be back there.  i had very, very good gnocchi, and katie had pizza (i stole a delicious slice).  so that was fun!  and then i decided we should get frozen yogurt from golden spoon, too. :)  it doesn't matter if you're full!  frozen yogurt fits in the cracks!  anyway, we brought that back to the apartment and watched "rent."  katie hadn't ever seen it (what she was waiting for i have no idea!), and i love it.  perfect!  plus, she knows the guy who was the basis for the character of angel, which is rad. :)  and she said she can see why i love it!  awesome!  :)

and now it's late, especially for katie who was up for like an entire day (meaning 24 hours) because she left san antonio at 6:30 this morning (cdt).  and i'm pretty tired from not enough sleep this week. :)  so it's time for both of us to get some rest before another day of fun tomorrow.  i must admit that i'm not really sure yet what we'll be up to, but i'm sure it'll be good. :)

ok, more from me next time!  g'night! ;)

friday 12 may 2006 12:19am

"did i give my love too soon or wait too long
did i take it a little too easy or put it on too strong" -- julie roberts "men and mascara"

just a quick note about tonight's "the office" season finale, which i just finished watching...

could i love jim and pam more?  no, no i could not.  i love them!  eee!  <-- that's me squealing like a girl!

that's all.  :)  g'night!

thursday 11 may 2006 10:35pm

"i'm so lost without you
i'm so lost
baby, i'm so lost without you
that i can't find myself" -- little big town "lost"

hello, weekend! :)  haha!  i love four-day work weeks!  i'm totally exhausted from the long hours and the late nights, but it was all worth it, i'm sure. :)  anyway, i'm allowed to stay up late tonight because it's not a work night for me.  (on work nights i stay up late but have to feel bad about it.)  so i'm writing and then i have a few more things to accomplish tonight before tucking in and totally crashing.  but first thing's first.  i'm writing this for you. :)

i was up entirely too late last night.  i mean, it really wasn't actually that late.  it's just that i had planned to get to bed early and then i got distracted and it didn't happen.  i saw leno.  anyway, i had been watching the sharks game because it was on.  and then it went into overtime.  and then it went into double overtime.  and at this point it was hard to abandon because i'd already invested too much time in it to just turn it off and go to sleep.  and then it went into triple overtime, which means nearly two entire games worth of hockey were played.  and in the end, the sharks lost (but they're still up 2-1 in the series).  and then i tucked into bed, caught paul bettany on leno, and then crashed. :)  and i slept okay.  i came very close to accidentally getting up with the first alarm but realized it before i was all the way out of bed so i fell back asleep for 10 minutes.  and then i had to get up and showered and all that.  and then i got dressed, had a nice bagel and oj, and headed out.  foggy day!

work today was fun. :)  i mean, it wasn't anything extraordinary, but i enjoyed myself.  of course, i was there early and worked away my morning.  but i got a ton of stuff done, stuff i thought would take me way longer.  so that was great and left me time to chat with melissa and jan about the benefits of a 4-day work week.  it could be awesome, but the way we're set up with the magazine it'd only work if we all adopted that schedule together.  it could be rad having fridays off, for sure.  i would also sleep way less 4 nights a week. :)  anyway, it was just a discussion.  for now, it doesn't matter.  anyway, i worked some.  and by noon i was starving, so i ran down to san clemente pizza comany to pick up lunch (cheap and delicious is the perfect combination!) and the "sc times" newspaper, which comes out on thursdays and is always in scpc.  then i headed back to my desk to enjoy the pizza and the paper. :)  and i worked more in the afternoon.  and i got distracted in diana's office for awhile.  and i did whatever else.  i don't know. :)  i just know that it was eventually 5 and time for me to head out. :)

and tonight, i headed straight home.  i had things to accomplish around the apartment tonight!  first up was the vacuuming. :)  that needed to happen, and the fact that a repairman came to unclog my bathtub drain (the long hair has its disadvantages) meant that the bathroom floor needed some serious cleaning, too!  and then i had a little dinner and watched an episode of "love monkey."  that's good stuff, even if there will only ever be the original 8 episodes.  and then i baked a batch of black-bottom cupcakes. :)  see?  this is what happens if you come to visit!  i bake! :)  i hadn't baked in ages, so it was particularly fun for me.  and they turned out great!  i had one. :)  and i had some fun chats tonight.  i talked to annahita's little sister, roxanna, for a little bit.  it had been ages, but i wanted to congratulate her on an award she won last night at ndb and we spent a little time catching up. :)  and i talked to both troy and sarah.  i talk to both of them pretty frequently, but it is always fun. :)  and anyway, that pretty much gets me to now.  there were other small distractions in there, i'm sure, but i'm not sure what they were. :)  and i realized i have a stack of magazines that needs to go to the trash and a big pile of clothes that need to be put away or put in the hamper sitting in my bedroom.  plus, tonight was the season finale of "the office," which i can hardly wait to see.  i'm anxious to see if anything happens with jim and pam.  probably nothing and i'll be left holding my breathe, but it'll still be hilarious, i'm sure! :)

and of course, katie's arriving tomorrow morning!  which is why it's the weekend for me! :)  i still am not sure what exactly we're going to do yet, but i'm sure it'll be a good time.  i'll keep you updated, like i always do. ;)

ok, i'm off to go take care of everything else before i go to bed.  g'night!  ;)

wednesday 10 may 2006 9:57pm

"lay down with me
let me ease your mind
don't start thinkin'
baby, we ain't got time
no, we ain't got time
hold me, baby, right up 'til dawn
hello, sunshine" -- darryl worley "nothin' but a love thang"

good evening. :)  it was a pretty good wednesday, though i somehow feel like to revolved around food way too much.  i'll explain as i go along, i think.  but anyway, it was a nice day and now i'm nearly done with this week of work (i'll mentally treat tomorrow as friday).  and i am excited about the weekend with miss katie! :)

i got to bed at a relatively decent hour.  i got like 8 hours of sleep before the alarm woke me up.  i just didn't get to pay off any sleep debt so i fear i still have the dark circles under my eyes.  ok, they're not actually that bad but i feel like they are because i know i've been bad about getting sleep for awhile now.  anyway, i was asleep before leno/letterman, so that's great!  and i slept okay.  and i got up fine and got cleaned up and dressed and all that.  and then i headed out earlier than planned because i wanted to pick up breakfast on my way to work.  that i <3 bagels shop is crazy packed at 7:35!  but i waited and got some breakfast and headed to the office.

marina was arriving just as i was, and it's a good thing i wasn't any earlier because i could not have gotten into the office.  that means i was there way too early in the morning! ;)  actually, normally marina is much earlier than 8.  anyway, i got in fine and got straight to work.  though actually when i think about it, it wasn't too busy of a day because my section of the magazine was done already and ready for jenna to do ad placement.  and there wasn't any stuff in for the next magazine, so i couldn't get started on that, either.  (luckily some came in late today so i'll have that to work on all day tomorrow!)  anyway, i got some work done and enjoyed my breakfast.  and somehow marke, melissa, and i had a healthy lifestyles (eating habits, exercise) discussion.  there wasn't too much arguing, so i didn't mind. :)  anyway, for lunch, i need to go to the post office, and that went just fine.  then i picked up a couple slices at z pizza.  i had a coupon so my total came out to $0.16.  awesome!  :)  and i ran into mark d. there, which was random because i didn't know he ate there ever.  anyway, i ate back at my desk and read some news and caught up on the world. ;)  and by the end i was way too full.  oops.  and then the afternoon was spent doing more work.  jenna did ad placement, so then i had to fix up my section.  and we got our proof of the magazine out to our proofreader.  also, melissa, jenna, and i made a frozen yogurt run to goodies for the second day in a row!  yum!  today they had fudgsicle flavor, which was super fantastic!  also, matt and melissa were going at it discussion running versus walking as a form of exercise.  haha!  prettty funny to witness!  but glad i wasn't involved so much.

the afternoon was sunny, but by the time i headed out the marine layer (fog) had moved in again.  fine.  and i went to salt creek anyway for a really nice walk.  it was foggy but still beautiful.  and i just had a nice time.  i don't know especially why, but it's the truth. :)

then i headed home and got cleaned up.  but i wasn't home for long because i needed a few things from the grocery store.  i want to bake tomorrow night.  don't tell uncle ken, but i want to make his favorite, black-bottom cupcakes.  too bad he won't be here to enjoy any! ;)  plus, i needed cream cheese for the bagels i have.  without cream cheese, a bagel is of absolutely no value to me. :)

and i've just been hanging out here since i got back.  i meant to vacuum but didn't feel like it.  oh, and i gave my bermuda shorts their first wear.  i was the jury's still out about whether or not they're cute, but i think it's like 9 votes to 3 yes right now. :)  anyway, i didn't vacuum.  i did, however, talk to the family.  and i've caught bits and pieces of the giants game and the sharks game.  and that's really about it.  oh, and i read a bit of a magazine, too.  but yeah, mostly just hanging out.  and i'm hoping to tuck in soon. :)

i should try to get some sleep, i think.  but i'll be back next time with more on my life.  g'night! ;)

tuesday 9 may 2006 9:48pm

"it's up to you what you do with your life
i'll be spending mine
i'm just holding back the ocean
makin' sure the breeze keeps blowin'
watchin' over the stars at night
'til the sun shines bright in the morning" -- rockie lynne "holding back the ocean"

wow.  i'm exhausted.  (i always say that phrase -- i'm exhausted -- the way it's sung in the chris cagle song "maria.")  anyway, i really am.  i'm getting up early this week but thus far i have failed to take that into account when choosing when to go to bed.  so i'm tired.  and that's why i'm writing right now and then plan to go straight to bed.  we'll see how well my plan works, but i'm going to give it a shot.

i stayed up really late last night.  i saw conan.  it was the episode where he's in finland, which i've seen before but still find totally hilarious.  i was lying in bed cracking up. :)  but the fact that i saw it means i didn't really sleep until like 1:30, which didn't leave many hours for me to sleep before the 6:45 alarm.  and in those hours i never quite slept well.  and it hurt to get up.  i was on autopilot through my entire shower, just going through the motions.  at least i'm a creature of routine and can do that without thinking.  i made it all the way to work without really thinking.  awesome. :)  except that doesn't bode well for the rest of my day when i start out that tired.

i'll admit that the phil vassar album i listened to while in transit did help wake me up a bit. :)  and i love that album!  and actually, work today went quite well.  some new updates on my machine to mac os wrecked my photoshop, but i just dealt with it and we'll try to solve the issue later.  i got done what needed to get done.  so i finished all the figures for "rtc" and started on my section of the magazine.  it's a special issue and the way it is organized meant when we divided it i got a small section.  it's just kind of the way it goes.  so i put together my section this morning, since it's only a few pages.  and then it was like noon and i was totally starving, so i headed out to go to the post office and then pick up lunch.  i even brought my "vanity fair" with anderson cooper on the cover to work to read while eating.  but as i was walking to my car, lea and diana drove by and invited me to join them for lunch, so i scrapped my plan and got into lea's car. :)  cool!  so we went to olamendi's, which is an authentic mexican place in dana point right near the beach.  the service was kind of slow but we had a nice time chatting and whatever for awhile. :)  it was just a longer lunch than any of us had really planned.  no worries, though.  so then we headed back to the office, but i still needed to go to the post office, so i headed there.  but the line was crazy long, i didn't move for 10 minutes, and one cashier lady went on break.  so i gave up and went back to work.  the mail will just have to wait until tomorrow, i suppose. ;)  and i worked away the afternoon, mostly.  i cleaned up my section of the magazine, so that's great!  tomorrow, hopefully, i'll get to get started on "cots."  anyway, i'm still sorting through some kinks on the new computer, but i love it!  it's crazy fast!  like unbelievably fast. :)

i bought myself a new laptop bag.  i looked at tons and tons online but finally decided on a blue pinder bag, which should work just great!  yay!  i can hardly wait to get it and then use it to bring the computer somewhere! :)

after work, i was meant to go to the pool or something, but instead i decided to take the night off in an attempt to get to bed early.  so i came home for a second but then headed to a different cingular store to try to get my data transferred from my old sim card to my new one.  he didn't do the text messages, though, which was the super valuable part because i love those old text messages i have saved.  so i'm not exactly sure what to do now.  maybe try again?  or just keep the old sim card around for whenever i want to reread those messages?  anyway, then i headed home for good.

i needed to clean up around the apartment a bit.  it was just kind of messy, so i took care of that.  then i had some dinner and watched the season finale of "gilmore girls," which definitely made me cry.  i didn't want it to be over yet!  and i talked the family a bit and now i'm here writing and hoping to get to bed.  so that's really about it.

i'm going to try to get some sleep.  tonight.  g'night! ;)

monday 8 may 2006 10:55pm

"some might say these thoughts are wrong
that you might see yourself in this song
i hope that you don't mind if you do
i am aglow with thoughts of you
does it matter that what i remember might be
just my own imagination painting scenes more pretty
is it obvious, does it show
with thoughts of you i am aglow...
does it matter that all i can think of is you" -- sarah harmer "i am aglow"

it's nearly 11 and i'm definitely not close to bed, which means that i am in a little bit of trouble tomorrow morning.  oh, well.  i'll sleep eventually. ;)  it was a good monday, and i know i got a lot accomplished so i'm ok with the consequences of watching "everwood" until now. :)

i had trouble falling asleep last night, as i knew i would.  i really messed myself up with a crazy sleep schedule over the weekend.  it happens, and i'm really not all that worried about it.  i can definitely say that i was very much asleep when the alarms went off this morning, though.  i cannot remember the first one at 6:35 and the second (and final) one at 6:45 totally startled me.  but i managed to make my way to the shower to get cleaned up.  and because i knew i was cutting 15 minutes out of my getting ready time this morning, i had already picked out what i'd wear today last night.  so i put that on and finished getting ready.  i had a bagel for breakfast and then headed out.  i managed to successfully cut those 15 minutes out and still get out the door on time, so that's great news for the rest of my week.

normally, i get to work at 9, which is perfectly fine.  this week, however, i'm trying to squeeze some extra hours in, so i'm arriving at 8, which is a little bit killer but it's only 4 days of my life.  the reward is friday off and a three-day weekend, which is totally worth it.  how about fully switching to 4-day work weeks and longer days?   think i'd be up for that!  anyway, so i made it to work.  i was a bit surprised to see jan and melissa there, but i know they're carpooling now and their desired arrival time is 8:15.  they're still working out the kinks, though, i think, so they were there a little early.  anyway, they were also surprised to see me there so early.  and marina was shocked to see all of us in the same place at the same time and it was even more shocking that it happened before 9am! ;) she's always there early, so we all expected her.

anyway, i got straight to work knowing i have a ton of work ahead of me this week.  and i did get a ton accomplished and the extra hour of quiet work time in the morning was wonderful!  and it's a good thing that i did get that stuff done because just before lunchtime, the fedex man arrived with my new work computer! :)  hooray!  it made it all the way to me without getting lost!  (even if this is the second shot at that happening.)  and so then of course i opened it up and everything and jan got it started on transferring data and programs and whatever so that i'd be able to use the new one.  and melissa, jan, jenna, and i went down to super bowl for chicken bowl lunches while that happened.  mmm!  i always like that place, but today mine was just particularly delicious!  plus, they had trick bowling on the tv in there, which was crazy rad!  it was actually cracking us all up!  i'd totally watch more of that at whatever random time it comes on espn2. :)  so fun!  and when we got back from lunch, it was a whole lot more of me waiting around until my new computer was all set up.  plus, i took a little time to get advice/do research on a case/bag for my new laptop.  i'm still not sure yet, though.  anyway, eventually my new work computer was all set up and ready to go.  pretty much, my brain is on new computer overload!  so much speed and power all at once can overwhelm a girl! ;)  i'm totally geeking out these days!  so i got some more work done on my super speedy new computer.  it's so fast!  i was switching between indesign, photoshop, and illustrator without any hesitation at all.  awesome!!!  (and i found some time to catch up with sarah a bit -- it had been forever really -- and reassure her that i was okay despite being not online for so long today.)  and then all of a sudden it was 5:30.

i changed clothes and headed out of the office.  i went to salt creek beach again for another great walk.  it's amazing how it's different each time, especially the beach portion.  like in the sand.  today, for instance, the tide was very high and getting higher, so the sand was really soft, which makes the walk totally different from walking on the hard, compacted sand.  but anyway, it was a lovely walk, even with the heavy marine layer.  and i enjoyed my billy currington album on the ipod, which is great fun!  it was exactly the perfect length.

then i headed home, got cleaned up, and threw on some clothes.  i had a couple errands to take care of tonight.  i went to the cingular store to get a new phone for mom (it's complicated why i had to do it but i did).  and i ended up with a black razr.  mom, however, would like the silver one, so i'm giving her mine and i'm keeping the black one.  pretty rad, actually. :)  the past few days have been filled with so much new technology that i hardly know what to do with myself!  each provides hours and hours of entertainment just getting perfectly set up, and there are now 3 items!  crazy!  but i'm having fun with everything! :)  and i needed to stop at the drug store, as well.  pretty fun, no?  ;)

and then i spent awhile on the phone with the family.  they all seem to be in good spirits, which means that they're willing and ready to chat about whatever or nothing, which is fun. :)  and adam made me turn on that david blaine thing because apparently there was some actual magic in the beginning.  that was a waste of time, though!  he didn't even hold his breath for 9 minutes!  that's what happened at the end of a 2-hour special about him holding his breath for 9 minutes.  he didn't.  oh, well.  whatever.  at least adam and i were entertained. :)

and then i watched "everwood," which was so great yet again.  i seriously love that show, in case you weren't already aware.  the tears came back this week.  i just love all the topics and all the complicated relationships and just everything.  it's perfect.  it's the tv highlight of the week. :)

and now i'm chatting with meg and trying to get from here to bed pretty quickly.  it's time, i know.  so for now, g'night.  i'll be back tomorrow with more. ;)

sunday 7 may 2006 10:32pm

"i'd give you my seat on the way to heaven
if only one of us could go
give every ounce of blood in my body
if no pain you'd ever know
oh, i'd fight every evil
that ever came against our door
i know how much you love me
i love you more" -- rockie lynne "more"

ok, so i know that i really needed and wanted a new computer, but this thing seriously took over my day today.  i have no idea where the hours went, actually.  they kind of just all slipped away from me.  and it was a nice sunday for me, really, but i know i accomplished very little because i've been staring at the computer all day.  so giant oops! ;)  ... again...

i was up very, very late last night.  later than i've been up in a very long time.  and not for any other reason than that i was staring at the computer too long and forgot to go to bed at a normal hour. :)  but at least i slept well for the few hours that i was asleep last night.  there was no paying on the sleep debt, though.  that alarm went off at 9:30 and i got right up with it.  and i didn't laze around.  it was straight to the shower for me, and then i threw on some clothes.  i checked email and then headed right out.

a different priest said 11am mass this morning.  he's part of the diocese but not the parish.  and that's a shame because he was a good priest.  he had a good homily and i understood everything he said.  and he made some funny little comments during mass (which never happens normally at a mass because the entire thing is scripted).  and anyway, i enjoyed mass this morning.  it quiets my head, which i seem to need.  the only bummer was that it was still foggy out and i couldn't see the ocean from my seat in the church.  it's more beautiful in there when i can.  (yes, i'm spoiled :))

after mass, i headed back home.  this is when the hours started disappearing.  i was struggling to get my external hard drive to work (i wanted to use it to transfer files from the old computer to the new).  and i eventually decided to just go pick up a cable to connect the two computers directly.  i do need to figure out the hard drive in the near future, though, so i can back some stuff up.  so i spent some time transferring files and data and stuff, which was generally quite successful.  i also cleaned up the stuff on the new computer so i don't have files i don't need anymore and everything i do have is very organized.  plus, i'm working on ripping a bunch of cds again with higher quality and in a different format.  that's quite a huge project, though, so it'll take me awhile.  also, i got started on downloading some new fonts on this machine.  i thought about just transferring those, too, but there were so many there that i didn't use so i'm starting fresh.  awesome! :)  oh, and while all this was going on, i watched the first season of the british "the office," the giants game (barry smacked homer 713 450 feet but the boys still lost), and the newest episode of "the o.c.," (thoroughly entertaining). :)

and then i took a little break of sorts.  i chatted with troy online a bit.  i talked to the family on the phone for awhile.  i gave myself a nice little manicure with nude polish that's looking pretty sweet now.  and i've been watching "desperate housewives" and "grey's anatomy."  i love "housewives!"  i am so ready for mike and susan back together! :)  and i'm having an issue with "grey's" tonight.  there's a reason i don't watch other medical shows.  i get scared i'm sick. :)  crazy, i know.  so i am distracted by that.  but that's probably the only reason that mcdreamy didn't make me cry this week.  because normally, what he said totally would have.  but anyway, i love this show despite the medical stuff. :)

and so i should be getting to bed.  i think it's going to be a busy week for me, especially with katie arriving here on friday.  sorry i don't have anything more interesting to report tonight, but things should get more exciting than me staring at the computer! :)

ok, i need to go to bed.  it's what's good for me.  g'night. ;)

sunday 7 may 2006 1:18am

"i don't know who i am
staring at a million broken pieces here
i don't know where i stand
while i'm still the world goes 'round so free so cavalier
aimlessly i wander like a drifter on a narrow winding road
i've got plenty of direction but i don't know where to go" -- little big town "lost"

giant oops!  :)  i had absolutely no intention of being awake this late/early (depending on if you think it's night or morning right now).  i was going to go to bed at a decent hour like a normal person, but now i am thoroughly distracted and there is no end in sight. ;)

so i guess i went to bed at a decent hour last night.  i don't remember conan, so i am pretty certain i wasn't even up that late.  and i slept alright.  i have a giant sleep debt and on the weekends, i like to try and pay on it a little bit.  :)  so i was perfectly content sleeping away my morning.  the phone rang at 11:30 and startled me right out of bed.  it was dad and he wanted to talk about computers, so i was perfectly okay with being woken up.  and i talked with dad a few minutes about various computer options and what i needed to look at today.

so then i got dressed and headed out to costco.  who lets me go there mid-day on the weekend?!?  it's such a bad idea!  but i went and looked at a computer there and then spent ages on the phone in the car in the parking lot discussing various options with dad.  but he wasn't ready to make any decisions yet, so we hung up and i headed back home.  i was a little crazy at this point because i knew i was close to a new computer but wasn't quite there yet.

i spent the afternoon hanging out at home.  actually, i got quite a lot of stuff done!  i made myself meal #1 and then i spent a little time cleaning up around the apartment.  seriously, i've been slacking so it was necessary.  and i got distracted by sports on tv.  it happens to me, you know! ;)  adam and i watched the kentucky derby.  i was pulling for sweetnorthernsaint and private vow, and he was rooting for sinister minister.  neither of us did particularly well, but it was still fun. :)  and then we watched the ncaa men's volleyball national championship game.  it was penn st. vs. ucla, and i figured i'd root for underdog penn st.  well, they lost in 3 games, but ucla really was just plain dominant.  it was cool to see some volleyball on tv, though! :)  and then i really got down to cleaning.  i scrubbed this place from top to bottom.  as soon as i run the vacuum this place will be totally spotless.  i even dusted, my least favorite thing.  and i took out the trash, too!  i was way good! ;)

and tonight, the parents and i made a computer decision and then i ran up to best buy in irvine to pick up my new computer!  it's what i'm writing on right now!  hooray!  it's an hp dv8235nr.  basically, it's a giant 17" laptop, and it's what i wanted.  it's going to work great!  i still have an emotional attachment to the old computer, so it's hanging around for the time being.  plus, there's a ton of stuff on it that still needs to be transferred to this machine.  i'll get to it eventually. :)  it's going to take some time.  however, i did get a lot of software installed on this machine, including all the adobe stuff, instant messaging, a couple new browsers (firefox, opera), and the microsoft office stuff.  so that's pretty set up for now.  strangely, i've been on this computer for like 4+ hours now.  i thought it had been like 2 hours.  where did the time go? :)  this is why i'm up so late.  i lost all track of time using this computer.

what else...?  i got frozen yogurt from golden spoon between best buy and home.  totally delicious, even if the hot fudge spilled in the bag on the way home a little bit. :)  i talked to kath and troy online, and they both seem to be doing well but are also very busy people.  oh, and annahita, too.  :)  i'm trying to convince her to come visit me to go shopping!  is there better shopping this side of new york?  no. ;)

not sure what's on the schedule for sunday.  church?  more time on the computer for sures.  and "the office" dvds i rented last night.  good stuff, no?

ok, i'm really going to try to get to bed now.  g'night! ;)

friday 5 may 2006 11:53pm

"there's a prayer that i'm prayin'
there's a dream that i always will dream
and the hope keeps me waiting
for the day when you come back to me
it's a curse and a blessing
to find love above all the rest
now i'd rather have nothing
than to settle for less" -- little big town "live with lonesome"

i'm exhausted but don't really feel like going to bed quite yet.  maybe that's because i thought i would get more done tonight.  i know i won't accomplish much more tonight, but whatever.  my mind's running too fast to sleep right now, anyway.  so here i am, writing.  i'm not even sure what i'll say yet.  something about the alarm clock and my lunch hour, i'm sure. ;)  and there's not even anyone online to distract me right now.  even sarah already went to bed.

i got to bed at a decent hour last night.  jay was just starting when i fell asleep.  i don't remember much.  i slept alright until early this morning, at which point i started tossing and turning.  and i spent the rest of my allotted sleep time doing that until the alarms went off this morning.  then i got up and showered.  i found some clothes and headed out without having breakfast because i have no breakfast food left.  and then i stopped at starbucks for a marble mocha macchiato and a slice of coffee cake.  i brought that to work with me, where i arrived early, and it was quite a delicious breakfast, actually. :)

work.  work today was fine.  i have lots of magazine stuff to keep me busy right now, and i know that's how it'll be for awhile.  it's what i do, after all. ;)  my new work computer is lost lost lost, so a new one has been shipped to me and is slated to arrive on monday.  keep your fingers crossed for me! ;)  i'd love to work on a crazy fast machine finally!  :)  hmm... what else?  i worked my morning away, really.  and i got the country music going in the art department, which was a nice friday treat for me.  love that! :)  and for lunch, new lauren, jenna, melissa, and i went to romano's.  lauren is having jenna design her save the date cards for her wedding (next may, i believe), so she wanted to discuss ideas and such.  i was just glad to be invited.  my lunch was delicious, and i'm up for a good design/wedding plans discussion. ;)  and i'm glad to get to know new lauren more.  the more i know the more i like her.  my afternoon was spent wavering between working and reading "news" online. i was pretty productive, though!  it can be hard to stay really focused on a friday afternoon, though!

on my way out of the office, i rang katie.  she's really coming to visit me next weekend!  hooray! :)  i got her itinerary this morning, so i wanted to call and just check in with her.  she's doing well, even if planning a wedding can be full of unnecessary drama.  and we'll have a good time next weekend.  now i just have to think up some fun things for us to do.  what do the cool people do around here? ;)  i'm sure it'll be a great time, no matter what we do.

i made a couple stops on my way home, though.  i needed to put money on my laundry card, so i went to the apartment office to do that.  that had to get done before 6.  and then i went back down to dana point to hollywood video to see what i might find there to entertain myself this weekend.  i found the first and second seasons of the british (original) version of "the office."  i've only seen like 2 episodes, but i'm excited about seeing all of them.  yay! :)  should be wonderfully funny.  and then i went home.  and i talked to dad briefly on the way, too.

i accomplished one huge chore tonight.  i did 8(!) loads of laundry.  believe me, it needed to happen so desperately.  there was basically nothing clean left in my apartment.  but now, everything is clean! :)  i used all 4 washers/dryers in two different laundry rooms all at the same time to get it all done quickly.  it was fast, but it also mean i went up and down the stairs to my apartment about a million times.  but it's all done, folded, put away, and everything.  even the bed is properly made!  so i should be good for awhile now.

what else did i do tonight?  i watched a bunch of shows i had recorded during the week, like "blow out," "love monkey," "bonds on bonds," and "the bedford diaries."  good stuff! :)  at least it kept me entertained.  i also made myself a nice dinner.  and i just got off the phone with the family.  i have dad's go-ahead with the computer but i'm still working on mom.  again, keep your fingers crossed.  i need a new one at home even more than i need a new one at work.

so that brings me to now.  i'm just hanging out here.  it's noisy between leno on the tv and the dishwasher running.  i should probably tuck in, anyway.  more tomorrow.  g'night. ;)

thursday 4 may 2006 10:31pm

"i'm here fallin' for you
my heart's callin' for you
i know i never can get enough
don't hold back one bit of your love
strong and steady for you
i'm all ready
come on, baby, give me a little more you
come on, baby, give me a little more" -- little big town "a little more you"

i'm loving the little big town album.  the songs seem so... relevant. :)  i'll get some good material out of this. ;)  yeah, listen to them.  they're rad.

i'm exhausted.  i have been bad about sleeping this week (and before that, too, i think), staying up too late, not sleeping well, and getting up too early.  i'm trying to actually make it to bed on time tonight.  i just need to catch up with myself a little bit.  so i'm writing nice and early and then i'll go straight to bed.  wish me luck with this plan! ;)

last night, i was up way too late.  after writing there, i got ready for bed and all of a sudden i was watching conan, though i crashed pretty quickly after he came on because i don't remember much of his show. :)  i slept alright, but not great.  and i couldn't believe that the alarm was going off already when it did this morning.  but i got up anyway.  and then i showered.  and then i couldn't decide on anything to wear.  this was the main reason i was running late this morning.  i couldn't come up with anything.  i was just standing there staring at the closet.  it happens.  :)  especially when i haven't done laundry in weeks and weeks and weeks.  of course, i did eventually settle on something.  i had some breakfast and then headed out.  and i remembered i needed gas desperately, so i made a little detour on my way to work to go to that gas station in laguna that was relatively cheap last time i needed gas.  once again, it was relatively cheap.  $3.33.  i've never spent more than $40 on gas before, but i did this morning.  yikes!  oh, well.  otherwise, i wouldn't have made it to work, and then i would have had an even worse problem, right?

ok, so then i was a few minutes late for work, not that anyone even cares.  and not that i'm not always there late, too.  so i started right in on stuff this morning and i feel like i did actually get quite a bit accomplished today, especially considering there were lots of distractions and things.  i'm mostly working on magazine stuff right now, but i also got that brochure out to the printer, so that's rad.  one less thing to worry about.  tim came by the office just before lunchtime.  melissa, jenna, and i had to sit through re-training on our fancy new printer before we could find food, though.  and it was kind of long, but now we know for sure that we're not retarded and that there are actually things wrong with our printer.  it's not just user error. :)  this is good.  but we do have issues with that thing.  i was ready to throw it out the window this morning when i couldn't make one simple copy. ;)  anyway, so then tim, jan, jenna, melissa, and i went down the road to san clemente pizza company.  it was after 1:30 by this time, so we were all ravenous, which made our lunch even more delicious than it would be on a normal day. ;)  plus, we got to sit around chatting for awhile and catching up with tim, which was really cool. :)  and i worked through a lot of the afternoon, as well.  the major distraction in the afternoon was jenna trying to track down that new computer for me that was ordered ages ago.  it has gone missing.  lost by ups.  which is pretty crazy, actually!  i'm never getting that new computer!  it was so hard just to get it ordered and now it's lost.  it's like it's just not meant to be.  so i'll let you know if i ever get a new computer at work. ;)

after work, i was tempted to just go home, but i knew i'd feel better if i went to the beach and exercised.  so i changed clothes and headed out of the office.  i had to stop at sav-on to pick up some medical tape to protect my heels (it worked wonderfully!) and then i headed for salt creek once again.  i put on my headphones and went for another great walk.  it was nice out there.  it's still not sunny, but i did get to see some sunshine over the water.  i had a shadow!  that's good news! :)  and the tide was high.  a few times i had to scramble a bit to make sure i didn't get my shoes all wet!  but anyway, it was a great walk.  i'm so in love with this place.  it's amazingly beautiful.  and i can just go see it whenever i'd like.

then i headed home.  i thought i'd do laundry or go to bed super early or something.  that didn't happen.  instead i went to compusa to check out computers.  they didn't have everything i wanted to see, so i also went to best buy, which is like two doors down.  i think we're getting closer to a decision about the computer!  yay!  again, i'll keep you posted on this, as well.  the prospect is exciting, though!  so after browsing, i came home and talked to dad a bit.  that was good. :)  and i watched some volleyball, too.  the ncaa men's semifinals were tonight (ucla beat ipfw and penn st. beat uc irvine), and the finals are on saturday.  fun stuff, even if it was a building year for my waves.  and of course, it was another good episode of "the office," which was great!  i was cracking up!  plus, i love the jim-pam stuff, and that's getting more interesting. :)

and now, bed.  i need some sleep!  more tomorrow, though.  g'night! ;)

wednesday 3 may 2006 11:13pm

"wounded, i'm wounded
i'm battered and broken and bruised
wounded, i'm wounded
all tore up inside over you" -- little big town "wounded"

um, i'm supposed to be asleep already. :)  i was going to go to bed early tonight.  oops!  that didn't really happen and now i'm watching leno.  so i'll be up for a bit writing this and getting ready for bed and whatever else.  in fact, i'm hoping kath will return the phone call i just made to her.  i'm pretty sure she's currently at starbucks working on her thesis, which definitely means she should talk to me on the phone, right? ;)

anyway, today was another good one.  i slept alright and it was okay getting up with the alarm.  i put on a cute outfit, had some breakfast, and then headed out.  just a normal morning.  and strangely, there was no traffic at all on my way to work.  i arrived totally early! :)

i walked into the office in a good mood this morning. :)  marina was complaining about something (a personal matter, i believe) to melissa when i walked into the office and i was encouraging her to be excited because it was a new day.  how cheezy am i?  ;)  i don't know.  but really is life so bad at 9am?  no. :)  apparently i woke up on the right side of the bed because i was feeling like sunshine and rainbows.  and work today was pretty good.  i'm busy with various things here and there.  also, jan spent the entire day trying to get jenna's new 30" apple flat-panel monitor working with a new video card.  it still doesn't work.  and i'm still waiting on my computer to arrive.  hmm... what else did i do today at work?  not sure.  magazine stuff.  brochure stuff.  small changes to the promo i had been working on.  yeah, just work stuff.  oh!  and because jenna got a new monitor, i am now using her old one as my main screen and i moved my old main screen to my left-hand screen.  now i have two 20" monitors side-by-side, which is a massively huge workspace.  it's awesome! :)  lunch was just me grabbing food at baja fresh and eating at my desk.  not too eventful.

and after work, i changed into workout clothes and once again headed for salt creek.  i'm loving going for walks along the beach there.  seriously, it's so gorgeous and it is a challenging enough path that i know i'm getting a good workout.  plus, i get sandy, and you know it's a good day when you're sandy.  also, i had lots of new music on my ipod to listen to.  the phil vassar album is awesome because it has his versions of songs he wrote but other artists originally recorded.  i love it!  "little red rodeo" is totally one o my favorites, and he rocks it!  ok, so the walk was seriously awesome.  one little problem, though.  the past three days' walks have started blisters on my heels.  i don't understand, though, because these aren't new shoes.  they're like 2 years old.  so i'll have to treat those and be careful and all that.  oh, well.  it's so worth it to be able to go to the beach! :)

then i came home and basically just chilled all night.  i sat around staring at the computer but accomplishing very little for awhile.  and i eventually decided to finish reading "a bend in the road."  i didn't start sobbing until page 357, with only like 15 pages left.  that's not bad for a nick sparks novel.  it was really super fun to read!  i totally enjoyed it!  it's all so romantic. :)  and then i talked to the family for awhile.  they're doing well.  and then i had planned on writing this and then going to bed but i got distracted before i started on this by chatting with troy online.  and then i rang meg just because i felt like it and she was quite entertaining.  i need to figure out when i can go visit her in monterey.  i love that area and i haven't seen meg's new place.  there seem to be lots of reasons for me to go up there.  it's just the drive i'm not especially looking forward to.  anyway, so that brings me to where i am now.  but i do need to get some sleep.  my eyelids are heavy.

ok, so more from me tomorrow.  g'night! ;)

tuesday 2 may 2006 11:36pm

"my tires tearin' up the road toward the state line
i was leavin' the great lone star state that i love for good
for the love of a good woman who loves in louisiana
on a bayou by the river with the moon in her hair
and when i get there i'm gonna get down on one knee 'cause wherever she is, boy, that's home for me
don't get me wrong
love's the only reason i'd ever leave texas
she's the only reason i'd ever stay gone" -- rockie lynne "the only reason"

my head is currently exploding right now so forgive me for however this turns out. ;)

ok, first let's start with tonight's lyrics.  i sort of maybe might have bought the new rockie lynne album today. :)  and i admittedly haven't listened to much of it yet, but that's likely because it's only been in my possession for like 3 hours.  so anyway, i heard this song and really liked it.  and more than me liking it, i'd like to think it's about me.  i mean, i know he didn't write it about me (because we've never met and he actually has a family of his own already), but i want this song to be about me, you know?  and i'll have to change a few of the details but still.  it could be about me.  :)  moving for the love of a good woman.  i might have that effect! ;)  (or am i just delusional?)

ok, so last night.  hmm... let me think.  oh, yes!  it watched the end of "everwood."  that's a great show.  it really is.  seriously. :)  and while i'm mad at bright i love how complex the whole story is.  it's like life.  and i love ephram more each week, i think.  and the preview for the next episode also looks awesome.  so anyway, i had a great time watching the rest of "everwood."  then i fell asleep watching letterman (tom hanks was on).  and i must have been pretty tired, though i still only got a few hours of sleep before i had to get up once again.  pesky alarm! ;)  so i got cleaned up, dressed, and fed.  and then i headed out, just like most mornings around here.  and you know june gloom where the marine layer just can't burn off?  yeah, that's what we're having here, so it's foggy!

work was quite busy today.  i'm wrapping up those promo things, taking care of brochures, and just barely getting started on the month's magazines, which i believe are actually earlier than normal.  so anyway, it's enough work to keep me going all day, but i'm enjoying it.  i prefer having a long list of things to do to having no list at all.  jan's been hobbling around the office the past two days because he has a sprained ankle or something, so for lunch, i went and picked up super bowl for both of us.  he was appreciative!  and the afternoon seemed a little crazy around the office, as i was part of various conversations that are not normally office topics.  haha!  it was fun, though.  and i know i got plenty of stuff done today, so it's great when i fit fun stuff into that as well.

after work, i changed and then headed straight for salt creek for another walk along the beach.  i figured i should loosed the back up at least one more day like yesterday, even though it really wasn't bothering me at all today.  so i put on the headphones and started on a very brisk walk.  i found a lucky penny along the way!  and it was really pretty calm as i walked because not so many people were out and the waves were really crashing.  it was nice.  i love being able to go there instead of trapping myself in a gym every day.  it's beautiful!

then i headed home, hopped in the shower, and then threw on some clothes.  i headed straight back out.  i had the best dinner ever tonight.  a jamba juice followed by two still-hot glazed donuts from krispy kremes!  mmm!  i'm not sure it could have been any more perfect!  seriously, what's better? :)  anyway, so my first stop tonight was jamba juice but then i headed down the road to target.  i might have gotten into a little bit of trouble there, but really not that much! :)  i found sunglasses.  i'd been looking for another pair but it takes me a long time and i have to try on hundreds of pairs before i like something.  and i love when i can get them under $20! :)  perfect!  and i picked up album #1 of the night, phil vassar's latest, which came out today.  and then i headed over to best buy because rockie lynne's newest came out today, too, and they didn't have it at target.  and while i was looking for it in best buy, i spotted the latest little big town album.  so here's where i picked up albums #2 and #3. :)  hehe!  oops!  i really wasn't supposed to do that, but i'll enjoy them immensely, i'm certain!  and then i couldn't resist the hot now sign at krispy kreme so that's why i rounded out dinner with donuts. :)

ok, tonight was meant to be filled with lots of tv.  and i suppose it was, but i did skip out on an hour's worth.  first up was a new episode of "gilmore girls."  i continue to love logan, even if i'm not supposed to.  also, i continue to not really understand why lorelai thinks her and luke aren't getting married.  of course they're getting married.  right?

and i finished "gilmore girls" with about 20 seconds to spare before the season finale of "nashville star!"  hooray!  i'd been waiting eagerly!  in case you haven't already noticed, i've been rooting for chris young.  i love him!  he's an incredible talent.  (and cute!)  anyway, he was left in the final 3, which meant he was all over the show tonight singing (he did "drinking me lonely," which i absolutely love, and "forever and ever amen") and talking and all that.  it was a wonderful hour and a half special.  it had enough content to keep me entertained through the whole thing.  first person eliminated was nicole, but i knew that was coming.  and then it was down to chris and casey, who became good friends through the whole process of the show.  and in the end, my man chris young won!  woohoo!  i was screaming and jumping up and down and the whole bit.  and actually i'm still grinning from ear to ear.  and i can hardly wait until september 28th, when the top 4 "nashville star" finalists will be in anaheim at the house of blues.  but chris young!!!  he won!!!  he did it!  i am so totally excited, which is why my head is exploding! :)  best show ever!  i <3 "nashville star!"

ok, i'm supposed to go to bed now.  yeah.  right.  hehe!  at least jamie oliver, my favorite tv chef, is on letterman tonight, so will continue to be entertained. :)  ok, i really should try to get some sleep though, i know.  more from me tomorrow.  g'night! ;)

p.s.  aaaaahhhhh!  chris young won "nashville star!!!!!" :D

monday 1 may 2006 10:12pm

"the kind of pain that you just can't take
will send a strong man to his grave
there's not a pill that can give you a rest
or fill that hole deep in your chest
so take me fast or take me slow
i don't really care how i go
in the daylight or in the dark
just don't let me die of a broken heart" -- carolyn dawn johnson "die of a broken heart"

i was listening to cdj today.  i really like this song.  anyway... it was a nice monday on the whole and i'm excited to fill you in on all of it.  even if in actuality you don't need to hear about my sleeping habits or what i ate for lunch or any of the other little details i put in here.  ;)

ok, so i somehow got a little bit distracted last night and was up really late!  oops! :)  i was crawling into bed so i switched the tv on and larry king was just coming on on cnn.  and his whole show was about "united 93" and his guests were family members and also actors from the film.  and i couldn't turn it off!  it was really good!  the family members all loved the movie and raved about how accurately their loved ones were portrayed.  the actors were all so honored to be a part of this amazing project.  it was a really neat show!  especially watching it right after i'd seen the film.  so anyway, that brought me to 1am and then i finally crashed.  and pretty hard.  when the alarm went off this morning i was pretty sure it had to be some sort of mistake and that it was actually still 4am. :)  but anyway, i figured out that it was not a mistake -- much to my chagrin -- and so i hopped into he shower.  i got cleaned up, had some breakfast, and headed out.  it was a foggy morning and that marine layer never did fully burn off along the coast, though it was sunny here at the apartment.

anyway, work went pretty well today.  there was the small (meaning large) problem of the air conditioning in the art department being out of control, which made it freezing cold in there.  it's getting worse!  every day it gets colder and colder in there, and no one seems to know how to get that fixed.  about one more day in there will put me over the edge and tracking down someone.  i cannot work while freezing my fingertips off.  anyway, i did actually do some work. :)  i'm working on some promo pieces, which are going well.  i should wrap that up tomorrow!  and i love how things are looking, so that's wonderful.  we're getting started soon on the month's magazines, so that's great.  and so basically, work's good.  oh, and jenna, melissa, and i went to z pizza for lunch, which was delicious but crazy crowded (it's just a tiny little place).

in the afternoon my backache was starting to escalate to the level where i really didn't want to be sitting in a chair anymore.  i was lying on the ground, but i can't work like that.  and i walked around the office to try to loosen things up.  but i knew what had to be done.  i left work right on time and headed for the beach.  obviously going down hundreds upon hundreds of stairs is bad but going up is good.  so i decided on a walk along the beach and path and stuff that diana and i walked a few days ago.  i put on the headphones and started walking at a very fast pace.  that fixed things right up in my back! :)  and it was a great walk.  of course the scenery's beautiful with the ocean and coastline (and tons of surfers).  plus, i walked further than we walked before to see what was around and it was cool.  i love that path, and i know i need to bring dad on a walk on it because it's totally his style with the hills and stuff. :)  so i had an awesome time at the beach and my back seems to have returned to normal.

then i came home and got cleaned up.  i chatted with a friend for a bit (she'll kick my butt tomorrow for not mentioning her name right here!) and then bobby and ashley came over to look are more stuff i've designed for them.  we finalized 5 buttons and two stickers and they love all the designs, which should also be put on clothing in the near future.  oh my goodness!  they absolutely loved the stuff i did!  i'm so excited!  they both said they got goosebumps when they saw it because they knew it was perfect!  hooray! :)  i'm really excited about all of this.  i'm going to post some of the stuff on flickr later tonight.  so yeah, everything's looking awesome and all that stuff went to printers tonight!  they're so nice and i like working with them.  it's fun!  so anyway, after they left i had a popcorn dinner (it just sounded good and i didn't feel like cooking because it was kind of late) and chatted with sarah online for awhile.  and then it was time for "everwood."  the parents called mid-show, so it's paused right now and waiting for me to finish.  it's good so far!  i always love the show, though, so i'm sure i'll love the entire episode. :)

anyway, so i'm going to finish my night out with a little tv, getting that lusk stuff up on flickr, and then bedtime.  more tomorrow!  g'night! ;)

sunday 20 april 2006 11:23pm

"day after day the search goes on
no one's explained that grieving's so strong
love runs so deep down in your soul
it hit me so high all that i know
'cause, baby, the lucky ones
baby, the lucky ones
baby, the lucky ones
for a moment or two
get to fall in love with somebody like you
get to fall in love with somebody like you" -- pat green "lucky ones"

i'm already up past my bedtime and i know there's enough ahead of me tonight that i'll be up at least another hour.  oops!  that's really alright.  i'll sleep... some day. ;)  i've had a nice sunday and i'll share that with you and then tuck in.

i watched "match point" last night.  it was just as good the second time around, and jonathan rhys meyers continues to be beautiful!  hehe! :)  it's just a really cool movie!  and then it was really late, so i went to bed and slept okay.  and i woke up this morning with just the right amount of time to get ready and make it to mass on time.  it's like i'm meant to go to mass because i didn't set an alarm or anything.  i just got up.  anyway, so i hopped into the shower and got cleaned up.  then i picked out a cute skirt and sweater and got dressed.  i had a little breakfast and browsed through the newspaper ads a little bit.  and then it was time for me to head out.  it was foggy out still, but i could tell it'd be nice today and the fog would burn off quickly.

mass today was alright.  i really liked the readings and message because it seemed especially relevant for me, but i never like this one priest.  his english isn't good at all and i'm pretty sure he lacks talent for writing a good homily.  but it doesn't matter so much, i suppose.  i still know i got something good out of mass and i'm really glad i went.  then i headed home.

i looked up movie times.  and i made a decision.  i left like 10 minutes later to go see "united 93" at aliso.  before i get to the film, i had a little problem.  when i bought my ticket, the man who sold it to me told me that there were no trailers before the film so i should head straight in there (i had like 6 or 7 minutes to spare).  so i looked at the ticket and went to that theatre, number 11.  and to my surprise, the film was playing.  i knew i was early so i was a little confused but i found a seat anyway.  after watching for about 2 minutes, i was pretty sure i had walked into the middle of the film.  so i checked my ticket again.  i was in the theatre printed on the ticket but that was a ticket for an earlier showing.  bah.  so i went to customer service and found out the correct theatre, number 8.  i went there and found a nice seat and the film started about 2 minutes later.

ok, so "united 93."  i knew going in it was not going to be fun but i was interested in seeing it.  fascinated.  i'm not sure how else to explain my desire to see it.  anyway, it was excellent.  it's extremely well done.  it's basically a real-time account of what happened that morning.  and what makes it so powerful is that it really focuses on the people on the plane, in air control towers, and the other people involved in the situation.  they were normal.  they had regular lives.  they did the normal random things i do when i'm traveling.  it just really reinforces how randomly selected the people who died were.  they were just living normal lives.  anyway, i left feeling quite sick and totally moved.  (sick both because of the shaky camerawork and the story itself.)  if you're thinking about seeing it, i say go.  if you don't' want to see it, i understand.

so anyway, i wasn't feeling that hot but i was also starving, so i stopped off for a jamba juice before heading home.  and i talked to mom a bit, too. :)  and the i spent the afternoon working on stuff for bobby.  i really like the results, so i am totally pleased.  and i left bobby a message telling him stuff was ready.  he called me back later but i didn't answer because i was mid-manicure.  he said "we're so stoked on you and the design work you're doing!"  how rad is that?!?  :)  yay!

anyway, after getting that stuff done for bobby, i talked to the family for a few minutes.  we're discussing computer stuff! :)  and i made myself some dinner.  delicious tortellini!  and i chatted with some people online and returned some emails.  i do not even know how long it's been since i've talked to dante and brian from my class at st. charles.  probably 7 years?  but we're catching up a little bit, which is pretty cool.  they're both holding legitimate jobs and seem to be enjoying life.  good for them!

and of course, it's sunday night, so you know what that means!  i gave myself a manicure and pedicure (all matching red red red -- actually officially called big apple red).  and then i enjoyed new episodes of "desperate housewives" and "grey's anatomy."  how awful was it to see that hott mustang get wrecked on "housewives?"  ;)  also, i think it was really a good episode, and i want to see the applewhites on their way out of town.  and "grey's."  i love that show!  mcvet!  he's so cute!  i love that meredith wanted to run errands with him!  and i love that the errand turned out to be birthing a horse!  i just love that show all the way around! (even if meredith and mcdreamy need to end up together in the end.)

ok, so i need to get some sleep. :)  i'll be back tomorrow.  g'night! ;)

saturday 29 april 2006 10:02pm

"it's in the hands of fate
there's nothing i can do
and it might be tomorrow
or the one that follows
got the rest of my life to look forward to
'cause every day is one day close to you" -- carolyn dawn johnson "one day closer to you"

it's one of my favorite songs.  every day is one day closer to you.  love that. :)  and today being a saturday was a particularly fun -- if not especially eventful -- day on the journey.  i am having a good time here, so that's what matters, no?

i have no idea how late i was up last night.  i read until i couldn't keep my eyes open to see the words anymore.  probably like 1ish. :)  and then i slept in (i nearly forgot to turn the alarm off last night, which would have been tragic at 6:45 this morning!) until i was ready to be awake.  and then i read some more before decided eventually to get myself out of bed.

at that point i really didn't move too far. :)  i picked up the newspaper on the doorstep and sat down at the dining room table to check email (it's a thing i cannot not do in the mornings because i'm entirely too attached to the computer even when i know there's nothing of particular interest waiting for me in my inbox on a saturday morning).  and then i read the newspaper awhile.  besides the requisite calendar section, i browsed the real estate listings, which are best on saturdays.  i'm not buying tomorrow or anything, but it's interesting to see what's out there and where, i think. :)  so i sat around doing that for awhile and was quite entertained. :)  also, i had meal #1, which was delicious.  plus, i spent awhile working on some stuff for bobby.  we're working on buttons (like pins) and i put together some stuff i thought he'd like.

i eventually decided to get cleaned up.  then i had some "errands" to run, which seemed like a great way to get out of the apartment and enjoy the sunshine today. :)  before i drove away, though, i changed my own headlight!  i'm getting pretty good at that. :)  so anyway, first i went down to the apartment office to replace my old parking sticker.  i told them mine didn't stick.  hehe!  anyway, this time i'll just leave it on the paper so that when i have visitors they can just take it from me and put it on their car and park in a resident space.  because i don't need one to park in the assigned space i also have.  anyway, so that worked out nicely. :)  and then i headed up to aliso to the bookstore.  it was full of people and all lively and everything.  i wanted it like that, really.  it was fun to browse through everything, though all i left with was a copy of the new martha stewart magazine, "blueprint."  i haven't read it yet, but it's absolutely gorgeous from what i've seen!  yay for pretty magazines full of ideas i'm sure i'll "borrow" later! ;)  the next stop was costco.  i wanted to see if they had "match point" on dvd there, which they did so yay!  and while i was there, i picked up movie tickets, so i can go see something (still leaning toward "united 93") tomorrow afternoon.  and the final stop was the grocery store.  really, i just needed milk, though i also found a couple other little random things.  that always happens in grocery stores, right?  and i got in line to pay.  behind a woman who bought like a dozen heads of cabbage.  and that's it!  hahaha!  i'm guessing she's going on that crazy cabbage diet!  it was just really hilarious to me! :)  who does that?!?  so then i headed home. :)

i hung out here for a little bit.  i watched last week's "the o.c."  it was the prom episode, and of course it was so great! :)  yay for fun shows!  and then bobby and ashley came over.  we went through a ton of stuff and in the next couple days i'll do some more work and hopefully we'll get everything finalized for the buttons. :)  also, he brought some stickers that already got printed, which is excellent!  more of my work in print.  love that!  also, they kept telling me how much they love my apartment, which is rad!  they're in the midst of looking for a place (they're getting married next month), so that's why they were particularly interested.  anyway, i appreciate the compliments on my place because i quite like it. :)  then i hung out awhile more.  i watched the latest episode of "love monkey," which was good.  and i talked to the family for awhile.  i'm still pushing the new computer idea. ;)  and then i went down to golden spoon to pick up some frozen yogurt (i know i'm a junkie), which i plan on enjoying while watching "match point" as soon as i'm done updating this for you.

so that's been my day!  i've quiet enjoyed myself. :)  tomorrow will likely involve church, movies, nail polish, and the computer.  and a vacuum?  maybe... ;)  ok, so have a good night!  more next time.

friday 28 april 2006 10:23pm

"i ain't giving up 'cause
i know you're out there
waitin' somewhere for me
there's no question you'd be
the answer to my prayers
i know you're out there" -- chris young "i know you're out there"

it's relatively early for me to be writing on a friday night, but i figured now's as good a time as any.  the rest of my plans for the night include reading, which may or may not lead me to just straight falling asleep.  and i can't neglect you! ;)  so i figure i'll write a bit here and then go read for awhile.  friday was good. :)  it was kind of a dreary day out considering it's april and i'm ready to be lying on the beach, but i'll manage and my weathergirl promised me sunshine for the weekend and into next week! :)

i read some more of "a bend in the road" before crashing last night.  and i crashed pretty hard, i'd say.  i slept relatively well and don't' remember much between falling asleep watching leno and when the alarm went off this morning.  i cannot even recall the first alarm. :)  tragically, i set the alarm 45 minutes earlier than normal for this morning so that i could make it to work an hour early (if i'm especially motivated, i can cut my getting ready time way down).  so i showered and threw on jeans and a sweater.  i had breakfast while checking email.  and then i headed off on a cloudy morning.  i dealt with slow drivers of the world this morning, but i suppose that's to be expected when driving through the old people's community that is dana point. ;)

work is getting busier, so i had plenty of things to keep me busy today. :)  and the cool part is that most of them are more creative than just putting together teh magazines and brochures and that regular stuff.  i'm working on some promotional material and stuff like that.  so yay!  i like getting a bit more freedom. :)  the magazines are very rigid.  (of course, rigidity is good sometimes, too.)  so anyway, work was going well all morning.  and by 1 i realized that i was really hungry, so i ran down to san clemente pizza co. to pick up a little food.  if you're keeping track, i think i had pizza every day this week for lunch.  that's kind of gross when you think about it like that, but honestly it was quite delicious! :)  whatever. ;)  anyway, i spilled my lemonade all over my lap when i getting into my car, so i kind of walked around the rest of the day feeling a bit self-conscious, even though like 20 minutes later you couldn't tell.  hehe!  oops!  so i'm a little clumsy sometimes.  the afternoon went well.  i got more work done.  plus, i had a fun little chat in diana's office, apparently the place to hang out on friday afternoon when you're sick of looking at a computer screen. ;)  and then jan, jenna, melissa, and i played poker in jenna's office.  we played for pride instead of money, which is fine by me.  not that i wasn't still trying to totally win. ;)  anyway, we all started with 20 chips (we were trying to keep the game pretty short) and melissa lots her and a whole other set of 20 and jenna lost all hers.  then it was just me and jan, and i had a thinning stack, but i won a few hands on all-in so i was doing okay.  but eventually we were tired of playing and really i had about 1/4 of the chips jan did so i went all-in on a hand i knew i'd already lost.  and it was over.  but still, i held my own! :)  and then it was time to head out.

i just headed straight home this evening.  and i haven't been up to a whole lot.  that was pretty much the plan.  i read for awhile.  i had some dinner and watched a little tv.  i talked to the family.  i did some serious straightening around the apartment, including sorting through tons of magazines so that they're all totally under control now.  and i made a list of the things i would like to get done this weekend.  it looks manageable.  i just wanted to write it down so i didn't forget anything.  plus, it's totally fun to check things off a list. :)  so anyway, that's where things stand.  i'm trying to come up with fun stuff to do this weekend.  ideas?  i'm thinking of seeing a movie, likely "united 93," because it seems fascinating, even if i know it'll likely be painful to watch, as well.  or "akeelah and the bee."  or "american dreamz" (despite mediocre reviews).

ok, so i have some email to write and then you can find me reading. :)  g'night!

thursday 27 april 2006 10:12pm

"but i still dream about you night and day
and i wish that i was lyin'
and that's the truth
i wish i was lyin'
wish i was lyin'
i wish i was lyin' next to you"  -- chris young "i wish i was lyin'"

it's been a quiet day, really, but i've actually quite enjoyed it, despite the dark, dreary weather and the fact that i've done next to nothing. :)  so yeah, thursday was good and i'm having a night where everything i've done is purely for my own enjoyment -- nothing responsible. ;)

ok, so i managed to crash by the end of leno last night, which honestly felt like an accomplishment, especially when it was coming on as i was still ending conversations online.  but anyway, i got a little sleep but i was definitely hurting when the alarm went off this morning and i needed to get into the shower.  i honestly can't remember huge chunks of that shower.  it's like i was running purely on auto-pilot.  fine. :)  and i got dressed pretty quickly, unlike yesterday.  today's outfit, however, wasn't especially meant for rainy weather. :)  i'm over weather.  i figured i'd just dress however.  it was relatively sunny as i was choosing clothes.  it was very, very dark and gray by the time i got to work, though.  oh well! :)  anyway, i had a little breakfast and caught up on the email and stuff.  then i headed to work.  i realized i needed stamps (i never need stamps!  what's going on?), so i went to the post office before work.  no, i wasn't going to use the vending machine after yesterday's fiasco.  so i waited in line, which took too long, but i did get vegetable stamps (better than flag stamps) and made it to work about 15 minutes late.  i was still the first art department person in, so no one was missing me. ;)

work today went well. :)  i, once again, had various small tasks to take care of.  nothing too crazy.  so i worked away.  though this morning the office was freezing cold (like maybe 60 degrees tops) and i thought i was going to die.  diana wasn't in the office today, so i went and stole her space heater and put it under my desk to keep warm.  it smells like a hairdryer, but that was a small price to pay for not freezing. :)  and she's offered it to me in the past, telling me to take it whenever she's not there.  so nice!  anyway, after defrosting, i worked.  and i also read some news stuff.  there's always something interesting going on in both real news and celebrity gossip news. ;)  for lunch, i took advantage for the coupon for a free pizza i had for z pizza.  mmm!  and because you still have to buy $5 worth of something, i got a drink and a pint of ben & jerry's! :)  i put that in the freezer for later, and enjoyed my pizza immensely while reading a newspaper and chatting with sarah online.  and then melissa decided she wanted frozen yogurt, so jenna, marke, melissa, and i went down to goodie's.  :)  so great!  they had caramel flavor today, which was really good!  so it was a good thing i hadn't broken into the ben and jerry's yet! ;)  and i worked the rest of the afternoon.  john asked me when i'm going to get involved in marketing stuff.  i told him now!  whatever he wants me to do i will.  so i think this means the beginning of me getting even more involved with that stuff. :)  should be a nice challenge, and i love getting to fully use my advertising education.

after work, it was still dark and gloomy out but also still not rainy, so i headed for the ymca to use the pool. :)  and it was kind of crowded today.  i started in my own lane but about halfway through a woman joined me.  why do we tend to choose to share lanes with people of the same gender?  after swimming there awhile, there are some things you just never see people do.  i've started realize the general habits of swimmers.  they never dive in off the side and start swimming.  it's not a race.  well, she did and she did that first half lap extremely fast.  i wasn't especially stoked about sharing my lane with a pro.  but then she immediately fell off that pace and ended settling into a pace about half as fast as me.  that's extremely slow.  and she was not a swimmer.  she kind of looked like she was just flailing about and any forward progress was purely accidental.  another thing i rarely see people do is use a kickboard for the middle section of their swim.  that's the meaty part.  that's where most people work the hardest.  not this lady!  also, her breathing was very strange.  i think he spent more time with her head out of the water than in.  it was just kind of comical to watch, especially since i thought she was going to be really good when she first dove in.  but at least she was out there trying, right? :)  and by the way, i had a good swim, and added some extra laps at the end as a little challenge.

