meh.

dear...

2009-11-09T12:24:00.001-08:00

dear my pants,

i'm so happy our relationship is back on track. i know i put you through some business here over the past, ohhh i don't know, 9 months or so. and you had every right to be angry with me. but i am back in the saddle now and i don't think i will be falling off the fit wagon anytime soon. i'm really excited about our future together. pants, you complete me. i just feel bad for the dresses & skirts who will now be getting a little less love. they were there for me when you weren't. but i told them this was just a rebound thing. they knew. so their tears are only sort of sad to me. my happiness to be back in you just outweighs their pitifulness. and now: the happy pants dance!

[insert dancing here]

~~

dear james mcavoy,

a classic actor move - a no-show at your own movie screening which was being billed as "an evening with james mcavoy." i know you SAID it was the swine flu that was keeping you away, but i don't know. you're an actor, you're supposed to be good at lying. so how can i be sure you weren't just ACTING sick? right? anyway, you did a great job in the movie, which doesn't surprise anyone. it would have been fun to ask you some jerk questions about your process just to be a douche, maybe next time, "jim." next. time.

~~

dear york peppermint patties,

you are so f*cking delicious to me. i'm starting to crave you more than my cowpals cheese items, of which i have not had ANY for two whole days. NUTS, right? here's the thing sweet little pattie, i like to eat you cold, i like to eat you frozen. i like to eat you slightly warm from sitting in my pants, i like to squish a bite of you between my tongue and the roof of my mouth and let your cool mintiness coupled with dark chocolateness ooze through my tastebuds. i just do. i know i might seem "creepy" or "obsessed" with you and i totally understand that restraining order threat. so i will try to tone it down a bit. but salivating is involuntary, you can't be mad at me for that.

~~

dear the packers and the bears,

it was awesome of both of you to lose the week my beloved vikings had a bye week. you guys our making this year so much fun for us. our position in the NFC North keeps getting better. and better. and better. so anyway, tough break for you (especially YOU packers mwahahahaha) but yay for us. and obviously i'm not getting my hopes up or anything because that would be the act of insane person. but if you guys could keep this type of tomfoolery up for the next.. let's say 8 weeks... that would be bloody brilliant of you. i would totally owe you, like for serious.

~~

dear viggo,

please don't pull a mcavoy and flake on our "date" tomorrow after the screening of the road. i'm really looking forward to hearing about your process and why you chose this script and etc. and then asking you some douchey questions about it. then i'm excited about going out for drinks with you afterwards and talking to you about hooking aaron up with a role wherein he stars alongside you as maybe your younger brother, or somesuch. i think it will be fun. if you show up. which you will. or else.

~~

dear monday,

can we just take a break from you this week? my schedule tomorrow has me in back to back to back to back meetings from 7:30a to 1p and i'd actually really just rather sleep in and then eat patties on the couch all day in my dayjamas. the good news, i will be eating patties on the couch in my dayjamas either way, because it's work from home monday! but the sleeping in part... well.... not so much. well just be kind to me this week, will ya? i know you get a bad rap and i know deep down you really do mean well, but sometimes you just have the undeniable ability to rub people the wrong way. so take it easy on me, yeah? i'll then do my part to help you better your image.

cool.

~~

2009-11-05T14:47:00.001-08:00

one of my favorite parts of the day, weirdly enough, is the morning. shortly after i rise in the morning i head to the bathroom to take care of some showering and getting ready business. camus takes note and jumps of the bed and clickety clacks his too-long nails across the wood floor to investigate. he's forever the most curious dog and his little face always looks like its questioning you. "why are you going in that place where the water runs on your head? why are you sticking that black thing in your your eye? why aren't you playing with me and this purple ball i put right here right by your feet? do you not see this purple ball? why don't you pick it up and throw it? why do you hate me?" and so on. usually i squat down and and he jumps up and puts his little paws around my neck and gives me a nice hug while he does his morning stretches.

once i've showered and gotten semi-ready, it's time to wake up little cosette who only stirs if if prodded. otherwise, she's usually moved into the space i've vacated and her face is snuggled into aaron's back and she's curled up into a little ball, snoring sweetly. i don't turn on the light so as not to disturb aaron and i feel around for her in the darkness, following her little noises that start to get a little louder as if to say, "five more minutes.... just five more minutes, pleeease." which is what i say to aaron several times a morning when the alarm starts to go off, coincidentally.

when i find her, i pick her up and cradle her in my arms, trying to keep her little body in its little fetal position because i feel like i'm picking up a warm little furry baby and i don't want to wake her up, too much. i carry her down the stairs where camus follows closely by my side. i keep holding her, because she's so infinitely snuggly and malleable at this moment that i don't even want to let go. not to mention that she doesn't "do" the stairs because she's a princess and because i'm an enabler, i don't ever make her.

today, for some reason, i was thinking about how far she's come in the past few months and how she's like a brand new doggie since all of her surgeries. her fur has almost completly grown back in on her back leg that used to be shaved, and her little face looks so great with her new little nose. she's going to be nine years old in a few short weeks and i'm honestly just so grateful that she's been in my life this long, because she's given us quite a few scares, and it often scares me how much i love her face off...

i leash them up after they do their morning downward dog stretches, and i pause briefly before i open the door into the blinding light of the outside world, and then away we go on our morning walk.

in some ways, it's a pain to walk them them all the time. they have to go out several times a day (tiny bladders! gah) and we walk them around the block almost every time, which means we have to encounter various people, dogs, weirdos, film shoots, lakers fans, USC students, FIDM students etc etc. our neighborhood can be crazy busy sometimes.

but, i cherish the morning walk so much because they are so sweet and adorable first thing in the morning when they are still groggy and waking up and usually the walk is relatively uneventful and they take care of business pretty fast rather than lolly-gagging around, which is what they do during most of the other walks.

and so today, i am thankful for the instant joy i get from the simple act of walking my two little f*ckers every morning. it's f*cking awesome.

2009-11-02T16:30:00.000-08:00

it's 4:18pm and i have yet to shower today. but this is a normal monday for me. i wake up two hours earlier than normal and work from home in the comfort of my sweats while i crank out our monday deliverables and by this time of the day i've already worked 9 hours and i'm ready to be done. and done. but yet, i still clickety click away, until the usual 6p end of day time and then i will finally turn my brains off after nearly 11 hours of work.

no big deal right? but, also, it FEELS like i'm cheating somehow because i'm at home, with my dogs, and sometimes i even get some aaron time. i don't hate mondays nearly as much as i should.

moving on.

a new 14-theater mulitplex situation has opened across the street and tonight they are showing a bunch of movies for FREE just because. the options range from district 9 to up to star trek to 500 days of summer. since we missed seeing star trek in the theater this past summer, we picked that one, because it's a) free and b) why not?

so in mere minutes, i will actually BE SHOWERING and getting ready to be seen in public and it's ever so awesome. fancy movie theater ACROSS THE STREET showing FREE MOVIES. i die of excitement.

oh and popcorn and soda are selling for $1, proceeds to benefit inner city arts. top that suckas.

right now, as the sun starts to set and the room starts changing colors through the slightly open blinds, the dogs are by my feet snoring sweetly i'm listening to regina spektor in surround sound and, you know what, i can get lost in eet forever and ever. so much.

