for the record, the summertime sounds station on launch is the best. if you want to bob your head as you im me (ahem, "work"), you should take a listen....

have you ever tried dusting off your phone and your stapler and your tape dispenser with tape? it's highly effective.

yes. work is that interesting today.

i rolled into my office parking lot 20 minutes ago...and i totally fell asleep for 20 minutes before i got out of the car. i've been really sleepy on my way to work lately. it's time to consider a closer place of work.

i ate too much.

don't you hate when you eat yourself stupid? i think i'm still full from yesterday....

[at the movies]: wanna get concessions? i have $5 off. "okay."
[after the movie]: wanna go to b-dubs? it's 30 cent tuesday. "okay."
[after dinner]: wanna go to coldstone and get super awesome ice cream? *pause* "okay."

i'm so stupid! although there isn't a single item that i can eat myself stupid with. (well except for oreos, but that's only because when you dunk the oreo in milk you have to put the whole thing in your mouth or else the cookie will fall apart. thank goodness for the orDIPeo.) my brother eats a lot of ice cream. A LOT. he can eat more ice cream than anyone i know. it's actually pretty gross. hehe. (love you ny!) eric will eat dessert no matter what (especially if cookies are involved). in fact, if given the opportunity, he would probably eat dessert first and last. kimmie is a fan of dip-type foods. crackers and spinach dip, apples and caramel dip, chips and salsa....i think she would like pita bread and hummus if she ever tried it.

do you think that if i drink a lot of water i'll feel better? (the logic lies in the dilution factor. hmm...)

"see? this is what happens when you always wait until the last minute to get gas."

most memorable quote of the 'BLACKOUT OF 2003' by my mom. mmm. thanks, mom. really. can you please pick a worse time to begin a mini lecture?. gridlock. 90 degrees and humid. no gas, therefore no a/c. i'm just trying to get home! it was amazing that i even got through on the phone. but that's my mom. super practical and conservative with the gas tank. she's one of those that thinks she has no gas when the needle dips below the 1/2-full mark. 1/2 tank?!! that's like to ann arbor and back with gas to spare! anyway...i can laugh about it with her now. i know those mini lectures come from her wanting us to learn from our mistakes...and if we learn from that mistake then we can save her the worry next time. i love her to death.

i wonder what it must be like for her to have to bear the sole parental burden of worrying about us three kids for these last 6 years. today marks my dad's 6 year death anniversary. i remember when he got sick and when he got better and then sick again and then God finally took his pain away forever and left me sad and angry and confused. and then there was healing. and now it's today. six years later. i hardly mention him partly because it's weird to have people not know what to say besides "i'm sorry" (when there really isn't anything to say) and also because if you get me at a fragile moment, i'll probably start crying. i used to have to leave the room during the father/daughter dance at weddings because i would get so so sad knowing that my daddy wouldn't be at my wedding to dance with me. but no tears! daddy's in a Better Place (or on his way there, i'm still praying) and i have the most wonderful family ever. plus my mom rocks on the dance floor. i'll dance with her instead. =D

conclusion of the morning: more trucks on the freeway = more traffic. much more.

woohoo!! gary and mads have the most precious baby girl. happy birthday lucia!

we're sooo spoiling that little girl.

i am wearing new pants. =D

i haven't gotten new clothes for fun in a long time. it's actually kind of nice to not really really need (actual meaning: want) to have the latest and greatest in clothes...or to constantly buy new clothes (constantly=once a month or more frequently). it's nice to have that desire to be replaced by "i could either get these really cool shoes that i may or may not wear a lot or have a nice dinner with eric" or "i could get this awesome bag or not get it so we have money to go to mammoth in december". life's so different when your money isn't just your money. there's really no room for unbudgeted selfishness. the only thing that's a little funny is that since you share money, when you get each other gifts...the gift is technically from the other person, but then is it really because you kind of half paid for it? and if you're spending one person's income and saving the other person's, then you didnt' even half pay for it if you're the one whose money is being saved. heehee.

so back to my new pants...i love them. that's it. i'm basically excited about new clothes and wanted to share. that stuff about sharing money was just a tangent.

so not to keep talking about this site....the wooded one...i know you're probably all hating it as much as me....so the woods. four weeks going on five. it's been hot. i have a weird tan line. i've been soaked in bug spray. it has sucked. today was the last day of it, and lo and behold on our way back to the site after lunch we get a phone call:

"um, when you guys get this message you need to come back to the office because the job has been cancelled."

WTH?!!!! i'm not really mad (although the last few weeks have been pretty torturous)....because despite the woods and stuff it has been a really good site. some really good stories...lots of deaths and suicides and psychos...cool stuff like electroshock bathtubs and labotomy observation rooms....met some interesting characters and learned a lot of stuff for work. i suppose the best part is that i don't have to write up the monster report. although it might suck when the developer calls us in two months saying the project is back on and can you get us that report and remember all that stuff from 3 months ago? but we won't worry about that right now.

i'm a little bit giddy. this news has created a buzz around the company, and i've also just consumed a very large caramel frappaccino. i should work. i've been completely useless today. (hmm..that must be the coffee talking.....)

it has gotten to the point that when i drive and i see wooded areas i think "wow, that would be really crappy to walk through." it's bad when i close my eyes and i see thickets and branches and vines and prickers. and the thought "they don't pay me enough to do this" goes through my head. a few realizations:

a) the project manage and developer officially suck for making us walk 5 hours a day through the bush for the last 4 weeks.
b) walking 5 hours a day through the bush for 4 weeks causes my leg to ache and ache and ache, thus making me miss our last soccer game (arghh...)
c) bone injuries ache more when it's going to rain or is raining
d) off! with deet is great bug spray
e) although d)=true, there is nothing that will keep icky deer flies from attacking you constantly.

but no worries! the light is visible at the end of the tunnel.....one more day to endure, and hopefully i will never have to return. =D

p.s. 54 days and counting...

hahahaahahah...working from home! la la la la la!

apparently my last entry made me sound like i was in a deep upsetting state. not so. there wasn't really much of a need to feel better as there was a need to eat chocolate. hehe. i'm not sure that made sense. but it's good to shed a couple tears now and then, no? i mean, if you never cried just because people don't usually cry, what would happen when you finally did cry? all emotions and pent up "tough guy/girl" tears will just all cascade into an avalanche of deep hiccuping sobs, a stuffy nose, and an inability to speak until said hicupping sobs subside. it's kind of nice to be able to cry with someone. not that both people will be crying....but that you can freely shed tears and the other person will just understand that it's necessary to cry and won't fall all over the place trying to comfort you because it's not really needed. (that was a really bad run-on sentence. i seem to speak in those quite often.)

(what's with this template changing all the time???)

it's an emotional day. the last time it was this bad, i cried during space camp when they made it back to earth. don't laugh. it's can cause a tear or two. (or not...i'm sure you're laughing anyway.) i'm not sure guys quite appreciate the absence of moodiness caused by hormonal imbalance. it's a real thing. on a somewhat related sidenote....i remember g once putting menstrual cramps into perspective for guys: it's like someone kicking you in the nuts as hard as possible at any given time of any given day once a month. although i don't think the pain is quite the same, a guy could definitely relate.

oh, to not have the scent of bug spray mixed with sweat and the outside exuding from me....

i cannot stress enough how much i despise walking through woods.

YO.

check this out.

HOTNESS.

so cute i might puke. and is that my brother blogging?.....watch out.

people might say this all the time, but i think it's really true when i say that i have the greatest greatest friends in all the world. eric and i have the most beatiful and fun and caring and helpful bridal party EVER. ever ever ever ever ever. 10 weeks and counting....

my feet hurt. i feel like i did dance marathon...without the 30 hours of non-sleep.

there are a lot of words that i don't know. like when some of you blog, i have to look up a lot of words. my sister once used fortuitous in a blog. i don't think i could ever know the definition of that word cold enough to even use it in a sentence. perhaps i should start reading more than harry potter.....i thought i was in a book club.......

who's a star in their car?

you know what i'm talking about: singing your brains out with full out emotion at the top of your voice...and as far as you're concerned you ARE the STAR of the road/city/whatever you're in. why don't we all have karaoke cd's in our cars? (remember when cassette singles always had an instrumental version on side B?)

finished harry potter this weekend....stayed up til 6:30am on saturday to do it. man..i just got so emotionally invested in thse books that i needed to keep reading so that i wouldn't be upset the next day. whew. but all done. =D what a good book...and it's about time, too....i had that book on hold at the waldenbooks in briarwood since my senior year at umich...

AT LAST.

it's friday.

when i worked at pd we used to work longer on monday-thursday so we could leave at 11 on friday mornings. i thought that was nice...cuz it was only an extra hour that we had to work the rest of the week, and can i see hands from all those who work that extra hour anyway? i don't know why i'm talking about this, being that i am writing this from my dining room table. telecommuting is a wonderful thing. i want to thank the email and internet inventors for making this possible. although i don't think i could work from home everyday. i think i would go crazy with no other faces around...i'm not exactly close friends with people from work, but it's nice to have outside human interaction on a semi-intellectual/professional level. it adds layers to life. breaks up the monotony. why is it that we need variety? i'll leave it at that cuz i feel ramblings surging....

funny-looking word of the day:

laughter

laughter laughter laughter laughter. it starts to look wrong when you keep typing it.

will people PLEASE blog? i'm getting bored at work....

there's a bruise on my wrist (surprise surprise)...right where my wrist rests to type. i got it while trying to kill this moth that had found it's way into my house. i'm not gonna front...i HATE bugs. HATE. ants, i can handle if they aren't by the hundreds....flies, i'm not so scared of, they're just annoying. almost everything else...YUCK. ew. scary. yes, scary. i know there's probably nothing to be scared of, but EW. basically, i'm a bug killer...but not a very good one. and my oh so loving fiance just likes to watch me react (or freak out). had he just killed the moth FOR me (and for the record, he was closer), i would not be bruised. let's start a list -- reason #1 why winter gets two thumbs up: no bugs.

can we talk about how i got to work 40 minutes later than i should have because gawkers caused an 8 mile back up on 3 freeways today?

