Did They Really Just Say That: Getting the Week Started...

Well, what would a Monday be without a crazy caller... Tell me exactly how you would respond to this comment (the owner was referring to one of our competitors).

Caller: I'm sick of using (beeeeeeeeeeep! Name withheld). All they seem to be interested in doing is sending me to places where people get shot or there's a serial killer loose.

My response to that was just, "Ummm, oooookay...". Seriously. What would you say?? LOL

Hello School, Goodbye Life

Well I just wanted to give you all a heads up: School started today, which means I will have no life until...May 30, I think??

Last night Jordan and I watched GI Joe: Rise of Cobra and, same as every other time I see it, I announce that I want to dye my hair the same color as Scarlett. I absolutely love it. Hmmm. Well I've slowly been cutting the blonde out of my hair as it's gotten longer and I braved the bangs so...Maybe I'll give red a shot. Maybe.

Last night I had a nightmare that I was literally haunted by math. I dreamt that I was setting the table for dinner and all of a sudden these math symbols were carved into the wooden dining table and my friend was like, "Oh, yeah. That's our ghost. It carves things in the table sometimes." I was freaked out. Even when I woke up this morning, I was still a little creeped out by the evil math symbols I saw in my dream. I'm already stressed out about my math class. Cool. My textbook has the word "quantitative" in its title and I'm not too sure why that freaks me out, but it just does. I'm going to be spending a lot of time with the online 24/7 free tutor thing.

Tonight is my first Public Speaking class. So I have work from 7-4 and class from 6:30-9:40, which will get me home around 10:30ish. Starbucks and I will develop a very strong, close working relationship over the next 16 weeks...

In any case, I will do my best to keep posting on a semi-regular basis.

Saturday with My Boys

Well here I sit on a lazy Saturday afternoon--I suspect the last lazy Saturday afternoon I'll be having for the next sixteen weeks, since school starts on Monday. Jordan is playing Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare on his PS3 and Shane is providing a running commentary--complete with sound effects--on the game as Jordan plays. It's been I think a month since Shane was actually here at the apartment for our weekends with him. Our last 'Shane' weekend was his Boy Scouts camping trip, so he and Jordan were both up at Lake Arrowhead. My first thought when he walked into the apartment this morning was, "Holy crap, he grew so much in the last three weeks!!" How does that happen?!

Tonight is my book club meeting at Diana's. The kicker is, apparently no one read the book we picked out for this month. I thought I was the only one. Was not the best of book selections, but you can't win 'em all. So instead of discussing "Post-Birthday World", we'll just be hanging out and eating chocolate. Since this is the first time I've seen Shane in a while, though, I will most likely be cutting my stay a bit short since I want to spend time with my boys before we have to take Shane back tomorrow afternoon.

Shane is, like, the best video game sidekick ever. He kindly pointed out to Jordan just now that he "missed a zombie over there, Dad. And one over there." I snuck a quick picture of them. Well, 'snuck' is an exaggeration. They're both so into the video game that a zombie actually could stroll right into this apartment and kill me for dinner and they probably wouldn't notice unless my body somehow blocked their view of the TV. And considering how I'm sitting behind them, my chances of survival would be slim to none.

The video-gamer and his sidekick.

I didn't chicken out on Thursday and actually got bangs cut. Like, all-the-way-across-the-forehead. I'm still adjusting to them and switch back and forth from thinking that I made myself look like a five-year-old to absolutely loving them. I'm currently in the absolutely loving them stage. While I was at the hair dresser, I told my mom (who met me there) that I feel like I should change my name to Natasha or Natalia or even go the French route with Sophie. I definitely look more European now. Maybe I'll start speaking one of my languages and really mess with people when I go out. The benefits of living in Switzerland as a young teenager: learning different languages. Mom and I proceeded to have a delicious dinner at Yves Bistro. Mmmm good, let me tell you! It must have been mother-daughter night there, because we saw a lot of them at the restaurant. Apparently we missed the memo.

I was super motivated this morning while Shane and Jordan were out fishing and cleaned the apartment. Not, like, scrubbed and deep-cleaned, but the apartment is nice and sparkly anyway. Now tomorrow I have to do laundry and make sure everything is clean for our Vegas trip because I won't have any time to do it during the week. :)

Well I do believe I'm going to watch my Zombie hunters for a little bit. Sadly I read all my new books, so I have nothing new to curl up with and start reading. Time to pick up an oldie but a goodie from my bookshelves...

Neighbors & Accents

After about six months of our neighbors living in our complex, Jordan actually enjoyed a beer with the boyfriend half of the couple that lives next door to us last night. All we really knew up until now was that they listen to country music (one of the reasons why I've always wanted to get to know them because country music fans are few and far between in California. Yes, yes, yes...I like country music. Tim McGraw, Keith Urban, Carrie Underwood...I can pretty much sing along to every song that comes on GoCountry 105 whenever I'm in the car, much to Jordan's dismay. My music is limited to my car though--the only time I really listen to it in the apartment is when I'm cleaning because--let's face it--if I'm going to clean our apartment from top to bottom myself, I'm going to listen to whatever music I darn well please...lol) and they have a dog named Vegas (so fitting). But now they've actually said more to each other than the usual neighborly pleasantries. We even have a name for the face now: Drew. Of course, as a guy, Jordan can tell me everything about the transmission that Drew's rebuilt three times, but did he ask what Drew's girlfriend's name is? Nope. So she still remains the nameless blonde neighbor who likes country music. We've determined that Drew's girlfriend was most likely having the exact same conversation with him about me last night, too.

