Slow To Wrath

Skinny Fun

2011-01-26T23:33:00.001-08:00

Or not.

Today, I decided to count my calorie intake. Yeah. That's right. The result?

I ate 700 calories in food.
I drank 1,200 in alcohol.

I think that almost balances out to a 2,000 calorie per day diet, as is recommended by our wonderful government.

And this is the real reason why it is unhealthy for one to count calories. Good night.

Christmas in California

2009-12-24T13:38:00.000-08:00

It doesn't actually feel like Christmas very much this year, like maybe I am getting too old, and it keeps coming to quickly, or it is just another date on my calendar.

But one thing I love about this promising Christmas in the McLean household is the 3 bottles of Maker's Mark sitting under the tree with big bows on them.

I am alive

2009-11-10T19:16:00.000-08:00

and done with college forever.

and have been to alot of weddings.

and would like a new bartending job.

and that is all.

Aciphex

2009-08-13T07:24:00.001-07:00

i still cant believe there is a commercial for stomach acid medication called aciphex

i mean

its for stomach problems

and its pronounced ass-effects

thats just crazy funny

Double Firefly

2009-08-07T13:35:00.000-07:00

Rocks.
Splash of water.
lemon slice.

And leave me be.

Cleanliness

2009-08-05T13:33:00.000-07:00

If you plan 2 days in advance to take a shower before going to you interview... what does that say?

Anything? Nothing? I didn't think so...

Newsflash: TOOL's 2009 "Screw Our Fans" Tour

2009-07-28T00:21:00.000-07:00

Seriously. How are you going to play for 2 hours and only play 10 songs?! Answer: fill up 40 minutes right in the middle of your set with noise, and non-songs, that NOBODY was high enough to appreciate.

And then, remind your fans that you hate them by charging $75 for SEATS, nevermind the pit prices, even though you have NO opening band.

And about those 10 songs... NONE were selected from Opiate or Undertow.

Honestly, the show was crap. I'm soooo not happy. I was lucky enough to get tickets on ebay for $18 and it still wasn't worth it.

Damnit I hate when music dissapoints me.

Ho

2009-06-22T06:39:00.000-07:00

...ly Shit!!

Did you know breakfast is the most important meal of the day ?!?!?!?!?!

Squirrels

2009-04-08T20:41:00.000-07:00

Today I fed one. Out of my hand. Turns out, squirrels flip for grapes. But check this - it systematically removed the grape peel and then ate the pulp! I fed the little guy three grapes, and all of them the same. Try it.

Heh

2009-03-31T13:37:00.001-07:00

I faked my bosses hand-writing so well that it fooled my boss.

cellphones

2009-03-20T02:27:00.000-07:00

...make us unnecessarily in touch with people, and ridiculously reliant on hearing from people, cause its so damn 'easy'.

and then one night you send someone a text to see if they are ok - but their phone is off, or the battery died, or they didn't know it was on silent instead of vibrate, or whatever the hell. and you wonder if they are in a ditch somewhere. or jail. but in the good ole days, you woulda assumed they were home safe, cause you never would have expected a text at 3am.

also, cell phones suck. you have one for long enough, and then people think they can reach you 24 hours a day, no matter where you are or what your doing. like owning a cell phone gives you that obligation to be accessible to people. and then you dont answer, and your voicemail says your avoiding them.

Yeah, this post is pointless. but this is what i think at random at 4:30 in the morning. and you woulda known that, but I probably didnt answer the phone when you called.

greeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeen

2009-03-19T02:44:00.001-07:00

was the color of my clover shaped glasses - and mark's beer goggles, which we 'sold' for 2 lemondrop shots last night.

I freakin love saint patrick's day.

vodka 7, car bomb, vodka 7, fire rock, lemondrop, fire rock, vodka 7, vodka 7, vodka 7, car bomb, double vodka 7, vodka-somesorta-cran-oj-mix + no water before bed = BIG 7am headache.

Nothing ibuprofen and 3 hours more sleep couldn't cure. It's been 3 years since the last time I woke up feelin that bad.

Will not repeat.

pps

2009-02-11T23:13:00.000-08:00

its a good thing they kick u outta bars, cuz i could stay here all night.

ps

2009-02-11T23:04:00.001-08:00

im continually surprised by the number of TAC'ers who have a reason to be here...

in the last month i have seen joe t, 2 zepedas, steve c, frank o, ryan s, athena t, max s, gabe m, jeanne m, and of course nat h & maryrose m.

so yeah... where the f are u? and why havent u visited dallas.

Also, i am still in school for design, though i am only taking night classes due to the large amount of freelance work... i've chosen to work on expanding my portfolio and working on my resume over taking classes... cause almost everyone i have met with asks me to see a portfolio that does NOT include any work i did for school. people wanna see real work experience. so i am putting a larger focus on the experience, and taking the real world as a challenge, while taking school on the side to expand skills... or something that sounds logical.

well...

2009-02-11T23:00:00.000-08:00

i havent posted in freakin forever. but dallas is awesome and mark is well adjusted. that sounds clinical. anyway, new things happened today, so here i am:

i am at a bar, and right now, as i type, someone is singing karaoke to the theme song for never-ending story. really. Wow. i never thought it possible, and i might be impressed.

also, in America, we have tree crops that are harvested for paper, toilet paper, tissue, and all the paper products you use on a daily basis... so everything u hear about saving trees by not waisting paper... thats fake i think

also, what the fuck is obama doing? is anyone following post election news????

Oh Panda

2008-08-30T13:11:00.000-07:00

So last night around 3am-ish mark and i were watching 30 rock (thanks to max) online, when they referenced this video. So i paused the episode and looked up the video, and laughed hysterically as mark requested to play it 5 times in a row. so enjoy.

as they say in 30 rock, dont watch the mama, just the cub. but then go back and watch the mama.

Employment Ads You'll Never See in Cali

2008-08-24T18:11:00.000-07:00

Armed Security gaurd needed. Must have own weapon to apply.

12.5 Days

2008-08-24T08:11:00.000-07:00

That is precisely the breaking point time from arrival at my parents house.

Trash

2008-08-22T02:19:00.000-07:00

So... the trash goes out twice a week. And I don't really have to do anything, it just sorta ends up on the curb. But then, i do have a cat. and i think about the litter box. and i dont want to empty it. so then i think about waiting until the next trash day.

but then i realize that the litter box would only be emptied once a week. and then i think... how would i feel if i lived somewhere with a toilet that only flushed once a week? ouch. then what?

The Next Chapter of Life

2008-08-16T01:56:00.000-07:00

So, California is out of the picture for a while...

Last Friday, Mark and I loaded up our lives (which conveniently still fit into a van, less some furniture that we sold) and headed out of Ventura. We spent that evening in San Diego so that we could see Sean and Allie, Mark's bro and bro's girlfriend, one more time before leaving the state. They showed us the house that they are excited to move into soon, which led us all to discussing future plans over drinks and darts at a nearby bar. The next morning we woke up to breakfast in bed! Huge plates of blueberry pancakes, yogurt, bacon, & eggs with hot coffee. A very awesome surprise start for Saturday's trip.

We drove through Arizona listening to CD's and doing crossword puzzles and madlibs until we realized that the gas station stop we had selected while planning out our trip on line no longer freakin existed. So, we exited the highway, and were lucky to find a boat launch ramp into a river a mile away from the otherwise barren exit (which I would not have taken except that the damn thing in the dashboard was flashing 4 miles til empty and I could see jack shit for miles ahead on I-10...) Anyway, this incredibly nice guy had a gas can, which he filled from the dockside pump, and then gave us enough gas to get us to the next stop, which, thank goodness, was still an operating gas station.

So we made it into New Mexico no problemo, and spent the night at Dan's house. Awesome property above Albuquerque. The next day we decided not to drive, so we checked out the old town area, had a few beers, rented a good foreign flick to watch (Lives of Others), and stayed another night with Dan. Monday we drove into Texas, and we are now happily situated smack in the middle of DFW.

Onto looking at cars, jobs, apartments, and starting college classes next week. Unfortunately, the camera did not leave the car during the entire road trip. However, we had a pretty killer party before we left, which I'll have to post about with some photos soon. Soonish anyway.

Oh That Slovakian Boy

2008-08-06T16:10:00.000-07:00

If your standing in the kitchen, do a shot! (clap, clap)...

Also, Joy doesn't like it when you take her picture, so here's one of her for good measure

Change of pace

2008-08-04T16:24:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, it's a good idea to take all the quarters out of your change jar/car ashtray/wallet/etc... Then show up at your guy's workplace out of the blue at lunchtime.

"Hey - looks like a crappy week at work. I've got $14 in quarters to use at the video arcade if you want to bust outta here. Then cold brewskies on the beach after we turn in all of our tickets for new-fangled kids candy and silly toys."

Last Bits of California

2008-08-01T21:37:00.000-07:00

So, thanks to a very awesome invitation from one Gabe Mamamolola, Mark and I got to enjoy last week in a cabin in South Lake Tahoe, with P-head too. The area was so gorgeous, and the water was so clear.

Oh, and there were lots of bears in the woods around our cabin - we didn't have any experiences with said bears, luckily, but other cabins on our street did. Did you know those suckers can take off your car door if you leave gum in your console? Freakin' crazy! I was told to remove all food and wrappers and empty coke bottles from my car when I arrived, which did creep me out when I realized that nobody was joking, and then thought about the random stray skittles lost on our drive to the cabin*. Not to mention that there is always a rogue french fry. Gabe's fam has had their cabin windows and doors broken into by bears on several occasions.

