Delight and disgust

We weren't feeling the long line so we made a night of eating. Went straight for The Gumbo Pot: seafood gumbo, mixed popcorn seafood with creole sauce, sweet potato and creole mustard salads, cornbread. Walked around, admired the lights, realized that The Grove is a rather sucky place to clothes shop, but excellent to food shop at the Farmer's Market, bought some candied fruits and ended with a banana-strawberry-nutella crepe.

Only slight disgust at next quarter's book list, but tack on the internship, other commitments and my inability to manage time and sleep, and the list becomes stomach-churning.

Rosetti, Goblin Market
Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway
Browning, My Last Duchess + other poems
Wilde, Picture of Dorian Gray
Ishiguro, Remains of the Day
Tennyson, Selected poems
Eliot, Wasteland + other poems
Bronte, Wuthering Heights
Ward, WWI British Poets
Abrams, Glossary of Lit. Terms
Morrison, Beloved
Schneir, Feminism in Our Time
Atwood, Handmaid's Tale
Mendelson, Home Comforts
Rosenberg, Nonviolent Communication
Stein, Three Lives & Tender Buttons
Beecher, Treatise on Domestic Economy
Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin
Dillard, Writing Life
film book
French book

whew.

Not quite

Tomorrow shall be token "Reflections 'n' Resolutions" day.

I'll be traveling over to The Grove tonight with dad who seemed most enthused over DEFIANCE--many thanks Kara!! Dinner at Farmer's Market, yes! I do hope it's still decorated lovelily.

Random bit from bowling night. Apparently Ryan is a "face man" and his friend is a "feelings guy." Scoff! "Check out the...face on that girl." "That chick's got nice...feelings." Hm.

Oh, and I cannot advance past unlucky level 13. Darn Tetris.

Have a fabulous day, all!

Indecisive adventures

I didn't want to see TWILIGHT, had already seen BEN BUTTON and SLUMDOG.
Christine and I were for BEDTIME STORIES and VALKYRIE.
Ryan was for TWILIGHT and AUSTRALIA
Steph didn't want VALK or BEDTIME, was for TWILIGHT
Ryan and I didn't wanna pay for 4 XMASes

I proposed that we all watch four different movies or we all watch DESPEREAUX together.
Then I proposed fruit shaved ice and bowling. Ding, ding, ding!

Picked up socks from Christine's house, ate some shaved ice, discussed spas, then went bowling at a ghetto alley in La Habra. A delightful mix of death metal and classic rock music was playing. We ran into Kim and Jess. I haven't seen them since we graduated, so it was the most unexpected, ironic surprise. Ironic because just earlier today, mom inquired about Kim to see if I knew how she was, to which I answered that I had no idea and I'd probably never see her again, ever. Poof! Two lanes over, there she was.

Bowling was exhausting, we discussed how out of shape and sad we were. Drove to In N Out after midnight for a snack. They mistakingly gave me a double double, a good slip-up. Drove everyone back to Birch to their cars. Finally home, sweet home.

Tomorrow, mom and I brace ourselves for a long day of shopping.
The break goes on...

Dreams

Such a curious thing.

All I can remember from the one I had last night is that I was helping distribute exactly two tortilla chips per person to a bleacher full of about 500-600 orchestra members who were about to have a long concert from 8pm-midnight. You're not supposed to be eating anything before you play anyway, so was I just sabotaging them? Seriously, what the heck?

Symbolism, interpretation, I doubt this reflects prior happenings or predicts future ones.
- - - - - - -

HD Palladium is one of the greatest channels EVER. I live vicariously through the crisp, clear concerts they air: CCR, Springsteen, J. Mayer, Kanye, Neil Young, awesome.

KOST stopped playing holiday music 24/7

:) :/ :(

--In response to Nick's comment on "Oh my": "it's true. if you don't find a man by the time you graduate you automatically become a crazy cat lady. It's in the bible." Thanks, buddy! Let's see, I'm allergic to cats, so that would just make me crazy lady (with hoards of infomercial products).
I'm watching one for Rug Doctor right now. I must have it. Man just poured chocolate syrup on a white carpet, rug doctor sucked it all up. Amazing! Jolly baby rolling around on a carpet with his father narrating the story of how baby was becoming ill from mold that was on the carpet, but thanks to Rug Doctor, baby is healthy. Must have it!

