labor day weekend
i feel like my weekend has started already but tomorrow is my last day at work this week. while i am marginally jealous that some friends are going to chicago, i am happy to be going to san jose this weekend to visit my college roommate. it's so cool that we keep in touch even after she moved up north after graduation. we've always visited each other and constantly email. i am highly grateful for her friendship. she's one of a kind. anyway, hope everyone has an awesome labor day weekend! for those of you around on monday, go to Champs in the Spectrum at 5 pm. Monday Night Football with a raffle sponsored by Make A Wish Foundation. i'll be there selling the raffle tickets!
hillary duff
even though doesn't have the best voice, her songs are cute. her movies are cute. she was cute. then... what the heck?!?! she looks incredibly thin, her face looks gaunt, and her new teeth are way too big for her face. looks like yet another young star falls prey to the "i must be super duper skinny" hollywood mindset.
lack of sleep=bad mood
i know i'm in a bad mood when...~i have a conversation with my friend that goes like this: me: hey, what are you doing? friend: eating lunch, why? me: oh, i was going to see if you wanted to have lunch, but it's cool. friend: shoulda called earlier me: i emailed you an hour ago friend: shoulda emailed earlier (and i think... "ok mr. you have to make an appointment with me just to have stupid lunch")~i get extremely irritated when little things start to go wrong *the telephone at work doesn't work *i hit all the red lights *someone with a handicap license plate cuts me off, almost causing an accident *some idiot girl honks at me THREE times because she wants to go straight but she's in the left turn lane and the left turn signal is red (she ended up going straight when the left turn signal and the regular signal turned green, almost causing an accident because she cut someone off) *i grab my sweatshirt from my seat, only to somehow hit the corner of my eye with my key *i try to consolidate the items i've bought at staples but none of the items will simply go into the bag, they have to get caught on the side of the bag *i give a mean glare to a little girl who barrels out of the elevator, almost running into mei need to exercise and then get some sleep... both are supposed to make me happy, right?
late night, early morning
weekend recap:friday night was spent babysitting "buzz lightyear" and mr. cranky pants. two adorable kids, but one was abnormally cranky and rebellious. had my orientation saturday. breakfast and lunch were great! the whole process went pretty quickly and was actually useful. i usually feel like orientations are a waste of time but this one wasn't, especially the computer networking portion of it. we got out early, at 4, instead of the estimated time of 5. then i headed to corona for my work's fundraiser and it was still freaking hot there at 5:30 pm. the event went well. the only scare was at one point, the volunteer at the reception table "misplaced" $4,000. thank God we found it. after that, my coworkers and i, along with 2 sets of parents, went to a bar to chill. i ended up getting home around 2:30 am. sunday, i met up with kay at 12 to go to church. we ended up seeing joe there. i guess that's his regular church but kay & i were still surprised to see him. joe doesn't sing in church. i think he should. :) kay & i then headed to ruby's in... forget what city... somewhere very south of irvine to have lunch. joey hooked us up and i was super duper full, mostly because of his yummily made oreo cookie milkshake but also because of the fringers. i mentioned the shake was a bit too sweet and kay asked me if i was really her friend dana... meaning, sweets are never too sweet for me and now they are?? yea, i don't know what's going on either. i got home around 4:30 and couldn't move because i was so full. i ended up sleeping until around 9. i woke up only to discover that i'd missed jay's phone calls and that i was missing out on bible study. bummer. :( for some idiotic reason, i didn't go to sleep until 2 am, and no, it's not because i slept for 4 hours already. anyone who knows me, knows that i am an awesome sleeper. anyway, i am paying for it right now because i am butt freaking tired. this morning wasn't going well either. while getting gas, i was flustered because my normal "getting gas" routine got whacked and it frustrated me. i missed the entrance to the 405 S, then on the 405, i almost got into a car accident because some stupid girl decided to "merge" (in this case, merge=swerve) into my lane without turning on her signal. idiot. i got coffee to wake me up but it tasted nasty and it was two whole dollars.
girls, are we guilty of any of these?
WHEN GIRLS DRINK TOO MUCH THEY THINK:
1. I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA WHERE MY PURSE IS.
2. I BELIEVE THAT DANCING WITH MY ARMS OVERHEAD AND WIGGLING MY BUTT WHILE YELLING "WOO-HOO!" IS TRULY THE SEXIEST DANCE MOVE AROUND.
