Thanks and MORE!

Thank you to everyone for the birthday wishes! I am officially 24! :)

I had a great weekend. For my birthday my friend Megan and I went to Street Scene, a two day concert that San Diego hosts every year. This year it was moved to Chula Vista at the Coors Ampitheater, which is new and very nice. We had a blast! Everyone that we saw was amazing...but a quick run down for you all...we saw:

Saturday
-Monte Batallion (local SD band- very good)
-Army of Me
-Fair to Midland (not what I was expecting, but cute panda band shirt)
-Rocket Summer (the singer looks 15, he's actually 25)
-Mims (this is why I'm hot! haha)
-Shut up Stella
-The Academy Is... (who might be my new favortie- amazing band from Chicago who are a total 80's hairband throwback in their dress- I bought their shirt because it is amazing, I'll post the picture when Megan sends it to me)
-Augustana (I only knew their popular song Boston, but very good, amazing voice- very depressing)
-Jack's Mannequin (Andrew McMahon's, lead singer from Something Corporate, solo project- he is amazingly hot and an amazing performer)
-Panic! at the Disco (they are SO much fun live! Their lead singer Brendon is so animated!)

Sunday
-T.I. (just popped in for a few songs)
-The Editors
-Paolo Nutini (who made me want new shoes)
-Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
-Gym Class Heroes (who are also amazing live- their lead singer Travis is so much fun!)
-Brand New (who had fun shirts- but none of them fit me- boo)
-Tiger Army
-Arctic Monkeys (I bought their tshirt with a penguin on it! They were good live, but not as friendly. Although their lead singer did ask the audience to buy them "candy floss" aka cotton candy)
-The Killers (who were the most amazing performance of the weekend- no joke! They sang all of their big hits and a few smaller ones from Sam's Town, which were amazing as well. They are seriously awesome live. If you like them and ever have the chance to see them live- pay for it. It's totally worth it)


All of these for just $120! And we only went to maybe a quarter of the people who were performing at the festival. And I spent $30 on beer getting drunk today for my bday. :)

Anyways, I'll post pics when Megan emails them to me. It was so much fun. Wish you all could have been here to celebrate with me.

Jenny came to be bday dinner on Friday night and we went to the Lamplighter afterward. She just got internet hooked up at her new place, so we need to try again to convince her to join the MoCal blog. I mentioned it to her a few times and it sounded promising. She cut her hair to her shoulders. It makes her look very adult!

That's all for now. I'm headed home for Caroline's wedding on Friday night and will return to SD on Monday evening. I will make sure to take pics at the wedding and post them for all to see. I'm excited to see Chris Marcoux, since I haven't seen him since we graduated six years ago!


PS- My mom sent me 10 bed, bath, and beyond coupons for my bday and a gift card there. She cracks me up.

The Jane Austen Book Club

I read this book a few years ago, that summer that I attended the Denver Publishing Institute--I even bought the novel at the Tattered Cover's now-defunct Cherry Creek location, and although I found that I could not remember anything that happened in it right before I went to see the movie last night, I did remember liking it a lot. Usually, books that are take-offs, sequels, or even slightly reference Jane Austen novels kind of revolt me--with Bridget Jones' Diary being the obvious exception. But I loved The Jane Austen Book Club. The six people in the book club do not neatly fit in to one of the molds created by the heroines of one of Austen's six novels--for instance, I like everybody in The Jane Austen Book Club, which means that nobody can fit the mold of Fanny Price (Mansfield Park). Despite its girly name, The Jane Austen Book Club is not chick lit--it's literary fiction, a polite, deferential homage to one of the greatest writers the English language has ever seen, but also a novel that stands on its own, with deep, complex characters and beautiful prose.