--Don't worry friends, I plan on going MUST LOVE DOGS status and creating online profiles on multiple sites with different personas. My chick flick man is out there, I swear. But what is up with all the chick flicks on every channel, all break long? I sit, watch, laugh, cry, and find myself constantly wonder who actually says that? at every cheesy, disgustingly romantic line the handsome fellas drop. Le sigh.


Recently saw another infomer on these "It's OK to say Merry Christmas to me" stickers that you can buy in a twelve-pack and stick anywhere your heart desires. They stem from the longstanding controversy of various peoples/companies wanting to ban the possibly offensive MC phrase. Seriously, it's just petty and a waste of energy to become upset over what holiday phrase people throw at you nowadays, unless it is dripping with sarcasm, disdain, or accompanied by the finger.

--On a brighter note, dad and I bought the first volume of Disney-Pixar's collection of animated shorts from Costco. Fun! Some I hadn't seen and I've just finished watching them all with director commentary. I really hope to take the animation courses for film before I graduate. Working for Pixar is my special dream job right now. Finally watched CARS with eyes lighting up at the range of color on screen. Absolutely gorgeous. The colors of the balloon bundle in UP alone could keep me in awe for a while.

--I'd almost forgotten about the best perk of being a teacher. Presents! Mom is back teaching at St. Mark's, but it's been a while since we went through all the gifts she received from student at Christmas and end-of-the-year. Times have changed, everything is in the form of gift cards instead of actual gifts. She has a whopping $120 worth of Starbuck's gift cards. If only it were $120 towards Target. Anyway, I tried again, bought a tall white chocolate moca peppermint twist swirl thing, but even all that crap couldn't drown out the bitter taste of the coffee. Bleck! Apparently coffee helps prevent Alzheimer's? (I'll confirm this with wiki later) That's unfortunate for me, but hopefully I play enough word challenge to keep my noggin in tact. Speaking of Starbuck's and Alzheimer's, a Lewis Black classic

--My most notable use of time: Dad has handed down his DSLR! So much fragile power in my clumsy hands. This occurred shortly after he browsed through my snow album and noted that I'd always had a good sense of composition--aw thanks pop! I'm no prodigy, but I have had a knack for arts since I was a toddler, working with origami before I could walk, Fimo claymaking with dad, sketching/drawing, calligraphy (if that counts), I won't include my passion for putting stickers everywhere. As for photography, well I've always appreciated good photography: composition, lighting, focus, but never really pursued it for myself. I just took ridiculous amounts of pictures of anything because I have an unhealthy obsession for memories. I hope to further develop the skill now, it's a lovely hobby. His Nikon weighed a ton and I certainly don't need such a professional camera for the time being. Sony DSLR will do just fine--this A100 is a perfect newbie model. I'm determined to read through the manual and research along the way, since the manual just explains the physicality and not really the art of taking the pictures. If I'm gonna be living in PJs and sweats all break, at least I'll be learning something cool. I'm even slightly inspired to take out old sketchbook and doodle.
Baby steps, baby steps.

What to do, what to do

Option 1: drive to Burbank, pay $17 for rink time and rentals, ice skate with the Verdugo buddies

Option 2: drive to the Laemmle on Sunset, pay $7 for a ticket, watch The Room with HS buddies

Option 3: dinner at Outback with my parents to make good use of my mom's $25 gift card

Today, was a nice day at home. I introduced my mother to freetetris.org, now my dad gets to enjoy the blippy noises of rows clearing from two laptops. We've been making foods all day long, and as much as I'm dying to ice skate and watch The Room, I shall be dining with mom and dad, and that's perfectly cool as well.

leftovers

Make that Christmas dinner four times. Oh my poor stomach.

This will hopefully induce food coma so I can go to sleep at a reasonable hour.
Good evening!