Here's a shot looking across Emerald bay from the Cali side of the lake:

We also drove out to see Virginia City one day, which is in Nevada about 40 minutes east of the lake. Very cool, though totally commercially exploited, old mining town. We went into the 100 year old Bucket of Blood saloon, checked out a haunted staircase, saw kids panning for gold, gambled and drank tequila in the oldest saloon on the main drag, and I locked the boys up in jail:

Anyway, it was a great week and a nice little tour of a different part of california before leaving.

*Skittles: Mark McAwesome picks out all the red ones (yum!) and sets them aside for me when I'm not looking.

House Sitting

2008-07-26T02:16:00.001-07:00

So... I am house-sitting for the BF's parents 2 weekends in a row. This weekend is just a small social gathering of people who feel like hanging out, and next weekend is the 'big party'. Tonight about 40 people showed. Next Weekend, I know at least 10 people who are driving into town for the event, not to mention the countless others not present tonight. I've collected 3 trash bags full of glass bottles, cooked 10 frozen pizzas, and currently have breakfast burritos on the stove (here at 2am). So, judging from tonight, I'm pretty sure next weekend will be awesome.

PS - anyone who is interested in seeing Mark and I that has not heard about the 'event'... next Saturday, August 2nd, is our last weekend in town, and there is a huge party to which all who ever cared about us or even remotely talked to us are invited. So please feel free to drive to SP and hang out anywhere between 3pm and 3am on that day. Cause after that, we'll be gone! (and have no photos of your lame ass if ya don't show!)

Update Numero Dos

2008-07-24T15:56:00.000-07:00

So, the last post left off around the beginning of exam week - standard suckage.

The day after our last exam, Mark and I hosted a party for our senior friends since it was a 'free day' in the otherwise busy grad schedule. It was well needed relaxation that included serving cocktails from Mojitos to Singapore Slings by the pitcher (after pitcher, after pitcher...) Also, it was Mark's birthday - which he insisted could not be the reason for the party - so at the end of the party, his mom brought out the surprise b-day cake, which went over quite well:

We had some sort of formal cocktail party the night before graduation

followed by graduation the next morning

(which wasn't so bad after sleeping through the mass)

After a week of celebrating and partying with my sister who stayed for a few days, we went on the ultimate relaxation trip - Hawaii. My parents' very awesome graduation gift to us.

We stayed a week in the condo on the far left of this picture

We sailed around the island, zip-lined, kayaked through a rain forest, and of course we found a great place to swim everyday

Then back to the main land, to see Gabe & Sarah wed

and mark was a handsome groomsman

Since then, I haven't had my camera out, and most of our time is spent working anyway.

Last Saturday, we went surfing for the first time, with Joeybear there to instruct us (he is so awesome and patient!). I started out really embarrassed, after not catching a wave that wiped me out in summer-salts and launched my bored several feet above the water at 90 degrees, followed by some ten year old laughing about how I pearled. But then it got really fun - I was amazed to actually stand up a few times - one time I stood up and rode my board all the way to shore without falling off - so absurdly exciting. Why to the shore, you ask? Because when your focused on standing up at all, there is no such thing as steering.

I think thats decent enough for me to consider this blog-thing up to date. Now I'll be trying to keep it current with my goings on.

The Update

2008-07-01T16:05:00.000-07:00

Alright – so here is the promised photo update starting right about where I left off…

1 week before the thesis due date was the madwoman play, directed by Gabe Mamola, which was seriously fantastic

and yeah, we both turned in a thesis, damn good ones too, after which we celebrated by hamburgers and beer in the coffee shop

which also happened to be on Mark’s mom’s b-day

and was a day that ended with a painful little accident

To unwind from thesis mode, we took a trip to Venice Beach, and as always, met some interesting people

and stayed through the sunset

Then the beginning of April brought chez martin

and chez martin brought much beer

Chez martin also brought an incredibly awesome piece of entertainment: the home-school musical, which Dan Selmeczy masterminded and Nat Hellerman wrote a hilarious script & lyrics for. Mr. Rioux’s time machine took TAC back to the 1980’s where Mark became a young Dean McLean narrating the hatred between smoker’s and home-schoolers, culminating in the smoker’s dance - a recreation of Michael Jackson’s Thriller video. Peace and hundreds of smoker/home-school hybrid babies followed. If you haven’t seen it, find it on DVD.

Then on April 15^th, we sold this guy(below) on craigslist ::sniffle::, then raced to buy a money order for the IRS to pay taxes, making it back just in time for Mark’s thesis defense (which went awesomely)

Also in April, we all dressed up for the Junior/Senior dance

and dressed down for the after party

To end April, The Kellies played a show at steckel park

May began with skipping the senior/faculty dinner, but showing up later that evening for bowling night

Then we rushed into exams and graduation, so I’ll kick off my next post with whats been going on since then.

Update Update

2008-06-25T12:27:00.001-07:00

Just a little update to prepare the world for my upcomming update... probably with a few photos and a quick run through of events over the last 3 months.

...SOON...

so yeah, watch out.

HOORAY!!!!

2008-02-26T15:19:00.000-08:00

For anyone who has been getting worried about/praying about me completing a thesis since the damn thing is due in 12 days, so that i can FINALLY graduate from this freaking place

GUESS WHAT?????

I just wrote a proposal AND used it to get myself an advisor AND turned it into the Dean's Mailbox for approval.

Mr. Cain seemed a little weary initially about agreeing to advise a down to the wire thesis, but after much laughter (or maybe tears? I'm not sure cause he covered his eyes) he agreed.

I'm so excited. The final topic? And argument that through art man attempts to humanize the world around him.

Wednesday night

2008-02-22T12:37:00.000-08:00

I got off work a little early so that Mark and I could go to a concert. It was a small show, and no opening band was listed, and since it was on a week night we figured that maybe it would really just be the one band playing. But when we got there at 8, we found out that there was an opening act, which meant that we'd be missing curfew... which actually made it an awesome night because:

-The opening act turned out to be MC chris - the guy who does all the voices and songs for the rappers that meatwad gets sucked into in ATHF. Like MC PeePants. Anyway, that was very amusing.
-Since we missed curfew, we decided to buy a pack of smokes and go to a bar. I walked into the gas station with $20 left. I got smokes and food, and after I left I found that he gave me $29 for change.
-Went to the bar with newly acquired wealth and ran into one of our friends that we hadn't seen in 6 months. awesome.
-Ran into another guy who I did some graphic design work for 1/2 a year ago. He had never paid me. He walked up to me and said hi by giving me 2 Hundreds! Incredibly awesome.

So i'm glad there were 2 bands playing on a Wednesday night, because that pretty much changed the whole evening into a very kick ass night.

About that last post

2008-02-22T12:27:00.000-08:00

I decided pretty quickly after I wrote that post that the things that are going well for me are the most important things anyway. Its just that all the other stuff is what you have to worry about while you take the important stuff for granted, or something like that.

Anyway, I don't really have it on a priority list anywhere to update this blog, but yeah, i guess stuffs kinda better now, though I still have a lot on my plate.

Which is why I am fat.

Depressing Post

2008-02-09T20:05:00.000-08:00

Right now I am sick of about 83% of the stuff going on in my life.

That may sound like a random number, but I actually gave it though for about 30 seconds before typing it.

So, yeah...

that's all

told you it would be depressing

Hello?

2008-01-29T14:18:00.000-08:00

Is anyone still out there? I haven't posted in a while...

I'll give you an update. My thesis is due in 5 weeks and 4 days. I love this last sentence because the subject doesn't exist. I will write a proposal soon. REALLY SOON.

Friday night, Mark and I met a really cool couple from Switzerland at good bar - Jess and Santiago. It was really nice, cause you rarely ever actually meet anyone in public anymore, you know? At first it was just, "Hey, they're foreigners. we should be nice and say hi". And then 4 hours later we were all laughing, filled with vodka, and walking out of a totally different bar together a few blocks away, swapping emails and phone numbers. They decided to stay in Ventura for an extra night to hang out with us, which was really too bad for them...

Because I have been in bed sick since I woke up with the chills at 6am on Saturday morning. Actually, I was so overwhelmingly chilled to the bone, that I got in the shower at 6am and sat there in steaming water shaking and crying and dry heaving until 7am. THEN i spent the last 4 days in bed.

Actually, I managed to get Mark sick, so we spent the last 3 days on a couch at his parents house 1/2 asleep, 1/2 watching TV... all to culminate in his mother telling me that my girlfriend power is stronger than her mother power... ok so that was only because I convinced him to take a shower by telling him that we could watch some lame sci fi movie when he gets out, but i'm amused none-the-less.

And the shower just stopped, so i'm off to lame sci fi movie land.

Parable of the Ant and the Grasshopper

2008-01-11T10:20:00.000-08:00

ok, so this is an email I got from my dad, and I think its awesome.

TRADITIONAL VERSION:

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and plays the summer away.

Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.

MODERN VERSION:

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the Winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and plays the summer away.

Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving.

CBS, NBC, PBS, CNN, and ABC show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food. America is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?

Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper, and everybody cries when they sing, "It's Not Easy Being Green."

