blargh. if i wait too long to post it'll be like old fuckin news. but i just haven't been in the mood to post. double blargh.

so i found out that the memorial service is indeed this weekend. sunday to be exact. at a church near my house. like walking distance. it's so sad. so so sad. :(

despite all the sadness, the rest of the weekend and such was fun. tinna was here from thurs - tues and she studied studied studied. good luck on that first exam tinna! she also played a hell of a lot of prof. layton. haha way more than alex and i combined. shit! we played wii fit and went to beer pong. we finally got brunch at that waffle place near my house. good food, horrible service. she took photos of all of alex's (and my) stuffed animals. haha well not all. some. but we have a lot so it ain't easy. haha alex's parents were also in town. we ate some fine fine foods. too much food in fact. good lord. we went to this amazing coffee shop in silverlake. went to the farmer's market by my house on sunday. nothing supremely amazing but all in all a good time with all the visitors. i also saw kyle for a brief moment on sunday before he headed back home to GA. i miss the bugger already. i rarely see him.

tonight i had dinner with byron since he was going to a show at the fonda. good to see him again. it's been a little while. i'll be hanging out with him and the rest of the AA crew on friday at the cha cha. love that place. more photobooth pix are in order! the obsession continues. haha saturday i hope to relax and get a pedicure or something. and then sunday is the service. that will be really weird. i haven't had to deal with death in a long time. which is a good thing of course. but yea....and speaking of which we watched the savages the last night tinna was here and godDAMN that movie is depressing. i don't want to get old. i don't want my parents to get old. and it makes me think having kids is good if only for the sake of having people to take care of you when you are old.

earlier today i learned that someone i knew from the mag passed on. i used to really like this guy. i talked about him on this blog even. i don't really know what to think. i'm in shock right now to be honest. i hadn't spoken to him in a couple months actually. the word has spread like wildfire and people are just in complete shock. there is going to be a service next week for him. if dave goes i think i'll go with him.

more on the weekend later. this is just so shocking i can't think of anything else right now.

so umm yea. i said i was going to blog last night but then a little thing called intolerance happened. haha alex made this awesomely great mac and cheese with gruyere and chedder and we ate a whole bunch and then i started to feel....funny.... it was like a repeat of the time kyle (who is lactose in tolerant) ate a 4 cheese sandwich and then felt awful all night. oh that was a hilarious time. but last night wasn't hilarious because i am not (to my knowledge) lactose intolerant. so i don't really know what happened. oh well. so tonight i will make my blog posting finally. i must because now tinna and alex's parents are in town and that's another two or so postings in themselves. gah!

so kyle is in LA. well...was. he's in SF now and will be back briefly on sunday before leaving for georgia. i haven't seen kyle in 2 yrs back when i went to vegas for the night. that was post andrew. i just flew out there after work, partied all night with kyle and his friend and then flew back the next morning and went to work. it was crazy and totally rockstar. prior to that i hadn't seen kyle since he came out to visit for 2 wks back in 2004. he was like my live in boyfriend. i was in school at the time so i had a lot of free time and we just went out everyday and did fun shit. it was a really awesome time. and prior to THAT i hadn't seen him since mel and i went out to NY and georgia which was during college. i can't recall which year. i think sophmore year. and then of course prior to THAT was when we met back in the summer of '99. so really i've only seen kyle a handful of times in my entire life but hell i love that boy. i actually used to think we were soulmates. and shit, we get along so well in some degrees we might be. just not in that lovey dovey we-should-get-married sort of way i once thought. but we do have similar sensibilities and fucked up family issues and whatnot that we can relate to. anyway....