...and we have, so i'm done.

they really do melt in your mouth, m&ms. it's the first time i really noticed as i eat a bag of m&ms contemplating what would happen if i saved all my purple m&ms from many bags so that i'd have enough to make a whole bag of purple m&ms, thus winning 100 million yen. but alas...too easy. they numbered the bags. they'd know if i was a fraud. i do enjoy the purple color, though. fun food. i'm glad it's just food coloring cuz how gross would grape chocolate be?

the closest i've ever come to a cow was at a petting farm. but they're isolated and in a fence, so i know they won't hurt me. so today i was doing a site inspection (or field mission as jon would say) at this farm. the owner only used about an acre of this 50-acre property. the rest was grass. but as a responsible professional, it was my duty to walk the ENTIRE site. uck. at least it's nice out, although i don't appreciate the odor of cow dung.

how far to the edge of the property line? i ask..
see the cows? there's a fence there. do you see it? the owner says..
yes, i see the fence between me and the cows, keeping the cows on the other side. that's it?
yes. that far. you good? i go.

the owner only used about an acre of the site, which was fenced off and had chained gates. so i'm walking around all this vacant grassy land by myself and i notice the cows are moving...not just moving...moving towards where i am....i wonder how they hopped the fence and realized that the fenceposts were there, not so much the fence itself. CRAP. the cows are now RUNNING to where i am. mild panic. i don't like cows. they smell. and can they trample me? and i'm outside the safety fence (i had to climb over the fence). dammit. flash to me one minute later calling eric on my cell phone because i just totally ran from some cows and hopped a fence to safety.

i called the owner a couple hours later and asked if the cows were his. 'just beware of the bull, that's the only one you need to worry about.' gee, thanks. you'd think i'd get some kind of advanced notice. at least pay me more if i'm gonna have to run from stinky cows. needless to say, i didn't finish and i'm going back tomorrow with a truck.

pay attention. not all the time. but for the bigger stuff. when you remember the basic gist of things...people feel important. when you remember the details...whoa...people feel super important. it drives me NUTS when people that SHOULD know things don't because they weren't listening when your mouth was moving. the pm for my new project just walked in saying "i see you got in touch with your site contact." did i not go up to you exactly 6 days ago to tell you that 1) i HAD touched base with the site contact and 2) i had set up the site inspections and told you the dates????? bah..i'm just complaining because he's not much of a pm (that's putting it nicely) and never ever ever knows what's going on with his projects. silly me, what was i expecting? and by now i'm over it and realize that this blog is a little bit stupid. but it's monday. not that it being monday should be an excuse. but it's a good excuse for a lot of things, no?

whew. blogger scared me for a minute. it's baaacckk!!!! =D

this sucks. i just lost all my entries. WTH!!!

whoa. new template. thought i was in the wrong place for a minute.

the new intern just called one of the project managers mr. reed. it's just funny to hear someone address a superior by "mr." after high school.....we didn't even address our professors that way....

so i'm clumsy. just a little. i tend to spill stuff and trip on stuff...i bruise easily so there's plenty of evidence. i only bring this up because i managed to spill water on my lap today at my lunch meeting. opening a bottle of water...and wouldn't ya know? all of a sudden it's all over my lap. dangit. i used to deny that i was clumsy. i think used to equate it with carelessness. i'm definitely not careless. i'm definitely clumsy. this is me embracing it. perhaps putting it out there will end this streak of clumsiness...

how did it get to be june so fast?

happy birthday, chrislum!!

so my last blog was a lie. it obviously worked because....tada!! my initial intention was to audio blog the song that g, eric, and nate were singing at michelle's wedding. i completely forgot in the middle of the wedding, so karaoke it is! enjoy even if you can't understand a word....

audblog audio post

my audio blog didn't work.

boo.

let's take a moment to remember the fun time at which the audio blog took place. $25 all you can drink/all you can sing. yes. take a long moment....

whoa. manager not in today. seriously thinking about my presence at this desk.

new york in two days. people getting married in four.

let the madness begin...

they forgot the dressing on my greek salad. and i didn't even order a greek salad, i ordered the classic cafe salad. two thumbs down. it's interesting, eating a salad with no dressing on it. in fact, i can't even think of it as a salad.

hi, i'm eating lettuce and red onions and feta cheese garnished with tomato wedeges and a pepper.

it's a rare day where i have nothing to do, which ends up working out beautifully since i can't access my computer or my email on any other computer and the i/s group is in canada, which happens to be on holiday today. oh. and someone stole my mouse. who does that? i'm not really complaining since i can't use my computer anyway. (i'm on my old suuuuppper sloooooooow pc.) it's definitely a blah day. pistons didn't win. boo. no work to do. boo? yay? i can't decide. i'm gonna go back to eating my lettuce.

so i'm looking through my planner....checking due dates for reports and available dates for florist visiting and bridal registering days and i see next week....michelle's getting married NEXT WEEK!!! (not to mention i'll be seeing a bunch of you crazy cats all in one place for the first time in a while.) NEXT WEEK!!!! where did the time go??? alvin received a bit of my freaked-outedness, so i'm a bit subdued now. so much to do. need to practice. must make lists. and tables. everything makes more sense in tables. i can't wait to see everyone!!! weeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!

two things:

1) the pistons are GREAT.

2) thundersticks are GREAT and pure genius (rhymes with....).

working til death...not about it....

all about going to the pistons game tomorrow....there's a light at the end of the tunnel....

are there people that you're just straight up not nice to? man...there's this guy at work who i can't seem to tolerate because he tends to always complain and push work off on other people (e.g. ME). i also happen to think that he's an idiot for how much so-called experience he has. did i mention the whiny voice and the brown nosing? ugh. i'm really just not nice to him at all. i need help. i'm sure there is a perfectly good explanation for his behavior. i just need believe that there is.

there is something about having hair covering my eye or part of my eye that keeps me from being able to concentrate. it's like everything is blurry because hair is touching the vicinity of my eye. push it away and *poof* immediate clarity. but this piece of hair keeps annoyingly falling in front of my right eye. that combined with the sun shining outside gives me a.d.d. or is it a.d.h.d.? i think they recently added the h. or maybe not so recently. tangent. anyway. the bottom line is that my manager is going to miami for the rest of the week (and wouldn't ya know...she's staying at the roney) and i can't concentrate. what to do what to do....

word of the day: ne·far·i·ous

infamous by way of being extremely wicked.

*someone actually used this in a sentence to me today. watch out.

i'm sooo outta here.

happy Easter!!!!

my computer is turned so that whoever's passing by can't see my screen...and when they see me intently typing or reading blogs, it'll look like i'm working really hard and they won't bug me. the worst is when someone comes into the cube to talk......and then all your im's that you minimized (cuz no one's responded for the last half hour) all of a sudden start blinking like crazy...like they're trying to give you away! i wonder if they even know what those blinking lights mean on the bottom of my screen...

this is the stuff i think about. nothing heavy. nothing super philosophical (or philosophical period). i wonder why people insist on making their headlights that annoying bright white when scientists and engineers that have spent years doing ergonomic studies have deemed yellow-white to be the most driver-friendly headlight color. i wonder about the people at my work who seem to only have a good time drinking beer and if they have some deeper side that fulfills them on a mental level. i wonder when my doctor will call me back to tell me if my leg is fractured. i think about the best way to get to bible study by using my car as little as possible. do i go home and get a ride with eric? do i drive to ann arbor and get a ride with someone there? i read the bottom of my snapple caps and wonder why only male turkeys gobble and why elephants don't jump. maybe this is why my vocabulary is so limited. i don't think about super complex things and therefore don't require large words with more than two syllables to express my thoughts.

anyway...back to work.

i'm getting a headache from not working. i can only hope for new blog entries for so long. why won't anyone blog for me?

i would also like to add that exactly one week ago there was half a foot of snow on the ground and today there is a high of 74. thank you.

fun fact of the day:

only male turkeys can gobble.

for the amount of work that i'm getting done today, i think it would have been better if i had stayed home.

i just want to say that the sun is out.

SMILES FOR EVERYONE!!

* =) * =) * =) * =) * =) * =) *=) * =) *

for the record, it's freezing outside and there's 4 inches of snow on the ground.

oh, and today's APRIL 7. officially 18 days into spring. all that talk about april showers is bunk. try ice storm or blizzard. blechh.