The movie is no less spectacular. Packed with quiet movie stars who shine in their appointed roles without taking up too much space, The Jane Austen Book Club was an interesting portrait of six people, some of whom aren't even friends, trying to figure out who they are and what their lives mean. Jocelyn (Maria Bello) is a single dog breeder in her late thirties/early forties who is constantly toeing the line between contentedly alone and desperately lonely; Sylvia (Amy Brenneman) is a married woman with three grown children whose husband (Jimmy Smitts) reveals his infidelity in the strangest way, by telling Sylvia they've had a good marriage and "might as well quit while they're ahead," sending Sylvia into a sad tailspin followed by a brilliant, bouncy comeback that has nothing to do with a new love interest; Bernadette (Lynn Redgrave) is an older woman who's been married six times and has no real plot line of her own besides being the energetic spirit that keeps the group together and providing counsel for the younger ones; Prudie (Emily Blunt) is a high school teacher who is considering having an affair with a student despite being married to Dean (Mark Blucas); Allegra is Sylvia's youngest child, a beautiful lesbian who tries to reconcile her parents' divorce with her own desire to love and be loved; and Grigg (Hugh Dancy), the only male member of the book club, a rich nerdy guy who works for a pittance as an IT guy at Sac State to have something do, bikes everywhere despite owning a jalopy that runs on donut grease, and lives in a shiny new development because his accountant told him to buy property, who has feelings for Jocelyn but is too polite to make a move.

The magic of The Jane Austen Book Club is all in the characters; they drive the story, and their chats about Austen are fun diversions that show exactly who they are.

Cambria, I've found your soulmate

His name is Kevin Pang, he lives in Chicago, he's a staff writer for the Tribune, and he loves fish tacos.

Today, during my wildly inappropriate amount of free time, I happened to pick up the Tribune my uncle left on the kitchen counter, and I saw in the top lefthand corner a picture of one of those LIVESTRONG-esque rubber bracelets, but this one was turquoise and read FISH TACOS. Uh...what? So I went to the "At Play" section of the newspaper and the cover literally read "VOTE YES ON FISH TACOS" and Where is the outrage? In our city, a shining epicurean beacon to the free world, the fish taco, one of the most ethereal foods ever created, is treated as a novelty and all but neglected on menus. Here is a perfect combination of ingredients creating a perfect food--like perfect Shanghai soup dumplings, or a perfect bacon-lettuce-tomato sandwich--where the whole is more delicious than the sum of the parts. Why can San Diego have it, but not Chicago? Brethren, we must stand as one and bring this fried ambrosia into our fair city. Join our campaign.



Pang has a step-by-step plan for introducing fish tacos (besides the rather mediocre ones he found in the city). It entails:

If you haven't tried a Baja fish taco, try one.

With your newfound appreciation, tell three friends about fish tacos.

If your favorite Mexican restaurant (or non-Mexican, for that matter) doesn't serve fish tacos, ask for them. No, demand them. But be nice about it, and promise to return if they do.

Restauranteurs: Put Baja fish tacos on your menu.

Show your support. We printed a couple hundred "Fish Tacos" bracelets. If you pledge allegiance to fish tacos, I'll send you a bracelet.

Take the pledge. (Which reads: I, the undersigned, do hearby pledge allegiance to great fish tacos here and everywhere. I pledge to become a goodwill ambassador for fish tacos, spreading the word by telling friends about their wondrous qualities, and by patronizing restaurants that serve fish tacos. I pledge to demand--nicely--that any Mexican restaurant not serving fish tacos, do so. I pledge to visit said restaurant, in the event it adds fish tacos, and to revisit it, if the fish tacos are of above-adequate caliber.)

Or maybe they should just focus on getting Rubio's to open a chain of restaurants out here. That should solve this problem right quick.

You can get a fish taco bracelet by emailing atplay@tribune.com. You can use one of my Chicago addresses (email me or call me for them if you want). I don't like fish tacos, so I'm not going to do it, but Cambria, if you want a fish taco bracelet, here's your chance.

New York, New York

Sorry I've been out of touch for a little while, but I spent all last week in New York City, and I didn't really have the time or the energy or the desire to blog. God, moving to such a scary city, and for the first time being in complete control of my own life, and having to take responsibility for my own choices, is so overwhelming. I don't know where to start explaining the ups and downs of my emotional state over the past seven or eight days. First of all, I was really excited to hang out with Bri, so that was a good thing. And I really do like New York for a lot of reasons, not least is that subway, which I found much easier to navigate than I did last November. I saw a lot of things I hadn't seen before (Central Park, for instance) and went to places I'd never been before (the Village, Queens, Jersey). Sadly, a lot of the plans Cambria and I made before I came (see her cousin's play, see Legally Blonde: The Musical, go back to Vol de Nuit and steal a Delirium Tremens glass) did not materialize, but there is plenty of time for that when I move there. WHEN I move there. It's going to happen. I've decided. It might take me a month or so, but I promise, Kim--by Thanksgiving, I will be there! I'll be living with a total stranger and temping, most likely, but I will be there!

