7/31/06

Heat Rage

First there was road rage…. Now there is heat rage! I don't think this is a specific LA kinda of thing but it is definitely a metro thing. For the last 19 days *and counting* the temperature has been in most of LA over 100 degrees. Coming from a beach city its like we are frying because we are not used to the ridiculous heat. So everyone has been turning on their air conditioner to compensate. Only one problem with that, living in a city with millions of people that doesn't have a power grid to support that much juice flowing causes black outs.

In our household we have only turned on the air twice(!) in the whole summer. Surviving off of fans and popsicles has been our main M.O. Then guess what happens? One of the rolling blackouts hits us. We woke up on Sunday at 5 in the morning when we realized the fan had gone out. We thought it was just us and we walked outside to find out that it was the whole neighborhood. Great! The black-out lasted until late in the afternoon. All of our food went bad, that was fun. Fortunately, we hadn't gone food shopping for the week yet. We stayed out of the house most of the day and went to dinner with Aaron's dad.

For us it was only one day. I've been hearing the news reports and some people have been without it for days. The heat within the office is just getting everyone a little crabbier, but it could be a lot worse.

*Waiting for the winter*

7/29/06

Uneventful

Today was a pretty uneventful day at the office. I got very little sleep last night. I went to the gym and worked out till like 10. I missed the strip tease class. Better luck next week. I did do 30 minutes of cardio and 30 minutes of circuit training. I am gonna go buy new sneakers this week the ones I have are pretty beat. I figure if I can keep myself going at least 2 weeks-3x a week I will get myself a few new workout outfits. I have to give myself some kind of motivation right? One of my co-works was eating a Cliff Bar yesterday and I was talking about Luna Bars. Luna Bars aren’t the best tasting thing but if you are starving it is a good snack replacement. Anyway, so my co-worker offers me a Luna Bar in “Chocolate Peppermint Stick”. I took it and tried it today, OMG never again! That stuff was so gross. I mean seriously chalky chocolate and chemical mint is not a good combination. I only got half of it down and I decided to give up. I finished with an apple instead. Since I was out so late last night at the gym I woke up brain dead this morning *surprising right?*  I could not get my office mojo going. I could not focus. Pathetically I can say I at least wasted 65% of the day. The rest of was spent frazzled. I have no clue what was going on.

I did get one good phone call today. My friend Carol is getting married. She has been engaged since the winter. She has been with David since we were in high school. I can say that she is one of my few friends who didn’t just jump into marriage and is actually taking it seriously. They are getting married in Las Vegas in September. I will be one of the few friends/family that will be attending. Besides being there for a joyous occasion I am also going to party. Aaron and I haven’t been out to Vegas since April 2005. Yeah it’s been a while. I have already started looking at rooms at different hotels. I was aspiring for the Bellagio but alas I cannot justify the cost. Renaissance here we come! I already started looking at dresses at Nordstrom. This isn’t even my wedding but I already have the hotel the dress and the days off! I was talking to one of my co-workers at the other company that we acquired earlier this year. I mentioned to her that my friend was getting married and that it was in Vegas. She gushed about how it was the best thing ever to get married in Vegas. I disagreed with her and told her that “we” had talked about it and thought maybe Australia to get married and honeymoon. She was like “we?” Yeah, did you assume I was single? She was like “No, but maybe more than one.” She then went on to rambling about 20 something. That’s why she has 3 kids from 2 different baby daddies. I have never hidden the fact that I have a significant other. If anything I am sure I have made a couple of people nauseous with how cute we are together. I even heard one of co-workers who saw us over the weekend tell someone else how affectionate we are with each other and that we are genuinely happy. I just assumed with everyone knew, but I guess since they are in a different office they would not know. Strange.










     

7/23/06

Ugly Cars

Let me start off with... it was too damn hot this weekend!

I worked 12 days straight which I haven't done ever. This weekend was something I was looking forward to. I started off Friday with a Tequila lunch. It was kinda bad though going back to work with a full belly and tequila on it. It's 5 o'clock in margaritaville right?