these are just a couple pictures from the weekend. kyle arrived friday night and his friends matt and rachel picked him up from the airport. they are friends of his from college who moved out here last year and got married. i met up with all of them at el coyote for some food and drinks. the first thought i had was that kyle was skinnier than i recall him last being. he's always been a smaller boy. he's shorter than me and weighs just a few pounds more than me. so he's super small. but he had a bit of a beer gut last time and now it's all gone! dinner was great and after we finished i took kyle back to my apt with me and we went out walking on hollywood blvd looking for a bar. we just kept walking and walking since so many people were out and then i decided that we could just walk all the way to the woods. yes we walked all that way. it was awesome. saw a lot of ridiculous things on hollywood the entire way. we got drinks there, just the two of us. had some really good catching up convo. discussed my parent's divorce and his relationship issues. it was really great. then alex came back from his poker game at brian and jessica's and picked us up.

saturday kyle, alex and i went to the griddle for brunch which was awesome. we got seats at the counter right away which is super rare. we just got lucky. and jessica alba showed up to eat! after that i took kyle down to santa monica to soak up some rays. it was quite hot that day and the beach was awesome. we didn't stay super long because it was so hot. when we got back to the apt alex joined us for a dip in the pool. that was the first time i had ever used the apt's pool. i gotta say, i'm liking it. i know i pay a lot of rent for this place but at least i use the facilities. the pool and the gym in particular. haven't used the pool table yet. nor have we had a swim up screening. but i intend to get one together this summer. especially after i saw the party atmosphere at the pool this past weekend. saturday when we were there wasn't that crazy. some people were drinking and people had a boombox and such. but sunday was like a fucking party. poker table. buffet. spotlights. all sorts of shit. my god. so i'll definitely have a swim up screening later this summer. anyway we swam around in the pool for a bit. then showered and headed out for some sushi with matt and rachel as well. we ate at en sushi and then we went to the short stop to secure a spot on the dancefloor. later jen joined us and then rick, neil, dwayne and patrick (visiting from folsom!). it was fun overall but godDAMN the DJs sucked. like holy crap they sucked so much. but we still made due with what we had and danced and drank and had a great time.

sunday we woke up and kyle and i went to the newsroom for brunch. then we came back and hung around. he went to see ironman across the street while i did some errands. then he came back and we hung out some more. it was a very chill day. for dinner he and i went to real food daily cuz he wanted to try the vegan food out there. it was quite tasty but damn expensive. ugh! we finished the night off by all watching charlie wilson's war at home.

monday i woke up early and dropped him off at matt and rachel's before going to work. at night we were going to hit up the short stop again for the cut copy after party but kyle wanted to chill so we didn't go. such a shame because joe was going to go as well and now i won't get to see him til like august!!! cuz he is in seattle now and right after seattle he'll be off to wherever they are filming survivor. sad.

tuesday was run of the mill. for dinner we were going to go to happy family for dinner which is this chinese vegan place in monterey park. i went there with andrew back in the day and it was quite tasty. but then we found out it closed at 8:45 so we couldn't go. so we went to pink pepper which is this thai place up here in hollywood. it was totally empty there but whatever. the food was quite good and fairly cheap. definitely one to remember for future trips. then they came back to my place and ate the cupcakes i got them from yummy cupcakes. and that's the last i saw of them. they are up in SF now and like i said, won't be back til sunday. we'll probably get a brief brunch before he leaves for the airport. gotta fit it all in btwn hanging out with tinna and alex's parents who are all now here.

yesterday i had to work late and today was easy at work. very lax. tinna came to get my keys so she could get into my apt and start her CPA studying. for dinner i went down to osteria mozza to meet with alex and his parents and sister. the place was quite tasty and i'm very full. now tinna is doing the wii fit and i'll probably try some of it once i finish this posting. the weekend looks to be hectic balancing time with all parties. but it shall be fun!

i know it's been a few days since i've posted but that was intentional. kyle came to town last week and i have been meaning to just make one big post about his visit with photos and such. that post will come tonight as i don't have time right now at work. but i couldn't resist posting a little anecdote from today.