So, in preparation for our New York/New Jersey trip, Jordan is perfecting his "New Yohwk" accent. I wish I could post a soundbyte of it on here. He does have an accent, but I'm just not quite sure if it can qualify as a New York accent. I've decided that I'm going to make him watch My Cousin Vinny, a movie my family swears by and can find a quote from for any situation we find ourselves in. Between Joe Pesci and Marisa Tomei, he should be able to determine what he's doing wrong with his accent. I just can't wait for him to order a hawt dawg from a street vendor in his New Yohwk accent and see what happens... My accent will come back just a smidge while we're there since I'll be surrounded by it, but California will still shine through in words like wahter and dahg.

I'm finally getting my hair cut tonight (so I will shut up about it). So stoked. Mom is also going to come down and meet me there and we're going to get some dinner together. Looking forward to some girl time with her... :) Should be a very fun evening!!

Did They Really Just Say That: Hump Day

I'm happy to hear that my blogs bring some small form of entertainment. I received this e-mail from Bobby, another "voice on the other line" who works out of our Utah office:

Can I just say I love your blogs about “did they really say that” J thank you for the hours of entertainment.

Thanks, Bobby!! I'm glad I can give back to the Call Center Community. :) If you have any good ones, let me know and I'll be happy to share it with the world... ;) And as I'm typing this, I'm lucky enough to have another one!! I swear, these things are becoming my form of meditation to deal with these people sometimes.

Me: Alright, so the e-mail address you just gave me is going to be your login.
Caller: Wait. So...that's my username?
Me: That's correct.
Caller: Well where do I enter that. I don't see a place to put that in. All I see are two boxes in the corner. One says 'e-mail' and one says 'password'.
Me: Okay, well the one that says e-mail? That's where you're gonna put your e-mail. The one that says password...Your password will go there."
Caller: Ohhhh! So I put my e-mail in the box for e-mail and the password in the box marked password!

This is why I am exceedingly nice to any customer service representative I speak with when I have to call my bank, cell phone provider, or whoever. I know what they have to deal with on a daily basis. I had a person call in once to complain that his left shoelace was shorter than his right shoelace and now his shoes looked uneven. I was positive it was my boss (at the time) who enjoyed the occasional practical joke, but nope. The guy was serious.  

Early Morning Baseball Rantings

Ahhh baseball season is almost upon us and that means that the shit-talking is about to begin in my apartment! I hitched a ride with Jordan this morning (we work in the same office but generally drive in by ourselves except when I feel like carpooling) and on our way, I brought up the fact that the Angels lost Mike Napoli and proceeded to tease him because his Angels haven't really done much during this off-season as far as acquiring (or maintaining) their talent.

This is basically how our conversation went in the truck (reminder: I love the Yankees; he hates the Yankees)

Jordan: Well that's what happens when a team has salary caps on how much they can pay their players. They have to make sacrifices.
Me: Oh, unlike my boys, right? Who buy all the talent and horde it all for themselves?
Jordan: That's right. 'We're the Yankees. We already have a few Golden Glove catchers, but we'll pick up another one. He'll be our back-up's back-up's, back-up.'
Me: You're just jealous that my team is better than yours. ::sticks out tongue:

Maybe not the most mature way to end a conversation, but our bickering about Yankees vs Angels usually always results in childish come-backs and lots of laughing. Good times. Wait until playoffs, though. Things get intense. The year before last, he surprised me with tickets to a game of the Angels/Yankees series. I don't remember what the series was at but I do remember that if the Angels lost that game, it would have been over for them. I, of course, sported my Yankees sweatshirt and was one of about four Yankees fans in my section of the bleachers. Sadly, they lost that game so I couldn't brag about it on the way back to the car. It was still fun though. Except for the the nasty, drunk Angels fans who felt the uncontrollable urge to talk shit to me everything the Angels scored. Kinda annoying.

Dumb Luck & UFC 126 Predictions

Yay! I made my hair appointment for this Thursday!! And now, as this is clearly groundbreaking news that the blogosphere craves so badly, you can all breathe a sigh of relief and carry on with your lives. Must be a girl thing--when you don't get your hair done for months at a time, you get super excited when you actually make the appointment.

But now--on to something more interesting to read about than my hair.

Jordan told me about this bet that you can place on fights where if you guess the winners of all five fights on the main card, you can pretty much make bank on a small bet. I'm not sure what the bet-to-winnings ratio is but...Shoot. I can put down a small bet if it's worth it.

