Friday, January 31, 2003
woo-hoo! just one more week to go!! no more job i hate! yay! everyone's been really cool, though. no one's been giving me a hard time, really. except bob, but in a jokingly way. he even said he wants to take me to lunch sometime next week before i'm gone. so that's nice. we'll keep in touch, i'm sure. anyway, i called the temp agency already, to let them know i'd be available beginning the 10th, but they just told me to call back next week. cuz they asked me if i would be available to go on interviews leading up to that, but i told them no cuz i was still working at my job. and i guess they don't really need to re-activate me til i'm ready to start. it's cool, though. they work pretty fast. i remember when i first signed up with them, the very next day after i went down to fill out all the paper work and stuff, they already had a job lined up for me. and that job ended up lasting a month! so, i'm pretty confident everything will work out fine.

i have absolutely no idea what's going on tonight. emily's in vegas w/ adam, jen's at lmu at that frat thing w/ that joe guy, and rick's been idling for like 8 hours!!! i suspect rick's sleeping, tho. oh well...i'll find someway to entertain myself.

posted at 8:48 PM

Wednesday, January 29, 2003

hehe. well, what do you know? i got offered more money at my job today to stay. my immediate reaction, of course, was to say no. and then i thought about it, and was like, well, i guess i should at least say that i'm gonna think about it, even though i know that there's no way. my mind has been made up for quite a while, my friends. but still, i figure they were nice enough to make the offer, so i should at least give them the courstesy of considering it (or at least, letting them think that i'm considering it). and they didn't say how much, either. just that "we can talk about it." so eh. i know it wouldn't be *that* much more, anyway. it really makes no difference. like i said before, my mind's made up! but i have to say, that they made the offer made me feel good. gave me a little ego boost. i am a damn good catch! any empoyer should be happy to have me! hehe. go me! and to think, if i did this good at a job i didn't even like, imagine what i could do at a job that i did like??? food for thought.

posted at 10:49 AM

Monday, January 27, 2003

i forgot to write this down last night, but while waiting for coldplay, i remembered that last super bowl sunday, i was also enjoying a free concert. i went to the key club w/ scot for the kroq super bowl party, which had a free show by jimmy eat world! and they were really good, too. so i decided that super bowl sundays are good for me. i hope this streak continues in future years!! that'd be a bad ass tradition!

coulda seen a free show tonight, too. piebald and minus the bear at groundzero, on the 'sc campus. but i'm just too tuckered out. not much sleep last night cuz i got home late and today was my early day at work. and, oh shit, i just realized that there's only one more monday i have to work at my job! woo-hoo!! i feel so liberated!! i was wondering if i would start to regret my decison, but man, i feel nothing but great about it. yay me!!

posted at 8:09 PM

oh man! i am sooooooooo tired! but damn, what a good show!! me, rick, and michael went to the free coldplay show that was in hollywood tonight. it was this big thing they did for the premiere of the jimmy kimmel show, which they broadcast live today. hollywood blvd was closed off between highland and la brea, and coldplay played a few songs out there, and a fucking shitload of people showed up. it was kind of a mess, and it was hard to figure out what was going on, but luckily, michael's friend tara had already been there since really early, so she was on top of everything, knowing what line to be in and all that, so we found her and she filled us in, and then we waited for a long time. cuz coldplay didn't do their songs til like 10 or something. possibly even later than that. and we got there like at 7! cuz we weren't sure exactly how this was gonna work. kroq was saying they were gonna start at one time, and then the coldplay website said something else, and so no one really knew. but whatever. when we got there, there were already a lot of people there, so it was about the right time to have gotten there, i think. but anyway, we stood in line for a while, and then they started to let people into the stage area, and then we waited a bunch more there, with this really bad crowd warmer-upper guy. he was really bad. not funny at all. had to listen to him for a while. then they started broadasting the actual show just a little past 9, and they pumped the sound outside so we out there could hear what was going on. we heard the interviews w/ snoop dog, and george clooney, and some buccaneer player. and FINALLY, at the end of the show, was when coldplay did their songs. only two were televised, so we were told, and then they did three more after that. they played clocks, yellow, politik, shiver, and in my place. yes, it was a skimpy 5-song set, and we had to wait for soooo long, but hey, it was free, and i've never seen colplay before even tho they are definitely one of my favorite bands, and they were REALLY damn good!! so all in all, i think it was worth it. makes me totally wanna see them again sometime. hopefully i'll get a chance to someday.

