Sunday, September 28, 2003

AAAAAAAHHHHH!!! OH CRAAAAAP!!!!

that's what Annie, Ate, Gwen, Leia and I sounded like all saturday, screamin' every few hours as we plummeted from as high as 255 feet in the air to the ground, twisting through corkscrews and hanging upside down on the way. we spent the day at magic mountain to celebrate Annie and Will's birthdays. it's been approximately 7 years since i last visited so everything seemed like new to me...except of course that unnerving feeling of nausea each time we inched our way to the front of the lines. i willingly admit that i am not a big rollercoaster fan. i get all kinds of nervous at the thought of those drops. the hanging upside down doesn't make me feel as sick but oh the 250 ft drop at 85 mph sure make my stomach churn.

so ate, leia, annie, will and i got to valencia at about 10:30 or 11 am. since we were meeting gwen later that afternoon, we decided to forego the newer rides until she got there. so we rode Revolution first. this used to be my favorite ride for some reason, i'm not sure why. after that we headed to viper. we stood in line for what seemed like 45 minutes or so. i forgot how bumpy that ride got towards the end. my head was just bobbling between the headrests --ouch! we met with gwen and then had some lunch.

after some lasagna, we headed to Goliath. i don't know how many of you have been on this ride but it is definitely the scariest i've ever been on because of the very first thing that happens...a 255 foot drop! oh my gosh, i listened to the tick-tick-tick as coaster made its way up the ramp before it shot down to the ground like 50 billion times while we were in line. by the time we finally got to the loading area i was like eeeks, i can't do this. i know i'm such a coward but i can't help it. i was so ready to tell them i'd wait for them at the exit. but i said, screw it anna, just go!...and i did. oh did i scream! i thought we were never gonna hit the bottom the drop was so long! (hey iya, remember how we thought the jurrassic drop was long?...well, that definitely pales in comparison to GOLIATH!). but i made it.

we rode SCREAM after GOLIATH. ate tin-tin is very apprehensive when it comes to twists and turns and upside down motions because she gets sick easily, but somehow we got her on this ride which is all about those things AND MORE. the speed of that ride is insane. it's name is as appropo as you can get. i think we turned over at least 9 times. I LOVED IT! but poor ate couldn't get herself on another rollercoaster after that. she sat out BATMAN, which i LOVE cuz the ride is so smooth. too bad the line was 1 1/2 hours long and the ride lasted oh, 2-3 minutes!!! yuck! that's all i hate about theme parks! lines take up such a significant amount of your day. after batman, Annie, Will, Leia and Gwen headed towards X-TREME. ate and i were like no way man. if you haven't seen this thing it's like this. first of all, there are two seats on each side of the car, hanging on some type of rotar. it turns depending on the motion of the coaster. in other words, it hangs independently from the car itself so you don't know which way the seat will turn if, say, you're entering a corkscrew. i can't explain it but i KNEW i couldn't do it yesterday so ate and i had a little dinner, shopped a little and rode the carousel. ha ha ha...

we got home at about 11 pm already even though we left the park at 9:30 cuz there was an accident on the 5.

whew...what a day! full of screams!!! but i can't deny how much fun i had. there's nothing like a day at a theme park with great company!

Thursday, September 25, 2003

huh? what?..

it's only 11:36 am are you freakin' kidding me?

Tuesday, September 23, 2003

GEEKS!

so i stayed up until about 12:30 last night desperately trying to finish my accounting homework. i didn't get a chance to write it down in class last week and barely got it from iya on monday morning, hence the procrastination to complete assignment. oh boy, chapter 2; t-balances, trial balances, ledgers, recognition...uy ve! i was in a state of vertigo after attempting the nth example of how to correctly assign assets to debit column...or was it to the credit column? no, debit, definitely debit. anyhow, i finished eventually...

iya and are sitting in the classroom at 6:15 pm tonight, chatting away when we start to listen to some of our classmates asking our instructor questions about the homework.

"which question are they talking about, anna?" iya asks.

i shrug. "we did that one last week in class didn't we? that's chapter 1," i say.

"yeah that's chapter 1," iya says. "were we supposed to do problems from chapter 1?"