I accomplished a few things while I was out there. Firstly, I had lunch with Julie from Random House, who promised to give my resume and cover letter to the woman who is hiring an assistant at Three Rivers Press, which is an imprint of the division (Crown) where Julie works (I think for the Publisher). She gave me a lot of great insight into the job, the company, and the industry in general, and she was really funny and kind to me. I really hope I get to interview for the job, and I plan on staying in touch with her, because she seems like a great person to hang out with and learn from. So maybe I'll get an interview for that job--they haven't called yet, but I'm sure that has little to do with anything. My experience working for a publishing house is that when an assistant leaves, they really do need to fill the position right away, but instead of doing so immediately they instead pile tons and tons of work upon the remaining assistants and take their sweet time hiring. There are many reasons for this, probably one of which is that hiring people is time consuming and annoying, especially with the turnover rate in these positions, which practically guarantees that even the lowest-rung editor is hiring a new assistant at least once every year and a half, if not more often. That's how it was at Thomson, that's how it probably is everywhere else. So I'm not freaking out yet--if I have any chance at all of getting an interview for a position, it's this one. If I don't get a call from them, I just don't know what I'm going to do.

I also meet with Jessica, who works for Penguin. She didn't have a lot of helpful leads, but she did weigh in on Mary-Kate Olsen's appearance on Late Night with Conan O'Brian and Britney's disastrous VMA performance (which, way to stop being either relevant or respectable, MTV). She also told me a lot of stories about her time in the industry that are interesting to almost nobody but me, and she told me about a lot of the books she's been working on and acquiring, all of which sound really great. There's this whole book about body image written by a former Miss USA/America (?) pageant winner that has pictures of real women's bodies in an attempt to show young girls that they don't have to look like porn stars or supermodels to be beautiful. It sounds trite, but the way that Jessica described it to me made me thing it's going to be really awesome--maybe a bit controversial, but awesome. She said she'd keep an eye out for positions I can apply to. It's getting to be that, while I'd still like to work in fiction, I think I'd be perfectly fine with working with nonfiction, and even more than that I think I'd probably enjoy it better in the long run because I only read selected nonfiction, so I wouldn't feel as though my entire life was consumed by the same thing--and I wouldn't run the risk of losing my taste for fiction just because I sit around editing it for a living. So, in other words, this RH position is perfect for me. I hope they take my experience and enthusiasm into account, because I would die to work there.

Um, what else? Oh, I kind of, after much tooling around the metro area looking at apartments, decided that I'm going to have to live with a roommate (makes it less likely I'd have to take any responsibility for fulfilling a lease--I can just pay my rent and utilities and have that be that), and I only want to live in Astoria (Queens) or Manhattan. Also, I only want to live with women in their twenties, and hopefully only one of them. So that should give me someplace to start when I go back at the end of the month. I overheard this girl talking on her cell phone over by the Bloomingdale's where Bri works, telling her friend that she applied to about forty places (looking for roommates, I'm assuming), heard back from about four of them, and only about two were acceptable to her. So it looks like if I want to find the right living situation, I'm going to have to really widen my net (within my set parameters) and hope I get lucky. It'll probably take time, but while I'm there looking for a place I can also be applying to/visiting temp agencies, and hopefully something will come of that as well. I'm actually pretty upbeat about it right now--I wasn't a few days ago, when I cried practically every time I got on the subway. But on Tuesday I didn't want to go home, which was a good sign that I'm ready to stay, and now that I have a plan I can get things underway as soon as I go back. Poor Bri and Jessica (her roommate, not the girl who works at Penguin)--they're going to have to put up with me for at least another week sometime in the future.

Is anyone out there?