then i came home, showered right away, and had some dinner.  and i've spent my evening reading. :)  and not "the davinci code."  oops! ;)  i know i should get on with it and just read it but i don't know.  i'm still not that into it.  instead, i started reading "a bend in the road," a nick sparks novel that's been sitting in my stack of books for quite awhile.  i was in the mood after talking about "the notebook" last night.  i read about the first third.  it's really good so far.  or perhaps i should say, i'm really enjoying it so far.  it's not like the best writing ever.  it's just fabulously entertaining. :)

and after a talk with the family, i started writing this.  and now i think i'll watch tonight's "the office" so i can adequately chat with my coworkers about it tomorrow (otherwise i'd likely just save it for the weekend, like i'm doing with all the other stuff waiting for me on my dvr right now).  and then i'll read some more and crash.  and i think i might get up early tomorrow morning, so that means i should get to bed at a good hour. :)

ok, more tomorrow.  for now, g'night! ;)

wednesday 26 april 2006 9:35pm

"you said, 'what would be the chances that tonight i finally found
someone who makes me feel like my life is just begun?'
i said, 'believe in me and i'll show you how it's done'
i'm gonna rock you, baby, to sleep
i'm gonna make you crazy over me
i'm gonna old you like you've never been held before
and love you 'til you tell me you can't love anymore
i'm gonna shake your emotion right down to your soul
and then i'm gonna love you all over in and out of control
if this is how love is supposed to feel
baby, i know i've fallen head over heels
i'm gonna rock you, baby" -- toby keith "rock you baby"

"nashville star" really turned my night around yesterday!  (see previous little entry.)  i felt so much better and i was in such a good mood.  i <3 "nashville star!"  so then after the show i had a little bit of a hard time getting into bed because i was all hyped up and didn't want to lie down and calm down.  not after what felt like a hard day suddenly felt so much better!  so i did a few things here and there and watched leno and about half of conan before crashing.  and i really did crash.  i was out.  good news! :)

ok, so yeah, i got some sleep last night.  like i was out.  but it was only for a few hours because i went to bed so late.  ugh.  i'm not good at this, am i? ;)  but anyway, i got up with the alarm.  i was very tempted to crawl right back into bed once i was standing, but i managed to fight the urge! ;)  hehe!  so i got cleaned up and stood around awhile after that trying to figure out what to wear.  i had nothing!  haha!  ok, that's not really true but i didn't have anything that would be rain-appropriate and cute that i felt like wearing.  but i did eventually settle on khakis and a sweater.  and then i had a little breakfast, headed out, and stopped to return dvds to hollywood video" on my way to work.

work today was kind of like it's been all week, except that jenna was back.  except that she came in a little late and she was included in a group of people who were in a meeting together all afternoon long.  so the office remained quiet.  and i'm just enjoying all of it because i know it's going to speed up in a hurry pretty soon, especially with a third magazine on our plate this month (i think).  so anyway, i took care of the small stuff here and there and also did the usual things... catch up on news, check out which celebs are pregnant (britney again?!?) and who's cheating who, surf all those sites i have bookmarked.  normal stuff.  good times. ;)  and for lunch, we ate in.  i had leftover pizza.  decent.

i also needed to go to the post office.  that was a crazy adventure.  i had cash so i decided to do the self-serve machine.  $4.05.  but there weren't any perfect stamps in the machine, so i bought a $4.20-stamp.  the machine took that much out of my $10-bill and gave me the change in coins.  lame!  and then a book of 10 24-cent stamps came out instead of the one i wanted.  and that only adds up to $2.40.  so i had to get in line anyway.  and then i was informed that she couldn't just mail my package.  she had to charge me $4.05.  and i had to fill out a form to get refunded (by mail) for the vending machine thing.  turns out a private vendor runs the vending machine that sells stamps in the post office.  that's a little nuts, right???  but anyway, i got my stuff all mailed, so it's alright now. :)

after work, it wasn't raining.  in fact, it didn't rain all day.  i could tell it rained overnight when i drove to work, but other than wet roads there was no evidence.  it was sunny here all day, which is very exciting to me because the weather people told me rain today and tomorrow.  anyway, so instead of going to the gym, which was my rain plan, i headed to salt creek for a stairs workout. :)  yay!  and it was beautiful down there today!  and i worked hard!  all sweating all over and rocking out to blink-182 and having a good time. :)  so much better than a dark gym!

then i headed home.  i did some work for bobby on the computer.  had to sign of instant messenger and close all the programs and everything but i made some progress on this little computer of mine. :)  so that was great and bobby's anxious to see more stuff.  and then i had some dinner (more chicken parmesan because it's so delicious!).  i talked to the family for a bit.  i watched last night's "gilmore girls," which was quiet good because i'm a sucker for logan even if he's sometimes an ass.  two more episodes in the season!  and they likely won't solve any problems because it seems like it'll be a cliffhanger season finale.  but it's a cool show. :)  and then somehow i got sucked into conversations with sarah and troy (both online), which i'm still carrying on.  they're making the progress of this update slower, but it's fun so it's fine with me. :)  troy's reading nick sparks.  i think it's a little odd, but it's cool, i guess! ;)

ok, so that's life here right now.  feeling pretty good.  g'night! ;)

tuesday 25 april 2006 11:47pm

"i'm gonna rock you, baby, to sleep
i'm gonna make you crazy over me" -- toby keith "rock you baby"

i really couldn't go to bed without proclaiming just how awesome "nashville star" is! :)  aaahhh!  i'm screaming i'm so excited!  i seriously love this show!  plus, it totally turned my mood around.  casey rivers sang the hell out of "how great thou art" and chris young... well... awesome!... and hot! ;)  i am so so so so excited for the top 4 touring together this summer.  count me in!  geez!  and what's awesome is that i seriously cannot tell you who will win next week.  i think it's probably between casey and chris (that eliminates nicole jamrose).  but seriously, could go any way!  i voted. :)  ok, i should go to bed!  but yay for the awesomeness that is "nashville star!!!"

tuesday 25 april 2006 9:34pm

"i miss you, i miss you
i miss you, i miss you
where are you and i'm so sorry
i cannot sleep, i cannot dream tonight
i need somebody and always
this sick strange darkness
comes creeping on so haunting every time
and as i stared i counted
webs from all the spiders
catching things and eating their insides
like indecision to call you
and hear your voice of treason
will you come home and stop this pain tonight
stop this pain tonight" -- blink-182 "i miss you"

ugh.  i've been trying to start writing this for an hour now.  and i'm just now finally typing in the first few words.  today was kind of mixed.  nothing's wrong.  nothing was especially bad.  just some stuff makes me think and then i'm worried and scared and it's just downhill from there.  luckily, i talked to some friends and family and things are getting back to normal in my head.  at least for the moment.  so i guess, here's how the day went.  really, it was very normal.

i didn't sleep well.  shocker. ;)  it's just a thing.  i don't know.  anyway, of course i was still exhausted when the alarms went off this morning but i managed to get myself out of bed and all the way to the shower.  got clean.  put on some clothes.  had some breakfast.  packed the gym bag.  the normal stuff.  and i left the house in a t-shirt, jeans, and sandals.  once i got outside i realized i wasnt' really wearing enough clothing.  oh, well! :)

so then i headed to work.  it was another very quiet day around the office.  not too much going on.  not so many people around.  that's fine with me.  i was just chillin at my desk with a short list of things to accomplish.  read some news.  read some celebrity gossip.  caught up on email.  the usual.  and of course there were all the office conversations.  you know what will get me riled up?  someone telling me condescendingly that i don't understand how stressful their life is.  oh yes.  i have never been stressed.  plus, don't complain about stuff that isn't actually stressful.  sometimes life's hard.  i know.  i'm alive.  yeah, really compassionate, i know.  but come on!  :)  anyway... haha!  so for lunch we decided a long lunch was perfectly in order on a slow day, so melissa, diana, jan, and i went down to tina & vince's, where the old italian ladies yell at you.  it was tasty. :)  and this afternoon i couldn't get our conversation about reese's peanut butter cups out of my head, so i took 10 minutes to run to albertson's to get some to feed my crazy craving. :)  delicious!  oh, i did do actual work today.  got that st. jude's newsletter done, approved, and printed! :)

after work, i was tempted to head straight home but instead forced myself to go to the pool.  i knew my mindset would be better if i had a swim.  and actually, it really was! :)  also, yellow shorts man (dick) was there today.  hadn't seen him in ages because of my long break from the pool.  he was wearing red shorts!  i hardly recognized him! ;)  he thought i had given up on swimming.  nope!

then i headed home and rang katie rugh on the way, figuring that she wouldn't answer (she never does) so i'd leave yet another message.  she answered!  and right away! :)  so i talked to her for like an hour and a half.  i'm still working on getting her to come visit.  she says beginning of may.  that's quickly approaching!  and we just caught up on life.  it was really fun! :)  i miss her!

then i made myself a little dinner.  and once that was gone, i headed over to longs to pick up a couple little things.  and then i had a nice chat online with kath and life and all that.  i needed her reassurance and all that.  she's so good to me. :)  and i talked to the parents, too.  i requested a new computer.  mine's... too old.  i love it but i can't illustrate on it and that's a major problem for me.  i need to be able to do design work at home.  i can't limit myself to doing that only at work.  so cross your fingers for me.  dad says he knows i need one and that he looks at the ads.   but now i need him to act on his knowledge! :)

lots of tv is waiting for me tonight.  there was plenty to record.  seeing as though it'll be 11 before i get started on watching, i'm guessing i'll only get to "nashville star" tonight.  the rest can wait, though. :)

i'll be back for more tomorrow.  i hope you will, too! ;)  g'night.

monday 24 april 2006 10:22pm

"nights are long and dreams are cold
if they're all you wake up to
but should you rise with cryin' eyes
i'll take care of you
so let them talk about us
let them call us funny things
people sometimes do
i don't care as long
as you know i love you" -- dixie chicks "i'll take care of you"

i'm feeling better today. :)  not perfect but definitely more like normal.  i wasn't bored today.  in fact, time kind of got away from me, especially tonight.  anyway, i'm here now writing for you.  enjoy! ;)

it took me awhile to fall asleep last night (as i pretty much knew it would), but i managed to sleep pretty much all the way through the night.  i remember a really nice dream. :)  sad it's not (yet) reality but i did get up with the alarm clock this morning anyway.  i hopped into the shower and got cleaned up.  i found some breakfast and messed around on the computer checking email and things like that (also checking facebook).  and i did eventually head off to work a couple minutes late.  turns out if i leave a couple minutes later than usual i miss most of the monday traffic at dana hills high school.  rad! ;)

work today was super mellow, which was perfectly fine with me, as i wasn't feeling especially motivated.  i do have a short list of things to accomplish, though.  so i took care of some work stuff and also caught up with co-workers, read the morning news, and even discovered the latest celebrity gossip stories.  actually, i should stop reading that crap, but it's fun! :)  for lunch, melissa wanted to go to daphne's, so even though i had some leftover pizza in the fridge at work i went with her and jan for lunch out. :)  and it was nice enough that we even sat outside. :)  plus, my chicken pita was delicious!  i'd go there way more often if it wasn't expensive.  anyway, lunch was nice.  and after getting a little work done in the afternoon, diana came in for a chat.  and we decided that frozen yogurt sounded great, so her and lea and i went down to goodie's for a little afternoon treat.  :)  so good!  i think we all needed that!  and i worked a little more (and read more news and whatever online) before heading out pretty promptly at 5.

after work, i headed to salt creek to the stairs.  the gas light in the volvo came on not long after i left the office, so i checked out gas station prices on my way there figuring i'd stop on my way home after working out.  $3.17.  $3.19.  $3.22.  $3.29.  yikes!  but i would be running on fumes before long.  so i went headed to the beach.  i had a good workout, listening to a blink-182 album and working my butt off!  that's a pretty one to get me motivated for all those stairs! :)  it was sunny out there today but quite windy so there weren't so many people out.  fine with me.  less people for me to walk around. ;)

and after a great workout, i headed home.  but i needed gas, remember.  so i headed further north figuring i'd go to a different gas station altogether.  (i had a specific one in mind.)  and i had to drive through sort of the edge of laguna beach to get there.  but i passed a gas station that was only $3.15, so i stopped there instead.  and i was stoked to pay just $3.15!  ... until i realized that that's the most i've ever paid for a gallon of gas and i was buying an entire tank.  lame!  but still i somehow felt like i was getting a deal because i saw all those way more expensive stations today.  haha!  oh, this is so messed up!  anyway, so then my car and i headed home.

i got cleaned up and then talked to the family for awhile.  they're doing well. :)  and i had some dinner, too.  then i wanted to get some work done for bobby but my computer just wasn't up to it so i had to give up for the night after about 90 minutes of struggle.  i'm going to need more power or something.  i haven't quite sorted out what i'll do yet.  i'll figure something out, though, i'm sure.  and then it was time for one of my favorite shows right now, "everwood."  ugh!  it's upsetting because i'm invested in the characters like a total girl. :)  bright is probably my favorite character but... i don't know.  i'm mad at him even though i get it.  and it'll get worse next week so there will likely be more tears.  and how much do i love ephram these days?  he keeps getting better!  i really like him.  so anyway, i do enjoy this show.  even if it is very emotionally draining. :)  that's my own personal problem. ;)

and now i'm just about to head to bed.  i guess i'm a bit early again, which is awesome for me, right? :)  so i'll be back with more later.  g'night. ;)

sunday 23 april 2006 9:24pm

"lord it's more than just thirsty that i'm feeling inside
'cause these tears i've been crying have left me bone dry
i wish the bartender had a cure i could buy
but the truth is i'm only drinking me lonely tonight...
who cares who's right or wrong tonight my better half is gone
and this whisky's laying claim to all that's left
i'll just order up another and pretend i'm alright
when the truth is i'm only drinking me lonely tonight" -- chris young "drinkin' me lonely"

honestly, today was quite boring.  i realize that this is likely entirely my own fault but it's still the truth.  i'm going to need to make real plans for myself next weekend because i can't spend another entire weekend really not doing anything.  i mean, it's cool to rest and chill and all that but after awhile i get antsy.  too antsy.  so yeah, that's kind of how today was... really slow.  but i'm here now and ready to write before "grey's anatomy" starts. :)

somehow i ended up going to bed really late last night.  again, we know that's not because i was out partying or anything like that! ;)  and for some reason sometimes my apartment takes on smells from toher apartments.  the one i notice most often is that sometimes my living room will smell like cigarettes.  it sucks.  well last night, my bedroom smelled very strongly like some cheezy candle or something.  i think it was peach scent but mostly those things all just smell like candy to me.  lame!  i hate that!  it was so strong i was so distracted by it that i had a hard time falling asleep.  (or at least that's what i blamed my problem on.)  crazy!  but i did eventually get some sleep.  and i magically woke up like an hour before i needed to leave for church.  perfect timing.

so i got cleaned up a little bit and got dressed.  then i made myself some french toast with that think, texas-style cinnamon bread.  delicious!  and i enjoyed it while reading the sunday paper.  there was an interesting article on illegal immigrants who attend uc schools.  i was glad to read an interesting piece on the subject of immigration finally.

then i headed down to st. edwards for 11am mass.  it was really not crowded at all today, and the church was all decked out in tons of flowers for the easter season.  and it was a clear morning so looking out onto the ocean was beautiful. :)  mass was good.  bishop todd was there today and he was confirming over 100 kids at the 12:30 mass.  glad i didn't decide to go to that one! ;)  and after mass, i went to get the car washed because it was crazy dirty after sitting in the airport parking lot last weekend.

i spent the afternoon here very bored.  i just wasn't sure what to do with myself.  i cleaned up around here and had lunch but then i wasn't sure.  i read some.  i did some sudoku.  i made some phone calls and ended up having chats with dad and then katherine.  katherine was trouble today! ;)  she got me onto facebook, which i'd been resisting forever.  and she got me looking for all the old kids from elementary school.  it was pretty crazy, actually.  a good number of them were on there.  and i'm sure i have overlooked many.  so of course i got caught up looking at that for awhile.  kind of lame but whatever. ;)

then i headed to the shopping center next door to pick up a take-and-bake pizza for dinner.  i had a coupon for a large for $6.  seemed like a good deal!  and it was quite delicious really. :)  and the rest will make economical lunches.

and now i'm just messing around on the computer and writing this.  i thought "housewives" and "grey's" were new this week but they're both just recap episodes, which aren't all that interesting to me.  i have seen this stuff already! :)  so i'll likely sit here at the computer awhile longer and then crash.  hopefully the week will keep me busy!

more from me next time.  for now, g'night. ;)

saturday 22 april 2006 11:38pm

"i've sure enjoyed the rain
but i'm looking forward to the sun
you have to feel the pain
when you lose the love you gave someone
i thought by now the time
would take away these lonely tears
i hope you're doing fine all alone
but where do i go from here
'cause without you i'm not okay
and without you i've lost my way
my heart's stuck in second place
without you" -- dixie chicks "without you"

i'm watching the "snl" that was taped (and broadcast, too, i suppose) when i was in new york a few weeks back.  the jamba juice sketch just ended.  :)  funny stuff!  i <3 jamba juice!

saturday has been super, super mellow.  i really haven't been up to much at all.  that's perfectly fine with me. :)  first of all, i crawled into bed pretty late last night and fell asleep right away.  i can hardly even remember my head hitting the pillow.  and i slept decently well all through the night.  i needed that for sure.  and even once i was awake this morning, i just kind of lied there for awhile.  no hurries today. :)  and i did eventually switch on the tv for a bit, as well.

i did actually manage to get out of bed by like 11 this morning. :)  and i rang the family because i knew they wanted to hear about last night's maggie awards.  so i gave them the rundown on the whole evening and chatted about other various things.  they're doing fine.  and i made myself a small pizza for meal #1, though i think i ate too much of it because i wasn't feeling that hot afterwards.  also, i watched the nick lachey special on mtv, "what's left of me."  is it bad that it made me cry?  i really feel for him!  and he seems so nice and like he loves jessica so much.  plus, the stuff with his dad was adorable.  love those mid-western values. ;)  anyway, then i sort of sprawled out on the couch and spent the next hour or so drifting between asleep and awake and it was lovely! :)

i eventually decided that i should get up off the couch and get myself cleaned up so i headed for the shower.  i found some clothes and headed out.  i had a package from sarah waiting for me at the apartment office!  what a rad surprise! :)  it is kate spade playing cards!  she got them for me when we were in nyc and she spotted them and bought them without me looking. :)  and they even say "new york" on them!  so i will add them to my collection of playing cards from around the world. awesome!  then i headed to the beauty supply for conditioner and the drug store for mascara.  meg was telling me last weekend that all the stores she went to had removed their max factor sections -- including our beloved 2000 calorie mascara -- so she thought maybe the brand didn't exist any more.  luckily, that's not the case and there was a newly re-branded max factor section in longs, so i picked up 2000 calorie mascara for me and for her. :)  the next stop was vons to get a jamba juice.  mmm!  saturday dinner out!  okay, i know that's a little lame but i like it!  something weird was up there, though, because they were out of a ton of fruits, including strawberries, which go into my citrus squeeze.  so i had one without strawberries, which was tasty but not perfect.  and costco is right there, so i stopped in to pick up things like soap, gum, chicken parmesan, and bread.  and then i headed down to hollywood video (if you knew your way around here you'd know i did all this in the wrong order geographically).  i rented a couple movies and paid a nice late fee and headed home.

then i had a little popcorn and started in on the mini movie marathon.  first up was "bad news bears," (the new one) which was entertaining. :)  and then i watched "bride and preudice," which was more bollywood and less "bend it like beckham" than i had wanted.  still, i'm a sucker for that story no matter how it's told. :)  plus, i had a little chocolate gelato to round out my evening!

and now i'm thinking i'll tuck in pretty soon.  i'm not up to anything really.  more from me tomorrow, though.  g'night! ;)

saturday 22 april 2006 12:27am

"more love, i can hear our hearts crying
more love, i know that's all we need
more love, to flow in between us
to take us and hold us and lift us above
if there's ever an answer
it's more love" -- dixie chicks "more love"

i'm tired and i'm kind of anxious to get to bed but i did want to fill you in on how my friday went.  it was a pretty good day, actually! :)

so i wasn't quite asleep but 11 but i was in bed and so that was pretty good.  i got a little rest and then the alarm clock woke me this morning.  i got cleaned up and dressed and found some breakfast.  then i gathered all my things for tonight and headed out the door just in the nick of time.

work today was fine.  nothing too crazy now that the magazines are gone.  i had some brochure stuff to take care of, as well as the st. jude's newsletter that needed a complete draft done today.  so i did get to work this morning knowing it would be a short day.  for lunch, marke, melissa, jenna, and i went down to san clemente pizza company to pick up food, and that was totally delicious! :)  and then i got some more work done before about 3.  that's when we took off.  :)

melissa, jenna, and i met at jenna's apartment to get ready for tonight's maggie awards banquet.  it was all the way up in la and started around 6 so we needed to hit the road.  so i put on a touch of makeup and the red dress i wore to christmas and we all headed out.  we met up with diana at south coast plaza and then went all in melissa's car the rest of the way up to the westin lax.  the coctail reception was going on when we arrived but we found a cozy place in the lounge and sipped cocktails (or in my case, diet coke).  it was actually nice. :)  and then it was time for the dinner to start.  we met up with john and his wife, dawn, who were already at our table.  the dinner was alright.  the service was really poor.  oh, well.  and there were a ton (85) of awards given out.  we were nominated in 2 categories, but didn't win any.  there's always next year, though, right?  the people at the table next to us were betting quarters on the all the awards, which was actually really entertaining to watch!  i told jenna we're totally playing that next time!  they paid attention to all 85 awards and enjoyed themselves.  seems like a good idea, right? ;)  anyway, it was a nice evening.

and now i'm all the way back home.  and tired.  i'm not sure still if i have a head cold or just allergies but my only symptom is a runny nose.  it still stinks, though, so i'm hoping to get lots of healing rest tonight.  wish me luck! ;)  more from me tomorrow.  g'night.

thursday 20 april 2006 10:04pm

"i believe in love, i believe in love
a love that's real, love that's strong
love that lives on and one
yes, i believe in love
yes, i believe in love" -- dixie chicks "i believe in love"

is this half a runny nose because of allergies, a cold, or something entirely different?  i'm not sure but i'm not loving it.  maybe it's that i haven't been getting enough sleep.  anyway, i'm committed to getting to bed early tonight.  at least by 11.  here's to hoping i can make that happen!  that gives me about 50 minutes from right now.  wish me luck! ;)

again, i haven't been getting enough sleep lately.  i have trouble getting to sleep and staying asleep.  it's my own personal problem.  whatever.  not a huge deal.  anyway, i was relieved to get out of bed when teh alarm went off this morning, and i headed for the shower.  i got cleaned up and dressed and even had a good breakfast because i have food! :)  yay!  haha!  then i packed up a gym bag and headed off to work on a sunny morning.

work went very well this morning despite a somewhat crazy start.  when i got in promptly at 9 (no one else was in the art department yet, of course), john was already very busy cleaning the office.  he wants everyone's offices and desks straightened and all that.  my desk was clean but he did inform me he wanted the other desks in there cleaned up. and i got to hear about why he has a thing against those magazine rack things that i had requested earlier.  i'm still unsure about whether or not i'm getting any, though.  anyway, i also took the opportunity to do a little spring cleaning and trashed a bunch of old papers that i don't need anymore.  awesome!  that was like half my stuff!  and then it was time to get to work on the magazine that was meant to ship today.  amazingly, we had it totally ready before lunch today.  that's like a miracle! :)  and i love it!  that was definitely excellent!  so for lunch, i needed to go to the bank to sort some stuff out and that went quite well actually.  and since i was there, i headed across the parking lot to romano's and ordered a nice, big lunch for myself to bring back to the office.  i knew it'd be peaceful around there because melissa and jenna went to get pedicures on their lunch break.  (i don't need one so i passed.)  anyway, my lunch was fabulous and i read a magazine while reading. :)  awesome!  and the afternoon was spent taking care of smaller things and also sorting through all the crap in my email inbox.  it had been getting a bit out of control, but it's definitely very manageable now. :)  so work was good.  but i still wasn't feeling awesome because of this pesky nose thing.

so... :)... i skipped the workout i had planned and did something else fun (and healthy?) instead.  i had learned that they put a jamba juice in the von's store near me so i finally made it there!  i got myself a wonderful citrus squeeze but instead of my standard vita boost went with an immunity boost just in case i actually do have a little cold or something.  and it was such a good dinner!  especially after such a big lunch!  it was perfect!  then i headed home and seriously bummed around the apartment.  i watched two hours of "the bedford diaries" and last week's "the o.c."  and then i put a ton of dirty dishes in the dishwasher and called the family.  conversations seemed to have returned to a more normal state, so i'm thankful for that.  in fact, adam and i watched all of tonight's "the o.c." while on the phone together.  :)  also, i think i picked out what i'm going to wear to the maggie awards tomorrow night.  the dress i wore to christmas with different shoes.  (of course, i always reserve the right to change my mind at the very last second! :))  so i should be all set for tomorrow.  at least i hope!  i'm not especially looking forward to driving to la on a friday afternoon (probably crammed in the back of someone else's car) but it's definitely not my average friday night.  and it could be cool!  i'll report back tomorrow. :)

ok, so i have 39 more minutes to get into bed.  more tomorrow post-maggies!  g'night! ;)

wednesday 19 april 2006 10:23pm

"i'm gonna show you what love can be
my job won't be done until you believe
i am that man
you're trying to find
i am that man
you had in mind
and i'll give you all my love
'til you understand
i won't give up
'cause i know
i am that man
you're trying to find" -- brooks & dunn "i am that man"

i'm not exactly sure what i want to write tonight.  i mean, i know i generally just write about my day and whatever and i'm certain that's what will come out tonight but i'm still a little unsure.  i had a great day and was in a really good mood most of the day.  currently, however, i'm... i don't know.  it's mixed, i guess.  i know i had a good day but that doesn't mean i don't have moments where i feel a bit disappointed.  anyway, i'm just rambling about nothing.  i should just get to my day.  it was actually quite nice. :)

i did not get enough sleep last night.  i was definitely very far from ready to get up when the alarm woke me up.  ugh.  but of course i knew i had to get up anyway so i did.  i got into the shower and got cleaned up.  i didn't have any food at all for breakfast in the apartment, so after checking email and things like that i headed out.  i picked up a bagel and fresh oj on my way into the office.

and work.  well, work continues to be very hectic and very crazy but in the end i know i'm getting a lot of stuff done, so i guess that's alright.  it is, however, a good thing we don't work at this place every single day because i think it'd make us all a bit nuts. ;)  at one point this morning -- and again this afternoon -- i had so many things on my plate to get done i wasn't even sure where to start and my attempts at multi-tasking were crashing my indesign.  oh, well.  i did actually get lots of stuff done today.  i even submitted a brochure to the printer and then had to go back revise it and resubmit it but i got that all done.  it's definitely not my favorite thing to go back like that.  and i think "cots" is in good shape to get shipped to the printer tomorrow.  awesome! :)  oh, and for a nice little lunch break, jan, jenna, melissa, and i went to super bowl.  tasty as ever! :)  so yeah, work went well in the sense that i got a lot accomplished, but it was still crazy.

and after work i headed out promptly.  i came all the way home, changed for a walk on the beach, and then went over to the salon to meet with bobby for a minute.  he's awesome to work with because he's so excited!  he picked out a bunch of color combos that he wants to use as background/foreground with his logo.  and you know how i know we should work together?  i love all of them!  seriously!  they're so awesome!  they're totally stuff i would have picked! :)  yay!  so i'm going to put together some more stuff for him pretty soon! :)

and then it was straight back down golden lantern to meet diana at salt creek beach.  we discovered that we both like to walk there for exercise, so we decided to go together.  anyway, i met her and she showed me a long path that involves lots of walking on sand and also walking up a big hill and along a path.  it's all very cool, and i'll definitely be back there, whether with her or not. :)  and i love talking with diana.  :)  plus, we both just kind of stopped at one point and said, "wow!  it's incredible that we can see this beautiful place every day.  we're so lucky."  also, she's challenging.  like she asked me what my goals for the year are.  and i couldn't answer, but i know it's a good question.  i'm going to have to do some thinking on that.  so it was a great walk.  about an hour, i'd say.  hopefully, we'll do that again! :)

then i headed home.  and i started talking with chris on the phone (he's so stoked about moving out here in a couple months that it kills him to hear about my trips to the beach and all that fun stuff) but his lady called so he had to go.  we'll pick up where we left off soon, though. :)

so i figured that i should get cleaned up so i could get on with my evening.  i threw on some clothes and headed out on a couple errands.  i needed food.  badly.  ;)  so i first went to trader joe's to pick up some stuff, and then i went over to ralph's to pick up the rest.  real grocery stores are trouble.  i only needed a couple things really but i ended up with too much.  oops!  at least i'll have plenty of food around for awhile. :)  then i headed home so i could get everything put away.

i made myself a delicious dinner of tortellini and settled in for an episode of "big love."  i need to get caught up.  i'm behind! :)  and then i ended up on the phone with the family for awhile, mostly with dad.  he even called back after i thought i was done because he wanted to make sure that adam and i aren't fighting.  i'm not really fighting with my brother.  i just don't think he's quite ready to have a serious discussion about college with me and that's frustrating to me because he makes it seem like he's serious about stuff when apparently he's not.  i don't really understand what's going on there.  rest assured, however, that my opinions on the matter will be expressed, whether or not anyone wants to hear what i have to say.  i mean they say they do, but i remain unconvinced.  but we have a year i guess, so we'll see how things develop.

and then the internet stopped working.  it took like 15 minutes on the phone with a condescending computer to get things working right again.  at least i'm online again so i can get this posted! :)  and as soon as i do, i plan on crashing.  i'm really tired and it looks like i have plans for the next two nights with work people so i need to be not cranky. ;)

ok, that really is enough out of me.  g'night! ;)

tuesday 18 april 2006 11:03pm

"there might be a little dust on the bottle
but don't let it fool ya about what's inside
there might be a little dust on the bottle
it's one of those things that gets sweeter with time
she was sittin' in the porch swing as i pulled up the driveway
my ol' heart was racing as she climbed inside
she slid over real close and we drove down to the lake road
watched the sun fade in that big red sky" -- david lee murphy "dust on the bottle"

so it was a lovely day down here in laguna and things seem to be going well enough (for now).  :)  it was a somewhat busy day but it was still a fun one.  i mean, it was just tuesday, but i'm feeling alright.  that's good enough, right? :)

i got to bed at a decent hour last night.  in the middle of the night i woke up from a really intense dream, though i can't say exactly what it was about.  all i remember is that it was intense.  weird.  but i managed to get myself back to sleep okay and can't remember much else until the alarm(s) went off this morning.  i got cleaned up and had a little breakfast.  i put on a cute skirt (because sunny days are the best days for summery skirts, right?) and headed out.

work continues to be a bit insane.  it's not unmanageable but it still feels like everything is rushed and that there's too much miscommunication or changes of plan or things like that.  i think for the moment everything is sorted, but still.  i'd rather have a plan when i set out to do something and then get to stick to that plan, you know?  so the morning started out with the showcase ad changing forms a couple times.  and guess what.  the day is (clearly) over but it still isn't really finalized.  ugh.  but i'm working on it!  and somewhere in the process of creating the showcase and trying to figure out what shape it needs to be, i got distracted by diana in her office, where we ended up chatting for awhile.  i love those times, though!  they're what makes working at rtc great! :)  anyway, i did eventually get back to work.  what else did i do today?  put together a whole brochure that will hopefully get wrapped up very soon.  so work today was good.  plus, jan, jenna, melissa, and i went up the road to stillwater for some lunch.  delicious! :)  i like that place and it's especially nice on a warm day.

after work, i was starving but i had vowed to get to the pool today because it had been so so so so long.  so i went to the pool.  and it was kind of weird because it was so light out and i didn't realize how i'd grown to like swimming in the dark during the winter.  now it's like full daylight.  no hiding that way! ;)  but anyway, the swim made me a bit sore when i started out, but i quickly got into the rhythm of it all and it ended up going well.  so yeah, back into the pool! :)

then i headed home and got cleaned up.  i played today's "bonds on bonds" while making myself some dinner, which was delicious.  now i officially have no food left in the house.  nothing for breakfast and nothing for dinner.  i meant to go to the grocery tonight but it somehow didn't happen.  anyway, then i got in contact with bobby.  he's printing stuff with my logo!  hooray!  i'm so excited!  so all that went well.  hmm... what else have i been up to?  i had an interesting chat with troy for a bit.  i talked to mom and found out grandma got discharged from the hospital yesterday!  yay! :)  and i watched too much tv. :)  "gilmore girls" was really fun and i'm looking forward to more next week because it was a total cliffhanger ending.  "blow out" was as insane as ever with jonathan doing awesome hair!  and the packaging on that water filter was absolutely drop-dead gorgeous.  it made me want to buy it just for the package.  ;)  and then!  "nashville star!"  woohoo!  yeehaw!  i love this show!  and it was wonderful this week with the top performances being chris young (duh) and also casey rivers (i'm proud of him).  i'm sad there are only two more episodes but it's been a great series with so many talented people! :)

and i need to get to bed now.  more from me tomorrow.  g'night! ;)

monday 17 april 2006 10:35pm

"there it was at the tip of my fingers
there it was on the tip of my tongue
there you were and i had never been that far
there it was, the whole world
wrapped inside my arms
and i let it all slip away" -- rascal flatts "words i couldn't say"

things feel a lot more settled tonight, even if nothing has particularly changed.  i'm more calm.  and it was a pretty good day -- especially considering it was a monday -- so i'm doing just fine. :)

i didn't get as much sleep as might be desirable last night, but i got more than i had really expected.  and i got up with the alarm, whether i wanted to or not. ;)  anyway, i got cleaned up, had a little breakfast, and got dressed.  and i headed off to work a little bit early this morning knowing the monday morning traffic near dana hills high school would be back to normal today.  but really the drive was nice and i was rocking out with my keith anderson cd so i didn't mind too much.  and the sun was out! :)

work today was pretty crazy!  there was just so much to get done all in one day and so i was basically working like heck the entire day.  i started off my morning gathering all the materials that had come in over the weekend for the magazine.  (they're way late!)  i took some time to wrap up all the figures and then it was straight to laying out my section.  this was supposed to happen ages ago but when you don't have the material, it's not really possible.  so today was the day.  i needed to have my section together for ad placement in the morning.  and i got that all wrapped up pretty nicely earlier than expected so i jumped on melissa's section.  (she's on vacation so jenna and i are finishing the stuff she started before she left.)  and actually, it was interesting to work on a section i'd never done before.  new challenges and whatnot.  and i made good progress on that so jenna had all the materials before lunch to do ad placement.  so i took a couple minutes to run up the road to z pizza and pick up lunch, which i ate at my desk while continuing to work on more stuff.  there was a showcase ad (my least favorite, generally) to be created and sent out for proofs.  and then, jenna did ad placement and i had to make all those adjustments to my section and have it ready so that it could get shipped from the ups place before 5:30.  i was working frantically, but i think i finished printing at like 5:25.  :)  and after getting a pdf proof out to all the necessary people, i called it a day, totally exhausted and knowing there's a list of things for me to do tomorrow, as well.

i changed and then headed for salt creek beach.  it was a sunny evening, after all, and the stairs are an excellent place for a workout on such evenings. :)  and for some reason, it was really quiet around there.  not so many people illegally walking their dogs there.  anyway, i had miranda lambert blasting on my ipod and i worked hard!  it was a great workout, though i was definitely quite tired by the end.  i guess that's how you know you worked just hard enough -- when you can just barely finish.  and so i headed home.

there's something about going to the beach and working out.  it helps me think.  or maybe it's just a good time for me to think.  i don't know.  i sorted some stuff out in my head while i was there tonight, and i'm thankful for that time.  some stuff just required my attention and it got that while i was doing stairs.  so it's sorted.  i'm back to my usual reasonable yet optimistic perspective on life. :)

i really haven't been up to too much around here tonight.  i talked to sarah because i tend to do that a lot, especially after clearing out my head a bit. :)  she's good at listening to me blabber on about whatever.  also, dad and adam called from evanston, illinois.  they saw notre dame today and they're going to northwestern tomorrow.  adam and i are in a bit of a... disagreement.  i am trying to help, but we'll see.  sometimes he's so stubborn and so am i.  and then i took some time to catch on the tv that's been waiting for me on the dvr.  seemed like a good night to chill and just do that.  so i watched last week's "everwood," yesterday's "desperate housewives," and tonight's "everwood."  all of it was excellent.  you must know by now that i really love "everwood," and it continues to live up to expectations. :)  also, no tears for these two episodes!  amazing! ;)  hehe!

so now i'm just about ready to tuck into bed.  a few minutes early, even! ;)  g'night!

sunday 16 april 2006 9:58pm

"i'm over here
looking at you
you're over there
watching me too
both painting pictures of
of how we'll kiss and ...
so what we gonna do
so what ya gonna do, what ya gonna do
tell me why we're standing here
the moment's passion's all so clear
you've got my mind blown
and baby i'm ready to go" -- mariah carey "say somethin'"

i made it back to the oc and to my apartment, which feels nice.  i'm comfortable here.  i'm comfortable at my parents' house, too, but this space is all me and i like that.  anyway, today was a nice easter sunday and i enjoyed myself.  tonight, i feel like there are a million things running through my mind, and i'm a bit overwhelmed.  it's not that anything is particularly wrong or that i have too much stuff to worry about.  some of the things are even really exciting.  it's just that there's so much going on in my head that i'm not sure how to sort it all out.  i'll survive but i just wanted to share.  this is my space, after all.  :)

mom got me up this morning early enough that i'd have time to get cleaned up and ready before we left for the city.  i pulled myself out of bed and into the shower.  then i got dressed (not so much in my sunday best but jeans and a purple top so that's kind of easter-y).  we headed off to the city, stopping just to pick up auntie lily first.  we arrived up there a little before 11 and walked around (i honestly am not even really sure where exactly we were) and stopped for some coffee at starbucks.  plus, we browsed through a bookstore for a bit because auntie lily discovered that i like to do sudoku, to which she is also addicted.  :)  she wanted to get me a book, so she got me one that's full of harder puzzles.  should provide some good entertainment. ;)  and then we headed to the hospital.  that was actually our destination this morning, not starbucks or the bookshop.  grandma's there right now because she is being treated for an abscess.  we met up with jason & brenda, auntie joyce, chris, and caroline there.  grandma seemed to mostly be in good spirits and very excited to see me! :)  the people at the hospital let us use a hospitality suite (i guess that's what it would be called) with couches and chairs and a bathroom and whatever so we could hang out together.  and at one point, they delivered grandma's lunch to her room so i went with her there while she ate.  she didn't eat too much, though, because she said her appetite had been spoiled.  yesterday her doctor told her she'd be able to leave with us today for a couple hours to have lunch out.  the doctor on duty today, however, told her she couldn't.  and even though yesterday she said she didn't really want to leave for lunch today she didn't really mean that and she had wanted to have a little time out.  anyway, she ate a little and was chatty so that was fine.  also, she should be discharged in the next day or two it seems.

after we left grandma, we all went down the block to pasta pomodoro for a nice easter lunch.  it was yet another huge meal during my weekend!  it ended up being 4 courses between the appetizers, salad, sandwich, and dessert.  all of it was really delicious! :)  and it was nice to hang out with the family a bit, even if they tease me.  it's good fun!  but then it was time to head back.

i packed my suitcase and just hung out with mom a bit before it was time for her to take me to the airport in san jose.  i got on my plane (which was 20 minutes late) fine and it was an okay flight.  i tried to read some but it was too noisy and i guess i just didn't feel like it so i tried to sleep on the tray table a little bit.  and then we were on the ground at john wayne.  and then we were on the tarmac for like 20 more minutes because there was a plane in our gate when we landed.  lame!  oh, well.  i eventually got off my plane and caught the shuttle to the parking lot.  and now i'm back home!  lots of travel, but i'm here now.

i'm going to try to relax and unwind a bit before just crashing.  there's lots of tv waiting for me on my dvr but i think it will all have to wait until later.  more from me tomorrow.  for now, g'night! ;)

saturday 15 april 2006 11:16pm

"i cannot help it, i couldn't stop it if i tried
the same old heartbeat fills the emptiness i have inside
and i've heard that you can't fight love so i won't complain
'cause why would i stop the fire that keeps me going on
'cause when there's you i feel whole
and there's no better feeling in the world
but without you i'm alone
and i'd rather be in love with you" -- michelle branch "i'd rather be in love"

the weekend i'm spending up here in san carlos is a bit like a mini vacation. it has included lots of eating out, a decent amount of sleep in a bed that isn't really mine, fun outings, and people i adore. :) could a girl ask for more than that? ;) so i'm having a good time despite the rain and wind and all that. the break is nice.

this morning mom got me up at like 8ish and i got cleaned up and dressed so we could go out for breakfast. i honestly wasn't even hungry after last night's feast at benihana but i wasn't going to turn down a free meal in a restaurant. ;) so mom and i headed down to broiler express, one of my favorite places to eat breakfast around here because it's both delicious and cheap, for pancakes and eggs. delicious, though i ate less than half of what was on my plate. and then we headed back home. i was still unsure of the rest of the day's plans really (like timing and all that) but i did eventually get ahold of both troy and kath to work stuff out. and then i had some time to do whatever so i curled up on the couch and read more of my book for awhile.

then this afternoon it was time for one of the major events on my list for the weekend. :) troy picked me up and we headed up to the city to see "the 25th annual putnam county spelling bee!" yeah, the same show i saw with sarah in nyc. i wanted to see it again and it's really one of those shows that's different each time around. we made it up there alright and didn't get especially lost walking from the parking garage to the theatre. then we got settled into what were actually pretty great seats and the show started. it was absolutely hilarious! all the jokes were great! and there was one guy from the audience who could really, realy spell and it took a few words (i would tell you which workds but they're not words i know and i definitely cannot spell them) to get him off that stage! :) so fun!!! so troy and i both really enjoyed ourselves. it was a great way to spend an afternoon!

he brought me back to the house, and then i arranged plans with katherine for tonight. she picked me up and we decided to just head over to hillsdale to have dinner at california pizza kitchen there and then walk around a bit. it was nice, and there was loads of time to catch up on life. also, because i know you've been waiting for this announcement from me... she's going to go to stanford in the fall after she graduates from davis! yay! she's so crazy smart! and it means she'll be around whenever i'm up here visiting so i don't have to make her take the train 3 hours from davis. woot! ;) anyway, i'm so proud of her! so yeah, dinner was great and after walking around the mall we picked up ice cream and headed back here, where we sat and talked awhile more until eventually she decided to get back home.

so now i'm just here hanging out and not up to a whole lot. it's been a good weekend so far and i'm ready for easter tomorrow. i suppose i should find a way to occupy myself. i already finished my book ("always the bridesmaid" -- so cute!) so maybe i'll start a new one... or maybe i'll just swith on the tv. either way, should be a relaxing rest of the night. ;) g'night!

friday 14 april 2006 11:20pm

"in my mind
everything we did was right
open your eyes, i'll still be by your side...
you give me something to sleep to
at night" -- michelle branch "something to sleep to"

so i have a minute tonight to give you another quick update because i'm really not up to too much and it seems like a decent thing to do. :) it was a good afternoon and evening around here.

i hung around the house for awhile this afternoon. becky was around and relatively chatty and it wasn't too long before mom was back here, as well. i read some more of my book and read a magazine (and got a cute idea for rings for the shower curtain in my apartment!). nothing too spectacular but that's fine really.

eventually meg rang. she made it up here (from morro bay) and was headed over here to pick me up. we sat around and chatted and caught up for awhile before heading out to benihana. mmm! benihana! :) it was crowded but we had a reservation. and dinner was so excellent! i ate entirely too much (no surprise there!) but it was all delicious! :) and the chef was pretty good, as well, with his little tricks and whatnot. and we were so stuffed when we left there but megs wanted frozen yogurt so we went to yumi yogurt (i cannot even remember the last time i was there), picked up dessert, and brought it back to the house to enjoy. :) and we talked and whatever. it was so much fun! we don't get to see each other as much as we'd like so we really enjoy what time we do have. she's headed back to monterey tomorrow for work so she basically came up just to see me. :)

and i guess i should get some sleep. i think mom wants to get up early tomorrow and go out to breakfast (food is the last thing on my mind at this point but i'm sure by morning that will have changed) and do a little shopping. then i'll head into the city for a show. so i'll get back online and update again soon! g'night! ;)

friday 14 april 2006 2:39pm

"you're the one i need
i believe that i would cry just a little
just to have you back now
here with me
here with me" -- michelle branch "here with me"

ok, so i'm writing from home (meaning the house where i grew up) today and that's not where i last wrote from. after a kind of weird day at work yesterday, i sat in traffic all the way to john wayne, caught my plane (that was 45 minutes late on a particularly inconvenient night for me to be late), and made it all the way to san jose. ::sigh:: it's not warm and sunshiny here today and i likely won't be all weekend. maybe this helps me to appreciate the oc more. but i doubt it. ;) anyway, so the whole family picked me up from the airport, mostly because i had only a few moments to spend with dad and adam before their tour of the middle (meaning the middle of the country because i've taken the liberty to lump it all together ;)). anyway, so i chatted with them all the way home and then we hung out for like half an hour before we had to leave to bring dad and adam to the airport in san francisco. they got there fine and mom and i headed home. i was pretty tired and the parents never stay up late so i just watched leno and a bit of conan and then crashed.

oh! i nearly forgot! yesterday morning before heading to work, i headed over to the salon to drop off bobby's logo. i had a cd with the file(s) and print-outs just so he could see right away. anyway, he told me the night before that probably ashley would be there so i could give it to her or if not just leave it with whoever was there. so i fully intended to leave it with ashley when i arrived because she was right there, but she said bobby was there so i headed toward the back and delivered it to him instead. he was so so so so excited! awesome! :) and he opened it all up and looked at the printouts and said he loved it! yay! success! and i'm meant to ring him when i get back home (meaning where i live) so we can meet up and talk more about other design stuff. rad! and he gave me a big old hug and said he was going to try to get some stuff printed this weekend because he was off or something. anyway, i'm excited and so is bobby, so yay!

and as for today, the highlight thus far was getting to sleep in. :) i like those opportunities for sure. and then i just hung around here all morning, mostly by myself. mom had a doctor's appointment and then ran an errand or two. there aren't a ton of people around here so it's quiet. i spent a lot of time reading my book, which is fine with me. and then i had a dentist appointment. ugh. depressing. whatever. i'm still alive. that's what matters, right? ;) anyway, and when i got back home, mom's friend becky was here and she paid me a lovely compliment that pretty much erases whatever happened at the dentist. she said "kirsten! you look like a model!" i love becky! i've known her forever and her daughter actually was a model i think so that's sweet of her to say! :)

anyway, i'm hanging out here for awhile. mom had to go into the city for tax something-or-another so it's just me (and becky who apparently is helping mom clean adam's room or something). i guess i'll just hang out. maybe finish off that book. and meg and i are headed to benihana for dinner tonight, which should be wonderfully delicious! yay! :)

now that i've revived my mad html skills i'll probably update again soon. more soon! lates! ;)

wednesday 12 april 2006 10:57pm

"'cause i wanted to fly
so you gave me your wings
and time held its breath so i could see, yeah
and you set me free
there's a will
there's a way
sometimes words just can't explain
this is real
i'm afraid
i guess this time there's just no hiding, fighting
you make me restless
you're in my heart
the only light that shines
there in the dark" -- michelle branch "you set me free"

well, i'm a bit late tonight, but i think that pretty much happens on nights before i am traveling because i get caught up trying to make sure everything's in order for me to be gone for a few days.  anyway, i'm here now, though still not quite ready to go to bed and get up tomorrow and leave for the weekend.  i'll take care of the few small things that remain once i'm done updating, though.

ok, so first of all, the weather has been relatively nice lately.  like 70ish.  and that totally keeps me in very good spirits.  life's great!  (in case you couldn't tell from the entries lately.)  so i'm loving it and totally not looking forward to the gloom and rain that i'm about to get back home this weekend.  anyway, i'm a great mood lately because of the sunshine, and i love that! :)

so anyway, after "nashville star" last night, i headed for bed.  i was definitely up too late again (i saw part of "conan" and that's my sign that it's past my bedtime) but i was okay when the alarm went off so whatever. :)  again, it's the sunshine!  so i got out of bed and cleaned up.  then i put on a cute skirt and a sweater and sandals, grabbed a little breakfast, and headed off to work.  pretty normal.

work today was a bit frustrating because i'm still waiting on stuff that should have been done ages ago but wasn't, which delays me doing my work and also leaves me with not enough things to do throughout the day.  whatever.  i found ways to entertain myself.  the people i work with are excellent distractions! :)  i ended up chatting with diana quite a bit today about various things.  she's so fun and so nice that really we probably could have spent all day chatting like girls had we not had other things to accomplish today.  she's just so talkative and she pays attention!  and me getting distracted by her definitely happened on more than one occasion today.  must have just been one of those days! :)  plus, there are the regular distracters, like marina, melissa, jan, and maggie.  haha!  but actually, i did get as much done as possible today but it just wasn't as much as was planned because of all the late materials.  whatever.  it's still just a magazine and it'll go out when it goes out.

for lunch, everyone was already gone or eating in, so scott and i decided we'd go get food together.  stillwater cafe, just up the road, seemed like a good choice and on a day that was as nice as today we figured the only way to get there was to walk.  seriously, it's like a 2 minute walk.  :)  so we walked up there and had a nice lunch.  scott is a talker.  he'll talk forever if allowed.  today he learned that (1) i lived in london and (2) i am a picky eater.  both were things he wanted to discuss in detail.  and he thinks he can get me to like sushi, though i seriously doubt that.  it's not for me.

after a "full" day of work, i headed for the beach again.  how could i resist really? :)  i forgot a t-shirt in my gym bag so i had to wear the tank-top i had been wearing under my sweater at work, which is so lame.  whatever.  i need to remember to do a better job of packing my bag next time.  anyway, i put on the headphones and went at it.  i had a great workout on the steps and it somehow seemed less painful today.  and the surf was looking good (storms are headed this way, i think) so all the boys were out trying to catch a wave or two tonight.  i love that! ;)  anyway, i love going there to work out when i can!  it's so beautiful!

ok, so then i headed home.  after finding a little dinner and watching last night's episode of "blow out," i got back on the computer and got to work on bobby's fireplace logo.  and actually, i love how it turned out!  if he doesn't want it, i'm going to do something rad with it!  though i already know he is going to want it.  and when i called bobby to tell him that i was done, he was super stoked!  :)  yay!  he wants to have some stuff printed this weekend already!  so cool!  and hopefully, i'll get to meet up with him next week to talk about more and to just talk about design.  so this is great!

i've done other stuff tonight, as well, of course. :)  i talked to sarah online awhile.  :)  i talked to the family briefly.  i've been trying to pack all my stuff for the weekend, though i feel like i don't have anything cute to wear in the rain.  and i have dishes and trash to still take care of.  i've been busy busy busy it seems, but in a good way. :)

so now i'll wrap up whatever i can tonight and then crash before another busy day tomorrow.  i'm working and then heading straight from there to the airport to head to the parents' for easter weekend at grandma's demands.  i'll try to update as much as possible while i'm there.

for now, g'night! ;)

tuesday 11 april 2006 10:32pm

"turn it inside out so i can see
the part of you that's drifting over me
and when i wake you're, you're never there
but when i sleep you're, you're everywhere
you're everywhere...
'cause you're everywhere to me
and when i close my eyes it's you i see
you're everything i know
that makes me believe
i'm not alone
i'm not alone" -- michelle branch "everywhere"

i'm so stoked on michelle branch right now because i'm so stoked about her new country duo, the wreckers and since they don't have an album out yet (next month) i listened to her today.  plus, i just love the words of this song.  and really, i always use words that provide the right message.  anyway, today has again been wonderful.  simple and nothing crazy but just really nice. :)

(i'm currently watching "nashville star" so this will probably take me awhile to write.  just so you know.)

so last night i didn't have a huge dress-up marathon with all the fun things in my closet.  so sad! ;)  hehe!  pretty much after writing this and brushing my teeth, i was off to bed.  i did watch leno and the beginning of conan, however.  :)  and then i fell asleep.  oh, clean sheets!  so fun! :)  i slept decently well until the alarms went off too early this morning.  i headed for the shower and got cleaned up and dressed as quickly as possible.  i told jenna i'd go in early today so that i could leave early, so i have to cut my getting ready time in half pretty much. :)  i'm capable, really.  so i got dressed and threw an english muffin into my purse and headed out.

i got to work early and it was very quiet around there!  so i made my little breakfast and checked email and all that there. :)  it's great to have a computer at work.  haha!  anyway, so i did all the morning stuff that i might normally do here there.  and then  got started with the work that was waiting for me.  really, today was a lot of hurry up and wait.  i'd get little things done but then i'd have to wait before continuing.  the tomorrow morning will start out kind of similar, i know.  it's fine, really.  so yeah, i was doing work but not like non-stop because i had breaks as i waited.  of course, there were also the normal office antics and nonsense and all of that.  the highlight was probably that we watched the first episode of the british (original) version of "the office."  hilarious!  those crazy brits!  they can do and say way more on tv than the fcc allows in this country.  hilarious! :)

for lunch, i was craving wendy's.  sometimes that fast food craving just comes. :)   but there's no wendy's near work so i figured the nearby mcdonalds would just have to do.  so i drove to mcdonalds but realized that i had forgotten my wallet at home.  tragic!  so i drove home to get it and then went to wendy's to pick up food because it's really close to the apartment and i was already all the way up here.  and i ate at my desk while working (and chatting with sarah) and it was so delicious! :)  mmm!

after my full day of work, i left early (4:30) because i had a 5:00 hair appointment up here with bobby, best hair stylist i've ever had.  could this haircut have gone better?  no, no i don't think so. :)  first of all, bobby actually listens when you tell him how much to cut so that's huge points for him.  in fact, it's the reason i've gone back since the first time i tried him out.  second, he shampoos my hair and takes his sweet time, in the process providing a great head massage.  third, he remembers a ton about me and shares a lot about himself, including that him and ashley got engaged and will be getting married next month.  she's a hairdresser there, too, and her ring was beautiful!  they're both super nice.  and then he's a graphic artist on the side.  he's running a clothing brand and is all into it.  i'm going to help him with some stuff, at least a little bit.  i'm freelancing.  or attempting to.  that's so grown-up artist sounding, isn't it?  anyway, i'll fill you all in more as i know more, though i'll work on my first thing for him (a logo) this week.

ok, so after my haircut, i headed home, changed really quickly, and then headed for the beach.  sadly, it wasn't 85 out and i wasn't going to sun myself.  i was going to work out on the stairs, and actually that went quite well.  the surfers were out in full force, it was nice and sunny, and i worked by butt off, so that's a great workout, right? :)  i do live in an awesome place.

then it was back home again.  this time i needed to actually get cleaned up.  and i had a little dinner while also talking to the family on the phone for a bit.  dad's anxious to see me, even though it'll only be very briefly.  next up was watching "bonds on bonds" (pretty good still) while chatting with sarah online.  we have catching up to do because she was mia all weekend. :)  and really, i've had a tv-filled night.  after "bonds on bonds" was "gilmore girls."  i do love the show!  and i still love logan.  even if i also love the new, successful jess, too.  it's just a good show.  i'm not sure what else i want to say about it. :)  and tonight i watched "nashville star" and also forced the parents to watch.  it was original song night, which i love (though not the only opportunity for them to sing original material).  and chris young is becoming a true front-runner.  or perhaps his songwriting ability is just way better than the others'.  anyway, he was awesome and i screamed my way through it i was so excited! :)  and i'll watch it again because i can and because he's so awesome!  i even voted for the first time this season (and perhaps ever because i can't recall ever voting before, though it's possible).  just once.  i love chris young!

and speaking of me loving chris young... last week i got on his website and ordered a copy of a cd he recorded himself.  it's not like these guys are total amateurs.  they've been singing for ages and really are seasoned.  anyway, i ordered the album they had available.  i received it today in the mail, autographed to me. :)  and in between "gilmore girls" and "nashville star," i debuted it on my stereo.  sounded so so so so awesome!  it's great!  perfect!  you would never know this guy doesn't have a recording contract.  plus, i used the time to put away clean laundry and clean dishes. :)

ok, it's getting late and i can see the sleep time slipping away from me.  i'm going to get to bed, but look for more from me tomorrow.  g'night. ;)

monday 10 april 2006 10:46pm

"i've seen what You can do
i've seen You make miracles and hopeless dreams come true
You made the heavens and the stars, everything
come on, how card could it be to make her love me" -- rascal flatts "to make her love me"

life's good. :)  i'm a little crazy and i'm definitely willing to admit it's not perfect but it's good.  for the moment, i'm in a great mood and enjoying myself.  so here's how it went from when i left off last night...

last night, when i finished up "two weeks notice" a few minutes before 10, the plan was to start the dishwasher, tuck into bed, and read until i fell asleep.  well, the plan started out well because i did get the dishwasher going.  and that's when the whole plan fell apart, as i so easily slipped into a(nother) bout of crazy. :)  i saw the banana republic bag on the living room floor as i headed to the bedroom.  there were new clothes in it, so i couldn't help but pull them out.  and i brought them to the bedroom.  and then i put them on.  because that's what you do with new clothes, right?  put them on and prance around in front of the mirror for a bit.  right?  i'm not the only one who does that, right?  :)  hehe!  and that launched me into full-on crazy.  i put on everything i own that's pretty.  dresses.  skirts.  high heels.  whatever i could find.  just because i could!  yeah, crazy.  but it was so so so so much fun and it put in a very good mood!  it was just silly but i enjoyed myself.  now i just have to come up with more places where cute dresses and fancy skirts are appropriate.  so yeah, that's pretty much how i spent my time instead of reading.  but once i had torn my way through my closet and then even tried to put most everything back away, i did get tucked into bed and read until i fell asleep. :)  so great!  and all of a sudden my alarm was going off and i had to get up, into the shower, and cleaned up.  breakfast.  put on a cute skirt (how could i not really after last night? ;)).  headed out early forgetting that the high school that usually ties up traffic on mondays is on spring break this week.  made it to work in record time.

work today was good. :)  i mean, it's work but in general i do actually enjoy it.  there's a lot to get done this week but i'm not way overloaded, so it's just about right.  i had things to keep me busy all day long, but i did fit in listening to marina's story of her crazy weekend adventure, talking with melissa bout wedding dresses (she's currently shopping) and looking at the monique lhuillier website, and catching up on a little news.  and the actual work i did today included figures for the next magazine, a showcase ad for this magazine, and placing ads and getting out the first draft to our copy editor. :)  good stuff!  we got it done, so i guess we must be doing well around there.  also, jenna and i just went up to z pizza for a little lunch.  it was nice to get out of the office for a little bit, and it turned out to be a nicer day outside than expected.  love that!

after work, i just headed for the gym.  i was listening to the rascal flatts album and realized i really do like it, espeically the second half.  it was really fun to sing along and drive and whatever.  i realize i do it every day but it was nice.  and then i rode the bike in the gym while reading and it was just normal.  whatever.  got all sweaty, so i guess mission accomplished.  then i got to head home.

i've been really busy tonight.  i feel like i've been running around a lot.  but all necessary, i guess.  i desperately needed to do laundry.  it has been like forever.  like nearly a month i think.  and i thought maybe i'd do a couple loads tonight and a couple tomorrow but changed my mind and decided to do all five loads tonight.  that's a lot of trips up and down the stairs and to both laundry rooms but it all got done and folded.  most of it is even put away! :)  so yeah, i did laundry.  and then i also had some dinner.  and i chatted with megs online about how much fun we're going to have hanging out and doing cool stuff this weekend.

and then into all that madness i squeezed the cmt awards! :)  so great!  i thought i'd just list a few things about the show...
1) i want to be jennifer nettles (of sugarland)!  she's so rad!
2) cmt is so good to the fans, allowing them to really be a part of the show.  plus, all these awards are fan-voted.  yes, i voted. :)
3) the carrie underwood fans still remember how to vote vote vote.
4) why was tim missing in action?
5) keith urban was hotter than ever tonight, if that's even possible.  plus, of course he won video of the year!  he's the best!
6) i'm currently watching the pre-show (i'm doing this backwards) and jason aldean's voice sounds awesome!  i mean, i already liked him but his voice just sounds great! :)
7) trace adkins opening the show was hot!  i know the song is cheezy, but it was a great way to get things started!
8) i love country music!