so i went across the street to starbucks to get a sandwich and some coffee. they have a little outdoor seating area which usually is crowded. but today it's windy (though warm and sunny) outside so i guess no one wanted to sit there. except this one dude... he didn't look sketchy at all but being that i was all alone and wearing a dress and such, i felt like maybe i should sit inside because i don't like being "bothered" by guys. and if i was sitting out there alone with just him, the likelihood for him to bother me would be much higher. so i went in and made my order. in the meantime, the guy went inside and was like listening to his music or something just sitting inside. so by the time my stuff was ready, no one was outside. so i went to sit. i ate my food and drank my coffee and just sat there. very relaxing. along comes another guy.

so now this guy (we'll call him guy 2) was on his phone as he approached the sbux door. so, i assume, out of courtesy, he stood outside and finished his call before entering. now let me say that the reason i noticed this guy, other than the fact that no one else was outside, was because he was wearing this really tight shirt. it looked like he was wearing his kid brother's shirt. he had on jeans and chucks and this tight shirt that was easily a size or two too small. it didn't entirely pass his belt and it also exposed a nice farmers tan on his arms. oh man.... too good. as he was on the phone guy 1 came outside and sat back down. when guy 2 was done with his call and about to enter sbux, guy 1 looks at him and says, "hey. so i heard you were the guy around here to ask for a favor." guy 2 looks sort of baffled and slightly laughs/smirks/smiles, "umm..." and he turns to me (clearly because i'm the only other person out there witnessing this) and then turns back to guy 1 and then goes inside. immediately he turns around and comes back out and asks (as if he just can't resist asking), "ok, what do you need?" guy 1 asks, "do you have a quarter?" guy 2 sort of shuffles in his pockets, finds no quarter, and i believe makes a gesture of "hold on a sec." he enters sbux and then comes back out about half a minute later and hands guy 1 a dollar bill. guy 1 laughs and smiles and replies "hahaha oh i didn't mean a quarter. i meant a quarter of weed." guy 2 looks at me (because clearly i'm watching and listening this entire interaction) and laughs and looks totally confused and then walks inside. i took look baffled and then guy 1 says (sort of rhetorically and sort of to me), " i've been asking everyone around here and no one can help. unless YOU can help!?" i shake my head no and that was that.

so you know how i put that photo of NKOTB on the blog the other day...well i couldn't say anything because it was on the DL but they did their final rehearsal show tonight at the house of blues (final before they appear on the today show) and stacey got me in!!!! holy mother of god.

now let me preface this by saying that when they were really popular i was like 9 or 10 yrs old. i was OBSESSED with them. like i had the toys, the magazines, the clothes, the posters, the tapes. everything really. totally fucking OBSESSED. i knew all the songs by heart (and apparently still do). i begged my parents to see them and they took me to the show at the cow palace in SF which was so packed with adoring teenyboppers who screamed the entire time. hell, i even watched the saturday morning cartoon! shit man, i was an UBER FAN.

so now we fast forward to today. a good 15+ years later. stacey invites me to the show as her +1 and i immediately accept. how can i not go? this is my chance to see them up close and personal. so we got there around 7:30pm because we heard they were going on at 8. in front of the venue is a sea of girls around our age. a few men here and there but mostly girls. there are signs EVERYWHERE saying "no cameras or cell phones." we thought for sure they would let cell phones slide. NOPE! you had to check them in if you didn't want to go back to you car. what a clusterfuck. the only other time the venue has ever had to do this was for the britney spears special show last year. i was certain they'd lose my phone but surprisingly they were very orderly. on the way in we brushed elbows with lance bass who was escorted in through the crowd. wtf? we realized that perhaps he was quite the fan of them when he was younger. but which one did he crush over? we think jordan. haha

