Thanks, Angel

My friend angel was kind enough to share this with me. I now know the solution to my skunk encounters: Carry a lighter with me at all times!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jl7HmfGar60

Ka boom!

For Sarah

This topic somehow came up during dinner tonight, but I was saving it for AFTER dinner as to not ruin Sarah's appetite. Cheese lovers beware, it's pretty disturbing. But also very very interesting. You've been warned.

Don't worry, nothing's going to jump out at you, it's just how they make and eat this certain type of cheese.

I love Gordon Ramsey.

Come on people

Let's blog a little more yea? I'm tired of reading my own blogs. I need other people's lives to read. Thanks.

Harry situation

I don't know why I feel compelled to tell people things that go on in my daily life. I know it's called daily banterings, but why does anyone care about what I have to say?

Like I thought about blogging about my spider incident. Which would go something like this:

Last night at 2am I was going to bed and saw 2 spiders in my room. Since one was closer to my bed, and therefore, closer to falling into my mouth when I'm sleeping, I decided to go after that one. 30 minutes later, i was still going at it. Involved was a paper towel, a library book, yellow rubber gloves, a wine glass, and a margarita glass. They joined in on the event in that order. This has happened before. I've spent an hour before bed trying to kill a spider and not being able to go through with it. It's not even like I'm chasing down said spider all over town, it's more like an hour of going back and forth in my head:

Do I want to kill it? Yes just kill it. What if it jumps? What if I miss? Is it going to leave a big stain on my wall? Just kill it already you've spent 10 minutes debating. Ok I'm going in. No I can't do it. What if ghost spider comes after me. What if this is the start of bad karma. Charlotte's Web was a good movie. What if this spider could talk? FOCUS SH! Just go in for it. There goes another 10 minutes.

I think you get it.

I was so close last night, had a good angle and everything, and at the last minute just couldn't go through with it. Plus I didn't want spider guts on the new walls. So I got out the glasses. Wine glass was too round. Finally the margarita glass worked. The spider went in, I was able to cap it with the book, and took it outside. I closed the door before I could see where the spider crawled to, but judging by the gap between my door and the floor...it probably crawled right back inside. I didn't stick around to find out. But still. I got rid of it.

And it only took me 45 minutes.

******************************************
See, now why is that even worth reading? This little pathetic story about me trying to kill a spider. How is that interesting? How will it change the world? It's not and it won't.

So why do I blog? I have no idea.

Hour 8

Seriously, these potatoes don't want to be done.

Tried adding some chili powder...I think it gave it a bit more flavor.

Yeesh.

Killing me softly...

It's funny how wearing tights is suppose to make you more ladylike. But when I wear tights I forget and think I'm wearing pants and then end up sitting not so lady like. It's also funny how when I was little I HATED tights, and thought they were pointless and ugly. And now they're back in my life. Welcome back tights.

So these past two weeks I've been constantly bombarded with the pledge drive on the local npr station here. I gave some money back when I was listening to that OTHER npr station, but then stopped because I was so angry that they kept sending me duplicates of their newsletters in the mail, even after I asked them not to. To get back at them, I stopped contributing. Haha. That'll show them! Oh yea, and then I moved without giving a forwarding address. Haha! That'll show them even more. Sometime last year I slowly moved over to this smaller npr station and have been quite pleased. This one is all news all the time. The other one is more popular with part news and part popular music. It's not bad by any means, that other station. It introduces people to great indy music. But in the end I went with the all news all the time station mainly because it keeps me more entertained. Sometimes I just get bored with music that I'm not into.

And so finally, this time around, I contributed. And there's really no point to this story other than the fact that I feel really good for having contributed. Like I'm part of them now somehow. Like I own a small share in their stake now. And even though the pledge is still going on, and every day I hear them asking for money, morning noon and night, and even though I've already done my part, I STILL FEEL GUILTY! Like I should give more or something. Well, perhaps at the next pledge drive. That is of course, if they don't start sending me stuff in the mail.