ok, so i'm thinking that i should actually try to calm down a bit and get some rest before tomorrow.  i need to be at work a bit early because i'm taking off early for a hair appointment! :)  yay!  ok, so i'll be back tomorrow (hopefully with a little bit less hair).  g'night. ;)

sunday 9 april 2006 8:37pm

"'cause lately something here don't feel right
this is just a half-life
without you i am breaking down
wake me, let me see the daylight
save me from this half-life
let's you and i escape
escape from time
come on let's fall in love
come on let's fall in love
come on let's fall in love
again" -- duncan sheik "half-life"

i love sundays.  :)  it is quite possible that i say that every week (i'm not going to scroll down and check but you may if you like) but i really do!  they're nice and relaxing and i can spend them thinking about myself and doing whatever i please.  it's fun! :)

i was totally sleepy by the time i got to bed last night, which was great because it meant that it took me like no time at all to fall asleep, instead of the usual lying awake and thinking about... things.  and i slept alright, though i woke up early in the morning and had to work to get back to sleep.  no need for me to be awake at 8 on a sunday really. :)  but anyway, i got some good rest before eventually actually getting up this morning.

of course, with not much planned for my day, i didn't have to move very far once i did get up. :)  i got the newspaper from the doorstep and the read it on the couch for awhile, which was perfectly pleasant.  and i know i watched something on tv but i cannot even recall what that was.  it was just something that i put on.  oh!  it was the ellen comedy special that is on hbo on demand.  haha!  actually, it was pretty funny. :)  and i had a little breakfast since i was quite hungry and it seemed like a good idea.  and i chatted with meg just long enough for us to arrange to have dinner friday night! :)  woohoo!  and then i got myself cleaned up and dressed, actually quite an accomplishment on a lazy sunday. ;)

then i headed out for a drive and a bit of exploration. :)  i drove up pch through a busy laguna beach and into newport to check out a couple shopping centers i had passed by but never fully explored.  the first one is up on corona del mar right near fashion island.  it was pretty small, though it did have a lucy and a cool surf shop, where i loved nearly all the clothes in the store. :)  though i resisted.  and then i headed down pch a little bit to crystal cove (also in newport) to check out a larger shopping center there.  i loved this one!  there were lots of cool places to eat (though i didn't partake), the whole center faces the ocean (kind of felt like i was in hawaii where everything good has an ocean view), and they have a good mix of upscale boutiques where i can only browse but not buy and normal shops like the gap where i can actually purchase things.  and i did pick up a couple things, so that was nice. :)  but mostly, it was nice to hang out near the ocean on a warm, quiet day.  this is the good life, i am certain.  oh!  and the number of $100,000+ cars i spotted while driving along pch exceeded what i could count on my two hands.  anyway, it was a lovely way to spend a spring afternoon.  i will likely be back there again.

i stopped just for milk and english muffins on my way home.  and put some money on my (stupid) laundry card.  errands.  lame. ;)  anyway, then i made it home for a cool afternoon.  i attempted to take a little nap but it didn't work out because i wasn't' actually tired.  plus, that would have made it hard to fall asleep tonight, which would be bad.  anyway, i lazed around and watched the end of the masters because... well... because it was on and i was curious to see who'd win.  anyway, then i talked to the family for a bit.  i finally got the run-down of everything dad and adam are doing on their trip to the middle (indiana, ohio, and illinois).

i eventually decided it was time to get on with my regular sunday rituals of lots of tv and painting some nails.  the main shows ("housewives" and "grey's") weren't on or weren't new so i decided to have a little movie marathon, instead.  i started with "what a girl wants" and now i'm working on "two weeks notice."  :)  so fun and girly!  and i gave myself a nice red pedicure and trimmed all my fingernails but i think polish for those will wait a few days, perhaps right before i go home this weekend.  anyway, i'm just relaxing with teh movies and having a quiet evening.  oh, and i had dinner at some point, as well.  :)

hopefully, i'll get to bed a little bit early tonight.  i have a lot more work to accomplish this coming week and it's a short one.  i'm actually excited about it, but i know it will also be hard work.  anyway, i'm off for now but you can expect me back tomorrow night. ;)  g'night!

saturday 8 april 2006 11:43pm

"do i recall every day
how you took my breath away
do i remember loving you
yes i do" -- rascal flatts "yes i do"

saturday's been a little bit crazy in good ways and bad but on the whole it was a lovely saturday! :)  though i must admit that i'm quite sleepy right now, which is not so normal for this early on a saturday night.  anyway, i'm writing so i can go crash. :)

so i crashed at a decent hour last night and must have been sleepy because i ended up sleeping pretty well.  i don't remember so much between falling asleep and when the alarm clock went off at 7:30.  so i got up, just like i do on weekdays, and headed for the shower to get cleaned up.  then i found something cute to wear, made sure i had directions to ucsd, and headed out.

the morning drive started out alright.  i needed gas (ugh.  so expensive!) but the station most conveniently located isn't actually all that convenient going southbound so it takes some weird maneuvering.  and then the woman who pulled in in front of me didn't pull forward so i had do some more maneuvering to get to the pump in front of her.  people are lame.  but i did get gas, did some more maneuvering to get back onto pch going south, and eventually made my way to 5.  it's pretty much a straight shot down 5 so i just kept driving.  the traffic continues to amaze.  sometimes i was going 80 and was definitely getting passed aggressively and felt like i was in the way. sometimes traffic (yes at 9am on a saturday) ground to a halt for no evident reason.  weird.  but i made it to ucsd at exactly 9:30, just when i told kath i would be there. :)  i'm so good! ;)  and i only had to make 2 u-turns to get from the freeway exit to the proper location, which is good for me driving in san diego, where i never fail to get lost.  anyway, i picked up kath at ucsd where she was visiting the grad school and staying with her sister.  actually, i saw julia, too.  it's so strange to me still that she's like a grown-up.  :)  i'm old! 

and so then kath and i headed over to la jolla.  it was a very nice day out (thankfully!) so we walked around checking out various breakfast possibilities before settling on a little cafe that served full breakfasts.  i had a waffle, eggs, and bacon, which was quite delicious.  and it was nice to sit and talk with kath in person for awhile.  :)  i miss her when she's in davis!  hopefully, i'll get to see her next weekend, as well, when we're both at home for easter.  anyway, after a nice breakfast (and a waiter who was oddly talkative), we walked around la jolla awhile.  the beach area was busy with people out enjoying the sunshine, and we checked out a couple shops, as well, though neither of us bought anything.  i had so much fun there!  it was just really chill and easy and nice.  eventually, though, it was time for me to take kath to the airport (she went home today and is headed back to davis tomorrow), which we found just fine.  then i headed back home myself.  it was a much longer drive, especially toward the end when i sat in beep-and-creep traffic thanks to two accidents and what i think was a third though i exited and took pch because i couldn't take the freeway traffic any longer.  and right where there was that crazy road rage thing in dana point yesterday, there was a hit and run today!  a car hit some women jogging!  things never happen in dana point.  so crazy!  anyway, i made my way home.

i hung out around the apartment awhile reading and doing not much really.  i snacked on popcorn and took a little afternoon nap and really it's been pretty quiet.  i cleaned up a little bit, though i didn't get quite as far as i had planned.  i'm not really sure what exactly i've been up to.  not a lot.  i talked to the brother for awhile.  he and his volleyball team won their tournament today, which is awesome! :)  and i went a little bit crazy tonight.  self-diagnosis is not good.  it makes me a little bit nuts when i suddenly think i might have something and then do all the research and can't really disprove that i have it.  i am back to normal now, but i was freaking out for a moment. :)  hmm... maybe i shouldn't share how crazy i am.  it's too late, probably.  you already know. ;)  anyhow, i also watched an episode of "bonds on bonds," the new barry bonds reality show.  it was way more interesting than i had anticipated, actually.  if i saw it on i'd watch, i think.

and now i'm pretty close to just crashing.  more from me tomorrow.  i don't have a lot planned for my day, but i'm sure i'll come up with something. :)  g'night.

friday 7 april 2006 10:37pm

"if you're callin' 'bout my heart
it's still yours
i should've listened to it a little more
then it wouldn't have taken me so long to know where i belong
and by the way, boy, this is no machine you're talking to
can't you tell this is austin
and i still love you
i still love you" -- blake shelton "austin"

so i'm kind of bored and in a weird sort of mood just sitting around the apartment on a friday night.  it is very admittedly not what i would like to be doing, even though i know i could use the rest because i have a busy week (and weekend after that) quickly approaching.  not sure what else to do with myself, though, which is why i'm still here and not elsewhere.  and since i'm up to nothing but watching the top 20 countdown on gac i figured now would be a good time to get to updating the site.  :)  let's see where my typing fingers take us...

after finding only enough time to send myself an email with a list of all the emails i mean to write to other people, i headed for bed.  and i didn't sleep particularly well and wasn't at all ready when the alarm clock went off this morning because i had just fallen into a really nice sleep.  hate when that happens!  but of course i got into the shower and got cleaned up.  and then i stood around staring at everything in my closet trying to decide what the heck i should wear to work today.  took me a while to decide, though i did eventually make up my mind.  then i had an english muffin for breakfast (i'm on my third brand in a few weeks now as i try to decide which makes the best whole wheat ones and i'm leaning towards the ones i have now, orowheat).

and then i headed off to work.  my drive to work this morning was odd.  i a huge chunk of pch was closed to northbound traffic (i go southbound in the mornings) right by capo beach and the row of hotels there.  and there were police cars everywhere and lots of police tape around the hotels and street.  it was very strange but i continued on my way because what other choice did i have really?  turns out there was a crazy road rage incident where a guy got stabbed and other stuff and it was messy.  the oc register has an article about what happened in case you really care. ;)  anyway, i made it to work safely.

work today continued to be quite busy.  the morning brought more brochure touch-ups for me to take care of, so i did that before jumping into all the magazine stuff i needed to take care of today.  if you remember, today was my day for laying out my section.  the back third, like usual.  anyway, i also had product figures to do, so i took about an hour and a half to do that stuff before getting started with the layout.  and i was working quite efficiently all morning until i suddenly realized it was noon.  after some discussion and chit-chat and whatever other nonsense goes on in our office, jenna, jan, and i decided to go to super bowl for lunch.  mmm!  i had exactly $3 in cash, which meant counting out $2.39 in change, which i had and was happy to unload.  and my chicken bowl was lovely.  and we watched the masters because it was on on the tv in there and really it's a very small place.  anyway, then it was back to work for the afternoon.  i had lots more to accomplish today, after all.  and so i got all my layout done and looking pretty good, even with all the crazy things in my articles this month.  and marina's crazy stories continue to entertain me (and all of us), diana and others were back in the office today, and i even found time to clean out my work inbox and my personal inbox ("inbox" meaning email inbox).  so the day was very productive and i was ready to head out by 5! :)

after work, i headed straight for home.  i meant to stop for gas but it didn't happen because the traffic on pch (which was now open to northbound traffic and i witnessed a news van ready to broadcast) was horrendous and i didn't feel like stopping.  anyway, so i just went home because that's a good thing to do after work on a friday.  i talked to kath for awhile as we arranged plans for tomorrow (breakfast) and then ended up just talking about life and whatever.  it was really nice and i'm really excited to get to talk in person tomorrow.  then i took some time to make myself a little dinner.  more polenta.  it's delicious and i bought a whole tube from trader joe's.  anyway, that was really good. :)  and i settled in for "the bedford diaries."  so far so good, still.  i'm liking this new show.

then i talked to the family.  this was where things got weird today, i think.  it's good to talk to them, of course.  i'm just want to know when i'll get to see dad and adam again (because it's already been awhile and i won't really get to see them next weekend because they'll be away visiting colleges) and they're non-committal.  so i get frustrated.  whatever.  so then to sort stuff out, i ended up talking to annahita online about all sorts of things, including our tv boyfriends and our ideal men. :)  she's so boy-crazy and brings that out in me! ;)  and i wrote some of those emails i needed to.  and i've just been hanging out really.  and i'll likely just watch leno and then just crash, especially since i'll be up bright and early again tomorrow!

ok, enough.  i'm going to bed.  get my head together.  more tomorrow.  for now, g'night! ;)

thursday 6 april 2006 10:03pm

"'cause she loved the gringo
my red hair and lingo
that's all i needed to know
yeah, i found what i needed
on the seashores of old mexico" -- george strait "seashores of old mexico"

today turned out really nicely. :)  i mean, if i think about it, it was really just an average thursday, but it seemed nice so that's enough for me.  maybe it's that i got some sunshine and beach air.  that always makes life feel nice.  ok, so i'll just get to it...

so let's see... last night i was up late.  or at least relatively late.  by the time i was tucking into bed conan was on.  i rarely see conan on work nights, as much as i love his show.  i even saw the first guest.  that means i was up way past my bedtime, but that's really ok.  i don't mind.  :)  or at least i don't mind when i'm up.  it's the morning after when the alarm is going off that i really hate the fact i was up too late.  but i dealt with it anyway and got up and into the shower.  and even when i got out i was still pretty tired and it took me awhile to decide on something to wear to work today.  i eventually decided on a black sweater, tan corduroy knee-length skirt, and black knee-high boots. :)  all things i'd worn before but never together.  i got lots of compliments at work today, so i guess it was a good decision. ;)  (was that all too much information?  i'm kind of just writing whatever comes to mind.)  anyway, i found some breakfast and then headed off to work.  it was a slow drive this morning, never my favorite way to get the day started, though i survived.

at work, i'm still striving to stick to that plan i sort of wrote about last night.  this morning, i wrapped up the brochure stuff that i'd been working on and sent that off so i'm totally done with all of that now.  and then i got started with magazine figures right away.  there were still several waiting for me and i wanted to make them good.  and boy was i working hard!  i swear!  i even committed to recreating a huge crazy figure that is one of the most complicated i've ever made.  and i did it!  and all the rest!  so the schedule is in good shape, still.  i have some product figures that still need clipping paths, but i should be able to take care of those in a short amount of time tomorrow morning.  no sweat! ;)  and because we all needed a break this afternoon, jan, jenna, melissa, and i went to san clemente pizza company for a little lunch, which was quite delicious! :)  mmm!  and i spent all afternoon continuing to work.  after awhile my butt was hurting i'd been sitting too long.  i had to take a break.  after walking around a little, i ended up just lying on the floor.  can you do that in your office? ;)  this is why melissa and i are always saying we wish we had stand-up workstations! :)  anyhow, i did get my work done today before heading out for the day.

it was a (relatively) nice day outside today so i decided that i should go to the stairs for a workout instead of the planned trip to the pool. :)  so i changed into workout clothes while still at work and then headed for the beach.  it was great there!  the sun was shining, the waves were crashing, and the surfers were going up and down the stairs. :)  hehe!  actually, i also saw someone get taken away on a stretcher, though i don't really have any idea what was wrong with him.  but mostly, my ipod and i had a great workout.  perhaps i'd even call it pretty fun!  and i know i worked hard because i'm a little sore right now and also because i could barely finish the workout.  so good times at the stairs!  i'm looking forward to more there!

once back at home i was in a great mood!  :)  just all relaxed and feeling good, probably from being in the sun, which i've desperately missed lately.  i hung out a bit before settling in on the couch and catching up with a little tv.  there were episodes of "desperate housewives" and "big love" waiting for me on my dvr, so i enjoyed those while also enjoying a little polenta for dinner. :)  and i also took the time to move the computer from the dining room table back to the couch where i can relax a bit more while using it. :)  both shows were excellent, by the way. :)  i have also spent time tonight talking to the parents, chatting with josh online (very briefly but long enough for him to tell me the best way to get ahold of him is a new email address), arranging to see katherine for breakfast on saturday, and other things i can't seem to think of right now. :)

ok, but i really should try to get some sleep tonight, despite the fact that i have in fact composed a list of emails that i need to write and i had planned to write them tonight.  so for me, it's bed.  the emails... well... they'll have to wait. :(  soon, though!

ok, enough out of me.  more next time.  oh, and there's a tim mcgraw special on nbc tomorrow night, so you should watch because he's rad!  ok, g'night. ;)

wednesday 5 april 2006 10:24pm

"do i cry in the night
do i long to hold you tight
do i wake wanting you
yes i do" -- rascal flatts "yes i do"

ok, so i've been trying to start writing this for well over an hour now.  i mean first i wanted to get the right lyrics, though they were right under my nose all along because i've been listening to the new rascal flatts album non-stop and i love this song.  and then i got distracted on the "nashville star" website.  and then other websites.  and now i'm chatting with katherine online as much as possible because i know she probably won't be online particularly late and she's traveling all over the place so i miss getting to chat with her whenever.  plus, once she gets back to school, she's busy like constantly with homework and clubs and whatever else.  too busy for her best friend. ;)  and then sarah is asking for cleaning tips (apparently, i'm an expert).  (i'm not an expert so i looked it up online but she doesn't need to know that. ;))  so yeah, i'm getting to writing, even if it's taking longer than expected.  my girls are worth it!

ok, it's now after 11 and i really am going to write.  sarah and katherine are both off to bed (sarah 3 hours later than kath because she's in syracuse but still) and i'm done chatting and screwing around and doing whatever else.  except there's an anthropologie catalogue on the table next to me and i really want to look through it because it came in the mail a few days ago and i still haven't browsed through it.  ok, ok, i'm going to focus on this.  one task at a time.  i'm not good at not multi-tasking.  so here goes...

so after updating last night, i pretty much went straight to bed.  i watched some of "leno" before falling asleep.  i want to see that new jennifer aniston movie, "friends with money," though.  anyway, i went to bed and slept alright.  i woke up a couple times to the sound of pouring rain, which somehow always makes me feel cold even though a lot the moisture is tropical and it's really not that cold here.  i went back to sleep.  the alarm was an unwelcome noise this morning, but i got up and into the shower anyway.  i had a little breakfast (ran out of oj again, not so good about keeping it in stock) and then got dressed in chill shirt and jeans because really no one's around the office and i work best when i'm super comfortable and i had a lot to accomplish today.  so then i headed out.

it had clearly just stopped raining when i left because everything was still dripping wet and the cars in front of me on the roads kicked up enough water than i occasionally needed to use the windshield wipers.  anyway, at least there was some sunshine over the huge crashing waves this morning. :)  and work today went fine.  i'm really busy with the brochure stuff when i know i also need to be working on the magazine figures.  it's kind of insane, actually.  but i am managing and i know i have a little extra time on the magazine because our first round won't go out until monday.  so after all the hard work i put in today (i stayed in again for lunch and at leftover pizza at my desk while continuing to work), i got the brochure stuff basically done.  one little itty bitty thing to take care of in the morning and that's it.  i would have done it this afternoon but i was so fed up with my computer by 5:30 that i figured it'd be better if i just left it.  anyway, and i made decent progress with the magazine figures, though i have some more to wrap up tomorrow.  my goal (because i'm kind of just thinking via writing at this point) is to wrap figures tomorrow and then do layout friday and that leaves monday for ad placement.  and that shouldn't be too tight of a schedule, so i'll fit in starting the other magazine's figures in whenever i have a little time. :) see?  things are going to be fine.  one more thing regarding work... want to see a random photo?  here's a photo of mark d. using a chair to bring boxes outside because our dolly is missing.  but you can see the very nice building where i work a little bit!

ok, so after a very full day at work, i was totally tempted to just go home but i knew i'd just be bored here, so i was good and went to the gym.  i started a new book while i rode the bike.  it's a girly novel called "always the bridesmaid" and i bought it when i lived in london for like 5 quid and i've been carrying it around meaning to get to it ever since!  well, i don't know what i was waiting for really.  it's good so far! :)  i'm sure i'll enjoy it.  it's like a romantic comedy in book form.  perfect!

**just so you know, this is how far i got without finding a second task (so i'm again multi-tasking).  :)  i'm now chatting with megs, who i haven't talked to in ages and miss tons so she's also worth my time!**

so after the gym, i headed home.  i walked into the kitchen and found myself quite disgusted by the number of dirty dishes piled in the sink so i loaded as much as possible into the dishwasher and washed the rest by hand.  i cannot believe i seriously couldn't even fit everything into the dishwasher.  i'm only person!  how many dishes can i possibly use?  apparently a lot.  and then i hopped into the shower myself.  i was all sweaty post-gym (that's the point, right?) and dishes are dirty so yeah.  seemed like the right thing to do.  then i made myself a little dinner.  yum! ;)

and then i watched "nashville star!"  i know i tell you this every week, but i hope you're watching! :)  it's so awesome!  i mean, there's not even a comparison between last night's country night on "american idol," which was like karaoke in a run-down country bar and last night's "nashville star!"  i love this show!  the singers are so talented.  any of them would fit right into any radio station's regular rotation.  and i'm loving the guys.  we're down to 4 guys and 2 girls and i'm hoping it gets down to 4 guys and no girls.  i'm starting form a order of preference with chris young leading the pack.  he really pulled to the front this week with his rendition of "real good man" which was crazy sexy!  i had to watch it again it was so great! :)  and also, after the episode, i got onto his official site and the "nashville star" site to learn more.  i watched all the videos and stuff on there and i listened to music on his site and found out as much as possible.  it was really fun and i adore him! :)  so yeah!  watch the show!

and it was at this point that i got completely distracted.  i was supposed to just check email and all of a sudden i was learning all this stuff about chris young and then got to talking to friends and that was hours ago.  i guess i'm not going to get to those episodes of "big love" and "the bedford diaries" tonight.  oh, well!  they'll be there later when i have a minute. :)  and yeah, life's good.  it's great to catch up with friends even if i see the hours of sleep getting away from me so quickly! ;)

as soon as i'm done chatting with megs i'll get some sleep.  g'night! ;)

tuesday 4 april 2006 10:18pm

"and while you're out there gettin'
where you're gettin' to
i hope you know somebody loves you
and wants the same things too" -- rascal flatts "my wish"

well, i'm in a better state tonight as i write than i was last night.  i can even see the screen clearly, my stomach's not a mess, and i know i won't accidentally fall asleep while sitting here! ;)  yeah, i'm catching up with myself, thankfully.

so i really want to say that i think "everwood" is one of the best shows on tv right now.  i know people don't watch it and it went through some rough patches but it's seriously amazing right now.  every week i find myself more in love with the show and the characters and everything.  it's great!  watch it! :)  also, i'll just let you know that i was sobbing like a baby by the end of last night's show, just as i am at the end of most episodes.  it's just emotionally moving, not necessarily heart-breaking.  so great!

so after i finished off my night with "everwood" i headed for bed and it was still quite early really.  i figured i would probably crash the instant my head hit the pillow, and that for sure is what happened.  and i really did sleep quite well, especially considering that doesn't happen so much for me.  and i was actually feeling alright by the time the alarm clock went off this morning, so i got up without too much pain and headed for the shower.  and as i got dressed i saw that it was sunny out but the "news" told me it was going to be raining for like the rest of my life (or at least the rest of the week) so i put together something that wouldn't get messed up too badly by rain.  then i had a little breakfast, made sure my umbrella was in my purse, and headed off to work.

as crazy as it might be, i was kind of looking forward to being back at work.  i knew there was a lot of work ahead of me for today and the coming weeks so i was anxious to get started on it instead of just worrying about it.  and the office was really quiet today with all the show people gone, as they generally are, and all the sales people at the conference.  so it was like just the art department and no matt or marke.  we contemplated having a party! ;)  but instead of partying, i found myself working hard all morning long on rtecc brochures that (always) need to get done asap.  and i made great progress, getting more done than i expected.  then i paused only momentarily for lunch.  i brought some leftover pizza with me to work to heat up and it was actually quite tasty considering it was leftovers. ;)  and then it was right back to work, switching off between the brochures and the magazine figures that i should probably have done by end of day tomorrow.  sheesh!  but i can only work so fast!  but i did work hard and got a good amount done today.  also, melissa and i found time to register for the how design conference, which i'm so stoked about!  yay!  we're really going!  and we're working on sorting out our plane and hotel reservations, as well.  so fun! :)

after work, as it continued to pour rain outside, i headed toward the y.  it was mean to be a swimming day, but i'm just not stoked about swimming in the pouring rain because it seems miserable (even though i realize that it's all water).  so i headed for the gym and rode a bike.  i didn't realize that i had only about 5 pages of book left.  it was a really fun book, but i needed to keep entertained after that!  luckily, there were short excerpts from 5 other novels in the back, so i read all of those.  slowly. :)  and i made it through my (somewhat painful) workout.

then i headed home and got cleaned up right away.  i threw on some clothes and a jacket and headed out back into the rain.  target was the store of choice for my rascal flatts album today. :)  3 bonus tracks all on the album was a good draw.  and i also happened to  pick up deodorant and easter candy while i was there! :)  and the album is so far so great!  i'm not done listening to it, though i am listening as i am writing this.  so far only one song that i found mildly disappointing, though i'm hoping it might grow on me.  anyway, i love rascal flatts! :)

ok, so once i got home, i made myself a little pasta for dinner and started in on some tv.  "gilmore girls" was new for the first time in awhile.  i think logan is adorably cute, even if he's such a man sometimes, so i like that they worked things out, even if i know it's all going to fall right back apart again.  he really is attractive, though! ;)  and then i watched "blow out," which is always fun.  jonathan did hair for new york fashion week which was insane!  made me want to work at fashion shows, though! ;)  and then i realized my dvr wasn't recording "nashville star" so it's set to record it later tonight and i'll have to put off watching that until later.  i hadn't realized that tuesdays were so full of good tv.

and i talked to the family for a few minutes but now i'm just chillin with the new cd and my computer.  i can already tell some of these songs are going to become huge favorites of mine! :)  but i suppose i should try and get some rest before another crazy day of work.

more from me next time.  for now, g'night! ;)

monday 3 april 2006 9:01pm

"why don't you kiss her
why don't you tell her
why don't you let her see
the feelings that you hide
'cause she'll never know
if you never show
the way you feel inside" -- jesse mccartney "why don't you kiss her"

wow.  tonight i'm totally deliriously tired.  but it's been a really great day, even if i've been struggling to keep my eyes open from the moment i woke up this morning all the way until now.  i can sleep later.  today was so fun! :)

ok, so you know how last night i was going to put off watching the sunday night television shows i had recorded so that i could get to bed early and get some rest?  ok, well i didn't. :)  instead, i watched "grey's anatomy," which was so so so so good! :)  i really enjoyed it!  i figured that i would probably sleep better through the night if i was actually tired as opposed to struggling to fall asleep but being in bed more hours.  anyway, so i watched "grey's" and then went to bed.  and i slept okay considering i was anxious about the coming day.  it was definitely better than last sunday, when i basically slept not at all.  and then the alarm went off at 6am.  yikes!  it was still dark out (result of the daylight savings change, i'm sure).  so i got cleaned up and dressed and found an english muffin for breakfast.  then i headed out all ready to go for the day.

it was a long drive during rush "hour" up to malibu, though i did actually make it in a shorter time than i had anticipated.  i took me a little over two hours and traffic wasn't as horrendous as i had imagined it might be.  so i had a little extra time before i needed to be in debbie's class so i decided to go to deidrich's (the coffee shop in "malibu's most wanted," a movie i shouldn't like but do).  i ordered a "coffee" and sat in a nice big chair and sipped it while reading a magazine.  it was quite nice, actually, and i got come caffeine in my system, which i figured i could use i was so tired.  and then i eventually decided i should head up to school.

i was a visitor!  yay!  that means i got to park my car in the lot at the comm building, which is so excellent because parking at 10am on a monday on campus is ugly. :)  i got a token from the guy at the gate but when i got up to the lot i pressed the call button for them to let me in so i still have the token.  never know.  might come in handy later for whatever reason.  ok, so probably not.  either way, it's still in my car.  and as soon as i got inside i was walking fast and i headed for debbie's classroom.  the students were still getting settled and wandering in and whatever and so debbie and i caught up for a minute or two before she started class and introduced me as today's speaker.  me!  today's speaker!  awesome! :)  if you didn't know, i was nervous.  i wasn't sure what i was going to talk about and i didn't prepare anything formal (no one ever did when i saw speakers in debbie's classes).  i just brought along some of the work i've done (magazines, brochures, st. jude's newsletters, etc.).  anyway, so she introduced me and away i went.  i just started talking.  i spoke on how i got from college to where i am now.  i talked about what my everyday routine is like, what specifically i do each day, and how i like where i'm working.  i gave tips and stories and whatever else i could think of.  the students asked questions (excluding the one in the front row falling asleep -- there's one of those in every class, isn't there?) and so did debbie, and i answered all of them.  and so i think it went great, and debbie seemed to think so, as well! :)  i mean, i opened my mouth and suddenly it was like an hour later.  then debbie wrapped up her class and we chatted awhile more until she had to get to preparing for her next class.  then she said goodbye, and i asked her if she knew if ginger was around.  she said she didn't think so but i should check her office just in case.

i walked down the hall to ginger's office and knocked on a locked door. didn't look good.  and then just as i thought i should leave, ginger opened her door! :)  yay!  and she was so excited to see me!  (that's how ginger is -- easily excited!)  she was like freaking out and so adorable and it was fun! :)  so she wanted to hear about why i was at pepperdine and what i had been up to at work and all that.  but she was preparing to go to class in like 15 minutes.  she then invited me to come speak to her class (also an intro to advertising class) if i had time.  of course i had time!  sure!  why not speak to a whole other class?  i was feeling pretty good about how it went the first time.  and i wasn't ready to get back into the car for like 2 more hours.  so she brought me down to the big classroom, where she has 41(!) advertising students.  she introduced me (which takes ginger a long time because she can't stop talking) and there i was in front of a whole other group of kids.  more of me talking about me! :)  so i again started in on basically the same topics.  and again i think it went really well.  that class is really quiet and ginger warned me about that beforehand so i wouldn't be offended if there weren't tons of questions.  anyway, so i spoke for about 45 minutes.  wow!  i can do this!  it was really fun to share my story and provide my perspective on advertising and magazines and everything else.  and i said goodbye to ginger (she says long goodbyes, as well), and i headed out.

so i started driving toward home.  ("home" meaning "laguna.")  when i had left debbie (because we thought i was leaving campus) she recommended i treat myself to a nice day since i had the rest of my day off.  she said one of her favorite things was to really enjoy herself on a "stolen day."  sounded good!  we discussed i should go to south coast plaza (i've been meaning to get there lately).  anyway, after enough driving and being so hungry (it was after 2 and i was still living on that english muffin and "coffee) i got off the freeway in costa mesa but knew i didn't want to spend too long out because i'd get caught in rush "hour" traffic again.  instead of the mall, i went to the shopping center next to the mall because i knew there was a jamba juice (again, i was really starving), a book store, a nordstrom rack (can always use cute new shoes!), and an old navy (my latest shopping addiction).  and so i found myself a citrus squeeze and browsed a bit.  didn't find any new shoes (so sad!) but did find a couple t-shirts and shorts at old navy.  so it was a success and i probably needed to walk around a little after all the driving.  then i headed the rest of the way home.

i had a voicemail on my mobile (which was out of reach while i was driving) from katie, so i returned her call and ended up talking to her for quite awhile.  i had sort of planned to use that time for a nap because i was so(!) tired.  it was totally worth skipping a siesta, though, to catch up with her.  plus, i may have convinced her to come visit me next month!  she chose a weekend.  we'll see if she follows though!  i'm going to bug her about it, so hopefully it'll happen! :)

then it was nearly game time.  ncaa basketball championship.  florida-ucla.  and i was rooting for the gators all the way!  so before tip-off, i made myself a huge bowl of pasta and enjoyed that immensely. :)  and then the game!  what fun! :)  i talked to adam through pretty much the entire game and we laughed and had fun and it was great! :)  and i'm glad to see joakim noah and the gators with the title.  they're a really fun team to watch, running the whole way.

and now i'm trying to just chill for a minute.  i really want to get to tonight's "everwood" before i crash and burn.  and i know it'll totally exhaust me by the end because it always makes me cry.  so i guess i should get to it!

tomorrow's rascal flatts day!!! :)  new album!  now i just have to decide whether to get it at wal-mart with a set of 5 extra tracks (but i would have to go to wal-mart, which i don't really like to do, especially for music) or at target with a different set of 3 extra tracks.  such choices! ;)  but yeah, go get yours!  it's awesome!  (i've heard a lot of it already with special promos they're doing for fans.)  i'm stoked!

ok, enough.  i must get some rest soon or i'll die.  g'night! ;)

sunday 2 april 2006 9:56pm pacific daylight time

"you can just be yourself
'cause i don't want nobody else
all of your secrets are safe with me
for the kind of love you can trust
for more than just a crush
baby, why don't you just come to me?" -- jesse mccartney "come to me"

hahaha!  yeah, i just went from country legend yesterday to teen pop star today.  :)  that's me!  deal with it!  ;)  i love them both, though definitely not equally.  plus, i was watching the nickelodeon awards today (don't judge me.  actually, it's probably too late, isn't it?) and he was on so i went through his lyrics for something meaningful tonight.  so there you go.

so it was actually a really nice sunday, though i fear that after you read this you won't necessarily understand why.  it was just quiet and i did things i enjoy and for today, that's enough.

i went to bed late last night.  i wasn't tired.  probably because i slept all day yesterday. :)  anyway, i did eventually decide that i should tuck in and try to get a bit more rest.  and i slept okay and didn't wake until 11 this morning.  of course, i lost an hour with the switch to daylight savings time so it really wasn't even that many hours.  but i felt fine and decided i should probably get up.

i hung around the apartment for awhile this morning enjoying the sunday newspaper and having some food for meal #1.  and i got sucked into what i guess was a "mythbusters" marathon on the discovery channel.  that show is so cool! :)  but i did manage to get cleaned up (a much needed thing considering i never did get around to getting cleaned up yesterday) and dressed and all that. :)

then i headed up the road to the mann to see a movie i'd been looking forward to for awhile, "thank you for smoking."  (notice the word "not" is not in that title.)  and it really lived up to my expectations!  it was absolutely hilarious and it's an interesting portrayal of spin.  and by the end of the movie you're rooting for the cigarette lobbyist, and i tend to like movies that reverse the good guy-bad guy relationship.  anyway, the movie's great and i highly recommend it.  plus!  adam brody is so rad in this movie! :)  yay for him!

after the film, i decided to do something i'd been meaning to do since i moved to laguna.  i drove around the two shopping centers by the mann.  they're so close to my house and i had no idea what was in any of them, but now i know! :)  and there's a ralph's in one of them, so i stopped there for a few items since i was already there.  you know, my grocery shopping is much less efficient now that i have extremely easy access to groceries as compared to when i lived in malibu and didn't really have enough access.  back then, i'd go very infrequently and buy everything i needed all at once.  now i go, pick up what i can remember i need off the top of my head, and if i forget anything i'll just go back the next day.

anyhow, then i headed home for a fun sunday evening that involved way less television than i had anticipated.  i started out watching the nickelodeon awards and munching on some popcorn (the smell in the movie theatre made me want some).  and i chatted on the phone with the family while watching the second half of the "mythbusters" i was watching when i had to leave for the movies.  you can raise a 4-year-old with 3,000 helium balloons and you can raise a sunken sailboat with 27,000 ping pong balls.

somehow, i got sucked into the computer not long after that was over.  between katherine, sarah, and troy, i was typing up a storm while also watching "footballers' wives" and trying to come up with something to eat for dinner.  but i did find some food.  plus, i helped sarah out with some stuff for her school magazine project (just a couple really easy little indesign things and making pdfs).  kath's doing well.  it's great to be catching up with her lately!  and i have now have tickets to see "the 25th annual putnam county spelling bee" while i'm at home for easter, which is so exciting!  and with all the chatting online, it's suddenly after 10 and i haven't gotten to watching "desperate housewives" or "grey's anatomy" tonight.  they're recording so i suppose i'll just watch them later this week (maybe even tomorrow, depending on what time i get back from pepperdine).  anyway, they'll have to wait.  the chats online required too much of my attention, especially because i like to be paying full attention to those two shows because i enjoy them so much. :)

ok, i'm rambling on now, i think.  i'm going to get a move on.  i'm up early again tomorrow because i'm going to pepperdine.  hopefully, this time debbie won't be sick and we won't have to postpone again.  wish me luck with my talk!  i'll give a report tomorrow.  g'night! ;)

sunday 2 april 2006 12:30am

"the silence of a falling star
lights up a purple sky
and as i wonder where you are
i'm so lonesome i could cry" -- hank williams "i'm so lonesome i could cry"

so the day kind of go away from me.  :)  but really, it was an okay saturday.  nothing crazy, kind of different, and stressful in no way whatsoever. :)

i went to bed late last night.  generally, that's fine!  friday nights are for staying up really late unnecessarily, right? ;)  but i had things to do today.  anyway, i slept relatively well but the alarm clock went off at 6am.  that's killer! so i got up and threw on a sweatshirt and jeans and headed out.  i was still kind of delirious, i think, when i left.  i don't like that hour!  especially on the weekend.

anyway, i drove up to fullerton to a random sheraton to pick up my cousin theresa.  she was there with her band but needed to go back home (san carlos) so she could play soccer today.  anyway, i found the hotel and headed inside.  she was waiting for me right in the front wtih her band director or whoever.  the lady wanted to see my id before i could leave with theresa.  how very cautious!  really, i wouldn't have minded except that i locked it in my car outside so i had to go out there again and get it.  whatever.  she verified it was in fact me and then theresa and i headed for john wayne.  i gave theresa her birthday present, which she liked! :)  and theresa cracks me up!  she didn't know what airport (john wayne was correct as i had guessed) and what airline (i guessed southwest but it was in fact american once she checked).  :)  oh, teenagers! ;)  anyway, i got her there fine and she headed home.  i haven't heard anything, so i'm assuming she made it there ok.  so then i headed home through newport and laguna, and i even decided i should stop at i <3 bagels for a little breakfast on my way.  that place is amazingly busy at 8am on a saturday!  all old people!  hehe!  anyway, i got a bagel and then headed to the apartment, where i enjoyed it immensely.  so good!  and i fussed around on the computer a little before deciding to go back to bed.  i didn't have much going on today so it seemed like a perfectly reasonable thing to do, especially because i had only had 5  hours of sleep.  so i slept 5 more delightful hours!  so great! :)

then i woke up realizing it was much later than i had anticipated.  oh, well. :)  i was feeling much better and way less cranky!  so i got up and made some lunch.  then i got on the phone with dad and talked to him for a bit while the first basketball game of the day got underway.  and then i talked to adam through the first half.  then he had to go get cleaned up and ready because tonight's his junior prom.  aww!  he's getting so old!  he went with a girl who's (inexplicably) his friend and a huge group of people who all took a big party bus.  mom took tons of photos at his friend's house before they left and promised to send me 20 tonight.  she didn't.  but she will tomorrow, hopefully, so i'll put some on flickr.  anyway, i watched the rest of the game and the next game.  boring!  how very sad!  and of course, it didn't help that both the teams i was sort of rooting for lost.  anyway, maybe this means that the  championship game will be awesome.  or perhaps it's just a sign of things to come.  either way, i'll be watching monday night.

i also got to talk to lots of friends online today! :)  i went through all the reasonable choices about instant messaging programs and decided on gaim (over regular aim, trillian, and miranda).  so that's what i'm working with these days.  i'm loving being able to incorporate gmail chat with aol. :)  so for now, it's working. :)  anyway, so yeah, i got to talk to friends today!  meg helped me think about im programs.  i chatted with elizabeth for the first time in awhile, which was great!  and kath was around late tonight for a little chat and filling me in about her travels (among other things!).  and... yay for sarah being back online!!!  it was like we hadn't chatted in ages (not exactly true, though we both agreed that's how it felt) and we got caught up and whatnot.  it was so great! :)  she is borrowing a computer (her mom's, which she was nice enough to overnight to her) until her computer is fixed.  anyway, so it's nice to be able to chat with her again whenever i'd like. :)

sarah is also the reason i ordered a pizza for dinner.  i don't remember how we started on the topic, but we discussed how there's no good pizza in syracuse, ny, and how there's lots here.  and after much discussion about pizza, i couldn't not order! :)  mmm!  it was delicious.

i also cleaned the apartment tonight.  like really cleaned it.  all of it.  even the floors and carpets!  it's great! :)  and it needed to be done very badly.  i even went so far as to take out the trash, which i try to do as little as possible. ;)

and now i'm just messing around on the computer.  i'm really not up to much at all.  i figure i should get to bed.  and don't forget we lose an hour of sleep tonight, though getting an extra hour of daylight after work is totally worth it! :)  and my sleep is so messed up this weekend (and that will extend into the coming week) that it doesn't really matter that much to me.

ok, i'm really off.  more tomorrow.  for now, g'night! ;)

saturday 1 april 2006 12:14am

"i'm feeling the way you cross my mind
and you save me just in the nick of time
i'm riding the highs, i'm digging the lows
'cause at least i feel alive
i've never faced so many emotional days
but my life is good
i'm feeling you
i'm feeling you" -- the wreckers "i'm feelin' you"

oops!  big giant oops! :)  i sat down at the computer like an hour and a half ago all ready to get started writing this.  then i was meant to go to bed.  well, i didn't quite get to writing.  i got distracted by deciding to try out gaim (instead of aol instant messenger) to host my chat (doesn't make a difference to anyone but me so don't worry, we can still chat if you'd like) because it'll do the gmail chat, too.  anyway, that might have been too much information and i'm not sure it makes sense but whatever.  the point is that i just spent 90 minutes working it out and now i'm really ready to write. :)

so i got up early this morning so that i could leave my car at the (swedish) volvo shop for service.  they ended up just doing the 60,000 mile one because i'm nearly there and i'll put on a bunch of miles quickly in the next few days.  anyway, i left my car there and melissa picked me up and brought me to work.

work was pretty good today.  i was really busy with the powerpoint presentations that jenna and i worked to revamp.  they're nothing crazy spectacular.  they're just simple and readable and not so ugly that they could burn people's eyes had they been displayed publicly. ;)  ok, so they were really bad.  there was no way i could have made them worse.  so in comparison, i made them look awesome! :)  haha!  actually, i think they turned out fine, especially considering the constraints that come with working in powerpoint in a time crunch.

for lunch, marke, melissa, jenna, and i (jan worked from home today) went out to a different place.  we tried a mexican restaurant (you know, with proper waiters and menus and everything ;)) called la siesta.  actually, by that point in my day i was craving a little siesta. ;)  hehe!  anyway, the chips were great!  and the quesadilla was... just alright.  probably too authentic for my tastes.  and i had to take a phone call from the car guys while i was trapped in the booth (which i would never usually do because i think it's generally rude).  anyway, at least i was out of the office for lunch.

the afternoon was filled with lots more working.  also, marke got melissa and me on adium (instead of ichat or whatever else) for instant messaging.  i wish i could use that on my pc here!  it's awesome!  i'm looking for something similar for windows (thus me trying gaim).  anyway, it was a very busy afternoon!  plus, i know i have more busy days ahead of me as i jump into magazines and brochures and lose a day because of my speaking engagement at pepperdine monday.  oh, what craziness!  i love it! ;)  and the day was rounded out with marke and melissa playing poker one-on-one and me observing for a bit (they started when i was still working furiously).

melissa brought me back to my car, which is all fixed up and wonderful! :)  and from there i decided that i would head toward fashion island so i could look for a birthday present for my cousin, theresa.  it was her birthday a few days back but i'll see her in the morning (more on that later).  so i wandered around a bit and wasn't sure what to get but i finally found something pretty cool.  plus, i got to check out the newly-renovated anthropolgie store!  awesome! :)  i also happened to sneak into the bookstore and discovered a (discounted) little orange county guidebook with free things to do for entertainment.  so cool!  i can't wait to read it.  and then the raindrops started falling so i decided to head back to the car and head home.  and of course, i was in no hurry at all so i drove down through newport and laguna on my way home (instead of the freeway).  it was rainy but still fun. :)  i picked up dinner at wendy's because i was starving (8 hours after a lunch i only ate a little of) and i just had a craving for chicken nuggets.  (is that gross?  i just wanted them!)

tonight's been pretty chill.  i had my dinner.  i watched some tv (last night's "the oc" was the highlight).  i talked to the family briefly.  and i have just been hanging out.  i meant to get to bed at a reasonable hour because i will be up at at 'em at 6am because i promised uncle ken i would go get theresa in fullerton and bring her to the airport.  and 6am is quickly approaching.  i suppose i really should leave all my computer nerdiness until tomorrow.

i'm off for now.  it's raining (again).  perhaps that'll help with the sleep.  'gnight. ;)

thursday 30 march 2006 9:24pm

"you forced me to become strong
and i just cried being weak
and you think you know
and i would like to think so
but do you know that when you go
i fall apart
do you know i cry
do you know i die
do you know i cry" -- the wreckers "the good kind"

is it summer yet?  ;)  i'm totally ready for longer days, pure sunshine, and the beach.  ok, so really it was sunny today and i see beach every day (even if i don't get my toes into the sand as often as i might like).  but still!  summer!  anyway, i guess i might as well enjoy spring while i have it...

i was up late last night.  i guess you might already know that because i posted kind of late last night.  anyway, i forgot to mention that out of the kindness of my heart i volunteered to help my brother with his essay on "frankenstein," so i was editing that and then phoning him with all the changes.  there were lots! :)  i'm just helping the brother out!  (ok, that wasn't supposed to come out all ghetto style but i guess it did.)  anyway, once i was finished with that, i grabbed a magazine, brought it to bed with me, and read until i was asleep.  and i was asleep until i was rudely awakened by the alarm clock this morning.  actually, i woke up a couple times, as i seem to do pretty much always these days.  i found out at work today in a random conversation we were having in the art department that some people get up to use the bathroom every night!  or more than once a night!  that's so crazy to me!  i pretty much never ever do that.  how can you get any rest if you are up and walking around twice a night?  and i seriously rarely get more than 7 hours of sleep.  if i got up twice that's only 3 2-hour segments pretty much.  that would kill me!  but anyway, i got up with the alarm and it was straight to the shower, like always.  i had some breakfast.  i got dressed (in my cute black top that i got at h&m in new york).  i headed out.  somewhere the morning "news" factored in but i can hardly even recall any stories at this point. ;)

work was pretty good today. :)  i have stuff to start working on for next month's magazines, so i started in on that.  it's nice to be able to take my time with all the art.  normally i have only a day or two to make all of it but i have a few extra days this time around because a lot of our material is in early for some reason.  no one's quite sure why but we're just going to run with it! ;)

for lunch, we had a (small -- because a lot of people were out for various reasons today) company lunch out at sonny's to bid farewell to anna, who is leaving the rtc group and going back to school (or something).  it was delicious! :)  we sat in their outdoor (but covered) seating area and it was really too cold and breezy for that but at least i found a chair that had some sun on it.  should not have left the coat at home today!

then i actually spent the afternoon working quite hard.  our editors and salespeople are going to a big industry conference next week.  one of them showed jenna their powerpoint presentations and she decided there was no way those were going to be used as a marketing tool.  so jenna and i are now revamping them. :)  it's different, at least!  and they have to be done quickly, so i'm working hard on that.

after work, i left thinking i'd go to the pool tonight.  i got halfway to the gym when i realized i had left work about 20 minutes too early if i was going to the pool (it opens at 6ish), and if i went home first i'd never make it to the gym or the pool.  so i just went to the gym and rode a bike (again) instead of swimming.  so it's been forever since i've had a good swim!  but soon!  and i'm getting to the end of my very fun book! :)

then i came home for a pretty quiet evening.  i got cleaned up and then found a little dinner.  and i watched the episodes of "blow out" and "the bedford diaries" that i had on my dvr.  good stuff right there!  though obviously two very different shows.  also, i bought chocolate gelato last night at trader joe's, so i broke that out.  mmm!  delicious!  so so so so good!  it might become the latest dessert addiction. :)  at least gelato is not nearly as bad for me as regular ice cream! ;)  mmm!  it serious restraint not to eat it all in one sitting!

ok and i've been quite the multi-tasker as i've been writing this (it's taken a long time).  i've been on the phone with dad and the brother.  i've been on aim with troy (getting ideas on what to say at pepperdine on monday, among other things).  i've been listening to a shedaisy album on my stereo.  i've been sending emails.  i've been researching the wreckers, a brand new country band comprised of michelle branch (who i discovered back before she ever was anyone) and jessica harp (am i supposed to know who she is?).  i heard their brand new debut single on the radio on my way home from the gym and really enjoyed it.  i'm looking forward to more music from them, as well as hearing more of "leave the pieces" on the radio.  and by the way, the new dixie chicks song, "not ready to make nice," is good material!  i'm also anticipating more good stuff from those chicks!

ok, so i am going to watch my recorded "the office" and then crash.  more fun tomorrow! :) g'night! ;)

wednesday 29 march 2006 10:53pm

"look into my eyes
there's nothing here but love for you
you don't have to feel alone
let me share the load
there's nothing more i'd rather do
i'm the one you can always turn to
i'm the one who will stand by your side
my love for you is forever
you don't ever have to run away and hide
have a little faith in me
baby, can't you see
you've got to talk to me" -- leeann womack "you've got to talk to me"

um, life's good.  i'm in a chatty mood, which likely means i'm also in a good mood. :)  maybe it's all the rest.  or maybe it was today's sunshine.  or maybe things are just good.  i don't know.  but anyway, here goes...

i went to bed crazy early last night.  seriously early!  and let me tell you, it was so awesome!!!  i got like 10 hours of sleep! :)  and while i'm really not that good about actually sleeping through the whole night, i only woke up a couple times and i never opened my eyes or checked the clock to see what time it is, which is what i'd normally do.  so i got some good rest in before the alarm clock this morning.  i'm assuming i really needed this... because it's a safe assumption based on my general sleep habits. :)  anyway, so i got into the shower to get cleaned up.  then i had some breakfast, got dressed, and headed off to work.

work today was... um... kind of boring. :)  we're not quite to the next round of magazines and i don't have a million things to do right now, so i was just doing normal sorts of things, plus reading the news.  nothing too crazy exciting.  i was just around.  i really don't know what i did all morning, but it must have been something.

katherine called in the morning and we agreed to chat at lunch.  so when lunchtime came around, i went up the road to z pizza, picked up a couple slices, and then brought them out to my car.  i decided that was the easiest place to have a conversation with katherine, so i rang her and put her on my speakerphone and talked to her while enjoying my lunch.  :)  and i was loving being in the car on a sunny (but cool) day because it gets all warm and cozy in there.  i could pretend it was summer! ;)  anyway, kath's in princeton right now visiting friends and also going into nyc to check it out.  she's doing well.  and there is lots of travel ahead of her, going to houston to rice university, seattle to the university of washington, to san diego to ucsd, and home to redwood city a couple times as well, all in the next week and a half or so!  crazy!  but then she'll make a decision about grad school!  i'm so excited for her! :)  anyway, i enjoyed my chat with her and didn't really want to hang up because it meant i had to return to work.  but she made me! ;)  so i picked up starbucks (i couldn't fend off my craving for it) and then headed back to the office.

the afternoon was mostly spent like the morning, however that was. :)  i don't know!  i was working... or something! ;)  oh, and i listened to the new tim mcgraw album while i was at it because i could.  also, we rewarded scott for (already) winning our office pool.  yes, he's the same person who said he'd enter despite the fact that he knows nothing about college basketball because he was feeling lucky after making a killing at the super bowl.  i had to show him how to fill out his bracket!  and he won!  incredible!  i warned all of you that i lose every year! :)

after work, i headed off trying to decide if i should go to the gym or the stairs for my workout.  it was so sunny out still!  so i made the turn off to the stairs instead of the gym and at that exact moment also realized that i was still in work clothes, which meant i couldn't go work out at the stairs.  oops!  so i wound my way back toward the y.  i'll hit the stairs soon, though, because we have a time change coming up which will mean more daylight after work! :)  yay!  it's the consolation for the fact that i'll lose an hour of sleep.  anyway, so i worked crazy hard at the gym and was insanely, disgustingly sweaty.  sweaty everywhere.  i changed my whole t-shirt another color.  whole thing.  but i felt great!  and my book's still awesome! :)

then i came home and got cleaned up.  after fussing with the flickr thing on the main page of my site (cool, no?), i got cleaned up and dressed again.  i went down to ralph's for things they didn't have, though i found a couple random things i needed.  and then i got over-charged $2 on $7 (should have been $5) and had to correct the cashier and i was kind of embarrassed about doing it but it seemed like a lot of money considering how little i was spending.  and i got my $1.98 back.  yeah, 98 cents is not fun.  whatever.  then i discovered that the parking lots connecting ralph's and trader joe's is all closed off for some sort of construction so i had to go around, which is a serious pain but whatever.  then i picked up food (yay for having orange juice!) at trader joe's and couldn't resist golden spook fro yo. :)  and i headed home and put everything away and just then dad called.  i talked to him and adam awhile (mom was busy studying for an exam). :)  then i watched last night's "larry king live" because he had 4 country singers on talking about... well... country music. :)  it was really great!  and now i think i'll try to squeeze in last night's "nashville star" before bed.  i've already destroyed all hope of getting a lot more rest tonight, anyway.  might as well use my time awake for something fun like that! :)

so that's enough out of me.  more tomorrow.  for now, g'night! ;)

tuesday 28 march 2006 7:55pm

"i don't know how by you still stay with me, baby
you stay with me, baby...
'cause i know you'll stay even though the waves are always shifting
we're fighting our way through
i guess i always knew" -- faith hill "you stay with me"

i'm writing a lot earlier than normal tonight because i'm once again going to attempt to get to bed early tonight.  i'm feeling tired and i have the time to sleep so i might as well try, right?

i did actually get to bed at a decent hour last night and i must have slept pretty well because i don't really recall waking up at all through the night.  so that was a good eight hours of sleep, i'd say. :)  though i was pretty out of it when the alarm went off this morning and i made my way to the shower.  i got cleaned up, had a little breakfast (so sad i'm out of orange juice), and got dressed.  then i headed off to work.  i slipped my umbrella in my purse knowing it was going to get ugly out there later.  when i got the the parking lot and found a space i discovered someone had parked their car straddling the line, therefore taking up two spaces.  i hate this.  and it happens a lot in the prime parking areas at work.  so i pulled up pretty much as close as possible to that car and parked right next to it figuring its owner might get the message about how rude they are when they came out to their car later.  so i parked.  and then i looked over to my right to discover the owner fo the car was still in it!  oh well!  i'm sure she had a heck of a time actually getting out.  whatever.  it's rude to park your car like that in the busy area of a parking lot.  if you don't want people to park next to you, park out on the edges of the lot where no one else parks. :)  (just the beginning of me making my opinions known today.)

work today was pretty good.  again, we're not totally busy right now so it's not too serious around there and we had a bit of fun.  i caught up on some news and some celebrity gossip. :)  and i actually was able to chat with sarah online a bit because she was at work.  her own computer is dead so she's not online when she's at home lately, which is very sad for me and even sadder for her!  so we caught up a bit and i helped her out as much as possible.  for lunch, marke and i picked up super bowl and ate back at the office.  i used the time to surf the web a bit and listen to the "advertising age" podcast, which i generally find really interesting! :)  and the afternoon, in large part, was spent in the conference room with nearly everyone else in a meeting regarding strategy and whatever.  i swear those meetings need a talking stick.  i cannot ever get a word in.  i have to take notes and then report back with comments and ideas to john later.  i did, however, make a few points clear, i think, like if you want something done as a favor to you but are too busy to remember to ask for it you cannot complain about it not happening.  if it's important to you, you'll make sure it happens, especially when all it takes for you to make it happen is sending someone an email reminder once a month.  anyway, so that meeting was nearly all afternoon.

then it was really rainy out and so i decided to scrap my plan of going swimming.  and i decided tonight would be one of rest.  so i skipped the gym, as well. :)  because i can!  and so i headed up to best buy, picked up the new tim mcgraw album, and then headed home.  and by the time i got to my apartment i was quite wet, even though i did have my umbrella.  it's nasty out!  then i changed into pajamas, had some dinner, and watched a little tv.  and now i'm writing and then i'll likely read a bit and fall asleep. :)

nothing too crazy today, but it was still nice.  more tomorrow.  for now, g'night! ;)

monday 27 march 2006 9:04pm

"'cause ever since the moment i saw your face
i knew i wanted to be in that place
and now i'll spend my whole life trying
to be the one that's in your arms" -- teddy geiger "try too hard"

i'm exhausted.  today did not go at all how i had planned, though it did turn out just fine.  but different than expectations.  and i'm writing early with hopes i'll tuck into bed early tonight.  so here we go...

so i couldn't sleep at all last night.  seriously, it was one fo the worst nights of sleep i've had in quite some time. i'm not sure i actually slept more thank 2 hours or so.  and then the alarm(s) went off at 6, so i was straight out of bed and into the shower.  i got all cleaned up and put an english muffin into the toaster.  then i sat down at the computer to check email, like i do most mornings.  the first message in my inbox was from debbie saying that she woke up with a fever and the flu and was therefore not going to teach class today.  she wanted to reschedule my talk at pepperdine.  fine.  there was nothing i could really do about that and we did reschedule for next monday.  but then that left me with an extra hour and a half to fill this morning.  had i not had an awful night's sleep and already showered, i would have tried to just go back to bed, but at that point i knew it wasn't going to work.  so i kind of wandered around the apartment wondering what to do with myself.  the only people i know are awake at 6:30am is the family, so i called there but they were all busy with their morning routines an trying to get to work and school.  and the morning news wasn't going to keep me entertained for all that time.  i realized i had last night's episode of "big love" on my dvr and it's a full hour long (no commercials), so i watched that.  that show is getting better as the characters are getting more established, i think.  so i enjoyed that even if i was pretty delirious and some of the camera motions were hard for my eyes to watch.  but still, it was a decent way to spend the morning, i suppose.  then i put on clothes (not what i had picked out last night) and headed off to work.

people at work were kind of surprised to see me but i explained and whatever.  it's not like it really matters all that much to anyone else whether i speak at pepperdine today or next monday.  either way, it shouldn't interfere with the magazine schedules.  so i got to work on printing the rest of the st. jude's newsletters, which takes forever.  however, i think gary (at st. jude's) will be so stoked when he sees all of them folded and stapled! :)  plus, i worked on some figures for the upcoming magazine a bit early so that they could get special approval from the editors.  good times!  and it was actually a pretty fun day around the office!  marke and i worked on that sudoku puzzle that was in the st. jude newsletter and that i had messed up a bunch of times over the weekend.  i finally solved it! :)  yay for me!  and no, you do not need to guess to solve those.  they're logic puzzles.  enough information is always provided.  i stand by that.  anyway, we also all discussed how improbable it is that scott won our office pool for march madness.  the only reason he entered was because he was feeling lucky and i even had to show him how to fill out his bracket.  and he won!  crazy! :)  but good for him!  and i just picked up lunch at baja fresh because that sounded tasty and easy.

other big news of the day at work today was the melissa and i will be going to the how design conference in las vegas in june! :)  hooray!  i'm so excited!  i didn't get to go last year because i wasn't working for rtc when jenna and melissa registered.  plus, it overlapped with fan fair, i think.  anyway, i've never been to vegas before, so i think melissa's planning to get me in a little trouble. ;)  not that i actually really ever get into much trouble.  and just reading about all the sessions, i'm totally stoked about what i might learn at the conference!  so that's great news! :)

after work, i headed for the gym to get a bike ride in.  one of the bikes is harder than the others, like the level numbers are way harder compared to the others.  but because i was feeling ambitious, i put it on the same level i'd use on the other bikes and went at it.  and i did it!  i did the whole 30 minutes on what amounts to a harder level.  plus, my book's still great, so that really kept my mind occupied while i was working my ass off. :)

then i headed home and somehow ended up on the phone with my brother pretty much right away.  we chatted and watched some women's basketball and whatever.  he's already working on getting the parents to send all of us to maui in november for the maui invitational pre-season basketball tourney.  that'd be awesome!  we'll see if it actually happens, though.  then i got cleaned up and had some dinner and again found myself on the phone, this time with dad as we watched the stanford women tragically lose in the last seconds in the elite 8 round.  oh, well.  they're a young team and will be strong again next season.

and now i'm watching "everwood."  actually, i already watched the first episode of the night (ending a 3-month hiatus) and i'm recording the second one and will watch it as soon as i'm done writing this.  i love this show!  and i do think it's actually still getting better!  even "entertainment weekly" says you should watch it!  and so i'm off to watch tv and then crash early.  i only cried once during the first episode, which means there are likely more tears to come during the second.  it's a good show, even if it is on the wb.  i swear!  watch! :)

ok, enough.  ;)  good night!

sunday 26 march 2006 10:14pm

"there's one love in a lifetime
our two hearts of a kind
these three reasons you'll be mine
for when five and six are through
seven days without you, seven days without you
well i will find a way into your heart" -- teddy geiger "seven days without you"

well, i admit that i'm not quite ready for the weekend to be over yet, as much as i really am looking forward to the adventure that tomorrow holds.  but it's been a nice sunday, perfectly lazy and unimportant. :)

i ended up staying up quite late last night.  i curled up on the couch and watched "love actually" in its entirety.  i do love that movie!  it's for sure one of my very favorites! :)  so thoroughly romantic!  anyway, so yeah, it was like 2 before i tucked myself into bed and fell asleep.  i slept pretty well, though.  probably because i was tired.  and i awoke 10ish this morning and didn't have any particular reason to get out of bed, so i didn't.  :)  i just hung out lying around for awhile.