so ends another weekend in the life of jessica. tomorrow: starting the last two weeks of my job. exciting!

posted at 1:29 AM

Saturday, January 25, 2003

woo-hoo! i did it! i said i was gonna do it, and i did it! i quit my job yesterday. gave them my two week's notice. so in two weeks, i'll be jobless, but happy!!! i'm quite pleased with that arrangement. hehe. i'll go back to temping for a bit, so it'll all be ok. and hopefully, i'll land one of these usc jobs that i'm after soon. everyone think good thoughts for me.

and i've had a really really good day today. first of all, i woke up next to the guy i love, which is one of the most amazing feelings in the world. gets me all happy just thinking about it. =) then i went to the cheesecake factory with emily, to meet joy and the other emily to finally have our roomie reunion. it was a really good meal with really good people. it was nice catching up, and man, i was so stuffed!! and i still brought home like half of what i ordered. that should keep me going for at least a couple more meals, so i ain't complaining! then, after i dropped emily off, i drove home with the window rolled all the way down, and just let the wind and the sun hit me. it felt really damn great. and then i took a nap and my bed felt so good and cool coming in from the hot outside. lots of simple pleasures equals great day today! *happy sigh*

posted at 6:29 PM

Wednesday, January 22, 2003

grrr....why is blogger giving me so much trouble?!?!?! i've been trying to change my template (with the generous help of jen), and it won't let us load the new template!!! ugh! what to do, what to do????

posted at 8:05 PM

Monday, January 20, 2003

are you secretly a robot?

posted at 5:59 PM

Sunday, January 19, 2003

oh yeah. i'm feeling it now. my legs are slightly sore from playing twister last night. i did pretty well, though. i got into some pretty tricky positions and held out pretty well. i actually won one game, too. it was fun. didn't do much of anything else yesterday. kinda lazed around w/ rick for a long time. then dwayne dropped in and we chatted w/ him for a bit. then we three went to pasta roma's for dinner. then dwayne went to the basketball game, and rick and i went back to his place and chatted w/ jen for a bit. then i finally came home and showered. i'm one of those people for who the day doesn't really start til i take my shower, and yesterday i didn't shower til like 8 or 9pm. crazy. and then after being here for a bit i went back to orange:house for the twister madness. it was good times. today i'm going home for a bit. hang out w/ the fam. hopefully hang out w/ nancy for a bit. show everyone my seattle pics. then later on, maybe go to dinner and a movie w/ rick and one of his friends from new york. should be another chill day. sounds good!