8:20am and i've already been up for three and a half hours. hong must be in town! =)

came in late. read blogs for the last two hours. again with the uselessness. trying to give up pop. lack of caffeine is not good for me. wonder what it's like to be addicted to hard-core drugs. glad i'm not. it's really hard to drink 64 oz. of water a day.

my head is full and my heart is a bit saddened. thank You for the crosses You send down for us to bear and become closer to You.

someone keeps stealing my box of tissue. now i don't mind if you use my tissue, but do you really have to take the whole box? and i don't even care that you take the whole box. just replace it. thanks.

i should leave a note:

get your own. there's a whole bunch in the utility closet. get your own.

fun fact of the day from the cap to my peach iced tea snapple:

Elephants are the only mammals that can't jump.

i feel that people need to blog more. occupy my time, people! ;D

i'm officially useless today. and my head hurts. so i'm gonna go home.

bye bye. =)

hmmm....i wonder why my last entry didn't publish.

but you know what? WHO CARES?!!

i just ran (well, ran/walked) to eric's place. YES, it's true. i can mobilize voluntarily by foot for distances greater than the length of the mall for reasons other than shopping and bingo. it's SOOO nice out!! =) it's supposed to be in the fifties all week. i caught myself thinking, ooh...that's a bit chilly. what am i, crazy????? it's like i'm a wimpy californian or something. ;D heehee....TOTALLY joking. i miss my california buddies. next time we get together we need to go somewhere for longer so we can get some proper sleep. we ain't in college any more....

*clap*clap*....

i would like to say that everyone that made fun of george for wanting to play bingo needs to seriously hook it up with a bingo marker and some old ladies. it's a serious game. it would have been even more fun if you and you and you and you and you and you and you (that would be lynn and jeff who definitely need to get their blog on...someone show me the tag to do pop-ups) were there. and all this time we thought bellagio was where it's at....heheehhe...

oh and i have to say that the system works. nerve-wrecking, but works.

this is where i link jon who's the only other person that blogged about vegas.

i'm definitely eating yogurt with a fork right now. it's a new experience. why is the fruit on the bottom kind the best yogurt? i favor it. and as i mixed up my peach yogurt with my fork it occurred to me that i can achieve the same thing for probably much cheaper if i just bought a big ol' tub of plain yogurt and canned peaches.

fun fact of the day: the enzymes in yogurt break down the "smelly" molecule in your farts. might wanna feed it to your car, mrfilipno.....;D

let's talk about being unfocused:

I am extremely unfocused. go take this report to our client in troy, they tell me....you mean troy-that's-10 minutes-from-my-house-troy? okay. might as well just go home and "work from home". *sigh* bye bye productivity. i'm beginning to see that the craziness that i was expecting to ensue might be way greater than my initial guess. jenny told me i should get a dress already...a dress??!! i say...but i gave up shopping for lent. i need to make spreadsheets. lots of them. and lists. lists to cross things off of....why do i feel more accomplished if i can cross off a task on a list? that's one thing my pda is missing. all you can do is check off a box. no satisfaction of running a line through the entire task. anyway...i should get back to "working from home." there's a pile of laundry on the floor that's been waiting a half hour for me to fold it.....

This is...

I used to ask God why love had to hurt so much,
I used to ask the Lord to take away my pain,
I used to wonder if our love was pure enough,
for us to make it through the darkness and the rain.

There are so many answers to questions that I seek,
But the truth is all that sets this poor heart free,

This is my song, this is my soul,
This is my choice to give and take,
This is my heart, this is my life,
This is the magic that He makes,
This is me, faithfully, praying we were meant to be,
I believe we can be happy together.

and now 8 years have passed since that first moment's kiss,
you'll never know how much your love has changed me,
and now I see that my whole life has led to this,
He said that two shall become one reality

I believe that the sun can shine a little brighter every day,
I believe that our love can grow much stronger,
I believe that the walls around my heart have gone away,
I believe I can't hold back any longer,
I believe....

This is our song, this is our soul,
This is our choice to give and take,
This is our heart, this is our life,
This is our magic that He makes,
This is me, on one knee,
asking you to be my Queen,
I believe we can be happy together.

....03.07.03....

i think it's fun when people say bye-bye. not b'bye. or buh-bye. when they actually make the extra effort to pronounce the first "y". it's endearing. heehee!!

happy friday!!

i'm giving up shopping for lent. i already feel the effects. i'm thinking of all the stuff i've been wanting to buy and i want to buy it RIGHT NOW.

happy paczki day!!!!!

everyone should eat a paczki (say it: poonch'-kee) today. =D go to your grocery store. they should have it in the bakery. or find a polish bakery. they'll have the best ones. yum!!!!

random fun fact of the day: did you know that eggs and fat used to be prohibited during lent? so they would use up all the eggs and butter for making pazckis (which are way fattening, so eat accordingly) the day before ash wednesday and that would also explain the eggs at easter.....

chocolate cake sounds really good right now. mmm.....

i'm soooooo sleeeeeeeepy. need nap. must sleep. don't think i can snowboard today. all i think is sleep. sleep looks funny after you type it a lot. sleep. sleep. sleep. hehe...

i am absolutely terrible at recording my voicemail greeting. ugh. i have to change it every time i'm not in the office which has been daily lately, so when i get back to the office i have to change it back to say i'm IN the office and i ALWAYS MESS UP. and it's lovely that we sit in cubes so everyone can enjoy hearing me mess up and record over and over again. by the third re-do, i'm pretty embarrassed. =P

and i'm really irritable right now. i just deleted a bunch of ranting because i need to be in a better mood when i see eric tonight. everyone say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to him!!!

now everyone say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to J!!!

it's official. this is the last season of buffy. =O!!! can'tmissanyepisodesmusttapetherestoftheseason.

for my die-hard buffy fans in the detroit area: 4pm saturday march 8. that's the next one. and it's new. and it's not on next tuesday cuz you're gonna be watching me and eric and chrissy and conehead at the pistons game. yes you are. =)

so my two full months of slacking are about to end....

now.

say hi to my away message.

it DUMPED snow today. oh yes. it did. eric and i drove through inches and inches and inches of snow from east lansing while complete PSYCHOS whizzed by us at speeds certain to bring some unfortunate yet completely (okay, maybe not completely, but definitely somewhat) preventable doom. no wonder why you find so many people in ditches when it snows. they're STUPID. okay, not all of them. of course road conditions make spin outs inevitable BUT!! there are precautionary measures that can be taken, aka DRIVING CAREFULLY and at speeds where you actually have control of your car. it scared me how many people were driving so fast....what if they're need to speed along in the snow ends up being the reason that someone DIES? it's too much of a chance for 15 mph faster to your destination. senseless. stupid. dumb dumb dumb. so drive safe, please. thanks.

i have to go to milwaukee on monday. what the heck is in milwaukee? someone? i feel that i know someone who lived in wisconsin....james? victor? someone in california, i feel. it's a half hour away from the slopes we visited when we went to visit porta...but i don't trust airport people with my snowboard. hmm. they make beer there, yes? except i don't drink beer normally. i hate going to places where i don't know people. i like it when people can just take me to places to eat and shop. no decisiveness necessary. i think i would have eaten mcdonald's twice in one day if ac didn't take me to old spaghetti factory in oakland. that would have been really gross to eat mcdonald's twice in one day. maybe i'll just look up places around milwaukee for the rest of the afternoon.....since, you know, i've been oh so productive this morning accomplishing absolutely nothing. =P i hate having to bill time. you can only do creative timesheets for so long before you have to start showing something for it....

i totally forgot. i don't have a links thingy anymore so i can't add....but AC has a blog. =D george and i got him to start using the one he started a while back. go see him.

today is one of those days where i am just really fast at peeling an orange. i tried to get the entire peel off in one piece like conehead and chrissy, but couldn't...but i was still fast. and i managed to get the stem part thingy out while still attached to the peel so it was easier to open the orange. and can someone explain the mini orange inside? am i supposed to eat that?

yOOOOO!

the countdown begins....vegas in ONE month exactly.

happy valentines day all!!!

i've never flown southwest before. i always thought of it as a substandard airline. (i don't know why...i have no basis for that conclusion.) but!! did you know that they have 6 sets of rows facing each other, like on a train? wouldn't that be the best if you're traveling with 5 of your friends? perhaps i speak too soon....because on the way from nashville pretty much the whole plane got off except for me and 6 other people and only 25 more people came on to continue on to oakland. ??!!!!!!!! YESSSS!!! *arm pump* we each had two whole rows each!!! how great is that on a long flight? of course, that's rare and will probably never ever happen to me again and for all i know every single subsequent southwest flight i take will be late or horribly crowded or will lose my luggage. but let's not think about that and think about how i got to sleep laying down all the way to california. makes up for the smelly guy that sat at the end of my row on the way to nashville and the guy that kept ripping farts after he drank 4 beers and ate a turkey sandwich. GROSS!!....why do i always get stuck next to stinky people?

are you neurotic? sometimes i feel like i'm neurotic cuz i tend to double and triple check things are done....but then i don't know if i'm neurotic or straight up memento. it starts with waking up. i NEVER hear my alarm. ever. and lately i've been setting four. yes. 4. all different. and yet..i wake up an hour and a half after the last alarm, never having heard it and, sure enough, all alarms have been manually turned off. and locking my car door. i don't ever remember doing it, but i always have to unlock it when i go to leave. everytime i step into a building: "did i lock my doors?" huh. maybe it's more second nature than forgetfulness. if it stopped with missed alarms and door locking, i wouldn't worry so much. but at work i forget if i've made phone calls or looked something up. (this is why post-its are your friend.) or maybe i just don't pay enough attention. when people give me information at work, it sticks for like a second...then woooooooo.....byebye. forgotten. again i go to ask the stupid question. and again..post-its are your friend. i don't know how i can remember all these stupid little facts and not remember stuff that just happened. seriously...it's like memento. is that a real disease??

i just walked by the men's bathroom and i heard people talking.