2009-11-01T12:23:00.000-08:00

i weighed in yesterday at a somewhat satisfactory weight so immediately i knew: it was going to be a good day. then off to the gym to work on my fitness and then it was MISSION: complete our costumes. we ventured into santee alley for the first time ever, which is very surprising because we live like 6 blocks away from it and it's like FASHION FEVER everywhere and anyway, it was a little overwhelming. but after about an hour, we left with the following items: a mustard-colored ascot, long white gloves, fake pearls, a cute little red dress and a tiny revolver-shaped lighter. we spent less than $40 so we felt pretty awesome about the whole excursion.

then we hit up wokcano where aaron ordered three separate items off the menu and proceeded to eat himself into a happy stupor. his items were: spicy tuna tornado (hold the mayo), sashimi & seaweed salad and the sashimi sampler. i had the sashimi sampler and the salmon sashimi with ponzu and one giant glass of sauvignon blanc. NOM. aaron said it was the happiest he's been in quite some time, food-wise. it was highly exciting.

then we were high-steppin it home to get ready for the evening and i donned the look of miss scarlet whilst aaron transformed himself into colonel mustard. liana and tal opted out of the group costume thing, so cosette filled in as mrs. white, the french maid and camus put on a top hat and a bowtie to do his best professor plum.

i would have to call the overall effort a "success." you'll notice, please the mini revolver in aaron's hand and i'm sporting a candlestick. i think mrs white did it though, with the lead pipe in the study... you heard it here first.

the party at corkbar was WAY TOO MUCH fun, for sure. today i was feeling none too good as i remembered the deadly combination of wine, champagne and jello shots? that i did? but i definitely powered through a 5-mile run on the treadmill while i watched the NYC marathon and remembered that I DID THAT 2 years ago. i can't even IMAGINE doing it again, but so glad i did it back then when i was young and crazy and had no idea how ridiculously hard it would be to run for 4+ hours. GAH.

then we donned the lucky vikings jerseys and headed over to watch the game with jason and, even though i almost couldn't handle the up & downs of the game, we soldiered on to VICTORY AT LAMBEAU FIELD thusly making this the BEST HALLOWEEN WEEKEND EVER.

ya heard?

2009-10-29T12:21:00.000-07:00

it's the time of year where i start wearing more wool and therefore, because we all know i'm super allergic to wool, i am in a funk of stuffy head and runny nose-ness. oh, wool, you so silly. but i can't not wear a cashmere scarf on a day that has a low of 49 and a high of 70, right? i can't avoid throwing it on to warm my neckmeat when it's chilly, but then remove it when i inevitably get too hot. this time of year is so confusing for my parts.

yesterday was one of those kind of long drawn out days where i kept looking at the clock and kept thinking, really? only that time? but the reality is that when i was heading out, i was heading to the gym, so i was like, uhh, 6p don't come TOO fast. you know? but then when i was finally doing my sprint workout on the treadmill surrounded by all the gym rats and meatheads, i was like, OK, life is good. because it was just going to be a matter of time before i could go home and stuff my face with mini m&ms. and that i did.

the problem with this time of year is also the best part about this time of year; way too much awesome TV to watch. especially wed & thursday nights. my DVR dies a little each week at this time because we are SO DEMANDING. i think we record seven shows on thursday nights? some of which are doubled and tripled up so i have to tape them on the upstairs tv so that the main tv doesn't explode. super nuts, i tell you. at some point i think shows will HAVE to start dropping off, but since you asked, here are all the programs currently making the cut (in order of day of week)

amazing race, bored to death, dexter
heroes, gossip girl
biggest loser, so you think you can dance
modern family, cougar town, glee, so you think you can dance, america's next top model, top chef
survivor, flash forward, office, 30 rock, project runway, private practice, vampire diaries, fringe
the soup

also, every weeknight: daily show, letterman, conan, jimmy fallon

don't even get me started on the crap i watch while i'm on the treadmill. soul-sucking stuff, is what it is (*cough* the hills *cough* road rules real world challenge *cough* kardashians *cough* *cough* whatever real housewives is on *cough*)

it seems like a lot, yeah? i feel like i might even be missing some. still, i always like to say: IT IS MY JOB to know what's on TV. and actually, this is true.

i'm WAY too excited for the premiere of V on 11/3. i used to LOVE that show when it was on in the middle ages. i hope it holds up. but i guess OH WELL if it doesn't. am i right?

well now that i've thoroughly lost all of you as an audience, i bid you adieu.

BUT WAIT

so i need some votes on some group / couple costume ideas - you know you want to help.

1. CLUE characters (miss scarlet - me, colonol mustard - aaron, etc etc)
2. GILLIGAN'S ISLAND characters (ginger - me, professor - aaron, etc etc)
3. LES MISERABLES (jean valjean - aaron, eponine - me) we might add "Dead" or "Vampire" to these as well

**i don't want to affect your vote, but i really really really want to be miss scarlet and carry a rope around all night.**

kthxbai.

2009-10-28T17:16:00.001-07:00

i was just about to shut down at about 6p for the evening last night, when the lights started flickering in my office and before you knew it, BAM the lights were out all over the damn place. we had some crazy winds and a Wind Advisory all day yesterday, so it was interesting that the wind decided to eff with the power in my building RIGHT AS I WAS GETTING READY TO LEAVE. some people were stuck in the elevator for a bit (someone said they heard some screaming and panicked noises coming from the 'vator! yikes!), but soon the lights flickered and came back on, ... and then went out again. and then on... and then my boss and i were like, eff this noise and we walked down the stairs from the19th floor to 5th floor. i guess because i did not think yesterday was a good day to get stuck in an elevator 19 floors above the ground.

hey wind, thanks but no thanks, you weirdo.

anyway, you might have heard that my 'hood was all atwitter with activity last night with the MJ This is It premiere and the Lakers / Clippers opening & ring ceremony and then some concert was mixed in there somehere in LA Live, so all day the twitterverse and the LA blogs were like AVOID DOWNTOWN!! TRAFFIC DELAYS!!! ETC ETC. but after i finally got out of my parking structure (10 minutes) it only took me 15 glorious minutes to get home because the freeway was WEIRDLY EMPTY.

magical.