posted at 3:42 PM

Saturday, January 18, 2003

oh man! what a crazy night last night. i finished off a whole bottle of $1.99 wine from trader joe's. damn, i was so drunk. haha, i remember raving about this wine to everyone, saying how it was the best bargain ever. and then as i made my progression towards finishing it, i kept showing everyone the bottle and how little i had left. oh man. i was quite drunk. at a certain point i starting hopping, cuz i thought it would be fun. and it was. i got others to hop, too. rick did for a little bit, but then he had to stop cuz he was really drunk too and the hopping was getting to him. then i think jen hopped for a bit, too. but i think i hopped for a long time. i dunno. lots of things are blurry from last night. today, as everyone kinda did the party re-cap, i had a lot of "oh yeah!" moments. stuff that happened that i completely forgot about til someone mentioned it. like, rick reminded me about how i saw this guy that i thought was steve, and how rick said that it wasn't, but i was very adamant that it was, and then i went up to him to ask him if he was steve, and the guy said no. haha. i think the funniest part was how i, in my drunken state, was saying i was 100% sure that it was, but i was completely off. oh man! but i do remember meeting jen's friend, kevin, and he was really cool. and how me, jen, and him were comparing our argyle socks. oh yeah, me and rick talked to suzie for a bit, and she was really drunk too (hmmm...do we see a theme going on here? hehe), and we had the weirdest but funniest conversation with her involving her revealing a lot of personal information. it was funny cuz it was just so random and out of the blue. so yeah, i had a really good time, up to the time i puked. i guess that's what a whole bottle of wine will do to you. altho, i think i coulda handled it better if i hadn't drank it so fast. cuz i got to orange:house at about 10pm, and when we got back it was only about 1:30 or so. but then once i threw up a bit, i totally passed out into a deep sleep. and when i woke up, i wasn't really feeling all that bad. my stomach was a bit queasy, so i made myself throw up again, although i didn't really need to. but once i had that out, i was perfectly fine. so yeah. good times! i don't have any plans to ever again finish a whole bottle of wine by myself, though. hehe. but i will certainly be drinking this charles shaw wine again. best fucking deal ever!

posted at 11:02 PM

Friday, January 17, 2003

oh, i love nancy! i just had a really good hour chat with her. i tried to convince her to come partying with us tonight, but she decided not to this time around. sad. but i at least got her to commit to sometime, so hopefully soon. it should be easier to be more social now that everyone's back. and i was telling her we gotta take advantage of all this time she's gonna be here before she goes back to santa cruz. but even though she's not coming out w/ us tonight, we're gonna try to hang out sometime this weekend.

anyway, i think i'm gonna take a nap now. then get up, have some dinner, and get ready for the orange:house festivites tonight. yay!

oh, and if anyone likes the transplants, my friend analisa at epitaph just told me about this video shoot they're doing tomorrow at 6pm at the saharan hotel on sunset and la brea. they need people for some kind of crowd scene, i'm guessing. anyway, i'm spreading the word, so if you're a fan, get your ass over there tomorrow!

posted at 6:38 PM

Thursday, January 16, 2003

sweet! so i e-mailed my old boss at the advising office to let her know that i was gonna apply to annenberg, so that she could put in a good word for me, and she told me that one of the advisors in that office will be leaving soon, too. and she said she was very pro-me, and that i should apply there as well! oh man, i'm so happy! this really looks like it's gonna work out. yay! oh, and get this. i put on my pants this morning, and found 20 bucks in the pocket!!! i love that shit!

posted at 9:02 PM

Tuesday, January 14, 2003

me and rick went to visit emily last night after a starbucks trip, cuz i wanted to give her her birthday present, and she gave me some men's pocky! she brought it from canada w/ her. i guess the only difference from regular pocky is that it's dark chocolate. quite tasty, just strange name, though. men's pocky!?! haha. it just sounds funny. she also brought me a kinder surprise, cuz i'd never even heard of one before jen mentioned them in her blog. but now i know what they are, cuz rick brought me a couple from mexico, too. only they were kinder sorpresas, hehe. but yay, that pretty much means everyone's back now! oh, this weekend should be fun! oh, and emily's also organizing a 450 roommate reunion, cuz we two haven't really seen joy or the other emily since the days at troy 450. that should be good times as well. =)

posted at 8:36 PM

Monday, January 13, 2003

it feels really damn good knowing exactly what you want. cuz then you can take these clear-cut steps to get you there, as opposed to just kinda wandering around thinking, "oh, i dunno what i want, but this seems ok, i'll try that," and just kinda falling into things. and that's not necessarily bad, but it just feels good to not feel lost, and to have a clear goal. and right now, my goal is to become an advisor at usc. and as soon as i have that, i'm getting myself a new car, baby! and i know what i want in regards to that, too! i want a gas/electric hybrid car, probably a honda civic cuz those seem to be the most affordable, but i'd still probably do a little more research. but definitely a hybrid car. oooh, i'm excited! especially cuz these goals seem so attainable! i can do it! go me!