After work on Friday I went and ran a few errands. I got Aaron a membership to 24 Hour so we could go work out at the same time. I got to the gym at South Coast which is full of typical OC broads. So I was walking to my car and I was walking behind this tall pretty brown haired girl. You could tell this girl went to the gym because I will have to admit she had a nice body. Anyway, she was parked closer than I was and I figured she would be walking to some kinda fancy-dancy nice car (again, typical OC) and then I saw her put her keys into an old beat 1980-something Nissan? I was like wtf? I was slightly confused by this... if your car is supposed to represent you do you want that kind of representation? I kind of understand. My first car was a beater too. When I firsted started out in my business I remember being all dressed up for work or going out but it sucked walking to my car. I am going to assume the same for this girl. Fortunately, I got a new car not too far after.

Even with having to go through my first couple of years with my license in an ugly car I still judge. I don't know why. I know I shouldn't. You know what I don't understand? Big guys in little mini trucks. I can understand (and laugh at) little guys in big truck b/c its a compensation thing. I just don't understand why a big guy would squeeze himself into a little truck? Are you trying to play down something? Somebody please explain that to me.

Speaking of ugly cars and things I can go in life without seeing.... I saw my ex. I don't think I have every spoken about him on my blog because well I just don't. The reason for the split - we will leave it at: he's an ex for a reason. Aaron and I went out to dinner at one of our local hang outs that we frequent late at night. We were sitting laughing doing our own thing when there strolls in my ex. Along with his ugly wife/girlfriend/stripper. I know that sounds bitter but this is strictly observational. Seeing him just reaffirmed why I was no longer with him and how miserable I would be had I still been with him. Over the years I have ran into his friends and even they don't have nice things to say about him. For the record, the car I saw him pull up in does represent him. It was old with primer gray spots and a DMV fix it permit. All he was missing was the mullet, b/c he was still wearing the same clothes I bought him 3 years ago.

7/18/06

Before I Forget....

I moved at the beginning of this month. The bf and I moved into his house. We have had our ups and downs but so far so good.

So on the actual moving day... I was sick as a dog I had pinched a nerve in my neck on the way to work earlier that week and had gotten a bad sinus infection and had lost my voice. I had an entourage of 5 people helping me move. Anyone who knew where I lived knows its a pain in the rump I lovingly called "The rat maze". I hadn't packed anything for my move and I didnt want to get out of bed on moving day. Everyone was really helpful and got it all out and going for me.

I left my brother and his friend to their own devices to pack up some of my furniture. My brother couldn't find tape and the found something that looked like tape. It felt like tape minus the sticky part. It could bind like tape. *Authors Note: It was bought as a joke and was brand new*. So yeah my bro and his friend tied up (no pun intended) my nightstand (with Gawd knows what in it) with binding plastic stuff.
Classy right?

This is what I get paid the big bucks for

Over the weekend my company went through an acquisition conversion. No, not the big one where I get the can. This one was for another company we acquired before our acquisition. Dog eat dog right? Anyway, I could have thought of better things to do with my weekend than spend it in the office.

Since we had a lot of down time waiting for stuff to load on systems and let our analysts run around like chickens with their head cut off we could do other things. As everyone knows I have a new love in my life - my smart phone. I have been tinkering with it for about a week now and have been finding new things to add to it. During the week I don't have much time to devote to this kind of thing so doing it over conversion weekend seemed ideal. SEEMED.

I was trying to get a widget for my smart phone so I could blog from my phone. That was one of the main reasons of getting this phone so I could blog, e-mail and text. My e-mail from my outlook is not working correctly, it can receive but it can't send. I can text alright but if I am not careful my phone goes into airplane mode which is retarded. And since my e-mail isn't working correctly I can't blog. And b/c somehow my phone with all the bells and whistles doesn't come with "java" I can't get the widget to work. I wanted to pull my hair out and scream by the end of the day Sunday.