THANKS TWITTERVERSE AND LA BLOGS for clearing me a lovely path home by scaring everyone away from DTLA. loves you!

once i got home it was pure madness everywhere and we are pretty used to having heavy volumes of people in our hood for various events, but never has there been so many events all at once and there were new parking lots where parking lots did not exist before and they were charging $20 a pop for cars to park in our structure when normally they only charge $8-$10. nuts, right! i braved the crowds and the winds and walked a whole block to meet liana at corkbar, and we settled in for 2.5 large glasses of wine that were consumed in about 2.5 hours. we walked out of there warm, fuzzy and buzzy and even the wind couldn't squash our glow because eff you wind, eff you. like i said before.

by then it was like, late, but there was a 2 HOUR so you think you can dance episode waiting for me and aaron had been txting me for the past 1/2 hour such things like I AM HERE WAITING. THE GAME IS OVER. AND SYTYCD IS ON THE LIST. so instead of heading to bed like i should have, i watched every damn minute of that action. BUT THEN! they almost kicked off my favorite favorite and for a minute aaron and i were like IF HE GOES WE ARE SO DONE WITH SYTYCD but then, alas, he was spared and then all was right with the universe again. i think at that point the wind even died down and off to sleep i went in a foggy sauvignon-blanc induced haze.

eff you, wind!

YOU MUST BE THIS TALL TO ENTER! ________

2009-09-10T14:39:00.000-07:00

i guess in some ways i'm glad the summer is over. it was just so much PRESSURE to always be out there doing fun things JUST BECAUSE it was summer. but then again, DAMNIT, i want a summer re-do. but i don't. i mean, there was a lot of stressful things that happened, and a lot of worrying and a lot of sleepless nights, sure. BUT. now. cosette is kicking ass and taking names, and aaron's back in the land of the living after a brief stint in VicodinVille, so all is well. I can't REGRET that my summer was not as fun-filled and fancy free as I could have hoped, but hey, WELCOME TO THE RIDE OF LIFE, RUBY. that's just how it flows, yo.

the other night over a couple of cocktails, liana told me that she heard that in the state of california, people UNDER 5 FEET TALL qualify as handicapped, and, as such, i should try to score myself a sweet parking pass and take full advantage of my disability. but then later, someone else at the party said they recently changed that law, and actually, naw, that is not the case anymore. and i was like DAMN. why does The Man have to keep Shorty down? i mean seriously.

so i have just over a week left of my body-for-life challenge and i'm happy to report i weighed in this morning at NEGATIVE 5 pounds from my original weight. however! i'm totally over this eating 6x per day thing, as i cannot for the life of me figure out how to balance my meals and eat the correct portion sizes. and frankly? i would just rather eff the carbohydrates and power up on protein, because when i do that, i feel like i can rule the universe. The Carbs (much like The Man) just conspire to keep Shorty down. and i'm done with you, The Carbs, soooo done.

however, working out 6x per week is the shizz. i do feel proud of doing that much. because when i say it's the shizz, i mean, OMG ITS HARDER THAN A BASTARD TO WORKOUT THAT MANY TIMES A WEEK! OK!?

on a parallel path, aaron is in the midst of dropping a significant amount of pounds for an upcoming test shoot of his big feature film project that he's doing with eddie. to be exact, i do believe aaron is attempting to drop 20 lbs by 9/29/09. which means 1 lb+ per day. i mean, KAZOINKS! right? but the "good" news is - the less he eats, the less i eat. everyone wins.

ESPECIALLY, my pants.

this past weekend was a rather lovely end to the "summer" even though, who are we kidding, i live in LA. seasons? what? and actually, if we are splitting any hairs, autumn officially begins on 9/22 .. which means... we still have some summertime partying left to do my friends. at any rate, aaron and i got massages on saturday and hi, WTF, where have you been all my summer, Massage? so grrroooood. then sunday was just like, chilling. i don't think we did much more than watch 800 episodes of curb your enthusiasm? maybe i had some wine? who knows. then monday we hung out on the rooftop with a fun downtown crew and made new friends and drank too much wine for sure, beacause i had a hangover at 10pm.

but! when i rose for work the next day @ 630am - BAM! back in it to win it.

on the horizon: jamie's bacherlorette party(...), VIKINGS FOOTBALL, jamie & johnny's wedding, various visitors and birthday parties and eassssing myself into "fall".

word!

2009-08-20T12:31:00.000-07:00

another early morning for me, another solid workout. what the nuts is going on? i guess falling asleep at like, 947p while watching the new version of top chef probably enabled me to have enough energy to wake up at 630a again. but hi, i'm lame. aaron was like, reallllly? it's not even 10p, lady! ahhhh welllll. zzzzzzzzzz.

so cosette's new nickname is franken-leg, a la frankenstein. when they said they were going to remove "wide margins" of skin around the area where her little tumor was, they were not kidding. no joke. so her little leg is completely shaven, and there's a super long incision that's all bruised and gnarly with stitches. she looks half naked. poor little nunkin!! now her two front legs have little shave marks from all the IVs they've stuck in her, and now one whole leg + haunches is nakey. cosette is like, um, hi. can i please have some pants here? i feel naked. or maybe that is me talking. either way. DOG PANTS! i need them.

now... it's just a bit of a waiting game until we know our next move. hopefully we will hear good news tomorrow.

speaking of naked, there was this super awesome article in marie claire this past month about naked ladies in the gym locker room. i felt like it could have been written by ME because it was so exactly how i feel. how can we stop naked ladies from being completely disgusting in the locker room? how do we start this movement to eradicate ridiculous displays of gratuitous naked grooming?? i' being serious about this. i'm completely over the ladies who feel like its ok to treat a PUBLIC PLACE as a place to do things that you should ONLY DO IN PRIVATE. what the eff is wrong with these people? someone who grooms naked in public - I WANT YOUR SIDE OF THE STORY. WHAT THE NUTS ARE YOU THINKING?!?

oh look, i found the link: put your goddamn undies on for the love of sweet baby jesus

i think i'm going to take a half day tomorrow. i have one summer half day left to use before labor day weekend and hey, why not. then i can wake up super early again, pound out another 5-miler, go to work, sit in on a lunch meeting, and then go home and sleep until happy hour, go to happy hour, see 500 DAYS OF SUMMER already since it takes place IN MY HOOD. i can't believe i haven't seen it yet! and then who knows where the night will lead me. oh i know. i will fall alsleep around 10:59 ( later, since it's the weekend) whilst petting cosette's sad little frankenleg. i like sleep.

speaking of crazy people, what's the deal with people bringing fully loaded automatic weapons to obama's town halls to "exercise their right to bear arms?!" honestly, this makes no sense to me - the discussion is about HEALTH CARE AND INSURANCE REFORM. i can't imagine there is any sort of sane, reasonable logic going on inside the heads of those people. shit is scary, yo.

on that note, happy thursday party people.

not so bad.