Normally, I'm not much of a gambler--I work too hard for my money to risk losing it on a card game or a roulette table. The only time I did gamble, I pretty much won under the "Dumb Blonde" defense. I put $5 on 0/00 for roulette and after the dealer lady already spun the wheel and let the ball go, she told me that the minimum was $10 and moved my chip off the 0/00 square. As soon as she did that, the ball landed and plink! Landed on Double Zero. The pit boss was called over and wound up just giving me my winnings and explaining that for future bets, I needed to make sure I was betting the table minimum. I quickly took my $100 chip and cashed it in and that was the end of my gambling. Buuuut. I think I might put some money down on this fight. Just a little. I'm liking the call-all-five-fights-and-win-money option. It's basically like picking horses to win, place, and show. I am uncannily good at that--in fact, I've called the winner of the Kentucky Derby, like, three years running. I've never actually put money down on it, though. I'm afraid betting money on it would jinx me.

My early predictions for UFC 126 are as follows (and I reserve the right to change them up until fight night):

Anderson Silva vs Vitor Belfort = I choose "the Phenom", Vitor BelfortRich Franklin vs Forrest Griffin = Tough call, Forrest is a bear of a man (especially with that beard I last saw him sportin'), but I'm gonna go with Rich Franklin. He did beat Chuck Liddell when he stepped in as coach during the last season the The Ultimate Fighter when Tito pulled out of the running. And Franklin did so with a broken hand, no less. KO in the first round.
Ryan Bader vs Jon Jones = This one is a tough one...but I think I'm going to go with Ryan "Darth" Bader despite his terrible, cop-out nickname. He's undefeated so far and besides--he has the same birthday as me. Us Geminis gotta stick together! You may scoff at my logic, but let's wait and see if I'm right...

I'm not too sure on the last two fights. They're all fighters I've never heard of and I can't apply the same logic I use to pick the winners in horse races (whichever name I like best), so it's pretty much going to be a crapshoot. Maybe I'll flip a coin when it comes down to placing the bet...

Writer's Block & School Musings

AGH!!!!!!  Seriously the worst two words ever invented. I'm sure a writer created the term and I really wish they had come up with some that sounded a little less daunting. No examples come to mind, but I'm fairly certain that just thinking the term 'writer's block' makes the condition worse for writers. So that's pretty much where I'm at right now.

It absolutely kills me. I have a brilliant idea, which started out beautifully but I seem to have hit a wall at about 90 mph. I was really trying to wrap it up before school started, but thanks to this little setback, I doubt that will actually happen now. Ugh. So very frustrating, but I've learned that if I'm having trouble, I shouldn't force it because then it won't turn out the way I wanted. So I'm going to set it aside, let it rest for a little while and come back to it when the dreaded WB has passed.

Speaking of school, we're down to the very last week of Winter Break. I feel like it's been ages since I had any classes, papers, exams, quizzes... I'm so looking forward to going back... This month and a half off of school has confirmed for me that I really do not want to spend the rest of my life answering calls in a call center. Ultimately, I hope to work for a publishing house as an editor. That way I can spend my days doing two of my favoritest things in the world: reading and correcting people's grammar!

My dreaded Liberal Arts Math class begins next week, however. Cue horror movie music. I'm hoping that they call it "Liberal Arts" math, it's a course designed specifically for people who are pursuing degrees in the liberal arts field and want absolutely nothing to do with math. Maybe it will be a bit easier than the courses, say, an aspiring engineer would be taking. I've already informed Jordan and my mom that if I manage to pull off an A in that class, I expect a party and a parade. ;)

OK, well what was initially supposed to be a short post turned into a rambling one. So back I go to answering the same questions over and over again as the phones keep ringing.

Did They Really Just Say That: Monday Edition

Ohhhh, I knew it would happen today!!

Me: OK, and what are the dates you're looking for in Cape Cod?
Caller: (annoyed sigh and speaking in an extremely annoyed voice) You would ask me that. Let me go get a calendar.

Well, yes, ma'am. I do need to know the dates you're looking at. I mean, I could always guess but let me be clear that I'm going to pick the crappiest dates to travel.

Time for a change

Well here I sit, hard at work as usual...It's ridiculously quiet right now anyway so I refuse to feel guilty. The morning's going by pretty fast for a change and despite my early awakening this morning, I failed to pack a lunch for myself.

Today is Jordan's birthday [Happy Birthday, Hun!!! Even though I know you won't read this...). The weekend was his birthday present, but we're still going to go out for dinner tonight and enjoy a little birthday dinner. I've spent more money than I was budgeting for already, so hopefully he goes easy on me. ;) He thought he had a show tonight, but it's actually the first Monday in February. So at least we'll get to bed at a decent hour tonight.

And...exciting news...We bought our tickets to see Zumanity when we're in Vegas next weekend. Woo!! I'm so excited!! I've always wanted to see that show just from the billboards I've seen whenever I was in Vegas. I'm not sure why, but they always intrigued me. After reading an overview of the show...Wow...It's, uh, pretty intense. Sounds like a combination of Cirque du Soleil and your typical Vegas cabaret show. I'm excited to see it, though. Should be awesome! :)

We're officially two weeks away from UFC 126: Belfort vs Silva. I am so so excited!! I really hope Belfort takes the belt away from Silva. I know he has a huge fan-base and he's an incredible fighter, but he's completely full of himself and his performance against Damian Maia totally rubbed me the wrong way. If you're really such a world-class fighter, then knock the guy out and end it. Don't taunt him and insult him and trash-talk for five rounds. That's not how a champion acts, if you ask me.