eventually, i figured i would find some breakfast and switch on the tv, so i moved from the bedroom to the living room.  it was another big day of basketball and it got started this morning.  man oh man!  the two games today were so much fun to watch, and i loved the results! :)  so first up was george mason-uconn.  oh, i love seeing big upsets and this was for sure one of those!  i spent the second half on the game on the phone with my brother as we watched, which was great fun!  and then the second game started up right away because the first one went into overtime, so i watched that one through, as well. :)  florida-villanova.  and wow florida outplayed them! :)  so that was an entertaining game to watch.  i'm so glad that the games today were fun, otherwise i would have just had a super-boring day.  though i did straighten up around the apartment quite a bit while watching.

then i got cleaned up and headed out.  i had a couple little things to take care of.  first, i needed gas.  i have loads of driving ahead of me tomorrow.  and then i had some things to return at the mall from last weekend's little shopping extravaganza.  things i didn't feel like trying on in the store. so that was good.  and then since i was there, i looked at sunglasses at macy's, but i really didn't find anything amazing.  i'm always on the hunt for good sunglasses, though!  plus, i walked right by trade secret in the mall and couldn't resist going in because i didn't' know there was one there.  i had planned on going to longs to look for red red nail polish, but trade secret has a much nicer selection.  of course, i found two bottles of red red red polish, one of which was deeply discounted, so i picked those up.  and before i headed out of the mall, i found myself a jamba juice! :)  delicious!

back at home, i didn't have a ton of stuff to do, so i switched on the tv and started with my sunday night mani/pedi. :)  my toes got one color of fire-engine, totally hot, sports car red.  and my fingers got the other color of fire-engine, totally hot, ford mustang convertible red. :)  (they're short and so they don't look crazy with a bright color.)  anyway, so i watched "60 minutes" and their story on tiger woods while everything dried.  i was tearing up, it was so sweet!  and then i watched the standard sunday night stuff... "footballers' wives" and "desperate housewives," both of which were new and so so so so excellent! :)  and now i'm writing as the rerun of "grey's" plays in the background.  but i really should be getting to bed soon.

tomorrow should be a pretty rad day! :)  i won't be at work because i'm going up to pepperdine to be a guest speaker in one of debbie's classes.  wow!   it's like i'm adult or something.  or alumni.  pretty crazy, right? ;)  so i remember being in her classes (it wasn't that long ago, really) and she would have various people come in and talk about their jobs and their lives and whatever else really.  and it's very casual.  i'll start talking and debbie will prompt me with questions and the students will have their questions, as well.  class is at 10, which means i have a very long drive ahead of me because it'll be during rush hour.  but really, i'm looking forward to the day, even if i'm still not sure what i'll be saying! :)  wish me luck, and i'll report back tomorrow.

anyway, i have to be up way earlier than usual tomorrow.  early enough that i even picked out my clothes already because i know i'll be too sleepy in the morning to do it efficiently.  so i'm off to bed now.  g'night! ;)

saturday 25 march 2006 11:36pm

"four o'clock in the morning
my mind's filled with a thousand thoughts of you...
no, i won't let go, know what we can be
i won't watch my life crashing down on me" -- leann rimes (with ronan keating) "last thing on my mind"

the weekend is treating me well thus far, even if i realize that i've become somewhat of a shut-in lately.  really, i don't mind so much.  and i did actually get out of the apartment today, so that's good enough for me.  and i'm not sure what tomorrow holds.

last night, i ended up reading a magazine for awhile and then crashing relatively early.  i didn't even stay awake long enough to watch conan, which is a normal friday-night treat for me.  and i slept ok and got in a full night's sleep, which is awesome! :)  and no alarm clock!  i do love saturdays!  and i did eventually wake up.  i got cleaned up right away because i had things to do and a limited amount of time to do them.  i threw on jeans, a t-shirt, and sandals and was ready to go.  the newspaper on my doorstep was a little surprise i had forgotten about.  and it was so awesome because the bag it came in was a giant entenmann's ad, so basically the newspaper looked like a giant box of donuts.  and you know how their boxes have clear tops so you can see what's in them?  so it looked like there were giant donuts in it.  this ad is awesome!  i instantly wanted a donut.  but because i have no donuts and i had things to do, i threw the newspaper inside and headed off.

i had errands to take care of today.  first, i needed a smog check so i can renew my car registration, so i went down to the gas station for that.  it was shockingly inexpensive, which was a wonderful little surprise. :)  and it doesn't take so long, so i sat on a bench outside and read while i waited.  and (no surprise here) the car passed, so then i was off to my next stop: the car wash.  i cannot remember the last time i had a car wash, if we're not counting rain as a car wash.  so it was definitely time! :)  and i always bargain with teh guys there on the price or deal or whatever.  i got mine for half price.  love that! :)  and the car is much cleaner now, so it was a success, even if it takes so long on a saturday at lunchtime.  at this point, i also realized that i forgot to have breakfast and was starving.  oops!  i just had one more quick stop before going home, though.  i needed a couple things at the grocery.  well, "need" is probably overstating it, but there were a few things i wanted. :)  so i stopped at ralph's before going home.

after fixing myself some lunch/meal #1, i settled in for an afternoon of basketball.  round four of the tourney! :)  and actually, the first game of the day was quite entertaining!  lsu in overtime!  how fun is that?!?  and i had had high hopes for the ucla-memphis game, but that was lost all possible rhythm when the refs got the whistles stuck in their throats.  they blew them so many times it was just hard to watch.  i entertained myself by doing more sudoku puzzles, like the giant nerd that i am. :)  you love me anyway, so i'm willing to admit it. ;)  anyway, so there was basketball, and i even chatted with teh family at times both while they were at adam's volleyball tournament (adam's sicky so i have no idea why he was playing but clearly i'm not in charge) and after they got back home.

hmm... what else have i done today?  i watched some of the tv that had piled up on my dvr, including the series finale (tragic!) of "what i like about you," during which i may have shed a tear or two, and "the oc," which i quite enjoyed.  i know i probably shouldn't be loving that show, but it really does keep me entertained lately.  i tried to hate ryan's new girl, sadie, but i can't because she's more like me than any other character on that show by far.  and i love that kirsten is finally giving out advice!  "it's never too late.  you just have to talk to her."  yep!  that about sums up life.  i also had dinner, did the dishes, and chatted with sarah online for awhile.  and now i'm here just relaxing.  i have "love actually" on my tv as i write and i'll probably watch at least a little bit more of it before crashing out for the night.

and so that's me for today.  more to come tomorrow.  g'night. ;)

friday 24 march 2006 11:01pm

"making plans just to stop the aching
chasing thoughts from a million miles away
hypnotized as another dawn is breaking
i rehearse the words i want to say" -- teddy geiger "seven days without you"

my eyes are so tired!  i think i accidentally stressed them out today, over-worked them a bit.  but in all, it was a nice friday and i'm ready for a cool weekend.  but anyhow, about today...

well, i wasn't up especially late last night, which was great. :)  i needed some extra sleep (as i pretty much always do).  it wasn't great sleep, but i did get a bit of rest before the alarms went off again this morning.  i hate them! ;)  anyway, i hopped into the shower and got cleaned up.  and after deciding what to wear, i grabbed a glass of juice and checked emails.  i didn't have any great options for breakfast, so i got dressed and headed out.  i went down to starbucks and procured a delicious marble mocha macchiato.  that's hard to say at 8:30am on a friday.  i had trouble pronouncing it! :)  but i got it anyway, as well as a piece of marble cake (one of those lovely items that doubles as both breakfast and dessert, kind of like cinnamon rolls and donuts).  and then it was off to work with time to spare.

work today was actually pretty fun!  and that's not really a normal way to describe work, i don't think.  i spent the morning wrapping up the st. jude's newsletter.  i even made some original art for it (because i refused to use the clip art they suggested i might use).  and so i sent that off for approval before printing.  and then they forewarned me about wanting even more "clip art" in next month's issue because it'll have mother's day stuff, among other things.  so i decided to get working on some more art for them.  so the new stuff includes, a birthday cupcake, a greeting card, and several flowers.  and most of the stuff turned out really cute, which is perfect for this project.  and it's fun to work on because it's absolutely nothing like a regular rtc group project.  :)

for lunch, jenna, jan, melissa, and i went to wahoo's.  the place was totally packed with the line all the way to the door, which is really crazy, crazy long!  but we decided to wait in it anyway, and actually lunch was quite tasty. :)  and it was nice to get out of the office for awhile.

when we got back to the office, it for sure felt like a friday afternoon.  :)  we did fun work-related stuff.  jan switched over our email program from entourage to mail, which seems to be a cooler program. :)  and i worked on customizing it to how i like it.  plus, i worked on that art a bit more for st. jude's.  and eventually, i heard back from them saying to go ahead with printing (woohoo!  no changes!), so i got started with it.  i didn't finish because it takes several hours to print all 430+ newsletters, but at least i got started on it.  plus, i figured out how to print it so that it's automatically folded and bound.  when the st. jude's people get them like that they're going to flip out they'll be so excited! :)  also, there was a bit of craziness going on at the end of the day.  john changed around all the offices.  people will come in monday morning to find signs everywhere.  the name on the door is the name of the person who will move into that office.  just a bit of reorganizing, i suppose.  haha!  of course, he can't really reorganize the art department because we sit in a bullpen, so it doesn't really effect me.  i just wish i was going to be there on monday morning when people find out!

after work, i headed home, stopping only at the apartment office to pick up a package.  i ordered new shoes from nordstrom last weekend, and they finally arrived! :)  and i was just crossing my fingers that they'd actually fit and they do!  they're so cute! :)  i <3 new shoes!  and then i made it back to the apartment.

i've just been hanging out all night.  in fact, i'm not even really sure where the time went.  i was watching the basketball games.  actually, i found them to be less-than-interesting mostly, especially after last night's awesome games.  but they were on.  also, i was wearing the glasses to see again.  i figure if i wear them i might be more comfortable in them.  and then i did something i'd never done before.  i did a sudoku puzzle.  i know there's a sudoku craze sweeping the nation and they're in all the newspapers and bookstores and grocery stores, but i'd never done one before.  but there was one in the st. jude's newsletter so jenna explained how to do it.  and i spent all evening working on them. :)  yeah, i'm that big of a dork!  this is why my eyes are tired.  i started doing them online.  that means i've been looking at the tv and/or computer all day long.  but it was kind of cool, though i don't know that i'll be the junky that other people are.  oh, and i talked to my parents a bit.  apparently, adam's sicky.  he has a fever or something, which sucks.

so now i'll likely go crash out.  my eyes are tired, though i would like to read for a little bit.  not sure.  i haven't really decided what i'll do yet.  and don't be totally stunned if i am back on the computer working on sudoku! ;)

ok, i'm off.  more tomorrow.  g'night. ;)

thursday 23 march 2006 10:20pm

"my feelings have not fallen away
you're my every thought, yeah
everything will go on it's own way
everything is okay, we can try to make it
everything will go, it's all right, baby...
my feelings have not passed away
you're my every thought there, everything will" -- teddy geiger "night air"

i must say, it's been quite an entertaining day!  :)  the little things were just very enjoyable for me, and that's really enough for me for an average thursday.  and i'm not so sure that friday will be able to live up to today, even if it's the beginning of the weekend.  but we'll see!

i thought i might read some more of "eddie would go" last night before going to bed.  well, i crawled into bed and decided sleep sounded so much better so i just went to sleep.  and actually, i slept alright, only waking up a couple times.  it was more rest that i'd seen in the past few nights.  so i'm thankful for a bit of sleep.  and then the alarms went off this morning bright and early.  i wasn't especially excited about that, though i managed to get out of bed and into the shower.  i got cleaned up and then found some breakfast.  i ate the last of the english muffins, though, so i'm not sure what i'll be eating tomorrow morning...  anyway, then i got dressed and didn't even have to put on real shoes because it was such a nice morning!  i love that! :)  then i headed off to work.

work today went well.  i worked some more on st. jude's newsletter, and i also worked on some pdfs for our digital magazines.  i get to re-work covers for the web, too, which i always think is kind of a cool little chore. :)  so yeah, i mostly just worked all morning.  oh!  and while everyone else was busy chatting about "lost," i was chatting online with sarah (thanks to the wonderful gmail chat that doesn't require installing any sort of program so it works where sarah works) about june, when she finishes school in syracuse.  i'm still trying to convince her that she wants to move to orange county (as opposed to sacramento or the bay area, which are still much better places than syracuse). :)

for lunch, i went up the road to z pizza.  i think i need to stop going there! ;)  the guy who works there most of the time was guessing my order today.  #2?  no.  #1?  no.  most days, he'd be very, very right.  the difference is only the type of pizza that the slices are.  and i decide on the spot by looking to see if the cheese or the pepperoni pizza looks hotter.  but today, i had my "sports illustrated" in hand and i wanted a real pizza.  my own pizza.  so i ordered one and sat there by the window reading while it was getting ready and while i enjoyed it. :)  it was such a nice day that i wanted to get out of the office relax for my lunch hour and just do my own thing.  sitting in a pizza place with a magazine was perfect! :)  i had a wonderful time! :)

of course, i did eventually have to return to the office for some more work.  so yeah, pretty much i just worked all afternoon.  there was the usual office chit-chat but us creative thrive on the freedom to do that.  and we all agreed that it felt more like a friday than a thursday.  but anyway, i got some work done and then headed out promptly.

i headed straight for the y, and i had my brother on the phone the whole way (except for the little spot where i lose reception) giving me the updates on the basketball games.  and the gym was very empty, so i switched the tv by the bikes to the basketball game, sat on the bike, and peddled away!  and it really was a good way to spend my time.  i normally would swim on a thursday, but it's march madness!  i'll hit the pool again next week. :)

then i headed home and again was on the phone with the brother to get the updates.  and after a quick shower and taking out the trash (my least favorite chore but it desperately needed to happen), i spent my evening watching all sorts of basketball.  it was so so so so much fun! :)  my brackets are destroyed, so i have abandoned all hope of winning those.  so that leaves me free to root for whomever i like. :)  and that's awesome! :)  i also talked to dad and adam some more through these.  there was lots of yelling and screaming and discussion.  so fun! :)  plus, i had some time to talk with sarah online.  actually, right now the computer's on the dining room table (instead of on the couch, where it usually lives), so that meant i was sitting quite far from the tv and was forced to wear my glasses.  geez, those things make me see so much better!  haha!  :)  so i was chatting online.  and i also made a delicious dinner.  the pesto tortellini from trader joe's is awesome!

and now, i think i'll get moving.  i should get to bed before friday.  perhaps do some more reading?  i'm not sure.  but it's been a nice night.  more from me tomorrow (after 4 more games!).  g'night. ;)

wednesday 22 march 2006 10:16pm

"the water's rising up to my knees
and i can't figure out
how the hell i wound up here
everything seemed okay when i started out the other day
then the rain came pouring down
and now i'm drowning in my fears
as i watch the setting sun
i wonder if i'm the only one" -- teddy geiger "these walls"

ok, so it seems that i'm back on schedule a bit more tonight.  perhaps because i got enough done last night that i didn't have so much to do tonight. :)  i don't know.  anyway...

so i really didn't mean to be awake through all of conan (which was sadly a rerun) last night.  it just sort of happened.  and that means that i got about 6 semi-decent hours of sleep last night.  not really enough, but i'm alright.  so i got up with the alarms, which seemed to startle me when they went off.  i think it was because the first one, which is usually music on the radio, was instead a buzzing sort of noise on the radio.  anyway, i got up and showered and dressed.  i found some breakfast and then headed out a few minutes early because i was ready and didn't know what else to do with myself.  oh, also i just want to say that i saw the recap of "american idol" on "good day la" this morning and those people would never have even made it onto tv on "nashville star" they are so less talented.  plus, i think there's something to be said for having contestants who have actually performed live before.  the performances are... better. :)

ok, so work today was good, even if i didn't end up accomplished quite as much as i had set out to.  it's fine.  there will be more hours of work tomorrow.  but you know.  it just happened to be one of those less productive days.  i spent he morning reworking my template for the st. jude's newsletter because our new printer has the ability to fold and bind it for us but it has to be designed differently.  actually, it's much easier to design all the pages in order (the new way), so i'm glad to be changing it. :)

for lunch, jan, marke, melissa, jenna, and i had a lunch meeting out at sarducci's (the train station in san juan capistrano, the place to where, coincidentally, the swallows are right now returning).  i heard on teh "news" this morning that today was our 23rd day in a row with below-average temperatures in so cal.  so tragic!  that's like 23 days too many!  but it did turn out to be a nice day (just barely below the average of 75ish) so we had a great table outside on sarducci's.  oh, i do love eating outside on a nice day and i took a seat in the sun (while others found shade).  lunch was decent, though my lemonade was awesome.  and after we finished eating, jan and marke gave a little informal presentation on what they learned at south by southwest interactive festival.  they came away with some good ideas about how to go about being a good web designer and some good, strong marketing ideas that i think get overlooked by many people.  so it was a long lunch but it was a good time for that discussion.

then the afternoon was spent, sadly, back in the office (instead of out in the sunshine or something).  i worked some more and caught up on some news and other things.  plus, john came in for a bit of a chat, which i guess hadn't happened in awhile so we were due. ;)  and before i knew it, the day of work was over!

then i headed for the ymca for a workout.  it was relatively quiet there today, which really is fine with me. :)  i rode a bike (hard) and read my book, which i am still totally loving.  really, it's taking a lot of restraint for me to not just sit down and read the whole second half of it right now.  i know it's a great gym book, though, and there are other things that require more focus that i can read at home.  anyway, it was a good workout. :)

i headed home and got cleaned up.  i found dinner (you will likely be disgusted to know it was a can of spaghetti-os (or whatever brand) shaped like dinosaurs).  then i watched sunday's episode of "big love," which was again interesting.  i'm not sure where the show is going and sometimes i'm still really confused, but i'll stick with it.  and then i curled up with "eddie would go" and read more of that.  it's really interesting, but it's a slow read for me because it seems like there's just so much information in it.  plus, i want to actually sound out all the hawaiian words in it so i'd actually be able to use them in conversation.  anyway, i'm taking my time with the book, and i really am enjoying learning all about eddie and hawaii and surfing.

i talked to the family for a bit.  things seemed to be back to normal, so that's great! :)

and i think i'll tuck in early and perhaps read more "eddie."  sounds good, right?  ok, g'night. ;)

tuesday 21 march 2006 11:34pm

"forgive me if i st-stutter
from all of the clutter in my head
'cause i could fall asleep in those eyes
like a waterbed
do i seem familiar
i crossed you in hallways a thousand times
no more camouflage
i want to be exposed
and not be afraid to fall" -- teddy geiger "for you i will (confidence)"

wow, things did not start out too busy today, but right about now i feel like things really are, like there's a lot going and like i got a lot done today.  and it's way late for me to be updating for a tuesday night.  normally, i try to bed in bed and half-way asleep at this hour.  but the fact that i'm just now starting to write means i'll be once again sacrificing some sleep.  oops!  anyway, here goes...

ok, so last night after writing this and crawling into bed, i got a little bit distracted (once again).  since leno was a rerun, i decided to read some more of "eddie would go" instead of watching tv to fall asleep.  well, like an hour later, i got to a good stopping point.  of course, it was quite late at this point, though at least it didn't take me too long to fall asleep.  and i slept just okay, but whatever.  it doesn't really matter.  and i got up this morning with the alarms, just like usual.  i showered and got dressed, sad to see that it was still a bit wet outside.  and i had some breakfast, too.  then i headed out.

work today was alright.  again, i am not overloaded right now with tons of stuff because we're a bit in between things.  or at least i am.  so i took care of some of the random stuff that i do for most of the day.  i don't know what i did.  i can't remember.  i'm sure it was useful! ;)  whatever.  i was at work.  isn't that enough for you? ;)  ok, so at lunchtime, melissa's fiance chris came by the office with their dog luna.  she's a very hyper, not-so-under-control boxer.  and they let her run loose in the art department.  ok, i should really preface the rest of this story by saying that i do not in fact hate all living creatures but i have my limits and i'm also allergic to things with fur.  anyway, so the dog was running around and people were doting on it.  i continued to work because that's what i do.  then we (jenna, melissa, chris, marke, and i) phoned in a lunch order at stillwater cafe and then marke and i went up there to pick it up.  it was good to get out in the sunshine for a few minutes, which is why i volunteered to go.  so we picked up lunch and brought it back to the office to eat.  and so we were all sitting around the art department eating and the dog was still running around.  and i was starting in on my salad but i just couldn't enjoy it in the room with the dog and everything.  plus, i could tell i was starting to feel my allergies.  i was hesitant about doing it, but i picked up my salad and nantucket nectars lemonade (one of my favorite drinks on earth) and went to the kitchen to wash my hands and then eat.  and i quite enjoyed my meal while reading the newspaper.  so what if i can't eat with a dog running around, huh???  i mean, come on.  i wouldn't want a dog bothering me while eating if i were in someone's house, either.  dogs are dogs, not people.  anyway, so my lunch was good, even if it took me awkwardly leaving the room before i could properly enjoy it.  and the afternoon of work was good, as well.  we had our weekly tuesday monday meeting, which we actually hadn't in awhile. those always take us a long time, but we enjoy them.  and by the time it was over, it was time for me to head out.

ok, so then i headed for the y.  i wasn't that stoked about swimming, but i got in the pool anyway.  actually, i was a couple minutes earlier than usual and so the swim team was still kind of wrapping up in a few lanes and there were people hopping into each of the lanes that had been emptied already.  and very, very oddly, they were young men.  like my age or so.  this never, ever, ever happens.  they're always old men.  not sure what's going on around the y lately!  haha!  anyway, i waited for a lane to be cleared by the swim team and then got in.  and 1/7 of the way through, a woman got in my lane to share, which normally i really, really don't enjoy.  it kind of ruins it for me, but she was a good lane partner and we didn't bother each other at all.  so yay!  and the man in the yellow shorts got into the lane next to me for his swim, which was particularly odd because he usually always swims in the shallow end, but those were the lane occupied by the young men.  anyway, i had a great swim, quite surprisingly! :)  and as i was getting ready to get out, the man in the yellow shorts and i were chatting and he finally asked me my name and told me he's called dick.  so there you go.  dick. :)  oh, the old men buddies make me laugh!

then i headed home, immediately got cleaned up, and put three loads of laundry in right away.  i hadn't done laundry since before i went to new york and it had really piled up. :)  have i mentioned before how much i hate doing laundry here?  well i do.  anyway, while that was going, i made myself a really nice polenta dinner.  then it was time to switch three loads to three dryers, but someone came in a filled two (of 4) with their stuff.  how they washed it without 2 available washing machines, i have no idea.  so that meant i could put two loads into dryers and had to carry the other load to the other laundry room and put it in a dryer there.  lame!  but while those were going, i made a quick trip to target to return something and to pick up the teddy geiger album.  hello, my name is kirsten and i'm a cd-aholic. ;)  but i had thought about picking it up, it was super cheap, and i read a good review of it today. and so far so excellent! :)  anyhow, then i came home, got the laundry out of the dryers, folded it, and finally settled down for a moment to watch "blow out," that show of jonathan antin, the hairdresser.  anyway, that was good fun!  and then i settled in for "nashville star," which i was quite enjoying.  i was interrupted by the parents calling, so put the show on pause.  anyway, they're all freaking out about something that really doesn't seem so important, but then again it's hard to really tell because i'm so separated from the situation.  i don' t know.  it wasn't our usual pleasant conversation.  but then i watched the rest of "nashville star" and totally cheered up.  the performers are all amazing!  seriously!  it's so much fun!  plus, the fact that i was watching it recorded meant i saw no commercials and no gretchen wilson performances.  awesome! ;)  but seriously, that show is so great!

and now here i am updating.  plus, i chatted with sarah online for a couple minutes because it's like 3am there and she really should not be awake.  and neither should i.  so i'm off to bed now, late once again.

more tomorrow.  for now, g'night. ;)

monday 20 march 2006 10:31pm

"where do you go when you're lonely
where do you go when you're blue
where do you got when you're lonely
i'll follow you
when the stars go blue
stars go blue" -- tim mcgraw "when the stars go blue"

i know it's a ryan adams song, but i heard the tim mcgraw version and decided i liked it (i've never heard the versions by ryan adams, the corrs, or tyler hilton), so that's who i'm listing as the singer. :)  it's my journal, so i can make decisions like that. ;)

happy first day of spring!  it's raining pretty heavily as i write this and tonight i write with no other background noise, no tv, no stereo, nothing but the rain and the sound of the keys.  and quiet honestly, i'd prefer to have something to drown out the noise of the rain.  i don't want it to be raining and i was hoping  that i could will it to not.  didn't work.  but i write anyway.

guess what!  no wild and crazy dreams last night (at least that i can remember)!  yay!  :)  of course, i also woke up often and had a hard time falling asleep and really wasn't actually sleeping very long at all.  plus, i have a strange new habit of waking up at 7am sharp for no reason.  and really, that kills the last 20/30 minutes i usually get before the alarm.  whatever.  i got up with the alarms anyway, just like usual.  i showered and put together a cute outfit between what i bought yesterday and what i already own, something very springy but still warm enough to keep me from freezing in the icebox we call and office.  and i wore the white pants.  people seem to love the white pants.  i mean, i always thought they were perfectly preppy cute (which is why i bought them in the first place) but other people always seem to compliment me on them.  and what better way to ring in spring (i hate that that rhymes) than with white pants, right?!? ;)  so i had a little breakfast, got my gym bag together, and headed off (on a treacherous, longer-than-usual, near-death) ride to work.  and i made it.

work today was alright.  with the magazines just out of our hands, things were quite a bit slower.  that was really fine with me, especially because things have been quite busy for quite some time now and it's monday.  i worked on a few smaller tasks that were on my list and also that just came up through the day.  nothing amazingly spectacular, but at least i wasn't fetching dry-cleaning. ;)  i wasn't especially anxious to get out for lunch because i knew it was kind of a gloomy day, but i did eventually go to z pizza to pick up a couple slices.  i ate them at my desk while reading a book, and they were especially delicious today because the pizza was fresh out of the oven when i was ordering them. :)  and my afternoon... more work.  and more reading some news.  and i caught up with some co-workers, as well, though the office was strangely empty today.

after work (and i left promptly today), i headed to the y for a workout, as i do most mondays.  this is where the white pants come in.  previously, i have gotten cat-calls from men in parking lots and things like that.  and today, a man who was walking toward the y doors in front of me couldn't help but look at me.  and though he was way in front of me, he held the door for me.  like that awkward way where the person you're holding it for is so far behind you that actually you end up holding it for like ever and other people go out because you're standing there like a doorman and the person you're holding it for feels the need to speed up just to make the whole episode end.  so i walked very quickly.  he was cute and of an appropriate age and not married but still.  and if you're going to do that weird hold the door thing, at least say hello or something.  still, it was appreciated, even if i am capable of holding open my own doors. :)  it's the white pants.  i have no doubts. ;)  anyway, my bike ride was awesome, and i'm loving "can you keep a secret?," even so much that it makes me laugh to myself.

then i headed home, got cleaned up right away, and headed down to trader joe's for milk, orange juice, and cheese, three major staples in my apartment. :)  then it was straight back home.  for some reason, last night's episode of "big love" had a recording error, so i couldn't watch that tonight as i had planned.  so instead, i made myself a little dinner and then decided to spend my evening reading.  it's something i hadn't done in awhile and the quiet sounded nice.  so after a brief chat with the family (i'm jealous that they all went out for theresa's birthday and i couldn't be there), i curled up on the couch with "eddie would go," a book adam gave me for christmas about eddie aikau.  it's a hardback and therefore not a good book for the gym or traveling or anything.  plus, i think it'll take some concentration on my part to get through all of it.  anyway, i started in on that and am so far quite enjoying it.

someone cut into my quiet time tonight, though.  i didn't especially mind, though.  sarah needed another illustration for her magazine project at school and it was something that i knew i could crank out in an hour or so.  so i gave up my time for that instead of reading and i'll get back to my book later.  i make an illustration for her and i think she quite liked it.  i'm happy to help.  she works so hard!  and now that i've wrapped that up and sent it her way, i figure it's time i get to bed.  i was planning on tucking in early and now i'll be tucking in late already.  but it's been a nice day, and i have no real complaints.

more from me tomorrow.  g'night. ;)

sunday 19 march 2006 11:03pm

"i'm counting on heaven to understand...
sometimes you know where you should go
before you know the way
i'll bother with tomorrow
once i make it through today" -- shedaisy "in terms of love"

i love sundays! :)  did you already know?  have i mentioned this before?  they're just a really nice day to do things that i enjoy, just as i did today.  it was pretty quiet, though i did get out and do things other than stare at the television (though there was some of that too).

i was not up especially late last night because i was sleepy.  i had another weird dream again last night.  i'm not sure what's up with that.  this time, i was going to china on spring break alone.  yeah, i know that sounds like a bad idea.  it was a bad idea in my dream, as well, and i was kind of freaking out.  i just don't understand why exactly i've been having really vivid, strange dreams the last few nights.  i can't think of anything in particular that i ate before going to sleep.  hmm.  anyway, that's how it goes.  whatever.  so i ended up waking up from that dream pretty early this morning (9am) and was spooked so i didn't want to go back to sleep.  i switched on the tv to catch the early basketball game and it wasn't long before i was on the phone with dad and adam. :)  they're my basketball-watching company these days.  anyway, i watched basketball from bed for awhile but eventually got up, had some breakfast, and watched some more from the couch.  and i read the newspaper, though it was tragically missing the target ad! :(  so i read it online.  then i got dressed.

i headed down to st. edwards for mass.  it was fine.  really, i need to look up the schedule of which priest is saying which mass, though.  there's one i don't like so much.  he's an awful speaker and on top of that is really hard to understand.  it's harder for me to get as much out of going if he's going to say mass.  normally, he doesn't say 11am.  he did today, though.  anyway, mass was just ok.

then i headed straight back home for some more basketball! :)  yay!  the games were really fun, and of course i talked to adam and dad some more.  i found some lunch.  i read a magazine that i had sitting around.  i may have even napped at some point really briefly. :)  the games today continued to destroy my brackets but i love love love the upsets!  so it's been a fun tourney!  one more thing about the games today... the scoreboard in teh bottom right of teh screen during the bradley-pittsburg game read "brad pitt."  haha!

then i headed out once again.  i wanted to do a little spring/summer (those are the same thing to me because i really only like summer and want it to be summer always) shopping.  it'd been quite awhile since i'd been to the mall.  i found some great stuff, though!  american eagle had cool windbreakers and polos on sale.  and old navy, which was the real reason i was headed to the mall, was trouble trouble trouble!  huge trouble! :)  i went for tanks because they have awesome ones.  and i found a whole bunch and of course also found other items while i was there, like flip-flops, shorts, and a skirt.  yeah.  i'm bad! ;)  but i had a good time and i know all the things i'll wear like all the time.  oh!  and i picked up a jamba juice on my way out since i'm totally deprived of jamba juice and will therefore gladly use any opportunity to have one. :)

this evening, i came home and hung out.  i found some dinner.  i watched "footballers' wives" and "mile high" on bbc america.  both were fun and make me miss london.  and i chatted online with troy.  apparently evan and jaron (those singing twins i love even though they're not actually famous but had that one song that one time) are on "american inventor."  crazy.  then i decided i wanted to (finally) take a hot shower, so i put on a jack johnson album really loud and showered.  and i hung out around the apartment while the rest played, just doing this and that.  the apartment is much tidier now. :) had to put all the new clothes away! ;)  then it was time for a fun new episode of "grey's anatomy!"  it was wonderful, as usual. :)  and now i'm just writing before i head for bed.

more tomorrow.  for now, good night. ;)

saturday 18 march 2006 10:56pm

"i'm not able, i'm not willing
to just lay this in the ground" -- shedaisy "healing side"

it's been a really relaxed sort of a day, which i suppose is fine for a saturday.  not a whole lot going on around here, and i think that's made worse by the fact that the weather isn't especially conducive to being outside.  but whatever.  it was still a perfectly good saturday. :)

i was up pretty late just reading a bit and watching a little tv.  really, i wasn't up to a whole lot but i wasn't ready for bed until like 1.  then i hit the sack and had a decent night's sleep.  i know there were more weird dreams, though.  but i can't remember anything specific at all.  anyway, for whatever reason i woke up kind of early and couldn't fall back asleep.  i blame my grown-up sleep schedule that i have to maintain during the week. ;)  anyway, i hung out in bed awhile because i could.

i did eventually get out of bed, find something to eat, and move to the couch.  the basketball today started pretty early, so i started watching that.  actually, that was pretty much the plan for the whole day.  watch basketball.  eat.  hang out.  do nothing. :)  not so bad sounding, right?  i mean, if something came up, i would have done that, but really nothing did.  i talked to dad a bunch of times throughout the day because him, mom, and adam were at adam's volleyball tournament and therefore couldn't keep up with the basketball scores without my help.  plus, i think adam's team did pretty well in their tourney! :)  and while i was watching, did other various things around the apartment.  i cleaned up a little.  i read a few magazines.  i hung out.  honestly, i don't really know what i did all day. :)  i was just here doing nothing.  and at some point i did get cleaned up and dressed.

this evening, i headed up to uc irvine to watch some volleyball.  the #4 pepperdine men were playing $1 uci, and i wanted to go cheer on the waves.  i love men's volleyball and it was a good excuse to get out of the house. :)  first of all, i was shocked and appalled that i had to pay $7 to park my car there!  on a college campus!  that's outrageous!  especially when the ticket to the event costs $9.  but whatever.  of course i paid it anyway and found myself a seat with the other pepperdine fans.  and really, it was a fun game.  i somehow ended up sitting right behind a bunch of former players that i recognized (john mayer, brad keenan), which was cool.  it surprised me, but i guess i should have known former players would be around, especially for such a huge match.  anyway, we won the first game but lost the next three, though they were all extremely close.  it was a lot of fun!  and it's a rebuilding year with pepperdine losing so many seniors from last year's championship squad and having only one senior this year.  anyway, i had a nice time, despite the loss.

on my way home, i stopped for krispy kremes.  because i could. :)  and i ate them when i got home, and they were absolutely delicious!  and i'm just hanging out.  i watched "the o.c." from thursday, which was actually a really good episode!  and there's really not a whole lot else on.  and i've been writing this anyway, so it doesn't matter than much.  i think i'll read some more and then crash.

more from me tomorrow.  i actually have a couple things planned besides watching basketball!  anyway, g'night. ;)

friday 17 march 2006 10:20pm

"open the door your ready to walk through
i'm where your prayer was meant to land
oh, give me the holes in your heart
i promise that i will do anything, everything
you know i can
look at me, baby
i'm a good thing
make sure you know it" -- shedaisy "bring it on back"

happy st. patrick's day!  :)  have a green beer for me... or something. ;)

somehow, i failed to get to bed early as planned last night.  it was definitely worth losing the sleep, though. :)  i ended up chatting online.  seems i do a lot of that with so many of my loved ones far away from here.  it's an essential part of my friendships at this point.  anyway, meg and i were discussing the fact that we never get to actually see one another and go for ice cream or coffee and talk anymore.  we're still not sure what we're going to do about that or how long it'll be before out situation changes.  but at least we have good talks on random thursday nights.  and i got some life advice from troy, which was so helpful.  he did that whole move-away-from-your-family-and-start-a-new-life thing, too.  so i was up late.  but i'm definitely ok with that.  :)  i have great friends!

this morning, i was less than excited about the alarm going off.  plus, i was having a really weird michael tolibas dream.  (i went to elementary school with him and haven't seen him since because he moved to colorado.)  he told me guys don't like me because i smell like deodorant and b.o.  awesome.  ;)  haha!  it sounds really stupid now, but i was really upset about it in my dream!  and for some reason we were on a plane together with a large group of people.  geez, this so different from my normal dreams, which are generally replications of my actual regular days.  anyway, i got up and showered and dressed.  i even put on a green shirt, like the good irish girl that i am.  :)  i had some breakfast and headed off to work.  and randomly because i felt like it, i stopped for starbucks.  i had what has become one of my new favorite drinks there (since i tried it in nyc), the marble mocha macchiato.  mmm!

anyway, of course i eventually made it to work, delicious beverage in hand. :)  work today went pretty well.  we were pretty busy with all the last-second changes to "cots" and then getting that all together to ship to the printer this afternoon.  plus, i was working on art for another project we're doing.  and other things here and there, you know.  and we had basketball going most of the day just to see how all the teams were doing.  everyone's really gotten into it, which makes it really fun. :)  we even decided to get our brackets online so that we can keep track of everyone's over the weekend and know how the semi-complicated scoring is going.  work was made even better by the fact that we all went out for (free) lunch together.  cindy h. is moving to ashville, north carolina, and today was her last day in the office.  she's going to continue to work for rtc but from home.  anyway, we all went to sonny's and the pizza jan and i shared was delicious! :)  plus, it got me out of the office, which was a good thing.

after work, i headed for home, but i wanted to stop at the grocery for like 2 things.  i drove all the way there just fine (it's next door to where i live).  as soon as i pulled into the parking lot, however, i found myself in the middle of a downpour.  seriously!  i parked 3 spaces from the door and by the time i made it inside i was drenched.  so i picked up my few items and then again dashed through the rain back to my car.  the rain had lightened up a little bit by the time i got to the apartments but i needed to get the mail and the walk from my car to the mailboxes to the apartment is quite long.  i was totally wet by the time i made it inside but putting my pajamas on seemed like a perfectly reasonable choice at this point. :)  i spent the evening watching basketball, which i must say is much more enjoyable on my tv in high-def than in a tiny little window on a computer screen.  my brackets (yeah, all of them) got rocked today, but i'm not yet down for the count!  a lot of games are left to play!  i also had a little dinner (not so hungry after the big lunch) and eventually got to talk to the family on the phone for a bit.

and now i'm just hanging out.  i would like to relax some more on the couch with a magazine or something.  i'll likely be up a bit longer but i want it to be a quiet night around here.  so that's about it from here for now. :)

g'night.  ;)

thursday 16 march 2006 8:55pm

"it's not in my mind, i can feel it
love will unwind
this is real, i'm not going away
you can wander but i'm willing to stay
you all night
thinking 'bout the day
you pull me close
and know just what to say" -- shedaisy "whatever it takes"

oops!  i just woke up!  apparently, i accidentally fell asleep on the couch while watching basketball.  however, that says not so much about the quality of basketball (which is high), but rather says a lot about how tired i can be come thursday evening.  but i'm here now and writing seems like a good way to keep occupied while the games finish. :)

i got a decent amount of sleep last night.  i had planned to watch some of leno, but i can't remember much beyond the monologue, at which point i tucked myself into bed.  of course, i was not ready for the alarms this morning, though they did manage to get me out of bed.  so i headed for the shower to get cleaned up.  i threw on jeans and had some breakfast and did all the normal morning routine things.  then i headed off to work.

work today was... um... really fun! :)  haha!  it's a good thing we sent that magazine out yesterday!  it was kind of a more mellow day around the office (despite the fact that i think jan was really stressed out because we had hackers and whatever on our website) before what might be a more busy day again tomorrow.  and i wanted the mellow-ish day because it was the start of march madness!  and the video feeds are online!  so we had that going all day long, which was really cool!  we are all following the tournament pretty closely because of our little office competition.  even melissa was getting really into it!  and when boston college was playing, lea was calling (she was "working from home" today) to give updates because that was on tv and therefore not available online.  anyway, we had a really good time watching, i think. :)  also, i picked up lunch from z pizza and caught part of a game in there on the tv.  it never occurred to me that i would be able to watch hoops there!  anyway, i did also do work today.  actually, quite a bit.  and marke and i broke my computer at one point, but it's fixed now.  when i think about it, it was quite a busy day! :)  and fun!

after work, i tore myself away from the basketball action for a little bit.  i headed for the y for a swim.  i noticed it's getting lighter out these days! :)  yay!  when i got out to the pool, it was still quite light out! :)  anyway, i had a great swim!  i shaved about 2 minutes off my past time.  and the man in the yellow shorts was around but looking a little slow tonight.  he is old, though, so i guess that happens. ;)  then i headed home and got cleaned up.

there was more basketball to be watched tonight!  i had some dinner and watched.  and that's when i sort of fell asleep.  i don't think i was out too too long, but i was for sure asleep.  oops.  but i'm back up and running now.  i talked to the family on the phone a bit.  i watched more basketball.  i found a little chocolate for dessert.  it's been good if not especially eventful.  and now i'm watching "the office."  i am thinking i'm close to heading for bed, though.

so yeah, it's been fun!  and i'm loving march madness, despite the states of my brackets.  more from me tomorrow.  g'night. ;)

wednesday 15 march 2006 9:59pm

"what if i said i wanted to hold you
for more than just one night
oh, what if i said i wanted to show you
it all, it all, it all is gonna be alright
'cause i'm a good thing
make sure you know it
you only get one shot
baby, don't blow it
i'm the green, green grass
as far as your big blue eyes can see and if you leave
you'll wanna bring it on back to me" -- shedaisy "bring it on back"

i'm in an especially good mood again today and once again for no particular reason.  but why not, right?  life's keeping me busy and even when i think i'm in for a little down-time, i suddenly find myself occupied.  not that i've been up to anything more than i can handle.  so life's good. :)

first of all, i'd like to reiterate how much i enjoyed "nashville star" last night!  that show is seriously awesome, and i really would challenge anyone who likes "american idol" to give it a try because it's like "ai" version 2.0.  i have no idea who will win because they're all amazingly talented singers and musicians, and i can hardly wait for more next week!  plus, wynonna and cowboy troy were surprisingly good hosts!  so yeah, i love "nashville star!!!" :)

then i got some sleep, though i admittedly stayed up and watched leno.  i love leno.  i can't help myself, even if i know that means i only 7 hours of sleep and will be wanting to die when the alarm goes off.  7 is a bad number for me.  6 or 8 are much better.  has to do with sleep cycles.  anyway, rainn wilson from "the office" was on and really funny! :)  then i slept my 7 hours and wanted to die when the alarms went off.  but i got up, got clean, had some breakfast, and headed off to work.  oh, and i looked really cute today. ;)  oh!  and i almost died on my way to work because i was turning left onto pch in the right left-turn lane and the car in the left left-turn lane apparently needed to go straight very badly and would have run into me had i not been paying close attention.  super.  and i tried to honk but sometimes my horn is weird and i ended up just making my thumb sore and making no noise at all.  but i'm safe and sound, so all is well.

work today was good. :)  i had a few things to take care of in the morning but wasn't especially overwhelmed with work, other than getting "rtc" ready to ship to the printer this afternoon, of course.  that went really well, though.  we were done actually quite early.  the biggest problem was that our printer stopped working and we had to use the one on the other side of the building, which is really inconvenient.  though i must say that the offices are not really that big at all. :)  so yeah, i worked the morning away, but i also had time for things like reading the news, which i really do need to do because i have switched my morning program to "good day l.a.," which is more like "entertainment tonight" than the local news.  though they do tell me about weather, the hottest boutique in laguna beach, and what happened on various tv shows the night before.  anyway, for lunch, jan, melissa, jenna, and i went down to super bowl, which was quite delicious!  oh yeah!  jan and marke returned from austin, tx, so the office felt way more alive and busy and fun today! :)  seems that they had a good time at their conference, as well.  but yeah, it's nice to have everyone back.  it was getting too quiet.  this afternoon we set up a march madness office pool.  you know, for fun. ;)  actually, i had to set it up and i'll be running it, but somehow jan got to make up the scoring rules, which is sucky for me, but it really doesn't matter because i lose the pools i enter every single year.  so how is it that i'm the one organizing this???  i seriously am some man's dream.  i love sports.   i cook delicious things.  i love art.  i paint my fingernails.  haha!  anyway, i also did some work this afternoon.  we got the magazine done and i thought i was home free for the day when a couple emails came in requesting serious things done today.  so i took care of all of that like a star. :)

i headed for the gym after work.  nothing too exciting there.  i rode the bike, and i read more of "can you keep a secret?"  i am really quite enjoying it, actually! :)  i mean, it's just total cheezy chick lit, but it's fun and keeps me distracted while i'm sweating my butt off.  also, how come some t-shirts have such small neck holes?  i was wearing a shirt from the oc marathon and the neck hole is so small!

anyway, i headed home and looked for some basketball on tv, but there was none to be found. :(  i was unsure what to do with myself, so i figured i'd read a book or magazine and just chill tonight.  that sounded quite nice.  so i got cleaned up.  and just as i had slipped on some pajamas, i started talking with sarah online and we carried on for an hour or so.  i ate dinner in there somewhere, but i ate at the computer (as usually happens).  so there went an hour of reading, not that i mind at all because it was fun.  :)  and then i talked to dad and adam for another hour.  they wanted to talk basketball. :)  so there went my second hour of reading.  and that's about it.  that was my night.  it was really fun but it wasn't as quiet as i thought it might be.

i think that's enough from me for now.  tomorrow is the beginning of the tournament!  my brackets are all set and i'm ready for some actual games finally! :)  hooray!  so for now, g'night. ;)

tuesday 14 march 2006 10:31pm

"but i don't give up so easily
whatever it takes, i'm gonna try
whatever it takes, day or night
i'll climb up that mountain
i'll touch the sky
everything all in one day
whatever it takes" -- shedaisy "whatever it takes"

life feels pretty good today. :)  not that it doesn't most days, but just that i'm saying.  so i guess that means i've had a pretty good day!  here goes...

so i mentioned last night that i was watching "big love."  well, i really don't watch that many series on hbo so i had forgotten how much they can show on hbo.  a lot!  naked people everywhere!  but actually, it was interesting and i'll be tuning in again to see where the storylines go. :)

then i crawled into bed, watched leno (highlights of which were "headlines" and simon cowell).  then i crashed out and had a decent night's sleep before the alarms went off.  then i got cleaned up, had breakfast, checked email, and all those things.  it seemed to take longer than usual this morning for no reason in particular, but whatever. :)  then i headed off to work.

work was again quite busy, especially this morning as i worked to prepare for ad placement for "cots", took care of changes to "rtc," and even found time to put together a brochure for our shows in helsinki, finland, and oslo, norway. :)  good times!  but after all that, i headed up the road to stillwater for a delicious salad for lunch.  i really should have just walked it's so close, but you know.  plus, it's still chilly here, even if it was sunny.  and then it was afternoon of more work, including jenna, melissa, and me working frantically to get the "cots" ads placed and everything properly arranged for the first proof.  mark d. said he'd deliver it for us to the copy editor but he wanted to leave by 4:50 and that meant working very quickly for us.  anyway, we did get everything done, so i headed out on time.

after work, i headed for the y to the pool for the first time in a week.  i was feeling a little off, especially at first, but i think i eventually got back into the rhythm.  and i saw the yellow shorts guy for the first time since before i left for new york, so we caught up.  he was in seattle last week.  oh, it's so strange that i see an old man in yellow shorts twice a week and that we chat about our lives but we still don't know each other's names. :)  haha!  it's entertaining for me.

then it was back home.  i got cleaned up and watched the opening around virginia-stanford game.  my cardinal played really, really well and won, so they'll move on in the nit, which is good. :)  and i found a little dinner, as well.

i talked to sarah online for a few minutes.  she got in a bit of a car accident today, but she's going to be okay, which is quite a relief!

then i headed off to target for a little new music tuesday trouble/fun! :)  haha!  i picked up the new shedaisy album that came out today.  i haven't listened to much of it yet, but i'll be all over that tomorrow! :)  plus, i was in the clothes section looking for tank tops (can't ever have too many of those) and instead wound up with a bathing suit.  maybe.  i'm not 100% sure i like it, but i can always return it.  and toilet paper.  it was very exciting! ;)

now i'm watching the season premiere of "nashville star!"  i'd been looking forward to it for awhile now.  and wow!  so far so awesome!  and the boys are... um... hot!  haha!  the best part is that everyone can sing like crazy!  i have no idea who'll win.  though i do have some ideas about who i might vote for. :)

ok, so more coming from me tomorrow.  g'night!  fill out your brackets! ;)

monday 13 march 2006 10:40pm

"and when i close my eyes and dream
these are the words i'm whispering
someday
love will
come" -- vince gill "someday"

it was a really fun day for a monday! :)  and just in general, i suppose.  i got a lot accomplished, and i had a pretty good time doing it.

sunday night tv continues to become more and more addictive for me.  more and more shows keep coming up on that night and it's starting to take over my life! :)  but it's so much fun, so it's cool!  between "footballers' wives," "desperate housewives," grey's anatomy," and the episode of "zoey 101" that i am embarrassed i watched (marina said she watched, too!  ha!) and the premiere of "big love," which i had to record because it's on against "grey's," i was totally hooked on tv!  oh, it's bad.  but summer's coming and shows will be on hiatus.  anyway, i eventually got to bed and had a decent night's sleep.  even if it's entirely too cold here.

i got up with the alarm and headed straight for the shower.  i got cleaned, had some breakfast, checked emails, and did all the regular morning stuff.  then i took off a few minutes early so that i could find myself a copy of "usa today."  i really had no idea where to get one because i don't generally need one, but my tradition is to buy one the day after selection sunday, as they have a full run-down of the entire field.  i found a newspaper rack outside the albertson's, so that wasn't too hard.  then i headed to work.

work today was pretty good.  i'm really busy right now, so i was working hard all day long.  i made serious progress, though, and i should be in really good shape for tomorrow and the rest of the week.  of course, there should be enough to keep me quite busy, no matter what. :)  of course, i wanted to read the paper over lunch, so i picked up a couple slices at z pizza and headed back to my desk, where i could spread everything out and read.  (also, z pizza was slightly tragic when the guy in line in front of me dropped his slice and got the one i had been eyeing!)  anyway, it was a busy day.

then i headed (late) for the gym to work out on the bike a bit.  i started a new book (something girly with a pink cover that i'll likely race right through).  it was a good workout!

and on my way home, katie called!  we'd been playing phone-tag for as long as i can remember, so it was so great to actually get to properly talk to her!  we chatted for quite awhile, and she seems to be doing really well.  i'm trying to get her out to visit asap! :)  and since i was on the phone, i figured it'd be a good time to go ahead and talk to the parents.  they're also doing well. :)

and after getting cleaned up, it was on to the evening i had planned for myself.  ravioli for dinner.  reading the newspaper fully.  filling out my brackets.  and actually, i know it's dorky or whatever, but it took me awhile.  but i'm done!  (i haven't memorized them yet, though.)  and now i'm watching "big love" from last night.  it's the new hbo show about a man with three wives.  it's interesting so far. :)

and i guess i should get some sleep!  more from me tomorrow.  g'night. ;)

sunday 12 march 2006 9:07pm

"i may be a fool to love by the rules, i want it to last
if you ever have forever in mind
i'll be here and easy to find
if your heart isn't read to lay down with mine
if you ever have forever in mind" -- vince gill "if you ever have forever in mind"

somehow, even though i updated this early and kind of planned on crashing early, it didn't happen.  i ended up watching "the oc" from thursday and chatting with sarah online.  and then it was time for "snl," so i started watching that, as well.  and then it was well after midnight before i got to bed.  oops! :)  but it was fine really and i got a decent night's sleep before finding myself awake again this morning.

i was just lying around for awhile doing nothing really.  because you can do that on a sunday morning.  but i did get up after awhile and retrieved the newspaper.  the target ad is totally tempting! :)  haha!  tuesday is shedaisy day for new music tuesday.  (that was a weird sentence.)  anyway, i read the paper and checked email and randomly started chatting with kath online, which was really great because i hadn't talked to her in too long (she's a very busy girl these days).

then i threw on jeans, a t-shirt, and a coat and headed down to st. edwards for 11am mass.  i was hoping that maybe if i sat in a different section this week there'd be fewer distracting kids.  not that case, but it was really alright.  mass was good.  :)  i'm really glad i went, even if i missed some good basketball.  but i did head straight home afterwards, talking to dad on the phone all the way.

the afternoon was spent hanging out around the apartment.  i watched more basketball.  i cleaned the apartment and it's now totally clean (except i need to vacuum, but i can take care of that whenever).  :)  i even dusted!  sort of. ;)

in the little break between the end of basketball and the beginning of the selection special, i ran over to the grocery store to pick up a couple random little things.  plus, i'm on a girl scout hunt.  does anyone know where i can get some cookies?!?  i saw no girl scouts, however. :(

then it was back home for the selection special, which was totally entertaining!  i mean, it didn't turn out like i might have wanted, but that's generally to be expected.  i did decide, however, that i wanted to have an outlet for what i think about march madness, so i launched a new little blog, march mad.  i'm hoping to update it very frequently with whatever i think about teams, results, games, uniforms, whatever. :)  plus, i'm still trying to get people to join the sunshine pool!  ok, so anyway, the brackets are out, though i haven't filled my out yet because i'm not quite ready yet. :)

then i watched the grand ole opry from carnegie hall, which was a really good show!  and while watching, i gave myself a much-needed pedicure (a spring-y coral) and manicure (sheer nude).  very nice! :)  haha!  and after that, it was time for "footballers' wives" (i love that show!) and dinner (so delicious!).  then i wrote a mass email to friends and family about life since i hadn't done that in awhile.  and now, i'm going to watch "desperate housewives" and "grey's anatomy" and record the new hbo show "big love."  geez, i should really kick this tv habit!  but it's fun for now! :)

ok, so enough out of me.  just a chill weekend really.  g'night. ;)

saturday 11 march 2006 10:11pm

"in my mind
you're a beautiful sight
i see you in a different light
just the way i saw you last night" -- doug stone "in a different light"

what's with the weather here?  it's (relatively) freezing cold and i got tons of rain and tons of hail and tons of wind.  and it's cold!  brrr!  but really, i was pretty much planning on staying inside for the weekend, anyway, so it's not especially interfering with plans.

somehow, i ended up staying up really late last night.  i was talking with sarah online, something unexpected because she's on spring break, and watching basketball and other tv and all of a sudden it was 12:30am and i was getting ready to watch conan.  it was the highly-anticipated conan goes to finland episode! :)  and it was so awesome!  the number of crazy fans there is insane!  haha!  so fun!  and then i finally crashed for the night.  and i got a decent night's sleep, despite the cold and all the blankets therefore required.

i eventually awoke this morning.  basketball games were already in full swing, so i switched on the tv and started watching while still lazing around in bed.  i was just considering calling my brother to discuss when the phone rang.  i thought it would be him.  it was someone looking for elaine.  but since i had the phone in my hand already, i decided to just go ahead and call adam.  so we chatted for awhile while i was lying around. :)

i eventually got myself out of bed and found a little breakfast/meal #1.  i have english muffins from trader joe's that are quite nice.  :)  and there was more basketball.  and really, the morning and the afternoon kind of run together.  there was a lot of tv.  :)  and i worked on straightening the apartment some more (though i am admittedly not done yet).  plus, i read through some catalogues that i had lying around.

at some point i decided that i should actually get cleaned up and properly dressed.  so i showered and threw on jeans, a t-shirt, and a coat.  then i headed down to trader joe's to pick up some cookies (and milk).  last time i was there, i bought these cookies.  and now i'm addicted.  :)  and since they were all gone, i wanted to get some more.  plus, i could use an excuse to get out of the apartment.  of course, i found a few other little things while i was there. :)

then it was back home for a delicious pasta dinner and some more basketball.  and i considered putting some more stuff away but elected to read magazines instead. :)  there's always tomorrow to take care of the chores, right? ;)  it's saturday.  and i felt like doing nothing.  also, i caught up on a little tv that'd been waiting for me on my dvr, including "the office" and "desperate housewives," both of which were thoroughly entertaining. :)

one more thing!  i set up a march madness bracket pool on cbs sportsline and sent out a bunch of invites.  hopefully, i'll have a nice group of friends participating with me.  (if not, it'll at least be me, dad, and adam. :))  if you want an invite, drop me an email. :)  i hope people will join, even if they want to just make their picks by teams' color schemes or mascots or whatever else. :)

ok, so i think i'll likely watch a little more tv and then just crash. g'night. ;)

friday 10 march 2006 9:30pm

"guess that i was afraid
that if you rode away
you might not roll back
my direct real soon
well i was crazy about you then
and now the craziest thing of all
over ten years have gone by
and you're still mine
we're locked in time
let's rewind" -- jack johnson "do you remember"

i'm sitting around trying to keep warm and not fall asleep at a ridiculously early hour, especially since i want to see conan in finland later tonight.  i figured it's early but i'm not up to much so i might as well go ahead and update. :)

i once again got to bed relatively early last night, which was great.  i watched the end of the oregon game and then crashed.  and i slept nearly all the way through the night until i was woken up by my alarms.  i can't remember the first one, but at least today i managed to get up with the second one, like i'm meant to do.  and i got cleaned up, dressed, had some breakfast, checked email, and did whatever else it is i do in the mornings.  not a lot really.  especially on fridays. :)  and i headed off to work on a chilly morning.

work was once again quite busy, though friday provided lots of distractions from actual work, as well.  my morning started off quite productive, which was good. demands of me were being made left and right but i think everyone has what they need now.  which is really good because tim (my old boss who has since left rtc to start his own publication) showed up around 11.  he's a huge distraction! :)  but it was great to see him and hear about how everything's going.  a group went to lunch with him but they were going for sushi so i wasn't especially interested.  so i worked some more before heading out to find some lunch.  before i left, i asked jenna (who has the huge windows) if it was raining outside and we decided that it was not.  well, in the minute it took me to get outside it started raining.  hard.  great.  so i made it to my car and drove over to baja fresh (which is like 3 blocks) in the pouring rain.  and when i arrived there, it stopped raining.  what's going on here?!?  but anyway, i went in, picked up food, and returned to work. :)  lunch was good and i read a bit of the newspaper while i was just sitting around eating.  and the more work in the afternoon until tim and co. returned, at which point there was more chatting about whatever for awhile.  and at then end of the afternoon, it was back to work for jenna, melissa, and me because we needed to get page proofs out to be copy edited today.  so i wrapped up my section and headed home.

with march madness in full swing, i was anxious to get home, switch on the tv, and see what was going on.  i got to see syracuse pull out yet another last-second upset! :)  and other games have been on all evening, as well. :)  it's all good fun, and i'm looking forward to more this weekend and then selection sunday!

i also made myself some dinner tonight.  plus, i did the dishes and worked on cleaning up around the apartment.  of course, i didn't really finish with that and there's a big pile of clothes and shoes that need to get put away in the middle of the floor. :)  but i'll get there eventually ("eventually" meaning "this weekend, with any luck")!

mom called (twice) to inform me that it's snowing in san carlos and they were having trouble going over the hill on their way home tonight.  snow.  that means it's cold out here in cali!  and yes, i am actually quite cold, though it's not currently snowing in laguna. :)  it's supposed to rain a whole lot over night, though.  and it's really chilly!  i currently have no plans to leave my cozy apartment.  i want to catch up on some sleep, catch up on that stack of magazines i haven't read yet, and fight off whatever it is i'm fighting off.  it's not (yet) a full-fledged cold but i have like a tickle in my throat or something.  eh.  it's not a good sign, i'm sure.  but hopefully i'll get a little recovery time this weekend. :)  and basketball.  have i mentioned there's basketball going on? ;)

so i'll go try to occupy myself until conan.  i have half a basketball game left, so that might do the trick at least until leno.  and then... not sure.  but i'm just here hanging out anyway.  i guess i don't really need constant entertainment.

ok, enough of me rambling.  more tomorrow.  g'night. ;)

thursday 9 march 2006 9:15pm

"love me
'cause i love to lay here lazy
we could close the curtains
pretend like there's no world outside
and we could pretend it all the time
can't you see that it's just raining
ain't no need to go outside" -- jack johnson "banana pancakes"

it's been a bit of a crazy day, which is something that i didn't really expect of my day when i went to bed last night.  but that's how it goes and i made it to tonight, so i guess i'm doing just fine.

i went to bed early last night.  i was asleep before 11 and hoping for more than the requisite 8.5 hours of sleep.  and i slept relatively well, actually.  perhaps too well.  i awoke to the sound of my cell phone ringing (which is really a miracle because it was in my purse in the dining room and i even had the bedroom doors closed) at 8am.  this is half an hour late.  i slept through half of the time i'm allotted to get ready in the morning.  and i cannot remember turning off my two actual alarms.  oops!  i don't do this that often so it really kind of throws me.  but i got up (didn't answer the phone) and headed for the shower.  i got cleaned up and dressed (in one of my new uniqlo shirts) as quickly as possible.  i grabbed breakfast to go, packed my gym bag, and left.  of course, i realized i forgot my orange juice on the table when i got out to my car, so i had to go back for that.  but i was only like 4 minutes late leaving after all of that! :)

the drive to work was... not normal.  i called mom because she was the one who called in the morning to wake me up.  she answered her phone while studying in the library!  who does that?!?  but anyway, turns out she just wanted to remind me that i need to get a smog check.  thanks.  ;)  and then she asked me to call grandma bunoan.  it's the first anniversary of grandpa's death, which is a big deal.  grandma was headed out to mass with auntie lily but she did talk to me for a minute and was actually quite happy to hear from me.  i, on the other hand, am way less emotionally stable. :)  so after hanging up i was kind of a mess the whole rest of the way to work.  not exactly keeping me looking refreshed after my 9 glorious hours of sleep.  but that's how it goes.