3. I'VE SUDDENLY DECIDED I WANT TO KICK SOMEONE'S BUTT AND HONESTLY BELIEVE I COULD DO IT TOO.
4. IN MY LAST TRIP TO PEE, I REALIZE I NOW LOOK MORE LIKE A HOMELESS HOOKER THAN THE GODDESS I WAS JUST FOUR HOURS AGO.
5. I DROP MY 3:00 A.M. SUBMARINE SANDWICH ON THE FLOOR (WHICH I'M EATING EVEN THOUGH I'M NOT THE LEAST BIT HUNGRY), PICK IT UP AND CARRY ON EATING IT.
6. I START CRYING AND TELLING EVERYONE I SEE THAT I LOVE THEM SOOOOO MUCH.
7. I GET EXTREMELY EXCITED AND JUMP UP AND DOWN EVERY TIME A NEW SONG PLAYS BECAUSE "OH MY GOD!
I LOVE THIS SONG!"
8. I'VE FOUND A DEEPER/SPIRITUAL SIDE TO THE GEEK SITTING NEXT TO ME.
9. THE MAN I'M FLIRTING WITH USED TO BE MY 5TH GRADE TEACHER.
10. THE URGE TO TAKE OFF ARTICLES OF CLOTHING, STAND ON A TABLE AND SING OR DANCE BECOMES STRANGELY OVERWHELMING.
11. MY EYES JUST DON'T SEEM TO WANT TO STAY OPEN ON THEIR OWN SO... (see 12)
12. I'VE SUDDENLY TAKEN UP SMOKING AND HAVE BECOME REALLY GOOD AT IT.
13. I YELL AT THE BARTENDER, WHO (I THINK) CHEATED ME BY GIVING ME JUST LEMONADE, BUT THAT'S JUST BECAUSE I CAN NO LONGER TASTE THE GIN.
14. I THINK I'M IN BED, BUT MY PILLOW FEELS STRANGELY LIKE THE KITCHEN FLOOR
15. I START EVERY CONVERSATION WITH A BOOMING, "DON'T TAKE THIS THE WRONG WAY BUT..."
16. I FAIL TO NOTICE THAT THE TOILET LID'S DOWN WHEN I SIT ON IT.
17. MY HUGS BEGIN TO RESEMBLE WRESTLING TAKE-DOWN MOVES.
18. I'M TIRED SO I JUST SIT ON THE FLOOR (WHEREVER I HAPPEN TO BE STANDING) AND TAKE A QUICK NAP.
19. I BEGIN LEAVING THE BUTTONS OPEN ON MY BUTTON FLY JEANS TO CUTDOWN ON THE TIME I'M IN THE BATHROOM AWAY FROM MY DRINK.
20. I TAKE MY SHOES OFF BECAUSE I BELIEVE IT'S THEIR FAULT THAT I'M HAVING PROBLEMS WALKING STRAIGHT.
you can help too!
How would you all like to help out this movement?
"Something beautiful started in Manila, Philippines in 1995. That year saw the beginning of what is now known as a Gawad Kalinga Village. Gawad Kalinga is a Filipino term for giving care and hope.The community of Bagong Silang is the biggest squatters relocation area in the Philippines, where people lives in absolute poverty, in homes unfit for human beings, where children roamed the streets hungry and barefoot, the youth withered away in despair, crime was the way of life, and people had no hope. The cycle of poverty seemed unbreakable.In December 1995, ANCOP Foundation International, Inc, and Couples for Christ, began the work of transforming the Bagong Silang community through sustainable and holistic development programs that foster an attitude of sharing and stewardship among the people within and outside community. We call these programs GK Programs."
My friend, Gabe, is running in a marathon to raise money for ANCOP for the GK777 movement. Their goal is to build 700,000 homes in 7,000 communities in 7 years. They adopted the simple “pay it forward” concept. They build a home for a family, in return all they have to do is to help build 5 more homes for other families. GK777 also educates, provides medicine and shows them a trade so they can sustain themselves.
If you're interested in helping sponsor Gabe, please go to his site to donate online: http://www.active.com/donations/fundraise_public.cfm?key=caganap or you can mail a donation to me, checks written to ANCOP, USA, Inc., and I'll get it to him.
M.D. & Fatburger
Who the heck is Trevor Gillies??? Some AHL NOBODY, that's who!!! At first, I was so pleased with the Ducks... resigning Mike Leclerc for a year, acquiring Scott Niedermeyer, Teemu Selanne coming back, and then... THEY TRADE STEVE RUCCHIN AND MIKE LECLERC!!! WTF?!?! <---that's how angry I am. I WANT THEM BACK!!! Who are they going to make captain now? Teemu freaking Selanne? Now I only have 1 favorite player left on that team and they'll probably trade him too! I HATE THOSE LOSERS IN MANAGEMENT!!! JEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEZ!!!!!!