??!!??

do guys speak to each other while they pee? what is this? this is new to me. i would assume it would be pretty awkward....i know girls do it, but we have stalls...and anyway, i find it uncomfortable and awkward. you have to ask yourself...do you stop speaking when you start to pee or do you just go on talking like you aren't even doing it? hmm.

i'm doing everything possible to avoid work. for some reason it took me all morning to get my expense report finished. i'm exceptionally slow today. jet lagged, perhaps? yes. that will be my excuse. good news is that i'm finally gonna get reimbursed for that review course i took to pass the FE. woohoo!! it's funny how even though you spend your own money for work, you feel like you get extra free money in your paycheck when you get reimbursed. why is that?

oh and why do i want to be watching mscl right now? i think i need to purchase the dvd set.

weekend truths:

1. in nice weather it is essential to have a convertible.

2. the wings at hooters really are the reason why people go.

3. the first row behind first class is the best place to sit on the plane (unless you've got mad flow, then,of course, you'd be sitting in first class.)

4. working from home is the greatest concept ever created.

crazygoodtime in sd...you can look at jon's pictures and see...happy birthday nancy...thanks okb for sheltering me this week. =)

ahh..the daily afternoon debate: do i go home now that it's five? or do i stay because i woke up at 8:30 and didn't get in until 10?

it's like the daily morning debate: should i call in sick?

raise your hand if you're with me.

on one hand i feel really bad about coming in late and not working a whole day. but then i think about all those nights i was up til 3 am finishing reports because of impossible deadlines and i think, "ARE YOU CRAZY?! GO HOME!" my work ethic fluctuates so much, and i can't decide if i want to be a diligent little worker bee or just do enough to make people think i'm the diligent little worker bee and barely get by. but then is my "get by" work ethic more than what people expect and if so, should that be enough for me?

it was 20 degrees outside today. it's practically spring! =P

i, too, am too lazy to write about superbowl at the cheungs except to say that it was the usual time...lots of laughing, too much food.....i'll follow chrissy's lead and defer to the link.

oh baby. guess whose work is sending her to sd......

=D

okay, fung beat me to it. team chaos is so fun and she definitely scored her first goal today. conehead's next. she still has to make up for missing last week's game. and people! can i just say that pandemonium begins one week from sunday?!!! dang. you know you want to be in michigan, too. ;D makes you appreciate 20 degree weather.

what is wrong with me? i cannot get myself to do work. none! at all!! i don't wanna do it. nope. don't wanna. left work early friday, didn't come in yesterday, came in late today, ate lunch for two hours with martin...i'm definitely setting myself up to be a bad employee. and here i am blogging! ugh. and you know what? i'm still leaving at five. i'm sure it'll pass in about a minute when everyone decides to dump work on me at the same time. i suppose i'm taking advantage of the fact that i'm not that busy, since i complain so much about how busy i get. but i hate this feeling of not wanting to do anything except sleep and bum. i also hate the fact that i smell like subway because me and martin were there for so long. i don't know if food odors just stick to me more than most people or if i'm just really sensitive to food smells on my clothes. i am pretty paranoid about offending people in because i smell like food. that would be my mom and my aunt's fault for always cooking fish right before we went out with friends.

vegas will get me through this. 7 weeks til vegas. in the meantime...back to work.

just spent the entire day alternating between eating and falling asleep to dvds. we need more days like this.

soccer was way fun last night. battle scar on left quad bigger than my hand with imprints of the ball seams bruised into the middle of it....SO worth the fun. we tied, but we tied it good. p.s. we missed you yesterday, conehead!!!! next week you're scoring to make up for it. deal?

fung and i are doing math problems right now. it's fun. math is fun. we should all do math.

"mathematics is a game of patterns. find the pattern and you've got the key."

i learned that quote in my 7th grade algebra class.

i am a pack rat. but i've been getting better. a few years ago i finally threw away some notes from high school. and not like class notes. i'm talking notes like the ones your friends would leave for you in your locker of pass to you in class. four years of them. WHY would i keep those? and i used to keep all the flowers i got whenever i did a show and all the one's eric used to give me which got to be a lot, so i had to get rid of them. it was getting ridiculous...i didn't have room for my shoes in my closet. but i found all my old yearbooks from junior high and grade school. it's so funny the stuff that people write....let's reminisce:

"a.s.s."
"k.i.t."
"g.l.w.t.g."
"l.y.l.a.s."

remember when so much meaning dwelled in whether you wrote "luv" or "love" or drew a heart? especially if it was to/from someone of the opposite sex. heehee. in grade school it used to be a contest to see who could get the most autographs. so silly. it is interesting though when people write really nice things in your yearbook when you didn't even think they noticed you ever. and then when you read those really long messages from your "best" friend(s) at the time who you don't really talk to anymore, but at one point in time you shared everything with. it's funny how fast time moves you through relationships.

i think i'm getting all nostalgic because 1) me, eric, ryan, and lorie were all looking through my family's old pictures last weekend and 2) because it feels like life is moving forward to the next stage very very quickly and i'm either a) trying to get it to slow down by revisiting the past or b) recalling how i got to where i am now and all the madness that i went through to get here. probably both. plus it's fun (and funny) to look at old stuff. so it's not such a bad thing that i'm a pack rat.

at last.

things have slowed down at work.

doh. manager just walked in. i suck. it's very valuable to have your task bar hidden when speaking to multiple people on im. happy tuesday!

oh. and for the record. pandemonium is about to ensue. whoaaaa...watch out! ;D

there is a pen monster living in my cube. yes. pen monster. as in best friend of the sock monster that lives in the dryer.

man.

that's the fourth pen this week and tuesday's not even over.

soreness. the second time in two weeks. it hurts to laugh. and to move my legs. after long periods of sitting it's quite painful to move anything but my arms and head. soccer hurts when you're out of shape.

but it's the good hurt. and tomorrow morning i get to sleep in. WOOHOO!!!!

i hope everyone had a happy new years celebration. it was pretty low key in the heights. ha. we did way more than we've ever done in six days. i've seen conehad and chrissy every day since last thursday. ?!?!?!?! i guess james has to come out to michigan for eric, chrissy, conehead and i to all hang out together. dare i say i'm sick of seeing them? ha. no way!!! heehee...it's like it's the beginning of regular hanging out. heehee!!! i must say that gambling is WAY more fun in the comfort of someone's home. it really is embarrassing to have everyone hate you at the craps table cuz you have no skills at rolling dice. sheesh, ERIC. way to go. =P

i was totally in a commercial today. they were playing that just breathe song on the radio while i was zooming by people on the freeway today. i left it on for like 30 seconds before i couldn't stand the ridiculousness of me driving to that song. just silly.

i have been overcome with the idon'twanna syndrome.

again.

i want to just sit. and be. you can come be with me. we can do nothing.

no work. no christmas shopping. no laundry. no hole of a car to clean out. i want people to blog so i can quit reading the same entries day after day. i want someone to post on pink mic so i can marvel at their lyrical genius. i want peace on earth and good will towards men. but really, if you can just stop the world so i can be, that would be good too.

okay.

from my perspective, gambling is only fun if

a) you're winning
b) it's not your money you're losing or
c) it's completely fake money but you're friends are so cool and into it that it might as well BE real money.

i love being the house watching my friends scream for numbers and watching conehead sneakily (and smartly) pulling away when alvin presses the field while eric goes all in and porta loses his condo and martin hides chips in his pocket so he doesn't lose fake money and lynnchen promises she'll gamble in vegas in march. =)

been out of commission for the last couple days. my office manager knows that i'm on drugs and lots of pain so OF COURSE he has someone call me yesterday to bug me to do work that he failed to tell anyone he wanted it two days ago. wanted. not needed. see, it's not so much that i mind it when people call me and i'm sick. if they need work from me, then of course i'll do my best to get it to them. BUT! why bother me if you know that you won't need it until i'm gonna be back????? WHY?!! it amazes me that people get promoted to senior positions without any common sense. i mean, really....all ya gotta do is work that brain for a second (aka THINK) and people won't hate you. as much. ha.

anyway..drugs are definitely kicking in. painkillers = good. =) i wish they would invent de-swelling drugs. i look like i gained a hundred pounds. my manager told me today that i look like a completely different person. gee. thanks. just what i needed. while true, didn't need the reinforcement. =P

happy friday!!

note to self: snowboarding with skiers is not as fun as snowboarding with snowboarders.

p.s. you take forever to strap in.

p.p.s. make sure the next pair of bindings you buy won't snap when it's super duper cold.

why is it that when there's a HUGE flock of birds following each other around too close to your head or your vehicle that it's frightening? i think i was traumatized by all the birds on church street and washtenaw and in front of angell hall. the fear of getting pooped on is pretty big. and the grossness of walking on the bird poop is even worse. ewewewewew. (btw--did you know that excessive amounts of bird crap is potentially being considered as a biohazard in the environmental field?) anyway..i only bring it up because i felt like i was under attack today as i was leaving the office. when there's too many birds that they look like flies or they look like leaves on barren trees..it's a scary thing.