work.  well, work was really busy today between both magazines, brochures, reprints, and newsletters.  yes, i actually did work on all of these things today.  it's a lot.  i promise. :)  and i have lots more work waiting for me tomorrow.  also, the office felt kind of frantic or stressed or something with everyone having their issues today and lots of repairmen in and out and whatever.  i don't know.  it wasn't peaceful.  that's all.  but for lunch, jenna and i picked up food at stillwater.  i really do think that their caesar salad is the best ever.  it's so delicious and i'm not even all about salad.  but i ate it all and loved every bite! :)  plus, they have nantucket nectars there.  and at 3, the entire art department (and this is incredible because it almost never happens that all 6 of us are in the office at the same time) went down to goodies for some frozen yogurt.  chocolate and cappuccino with hot fudge is so so so so delicious! :)  actually, it's been a great eating day for me.  everything i've had has been wonderful!

anyway, after work, i headed for the y.  i had planned to swim because i usually do on thursdays, but when i got there riding a bike and finishing my book seemed like way more fun than swimming, so that's what i did.  after all, the workouts are all about me, right?  so i worked out in the gym and did finish the horribly wonderful book i'm reading.  and it was nice. :)

then i came home, got cleaned up, and made a little dinner for myself.  and i spent my evening working on a cereal box cover for megs.  it's called cakie crisp.  :)  and it's quite simple but still pretty cool i think.  i guess once you start helping friends with illustrations more opportunities for more illustrations will pop up! ;)  i really don't mind at all.  it's fun for me to work on something else.  and i talked to dad a bit, as well, which was nice.  we're fully engulfed in march madness already! :)

and i suppose i should try to get some more sleep again tonight.  i'm still feeling kind of exhausted.  i'm sure it'll take through the weekend to feel normal, but i might as well try.  more tomorrow.  for now, g'night. ;)

wednesday 8 march 2006 9:30pm

"my old friend, this song's for you
'cause a few simple verses
was the least that i could do
to tell the world that you were here
'cause the love and the laughter
will live long after
all of the sadness and the tears
we'll meet again, my old friend" -- tim mcgraw "my old friend"

so things seem to be calming down now finally, and i'm thankful for that. :)  it's a lot quieter around here and i'm attempting to catch up on a little (or a lot) sleep.

i got to bed at a semi-decent hour last night, so that was good news.  now if i could figure out how to get myself fully of eastern time and not wake up at like 5am.  but whatever.  i just went back to sleep until my alarm(s) went off this morning.  i got cleaned up and dressed in my new gaucho pants and my knee-high boots and a sweater.  it was my first leap into the gauchos-and-knee-high-boots trend.  actually, i think it turned out well, and i got lots of compliments on it from people at work. :)  anyway...  (haha!)... i checked some email and then headed out because i didn't have anything for breakfast here in the apartment.  i stopped for a donut on my way to work.  so so so delicious! :)

work today was pretty good.  sally's in town (from oregon, where she works from home normally) for the rest of the week, so it'll be good to have her around the office so i can bug her about whatever i need in person instead of via email. ;)  and she's actually a very nice person!  anyway, i had work to do on the magazine, so i got to work on that.  there were all the product figures to put clipping paths on (a tedious but mostly mindless task) and then there were pages to lay out for "rtc."  also, i got a huge chunk of materials from sally this afternoon for a brochure, so i put that all together.  and then sally and i sat together and did some editing so that it actually all fit onto our page.  so much easier than doing it by phone! :)  and for lunch, jenna, jan, and i headed down to super bowl for chicken bowls.  so delicious, especially when the old man is there making them!  and as a little bonus, i got to watch the last quarter of the notre dame-georgetown game because it was on in super bowl!  so fun!  i was telling jenna how it's a good thing i have to go to work all week because otherwise i seriously could spend all day on my couch watching basketball. ;)  so it was a great lunch!  oh, also, jonathan was around today (he's sicky and therefore didn't go to school today) and in the afternoon he wanted to play.  i let him play a cartoon network online video game on my computer while he sat on my lap for a little bit.  i really couldn't refuse because he's so adorable!  and it killed me to tell him i had to get back to work.  but anyway, i'm still his buddy! :)

after work, i headed for the y to use the gym.  i rode the bike and read my book, and really it was not particularly exciting at all.  it was a good workout, though.

then i headed home and got cleaned up.  i didn't have any food in the apartment.  i really didn't feel like going out again, but i knew i needed to go.  so i headed down to trader joe's to get the essentials: milk, juice, english muffins for breakfast, and a few other little things.  i found some cookies and a frozen pizza and other stuff i can't think of right now.  good times! :)  and i love that the cashiers there are so friendly!  seriously, i love that they're so nice while also being really efficient.  it's way better than the people that look so miserable working at the albertsons next door.  anyway, it was a good trip to trader joe's, even though i didn't feel like going in the first place.

i made half of the frozen pizza for dinner and watched some more basketball on tv.  and then i ended up on the phone with dad and then adam for like an hour, which was more than i had planned but still fine with me. :)  we mostly talked sports.  surprise surprise. ;)  they're doing well, also.

and now i had planned to work on a cereal box design for megs tonight, but i am really tired so i think i'll crawl into bed instead.  as soon as i have a cookie. :)

more from me next time.  good night. ;)

tuesday 7 march 2006 8:11pm

"my body burns like there's a desert deep in me
a thirsty soul so unsatisfied
but there you are like a river to the sea
the one chance i have to change my life, darlin'...
give me hopes and dreams to fill my head
push my heart so i can fly again
take me away from here
make it seem like we're a million miles away
another time, another place
make me a different man
move me farther than i've ever been before
show me that there's something more" -- tim mcgraw "take me away"

all right!  i suppose i should get to writing about the trip to new york! :)  here it goes...

thursday after a busy day of work, a crazy trip to the gym, and one more shower, i was off to the long beach airport.  this place is tiny!  hardly even a real airport!  no food.  not enough room for the gates.  no jetways.  anyway, i hung out there awhile until it was time for me to walk out on the tarmac, up the stairs, and onto my jetblue plane.  yay for the two inches of extra leg room and the direct tv.  boo for the broken tray table, which is my favorite place to sleep.  but i put it down, rested it on my lap, and went to sleep on it anyway.  i can't really remember but i think i slept most of the way to new york.  i for sure had my eyes closed the whole time and can't remember drinks or snacks being handed out.  of course, when i arrived at jfk in new york on friday morning i was still very tired and very out of it.  i retrieved my suitcase and waited for my supershuttle.  ugh.  supershuttle.  it's way cheaper than a taxi, but it also involved 30 minutes of circling the airport picking up more passengers, a crazy drive into manhattan (including seeing a taxi hit a man in a crosswalk and then drive away), and dropping off several passengers at their hotels before me.

but i did find my way to the roosevelt hotel, where i'd be staying for the next 4 days.  i got checked in and left my luggage with the bellhop.  i also got a nice little map of the city so i'd be able to find my way around. :)  i had a couple hours before sarah would arrive, so i walked over to rockefeller center to the nbc studios to pick up tickets for the nbc studios tour for later.  and then i found the starbucks in the concourse there and got a nice big white mocha and a slice of coffee cake and sat looking out on the ice skating rink.  i rang dad to let him know i'd made it safely, and sarah called to tell me she was at the hotel already while i was still on the phone with dad.  i headed right back to the hotel.

oh!  here's an important part of the story!  new york city was so so so so crazy cold!  freezing cold!  actually, below freezing!  like 25-30 degrees!  even the new yorkers thought it was cold!  so i was cold all weekend, but i just dealt with it.  but back to my morning...

i met up with sarah at the hotel and we headed out again right away.  we went for a little walk on our way to the nbc tour.  first, we stopped at grand central station, which is really a beautiful building, especially considering it's a train station.  the ceiling is painted with stars and the zodiac signs.  and the next stop was the new york public library, which i'd heard was a beautiful building.  plus, it is prominently featured in "ghostbusters," (especially the lions out front) which is a movie i loved as a kid.  :)  and actually, it's quite a magnificent building inside and out, especially considering it's a library.  i'm not sure anyone actually uses all the books in there, though. ;)

next up, sarah and i went to rockefeller center to nbc studios for a tour.  the tour was really cool!  along with the history of nbc and other little tidbits, the highlights included seeing people working on the sets for saturday night's broadcast of "snl" and getting to sit in the studio audience area of "late night with conan o'brien," one of my very favorite shows! :)  it's so little!  and it's freezing cold in the studios!  also, as we were walking through the hallways, natalie portman (saturday's "snl" guest host) walked right by us!  yay for celebrity sightings even when in new york!

by now, we were ready for a real meal, so we went to norma's in le parker meridien for bunch.  oh my goodness!  the restaurant was all modern and very cool.  plus, the food was amazingly delicious!  i had cheesy french toast, which was like a gourmet combination of french toast and grilled cheese.  plus, their orange juice was so good it was like drinking an orange. :)  mmm!  just the beginning of a weekend of wonderful eating!

next was the first of several museums on this trip.  :)  a huge reason of me wanting to return to new york was the museums.  there are so many there and over the past few years i've acquired such a love for art.  new york is the heart of the art world in this country.  i wanted to take in as much as possible.  slides in dr. zakian's classroom and photos in books never do the actual works justice.  so anyway, the first on the schedule (yes, there was a schedule) was the museum of modern art, definitely the best collection of modern art anywhere.  this was the museum i'd most been looking forward to, i think.  anyway, of course it was really awesome!  we saw as much as possible, though i know we didn't see everything because that would have taken all day.  but i loved what i saw and i'm so glad i finally got to see all those important works all in the same place!  awesome! :)

then sarah and i were totally exhausted and headed back to our hotel.  our room was finally ready for us, thankfully.  we crashed down for a little bit just resting ourselves for a few moments.  neither of us had much sleep thursday night and it'd been a busy day with more to come.

then we headed over to the theatre where "wicked" is playing on broadway.  they do a last minute lottery for front row tickets before each show.  so sarah and i waited in line in the windy, freezing cold to enter into the lottery.  so cold!  the coldest i was all weekend!  and after entering our names, we went to a starbucks nearby to warm up and wait 30 minutes before they drew the winners' names.  we returned but did not hear our names called, so it was plan b for us.  we did some shopping. :)  there are lots of shops around rockefeller center.  and then we to nonna for dinner.  it was an amazing little italian place, and the penne arrabiata i had was spectacular!  so delicious! :)  and after dinner, we went back to the hotel and crashed pretty quickly, totally exhausted from a very full day.

saturday started out not too too early with breakfast at the hotel, which was included in our room reservation.  it was a full hot breakfast with french toast and eggs and whatever else you could really want.  so we ate well. :)  and there was a strange waiter who we couldn't understand at all but who seemed very friendly.

then we headed out to go on our tv tour of new york.  it was a bus tour of a ton of places that have been famously filmed for tv and movies.  the really cool places included the house used for the exterior on "the cosby show" and the buildings used as exteriors for "friends."  the tour guide was a self-proclaimed actress/tour guide who was very miniature and perky but also knew lots of stuff. :)  the only downside about this tour was that sarah and i didn't get to sit together on the bus.  but we still enjoyed seeing lots of locations and it was also a good way to get to see lots of different neighborhoods in manhattan.  also, we both won black-and-white cookies for answering trivia questions correctly! :)

after the tour, we stopped for some starbucks and ate our cookies.  then we headed to soho, shopping capital of the world!  we had some places we definitely wanted to go before running out of time in soho.  the first stop was anthropologie, which i realize they have here but still.  they had a nice one there and sarah and i both found some cute stuff! :)  and the next stop was uniqlo.  there are only 3 permanent uniqlo locations in the u.s. (they're a japanese brand that has also done well in europe, including london, where they were one of my favorite stores) and they're all in new jersey, but they opened up a temporary shop in soho.  anyway, i love this store!  basically, everything's a solid color and comes in like 10 different colors.  and it's cheap!  so i found lots of cute stuff here! :)  and then we were hungry, so we went to a little hole-in-the-wall, posh place called bread.  we had delicious cheese panini and chocolate mousse.  the place was very cool!

next stop was the the bright lights of broadway once again! :)  this time, we had tickets already, though!  we went to see "the 25th annual putnam county spelling bee," which was so awesome!  it is a hilarious musical about elementary school kids in a spelling bee, and it also involved members of the audience.  i really loved it!  and a cool detail was that the lobby of the theatre was decorated like an elementary school with arts and crafts made from construction paper and fliers about voting for class president everywhere.  there were even working lockers, which we used to store our coats and shopping bags! :)  really neat.  but mostly, i loved the show!  and the most adorable member of the show, jesse tyler ferguson, was like 1 foot from us singing!  awesome! :)  haha!  after the show, it was back to the hotel for the night.

sunday morning started out a little bit earlier, as we got up and had another delicious breakfast.  and then we went up to the metropolitan museum of art.  it's definitely one of the biggest and best collections of art in the country -- perhaps the world.  and everyone knows it's impossible to see all of it on just one visit.  i really wanted to see the collection of impressionist, post-impressionist, and modern stuff, as well as anything really important in the american collection.  i think we actually accomplished this in the few hours that we had to spend there.  the museum is winding and confusing and we for sure got lost, but we ended up seeing a huge portion of the museum because we walked straight through rooms without stopping.  hehe!  but actually, i saw so much stuff!  and i loved every second of it! :)

then i made sarah walk with me through central park to the west side.  i wanted to see the park!  plus, there was quite a bit of snow and even the top of the ponds were frozen.  it was cool to see the park!  :)  it's on tv all the time but now i understand what it's like better!  and snow!  haha!  oh, i'm such a californian. ;)

then we went to the rose center for earth and space at the american museum of natural history.  we had tickets to a show at the planetarium there for the afternoon.  oh, goodness!  the show, called "passport to the universe," was really cool!  they use actual data so it's really like a proper night sky, except also way darker than it ever gets in la or anywhere else i ever am so way more stars are visible. :)  i really enjoyed it, and so did sarah the space geek. ;)  and we saw a tiny bit of the museum before moving on to more things. :) 

we went to serendipity 3, the restaurant featured in the film.  it's quite different, though.  anyway, the wait was crazy long, even at 3:30pm.  (what meal is this?!?)  so we put our name on the list (1-1.5 hours he told me) and walked down the block to bloomingdales, where we did some shopping.  actually, i looked and sarah found herself a new wallet, among a other things. :)  and then we went back to the restaurant and waited a little more before we were seated.  we were definitely having dinner by the time we actually got to eat.  and of course, the main reason we went there was for dessert!  we had their frozen hot chocolate (kind of like a really good milkshake is the best way describe it), as well as this other dessert that we special ordered to death and ended up being peanut butter pie with chocolate ice cream on top.  both were amazingly delicious and we didn't even come close to finishing either of them!  but we were full for like ever afterwards! :)

then we went to ground zero.  it was totally out of the way, but i knew i needed to go there before leaving new york.  it won't be like it is now the next time i'm in new york.  it was incredible to see.  just shocking.  there are walkways set up that show the timeline of events, pay tribute to those who died, and give other information.  it was quite moving.  i am so glad we went down there to see it all.

and then we headed back to the hotel for an evening we'd been looking forward to for awhile.  it was oscar night!  sarah had some work to get done (she's a busy college student still, after all), so i watched the first part of the show on my own while she studied.  then we watched all the important awards together.  the show was okay.  not especially exciting.  and i never love enough of the winners, but whatever.  that's why i am just a fan and not a voter, i guess.  no matter what, it was still cool to watch!  and the gowns!  i love the gowns! :)  then we crashed.

monday morning we were up early again!  this time, unlike the other mornings, i was up before sarah and got cleaned up and ready early.  then i went to 7:30 mass at st. patrick's cathedral, the largest catholic cathedral in the u.s.  it was absolutely beautiful inside (and also outside)!  they have lots of morning masses for people on their way to work.  it was wonderfully quick.  i really am glad i took a few moments to go to mass there. :)

then i met up with sarah back at the hotel for breakfast, again delicious.  and we had to check out.  sarah was headed back to syracuse and i had about half a day in nyc for myself.  i left my bags with the bellhop and headed out on my own. :)

i first went up to the time warner center at columbus circle.  i was to take a tour of the cnn studios there.  i had to wait around a little bit, but it was worth it.  my tour was nearly private (me and two others).  it was really cool to see some of the sets of the shows that tape in new york, including my favorite, anderson cooper! :)  also, the little lights behind larry king are pieces of stained glass!  and the newsrooms there are huge!  so the tour was rad!  and since i was there, i did a little shopping at esprit there, which they don't have too many of out here.  i found a really cute skirt! :)  and i grabbed a jamba juice because i was hungry, thirsty, and craving something healthy.

then i headed over to the guggenheim museum, which was quite rad.  it's a beautiful frank lloyd wright building!  and seeing the david smith retrospective while winding up the spiral that makes the building was really interesting.  plus, i absolutely loved their permanent collection.  it's not huge, but all the pieces are awesome, mostly post-impressionists, cubists, and kandinsky.  it was really good!  i'm quite impressed, really!

then i had a little more time before i needed to be back at the hotel, so i went to the h&m at rockefeller center for a tiny bit more shopping! :)  i did a quick tour of the store, tried a few things on, and ended up with a few adorable pieces! :)

then it was back to the hotel.  i caught my supershuttle ride back to the airport (less painful this time than from the airport to the hotel).  i was quite early for my flight but at least jfk is a real airport so i could find some dinner.  and i read awhile.  and eventually it was time for me to get on the plane.  the flight seemed long, though did sleep through some of it.  i also loved the direct tv because i watched the lmu-gonzaga game, which was so entertaining! :)  and good for the zags pulling out a win!  it was raining when i landed in long beach and had to walk across the tarmac getting wet.  oh, well.  at least i was on the ground.  i retrieved my luggage, took a shuttle to my car, and headed home.

so that's new york!  it was a blast! :)

as for today, i went to work and tried to catch up on everything that i had missed while also finding time to tell everyone who inquired about my trip.  it was a fun day!  and i even got a lot of work done! :)  and i swam after work, which was great!  there was practically no one there!  and i had a good time.  and i've now spent my whole evening writing this. :)

more tomorrow.  g'night. ;)

monday 6 march 2006 11:17pm

"new york show this time of year
there's nothing more beautiful to me
except for you
making my way on the town
and i'm seeing familiar places, faces
in my pile of coffee grounds
the days are better, the nights are still so lonely" -- train "cab"

hello! :)  i have returned to so cal!  i'll be updating again!  you're so excited! ;)

new york was awesome!  i had a total blast, and i now find myself extremely exhausted.  sarah and i had so much fun and squeezed as much as possible into our four days.  it was extremely cold there, but that didn't really stop us.  you'll be disappointed to hear that i did't take many photos, but i'll get what i did take up eventually.  anyway, i love new york! :)  i'll fill you in on all the details tomorrow when i can think more clearly and actually see straight.

for now, i'm headed to bed as quickly as possible.  it's back to work for me in the morning.  good night.

wednesday 1 march 2006 10:24pm

"i live on a small hill overlooking the skyline
with a breathtaking view of the big city bright lights
a hand full of stars and a heart full of dreams
brought me down this road that's never what it seems...
i can't run from the past that's given me wings
if i had to choose between this and what's left of me
then i choose me
i guess i've come a long way for a small town girl" -- shannon brown "small town girl"

wow.  things are busy.  i'm busy.  and i'm only getting busier.  but i'm really stoked about it all! :)  so no complaining from me!  life's good and really exciting!  also, just so you know... i likely won't be updating again until monday because i won't have access to my computer and all that.  so you can use this time to peruse the rest of my site or read old entries or just sit around missing me. ;)

so i got up half an hour early this morning, which was whatever.  i fell asleep watching leno last night, so it wasn't too too late.  anyway, i got up and showered and dressed.  i had already planned out in my head what i was wearing, so at least that part was really easy.  and put my hair up cute because... well, why not? :)  i had what was left of the krispy kremes for breakfast, which was quite delicious!  i packed up the gym bag and headed out.  it was a gorgeous morning! :)

i went to 8:15 mass at st. edwards for ash wednesday.  it was pretty busy, though not as much as the sunday masses i've been to.  mostly mass was good.  i always like ash wednesday masses because they're about spiritual renewal, rededicating yourself, and repentance.  the priest that gave mass was just alright and he doesn't speak loud enough, though.  and there were lots of noisy children all around that were quite distracting, but i survived.  i got my ashes. :)  plus, no singing!

then i was off to work and i even made it there by 9:30, so that was cool.  trying to get materials from people so i can complete projects before i head out tomorrow is like pulling teeth.  it's rough, but whatever.  i'm doing my best and there's hope that i'll get everything done.  i worked really hard today.  i got a lot of stuff, including little things that i really could have easily put off until later.  for lunch, i was the only one going out, so i just went down to super bowl for a chicken bowl, which i ate at my desk while reading a fashion magazine so that i'll be up-to-date when i get in a little shopping this weekend! ;)  and i worked away the rest of the afternoon.  scott was around today and chatty, so he provided some distraction.  and i think there's a new computer on its way to me at work!  yay!  i have the slowest in the office and we know it's time for an upgrade!  oh, and i only got one totally confused person with the ashes on my forehead, so that's pretty good.  haha!

after work, i headed for the y.  i had to put on a wet bathing suit, which i don't particularly enjoy, though i suppose it doesn't matter so much once i get into the pool.  i haven't swam on a wednesday in awhile.  the pool was very busy!  i had to share and lane, and that makes it harder for me to just fall into the rhythm of it because i am so conscious of the people around me and not kicking them and all that.  whatever.  last night i realized that the reason i was so energetic yesterday afternoon was the diet coke i had with lunch.  well, i didn't have one today so i wasn't quite as energetic, but i was fine.  i did my normal 6 sets in my time but still felt pretty good so i went for the 7th again.  probably because i'm a bit stubborn and wanted to prove to myself i could do it again.  anyway, it was good, though i was for sure done by the time i got all the way home.

i've been busy around the apartment since i got home.  i showered.  i did a load of laundry.  i made and ate dinner.  i talked to the family.  i talked to sarah and megs and annahita.  i packed for new york, which was quite a chore because i'm not sure what i'll need/want in the colder weather there and then i had to try to fit everything into my little suitcase.  (actually, i put it all in to make sure it fits and then had to take parts back out again because i'll need them tomorrow before i leave.)  i made sure the nails were trimmed so they weren't so crazy.  i did the dishes.  i made sure the apartment is straightened.  so yeah, i've been busy!  and i'm looking forward to bed, even though i know i'll have a hard time sleeping because i'm so excited about my trip.

speaking of new york, i had a little spell of crazy today.  i heard (through travelzoo) about a good deal on a hotel room in nyc this weekend right near the one i was already booked in.  it's a much nicer hotel, though.  so i made some last-second adjustments to our plans and we switched our hotel.  but i'm really excited about this new hotel! :)

i'll be keeping track of what sarah and i do in new york so i can update you on everything as soon as i get back.  plus, i'll be sure to take lots of photos! :)  miss me while i'm gone! ;)

good night!

tuesday 28 february 2006 10:12pm

"crying and coming undone
don't make you less of a man
you know everybody needs someone
every now and then...
if you're gonna turn to something
baby, just turn to me
i'm listening
you can tell me anything
i know you want to find yourself
an easy remedy
but if you're gonna turn to something
baby, just turn to me
hey's it's ok if you want to fall apart
there ain't no better place than right here in my arms" -- shannon brown "turn to me"

um, i think i am entirely running on adrenaline.  because we know i'm not running on a restful night's sleep or anything.  but it's been a good day if also really busy. :)

the rain i think helped me with the sleep last night, though it was -- as always -- too short.  it's fine.  whatever.  at least there was some amount of resting going on.  and i got up with the alarm, as always.  i hopped into the shower, which helps with waking me up.  i had some breakfast and attempted to check email though the tim mcgraw site crashed the computer.  anyway, then i got dressed in my cozy sweater/wrap and jeans and headed out on a drizzly morning.  not quite raining but not quite dry either.

work today was good.  i got a lot of things crossed off the to-do list, which is great because there's still a lot to try to get done this week before i head to nyc.  the bulk of my time was spent printing the st. jude's newsletter.  at least i got the new printer to work properly and it does duplex so i didn't have to print one side at a time! :)  hooray!  it was way easier than with the old printer!  around lunchtime, melissa, jan, and i went over to trader joe's to pick up lunch (i guess melissa needed groceries there, as well, which is why we went in the first place).  i found myself a salad, some of those breadsticks/cheesesticks things i love, cookies, and milk (to bring home for my breakfast tomorrow morning).  i ate at my desk while chatting with sarah about new york (more on that later).  and the rest of the day at work went well.  the newsletter (all 880 pages) got printed, which is great news!  and i tied up various other things.  i even found time to straighten my desk, which i really did need. :)  so work's good, if also busy.

sarah and i have planned out our long weekend in new york! :)  yay!  we had a long list of things we wanted to do/see/buy and i knew the only way we'd come close to accomplishing everything would be some sort of loose schedule.  and... well... it's packed full.  there won't be a lot of time for rest.  i'm ok with that, though.  i don't get to new york city very often and i want to take full advantage of this time there. :)

anyway, after work, i headed for the y.  it was a decent night out, so i went for a swim.  it's funny how if you show up a place often enough you really do become a part of that community.  that's totally how it is with me at the y.  the people at the front desk know me, especially the guy who calls me "pepperdine."  he's always anxious to fill me in on the latest ken starr news.  haha!  and of course the guy in the yellow shorts who loves to say hello at the pool.  anyway, i like that we all know each other aorund there.  i had a really good swim tonight.  i did my full, recently-extended workout and still had 2 minutes and enough energy to spare to tack on one more round of laps (so that's 7 sets instead of my normal 6).  yay for me!  the swimming really is going great and i'm loving doing it more and more. :)

then i headed home for a quick shower.  then i threw on some jeans and a sweatshirt and headed right back out.  it's new music tuesday and shannon brown day.  it's been nearly 4 years since i first saw shannon in concert opening for emerson drive and fell in love with the cd she was selling herself.  now she finally has a record out in stores, full of music i've never heard before! :)  so great!  and on my way back home, i couldn't resist the "hot now" light in the window of krispy kreme, so i stopped for a couple hot donuts to take home with me! :)  i'd been wanting a krispy kreme for ages now!  i even had a dream about them last weekend!  so finally, i got my donut! :)

then it was home for dinner, talking to sarah, booking more nyc things, and watching some tv.  "gilmore girls" was good if also kind of sad.  and i watched teh latest episode of "footballers' wives," which was really fun! :)  it's a cool show and worth an hour a week, i think!

now i need to get to bed.  i'm spent.  plus, i'll be getting up early tomorrow for mass before work.  so that's all from here tonight.  more tomorrow.  good night! ;)

monday 27 february 2006 10:36pm

"so i'll go on lamenting silently
if that' the way it has to be
but you'll always touch and taste and see me
all over you
i'll burn upon your body
with a fire that's mocking the sun
all over you
the love that lingers on your lips
will be my final testament
what's been done i can't undo
i'll always be all over you" -- shedaisy "all over you"

wow.  i'm blindingly tired.  but things feel like they're going really well, so i won't complain all that much. :)  here's how it goes...

"grey's" was once again good last night! :)  it kills me to wait for another new episode.  and i actually watched it on it's proper night for the first time in awhile.

i got to bed around 11:30, which is totally reasonable for me.  i didn't sleep so well, though.  i kept waking up frantically.  i think it was the fact that i ate dinner at like 9:30 last night.  that was probably a bad idea, but i was starving.  anyway, it wasn't a restful night of sleep, but at least that meant i was able to get up alright when the alarms went off this morning.  i got cleaned up and dressed.  i found some breakfast and checked email, sad that there wasn't something super cool to watch, like the olympics, while i was getting ready.  then it was off to work.

my list of things to accomplish at work this week isn't especially long.  each of the tasks are large ones, though.  they're all perfectly wonderful projects and i don't dislike any of them.  they'll just keep me quite busy all week, especially since i won't be there friday and i am pretty sure i'll be arriving late on wednesday morning.  anyway, it's quiet around the office. jenna's taking a vacation all week, and jan was out today taking care of lucas.  that left marke, melissa, and me, and marke left at 10.  i spent all morning working, though i'll admit i was talking to sarah a little, as well, about our quickly-approaching new york trip! :)  for lunch, i wanted to just run and grab some pizza.  when i got to the door of the building, i sadly discovered that it was raining pretty hard.  suck!  sugar melts, you know! ;)  anyway, i braved the rain because i didn't have much choice and was quite hungry.  and i made it all the way back to my desk with my lunch.  i ate and read my nyc guidebook. :)  and the afternoon was filled with more work.  it's monday and i was tired.  i was pretty focused on what i was doing because i really just had a one-track mind, instead of my usual 4+-track mind. :)  so i got a lot accomplished today, perhaps even more than i had planned.

i had planned on a swim today.  but it was raining, so i wasn't all about the pool.  yes, it's an outdoor pool.  i don't know why but people keep assuming it's an indoor pool.  no, no, no.  outdoors.  this is orange county, people.  and indoor pool would just be silly.  anyway, i wasn't up for a swim in the rain (yes, i realize i'd be wet regardless but it still seems kind of miserable, as much as i had been wanting a swim), so i headed for the gym instead.  i started a new book, as i am leaving the characters in "the time traveler's wife" suspended in time where they are for the time being.  my bike ride was really good, though.

then i headed home.  the walk from my car to my mailbox to my apartment is quite long and doing it at a very rapid walking pace was rough on my tired legs.  and i was getting soaked.  but i got my mail and made it home fine.  i took a quick shower and headed for the couch.  it was time for the second half of the oklahoma game, which i only strayed from temporarily while catching the last minute of the gonzaga game, which was excellent!  and then my sooners!  kevin bookout and oklahoma pulled out their fourth straight one-point win.  awesome! :)

plus, i've been chatting with people this evening.  adam and i talked basketball.  sarah and i have been talking new york.  (i just finished reading my guidebook and am now prepared to put together a loose plan for our weekend in the city.)  and troy and i talked a little basketball, a little new york, and a little computer fix-it.  they've all kept me busy tonight!

and now i'm just watching a little tv and writing this and getting ready for bed.  i'm hoping to get a nice 8 hours again tonight!  will the rain -- which continues to be heavy right now -- make that easier or harder?

well, enough from me for now.  more tomorrow.  good night. ;)

sunday 26 february 2006 9:42pm

"i went as far as i could tryin' to find a new face
there isn't one of these lines that i would erase
i left a million miles of memories on that road
every step that i take i know that i'm not alone
you can take the home from the boy but not the boy from his home
these are my streets, the only life i've ever known
who says you can't go home...
doesn't matter where you are
doesn't matter where you go
if it's a million miles away
or just a mile up the road
take it in, take it with you when you go
who says you can't go home" -- bon jovi "who says you can't go home"

well, i made it back home. :)  "home" is one of those words that isn't so helpful, i suppose, because it means so many things right now.  i'm so thankful that it has so many meaning, actually!  it means there are a lot of places i can call home, a lot of places where i belong and and love to be. :)  i'm for sure a lucky girl!  anyway, i made it back to my apartment in laguna safely after a wonderful weekend at my parents' in san carlos.

the morning started out quite early, with mom waking me at 9 and reminding me that i needed to go to trader joe's.  i got cleaned up and dressed and made sure adam was awake, too.  he was my designated chauffeur! :)  so he drove me over to trader joe's, where we picked up a few ingredients for today's big lunch, as well as some cinnamon rolls and fresh oj for breakfast.  turns out my parents keep nearly no food in their house.  what are you supposed to do when you get up in the morning and are hungry?  so anyway, i bought breakfast since i was already out, and it was quite delicious! :)

so i knew the family was coming over for lunch today and when i found out mom was just going to make a frozen lasagna, i volunteered to go to trader joe's, pick up a few things, and make a pretty simple lasagna myself. :)  so i put together a huge lasagna and got that in the oven! :)

grandma arrived just when i was putting that in the oven to cook.  dad went to pick her up.  she hung around awhile while the rest of the food was prepared and the rest of the family arrived.  oh, and there was basketball on the tv for entertainment, as well. :)  and eventually, auntie lily, uncle ken, theresa, jason, brenda, and auntie nancy all arrived.  we had a delicious lunch together, and my lasagna turned out really well!  of course, everyone was asking for black-bottom cupcakes, too.  as if i come home just to cook for them! ;)  actually, though, it was really nice to have the family together.  and the grandma wanted to play mahjong, which requires 4 people, so i took a spot at the table.  it'd been forever since i'd played and really i still don't know all teh rules or how it quite works.  but i was up for playing anyway. :)  and so we played a lot of games.  i probably won more than half of them!  :)  haha!  it was a good time for me!  i don't know how many quarters i won but it doesn't matter because i don't ever get to keep them anyway.  after all, they weren't mine to begin with.  but it was fun!  and we played that game at the end where you try and collect all the tiles of your suit first.  i won that, too! :)

then the party was over, everyone went home, and it was time for me to head to the airport, as well.  dad and adam took me to san jose.  i didn't need a lot of time because i already had a boarding pass.  i just needed to go through security and get to my gate.  and it was really no trouble at all.  i spent my time waiting reading a magazine.  i have gotten to a point in my book (still "the time traveler's wife") where i know what's coming but i don't want it to so i don't want to read any more.  if i stop now, the story stops now.  :)  i'm sure i'll eventually finish, but not in an airport, on a plane, or at the gym.  i want to really sit and relax and finish it when i get to that.  anyway, i got on my plane and headed back to orange county. it was a turbulent flight, but i just closed my eyes and remained in that half-asleep-half-awake state until i was jostled by the landing.  i retrieved my car and headed home.

now i'm watching a bit of the closing ceremony before watching tonight's "grey's anatomy" and going to bed.  i'm quite tired and know i have a lot ahead of me in the coming days.

more from me next time.  good night. ;)

sunday 26 february 2006 12:40am

“who says you can’t go back
been all around the world and as a matter of fact
there’s only one place left i wanna go
who says you can’t go home” – bon jovi “who says you can’t go home”

ok, so i know i should have updated long ago and i am normally really good about it.  sorry.  i actually have a giant problem updating when i’m here because i don’t have a computer available to me at all hours.  they’re in bedrooms of people who aren’t awake at 1am when i finally do have a chance to sit down and write.  there’s a very old computer in my room but as you might already know the version of word i was using to make updates just couldn’t handle my pages and destroyed them.  anyway, things are ok now, of course, but i can’t use the computer available to me to update.  actually, right now i’m writing on it and in the morning i’ll actually post this when i can get to another computer.  anyway, that’s the deal.  apparently, people aren’t up as late as i might like. ;)  but i must say it has been a wonderful trip thus far.

so friday morning started out bright and early.  even though i could have easily just stayed in bed, i got up and clean right away.  there was lot to accomplish before heading to work.  i had to not only get myself ready, but i also had to pack the rest of my suitcase, have some breakfast, and make sure everything was ready for me to be gone all weekend.  and then!  the highlight of my morning!  i watched the u.s. men’s curling bronze medal match, which i had recorded.  i watched the beginnings and ends of each end (and the middles in fast-forward) and the entire tenth end.  oh my goodness!  i love pete fenson and the rest of the boys!  and they make me so so proud! :)  bronze medal!  hooray!  then i headed off to work and called dad on the way for a little celebration.  also, one of the best parts of watching (besides the actual game, of course) was hearing the crowd cheer “peeeeeeete fen!son!”  it was awesome!

ok, so i did have to actually go to work friday.  work was fine.  right now, i don’t remember anything in particular that was exciting about it.  i worked on a powerpoint presentation for john’s friend, which was kind of cool.  i still have more work to do on it, though.  and i realized that next week is going to be pretty busy for me despite the fact that i’ll only work 4 days of it.  there’s a lot for me to accomplish, even if we’re in between magazines.  i’m actually really looking forward to having so much to do, though.  it doesn’t always work out like that between magazines. :)  for lunch, i snuck out to baja fresh to pick up food, which i ate in the lunch room while reading a magazine.  it was quiet in there, so it worked out nicely for me.  the afternoon was spent doing more work.  the new pritner almost works for me.  not really sure what’s going on there.  at some point i’ll need to figure all of that out, though.  i’m just not looking forward to trying to solve the issues.  whatever.  anyway, it was a decent day of work.

i headed to john wayne directly from work.  shockingly, the traffic wasn’t bad at all until i was like a mile from the exit.  so i was stoked!  i parked my car, picked up a shuttle, and was at the airport in no time.  and then there was just a lot of waiting around at my gate.  i had printed a boarding pass in the morning, so i didn’t even need to take care of that.  i mostly read a magazine.  at one point, a lady started chatting with me and proceeded to offer me a slice of the pizza she was eating.  i was shocked (and apalled), but i politely refused. :)  the flight out of my gate before mine was late so of course mine was, too.  the flight was ok, though.  sntil we were about 50 feet from the ground in san jose, at which point we started taking off again and at a pretty rapid pace.  yikes!  i knew that wasn’t good.  it turns out that the plane on the san jose runway in front of us stopped suddenly and so we didn’t have clearance to land anymore.  so we had to go all the way back up, turn around, and land again.  do you know how long this takes?  like 20 minutes!  the entire flight normally is like 40-50.  but we did make it on the ground safely the second time around, even if that meant i was now 30 minutes late.  dad met me there and brought me home.

mom had been taping the olympics for me that night.  well, she used an actual tape (how archaic! ;)), so i had to take out the tape she was using so i could watch it and put in a new tape to record from that point on.  wes, this is totally neurotic of me, but if i watched the show out of order, i’d likely find out results of events before i saw them, which really defeats the whole purpose of watching.  anyway, i watched olympics stuff all evening and had a nice time.  adam and mom were like 75% asleep when i got home, so it was just dad and me anyway.  and after all the olympics stuff, i crashed.

it gets noisy around this house pretty early, so i was up earlyish.  i tried to stay asleep as long as possible, though. :)  adam was just getting home from volleyball practice, and dad made us pancakes for breakfast, which was great because i so rarely get to have pancakes. :)  then it wasn’t too long before i needed to get cleaned up.

mom, dad, adam, and i got into the car this afternoon and headed for moraga, out in the east bay.  it was actually a really nice day in the bay area and driving though the city and across the bay bridge meant gorgeous views! :)  so excellent!  and besides a little detour through oakland, we made it all the way to the campus of st. mary’s college without much incident.

we’re doing college tours, in case you didn’t already know.  adam doesn’t know what the heck he’s doing picking out colleges, so he’s seeing a lot of them.  anyway, we walked around the college a bit.  i’d never been there before, but they have a nice campus and it was a very nice to be out and walking around.  i remain unimpressed with their newspaper, however.  i think i’m spoiled. :)

the next stop was nation’s giant hamburgers for lunch.  i, of course, didn’t have a hamburger, but i did have a very delicious chicken-bacon-cheese sandwich!  so good!  apparently this is a chain of burger places.  i had no idea.  anyway, it was good.

after a brief walk around the shopping center where nation’s was (this is quite the walking family, you know), we headed to this random italian place for a pepperdine reception.  ok, so i guess i’ll just explain why we were in moraga at st. mary’s today.  the pepperdine men’s basketball team was playing at st. mary’s and the parents (i probably did, too) got an invite for tickets and a reception before the game with the pepperdine crew.  so they signed the family up.  anyway, we went to this reception, which i wasn’t especially looking forward to because i don’t particularly care for awkward conversation with strangers on saturday afternoons.  :)  but actually, it was really low-key and i mostly just hung out with the family and watch my stanford men beat washington state on the big-screen tv. :)  perfect!  and we got our free t-shirts and our tickets to the game and headed back to campus.

the basketball game was… well… at least it was close. :)  actually, it was a pretty exciting game, especially considering st. mary’s has a decent team and pepperdine doesn’t.  we were in it until the end.  the officiating was out of hand (seriously), but we fought through that anyway.  even though we lost in the end, it was still fun to go and root for the waves.

once back home, it was back to taped olympics!  mom, dad, and adam read the results when we were watching the stanford game and they came across the ticker, but i didn’t look and made them not tell me.  so fun!  i love apolo!  it’s been really fun to watch all the olympics stuff this year!  i’m glad i devoted myself to watching!  all the great stories and exciting events have been totally worth the time. :)

and now it’s the middle of the night and i have another full day ahead of me.  i think i should get to bed now.  more tomorrow (today).  good night! ;)

friday 24 february 2006 11:58pm

"who says you can't go home
there's only one place they call you one of their own
just a hometown boy born a rolling stone
who says you can't go home" -- bon jovi "who says you can't go home"

ok, so if you couldn't already tell, i've kind of destroyed this site trying to do this from another computer that clearly doesn't have the tools it needs. in the morning, i'll go back and fix it. in fact, it is stifling my creativity and now i don't really feel like writing when i had actually been looking forward to it. i hope you'll forgive me if i put it off until tomorrow. but don't think i have forgotten about you, dear reader. ;) life's good. i'm back in san carlos with the family for the weekend. more from me soon. good night!

thursday 23 february 2006 10:04pm

"lips warm and tender
ask if i'll always care
simple surrender
and follow me there
trust me completely
darling, please meet me in love
darling, please meet me
ever so sweetly in love" -- garth brooks "meet me in love"

one more day of work before a busy, busy weekend.  one more night of sleep in my own bed.  i'm trying to take advantage, though i fear it's already too late for me to get as much rest as i might like.  plus, i know the olympics are on for quite a while longer and i really can't tear myself away from them. :)  and the distractions are all around.

anyway, i got to bed right at teh end fo the olympics last night, which was awesome and means 8ish hours of sleep.  i didn't sleep though like i had been but whatever.  anyway, i was confused again when the alarm was going off but managed to find my way to the shower, where i woke up more.  funny how even though i did laundry last night i still felt like i had nothing to wear. :)  i eventually found a sweater and jeans, but you know.  anyway, i got dressed and had some breakfast before leaving.  i was so sad to go because i wanted to stay and watch the women's curling gold medal match, which was just starting.  but i was off to work anyway.

work today was good. :)  more of the same old same old, which is fine.  it's easy to do and keeps me busy throughout my day.  plus, i snuck in a little time to read some celeb gossip and even very carefully read some sports news.  that's super dangerous, though, because i was so diligently avoiding seeing today's olympics results.  that was made even harder after jan found out who won the figure skating and was teasing me. :)  also, the office was a bit busier today with more people back in town from wherever in europe they were.  at lunch, jenna and i went up to z pizza to pick up food, but we just brought it back to the office to eat.  still delicious, though!  and there was more work this afternoon.  jenna gave me a random little assignment to spruce up this guy's powerpoint presentation.  i have free reign, pretty much, so that's really fun!  something new and different and it's for john's friend (who doesn't work at rtc) so that's kind of cool, too!  i'll be working on that tomorrow, i think.

also in regards to work, the diet talk is running rampant.  it's constant.  it's a little insane, if you ask me.  what i mostly don't understand is where all these people were during health or pe classes when you have to learn about healthy eating and healthy lifestyle habits.  i have had to learn all this stuff so many times that i could plan out great regimens for all these people in my sleep.  maybe they just didn't pay attention in class?  i don't really understand that either. :)

anyway, speaking of a healthy lifestyle (not that i'm claiming i'm close to perfect about that), i had plans to swim after work today.  when i was leaving for work this morning i kind of thought i was forgetting something but i couldn't figure out what it was.  i realized about halfway to work that it was my gym bag.  oops!  so after work, i stopped at the apartment complex office to put money on my laundry card and then stopped at my apartment to pick up my bag.  then i headed to the y.  i was sitting on the edge of the pool putting my goggles on before jumping in and i hear someone bark, "you're late!"  haha!  i turned to look at it was yellow shorts man two lanes over!  it's true.  i was about 5 minutes later than usual.  normally, i'm there before he is.  anyway, he said hello and we had a brief chat before i was off and swimming.  i had a great swim!  i kept it long once again!  and i was feeling excellent throughout.  :)  i'm really pleased!  i feel like i'm getting better at swimming.  like the actual strokes are becoming more efficient and i'm getting back to how i want them to be because i'm staying pretty fast, even with the extra laps.  anyway, yay for good swims!

i got cleaned up right away when i got home so that i could get on with a few more loads of laundry.  jeans.  towels.  sheets.  all things that i prefer to have clean. :)  but now everything is clean and put away properly, so i'm a happy camper!  also, i packed a suitcase for the weekend, though it's mostly empty because i don't need all that much for just 2 nights.  i kind of feel like i'm forgetting something but i think that's just because i normally totally over-pack or pack a lot of dirty clothes for mom to wash. :)

i talked to the family tonight, as well.  they're anxious for me to come visit, and they have lots of things planned to keep me busy.  and i've been chatting with megs, as well.  i'm trying to convince her to come visit me at home. :)  (gah.  am i using "home" meaning too many different things all at once?)  anyway, i had dinner, too. :)  it was delicious!

and the olympics.  i'm kind of bummed about the men's aerials because it seems like the judges rewarded perfect easy jumps way more than nearly-perfect harder jumps.  this is the olympics!  challenge the skiers!  make them go above and beyond to win.  anyway, it was still awesome to watch, especially speedy's hurricane!  :)  and of course, there's the figure skating.  the final group of skaters is about to start.  adam may or may not have told me the results.  i'm still not sure if he was telling the truth or making it up.  either way, i have watch to find out!  so that's what i'll do and then i'll crash.  i'm so tired!  plus, my body's tired after a week of hard workouts.  it's ready for a little break, too! :)

ok, so more tomorrow (from san carlos).  good night. ;)

wednesday 22 february 2006 10:16pm

"darling, please meet me
and i'll whisper sweetly
you're the one
all my life
that i've dreamed of
i've fallen so deeply
i'm yours completely
so darling, please meet me forever in love" -- garth brooks "meet me in love"

i'm writing at a much more reasonable hour tonight. :)  this is all part of my attempt to get to bed a bit earlier tonight, as i haven't gotten nearly enough sleep this week and there's no end in sight for this pattern.  anyway, it's not like i mind a ton.  it's just that i know it'd be better if i were more rested.  so anyway, i'm here and ready to write away for you! :)

ok, so i stayed up late last night to watch "grey's anatomy," and it was so worth the sacrificed sleep!  i really do love that show! :)  and of course, i was all stoked about the whole show afterwards, so it took me a bit to get into bed, settle down, and fall asleep.  i didn't get a ton of sleep last night and i was in a very normal dream when the alarm when off this morning.  i wasn't quite ready to be awake so soon, as it felt like i had just fallen asleep, but i got up.  it was another chilly morning!  i totally don't approve!  but i got cleaned up and dressed.  i put my hair up all cute in a big messy bun and topped it off with a headband (think sarah jessica parker).  :)  and after breakfast, i threw on a jacket and headed off to work.  i had a twilight zone drive with absolutely no traffic!  so weird, but i'm not complaining at all! :)

work today was pretty good.  it was more of the same sorts of stuff, which is totally fine.  actually, it seemed really mellow around the office today, which i love.  better than the frantic days we have when we're trying to push magazines out to the printers!  and i took care of various things today, including a client who provided a zipcode that does not exist!  how weird is that?!?  but we tracked down the proper one, thankfully! :)  a man from minolta came today to give us a little tutorial on how to use our new printer, which was cool.  he showed us some really helpful things, as well as some features that we'll likely never, ever use.  too bad he's completely mac illiterate and so our macs still aren't working quite right with the printer.  melissa's is good.  mine can print but can't do any of the fancy stuff like print 11x17 or saddle stitch.  jenna's can't print at all.  but he promised to send a mac specialist out this week, which is welcomed news. :)  then jenna, jan, and i headed to super bowl for lunch, where we ate chicken bowls, watched golf on tv, and spotted the editor of "the surfer's journal" magazine.  plus, we stopped off at goodie's for some frozen yogurt and they even got me into the pet store next door to look at the bunnies. :)  and it was an afternoon full of more work.  plus, melissa's designing her own wedding invitations, so we talked about those for a bit but i think now she thinks they're perfect and all the feedback and advice helped her. :)

after work, i was tempted to just head home and get on with chores and whatever.  but i was good and kept driving all the way to the y.  i rode the bike, and it went much, much better than monday night's workout.  i stepped it up a notch, was still able to really focus on the book i'm reading, and was still feeling decent (if really sweaty) when my time was up. :)  the book's still awesome, by the way!  and as i was leaving, there were some girls (maybe aged 12-14ish) talking with their moms as they were leaving volleyball practice.  one was saying she was finally understanding the 6-2 offense and then realized how 6-2 and 5-1 got their names.  it made me really miss playing volleyball!

anyway, i came home and immediately sorted the laundry.  it has been a million years since i have done laundry and i actually had nothing left to wear.  so i got two loads into the washing machines before settling back down in the apartment.  i only had enough money on my laundry card for 2 loads, so the rest (2 or 3 loads) will just have to wait.  anyway, lots of laundry got done and is put away, so i'm really pleased!

i talked to chris on the phone for awhile tonight, which was especially awesome because it doesn't happen as often as i might like.  he's doing well in the frozen tundra that is michigan.  apparently you have to clean up tree branches and stuff after an ice storm.  whatever an ice storm is.  haha!  anyway, he's doing well and really looking forward to moving out here this summer. :)

then i found some dinner and talked to the family for a little bit.  dad wants to take me to minnesota to the pizzeria that pete fenson (the u.s. men's curling team's skip) runs.  :)  haha!  oh, we're such curling dorks now!  i told dad we're not going until summer when it's not also frozen tundra. :)  by the way, the men's team lost their semifinal against canada today, so they'll play great britain on friday for bronze.

and i've watched my share of olympics tonight. :)  of course!  it's been pretty fun!  i love freestyle aerials because it's insane what people can do on skis.  and how about apolo seeming like he's just having so much fun being in the olympics?  i love that attitude!  the short track stuff is all really fun, though no wipeouts thus far.

and so i'll watch until the olympics are done tonight, and hopefully it'll be straight to bed for me after that.  i'm tired!  more from me next time.  for now, good night. ;)

wednesday 22 february 2006 12:48am

oh.  my.  goodness!  ohmygoodness!  :D  ::dances around in glee::  "grey's anatomy" was so good!  so.  good.  sogood!  like my head explodes so good!  :)  i loved it!  and!  no tears!  but next week looks amazing, as well.  even.  better!  yay for the best show ever!

and i'm supposed to just go to sleep now?!?  riiight...

tuesday 21 february 2006 11:11pm (make a wish!)

"i'm the one that you can turn to
when everyone has let you down
and when the fires outside have burned you
and you think there's no way out
and when you're sure nobody understands
and you've quit looking for a helping hand
hey forget all that 'cause i'm still your man
you can run to me, run to me
i'm standing here and i'll always be
yeah, run to me
i won't let you down
i won't let you down" -- jack ingram "run to me"

surprisingly, i feel like i've been running around all day taking care of this and that.  but now it's my time to spend here just writing (and watching the olympics, of course), and i plan to enjoy it. :)

i couldn't fall asleep last night.  of course.  that always happens to me at the end of particularly restful weekends.  i suppose it'd just be too unnatural for me to actually feel rested and great on the first day back to work, anyway.  but my point is that i was up way too late, but at least leno was especially entertaining with both tom green and ross the intern (my favorite) in tornio.  their segments have been great, i think! :)  of course, i did eventually fall asleep.  i just didn't leave myself a whole lot of time for actually sleeping.

and the alarm(s) went off bright and early this morning!  i stumbled out of bed and into the shower.  actually, i can hardly remember any of this because i was kind of out of it.  but having a morning routine means i can just run on auto-pilot through the whole thing anyway until i'm seated at my desk at work ready to dive into an inbox full of email.  but i digress.  i got cleaned up.  i got dressed in what turned out to be a really cute outfit, especially considering i haven't done laundry in forever and have nearly nothing left to wear!  i had some cereal and checked email, packed up my gym bag, and was off to work.  sadly, i left my sunglasses on the counter.  tragic! ;)

work today was full of lots of little things, which is fine, especially since none of us could remember that it was tuesday not monday.  (this means we were all a bit tired and not ready to be back at work.)  as i mentioned before, there was a load of email waiting for me this morning.  stupid magazine advisories!  bah!  but!  in better, redeeming news, none of them were my fault. :)  thankyouverymuch!  anyway, we took care of things like that, various reprints and pdfs and other random stuff that needs to get done, and somehow that adds up to a day of work.  i scooted off to z pizza to pick up a quick (and cheap) lunch, which i ate back at my desk while reading celebrity gossip blogs.  and the afternoon of work was rounded out with our tuesday monday meeting.  we had lots of good show-and-tells, which is my favorite part of these meetings!  it's nice to have a little inspiration! :)  and the meeting was long, as we somehow always get side-tracked with various things.  it was a fun way to round out my first day back to work, though.

then it was off to the y for a swim.  well, i wasn't going to lengthen my swim yet, but i got 40% of the way (yes, i do all sorts of weird fractions and percentages math in my head when i'm swimming as a distraction for myself) through, i was still feeling really good so i lengthened my swim by 20%.  and i just tacked it right on the end wihtout any extra break or whatever.  and i was feeling good when i got out of the pool, too!  plus, one of the stereos (there are two poolside stereos that usually have top 40 going for the swimming and diving teams) was playing country and had hanna-mceuen on!  awesome!  that was a nice little surprise when i got out (you can't hear them while you're swimming).  so i was feeling great, but by the time i was home and in the shower i nearly killed myself when one leg just gave out from being tired.  of course, i recovered quickly and never fell or anything, but i for sure know now that i did work hard tonight.  yay! :)

ok, so i got cleaned up and dressed and headed off to target immediately, actually looking way too cute to just be going to target but i guess that happens sometimes! ;)  i went to pick up "rent" on dvd and plastic bags.  i also found laundry detergent.  pretty exciting, no?  actually, "rent" is really exciting because not only do i love it but the dvd also has a full-length documentary on the broadway production and jonathan larson, which should be awesome!  plus, more songs that weren't in the film but are in the show.  i'm excited to (eventually) get to watch it all!

back home, i was immediately multi-tasking for reals.  i was on the phone with my brother, cooking/eating dinner, talking to sarah online, and watching the olympics.  and once i was done with adam and dinner, i was working.  sarah put me to work again! :)  she had two more illustrations for me to do, but she needed them tonight so i had to work quickly.  one is a parisian man holding a book with the eiffel tower in the background.  the other is a leggy blonde woman talking on her cell phone.  sarah claims to love both, so i'm stoked! :)

and the olympics were good fun tonight!  the figure skating was better than i expected because i don't enjoy it all that much.  and the speedskating.  oh, how i dislike shani davis.  of course, there are still all the inspiring stories, like vonetta flowers, the first black person to win winter olympic gold, which she did at salt lake.  anyway, i'm still really enjoying the olympics and i look forward to the next few days and they come to a close. :)

and now, i am going to watch sunday's "grey's anatomy."  i've already heard too much thanks to people at work, even though i told them i didn't want to know anything.  they just kept saying how good it is and how i'm going to die when i watch it.  and they tried to discuss it without me understanding, but i had to stop them.  anyway, i'm looking forward to it because i love the show. :)

enough out of me.  good night! ;)

monday 20 february 2006 10:29pm

"well i've tried to let you know with subtle charms
that i've got to hold you in my arms
and if it ain't too obvious by now
honey, i'm just gonna spell it out
give me your love, give me your love
that's what i need, that's what i need
how can i make you understand
give me your love, give me your love
that's what i'm neeing, that's what i'm needing
oh, don't make me beg
please, please, please, please, please
don't make me beg" -- steve holy "don't make me beg"

i love mondays off.  there should be more of them. :)  and i really do think i took advantage of what amounts to a second sunday.  i've done... not a whole lot. :)  perfect!

so i might have been up particularly late last night for no really good reason! :)  i just like to do that when i have the chance, so i took advantage.  after the olympics were over, i caught up on a little news and then decided to watch the episode of "footballers' wives" that i had recorded.  it was the season premiere, and i've been hearing a lot about this show and how it makes "desperate housewives" look tame.  i wanted to give it a try and it would make a really nice addition to my little sunday night lineup of shows.  it was really fun, the cast is beautiful, and i'll be tuning in again for sure! :)

it was cold last night!  the news told me so. :)  i was tucked under lots of blankets to keep cozy and warm.  and i slept alright.  mostly, though, i slept long.  until after 11.  great!  that's an excellent thing to do on a rare monday when i don't have to set an alarm clock.  and i lazed around in bed a little before eventually getting up, which is another nice luxury.

i spent my day doing nothing pretty much.  i recorded an early-morning men's curling match, so i watched that.  it was good, though it didn't turn out quite as i had hoped with canada beating the u.s.  the men will be in the semis, though, so i haven't seen the last of pete fenson and crew. :)  other olympics coverage came on eventually.  it was good stuff, including a women's curling match.  the u.s. women got smoked, but that's alright because they already had been knocked out of the semis.  i must say that more than normal i enjoyed just sitting here relaxing and watching.  it was really a quiet day, likely because it's actually a monday, and i loved it.  i might have even napped at some point, though i'm really not sure because my state of awakeness today didn't differ all that much from a sate of sleep. ;)

i did do one non-weekend-like thing today, however.  mentally, for me, it's a big deal.  in reality, it's not.  i got up off the couch, i put on work out clothes, and i went to the gym for a bike ride.  i don't do the gym on the weekends.  but anyway, i'm trying to be good and i hadn't moved all day, so i went.  anyway, i read my book and pedaled hard.  apparently, i was working especially hard, because by minute 27 i was dying!  i had to lower the level for my last 3 minutes or i wouldn't have made it to the end (and my lunch wouldn't have either -- is that an overshare?).  anyway, i guess that means it was a good, hard workout.  so i headed home.

after getting cleaned up, i decided it was time for the manicure and pedicure i didn't give myself last night.  so it was me sitting in the middle of the living room floor having at it. :)  and now all 20 nails are matching sheer nude.  i just wanted something really plain and clean looking, so that's it.  simple.  but nice, i think. :)  and while i was doing this and while i was letting everything dry, i watched the oklahoma-texas tech game.  oh, that was a good one, but my sooners pulled it out in the end.  when the game came on, i said (yes, out loud to myself), "be my hero, kevin bookout!"  and two hours later at the end of the game, it came down to kevin bookout indeed being my hero! :)  a tip-in with only a couple seconds left on the clock for the win!  awesome!  and so fun!

next up was dinner and the olympics.  i made polenta again because it sounded good, i have it, and i'm making sure i really know how to cook it. :)  delicious!  and the olympics have been good fun, as well!  the aerial skiing is pretty awesome!  it's for sure one of teh cooleest sports to watch in the olympics.  i really enjoyed the last round of ice dancing, but this round is less exciting, though i'm anxious to see the americans.  i think there's more alpine skiiing and ski jumping coming my way, as well.  not like it matters.  i'll watch whatever's on. :)  also, the gonzaga-pepperdine game has been on, so i have occasionally switched to that to watch my waves lose.  it's more alright this year than previous years, though, because the zags are amazing and i do like them.

i talked to the family tonight, as well.  they're doing well.  it's the first time i've talked to adam in several days because he just got back home from tahoe.  actually, he has tomorrow off (the inexplicable 5-day weekend) but will be doing things like crazy physics homework and volleyball practice.  we watched olympics and basketball and talked and whatever.  it was fun. :)

and so i'll spend the rest of the night with the olympics before crashing at what i hope will be a decent hour.  it's back to work for me tomorrow.  and work awaits.

so that's all from me for now.  more next time.  g'night. ;)

sunday 19 february 2006 10:29pm

"but she sees herself as more than what the mirror shows
why that's so important heaven only knows
when the important part for her is
souls and hearts and
dreams of sharing a life and a home
dreams of never ever being alone again
not even diamonds just a little gold
someone there to hold her hand when she gets old
dreams, the kind you know will never end
forever lovers and forever friends
someone really there to love and care and share dreams" -- kenny chesney "dreams"

i think the past two nights have been the winter that i never wanted.  it's been rainy.  of course, i'll also add that by the time i've gotten up the past two mornings it has been sunny and clear.  but still chilly!  so yeah, here's winter.  should be over now, though! ;)

i was up really late last night watching olympics, working on a bunch of random illustrations (some for sarah and some for no one at all), and just doing whatever.  part of the luxury of a 3-day weekend for me is that i can stay up ridiculously late for no particular reason!  anyway, also last night as i was updating this journal, i forgot to include the only thing i actually did yesterday!  hahaha!  :)  at like 7pm, i finally got showered and dressed and headed out of teh apartment.  i went down to golden spoon and picked up some delicious frozen yogurt!  i even strayed from what i normally have and went with half-chocolate-half-espresso with cookie dough and hot fudge on top.  though i took the hot fudge on the side, technically.  i brought it home, put it in the freezer (but not the fudge), and then ate it later after dinner.  it was so so good! :)  so yeah.  i did actually leave my apartment yesterday.