Seriously, where is everyone? No update for over a week...not even from Anna! Sheesh. :-)
'Course I don't expect much from Cambria, seeing as how she can't even RETURN MY CALL.
It's ok, I just cry myself to sleep at night. :-P

So, Texas. Hmmm... I can't wait to come home. I found myself a temp job working at an oil company, which pays great hourly, but it's not really challenging. I have a second interview tomorrow for another position, which is kind of a big deal, but I'm not going to mention what the company is until I know for sure what the verdict is (offer or no offer). Let's just say, this is big time for me and I desperately want it. I'm trying to secure a part time job as well, with DSW (yes the shoe store), but it's proving to be difficult with working until 5pm everyday. I still need to do the Orientation. I feel as though I am running from interview to interview, expending so much energy on job hunting and not getting much (or any) of a return. It's quite exhausting. Bright side - I have a temp job, but who knows for how long (she might get pissed and can me because I am needing to come in late due to interviews). Catch 22.

I made a really great friend out here, her name is Natalie. Our connection is Phi Beta Chi (she was in the Sam Houston Chapter Cambria) and she is so awesome. She's married and her husband is nice too. We've been going to Astro games and pubs. Foolishly, we went to see Halloween on Friday and scared the bahjesus out of both of us. Yep, I live on the edge. Ian got to meet both of them while he was out there; that was really important to me.

Ian. He is underway right now and should be back at the end of the month. Trouble is, he needs to qualify for this school and he can miss 3 months of WesPac (which leaves in mid October). I guess he's having trouble because he's learning so much at once and is worried he won't Qual (which means all 6 months on WesPac). Regardless, I am going to do whatever I can to come and visit mid October, even if its just for a few days. He's a wonderfully amazing man, who loves me very much; I'm so lucky to have him. The distance stinks big time, but we're both aware that it will pay off in the end. I finally got a good one girls, can you believe it? :-D

Anyway, I miss you all and I wish I could just call you up and go out to Lamplighter's or Whiskey Girl...or BRONX PIZZA. I hope the job search is going well Anna. Good luck with School Cambria. Miss you Kimbo!

Rodeo

Heat wave in...Long Beach?

The heat was crazy this last weekend. In Long Beach it got to about 103 degrees, which for living near the coast is ridiculous! After complaining to Ted about the heat and how I wasn't doing well with it, we decided to buy an AC unit only to have the weather cool down! Oh well! I guess it'll be nice to have in the future. (Not looking forward to the electricity bill.)

Nothing much going on over here. Bought season 3 of The Office and have been watching that in my spare time.

I have a few travel plans coming up. My parent's 35th anniversary party is on the 22nd and we are having a Comedy Central like roast for my parents. I'm hoping to learn some new things about my parents from people who attend. In the beginning of October I'm flying out to South Carolina to see Ted. The night before I fly out I'm going to see the Dave Matthews Band at the Hollywood Bowl. I've heard its an amazing venue for concerts. Then to New Jersey for the holidays to be with Ted again. I miss him a lot.

As for movies saw Balls of Fury and it was ok. I'm just really glad I don't have to pay to see movies. Also 2 Nights in Paris (no its not the sequel to Paris Hilton's sex video) is an interesting movie about relationships, I only saw about a half hour of it during my break at work. There is a Spanish version of Ocean's 11 out that is really good, Ladron que Roba a Ladron.

In other news, my parents live in a yellow submarine. Kidding, but really they've painted our house a desert shade of yellow and a trim of copper red. It looks interesting...I'll have to make a final verdict on the 22nd.

Gives a new meaning to the song "Breaking Free", doesn't it?

So, I don't know if you know this, but Vanessa Hudgens from the Disney Channel's High School Musical and High School Musical 2 sent nude pictures of herself to her alleged boyfriend, Zac Efron, also of HSMs 1 and 2 (and, also, of Hairspray, in which he was delectable, don't judge me). [By the way, that link? Kind of not safe for work. I mean, it's not the real deal--the actual uncensored naked pics are available several places if you want to see them, but I'm a classy gal--but it's still indicative. Just a warning.] Okay, so not only is Hudgens a mediocre singer and talentless hack of an "actress", she's also completely stupid. Firstly, because she took the pics and didn't expect them to get out, and secondly because she admitted that the pictures were real to TMZ even when almost every single media, celebrity and pop culture blog in the universe was saying that they didn't think it was her! You were home free, you jackass! Now she's effectively killed her "career", because Disney's not going to put her in another movie again, ever, and that was all she had going for her, because while she's pretty, she's a bit dull and generic looking. I can just imagine the execs over at Disney reading The Superficial, shaking their heads and muttering: "Dude. We are so not all in this together."