I came home and continued the beef vegetable soup fiasco, and after a few hours, it's still going on. For some reason, for as long as it's been cooking, the potatoes don't want to get soft. Why must you fight me potatoes?? Just go with the flow. Be done already!

I just went to the bathroom to check on my nose. I think I got a bug bite. And now I look like rudolph.

My toes crack when I walk barefeet.

Really. They do. It's kind of loud and embarrassing. Like when I walk around sara's house...crack crack. I think it's my big toe. Sometimes I can hear it when I'm wearing shoes too. Like just now when I was walking down the hall. Does that happen to anyone else?

Last night I decided to make a slow cooker veggie beef soup at midnight. Last I tasted it, it wasn't that great. I'm kind of disappointed. Not as great as my chicken tortilla soup came out. It still has about an hour to go tonight, I wonder if all the flavor will magically appear within that hour. I sure hope so, because there is a lot of it. And I would invite Hills over, but if it's not good, you don't really want to feed it to people. Not that it's bad. It's just...ok. It's lacking something, can't quite put my finger on it.

Also last night I decided to have a little coffee since I knew I'd be up late for work and cooking and whatnot. Bad idea. Horrible. I went to bed at 3am very tired, but my mind didn't want to shut off. So even though I slept I don't feel like I've slept at all. Hate when that happens. And that usually happens when I drink coffee too late.

Speaking of coffee...I need to cut down.

This extra work thing is starting to wear me down. I hope we finish soon. There is bigger and better things I want to be doing with my nights and weekends! Although the extra money is always nice. I want to get back into salsa. Start up roller skating. I need to start training for this 5k I just signed up for. Do some art projects. Practice my violin!

Oh, speaking of which, I played a bit of my guitar this weekend to realize that...NO ONE CAN HEAR ME!! I can practice and play and sing as loud as I want and I will not bother anyone. Oh happy day. The thing with practicing before was that I was always afraid of bothering the neighbors, and embarrassed about being bad. But that's why you practice, to get better, right? Right. So now I have the freedom to do so. To play out with freedom. Oh how I love my new place. I can't wait til orchestra starts back up again. Perhaps I will actually practice between rehearsals now...hahaha. Joke. But for reals. :-|

I Love LA

Driving back home tonight I passed by the los angeles sky line downtown, and it always amazes me how beautiful it is at night when you drive by. It also amazes me that I live here. And work here. I started as a fetus thousands of miles away on the other side of the earth, and have landed here, right here. Where everyone else wants to be. Where Disneyland, the happiest place on earth is. Where it never rains (at least that's how it was sold to me back in NJ's 3 ft of snow...I believe rain is on the forecast for tonight). Where people come to live their dreams. Reach for the stars. Etc, etc. Here I am, and I feel so lucky to be here, surviving.

Cheers.

Banter #429

There's something about me and lesbians. Since college, a lot of my closest girlfriends have been lesbians. Actually, gay boys too. Hm. Wonder why that is. Probably because there's a lot more openly gay people in socal? And probably because there's less catty female competition with the lesbians and less sexual tension with the gay boys, and once those things are out of the way it's easier to become close. Yes, that must be it. Random, I know, but just a thought that popped into my head.

So you know how people are always saying it's a good thing to go out there and meet new people? What about the current people you have now? I mean, I always feel so bad for not keeping in better touch with some of my friends. Some of them I'd like to see more, some of them I haven't talked to or seen in years. Yet, I know there's still that friendship there, or I hope there still is. Instead of going out and meeting MORE new people, shouldn't we be spending that time fostering old friendships? But then again, if that other person hasn't kept in touch with me much either, maybe they're just as busy as I am. Maybe they're just over me.

Got some books at the library today, really excited about them. I always get more than I can actually handle within the checkout date, but...oh well. You never know when you'll get bored with one. Oh yea, and the self checkout machines are AMAZING. You just put the books on the glass...and the titles just pop up automatically one at a time on the computer machine. Even when all the books are stacked on top of one another. Even if it is a scanner...the stacked books are covering the barcodes. Is it...magnetic? How does it do that? Amazing. Small selection, but amazing technology.

Wheeee!