Jesse Jackson stages a demonstration in front of the ant's house where the news stations film the group singing, "We shall overcome." Jesse then has the group kneel down to pray to God for the grasshopper's sake. Nancy Pelosi, John Kerry & Harry Reid exclaim in an interview with Larry King that the ant has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper, and both call for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his fair share.

Finally, the EEOC drafts the Economic Equity and Anti-Grasshopper Act retroactive to the beginning of the Summer! The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the government.

Hillary gets her old law firm to represent the grasshopper in a defamation suit against the ant, and the case is tried before a panel of federal judges that Bill Clinton appointed from a list of single-parent welfare recipients. The ant loses the case.

The story ends as we see the grasshopper finishing up the last bits of the ant's food while the government house he is in, which just happens to be the ant's old house, crumbles around him because he doesn't maintain it.

The ant has disappeared in the snow.

The grasshopper is found dead in a drug related incident and the house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorize the once peaceful neighborhood.

Mags inaccurate quiz

2008-01-04T11:47:00.000-08:00

So, having read Mags post on this quiz, I thought it would be amusing. And it was, but in a "damn you people" sort of way.

What type of person do you attract? Your Result: You attract artsy people! Those free spirited artists with great imaginations find you interesting. They are usually interesting themselves, so its not a bad thing, but they CAN be a bit wifty and choose odd goals. If you like life to always be a bit 'different' from the norm, but not too extreme in any one direction, these are the people for you. If you seek logical decision making skills and good money management, you may want to change something in the way you appear. Artsy people are fun for adventure and exploring, so, have fun! (smoking weed helps too)
You attract geeks!
You attract Yuppies!
You attract unstable people!
You attract models!
You attract rednecks!
What type of person do you attract?

adventurous explorers? Definitely got those friends. But the lack of decision making skills AND money management skills is definitely way too present around me, and sometimes really bugs me. So yeah. Damn you people. And your stupid 12 questions.

News Flash

2008-01-03T11:28:00.000-08:00

Depeche Mode rocks. Lots.

Another Christmas

2007-12-27T12:58:00.000-08:00

has gone by, this one was the first one i have not spent with some part of my family. The McLean's were cool enough to invite me into their house - from christmas eve all the way through christmas dinner. So i did have a tree to sit at in the morning, and even plenty of gifts to open. They soooooo made sure I was taken care of, so to speak, and it made me feel all warm and fuzzy. And even though some of my own christmas traditions were missing, I got to see some of theirs, which was pretty cool.

My family is all gathered for a late christmas celebration in PA today, where I shipped a huge box of gifts to everybody. I am hoping that they will all think their individual gifts were jostled within the big box during shipping, instead of realizing the crappy wrapping job done on the oh-so-small and filthy tailgate of a mustang outside the post office only 5 minutes before it closed.

And, I got my grades, and I passed all my classes ( hooray!) although Mr. Richard gave me a D!!! what?! Lastly, I am now the only senior with out an advisor, so I am going to hop right on that before breaks over. Right after I figure out something exciting to do for new year's eve.

Hope everyone is enjoying the holidays.

Yesterday

2007-12-13T13:37:00.000-08:00

I got to spend the 25 most intellectually embarassing minutes of my career as a student at TAC with Mr Sheild's... otherwise known as the seminar exam from hell.

Question: Compare and contrast Tolstoy with Toqueville's political ideas, ie- How would tolstoy feel about toqueville's idea of the french revolution? How would a family in Tolstoy's russian society be affected by a democratic revolution?

Response: Awkwardly twist balls of my feet into the capeting of mr. sheild's office as i gaze at the pattern between toes and the line made where the edge of his file cabinet meets the floor. Insert a few stutters.

For added effect, imagine that every answer I begin to give is cut short for not being what he was looking for at right about the point when i thought i could make a solid connection. OUCH.

Fun mornings at TAC

2007-12-04T09:45:00.000-08:00

So, I might just be saying this to psyche out other people in "the competition", but it's true: when I stepped on the scale this morning I learned that I gained exactly 5 pounds in the last 5 days. Ouch.

Then I sent Mark a text msg and we went for a run.

In Math class this morning, I pondered what it was that made *unnamed person in my section* into a brightly dressed boy with a way-too-bouncy personality, and I was proud of myself for determining that he must have popped out of rainbow after a leprechaun got friendly with a fruitcake. (Were talking boxed fruitcake with all sorts of chunks of unidentifiable candied fruit.)

As I realized this, Mr. Richards was leading the class... "so then it is necessary that we be able to cut the line such that all numbers whose squares are less than D will be to the left of D. And what is it that cuts the line? ...hello... Is it a turtle?"

Hollywood Blvd

2007-12-01T17:01:00.000-08:00

I spent most of the day yesterday, from about 3 in the afternoon until 1am last night on Hollywood blvd. I had lotsa fun and lotsa laughs, but i was surprised at how seedy it was. I mean, i'm sure i was naive, but i expected it to be somewhat expensive and... i dunno... fake hollywoodish. Luckily it wasn't, because I could actually afford to drink and have dinner at this awesome chinese place called kung pao kitty. Did not take the camera, but did attend an awesome concert, which was my motive for heading down there.

I just can't get over how trashy and "un-hollywood" it was. I mean... heres 10 blocks of famous peoples names in gold on the sidewalk... infront of 20 sex shops???? and seedy cheap sex shops too. Bleck.

I know that the following statement is offensive to pretty much everyone who has internet access

2007-11-30T10:59:00.001-08:00

but i am soooooo sick of facebook. Bleck.

I haven't really posted in a while

2007-11-28T10:00:00.000-08:00

although there is some mildly good news... such as ONLY 7 DAYS OF CLASS LEFT!!!
And even more exciting is ONLY 5 DAYS OF CLASS I HAVE TO GET UP FOR!!!

On the tail end of this good news of course are 5 exams for which I am not prepared. "oh , I'm sure you're just fine".
Yeah, of course! I mean, I did homework 9 times this semester:
3 math classes (studying for props even though I went to the board 0 times)
2 lab classes (studying for props even though I went to the board 0 times)
and i read 4 seminars (not completely, but enough to talk in 2 seminars)

I worked everyday of thanksgiving break, except for thanksgiving day proper. I was scheduled to work on Turkey day evening, but after spending 5 hours by myself smoking on the pier, I got a phone call inviting me to a thanksgiving dinner. So i promptly called in sick to work and drove to a wonderful thanksgiving full of food and mostly happy family members and totally happy children. I was pretty happy by the time i went to bed that night.

oh, and to anyone who remembers the post about my returning to the cardiologist for some additional investigation, everything came out pretty well. The symptoms he was watching out for didn't show up, and while there were some awkward symptoms, he said that they could be normal events for a stressed smoker/drinker/caffeine abuser.

Also, Cat just got back in town from visiting her parents and she has freshly baked NY bagels... so I am going to go grab one of those yummy guys right now.

The competition

2007-11-16T10:25:00.000-08:00

So this whole weight loss thing is good. It really is. Unfortunately, so are the free potsticker appetizers at my work, Cheese Monster Tacos at midnight, and cheesy-chilli-ranch smothered french fries.

In fact all of these items taste exactly 2.5 times better when I am not supposed to have them.

And this makes me wonder something REALLY terrible...

is sex before marriage "better"?

Mail

2007-11-13T10:23:00.000-08:00

Pretty much everywhere that I go, I ensure that people have my college address so that things are not mailed to my parents' house in TX. But every now and then, some moron will mess up, and snag the address off my driver's license even when I flat out lie and say that "i have no contact with the current residents of that address and will therefore receive nothing sent there."

And when mail does show up at my parents house, like old credit card and bank statements, they forward it to me unopened.

But when some moron sends a thick package addressed to me to my parents' house even though that moron has the correct address, and my parents get curious and decide to open my mail instead of forwarding the damn thing to me unopened, then guess what happens???

THEY get mad at ME because they opened MY MAIL.

working out

2007-11-13T10:17:00.000-08:00

so what does it mean if your running for 30 minutes, and your feet are asleep for the last 20 minutes? My body isn't used to this "in shape" thing...

It happens rather frequently

2007-11-08T11:25:00.001-08:00

that there is something i am running away from, something else i am running towards, and they end up being in the same direction.

I quit

2007-11-06T10:53:00.000-08:00

That decent job, that paid exactly the amount of money that i need to pay my bills each month. That job that paid me to sleep. That job that I planned on keeping till May 08. And in about 3 weeks, if i havent started a new job at which i make as much money, then i will possibly regret this decision.

Now however, I am free, and they are assholes, and they can be assholes free of me. And they are also suffering due to my leaving, which totally made it worth it. Especially the part where they started apologizing and asking me to stay and I told the evil bitch woman that she was full of %$#@.

One Week

2007-10-27T02:29:00.000-07:00

from today... i am quitting this job. i hate them. i hope they suffer. i am in no mood to post right now.

I didn't want any major life changes right now...

2007-10-21T20:10:00.000-07:00

I have worked for a few places. 16 that i can think of. i have NEVER worked somewhere where the employers had no concern for the employees AT ALL - a place where a bitch manager will fire someone just cause she can - will yell at employees like dogs, even in front of customers - a place where said bitch will flat out lie to me 3 times about 3 different issues in a 3 minute conversation - I have never worked somewhere that being one of the top employees, who has worked for the company the longest, and NEVER caused ANY trouble means that you should really watch your back.