"no, we did chapter 1 homework last week," i respond.

iya turns around and asks this guy behind us what problem he's asking about.

"oh shit...we did chapter 2 homework!"

we raise our hands and verify with our teacher that those numbers she assigned last week were indeed from chapter 1 which makes us...jackasses.

who needs a vacation?

and then when we were writing up a balance sheet in class, the ending amount was $143,800. iya goes, "hey look anna! i love you boo!"

iya needs a vacation.

Sunday, September 21, 2003

JUST FOR KELSOE

our little baby kelsoe was baptized today. the preparations for such an event usually desire a serious amount of time, but we actually planned everything within a week. my family's pretty (as matt would say) clutch when it comes to parties. we planned the menu, the guestlist and the party favors all on one sunday afternoon.

this blessed day started YESTERDAY when we went out to gather some materials for his giveaways. we spent yesterday afternoon putting them together! then at 10:00 am this morning i woke up and knew it would be a beautiful day. breakfast is served! my poor mom was up until 2:30 am last night softening meat and chopping up vegetables for her kare kare (my favorite yummy!!!), but don't think she slept in. she and my dad were up early cooking, cleaning up, and moving chairs and tables around. we had the party here at my grandparents' house, with MY house (1 door away) as an overflow. anyhow, i was planning to wear this dress to the baptism (i'm one of kelsoe's godparents!) but when i put it on this morning and went to the mirror to fix my hair i was horrified to see that the neckline of the dress was right below the tanline on my chest that i've had since the 4th of july!!! thank goodness i had something else to wear. god that's what i get for being ignorant about sunblock! anyhow, i was ready by noon, we blew up some balloons and then headed off to incarnation church for the main event.

if you read a few entries back i talk about how good kelsoe is and this day was no exception. first of all, he slept all through the readings and the explanation of technicalities. but lo and behold, they were getting ready to bless the kids with oil and he was suddenly wide awake, not making a single sound. there was this one baby girl who cried THE ENTIRE CEREMONY! but not kelsoe. he was so wrapped up with all the people who surrounded him, looking around in sheer wonderment, probably asking himself what he was doing there. not even the pouring of the water on his head bothered him one bit. he's blessed with 8 godparents (filipinos, i swear!). one of his ninongs, tristin and christian's friend erik, even DROVE here from chicago to be at the baptism. how dedicated to this baby and his parents is he? so after we took pictures at the church, we headed home for some food!

and oh was there food!!!! i spent the afternoon taking pictures, carrying kelsoe around and making sure my two cousins, leonard and bernard were entertained for 5 hours. i put Lilo & Stich, Toy Story 2 and Shrek into the DVD player so they would sit in one place all day. chasing them around, we've discovered, is quite a feat so we always opt for the tv. terrible but a must.

we ended the long day watching christian and tristin open all of kelsoe's gifts and envelopes and watched a slideshow of the day on the tv (who loves their digicam? i do i do!). our baby is so young and i can't imagine him any older than the 4 months and 3 weeks that he is, but i know that time will run off faster than we can help it and next thing you know he'll be crawling, then walking, then talking, then reading...THEN DATING! then i'll be really sad. but until then we enjoy his babyhood.

ROUND 17 -- FIGHT!

yup that's right! i went to TKB (Turbo KickBoxing) this past thursday with fernand (thanks for the great entry about our date my dear). we're on round 17! they change the routine every 3-4 months. riann and i started with round 13 like last summer 2002 and i think we skipped all of round 15 and we did a few of rounds 14, 16 and the bext of round 13-16. i got to the gym about 15 min before the class cuz i wanted to get a few minutes on the stairclimber or treadmill to get my heart pumping before the air-kicking and air-pumping began. it USUALLY leaves me less breathless during the class. i think i should've done like 20 minutes instead of the 10 though cuz i was heaving! fernand and i were like, DUDE WHAT THE HELL! so ummm, raise your hand of you're outta shape -- here here! pick me pick me!

the class was bearable enough. i'd love to just stop but i was getting dressed last week and one of my blouses was tighter than usual...wahhhhh!!!!!! so seriously, i gotta get crackin'. the best part of the evening was hanging out and talking with fernand in front of zono's at the exchange. fernand is freakin' hilarious and he's a good listener. i feel bad i didn't get to buy him his jamba juice though...sorry fernand!!! but i only had a $1 in my bag. and to think he said he would've put out if i paid...next time na lang.

so the search for health begins...AGAIN!