Oh my

I just woke up.
I've eaten Christmas dinner three times since last night's gathering.
Definitely put on a few pounds.
Kid's gift exchange went smoothly, everyone knew what they were getting and who it was coming from.
Two lovely rounds of Cranium where acting out boobs led to Madonna and mermaid.
Kung Fu Pandana came in handy as our blindfold for Sensosketch and also as a good luck bandana.
Grandma and Great Aunt spent ten minutes discussing the need for me to snatch up the right guy at my age. Their exact advice loosely translated from Korean: You must pick out a handsome, smart, good one now. It will be difficult to find them later on when they all scatter away after college.
Slight downer, perhaps contributed to why I ate dinner twice.

I guess I have another seven hours, give or take, until bedtime for today. I must be productive!

Oh the weather outside is frightful

...not really. It's pleasantly crisp, maybe a bit nippy, but I'm not one to complain after the mountains.

Anywho, IT'S CHRISTMAS!!!
I'm obviously not as starry-eyed eager as I used to be when I laid out cookies and milk in prep for Santy Claus, but I still love the holiday season--as long as I'm not shopping eve or day after. I am forever grateful to my parents for keeping up the Santa Claus gig as long as they did. Flashback. Woosh!

My dad made sure to drink half the milk and bite half the cookies to achieve realism. Mom would sign the North pole gifts with her left hand and use a different set of wrapping paper so I wouldn't suspect anything. They'd both take me to the post office to "mail" my wish list off to Santa. Gosh, that was the life. Until one day, my world came tumbling down, "You know there's no Santa, right?" To which I pretty much freaked out, "Wha??" =..( I was in fifth grade. Glad she finally told me then or I'd be even more lame than I already am. She also revealed the truth about the Tooth Fairy at the same time. What a traumatic day.

Now, we are mutually frugal, lazy, and efficient. Family Xmas gathering is at our house this year, meaning CLEAN WHOLE HOUSE. But we saved ourselves as much labor as possible. Dad put up our fake tree and threw on the net light. I put on the colorful fabric ball ornaments that I took last Christmas while working at the GAP. Bam! Tree done 10 minutes flat.

Since the trip, I've been spending a great deal of time with my love, family room couch. Not to worry, I have been productive, watching just about every film on HBO On Demand, reading books and mags, getting up to help clean house, cook and do some shopping. !!! I've also gone to bed--actually fallen asleep--before midnight for the past three nights. ?!YESTRUTH!, crane sleeps. Obviously right now is an exception.

Mom and I christened the crockpot tonight using a brand spankin' new bag of Nestle semi-sweet chocolate chips, Costco size. Nom. Chocolate-covered everything is bad news for my health. I'll be experimenting more soon, melting cheese and dipping things.

Should probably get some beauty rest in preparation for the Family Gathering: Feast of Champions. Can't look too shabby for the guests, so stretchy holiday pants'll have to come after everyone leaves. For now, PJs, here I come!

Merry/Happy Holichrismakwanzukkus___ . . . !

Big Brrrr

The trip was absolutely wonderful, near-death experiences included! I'm sure Tahoe and Arrowhead are ten times more gorgeous, but having seen snow just once before at last year's BB adventure, this was quite satisfactory. We probably chose the worst time to drive up, through the rain/snowfall, but had the perfect day after, filled with fresh, fluffy snowfall! Susan and I frolicked through the snow like little girls in a winter wonderland--or at least tried to. It was thigh high, rather difficult to move around in, so we dove right in. I also fell in numerous times and slid around on the icy paved parts with my Costco Kirkland "fuggs" (fake uggs), kinda like a dog on wood floorboards.

Snowboarding was a vast improvement from last year. We went to Snow Summit instead of Bear Mt., another good choice because the slopes weren't crowded at all. Luckily, they gave us neutral/generic boards so I didn't have to figure out whether I was goofy or regular. I'd just like to think I'm ambidpedal (if that's even the right term). Conclusion: my actual snowboarding abilities are improving, I CAN get on the lift smoothly, but I'll never be able to get off the darn thing. By the end of the day I just gave up and purposely fell right off the chair so I wouldn't waste other people's time. I learned to duck quickly. The people up top yelled "Stay down!" 'til Susan, Talar, and us other losers who couldn't properly slide off scooted away to safety on all fours. Definitely good laughs. I'm proud of myself for taking a step up to the intermediate slopes. The ride up lasted an eternity and then some. The lift moved up like a roller coaster cranking up before the big drop. I don't have acrophobia (fear of heights) but I was genuinely uneasy being on that lift for what seemed like a mile. This gave me plenty of time to shiver and take some lovely pics, while trying not to drop my camera, hat, and gloves.