this weekend was lotsa fun. it seemed longer than most, i'm not sure why. i didn't really do all that much. caught up on some sleep. went to see 25th hour on friday night, which i thought was pretty good, although i think my expectations might've been too high cuz i thought it was gonna be just a little better. excellent soundtrack, tho! there was this one club scene where i totally was kinda dancing in my seat. good times! let's see, what else? i went to barnes and noble at the grove to buy myself a calendar. rick gave me the good tip to wait til january to buy one cuz then they always go on sale. and so they were! 50% off, and i bought myself this really cool one w/ vintage signs. there's one that has "fresh popcorn," one that says "try our frosty milkshakes," one with rootbeer floats, etc. i also went on a failed mission to buy myself a new comforter, cuz the one i'm using now is still my twin-sized one that doesn't fit my full-sized bed! but i didn't like any that they had at the store. oh well. then i headed over to orange house and rick and i watched y tu mama tambien, cuz he hadn't seen it before, and jordan had just bought it. that was saturday. then sunday, i pretty much spent the whole day w/ rick. we went running around the school, which was a little tougher for me than i would have liked it to be, but i guess i haven't run since the summer (about 5 months)! and today, i wasn't as sore as i expected to be. it's probably only a couple notches above how sore i was after i went skiing (which wasn't that sore at all), and still not at that "OH MY GOD, I'M SOOOO SORE!" stage. so that's pretty good, i suppose. i think having a running partner keeps me more motivated. as long as i have someone to haul my lazy ass out there, i'll keep doing it. we also went on a trip to amoeba. i sold some more cd's that i got from work, and i bought emily's b-day present, and also the norah jones cd for myself. poor rick tried to sell some cd's, too, but they wouldn't take any of them! which surprised me cuz they took all of mine, and i had some real crap in there. *shrugs shoulders* the world may never know... afterwards we were heading home, but there was a lot of traffic for whatever reason, and we decided to stop and eat somewhere. and on some random turn, we passed by this place called la pupusa loca, which is this salvadorenan place. and i suggested we eat there, cuz one time we passed by a pupuseria, and he asked me what that was, and i told him that a pupusa is a food from el salvador, and he said he wanted to try one sometime, and so he did. and this place had pretty good food. so it was a good random choice. then i came home pretty much after that, cuz i still had laundry to do, but then i was just too tired even thought it wasn't that late at all. so i just puttered about for a bit and went to sleep early. i'm doing my laundry right now instead. after it's done, i'm gonna go to starbucks w/ rick to visit kyla. i think i might drop off emily's gift as well, since i'll be in the area. sounds good!

posted at 9:49 PM

Friday, January 10, 2003

yay! rick is back! and other people are starting to come back, too. i had dinner last night at fred 62 w/ jen, kyla, rick, and dominic. it was fun. and i really really enjoyed my meal. i had a hippie sandwich, which was avocado, sprouts, tomato, and cheese on toasted wheat bread. and for dessert, me, kyla, and jen shared a banana split. damn, it was good. i hadn't had one in a long time, too. but yeah, me and jen won't be complaining to each other about how we're so lonely anymore. yay for people! oh yeah, albert's back, too. he came back wednesday night, sooner than expected cuz he got a t.a.-ship and had to come back early for training. so my apartment's not so quiet, anymore, either. this very moment i can hear the t.v. on in the living room. ahhhhh. oh, and more good news! we have mtv2 now!!!! oh, the joy!!!

and more updates about how i'm feeling about this whole job situation. i was sitting at work today and i noticed myself counting down the hours, and it hit me how it seems that i'm always doing that at work, and i decided i've had enough. that was the one thing i always told myself that i would never want to be doing at a job. and so, i decided i'm giving myself one more pay period, which is two weeks, and then i'm putting in my two weeks notice, and officially quit. so, in no more than one month, i will be outta there. it's a little scary deciding to quit w/ nothing secure lined up after that, but i'm tired of being all anxious and stuff at work. it's for my own sanity, i reason. i plan on temping again until i find something permanent. and if things go well, i might land myself a usc job, soon, anyway. emily forwarded me some info about an advising position that just opened up in annenberg! c'mon, does that have me written all over it or what?!?!?! i'm excited. i think i have more than a good shot at this. so, yay! i feel better already. the real world doesn't really suck that much. =)

and i'm happy cuz i got my seattle pictures back. it was a good batch, indeed!