Anyway. I've been thinking and it's about time I did something to my hair. I'm going to get it cut this week or next with a gift certificate my mom got me for Christmas. I haven't decided if I want to re-highlight it or change the color. Brunette sounds kinda nice for a while...Hmmm. Decisions decisions. But this is the look I'm gonna go for as long as I don't chicken out:

A la Anne Hathaway, circa Devil Wears Prada

Returned From the Mountain

Well we have returned safely from our weekend in Big Bear. It was a lovely weekend apart from a few minor setbacks.

May I just interrupt this blog with some breaking news: For the first time ever in my life, I was able to succesffully catch a gummi bear that Jordan threw at me in my mouth. I've never been able to do that with food and am feeling probably an exaggerated amount of pride in that accomplishment.

Moving on...

We enjoyed a fun-filled Friday night at a local bar called Chad's, where we encountered the fascinating locals of Big Bear. I would say it takes a certain type of person to be able to live in a mountain town and Friday night confirmed my suspicions. What truly topped if off was the tweeked-out cab driver that was texting as she navigated the windy mountain roads as she drove us back to the resort at the end of the night. If I had wanted to risk bodily injury or death, I would have just driven myself home. Apparently, you still risk life and limb when climbing into taxis in Big Bear. That's handy information to have for the future.

The boys went boarding on Saturday while Natasha and I nursed our hangovers. Hers was considerably worse than mine as the poor girl was sick Friday night and Saturday morning. We spent the day watching Teen Mom and Jersey Shore. I feel like I was a traitor to my people for watching Jersey Shore, although I will admit that they are entertaining. At least now I understand some of the things I hear people quoting at work. I did make it clear to everyone present that life doesn't revolve around GTL for all Jersey folk. I felt it was the least I could do for my great state. ;) Spencer ended up breaking the bindings on the board he borrowed from Jordan's friend (uh-ohhhhh), so their boarding was cut short. The UFC Fight for the Troops was on that night, so Jordan and I watched that while Natasha and Spencer and another couple that joined us--Ashley and Mike--went to the jacuzzi. Ashley and Mike were...not quite as functional as the average couple and I'd say they spent about two-thirds of their time up in Big Bear fighting. When they got back from the jacuzzi, Ashley and Mike announced they were leaving because Ashley had slipped and fallen getting out of the water. Five hours later, Ashley text Natasha from an ER back home--she had broken her tailbone. Ouch.

So now here we are, relaxing and watching the Steelers whoop on my Jets.Well, not necessarily MY Jets--I'll usually cheer for any NY or New Jersey team. The only team that I am a loyal and steadfast fan of is the Yankees--a fact that Jordan keeps praying will change. He's an Angels fan. It's interesting around our household when playoffs roll around, let me tell you. But hey. I've been a Yankees fan all my life. I'm not about to go changing just for my boyfriend. Besides, I do so enjoy the friendly shit-talking between the two of us whenever our teams play each other. Mwahahaha.

Here are some pictures from the weekend...Just thought I'd share. :)

Jordan and I at the Out of Order Rec Room: The only thing that worked was ONE pool table and the Ping Pong Table.

Natasha & I @ Chad's...I'm not sure why this picture looks warped...

Jordan & I @ Chad's... You could tell the tourists from the locals by whether or not they wore jackets. Clearly I was not a local.

A sunset picture Jordan took with his phone. I love it!!

This Is What I Want Tonight...

In no particular order...

Special Edition of "Did They Really Just Say That?"

More like, "Did they really just DO that". But anyway. I am on fire this week! I've been at work for about three hours--not even, actually. Two hours and 18 minutes. So. I got a good one for y'all.

A caller got to my line about a reservation that she booked for January 28th (I do timeshare exchanges for a living). She was booked for Panama City Beach, Florida. Remember that: Flo-ri-da. She had questions about the resort and then she said something funny. She said, "I need to know because I'm leaving the country in a week." Leaving the country? Well that's weird, because you live in Los Angeles and you're going to Florida so... How does that involve leaving the country?

Just to be the efficient customer service representative that I am, I went over her reservation with her: "Ma'am, you're booked at the Panama City Resort & Club in Panama City Beach, Florida."

Holy hell. She began screaming bloody murder. Apparently she was under the impression that she had booked a week in the country Panama. I spoke with the agent that booked the reservation for her, since it was done just recently, and she said that they were discussing Florida the entire time and she never mentioned the country Panama.

I tried explaining everything to her and apologizing for the mix-up. Unfortunately, I couldn't really get very many words out with her cutting me off every three seconds. She wound up hanging up on me after screaming, "You're eh-stupid, eh-stupid, eh-stupi, eh-stupid. America is eh-stupid!"

It may just be me, but if I'm booking an international vacation that involves very expensive airfare, I'm going to make damn sure that I'm booking the correct location before anything is finalized. That could just be me though.

Bottom line, folks, when you're talking about one location, please make sure the other person involved in the conversation is aware that you've switched countries and are now talking about somewhere else completely. Don't assume we can read your mind and we can just go, "Oh! Clearly she's now talking about the country Panama instead of Panama City Beach, Florida."

Because, again, we cannot predict the future, we cannot read minds... We're human.

Shocking, I know.

Another Round of "Did They Really Just Say That?"