actually, i got up at a decent hour this morning (thanks to an alarm clock) and got cleaned up right away.  i had french toast again for breakfast.  because i so rarely make it, i'm still perfecting it, but it was really delicious this morning! :)  then i got dressed and headed off to 11am mass at st. edwards.  mass was good.  it seemed a bit long today, but whatever.  it was still a nice quiet time to have just for the sake of my head (and my heart).

it was back to the apartment after mass.  i caught most of the stanford-arizona game, which was okay.  my card just don't always have what it takes.  sometimes they're pretty much useless.  but it's fun to see them play, anyway, so i watch like the devoted fan that i am. :)

next up was the u.s. men's curling team's match against great britain, who was leading the tournament.  and it was a great match!  i spent most of my time watching while on the phone with dad trying to predict how they'd throw the stones and just discussing.  seems we are both completely addicted to curling now. :)  i am my father's daughter.  and he even told mom we're starting team!  :)  i swear, it's really cool!

there was then a break in olympics coverage, so i started that chunk of time with a little nap.  that's what sunday afternoons are made for, after all. ;)  so nice!  i'm catching up on a lifetime of sleep debt, you know!  and after waking up, i figured it would be a decent time for me to watch some of the shows that have been recorded on my dvr while i've been watching the olympics, so i had a little wb marathon with "what i like about you," "twins," and "gilmore girls," which was my favorite of the bunch.  oh goodness, i am so crazy for logan!  he's awesome!  i'd so be his girlfriend if he were a real person! :)

i ordered a pizza and then it was time for the olympics to come back on.  they've been pretty good tonight!  i've seen and read lots of stories about amazing athletes with amazing lives, and i'm so glad to see them achieving their huge goals of making it to the olympics.  it's really uplifting to hear all the stories.  even the story about shaun palmer, who at 37 made the u.s. boarder cross team (he's the best boarder cross racer ever but he's getting old) after sobering himself up after a life of partying.  and then he tore his achilles tendon and isn't at the olympics.  but he said making the team was the best thing that ever happened to him because it got him on the straight and narrow.  and!  he said he'd try to qualify for vancouver (at age 41) if he's healthy!  awesome!  and then there's shani davis, who i not only dislike but don't feel sorry for.  so i'm up for hearing about all the actually good people at the olympics! :)

i'll likely be up late tonight watching tv, chatting with sarah, and doing whatever else around the apartment.  i already sorted all the magazines and catalogues i have around here so they're all organized and i can throw away lots of old ones!  that was a big chore!  and there's more on my dvr that i want to watch.  anyway, i'm just hanging out, but that's cool with me for now.

tomorrow... more of the same because i have the day off!  woot! :)  for now, good night. <3

sunday 19 february 2006 12:50am

"so tonight i'll go to sleep
and dream that dream of you
but the morning will surely come
and bring me the truth
so let the rivers fail to run
let every star fall from the sky
let the mountains crumble to the ground
'til you're back in my life" -- shane minor "change your mind"

somehow the day -- and the night -- really got away from me and all of a sudden it's quite late.  but i am updating now, later than usual.  :)

there are advantages and disadvantages to living alone.  of course.  i mean, i'm sure you already know this.  but it occurred to me today specifically for various reasons.  it's nice to sleep in without interruption, which is easier to do when living alone.  and nobody cares if i sit in front of the tv all day in pajamas without showering or really moving much at all because i'm the only one here.  and i can eat meals at whatever hour i choose and it's not weird because no one knows.  but there's also no one to watch the olympics with me, listen to me rave about various sports, or make fun of me when i'm yelling at the tv during a (recorded) curling match.  there's no one to help me take out the trash or witness my mad cooking skills.  so it's kind of mixed.

i did sleep in a bit this morning.  i can remember waking up early hearing the rain outside, but i managed to fall back asleep.  and when i did get up (around 10 or so), it hadn't been raining for awhile.  the bag my newspaper came in was quite wet, but it seemed that the walkways outside were pretty dry.  anyway, my morning started with the newspaper, which was nice.  i'm loving that there's a special turin 2006 section wrapped around the sports section!  it has really cool stories about athletes i would never hear of otherwise, as well as a medal count that's safe for me because it doesn't have the current day's results and the tv schedule.  for breakfast, i made myself french toast (something i rarely make for myself) with the cinnamon bread i bought yesterday.  it was delicious!  and i so rarely have a hot breakfast, so it felt like a real treat! :)

hmm... what did i do today?  um, nothing?  ok, that's not exactly true, but really the focus of my day was on watching the olympics.  there was enough coverage to keep me busy for the entire day, and i recorded the men's curling team's early-morning match, as well, to fill in one of the gaps. :)  they kicked butt, by the way!  anyway, the games were really good today!  there were lots of fun events and good stories.  plus, we picked up some more medals along the way, which was great!  but i can't just sit and do nothing but watch tv all day.  i used some of the day to take care of a few little chores like cleaning up my kitchen cabinets and sort through lots of old magazines.

in the afternoon, i decided i should put in some serious work on the illustration sarah asked me to do for a magazine project she's working on at school.  and i was up for the challenge, so i opened up illustrator and away i went!  and i actually ended up spending a big chunk of time working on it and pretty much finished that up.  so it's a man in a suit with a briefcase being attacked my a giant green squid. :)  and sarah seemed really happy with it, which was exciting for me!  of course, then i was in illustrator mode and really couldn't stop myself from doing more stuff.  at work on friday we were talking about seashell illustrations, so i had them formed in my head and i kind of wanted to see how they'd turn out.  so i went for it.  i worked on seashell illustrations that are really simple -- just one color.  they're kind of interesting if also really random.  and talking to sarah some more led me to volunteer myself for more illustrations for her magazine.  so i spent some time working on a cassette tape and a cd that i think turned out really cool.  they're really graphic-like.  anyway, sarah hasn't seen them yet, so i don't know if they're what she wanted.  hopefully! :)  and actually, i'll probably be back in illustrator tomorrow again because i'm just feeling like it.

i made more polenta for dinner tonight, which was once again really delicious!  and it's so easy to do because i cooked it while also on the phone. :)  it'll make an especially good dinner for weeknights when i don't like to spend too much time preparing something.

anyway, so i was on the phone with my parents.  it seems that i was a bit confused about their weekend plans.  shocking. ;)  anyway, they drove for 8 hours through rain and snow up to tahoe last night to bring my brother up there to meet up with his friends, and they stayed the night.  but then the parents headed back home today while adam will be boarding for several more days.  he has a 5-day weekend for no real reason.  anyway, so the parents are back home now, which is good for them because tahoe was supposed to get another foot of snow today.  so anyway, i talked to the parents. :)  they're doing well.  we talked olympics. :)

and now i suppose i should try to get some sleep.  it's late, and i want to make it to mass tomorrow.  i'm tempted to get back to illustrating tonight, but i know it'll be 4 or 5am before i know it if i do that, so i'm resisting.  anyway, yeah, i should just call it a day.

more tomorrow (today, technically).  ;)  good night!

friday 17 february 2006 10:57pm

"there's no combination of words
i could put on the back of a postcard
no song i could sing
but i can try for your heart
our dreams, they are made out of real things
like a shoebox of photographs
with sepia tone loving
love is the answer
at least for most of the questions in my heart
like why are we here and where do we go
and how come it's so hard
it's not always easy and
sometimes life can be deceiving
i'll tell you one thing it's always better when we're together
it's always better when we're together
yeah, look at the stars when we're together
well, it's always better when we're together" -- jack johnson "better together"

after what feels like a long week, even though really it was quite fun and not bad at all, i'm curled up on the couch in a blanket (it's a chilly night) just watching some more olympics.  and really, there are no huge plans for my 3-day weekend, though i do need to come up with a few reasons to leave  the apartment or it won't happen.

quite tired last night, i tried to get into bed at a decent hour.  and mostly, i was successful!  i wasn't up late enough to see leno (though i recorded it).  and i slept okay again.  the alarm clock is killing me, though.  i was not at all ready to get up, though i did.  after a hot shower, i couldn't decide on anything to wear.  it all seemed wrong.  but i eventually chose something.  just a pink tee and jeans.  i had some breakfast while watching more olympics.  i got the u.s. women's curling team score 3 in the 10th end to force a tie and overtime, but i didn't get to see the overtime and was forced to watch women's hockey instead.  the curling team lost.  the hockey team lost.  anyway, i headed to work.

work today was good, though i do sometimes wish people thought about doing their work in a more timely fashion.  not people who work in the office with me -- they're easy to track down -- but people who work from home and travel and are harder to find when i'm waiting on changes so we can ship the magazine.  anyway, we got "cots" out the door this afternoon, which is great!  and i took care of a few other little things, but nothing too huge.  and i snuck out this afternoon to pick up lunch at z pizza.  i felt like i ate too much, but it was delicious nonetheless. :)  after getting the magazine out, we had a little fun in the art department.  marke, matt, jenna, jan, melissa, and i played a 25-cent game of bingo (a quarter buys one card and we each had one).  matt won but he never put his quarter in so we all got our money back.  and then we decided to play $1-poker.  a dollar buys you 20 chips and we were off.  i did have to bum a dollar off melissa because i had none, but that's alright.  jan (the best player for sure) was out quickly, and melissa, too.  i drew matt all in and won a big pot.  jenna was doing alright but left the game to get a little more work done.  that left marke and me.  and after a few hands, he wanted to call it a day.  fine with me!  i was at $2.30!  i won $1.30!  that's huge!  i never play poker really, and i hardly even know the rules but it turns out i'm alright. :)  i am still stoked about this victory!  i definitely came away with more than anyone else!  woohoo!

after work, i headed home but realized i should make a couple stops first.  last night i was reading the trader joe's fearless flyer and got some good ideas of what i could cook, so i stopped there for a few things.  and then i knew i was running low on caffeine-free diet coke, so i stopped at the proper grocery for a few more things.  and i'm running out of conditioner, as well, so i stopped at the beauty supply, too.  and then i made it home.  i seriously cut into my nap time with those errands, so i skipped that and ended up chatting with megs and sarah online instead.

i made an awesome dinner!  :)  i made polenta, which i got at trader joe's!  and it was especially perfect because i wasn't extremely hungry so i just made a small amount.  anyway, i heated it in a pan on the stove in a little olive oil and then put it on a plate, covered it in tomato sauce and some mozarella, and threw it under the broiler for a few minutes.  oh, goodness, it was delicious! :)  i win!

then it was time for tonight's installment of the olympics. :)  marke told me earlier today that i should for sure watch tonight because something interesting was going to happen (he was reading the news, which i've been avoiding).  well, lindsey jacobellis blowing a gold medal was interesting.  actually, before that, i was watching a semi boarder cross race and talking to sarah when i got an emergency alert system warning regarding possible flash floods.  i thought it was the final race, though, i was so upset it got interrupted with that!  turns out, though it was the semis and i didn't miss anything. :)  all is well!  and the coverage has been fun.  :)  i'm looking forward to more stuff this weekend, though, like more curling! :)

and i finally just got ahold of my family!  they're headed up to tahoe for some snowboarding this weekend.  it's supposed to snow a lot, though, and i was concerned about them getting up there.  when i last talked to mom, they had been driving for 8 hours and were just entering south lake tahoe.  it's usually no more than a 4-hour drive.  anyway, hopefully they'll have a fun weekend and it'll be worth the hassle of getting up there.  really, i want to check out my parents' friends' house on the lake in the summertime, though, not winter.  i hear it's pretty nice! ;)

well, that's really all i've been up to today. :)  it's been good.  i'll write more tomorrow.  g'night! ;)

thursday 16 february 2006 9:36pm

"i miss you, darling, more and more every day
as heaven would miss the stars above
with every heartbeat i still think of you" -- willie nelson "faded love"

i'm so exhausted, both physically adn mentally, but i know the weekend is quickly approaching and then i'll have plenty of time to let my body and mind catch up to my lifestyle. :)  until then, i'm just planning to be tired.  i'll deal with it.  it's worth it!

the olympics were, of course, great fun last night!  hooray for all the winners!  and all the really good competition in sports i only care about every 4 years is so much fun!  it's compelling tv, even if "american idol" is killing the olympics in ratings.  so i enjoyed that until i decided that i should actually go to bed.

and i slept.  it was a really chilly night here!  but i slept okay until the alarms went off this morning.  in what was not a surprise at all, i did not want to get up.  i needed a couple more hours.  but i got up and headed for the shower.  i had some cereal, put on jeans and one of the t-shirts i bought last night, grabbed the new cds, and headed out.  it was a much more pleasant drive this morning.  :)

work today was really good because it was so chill.  "cots" got proofed, so we made changes, but really it was just small tasks for me the rest of the day.  we got a really fancy new copier/printer/magical machine in the art department, which got assembled and hooked up today!  i'm still not totally sure how to use all the functions (stapling, folding, saddle stitching), but i was able to print. :)  we're all hoping that we'll get some sort of tutorial soon so we'll be able to utilize it fully.  i think jan got annoyed with all my questions, but he'll get over it! ;)  for lunch, i couldn't really decide what i wanted but eventually settled on a chicken teriyaki bowl from super bowl (so good!) and while i was out i also picked up a little fro yo from golden spoon. :)  mmm!  i ate all of it while reading "instyle" in the kitchen at work.  it was quiet in there, so it was a really nice lunch.  anyway, then it was back to work for the rest of the afternoon, though i'll admit i wasn't working too hard. ;)

sarah asked me to do an illustration for a magazine she's working on at school!  i'm really flattered she even asked, and i've already started on it.  i made sketches and worked a little bit in illustrator, though i'm still nailing down the final concept.  right now it involves a giant squid wrapped around a businessman. :)  should be fun to complete and have the final product!

after work, i headed for the y so i could get in one more swim this week.  it was really chilly out, but the pool's heated enough that i was alright.  the yellow shorts man swam in the lane next to me.  we had a little chat.  oh, the old men of the pool crack me up!  :)  anyway, i had a really good swim.  yet again i finished my allotted number of laps early.  i know this means that i need to adjust my regimen and make it longer, though i know it'll hurt the first few times. i really have been leaving nearly all of me in the pool.  i'm swimming hard!  anyway, it's been good.  i get lost in the rhythm of all of it and can think about other things.  it's quiet and there aren't really distractions.  sorry for rambling on.  i like swimming.  that's the point. :)

i came home and got cleaned up.  there were a couple interesting basketball games on tv, and i watched marquette beat georgetown, which was cool.  i also took care of the clean dishes in the dishwasher and the dirty ones piling up in the sink.  :)  and i made myself some dinner while i was in the kitchen.  delicious! :)

of course it wasn't long before it was time to settle in on the couch for tonight's olympics programming.  i talked to the family for a little bit, though dad was distracted by the broken remote control, mom was sicky, and adam was sleeping.  they're headed for tahoe tomorrow for the long weekend.  i... don't envy them.  i'll take sunshine, instead, please! ;)  anyway, the olympics have been great thus far!  how about evan lysacek battling stomach flu and a disappointing short program only to have an amazing free skate!  that's an olympian!  and it's great to see snowboard cross in the olympics, though the course looks a bit manufactured and not really so natural.  i'm looking forward to more speedskating and skeleton later tonight, as well!  anyway, yay for olympics!  and they go until midnight tonight!  and they start again at 1am.  though i might crash before that, even though i really would love to see men's curling! :)

i suppose that's enough from me for tonight.  i'm going to find a little chocolate and a glass of milk and stay curled up in this blanket while i enjoy it! :)  more from me tomorrow.  good night. ;)

wednesday 15 february 2006 10:08pm

"won't you give your heart to me
can't you see
i love you, valentine
won't you be my valentine
and wont' you share your space with mine
and be my valentine" -- willie nelson "valentine"

i know the lyrics are a day late, but i still like this song and i still mean these words.

there are a couple things i left out yesterday by accident.  1)  i watched "grey's anatomy" on monday night and it was so awesome!  i really do love love that show!  and mcdreamy at the end had my crying (again).  i love all the characters.  is that ok?  2) dad sent me a valentine's card, which i received yesterday.  it also made me cry, like i knew it would.  it was so sweet, though! :)

so how fun were the olympics last night?!?  i didn't want them to end!  and i love that ted ligety won skiing!  awesome!  yay for gold medals!  i had a great time watching all the events, really!  and i did eventually crash.  the middle-of-the-night coverage started at like 2 or something, so i was able to get to bed at a somewhat decent hour without getting distracted by curling, which is quickly becoming my favorite sport of the winter olympics. :)  so i got some rest on what turned out to be a chilly night.  and when the alarm went off, i wasn't ready and i kind of stumbled my way to the shower.  but i made it. :)  and then i got dressed and even put on my beloved locals sandals and headed to work.  oh!  i ate some cap'n crunch.  i might as well work through the huge box i bought yesterday (it was $2.50 and the small box was $4.50).  :)

i had a long drive to work this morning, somehow finding myself behind driver after driver who was just idling down the road and causing me to miss nearly every stoplight possible.  and then there was the truck on pch going 30 in a 50 zone and not pulling over when the shoulder is as wide as his truck.  boo for rude drivers.  but i made it (though it took 10 extra minutes).  and the morning started out a little rough because i got more changes to the magazine we had prepared to ship last night, which meant i had to make the changes, make new PDFs and proofs, and have a new CD burned with the updated files.  it's not really that hard, but it sucks since we thought we were done last night.  but i do want the best product to go out, so i took care of it.  and the rest of the day went quite well, actually.  i took care of pretty much everything on my plate.  and this afternoon we got "cots" all together and sent to our copy editor for the first round of proofing.  yay!  i think that one will go to the printer on friday, which is a great way to end a week. :)  of course, there was some fun time at work today, as well!  marke learned i don't like fighting with him (i thought he knew) after him and scott went at it about hacking.  i worked on my golf skills and am now an excellent putter.  ok, i'm really not.  but it's still fun, anyway! :)  and we got our new printer/copier/scanner today, though it still wasn't hooked up when i left the office this evening.  am i a total nerd because i'm excited about this? ;)

after work, i headed for the gym.  back to the bicycle.  and i read more of my book while i was cycling hard.  oh, it's so good! :)  i don't want it to end, especially since this is audrey niffenegger's only novel.  but i'm having fun and i had a good ride, so it was a good trip to the gym. :)

then i headed home, showered, dressed, and headed right back out.  i went to target, a trip i've been looking forward to for a couple weeks now really.  the goal was to pick up a t-shirt and the first season of "grey's anatomy" on dvd.  somehow, i ended up with the fall out boy and jack johnson cds, two albums i pick up all the time but never buy.  today was pay day.  i picked them up. :)  i also looked at some other clothes but didn't find anything that was that great.  i did get the t-shirts i wanted, though.  i have two and love them, so i wanted a couple other colors.  when you find something that's $7 that you love might as well have it in a bunch of colors. :)  and!  they're tagless, one of the best developments in clothing lately.  seriously!  i don't need the tag! :)

then i made it back home just in time to see the olympics starting up again.  today was a major success in avoiding finding out olympics news prematurely!  i didn't find out anything at all!  yay! :)  and so i've been watching all evening.  i talked to the family for a while.  dad and i decided we're lucky for being as open-minded as we are.  we like it that way!  and it's rad that you can't pick out the american athletes at the olympics by how they look because they all look different!  also, i'm stoked that lindsey kildow had the courage to get back up on the mountain to ski after that crazy fall she took!  that's an olympian for you! :)  and so i'll watch these games the rest of the night and then crash.  i'm tired but know i'll catch up on sleep this weekend, during which i pretty much have no plans.

happy olympics!  more from me next time.  g'night! ;)

tuesday 14 february 2006 9:42pm

"turn me on, turn it up
turn this fable into fact
turn my world on its ear
then go and turn it back
turn the fall into flight
turn this bubble to a burn
baby, it's your turn
turn me on, on
turn me on" -- shedaisy "turn me on"

happy valentine's day!  also, it's my parents' 24th/25th anniversary (the number of years depends on who you ask, though it's actually 24)! :)  for me, it was mostly just an average tuesday, though.  but there were some highlights. :)

well, we all already know that i have a small (meaning big) olympics addiction. :)  and i further proved that last night watching more curling in the wee hours of the morning.  it was the u.s. women's team.  and they were getting their butts kicked, so i just went to sleep.  so at least at some point i'm getting some rest!  ;)

the alarm went off this morning.  i wasn't quite ready for it (of course), but i got up and headed for the shower anyway.  before deciding what to wear, i went and opened the valentine's gift my parents sent.  you know, just in case i needed to plan an outfit around it! ;)  so i opened up the lovely little box to discover a beautiful gold and diamond bracelet that's lots of little hearts.  it's really pretty!  normally, they send candies or something.  not jewelry!  i really do have the best parents ever!  and it totally made my valentine's day!  so of course, i called them right away to thank them.  dad was the only one home.  watching curling.  just like me! :)  anyway, i eventually decided on something to wear, finished getting ready, and headed off to work.

i stopped off at i <3 bagels for dessert because i didn't have any breakfast food in the apartment.  mmm!  i love a good bagel and cream cheese!  so delicious!  plus, they have really good fresh-squeezed oj there.  it's really a perfect breakfast!  too bad it costs $4.  anyway, i grabbed breakfast to go and went to work.  before settling in at my desk, i passed out care bears valentines to everyone, which was fun! :)

work continues to keep me quite busy.  the morning started out a little rough, as i got a scathing email about my incompetence with figures.  of course, it turns out that i was totally right and the woman that wrote it apologized to me.  i so win.  do not doubt my abilities!  i can do this job.  anyway, i moved on and got to the rest of the work i needed to get done.  there were lots of things, as we prepped "rtc" to get shipped today, even though it's not scheduled to ship until tomorrow.  it's all packed up and ready to go to the printer's tomorrow, which is awesome!  and my section of "cots" has been done and is just waiting for ad placement tomorrow morning.  so i'm in good shape!

for lunch, jenna, lea, and i went up to stillwater cafe to pick up lunches to go.  they are one of my favorite places to get salad!  so good!  it's like they just picked the lettuce.  and they make all their own dressings there.  anyway, my salad was really, really good! :)  i know salad is like not really always that good and really it's just dressing masking the taste of the lettuce, but i swear it's so good there!

one more thing about work.  i just want to write some stuff down here because this is my place to talk and rant and say whatever i want.  so here it goes.  if someone sends you flowers, just be grateful.  don't complain.  when you told him not to send flowers and he did anyway, that's not a problem.  when you have to put the flowers into the vase yourself because they came in a box (with the vase), that's not a problem.  when they're not the size of a small country but instead fit nicely on your desk, that's not a problem.  you have someone who cared enough to send those to you.  just be happy!  also, i don't like the complaining about how valentine's isn't a valid holiday or whatever.  there's nothing wrong with a day to tell people you love that you love them.  yeah, it should happen more days than just today.  but why not also today?  celebrate something good!  it's nice!  and happy!  be happy and grateful, people! :)

ok, so back to my day.  after work, i headed for the y for a swim.  it was cold out there!  and of course, the pool was pretty empty because people have more exciting plans for tonight.  anyway, i had a good swim.  i was feeling kind of off, like i had to really concentrate to get a good stroke, but i worked hard.  i also swam farther than i have been without stopping.  i usually put a break in the middle, but i moved it closer to the front of my swim, making my second section longer.  and i did eventually find a nice rhythm.  i did do my long section all breast stroke, which is easier for me that freestyle, but it was still a good swim.  plus, breast stroke is the most romantic of all the strokes.  "draw your heart and give it away."  that's how i was taught the arm motion. :)  cute, right?  and it was really chilly when i got out of the pool, but i survived. :)

i came home, got clean, and headed right back out.  i needed a couple things at the grocery.  i picked up milk, cereal, crackers, and cookies.  basically, i could survive on that if required!  haha!  and then i was heading out to my car when it occurred to me that dinner from baja fresh, which is basically next door to the grocery, sounded awesome.  i picked up a quesadilla and then headed back home.

dinner was delicious, of course! :)  meg called, so i talked to her for a few minutes.  she has a hoard of men fawning over her.  haha!  and then it was time for the olympics, of course!  i talked to the family for a bit while watching (they were watching, too), and i've been watching all evening.  how about that bode, huh?  to me, it seems that disqualification is a really harsh penalty for missing a gate.  actually, i heard that he would get dq-ed on accident earlier today.  anyway, yay for olympics!  i'm watching.  it's what i'll be doing the rest of the night.  quite the valentine's day, i know. ;)

dad said he'd be my valentine. :)  so cute!  of course, i'm open to having more than one.  but for now, i'm just here with me.  anyway, happy valentine's day. <3

enough out of me already!  ;)  g'night!

monday 13 february 2006 10:06pm

"just trust me you own it, i've always known it
you must have memorized my manual
so why are you scared of this villainous word, love
maybe it's too true to handle
your willing addiction
and feeling a tiny confliction
it's scrawled on your face
here we've stalled so pick up the pace" -- shedaisy "turn me on"

i'm in a shedaisy phase right now. :)  plus, i like this song!  the rest tomorrow probably.  of course, they also have a way of saying what i want to.

so where did i leave off last night?  with the olympics, i'm sure! ;)  anyway, i had a wonderful time watching last night!  how about shaun white, the flying tomato?!?  awesome!  and i've been watching him for ages since he was a tiny kid boarding (snow and skate) with the big guys!  awesome!  and his in-studio interview with bob costas was so fun! :)  and as i was crawling into bed, i started watching men's curling.  the u.s. was playing norway, defending olympic champs.  and how could i turn it off as they were beating them?  so i kept watching, which was really fun despite the sleep i was sacrificing.  of course, i did eventually go to bed.  i was stoked to discover they did win when i got up this morning, though!  curling's a rad sport!

i had the best dream last night and i didn't realize it was a dream until it was basically over, which is always disappointing.  but at least i was there for a few moments.  and i got up with the alarm this morning, a bit bleary-eyed but doing alright.  i got cleaned up, had some breakfast, and headed out.  i was never happy with what i was wearing today and was therefore totally uncomfortable all day long.  i hate that, but whatever.  i'm not wearing them anymore anyway.  anyway, i eventually headed off to work, but not before seeing the u.s. women's curling team lose.

work was good.  i still have things to keep me busy, but i'm in much better shape than last week.  actually, since it was pretty quiet around the office today, i got a ton of stuff done.  my section of "cots" is ready for ad placement, though we wont' do that until wednesday, so i'll help jenna and melissa with some more figures and stuff so they can wrap up their sections.  plus, i finished up a newsletter and got that out to the company.  and there are various little things here and there that always come up, so i took care of those, as well.  pretty much, i spent all day working.  plus, i'm avoiding the news because i'm avoiding olympics results.  it's hard!  in a way, i appreciate that they're made available to me so soon after the events are completed, but perhaps they are just a little too available.

i knew i wanted to get out for lunch, so jenna, jan, and i went to wahoo's for some mexican.  it was good, and i loved sitting in the sun in a warm restaurant, where i could defrost a little.  the office is cold on these warm days, so i for sure have to get out of there!  anyway, lunch was nice and chill as we just sat and chatted for awhile.

after work, i headed for the gym.  considering i already know that today was meant to be the warmest day of the week (it's meant to cool down like 20 degrees tomorrow and for the rest of the week), i have no real excuse as to why i wasn't in the pool swimming.  i'll offer up a few attempts at excuses anyway. :)  first, it was going to be crowded because the pool just is crowded on a gorgeous day.  second, it was going to be crowded because it'll be empty tomorrow as people have valentine's day plans.  third, i was trying to get home as quickly as possible.  fourth, i can only swim if i don't leave work until 5:30 or after and i left at 5.  :)  anyway, i went to the gym and rode a bike while watching the last quarter of the uconn-villanova game, which was a really good game (meaning close) and ended with the right team (meaning villanova) winning. :)  yay!  i had planned on reading the book, but i was sitting right under the proper tv, so i really couldn't resist watching. :)

then i headed home and got cleaned up right away.  i wanted to watch as much of last night's "desperate housewives" and "grey's anatomy" as possible before the olympics started at 8.  i got in all of "housewives," (so good!) and about half of "grey's" (also so good!).  plus, i chatted with sarah and annahita online, which was nice.  oh, and i had a little dinner, as well, which i needed.

and now!  guess!  that's right!  olympics! :)  yay!  i've really just been watching.  other than talking to the family on the phone for a few minutes (dad's also thoroughly enjoying the curling coverage), that's really all i've been up to.  other times, i've been reading catalogues or magazines or whatever else.  tonight, i'm kind of tired, so watching is enough for me.  i might get myself in trouble a bit later, though, because more curling comes on at midnight.  i'm sure i'll see at least a littel fo it.  oh, and i'll watch the second half of "grey's" between the end of the primetime coverage at 11:30 and the start of the late-night coverage at midnight.  yes, my tv habit is becoming disgusting.  but it's only every four years (sort of)!  and it's so much fun!  and really, what else would i be doing on a monday night?  so it's more olympics for me for the next few days.  and i'll be loving it!

my toenail unexpectedly fell off tonight.  a new one had grown in under it, so it's not gross and it was not at all painful.  i don't remember hurting it, though.  weird.  now i have only 9 polished toes!

tomorrow is valentine's day.  at least that means chocolate!  and the gift that mom sent me but won't let me open until tomorrow.  it's in a nice, small box, though! :) 

anyway, i'm done for now.  good night. ;)

sunday 12 february 2006 9:21pm

"i'm still holding out for you
faithfully i trace your name while you sleep
it's the only true comfort i feel
i still run, i still swing open the door
i still think you'll be there like before" -- shedaisy "still holding out for you"

i figure that it's a good tiemf or me to update while i'm just hanging out on my couch watching the olympics and not doing a whole heck of a lot. :)  it's been a great day in my neck of the woods!

i was up a little late last night watching more olympics coverage, which was good fun.  it also was, i'm sure, the start of a bad a habit that i'll likely have for the next two weeks or so.  there's late-night olympics coverage.  a lot of it live.  and i'm going to watch it!  i'm sleep when i'm dead... or at least after the olympics. ;)  anyway, i was up to see the first on-air annoucement that michelle kwan quit the olympics.  and it came not too long after i posted last night's entry on how i thought she shouldn't.  (apparently, she didn't have time to read what i thought before making her decision! ;))  anyway, i still think she wasted a lot of people's time and took away from part of the olympic experience that emily hughes should have had if michelle wasn't going to skate in the olympics.  it's slightly more forgivable because she got hurt again.  but still.  it's your last shot ever and you got all the special exemptions to get on the team.  skate.  you have nothing to lose in your last event.  anyway, i'm now rooting hard for emily hughes!  (though i don't love figure skating like i love some of the other sports.)  anyway, i did eventually go to bed. :)

and i woke up at a decent hour this morning and got cleaned up and dressed right away.  i even took 2 minutes to put my hair up all cute! :)  and then i headed down to st. edwards for 11am mass.  i didn't realize it until i was there, but i was really pleased to be going.  it wasn't like i had to force myself or guilt myself to go this morning.  it seemed like a nice thing to do today.  anyway, mass was good.  the church was particularly beautiful because it was a very clear morning and the ocean was sparkling.  and after mass, i stopped at ralph's for a couple quick things.

it was an absolutely beautiful day today.  gorgeous.  summertime, july, ideal temperature perfect!  really, if it weren't february, i could have convinced myself to put on a bathing suit and head for the beach.  but it is february, so when i got home i put on shorts and a t-shirt, i wiped down a chair and table on my deck, and i sat out there in the sunshine with a cold soda, some crackers, and a magazine.  oh my goodness, it was so wonderful!  i love love love living in so cal! :)  plus, i had all the windows in the apartment open and now the place smells likes summer, as well! :)

eventually, it was time for me to come back inside and switch on the tv.  time for the olympics, you know!  it's why i have become a shut-in, after all.  so i had a good old time watching the olympics.  and i used some of that time to clean up around the apartment, as well.  a large collection of shoes had developed right near the door (unrelated to my habit of slipping off shoes as soon as i get inside, i'm sure!) and there were some clothes scattered around.  now the place is very, very tidy, though!

during the break in olympics coverage, i watched the grand ole opry because rascal flatts and carrie underwood were on.  it was fun!  and i also watched my recording of the grammys, which was mostly just depressing because the love for country music is so non-existent.  basically, i just watched like 3 performances and watched the rest while fast-forwarding.  boyfriend keith urban performed "you'll think of me" from an album he released in 2002, but his guitar solo during faith's song was awesome awesome awesome!  he's a guitar god, i maintain. :)  and i had raviolis for dinner, which were so delicious! :)

as the olympics coverage started back up, i gave myself a nice little manicure with sheer nude polish that's nearly the same color as my natural nails.  they just look a little cleaner and more polished this way, though. :)  and i've been watching the olympics since then.  it's the plan for the night.  i love it!  people are winning and losing and mostly i've kept myself away from results, with the small exception of mom telling me something that i don't totally believe because she was so confused about it when she mentioned it.  anyway, i'll be watching and i'll find out for myself.  of course, the olympics mean that i'm recording "desperate housewives" and "grey's anatomy."  i won't have time to watch them tonight.  hopefully, i'll get to them tomorrow, though! :)  i'm sure they're wonderful!  they always are. :)

anyway, happy olympics!  more from me tomorrow.  g'night. ;)

saturday 11 february 2006 11:06pm

"i can hear you smile in the dark
i can even feel you breathing
but the daylight chases the ghosts
i see your coat and i fall apart
to those hints of you i'm clinging
now's when i need them most" -- shedaisy "still holding out for you"

now that i've officially watched the u.s. win their first gold medal of these winter olympics, i can update. :)  actually, i've accidentally heard several times today that chad would win the 5000m speed skating gold.  the fact that the broadcasts are so delayed is going to become a little annoying, as i know i'll continue to accidentally uncover results before i want them.  but i'm getting ahead of myself.  back to last night...

i didn't realize the opening ceremony was going to be quite as long as it was.  it was actually entertaining enough that i didn't change the channel, but i didn't really need it to be quite so long.  it tries a little too hard to be artsy when really it's not.  anyway, i watched that and then watched leno.  i couldn't resist staying up late to watch it once i heard that it would not only have segment from ross the intern at the olympic village -- which was totally hilarious! -- but also featured celebrity boyfriend paul walker as guest 1.  that's two whole segments devoted to one of the most beautiful men on earth! :)  and yes, i want to see "eight below."  anyway, so it was a fun tv night and i eventually crashed.

i woke up at 5:30am horribly sick, though i can't figure out why.  i didn't eat anything weird yesterday.  so i was out of bed for a little bit before going back to sleep.  and then i slept in until like 10:30 or so, when i was awoken by kids playing outside.  i guess i can't be that mad at them, but i wasn't quite ready to get up.  of course, i got up anyway.  i moved to the couch, where i hung out a bit.  and it wasn't too long before i decided to shower.  and then i found a little food, though the idea of eating didn't sound good at all even though i was hungry.

it has been a sports day, that's for sure.  and no one can be surprised that today is the beginning of me becoming a shut-in.  i've warned everyone.  i get addicted to watching the olympics and unless something super comes up, i'm perfectly content sitting on the couch watching.  so that's kind of the general plan for the next 16 days. :)  anyway, the sports day started with some basketball.  honestly, i can't remember who i watched right now. :)  someone.  haha!  and i took some time to talk to the family a bit, as well, so i guess i wasn't watching tv during that part of the day.

i started watching olympics this afternoon.  between reading up on news on cnn.com, checking basketball scores on espn.com, and just watching regular tv, i heard some results accidentally.  i am not a fan of the huge delays i get in my olympics coverage.  i will find out who wins before it's on tv and that makes it far less exciting for me.  but i can't really shut myself off from all news for the sake of watching the olympics in primetime, can i?  so the afternoon session of the olympics were fun!

i just now remembered that before olympics, i not only watched basketball but also watched "the constant gardener," which i rented last weekend and was 2 days over-due.  :)  i'm really, really good at returning dvds late.  anyway, the movie was good.  i actually enjoyed the story more than i expected, though it is very tragic.  and rachel weisz really was great in it!

anyway, so after the afternoon olympics session, i headed out to bring the two dvds i had back to hollywood video.  before leaving, i decided that today was a totally wasted fabulous hair day!  no one would see it today, though it looked so great!  haha!  so sad! ;)

back at the apartment, it was time for the stanford-gonzaga game, which was so fun!  i watched most of it on the phone with my brother, and we had a great time!  the game was very close, though it ended with a gonzaga win.  at least i'm generally loving gonzaga this season.  they're awesome!  i'm glad my stanford boys could keep up and nearly pulled it out!

and after the game, back to the olympics.  i also was browsing newspaper, magazines, and catalogues that i have stacking up around the apartment.  plus, i made a little dinner.  simple pasta, but still tasty!  but mostly, it's been me and the couch watching the olympics.  i'm loving them in high-def, by the way!  i love speed skating!  it's definitely one of my favorite sports in the winter games.  it's so cool how smooth the whole thing is!  so much fun!  and just so you know, i don't think michelle kwan should pull out of the olympics.  she will have wasted so many people's time with her whole special bid to get on the team in the first place, as well as prove that she doesn't have the guts it'll take for her to give it everything she has and go for gold.  anyway, i'm ready for more olypics later tonight, as well as in the coming days.  it's going to be great fun, i think! :)

that's enough out of me for tonight on a day when i did basically nothing. ;)  good night.

friday 10 february 2006 11:05pm

and the ferrari doing donuts in the middle of the opening ceremony?!?  i love the italians! ;)

friday 10 february 2006 10:08pm

"this woman that takes on the world
and picks up your shirts, keeps it together somehow
this same woman that melts with your touch
wants you to feel what i'm feeling right now
'cause this woman needs
a safe place to land
the strength in your hands
to know you know
what this woman needs
is somewhere to cry
so lay by my side
and i'll tell you, i'll tell you" -- shedaisy "this woman needs"

finally a moment to breathe!  i'm ready for some relaxation!  and i know that for sure this time the chance to relax is hard-earned.  :)  so thank goodness it's friday!  bring on the weekend!

"the office" last night was really funny, as always!  i love that show!  it's part ridiculous and part real life.  anyway, it's a good way to spend a thursday night.  i had also planned on watching "the o.c." but i just recorded it and will have to get to it later. :)  i made it to bed last night but was still later than i wanted.  and i slept ok.  actually, i was getting into a really good dream between the first and second alarms when the second one went off, which was disappointing!  oh, well!  i got up anyway and headed for the shower.  i got cleaned up, had some breakfast, and got dressed.  and then i headed off to work a bit early but knowing i had work that i could get done in those 10 minutes or so.

work today settled down a bit today in that not as many people were on my back and things seemed to just be a bit less tense than yesterday.  and i'm really thankful for that!  i actually got quite a lot of work done.  i got my section of "rtc" done.  i got the brochure off to the printer.  i did all i could on "cots" (the vast majority of our materials from the editors are late late late).  and i took care of various other tasks that came up.  jenna gave me quarters.  not actual quarters but i guess tim used to give people a quarter when they did a good job and jenna said i deserved lots of quarters today!  rawk! :)  and i had everything done by 4, at which point i mentally checked out.  and conveniently enough, diana and lea came into the art department for a chat right about then, so i was entertained by various people chatting until 5:40 or so, when we closed down the office for the weekend. :)  diana's likely going to bora bora next month, so she was showing me a resort and i'm totally jealous.  i'd love to go there!

oh!  lunch!  i normally write something about lunch.  john, shannon (the receptionist who pretty much is never allowed to go to lunch), anna, aaron, larisa, cindy, jenna, melissa, and i all went down to romano's for lunch, which was so delicious!  they have the best garlic rolls there!  :)  mmm!  and then afterwards, jenna, melissa, and i ran a couple errands.  we went to lowes to look for light bulbs for the desk lamps we have.  marke's burned out, so we got him a replacement.  and then i needed to go to the post office, so i did that while jenna and melissa waited in the car.  of course, it took a million years because they're so slow there, but i did get my stuff mailed. :)

so anyway, after work, i headed home but realized i should stop at the grocery on my way.  i grabbed a few things and was standing in line when out of nowhere a pitbull was wandering the store with a (coach) collar but no tags and definitely not on anyone's leash.  um, this is so not ok!  first, dogs do not belong in a grocery store unless they're guide dogs.  yes, that should be the only exception.  no, i don't hate all living things.  i just don't want them wandering around an enclosed place that sells food that i intend to eat.  and no, you do not need to bring your yappy purse dog to the store with you.  (there was one of those in the store, as well.  that makes two dogs i could see at the same time in a place where dogs shouldn't be allowed.)  second, where is the owner of this dog?  it wandered around the entire time i was in line and who knows how long after that and no one seemed to feel like they were missing a dog.  i do not understand.  and finally, i have no idea why any of the several store employees who were aware of the dog's presence didn't attempt to escort it outside.  or even just hang on to it's collar.  they let it keep wandering through the aisles and down many of the check out lines, including my own.  so obviously, it was a very strange experience at the store, but at least i got my caffeine-free diet coke and milk. :)

and once home, i turned on the tv and settled in on the couch.  i did make a little dinner, though.  and i talked to the parents for awhile. :)  plus, sarah and i booked tickets for two shows (one broadway production and another off-broadway one) in new york, which is so exciting!  pretty much everything's set now.  i just have to get going on reading the guidebook so i can figure out what other things we'll do when we're there! :)

and of course, tonight kicks off the winter games in torino.  i've been watching the opening ceremony (in high-def!), which is cool i guess.  it's funny how they're always so trippy.  what's up with that?  it's pretty cheezy.  i mean, i'm watching, but still.  at least people were on fire!  i like that!  :)  and there was a bit of actual sports at the beginning of this, so i'm happy about that!  i like the sports more than the parade really.  the good part of the parade, though, is seeing all the "fashions!"  the americans looked good in all the roots stuff and the berets.  red for women, blue for men, and white for coaches and such.  i loved the british in their very proper long coats and scarves and nice hats.  and the italians looked like baked potatoes in their puffy silver jackets!  haha!  anyway, i'll be watching the games as they really get started tomorrow (the plan is to watch pretty much anything but hockey, though i may break down and watch that, as well), and i am excited about it all. :)  go usa!  on a side note, it really is cool to see people from all these countries together in one place so happy and peaceful, as cheezy as that is to say.

so a bit more tv and perhaps some reading as well is what is in store for me for the rest of the night. :)  and i'm happy with that.

more tomorrow from me.  for now, good night. ;)

thursday 9 february 2006 9:52pm

"love is what you make it
so give it one more try
'cause i get turned down when you're not around
i just can't take it all...
and only time will tell us if we're gonna make it
there's no way to be sure but
ooo, baby, i'll take my chances with you
that's what i'm gonna do
ooo, baby, i'll take my chances with you
you know it's true" -- the click five "i'll take my chances"

i started writing this ages ago but got distracted by a phone call (more on that later).  but i'm here now, ready to go ahead and write.  i feel like i have so much to say tonight, though it likely won't come out as fully as i might like.  but anyway, here it goes...

i slept really well last night, actually.  or at least i slept longer than usual.  i crawled into bed as the news was ending and never saw the start of leno, so i guess i fell asleep really quickly.  excellent!  i was really exhausted, after all.  and the alarms were less than welcomed this morning, though i got up anyway. i got cleaned up and then stood in front of the closet mentally claiming that i have nothing to wear.  we all know that's a total lie, but i couldn't find anything i actually wanted to wear.  i chose eventually.  i had some breakfast, packed the gym bag, and headed out a few minutes early.

i stopped at longs drugs on the way to work to pick up something really quickly.  it's weird to me how many people are wandering the drug store at 8:30am.  i, of course, was in quite a hurry, but whatever.  also, i realized how warm it was out when i was walking to my car.  so warm!  like summer warm!  (though the day didn't seem extraordinarily warm in the afternoon.)

work today was insane.  like more insane than usual.  first of all, i have a lot to get done right now, which is totally fine with me.  i work hard and i get things done.  i don't do late.  we already know this, though.  we already know that i'm not going to just not do something.  it's who i am.  anyway, so there's a lot of work to be done and i shifted myself into probably 4th gear.  i was working quite hard all morning, and i managed to get quite a lot done.  it also means that i read absolutely no news so i have no idea what's going on in the world.  but that's fine. ;)  anyway, i got lots done in the morning, even meeting the needs of people who want to ring me and claim their specific need is an emergency and that the project is already late (not my fault, so you know).  i took a very brief break mid-day to run up to z pizza, grab a couple slices, and bring them back to my desk so i could work while eating.  i was assertive.  with some encouragement from jan, i told people about a new procedure i think we need to follow in distributing one of our newsletters, and everyone responded really well.  i'm so excited about this because this month's distribution was an absolute mess and an absolute nightmare.  and part of my afternoon was also rough, as people apparently don't understand how the art department functions or how we have set our priorities.  we work hard!  everything's getting done.  i need people to have a bit of faith in me and i don't really understand the lack of faith because i always meet everyone's needs.  so anyway, i think a lot of issues got put on the table today, but i also think that really they also got solved (or at least quieted).  and i was at work late-ish getting even more stuff done.  it's going to be fine.  the work will get done.  i hope other people believe it because i know it.

after work, a bit perturbed, i headed for the y.  i tried to talk to sarah on the phone, but that kind of failed because between the two of us, we didn't have enough reception to really carry on any sort of conversation.  instead, we just chatted online once i got home.  i should know better than trying to make calls while driving through all the hills and valleys around here.

anyway, my swim was awesome because i was frustrated and whatever.  i shared a lane with the yellow shorts guy (it was him or a really good swimmer guy).  he's so jolly.  :)  and because i was upset, i ended up swimming very hard and completed my swim way faster than normal.  also, it just felt good.  the motions seemed so much more natural than they did on tuesday when i was having a bit of a rough swim.  so i'm really glad i did that, and of course it made me feel better.  endorphins make you happy!  or something like that.  haha! :)

then i came home and got cleaned up.  and i was just in time to see the stanford-cal basketball game, which didn't turn out quite as desired but was still a fun game.  and i got to chat with sarah and meg (who's very sick with the flu at the moment) online.  plus, i had a delicious dinner!

then i started to watch "the office" and write this, but i got distracted by a lone phone call with dad, who wanted to hear all about work and whatever else.  actually, it was really good for me. :)  and now i'm back to writing this and chatting with sarah.

i need to go to bed, though.  i have a lot of work ahead of me tomorrow.

the olympics start tomorrow.  i'm excited because i love the olympics but a little disappointed that i won't have company watching them.  but i'll be watching. :)  i hear they'll average 24.5 hours a day of coverage!

anyway, i'm off to bed.  good night. ;)

wednesday 8 february 2006 10:14pm

"barbecue chicken in aluminum foil
just enough money for my gas and oil
who needs your shrimp and your caviar
i'd soon have you just the way you are
rich people got their money to hold
mansion on the hill 'n' diamonds and gold
well, it can't compare as far as i can see
next to you sitting next to me
there ain't no place that i'd rather be
next to you, next to me" -- shenandoah "next to you, next to me"

::yawn::  i'm sleepy!  quite tired all around, really.  and i have no doubts about why, as things have been busy lately and i rarely sleep as well as i might like.  but i'm having a good time with things, as well, and that's the point.  but yeah, i'm tired so i'm trying to get this written and then it's straight to bed.

"love monkey" was good last night! :)  i'm loving the music more and more with each episode, and when it's available and i have the opportunity, i'll likely be purchasing some of teddy geiger's music.  :)  so good!  my brother is right, though.  it's a chick show disguised in the fact that it's about a group of guys.  haha!  it really is a girlie show, though.  not that guys can't watch and enjoy it, but you know. ;)

then it was off to bed for me.  it was a relatively warm night, which i enjoyed. :)  i slept alright but for the wrong number of hours because i was very, very out of it when the alarm(s) went off.  i can't even remember the first one.  i did get up, but it was rough.  but i had a hot shower, found some breakfast, and got dressed.  and i was sure to wear long pants and a sweater knowing that it was a gorgeous day out and therefore going to be very cold in the office.  and then i headed out to work.

before i forget, they ran mavericks yesterday up in half mood bay!  that's awesome!  that means the waves were huge, and what i found even more surprising was that it looked like it was a sunny, clear day.  a lot of times, it takes a nasty storm to get the 40-foot waves they need to run it.  and twiggy baker (from south africa) won it with two perfect scores.  so rad!  :)

ok, so work today was pretty crazy.  i have a ton of stuff to do and things continue to pile up for me.  honestly, i really do prefer having too much to do than too little.  and so as soon as i got to work, i put the headphones on and rocked out to loud music while working away.  and i got a lot of stuff done, even if after all the hours of sitting at my desk i still have so much to do in the coming days.  i'll get it all done.  it's what i do.  i even stayed in for lunch, eating leftovers in the kitchen while reading my book for a little bit.  also, diana gave me her extra orange (how someone has an extra orange with them, i have no idea), which was delicious!  and more work all afternoon.  work, work, work.  it really isn't that interesting to describe, but i created a ton of figures so i did actually accomplish a lot.

after work, i headed straight for the gym, but i did call kath on my drive over there for a little chat. :)  it'd been a long time, so i wanted to just catch up with her.  she's a little sick and very busy, but she's well.  and it's great to just talk to old friends!  anyway, the gym was good.  i rode a bike, and actually i ended up going really fast, faster than normal.  i guess i was feeling good!  and i read more of my book, which i am love loving!  so good! :)  i know i'm only about halfway through it, but i don't want it to end!  :)

then i came home and got cleaned up.  of course during the 5 minutes that i was in the shower, katie called.  we've been playing phone-tag for a million years now!  ... and we still are!  oh, well.  so i talked to the family for a little bit and made myself some dinner.  then i watched last week's episode of "the o.c.," which i'm really liking!  it's really entertaining and for whatever reason i love the characters, so i keep watching.  and then i watched one of the movies i rented over the weekend, "junebug."  it was pretty good.  i liked it, though the pacing was a little too slow for me (i think in an effort to be particularly artsy).  and i guess my night was a little ben mckenzie marathon, because he's in that film, as well.  anyway, it's been a quiet night, which is fine.  i'm tired.  it's grammy night, i know.  i recorded them and i'll watching the few portions i care about later.  mostly, i hate the awards but enjoy the performances.

::another yawn::  i really am falling asleep as i write this.  i need some rest.  more tomorrow.  for now, good night. ;)

tuesday 7 february 2006 9:31pm

"riding down the road in my pickup truck
you better get ready 'cause i'm picking you up
with a full moon a-shining and a little bit o' luck
we'll run out of gas and maybe get stuck
we could get lost, baby, i don't care
i ain't worried as long as you're there
there ain't no place that i'd rather be
next to you sitting next to me
there ain't no place that i'd rather be
next to you, next to me" -- shenandoah "next to you, next to me"

today got off to a bit of a rocky start, but eventually everything settled down and things are looking up! :)  i'm curled up on the couch with the country music on the tv and cookies in my future, so i really don't have any complaints. :)

first, i'd like to say that adam morrison is amazing!  he's a great college basketball player now and he's only going to get better as a pro.  i swear i watch him play and i'm just speechless.  i was talking to adam last night while we were both watching him play (he's at gonzaga), and neither of us know how to really express how good he is.  adam (my brother) says he's a god.  he's not far off.  ;)  anyway, the game last night was good fun!  and then i crashed pretty quickly after that.

i had that restless sleep again last night, and i know that i woke up on the wrong side of the bed.  i was so not happy about having to get up.  of course, i did anyway because i have to but still.  i was cranky already.  but i got showered and dressed, and even had my pirate cereal while checking email and various things.  and i threw my hair up wet into a bun and headed off to work.  at least it was a gorgeous morning. :)

work today was long.  really long.  and very cold.  the building gets colder as the temperature outside gets warmer.  and it was 80 out today.  which means i was freezing to death inside trying to get work done.  and i was dressed in jeans and a long-sleeved hoodie!  plus, i think it just feels worse when i know that it's an absolutely gorgeous day outside and i'm stuck inside working away.  i mean, i don't mind work at all, but i really have problems with working when i'm that cold.  and there's really nothing i can do about it!  so i sat and worked.  i had a ton to get done.  i didn't finish everything and i got another huge project (all those materials i've been waiting for for 9 days came in today).  so i'm busy.  and cold.  and therefore, i was a bit cranky.

lunch was the real turning point, however! :)  lea, jenna, and i went for chicken bowls at super bowl.  for a while now, the shop next door has had a sign that said something to the effect of "bakery opening soon."  well, it just so happened that today was their opening day!  so after eating, we stopped in there just to check it out.  well, it's run by two old ladies, and one bakes cakes and the other breads.  seems like they'll be expanding their selection soon, though.  anyway, they gave us 3 loaves of bread, as well as a big cinnamon roll to take back to the office!  and they were so delicious!  (i'm sure i could top it, however!)  anyway, it was cool to see their new business and everything because some day that just might be me: an old lady and her friend starting a bakery(/florist).  :)  i consider my visit there today research. :) plus, now i know somewhere i can chill outside and have a loaf of bread for lunch.  mmm!

after lunch, there was a bit more work while freezing.  and then we had birthday cakes to celebrate for marina and marke.  i'm up for a distraction!  i also think this is the point in my day in which it became official that i ate entirely too much.  super bowl, some bread and some cinnamon roll from the bakery, a (big-ish) slice of ice cream cake.  yeah, that's out of hand. anyway, after that, we had our tuesday monday meeting, which went well and brought me to the end of the day at work.

i headed to the y so that i could finally get back in the pool!  it'd been ages, i know.  plus, on a nice night it seems even more enjoyable.  i was struggling a bit (i'll blame it on both the excessive amounts of food and the fact that it'd been so long since i'd been in the water), but i pushed through it and ended up having a really good swim.  my yellow shorts friend missed me, apparently!  haha!  oh, the old men!  they crack me up!

then i headed home, got cleaned up, and switched on the tv to watch the second half of the duke-north carolina game.  it was entertaining, and really that's all i needed from it. :)  plus, i ordered a pizza.  i guess it was a guys night. ;)  pizza and basketball.  haha!  and really, i didn't need any more food today but it sounded really good.  so i ate too much pizza, as well.  i may actually burst, but it really was delicious!  oh, and i talked to the parents, as well, for a bit.

then it was time for "gilmore girls."  oh, geez, it was such a good episode!  :)  is it totally wrong that i love both rory's boyfriend, logan, and rory's dad, christopher?  yeah, it probably is.  but they're both so adorable that i can't help myself! :)  and i'm hoping for something wonderful for next week's valentine episode.  and to continue with my night of tv, i'm now going to grab a cookie and a glass of milk and watch "love monkey."  should be a good time! :)

that's enough out of me for tonight.  more tomorrow.  g'night. ;)

monday 6 february 2006 10:10pm

"afternoon low tide, workin' my plan
got one hand in the water, the other in the sand
two beers in a cooler, one warm heart in place...
i want somebody to be the feelings all over my face
oh, i've never been more ready than i am right now
i know sooner or later, someday, somehow
somebody's gonna walk up
and join somebody sitting right here
so wherever... you are
the coast is clear" -- scotty emerick "coast is clear"

i'm exhaused, i can hardly see straight, and it's only monday but i'm desperately wishing it were the weekend already.  this could be bad.  but i'll just chill and take it all in stride and see how the week progresses.  but tonight, i'm spent.  so you know. ;)

i got to bed at a decent hour last night, actually.  of course, i had trouble staying asleep and really didn't feel rested at all when i got up this morning.  but i headed for the shower anyway, and that always seems to help me wake up a bit more.  and i found some pirate cereal and a huge glass of orange juice, both of which also help to brighten a morning.  plus, there was sunshine!  that was unexpected after all that crazy fog last night.  so i got dressed and headed off to work early because (1) there's school traffic on monday mornings and (2) i desperately needed to stop for gas.

work today was pretty good.  i'm back into the swing of things with the magazines quickly approaching, which means that i need to prepare all the graphics for them.  that means i have a lot of work while others are kind of just waiting a bit for magazines to officially start on wednesday.  so i was working away, though i must admit to getting a little distracted at times by office chatter about a variety of things. :)  but mostly, i was quite productive.  and for lunch, a huge group of us went out to ceder creek inn to celebrate marina's birthday.  it was a really nice place, and i think i'd really enjoy sitting outside on the patio with friends or something and having a nice meal.  today was lunch inside with work people, but it was free so i'm not really complaining.  i'm just saying it's nice to know about another cool place. :)  plus, i haven't really explored san juan capistrano much, so it's cool to see new parts of it.  also, i think something about jenna's windshield messes with my eyes and makes me nauseous.  weird.  anyway, i worked through the afternoon before heading home.  it was a gorgeous day out (high 70s), so i would have preferred to be outside instead of in the office, but you know. ;)

after work, i headed home, though i was only here for a few minutes.  i just wanted to sit and relax for a few minutes and also change my clothes.  then i headed back out again.

i went with jenna and lea to see "capote."  it was the last of the best picture nominees i needed to see.  i was disappointed with it.  i didn't really enjoy it at all.  (this is where i rant.)  there is only one likeable person in the whole film, catherine keener as harper lee.  everyone else is awful, most of all truman capote himself.  he's an ass!  i don't like him at all, he's not sympathetic or charismatic or anything.  i don't even respect him!  and then he chooses to write a book about 4 murders, though the movie doesn't explain why he chooses this topic or why it's especially fascinating to him.  and then he gets in with the murderers, something else that is not really explained other than that he needs info from them to write his book, i guess.  but he loves one of them?  i didn't know until they expressed it in dialogue way after i was apparently supposed to know.  and why am i supposed to feel bad for the murderers?  and why am i supposed to feel bad for the mean, disrespectful, lying capote?  i have no idea.  so anyway, i  was getting antsy and really wanted it to just end but it had like 6 endings before it finally ended.  so i won't be rooting for "capote" at the oscars.  i saw the movies.  i know what was good. :)  at least i can say i saw it and can properly judge it now.

and then i came home, found some dinner (in fact, way too much pasta that was quite delicious), and talked to the family a bit.  i kind of had planned to watch a movie or something but i got distracted by chatting with sarah online and watching the st. mary's-gonzaga game on tv.  so that's where i am right now.  the rest of my evening will include a couple cookies, a tall glass of milk, the end of this game, a bit more tv, and then bed.  and i'm looking forward to all of it!

more next time.  for now, good night! ;)

sunday 5 february 2006 10:07pm

"i'm two quarters and a heart down
and i don't want to forget how your voice sounds
these words are all i have so i'll write them
so you need them just to get by" -- fall out boy "dance, dance"

super bowl sunday is generally one of my favorite sundays. :)  i like football, and i love commercials, so it works out well for me.  and today was no exception.  i had a really busy day but in a good way, in a way that i don't mind not lying around all day, as i am apt to do on a regular sunday.

i spent a while reading magazines last night.  i got through a few.  i really do love just sitting on the couch in pajamas all wrapped in a blanket reading fashion magazines!  oh, and the cookies were delicious! :)  and then i crashed actually quite late, which is another one of my favorite pastimes!  i'd be up to see 2 or 3 more often if i could! :)  anyway, i slept until i woke at 9:30ish this morning.  i strongly considered just falling back asleep and i did in fact lie there with my eyes closed.  but, being a catholic, i guilted myself into getting up so i could go to mass.  yeah, the catholic guilt.  mostly, it doesn't work on me.  this morning, it did. ;)  so i got up and out of bed and cleaned up.  i found a bowl of (pirate!) cereal, and then headed out.

i made it to st. edwards and found a seat and off we went.  mass was pretty good.  i really liked the readings, which was good because the homily was a dvd soliciting money for the orange county parishes.  that has nothing to do with the gospel reading today!  oh, well.  it was still a good mass, and i'm getting more used to the very modern feel the masses of st. edwards have.  and i really like that even though it's a massively huge parish, it still feels like a very tight community.

on my way back to the apartment, i returned a couple movies to hollywood video (i believe they promised me $1 credit if i did) and then discovered a shorter way there, so that should come in handy! :)  and then when i got back home, i read the newspaper a bit (though i still have a ton left that will just have to wait for tomorrow) and found some lunch.  all of a sudden, it was time for me to leave again.

i drove up to costa mesa to jen2's place because she was having a super bowl party.  and i brought the amstel light and diet coke and cookies (and i had to carry them so far between where i could park my car and her actual apartment!).  it was jen2, roomie crystal, and friends gene, tim, chris, jen, travis, jen, brad, and jessica.  they were already drinking when i got there, and the drinking didn't stop, which made for a lot of entertainment for me!  (and probably for them, too!)  they bet on all sorts of random stuff (opening kick-off a touchback or not) and we all watched and rooted and just had a really good time! :)  and at halftime, most of the people went out to the field behind the apartment to play touch football.  i didn't play (i was wearing cute shoes!), but i watched and laughed and whatever.  good times!  and then we all went back upstairs and watched what was left of the game but also just kind of hung out.  we lost interest, i think.  and afterwards, we watched "grey's anatomy!"  um, i called the bomb in the patient so so long ago!  yeah, baby!  ;)  hahaha!  i'm so good!  and the show was great!  can't wait for next week!  i love that show!  even if i had to watch it entirely too early on regular (not my high-def) tv.  still, i'm so glad i went up there for that party because i had a total blast!

i did eventually head home, kind of fearing for my life knowing there are lots of drunk people driving home after the super bowl.  but i made it.  oh!  and the fog!  the fog was insane!  and i'm from san francisco!  i was driving by follow-the-leader, especially after i got off on crown valley!  plus, there are streetlights on crown valley and golden lantern, so then i really couldn't see!  though i do think crazy dense fog is pretty rad! :)  and i made it home safely.

i talked to the family (seems grandma wants to fly me home for easter even though most of my family won't be home) for awhile.  and i'm just chillin' watching this "housewives" recap show, even though i've seen all the episodes.  and hopefully, i'll head to bed soon.  they still haven't made super bowl monday a federal holiday, so i have to work tomorrow.

more tomorrow.  good night! ;)

saturday 4 february 2006 10:50pm

"would you go with me if we were lost in fields of clover
would we walk even closer until the trip was over
and would it be okay if i didn't know the way
if i gave you my hand would you take it
and make me the happiest in the world
if i told you my heart couldn't beat one more minute without you
would you accompany me to the edge of the sea
let me know if you're really a dream
i love you so, so would you go with me" -- josh turner "would you go with me"

i love the weekends.  i really do.  i love having nothing to do, nothing to accomplish.  it's so easy. :)  and it's so so nice.

somehow, i ended up staying up quite late last night.  i know because i  saw entirely too much of carson daly before finally falling asleep.  and boy, oh, boy, did i sleep.  i must have been really quite tired because i don't think moved at all last night.  i only woke up once and i went straight back to sleep without even checking the time.  and when i woke up this afternoon (yes, after 12), the bed looked exactly as it had when i got into it last night.  awesome!  and i was feeling good! :)  i know i needed the rest.  so i just laid there for awhile, until i eventually got up.

i started out my day with a little snack and the newspaper.  nothing too crazy at all.  oh, and there was some basketball on the tv, but nothing extremely exciting.  and i ended up on the phone with the family for awhile, which was nice. :)  and really, i was just enjoying sitting around on the couch.  i watched some tv.  i chatted with sarah and jen2 online.  that's really about it.

i eventually decided that i needed to get cleaned up, so i did that.  and i even got dressed and decided to head out.  first of all, i wanted to try, once again, to rent dvds.  this time, however, i decided to try the hollywood video in dana point and if that didn't work out i discovered there was a place called diego's video in san juan.  so i headed down to hollywood video.  i guess i should have gone there before.  they had more than enough movies for me, and i ended up with 4. :)  so those ought to keep me busy for the next few days!  :)  i have "the corpse bride," "the aristocrats," "junebug," and "the constant gardener."  i believe three of those have oscar nominations!  not bad, eh? ;)  so i was stoked and didn't feel any need to check out diego's.  i just have to figure out a good way to get to hollywood video because it's in sort of a weird place on a one-way street.  anyway, i was excited about the movies!  so then i headed to ralph's.  i ran into cindy from work there.  i don't really like running into people when i don't expect it in a place that i go to a lot, but i was nice. :)   actually, it was sort of an odd trip because, among the normal groceries, i was buying a case of beer.  i don't drink.  i'm supposed to pick out beer for other people???  so i did and i got carded for buying alcohol for the first time ever.  :)  haha!  anyway, there's a case of beer in my refrigerator, which is kind of funny to me.  i'm a dork.  whatever. ;)  i headed home and got everything put away.

adam called because he's a nerd and wanted to talk about basketball highlights he'd seen and some statistics and whatever.  he's so random! :)  then i put on "the corpse bride," which was pretty good. :)  the animation is really cool (duh) and i did like that it was really just a love story.  i love a good love story!

after the film, i got to work baking.  i made chocolate chocolate chip cookies (my famous "secret" recipe), which turned out deliciously! :)  they're some of my favorite cookies, so i'm sure they won't last too too long around here!  and i found a bit of dinner, as well, because it was 8 and i figured i should have a real meal some time today.

next up, i watched "the aristocrats," which was both funny and interesting, but also so so so filthy dirty!  it's a documentary about this really dirty joke (that i'd never heard before) that's apparently very famous among the comedians.  basically, it's all these comedians telling the joke and talking about it.  anyway, i enjoyed it, but it's very dirty!  also, i chatted with kath online. :)

i just finished doing all the dishes, and now i'm just chillin' writing this and watching country videos.  nothing spectacular.  but i plan to spend the rest of my evening getting at least a little of the way through the huge stack of magazines i have sitting here.  and i might have a cookie (or two!) while doing that!  sounds like a great way to spend my night!

tomorrow's super bowl sunday, and i'm headed to jen2's apartment for a party there! :)  that's the reason for the beer and the cookies.  i'm excited about it!  i know football.  i know commercials.  i even know the musical performers. ;)

so for now, good night. ;)  more next time...

saturday 4 february 2006 12:37am

"and it's tearing me up
every minute that i'm here is one more
without you, i need you, why you
then i remember how you'll always live inside me
and i remember that is' your love that carries me
just when i think i can't face one more day
and go on the way i should
i remember, i remember something good" -- shannon brown "something good"

so you know that part where i catch up on sleep?  yeah, i haven't quite gotten there yet.  but hopefully that'll happen very, very soon.  for now, i'm up pretty late and just chillin.  and still exhausted.