posted at 6:53 PM

Wednesday, January 08, 2003

i'm starting to get that sick feeling in my stomach again. that "i really really REALLY just don't want to be here at work" feeling. ugh. i just feel all anxious and stuff, knowing that i just don't want to be here. when it gets really bad, i almost just wanna run out the door, screaming on my way out, "see ya suckas!" hehe. well, maybe not. but it's pretty bad. i feel no motivation whatsoever. i'm finding myself not even trying to do anything above the absolute minimum of what my job requires. i just don't care. i had a good chat with emily yesterday about jobs and stuff. and i found myself saying that i would really like to work at usc again, being an advisor. it's really got everything that i would want from a job - pretty good pay, a regular schedule, fairly relaxed work environment, being around lots of people all the time, i'd be helping people, too (which is something that i've always thought would be rewarding), and also, it's a job that i could leave behind at the office (ie, i know that i don't have to worry about anything work related when i'm not actually AT work). my current job has that, too, but it's definitely not worth hating being at work. thinking about all this made me realize that right now, having these qualities are more important to me than trying to make it in this crazy music business. because i realize that just because i love music, i don't have to work in it, because if i don't, i'm not going to love it any less. and when i thought about why i wanted to get into music in the first place, it was because at the time (whenever it was that i came to this decision), i couldn't really think of anything else that i wanted to make a career out of. but now that i'm thinking of other things i might like, i feel like i owe it to myself to explore these other things. so yeah, that's what i'm gonna do. leave music, even if it's just momentarily. cuz i could always decide that i wanna pursue it again somewhere down the line. and that's perfectly fine. woo-hoo! having a plan again makes me feel better. i wanna get on this usc thing right away, cuz i was telling emily how long their hiring process takes. and i wanna get out of this job ASAP, baby! but, whew, having all these clear thoughts in my head make me feel a lot better. now, back to work!

posted at 1:37 PM

ok, my trip. so i got up really really early tuesday morning, cuz my flight was at 7:15 am. so to get to the airport w/ the sufficient amount of time, i got up just a little past four. got there about 5:45, a whole hour and a half before my flight, which should've been plenty. but thanks to all the extra security and a couple airline people that seemed clueless, i ended up missing my flight. it sucked because there was really no reason for the line to be going so slowly. while i was waiting, i kept seeing the bag checkers just kinda standing around idle at times waiting for the people monitoring the line to send passengers over. they were not being efficient at all. and then when i tried telling some of the airline people that my flight time was getting close, all they said was "stay in line, you'll be fine." ugh. lying bastards!!! so what they did was put me on standby for the next flight to seattle, which was at about 8:30, i believe. they couldn't secure me a seat because the flight was already overbooked. and of course, i didn't make it on. so this process was repeated for the 10:00 and the 11:30 flights. but FINALLY, there were spots on the 1:00pm flight, so i secured a seat on that one. and because the only seats left were in first class, i got upgraded, which was OK, i guess, but still not worth being delayed 6 fucking hours!!! through no fault of my own, too. grrr!!! i wanted to be more mad, but the airline people were being really nice and apologetic, and by that point there was really nothing else to do.