on monday the radio guy on wwj newsradio 950 had a message to everyone that was afraid to drive in the snow: STAY HOME.

i will echo his sentiments with a p.s.: just because there's snow on the grass doesn't mean you have to drive like there's snow on the road. thank you.

ever get an eyelash under your contact? how can something so little cause so much pain???

wow. i feel bitter. work is getting the better of me. i'm gonna work on that.

i've eaten myself stupid. why is it so hard to stop eating at holiday dinners? ugh. it's like your stomach stretches to preposterous proportions to accomodate the ridiculous amount of good food accessible to you on one single table. fooood coommmaaaa...

p.s. eric changed his blogger url again. www.humanamoeba.com

i smell!!! yuck!!!

waste oil and hazardous waste smell are clinging to my clothes and my hair and my shoes and my socks. i cannot escape it. and i was seriously only around it for less than 5 minutes. the same song that was playing when i got out of my car was still playing when i got back in. ugh. i hope my car doesn't perpetually smell of grossness. yuck yuck yuck yuck yuck!! someone hook me with the febreze...

p.s. HAPPY THANKSGIVING!! have a safe and happy weekend. =D

for the record: lorie made the best spinach artichoke dip EVER on saturday. EVER. oh. and you know those commercials that ask what can you get for a dollar these days? ask any guy kickin' rhymes this past weekend....hehehe. and all for a dollar? practically priceless.

you know what's GREAT?

when they put up orange barrels and cones on the freeway so that only one freaking lane is open to back up traffic and not one person or vehicle is present to do any work.

grrrrrr. common sense isn't too much to ask for is it?

and i'm gonna quit complaining right.....

now.

i have a new laptop. and it's great. and it's fast. and it comes with a mouse without a roller ball. and a scroll!! don't take your mouse scrollers for granted!!!! and a burner. and administrator priveleges. =D this is a good thing.

hmm..still sleepy...still working....i wish i could blog about something else but that's all i know right now. nashville is a cool city....lots of friendly people and definitely colder than i wanted it to be. i thought it was supposed to be part of the south. south does not equate with cold. i need to be not at work. or with work people. i need to hang out with my friends. they inspire me. and make me think of not work. =) they definitely make me smile. chances are, if you're reading this, you make me smile. so rescue me, please. i have to work now.

is it just me or does it really suck to drive behind a car that's bigger than yours? perhaps that's why i like to drive so fast. all the cars are bigger.

p.s. i just caught myself up with the morning session of yesterday's eternal chat. steve killed me??!!! what the heck?!!

still.

working.

this sucks.

big boo and two thumbs down.

i feel that i should blog but i don't really have anything to blog about because, really, all i've been doing is working. what kind of a life is this? yuck. i stopped working long enough last night to catch up with an old friend who i haven't seen since before graduation and to meet up with dinner buddy at barnes and noble to "work" while she "studied". ha. we play the part really well. we pulled out our papers and everything. and then we talked for two hours. dangit.

another failed attempt to be productive.

it was funny, tho', because in the middle of one of the conversations we had, i stopped and thought to myself "what a great thing to blog about". and of course i don't remember so here you are reading about how i can't remember. to be completely random, it was really nice outside today. 60 degrees and sunny. and i've confirmed that people automatically drive infinitely more retarded when it's nice out. anyway...i think i'll go to bed now. i emailed myself the wrong stuff to for work, so now i have to go into the office early tomorrow. YUCK. like it isn't bad enough that i have to work on a saturday.

i am obsessed with hand lotion. i must have properly conditioned hands, otherwise...the day is bad. my world is wrong. i can't really function properly if my hands are dry. i can't think, can't concentrate...i wonder if this is an extension of my lip balm complex. this girl at my work introduced me to that new vaseline hand lotion...hand essentials or something. the one with the pink cap and the commercial with all the hands. it's GREAT. it even smells good, but isn't too overpowering like the lotions from bath and body works and victoria secret. still feminine, tho'..so it's not so good for a guy. the pink cap kinda ruins it for you anyway. ;D

why am i up?!! it is so late and i have to go to pilates at 9am!!! what the heck am i doing? look at what you've done to me, jon. must....sleep.....need....sleep.....sleep....good. =P

did you guys see the snow today? yes it was snow. flurries are snow. leave me alone. we going snowboarding harry potter weekend. (i hope i hope i hope.)

do you know ariel? you can visit him now. =)

happy halloween!!!

christmas decorations have been up at the department stores since last month. !!??!! last month we were still having 80 degree weather. and it's not even halloween (well, i gues now it's practically halloween) and there are christmas decorations!! what happened to fall? pretty leaves, cider mills, etc...it's like the stores are pressuring us to be in winter mindset. i don't like being rushed into winter. i rather enjoy the fall...it's so pretty and it's sweater weather!! that's the best. and when winter comes around it's cloudy a lot and that makes it harder to get out of bed. i heard denver got a foot of snow last night. that's how it should be. if it's gonna be cold, there better be snow. i've said that before. =\ flurries are expected tomorrow. if anything...maybe we'll get a decent snowboarding season this year. none of that 50 degree stuff.

isn't it funny how you can go on and on about the weather? haha. i mean, there must be a reason why people use it as the subject of small talke. or maybe that's just me.

8 hour exam = self-induced torture + smelly guy behind me exuding foul b.o. = unbearable torture. don't do it. never want to do it again but probably will have to due to stupidness. ever not figured out half the test and just filled in "c" all the way down? yeah. not me. but i did on saturday. i really did not care. i just wanted to leave. anyway..i have three statements, truths if you will, on my weekend revelations...

1. olivia is the cutest thing in the world. ridiculously cute. she should not be allowed.

2. my mom is a damn good cook.

3. i have the happiest jack-o-lantern in the world. =D

the hardest thing to do in the day is to get out of bed.

if it's 35 degrees outside and the chill is entering your bedroom through your non-efficient windows, the best thing EVER is jumping back into bed with the comforter where it's all warm and cozy. how can we possibly be expected to get out of bed when it's cold out? and again anticipating freezing when you get out of the shower. *shiver* mornings are not for me.

i love sleep.

i know why no one comments on lorie's page!!! they don't work. fix it, bro. i'm trying to leave random banter for my girl. ;)

they like me!! woohoo! my managers reviewed me and they think i'm cool...so yay!! =)

(doh. one of them just walked in on me typing this. bad. haha.)

stackhouse is returning to the palace tonight with michael jordan!! i soooo wish i could be there. =P boo on studying. study schmudy, right? argh. i really should pass this exam. i'll feel like such a retard if i don't. therefore, no game. pray for me, please. i need it. and if possible, please send all your math, science and engineering knowledge telepathically to me, too. that would be extremely helpful and time-saving. thank you. =)

it's still monday.

the longest day of my life.

work completely kicked my ass today and i don't know if it's because i just haven't slept in the last couple weeks. but my ass was completely kicked and continues to be kicked cuz i still have work to do (and that studying thing)....except now i'm at eric's and i can do my work in the company of beauty and the beast. =D i wonder when it is that you can joyfully bear your crosses. lose the bitterness. like invite all the bad and displeasing stuff into your life with a smile because you know that when it's all said and done, you will be a better person. so i'm gonna start trying.

dear work, bring it on.

it's really funny listening to other people's conversations when you work in cubicles. it's sooo not private and even the people with private offices talk loud enough for me to hear their conversations. clearly. everyone in my office tends to speak loudly. so everyone knows everyone else's business. i wonder if they listen to my conversations. i think people would think i'm a retard if they do...haha...especially if they catch me talking to bunso, which is pretty often cuz sometimes/oftentimes i get bored and call her cuz i miss that little girl like crazy. hehe. i hate it when i have to call people and be all professional cuz i think i sound pretty stupid...i generally can't speak. agh. i'm getting better at it, tho'...i'm beginning to get over the caring if the other person thinks you're a dumbass and just get the information you need no matter how much you stutter. =P then that feeling of dread in the pit of your stomach before you have to call someone isn't as noticeable.

there are gross coffee (????) stains on the bottled water dispenser. people!! it's a water dispenser. gross. what're coffee-like stains doing near the nozzle waiting to contaminate my water? isn't that the whole point of having bottled water?

i'm still recovering from the weekend. i woke up super late today and strolled into work around quarter to ten. then the boss asks me to take a report to gm troy for him (which is 6 miles from my house) but it needs to get there by four. so i leave at three. eleven twelve one two three. 5 hours minus twenty that i took for lunch. i'm such a slacker. i'm skipping class right now, too. what's wrong with me? i'm gonna go study my hardest so i can make up for my laziness...tho' my hardest still might not be enough...=\

back to work. boo.

didn't get jamba juice (doh!--forgot) but did get fish tacos. did get to watch the culture shock show (yay!). did get to hang out with james, jon, hong, and victor. did stay up all night talking with hong, jon, and james. (well..hong didn't make it and jon almost made it all night. me and james are troopers.) did get to see james' new (kinda) place and hong's finished place. did put faces and real names to three more people on the hyperwest portal. oh yeah..and i did work. i got to know the 405 pretty well--we're old friends now--in my rental car with autostick. that was kinda neat but lame at the same time. it's just not the same without a clutch. AND i've discovered how wonderful handsfree sets are for cell phones and how much i LOVE talking on them.

i feel like i was in california for a minute but while i was there it felt like i was always there. does that make sense? it was just really nice to hang out, catch up, whatever...there really is nothing better than sitting around a table all night and talking about everything and nothing and just being. i'm smiley cuz i love my friends. =) we all need to get jobs that let us travel for free to visit each other. got it, guys?

travel between michigan/chicago, new york, and southern california are absolutely required for job.

feel free to cut and paste to your objective line in your resume.