2009-07-23T16:56:00.001-07:00

so i think we are temporarily out of the woods. after coming home on friday, cosette did well for a whole day before she started having issues again. so after a sleepless night, we brought her back in on sunday. they decided to give her a steroid shot to help her breathing, but wanted to observe her for a few hours just to make sure it was OK. so we headed to the gym and when we were done, we called to see if we could come get her. but apparently she had an episode where she turned blue and scared the shit out of them, so they decided to keep her overnight. and then she stayed ANOTHER day after that and i was basically like, OMG is this it. but the next day they said she had an amazing night and was ready to go, so aaron picked her up on Tuesday and since then she's been on the road to recovery with little incident. she has to be sedated a little, to keep her calm and comfortable, but she's doing so much better. we still have to bring her in to have the cancer removed, but we have to wait until she's got the green light on recovering from what ails her now. FINGERS CROSSED.

to complicate things a bit, we have a trip planned to MN a week from today. if all goes well over the next few days, we will be leaving her & the Mu with aaron's brother and then doing the surgery when we get back on the 6th or 7th. ::sigh::

so the good news is: i'm on a 10-day vaca/staycation in ONE WEEK. holy god, i need a break. the plan now is MN from the 30th-5th, and then a downtown la-based staycation from the 6th-9th. i really really really can't wait.

so far our minnesota agenda is action-packed with weddings, birthday parties, shenanigans etc. i'm really looking forward to it. there is a SLIGHT possibility that we will have to reschedule if anything pops up with our little c-monster in the next few days, but OPTIMIZM, I HAZ IT.

tonight is a farewell party for three temporary employees that i had the pleasure to manage over the past 5 months. they are doing a program where they rotate all around our company, learning and absorbing, and then they graduate and basically pick a place in the company to land. one of them is most likely going to come back to us in january, which is awesome. but as of next week, they are off to chicago and my group goes from 5 to 2. i cry.

saturday night is a hot celebrity-studded rooftop poolside party, and sunday is detox yoga in the same exact location.

aaron and i have basically given up wine ever since last monday, which means i think i've only had one night with alcohol in the past 10 days. as a result? LOOSER PANTS. hallelujah.

also? Body for Life is going well.. i've worked out 6 days per week for the past 4 weeks. and, I think, almost 4 weeks into it, that i've finally figured out how to balance my multiple mini meals. i'm hoping i'm bikini ready by the time i leave for MN. yeah suckas.

anyway.

as you were.

ohh, you know

2009-07-18T18:50:00.000-07:00

it was an exhausting week. monday night at 11p cosette started having one of her breathing epsiodes. usually they are triggered by allergies, which make her congested, which makes it hard for her to breathe, which makes her panic, which just is bad news bears. usually, we can calm her down after awhile and she sleeps through the night. however, i was never able to calm her down and by 6am after being awake with her all.night.long, i finally decided to bring her into the emergency vet.

when she got there they immediately put her on oxygen and sedated her a bit. her oxygen levels were around 90, and i was told it's best to be at 92 or above, so it was not good but it wasn't SO bad. but they recommened we do surgery on her nose and throat to correct the breathing problems that have plagued her her whole entire 8+ years of life.

i was terrified to do surgery - it's a known fact that french bulldogs and sijmilar breeds often have trouble going under anesthesia. but this was the place to go (animal specialty group) if we were going to go anywhere, we just needed to prepare to pay anywhere between 2200 and 3700. right? what a range.

we brought her home and at 130a she started having another episode so we were back in the car and on our way to the ER once again. once we got there, the vet was lovely enough to tell us she was fine and she didn't recommend oxygen or any other measures at that time, she also waived her fee and sent us home. seriously, so nice of her. this is a place that does NOT skimp on fees, but they're also some of the best specialty vets around, so they need to get paid.

anyway, the next day aaron begged and pleaded to get her surgery appointment moved up, and they gave us thursday @ noon, which was awesome. we made it through wednesday night without incident and brought her pitiful little butt in on thursday.

surgery happened at 5 or 6p, and then they called us once she was awake to let us know it had been a success. THANK GOD. however, they broke the news that a lump on her hind leg that we asked them to check was actually a cancerous mast celll tumor. they recommend removing it right away, but not until the swelling in her throat from this surgery goes down. AHHHH.

oh! and they only charged us 2200 (only!) which was the low end. thank GAWD.

now she's home and recovering rather well. i'm actually shocked at how well she's doing. and! she CAN BREATHE. her nose looks totally different and she still has some swelling in her throat, but it was a success and i'm so relieved. we'll deal with the next thing once we *can* but for now, it's just spoiling the dickens out of her and keeping her comfy.

anyway.

as you were.

2009-07-09T17:55:00.000-07:00

on days like today, my eyelids are heavy.   my eyeballs are dry and a little red.   i have a tendency to get late afternoon headaches and find myself nursing half cups of cold coffee to make through the rest of the day.   but, i must say, days like these i love. it was a trainer day.

but not just any trainer day, today was my last trainer day.   unless i buy another package, which i won't be able to do for a minute.   but hopefully soon.

i woke up before the alarm went off, a 5:52am.   i padded my tired bones into the bathroom and and crawled into my workout clothes i had laid out the night before.   i padded down the stairs and only turned on enough lights to make out shapes in the darkness. i measured 1.5 scoops of creamy vanilla protein powder and dropped it into a glass and added cold water. i stirred the living daylights out of the mixture and then chugged it down.   i grabbed an orange and peeled the mutha effing skin off that b*tch and savored every little tiny slice as orange juice dripped down my digits.   i pecked at my keyboard and probably answered some emails. i dont remember.   then i heard the THUMP, clickity clack coming from upstairs indicating that camus was awake and realized i was not in bed.   he clickety clacked down the stairs and scurrried over to me to get a hug.   i squatted down and he jumped up and put his little chubby arms around my neck and gave me some kisses.   and then, i said, farewell mu.   and i shuffled out the door and into the blinding white light of the day, off to get my butt kicked my a short Persian named Lara.

as much as i hate anticipating these days, i love it when i realize, now at 4:28pm, that I get to go home and do sweet nothing without an ounce of guilt because my workout is done for the day.     SWEET BABY JESUS, HALLELUJAH.

i started the Body For Life challenge on 6/27.   that was approximately 13 days ago.  since then, i have worked out every day except (1). because it was a free day.   !!!     right ??   !!!!   i've also consumed 6 meals per day, almost every day, even free days.   because i like to eat. it's not secret and i'm not ashamed. plus, it's the program.   SIX MEALS A DAY. perfectly balanced with 40% carbs, 40% protein and 20% fat.   bring on the fat.