This one is from last week, but it's too good not to share:

Me: Alright, sir, so whenever you're ready, I can take a Visa, MasterCard, or Discover for that payment.
Caller: I have a Visa card here. Do you want me to give you the number?

No, sir. I want you to hold it up to the phone and I'll just guess it.

People... Sometimes, there are no words... ;)

Only I Would Get Lost in a Hospital

Alright, so after work I headed up to Orange to visit Miss Natalie and her new baby boy. I used my awesome new Garmin to guide the way because I wasn't sure where exactly the hospital was, although I had an idea. So we're nearing the establishment I thought was the hospital. The Garmin said that I needed to go about one more block and turn right, but I saw a parking garage and thought, "Well what does the Garmin know? I can just park here."

Mistake #1.

So I park, walk into the building from the parking garage and realize I'm in the Cancer Unit, so I figure since I'm on the second floor, I can just take the elevator down and go to the front lobby.

Mistake #2.

I take the elevator down and I'm back outside in the parking garage, but there are bear pawprints painted on the sidewalk and a sign that says, "Follow the signs for the Visitor's Shuttle". So I do. After a quick shuttle ride, I walk into what I believed to be my final destination.

Mistake #3.

Turns out I was in the entirely wrong hospital. I was in CHOC; I needed to be in St. Joseph's. The guy at the lobby desk told me to go outside, cross the street and look for the Lobby entrance right by the Emergency Room entrance. I walked, but I didn't realize that I needed to go AROUND the corner at the ER to find the Lobby entrance. Across the street, however, I did see St. Joseph Medical Plaza and a teeny tiny little door that said "Lobby Entrance" on a door there. So I went over there.

Mistake #4.

I go up and ask someone at the desk where the Maternity ward was. Oh, I'm in the wrong building! What I need to do is walk up those stairs, take the bridge back across the street, walk down the stairs and find the "South Lobby" entrance with a security guard. Found the entrance, but there was no security guard so I followed someone else inside and--miracle of miracles--I found the Front Entrance Lobby!!

I even ran into Natalie's in-laws and stepdaughters in the Lobby, as well, so we all went up to the room together. Benjamin is the cutest thing I've ever seen and has more hair on his head than any baby I've seen. I'll be going back tomorrow to spend more time with mommy and baby--although I'll be parking in the correct hospital this time.

I learned a valuable lesson tonight: Unless my Garmin says, "You have arrived at your destination", I will not presume to know better and forge my own path. Second lesson that I learned, I need a smaller Garmin that I can carry around on my person at all time to guide me to precisely where I need to be.

Tonight served as a brutal reminder of just how directionally impaired I truly am.

Work Antics

I'm sorry to say this, but I have to be frank:

People are stupid.

I work in a call center and sometimes have the divine opportunity to speak with people are, shall we say, the duller tools in the shed and the dimmer crayons in the box. Anyhoo. I just had to share this. This is a conversation (verbatim) with someone who called in and got my line:

Me: “Can I get the last name on your account? (pause) Perfect, thank you. And what are the first names?”
Caller: Long Pause. “What do you mean?”
Me: “The first names on your account.”
Caller: “Like my name and my husband’s name?”
Me: “Yes. What are your first names?”
Caller: “I don’t get what you’re asking. You want to know my first name?”

Seriously?? You guys are a neutral third party. Was my question in any way, shape, or form too ambiguous to understand what exactly it was the I was asking for??

You know, you get five or six calls like that in a row and you really start to crave chocolate or vodka or both on an unnatural level...

Baby Ben & the Big Bear Birthday Bash

Don't you just love alliterations?

Happy Monday, everyone!!!!!!!

OK, ok. That was false enthusiasm, but I am genuinely happy that work is done, the fire is roaring, and Jordan is cooking dinner for us. Best way to end a really crappy Monday.

One wonderful, incredible, amazing thing about today is that the world has been graced with the presence of baby Benjamin Kioshi. My lovely friend Natalie had her beautiful baby boy this morning and is now a MOMMY!! I am going to go up to visit mommy and baby tomorrow and meet my new nephew. Sooo excited!!! :)




Welcome to the world, Baby Ben!!! <3

 So. Read the following and tell me: Am I or am I not the awesomest girlfriend ever. Jordan's birthday is coming up on Monday. We're kinda strapped for cash right because we have V-E-G-A-S coming up on Superbowl weekend (sidebar: WOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!) so I was fretting about what to do for Jordan's birthday present. A friend of ours text us earlier last week inviting us to go up to Big Bear and split a two-bedroom timeshare with him and his girlfriend and spend the weekend snowboarding, which is what Jordan really wanted to do on his birthday. We passed because Vegas is coming up so soon and it was too expensive.

On Friday morning, as we were getting ready for work, I asked Jordan what he wanted to do for his birthday and he replied in this really bummed out voice, "Snowboarding. But I can't do that. So...I guess we can just go see a movie or something. I can see a movie for free on my birthday." Well that did it for me. I conspired with our friend, did some fancy footwork with my finances and... I'm covering the expenses for our hotel and his lift ticket so he can, in fact, go snowboarding for his birthday.