Cons: Snow chains. Shoveling. Things freezing.
I really can't thank Charles and Mike enough for working so hard to figure out the snow chains for both Renee's and my car. We saved 80 buckaroos! I managed to sell mine on the way back down at the turnout. Overall, I had fun driving around in snow. I know I could never live through a whole snowy winter, though. Another big thanks to the guys for shoveling out an adorable parking spot for my car. The wipers froze to my windshield once, rubbers shrunk in a concave shape so they didn't wipe so efficiently.

Pros: Everything else! Friends, cozy cabin, icicles, snow like cotton candy, jolly good times!

I also plan on taking future child up to the mountains at an early age because I want to make sure my child is as in the running for cutest kid. There were tiny tots there dressed in the puffiest clothes, like Ralphie, on mini skis. Adorkable.
- - - - - - - - -

Chrismannukuh at the Glassman's was full of good company and plenty of laughs. Annual charades got kicked up a notch with some new faces and very intense competitive personalities. I think my personal favs of the night would have to be Chuck Norris and Justin Timberlake by Jon's cousins, Jenna Jameson so poorly, but hilariously acted by Vincent and the three-second steal of Marie Antoinette. I'd include my split second guess of Britney Spears but I feel like that's something I shouldn't be too proud of.

White Elephant/Yankee Swap is not my buddy. I ironically ended up with the expired Starbuck's coffee beans, but they're vacuum sealed. My parents can enjoy it. All in good fun, I enjoy the gift exchange and catching up with Fairmonters. 'Til next year!

...

8 hours drive up to Big Bear: 30 miles up the mountain in darkness and snowfall
4 hours of intense snow/boarding-falling-butt bruising-feeling the burn
2 nights of cooking, games, cabin fun
6 hours drive down melting mt. o'er snow/ice, dropping peeps off in San Gabriel, Tujunga, & LA
2 hours driving to Yorba Linda and back for Chrismannukuh
= WOO.

must sleep away exhaustion. more detailed post to follow.

here's to ingenuity

The Snuggie.
i can haz and look like friar monk for Christmas?

I'm simultaneously horrified and desperately wanting one. Totally had this in the bag when I used to wear my Little Mermaid robe backward many years ago. Too bad I didn't know about patenting and infomercials then.

No, I'm not gonna buy this one, I promise. (but if anyone does, I'm willing to take that free book light off your hands)

upgrade to epic fail and getting the freedom ball rollin'

I certainly earned the upgrade--had five days to NOT procrastinate for two back-to-back Friday finals, so I made sure to waste them away completely. Just waiting 'til the dark day when grades are posted, at that time I'll wallow my sorrows in a lot of nestle cookie dough.

Interning for the Spirit Awards production department is going to be far different from working guest services during the LA Film Festival. I'm ready for the challenge though, and the experience will be rewarding. Again, I don't know if this really contributes much to my future career plans (not that I actually have any), but it certainly can't hurt. If nothing else, these internships are helping me become more assertive in personality, helping my networking skills since those are nonexistent. On a side note, I distribtued parking validations during the orientation meeting and guess how much parking is without it? A whopping $21. Ridonk. The Film Independent office only validates after 5pm so I'll be blue busing for my internship.

Friday night was lovely, well, lovely is a mild adjective to describe the crazy shenanigans that went down, but it was great to unwind after the worst quarter for a majority of people I know. I'm always down for a dance party. Lost my voice as usual karaoke-shouting to all the songs. Megumi and I were playing the weird selection of Queen, MGMT, Nirvana along with Britney and the required baby-making rap. But "dude, I just wanna dance." There were some overly drunk guys trying to make out with everything in the room, yayyy. Minus that and several other eye-muff moments, 'twas fun! Drove some of us to Jack In the Box around 3 A.M., a most satisfying meal.