we got inside and stacey said hi to the many friends she had there. after all, this show was basically for friends, family, fans (they got to be like RIGHT in front of the stage) and industry people. we had to wait about 45min i'd say but then the lights went down a bit and this screen came down and they showed a video of the guys. past and present. girls were screaming. it brought me right back to the show i went to as a kid. the screaming fans. man o man. i started to get really excited. i couldn't believe it. if my 10 yr old self knew my 27 yr old self was going to be a mere 50ft away from them, my 10 yr old self would have been shitting her pants. seriously. once the curtain went away and the guys emerged in their various suit type clothing, i was really internally freaking out. i mean, yea i never listen to them now. like NEVER. all their shit that i own is all back home in SF in storage. but just seeing them up there, it was like a dream come true sort of. not really but you get the picture. they started with "step by step" and went into a whole medley of popular old songs. jordan, donnie, and joey each getting a chance to shine on their songs. then they sang their new song "summertime" and stopped to chat with the audience. then they brought out the piano and donnie read off this hilarious note (we think it might have been planted or he might have made up what was written on their) he got from the audience. they finished the mini set (about 20 min) with "tonight, tonight" which was just awesome.

all during the show they were working out the kinks of their dance moves (which still have some kinks) and just having a great time it seemed. they were genuinely laughing and playing around. jon looked shy and awkward as he always did. jordan was still the hearthrob. i mean it was just fucking great. yes, i know, i'm 27 and saying this. but shit. these guys were my band when i was a kid. i fucking LOVED them. so cut me a bit of slack if you feel so inclined to diss on me. haha stacey and i already have our eyes set on the vegas show since its fucking vegas and it's the new kids. the new kids in vegas!!! my god. that beats the new kids and beer. we wanted to have our cameras to take a pic of us holding beers at a new kids show. but alas our cameras and phones were taken away. sigh...it will all be left to memory. a fond fond fond memory indeed. (i'll try and find a video clip or photo or something if anyone was able to sneak shit in)

THANKS STACEY!!!

oh man it's going to get crazy around here. essentially kyle, tinna, and alex's parents are here in LA over the next 2 1/2 weeks and they all overlap in their stay. so i'm going to have my hands full with being social. in the meantime, i will sit in my lovely new chair. oh man it's lovely. very very lovely. i could probably fall asleep in it, that's how fucking comfy it is. neil came by and took my old chair. it will serve him well. that's the chair i traded sc john for. ugh that boy. ugh! anyway, alex is making chili and it's taking hours. literally. i think 3 hrs total. we'll be eating our dinner at like 11pm! i'm going to hit the gym in a few.

blargh!!! ok so the cd is indeed too full to fit dvds as well and still have room left for more cds in the future. knowing how alex and i are, we will buy too many cds and then have a problem. so now we are going to get a separate holder just for dvds. ugh! i think the only one i can find that is decently priced and fits the space we want is from ikea. and of course, they don't have it at the burbank one. OR the carson one. no no folks. we have to go to fucking COVINA yet again. ugh!!! i swear to god.....

in sunnier news. i'm getting my new desk chair today that my parents got me for my birthday gift. i finally figured out which one i want and it's AWESOME. it's so fucking comfy. and pricey. but we won't think about that part. especially because it's a gift!

the housewarming party invite is done and sent off. here it is:

it's slightly scaled down to fit the width of my blog. when i was making it, i made another one to compare and liked them both so much that i decided i'd send this one out today and save the other to use as a reminder email. i'll post that one when the time comes.

the shock of the deposit has worn off and the pure glee of winning this one has set in. if park la brea wants to disregard all the damage we did, hell, who am i to complain? i still think someone made a mistake but again, i won't be calling anyone out on this. i can imagine that all our friends will be slightly perturbed to learn of this because everyone knows how fucking messy our place was and how we didn't deserve a dime back. that compared to how clean their places were when they moved out and how they didn't get their full deposit back. again, i won't complain. but i don't know how the fuck this happened.

moving on....a few photos from amanda's birthday tamale party.