*oh yeah..and i don't know if people caught it, but please note that eric's blogger url changed.

i will refrain from ranting on and on about annoying and socially moronic insensitive project managers and focus on happier things.

me go to california tomorrow. =) me no see dumb pm for 4 days. =) =)

i was all pukey yesterday cuz i had bad taco bell. yuck. so, sorry, martin..we're gonna have to find a new lunch spot cuz it'll be a while before i return there if ever. gross. aside from being pukey and dumb pm's.....i sat back in my chair today and smiled a content smile because i feel that the people around me are pretty happy. not everyone, of course, but things are looking up for a lot of people and isn't that what you want for the people you care about? and when things are going well for people i feel that everyone in general exudes a more positive attitude. i dunno.

maybe i spoke too soon.

i think about it again and it seems that when one half of your life is going fantastically, the other half is blah...or worse than blah...maybe even horrible. why is that? maybe i'm delirious. i'm pretty tired....i don't know how people work 12 hour days. what are those people eating and how do they get enough sleep? it's seems an unhappy lifestyle cuz that would be your life. yeah..definitely starting to ramble. night night....

people. it's back. the return of the human amoeba.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DINNERFRIENDSOMETIMESSTUDYBUDDY!! =)

and HAPPY BELATED TO DEEEPEEEMAAAAAA!!!

hope you kiddos have/had fabulous days!!

i showed up at eric's today for our every-other-weekly upper room meeting in a funk. i was happy inside cuz martin came out to the heights...but--ugh. what a horrible day. i spent 3, count 'em THREE, hours getting home today in horrible horrible horrible traffic to get reports to two different clients all because i work with a project manager that "would really like it if it could get to the client today". =P BITE ME. it'd be different if it were my fault that the report was finished so late in the day but it most definitely was not, so there. add three hours of moving 20 mph and rain and there's me, in a foul mood. i couldn't even will a smile. christmas music couldn't even help. =(

ha. and the topic of the day: patience. how appropriate.

BUT...as always, my upper room buddies lifted me up and afterwards lorie and ny came out to chill because we never see them. i woke them from deep sleep to get them to hang out. woohoo!! =D and then i received the GREATEST thing EVER but won't tell you about because i can do that. hehehe. and now the hum of conversation of my wonderful friends goes on behind me. i love quality time with friends. we need more quality time with friends, agree?

aim keeps kicking me off and my computer is moving at the speed of a big fat snail again. i feel like i'm on a connection worse than dial-up. argh. (haha...and yet...i manage to get to blogger.)

it's october and it's still pretty warm. like summer warm. i hope this doesn't mean we're gonna get a lack of snow this winter. i plan on boarding way more up north this year where they actually have snow and runs not built over landfills. or over in k'zoo...at least they have decent snow. and lorie will still be there (yay!!) so then she'll HAVE to go boarding with us. i have to start saving my pennies!! i can't believe i'm going to cali before christmas. i'm not quite over it. i dont' know if i will be since i only have a week to get over it but then i'll be there. =D eeek!!

oh yes. i am giddy.

guess who's west coast bound next thursday. on the office bill.

it is a GREAT day! =) =)

if louis was bigger than caleb (10lbs. 12oz.)....

someone tell me how big louis was when he was born and how his poor mother is able to walk. ouch!

no wonder why the stork idea is so appealing.

it's monday. let's hope this week goes by quickly. a four day weekend wasn't quite long enough. ha.

i forgot how much you can get done when nobody is around. take this morning, for instance. i show up on time, so of course there are only a few people in the office....so productive! amazing. and this weekend everyone was busy except me. it was me, the tv, my laundry, and, oh yes, even my books. i know. it was a crazy saturday night.

ooh..and my cousin's wife had thier baby. get this: 10 lbs. 12 oz. WHOA. that's a big baby. he's sooo cute and sooo fat! heehee!! such a joy. makes me smile big smiles. =D

hours of pain so excruciating not even super motrin could help. and even worse was that it wasn't the kind that would knock you out..instead it would keep you on that line between wanting to vomit out your insides or just die. ugh.

boys, respect your mothers and your sisters and your girlfriends and your girls who are friends. it's not a game.

i knew it!!! dinner friend and i were progressing into temporary study friends but nooooo she had to go run off to california. i totally forgot. for work she says. HA. to SKIP work is more like it. ;D how am i supposed to study by myself? i need to feel that i'm not the only one who has to study after a long day of work when all i want to do is sleep. ahhh...sleep. i love sleeping. i wish there was some way to spend quality time with people while sleeping. hahahahahaha....

4 weeks of studying attempts left. i NEED to pass this exam.

you know those tasks that you dread doing so you put it off until the last possible minute? and not because it's super difficult or anything, but you know it might take a little longer because it's gonna require you to actually use your brain and make a conclusion and stick by it. conclusion!--aka a decision based on the information available and your understanding of it. not that i'm super insecure...of course i'm a little insecure...cuz when lawyers get involved with the decisions and you know you're writing something that people are gonna use as an official document and many many many dollars ride on the job...sheesh. the pressure of being correct. and knowing you're correct. how am i supposed to know i'm correct with less than 8 months under my belt? i must have fooled somebody good to be entrusted with this job.......and so i procrastinate...and worry.....just do it, nana...what's wrong with you? ugh.

lesson of the day:

bi-monthly = twice a month, not once every two months.

if ya wanna way "once every two months" then say "once every two months" or "every other month". is there single word for "every other month"? maybe one needs to be invented. any suggestions?

i can't believe it. bunso is no longer a teen. eric met her when she was 12. heehee!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KIMMIE!!!!

that campfire smell would not leave me alone!! it's been two days and many showers later and i still smell campfire.

...and yes, porta, i used soap. sheesh. =P

and for some reason i can only smell it when i'm sitting at my computer. what the --??

picture me at the computer....right hand on mouse, left hand on my head in frustration as a stare at my monitor and will my computer to move faster than an apple IIG. and then that smell!!!!

i'm so dumb.

did you know that baby-g watches retain campfire smell really really well?

i meant to get to work early. if not early, on time. really, i did.

and i meant to get a lot done this morning. get a whole phase of a project out of the way. i swear i did.

and now it's almost lunchtime and the end of an utterly disappointing and unproductive morning.

*sigh*

what's wrong with me? can i just crawl back under the covers? i'm content (and honored) sitting in the royal court of blogelot. =)

coming soon compliments of pogiboy.com and superlum.com.....

www.nanaba.com.

wheeeee!!!!! =) i'm a dot com now, too. thanks, guys!!!

i listened to christmas carols on my way home from work today. makes me smile!!! =)

don't you hate when everything seems to be going....not so much wrong, but definitely NOT right.

i feel disapointed and sad. not super sad or anything...but my heart is frowning.=\

and for the record, my arms were the official feasting site for mosquitoes in southeast michigan today. between this last site visit (think thick thick woods and vast fields--38 acres to be exact-- of ragweed) and world youth day, i am oh so ready for camping this weekend. bring it on, baby.

somehow i managed to get mosquito bites (note: biteS) above my knee through my jeans yesterday. it's like they feasted. gross. i hate itching. i think it's funny how some people are so paranoid about getting west nile....i admit that i freaked out at first cuz people in almost every state died from it, but then it was always people with weak immune systems--children, elderly, etc...so it would actually be better for people our age to get it cuz we're generally healthy and could fight it off and develop the antivirus or antibodies or whatever it is you make to be immune from it forever to pass it on to your kids, thus ending the west nile virus. blah.

happy belated to george and jon!! =)

i wonder if it's weird to call someone up on your birthday to wish them a happy birthday and receive a "you, too!" on the other end. huh. if i knew michael jackson, i could do that.

ahhh...friday. =)

why did this week seem so long? and it was a short week...i hope i'm not getting bored. i fear that i'm one of those restless people that can't stay at a job for too long cuz the novelty wears off and it becomes old and then you become antsy after 6 months to a year. maybe i need to get on those guitar lessons. or just dance more. i'm sooo excited to start hiphop classes...eric got them for me for my birthday (thanks, baby!) and him and martin are taking them, too. woohoo!! we're practically a dance group again. and to reciprocate martin's sentiments....i LOVE having lunch with martin. =) it's so nice to have a good friend to chill with in the middle of the day to escape work for an hour (or two...hahaha). and it's good when your friend gets your money back for contaminated taco bell.

happy birthday to gary g!!!

today is sneeze-the-most-times-you've-ever-sneezed-in-your-life-day. sucks cuz i've spent the day sniffling and barely breathing, but! i did get that feeling of utter satisfaction after relieving that itch in my nose that will only go away with a great big ACHOO! (and must consequently be celebrated with a "woo!" as demonstrated by alvin) at least a hundred times today. i need to find my zertec.

p.s. kelly clarkson, you go girl! thanks for saving me from shooting myself in the foot if justin actually beat you. and yes, i am a loser and have already downloaded the live version of your first single.

slacking off.

let's talk about it.

i've been doing it since i've gotten back from vacation. i think, technically, that i'm still on vacation. i just watched office space this past weekend..and i totally felt like that dude....like in the last two weeks since i've been back from europe i've done like one day's worth of real productive billable work. and it's not like my manager cares that much cuz he's pretty much got a who-cares?-attitude himself. what to do what to do..why is it that we don't get to be super productive til the deadlines approach? and of course once the deadlines are around the corner, you get dumped on with all this other work that needed to be done yesterday.