so i finally got to seattle at around 4pm, and rick was waiting for me at the baggage claim w/ a sign that had my name on it. hehe, silly boy. and we gave each other a big hug, which was really really nice after not having seen each other for so long. ah, that was a really good moment. =) then i got my bag and we headed toward his brother tino's place. hung out there for a bit, then all three of us went to dinner at this mexican place that was really cool looking inside. i dug it. then we went back to tino's place and hung out some more. watched the video mix on mtv2, which was pretty good. we were gonna head to neil's party pretty early, but rick got a call from him saying that he had to go pick up tim (another of rick's friends) from somewhere, and he took pretty much the whole party with him, cuz there weren't that many people there. so we watched more mtv2 and me and rick got to neil's place about 11. tino had already gone off to his own new year's party. i met the rest of the granger crew. i already knew neil and darren, but there was also tino (not rick's brother), tim, tenya, jed, and i think that was it. there was also another guy there that was a friend of darren's from work, but i forgot his name. and later, i think a couple hours after midnight, a few more people showed up, including rick's brother who said his party was pretty much over by then. so it wasn't that big of a gathering, but i had a lot of fun. there was lots of drinking, dancing, and laughing. we even had some fireworks at midnight. it was cute, cuz everyone went around hugging each other after we counted down and watched the ball drop. also, right after midnight the drunken calling ensued. that was fun. i talked to or left messages to jen, emily, tyler, jordan, and my sister chely. oh, and rick's answering machine, too. it was funny cuz everytime someone called one of the ppl at the party, or one of us called someone, we held up the phone and made everyone yell out "happy new year's!". good times! then that died down, but we kept going for a long time. i guess after the party party ended (ie: when the music stopped), there were still a few of us up talking and watching the big lebowski, which is neil's favorite movie. i don't think i headed to bed til well past 5am, which if you're keeping track folks, means i was up for more than 24 hours!! everyone crashed at neil's place (which is also darren and tino's place...there were two other housemembers who were not present). i didn't get up til like 3 or 3:30!!! it felt pretty good, tho. neil and darren had already gone to work by the time i got up. and at around 4, tino went to work, too, and jed left to go catch a bus back to granger. me, rick, tenya, and tim were left behind and we pretty much lounged the day away. it was great! tino got off of work around 7 or 8, and then we ordered chinese and watched most of lord of the rings on dvd, but then rick and i left to go to the movies w/ rick's brother (the other tino). we went to a 10 o'clock showing of catch me if you can, which i actually really liked.

the next day, which was thursday, rick took me to explore seattle. we kinda walked along the piers, snuck into the aquarium, which turned out to be pretty cool. i liked touching the starfish and sea anemenies and stuff. went to this place called the olde curiosity shoppe, which was pretty fun. we also went to pike place market, which is like a farmer's market. walked around a bit. rick said that sometimes you can see the people there throw fish, but alas i didn't see any that day. but rick bought me an orange, and when i peeled it, it made my hands smell like orange for a long time. i have to say, the scent was quite lovely. besides the produce and stuff, there was also crafty things around. it was cool to look around. oh, we also sampled some exotic flavored preserves, which were yummy. i had some black raspberry, and with the other side of my sampling stick had peach something or other. it was good. after that we headed over to the seattle center, which is where the space needle, the children's museum, the opera house, amusement park rides and other such things are. he showed me around a bit. he took me to where the taffy machines are but they weren't on! sad. then we went over to the Experience Music Project, which is basically a music museum, right there in the seattle center, and met up with tino, tenya, and adrian. it's fairly new, apparently, so none of them had been there before, either. it was really cool. they gave us each one of those museum headphone thingies that tell you things about the exhibits, but it was like a super duper version of one. it was this big pack that we wore, and it reminded me of william in almost famous, how he walked around with his old school recorder, strapped over his shoulder and such. it was about the same size. but anyway, they had a really good hendrix exhibit, they had another one showing the development of the guitar and the bass, and just a bunch of really cool stuff. my favorite, though, was the disco exhibit. they had this one little section that they kinda made to look like a disco, and they were just pumping some really good music. made me wanna dance!! oh, they also had this whole section where you could go and make your own music. they had mini-studios where you could go and mix, or play instruments, or sing or whatever, and they had little tutorials kind of explaining how everything worked. we didn't get to spend much time there cuz we didn't discover it til just about when the museum was closing, at 5pm. oh well. oh, and i almost forgot. they had this virtual reality ride, about funk music, and it was just really cheesy, but really funny. some good lines were spouted out, something like "the funk is a powerful thing. not everyone can handle the funk." haha, good stuff.