Go ahead. You can say it. As a girlfriend, I rock. :) It will be a lovely weekend, though. I'm looking forward to it. The guys will hit the slopes early Saturday morning while Tasha and I go walk around Big Bear Village and check out the shops if we're feeling ambitious--OR we can just hang out at the resort and get drunk while we wait for the guys to come home. I'm leaning towards choice #2, personally. LOL



Where we're staying @ Big Bear :)

OH--and what does everyone think about this Zodiac Sign Controversy??? I'm no longer a Gemini--all of a sudden I'm a Taurus?? Crazy!! At first I was all adamant about my sign, like I've been a staunch Gemini my entire life and I'll be damned if I change now. You'd think people were announcing that political parties had suddenly changed and all of a sudden Democrats were Republicans and vice versa the way some people are freaking out about it. I mean, I'm protective of my Zodiac sign and all but it's not like my world will crumble around me if someone tells me I'm a Taurus. And I do have to admit--after reading more about Gemini's and Taurus's... I do fall a bit more squarely in the Taurus camp after all, except for a few aspects. Who knew??

I am happy to hear that birds stopped falling dead from the skies and fish stopped washing up on shore dead. Either that, or my Ignorance Is Bliss strategy has finally started working and I'm just not hearing about it anymore. In any case, my paranoia about the world coming to an end in 2012 has decreased dramatically and I can relax once again. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a tad nervous about that. Nervous enough to start going to church on Sundays? Not quite. But I was nervous enough to mention that we probably should start going. ;)

Oh and heads up all you Hell's Kitchen fans: Gordon Ramsey is gonna be on the Tonight Show tonight!! I think I might TiVo it. My TiVo has been acting up and erasing everything it records and I'm about ready to go all Office Space on it. We need to call the cable company and have them fix it because this is ridonculous. Yes. Ridonculous.

Jordan has another show at the Sandpiper in Laguna Beach tomorrow night. A Different Animal (which is the name for the collaborative group with Akronymz and First Time Offenders) will be going on at 9:30, so if you want to come check it out, feel free!! Remember: there was a chick brawl at their first show; I had to battle a Cougar at the second one...Who knows what will happen tomorrow?? I should probably wear some comfortable shoes just in case. You never know when ADA takes the stage... (Sidebar: I'm trying to convince them that it should be "A Different Breed" instead of "A Different Animal". I mean, the 'animal' hasn't changed--it's still music. But they've combined genres to create a different kind  of music...So 'breed' would be the logical choice...That could just be me, though). Opinions?

Anyhoo. I am going to enjoy the deeeeeeelish carne asada that Jordan just cooked and enjoy a Movie Night Monday.

Ciao!!!!!

Julia Childs I Am Not

So. Let me just reiterate: I do not like cooking. I know I said I did in an earlier post, but I lied. I like baking, but cooking? Nope.

I attempted to make Beef Wellington in honor of Chef Ramsey this evening and he would have been appalled to see what the end product was. Not that it tasted bad--taste-wise, it was yummy--but the presentation left something to be desired. We had recorded this cooking show with Ramsey where he made his Beef Wellington so I attempted to follow along. Meh. I get frustrated too easily in the kitchen when things don't go accordingly and we're just lucky that dinner was actually cooked and I didn't wind up crying.

I'm going to be attending a dinner/seminar event tomorrow night on Human Trafficking in Garden Grove. I didn't realize this but apparently GG is very active in the fight against human trafficking. I wrote a huge paper on the topic in school and yes, I watched the Lifetime miniseries about it with Mira Sorvino. It's not exactly an appropriate dinner topic, but I was interested to see what the evening would be about. I'm covering it for the paper so that means next week I'll have two articles running. Yay!

I'm also excited because I'll get to use my shiny new Garmin my mom got me for Christmas. I am the most directionally-impaired person you'll ever meet. Seriously. If I exit a parking lot through a different exit I used to come in, I'll get confused and turned around. I pretty much always have to leave a good five-ten minutes for "U-Turn Time" if I'm going somewhere I've never been. It's pretty bad--even worse if you're on the receiving end of my very frustrated phone call while I'm driving around lost trying to get wherever you are. That is definitely not a fun time.

This weekend Jordan and Shane are going on their first father-son camp-out for the Boy Scouts. I just want one picture of them with Shane in his Boy Scouts uniform and I'll be a happy camper (pun definitely intended). They'll be up in Lake Arrowhead just for Saturday night, but that also means that I'll have the lovely, scrubbed-clean apartment all to myself. Girls night!! I'm trying to convince Jordan's sister to come down and spend time with her big brother's girlfriend. I haven't heard back from her yet though. In any case, I'll be watching all the movies and/or tv shows Jordan refuses to watch with me. Like House.

This evening is pretty quiet. Not much to report but I wanted to drop in and say hello. I'm feeling pretty tired and honestly, I'm dying to finish reading "Magic Study" by Maria V. Snyder. It's book #2 in its trilogy and I'm soooo happy that there's still one more left to read. I know. Huge dork. But this book is AWESOME! Totally recommend this series.

Oh and Jordan's random quote of the evening that totally cracked me up: "Thanks, baby. You're a doll. If dolls had dolls, you'd be their doll."