Now, home sweet home! Hello couch where I veg out, floor where I also veg out 'cause I'm Asian and prefer ground, missed you too HBO On Demand, and kitchen (no explanation needed).

In two days I've gone through I AM LEGEND; P.S. I LOVE YOU; EVENING; DARJEELING LTD.; ANCHORMAN, all in the wee hours of early morning.

I've come to respect the Fresh Prince as an actor. He carried I AM LEGEND the whole way through along with the gorgeous German Shepherd that played Sam. I jumped as much as I cried during the movie. YES, cried. [Spoiler Alert] If you were the last man on Earth with only the greatest dog companion ever, given to you by your adorable, now deceased child, and you had to kill that dog because she too was bitten and infected by a human-turned naked mole rate looking zombie, how in the blazes could you NOT cry. My description does not do justice to the scene, so please just watch it. The film had it's share of question mark situations, opened well, didn't care for the sub-par zombie flick side of it, but I forgave these because of the great performance by Mr. Smith reminiscent of Tom Hanks in castaway. You bet I was bawling when he loses Wilson the volleyball.

P.S. I LOVE YOU. Quintessential tearjercker/chick flick. Loved it. Why? because it's exactly that and gives me unrealistic, unattainable hopes about love as just about any rom-com/drama does and has me eating a bunch of junk food afterward wondering if guys like that actually exist. They do not. Or maybe they do but they're foriegn, out of my league, and I have no luck. Long story short, I want to go to Ireland, get lost, and be discovered by my very own Gerard Butler, or find my own Jeffrey Dean Morgan, or Harry Connick Jr.. Oh, and they all sing too and have nice hair. Blahhh darnit.

Before I get too depressed, winter break to-do list:
[ ] Clean up my crap all over the house
[ ] Sleep? so I don't die
[ ] Piano
[ ] learn guitar if parents have time to teach
[ ] brush up on French so I don't fail next quarter
[ ] write, anything.
[ ] accomplish the "Steph & Megan's Adventures" list
[ ] annual Big Bear. I'm REALLY excited because there will be plenty of fresh snowfall from the rain!
[ ] holiday nomz Christmas
[ ] holiday nomz New Year
[ ] annual Chrismakkuh (or the other zillion ways to spell that) @ the Glassmans
[ ] officially cleanup itunes library
[ ] George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic concert, Nat??!
[ ] uhm...there's more but Smalls just hit the homer with his stepdad's Babe Ruth ball over to the Beast. Damn, I forgot how much i love this movie.

FAIL.

Truth. I screwed up big time this quarter. I'll say what I always say, "Next quarter will be different." Only this time, I will actually need to follow through on my words and take my resolutions seriously.

It's already 3 A.M. and I've come to peace with the fact that my grades are going to suck, for lack of better words.
No use in trying to achieve the impossible, so I will memorize as much of this quarter's reading as I possibly can in the time I have left.

Come Friday, I will keel over and sleep. Mathematically, if were to sleep continuously through the entire break, (approx. 3 weeks) I would have made up all of my lost hours for the entire quarter. But that's certainly not feasible--unfeasible?

Back to my impending doom.
Expect next post to be a big wonderful bucket of brain vomit: stress/pressure venting, obligatory resolutions, more contemplations and complaints on my extraordinary ordinary life; and of course the token meal intakes.

Good night, and good luck! Unless you are free/moving out/at home already. Then you're currently a frenemy.

Wait, I have finals?

I chose to take a "study break" and walk to Westwood to stargaze/stalk at the CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON premiere. In my near three years at UCLA, I've seen many a premiere. Cool? Uh huh. Kinda sad? Yeah. It's always interesting to see how each one is set up differently. I've also learned the strategies of prime creeper spots where you can get the best photos, y'know, those priceless pearls of wisdom that you'll never find in a lecture hall. To my surprise, this poor decision turned out to be one of the most efficient and productive study breaks ever! Crane-walked down to the Mann Village, met up with Hanna and Kevin, gawked, expressed our love for the celebs, snapped shots, expressed more love, crane-walked back home, all in an hour!