But now I've found the most manipulative bitch woman on the planet, and today was her first day in full authority of all employees, and what do i learn??? I get a phone call from a fellow employee to warn me that FOR NO &^%$#@* REASON i am being removed from one of my positions at the company and my hours will be cut by 37%.

BUT DONT WORRY, its nothing personal, its not something that I deserve, its JUST BECAUSE SHE CAN DO IT. THAT IS SOOO WRONG.

I've never worked for a company where 50% of the employees (and i mean everyone from desk people, to maids, to cooks, to bus boys, to servers) could stand in one room together and all say, "they've screwed us over, and the only way to show them that they can't treat people like that is for us to screw them over. We mean nothing to this company individually??? Then lets all quit on the same day."

I'm totally not a fan of pics of me

2007-10-20T13:24:00.000-07:00

so instead check this one random girl who had lots of hair play action during this week:

The idea was that if your going to dye your hair, you might as well do whatever you want before you dye it to the final color. And stupid things can be really fun.

The Strip

2007-10-19T22:32:00.000-07:00

So, there is a lot to post about right now. But I'll start short and simple...

3 days of no school? Vegas is only 4.5 hours away? Road trip!

Definitely worth skipping 2 days of work...

Computer art

2007-09-30T02:25:00.000-07:00

So I've been doing a little bit of digital art on the side (that is, side of my 2 real jobs) for extra cash. Right now I am working on a set of 22 icons for a web page that some guy i met outside a bar is programming. He also needs a set of 12 color schemes for optional web user skins. The problem is, I am sitting here in Max's Lazyboy partially watching TV while I create these tiny little icon dudes, and I have no idea how many hours I am supposed to charge, because I have no idea how much time this sorta work should take, let alone how long it is actually taking me.

I did this simple little html page last month for my old manager. Still needs some work, but at least she's up and running.

I wish I could spend more time on graphic design and digital art to learn more skills and brush up on moving all of the ideas that i can execute on paper to photoshop.

Also, I would ordinarily be in bed by now, but there is a guy sitting right outside of the window, and he has been there for 3 hours, and it's starting to trip me out.

Max

2007-09-25T22:48:00.000-07:00

... started blogging again 2 weeks ago. Hooray! So click here and read and be nice. Because other people have been very mean to poor Max. Not on his blog, but other places. You know, like at bars.

Hey Max... guess where I am right now? Sitting in your lazy boy in your apartment eating your tortillas :) Hope stuffs going well for you in Sacramento.

Lame Update

2007-09-25T01:47:00.000-07:00

I went to the cardiologist, and he was a terribly conceited californian hippy freak who wouldn't stop talking about drugs and himself. Really.
"I invented getting stoned... Don't you want to learn about me?... This kid came in here yesterday that smoked 3 bowls a day... Aren't you curious about my credentials?"

Yeah buddy - I am getting curious about your legitimacy. I'm glad your a cool guy and all, but no. I'd rather see a professional while we discuss heart surgery. thanks.

So my mom called his office and let them know that they sucked, and then scheduled an appt. with a different cardiologist for this thursday. Thank goodness my mom will still do doctor crap for me. I never mess with it on my own. I hate doctors. Ok that's not true. I hate dentists. I only dislike doctors, because seeing them is always such a pain in the ass.

And the thesis thing? Well, I went a full week past the deadline without thinking about it. Until yesterday morning. Unplanned breakfasts at the McLean's house already have a sufficient level of uncomfortability. Then Mark's dad, suddenly switching to the confusing role of "Dean at the breakfast table", commented that he hadn't seen my thesis proposal cross his desk. I told him that no one would advise me. Then I tried changing the subject to funny stories about teachers as a response to each person that he suggested as an adviser. By the time we got to strangling cats the topic was dropped.

adendum to the last post

2007-09-15T21:07:00.000-07:00

by the way, can any body remind me why in the hell I am still at this college? In this state? I came her in '01...

2001

Time to get out and get on.

This year

2007-09-15T19:59:00.000-07:00

...just might get the best of me.

I'm only a month into the school year and I've already had my first morning of being so overwhelmingly fed up with my life that I could barely force myself to get out of bed. And I'm afraid nothing is changing soon unless it gets worse.

At my bar tending job, the only other happy hour bar tender wants me to quit or be fired.

At my B&B job the new management is getting scary. I am the last 1 of the 4 employees on my old managers FD team. The other 3 mysteriously left/ got fired since July. I have just gotten an "official write up" for a litany of things that I NEVER did wrong, but that I cannot disprove. [As a result of the write up I must use only the front exit to the building so that I don't steal, Mark cannot be in the building without prior permission FROM THE OWNER, and I cannot leave the front desk to help a customer until I have learned to bi-locate.]

At school, no body will advise me. Our thesis proposals are due Monday.

The heart problem I had surgery for 7 years ago may be back, or something related. (Apparently since it is a problem you are born with, your body can re-create it and think that it is healing itself?) I am going to the cardiologist on Monday.

The new fascist assistant dean at TAC is reneging on the students ability to obtain a mild curfew extension for work related reasons. Every Sunday I get of work at 11. Same as last year. He thinks a job that causes you to miss curfew is inappropriate. I think everyone should forget that I ever asked, because this job is financially impossible to replace.

I still tell myself all the time that everything always work out, and I shouldn't worry, but then I get tired of that and tell myself that I deserve a pack of Kamel Reds and a Martini.

Photo Safety First

2007-09-08T20:19:00.000-07:00

You may notice some of the photos missing from before...

I think it's pretty silly, to be totally honest, but hey, what can you do? it's family... so you doctor your silly little blog...

handwritting & psychology

2007-09-07T22:14:00.000-07:00

People who make 2 distinct marks to write the number 5 bother me.

Advise Me!!

2007-09-07T22:05:00.000-07:00

Mr Ferrier wont be my advisor :(

He referred me to the new tutor, who I haven't even figured out what he looks like yet, and now I don't even want an advisor... I need someone who has platonic sympathies.

Heheh, you know what I mean.

I'm adding Bar Tender at Golden China to my resume

2007-09-07T21:36:00.000-07:00

It's my new part time job, and I think I love it. Why? Cause its fun and its good money. Last week (my first week)I worked 10 hours and made $185. This week I pulled in $192 in my 10 hours. Which is nice for a job that I got with only 2 motivations: to get bar tending experience, and for some play cash. <--- I've never had that before.

I just work the happy hour at a really sloooooooooow restaurant on tues and wed, so I'm thinking, "wow - what do real bar tenders make?" I can't wait to be one of those. That's what I'll do with my liberal arts degree.

A Little More Random Photography

2007-09-01T22:12:00.000-07:00

So, while on the dallas trip I snagged some pics that I didn't fit into my fantastic story line of the first road trip post. The not-so-good, photos, if you will, but you'll love em anyway.

Like check out this one. I know it's blurry, but the car was going 85 and I was shooting out the front windshield. Anyway, this is SERIOUSLY a dinosaur running next along side I-40 you guys. I mean, just look, this is better than any pic you ever saw of big foot:

And for miss Claire, do you remember the care package you sent last year? Well, there was actually a 3rd passenger besides the aforementioned 2... He just wasn't allowed to sit with the first 2 kids on the dash board, because those arms and legs were clearly meant to dangle.

and lastly - alcohol that turns your tongue red is fun:

the end.

Oh, and Mark slept through this sunrise somewhere off I-20:

Road Trip

2007-08-25T21:59:00.000-07:00

Driving to Dallas and hanging out for a week was a great break, not a relaxing one, but a jammed packed with lots of friends and family one. I took some photos, so yeah, here's how it went:

There were 2 drivers

and 2 passengers

There was a new buddy for my nephew ryan to hang out with in Dallas

There was trip to the lake

and the water park

and the piano bar with my sister (where much singing ensued)

and a trip to the science center with Alex & Ryan

which was also fun for big kids

and there was a star wars exhibit

where you could build and program an r2 looking robot

there was a trip to six flags

There were also people who got tired of the camera

and the drive back was a little more relaxing

and we stopped to have our fortune told by an old woman

who lived in a building made of glass bottles

and we also got cheap chinese food to go in new mexico...

which was good for the wallet but not good for... it was gross

and we also spent a night with dan seaton, but i left my camera in the trunk.

and i'll post more later

Everything workish

2007-07-27T03:30:00.000-07:00

... is changing.

I am training a new guy at work, which i must say, after the 5th day, is infuriating. I intended to make today the last today, but unfortunately there will also be a 6th training day. I have been really patient and nice and good-teacher-y with him, I sware. But saying the same thing a billion freaking times makes me start to twitch and flinch.

Next, the exec cook from my hotel, Jason, decided yesterday that he was leaving. I went out and had a beer with him last night - he told me he was looking for new kitchen jobs. This morning I saw him at TAC. Lucinda hired him on the spot - he starts next Wednesday morning. This'll be crazy fun for me. I'm moving out of the hotel, back to TAC and part of my work crew is going with me.

Also, Jason lived a few doors down from me in the hotel, and the 2 of us protected this place at night in exchange for "apartment rent". So somebody new needs to step up to snatch the free rent... and Max already has an interview with the owner for the position. So I'll be seeing him at work all the time now. Heh.

My senior year which has finally arrived should be great fun.

[Besides the part where I'll be working 44 hours/week through the 1st semester (and the part where the school really shouldn't find that out)].