anyway, it's going good.    it's hard in some ways, not so much in other ways, but i like it.   maybe more on that later. maybe not. i might be losing weight, but i might be gaining muscle. who knows.   my pants is still tight.   damnitall. oh well.   71 DAYS TO GO.

recently life has been a lot of downtown exploration. i made this list so i could remember all of it:

JUNE

26^th rooftop birthday party @ liana & tal’s

27^th birthday party @ must bar & broadway bar

28^th lunch with tenna @ panini cafe, rooftop poolside yoga, rooftop BBQ / Jacuzzi @ evo

JULY

2^nd – poolside beverage @ hote fig; sangria happy hour at must bar ; sushi, sushi and more sushi @ wokcano

3^rd – rivera cocktail party

4^th – hung out at Juliet’s rooftop pool @ evo;

5^th – local appreciation day @ corkbar - Juliet, Niles, Joy, Aaron

6th - late night nosh & beverages @ yard house

7th - Michael Jackson memorial craziness, test kitchen tuesday @ corkbar

whew.

so that's that. lots of eating working out drinking eating working out eating and drinking.

that's my life and i loves it.

oh, but also? i'm broke. no thanks to must bar; broadway bar; panini cafe; hote fig; wokcano; rivera ; corkbar ; yard house

oh well.

laters.

starting with the me in the mirror

2009-06-26T15:07:00.000-07:00

i'm starting the body for life challenge tomorrow!

omg. i already took my fat "before" pics and i'm so excited to see if i can actually stick to this long enough to see visible results.

wish me luck, and LUCK.

~~

in other news..

went to breadbar last night to sample "ludo bites." my friend jen is good friends with ludo's wife so I met her there and a few of her friends. sadly, aaron couldn't join us, but i brought him a little treat home and he died a thousand duck fat deaths over it.

anyway, i can't even do it justice in words, it was so much yum. ludo was on top chef masters a few nights ago (crazy french guy) and after watching i was super excited to check it out. and, well, anyway, yum.

ludo bites menu

so.. we tried the following:

heirloom tomato salad red onions feta mousse oregano
king red salmon cubes watermelon mint orange confit seasme oil
shrimp sweet and sour emulsion rosemary*
pork belly pea wasabi passion fruits soy sauce
creamy polenta cantal cheese and oxtail beef
fried chicken in duck fat herns de provence*
marinated grilled hanger steak kobe style yuzu radish white asparagus
cod spiced butter fresh porcini fresh almonds tonnato style
chocolate mousse ganache chantilly*

*the shrimp, fried chicken and chocolate mousse were amazing. everything was great, but those were AMAZING. breadbar doesn't have a liqour license so it was bring your own wine and we indulged in some trader's joes sauv blancs just to balance out the decadence of the french french french food. so so good.

anyway, i think he's there until august so if you have the chance, check it out!!

~~

this weekend is shaping up to be another awesome downtown weekend, complete with rooftop jacuzzi and pool parties and bar hopping adventures. woot.

~~

in reflection of all of the michael jackson madness, i am experiencing extreme nostalgia for a person who USED to bring me so much happiness. i vividly remember purchasing the thriller album and bringing it with me to show & tell and being so obsessed with MJ. i loved making up dances to billie jean and beat it, just like everyone.

over the years i still had mad love, but as his skin colored changed and his actions became more and more bizzarre, i lost respect and came to see him as a shallow, frail shell of himself. and, frankly, for many years, he horrified and disgusted me. but there was always a shroud of mystery, and there was always hope that someday he would get better. i never really wanted to believe he did what they said he did. but he made it nearly impossible not to.

i had the opportunity to visit neverland ranch when he opened it to the public to raise money years ago, and i was stunned by the numerous statues of naked children, and was equally amused and horrified by the alluring nature of all of the whimsical attractions that existed to titillate the desires of young children. ice cream stands, candy dispensers, rides, animals, train that toured the ground. but then there was sad, haunting music coming from the speakers that echoed through the vast empty estate. it was surreal. and it made my heart hurt. for him, for anyone who had been traumtized by his behaviors. the night ended with a weird onstage birthday cake fight between michael jackson, mike tyson and aaron and nick carter. i'll never forget the fans that were CRYING a thousand tears when he threw cake into the crowd and THEY CAUGHT IT. it was like jesus himself had just tossed them wine he had just created from water. truly a sight to behold.

and now as i look back, i feel so sorry for him. the michael jackson that I loved died so long ago. but it's true, the memories i have of how his music affected me growing up will never change. i hope he's resting, finally, in peace.

spicy spicy sweet sweet

2009-06-11T15:58:00.001-07:00

before we get started here, let's just put it out there that i ate some REALLY FREAKING HOT SPICY GREEN CURRY just a bit ago and for some moments while i was shoveling it into my piehole, my nose was super, super runny and my throat sort of almost totally closed up a bit due to the XTREME nature of the spicy spice and it was ONLY THEN, that i took pause and thought about the chances that someone could DIE from curry asphyxiation.

what do you think, possible? not possible?

and after i paused, i continued shoveling. because that's just how i do. that's what happens when you subsist on PURE ADRENALINE that you acquired to due the successful nature of your early morning client meeting (wherein your stomach was purring, nay, GROWLING) and then when you get back into the office, you realize that you will be jumping on a conference call RIGHT WHEN rainbow gourmet* shows up in the lobby, and since you didn't plan ahead, you will hear the hunger growls getting louder and then you will be using up all your remaining brain power to formulate intelligent-sounding strings of words that include such words as "preclude" and "amortize" and "metrics" and so on and so forth and you will chuckle to yourself because you will think, hey! is that ME talking? i almost sound SMART. and then the call will end and you will stare at the computer screen. blankly.

but then you will pull it together and order some food and then it will arrive and then you will shovel it and then you will die.

in other news, i am having an internal debate with myself about what i should do tonight: explore the artwalk or watch the lakers game. so far, i think it's going to end up being a hybrid. but i think the night MAY end up at loftseven which is a rooftop with some art and most importantly, a hosted bar and that party rocks well past the regular artwalk hours until midnight o'clock. everything else shuts down at 9ish, which is probably when the lakers game will end. see? it's a dilemma, kinda. because i could just go meet some friends and brave some of the streets by my lonesome, or i could wait for aaron. because that man is a LAKERS WHORE.

anyway.

i have tomorrow off and we are thinking about going to california adventure and using the flip side of our twofer tickets. see, we went to disneyland one day, and we can go to calif adventure another, but it expires next weekend!! zoinks! so we might just zip on over, take a twirl on the TOWER OF TERROR and then zip on back, lickety split.

oh ! before i forget. coolest thing- the wine bar on the corner has implemented a "test kitchen tuesday" wherein they sell potential menu items for $2 to brave testers. this week it was crab cakes and it was the best $2 i ever spent. plus, then, the bartender served us up a bunch of free samples of wines she was going to dump. it was pretty much: SWEET.

this weekend we have the following items on the docket:

- 60-minute massages

- rooftop / poolside yoga

- rooftop / poolside bbq

- exploration of little tokyo

- sushi?