I didn't think fun toys were supposed to be so hard.

And I am not spending another 15 bucks on a Soduko add-on.

Pfft.

I didn't drive 40 miles out of my way for 4 pieces of cheese!

Last night the BF and I went to the screening of one of his last projects. The thing wrapped in October and they had a pretty good wrap party. Open bar - the works. There was even the token Asian kid that couldn’t hold his liquor that called one of the chicks a "MILF."

Anyway, Aaron had worked on the movie for about a month. Crazy hours, so I was pretty anxious to see it. The movie actually didn’t turn out that bad. Well comparatively. I've seen some other shorts he's worked on that have looked like dog poo wiped on a rear-view mirror with bad storylines. This one the story line was actually decent and the photography was pretty good. The lead actress was kind of bad the secondary actress was actually a hell of a lot better. The lead actress should have been a porn star. Very pretty and too fake. That and I think the guys who wrote the story had way too much imagination with the sex scenes. The secondary actress looked like hell on the big screen, but I met her last night and now I blame the hair/make up department. She was actually really pretty in person. The hair/make up dept. made sure that every actress in that movie had at least one bad hair day. I also blame them for not being able to dress the guy correctly. It looked like he was wearing the same thing all the time or was just dressed inappropriately.

I also expected booze for this reception. It was dry as a bone. I was very disappointed. So disappointed that we had to stop and get some Coppola Wine and goat cheese on the way back. Not bad for a Monday night though.


7/13/06

You Are Not Invisible!

Dear Driver's On the 405,55,710 & 91,

As a fellow commuter on Southern California's freeways I
understand that being stuck here sucks more than having bamboo shoots
stuck under your fingernails while watching Golden Girls for 40 hours
straight. I know we get stuck on long drives coming
in and out of Orange County everyday. In my case I normally travel 30-40
miles one way and it takes me 40 to an hour and a half to make these
commutes, they suck.
Here's the thing... when you are driving you still need to have
some kind of etiquette and courtesy. I am not talking about signaling or not
being a bumper humper. I am talking about personal etiquette. I really
don't care what you do in your car. You can sing at the top of your
lungs, learn a new language by tape, talk on your cell phone (hopefully
safely). The only time I care is when it comes to you doing something
disgusting . It's distracting watching you crazy drivers pick your nose.
Seriously, do you think the rest of can't see you? It's really gross.
It's not that I go out of my way to see you but if I am checking my blind
spots and I happen to catch you going to town on your nose in my
rear-view its not cool. The funny thing is that it's not the guys in the
dirty beat up truck that look like they just left the Home Depot, it's
the guys with their slicked back hair and designer glasses in their
member compensating car doing it. I guess money doesn't buy you class.
Love,
Your Fellow Commuter

7/12/06

Love Letter to my Smart Phone

My bf laughed when I said I would really do this, but here goes…

Dear New Smart Phone,

I had been admiring you from afar for many months now. I was in lust with you since the first time I laid eyes on you. Trying to justify a reason to spend almost $400 on something as pretty as you when opportunity struck in a unfortunate way. My regular cell phone was lost/stolen at the Habitat for Humanity Store. By coincidence my plan was set to expire with my carrier so I was able to get a new phone without having to go through my insurance carrier.

I walked into the store zeroing in on you. When the sales associate asked me what I came in for… I just pointed at you. She set you up and told me to wait a couple of hours before I started using you. I couldn’t wait. Less than 5 minutes I was already pushing all your buttons.

I am glad to say you didn't disappoint me. You were everything I had hoped for and dreamed of. I have had some minor issues that I really can't blame you for, it's just your nature. You have been so great that even my bf who is a MAC geek loves you even though you are Windows based. We both love you!

So here's to you knew Smart Phone…. You rock!

Sincerely,
The girl who is in love with her new Smart Phone XOXO

7/10/06

Reader Poll Monday on an actual Monday!