A phone call

2007-07-22T20:23:00.000-07:00

from one of our guests this evening...

guest: yes, how do I place a call from my room phone?
me: local calls and toll free numbers can be made by dialing 9 for an outside line.
guest: I tried that.
me: Is it a local number?
guest: How would I know?
me: What's the area code?
guest: 805
me: That's local. but you don't need to dial the area code, just 9 and the 7 digit phone number
guest: I tried that too.
me: and?
guest: I got a busy signal.
me: a fast beeping from our phone system, or a slow beeping busy signal?
guest: how would i know?
me: umm, did it sound like an internal beeping from your phone, or did it sound like their phone line was busy?
guest: Oh their phone line never connected to me, it just beeped.
me: are you calling a cell phone?
guest: I don't know. why?
me: some cell phone numbers register as long distance calls.
guest: so what does that mean?
me: you can't call long distance from your room phone.
guest: why?
me: our phone system is only set up for local and toll free numbers.
guest: can you just bill me?
me: no.
guest: why?
me: because you aren't able to place long distance calls from the room phones.
guest: at all?
me: newp.
[silence]
me: anything else i can do for you?
guest: can i use the front desk phone?
me: no, it's against our company policy.
guest: why?
me: because you might make a long distance call.
guest: could you bill me?
me: no.
guest: I'd pay.
me: I can't do it.
guest: not even a short call to a local number.
me: newp, no guests are allowed to use the front desk phone.
guest: why?
me: because some guy called Tokyo once.
guest: who would do that?
me: a random guest.
guest: so what should I do?
me: You can purchase calling cards at the corner.
guest: Can I use those from the room phone?
me: as long as its a toll free number.
guest: earlier today I just called this number from a pay phone.
me: or you could do that.
guest: is there a payphone nearby?
me: at the corner.
guest: if I'm going to walk there, I could just buy a calling card.
me [impatiently]: yep - is there anything else I can do for you?
guest: no... I guess I'll just use my cell phone.

wtf?!

Every... single...

2007-07-11T02:55:00.000-07:00

tuesday... right around 3am... the street sweeper comes by.

Three times.

And I'm not at all getting tired of that yet.

Newp.

Not... at... ALL.

I may not have made the best decision...

2007-06-27T10:30:00.000-07:00

... regarding summer finances. Turns out TAC says I can't come back to school unless I pay them? At least that's the letter in the mail. It may be time for a trip to TAC to find out what my 'real' options are. Hmm... I hope that those exist.

Also, I have a guy friend who likes one of my female friends, and I had drinks with him last night. I asked if anything was up between them yet. He kinda shrugged. I asked again. He said he thought they were a little closer than just friends.

I teased him for not knowing because he'd just taken a week vacation to visit her. Another friend joked with him that he had missed his shot. He said he talked to her at least once a day. I told him that if he wasn't sure, he should just ask her next time they talked. So he did. As soon as he woke up this morning. She called me at 9am and told me that she had answered 'not now'.

So i felt stupid. She would prefer if i hadn't encouraged him to ask, and I am sure that when I see him for drinks tonight he'll let me know I was wrong too. OOPS. I know nothing about love. I will especially never give drunken love advice again. Bad call.

My windows

2007-06-25T20:57:00.000-07:00

When i get home, before i turn on the lights, my living room is lit with green and purple shades from one small stain glass window in the corner. My other windows have old school shudder blinds on the inside that stripe the room with shadows. I live right above the dining room of a steak house down town, so I peek out my windows and over the faux balcony to watch the people who come and go. On Friday and Saturday nights, I get off work, come up to my small place, and draw on my coffee table. Instead of turning on the TV for back ground noise, I crank open the windows, and listen to the jazz cover tunes that flow loudly from the open front doors of the martini bar across the street.

Sometimes I go out on the street at 2am in my tank top and pajama pants to smoke just to be in the midst of nicely dressed people leaving their bars... in my PJs.

so living here this summer instead of on campus was definitely a decision I'm glad i made.

Keys

2007-06-23T19:48:00.000-07:00

Every time someone checks in at the little B&B where I work, I ask, "and is one key sufficient for your room, or will you all need two?". This almost always leads to an awkward moment of thought and eye exchanges between the guests, which I have pretty much nailed down to be, 'Well we're on vacation together, and we should be together all the time, right? But getting two keys is just more practical.'

If the female is the first to respond the answer is almost always "no". If the male is first to respond the answer is always "yes", followed by a mild justification of the practicality. If the female happens to answer "yes", the vacation is already headed south, the guy is in trouble, and his face shows recognition of this fact, usually followed by an eye roll that seems to say, 'she just had to rub it in'.

Nb - gay men always get one key, and then smile at each other.

Everything works out

2007-06-14T13:00:00.000-07:00

It does. Somehow it does. I have pretty much always used this phrase in application to my life, because I have always found that really bad situations ended up okay when I put in enough energy, contacted the right people, worked enough hours, etc...

But I altered that this summer. I got 3 weeks into summer, working exactly 80hrs per week total including the nights that I sleep next to the hotel phone and get up every time it rings until 6am. So after these 3 weeks I rechecked my summer cash and found that I make $270 less than I need to each week. So i thought ok, I have to immediately start working an extra $270's worth per week, plus make up this missing $810 somewhere. Which is a large part of the reason that I was not happy when I posted before - because i couldn't figure out where this extra money would come from after applying for at least 10 third-jobs and hearing back from nobody. But I figured it out.

I decided that the key to everything working out is changing what 'everything' is. So instead of being upset all summer about the financial impossibility, I've just decided that i wont worry about money for TAC, but I'll pay all of my other obligations. and at the end of the summer, if i have anything left over, they can have that. and suddenly it all works out. Because i am making all the money that i need to make if giving TAC $2834 is crossed off my list.

So after this decision, instead of applying for more jobs, I wondered into an art gallery on main st - right across from my favorite bar downtown - after having a few drinks one day. I ended up meeting with the guy who owns the place and showing him some of my work, and an hour and a half later he sent me away with some funky french paper that he swears "you can't even buy anymore" and gave me a nine image project to complete on his oh-so-cool paper. If I get it done by July 4th and if he likes the final collection, he'll display it in his gallery for the ventura arts festival. Which means that now I am spending the little free time I have working on my art, which I really enjoy, with the added perk of possibly making commission on it from the gallery.

So yeah, everything is working out, and I'm sure it'll all work out in 2 months when I pack up and move back to TAC. This just means that I will have a little more debt to pay off before I buy an RV and travel all around the US for 2 years after graduation.

Summer Laziness

2007-06-06T14:53:00.000-07:00

There is nothing quite as relaxing as waking up on a Wednesday, hanging out in your PJ's until 1:30 after eating cold pizza for breakfast, and then saying,
"hey, lets skip work, buy some alcohol, and go swim all day."
"ok."

This sort of activity fits with my new resolution about this summer.

A swell summer start

2007-05-25T22:28:00.000-07:00

So, I'm not quite so excited anymore, I'm less than 2 weeks into the summer, and here's how my last 10 days have been:

-After bouncing through various hotel rooms for over a week, I am situated in my summer living space. But on June 15th, I'll have to move out. Oh but don't worry, I only have to be gone for 48 hours. (Like it matters how long I am kicked out for if I still have to pack up my life and get out).

- Due to some really unfortunate traffic incidents ( parking for 10 minutes over 2 hours in a 2 hour zone, speeding with a whopping 77 in a 65, failure to pay a ticket I KNOW i paid 10 months ago, photo of me in mid-red-light-running action) I have acquired a grand total of $1000 in ticket debt in 10 days.

- My work came up short THREE beers when my manager did inventory, someone thought it was me for no reason, and as a suspect - my hotel room was checked while I was at my other job.

- I have a customer checking into my shift that I work alone tomorrow night who told me on the phone that I "better f*cking hide" when he arrives if I don't want him to "rip me a new a**hole". I can't get the shift covered by anyone else, or get him added to our "do not rent to" list. He has 2 counts of employee abuse on file with us for this week.

-I got in trouble for not using the TERRIBLE script that my lame second job provides me with, and my sales went from 1.8 per hour last week (best in the store) to 0.5 this week. Ouch. Not even in commission. My paycheck will be less than 1/2 what I need to make for this week.

- I lost my wallet.

SuMmEr!!!

2007-05-14T11:31:00.000-07:00

finally having made it to summer break makes me so happy that I feel justified in doing gay things like writing the title of this post in rotating caps. I just finished my first year at TAC done once, and I did it through illness too. I so wanted to have this whole thing behind me last Friday afternoon along with everybody else that I took my last 2 exams next to a bathroom all by myself so that I could take puke breaks between essays. AND NOW IT'S OVER. Finally, three years belated, I have made it being a part of the senior class at TACville.

Claire, Marian and Cat were came out for graduation, which was the first time the 4 of us have all been together since living on the same hallway for the 03/04 school year. Lots of drinking and laughing and catching up, just like old times, except for the boys currently following each of us, and they all slipped into place too.

The details of my entire summer arrangement are not worked out yet, but I am living in hotel room #18 for the next 3 nights with the comfort of knowing that everything I own is in a station wagon in the parking lot. Oh, and I have a copy of Sunday's classifieds, which I intend to peruse this afternoon.

OH OH - and Mark and I have 2 free tickets to six flags, which we have been talking about going to since last summer, but never quite saved up the cash for.