- run

- swim

- california adventure

- hangover: the movie

- hangover: the ruby

- sleep

- sweet sleep

cheers!~

* rainbow gourmet is like, the dude who shows up in our lobby every day with an assortment of breakfast and lunch meals and snacks for sale. rainbow gourmet makes a chinese chicken salad with a dressing that has STRAIGHT UP CRACK in it because i am like a FIEND, a FIEND I SAY and i die when i can't have it because i'm addicted to crack.

which reminds me! i used to have a friend name janine (in junior high, mindya) and we called her JANINE, JANINE THE DICK FIEND. haha. nice friends we were.

oh, you know.

2009-05-21T18:03:00.001-07:00

ro recap may 5- may 20 and beyond...

may 5-9

josh and jesse came to town and we went to:

&

may 10-14

then, we had a little break and then I:

may 15-17

then! my parents came to town and then it was:

may 18-20

then! my sisters & nieces joined the party and then it was:

&

and then they all left yesterday.

in the midst of all this, i also

i am counting down the moments to the long weekend where i will:

then! on tuesday i leave for

for a week.

mercy.

crack

2009-04-28T18:02:00.002-07:00

i don't know if the mini sirloin burger commercial in my previous post is running nationally? but if you haven't seen it? please watch. it's my flavorite commercial, almost, like, ever. it's highly addicting though. BE WARNED.

my favorite part is that aaron sings "minnesota" instead of "mini sirloin." hilarious, hilarious stuff. the commercial airs pretty much non-stop these days. and every single time, i stop what i'm doing and sing along. freaking brilliant.

anyway.

so remember gerald, my "trainer?" well it turns out once i signed up he's passing me off to some "dimitri" character. DIMITRI? really. i have my first session this friday at the ungodly hour of 7am. which means i am up at 6am to prepare and walk over there. GERSH! MERGH! WHAT THE! NARDS!

should be fun, i bet you can't wait to hear all about it.

here's the upcoming plans for the weekend and beyond. it's going to get loco up in our crib, ya'll.

thursday: aaron's momma in town for a night, crashing at our place
saturday: cooking dinner for heather & brian, crashing at our place? (if we feed them enough alcohol!)
sunday: sarah b. is coming to town for a night, from NYC, crashing at our place
tuesday: josh & jesse arrive from MN, LUCHA VA VOOM is on the menu for cinco de mayo, crashing at our place until.... saturday? i think? in addition to the LUCHA MADNESS they will be attending the lebowski fest and generally getting into some shenanigans.

then! a week after that! my mom and stepdad will be in town along with my sister and my nieces! we're going to disneyland! and other assorted tomfoolery will ensue.

yippee kay yay! MINNESOTA BURGERSSSS!

Minnesota BURGERSSSS!

2009-04-28T18:02:00.001-07:00

like donkey kong!

2009-04-22T17:42:00.000-07:00

after that last entry you would think that by now i would have signed in blood on the dotted line with gerald to ensure that i would be in rooftop pool & jacuzzi shape, like pronto.

but alas, n'yet. i don't know what is holding me back. scurred, prolly.

the good news is that downtown living has forced me to walk all the time. walk the dogs, walk to the happy hour place, walk to another happy place, walk to the gym (concept!), walk to the grocery store, walk up and down the stairs in our unit, walk to the parking structure and on and on it goes.

then, mostly, i have been checking in with my mii. we've lost 2lbs since we were first introduced last friday, so heyo, success. my goal is 2 lbs a week for 5 weeks(of pure unadulterated fat) and then we will work on adding some muscle mass back into the mix. additionally, i have been sort of put on calorie restrictions on the suggestion of my trainer and this is my first day and i am DYING OF THE HUNGER. Mostly, because today I have consumed the following:

crab leg eggwhite omelet surprise = 160 cals

chicken fiesta healthy choice meal = 230 cals

TOTAL = 390 cals. I still "get" to have 800 more cals, but I was supposed to have broken my meals into five sort of equally sized portions and eaten them throughout the day... and, well, yeah. not so much.

BORING!

i moreso want to talk about how FUN it is to live downtown during the LAKERS PLAYOFFS. and i'm not even a basketball fan, but it's still fun to get caught up in the excitement of the crowds of people wearing their laker colors loudly and proudly.

we walked over to LA LIVE last night for happy hour #1 at rock'n fish. consumed: one glass chardonnay, shrimp cocktail, crab cake, spicy tuna roll. then we headed over to magnolia for happy hour #2 consumed: two glasses of chardonnay, pita & hummus, chicken satay

it was fun!

then we walked home with not enough food (believe it or not) to balance the wines and then so i had fake crab legs (mmm fish protein) and watched harper's island with a nice little buzz.

before i forget, i want to recap my weekend:

thursday - dodger game with co-workers

friday - stayed in, hooked up the wii fit, WENT TO TOWN

saturday - dinner at panini cafe, free wine, fun times

sunday - drinks @ corkbar with jason & kadee @ 5p, returned home for dinner; drinks @ corkbar with Luis & Mariana @ 8p

fun weekend!!

tonight liana & tal are probably going to stop by to see the new digs and MAYBE you will see me at the gym later on, working on my fitness and steaming the hell out of my pores.

latersssss.

wiiiiiiii

2009-04-20T20:50:00.000-07:00

on friday night, approximately 42 days after receiving the little gem for my birthday, we FINALLY hooked up the mutha effin wii and! wii fit!! and went to TOWN on that bad boy.

oh em gee, i'm in love.

i've already, like, played with the wii and the wii fit at various other people's houses, but there's something pretty awesome about creating your mii and having the luxury of checking in on it every day. hey there, little mii, are you getting any less fat? i heart you little mii!!!

then, on saturday i had my first (real life) training session at my new gym. the first session is free so they can make you feel fat and make you feel like you HAVE to buy 8 million of their proprietary supplements and buy at least 100 hundred training sessions so you can go 3x per week so you can ACHEIVE YOUR GOALS! BECAUSE EVERYONE KNOWS IF YOU HAVE A GOAL, you are 1000% more likely to get your fat arse in shape!

and guess what? i was sold! however, i haven't actually signed up yet because i'm, like, negotiating.

