Saturday, November 30, 2002
i just got back from grocery shopping. i went to the ralphs on 3rd and la brea. i think i like that one much better than the one on wilshire. i dunno, i just dig the atmosphere better. i still stop by the ralphs on vermont every so often, tho, on my way from work, cuz it's right on the way. but this is mostly for when i just need to pick up a few things. so i think my regular shopping will be done at the la brea ralphs. i had a good experience there today. my cashier was this really friendly late middle-aged man, and he got a real kick out of my shirt. it's this pink tank top that says "club chica" on it, and then in smaller letters it says, "always a good time!" and i guess at first he only noticed the "club chica" part, cuz he goes, "chica, that means girl, huh?," all proud of himself and stuff. and then i think he looked closer and saw the rest of it, and goes "ah, i see how it is" and then starts laughing cuz he said that i looked too innocent to be wearing a shirt like that, and that i should keep my sweater closed over it. i think he was laughing mostly at the realization that it was a little bit naughty. he laughed a big ol' belly laugh, and then made me start laughing, too.

the dresden last night was ok. those marty & elayne characters crack me up! but we didn't stay there long. went to the derby afterwards, but were disappointed to find out there was no swing dancing that night! doh! it hadn't occured to any of us to check beforehand. oh well. so then we just went back to orange:house afterwards to watch swingers and just chill. it wasn't a bad night at all. oh, and i also realized last night that it's been a year (pretty much to the day) that rick and i have known each other. cuz i remember that we met at tim's party, which was the week after thanksgiving, which was earlier last year. that thought hit me last night and i mentioned it to rick, and he said, that yeah, he realized that, too. crazy. it got me thinking about how much has happened in this last year. those of you who know, know there's been A LOT. but i think that's why i feel that this past year has been one of the best in my life. good or bad, it's been quite eventful. i think more so than at any other time in my life, a lot of people have passed in and out of my life, and all of that passing through has made a big impression on me. i'm very grateful for all the people that passed into my life, and helped make this year such a crazy ride. despite the downs, i've never been happier. =)

posted at 6:43 PM

Friday, November 29, 2002

yay! nancy's back from europe. we had a fun time hanging out today. didn't do much, just chilled here in my apartment which she hadn't seen yet, but it was cool catching up. she told me all her europe stories, and i told her what i've been up to since she's been gone. and of course, we busted out the high school yearbook and reminisced a bit. she'll be here for all of december before she goes back to santa cruz so we'll be able to hang out more. good times! oh, and thanksgiving yesterday w/ my family was pretty cool, although it was probably a mistake spending the night cuz my sisters woke up so goddamn early to go to all the sales, and in the process woke me up. oh well.

tonight, we're heading over to the dresden, cuz rick's visiting friends want to see it cuz it was in swingers. haha, they didn't know that marty & elayne were for real! well, to be fair, i guess i only knew cuz i've been there before. but i haven't gone in a long time, so it should be fun.

posted at 8:02 PM

Thursday, November 28, 2002

i forgot to mention this in the last post. it was about the night i went to the sounds eclectic show. so as me and rick were coming out of the concert, i spotted chris standing around w/ a group of people. i guess i knew he was gonna be there, but i kinda forgot about it until then. well, i guess i kinda thought about him when zero 7 played destiny, cuz that was one of the songs he put on the cd he made me before he left for europe. and on a side note, that was kinda weird, cuz chris was the one that introduced me to zero 7, but rick was the one that *really* got me to know them and like them, cuz he was the one to burn a copy of their cd for me, which is now one of my favorite cd's. and plus, it was rick i was with that night, watching them in concert. but yeah, anyway...so i spotted chris and for a split second, i was like, "shit, what do i do?" and i mentioned it to rick, saying something like "oh no, potential awkwardness." and rick asked me if i had made eye contact w/ him, and when i said no, he just kinda steered me away from the path we were heading in, which would have made us pass right by chris. looking back, i'm really relieved that he did that. cuz that just had bad written all over it. i think that if i was w/ anyone but rick, and if chris was alone (or at least not w/ ppl that i knew knew about me), then i would have definitely gone up to talk to him. but as the situation actually happened, avoiding him was the best way. seeing him kinda made me sad, tho, cuz i realized that we never talk anymore! i think that time we went to starbucks was the last time that we really talked. we've had a few im chats here and there, but they're always very short, and we haven't even done that in a really long time. *sigh* but what can i do? i feel like it's not really my place to be the one trying to keep myself in his life. cuz for all i know, he doesn't want me to be a part of it, rather just forget about me completely. that whole sunny bullshit, "i can't be friends with you cuz it just hurts too much." that's why i've been standing back, and kinda trying to let him initialize things. but he hasn't really done that. sad.