Wednesday, September 17, 2003

GET WITH IT GIRLFRIEND!

iya and i were reading our horoscopes last friday at the bookstore (during one of our breaks from studying...which of course occurred before we STARTED any ACTUAL studying) and it mentioned how aquarians (that's me!) thrive on change. and then iya turned to me and said, "how weird cuz you don't like change right?" and i responded, "yes i do! i love change!" and then i remembered something i KNOW i said, to her probably, a few years ago. i said, and i quote, "dammit i hate change." pretty self-explanatory i think. anyhow, yes i do remember saying that and with valid enough reasons, or so i thought.

i love being comfortable. i love finding your niche with something or someone and staying there. i simply adore having friends who i know will be there always...but being here FOREVER would constitute a perfect world for me and we all know that doesn't exist. i guess "changes" for me have involved more relationships than anything. like when your best friends find their boyfriend and/or girlfriend and you sort of phase out of their lives little by little. there is absolutely no stopping this, as i've discovered, no matter how badly you feel. the only way to deal with changes such as this, is to change along with them.

i've discovered that this is my problem. it's not that i loathe change. actually, i love change. change is great! i'm just not good at taking any action to achieve it. i'm learning though, taking some baby steps more than ever these days. i'm hoping there are more years left in this life for me to roll with the punches and go with the flow. it's kind of like riding a rollercoaster. the more you resist the downward speed of the ride and the tighter your grip on the bar, the more you feel the drop turning your insides out. but if you just let go and allow the motion to take you, it's never half as bad as you expected. hmmm...

Sunday, September 14, 2003

SHORT & SWEET

we celebrated riann's 23rd birthday at HOWL AT THE MOON in City Walk last night. She sat on top of the piano and reinacted the LIKE A VIRGIN video in front of the audience and then a couple hours after that she was hurlin' into a plastic bag out on the terrace. as the boys would say, "It was gret!"

so i read the last 85 or so pages of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix saturday morning and i wanna talk about how i feel but i think it would give it away for those who wanna read it. i cried...cuz now i don't know what to do with myself!!!...until the 6th book comes out that is. no but seriously, i teared quite a bit at the end. i asked iya if i could borrow her A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN cuz it's a classic i've never read before so after i finish this other book i was in the middle of before i started RETURN OF THE KING, i'll tackle that classic.

ok time for bed...

Saturday, September 13, 2003

DAMN KIDS!!!

iya and i spent friday night at BARNES & NOBLES doing our accounting homework. hot single gals really workin' it aren't we? anyhow, right before it closed, matt and rochelle came to meet us and the four of us headed to coffee bean to meet up with stacy and edweeen. edwin came without stacy cuz apparently she has a midterm to study for so he left her at his house. so the 5 of us sit in front of coffee bean in burbank, a place we often find ourselves on weeknights when we can't stay out too late with work the next day but still feel the need for some friendly company. anyhow, for awhile we're shooting the breeze, going over the recent goings-on in our lives and then we come to a most interesting subject: childhood memories...or in rochelle's case, childhood trauma.

it all started when bobbers said how kids freak her out and of course we laugh at her like she's crazy. why would kids freak anyone out? and she responds, "cuz they're so honest." here began bobbers' stories of traumatic stress as a child, recounts of boys in elementary school who bullied her cuz she was small, someone who tried to strangle her (and this same boy incidentally became my classmate in elementarty school too), and then this one little boy who gloated after she lost an election to him, and two little boys she overheard call her ugly when she was in the 4th grade! TERRIBLE!

then matt remembered how ryan kinda bullied him around freshman year in murphy, and this girl in elementary school who used to take iya's lunch money, and this boy in the 4th grade who when i walked past him in class claimed "damn anna! you're meaty!" you might as well have called me fat, asshole! and then we looked at edwin...edwin WAS a bully (actually still is and is fortified more than ever when he's got allies like joe tag-teaming on everyone) and he made life for this one girl awful in elementary school cuz he called her a horse all the time.

oh man, what we would all give to get back at those who wronged us huh?