first people made all the fix ins such as the salsas, sauces, beans, etc. then we all got down to it and started making tamales i swear we made over 100. we put them into the steamers in batches and by the end our tummies were stuffed entirely. some people showed up late and mooched off our labor but by then no one cared i'm sure. it was a really fun time.

today i got our cd/dvd rack and alex put it together and as i am typing this, he's organizing it. the damn thing holds like 1000 cds or 500 dvds i think and i was laughing it. thinking we'd have all this extra space. space which i'd use to display my plethora of japanese toys. well as i turn around and look, the fucking thing is nearly full it seems. my god!!! we have a SHIT TON of cds. i don't know what we'll do as we get more. i'll worry about it later. so basically the apt is done now. all the boxes are gone. our bar stools are on backorder STILL and won't be here til june i think. so they might not be here when we have our party. oh well. can't wait on those damned things. they have been on backorder for over a month already. i can't find suitable replacements in the same price range so i just have to sit and wait. sigh. we also need a new bedside table but i'm too cheap to get one right now since we have one that does the trick but just isn't that attractive. and i'd love to get the matching headboard for the bed bit it's nearly $400 because it's just a huge ass solid piece of wood. ugh. i can't justify that money any time soon.

i think hell has officially frozen over. park la brea gave us back OUR ENTIRE DEPOSIT PLUS INTEREST!!! my brain cannot comprehend how this is even remotely possible. yet somehow it happened. i won't ask questions. i'm just completely dumbfounded....

in other news, amanda's tamale party was so fun. i'll post more about it later and maybe put up some photos. the shock of this deposit check is just too much for me to handle right now.

so alex and i are celebrating 2 yrs today. i can't even believe it. 2 fucking years! insane. the longest relationship i had before this was like 10 months with andrew. 2 years and alex and i are living together. what a trip. never saw that coming. haha we are keeping it very low key since we are broke as shit from moving. just a nice dinner at sonora restaurant on la brea. i heard it's good there so i'm excited.

in other news. i swear i must have killed a fucking forest by now with this print project i'm working on at work. it's this promotional magazine booklet. we did one of these a few months ago and i also worked on that one but this one had been through so many iterations that i've killed off way way way too many trees printing out the various comps of the booklet. i feel bad. but i don't really know what else could be done. people can't handle looking at things on screen. they always want to print it. i mean i feel the same way. it's just so wasteful. sad sad. working on these booklets makes me want to achieve my magazine goal more and more. i was telling some people here how that's my goal in life. to own a successful magazine that incorporates the web as well so that it's profitable. if i could make this happen i'd die a happy girl.

so jason was stuck in the bathroom for like nearly 2 hours. the firemen came and it took them like 30 minutes to get the door off. they wanted to preserve it as much as possible and jason was cooperative to help them get it off. like they were sliding him tools and he was taking off hinges and whatnot. and then they finally got the crowbar and pried and kicked it through. if it were me i would have been like, fuck this shit. cut the door down! i wouldn't have been able to stand on a trash can and undo the door arm and shit like that. hell no. jason's a trooper. he took it in good spirit and after he got out, he got right back to work at like 7pm cuz he's on a tight deadline. i would have been like, sorry dudes, i'm out.

one of my coworkers has been stuck in the restroom for over an hour!! the locksmith is a doofus and can't get it open and now apparently the fire dept is on it's way. so sad.

the excitement is building.

blargh. i had to work late. i was in a meeting from 5-7pm! ugh so by the time i got home there wasn't much light. hence no photos. boo.

ok. i lied. i didn't take photos of the apt like i said i would. i didn't have time. we had an inpromptu cinco de mayo party. neil said he was on his way up to target and hadn't eaten and alex was considering cooking us mexican food for dinner for the occasion and so i asked neil if he wanted to come and then i asked rick if he wanted to come and well...we had a mini party! so i had no time to do anything tonight cuz they just left about 20min ago. here are a couple photos:

rick was holding the taco so awkwardly so i had to snap a photo. and i didn't take a photo of the food before it was consumed but there is a photo of it after we were done. and then a photo of neil playing mariokart with hugs in frame. haha you can see a few bits of the apt though. but i swear i'll take more tomorrow. i even made a post-it! and i just learned of the automation tool in photoshop to make web photo galleries. it's fucking AWESOME!!! so i think i might do that for my trips and such. man o fucking man. it's just awesome. maybe also for the apt just so it can be standalone and i can show it to my parents and such.