anyway, i'm off to spend thanksgiving with my family. lotsa yummy food awaits! happy thanksgiving everyone!

posted at 11:37 AM

Wednesday, November 27, 2002

wow, it's been a long time since i've posted. and now i feel bad cuz i forgot some things that happened this week. oh well. i think it's just that i got in this lazy mode and didn't feel like posting and then so much time had passed that i felt there was a lot to catch up on and then it would just take too long. but the more i put it off the more i felt i had to catch up on and so i kept putting it off some more cuz i felt that i just didn't have enough time. blah blah. vicious cycle. but enough excuses. here i am. posting. gonna try to not let this get so out of hand anymore.

so let's see, what happened. nothing much during the week. not much ever happens cuz i'm at work most of the time. =( but i guess there have been interesting happenings at work. the new guy started. his name's shawn. he's pretty cool. closer to my age than the other people there. and it's nice to have a little bit of seniority over somebody. even if i just have a few months on him. but i really like the fact that we hired someone else, for multiple reasons. one, now that there are three of us sales reps, the work load has been shifted around, and i feel like i have less responsibility, which is really nice. less to be accountable for. i also don't feel like i'm under the microscope so much anymore. not that i really was before, but it just felt like it was easier to be watched w/ only two people to really watch. and now w/ three, it just feels like it's less quiet or something. an environment much more easy to work in. and also, i'm glad there's another sales rep now cuz i won't feel so guilty when i quit. cuz only two ppl were doing all the work before, so they could do it again. i'm still debating when i want to quit, tho. once i figured out that i really have no desire to do anything with sales, i knew i wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. at first i thought i'd get really serious about looking for other jobs, and just stay there til i found something else. but i realized that as long as i was there, i wouldn't really try all that hard. cuz i'd just be too comfortable. and plus, how would i ask for time off to go on interviews? so then i thought i'd quit at the end of december, regardless of whether or not i found something else by then, and just go back to temping for a while. but then i thought about how with the holidays, i know i'll be spending more money, and so having a secure paycheck for a few more weeks would be nice. so now i'm thinking end of january, which would also bring me closer to my 6 month original plan. and i have to say, work feels a lot less like a burden now. the days seem to be going pretty fast. so we'll see. i'll think it over this long thanksgiving weekend.

so yea, like i said, not much happened during the week. went to see the meteor shower on monday night, which was really really pretty (altho kinda cold...brrr!). we were on mullholand drive. it was really cool up there. then i think on thursday i helped rick shoot his movie he's doing. that was pretty fun. i personally didn't do much, but that dwayne guy is funny. had some good laughs. friday we all went to that euro party, which was eh. i thought it was funny how the whole night we all kept referring to "those euros." hehe. how un-pc of us. but whatever. it was definitely a change of scene. i think i had a couple of the most un-imressive pick-up lines ever that night: "are you european?" and "you look bored." ummm...yeah.

then saturday night, me and rick went to the kcrw sounds eclectic evening at the universal amphitheatre, and damn! it was GOOD!! i was already stoked at the artists that i knew were gonna be performing (aimee mann, zero 7, beth orton, norah jones, blackalicious, and kinky), but then they also had special surprise guests! one of which was pete yorn (i love him!) and the others being two guys from the flaming lips, and also beck. that was fucking awesome! i had such a good time at that show. i didn't know blackalicious or kinky too well, but i was impressed by both of them, especially kinky. they had so much energy going, it was really good. and i really liked beck's duets w/ the guy from the lips and then w/ beth orton. oh yeah, i liked beth orton a lot, too. she was really cool. good banter. i would like to see her do a full show sometime, cuz she was saying how she wished she could talk more, but they only had a limited amount of time, so she wanted to do as many songs as she could. and plus she sounded so cute w/ her british accent. =) definitely one of the best shows that i've been to.