*sigh.*

someone motivate me, please.

hey, guys...remember prince? remember his dancers diamond and pearl?

this one's for my die-hard buffy fans: check out pearl. or should i say.....miss calendar????? =O

yes way.

thank you EEEVVVEERRRYYYOOONNNEE for your birthday wishes!! =D

*big hugs all around*

love you guys.

JON YANG IS THE MAN.

thank you thank you thank you for my new page!! i love it!!

guess what i'm doing. PLAYING HOOKY!!! woohoo!!

my day-long site visit turned into a short morning visit and an early lunch....
and people at work don't expect me back....
so woohoo!!!

and since i'm already home, i figure i'll skip class cuz i don't want to go ALL the way back to southfield in rush hour traffic. =)

irregardless.

it's not a word!!! irrespective is a word. but not irregardles. check it out.

just like supposably. that's not a word either.

i totally just spent the last hour and a half trying to get through to vote for kelly. and i did. ha. i'm obsessed and i don't care.

cleaning the rollers on the inside of your mouse does wonders for its performance. it feels like i have an infinitely faster computer!

the clock on my desk that wasn't tick-tocking a minute ago is now tick-tocking. what the hell???

since martin has no comment box yet, i must comment here on the enormous accomplishment it is to actually get a coin on those little platforms in the water thingie at taco bell. woohoo!! personally, i feel the taco bell people should have given martin any free thing he wanted since he's such a good customer and on a first name basis with the employees. haha...way to go, martin!!! and since we're celebrating, happy birthday (one day belated), james!! and happy first anniversary, g and mads!! =)

how necessary is it to actually do work when everyone else in your group is absent? i've been here for an hour and a half and haven't done a darn thing. i lie. i found 5 potential foyer tables for my mom. sooooo bored!!! someone im me, please! fung is apparently too busy to recieve my random banter cuz her away message is up. i kinda hope no one shows up so i can sneak out early. heehee...then i can find a pretty cake for g and mad's first anniversary. =P

i found out yesterday that i have spend my birthday at a site and then spend the evening in a three-hour review class for the first exam that i have to pass to be a licensed professional engineer. it's like a pre-boards exam you have to take before you take the actual boards. yuck. this whole working on my birthday is a new thing to me. i did it last year for the first time and i didn't tell anyone at work that it was my birthday. i felt so alone. and now i have to spend my birthday looking at stormwater sewers with a bunch of strangers. i think maybe i've been too spoiled on my birthdays in the past....

today is a very sloooooow day. hence, i blog for the 4th time before lunch.

dinner friend got me a calendar last christmas that lists 5 things to be happy about each day. yesterday's included a white shirt and khakis and beautiful thimbles. hmm...i'm not really sure why i should be happy about clothes as dull as a white shirt and khakis (think de la salle) and i'm not sure i've ever been taught to appreciate a thimble in any form. i didn't even know they make decorative ones. do kids these days even know what a thimble's for?

people!! guess what me and chrissy got martin to do....

alvin just told me that tamyra got booted off american idol.

i'm in shock. this is so so so wrong. if justin wins then the entire thing it proves that the voting pool is a bunch of retards.

the question of the day: where is everybody?

i swear there's only three cars in the parking lot. figures. the day i get in at 7:30 (yes, 7:30 am, you can close your mouth now) there's no one here to witness it. i must say the good thing about being jet lagged is that waking up isn't as rough cuz it feels like noon and not 6am....so this is what it's like to be a morning person....;D

it's so nice that i'm not bombarded with work after being gone for a week and a half. i was expecting a bunch of emails and voicemails saying that all these things went wrong and this client didn't get this and that person needed that thing on my desk that wasn't there...

but all is well. and things are kinda slow so i'm just chillin' and catching up on your blogs with my cheez-its and coke. coke tastes different here than it did in italy. hmm. and cheez-its are the greatest food to me right now. all i could think about on my way to work was the cheez-its in my desk. haha.

europe was AMAZING. my brain is on overload with everything i saw....but i took lots of pictures so i could remember some of them. the whole time i was wishing 2 things: 1) that i had taken a photography class at some point in my life so that i could do the views justice and 2) that i knew how to speak more than just english and small tagalog and spanish phrases. ugh. i didn't think my spanish was that bad, but it didn't matter anyway cuz they speak catalonian in barcelona. =P and all we ate was tapas in spain..at first it was exciting but then i started to wonder what else they had cuz every place had tapas. and those sandwiches on french baguettes.

but yeah....barcelona, palma de mallorca, cannes, monaco/monte carlo (we were totally in a james bond movie), portofino, florence, and rome.

italy was by far my favorite, but maybe because we spent the most time there. we visited the vatican a couple times and that in itself is worthy of a vacation. forget the colleseum and the roman forum...this is where's it's at. we visited the basilicas where st. peter, st. paul, and st. john the baptist were entombed, and we went through the vatican museum and the sistine chapel. breathtaking. all of it. i think i left a trail of drool everywhere cuz my mouth was hanging open so much. i could spend days and days in every place we went. i wish i could spend a day in an empty sistine chapel just laying on the floor and taking in the walls and the ceiling. i can't imagine growing up in a place like rome...there's just so much history wherever you look, but i can see how it could be taken for granted...and people are just chillin' everywhere. i love it. i must go back. anyone wanna come? of course, porta will be there to give us the guided non-touristy tour of the city...right, porta? =D by the way...i am an expert at riding tour buses. so expert am i that i don't ever want to do it again. hahaha...

it's good to be home. i love my bed.

later, everyone!! i'll be back in a couple weeks...i'll tell europe hi for you. =P

isn't it funny when you roll into work looking like you just woke up...hair in headband, dorky glasses, the clothes you slept in....and everyone sorta jumps back when they take a first look at you. hahaha...i didn't know if i should have laughed or been offended. ahh..new york. i miss everybody. not a spare moment, which is good and bad. it would have been nice to just sit and have some qt with everyone...but everything we did we did together so it's a good time either way. yesterday was a rough day. very rough. well worth it. =)

isn't it funny when the same thing is happening to you and a friend, but neither of you talk about it because it's one of those things that you don't want the other to know because the thoughts that you think regarding the situation are just not thoughts that you would necessarily want anyone to know? or even in denial that the situation is even taking place? hahaha...no one has any idea what i'm talking about. maybe except one. ;D because talking about it becomes inevitable when it goes far enough, no?

hahaha...the whole thing is funny, really. perhaps (very) mildly sweet? maybe i'll tell you if i see you in person. =P

*GASP!!!*

steve has blogged. it's must be a great day.

i found out that the contacts i've been using weren't the right prescription, which would explain the insane headaches i've been having over the last few months. i thought i was just tired and stressed, and not sleeping, enough. nope. the doctor gave me new contacts last night and - voila! - i can see and no headaches. they dilated my pupils, so everything was crazy blurry for most of last night. haha..i couldn't even really see the line where i was supposed to sign off on my insurance. i can see!!!!!

austin powers is pretty funny. i was in a pretty silly mood last night, being blurry-eyed and all, so perhaps that's why i found it so entertaining. so if you're in a funny-haha-silly mood, then go see it. ;D

world youth day. my goodness. it was amazing. there were definite points of misery during the 100 degree heat after walking 7 miles and then some to get to the pilgrimmage site and the being woken up by a thunderstorm (complete with lightning) at 6am in the open field where we had no tent, no umbrella, no poncho, warm clothes or shelter within a mile radius...but more than that, there were soooo many wonderful experiences and blessings that looking back, who cares that i couldn't cool down or that my legs ached so bad i didn't think i'd be able to move them the next day or that it downpoured on us for like 3 hours? walking a mile to the bathroom and seeing groups of 100 people, all from different countries, dancing and singing and praising the Lord...being united in worship with 800,000 people from all over the world was a pretty amazing thing. and watching the blue sky take over the dark clouds as the pope began mass was pretty cool, too. it was vast. i don't know how else to explain it.

it was awesome.

it hasn't even sunk in, how much i took in this weekend. my heart just feels really full and i want so badly for everyone i know how much love there is for them from our God. yeah...ours. =) He is present.

i've always wondered how people can eat the same thing over and over and over again. like my mom. she's completely happy eating leftovers until they're completely gone...but i always thought that that's just what you do when you're a parent. haha. but i was proved wrong when i found out that eric can eat cereal and tuna and turkey sanwiches for his whole life and never get bored. and then there's martin. he is the taco bell king. he could eat taco bell bean burritos every day for lunch and if taco bell burned to the ground, i don't know what he would do. hmm...perhaps there's a simplicity factor that i'm missing.

now i am not a juice drinker. at all.

however...