2 exams down, 4 to go

2007-05-07T10:17:00.000-07:00

then lots of partying and seeing people i haven't seen in forever at graduation and then finally moving. I should be moving beginning on Sunday, but I haven't quite pinned out the details of where, exactly, I will be living? So we'll see how that goes. I have my math exam tomorrow, and i shouldn't be online right now, so i think i will bail on this totally boring post and go study.

Fooooood

2007-04-25T13:45:00.000-07:00

You know you're at a crappy Chinese joint when the 2 glass jars on the table are filled with spicy mustard and ketchup. And then when you ask for duck sauce, they look at you like you're crazy. And then when you explain that you are looking for the kinda sweet sauce to dip your eggrolls in, they point to the freakin ketchup.

piiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiictures

2007-04-14T21:46:00.000-07:00

Blogger Buzz: Now you can blog in hindi.

I don't care. I'm kind of scared. thanks for letting me know.

So right now I have a long few hours of not-a-whole-lot-going-on-at-work, so i bring you...

RANDOM PHOTOS FROM THIS SEMESTER

Maybe some of you not-in-cali people will like 'em. Kinda like a short photo story book thing, right?

Nels at Steckle:

beer 'n' bridge:

ventura park napping:

at the curtain club in deep ellum:

angry max-monkey face:

dreads:

3 boys stuck in an raft tube together after margaritas:

st. patty's day - pacific view mall balcony - shooting cars:

mafia accusations:

car bombs!:

and lastly, this is my mom talking to mark over brunch in palm springs. I stepped away to take a few pictures, and she threatened him while I was gone. Neither of them have admitted that this actually happened, but c'mon, check out that face:

Easter Break

2007-04-11T23:21:00.000-07:00

...has been fantastic. 1 week of no school has never felt so long. really.

So I was in Dallas for my 38 hours and I think that the interview went really well. I'm waiting to hear back from Kyle soon. If he doesn't contact me within a week, I might explode. I need to know what state I'll be living in a month from now, and whether or not to find someone to take my cali job over the summer, and if so I need to give my manager decent warning so that she doesn't hate me and so that I can still work there next year.

Max is finally 21. Dr. McLean showed up for the happy hour celebration in Ventura and bought Max a beer. I even got him to play mafia with us (which was very amusing since he ended up being in the mafia and the citizens didn't have the guts to kill the school dean - total role confusion). Oh, and Max got a flaming birthday shot, on the house, which he had to blow out to drink, and that pretty much made the b-day boy look awesome. We all had car bombs. Even Phil Barret did a car bomb. Many shots and eggrolls were had by all. Fun fun fun.

The Muse concert last night was freakin' awesome. With 17,000 people at the sold out Los Angeles show, we were so lucky to end up within 10 feet of the stage, and almost dead center. Showing up an hour and a half before the doors opened definitely paid off. I sneaked a disposable camera in and took all 27 shots. I'll have to post some pics after I get them developed.

I bought a pair of scissors today and then ripped and cut my way through my dreads for 2.5 hours tonight to get back to "normal" hair. Last week, I had to ruin the top 5 inches of them so that I could tie my hair into a nice looking bun for my interview. They were irreparable after that. Now my hair is a foot shorter and about 1/2 the thickness, which is fantastic because I don't like brushing it and it has always been way too thick.

I got a speeding ticket. California sucks. REALLY SUCKS. How the hell do these people get away with having ONE speeding ticket for doing 75 in a 60 cost $290?!?!?!

So there's the last week's news. School again tomorrow...

Another Night at Work

2007-03-31T20:04:00.000-07:00

So last night at work, I stepped into the kitchen to let Jason, our head chef, know that I was leaving. He was up to his elbows in all sorts of food preparing for a baby shower with 40 guests.

"Are you going to be in here late tonight Jason?"

"Yeah, I gotta get as much of this ready as possible before noon tomorrow when I will have 40 hungry pregnant women in here."

"Umm, you know they're not all pregnant... right?"

Dallas

2007-03-24T20:38:00.000-07:00

woo hoo, i get to go to dallas! although just for a quick trip. i can't miss any more class, and i can't afford to miss any work, so i'm going straight from class to the airport to dallas, and then i'll leave 38 hours later and get back to cali in just enough time to get from LAX to work in ventura. i'm flying into dallas to interview for a graphic design internship for this summer :::fingers crossed::: but i will also have just enough time to eat dinner with the fam, lunch with a friend, and hit up my favorite bar once. maybe twice. hell, i should make it in there twice. i'm excited.

midnight munchies

2007-03-19T00:25:00.000-07:00

so i get off work and go to Jack in the Box with Mark.
"yeah I'd like 3 burgers and 2 tacos"
They tell us our total and we pull forward. Someone is in front of us waiting for food. As we pull around the corner, we see a Carl's Junior/Green Burrito across the street.
"Hey, we said that the next time we got grub over here we would try the Carl's Junior $1 menu."
"I think they only have one item..."
"well what about the green burrito menu?"
"I guess there's only one way to find out."
"you want me to ditch this line?"
"well, do you want Carl's green junior burrito or don't you? You'd only have to back up about 3 feet to squeeze outta here..."

65 seconds later, we find ourselves staring at the menu at the drive thru across the street.
"so, we can get 2 burgers and 2 tacos for $4"
"yup."
"across the street we were getting 3 burgers and 2 tacos for $4 bucks"
"yep, but what if these tacos are better?"
"lets go for more food".
"right."

I look across the street as we weezle our way out of the Carl's drive thru line and see an empty drive thru at JITB with a woman's head hanging out the service window and searching left and right.

65 seconds later, we had pulled all the way thru the JITB drive thru, and straight up to the window.Nobody comes to the window for a minute or two. Finally, a large woman slides the window open a crack.
"may i help you?"
"yeah, do you still have our food?"
"what did you guys order?"
"umm, a burger... and... hey what'd we order? Some, uh, tacos..."
"yeah, yeah, and a chicken sandwich, and a hamburger deluxe and a water with no ice?"
"yeah! that's us."
"We were wondering where you guys went..."

hehehehe. fake laugh. no explanation given.

Slow nights at work

2007-03-10T21:14:00.000-08:00

2 weeks ago I was confirming future reservations for the fine B&B at which I work when I saw the last name Chastek on the calendar for the beginning of March. I looked up the reservation... 2 adults reserved under the first name Jessica, with an address in the appropriate area of California. Considering the Peterson experience that just occurred, I thought that maybe a Strauss House reunion was slowly headed towards me, one ex-bachelor at a time. I mean, how many Chasteks are there living in the same area that married Jessicas??? And these reservations were made for an evening that I was working. So as I sit at the front desk on the designated evening anticipating their arrival, I notice that the reservation was canceled. Aww damn.

Gospel Brunch at the House of Blues

2007-03-10T20:07:00.000-08:00

Last summer, Max and I went to a show at the House of Blues on Sunset Strip. We laughed as we watched advertisements for their Sunday morning buffet style gospel brunch and decided that it clearly sucked. Tonight as I sat at work flipping through an Architectural Digest snagged off the coffee table, I saw a Visa ad - a list of "things to do while alive" that apparently require a Visa card. The list includes seeing the northern lights, riding the Orient Express, attending the Olympic Games, and (right after flying across the Atlantic on a private jet) having Gospel Brunch at the House of Blues. And I'm thinking, 'hey, not only could I actually do that, but I bet it would be fun'. And I realized that I've really become far less picky and stopped being needlessly negative over this last year (mind you that this does not include times when negativity IS needed - and don't worry, that's still frequent enough) and I think I've enjoyed a lot more of the random things that have happened during this school year. Turns out that showing up 40 minutes late to work because you were searching through the main street thrift stores for a belt that you could buy with your one last dollar while holding you pants up can be hilarious, sleeping in the park with the bums is relaxing, and living on BK's dollar menu for three days each week is a good exercise in culinary creativity. When work sucks I can be glad that I'm not telemarketing anymore even though I know it paid better. When Don Rags takes over half an hour and ends with the question "Is that really what you want for yourself?" I can leave the room with out feeling chastised, actually desiring to do something different, and with out wanting to tell 6 people in room 202 to f*ck off (In fact I only wanted to tell off 1 of those 6 people, and somebody else at the table inadvertently did that for me). I finally started to have fun with daily life, and now I think that I will go to that Gospel Brunch at the House of Blues before I leave this godforsaken state behind me.

3 day weekend

2007-02-22T10:05:00.000-08:00

So of course the hotel was packed. And amidst all the other customers, guess who walked up to my desk on Saturday evening?

Matt Peterson. With the wife and baby in tow.

It would have been interesting to catch up a bit more, but they ran away for dinner. Which meant that I had other TAC related guests that evening, such as dave gisla and joe c, who came over to baby sit.

I'm preparing for my last don rags ever with excitement - this will be DR # 8 for me. I am still committed to keeping this school year on the 2 semester schedule unlike my previous years, and with lent starting yesterday, I think I'll be ok. I should be hitting curfew LOTS during lent since I gave up pretty much everything besides work and school. Last night was my 6th night in for curfew this semester. Mark slid past me on a few nights that I was working, so his curfew attendance for this semester has soared to 8 nights. I figure that with more sleep and more dorm room time, there must also be more homework time. So this should be good all around.