Thursday, September 11, 2003

Migraines

oh man, i have the biggest mother of a migraine right now. it's a real wonder i can even sit up and type it hurts so bad! i've been suffering thru this condition all day, debating for 6 hours whether i should ask to go home early or tough it out. but there was so much crap to get done that i didn't get the chance to be a baby and whine that i felt like throwing up right there by the fax machines.

i KNEW this day was gonna suck when i woke up at 8:09 when work starts at 8:30 and i needed 10 minutes to get there! i took a quick shower and got dressed, not having any time at all to even blowdry my hair and YOU KNOW that when my hair isn't fixed my day isn't going to be good. i took a claw to hold my hair back, which proved useless after an hour and half or so when my hair was completely dry and the claw no longer supported the shorter layers. aaaaaahhhhh!!!! and then the biggest kind of headache hit me at about 9:15 and even the motrin was no help.

so when i got home, i took a more satisfying shower, hoping it would ease the head a little bit, got dressed and read another 40 pages of harry potter. but after dinner i was like, AAAACK I WANNA THROW UP! but i don't do the throw-up deal. i hate it. so i lay down in bed, attempting a little peace of mind, which was hard cuz my sister was cackling away on the phone AND typing like a monster on the computer chatting online as well.

ME: dude, don't you have a vocabulary test tomorrow?"
TIN: i already studied
(continues to cackle and type)

waaaaahhhhh...so my mom comes upstairs and tells me to put the icepack on the back of my neck (it's too cold, i say). she massages vicks on my forehead (why do my parents love vicks?) and then says, "gusto mo mag-suka? sayang wala tayong 7up no?"...for the tagalog imparied: "you feel like throwing up? it's too bad we don't have any 7up huh?" oh mom...

and then i remembered what today was so i tell myself to shut up and suck it up.

Wednesday, September 10, 2003

BACK TO SCHOOL

today was my first day of school at GCC (and my dad's 57th bday!!); accounting 105: financial accounting. i admit that the thought of getting back in the classroom worried me a little at first. i can't remember the last time i ever had to take down notes to study. i haven't been in school in 3 years!!! but as soon as the instructor came in, took attendance, and handed out the syllabus, it was as if i'd never left.

iya and i got to campus half an hour before class started so we went to the bookstore to get our books. grand total? $146.14....FOR ONE BOOK! granted, we can use again should we decide to take the next class in the series but STILL!! $146.14???!!! that textbook and workbook cost me more than i paid for registration/enrollment! it looks really useful though. we learned all about the accounting equation today, in addition to writing up financial statements, etc. maybe at the end of this course, iya and i can balance out your incomes...for a small fee of course...ha ha ha...

our instructor is the controller for an architecture firm in glendale and she's been teaching accounting at GCC for the last 5 years. the class itself is about 40+ students strong. it's filled not just with people trying to fulfill a class requirement, but with homemakers, single moms, couriers, jewelers, etc. who just want to further their knowledge on the subject. and i'm guessing we range from ages 21 to maybe 55 years old. there's actually a girl in the class who works for an insurance agency we deal with all the time at work. when we each heard the other's name and who we worked for, we both kinda gasped cuz we talk to each practically everyday! how's THAT for a small world?

i can't believe how excited iya and i both were during and then after the class. maybe it's because we're classmates again (it's been 7 years since we shared a classroom)...hee hee hee, or maybe it's because we feel like we're finally getting active about our futures... or maybe it's the simple pleasure of learning again. iya used to say how she felt like she was getting dumber everyday after she graduated cuz she wasn't in school, and i SO felt the same way. but here we are all into our accounting class! i know what you guys are thinking...GEEKS! hey, at least we're geeks who are learning something applicable to our daily lives. as long as i don't have to apply any knowledge (or lack thereof) of calculus into this class, i'm good to go. a 4-function calculator is all we need? thank heavens!

uy! it's midnight. gotta get going. i wanna read at least one more chapter of HARRY POTTER before i get to bed. until next time...