With all this extra work going on, I've not been keeping up with the olympics. For some reason though, winter olympics never seem as interesting as the summer olympics. Anyone know what I've been missing? Something about a flamboyant male figure ice skater who has his own show on the sundance channel. Shaun white this or that. Plushenko vs the Russians. Something something. I get bits and pieces of information here and there, but I don't quite want to dig to figure it out. Meh.

Synergy. Today there was synergy downtown involving food trucks. Too tired to get into that now.

I just got home from the roller rink, and I have bits of the smell stuck in my nose. There is some hold up with freelance work, so I found myself with the night off, and C and I decided at the last minute to go roller skating. There is actually one really close to my new place. It reminded me of highschool. It was a lot of fun, but now I am pooped out. Going fast feels like flying, and my hair blowing in the wind feels like...well just really good. There were a few small kids there that could do the most amazing things. Must learn how to skate backwards. Or put one leg in front of the other without losing my balance...

Um...girls!

Did you watch the disney proposal link below? No thoughts?

Procrastination

It's hard to work...and then come home to more work. I've already let myself chill out for an hour...it's time to crack into it. Yet, here I am. Writing useless things.

Unless! I have some sort of great story to divulge, then it wouldn't be so useless. It'd be recording history...

Hm...nothing.

I'm really enjoying the italiano at work. He's a great kid. Plus he's always in a love affair or another, and I like to live vicariously through his stories. C and I ask him to speak italian to us so we can swoon. Except last week we went to get dim sum and I was ordering for us all and he was just as amazed by my abilities to speak as I am with his. Go fig.

Today I had some time to just chill with some coworkers and we got on the subject of highschool and sex ed and nostalgic things like...Remember ditto sheets? With that purple ink? And projectors where you listen along to a tape and when the tape beeps you advance the projection one frame? And cement glue? Ah...sweet sweet cement glue. I loved the smell of it. And brett with his charming self was just going on and on about silly and funny things. I laughed so hard my cheeks are sore...even now.

So for today, I'm grateful to still have a job with great people that make me laugh and laugh and laugh. Seriously it was some funny stuff.

Close Encounter

...of the stinky kind.

I walked out of the basement tonight only to find...A SKUNK! He was only a few feet away, and for some reason, he scared me, even though I was bigger than him. I HAD to walk by him in order to get back inside. I tried stomping really loud, knocking on the door, making some sort of noise to scare him away, but not TOO scared that he would release his awesomeness. But nothing. He was too busy digging the hole he was digging or whatever he was doing to mind me. So I turned off the lights and ran as fast as I could, though as quietly as I could, back inside. I made it in safely, but before I did so, I turned to see whether he had run away from hearing me. Nope. Skunk dood was still digging his hole. I wonder why he was so fascinated. Well in doing so I didn't want to risk the chance of struggling with locking the basement door, which I will do in the morning, but now I wonder if I closed it completely, and if not...will skunk dood crawl inside?

Also today, Joel demonstrated what a fist pump looked like. Although earlier I asked dan and james, and they didn't seem to be TOO completely clear either, so I didn't feel as lame as last night.

Hrm.

Random thought that just popped in my head: What exactly is a fist pump? I know what a fist bump is, but I'm not quite sure I know exactly what a fist PUMP is. I think i might know, but it doesn't quite make sense in my head, because I associate the word fist pump with a continual movement of the fists, like how one would churn butter....I need a demonstration tomorrow from a coworker or something. Just to make sure I know what I THINK I know.

Had a lovely afternoon with the Warrens today in between work madness. We went to travel town and rode the train, which was quite exciting. I always thought the train went around the whole entire park, but alas, it doesn't. But on our way home we saw another train in a different area of the park, and I wonder if that's the one the goes around the park? Is there even one that goes around the park? It was a lovely day out and on top of that a holiday, so all the kids and families were out.

Oh, did i mention, I love my place? Really, on days like these I can really appreciate my place even more, because even when stuck inside working, I can still see and feel the sunshine outside. It's lovely.

It's suppose to hit 80 tomorrow? Is it summer already??