sunday i didn't do much. slept in a little, which was nice. then i went on a cleaning kick and decided to clean my whole room. not just picking things off the floor, mind you. i took furniture polish, windex, a vacuum, and a duster to it. i actually didn't finish til just yesterday, actually, cuz i stopped on sunday to go to dinner, and then i didn't feel like doing anything monday. but now it's spic and span! yay me! next up is putting up stuff on my walls, finally! how long have i been living here, again? hehe. soon, my room won't look so bare. i think i'm also gonna buy a few more posters from work, cuz we have some cool ones and i can get them for really cheap. i'll have to wait and see how much room is left after i'm done putting up the stuff i already have, tho. but i digress. i went to roscoe's chicken n' waffles for the first time on sunday. damn, it was good! yum! i'm kinda glad that we're going there again sometime this weekend, cuz a couple of rick's friends are visiting from washington, and one of them said that that's one of the things he wanted to do while he was here: go to roscoe's. good times await! and oh yeah, also on sunday night, after roscoe's, me and rick watched amelie again. damn, i love that movie! and it was nice seeing it with rick again. brought up some memories. good movie.

and that pretty much catches me up. didn't do much monday besides work. but i did finalize my trip details to washington. cuz rick invited me to visit him sometime over the holidays, and i'm gonna go for about a week around new years. we sorted out all the details monday night and i bought my plane ticket tuesday morning. i'm so excited! i just hope my sorry ass doesn't freeze up there! so i'm flying out on new year's eve, and i guess we're hanging out that night in seattle w/ rick's friends, and then going to rick's house in granger. then i leave from seattle on sunday, the 5th. that'll be a fun little vacation for me. can't wait!!

(editor's note: i know i'm posting at about 12:30, at which time you all know i'm supposed to be at work, but i'm not a slacker! i wrote all of that except the last paragraph last night. i didn't get a chance to finish, so i didn't publish it. but here it is, a nice long post for all to enjoy!) =)

posted at 12:21 AM

Monday, November 18, 2002

another awesome weekend comes to a close. i mean, technically it finished last night but i was too tired to post then, so that's why i'm posting now. so friday night was brigette's party, which i thought was pretty cool. i obviously didn't have as much fun as emily, but i had a good time, nonetheless. mostly danced with rick, chatted a bit w/ brigette, then me and brigette freaked for a bit. all innocent fun. then saturday, me, rick, and rick's friend chris were supposed to go to legoland, but me and rick got a late start and so decided to scrap that idea. we didn't get to chris' place, who lives right near carlsbad where legoland is, til late afternoon. then we chilled for a bit, then chris took us to the beach and we watched the sunset. it was really cool, sitting on that beach in the light of the golden hour, then watching the sun set over the ocean. rick said it best when he said it's like we're living in a postcard. he was making fun of me and chris cuz we were starting to get a little cold. but yeah, we southern californians have it pretty good, to be able to go to the beach in november. it was a really fucking gorgeous scene. we then had some dinner, then went back to chris' place and chilled some more and then me and rick went to rent a movie. i had to sign up for a blockbuster card cuz neither me, rick, chris, or chris' roommate had one, and it was funny cuz i asked rick if he wanted me to put his name down on my account, so he could get a card, too. and instead of putting his full name on the application, or just rick, i put him down as j. rick. and when the lady was putting the info into the computer, she looks at him and asked, "are you j. rick?" just like that, without his last name or anything. she needed his birthday, that's why she asked. but i thought that was really funny. her calling him j. rick. haha, good stuff.

we ended up renting the dangerous lives of altar boys with jodi foster and one of the culkins. it was pretty good, i guess. kind of intense. i fell asleep during parts of it, tho, cuz i was pretty tired. after the movie we all played this one video game called the bouncer, i think. it's basically this fighting game, and we played the battle royale mode, so we were all fighting against each other at the same time, and of course, i suck at video games and so i was getting my ass kicked. but i did eventually win a few rounds, which was pretty sweet, especially this one time when it came down to just me and chris and i won! cuz chris was pretty much kicking everyone's ass the whole time. but that was pretty fun. we eventually went to sleep, and woke up later than we said we were gonna on sunday, but did eventually make it to legoland! woo-hoo! i think we got there about 12:30 or so. i thought it was pretty fun. we only went on a couple of rides, but that was fine cuz there weren't really that many that caught my attention...they're all made for little kids, after all. but it was pretty awesome to see all this stuff made out of just regular lego blocks. the best part was miniature land, where they had all these lego structures of famous landmarks. and not just the landmarks, but they recreated whole cities! they had a mini san francisco, a mini l.a., mini d.c., mini new york, mini mardi gras. and all w/ such detail, too. one of my favorites was the new york scene cuz there was this one lego person break dancing (he was on his head!), and you could see a lego dj spinning, and what really made me laugh was that there was a lego granny standing in the circle, watching him breakdance. hehe. all that stuff was pretty fucking amazing.

and that was how i spent my weekend. tonight i'm watching meteors! it's supposed to be one of the best opportunities to see a meteor shower in 40 years or something like that. pretty.