I thought it was amusing. :)

Cougars & SuperCross

Well here I am on a lovely Sunday evening... Jordan just returned from snowboarding with the guys. I just threw the last load of laundry in the washing machine (it's the simple joys in life like seeing empty laundry baskets in the closets that make me happy) and the cats are camped out on either ends of the couch snoozin' away.

What a weekend. After spending roughly two weeks indoors (except for going to work and back), I was pretty excited to actually go out and have some fun. And have some fun is precisely what we did. Friday night was Jordan's show at the Rib Joint in Dana Point. Not to speak ill of the restuarant, it felt more like we were in someone's basement instead of a restaurant. The ceilings were so low that anyone over six foot would have had to stoop if they stood up.

Anyhoo. When we first got there, we noticed a couple older ladies there. Some of you would classify them as 'cougars'. One of them had lowrider jeans that rode slow low her g-string was hanging out and the same could be said for the top half of her. If you get my drift. In any case, it was the whole package: Clothes that were twenty years too young for them, bleach blonde hair...The whole kitten caboodle. They seemed to be quite content knockin back mixed drinks in their own little corner of the bar...up until Akronymz and First Time Offenders went on.

All of a sudden, I look over and see Ms. Cougar Dana Point 2011 grinding and grabbing up on my boyfriend in the middle of one of his songs!! I'm not an overly jealous or possessive girlfriend, so I just started cracking up with everyone else, but then my friends started egging me on to do something and, well, she did get a little too grabby. So I had to at the very least make my presence known. After a swig of my friend's Corona, I went up on stage and hip-checked her oh-so-subtley so I could dance with my boyfriend. Thank you very much. I danced for a verse then left, so it wasn't a you're-making-an-ass-of-yourself moment. It was just a "Honey, you're old enough to be his mother and he has a girlfriend" moment. Extremely amusing.

At the end of the night, she and her girlfriend stumbled out of the car and into--yes, it's true--a Jaguar, slurring to one another that they both looked incredibly beautiful that night before they drove off to another bar to hit on other young men. I was told that at one point in the evening, they were in the ladies restroom together complaining about all the younger girls that were there because we were stealing the attention away from them.

And so, I shall henceforth be known as the Cougar Slayer.



Me, 1; Cougars, 0. Meow.

The show went really well, cougar-molestation aside. The guys killed it as usual and they even did a few new songs I didn't know they were working on. So far, something exciting has happened at every show so who knows what will happen next time. The video from Friday, I believe, will be up on YouTube (including the dance-off, I'm embarrassed to say) so maybe I'll post it up here. If my dancing was decent enough. I'm no dancer, that's for sure. ;)

Last night was SuperCross with the Jordan, the Shanester, Matt & Ryan. It was a lot of fun, albeit ridiculously cold at one point. The beer certainly helped to warm me up and I was incredibly happy I opted to drive Friday night for Jordan's show so he would drive Saturday night. Here are some pictures from the evening. Please excuse the beanie. It was Shane's and a seven-year-old's beanie didn't really fit my head. But I was cold, dangit!!!



Left to Right: Jordan, Me, Shane, Ryan & Matt




Me & Jordan @ SuperCross at Angel Stadium, Anaheim




Me & my two favorite boys: Jordan & Shane



Operation: New York (& New Jersey) 2011

Wow is tomorrow really Friday?? I swear this week has flown by!!

OK, here's a moment of shameless plugging: Tomorrow night Jordan is doing a show in Dana Point. It's Akronymz & First Time Offenders at the Rib Joint! Any of you local folk, feel free to come on down. There's no cover and they'll go on around 10:00. Below is a YouTube video of one of their more recent shows at the Sandpiper in Laguna Beach. Three of the five songs are freestyling by Jordan and Nonsense (aka Clayton, his partner) while they just vibe with the band. If you're not busy and you're in the area, come down and see them again!

Saturday, I'll once again be Lois Lane. I'll be attending the SuperCross event at Angel Stadium in Anaheim. I'm covering it for the paper so I'll be working on my article after that. The nice thing, though, is that it won't run for another week so I have until next Sunday to turn it in. I'm giong to try to pick up another assignment next week, though, so I'll have two articles running in one week. It feels weird; I've been off from the paper for the past two weeks because of the holidays and I feel so lost without having an article to write. I'm excited to have a chance to use my shiny new digital voice recorder that Jordan got me for Christmas.

Check back at the end of the weekend for pictures from Jordan's show & the SuperCross on Saturday! :)

 Anyhoo. The great planning for the New Jersey/New York trip this summer has begun!! I need to get in touch with my bestie who's getting married this June--the reason for my trip back there. The Big Day is June 18, so I will definitely be present and account for that day as I am a bridesmaid. I need to find out if she needs me there a certain number of days prior to the 18th so I can cement the travel dates. But then, after (or before--depending on when I'm needed out there) the wedding, Jordan and I are going to be tourists in the City since he's never been and I am ridiculously addicted to New York. I love it and I miss it soooo much.

We'll be hitting Coney Island, Ellis Island & Lady Liberty, Central Park, Times Square and the Met along with anything else that's on the route of those hop-on, hop-off tour buses. But those are the Must-See's for Jordan. I've actually never been to Coney Island either so I'm pretty excited about that. We're going to tackle it the way we did for our DC trip this past summer: We'll both make a list of things we want to see, compare notes and narrow it down to a doable number of sites to see on our trip. It worked out splendidly on our DC trip. It may have been a combination of that and our awesome tour guide-slash-photographer, Shaun. He is a friend of ours that used to live out there.