For the girls

Wow, how glad am i that i didn't see this yesterday. Who does this?!?! Ok, so I teared up a little. But that doesn't make it ok for these magical things to happen out of no where! Hear me? Not O. K.

Da bears.

Love how I resort to blogging when procrastinating. Not that this working from home isn't great, it'll be nice extra cash. But it's hard to just sit in front of the computer for so long.

Oh dreaded Vday. I'm sure it's great for lovers everywhere. But I was never a huge fan. I wonder though if I'll feel differently if I'm ever with someone meaningful on Vday. I'm going to say not..but who knows, I'm open to change. I saw this guy walking across the street with a huge teddy bear in his arms earlier. And i was like, REALLY? You probably just spent $30 on this plushed animal, and it's just going to sit there. She's not going to know what to do with it after a week. But she can't throw it out cuz it was a gift. But it'll be taking up a huge corner in her bedroom, just collecting dust.

Do I sound bitter? I just think you can be a bit more practical. Not that all gifts have to be practical I guess. An itunes gift card would've been nicer than a giant stuffed bear. But then again, that is me, and I'm single, alone, and working on Valentine's night, so what do I know?

Absolutely nothing.

(Maybe there was an itunes gift card in the card portion of the gift? Maybe it's just a way to hide a bunch of mj and coke to sell under the guise of this love holiday because no one will doubt a cuddly bear and rip him open to check to see if there are drugs on a night like tonight? Maybe.)

Back to work!

Year of the Tiger

Wow the local news just reminded everyone that it's valentine's day. Thanks nbc.

In honor of this day, here's some reading. My, this holiday started a lot earlier than I thought!

But don't forget, it's also Chinese New Year. So who cares about Vday.

Stressful day of overwhelming things...for a saturday! Too tired to get into it now, will attempt to do another 3 hours of work before bed.

Time for some minty tea.

Hi-larity

There is this high school I drive by on the way to work. A couple mornings ago, I was stopped at the stop light and saw a class of students in the field behind a building doing gym things. In front of the building though, in a corner, was this boy and this girl, just hiding in the corner....and they were canoodling! Canoodling when they're suppose to be doing gym things! I guess they were still being physical, but instead of on the field, they were practicing on each other. And then the light turned green and I had to go, but it looked like they were about to get MORE physical. Now, my question is...how did they manage to get out of gym and hide in that corner? I don't think I know how to NOT follow the rules. My cover would be blown within seconds, but there they were, casually canoodling in the corner. As I drove away, I was about as intrigued and curious as I was jealous. Yes.

I nearly saw a guy naked tonight. No make that two. I went to see a show that one of my colleague's directed, and the show after that was one with these two guys. Funny guys. Good show. But the last part of their show, they both came out, one at a time, completely naked with only their hands holding their junk. Oooooooh I was so nervous for them. What if they tripped and fell? What if he had to sneeze? What if someone in the audience threw a ball at them and they had to catch it or be hit in the face with it? Luckily (for everyone involved), none of those scenarios came to fruition, and no one's business went on display. But, I thought they were brave little souls. (And here would be where I make a joke about having the balls to do such a thing...but, I'll leave the comedy to the professionals. And thank you.) UCB. Fun place. Sarah, you should check it out.

PS

Oh yeah, also, I love my red hoodie jacket.  I had some reservations before I got it, but I am so glad I did.  Why just today, I got two compliments on it from two complete strangers.  WIN!!  I feel like it's worth every penny, and is doing it's job perfectly.

This weather...I can't wait for the summer again when I can wear my pretty pretty dresses.  I've got dress fever!

And antsy legs. 

Working for the weekend?

The coming weekend is overwhelming me. I feel like there is so much going on, and have already overbooked with a maybe weekend gig. Funny how sometimes there is NOTHING going on, and other times, there's too much. Should be a fun weekend though.

Um, if i was going to have a low key weekend, I'd probably spend it self reflecting. There needs to be changes, pronto. However, all these changes will need to be compiled into a "need to do list" per sarah and my plan from a month ago. It's all swimming up in my head, i just need to focus and organize and write them down. Soon sarah, soon.