As for the film itself, watched and loved. Though there were never any real points of suspense, I don't think it was necessarily meant to have them. Trailers already and obviously reveal the mystery (aging backwards), as does the fact that Fincher loosely adapts F. Scott Fitzgerald's short story. So what's left and expected is this sort of pseudo-documentary about Benji Button's curious biological fate and a most touching, impossible love. All that aside, the film is well-acted and gorgeusly shot. Though, Britney Spears may be comeback, but Cate Blanchett is an actual one. Probably one of my favs on Inside the Actor's Studio (James Lipton is my man!). So incredibly eloquent, articulate, intelligent and also one of the best actor-linguists to date. Brad Pitt, I die, always and forever McSteamy status. I thought he gave one of his most subtle and amazing performances.

Since this post is not following any chronological order, I'll just continue on as thoughts emerge.

It's time for "Everything Sucks Because!"

...it's finals week, wahoo!
Ten weeks of joy and laughter have come crashing down because apparently you need to have decent grades to succeed in life, unless you don't mind living in a box. Then you can totez join me on the corner of Hollywood and Vine where I will be residing in my luxury brown one, enforced with only the highest quality duct tape. Yes, I totez just abbreved, another bad habit i'm starting to pick up here at my stay chez UCLA.

...I ate a whole flour tortilla and some pizza rolls at 2 A.M. this morning and have been eating equally awful foods at similar bad times. In the immediate future, this doesn't suck because it's yum, but it certainly will later as my arteries continue to clog.

...I seriously hit my head on freezer door while standing up from loading the fridge. It's become a large bump now, inducing mild headache.

...I locked myself out of the apt., was let into complex but with a stroke of failed genius realized I still couldn't get into my room, Duh. Kim was at home, other two roommates nonexistent--then and always, took nap in the 3rd floor lounge like a hobo, had second stroke of genius to visit our apt. coordinator whose door had vital numbers like Rental Office, walked to Weyburn/Veteran for temporary key, walked back, got mine, drove back to drop off temp key before 5pm so I wouldn't be charged a ridonkulous fine.

To recap mostly exciting happenings:

We (UCLA's Campus Events Commission) screened PIRATES II: STAGNETTI'S REVENGE (sequel to PIRATES, the most expensive pornography ever made) and held a Q&A panel including director Joone, lead male Evan Stone, actress Sasha Grey, and Digital Playground marketing director Adella. The event and the days leading up to it were interesting to say the least. "There's no such thing as bad publicity" might not exactly apply, but UCLA received tons of exposure all over the interweb on blogsites, discussion boards, facebook, polls etc. debating the topic of whether we should be showing an adult film. Goodness me! Honestly, I was indifferent to the screening, but the Q&A was one of the most entertaining and suprisingly insighftul that we've had.

So many celebrations of birth! Everyone turning 20! Been 20 for 'bout five months, but I'm indifferent to my age now, neither depressed nor delighted. I do miss the tween and teen years. The big 2-1 awaits us all now. I'll probably celebrate my half-birthday in Feb. since summer birthdays are depressing and I'll be in London instead travel studying, weee!

CEC holiday party was enjoyable. I can have fun anywhere if there's music and food. White elephant, though small, was amusing. I walked away with the greatest prize, a yeast infection--well, not a real one, but a great microscopic snapshot of one blown up to a mini poster. This was among other amazing gifts like wine & cigs, chia pet, odd-smelling putty erasers, and an IOU herpes plushie.
- - - - - - - - - -
Father visited today, dropped off more foodstuffs for daughter. Love. We ate so much at Acapulco, indulging in halibut tacos and a generous carne asada/shrimp enchilada combo 'cause mother sent over her $25 gift card. More love.

At the end of lunch: "Megan, eat as much as you can from the fridge and freezer before coming home." I think that about sums up the healthy relationship with my parents.

humdeedrum

My intention was to be productive tonight, so of course, I found it absolutely necessary to elf myself and four others. Way to go, Megs. Fruit of boredom

At 3 A.M. the sky is unusally bright and orange-hued, which is a bit unsettling. The foggy nights are making these two already gloomy weeks all the more depressing. I walked through mist to Kerckhoff and felt like I was living out every scary movie I could remember; Nightmare on Elm Street came to mind first--probably one of the all-time most disturbing films for me.