Sunday, September 07, 2003

IT'S RAINING NUPTIALS!!!

so last night iya and i went to our friend's wedding shower. she and her soon-to-be-husband are getting married in the philippines so this gathering was kinda like their reception with the friends and family who won't be able to attend the actual ceremony. they had it at the crystal springs hall in griffith park. for awhile iya and i were the only ones (aside from the bride and groom) we knew at the gathering until two more of the bride's friends, who are also our friends from high school, arrived. one of them brought her husband and the other girl is married too. these girls are two years older than us and when we were in high school we SO looked up to them. and yesterday we were all reminiscing about the IMAC glory days. iya and i listened for the most part and were beside ourselves laughing at all the antics and drama that high school doted upon us.

and then on the ride home, iya and i were talking about how, in the midst of all the nostalgia, we realized that these girls we admired in high school were now married women and how that could be one of us in 2 years' time. everyone knows how much I love weddings. i love so many things about it that most of you just roll your eyes at me when i start going on about it, but i can't help myself. and seeing and talking to our three friends yesterday just validated exactly how much it can mean, especially to the bride and groom experiencing it.

it's the day AFTER the wedding that the real part of marriage starts. it's the questionable days two people undergo when they're trying to decide if they can afford to buy their own home. it's the time when they're trying to figure out if they're ready to raise a family. all this time i've fallen in love solely with the preparations for the wedding itself; the flowers, the church, the dresses, etc, hardly ever thinking of the more important days thereafter. all i have to say is, i can't wait until one of you gets married cuz i know it'll really be something to remember.

Saturday, September 06, 2003

When We Were in 8th Grade...

last night i drove to sylmar to pick up my sister and some of her friends. tin's classmate, rodney, had just turned 14 years old (Good God!) and he invited some friends to come over for an after-school partay. i got to the gated community at about 7:15 (cuz tin told me to get them at 7 pm) and was greeted by rodney's mom, mrs. bravo (who used to be a 1st grade teacher at st. francis when i was still there). all the kids were swimming and the oh-so familiar "aaaw man, we're leaving?" came out of my sister and her friends' mouths when they saw me. well, i offered to pick them up later but one of her friends had to be home by 8 so we needed to motor. so the kids went back to the house and got dressed while i waited patiently in the family room talking to mrs. bravo and eating fruit salad. she was like, "so where are you going to school now?" after i answered, "oh, i've been done for 3 years," she let out this "YOU ARE? OH MY GOD HOW LONG HAS IT BEEN?" the last time she knew for sure i was still in school was when she was a teacher's aid and i was an 8TH GRADER!

GOD REMEMBER WHAT IT FELT LIKE TO BE AN 8TH GRADER? to be at the highest post in elementary hierarchy? the ones all the younger kids wanted to hang out with? life was just so much simpler then, with not much to worry about except the beginning stages of adolescence when you're starting to figure out what kind of friends you want to have and how you want them to define you, and then looking forward to passing a high school entrance exam and eventually graduating to begin again at a new school! and OH THE DREAMS we dreamt for our lives in the future, which seemed so far away, felt far more reachable back then than they do now.

just listening to my sister and her 3 friends' conversation in the car was enough to bring me back 11 years. tin and her best friend, josephine, were talking about something girly, while the two boys, raneil (who's sitting shotgun) and j.j. are discussing how they wanna find summer jobs after graduation. raneil's like, "why do you wanna work at KFC for? how much do you think you're gonna get paid?" and j.j. shoots back with, "raneil, man, if i work full-time that's like $250 a week!!!" i remember when i worked at universal studios after high school and $178 a week (net) brought the greatest joy to my life!!! and then they go on to discuss which high schools they wanna attend and why, which leads to living on their own when high school is done. UY! they both just sounded so sure of their plans. this is what i want to happen and that's that. it made me laugh to remember how we used to talk this way about our futures; "after high school, i'll be in college majoring in chemical engineering, and then after graduation i'll work for NASA , and then i can get married." that would mean i would've been married...last year. but THAT'S how i used to think and i know a lot of us had the same kind of vision about our lives.

and here we all are, 12 years after elementary school. this isn't exactly what i envisioned i would be in a dozen year's time but i think i've accepted the fact that things don't always turn out the way you plan them. i'm still waiting (more like hoping) for a lot of things to happen to me and God-willing, i'll be a lot more satisfied with myself in a few years. until then, the dreaming and the visions don't cease. here's to another 12 years to wait and see...