anyway, during my first session Gerald asked me how long it had been since i had consumed foodstuffs. this was at 10a on saturday morning. i pondered... um... 7:30p last night? so he refused to do a "real" workout because you need to have food in your belly at least 1.5 -2 hours prior to working out and i was
a) a little hungover due to some wii sessions that lasted until 1a enhanced by wine and
b) my stomach was a little bit growling right there in his office, like, pretty loudly

however! he still weighed me and let me test my body fat (so nice of him!) but before that he was like, let me guess! your body fat is probably in the teens. and i laffed pretty hard, because, yeah, NO.

so then when it came back as definitely NOT in the teens, he was like ruh roh. so it turns out that my whole starving-myself-before-working-out scheme has actually burned more MUSCLE than FAT and so therefore my body fat/muscle ratio is all kitty wompus.

you heard me.

so my BMI (height/weight ratio) is healthy, but my body fat % leaves much to be desired. MUCH.

awesome.

but i knew there was a reason i felt uncomfies in my skin. and now i know. and now i know how to fix it!

so he still gave me a "fitness assessement" and let me know that he was "going easy on me" due to the whole "no food in da belly" sitch. but yeah, that was a hard workout even if he was going "easy" on me. and then he offered a free session the next day so he could show me what it would really be like.

cut to the next day where i died whilst getting trained. because.so.hard.it.was.

it actually hurts to do most everything today. good lord.

but i think i'm ready? to be trained? YEAH I AM READY!

between the wii mii telling me my fit age is 10 years older than my actual age and then my gold's trainer saying my muscles were in some dire shape (he actually used the term muscle atrophy... )

i think, it's time for me to get back to being mii. (i know! huge nerd!)

it's time to get myself in downtown-rooftop pool & jacuzzi- bikini shape, my friends.

and it's ON!

and then!

2009-04-14T22:59:00.000-07:00

well! when we last left off i had THOUGHT so hard that i was d.o.n.e. our friends from MN called me as i was en route to the new place with the stuff from the old place and i was all like, "yeah dudes, imma jump in the shower and then i think it's bidness time circa da 8-spot!" and i came home and the cable guy was still hooking stuff up (note: this was 5p and he had been scheduled to appear at 12p... YEARGH!) and then i promptly sent aaron to finish up at the old place, because, remember, i was DUNZO.

but about a half hour later, i got a call and it was him saying "sorrry honeyyyy, one more load!!" and NOOOOOOO, but yes.

and then i was realizing i had had nothing to eat all the damn day long! and it was now starting to verge on 6p! and soon it would be 7p! and then i would still need to shower and was there anyway i would be showered, dressed, glossed and heeled by 8p? highly.doubtful.

ah well.

hither and yon, lickety split.

but when i returned i realized that i had no idea how to unlock my new door with my new key. call it mover's fatigue, call it sheer lack of coordination. all i knew is that i was locked out, it was 7:55pm and my friends were scheduled to arrive a 8p. HARUMPH.

within nanoseconds, magically, aaron appeared, unlocked the door, i showered, heeled, glossed, sparkly eyeshadowed, and waited downstairs while aaron finished his showering ritual upstairs.

somehow, it all worked out.

the rest of the weekend went like this:

dinner, bottles of wine and shmoozing with the owner of the corkbar
yoga at our *new* gym down the way
chicken boobs from ralphs fresh fare
rooftop BBQ at liana & tal's with our MN friends
SO MUCH FUN and FUN
thai food delivery
pass out at 10p on the couch
puddle of drool

then monday morning i took the METRO to werk. !! !!

and i took it again today.

both days i got off the train and aaron & the dogs were waiting for me. because, hallelujah, we live 1/2 a black from the metro stop.

booya.

lifestyles of the what and the what

2009-04-14T22:34:00.000-07:00

Hi!

So the last few days of my life have been some of the most awesome! And also! The hardest EVER!
Moving is a bitch, ya’ll. But you already knew that.
and so.

friday i spent most of the day at our old place, cleaning out what I could whilst the movers moved stuff. they arrived and 12:15 and we were headed to our first drop-off destination by 3:15. after that, we were headed to the new place where aaron had been spending the day with the cool dudes who were installing our surround sound, 52" TV, wii, PS3 & etc. only! the cable guy had come and wasn't able to reach our cable box (?!??) and so he had to reschedule for the next day. this will become important later.

so the movers did their thing and by 6:30p or so, all of our lovely stuff was now populating the new digs. AND IT LOOKED GRRROOOOD. we were totally excited. we had them place the majority of the boxes in the front, in aaron's "man cave" which left the main kitchen and living room area pretty much void of boxes, which was awesome. we arranged various items on the new entertainment center and removed all the clutter from the kitchen island and around 8p, jason and kadee arrived with FOOD! and WINE! yay! we toasted the new place, nommed on some noms and tried desperately to maintain our energy level to hold a conversation for the duration of their visit.

10p rolled around and they bid their adieus as we collapsed into the couch and listened to the subdued noises of the bustling city right outside our window. at that point, we decided to walk the dogs to the nearby ralph's and grab some provisions. two blocks later, we were there. We met so many frenchie admirers along the way! You would think these people had never seen such precious creatures! And lo and behold, at 10-something on a Friday night the Ralph’s Fresh Fare Market was BUMPIN’. So many people, super long lines. It all made me feel SO MUCH like I was in da NYC. Because that’s really all I can relate to on a downtown living level. I’ve never actually lived in, like, a real city before. Los Angeles, as a rule, is not a city. But downtown LA? Well, it’s trying it’s heart out to be one.

The next day I had to go back to the old place and clean all the damn day long. IT SUCKED with the suckage of 10 million babies sucking on pacifiers. SUPER SUCK! And, in the meanwhile, aaron “got” to wait for the cable guy back at the new ranch. SO LUCKY, that devil. After about 7 hours of pure hell and suckage, I finally threw in the towel and cried mercy. And then I filled up my car with about 1/3 of what was left to bring back, and matter of factly declared! “I’m D.O.N.E!”

To be continued…

THRESHOLD

2009-04-09T01:16:00.000-07:00

when i walked out of work at 6:27pm tonight i was in a state of reflux. maybe i'm excited that i'm not going to have to work in an office and show up at a pre-determined time, but MAKE NO MISTAKE ABOUT IT, i will be working for the next few days. like a damn dog.

so yes, i'm on vacation.

but this is SO NOT a vacation.

yes! it's exciting! YES!   but, also, the anxiety dreams this week have been k-i-l-l-i-n-g me softly. mostly, i was worried about the damn glassware.   all the fancy waterford crystal wine glasses (that PS we never use, but maaaybeeee someday!) and the memories of all the wineries that we visited on our honeymoon and all 7 martini glasses that will FOR SURE come in handy when i go through another "martini" phase.

anyway, i was having anxiety dreams that i think i can tie back to my fear of breaking the glasses. even though, hi, we never use them, really. because we are high-class trash and we drink our wine out of low ball glasses, kids.   don't be jellis.

anyhoo, so yesterday WE GOT OUR KEYS! TO OUR NEW HOME!   i got home from werk and aaron and i decided to move some stuff in, like, offically. not a lot, because the painters were coming today (and by were i mean, they did, but my tenses are all wonky now). and so! we moved in (3) boxes of breakable glasswares and (2) boxes of expensive wines. and then! we decided to wash them and dry them and put them away.