Free Thai Food

2007-02-05T15:02:00.000-08:00

So we had an interesting couple as guests at the hotel this weekend. And by interesting I mean unfathomably obnoxious. I can't imagine how this guy and his wife have made it through life. Really. These people leaned on my desk for an hour at a time and asked absurd questions to try and make themselves look contemplative. They managed to *casually* mention on several occasions the 7 wine clubs that they belong to. They explained why they were too intelligent to join Mensa. They waltzed into the kitchen on several occasions as if they owned the place. They demanded pillows with cases made from a different material. And they were loud... Really freakin loud. They ordered Thai food and never ate it and I stored it in the restaurant fridge for them even though it's against health code because I wanted for them to shut up.

But on Sunday morning they finally left. I got to work at 3pm, hours after they had checked out, and did my walk around to make sure everything was in order for the evening. When I checked the walk-in in the kitchen to make sure the Hors D'oeuvres tray had been prepared for the evening, I noticed a bag of 4 boxes of to-go Thai food in the fridge. I was starving. They were gone. My Thai food now, suckas! I opened a box of chicken padThai, threw it in the microwave for a few minutes, and then returned to the front desk. I was sooooo happy chowing down on my noodles when I heard the front door open. I slid the box into a cabinet and turned around to see that very couple standing at the desk. I swallowed my mouthful of their Thai food.

"So, we spent all day in Santa Barbara and now we are back to pick up that food we stored in the fridge 2 days ago."

"food?"

"yeah, you stored a few boxes of Thai for us in the kitchen"

"ooooRight. lemme see if I can find those."

I went in the kitchen and tried to tie the bag back into a cute little bow, like it had been, which was fairly hard since I had ripped through the side of the bag to get at the goodies. I decided the bag looked decent enough. I came back out into the lobby and handed them the bag as I opened the front door for them to leave. I sat back down at the front desk, pulled out my chicken padThai, and finished my to go box of dinner as I watched their car pull away through the window. That was a close call. But they didn't need those noodles, right? It was like a fridge-storage tax anyway.

Interesting story from work

2007-01-30T13:35:00.000-08:00

So I was sitting at work the other night after our wine and hor d'vores hour trying to read Locke. The lobby was almost empty accept for a woman and man seated in front of the fire place. I had served the woman 4 glasses of wine during the hour, and she had sort of forced this man to be her company for the evening. Then I noticed she was crying, and tuned in to hear a story about how her father was an alcoholic. The man tried to change the subject:

"You know something crazy? My father had a son today! But I have a son who is 7 years old, so it is going to be an interesting dynamic for my son to have a new born uncle."

"That's Nothing!" She exclaimed in reply. "My son's step father is his biological grandfather... Because his step brother is really his dad! You see, my husband had a vasectomy before we were married. But he also had an 18 year old son. So when I wanted to have a kid, we decided to keep it in his genetic line instead of adopting. But don't worry, I didn't physically conceive with my husband's son. I used a turkey baster!!! So I have my own son, and he's now 20. We were never going to tell him where he came from, but when he turned 18 and told me that he was trans-sexual, I decided he deserved to know. You know, to help him figure things out."

I was pretty floored. So was that poor man. I decided it was a good time for a smoke break.

By the way, last night was my 3rd night this semester to make it in for curfew.... I'm on a roll now!

It's not very frequent

2007-01-26T13:11:00.000-08:00

...that after sitting alone in a downtown bar, you get to say something like, "Yay! My boyfriend's here to pay my bar tab and take me home".
But I got to last Saturday night.

This week has not been a huge success for me on campus. Hours for going in the wrong door to my dorm, *official* parking violation plastered to my window, hours for coming in late, a no-parking-permit violation (also plastered to my window), and a special new green note that I got on my windshield for *speeding* after someone else drove my car. Not that any of these specific events are important, but why do all the prefects and security guard gang up on me in the same 48 hours? Maybe they got this all out of the way early this semester so that I can spend from now until summer feeling invincible. Yeah, I bet that's what's happened here.

On a plus note, I am cracking down on myself to become a better TAC student. This is going to be the first time that I have done a second semester at this college just once!! Last night I went back to my dorm at curfew for the second time this semester, and I promised myself that I would not miss any more classes until don rags. Really. Including the Gustin class at 8:30am Friday. ALL OF 'EM!

New year, new job

2007-01-15T23:53:00.000-08:00

spent new years in san antonio. it wasn't exactly what i expected when i drove down there, but i had alot of fun non the less. mark and i ended up at some guys' house for the midnight countdown...it was an awkward introduction when we arrived - we were the friends of a girl who's older sister knew him about three years back. They had lots of good food, passed out interesting shots, had darts and a pool table, and their kitchen table was a coffin on stilts.

funny story - i got mark a flask and a watch for christmas. he got me a flask and a necklace.

and i got a new job. the an inn in ventura. $9 hour. another job where i can get plenty of hours each week, and yet do a large portion of my homework on the clock. and if i don't get the graphic design internship that i am hoping to have this summer in dallas, then i could have a free place to live in exchange for being 'on the clock' for the over night shifts (in other words, answer the phone if it rings between midnight and 7am). and its near my favorite ventura bars... about a 30 second walk away from san souci.

Awww, Ryan said damnit.

2006-12-25T19:04:00.000-08:00

Not that that's a good thing, but it was sort of cute in that way where all the 'grown ups' look at each other with "oops" eyes.

Merry Christmas everybody.

I got a Hello Kitty Sticker book from Santa.

Really. The package said so. Turns out Santa has kinda girly handwriting. Like my mom's.

Mornings with kids

2006-12-21T05:14:00.000-08:00

So this morning I opened one eye as my sisters 2 year old opened my bedroom door at 7am. I decided that it was a self-managing situation, because after all, its really his room. 7 minutes later, I awaken again to the sound of a screaming 2 year old. Ok, not my fault.

We go down stairs and I make oatmeal with apple cubes for breakfast. He stands there watching me. I see his sippy cup on the end of the counter. Ahh, for milk... right. I'm sure my sister told me how much to put in it before she left. I go for a half cup.

"warm or cold milk Ryan?"
"warm milk."

I open the microwave and decide to try 45 seconds. Again, I'm sure my sister told me how long it should be before she left - she never misses details. My family is a group of perfectionists, and nothing is ever done as well by somebody else as you could do it yourself. Therefore you can never actually give enough directions to compensate for the short comings of others. So we do this to each other - giving directions with copious details - and consequently I don't do a great job of listening, because i'm used to listening to directions which are always too detailed. And yet, just like the rest of my family, i'm sure that everything I do will turn out just fine, so who needs directions anyway? [note to self: you suck at listening]

I press start on the microwave and turn to see Ryan looking up at me...
"that's going to be too hot."
"No way buddy, ill get it just the ri-"
"Toooooooooooooo hot"

I'm being judged by a 2 year old at not even 8am. This kid can see through me.

Nephews

2006-12-19T19:04:00.000-08:00

Today I woke up with a 2 year old squishing into my bed. He's cute.

He randomly dropped onto the floor, started kicking, and screamed while his brother played "For he's a jolly good fellow" on guitar. When his brother asked what went wrong, he reported that he would rather hear "what do you do with a scurvy sailor" so that he could sing along. He's got good musical taste.

Later, my sister asked him to show me his triple whip. He turned to me with a cooler-than-you look in his eye, and said, "sorry guys, I don't have the skill for my rad moves right now". He's awesome.

This is the stage where kids get really interesting. That 2 year old has a better sense of street lingo than this college student.

Flight to PA

2006-12-19T15:30:00.000-08:00

Over recent years I have made a habit of staying out late and then up all night before I leave for travel. And ordinarily this is a great idea, because I can pass out on the airplane instead of spending my time trying to avoid awkward contact with the person next to me.

It's not such a hot idea if you end up spending the next whole night awake in the airport after losing your seat 10 minutes before your flight leaves. The woman at the counter told me that you could lose your seat as early as 20 minutes before the flight leaves. "I thought that was when we boarded?!" But the plane arrived early, they finished boarding early, and I was "missing". I watched the woman board the plane who had gotten my seat. I also watched all of the possible replacement flights disappear from the departure screen one by one as I waited for a slow and uninterested woman to help me. I convinced her that United Airlines sucked and avoided the $100 re-ticketing fee. She finally gave me tickets for the next possible flight... 6:30am to Baltimore. They did not put me up for the night, but gave me a pink slip of paper, through which they apologized "for any inconveniences suffered due to circumstances outside of our control. Please use this toll free number to obtain a discounted hotel rate". The 800 number did not work.

I was upset with United airlines, but convinced that I could turn it into a decent adventure.

Happy to be out of a non-smoking state and looking for something to occupy my time, I checked for bars. After a tram ride to the international terminal, which I figured would be open all night, I learned that all of the airport bars close at 9. I ended up at a bar across the street from the airport. The gaslight club. I quickly snagged a corner table. It's so nice to see ashtrays on tables again. The scantily clad waitress who took my order did not carry herself with confidence at all. As she reached out to place a coaster on my table, I noticed under her arm the corner of the folded tissue that she had used to stuff the top of her corset/leotard thing (is there a proper word for those?). I almost felt bad for her, but hey, she's the one who applied for the job. They had an awesome chandelier. There were 7 enormous rococo style paintings of naked women on the walls. A long sign above the bar read: WORK IS THE CURSE OF THE DRINKING CLASSES. I had nowhere to go, and the posh bar next door was not only expensive, but all non-smoking, so I stayed at my corner table at the gaslight club until they asked me to leave.