"the office" was so so so excellent last night!  even if the whole jim-pam storyline is killing me and i hated michael more than ever!  it's so funny! :)  and then i spent some serious time reading my book, which was great!  except that it meant that once again i was up later than expected.  but i did get a bit of sleep last night, and was for sure asleep when the alarm(s) went off.  so this morning, i crawled out of bed and into the shower.  i found breakfast, threw on something cute, and headed to work.

work today was fun! :)  lots of people happened to be in the office today, which is fun if only for my own personal entertainment purposes.  the morning started out with the art department finishing up the monday meeting we started yesterday.  :)  confusing, i know!  and we also agreed to move our monday meetings to tuesday afternoons because that'll work with our schedules.  and yes, they'll still be called monday meetings. :)  because we can do that!  an then the rest of my morning was spent working actually quite hard.  starla from publishers press (they're our printer for the magazines) came out from kentucky to pay a visit to us, so she mostly met with jenna but also chatted with all of us.  she's really super nice!  and has a crazy kentucky accent!  and then john, cindy, diana, jenna, melissa, starla, and i all went to dukes for (free to me) lunch!  woot!  actually, i was kind of disappointed that we didn't get to go to salt creek grille as planned, but that's alright.  and the afternoon started with work, but ended up being a huge gathering in the art department with all of us plus diana and lea.  we talked about all sorts of stuff and i had a lot of fun, actually!  i mean, it was friday afternoon.  were we really going to be all that productive?  no. :)

and eventually, it was the end of the day and time for me to head home.  it was incredibly foggy outside!  it hasn't been like that in ages!  but i made it home just in time to see jen2 signing online, so we chatted and arranged our plans for the evening.  i put on real shoes (because i'd been wearing flip-flops and i knew i'd be much too cold to wear those all night) and a coat, and headed out again.

so i headed up over the toll road (which of course was completely socked in with more fog) up to jen2's apartment.  we headed up pch looking for somewhere to eat dinner, but we ended up at fashion island.  we had delicious pizza at california pizza kitchen, and then we went over to the movie theatre there but nothing was playing in the next 90 minutes, so we opted instead to go find something at blockbuster, which was totally fine with me.  we picked up "must love dogs" and headed back to jen2's.  jen2, her roomie crystal, and i enjoyed watching that movie, which was cute and fun if not oscar-worthy! ;)  and it was cool to have a chill evening with friends.

and now it's quite late and i'm back home just relaxing on the couch.  i chatted with friends for a little bit in an effort to stay entertained, but really i'm just writing this and watching late-night tv.  nothing too crazy or wild! ;)  but now, time for me to get to bed and get some sleep.  finally. :)

more next time.  good night. ;)

thursday 2 february 2006 8:47pm

"and i'm gonna love you
like it's the last day of my life
life is a rainbow, it's a spring snow
it's the morning dew
and i don't wanna waste another minute
without you" -- phil vassar "last day of my life"

i may have actually done it!  completely exhausted myself!  i am quite tired, and it's thursday night, and the plan involves a whole lot of tv. :)  but it has been quite a busy week, so i figure it's cool if i spent a night on the couch in my pajamas, remote control in hand.  so here's today for you...

first of all, "gilmore girls" was really quite excellent, and i'm glad that i love logan again! :)  oh, i'm a sucker for a blonde, anyhow! ;)  but it really was a good episode, and i thought the end sequence at friday night dinner was especially innovative and also a good plot point. :) yay for good tv!  and then for some reason i ended up watching jimmy kimmel, though i don't even really like that show.  and then it was late and once again i was up way past what would be a reasonable bedtime for myself.  it's quite a habit, i know.  i did eventually crash, though, and must have been really asleep when the alarm went off because it took me a second to figure out what was going on.  but i got into the shower to get cleaned up.  and i found something cute to wear.  and the big deal (in my head) of the morning was that i did my hair all up in a sort of big messy bun and put on a headband.  i keep seeing celebrities with their hair like that, so i'd been meaning to try it out.  and i looked so cute! :)  and after a bowl of cereal, i headed off to work (looking adorable! ;).

work today was mostly just normal.  the list of things to do is growing right now, instead of shrinking, which i prefer.  i spend less time reading news and more time working really hard.  so i spent my morning working on a brochure.  and for lunch, i heated up leftover pizza and ate with jenna and lea in the kitchen.  i went out to my car to get my book for entertainment, but i ended up not needing it at all.  and then we decided to go get fro-yo at goodies, and melissa came, too.  geez, i love that place!  so delicious!  and we pretty much always have coupons or something so we never pay full price for anything!  and half-chocolate-half-peanut-butter with hot fudge is so great!  and then i worked the rest of the afternoon, until 4, when we started our monday meeting...

break for "beauty and the geek"

... which we had today, thursday, because basically the 6 of us are never together.  but we were this afternoon, so we had a good meeting and i got to share a couple good pieces of design i found last weekend! :)  yay!

so after work, i headed to the gym.  nothing too exciting going on there.  i just rode the bike really hard, and ended up having a better than average workout, so i'm stoked!  plus, the book just keeps getting better.  yeah, i'm reading it 30 pages at a time, but i'm really loving it!  hopefully, i'll find a larger chunk of time to sit and relax and read.

it was back home after that.  i got cleaned up, which i desperately needed. ;)  and i had dinner, if a bowl of green beans and a big piece of garlic bread count as dinner.  i don't really see why not. :)  and i talked to the parents for a little bit.  i scheduled a trip home to visit at the end of the month, which i'm stoked about!  (if you're going to be in san carlos or can arrange to be, please let me know!)  also, i'm trying to convince mom to come visit me for easter since dad and adam will be traveling somewhere to look at colleges.  that's weird, right?  adam's looking at colleges!

and then the tv...  so i just watched "beauty and the geek," which i absolutely loved tonight!  the makeovers of the guys were awesome, especially wes and karl!  wes is totally hot!  the only lame part is that the preview of next episode shows him hooking up with cher, the only girl in the house i don't like!  so sad!  he's too cute for her!  and i was glad to see chris and tristan leave because chris was too annoying.  oh, it's such a great show!  haha!  and next up for tonight is "the office," which i'm thinking will also be so great!  i also have "the o.c." recorded, but i'm not sure if i'll get to it tonight, though, because i'm quite tired and know i should get some sleep before friday.

anyway, have a good night! ;)  more tomorrow...

wednesday 1 february 2006 9:37pm

"could i forget the look that tells me that you want me
and all the reasons that make loving you so easy
the kiss that always makes it hard to breathe
the way you know just what i mean
no, i can't learn to live without
oh, so don't you give up on us now" -- carrie underwood "i just can't live a lie"

i'm finally writing this at a decent hour! :)  yay!  not writing in the middle of the night when i should be sleeping!  i'm so good! ;)  actually, i never mind writing, no matter what time.  but i'm home and just watching "mythbusters," so it seems like a good time to write.

so why was i up late last night?  oh, yeah.  between "munich" and chatting with meg and just doing whatever, i didn't get to bed until 2ish.  that's entirely too late, but whatever.  again, i'm not really sleeping well, so the fact that i got less than 6 hours doesn't matter that much as this point.  i got up with the alarm like usual and headed for the shower.  and i did that whole stand-in-front-of-the-closet-wondering-what-to-wear-because-i-have-nothing-to-wear thing this morning for quite a while.  i have nothing!  or perhaps more specifically, i have nothing that will keep me warm enough in the freezing cold office where i work.  of course, it's all a lie because i have lots of clothes.  anyway, i eventually decided on a yellow sweater (which i don't even keep in the closet) and jeans and heels and then i headed off to work.

work today was really good!  it felt much better than the past few days!  i spent a good portion of my morning in john's office with marke and matt as john discussed various marketing ideas and theories and whatever.  i'm just glad i was included in this meeting, since i'm really the one with the marketing education and background.  and i think we established that i do actually know about marketing, so i'm pleased with that.  for lunch, we went out together because it's marke's birthday.  of course, we probably would have just gone out together anyway, but that's ok. :)  so marke, jenna, melissa, matt, and i went to tina & vince's for sandwiches and pizza! :)  good times!  and after lunch, i got some of the materials i had been waiting for, so i could get to work on that stuff.  brochures.  plus, we had our first magazine meeting for february magazines, and i have a nice piece of "rtc" to do, so i'm pleased with that. :)  plus, we have some figures in for me to start working on.  early!  amazing!  yay for me having lots to keep me busy!  so work's good!  plus, i have plans to see "capote" with lea and jenna next week. :)

after work, i came so close to just going home, but i drove myself to the gym instead.  somehow, i've made friends with one of the (middle-aged) guys who sits at the front desk, so he was asking me if i was going swimming today, and i had to disappoint him and tell him that i wasn't.  but he did want to talk about ken starr and pepperdine and whatever.  he's nice and not creepy, so that's fine.  and in the locker room, the locker i normally stash my stuff in was occupied with a lock on it (i never use a lock)!  and then randomly the lady who was using it came in and asked me if i had dropped a towel (i didn't).  weird.  and oh, yeah, my workout on the bike (again) with my book (which i still love) was great!  i worked really hard and felt great! :)

then i came home and made myself some dinner while watching the duke-boston college game.  and i used halftime to get cleaned up. :)  dinner was delicious, and i also got to talk to the parents (while i was eating, but i really don't mind that).

then i headed out and went to the bookstore.  i needed something, and i figured that i might as well entertain myself for a little bit looking all around and whatever.  and i did have a nice time just browsing.  actually, i left with 2 teen magazines (in addition to what i went for) because i have been wanting to pick one up to just check out the clothes.  i have to keep up on what's new and in and whatever, right?  and the clothes in those are way more reasonably-priced!  :)  so i'm a dork!  whatever! :)

and now i'm back home relaxing.  "mythbusters" was a good time, and now i'm watching "stunt junkies" and a guy is going to mountain bike down a ridiculously steep mountain.  it's pretty cool!  plus, i've been on the phone with the brother, who i haven't talked to in awhile, and he's doing well! :)  and the rest of my evening will involve watching the rest of this and also the "gilmore girls" episode i recorded last night. :)  so it's been a really nice day, and i'm feeling good.

more tomorrow.  for now, good night. ;)

tuesday 31 january 2006 11:14pm

"can i forget about the way it feels to touch you
and all the good times that we've been through
could i wake up without you every day
would i let you walk away
no, i can't learn to live without
and i can't give up on us now
oh, i know i could say we're through
and tell myself i'm over you
but even if i made a vow
and promise not to miss you now
and try to hide the truth inside
i'd fall 'cause i, i just can't live a lie" -- carrie underwood "i just can't live a lie"

i must say that i'm writing this about an hour later than i had planned, but that's alright.  i haven't been sleeping well anyway, so the hour won't really matter, i don't think.  plus, i can't go back an hour, can i?  so it's now and i'm writing because i do like writing this.  and just fyi, i like this carrie underwood song, as well. ;)

so, like i mentioned before, i haven't really been sleeping well.  i was up too late again last night, though i stuck to the regular late-night talk shows this time.  of course, i did eventually fall asleep and get a little rest.  and then it was right back up and at 'em this morning with the alarm.  shower.  cereal.  jeans.  and i was right back out the door.  seems like the time just flies.

oh!  so it was oscar nominations morning!  of course, i read all the nominees this morning in the comfort of my own apartment, and then reread them at work. :)  they're mostly good, and of course i have my favorites.  my major problem with the nominees was with the best picture category.  no "walk the line."  so sad!  and i do think there are better choices than both "crash" and "munich."  but anyway, i am loving this for the second year in a row because i've seen (and really loved!) so many of the nominated films!  i am hoping to see more between now and the first weekend of march, as well.  that's going to depend largely on me being able to rent a few films.  i'm crossing my fingers.  and i only have one best picture nominee left to see, "capote," and that's still in theatres, so that should be doable.  anyway, yay for oscar nominations!  and yay that i'll get to watch with my fellow oscar-lover, sarah, while we're in nyc.

so work.  i actually did do some work while at work today.  :)  oh, i'm such a good little employee.  ;)  haha!  of course, i'm also still waiting on lots of materials because people are late, but i'm on them about it, being all responsible.  so i'm doing what i can, and as more stuff comes in, i'll be taking care of it all.  the office also felt more busy today, as marke and matt were around all afternoon.  and scott, who normally comes in on wednesdays, not tuesdays.  i'm still not sure exactly why, but whatever.  i'm not in charge (sadly, but clearly).  so work was work.  for lunch, jenna, melissa, and i went to z pizza (yes, i know i was there yesterday, but it's what they wanted and they have delicious pizza), so that was fun and also tasty.  plus, it's nice to see some natural light during the day!  or any light (we work in the dark).

after work, it was back to the gym and back to the bike and back to the book i'm loving.  being a good girl!  and i worked hard and felt pretty good, so i guess it's worth the time and effort.  at least i tell myself that! ;)

then i came home and made myself some pasta for dinner because i was so totally starving.  and it was delicious!  throwing some crushed red peppers in there is awesome!  (and clears the sinuses ;))  and then i showered and threw on some clothes and headed back out.

see, i needed to get on the oscar movies.  i had only seen 3 of the 5 best picture nominees and since i was kind of upset that "munich" was in there and not "walk the line," i went to see "munich" so i could judge it for myself.  wow.  it was really intense!  it was quite good, actually, and i'm glad i saw it.  i don't think it's one of the top 5 films of the year, but you already know that. ;)   also, could it have been any longer?  it was really long (which is why i'm writing this so much later than expected)!  but anyway, it was a good movie, and i'm now convinced that i'm being hunted by assassins.  haha!  great!

and now i'm back home.  i talked to dad for a bit about things (at work).  and then i started crying for no reason really at all i guess.  i mean, just everything or nothing.  who knows.  or maybe it was a delayed reaction to the movie, since all movies make me cry.  but anyway, that caused me to start chatting with megs online, which has been fun, if also slowed my pace of writing this.

i really should try to get to bed now, though.  good night. ;)

monday 30 january 2006 10:54pm

"in a crowded room i wanna hold your hand
wanna kiss your lips like a desperate man
when i hear your voice callin' my name
i'll come runnin' to you as fast as i can
no shame, no holding back, baby
insane 'cause you make me so crazy
no way i can look cool, baby, no shame" -- jeff bates "no shame"

currently, the internet connection is down.  i called cox (they're my cable/internet/telephone provider) and they have a recording saying they know there's a problem and they have no estimated time for the repair.  super.  :(  but i can still write, even if i can't post, and i'll put it up as soon as i can.  believe me, i'm very sad about being so disconnected.  anyway...

so i watched "grey's anatomy" last night, and i loved every second how it.  however, by the end of the show, i was sobbing -- like that sloppy, messy kind of crying that you never want anyone else to see and where you can't even really breathe.  ugh.  i couldn't even see or hear the tv anymore and i had to pause it.  how is it possible that nobody warned me about this?!?  anyway, it's such a good show!  and i did make it to the end (still crying).  of course, then i had planned to go to bed, but that plan was shot to hell because i was still all upset.  i tucked myself in, but i knew there'd be more tv-watching to calm myself down a bit.  sarah's been trying to get me to watch "flava of love," the awful show on vh1 where flava flave picks a woman to love or something.  she said it's hilarious, and it's not a sarah sort of show at all.  so it was on, so i watched that.  so ghetto!  it was funny, though i'm pretty sure i won't reach junkie status, like sarah has.  and then i started watching "the barkers," which was also awful but entertaining.  whatever.  on sunday night at like 1am, there aren't a lot of great choices anyway.  plus, i was just trying to get to sleep.  it took forever, but i did eventually fall asleep.  and a few hours later, i was back up with the alarm.  monday.

i didn't sleep well, so it wasn't such a burden to get out of bed.  i got cleaned up, found some breakfast, and threw on my keith urban t-shirt, jeans, and flip-flops and headed out a bit early.  i figured i might as well.

work today was good, if also quite uneventful.  it was very quiet around the office with the guys all gone pretty much all day.  not that i mind the peace. :)  i did a bit of work, and i read a bit of news online, and really kind of just hung out with my co-workers.  lea wanted to talk about various shows that are playing right now and this and that and whatever.  for lunch, i headed up the road to z pizza to just pick something up.  when i got there, i decided i should also use my coupon for a free pint of ben & jerry's that i had earned with their frequent buyer program (or whatever they call it).  pulling a pint of fossil fuel out of my purse when i arrived back at the office was so great!  that's how you know it's a good day!  when delicious things come out of the purse! ;)  anyway, so it was an all-around delicious lunch, and i enjoyed it while reading a couple newspaper articles that i had set aside yesterday to read.  anyhow, i worked the rest of the afternoon, like normal.

after work, i was very tempted to just go home, but i was a good girl. :)  i went to the y, instead, and i hopped on a bike with my book and went at it!  i actually ended up riding really hard and...

11:11!  and the internet magically comes back!  i knew that was a lucky time!!! :)  (geez, i'm a nerd!)

... going (theoretically) very far.  plus, i'm still really loving "the time traveler's wife," even if i don't show my love for it really because i only read it 30 pages at a time while i'm sweating all over it and trying to forget that my legs hurt.  but i promise i'm enjoying it! :)

then i came home and right away sorted all the laundry in the entire apartment (because i must admit that it wasn't all in the laundry basket, where it belonged) so that i could get the laundry going right away.  i'm sure it's been about a million years since i've done laundry.  i know because i ran out of underwear, socks, and tank tops, all things that i have lots of. :)  anyway, i did 4 loads of laundry and everything's even put away already, so this was a hugely successful evening.  plus, i talked to the parents for a while. :)

next on the list of things to accomplish for the night was getting some polish on my fingernails.  red. :)  and they're looking nice, if i'm allowed to say that. ;)  and while i let that dry (and because what else was i going to do without an internet connection?), i watched the instyle wedding special.  and loved it, of course.  :)  because that's just how i am.  the surprise fireworks!  yeah, that's a man who knows what he's doing!  haha!  or having edwin mccain sing "i'll be" with just his guitar as your wedding song.  so basically, i consider this part of my evening a success because, unlike everyone on my tv, i was not crying!  it was a fun show!

and now that that's over and i'm back online, i think i'll just try to get to bed.  might even work out so that i'll get some actual sleep! ;)  good night.  more tomorrow...

sunday 29 january 2006 9:58pm

"i looked in your eyes, so bright and so blue
and that's when i knew that you could be mine
if good things come to those who will wait
well i guess i can wait if that's what i have to do
oh, it's worth it for you
the sunlight, the moonlight
are beyond my control
and there are stars in the heavens
that i'll never hold
but if dreams give you power
then i'm strong enough to offer my heart
and never give up 'til you love me
'til you love me" -- reba mcentire "'til you love me"

this weekend was one of those where i needed to push myself a bit harder than normal to actually do stuff because i easily could have spent the entire weekend on the couch, unshowered and wearing pajamas and not moving at all.  but i did actually do some things, even if it felt like it took more effort.  and i had a really nice weekend! :)

so of course once that tennis match -- the finals of the australian open between megastar federer and unseeded cypriot baghdatis -- started last night just after midnight, i could not stop watching.  what if baghdatis was about to make history?  how could i possibly miss it?  and it was so exciting!  so i was up really late.  and federer ended up winning, but it was still really fun!  plus, he cried!  and i hadn't seen 3am in a while, so that was cool. ;)  and somehow, i woke up before 10 this morning.  geez, i really do mess with my sleep patterns between weekdays and weekends.

i was tempted to try to go back to sleep, but instead talked myself out of bed and into the shower.  i had just enough time to get myself ready and off to 11am mass at st. edwards.  so i got up and clean and dressed.  i even had it together enough to put together and outfit to go with the new shoes i got at target yesterday so that i could start to break those in. :)  i grabbed a bowl of cereal, and then i headed out.

mass was better this week than the last time i went.  it was crazy busy, but whatever.  it's just such a huge parish.  all the masses, no matter what time, are crowded.  so the little kids can be a bit distracting for me when i'm trying to focus, but i think i'm actually getting better at it.  plus, they're cute!  and the homily (that's the part where the priest talks about whatever, usually the gospel reading) was very informative explaining the connection between the last supper and passover.  so mass was good.  i stopped for gas and a pack of soda on the way home.  plus, kath called as she was chillin' in an airport, so it was cool to get to talk to her for a few minutes! :)

and then i spent the rest of my day here in the apartment doing normal sunday things.  :)  i love sundays because they involve relaxing things that i enjoy.  so i read the newspaper.  actually, i read a really scary article about how many people don't graduate from high school.  and there was fun stuff in there, as well. :)  and then i napped.  no, it does not really get better than a sunday afternoon nap.

the evening i had planned involved a whole lot of television.  an embarassing amount of tv, really.  but oh, man, it was awesome!  first was the unc-duke women's basketball game (1st half only).  then the washington-stanford mens' game.  first half was good stuff!  then at halftime, it was back to the women's game in time to see the last minute and a half or so, which was great fun!  and i switched back to the men's game just in time to see the start of the second half.  down 3.  2.1 seconds left.  stanford ball.  inbounded, chris hernandez (my hero) gets fouled shooting a 3 with 0.2 seconds left and nails the free throws with his nerves of steel.  regulation ends in a tie.  and stanford just takes it to washington in overtime!  stanford finally knocks off a great team and plays well and everything's fantastic!  woohoo!  and just so you know, i was on the phone with the brother for most of this screaming and yelling and loving every second! :)

next up was the screen actors guild awards.  the dresses were spectacular, perhaps better than the golden globes!  and all the housewives in purple is so wonderful to me because i love purple and i want it to be in. :)  please let this mean i'll see more purple in the stores!  the awards were... well... okay.  i didn't agree with a lot of them, but whatever.  oscar nominations come out tuesday and then the awards are in march.  we'll see what happens then. :)

and now to round out the night, the regular sunday programming: "housewives" and "grey's."  i gave myself a pedicure (a dark red-purple color called marooned on the magnificent mile) and also did a manicure but no polish.  maybe later in the week or something.  "housewives" was a rerun, but one of my favorite episodes this season.  and since i was writing this and chatting with sarah i haven't started "grey's" yet, but i'm sure it'll be awesome!  plus, next week's post-super bowl episode is going to be super-fantastic!  my guess for "code black" is a bomb in that patient.  and even if i'm wrong, i'm sure it'll be something equally (if not more) awesome!

ok, so i should get to "grey's anatomy" so that i can get to bed and then be at least a little rested my tomorrow morning.  good night.  more next time. ;)

sunday 29 january 2006 12:26am

"another morning, another day in your life
without someone there by you
you had a dream again last night
you wonder why the dream just won't come true...
your eyes, your smile
you've got to let somebody know how you feel inside
your heart, you'll find
somebody wants to be a part of your life" -- reba mcentire "love will find its way to you"

considering that last night i had absolutely nothing planned for today other than sleeping in to my heart's content, i actually did a lot with my day.  ok, so not a lot a lot, but enough. :)  for a saturday.  and i had a nice time, so that's what counts, right?

i went to bed before i could watch the "brokeback mountain" episode of "oprah" that started at 1am because i was just too tired!  too sleepy!  and i slept pretty well.  and when my phone rang at 11 this morning i was very, very asleep, and it took me a long time to figure out what was going on, though i did manage to answer it.  and of course it was a telemarketer.  and of course as soon as he asked for kirsten wyatt (which he didn't come close to pronouncing properly), he accidentally hung up on me.  so there i was, awake and unhappy about that.  but really i couldn't go back to sleep anymore, so i just got up and headed for the couch, snagging a cookie from the kitchen before sitting down.

what was left of the morning and into the afternoon was spent hanging out on the couch watching college basketball on tv. :)  there are more games than a person can really watch on saturdays.  i love that!  also, i brought the newspaper in and read a whole lot of that, more than i usually get around to reading on a saturday.  :)  but mostly, i was just relaxing.  that's the goal for the weekends these days.

eventually, i got a bit restless, so i decided to get cleaned up.  i showered and dressed and got in the volvo and headed out.  target seemed like a perfectly good destination, so that's where i headed first.  i didn't need anything in particular, but whatever.  haha!  and you know that means trouble for me!  i found really cute shoes: brown, blue, and what flats.  i also found a couple tees, headbands, and mailing envelopes.  exciting, no? ;)  and then i headed to longs because i was looking for nail polish and cute valentine's cards, though all i ended up with was birthday cards.  i had looked at too many valentine's cards to no buy any today, so i went down the road to a proper cards store.  they're the best for finding the valentine's/anniversary card that i always search for for the parents.  and i found cute friends ones too, since that's all i require.  then i went back home. :)

back home, i found friends to chat with online, some more great basketball games on the tv (yeah, oklahoma and kevin bookout beating texas!), and a delicious dinner.  plus, i chatted with the family on the phone for a bit.  nothing too crazy.  oh!  and i also watched the episode of "oprah!"  it was good! :)  heath ledger and michelle williams are so adorable with one another!  so cute!  and it did a good job telling about the film. :)

then, i had to talk myself into getting off the couch, but i'm glad i did. :)  i went up to irvine to the art house to see "transamerica."  of course, last time i went there, it took too long to get there and the line for tickets was forever long, so i made sure to leave a little earlier this time.  and of course, there was no problem with traffic, parking, or tickets.  so i was 20 minutes early, but i just found a good seat and read the little brochure they had in the lobby and the upcoming art house movies. :)  and the film was really good!  at first, i was unsure, but it was great!  it's really just about forming relationships and family and being who you are.  i'd totally recommend this one!  plus, the guy who plays the son, kevin zegers, is gorgeous!  just really pretty (if also kind of miniature).  and then they put a black cowboy hat on him and it's all over for me!  so perfect! :)  love that!  but even if he weren't beautiful, i swear it'd still be a wonderful film, including the brilliant performance by felicity huffman!  see it!

and now, i'm back to the couch.  the final match of the australian open between federer and baghdatis is starting.  i'd have to be a little bit crazy to stay up and watch it, but then again, i am a bit nuts. ;)  i mean, this guy was nobody before this tournament and now he's going to take on perhaps the best tennis player ever.  how could i not watch?

ok, so i'll either go to bed now or just keep watching tennis.  good night.  more tomorrow... ;)

friday 27 january 2006 11:11pm

"i wish you would come over
and drink my best bottle of win
if you can lay on my shoulder
and i can lean on you just one more time
you can mess up head
and mess up my bed" -- trent willmon "on again tonight"

thank goodness today was friday!  that's what i have to say!  i'm completely exhausted and totally for the weekend, for a couple days that are work-free, for some time to do whatever i actually want and enjoy.  :)  so now it's the weekend!  yay!

even though i saw jake gyllenhaal on leno a little while back, i couldn't stop myself from watching the rerun that was on last night. :)  so adorable!  and i missed the dancing at the beginning the first time around.  so of course, if i saw both segments he was on, that means i wasn't asleep before like 12:30.  so 7 hours later, i was still totally wanting more sleep when that alarm went off.  i had a hard time getting out of bed, where it was nice and warm and cozy, to get into the shower.  anyway, i got cleaned up and put on my new shoes and headed off to work.  at least there was lots of sunshine! :)

work today was tiring.  it's not that there were a million things to do and i was just overloaded or anything like that.  i actually had a very reasonable workload, and i took care of all of those things.  and i even found a little time to catch up on the day's news from various parts of the world.  today was just one of those days that seemed to be filled with lots of office talk.  i'm not sure what else to call it.  i just got caught in a huge conversation that was especially frustrating for me.  i don't know that this is the place to get into it really, but anyway, i was tired and discouraged by the end of it all.  the good thing, htough, is that i spoke my mind and stood up for myself and never said anything i didn't mean, so i'm pleased with how i handled it.  even if i nearly threw the newspaper on my desk afterwards. :)  of course, there were the fun sorts of office chatter today, as well, something that seems to spring up more on fridays. :)  so that part was good!  and lunch was delicious.  it came from baja fresh. ;)

after work... well... i didn't really want to do much beside just head home.  so that's exactly what i did.  i threw on pjs and veged out in front of the tv with the shows i recorded last night.  i wanted one more go-around of "the office" because i knew i missed stuff the first time because i was doing other stuff while watching.  and of course, i also enjoyed "the o.c."  so fun! :)  it's a total guilty pleasure.  plus, it's really just about the right tone for a friday evening with a diet coke and a bowl of chips. :)  after a little bit of "dinner," it was back to the tv, including way too much of the wb.  "what i like about you" and "twins" were so fun!  i'm loving that val is finally loving vick on "what i like about you" and the geeks of "beauty and the geek" were on "twins!"  i cannot even express how great it was when tyson was dancing with a girl at a party while also solving his rubik's cube!  and since then, i've been chatting with sarah online about everything and nothing and just whatever.  :)  i needed that!

and leno starts soon.  plus, even though i'm a little bit mad at oprah because she attacked james frey on her show yesterday, i want to see her with the "brokeback" cast and it's on at 1.  so i'll either be watching that or just dvr-ing it.  geez, i'm a total tv junkie right now.  oh well. ;)

so that's enough out of me for now.  good night.  more next time.

thursday 26 january 2006 10:05pm

"walk on and our hearts will lead us
but our hearts will need us
to be steady and strong
so we can stand and face the fire
burning higher and higher
no way over it, no way around it
if we want it, we have to go through it
fight for a love as the world tries to break us down
but the world will bend
and the fight will end
love will always win" -- garth brooks and trisha yearwood "love will always win"

and breathe!  really, it's been quite the busy thrusday, perhaps because i've let things pile up until today.  or maybe because i just wanted to be busy.  i don't know.  now i'm rambling because really my brain is still going a million miles per hour.  and because why not?  this is my space (but not myspace) so i can write whatever i want. :)

so the first alarm went off this morning and i got all the way out of bed (like standing but i hadn't walked anywhere yet) when i looked over at the clock to see that it was only 7:20 and i had 10 more whole minutes before the second alarm, at which point i would actually have to get out of bed.  so i went back to sleep!  awesome! :)  and then i got up 10 minutes later.  and showered.  and remembered that i didn't have any milk for my cereal.  and threw on a polo and jeans.  and headed to work.  but!  i stopped for donuts for breakfast on my way.  and normally i get a cake donut with chocolate frosting and sprinkles.  but today i saw those glazed twists in the counter and they looked so great!  so i had that instead!  and let me just say that it was so delicious! :)

so, um, work.  yeah.  i did actually go to work today, which was a good time.  i mean, i was just working, doing small stuff and reprints and taking care of this and that.  plus, my desktop (on my computer) was getting so cluttered and i couldn't stand it anymore, so i cleaned that up totally.  plus, i cleaned up the files on my hard drive, too, which was so so so necessary.  we (jenna, jan, melissa, matt, and i) all agreed to go out to lunch together (it's what we do anyway), but i didn't really have any say in where we went (or at least i didn't offer any strong suggestions), so we ended up at a chinese restaurant.  so for the second time this week i was eating asian for lunch that wans't super bowl.  i wasn't that stoked, but actually my cashew chicken was pretty good for chinese food.  and then!  we were talking about goody's (the frozen yogurt place we frequent) at lunch and decided we should go there together, so we stopped there before heading back to the office, so lunch ended quite deliciously!  :)  and then i ended up spending a good part of my afternoon in the office reading the latest issue of "how" magazine, which had some really cool design ideas, as well as some very interesting articles.  i need to be better about reading that and the other design magazines every month.  they're really good.

and then after a good day of work, i headed to the y for a swim.  and when i got out to the pool, i was shocked!  there was only one man swimming.  that's it!  all the rest of the lanes empty.  that's crazy!!!  but anyway, i chose a lane and had a great swim.  i even did the whole second half straight through, no brief pauses at the wall or anything.  a new little challenge for myself.  anyway, i was feeling good afterwards, though i did totally feel it when i got home and had a little trouble walking up the stairs to my apartment. :)

then i got cleaned up really quickly, and headed back out again.  first, i went to kohl's.  i'd seen this cute pair of shoes in their ad the past couple weeks and i kept thinking about them, so i figured it was time i go down there, try them on, and purchase them.  so now i have really cute new black heels! :)  i'll debut them tomorrow, i think!  anyway, then i went next door to costco to pick up a few things, including orange juice (they sell naked juice there for cheap!), shaving cream, and that garlic bread they have there that i love but they don't always have.  next was blockbuster.  ugh.  again, they were out of all the movies i wanted to rent (and that's not a short list).  this is the third time in a row.  i need to do something different to rent movies, but i don't think i'll get my money's worth with netflix.  so i'll have to figure something out.  perhaps on demand movies?  not sure.  anyway, then i stopped at the grocery really quickly for milk, and then i headed home.

once home, i rushed to put everything away and made some dinner. actually, you should have seen me trying to carry all those things to my apartment in one trip.  my arms nearly fell off, but i did it!  because i'm like that! :)  haha!  so then it was time for "beauty and the geek," which was great until i cried when tyson and thais lost!  ok, so i wasn't actually crying, but i was so disappointed because they were my favorite team!  suck!  oh, well.  and then it was "the office," during which i spoke to adam on the phone and meg and sarah online.  so much fun, even if totally distracting me from getting to bed and writing this!  :)  but they're all great, so you know.

but now, i do need to try to get some sleep before new shoes day tomorrow! ;)  have a good night.  i'll be back tomorrow...

wednesday 25 january 2006 10:06pm

"baby, come over tonight
i'm a little bit lonely
baby, come hold me tight
i'm a little bit lonely
baby, baby, just come hold me tight
you don't have to call me
baby, baby, baby, come over tonight
i'm a little bit lonely
i'm lonely, lonely, lonely
so come on, baby" -- billy currington "little bit lonely"

you know how wednesdays can sometimes be a little overwhelming because you're tired from the previous two days but you know that the weekend is still too far away?  well, today was not that wednesday.  today was a great wednesday, full of those little moments where i realize life is good. :)  yay for good hump days!

i didn't get to bed particularly early last night and i wasn't feeling particularly well-rested when the alarm went off this morning, but of course i got up anyway and headed straight for the shower.  juice.  cereal.  email.  jeans and a t-shirt.  nothing too exciting for my morning.

today was an excellent day at work, though i know that i really didn't accomplish a ton.  i mean, i'm not a total slacker and i took care of lots of things -- actually, quite quickly -- that needed to be done.  so i do actually have stuff to do during my day! ;)  plus, you know i love it when i can have my own music playing through the morning!  that's the best!  (some day i'll actually have my own office and will be able to play it all day.)  anyway, for lunch, jenna, scott, and i went up the road to z pizza.  first of all, it's a good time riding in a (relatively) new bmw!  and lunch was delicious, of course!  and scott can talk forever and ever, i swear.  we ordered slices -- which they hand to you as you order them -- and we were there eating for an hour and a half.  seriously!  just chatting!  but it was so much fun!  plus, i learned that scott had no idea how young i am (he said something to the effect of, "i can't even talk to a person in their young twenties because early thirties is so different than early twenties," and jenna and i informed him that i am in my early twenties.  of course, then it also came up that i'm old for my age, as i have always been. :)).  and then it was back to work for the rest of the afternoon.  melissa left early, so i had more time to play my own music, only louder!  and somehow at like 5 i went to diana's to tell her something and managed to spend the next hour chatting with diana and with lea, which was also so fun!  so then all of a sudden, it was 6 and way past time for me to head out.

next on the agenda: the gym.  i rode a bike today, spending some time reading "the time traveler's wife," which i am still enjoying.  of course, i'll be reading it for like the next year because it's so long, but i do really like it!  and my workout was good, even if my back is tired now.

then it was home to get cleaned up and find some dinner.  i made a little lasagna, and while it was baking i talked to the family.  they're all well, though i'm frustrated a bit because i don't know when exactly i'll be able to make it home to visit them.  i want it to be soon, but they're all so busy and i don't have the luxury of lots of holidays and things like that.  but i'm going to try to work out something.  and after my lovely dinner, i spent some time reading a book and then watching a rerun of last week's episode of "beauty and the geek," which i missed because i was at "2 pianos 4 hands."  so great!  it really is one of the actually good reality shows on tv! :)  and i suppose i should try to tuck in early, likely with melissa's copy of the latest issue of "found magazine," which she's letting me borrow right now. :)

aww!  i had the tv show "clueless" on (no, there is no excuse for this embarrassing behavior) and at the end, cher's date plays a song on the jukebox on their table in the restaurant where they're eating (like at johnny rockets) so they can dance with each other!  cute! :)  also, don't worry.  "clueless" is over now, and "daria" has come on.

more next time.  good night. ;)

tuesday 24 january 2006 10:16pm

"we're just who we are, there's no pretending
it takes a while to learn to live in your own skin
say a prayer that we might find our happy ending
and if you're in, you know i'm in
i'm ready and i'm willing
i am
when you think that no one needs you, sees you, or believes you
no one's there to understand
i am
i'll be there to be that someone
when you think that no one is there to hold your hand
i am" -- bon jovi "i am"

tuesday was generally much more enjoyable than monday, and for that i am quite thankful. :)  actually, considering that tuesdays aren't usually the most exciting days of the week, it was a really good day!  so i'm happy! :)

i got a good amount of sleep last night and it wasn't quite so hard to get out of bed this morning.  excellent!  and so i got cleaned up and found some breakfast while attempting to check email.  something was up and i couldn't finish that, but whatever.  there's always later.  so after the capn crunch, i got dressed.  that was easy today, too, because i picked something out in my mind while i was in the shower so there was none of me standing in front of the closet thinking that i have absolutely nothing to wear and wondering what to do. :)  seriously, i do that like every day!  even though we know that the closet is actually quite full.  so i put on a cute brown skirt and a sweater and heels and headed off to work on a gorgeous (72-degree) morning.  and i'll just say that i am so totally over commuting because it's way too nutty.  people are bad drivers.  but whatever.  i just turned the stereo up louder (earth-shatteringly loud, i'm certain) and rocked out to sugarland. :)

work today was really good.  actually, it wasn't especially busy yet again, though i do have enough things to keep myself entertained. :)  so i did work on those things, which was fine.  for lunch (because lunch is generally a highlight of the day), jenna, melissa, marina, and i (the magazines staff) went out to lunch to celebrate three months in a row of no advisories on "rtc."  we get advisories from the printer when the materials we provide them have errors, like content in the gutter or pixilated images or whatever else.  and they cost money to fix, as well.  anyway, july (i think it was july) was the first issue ever that was advisory-free!  and now we've had three in a row!  so we went out in celebration!  we tried to go to salt creek grille (a nice restaurant in dana point) but they're not open for lunch mon-thur, so instead we went to brio, an italian place in dana point that's quite a cool dinner place because they have good italian food and also live music and dancing.  anyway, lunch was delicious and so so so much fun!  plus, it was like an extra special occasion because marina never goes to lunch with us because she's working or running errands or whatever.  but today she came! :)  and the afternoon was also fun, especially as jan was doing a little design research so we were looking at websites of lots of other magazines.  anyway, work was good. :)

then i headed from work straight to the ymca.  it was time for a good workout, and more specifically, a swim!  it'd been forever!  and two laps into my workout, my friend who wears yellow shorts (the only way to tell all the old, fat, bald, white men apart is by their shorts) said hello and that he hadn't seen me around in awhile.  yep.  busted! ;)  but anyhow, i did have a good workout.  and by the end i was exhausted and the only reason i made it back to the side of the pool was that i knew there was no other option at all for me.  haha!  but it was good!

then i came home and got cleaned up.  i found some dinner (delicious!) and talked to the parents for a little bit.  and then i planned to read that business book from 8-10.  instead, i got distracted by sarah and instead was chatting with her for two hours while watching a "gilmore girls" rerun and "dirty jobs."  oops!  i guess there's always tomorrow! :)  and now it's time for me to get to "love monkey," which i'm sure will be wonderful! :)  yay for tom cavanaugh!

so have a good night.  i'll be back soon... ;)

monday 23 january 2006 8:35pm

"sing me a love song
i wanna stay right here in your arms
through the night
i don't wanna be selfish
i wanna give you anything you
want from me
so tell me
pour your heart out, lay it all out on the line" -- sara evans "tell me"

monday was a little rough, but still fine i suppose.  nothing huge, just didn't feel amazing and didn't go quite as i might have planned.  but at least there was the sunshine!  oh, and chocolate for dessert! ;)

when i switched the second alarm off this morning, i couldn't recall if it was the first or second and i had to look at the clock like 5 times to try to figure it out before i disappointingly discovered it was the second and therefore time for me to get out of bed.  so, sadly, i got out of my nice, warm bed and got into the shower.  ugh.  i much rather would have been in bed still.  but i got cleaned up and found a big glass of oj and some capn crunch for breakfast.  i threw on a sweater and jeans and headed out a few minutes early because driving by dana hills high school on mondays is a little crazy on mondays when they start late.

work today was alright.  marke's friend, matt, started with us doing the same stuff as marke.  someone new for john to pick on, which he did bright and early.  i mostly spent my day taking care of little things (and catching up on news), as we just sent out our magazines so it's the slowest time of the month.  nothing too crazy, but nothing especially exciting, either.  and because we have a new employeed, jan, jenna, melissa, matt, and i went out for sushi for lunch.  i had udon, which was fine, if nothing like ozuma or wagamama.  of course, like 20 minutes after we got back from lunch, i was hungry again.  i mean, really the meal satisfied my hunger that i was feeling since like 11am, but it wasn't going to hold me over for like 6 hours of work and more.  so of course, i went straight to the cookies i had stashed in my purse. :)  anyway, by the time our 4pm monday meeting rolled around, i was ravenous but didn't really have any food.  so we did that meeting.  actually, we normally do it in the art department room because they're very informal and casual but i was getting frustrated when we were all gathered at like 4:05 and then hadn't started yet at like 4:20 because of the chit-chat about other work stuff.  anyway, i suggested we move to conference room to avoid distractions, so we did that.  and then john came in and sidetracked us for like 90 minutes.  in a 15-minute meeting!  so all of a sudden i was at work an hour longer than anticipated and crazy starving hungry.

so i went home.  not to the gym.  i mean, really what would i have done while doubled over in starvation?!?  so i came home, had dinner, and had every plan of doing absolutely nothing. :)  and i really, truly, haven't been up to too much.  i watched a documentary on spencer tunick, an artist who takes photos of nude people in urban settings.  and it was on hbo (on demand) so it was full of naked people, but not porn, as sarah suggested! ;)  actually, the final photos are quite beautiful, like 4000 people on the back of a river in melbourne, australia.  very cool.  you can google him if you want to see what i mean, or if you just want to see naked people. ;)  anyway, it was very interesting!  and i was talking to sarah online, too, which is fun. :)  and of course, mid-conversation and in the middle of writing this, my internet connection went down and i'm rearranging furniture to get to my boxes to try to fix things.  not exactly what i wanted to do on a night when all i'm trying to do is feel a little better.  but it works now!  yay!  and i'm going to try to get to bed.  full night's rest -- that's the goal.

so good night, and here's to a better tuesday... ;)

sunday 22 january 2006 10:55pm

"i have loved you from the moment you
touched me
through the hard times and the sunshine
i have loved you
come lay down, let's be found" -- sara evans "tell me"

gah!  i love love "grey's anatomy!"  i just needed to start with that because i just finished watching so you know. :)  so good!  anyway, i'll go back to the beginning now...

i tend to mess myself up sleep-wise all the time somehow.  so i got so much sleep friday night and slept in late and that was all awesome and everything.  and then i was up late last night watching some awful movie, and i still don't even know what it was but of course i watched it to the end.  and then i went to bed at like 3.  and come 9:30 this morning, i was wide awake.  i desperately tried to get more sleep but just failed miserably.  so anyway, i'm all messed up, and therefore i was up nice and early this morning, which is so useless because i had absolutely nothing planned for my day.  but since i was up, i went and retrieved the newspaper from my doorstep and brought it back to bed with me, where it was nice and warm.  and i did enjoy reading the paper, and i even read more sections than i normally do. :)

i eventually moved myself from the bed to the couch for no particular reason, and i spent my morning trying to find something to watch on tv and getting started on reading the (huge) stack of magazines that have been waiting for me.  i got through a couple, which was good fun.

during (boring) football game #1 of the day, i was just hanging out.  i also took advantage of a relatively warm day (though i must say it still feels wintry to me) to sweep my deck, which had been covered in leaves and whatever for a long time now and then hose it and the chairs and stuff off so that it's much nicer now.  i think i may have startled the guy who lives below me with the water because i heard his deck door open and shut while i was hosing stuff off, but whatever.  that's just another disadvantage of living on the bottom, right?

and as (boring) football game #2 started, i curled up with a blanket on the couch and had myself a nice little sunday afternoon nap. :)  got to love that!  and then i kind of watched the rest of the game but really spent it reading more magazines.  they were far more entertaining. :)

eventually, i decided to get cleaned up if only for the sake of getting cleaned up.  and i made myself a delicious dinner once again and enjoyed it while watching "60 minutes."  ok, i swear i'm not like 65 years old!  i heard emerson drive would be in the first story so i wanted to watch.  and... well... they were in it!  for about 2 seconds!  just footage of them playing a show, not even identifying them!  they did get thanked in the ending credits, though!  so i guess i didn't really need to watch, but i learned about oil in the dirt in canada and there really wasn't anything else on.

and then after talking to the family on the phone for a few minutes, i got started with what is generally my favorite part of sundays.  first, another sheer pink (heart throb is the official name of the color) manicure.  and then "desperate housewives," which was so hilarious!  and to round things out, my favorite, "grey's anatomy," which i'm loving these days!  i swear it kills me to have to wait a week for another episode!  some good news, though... season 1 is coming out on dvd on 14 feb, so that might be a little valentine's treat for myself. :)

anyway, i need to get to bed now.  perhaps i'll start my week off will a full night's sleep (though i know better than to think that'll actually happen! ;)).  more tomorrow.  for now, good night. ;)

sunday 22 january 2006 12:37am

"my crooked little heart
won't be happy 'til i'm torn apart...
my crooked little heart
leads me straight to you
maybe it's not just me
who feels the way i do
why else would you be here now
unless you had one too" -- susan haynes "crooked little heart"

my saturday started out well. :)  first of all, i slept in really late, which was just lovely!  and you know how sometimes  you wake up with a smile on your face because something's on your mind as you awake or you had a good dream or something but the day and the moment just feel right?  well anyway, if that makes any sense to you, that was me this morning.  saturday and feeling good!  this is totally good news!  especially after a week of just dreading the sound of the alarm clock.  and after lying around in bed for awhile, i eventually got out because i heard my phone ringing but i was too slow and whoever it was didn't leave a message.  oh, well.  at least then i made it out of bed today.

i looked for breakfast but quickly discovered that there wasn't actually any food at all in my apartment, so i went with a cookie.  :)  and i curled up on the couch with a blanket, the remote control, and a good basketball game on my tv.  and i was there for awhile, switching between various basketball games!  today was actually quite an awesome day for college basketball, as all three undefeated teams lost, stanford won, and there were so many games that were just good. :)

sarah and i now have a hotel room booked in new york, so we're pretty set for now!  :)

i eventually got myself cleaned up and dressed so that i could actually leave the apartment today.  of course, i just had a couple things to do, but still.  can't go out in pajamas!  and then i headed out.  i had to go down to the main office of the apartments to pick up a package from mom.  during our pre-new year's dinner, i stuck my elbow (and also the nice sweater i was wearing) right into a plate of vinegar and oil.  well, that leaves a mark!  and of course, my sweater was dry clean only, so i had mom take it to her dry cleaner, so she mailed it back to me now that it's all clean! :)  she also sent some container thingies because she's my mom and she does things like that.  haha!  anyway, then i headed down to trader joe's to pick up groceries.  of course, i found lots of delicious things and did a bit more grocery shopping than i had planned.  and then i went up to albertson's just to pick up the things i like but cannot get at trader goes, like sodas, good ceral, and reese's. :)  so i came home with all sorts of delicious food!  yay!  i needed that around here!

and really, i spent a good part of my afternoon watching more basketball!  yay!  and i also picked up around the apartment.  it was just a little messy and it needed to be vacuumed, but now it's spotless!  definitely, it's looking great! :)  yay!

i made myself a really nice dinner, a huge luxury but easy to do on grocery day, and enjoyed that immensely.  oh, and i was watching tennis, but was very disappointed to watch andy roddick lose.  rough!  but anyway, it was good entertainment.

i spent my night working on the website.  i am liking it way, way more!  :)  the last design was only meant to be temporary and it was a direct rip-off of someone else's site that i just wanted to see if i could replicate.  anyway, there's a new look.  hope you like it!

and now -- i don't even want to admit it -- i'm watching some horrible movie on oxygen for no real reason.  i don't even usually watch oxygen!  but it's a real movie, because it stars jennifer aniston.  but now that it's started, i want to see the rest of it.  i don't think i'll be up late enough for that, however.  anyway, i'm sure i could guess!  haha!

ok, so that's enough out of me for now.  good night. ;)

friday 20 january 2006 11:30pm

"it's up to you to decide where tomorrow will lead
if it's time to be leaving your burdens behind
i could be just what you need
i'll be the wind
i'll be the highway
i'll be your midnight friend
and we'll fly away
when you come across the courage
to spread your wings again
i'll be the wind" -- garth brooks "i'll be the wind"

friday!  friday!  friday!  woohoo!  i'd been looking forward to this friday, as i so often am!  i'm exhausted from a busy week and really just want to sit around in front of the tv and do nothing or nap (those aren't the same thing, i assure you ;)) and relax. :)  so friday has finally come, and it was a good day!

nope, didn't make it to bed at a reasonable hour last night. :)  and so then i didn't get nearly enough sleep last night, yet again.  but i must have slept decently well because when the alarm clock woke me up this morning, the bed was still all neat and tidy like when i got into it last night.  and i was really asleep when it went off, too, because i didn't really know what was happening and i couldn't remember the first alarm, though it must have gone off.  anyway, i got dressed, did my hair, and headed off to work.  i stopped for a bagel and fresh juice again on the way because i don't have much around the apartment right now.  and my breakfast was delicious!

work today was good.  we got a crazy amount of changes for the magazine that was meant to go to press today this morning, but amazingly not a single one of them was in my section!!!  woot!  perfecto!  i totally rawk!  so i was stoked about that and my section was done very early today because i finished up the layout and stuff yesterday.  so that left a lot of today for taking care of small little tasks here and there and also trying to figure out why the heck my basecamp acts up so much when no one else's does.  i still don't know, but whatever.  for lunch, the whole art department (jan, jenna, melissa, marke, and i) went down the road to baja fresh for lunch.  we even ate outside, despite the fact that it was a little chilly, because it was so sunny (and i was ok because i was wearing a sweatshirt).  and it was totally a delicious lunch!  and after some more work and making sure the ups guy got our magazine so it can get transported to our printer (in kentucky), we took a few minutes to watch last night's episode of "the office" together.  hilarious still the second time around!

after work, i really just wanted to head home, but i had a couple stops to make before that. :)  first stop: blockbuster.  once again, i was in search of films that i actually wanted to see and that were actually in stock so that i could rent them.  well, i was once again disappointed to find nothing that seemed worthy of my $5 and 2 hours.  lame.  oh, well.  i do actually have a dvd collection of  my own and many movies and programming on demand.  so anyway, i headed over to the bookstore on a mission.  new york city guidebook.  yes! :)  it's a huge part of traveling, discovering all the things that i need to cram into a long weekend!  so i found another top 10 book to add to my collection and then (finally) headed back home.  actually, that was the plan, but i got distracted and bought myself dinner at wendy's on the way.  don't judge me. ;)

tonight, i've been busy on the computer just hanging out on the couch.  i booked my flights to and from new york city for march, so i'm very excited about that!  and then it was time to look for the right hotel.  good location, right price, decent hotel.  it's not easy to do in times square, but i found some options and hopefully i'll be choosing very soon.  actually, i'm really sick of looking at all the websites.  all that scrolling makes me carsick!  and that's pretty much it for me. :)  i chatted with sarah (duh, i'm going to new york to hang out with her).  i watched a little tv.  just whatever.  and i'm really quite tired, so i'm off to bed now.  nothing planned for the weekend. :)

peace out. ;)

thursday 19 january 2006 11:05pm

"the mornin' light sure took us by surprise
we grabbed our clothes
watched a beautiful sunrise
we were one together
and we must have talked forever
and it was then and there i realized
that i don't want to wait even one more night" -- sugarland "speed of life"

what a fun thursday!  lots was going on, and really i felt comfortable through all of it, which, for me, is saying a lot, especially when i'm not talking about a sunday spent on the couch. ;)  anyway, thursday treated me well, and i'm thankful for that!

i give up.  i haven't been to bed at a reasonable hour all week, which might kill me but actually i'm doing fine. :)  and i'll do my best to make up for the lack of sleep this weekend.  so of course, my point is that i did not get to bed early last night, as i had planned.  instead, i got distracted by a variety of things, including the television, this journal, and whatever else.  i don't even know.  i'm really good at this. :)  but i did get to bed eventually on yet another chilly night!  what's up with that?  i'm too cold!  and i was really very much asleep when that alarm went off, so i was very confused and then not at all happy once i figured out what was going on.  but a hot shower and getting dressed helped, i guess. and i headed out.  late.  oops.  and i made myself even more late because i stopped to pick up a bagel for breakfast, as well.

as i was preparing my bagel in the kitchen at work, i discovered a whole new box of donuts in there!  so i had a huge breakfast because it's pretty much impossible for me to refuse a free fresh donut. :)  mmm!  and all of my breakfast was totally delicious!  oh!  and there was work to be done today, as well.  we're preparing another magazine to head to the printers tomorrow, and i made huge progress.  plus, i prepared a whole special ad and got that approved and finalized it all in one day, which i'm pretty sure is a record!  awesome!  lunch today was also free!  yay!  with the editors in town and less meetings today, john took everyone in the office out to lunch at sonny's, which i find generally quite delicious!  i had a pasta, plus, i got some of the pizza that was ordered for the table! :)  mmm!  and then it was back to work for the afternoon, most of which i spent taking care of small things here and there.  i worked on figuring out more about basecamp, our new project management package.  and i cleaned up my desk drawers so that they're way more organized.  oh!  and jan was playing with the huge exercise ball that melissa often uses as a chair (it's meant to strengthen your core muscles) and was bouncing it around and whatever.  i don't know.  anyway, it headed for my desk and knocked over my big cup of water all over my desk and keyboard and all that!  giant oops!  so we had to clean up all that water, but everything seems to be fine!  haha!  actually, it was quite funny! :)

after work, my coworkers and i headed up pch to laguna beach.  we met at a restaurant called romeo cucina for a good italian dinner (oh, gnocchi is so tasty!) together.  it was jenna, melissa, lea, marke, marke's fiancee katrina, and me.  it was fun to hang out and chat and just whatever.  and then we headed up the road to the laguna playhouse.  i made the mistake of following jenna and ended up parking with her in a really random place, but whatever.  we saw lots of laguna! :)  and then we saw "2 pianos 4 hands," which i really, really enjoyed!  it's two men and two pianos (duh) on stage playing music and telling the story of how they each learned to play the piano.  it was so creative and really funny, but in the end also moving.  and the music was so wonderful!  of course, i could listen to the piano for hours. :)  and it's great to get to the theatre again!  and as far as i could tell, everyone else enjoyed themselves, as well!