Thursday, September 04, 2003

Helloooo Baby!

i spent almost the entire evening helping take care of and entertaining my nephew, Kelsoe (yes that's his name and it's starting to fit him too!). he's 4 months old now and i can't tell you how much my family adores this baby, especially me! cile's brother and his girlfriend just had a baby girl last night (CONGRATULATIONS NONOY AND MELANIE!!!) and i couldn't stop telling cile how much she is going to love this child. thankfully kelsoe is literally just a few seconds walk away from my house so i get to see him weekly and am constantly amazed at how big he seems everytime i see him.

i don't know what it is that makes me so crazy over this little boy. he's one of the cutest babies i've ever laid eyes on and he's soooooo good! his hair is forever spikey, we just can't tame it! he's got the biggest eyes and cutest little ears that stick out like his mommy and daddy. he makes sounds when you're looking at him like he's trying to tell you how his day went. my cousins, Keshia and Mari (Kelsoe's dad's sisters) live to harrass our little boy and it's the funniest thing to watch how he smiles and listen to his little giggles. he's starting to teethe too, poor baby. his parents, my cousin christian and his wife, tristin are two of the hippest mom and dad i know, skateboarding and boogieboarding as often as they could this summer, with their little one tagging along in his tiny little rashguard. aaaaaaahhhhhh-dorable!

babies are so cool!!!!!! can't wait to get one of those...

Tuesday, September 02, 2003

Addicted...to reading?

Right...i'm addicted to reading. i hadn't realized exactly how much i spent my free time reading until i got back from boston in may. we came home and my dad says to my mom, "all she did on the plane was read!" my poor dad. i was in the middle of THE TWO TOWERS when we were heading home from boston and i couldn't put the darn thing down, even to chat with him for an hour or two on the 6-7 hour long journey. let's see, i started reading (for leisure) right after graduation in 2000. i read THE CIDER HOUSE RULES while i was in DC (on the subway to and from work), then i started SNOW FALLING ON CEDARS, which despite Zandro's inquiry is NOT the sequel to CIDER HOUSE RULES; then BLACKHAWK DOWN, then came HARRY POTTER books 1 & 2, then i ATTEMPTED to read THE SUM OF ALL FEARS and put it down for a 3rd time when i started getting all confused. 3 years worth of history and poli sci classes at irvine couldn't help me with this thing but i'll pick it up again soon when my mind has really cleared hopefully. then at iya's urging i finally read CHOCOLAT, then LOVELY BONES (which was written by my Fiction teacher at irvine, alice sebold. she was interviewed by diane sawyer on GOOD MORNING AMERICA, thank you very much). then i read HARRY POTTER book 3 which was WOH a lot of information. and right after that i read HARRY POTTER book 4. after that i started the LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy and now here i am, HARRY POTTER book 5. i freakin' read 200 pages yesterday!!!! it was a great rest day...on LABOR DAY, ironically.

i wanted to get an entry in before my fave show QUEER EYE FOR THE STRAIGHT GUY came on. it's on in 15 min so i gotta motor. until next time, remember, DON'T MATCH...COORDINATE!

Monday, September 01, 2003

THE LONG WEEKEND...which isn't over yet but whatever....

so man! i'm SO HAPPY to be be home on a monday morning. i woke up at freakin' 8:42 am though cuz my uncle called asking if i knew how to get to to cabazon. umm, no so i hopped on the net to get directions for him and now i don't wanna go back to bed cuz i know this great day out of work is gonna whiz by. but let's talk about the weekend cuz it's been funfilled for me the whole time...

on friday night i had dinner at islands with my parents and my sister. it was my parents' first time there (even though we live like 45 seconds away from it!) and they were super-impressed with the food. so funny!! and i had fun too cuz now everything at the restaurant means so much more to me now that i've been to hawaii i loved it! and on the way out, i noticed the "Mahalo!" painted on wall and i was like OH MY GOSH! it just never did anything for me before that moment. uy, i miss hawaii...