BUT before i really even got into it, i promptly DROPPED one martini glass for no apparent reason.   i guess? just to get it out of the way.   anxiety = gone.

OH!! most importante!   i had this mini-fantasy that aaron would carry me over the threshold since, this is our first house and all. and as well were walking towards the door, i said something to the effect of - so did you want to carry me over the threshold? and he was like omg, how did you know?   and i thought it was supah cute because, like a duh, that is just what you do when you have a new home, right?   but hi, it's been 8 years since we did the whole marriage thing.. so is it too late? heck no.

and, fyi, he did carry me over the threshold of our apartment waaaay back when.

BUT.   this. was. awesome.

a memory i must crystallize.   :: commencing crystalization ::

aaaaaand, well, scene.

housewarming flowers from good friends (aaron & kelly) in Minne:

aaron chillin in the window:

the view from upstairs:

sproing!

2009-04-05T09:13:00.000-07:00

had sort of kind of wanted to sleep in today, but the alarm clock did it's business at 8:00am and once that happened, as it turns out, there was going to be no more snoozing today. not today.

weird dreams are populating my brains lately. i wake up in the middle of the night sort of ready to take some sort of action as dictated in the dreams, only to realize the only action i need to take is to back to god damn sleep, already.

yesterday when we went to the gym, i started doing the dramatic exit dance and turned to aaron and quipped, "this will be my last saturday at this gym." which in fact, it may or may not be as we may or may not actually be staying in our current place on friday night. but in fact, this will INDEED be my last sunday at the gym. and then when/if i go any days this week, it will be the last monday, the last tuesday and so on. i know, it's very dramatic.

i am going to miss all the gym characters and the ambience that i've grown to love. i'm going to miss being able to say that McDreamy AND carrot top work out at my gym. i'm also going to miss 60-year old detective mike who's run 13 marathons giving aaron and i marriage tips that always included aaron putting me on a pedestal. that is one wise old man, that mike. i'm even going to miss anorexic-looking erin who's been kicking my arse in sculpt class for the past few weeks ever since she took over the saturday morning class.

but a new gym is on the horizon. this one actually has allll the amenities that a true gym rat requires: pool, steam, sauna, jacuzzi, salsa classes, aqua aerobics, pilates, hip hop and dance classes and so on and so on. it's also conveniently located at my transfer stop on my metro ride to and from work, so my excuse jar is going to be coming up pretty: EMPTY. i will be at the gym more often, oh yes, i will.

as the memories and experiences of living in this area continue to rise and bubble over in the brains, i am starting to anticipate all the new ones that will be coming in soon. first metro ride to the airport! first metro ride to the beach! first winebar experience downtown! first chicken wing experience downtown! and so on.

our first night in our new place is less than a week away.

sproing!

New condo pics: BEFORE

2009-04-02T16:01:00.001-07:00

mum mum mum mah

2009-03-25T21:50:00.001-07:00

where to start!!

my life is a crazy hodge podge of EVERYTHINGCOMINGATMEALLATONCE but the also a whole bunch OF HURRYUP and W ...A... I... T.

SO WE ARE OFFICIALLY CONDO-LOAN-BUYING-A HOME {APPROVED}. WE ARE APPROVED!

only, this: we are still waiting for the %&*(^ governments to send all pertinent documents because we are doing an FHA loan and (THE GOVERNMENT IS F*CKING SLOW) therefore STILL don't actually have an official close date. It was supposed to be March 27th, 2009. HOWEVER. it is now looking like April 3rd, 2009 or MAYBE even April 10th, 2009. WHO KNOWS. we were supposed to find out Monday. we were supposed to find out yesterday we were supposed to find out today. i mean, um, WTF, motha f*ckers. WTF.

the good news is that everything will happen, it's just that it's taking longer than planned.

boring condo talk, i know.

moving on.

TODAY. i confronted a MAJOR fear. i presented to a class full of 20-something young adult college students at USC. I went in with [my company] branded tote bags and water bottles and I had on my salmon pink shell with my short sleeve jacket and pin-striped black pants with my Bebe black mesh with salmon pink and assorted other embroidered flower 3" heels. AND. NEWS FLASH. i did not, per my normal MO, TURN BRIGHT RED, AKA into the RULK. i was calm, relaxed, somewhat articulate and even, in some parts of my presentation, FUNNY. i made some of those college kids laugh, even.

It was equal parts SCARY AS HELL and PRETTY AWESOME.

so.... yay! fear: confronted & conquered.

for posterity because i've been noticeably unable to string together an entry:

saturday night was liana's bday party DOWNTOWN. her new place is AWESOME and not that far from ours. as a test, we parked my car at my work parking lot and TOOK THE METRO (WHAT? YES!) and it was very nice. as a result of not driving, aaron and i were able to DRINK TOO MUCH. and then i was hungover on sunday. meh. but i still managed to pound out a 10 - mile run. 24 hours previous to that run, i was face down at the chiro getting a massage. only, this time i said: please, can you only focus on my back for 60 minutes (including heads, shoulders, neckmeats and glutes) and my massage guy said YES OF COURSE. and after that? i was pure mush. which was brills because EVEN PRIOR to that, i was getting my ass kicked by anorexic-looking erin at the gym in her "BODY SCULPT CLASS."

*sigh*

hours upon hours BEFORE THAT i was at a play called Womens of Manhatten or somesuch and it was fun and good and I lurved it. earlier in the week i had a GNO (GIRLS NIGHT OUT) with tenna, amanda and ryan. which was awesome even if Ryan isn't even a girl.

OK>

END POSTERITY ENTRY.

xo

I think i have a bit of a wine buzz and I also kind of feel like a drunk spaz.

XO.

i haz a birfday

2009-03-06T00:07:00.000-08:00

i dont really have a shitton to say ... except that...

my birfday was da bomb.

and it's NOT EVEN OVER YET. well. ok. it is.

BUT.

i still have plans this weekend, ya know. birfdays on thursdays linger.... on....

Aaron went BIG this year. bought me a WII, took me to the THE LITTLE DOOR, procured a DOZEN ROSES, let me watch AI, ABDC AND SURVIVOR.

i'm the luckiest grrl alive.

WE ARE ON THE BUSINESS END OF ESCROW.

holy OMG.

it took me 33 years to become an ADULT.

i'm overflowing with happy.