I accomplished little today. Meeting was pointless, but El Pollo Loco chicken provided so I ate. Kim and I got excited and bought things impulsively during Ralph's run: Oreo's, chocolate pudding, bacon, among other less exciting things. Serving size for bacon, two strips. HAH. That'd be the portion of sissies! Though, it's probably both admirable and frightening that I prefer at least eight strips when I dine on bacon. I'm still confused over how I haven't had a heart attack or keeled over yet based on my diet, lack of decent exercise, and insomnia. My body takes a lot of abuse, but at least I haven't added smoker's lung and drunk liver. That would seal the deal.

I'd completed this survey to set up a phone interview for the Apple Campus Rep position before turkey break. A Richie Rich (that's actually his name?!) was/is supposed to call yesterday (guess not) or today, so hopefully he does. A new, FREE, laptop would be much appreciated.

Happy birthday Britney Spears! Comeback at age 27 with Circus, good stuff.

All right, I'm outtie.

Ugh.

As my jubilant title reveals, I'm not the happiest camper back at UCLA. To keep up appalling study habits, I will be cramming the past nine weeks worth of reading into a measly two. Consecutive sleepless nights, nothing new except for the fact that (okay, I'm not a senior citizen, but) I'm no longer 13 and sprightly for my age. No offense to Meade or the Stones for "Time is On My Side"; great song, but I don't see my nonexistent baby boo running back to me anytime soon, nor does time seem to be on anyone's side, ever! Is it?

Thought brief, the rest of Thanksgiving went well. I ate steadily and constantly over the four days--pretty sure I packed on a couple pounds as the pants feel a little snug, but SO worth all the tasty nom noms.
Steph and I tried Millie's today. We'd always seen the chain around on our way to eat at other places, so why not give it a try. Verdict: demographic of senior citizens + better quality than Denny's for the same price = Thumbs up!

Attempted the Brea Mall afterward for returns/exhchanges. Still crazy. As much as I love finding a good deal or nice/cute/cool clothes, shopping is too exhausting. I don't have the same drive as the ladies or pre-teens do. Oh, and I think babies are born with blackberries attached to hand now. The girls in front of me in line were planning an event while gossiping about friend trees and who to invite because "so and so is not as close to Becka as Casey is, but Casey knows Jenna so it's cool." Of course they were messaging out the who, what, when, where, why on their shiny Blackberries. What happened to Disney card stock invites from Party City? R.I.P. themed birthday sets: Aladdin cake plates, food plates, hats, invitations, goodie bags and thank you cards. I think it would be a little much to bring that back and at Chuck E' Cheese for my 21st. Wishful thinking!

[Okay, so they're actually really disturbing, but i love skee-ball and have always loved the surprisingly good food]
- - - - - - - - -

"Guess I'll have to roll with the punches!"

BOLT was adorkable. I want to be Rhino, a chubby bundle of joy and motivation. "It is a good day to die!" "I have a ball!" "I'm a master of stealth!" "I eat danger for breakfast!" Ahh, so quotable.
I heart $6 weekend/holiday matinee. It's the only price dad and I are willing to pay for a movie (aside from Costco tickets), otherwise, you might as well just buy the DVD if two people pay $22 to watch it. We also sacrificed the overpriced munchies to save the monies.
- - - - - - - - -

Drive back was good, no traffic but dense fog like a scary movie. @_@
Drive to pick up friend, not as smooth sailing.

I call this one, "LAX can die" (but lovely to see ya Alex with cookies in hand!)! Kinda looks like a really fun Autopia/Speedzone course for a drunk person, perhaps. It's just a congested mess of an airport, inside and out, and the fam and I tend to avoid it as much as possible. Luckily, unless traveling to Korea, we can fly out of Ontario or Long Beach. Such small, cozy, local airports that I highly recommend for in-state traveling!
- - - - - - - - -

"Your body is your temple--treat it that way."
Another saying I'll never live up to. I think I might just doze off before sunrise! Wha?! Still a fail, but better than 5am. Since I won't be sleeping for the next two weeks, I'm tempted to try Lunesta or Ambien over winter break, or both together and knock out during break completely. I desperately need to recuperate after years of sleep deprivation.