then iya and bobbers (rochelle) picked me up and we met up at Gitana with riann, joe, edwin, stacy and matt. we sat there, huffed and puffed outta the hookas and discussed all kinds of random stuff (VMA's, iya's 26TH bday-vegas anyone?, etc) and then headed to krispy kreme's cuz some of us had some FUNDraising cards expiring on 8/31 and we wanted to use it up. i still have one more thingy left to punch on the card but it's cool. you get your $10 worth after you buy the first dozen anyhow. and then yeah, as joe mentioned in his blog, we left at like 1:30 am cuz i have the smallest bladder ever. i thought i could hold it for a few more minutes but the cold air wasn't helping so we boned out. iya dropped me off and i briskly walked to my gate and ran to my door, of course then having trouble unlocking it.

...hey random... if anyone happens to be watching tv (especially in the morning) turn to the cbs news, channel 2 and watch out for my old high school classmate tatum wan, she's a reporter!!! how cool is that!

the next morning i got up at 9:30-ish and finished THE RETURN OF THE KING!!! oh it was so good! i can't wait for the 3rd LOTR movie!!! I CAN'T I CAN'T I CAN'T!!! i think i'll watch the first two movies today =). so my parents decided to head to solvang and camarillo that morning. my sister and i were just too damn lazy to be walkin' around good ole' fake denmark, so we stayed home. she worked on her research paper on mars (she's only had 3 DAYS of school and she already has a research assignment due) and i did laundry ALL DAY! i swear you wonder how many people live in this house cuz i folded 5-6 baskets of clothes! leia came over to hang out with me as consolation though. we sat at the kitchen counter for literally 45 min to an hour just looking thru her catalina, hawaii and south america pictures. YOU ALL HAVE TO SEE HER SOUTH AMERICA COVERAGE!!! AWESOME!!!!!! as i folded the laundry, she crocheted her scarf and we were like, "let's watch dvd's! how about something that takes place in hawaii...LILO & STITCH?...nah...OOOH BLUE CRUSH!" so we sat there, watching, reminiscing, crocheting and folding. for dinner my sister, leia and i headed to, where else?...REVOLVING SUSHI! leia's a real trooper when it comes to this place! the girl will drive from all the way from tustin or whitter on a weeknight to eat here. as usual we came outta there stuffed and satisfied! we couldn't breathe from all the sushi we devoured so we decided to hang out at media city center to do an hour of walking. then we went back to my house and watched CHICAGO. sidenote: my biggest fantasy (get your mind outta the gutter joe and edwin)? to sing in a broadway musical. it's too bad you have to have talent to do something like that.

anyhow, sunday morning we went to mass, had lunch with my family, took a nap then i picked up ate tin-tin for our date. we had dinner at islands before we headed to the concert. you people can tease me all you want, but the AMERICAN IDOL 2 concert (yes, we went to go see clay and ruben and the gang) was fun as hell! those people can SING! the circumstances may be corny (or ANG PAKA-MAIS as jhoette would say) but they were all really good last night. ate and i already knew that our favorite clay and ruben, kimberley and trenyce could sing on the show but DUDE, we all know seeing someone perform live makes them sound like 10 times better. ate and i were very impressed with all 9 of them (josh, corey clark and that punkish chick vanessa weren't there). even julia damato, who i thought was just a nervous wreck on the show everytime she performed by herself was good. i guess performing in concert for 2 months built her confidence. it was the last concert of their 40-city tour so the evening was chock-full of thank-yous and that extra bit of energy. they sang mostly covers. clay and ruben sang a song each from their first albums due out this fall. can i just tell you that i have never seen so many adults at a concert that you'd THINK would be for youngens? i mean, we've all seen a bunch of kids with their moms and dads at *NSYNC concerts and you KNOW they're there to chaperone. but we saw freakin' 40 year old men and women HOWLING when their favorite idols sang...and they were there without kids! this whole row in front of me and ate were like 50 year olds! and then this lady next to me was like biggest ruben, clay and kimberley locke fan ever. HILARIOUS! ate and i were screaming and clapping the whole night it was so fun! say what you must to me, but they were really good last night. i honestly wasn't expecting too much, wondering how they could put a concert together. but it was really good, a really fun time!!! it made me miss my boys (*NSYNC) though, but don't even get me started on this or i'll get sad.

until later...