Another major thing we want to do is check out local restaurant landmarks in Manhattan, the Village....Anywhere. We're slowly evolving into foodies and wine snobs, so we definitely want to appreciate the culinary & wine Must-See's of New York as well.

If anyone has any suggestions for sites/restaurants that we have to hit while we're in the tri-state area, please let me know!! I love New York, but I'm a Jersey girl, so I don't know the City as well as I'd like to. Just a heads up: We love steaks (we had the most delicious steak in DC at a restaurant called Rays the Steaks; if any of you know a place in NY that can indeed raise the stakes, please don't be shy!!).

I'm also going to give Jordan a "Before She Was Famous: MJ Edition" of my hometown in Jersey and make him taste a scrumptious Jersey bagel. Mmmmm I miss Bacon, Egg, & Cheese's on a Kaiser roll... ::Drool:: We'll also be seeing the family and the friends and it will be a wonderful trip.

This past summer, it was Operation: DC. This summer, it's Operation: New York. Next summer is the Big One. It'll be Operation: Europe. I'm excited about that one, but I can't wait to get back to the east coast again!! :)



photo courtesy of vacation-planet.com



Nothing Resolved at UFC 125: Resolution

Happy New Year, everyone!

I hope everyone is fully recovered and your memory of your celebration Friday night is intact. Or at least that you've recovered photographs to help fill in the blank parts. ;) My New Year's was quiet. We stayed home and did a little drinking and...two days later, we're both still sick. This is day five now. I think I might have to go to the doctor's tomorrow.

I have a funny little story though. Proof that "Jersey Shore" really does suck the life out of you. I woke up this morning at six-thirty because someone decided to call my boyfriend's cell phone at that ungodly hour. Unfortunately, once I'm awake, there's no going back to sleep. So I stumbled out into the living room and, in my sleep-clogged mind, decided to actually watch an episode of the "Jersey Shore". About three hours later, I was sucked into a Jersey Shore marathon, watching "The Situation" talk a lot of sh*t, "Snooki" drink a lot of alcohol and everyone else just be stupid in general. And then... all of a sudden... I had no voice. It was gone. I tried screaming as loud and hard as I could and the only sound that came out was a whisper. That was at about ten o'clock so I went to wake up Jordan (he was thrilled--I mean, heartbroken that I had lost my voice. Truly, the concern he expressed for my disability was incredibly touching). In any case, he came out into the living room, snatched the remote control and put on the Buckaneers/Saints game and roughly thirty seconds later, boom! my voice came back. "Jersey Shore" stole my voice!! LOL Now, I know that's not really what happened, but the timing was eery and I won't be watching it anytime soon again. I mean, next time they could steal my sight or my hearing! ;)

We ordered UFC 125 last night to watch the Edgar/Maynard fight. OK, seriously?! A draw?? What the eff is that, judges?? You take the belt away from BJ Penn in a rather disappointing fight, during which Edgar did not clearly and decisively BEAT the champion. Yet in a fight where Maynard knocked Edgar flat on his *ss multiple times in the first round, then continue to give him a run for his money throughout the rest of the fight (I will give Edgar rounds 2 & 4; Maynard got 1 & 3; round 5 was a tough call, however in my opinion, Maynard pushed the pace and maintained octagon control throughout), you're going to call that a draw??? I noticed that Frankie took his belt and beat a hasty retreat after his interview with Joe Rogan with no comment on a clearly much-desired rematch. Maynard, on the other hand, although he was clearly extremely disappointed, apologized to his fans and stated that he would more than willing to do a rematch. We'll see what happens. Anthony "Showtime" Pettis (the new WEC lightweight champion after an incredibly shocking defeat over Ben Henderson) is supposed to fight UFC's lightweight champ since the two organizations have now combined, but I don't know if they'll have the Edgar/Maynard rematch before pitting Pettis against the true lightweight champ.

Edgar and Maynard square up at the weigh-ins Dec 31, 2010

photo courtesy of mmaforreal.com

I was pleased to see Nate Diaz lose by decision. Clay Guida, my favorite crazy Italian, enjoyed a victory by submission. In a very surprising fight, Brian Stann TKO'd Chris Leben while Brendan Vera got his nose rearranged by Thiago Alves. This fight was supposed to be his "come-back", but he only served as Alves's bongo drums by the third round. Alves took his face and after literally slapping Vera around with open-palmed hits, Alves beat out a quick little rhythm on the back of Vera's head. The fight that Jordan and I were most excited about was the Brad Tavares/Phil Barrone fight. We watched Tavares on the Liddell/Ortiz season of the Ultimate Fighter and instantly became Tavares fans, him being a fellow Hawaiian (like Jordan). He got in a little trouble at the beginning of the fight last night with the "New York Bad*ss", but ultimately knocked him out before the first round was over. Woo!

Also, something weird: I saw a different poster online for last night's fight that said the co-main event was supposed to be Shane Carwin versus Roy Nelson. I didn't hear anything about that. Anyone know anything about that??