after the EMP, we parted ways with adrian, and tino, tenya, rick, and i headed back to neil and darren's place to join them in watching the orange bowl game. usc kicked major ass! woo-hoo! after the game, all of us except tino went to pick up rick's brother and went back to downtown seattle to the art museum for the mexican modernist exhibit. i really enjoyed it, even though i was getting tired by the end and kinda rushed by some stuff. it was really crowded, too, even at 11pm at night! i guess it was it was the first thursday of the month, and that's when they have a special, really cheap price. i know that's why we went then! hehe. afterwards, i parted ways with neil, darren, and tenya for the last time, and rick, tino, and i went back to tino's place. stayed up for a bit watching more videos, and then headed to bed.

friday, rick and i got up kind of early so we could get headed on our drive to granger (which is about 3 hours away from seattle). we planned on going skiing on the way. and so we did. actually, i skiied, and rick snowboarded. i'd never been skiing before, i'd never even seen snow before!!! so needless to say, i was excited! it was great. i spent most of my time at the bunny slope (hehe), and the one time i tried going down a regular slope, i fell most of the way down. but it was still a lot of fun. i felt so accomplished! thank you rick, for teaching me how to ski. and thank you, too, for snow. it was fun this one time when we were just laying in the snow together, and then we started throwing snowballs at each other. snowballs!! i threw a snowball! yay me! that was a really good day. our lift passes expired at 5, so after that i turned in my equipment, we changed back into our regular clothes, and then hung out for a bit at this restaurant/bar that they had there. we had some buffalo wings that were good and spicy. after that, we headed back to the car and continued on the treck to granger. we stopped along the way to have dinner at a dairy queen, cuz there aren't many around here, and i've only ever had the cool treats, but not the hot eats from a dq. so i scratched off another first. over dinner, rick told me about how neil used to work at a dairy queen in high school, and some of the antics of him and his friends during that period. he gets so excited when he talks about home and high school and his friends and stuff. i love it! he's so cute! =)

anyway, we finally made it to rick's house in granger. i don't remember what time it was. i don't think it was too too late, but i know i was feeling pretty damn tired. just from the skiing and the staying up late and stuff. we stayed up for a bit talking with his parents and watching tv and stuff. his parents were both really nice. his mom was totally sweet and his dad was funny, but it was still a little weird for me, though. i don't know, i couldn't help but feel a little shy. oh, and the sleeping arrangement was kind of a funny situation, cuz i guess neither rick or his parents never really said anything about how it would work out. and so rick and i were kind of clueless as to what they would think would be appropriate or whatever, so what ended up happening is that his parents went to bed first, leaving rick and me to wonder about it a little more, but then we got ready for bed and he stayed with me for a little bit in his room, but then left me to sleep there while he went off to sleep in his sister's room. so that's how it worked out, kind of a compromise i guess. avoided confrontation. hehe. i thought about how i might deal with it if it was my parents in this situation, and really, i have no clue, either. ah, parents. it's quite funny.

that brings us to saturday. we slept in a little. then the four of us went to breakfast/lunch. it was supposed to be breakfast, but by the time rick and i actually got up and got ready and stuff, it was close to noon. his parents had breakfast foods, and we had lunch stuff. after that, rick took the scenic drive home to show me around a bit. we dropped off his parents, and then rick gave me the grand tour of granger. it was interesting, me seeing this place where he grew up, getting a more complete picture of "rick's world." it was cool. then we went to get his parents again and went to the movies. they wanted to see catch me if you can, but since rick and i had just seen it with tino, we saw gangs of new york, which i didn't really like. it wasn't my type of thing at all. eh. later on, rick took me to his high school (which i'd seen earlier on the grand tour) for a basketball game. we only stuck around for a little bit, after he'd talked to a few people that we knew. after being back at his place for a bit and having dinner and such, we went to visit patrick. rick showed him his brazil pictures, and then he told us about his new year's vegas trip, and we stayed there talking and stuff until like 3am. whew, i was tired by then. but then we got back to rick's house and i discovered his yearbooks, so i went through those and he told me all about his high school years and stuff. we stayed up for a long time.