I took a tram back to the proper airport terminal, which wouldn't open until 4am. I just needed to kill a few more hours. For as far as I could see in both directions, there were 6 people, in 3 couples, each huddled into a corner sleeping. I stole a spot against the wall behind a starbucks stand, unplugged an espresso machine, and re-charged my cell phone and laptop. I watched 6 episodes of ATHF, went outside for a few stay-awake smokes, found a bench to lay down on and glanced at my phone. It was 3:48am. I just needed to stay awake for 12 more minutes...

I realized I had drifted off as I awakened due to a feeling of something cold touching just inside the waistband of my jeans... and pulling my jeans downwards. I opened my eyes. There was a 40's something black man sitting on the ground in front of my bench, somewhat leaning on it, with his face just a few inches from my face. "OH MY GOD!" I shouted as I jumped off the bench, sending my cell phone flying. I froze momentarily. "WHAT THE F*&K!?!" He replied by pointing to the ground a few feet away, "Umm, You dropped your phone." As I snatched my backpack, he calmly turned and walked away. I grabbed my phone and quickly headed to the security gate as I checked the time. It was 4:00 on the dot. Less than 12 minutes I'd been asleep... where did this guy come from? 15 minutes earlier, had he been just out of my line of vision watching me? Creepy.

Over the next 9 hours I was ticketed for 5 different flights, each of which were canceled or didn't work out for various other BS reasons... I hit 3 other bars to keep myself busy.

56 hours awake during which I managed to snag a cumulative 5 hours of sleep. Wow. If this never happens again, I'll be happy with it.

Questions asked at 3am before a lab exam

2006-12-18T16:58:00.000-08:00

"If I marketed taco cereal, would you support me?"

"Yeah, we'll make a deal if you'll support my breakfast pizzas."

Exam Week B-days

2006-12-16T18:45:00.000-08:00

For my birthday this year, I took a Gustin final. But hey, you don't just go to an exam in a wrinkled denim skirt and a hoodie on your birthday. No way. I took an hour long hot shower, and wore a silk skirt with knee-high black leather boots. Great birthday outfit - I even wore it out for dollar Chinese food and then drinks at Sans Souci. Second meal? Dollar burgers with a chilled $3 bottle of white zinfandel consumed on a couch while watching The Ref, my favorite Christmas movie.

Not such a hot day

2006-12-01T13:25:00.000-08:00

Actually, it is surprisingly warm for Dec 1st, 74 degrees, but I meant more along the lines of how this day is going for me. I got back to my dorm at 6:30 this morning, and promptly went to bed with FOUR alarms set to go off between 8:55 and 9:10 to guarantee that I would not miss my 9:30 Theology class, which I promised Mr. O'Reilly on Tuesday I would be there for. I knew I would be tired, but sleep is over-rated. At 9:45, I awakened to a girl that I don't know so well from my section in my bedroom... "Umm, Mr. O'Reilly sent me to come get you." AARRRG. I slept through all of them?!?!?! Needless to say, class sucked.
I then found out via 3 voicemails from my mom that the 401k distribution I was planning on receiving by the end of this month got all f'd up. I filed for this 3 weeks ago, and some woman named Kishia, who should be fired, told me everything was set to go. Turns out that Kishia forgot to ask me to sign a necessary form, which she didn't even realize until the distribution company asked her where it was. To top it off, upon realization of her error, she sent the form NOT to the California address that I gave her for myself, but instead to my employer in Dallas. The employer, mind you, that I had to list myself as terminated from in order to even apply for the 401K distribution. The distribution process has not been initiated, and it won't until after I get the form, sign it and return it to her. That money isn't coming for a while. I am so screwed.

After class I got into an argument with somebody over something entirely trivial, but it was just damaging enough to ensure that things will be awkward around that person for a while. I shouldn't talk to people when I'm having a bad day. Not at all.

I went to my room to print a picture for Mark's KK and spilled a fresh, hot cup of tea (with plenty of honey) on my laptop. I also scalded my thigh. The picture wouldn't print. After 30 minutes I emerged from the dorm with a crappy grey scale print out from a dorm printer.

I've been outta bed for 4 hours, and I'm already hiding in the library. I wonder if I should go to math this afternoon, or just go back to bed and attempt to start the day over at dinner time?

I have a pet addiction

2006-11-29T13:38:00.000-08:00

I really feel a need to live with some animal form. When I was little, I constantly brought various critters into the house to live in my room, or a box or bowl, or my closet. So, remember this guy? Well, during my recent period of not posting on here, he died. Now I'm in need of a roommate again. I want to get kitties like I had before, but for some reason I'm pretty sure that I shouldn't be pushing my luck with the school.

Anagrams

2006-11-28T21:29:00.000-08:00

So, I spent my last seminar trying to figure out anagrams for people's names with some other people in my class. Check this out.

My first and middle name together.... Rich, Lonely Me.

And my whole name? Rome Inn: Cold, Lonely Hell.

Right now I am out with Damn Earl McWanker.

Heheheh, I am so loving this. I should not, however, have started doing these during the last 2 weeks of class before finals.

Thanksgiving

2006-11-26T17:55:00.000-08:00

Holidays are always interesting in other people households. For some reason it doesn't feel like the same holiday with out all of the same side items being present that you are accustomed to eating with your turkey. It's kinda like, "Hmm, that was a great meal, and I'm stuffed, but I'm not sure that was thanksgiving dinner."

It's interesting when

2006-11-22T13:56:00.000-08:00

you haven't talked in your math class all semester, you haven't been to the board even once, there's only 3 weeks of class left, you volunteer for a huge 30 minute long Descartes prop, and then, half way through, your teacher stops you and asks...

"Were you homeschooled?"

Life

2006-11-21T13:44:00.000-08:00

So I decided last night, after many years of TAC seminar pre-gaming, that there is, in fact, a big difference between when you're ok, and when you're ok to be in class. So I left at 8pm for my 1/2 way through class smoke break, and decided that it would be prudent to spend the next hour playing bridge. Now I am wondering whether to turn in a 1/2 class absence note that says 'sudden illness'. Hmm, maybe not.

I really need to get a job again. I've not been working for the last 2 weeks now, which has drastically improved my social life, but destroyed my financial situation, and somehow taken a toll on my study life as well.

Halloween

2006-10-30T10:49:00.000-08:00

So, I went to the halloween dance as nothing this year, and felt incredibly lame. I also got dress-coded for being myself, which I thought was even lamer.

More importantly - I didn't carve a pumpkin this year, AGAIN. Every year I get soooo excited about carving a pumpkin, and yet, somehow, it doesn't happen. This year I actually ended up with an afternoon set aside for pumpkin carving, and I even ended up at the grocery store just to buy a pumpkin. But guess what? NO PUMPKINS. Yeah, that's right. The Saturday before Halloween and they were all out of pumpkins. Needless to say, I feel robbed of the halloween experience for the 5th year in a row now due to the lack of pumpkin carving.

Bizzzzzzzzy

2006-10-21T13:24:00.000-07:00

It's a kind of good busy though, or at least I keep telling myself that, mostly because it is necessary. I guess the important thing is that I have decently balanced everything that I need to do. And by decently, I mean that my studies, my alertness at work, and the time that I have for a social/private life, are all suffering equally from each other... which makes me feel well balanced in an odd "this is the best that I have the energy to do" sort of way. I know that nothing is going to fall apart. I'm grounded. I'm learning to juggle.

Drained, but well-balanced. Hey, I don't even remember the last time I thought the word 'bored'. Well, except for right there.

This last week was Don Rags, in which O'Reilly called me a tease, and Gustin admitted that she didn't know who I was. That was amusing.

I'm updating my blog at work because for some reason I have these people either liking or needing me enough that, at best, they only casually roll their eyes when I break the rules that I hear others aggressively reprimanded for even toying with. The management men here are all such result-driven, low-level, chameleon salesmen that if you give them attitude, they'll give you respect. I'm good with attitude. Hell, this job is practically an outlet for it.

This morning I hopped into my car, 20 minutes away from work, at 8:45 for a shift that began at 8:30. A shift on which I have been the only scheduled sales closer/supervisor for the last 6 weeks. I didn't answer my phone when it rang at 8:50, because I was already on my way. A minute later, however, I did listen to the voicemail from the Ventura Center's Director, saying that he thought I was scheduled, that the floor had just opened with no closer, and ended with a "come to work, umm, please". Arriving almost 45 minutes late, I was greeted with a promise of an additional commission bonus for all prepaid sales closed on the floor today. Wow.

I'm off for a smoke break.

So Apparently

2006-10-04T13:22:00.000-07:00

It's ok to drink in Betty's room, no special occasion necessary.

"So, if it's raining and I have a bottle of wine and some reading to do, I can just come and enjoy them together on your couch?"

"As long as I'm in here."

Wow. How did I not know this?

Last night was Jeanne's birthday, and as I sat down at 11 to start my Galileo prop for this morning's class, she invited me to go over to Betty's for a glass of wine. 2 hours an 4 glasses of wine later, I walked back to my own dorm for bed, quite pleased with the new discovery of drinking in the assistant assistant dean's room [assistant to the assistant dean (heheh, I need to start watching The Office again)].

Also, I just happened to wake up in good spirits this morning 15 minutes before my alarm went off. I almost went to morning mass, but decided to do the Galileo prop instead. It's amazing how getting out of bed in the morning is suddenly not such a big deal at all when life is treating you well.

And speaking of life generally going well right now, 2 days till I start my 3 day weekend which will be spent in palm springs. Niiiiiiiiice.