and then i headed home, talking to the family on the phone on the way.  and once i got home, i watched tonight's episode of "the office," which was wonderfully hilarious!  and also just awkward.  it's kind of uncomfortable to watch that show.  i mean, i love it and it's so funny, but it's just like... yeah... awkward.  but so good!  and now, i'm headed to bed.  jay's coming on, which means i should be asleep.  i'm not. :)

good night... ;)

wednesday 18 january 2006 10:05pm

"don't you wanna dive on in, yeah, the water feels right
dancing on the edge of love, you're a beautiful sight
so why you still standing there in the half moon light
come on, baby, give me a little more you
come on, baby, give me a little more you
you're batting those baby blues and, honey, i swear
the way you got me needing you, it just ain't fair
you've given me a little bit, yeah, but don't stop there
come on, baby, give me a little more you
come on, baby, give me a little more you" -- little big town "a little more you"

today wasn't particularly eventful, but it was still a good wednesday.  not every day can be a huge event, right?  ;)  plus, i'm totally exhausted, which i wasn't anticipating but is the truth anyway.  so i'm going to write this and try to get to bed at a way more appropriate hour tonight.

of course, i ended up staying up late last night watching the bon jovi - sugarland cmt "crossroads" special, which i was also recording and therefore did not need to watch last night.  yeah, i watched it anyway because once i saw the start i just could not turn it off.  amazing!  i think that at this point if i could steal any woman's voice, it would be jennifer nettles's of sugarland.  she's so good!  anyway, the collaborations with the two bands were fantastic and so much fun, so i ended up watching that until midnight instead of getting to bed. :)  also, just a little side note, kristen of sugarland is leaving the band, leaving just the other two.  they'll be fine, though, and since they tour with a full band anyway, it's not like the can't go without replacing her.  anyway, yeah, i love sugarland and i love bon jovi.  they've been playing "who says you can't go home" (that's now a bon jovi - jennifer nettles duet) on the radio lately, and i love that!

anyway, then i went to bed.  i'm back to using the electric blanket because it has been so chilly here at night!  brr!  i don't like that at all!  but whatever, i suppose it's winter or something. ;)  and i slept well but just not long enough by the time the alarm clock was going off.  at hot shower and a bowl of pirate cereal got me going, though!  plus, i was feeling cute in my jeans, tank, cardigan sweater, and red shoes. :)

work today was a little out of sorts because all the editors are in town for two days (they all work remotely) for long meetings, meetings that included jenna and jan and marina at times, therefore leaving our part of the office extremely quiet.  but we got a magazine assembled for proofing today, so that was great!  we even got that done before lunch!  lunch, by the way, was a delicious one at super bowl with jenna and jan.  anyway, i also worked on a few other little tasks, but by the end of the day was just waiting for things from other people before i could really continue with anything major.  i played around with our new project management tool, basecamp.  it's web-based, and we are all still learning how to use it, but i think i did learn how to do the essentials today, so that was good.  i'm still really partial to my paper-and-pencil calendar, though! :)  so old fashioned, i know!  haha!

with not a ton of work on my plate, i left the office just after five with everyone else who wasn't stuck in a meeting.  i headed over to the y for a workout.  i had planned to swim, but i was too early, so i just rode the bike again with my book. :)  i'm still loving it!  and my workout was really hard but i managed to get through it anyway.  it was the same as yesterday, so i don't know why exactly it felt so much harder!

anyway, the i came home and got cleaned up.  with nothing on tv tonight, i had planned to sit and read some more of "the time traveler's wife" or perhaps "start your own buiness," but first i had a good dinner (mmm... leftover pizza).  then i got on the phone with the family.  and i really shouldn't talk to adam sometimes!  instead of like 15 minutes, i ended up on the phone with him for two hours, which really destroyed any reading i had hoped to get in!  geez!  and no, we didn't actually talk about anything.  i couldn't even say what on earth we talked about.  of course, it was a good time, though! :)  and i was chatting with sarah and jen2 (briefly) online during that.  looks like i'm getting closer to committing to going to nyc in the near future!  i just need to figure out what days i can get off work.  but i'm excited about the prospect of returning to the big apple after like 9 years.  anyway, i'm still sorting things out.  so now it's pretty late and i'm tired enough that i know i won't be able to even read because i can't see anymore.  guess that's a good indication that i need to go to bed. :)

so tomorrow i have big theatre plans, which is exciting!  have a good night.  i'll update tomorrow, once again ;)

tuesday 17 january 2006 10:10pm

"you've got someone here
wants to make it all right
someone to love you more
than i have, right here
you've gotta bring it on and i'll hold you tight
a hand to lead you on through the night, right here
i know your heart can get
all tangled up inside
but don't you keep it to yourself" -- little big town "bring it on home"

so today wasn't really that bad at all, especially considering i got about 5 hours of sleep last night, none of which were good because i was kind of cold.  but never mind, today was good.  things are good. :)

ok, so i watched lots of golden globes post-show coverage last night and i'm sure that at some point it got out of control, but i just kept watching.  two hours.  and then they replayed it (though i only watched about 30 minutes of that).  so if you are keeping score at home, that's two hours of red carpet arrivals, three hours of the actual golden globe ceremony, and 2(.5) hours of post-show coverage.  :)  haha!  don't add that up!  it's absurd!  but in total honesty, i loved every single second of it, and that's what it's really about, right?  who needs sleep?  so i was quite out of it when i did have to get up this morning, but a hot shower helped a lot.  i threw on whatever i could find (jeans, sweatshirt, tennis shoes -- you know, the usual), and i headed out on another chilly, but sunny, morning.

work is going well these days.  we're still in the middle of magazines, and i must say that actually they're a bit crazy with people (not within the art department) having no actual respect for the deadlines we have.  it's hard to put together a magazine without copy, but we're doing all that we can and i actually got my section of this magazine done today when i don't actually need it done until tomorrow.  :)  so yay for me!  and actually, i got lots of other stuff done, as well, today.  pretty much i wrapped up all the big things on my to-do list for the day and they're out to other people waiting for feedback.  awesome!  i'm stoked with the day!  plus, we even squeezed in time to do a little review of all the golden globe gowns, which is great!  and i did lunch at my desk.  i planned to start a new book, as well, but i got distracted so that didn't happen.  but i did catch up on the latest celeb news!  haha! :)

since i was pretty much done (and also sleepy), i left work right at 5 and headed over to the gym knowing that'd give me a good jumpstart.  and it was too early to get in the pool, so i hopped on a bike and cracked open a brand new book, "the time traveler's wife."  actually, it's not new at all because i swear i've had it for a zillion years and been meaning the read it since the day i bought it.  and yeah, i've only gotten through the prologue and the first chapter, but i love it so far!  and i'm really excited about the next 530 pages or so! :)  oh, and my ride was good.

i came home and got cleaned up, which is normally quite uneventful.  not today.  :)  the plan was to clean the shower while in it and then clean myself.  good, right?  well, i managed to open the shower curtain a tiny bit while cleaning and so by the time i was done cleaning the tub and cleaning myself i had flooded the bathroom!  oops!  giants oops that took a stack of towels to clean up!  haha!  good times!  this is why i shouldn't have showers that require curtains!  but anyway, i took care of that and then had a relaxing evening around the apartment.  "gilmore girls" wasn't quite as tragic as i thought it might be, and it was good.  i talked to the family a bit.  sarah's in the process of trying to get me to go to nyc and meet her there.  and i watched the new tom cavanagh show, "love monkey," which i enjoyed even more than i had expected!  so fun!  and i loved the singer in it (teddy geiger)!  so anyway, i'll keep watching that one as the new episodes come up each week. :)   and now, i suppose i should get some sleep.  however, there's one thing about that.  cmt is replaying the bon jovi - sugarland episode of "crossroads" that i missed awhile back because i didn't get cmt back then.  but i do now!  and i want to watch it!  yes, i'll just record it, but i want to see some, too!  oh, i can't decide! :)

anyway, more from me next time.  good night. ;)

monday 16 january 2006 11:03pm

"we were walking 'long the ocean
together hand in hand
when i stopped to write 'i love you' in the sand
and when i looked up you were standing
ten miles out at sea
and in a sweat
i woke up from that crazy dream
as i reached to hold you in the morning light
it was just your pillow
i clung to so tight
for a minute there
i thought it was you
for a minute there
my prayers had finally come true
for a minute there
i began again to live
what i wouldn't give
for just a minute there" -- garth brooks "for a minute there"

aaahhh!  i'm way late in starting this!  like really late!  i'll never get to bed at this rate, but i really do think that it's totally ok because i'm having a really fun night! :)  so i'll write this and i'll get to bed when i get to bed and it will all be fine despite me being tired in the morning.

so it was rough when the alarm went off this morning, which is especially sad because i was so rested by last night from my quiet weekend.  but it all goes to hell sunday night anyway because i'm up watching tv and all that so by the time i get to bed and to sleep it's late enough that i ruin it.  but whatever.  i don't really care all that much.  and i got up and into the shower this morning despite being very sleepy.  plus, it was a very cold night, and the shower was much warmer than the rest of my apartment.  and i'm too stubborn to turn the heater on because i haven't yet so it seems silly to start now.  anyway, i got cleaned up and had a bit of breakfast.  also, i put on a cute outfit, including a red "boob sweater" (you know the ones i mean, the ones that are like only the top half of a sweater).  and then i get to work and one of the older women is dressed strikingly similar to me, which was a major blow to my confidence about what i thought was really cute!  ;)  actually, it was really cute!

work today was pretty good.  i have lots of stuff to keep me busy, so i spent all morning working away.  magazines like crazy!  and i'm just trying to keep everything straight.  but as lunchtime rolled around, marke (and katrina joined us), jan, jenna, and i went down to san clemente pizza co for lunch, which was so delicious, especially because i was totally hungry!  so lunch was a highlight! ;)  and then it was back to work, as we had to prepare a magazine to be shipped to the printer today.  of course, it got all done and burned on cd and packaged and everything when i suddenly remembered i forgot to take the black boxes we use to mark ads during preparation stages off my pages.  this means black boxes would print on top of all my ads!  very bad!  so i had to re-do some stuff and take those away and make a new cd and all that, but i got in done before the ups guy arrived at 4!  phew!  and then we had a good afternoon meeting.  we do show and tell and i really liked mine this week (a crate and barrel postcard that has cool typography)!  and anyway, it was a good art department meeting, though it ran long.  i ran out of the office and headed home as soon as it ended.

i had to get home, you know!  today is golden globes day and really i would have loved to be home for even more red carpet coverage, especially knowing that it's a federal holiday but i still had to go to work.  anyway, so i raced home and got in two hours of red carpet arrivals.  and i must say, most of the dresses are wonderful!  i love more than i expected to!  and i'm really looking forward to the celeb magazines that'll come out at the end of the week with recaps of all the great gowns!  top ones that come to mind right away are eva longoria, jessica alba, hilary swank, and keira knightley.  and the awards were a lot of fun, too!  plus, it was awesome that i got to chat with sarah online through the entire thing (which she already saw because she's in new york).  and i'm generally happy about the winners.  not perfect, but no awards show ever is.  :)  i'm stoked about "brokeback mountain," "walk the line," felicity huffman, george clooney, joaquin phoenix, reese witherspoon, jonathan rhys meyers(!!!), ang lee, "desperate housewives," steve carell, and sandra oh.  wow!  ok, that's a lot!  :)  anyway, i really enjoyed it, and i'm even more excited about seeing a few more films and then the oscas!  oh, so fun!

and now, it's way past my bedtime and i'm really not at all close to ready (and i also really want to watch the next hour or so of post-show on e!).  so more tomorrow.  for now, good night.

sunday 15 january 2006 9:04pm

"when i'm crashing through the madness
not sure who i'm supposed to be
when i'm caught up in the darkness
it's your hand that's leading me
you bring me back to solid ground" -- carrie underwood "that's where it is"

don't worry.  i actually made it out of the apartment on this sunny sunday, so i'll actually have a few things to write about! ;)  haha!  and i must say, it has turned out to be quite a nice day.

very, very stangely, i just sort of woke up this morning at the perfect time.  when i looked at the clock, i had exactly an hour to get myself ready and head out to 11am mass.  so i got out of bed and into the shower.  after getting cleaned up, i put on jeans and and a sweater and grabbed a bowl of the pirate cereal.  i'm not sure why, but for some reason it takes me much longer to get ready on a weekday than on the weekends.  it's not like i do anything different, but it seems to be true.  so i had a few extra minutes to check email and whatever before heading out, which is fine with me. :)

anyway, i eventually headed out of the apartment and down the road to st. edwards for mass.  it was a priest that i think is new to the parish saying mass.  i was concerned when he started mass with, "if you're hear to worship the Lord, can i get an 'amen!'"  and some people hesitantly responded, "amen."  and he did it again with a different, though similar, prompt.  uh oh.  i wasn't in for my favorite stuff catholic sort of mass.  and i had to move my seat a bunch of times in both directions because apparently my pew was the one that had the sign that said, "slide in this row if you're coming in late," despite it being in the middle of the church.  but whatever.  mass, in the end, turned out to be fine and i'm still glad that i went.  plus, it'd been forever.  and on a little side note, i was reading the church bulletin this evening and it reports that they collected over $100,000 in the collection during the masses on christmas sunday.  wow.  normal sundays are $20-25,000.  that's an incredible amount of money, though it is a huge parish in a very rich area.  anyway, just wanted to share.

so after mass, i headed over to the shops at mission viejo.  i had something to return and something to exchange, so i wanted to take care of that.  and of course, i might have also wandered into a couple other stores, though i didn't get into too too much trouble. :)  deeply discounted dark purple pants from the gap and basic tanks from old navy are totally ok. :)  but today wasn't meant to be a shopping day, and i headed out with other plans in mind.

the next stop was all the way up in irvine.  i found my way to an art house sort of theatre right near uci.  they were playing a couple movies i wanted to see and i figured i'd just decide on my way there.  well, i missed a turn and that brought me on a 10-minute detour.  and the parking was rough, but i found a place out in the boonies.  and then i got up to the theatre to discover a ticket line that was about 250 people long.  seriously?!?  at an art house on a sunday afternoon?  and i only had 8 minutes before my movie was to start, but i got in line anyway.  they ended up delaying the starts of films and i found a seat in a (very crowded) theatre as the opening credits of "mrs. henderson presents" started to play.  just in time! :)  i was the youngest person in the theatre, i believe, but about 30 years, and i'd guess that the average age in there was 65.  but the movie was fantastic!  it was so delightful! :)  it's very funny and about a widow who buys a theatre as a hobby for herself after her husband dies.  so great!  see it!  i enjoyed every moment of it!  and i hope it gets the oscar nods it deserves.

anyway, then i headed home for a chill evening.  i really didn't do a whole lot with the rest of the day.  i was glad to discover that while i'd been gone, a repairman came to fix the list of things i called about 5(!) days ago!  at least that's done!  i read the sunday paper.  i took off the old polish and gave myself a fresh new pedicure (medium brown that was more exciting to me in the bottle than on my toes though it still looks fine) and manicure (another sheer light pink).  i needed that! :)  and i ordered a pizza in for dinner, which was wonderfully delicious and will also feed me for a few more meals this week.  and now i'm just watching country videos (the miranda lambert video for "kerosene" is awesome!) while i write this before i get to watching my sunday night shows, "desperate housewives" and "grey's anatomy," both of which i'm sure will be awesome, as always! :)  tomorrow, it's back to work, and it'll be a busy day, as we're meant to ship a magazine.

for now, good night. ;)

saturday 14 january 2006 11:11pm

"in a midnight talk
in a morning kiss
when i'm in your arms
that's where it is" -- carrie underwood "that's where it is"

good evening.  i easily could slip into the 12-12 split sleeping schedule this weekend.  i haven't even been awake 12 hours yet today.  and if i factor in naps as time spent sleeping, then i'm even further away from being awake 12 hours. :)  this is exactly what i needed and wanted for my non-holiday weekend.

ok, so i guess let's start with last night.  i stayed up late watching conan and then eventually just going to sleep.  i found out today that i missed celebrity boyfriend jonathan rhys meyers on that other late night show whose name i can't think of right now but it's on abc.  jimmy kimmel!  anyway, i'm sad, but whatever, it's not that good of a show.  anyway, i did crash eventually and i slept and slept and slept, which was so wonderful!   it was exactly what i needed, even if i still don't get the thoroughly restful sleep that i want.  i got like 10+ hours anyway, and that's good! :)  (i'm watching "snl" as i write this and scarlett johanssen had on the cutest red shoes during the monologue!)  so i didn't get up until it was nearly noon. :)

and honestly, i have done almost nothing all day.  of course, i'll write about it anyway for you. :)  haha!  so i moved myself from the bed to the couch and spent awhile watching all sorts of different college basketball games, including watching oklahoma come from behind to win!  i've jumped on their bandwagon this year, even if they're not always performing up to their potential, because i decided i really like kevin bookout. :)  anyway, lots of college basketball.  and then it was football, though i did actually nap for about an hour through the first game.  so nice! :)  haha!  i know, i hadn't done anything to tire me out enough for an afternoon nap, but i don't really care.  i also spent some time trying to sort through the stacks of magazines around my apartment.  they were everywhere, and i wanted to weed out the ones that i don't need anymore.  and i read a magazine or two that i had been meaning to get to.  also, i watched my tom brady lose, which was dreadfully painful.  and i chatted online with megs for the first time in a long time. :)

i decided i wanted dinner out, or at least i didn't want to cook my own dinner, so i hopped into the shower and got cleaned up.  and then i headed over to baja fresh (it is basically next door and if it weren't so chilly i'd feely really silly driving over there) to pick up a quesadilla and chips, and then i just brought it back here to enjoy while chatting with sarah online.  dinner was delicious, and sarah's well.  and in the process of talking to her (and annahita, too) about movies, i discovered that celebrity boyfriend jonathan rhys meyers is nominated for a golden globe for the "elvis" mini-series.  of course, "match point" is also nominated for a bunch, so it's a bit like the jrm show, which is totally fine with me!  i'll be happy if "match point" or "elvis" win any of the awards they're nominated for! :)  and i still have a (longish) list of films to try to see before the oscars (i think my hope for seeing them before the golden globes is gone since the show is monday).

anyway, i'm just chillin, really.  nothing much, but that's all i wanted for my weekend since i feel like i haven't had time to just relax much lately.  not sure what's up for tomorrow.  something.  i'll get out of the house, at least.

so until next time, good night. ;)

friday 13 january 2006 11:41pm

"well i'm tired
of this life we're livin'...
you know we got to change it
no waitin' 'til the time is right
let's go tonight
you can put your lipstick on while i drive
we can go down to old el paso
spend the night in new orleans
go out to california like we've always dreamed
makin' love out in the desert
i can watch the sunset in your eyes
let's go tonight
you can put your lipstick on while i drive
let me touch you
let me love you
let your heart race next to mine" -- rockie lynne "lipstick"

oooh, friday the thirteenth!  actually, i'm not really that opposed to it, and it's hard to hate a friday!  but whatever. :)  i'd say i had a good day, whether it's an unlucky day or not, though i must admit that i am extremely tired as i write this and can hardly even keep my eyes open even though i am because i want to see jake gyllenhaal on leno in a bit.

i was up quite late last night, especially considering i haven't been getting a lot of sleep these days.  i was watching leno and then i decided that i wanted to read the end of "prep."  i stayed up and finished reading the last few pages that i had left.  i really, really enjoyed this novel and would recommend it! :)  i think i'd like to re-read it some time in the near future, though i have a huge stack of books to get to. :)  so anyway, the point is that i was up too late and could hardly get myself out of bed this morning when the alarm went off.  you know how sometimes you just can't move so you just lie there until you muster enough strength to actually move?  yeah.  i did eventually get up and get showered.  and i put on jeans and my cute new cowgirl t-shirt and some sandals.  and i put my hair up all cute.  yay for fridays looking cute! :)  anyway, i had a bowl of pirate cereal and headed off to work.

work today was good.  i had just enough stuff to keep me busy but not so busy that i didn't have time to play a hole or two of office golf or catch up on a little celebrity gossip on various blogs. :)  but actually, i did get some good work done, including stuff for both magazines and a newsletter that needed to be copy edited.  and for lunch, i just ran down to super bowl to pick up a chicken teriyaki bowl, which i brought back to the office so i could eat it while also reading my newspaper and relaxing.  good stuff! :)  and the afternoon was more work, though i did fit in a few minutes of watching last night's episode of "the office" with jan because we both missed it.  so so so hilarious!  that show is good stuff!

after work, i started heading home but decided that i wanted to stop at the bookstore first, so i headed there instead.  of course, i didn't walk back out of there until like an hour later, but i did find a good book that should keep me busy!  though i fear it will be boring, it should have some good information.  and then i headed to blockbuster to try to rent "the constant gardener" so i could see it before the golden globes on monday, but the huge rack of that movie was totally empty!  who's renting this film?!?  i had no idea it would be quite so popular!  so sadly, i guess i'll be waiting to see it.  and then i headed home, finally.

i was only home for a little bit.  i made myself a little dinner, and i spent most of my time on the phone with various family members (mom, dad, adam) while also watching the my stanford men's basketball team beat cal! :)  love that!

then i headed back out to the mann to see "pride and prejudice," which i wasn't so sure about wanting to see until i was nominated for awards and stuff and i figured it must be worth me seeing.  i guess from what i had anticipated it's not totally my sort of film, but i figured i would give it a try.  anyway, i did quite enjoy it. :)  i thought it was well done and surprisingly funny.  and please, my man needs to come walking back to me through the mist like that! ;)

anyway, i'm going to watch some late-night tv and then crash (which won't take long and won't take much effort, i know).  more tomorrow.  until then, good night.

thursday 12 january 2006 10:15pm

"let get back to us
and the thrill we felt with out first kiss
you know the road can take us
out where we both feel so alive
let's go tonight" -- rockie lynne "lipstick"

um, i don't know where to start or what to really say about today.  maybe i'll know by the time i'm done writing this... or maybe not.  who knows?  it was thursday and i guess it was pretty good.  nothing really wrong. :)

again, i was up entirely too late because i got sucked into watching leno last night.  his guests are good all week!  anyway, last night was steve carrell, who is so hilarious even just being himself!  i was laughing out loud, which is something i don't do all that often when i'm just home alone half-asleep.  and then i went to sleep because i was tired and being a working girl means a working girl schedule that involves a 7:30am alarm clock.  so i slept a little and then got up with that stupid alarm.  shower.  pirate cereal.  sweater, skirt, and heels.  normal morning stuff. :)

work today was pretty good, but it was way, way, way less productive than i had anticipated it being or than a normal thursday in the middle of the month's magazines.  i got off to a good start this morning with the office pretty quiet and a nice-sized list of things to take care of.  and by lunchtime, i was starving but i had to wait.  eventually, tim (the art director who hired me at rtc but now runs his own publication), his wife lisa, and their youngest son noah (7 weeks) came up from the san diego area for lunch.  we all went to wahoo's for some mexican and catching up a bit.  it's been awhile, i must say!  and we had a good time eating.  and then they came back to the office and all of a sudden it was after 4 and they were still in the art department chatting and whatever.  the day was nearly over but i hadn't worked in hours and hours!  so i took care of the things that needed to be done today and then called it a day around 5:30.  so work was good!  haha! ;)

after work, i headed for the y for a good swim.  i must say, i'm loving the swimming lately.  i mean, i know i'm not a real, true swimmer or anything but i like it about a thousand times more than running on a treadmill.  and i feel like i'm getting better at it, or at least stronger.  i'm getting faster, anyway.  and today, i was swimming so much faster than the skinny lady in the lane next to me who was using a snorkel!  by the way, the pool's been busy.  and what's with the people using snorkels?  it just doesn't seem like really amazing exercise that way.  better than nothing, but still.  i don't know.  and i'm not stoked about sharing lanes these days.  but still, my swim was great!

then i headed home and got cleaned up.  after a little dinner, i headed down to trader joe's because i was out of milk and that was going to be very sad in the morning when i wanted a bowl of pirate cereal.  so anyway, i got milk and then i went to golden spoon, which is in the same shopping center, to get frozen yogurt.  i even had a coupon for a free one because i got it stamped 8 times already! :)

and it's been a tv-filled night here at home.  first up was "beauty and the geek," season 2 of which premiered tonight!  so great!  i like that it's a nice reality show, really. :)  and i was all proud of myself because i knew all the answers to all the trivia questions for both the beauties and the geeks!  makes me just about perfect, don't you think? ;)  hehe!  and then i tried to watch "the office," whcih i thought i had recorded but apparently did not.  i'm very sad about this, but i'll likely get a recap or a downloaded version tomorrow at work anyway.  so then i watched "the oc," which did get recorded!  and it's pretty good.  at least it's entertaining. :)  and the whole time, i have been chatting with sarah online about all sorts of random things.  she's doing well and i'm jealous that she has nothing to do for the next week or so.  and also, i received a postcard from londoner jessica, who is back in london for several months with a couple other londoners.  i'm totally jealous they're there, and i'm desperate to go back at least for a little vacation.  i miss that city so badly!

anyway, i suppose it's time that i get into bed and to sleep.  perhaps tonight i won't be awake so late and i'll be a bit fresher in the morning.  or perhaps i'll just enjoy the tonight show and maybe even conan, which i hear features him riding a mechanical bull.  memories of mechanical bulls make me laugh and make me smile. :)  anyway, for now, good night.

wednesday 11 january 2006 10:55pm

"and i can't lie i'm missing you
listen and don't trip
i think i need a bottle with a genie in it
here's my wish list
first one i would create a heart-changing love
second one i'll take yours and fill it all the way up
third one but i don't need a lot of wisher 'cause i'll be okay if i get one
if i had one wish we would be best friends
love would never end, it would just begin
if i had one wish you would be my boo
promise to love you, trust me, i'll trust you
if i had one wish we would run away...
if i had one wish, i'd make you my whole life...
make it right this time
if i had one wish" -- ray j "one wish"

happy 24th birthday, love. :-*

i'm so bad!  i stayed up entirely too late last night watching joaquin phoenix on leno because it turned out to be a really good interview (not all tv interviews with him are) and i couldn't turn it off. :)  i love late night tv, so every now and then it totally seems worth it to be up late and lose a little sleep.  so of course, it came as no surprise at all when i was not feeling awesome when the alarm clock went off this morning, but just like always i got up and into the shower.  and the rest of my morning at home consisted of watching alito confirmation hearings, a nice bowl of pirate cereal, and getting dressed.

work today slowed down a little bit today, which i think i needed and was also because i worked so hard yesterday.  i mean, i got the stuff done and out to other people and now i'm kind of just waiting for stuff back to so i can make changes and stuff.  that's kind of the cycle of stuff around work.  work.  send to someone else.  wait.  make changes.  send.  anyway, i did have smaller things (that i've been putting off for the bigger projects) to take care of today, so i took care of most of those.  and i took a brief lunch break to pick up food at z pizza.  after lunch, i was working and when i felt like not working i was playing with jonathan (shannon's grandson who hasn't gone to school the past couple days because he's sicky).  he's so adorably cute!  he was golfing and playing catch with jan and coloring (he loves my huge box of crayons that i keep on my desk) and running around and whatever, and it was fun! :)

after work, i headed home but mid-way i remembered that i had a burnt out headlight on my car, so i went up to kragen and picked up a new one.  and then i got to go home.  during my day, i made a list of things to accomplish tonight, so i knew there was a lot to be done and i had to get started right away.  first off, i started the 3 loads of laundry that needed to be done.  then i got straight to cleaning the apartment, like doing all the dishes and cleaning the kitchen and bathroom and those sorts of things that i love to put off.  and all the while, i was watching various basketball games, some of which were better than others.  they're always fun, though! :)  i even chatted about them with my brother online!  and i also heated up some leftovers for dinner, which turned out to be tastier than i had expected! :)

then once the games were mostly over, the apartment was clean, and the laundry was folded, i headed over to target to pick up some things.  once again, i do not know who lets me go there alone because i always find too many things!  :)  mom's been bugging me about getting a paper shredded, especially because i get a new credit card offer in the mail like every day, so i got one of those.  and i've been needed a new vacuum because mine's too crappy.  and my toaster over was a mess.  not all the elements worked all the time so i burned or under-cooked everything and lots of the time it would be smoking and stuff.  anyway, i picked up a new one of those while i was at it.  and then there were the other little random things, including a cute cowgirl t-shirt from this new brand i'd never seen at target before!  and eventually, i just left because my shopping cart was totally full.

and then when i got home i decided i should actually put that new headlamp in my car, so i did that.  it's not really that complicated but i feel like i'm in strong woman mode when i do stuff like that! :)  and then i had to assemble the new vacuum, too!  anyway, i talked to the family, got all the dishes and laundry put away, and did a little vacuuming.  plus, i watched the "beauty and the geek casting couch" special.  it's such a good show!  it premieres tomorrow! :)  oh!  and i gave myself a quick manicure (light pink) because i managed to peel all of mine off last night, which i pretty much never do but once i got started last night i couldn't stop.  anyway, my nails are pretty again. :)

and now i'm ready to drift off to dreamland.  good night... ;)

tuesday 10 january 2006 11:03pm

"he was a friend of mine
he was a friend of mine
every time i think about him now
Lord, i just can't keep from cryin'
'cause he was a friend of mine" -- bob dylan "he was a friend of mine"

though willie nelson sang the version at the end of "brokeback mountain" and really willie and bob dylan don't sound alike at all.  but anyway, those are the lyrics.

i was watching letterman last night because kristin from "laguna beach" was going to be on to promote her new show, "get the party started," so i was up kind of late but as i was watching i was so tired that i decided to just record it (i often forget that i have that power) and go to sleep.  it was not well-planned, though, because i got the wrong amount of sleep last night and it turned out that my alarm went off while i was in a deep stage of sleep and therefore feeling very tired and very out of it this morning.  oh, well.  so i got into the shower and cleaned up.  and then it was time for a happy breakfast!  yesterday at the grocery, i bought pirates of the caribbean cereal because johnny depp/jack sparrow was on the box and it was basically cocoa puffs with pirate-themed marshmallows.  plus, it was super cheap and definitely on sale.  so i tried out the new cereal and of course it was quite delicious (likely because it's filled with sugar). :)  i threw on jeans and headed off to work.

work today was kind of insane.  the magazines are in full swing and there are the other normal things that often come up right around the same time.  and then there are brochures.  they're kind of time-consuming and on somewhat more flexible deadlines, so they come after the magazines or when magazines are out of proofing or wherever i can fit them in.  but sometimes other people deem them emergencies, like today.  so i have to go around kicking butt and letting people know what's reasonable to expect and that things will go better if they do their own work on time.  and i have to stand up for myself, which i don't always do, so it's kind of draining even if it all turns out fine.  but i did manage to get a ton of work done today and i'm in extremely good shape for the next few days!  go me!  except i did work through lunch and reheated some pizza, which i ate while working.  but that meant that i'd get out of the office at a decent hour tonight, which was my goal because this girl has things to do with her evenings! :)

so after work, i headed straight for the ymca (though i must admit that i probably should have stopped for gas and now i am not really sure when i'll squeeze that in before i'm running on fumes) so that i could get a decent workout in.  i went for the bike, and i spent my time on it reading "prep," which i'm extremely close to finishing.  in fact, if i could see straight for another half an hour tonight, i'd probably finish it tonight.  but i can't.  so i'm putting it off a little.  anyway, i worked out hard and then headed home to get cleaned up.

after a shower and a small dinner, i headed out to the movies to see "brokeback mountain."  i don't even know how long i've been wanting to see this film.  years.  so it's about time, right?  anyway, i got my free popcorn and cracked open the soda i snuck in in my purse and i was good to go.  the movie was really wonderful!  it went a whole different way than i expected it to, though i must admit that i didn't know a whole lot about it other than that it is "the gay cowboy movie."  actually, 4 people (two groups of two) walked out of the film as soon as it became apparent it involved a gay relationship.  um, didn't they know?  but whatever.  actually, it was pretty funny.  anyway, i digress.  the story was very good and really moving, and the film is just beautiful.  plus, the bonus was the cowboys!  mmm... i love cowboys!  i think it's the hat... or the boots... or the hat. ;)  gotta get me one of those cowboys!  anyway, the film was excellent!

and i just got home a few minutes ago and talked to dad on the phone a bit since he left me a message while i was gone.  and now i'm just about ready to crawl into bed and get at least a little sleep before tomorrow.  until tomorrow, good night. ;)

monday 9 january 2006 9:38pm

"the secrets i have kept
the nights i haven't slept
i've laughed until i've wept
trying to love you" -- trisha yearwood "trying to love you"

mondays can be exhausting, i think in part because i know in the back of my mind that there's not really any end coming to everything for so many more days.  so while it was as busy as most days are, there's no end in sight so it makes me even more tired.  or something.  just an idea. :)  and the point is that i'm tired.

i had good intentions to go to bed early, get lots of sleep, and all that last night.  one problem.  i couldn't fall asleep.  really, it's not that uncommon of a thing, but i think i made it worse with that 4-hour nap yesterday.  anyway, so i didn't get a whole lot of sleep last night, but i got up with that alarm anyway.  i got cleaned up and found a little breakfast (though sadly, i only had enough cream cheese for half my bagel) and also checked email like i always do first thing in the morning (because i'm crazy). i got dressed in a ridiculously summer-like outfit (because it's warm here), and headed out.

i knew work was going to be busy today, but things seemed to pile up faster than i expected and faster than i wanted.  i will definitely be working quite hard all week and probably all of next week, as well.  there's a lot to be done.  i was really good today, though, and spent most of the day with my headphones on, country music blaring, and working away.  and i actually did get a lot of work done, even if i feel like i still have so much to do.  at least this way the days go quickly and i know that i'm really contributing to the magazines and other company projects.  a few minutes before noon, i headed across the street to the post office to mail a package.  the line was insanely long and it took forever because the people that work there only have one speed and it's slow.  and what's up with them having no 2-cent stamps and no 39-cent stamps in the vending machine?  i thought they were supposed to be prepared for the postage change.  if i have to be ready to pay more, shouldn't they also have to be ready to sell more more expensive stamps?  but anyway, i did eventually get my box mailed and also picked up a few stamps since i was already there.  and then i went down the road to romano's to pick up a really delicious italian lunch for take away.  i ate at my desk while working some more.  and i worked all afternoon until it was suddenly quite late and i decided that i needed to get out of the office.

so after working, i headed to the ymca to work out.  i went for a swim, which started out pretty rough because (1) i had to share a lane with a little old asian man and (2) it's been forever since i've been in the pool and i could tell i was working hard.  and for awhile i thought i might have to go back to the shorter swims i was doing when i first started back swimming because i was tired!  but i "broke through the wall" or whatever and kept swimming and it turned out great, actually.  so i finsihed my swim and even did it faster than usual!  i think the man in the lane with me pushed me to go faster, even if he was way slower than me because if i was swimming next to him, i'd push and go faster so i could just pass him.  anyway, it was a good swim, and i'm sure i'll feel it tomorrow. :)

then i headed home and got cleaned up.  i started making dinner for myself when dad called, and i ended up talking to the family while i prepared and then ate my dinner, which was fine with me.  they're all well, and mom sent me packages so i'm stoked!  and dinner was delicious because i'm just that good of a cook! ;)

then i had to run to the grocery store and trader joe's.  i ran out of beverages (they always go the fastest but are my least favorite to buy because they're so heavy) and also sweet treats, so i needed to get those.  i came home with some good stuff, and i made it back by 9, which was the goal.

nine was the start of the gonzaga-santa clara game, which i'd been looking forward to.  plus, i can watch it "with my brother" (meaning chatting about it online and/or on the phone while it's going on)!  and so far, it has been a really good game!  so that's fun!  also, i'm chatting with sarah (from nyc), which is nice.  :)  and i'll try to get to bed as soon as i can after this game so i can get some rest before another busy day.

it's monday night, and i'm ready for the weekend.  can we make that happen? ;)  anyway, for now, good night.

sunday 8 january 2006 10:11pm

"but you move through my dreams like the wind
it's no good to pretend it won't happen again
'cause it'll happen again
some fools never learn
play with the fire and you're gonna get burned
it's only love when you're loved in return
some fools never learn" -- steve wariner "some fools never learn"

i did a kind of normal sunday today, only i mixed up all the pieces and did it in the wrong order, which made it... well... interesting and good and fun!  though i don't really plan on more sundays all mixed up. :)

the alarm clock went off at 4:30 this morning.  that is rough!  7:30 every week day is rough!  but 4:30!  geez!  who lets me sign myself up for these early-morning activities?!?  anyway, i was definitely not anxious to get out of bed, but i did  it anyway and got into the shower.  i put on my volunteer shirt, and i grabbed some breakfast.

then i headed up -- in the dark! -- to irvine (actually, right to the ford campus, which was pretty cool) and found my way to volunteer parking.  actually, it must have been the only major traffic jam around at that ungodly hour but i did find where i was meant to park eventually.  and i checked in with all the other crazy volunteers and got assigned to help with distributing the t-shirts to race participants who hadn't already picked them up.  not too complicated.  except that whoever was supposed to give us some sort of formal instructions never did.  nor did we know where the shirts and bags were.  super.  and because i had the slightest idea what was going on, people immediately started following my lead, asking me questions, and listening to any instructions i might provide.  i'm such a leader! ;)  haha!  the early part of the morning was busy but not too crazy and then it died off once the races started.  and then once the half-marathon ended, it got insane.  insane insane.  huge lines of people all waiting for shirts and bags.  but we got things going and then tracked down the shirts and bags and suddenly large men started carrying box after box of them into the tent where we were.  and people really started helping out and getting all the shirts out as quickly as possible and as crazy as it was, it was still really fun! :)  plus, a mom and daughter that were volunteering with me started chatting with me (during the down time) and i discovered that they're relatives of a girl from my high school class!  small world!  plus, all the volunteers i was with were really nice!  and we finished around noon, when another group of people came to take over the t-shirt duties, and i headed home.

and after a little popcorn (it sounded really good still!), i laid down on the couch, turned on the football game that was just starting, and settled in for a little nap, which i figured i earned after 5 hours of sleep and 5 hours of handing out t-shirts.  and i did have a really nice nap!  the only this was that it was 4 hours later when i finally woke up!  oops!  giant oops!  but it was still so nice! :)  oh, how i do love a good nap on a sunday afternoon.

once i realized what time it was, i turned on a basketball game that was just starting and i got on with the cleaning that needed to get done.  the apartment was messy (somehow, unpacking my gym bag in the living room, scattering newspapers, and not doing dishes for a week does that), so i wanted to get things all in order.  i couldn't live like that any longer, so i watched the game and cleaned and now everything's taken care of.  even my wallet is clean.  and i even took the trash out, which is my single least favorite chore.  and i talked to adam and mom and dad in the process of it all.

and then i spent the rest of my night relaxing.  i had another hot shower.  i wrote lots of cards and notes that i've been meaning to send out.  i gave myself a nice little manicure -- a sheer light pink that i got for christmas.  and then i watched "desperate housewives," which was good and now i'm sort of watching the recap episode of "grey's anatomy." 

i must admit that i'm not really ready for monday, but it's coming anyway.  more from me tomorrow.  for now, good night...

saturday 7 january 2006 8:16pm

"i can take the rain on the roof of this empty house
that don't bother me
i can take a few tears now and then and just let them out
i'm not afraid to cry every once in a while
even though going on with you gone still upsets me
there are days every now and again i pretend i'm ok
but that's not what gets me
what hurts the most
is being so close
and having so much to say" -- rascal flatts "what hurts the most"

it was an interesting saturday around here, doing something random and new and then just doing things that are really normal for me.  good stuff, all the way around, though. :)

i have a problem.  i cannot stop watching anderson cooper.  lately, he's become my default show when there's not really anything else on.  i even skipped jay last night (a rerun, i believe) to instead watch anderson.  he's just so nice!  and still a reporter.  i don't know.  it's bad. :)  anyway, after more anderson last night, i crashed.  and i got up with an alarm, which is very sad for a saturday morning but whatever.  i got cleaned up, dressed, fed, and headed up to irvine.

months ago i was on the volunteermatch website (melissa uses it to find stuff so i was browsing, too) and decided i should sign up to help at the oc marathon.  for both saturday and sunday.  so this morning, i was to report to the registration tent at 9:30 to help with that.  today was just their expo and registration and stuff like that.  i ended up helping people register for the half marathon all morning and into the afternoon, which is not really hard work at all.  so it really wasn't a bad way to spent a morning.  plus, the people watching was interesting.  it's funny to see the people who say they're ready to run 13 miles tomorrow.  some looked ready.  others... well... didn't. ;)  but anyway, i applaud all of them for trying!

after my shift was over and i was (at least partially) convinced the person taking over me understood what was going on, i headed back home.  and found a bite to eat, watched a little basketball and a little football, and "rested my eyes" for just a few minutes.  i wouldn't really call it a nap. :)  i wasn't totally asleep because i knew there was a football game going on the whole time and it was only for 20 minutes.

anyway, then i got back up off the couch and headed out again.  this time, i went back to the movie theatre to see "the producers," but i went to the matinee and made sure i left a little extra time to park (time i don't usually factor in because i usually go to the late late showings).  and the movie was pretty good.  i like the story and music and all that but it really was more like watching a stage performance that had been recorded than watching a film.  it was very stagey, if that's a word.  plus, it doesn't quite compare to the caliber of film that is "match point," which i saw last night and love loved.  and when i saw the poster for "match point" in the theatre lobby today, i totally wanted to see it again!  that'll probably be added to the dvd collection as soon as it's out.  and what's up with a random guy walking up to me and saying "hi" and then just stopping as i was walking out of the theatre lobby after the movie?  people are so random and so weird!

then i headed home once again, stopping to pick up a quick dinner at wendy's on my way.  i don't usually get fast food but it was right there and so easy and sounded good.  plus, my dinner cost $2.13, which is so cheap!  and i enjoyed it on my couch while watching tom brady lead the patriots to yet another playoff win! :)  and now, some basketball. :)  plus, i got to chat with both sarah and chris online for a bit, which was great! :)

tomorrow morning, my alarm clock will be waking me at 4:30, so i guess i should be getting to bed relatively early tonight.  it's more helping at the oc marathon for me, and this time it'll be race day!  so i'll crawl into bed with my book soon and then just crash.  good night. ;)

friday 6 january 2006 10:37pm

"it might not be suitable for greetings cards and such
but it's a true and honest feeling and if you feel it half as much
we could go through life together without a worry or a care
knowing deep down in our hearts that we've got something special here
it's like just before dark
jump in the car
buy an ice cream and see how far we can drive before it melts kinda feelin'
that's how your love makes me feel inside
there's a cow in the road and you swerve to the left
fate skips a beat and it scares you to death and you laugh until you cry
that's how your love makes me feel inside" -- diamond rio "how you love makes me feel"

i love fridays!  especially warm, beautiful days where things seem to go right.  and that's what today was around here, and so i'm glad with the day. :)

after a bit of reading last night (i'm making good progress with "prep" and still totally loving it), i crashed while watching tv in bed.  and it was a nice enough night that i didn't have the electric blanket (yes, i know it's not actually that cold here but i like it).  i got some good sleep and it wasn't too bad to wake up with the alarm, even if i'd always prefer to just sleep until I was ready to get up.  anyway, i got up and cleaned up and found some breakfast.  and i knew it'd be a nice friday, so i threw on jeans and my keith urban shirt and headed off to work, time time early instead of late. :)

work today was good.  it was just melissa and me for the morning and i had a bunch of cds with me so i could get them on my itunes and onto my ipod, so i was playing country music for us all morning.  you know i was loving that!  and i had lots of work to keep me busy, so i was just working away getting figures ready for the magazine.  and that went well, even if i'm still not quite finished.  for lunch, jenna, jan, melissa, and i went to z pizza for a delicious lunch!  i'm for sure in a pizza phase these days.  and then jenna and i picked up fro yo at goodies and then returned back to work.  of course, there was more work to be done all afternoon, as well, including magazine stuff and other things.  also, marke and i tied playing a hole of golf in the art department, our newest toy (which would be even more fun if jan would remember to bring us a putter instead of the chipping wedge we've been using).  so of course, we still have fun around that place!  especially on a friday afternoon!

after work, i drove home on a nice afternoon as the sun set over the pacific.  and i ended up on the phone with katherine for awhile to just catch up and see how her first week of hew new quarter is going.  she's busy as hell.  ;)  but she's doing well anyway.  and i hung out at home for a few minutes while decided on some friday night plans.

then i headed out to the aliso cinema to see "match point."  it didn't start out so well because i left here so that i'd arrive there about 15 minutes before the show, which is plenty of time.  only i had some problems.  it took me 10 minutes to find a place to park.  and another 10 to buy my ticket because the lines were so long.  so i knew i was running late and didn't stop at the concession to buy popcorn like i had planned.  but despite my worrying, the previews were starting just as i sat in a (perfect) seat.  and then the film!  :)  oh my goodness, it was so wonderfully great!  i loved it!  the story was excellent and the whole thing was really well done and i seriously was so into it.  i'd totally recommend this one!  and of course, even if you don't like it (impossible), there's the eye candy!  the men are so attractive, especially once of my celebrity boyfriends, jonathan rhys meyers!  geez, that man is so beautiful, and when he's dramatically lit suddenly he's like art.  gah!  and he has this walk (he totally does it in "bend it like beckham," too!) that's awesome and he does it so much in this movie!  anyway, yeah, i loved it!  if there weren't about a million movies out right now that i want to see, i'd probably see it again in theatres.  so yeah, great way to spend my friday night!

and then i came home, talked to the parents for a few minutes, and enjoyed a bit of popcorn since i didn't get it at the theatre. :)  lovely!

and now, i'm off to bed.  in a moment of inspiration a few months back, i volunteered to help out at the oc marathon tomorrow and sunday, so i have to be up early.  though i will get some reading in first, as well.  and some more anderson cooper, who i love more each time i watch him.  i have a giant friend crush on him.  think he'll be my friend? ;)

ok, so good night. ;)

thursday 5 january 2006 9:13pm

"every minute of the day
i can clearly see your face
and every minute we're apart
oh you know it just breaks my heart
i'm so lonely, but i'm okay
'cause i know we'll be together again
oh, i light a candle, watch it burn
i feel the angels come and fill this room
oh, when you're gone i miss you so much
i do the only thing i can do
i pray for you, i pray for you" -- big and rich "i pray for you"

it's early.  there's still basketball on my tv.  (that's a sign it's not late because basketball doesn't run so late on the west coast.)  and yet, i'm quite tired.  physically and mentally.  and really, there's no end in sight.  but that's fine because i like things busy, but tonight it feels more like bored and less like exciting, crazy, new life.  but that's just today and i'm tired (cranky?).  i don't know where this paragraph is going anymore, so i'm going to stop. :)

i got a relatively good amount of sleep last night after a bit more anderson cooper and then relaxing with my book for awhile.  actually, i'm totally into it and if i had the time i'd probably just sit and read the rest all at once.  but anyway, i got some much-needed rest but still wasn't quite ready to crawl out of bed when the alarm went off.  of course, i did anyway and got cleaned up.  a bagel made a wonderful breakfast, too.  and then i put on the cutest outfit: brown skirt, aqua sweater, brown heels.  and i tried a new hairstyle.  today was actually one of those days were i was just like, "i am so cute!"  ;)  even at the gym i felt cute!  i forgot a hair band, so i had to use the two bobby pins i had with me to get the hair all pulled up and back and i ended up looking like one of those cute girls you see at the gym whose hair is always looking all styled even though you know it's their gym hairstyle that they probably don't like at all.  anyway, so i was looking good and i headed out (sadly, 7 minutes late) to work on a gorgeous morning.

work today was... um... long.  i have plenty of work to keep me occupied for quite a while and on top of that i wanted ot go to a big meeting this morning that ended up taking my entire morning, meaning i didn't get any actual work done during that time.  of course, i do think it was beneficial to be in that meeting, but still, i don't have a lot to show for the 2.5 hours i spent in it.  and after a quick lunch trip down to super bowl with jenna and jan, it was back to work for me.  i had the country music blaring through my ipod headphones (i need it to work, i think) and i was making figures and taking care of a few little things here and there.  actually, i got a good amount of stuff done, though there's always more to do.  can i also just say that i'm not all about talking about people's new year's resolutions to diet?  it's a popular topic around the office, and it's only 5 jan, and i'm tired of it.  stop talking about food.  you're making me hungry.

anyway, after work, i went to the gym, but on the way, i was first startled by how warm it was even though it was getting dark when i left the building.  it was definitely warmer outside than in.  and then i was startled by the amazing sunset as i was driving through san clemente into dana point.  it was spectacular! :)  thank you, santa ana winds!  anyway, the gym was also good and because i felt so good after tuesday's and yesterday's workouts, i stepped it up a notch tonight and still felt great!  plus, i got into a really good part of my book!  i really do need to finish it already!

then i came home and ended up watching basketball on tv while first talking to dad on the phone and then talking to adam on the phone, all the while making a pizza dinner and then eating it.  so i'm a multi-tasker. :)  oh!  and chatting with sarah online, too.  she's in nyc still.  and that's it really.  lots of talking/chatting and basketball and that's all.  and now i'm going to take me and my cute hair and get cleaned up (i'm overdue, i know).  then it's "the office" and some reading and bed.

more next time.  good night. ;)

wednesday 4 january 2006 9:10pm

"i thought i never would forget you for i thought then i never could
but time has taken all the pains away until now i'm down to hurtin' once a day
once a day all day long and once a night from dusk 'til dawn
the only time i wish you weren't gone is once a day every day all day long" -- bill anderson (and others) "once a day"

i was drifting off on the couch just now but not at all ready to actually go to sleep, so writing this right now (a bit earlier than usual) seemed like a good idea.  that way i won't just crash and then wake up at like 4am on the couch totally confused.  perhaps it was that i was all warm, cuddled up in a blanket.  perhaps it was that i didn't sleep must last night.  perhaps it was the sound of the dishwasher.  probably it was all three. :)  anyway, so now i'm writing.

speaking of last night, i was just tucking myself into bed when anderson cooper broke the news to me that in fact only one west virginia miner had survived and so then i was even more freaked out than i already was (because of the smoke detector) and really wasn't about to go to sleep.  i watched a whole lot more of him reporting from the scene before eventually forcing myself to change the channel and try to get some sleep.  i got a little but it wasn't constant and it wasn't restful.

getting up with the alarm this morning almost felt like a relief after a weird night.  i had a hot shower and then made myself a good breakfast because i actually had food to do that!  bagel, fresh orange juice, a couple tangerines.  good stuff! :)  i got dressed and headed out.  at the end of the day, i realized i had put on what would practically qualify as the notre dame (meaning my high school, not the university) uniform: khakis and a navy blue sweater.  i'm glad i can put those things on, look cute all day, and not realize for so long that it's so notre dame.  i used to not be able to wear khaki and navy together at all. ;)  anyway, then i headed off to work.

work today was good, especially because i'm getting busy again.  marke was sick today, so it was just melissa and me in our art department room.  it was pretty quiet all day in there. :)  i got a decent amount of work done, though i'll admit i also spent some time today catching up on the day's news.  but we're getting going on the magazines again so that's what i was doing mostly.  for lunch, i just went up the road to grab z pizza.  when i got out of the building, i realized what a gorgeous day it was outside!  nice and sunny and warm and wonderful!  days like this in january are why i live here. :)

and after work (i headed out right on time with an agenda of sorts), i headed up to the y for another good workout.  there were no men there, and there weren't any people lifting weights.  it was so dead!  all those people were home watching the rose bowl, i'd assume.  i'm sure it'll be back to busy again tomorrow.  but for today, it was kind of nice to have it so quiet.  plus, the game was on in there, and i also had my book (still "prep") to keep me entertained.

then i headed home and got cleaned up.  i enjoyed about the last 3 quarters of the game.  it was alright.  nothing super duper great, but that's also because i didn't have much of an attachment to either team (though i was kind of rooting for usc because they're local and because i nearly went to college there).  i made good old fashioned mac and cheese from a box for dinner, which was delicious! :)  and i was going to try to get some other things done around here, but that didn't really happen with the couch and this blanket calling out to me. ;)  so now i think i'll do a bit of reading and then crash a little early tonight.

until tomorrow, good night...

wednesday 4 january 2006 12:03am

might as well update since there's no chance for sleep now.

turns out there was a big miscommunication about the miners.  seems that only one survived.  and after they gave all those families good news.  i don't know.  they haven't really explained yet.  but don't get your news from me, anyway.  turn on a tv, read online, or whatever your preference is.

tuesday 3 january 2006 10:29pm

"today i started loving you again
i'm right back where i've really always been" -- merle haggard (and many others) "today i started loving you again"

i've been watching cnn and trying to keep up-to-date on the latest news regarding those 13 trapped miners in west virginia since i first read about the story yesterday at work.  i've always found crazy news stories fascinating!  i love the car chases.  and i love these bigger stories even more.  so i've been watching the lovely anderson cooper on cnn all night (though i must admit that i also switched to the football game a few times) and they found 12 of the men alive!  hooray!  that's amazing.  and as i watch now, they're working on getting them out and the first one is on his way to the hospital.  it really is just incredible.  i cannot stop watching.

in other news, today was kind of a weird day.  i mean, it was good like other days are but it was also a little bit off or something.

i got a bit of sleep last night (not a lot, but some) and got up with the alarm again.  i got cleaned up and dressed and headed out to work.  this morning, though, i didn't need an umbrella i was thankful for that!  it was sunny out, and i do love that!  and i headed down to the bagel shop on my way to work to pick up breakfast because i did no grocery shopping yesterday and still had no food for breakfast.

work today was good.  it was again pretty slow, but most everyone was back in the office so i could catch up with everyone and see how their holidays went and everything.  and i did a bit of work, as well. :)  this morning, the car wash guy (he washes cars behind our building in the parking lot on tuesdays) arrived a bit late, but he did arrive.  with no rain the forecast, jenna, melissa, and i all brought our cars up to him to be washed.  mine desperately needed it, especially after the many miles i put on it driving up to san carlos and back.  and he actually did quite a good job as far as i can tell! :)  and for lunch, marke, katrina, jenna, melissa, jan, and i went to mr. petes.  it's not amazingly delicious but it was a good lunch.  and i took off at 5 without much going on.

i headed to the gym, but i had to stop for gas on the way (if i hadn't, i wouldn't have made it to the gym).  and the gym was crowded as people get started with the new year's resolutions.  it wasn't too too bad, though, and i had no trouble finding a bike to ride while reading "prep," which i'm still loving.  and i'm sure things will die down again in a few weeks.  and i rode hard, which felt great!  it'd been about a million years since i'd had a good workout like that.

after getting cleaned up at home, i headed out for groceries.  it's about time, i know. :)  i just needed a few things at albertsons, and then i picked up most things at trader joe's.  now i have beverages, as well as things to eat for breakfast (and other meals, too).  this is good news. :)

and i made myself a nice little dinner tonight.  i took the trader joe's pizza crust and used only half of it and made myself a small pizza.  delicious!  and i also spent my evening chatting with sarah in nyc and talking to the family on the phone.  everyone's well.  and in the process of talking to adam, my smoke detector went off temporarily (like 30 seconds) and then stopped.  i don't know why it went off.  no, i wasn't cooking/burning anything.  but i'm sure i'll have trouble sleeping now.  oh, well.

anyway, i'm going to watch a bit more of anderson cooper and then try to sleep.  good night...

monday 2 january 2006 9:07pm

"sometimes when i sleep
i can see you walking back to me
and sometimes i wake up
'cause i swear i feel your touch
then emotions overcome me
and the darkness is so cold
i light a candle, watch it burn
i feel the angels come and fill this room
oh, when you're gone i miss you so much
i do the only thing i can do
i pray for you, i pray for you" -- big and rich "i pray for you"

after a long (but wonderful) day yesterday, i was less than ready to return to work this morning.  the day turned out just fine, though, and i even survived the rain.  i have to watch out for that stuff, you know!  sugar melts! ;)

i had a hard time falling asleep last night, probably because i was still going from a busy day at disneyland.  or possibly because it took me awhile to get warm after a night in the rain with wet jeans and wet feet.  but i just chilled in bed watching tv until i did eventually crash.  and of course, i wasn't quite ready for the alarm clock but i got up anyway and headed for the shower.  after getting cleaned up, i put on the outfit i had mentally picked out yesterday once i knew the weather was going to be kind of wintry today.  i wanted to wear my sweater/blanket.  it's definitely a winter sweater and we don't really have winter here, so i take advantage of whatever days i get to wear the few winter things i own. :)  i also caught the beginning of the rose parade on tv, which made me less then excited about having to go to work today.  anyway, since i didn't have any breakfast food besides orange juice, i headed out early.  the donut shop was (tragically) closed today, so i had to go next door to the grocery, instead.

then it was off to work.  yes, i know it's a national holiday, but we still had work, so i showed up like a good little employee. ;)  and in the art department, it ended up being just marke, jan, and me.  and lots of people were missing from the rest of the office, as well.  it was definitely a very quiet day.  there wasn't a ton to be done, but i did take care of some small things, like cleaning out my inbox and making sure my desk was tidy.  at lunchtime, it was pouring rain and the wind was crazy, but i was getting hungry.  i made it to the car with my umbrella but then decided i didn't want to go out in the rain really, so i went through the mcdonalds drive-thru and then headed straight back to the office.  and then i worked the rest of the afternoon and snuck out a few minutes early since most everyone else was gone, too.

after work, it had started to clear up, at least in large patches, which is good news.  no more rain, please. :)  i just headed home, feeling tired and lethargic.  i watched a bit of football on tv.  i talked to sarah online.  she's in nyc for a week and a half for school but she has free wireless internet access in her hotel, so we got to chat a little. :)  and i made myself a nice pasta dinner and watched some more sports on tv.  plus, i gave myself a great new year's manicure (it was about time!) while watching.  oh, and i watched a bit of cnn, as well, as they try to rescue those miners who are stuck in west virginia.  it's been a quiet evening around here, which is totally what i wanted.  i'm going to work on getting some christmas photos onto flickr soon, as well, while i continue to watch football.

there are also two things that i meant to write about last night but forgot (likely because i was tired and kind of in a hurry when i wrote last night)...
1) so sad to see that even though my kc chiefs won big yesterday they got bumped from the playoffs by those steelers.
2) i discovered that i now get cmt so i can enjoy that along with other country music networks gac and vh1 country!  hooray!  i have missed my cmt so much!

well, i think that's enough out of me for tonight. ;)  until tomorrow, good night!

sunday 1 january 2006 11:05pm

"there ain't no chains strong enough to hold me
ain't no breeze big enough to blow me
never have seen a river that's too wide
no there ain't no rope strong enough to bind me
look for me, honey, you will find me
i'll be there if you ever want me by your side
so love me if you ever gonna love me" -- ray price "i'll be there"

i had big plans to kick off my new year, and they turned out wonderfully!  the happiest place on earth is a great place to get 2006 going. :)

i got up kind of early this morning so that i could make it to meet sarah on time.  i got cleaned up and dressed and even put together something to wear that'd be functional, even in probable rain.  and then i headed up to disneyland!  i parked where they told me and that ended up being extremely far away, so there was a lot of walking ahead of me.  but i got my ticket (it's a black-out day for my pass, of course) and met sarah and her family at goofy's kitchen at the disneyland hotel.

we had a really fun buffet breakfast(/dessert) and the place was packed with various characters walking around to table to say hello.  of course, where i was sitting i had my back turned to where they would walk up from, so they startled me every time!  but it was still fun!  and delicious! :)

and then it was time for disneyland! :)  it was all decorated from christmas still, and i'd never seen it like that before!  it was very nice!  we got on lots of rides today, including pirates of the caribbean, buzz lightyear, the jungle cruise, autopia (i drove sarah), and the haunted mansion (which was all decked out nightmare before christmas style!).  all of them were great, of course!  in the afternoon, the rain started.  it was off and on, but it doesn't take a lot to make you feel wet when you're just standing out in it.  i did have a hat and umbrella to try to keep my dry, which helped a lot, i'm sure, even if i did end up with wet feet and the bottoms of my jeans were soaked.  after lots of time in the park, we headed out via the monorail to downtown disney.  well, the monorail isn't great in the rain the other train broke down so for some reason we were stuck about 40 feet above harbor blvd. in the train.  but we eventually got moving.  we had a nice dinner at the rainforest cafe and then headed up to the pyes' hotel room at the grand californian for a bit before i got headed home.

and now here i am, just about ready to crash before getting back to work tomorrow.  it's a holiday, but not for us, so that's where i'll be.  but today was a nice way to start a new year. :)

good night. ;)

sunday 1 january 2006 12:06am

"and it's someplace where we could live
and something only you can give
and that's faith and trust and peace while we're alive...
so take these words
and sing out loud
'cause everyone is forgiven now
'cause tonight's the night the world begins again
i wish everyone was loved tonight
and somehow stop this fight
just a chance that maybe we'll find better days" -- goo goo dolls "better days"

happy new year!  here's to a year filled with love and laughter! :)

it's the quietest new year's eve i've had in several years (because we celebrated last night instead), just here in my apartment watching dick clark/ryan seacrest and mtv.  welcome to the new year!

i've made a few resolutions that i'm hoping will make me at least a little bit better person.  we'll see how they go, wish me luck, and good luck if you've made any.

i have no idea what 2006 holds, but i'm hoping for the best and am anxious to find out...

looking for older stuff?  go the 2005 journal page

 

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