on another note, i took the metro today. i fucked up thinking i could buy two tickets at once to use for my to and from trips but then found out you can't do that cuz the tickets must be used from stop you bought them and they expire after a couple hours. so i wasted $1.25. but i did however go get tokens at ralphs so now i can just pop them in with ease. i might break down and buy a monthly pass if i find that i am making more trips than expected by going to the real gym (not the one in our apt) now and again. we'll see. still figuring it all out. but the train thing was good. played some DS and listened to my music. i forgot what it's like to take public transport. it's been years since i did it on a regular basis. it's very odd. being surrounded by people and not talking to any of them except to answer the occasional "is this such and such stop?" type question. i just put my bitchface on and go. haha

the house is FINALLY in order! the only thing left is to get a cd/dvd rack. and then of course maybe get a new bedside table since i don't like the one we have. but that's not essential. the cd/dvd rack is. so i think once we get paid this week we'll get that and then all will be complete. however the matter of the housewarming party is still left to be decided. i was considering doing it the weekend that kyle comes but then i started thinking that would trap him into a party vs possibly going to bars. i have to talk him and see what he wants to do. also it's andrew's birthday/housewarming party, and while i won't be going because i don't to drag kyle to a party for my ex-bf, some people in dance party will likely be going to that and i wouldn't want to make them choose. especially when andrew's party was announced a week ago. but then that leaves the weekend of the 24th which is memorial day weekend and alex's parents are in town. so no good. so now i'm thinking may 31st. if alex is ok with that and a good portion of dance party is ok with that, i think that will be the date. it will give me time to organize that cd rack anyway. it's going to be a daunting task. haha

anyway, the house looks AWESOME i have to say. i forgot to take photos of it while there was proper sunlight out so i'll try tomorrow perhaps after work. after i get off the train! yes, tomorrow is the first day of train adventures. i plan to take it nearly every day to work. of course days where i have to get somewhere immediately after work won't work but most of the time it should. i've got my DS ready and alex's shuffle accompanied by my new headphones which the lovely dance party got for me for my birthday. i've never owned a fancy expensive pair of headphones. i'm quite excited!

today will and dawn came over and we made brunch and ate out in the courtyard area. we should have hopped in the pool after but we didn't. i love taking advantage of the great amenities this structure has to offer. hell, we are definitely paying for them so why not use them as much as possible right? i fully intend to have a swim-up movie pool party sometime this summer. i'm super excited!

neil finally arrived in LA late wednesday night and i headed over to his and rick's new place (they have to come up with a name for it cuz i can't keep saying, neil/rick/lawrence's house) and helped them pick out paint colors for their rooms and the living room. we also went to dinner at versailles. good times. i am so excited that neil lives here. it still hasn't really dawned on me. i keep thinking he's just visiting! haha but soon he will be fully integrated into dance party. very exciting. he and rick came over to our place friday night and the boys played darts.

yesterday i went to dan's and he helped me saw the part of my desk that needed sawing and now my desk is complete! i'll have to take a photo of that as well. it had some more rough spots along the way but it's done and i'm relatively happy with it. i'm sure in time i'll want something new but this is good for now. there really just are no good desks out there. it's quite sad.

i've got a couple freelance projects on the horizon after some downtime. one possibly being a title treatment for this movie in pre-pre-production. the other being album art the solo project of the lead singer of one of rick's favorite (and now defunct) bands. good timing considering i couldn't really do much in the past month with the move and now that i'm all settled i'm ready to work again!

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