just a little mid-morning movie recommendation

Last night I dug into the Netflix movies that'd come over the weekend I was at my aunt's. I watched about a billion episodes of Arrested Development (I need to just own the sets already), then stayed up real late to watch Miss Potter, that drama about the life of Beatrix Potter (creator of Peter Rabbit, Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle, etc.) starring Renee Zellwegger, Ewan McGregor, and Emily Watson. You know, I liked it. At times, I felt like Zellwegger can only play one sort of British woman, because I saw a LOT of her Bridget Jones persona in her portrayal of Beatrix Potter, and I think she may have gained weight for this role as well, although she only seemed to gain it in hre face because she remained quite slim everwhere else, which is...odd. Anyway, on the physical DVD they have a picture of Ewan McGregor and Renee Zellwegger in character, except that somebody in the marketing department said, "You know, Ewan is so much hotter sans mustache," so they put a cleanshaven picture of him on the DVD (and, I assume, the DVD case) when in the movie he's never cleanshaven. Whoever made that decision is my brother from another mother, because honestly I have never been so unattracted to Ewan McGregor, who I think is quite cute normally, but the mustache is very distracting. Anyway, other than the faux-Bridget behavior and the 'stache, this was a delightful movie that made me tear up a little bit. I really recommend it, if you're in the right mood.

Don't worry Joe, you're a superb manager

Hello everyone! I enjoy that people have been updating recently with ridiculously long posts updating everyone on their lives. I feel as though I have been so busy that I don't even have time to log on and update the blog. Scott- I too read the blog regularly and think that I should update but feel like I don't have the time. Sadly, this is often true.

My new apartment is great! I'm still working slowly to unpack, but I did a lot of work this weekend. Unfortunately, from the hours of 11am-3pm everyday this weekend I couldn't actually muster the energy to get up off the couch and unpack because it was soooooo unbearably hot! It was in the high 90's-low 100's all weekend, the humidity is higher than normal because of tropical storm activity down on the tip of Baja, I have no a/c, AND on top of it all on Saturday my block was victim to the infamous "rolling blackouts" California hasn't experienced since we were in high school. With no fans my apartment was ridiculous!

Although I do have a GREAT story about my time without power though. My upstairs neighbor is a very interesting character. He came by about three days after I moved in and introduced himself, TOTALLY DRUNK, at 10:30pm. And he came by on Saturday and asked me for a lighter. I had no problem with this, except that I had to dig through a couple of boxes to find one. Well, I handed him the lighter and watched him light his JOINT in front of my apartment. I was so stunned that I had no idea how to react. I didn't really know what to do. When I told this to Cambria she told me that I should have told him to share. "Puff, puff, pass!"

So yeah, I've been trying to keep myself busy. Last Thursday Dani came over and we walked down to the Subway near my apartment. It was an experience to say the least. First, this subway has plexiglass enclosing the sandwich making area. The employees have to put your sandwich and drink cup into a box and close the door before you can open a door and get your food. This makes me feel totally safe BTW. So, we go and the guy behind the counter is totally weird to us, he doesn't speak at all to us the entire time until we got to the register. Dani asked him why they had the plexiglass and he simply shrugged. He and his buddy who work there then proceeded to both leave the restaurant and stand right out front and smoke a cigarette. When they came back in they were totally weird to us as well...anyways, not as interesting as I write it.

So, after subway we decided to take an adventure and wander my neighborhood. We passed multiple eateries (including Jack, Taco Bell, Wendy's, Coco's, Denny's- I am totally set on drunk food) and wandered to this local bar and decided to pop in for a "night cap" (at 6pm). This bar was AWESOME! It's a total local dive bar, but the bartender (michelle) came by and introduced herself and told us that they do kareoke on weekends, DJ's during the week, and grill steaks out back on Tuesday nights. I'm totally going back. Well, I called Jenny and she stopped by. We drove Dani back to my place to get her car to go home and headed back to the bar. When we got back the bartender remembered my name and my drink (impressive since the bar was getting crowded) and Jenny and I stayed and chatted for a while. She's doing well. Her store opened almost two weeks ago and she's enjoying herself. She told me she dropped a tray of pearls and ruined like $14000 worth of merchandise, but her manager told her that "accidents happen". I can't even imagine.