I think I just semi sat through an episode of Friends about facebook?

Just waiting for the laundry to be done then off to bed.

A box just fell down behind me, it freaked me out.

I need a new job....again. The job is great, don't get me wrong, but today I realized that I'm bored and comfortable there, which is probably not a good combination. It's steady, the hours are great, the people are great. It's just the work. I'm getting bored with the work, and I don't feel like I'm learning anything new or growing there. I'm stagnant and it's making me antsy.

I also need a new love life. Maybe I am really wasting away the best years of my life? Ok, not really. But it would be nice to have a plus 1 to help build some ikea furniture. Especially those tall ones. First though, I need to figure out what I am looking for in an ideal mate. Let me mull it over for a few weeks. Maybe a few months. I'll get back to ya.

Gonna check on the laundry, goodnite blog world!

Monday monday

Wow, how much do I love and WANT this dress? I know it's hard to see how fabulous they are since they're sitting down, but they're the best dresses to twirl around in from the looks of it. They seem simple enough to make, so maybe in a few years when I'm more handy with my sewing machine. This movie was good, but I could've done without a lot more of the singing and dancing. I know that's unheard of coming from me, but it was just a bit much and made things a bit silly. But the story was great! All twisted into each other. I'm surprised they haven't tried to remake this yet.

There is another dress I want from yet another movie, but I'm keeping that under wraps until the day I can make my own stuff, so it doesn't get leaked out to the general public.

It's amazing how great my phone is. I know I don't take care of it as much as I should, but I really do love it. Just yesterday, on the drive back home, I saw these signs that said "Congress created dust bowls." I remember seeing them on my last trip up a while ago, but never knew what they meant. And by the time I got home I completely forgot about it. This time, I was simply able to look it up on my phone. A-mazing.

Ugh...now all I want are pretty dresses.

Ah Sweet Internet...

Just got back from a great weekend up north with some dear old friends. I'm pooped. And a bit nauseous. I hate that I'm so sensitive to motion. Seriously, it's annoying.

Fortunately Andrew was surprised with the party, and my presence. Sharon put on an awesome casino themed party, complete with red carpet, craps table, poker, karaoke, rock band, booze, food, and cake. Ohhhhh the cakes. Three delicious ones that made it into my stomach (kinda wish I had more of it right now, I bet it's just sitting in their fridge as I type this). I ate way too much, laughed with friends old and new, kept the drinking at a very minimum, and stayed up way too late. Ah, I love A&S. This weekend made me really miss having them around. But it's nice to know that they're still in my life and we can still have great times like this weekend.

Also on Friday night, before I left, I found out my friend Gilbert had a heart attack earlier that day and was in the hospital. It freaked me out. He's only a few years older than me, it's crazy. Luckily he's fine now, out of the hospital. I went to visit him tonight at his parents' place and he was doing alright. He plans to move back home for a while which is just down the street from me now, which is great. It makes me realize that I need to take care of myself better. I need to eat better and exercise more. You just never know what can happen. He's fine, but he's going to have to monitor himself from now on. I'm just so glad he's ok.

Here's to a great week ahead!

Jibba Jabba

It's a slow news week when there's no grinch-like christmas burglary or maddening managers to report.  Really...slow.

Also this cable thing is very dangerous.  I've been finding myself staying up these past few nights to watch blueberry pancake cookoffs and salon contests and yes I admit, even the kardashians.  It all seems very relevant at the moment, but there is guilt and remorse as soon as I turn it off.  Really it's just such a waste of time and I end up feeling guilty about not doing something more productive with that sweet precious time.  It was alot easier to avoid tv when all I had was 5 channels.

Although watching the food network has made me want to cook more.  I made a batch of chicken tortilla soup a few days ago and I have to say, it turned out quite good. But...is it still considered cooking when the slowcooker is doing all the work?This slow cooker thing is great, I must find some new recipes.
AW if you're out there, I hear you have a great one for chili?

I've been a bit preoccupied and busy but next week! is the week I get back into gear. Hopefully I'll have the Internet by then too.