On a happier note...
Fatburger is funny. One of their posters says:
"Can you tell us how much our 1/3 lb fatburger weighs?"
(please say yes)
uppers & downers
the "uppers" of the weekend:
~lovette & fil's beautiful wedding. what an awesome night. first seeing the LA Cathedral for the first time and then spending the evening hours (until 1:30 am) at the Wilshire Grand for their reception. the happy couple was glowing and everyone had a great time. even kay, who shoulda been there for the whole wedding, showed up around 11:30 pm. sweet!
~unexpectedly having jay and cicely as visitors around 8 pm on sunday... even though cicely straight up "evil" laughed at my uci freshman year pictures. just for that, i might not pay her back for spotting me my baja fresh late night dinner (j/k). thanks for going to get the food jay!
the "downers" of the weekend:
~mina and danny's going away dinner at BJs in Brea. i now wish i had taken advantage of the time they were here and hungout with them more. hindsight. i know they're only going to be a few hours away but with both mina and i in school, it'll be difficult to get together... difficult but not impossible. i will definitely make my way out to vegas.
~watching "The Boy Whose Skin Fell Off" (http://www.channel4.com/health/microsites/B/boy_whose_skin_fell_off/" before going to sleep sunday night. It's about a 36 year old man, Jonny Kennedy, who had the mutilating and debilitating disease, Dystrophic Epidermolysis bullosa. Simply stating that this disease is characterized by blistering and shearing of the skin cannot possibly describe the absolute pain and suffering that people afflicted with this disease go through. The skin is a composite structure. The outer layer is called the 'epidermis'; the inner one the 'dermis'. 'Bullosa' is simply the name for a blister, while 'dystrophic' means mutilating. 'Lysis' means breakdown. Hence epidermolysis means breakdown of the epidermis. Jonny looked like a young boy because the disease prevented him from going through puberty and the scarring on his vocal chords kept his voice like a boy's. The scarring of tissue over his hands and feet rendered both useless. His body was mostly wrapped with gauze, and the chTnging of the gauze ripped off his skin. Too much pressure ripped off his skin. Even a slight touch tore his skin off. One can't even imagine the pain. Through all this, he kept an upbeat attitude, trying to bring this disease to people's attention in the hopes that one day, this disease will simply be a part of history. He died a year ago. For more information or info on how to donate help researchers find the cure for this disease, please visit: http://www.debra.org
uci!
i got financial aid! i will only need to contribute $2,800 per year. whew. the only thing is that a little over half of the loan is unsubsidized. boogers.
china 'n' things
i am majorly jet lagged. it finally hit me late last night. other than that, i got maybe 5 hours of sleep from friday morning to sunday night. not good. i can't really say that i enjoyed china. a lot of it had to do with the weather. it was hot and humid. everywhere we went on our tour was crowded. i did, however, enjoy seeing the great wall and climbing part of it. i also enjoyed meeting my parents friends who are my age. the culture is very different there. seeing areas that a tour wouldn't show you was eye opening. people live in conditions much worse than here in the states. they make very little money despite the chinese industry growing like crazy. the common people do not benefit from the growth in china. the average income for a "middle class" family is 1500 yuan a month (about $186 USD). it's eye opening.i did learn a lot about my parents and how they travel. we are definitely very different. i found out my dad is a GREAT bargainer. it's amazing. i always feel bad about bargaining so i can't do it very well. my mum is a ruthless bargainer. my dad will at least settle on a price he thinks is good for both him and the vendor. my mum just wants to get things for the bare minimum. my dad got my mum two pairs of socks for 4 yuan ($0.50 USD) but she only wanted to pay 2 yuan ($0.25 USD). crazy mum!why i'm grateful to live in the U.S., particularly California:~pedestrians have the right of way~toilets with seats~toilet seat covers~toilet paper in the stalls~good coffee~salad~food in general~english~awesome weather~"clean" sidewalks~for the most part, people follow traffic lights~diversity of cultures(there's more and i'm sure i'll think of things later.)weekend was awesome. great retreat. congratulations cicely! oh, and the best part about china was finding out while i was there that i am now a part of the 2008 graduating class of UCI's Paul Merage Graduate School of Management. :) :) :) :)