on sunday (my last day, sad!), me, rick, and his mom headed out as early as we could. i had to get back to seattle to catch my flight that evening, and rick was gonna go and stay there at his brother's place til his flight back to l.a. leaves on thursday, and his mom decided to come with us and stay a few days with tino, and then drive the car back to granger with her. i spread myself out in the back seat and covered myself up w/ a sleeping bag rick brought along and slept most of the way there. it felt good. as soon as we got back to seattle, we went straight to the seattle center again, to finish seeing the stuff i didn't get a chance to see before. one of the taffy machines was on this time! yay! it's just a total simple pleasure to watch. we all bought a few souveniers cuz everything was 75% off at this one store. it was great! we got all this stuff for so cheap! i bought some stuff for my family and rick bought me a shotglass, to continue w/ my collection. =) after that rick and i went up to the space needle, while his mom looked around at other stuff. i guess she didn't wanna go up cuz i think she said she'd just gone up there recently. but i really liked it up there a lot! we went at a good time, too, cuz the sun was just about to set and stuff. and it was a clear, non-rainy day. very beautiful.

after that, we went to meet up with more of rick's family for one of his cousin's birthday dinner. it was joe's birthday, who i had met before, along with nick who was also there, when they came to visit that one time and they went partying with us. actually, now that i think about it, i already knew a lot of people there. nick and joe, and rick's brother tino and their mom. then there was uncle marty and his daughter angela and her daughter dova, all three who i met that one weekend when i went to visit nancy and then spent a night at rick's sisters' place. the rest were new, but now i know them, too! and then right after the dinner, it was off to the airport. i was a little sad about leaving, mostly just cuz my vacation had come to an end, cuz it was a really good one. but i didn't really worry about missing rick. when we said goodbye, he said, "see ya next week!" and i was like, yeah, no more separation. yay! and miraculously, there was no line to check in. i just walked right up to the e-ticket thingy and punched out my boarding pass, they took my bag, and that was it. i was good to go. and even more amazingly, i didn't get caught up in any delays, despite the couple incidents that happened at that very airport the very day i was supposed to leave. i didn't even know about the bomb threat and the security guy being asleep and all the delays they caused til i got to work the next morning. *whew* i thought about it, and it felt like it was the universe's way of balancing things out. that horrible delay in the beginning of my trip was balanced by the fact that the end of my trip finished off perfectly smoothly, when it had everything going against it. but everything did go fine. my plane departed and arrived on time, my luggage didn't get lost or anything, and my sisters were right there waiting for me when i arrived.

and that was my trip. it was a really, really good one. i feel like i did a lot, but also that i had a good amount of just lounging around/chill time. definitely one of the best vacations i've had. thanks again, rick!!! =)

(and man, oh man, i just realized how long this entry got. if you made it this far, you have earned my utmost respect. what a trooper!)


posted at 2:22 AM

Monday, January 06, 2003

HAPPY (LATE) BIRTHDAY EMILY!!!

(you know if i was there i'd pitch in for your b-day dinner. hehe. hope you have a good one!!)

anyway, i did wanna tell all about my trip today, but somehow it got to be 11pm already, and i am dead fucking tired (and i'm still only about half done unpacking!). so i will put it off one more day, and get some good sleep tonight, cuz i really need it. lotsa late nights on my trip. and all very worth it. man, i can't wait to get my pictures developed! there should be some good ones in the bunch. yay!

posted at 11:09 PM

back in l.a., and sooooooo tired! but it was a really really good trip, tho. i had an awesome time! (despite my long ass delay in getting there, as i see rick has already updated for me, hehe.) but all will be told later, as i have to somehow get my ass up early enough to get to work on time tomorrow. blah.

*contented sigh* a really good vacation comes to an end. sleepy time!

posted at 1:34 AM