So yeah, that is really the exciting update that I have for now. I'm super busy in the next 12 days so I will probably not be updating for a while. This Sunday I move into a hotel to live with the Sorority Recruitment Counselors for ten days. Get excited. I'm going to go crazy. Oh and on top of the insanity with everything at work (recruitment and such) the university decided to finish up our move with electrical repairs, etc. starting tomorrow. Groan, it's going to be a rough couple of weeks.

On another note, my mother is doing well and she sends you all her love. :) Oh, and Jennifer and Steve are moving to a two bedroom apartment in the next week. And they now have a joint bank account ::gasp::! Jennifer is enjoying her new job. I can tell you all about it if you want to know.

The end.

PS: The title of this post is simply because I watched Empire Records last night.

PPS: I watched Pan's Labyrinth this weekend on "watch now" Netflix. I would recommend it. It was complicated and at times tough to follow, but totally worth it for the deep meanings associated with the story.

The end. For real yo.

It Rears its Ugly Head

As I am most certain you all know this last Monday was Labor Day and as such I had no classes for the day. Unfortunately while I may not have had classes that day I did still have homework. I was however able to manage a respite from homework and procrastination in the form of dim sum with PJ and Soeun. Now when you walk into a Chinese restaurant and you and one of the people that you are with are the only Caucasian people visible, you know its going to have good food. And the food most certainly was good, however the service wasn't. It took almost 25 minutes to get tea and almost 45 to get water. WTF! Like seriously we saw everything we wanted circulating all around the room but it never came near us, we had to almost trip a server as he ran bye to get his attention.

I understand that it is the job of the people with the carts to give you as much food as they can because it gets them more money; but when you just ask what something is and they say "it good, you like" (I know that sounds stereotypical but I jest not, that is what at several of them said) and shove food onto your table, I don't appreciate that. I'm not even sure what it is let alone know weather or not I want to eat it. Now I have been to dim sum on other occasions but I have never before had to dodge steamed buns like Neo from the "Matrix"!

As our dining experience drew to a close we where desiring something of a sweeter nature to caress our pallets. So we kept an eye on the desert cart as it circulated the room, stopping at every table along the way. She finally stops at the table next to us and then swiftly passes us bye. PJ and I are looking at each other in confusion when Souen tells us that we have to appear interested in what she had for her to stop. So we wait again, she stops at the table next to us again, and again she sails right on bye, with us looking as interested in her wares as humanly possible. We quickly say "excuse me" which yields us no results other than her stopping her rounds to help the table on the other side of us. Now we are annoyed but we write it off as just an oversight on her part. Again we wait, but by this time both tables next to us have left and we try flagging her down (both audibly and visually), and again she sails right on bye. However this time there is as slight difference, as she rounds the corner of the isle she looks over her shoulder strait at us and makes eye contact. Now we get it, PJ and I are sitting on the outside and we are both White. In the end we request our confections from the lady with the pork buns and shrimp roles, pay for our lunch and leave with a new lesson learned. Next time have Soeun sit on the outside.

sounds promising

Okay, I'm totally afraid to post about this so as not to jinx it, but in an effort to be less superstitious overall I'm going to anyway. So I started sending out query letters for the novel none of you have read (no pressure! It's too late for your feedback, anyway) last week--I sent out ten email queries, figuring that no matter where I live, my email address doesn't change, so it's the safest route at present. Anyway, I got a couple of rejections (completely par for the course, and while it doesn't feel good, I know the drill and am trying not to take it personally), but this weekend I did get an email from a new agent at a fairly new New York agency who wanted to read the whole manuscript. I sent him the MS and a little thank you, and I got an email this morning saying that he'd read the first two chapters already and really enjoyed them--"the writing is fantastic". I'm trying so hard not to get my hopes up, what with this week and next week being kind of important re: the job search, which I'm already nervous/stressed about, and I really don't need to be vainly hoping for something else good to happen to me, but I still can't help it. He might not end up digging the whole manuscript--I know it has flaws I've yet to find or don't know how to repair--but just the fact that somebody in the industry thinks my writing has promise is encouraging. I'll keep you updated, but it'll probably be a while before anything materializes, if it does at all. Oh, and so far no interviews yet, and I go to New York next week, but I do have some lunches/drinks scheduled with some contacts at Random House and Penguin, so those will be fun and hopefully illuminating. I'm applying to a few new jobs today after Lesley at CAPS (the U of C career center--she's kind of my personal cheerleader) takes a look at my resume and cover letter, so maybe something will happen with those? I don't know, but pray for me. Miss you!