nantucket nectars has the best orange mango juice. i love it. and it's part orange juice (otherwise yucky on its own) which is a big surprise. perhaps it's the mango. i love mangoes. i'm on a mango kick...i had a mango smoothy in chicago last sunday and it was like eating a mango from the philippines (which those of you that have had mangoes from the philippines know that they are infinitely better than the ones you find at meijers and krogers and, yes, even hillers). maybe this is just a phase cuz it is, after all, summer...and summer means an abundance of fruit that you must take advantage of before the winter months take it all away or make it expensive. i digress. my point my point...hmmm..i guess i don't really have one except that i enjoyed juice today. =)

it's almost 11pm and i still have to finish a report and it must get done tonight. i haven't even done anything since i left work. man..all i want to do is sleep, and i can' t even get 10 minutes of napping in. i hate that in order to succeed you need to make your job your life, and i'm getting a good dose of that and not enjoying it one bit. the people at my work that are higher up are up there because they pull in crazy hours and and spend hardly any time with their families. and i suppose they don't really feel their social life is lacking because they're all friends with each other and then friends with each others' friends. it makes my mind spin, cuz i always had school friends and then my friends friends. always separate. and work is kinda the same. i have work people that i eat lunch with and then i have my friends friends when the work day is over. maybe i'm being suplada. but then people at work are always talking about their fun times when they drink beers and get drunk, and i'm not into drinking beers and getting drunk. i wonder about those people that need to drink beers to have a good time...it's sorta like high school again when drinking beers is like the coolest thing ever. but who knows? i'm just procrastinating.....

argh...i hate hate Hate HATE stupid project managers!!! so mean. it's called COMMUNICATION. that's how you get projects completed effectively and efficiently and still come out a nice guy. but don't ask me, cuz i'm the stupid junior engineer you can blame it on, right?? i need help. ugh.

i'm in the i'm-so-tired-my-world-is-literally-spinning-mode.

note to self: must find a way to minimize driving and take advantage of carpooling (aka me not driving, hehe).
translated: move closer to work or work closer to home.

the next month or so of weekends is gonna absolutely kick my ass. i can't wait. but i'll probably hop on jeyi's i-hate-mondays-bus pretty soon.

the big world is still very small: eric goes to college and becomes roommates with porta who moves to chicago and plays soccer and makes a good friend named rico who is really good friends from college with janet who i happened to grow up with playing the piano. and steen and porta are moving two seconds away from each other.

and sydney's place is DOPE. hi, four story condo complete with roof access for building parties. ahh..reminds me of viscount...

word of the day:

perdition. n:

1) entire loss; utter destruction; ruin; esp., the utter loss of the soul or final happiness in a future stat; future misery or eternal death.

2) (Christianity) the abode of satan and the forces of evil; where sinner suffer eternal punishment.

how sad would it be to meet this end in the name of revenge? not worth it. in the end you always have Him.

i've come to terms that it is simply not possible for me to get anything done during the two hours after lunch. i have so much work to do, but i don't want to do it cuz i'm still in the learning process and i hate sucking before getting better. it's uncomfortable. can i just go to sleep? and if not, can i just leave to go to the art fair? it's only 20 minutes away. my stupid office manager is having a mandatory pow-wow for no real or good reason for THREE HOURS today after work. as in until 8:30. YUCK.

i smell like mongolian barbecue. i feel like there's this cloud of mongolian barbecue smell engulfing me and offending everyone i come in contact with. so i'm sorry if i see you today and you have to smell me smelling like mongolian barbecue. i' m going to go home as soon as i can so i can change my clothes and scrub away the smell. =P

boo. i think i just lost my last blog. maaaan....something to the effect that i need my very own karaoke mikes...the ones from the philippines that already has the songs on chips in the mike and hook up to your tv or vcr with a regular pin. and i have to go to bed. i spent most of today watching a walk to remember on dvd. that movie is just so friggin endearing. i love it. i'm a cheeseball and i totally don't care. =P to bed i go..one a.m.!! aghh...

No comments:

how gorgeous is it out today? i love this weather...sunny, warm, slight breeze, no humidity. after yet another failed attempt to have a meal with chrissy i grabbed lunch from chinese food (haha..that's the name of the place!! actually..i just found out it has a real name, but the outside of the store just said chinese food really big.)...anyway...i grabbed lunch and ate at hart plaza on the riverfront. soooo nice out!! the seagulls came a little too close and were a little scary....i was afraid they were gonna try and eat my food. i don't like seagulls. or pigeons. they're like the rodents of the birds. every since that pigeon attacked us during a site inspection. =\ i think i'm gonna go home now. i'm volunteering at the ice cream social at my church tonight. for some reason, it's my favorite thing to volunteer for. i think cuz everyone's so happy cuz their eating ice cream sundaes. =) woohoo..the boss just sent me home. i'm out.

itchyitchymosquitobiteseverywhere.

must..

not...

scratch.

itchy itchy....yuckkkkkk!!

when you have a blog-worthy thought but share it with someone who reads your blog before you get a chance to blog your thought, does that then make the thought un-blog-worthy because it's no longer new and fresh?

i had a thought..and now i completely forgot what it was. don't you hate when that happens? it's like a brief glimmer of genius flashes and vanishes before you can record it. i've lost many eight counts that way. and test points. ha. maybe i'll remember it later.

this is ridiculous. who can work today? and working on friday? forget it. no one's gonna be here. except, of course, my manager who's crazy. not bad crazy but crazy enough to show up on friday to know whether or not i'll be here. and we're having and office bbq today to be followed be a manager's meeting. who's gonna get any work done? =P

happy 4th of july!!

p.s. kimmie seated lindsay (sp?) hunter last night at benihana. exciting, huh? what is it about famous people?

ever try surprising someone but they figure it out and make it blatantly clear that they know what's going on and completely take all the fun out of it? even if some things got slipped, why would you tell the supriser(s) before the event? it's like "hey...i know you probably worked really hard at trying to make this a great thing for me, but i'm gonna tell you that i know to prove that i guessed and i guessed right cuz i love being right". ugh. this is stupid. i suppose i just don't understand why you wouldn't keep it to yourself and turn the surprise around later? does that make sense? anyhow..i guess it's just disappointing when you don't get the reaction you were hoping for...

i'm overwhelmed with the amount of work sitting in front of me right now. it's one of those things where all you want to do is just go back to bed and hope that makes it...i dunno...go away? somehow makes it better if you procrastinate? i think a lot of my anxiety comes from having to call a bunch of people i don't know -- which is really hard for me to do cuz i get shy...i actually have to work up the nerve before calling strangers (even pizza places, haha) -- and then i have to ask these people questions that i only semi understand (for work, not the pizza places). i hate the getting of the experience. it's really uncomfortable.

byebye chrissy and conehead. i lost my dinner friend for the week. i don't know why it feels like so much longer. maybe cuz i can't randomly im her during the day or make the attempt to plan dinner and actually not have one of us cancel. and it's only a week!! haha. hope you guys have fun in china!!

let me just state for the record that jenny tai ranks among the top 10 best girlfriends of all time. eating food made by the same chef that cooked for the kennedys and the president of france and for clinton while he was at the white house and a whole bunch of other famous people was pretty cool. and the food was sooo good. *insert about-to-cry-face here.* so thanks, alvin for having a great girlfriend!! =D

went to the vincent chin 20th year remembrance conference this past weekend. it went really well from a conference perspective, especially considering it was planned in 3 months. lots of big names in civil rights activism and a handful of government reps. very exciting. but i'm definitely not as into it as i was in college..but that's a blog for another day....i get to go to lorie's site this friday for work if i finish the rest of my work. so that's what i'm going to do. hehe..it's like being a kid: "if you finish all your vegetables you can have dessert."

i wonder what it is that makes me feel that one exclamation point just isn't emphatic enough for me.

hi!

it looks so plain and not very emotional.

hi!!!

there..now that is emphatic. and i think it truly conveys my emotion. i can be that happy. or excited. haha..i'm silly..it's friday and i'm leaving work at 4!!!! (see?...there it is.)

go to the vincent chin conference everyone!! it's gonna be really good. i don't care how badly you need to pack to go to shanghai. ;D

i went to a movie as a part young adults outreach/fellowship thing at st. john's last night. we had wine and cheese for refreshments. what?! i mean, st. john's is a nice place, but i was just surprised at the wine and cheese. at a fellowship. i guess i shouldn't have been surprised at a facility that supplies baby bottles of mouthwash and hand lotion for you in the bathrooms.

why i would never be able to be a truck driver:
*my car would be really heavy. heavy car = sloooooooooow very sloooow acceleration = cause traffic = feeling bad for forcing others to drive slow

*tunnel vision would inevitably affect me fatally

*in the worst sleepy situation, even rent can't keep me awake

*spending 3 hours of my day in a car already stinks.

i spent the entire morning driving. i could be in chicago. i still have to drive home. someone get on making teleporting real...

i got dressed this morning in a long-sleeve shirt, took a look at the sun shining and the lack of audible wind (present over the weekend) and decided...it's gonna be hot today, i better change into a short-sleeve shirt and not wear a jacket. wouldn't want to be hot, would i? and now, here i am, 40 miles from my house and it's cold and raining and the only jacket i had in my car was a denim jacket that is not the same color as the jeans i'm wearing. agh...shame on me for not listening to the weather report. so if you see me today, don't make fun, cuz i'm just trying to keep warm.