posted at 9:56 PM

Friday, November 15, 2002

woo-hoo! my benefits are kicking in. i just gotta fill out my hmo thing now. i figure i'll take full advantage of it while i got it before i quit. hopefully, when i quit it'll be to go to another job that will hopefully have benefits anyway, so it shouldn't matter. but that was a cool thing that happened this week. i should get ready for brigette's party now. gotta make a few extra stops now, cuz i told justin i'd give him a ride. but it's cool, the more the merrier! i gotta get kevin first, then probably rick, then emily, and then justin. i forgot to ask justin if he's bringing a guest, which i suspect he might, in which case it might be a little cramped, but it should still be ok. fun! then tomorrow is legoland w/ rick, and sunday i plan on just lazing around. a good weekend awaits!

posted at 7:40 PM

Monday, November 11, 2002

i've come to the realization that i just don't have as much a desire to blog when i'm feeling good about myself and about life than when i'm not feeling so good. i've noticed that lately my posts have been very skimpy, and i think it's just because i'd rather be out experiencing life than just writing about it. also, because i feel good, i don't have the need to try to figure things out by writing about them, the way i usually do when i'm feeling down or whatever. so yeah, life is good right now. i mean, there's always something that can be better. like, i'm pretty much over my job. i decided i don't really like going in there every day. but that's something that, to me, seems pretty easily resolvable. so i'm not stressing about it, and so it's not bringing me down. but i feel really good about everything else. so if you don't see a post from me for days and days, assume good things for me. =)

posted at 10:43 PM

Saturday, November 09, 2002

finally got my car back! woo-hoo! and it really is running so much better than before. yay, dad!

posted at 6:59 PM

Thursday, November 07, 2002

hehe, rick came by last night and we colored!! that was fun. we're such big kids. he's been so sweet in taking care of me while i've been sick. above and beyond his boyfriendly duties. he brought me a big ol' care package on tuesday night (i think, coulda been monday, but i'm pretty sure tuesday). it consisted of tang, apples, sparkling cider, pan dulce, candy, gum, popcorn, and a cd w/ music videos and mp3s on it. good stuff.

posted at 9:02 PM

Wednesday, November 06, 2002

took a sick day today. i'm feeling much much better. it's amazing what one day off of work can do for you. it's just so goddamn cold in that building. no wonder i wasn't getting any better! but it was a good day off. i wasn't really all that productive. but then again, i didn't really expect to be. i cleaned out my e-mail inbox, tho! kinda started to clean my room. wrote a little. the best thing, tho, was that i got to sleep in! on a weekday! oh my god, that felt so good. but yeah, i pretty much squandered my day away. but it felt good!

posted at 8:01 PM

Sunday, November 03, 2002

i'm sick. =( i had done a good job of fighting a cold off not too long ago, but this one came up out of nowhere. i felt fine when i went to sleep last night, but then i felt myself tossing and turning a lot and i realized that i couldn't sleep cuz my nose was all stuffed up and couldn't really breathe. then i also have a sore throat. blah. i hate being sick.

other than that, it was a good weekend tho. it felt really long this time. i think cuz we unofficially started it on thursday with the halloween festivities. that was a lot of fun. i just looked at all the halloween pics on jen's website, and they were all fun. i thought everyone's costumes were really good. then friday night me, jen, emily, and rick went to see bowling for columbine, which was an excellent excellent movie. i really liked it. very insightful and intelligent. then last night, some of us went to westwood to cowboy sushi and did some sake bombs. that was fun. i think it was the first time most of us had had one. my favorite part was eating in the puddles that we'd made from when the sake shot dropped into the beer. haha, it was funny when we all pounded the table at the same time. it was really fun, and i totally wanna do that again sometime when i can drink more (i only had one last night cuz i drove). and today i went home to check on my car. AND IT'S STILL NOT READY!! agh!! it's kinda frustrating, but i guess it's better that my dad's not letting me have it back til everything is fixed so i don't have to take care of little bullshit things over a longer period of time. it's almost ready, tho, and i should be able to get it tomorrow if i want. whatever it was that caused it to overheat has been fixed already, and so has whatever had caused it to not pass the smog check. now all that's left is something with the breaks that according to my dad, isn't that big of a deal, but he just wanted to take care of while he was at it. and the car's supposed to be in much better condition than it was before, so i guess that gives me a bit more peace of mind. looks like the whole car ordeal will be over soon. me and my checkbook are very happy about that.

posted at 7:55 PM