Oh, and I don't know if anybody's noticed, but Mandy Michel is back in Dublin, working at a pre-school or something. Laters!

Its been a while.

Hello all! I know that it has been a while but my philosophy is that the less I post the more you will enjoy it when I do. Its anticipation building, like in a good movie or book. Really though I know it is kinda shitty of me not to post very often, I men seriously Cambria is posting more often than I am. However in my defence I do check the blog almost daily and think "hey I should post on the blog" almost as often. But it obviously doesn't happen. So in the. . .I don't know how long its been, a few thing have happened. Starting with the most current:


My dad started and finished the Harry Potter books. I was originally excited to have someone around the house that had read them also so that I could discuss them with someone. Unfortunately it seems that while my father may have enjoyed the books, trying to discuss (I use the word discuss loosely) them with him is not an easy feat. However with his reading of the books his interest in seeing the new. . .est movie was peaked, so we made a father-son outing out of it. This was the third time that I had seen it; however, it was the first time that I saw it on the IMax in 3D. Which was cool because it was soooo big and you get to wear those awesome 3D glasses. . .but the whole movie isn't in 3D, just the end. So we sat through the whole movie wearing those stupid and rather uncomfortable glasses to only in the end be informed by a little flashing icon during the movie that it was time to put the glasses on. Although I must say that the ending in the Ministry of Magic is much more exciting in 3D.

Classes started again, finally. I had been looking forward to getting back to school for some time because it meant that I didn't have to work as often (read only one day a week now). I had to sit in on my physics class for three days before the Professor would sign my add sheet. I never thought that I would be so happy to be in a physics class which is typically the bane of my existence. It however fits perfectly into my schedule this term and in the past has just royally effed it up because the lectures, labs and discussions fall at random times and have kept me from taking other classes that I need. I was also fortunate in the rest of my classes because I got a bunch of cool Profs. but it's going to be a busy term.

A bunch of my friends and I went to the beach a few weeks ago, just outside of SF and right across the highway from the SF Zoo. Which we went to the previous week and I must say that zoos, while cool, are not as much fun as they where as a kid. Back to the beach. As I'm sure that many of you know or can guess the ocean is not exactly warm up here in Northern California, in fact it is more along the lines of frigged. The next thing that I know my friends are running towards the water with boogie boards they produced out of nowhere wearing nothing but a normal swimming suit (all the surfers where wearing full wetsuits), surprisingly no one caught hypothermia. I brought my swimming suit with me but after feeling the water I decided to abstain from all water related activity's for the day. Instead I put my time into being the grill master and photographer. We left the beach around five to meet a couple of other friends for dinner in the city. Somehow I ended up in the drivers seat of my sisters Durango when we got stuck in a parking garage that her car was too tall to get through and the line of cars behind us where too self absorbed to back up and let us out. After much yelling and many swear words we finally managed to get her SUV out of the garage to find more spacious parking. Good times.

I was going to chaperon the kids in my churches youth group on a trip to Great America but no one showed up. So PJ, Soeun, her brother Gnight (pronounced night) and I went anyway because we had all purchased advance tickets (they cost less). So we went, we rode, we had fun and because we went on a Thursday there where no lines it was awesome. Oh and a sad bit of news for everyone, it is no longer owned by Paramount even thought it still says Paramount everywhere, some company called Ceder Glenn or something like that bought it.


There it is, my post, my life. I'll try to post more because these long ones take too long to wright.

Bye now.

PS: Kim congratulations on you new place I can't wait to see it.

PPS: Anna don't give up on the job search, you'll get something I know it. I hope that you can come back to Cal because it would be great to see you, but if you come back and stay we wont be able to be friend anymore because you gave up on your dream.

PPPS: Cambria I'd love to hear from you some time.