You know its gonna be a long day when I have already started blogging this early in the morning.


1. What is the first blog you remember reading?
I really don't remember. I remember reading random blogs all the time maybe starting like 2 years ago.
2. If you have a blog, how long have you been blogging? If you don't, how long have you been commenting on blogs?
I have been keeping a personal blog for a little over 3 years now. A public blog for about 2 years now.
3. What do you think are the best aspects of blogging?
Sometimes its just therapeutic to spill your guts online (on the personal one). And it's good to share your thoughts and rants with the rest of the world b/c we do need to be heard.

4. And the worst?
Spilling too much. Wondering if people actually do read.
5. Do you find yourself censoring what you write (either in your blog or in comments) based on who you think will see what you've written, or do you tend to throw caution to the wind and bare your soul?

Yeah, which is why I have 2. I live a pretty happy life, but I don't want everyone in my own world knowing all my deepest darkest secrets.

6. Have you ever written anything you wish you hadn't? Have you ever deleted your posts or your comments?
Yeah, with work going the way its going I have gone back edited/deleted post just for my own sanity.
7. About how many hours a week do you spend blogging or and/or reading blogs?
I would say like 2-3 at the most. I wish I could get myself to write more constantly, but sometimes I wonder if it's at all interesting.

8. If you blog, do you think there will come a time when you just stop doing it? If you don't blog, do you think you'll ever start?

Hmmm… good question. I don't really know. The thing about blogging is that it helps me reflect to my position in life. Where I have been, where I want to go and sometimes I stop and take a look just to make sure at where I am at now. I like chronicling events just b/c I have the memory of a fruit fly and some things I just don't want to forget.

9. Do you share things on your blog or in comments that you don't necessarily share in your "real" life?
Yes b/c I don't let this much of myself out to everyone I come in contact. In "real" life I am very sociable, but I like to keep an air of lightness to my conversations just because I am afraid if people get more in-depth I might scare them off.

10. Ask me something blog-related.
How do you come up with your blog topics?


7/6/06

Reader Poll Thursday

I haven't had access or time to a computer. I am such a horrible Blogger. I can't keep up which is pretty pathetic. Maybe when I get my new Smart Phone I will be better.


1. What's the last book you read that you didn't finish?
Little Earthquakes by Elizabeth Wiener. Same author as In Her Shoes. I loved In Her Shoes but this one was more in relation to motherhood and childbearing which is a stage in my life I haven't hit. I couldn’t relate. I will eventually finish reading it. Maybe when I get knocked up.

2. Would you rather own a trained monkey or a talking parrot?
Trained monkey. I wouldn’t want the parrot repeating everything I say. I don't want to incriminate myself.
3. What newspaper do you read most often?
LA Times on a good day. Grunion Gazette when I need something. Who really reads newspapers anymore. I read a lot of magazines.

4. Can you whistle?
Miserably. Not a specific tune. My parents have a bird that is almost as old as I am (less a year) that in his senility mixes up his tunes from la cucarachas to who knows.

5. How do you like your eggs prepared?
Over easy, sunny side up. In a big omlette. Hard boiled.
6. Which is bigger, the measurement around your waist, or around your bust?
My bust!
7. What is the most talented physical capability you have?
I can crack every bone in my body. Sounds cools until I get hurt. I pinched a nerve in my neck last week while driving to work on the freeway.

8. Do you have any Sunday rituals?
Sleep, get jumped on, have my ankle pulled, watch bad chick movies and goof off online as long as I can before I have to get out of bed.

9. What's the first department you go to in Wal-Mart? In the grocery store?
Ewwww… wal-mart? I am substituting it with Target. I love Target. I check out the clothes section first. Grocery store… the ready made refrigerated/deli section for lunch.

10. If you could go back in time to any year, what would it be?
The year I could have completely skipped out high school 2 years only instead of doing the college thing concurrently. I should have had better reasoning to get my parents to let me out. I could have been done by now!