Sam's Blog

Link: http://www.beastieboys.com/

****Revised****





[Shameless plug for my favorite band: Beastie Boys' Solid Gold Hits comes out on November 8th (next Tuesday) please buy it. Though it is missing a few of my personal favorite tracks, it has pretty much every popular song spanning their 20 year career. It’s a keeper.]


Okay, okay, I get it: I will post more. I have been reprimanded by many already, so alas, here I am. Fueled by lots and lots of coffee and soda, I was able to get through last week in one piece. It has been a rough few weeks and I can finally breathe again. I think things started to slow down a bit starting last Thursday, but it wasn’t until the weekend when I felt more relaxed and calm. Daylight savings helped a bit too, allowing me to sleep an extra hour.


Well work has definitely been crazy. I’m getting used to the 10-hour days, but I hear that they may be close to hiring a new assistant, so I am super duper excited. Though it will still take a while for them to train him and such, I feel as though there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Everything is not immediate anymore and I can finally catch up on some things that I’ve been putting off at work (only because I can put them off, but it’s nice to get things done ahead of time).


Class has been pretty good. I did my second round of role-playing and gave a presentation to our "buyer." He was very reasonable and I liked him a lot. I think that he fed off of my energy and we were very agreeable and he gave me great tips for my final presentation in December. I was so nervous leading up to the presentation and after it was over, I felt so relieved and it felt like a huge weight lifted off of my shoulders. It was nice to get it done and over with. I am not looking forward to the final presentation though. It’s 15 minutes long and I have to sell my soul basically so that the buyer would give me a large share of the market. Fun fun!! I do like the class though. My professor is great (she’s a loud talker) and she has a lot of energy and charisma to get me through the 3-hour class.


As far as my free time, I am able to squeeze in some Arrested Development Season 2 and watch the extra scenes and do my laundry and study for my midterm. It’s all rather exciting to me to have this free time. Oh, and I was also able to clean a little bit and figure out new coding for my MySpace profile. I go on there at times and it’s cool to see a lot of old friends and such and people are finding me all of the time, so it’s nice to reconnect. I don’t care what people say about MySpace, I think it’s fabulous, especially since the new template design for Friendster is sucky and hard to navigate. In any case, it’s a fun and nonthreatening way to meet a lot of my old friends so I find myself spending more time on there. It’s rather addicting.


I was able to see my family this weekend. My dad wanted us to all have dinner together because it’s been so long since we’ve seen each other. I wanted to see my grandma as well, but she was staying at the temple. I miss her. I hadn’t seen my sister since she’s been back from Mexico and it was nice to see my cousin as well. We went to a Chinese restaurant in Chinatown (the same one that we went to after my graduation) and it was yummy. My dad made it a point for me to bring Josh as well. He was really subtle when he asked, but it’s nice to know that he likes Josh and accepts him. He has never really stated an opinion either which way about him, so it was nice to know that he approves. For some reason deep down, it mattered. Though I didn’t realize it or made it a big issue, it still was one of those things that I would sometimes think about briefly and wonder.


Josh and I met up with Lisa and watched Noah Baumbach’s, The Squid and the Whale. This movie is not for everyone, but I think that it was made that way. I kinda equate it with Wes Anderson’s films (for obvious reasons) but it is a bit more cynical and more perverse. The characters are fascinating and they are not the best people in the world and it makes it hard for you to be empathetic or emotionally attached. But it was a good movie. Very thought provoking and it makes you reevaluate some things in your life.


I grabbed dinner with Regis, Donna, and Josh at Paco's Taco's, which is one of the best Mexican places that I've ever been to. Their fresh tortillas are yummy and melt in your mouth. Add a little butter and they're divine. Then I met up with with Marty and Lisa for drinks late last night at Ma'Kai for Halloween drink specials. We were dissappointed because our bartender didn't know any of the specials that was advertised online so we settled for regular drinks. Despite the random people dancing by themselves in the middle of the restaurant, it was pretty chill and a great time.


I did nothing today for Halloween. One of our higher ups is in town for a few weeks and it was my first time meeting him so we all dressed up today. I was not in the mood for Halloween this year and Josh didn’t feel like dressing up (surprise, surprise) so we ended up doing nothing really. I just relaxed all weekend and it was splendid. I was going to do the whole Weho thing, but I did that for the past few years and though its nice to people watch, I was tired and didn’t want to have to deal with parking problems, etc. I guess we’re all getting old. Josh had class today and I had dinner with M and we had a blast. It sounded like she had a wonderful weekend and she seems genuinely happy. I am glad that she is happy and finally in a good place in her life. She needed some stability and it’s awesome that it’s working out. It makes me happy to see her giddy.


I think I am coming down with a cold or something. The meds are making me drowsy. Bleh.


S&TC quote of the day:
“Maybe your anxiety threshold is just lower than other peoples.” – Charolotte (Season 4 – Change of a Dress)

Link: http://www.foofighters.com/

Hey guys! I’ve been gone for a while. I’ve been living a sad existence at work. I’ve been working long long hours and have had no real time to do much of anything. Exciting huh?! I did manage to go out a few times, so I am glad for that. I had a presentation on Wednesday night during class and I seemed to have done pretty well. He gave me some pointers and we negotiated a bit. I was nervous throughout the entire ordeal, but he was a hard ass so I had every reason to be. But I am glad that that part is over. I do have to do another round this Wednesday with him to discuss my competitors. It’s going to be interesting and I hope to do well in that. I always get really nervous, but I want to do a good job and get it over with. Woohoo! Yay for class!! I really hope that he goes easy this time around since it’s more conversational than anything.

So I see a lot of famous people in my building, most of which I do not care too much about. Though seeing Jason Lee a few months ago really made my day, really. I love him. I know that only a few people (who I already spoke to about it) will appreciate this, but the wonderful Tom Sizemore came onto my floor and look absolutely disoriented and a bit out of it. I helped him by trying to give him directions, but luckily an assistant came to find him and directed him to where he should be. It was a rather weird experience, with my boss (who was on the phone with NY) saying, "was Tom Sizemore just in my office?" and I nodded and then he yelled into the phone, "Tom Sizemore was just in my office!" It was indeed a funny story.

Not much else to report really. I tried to have some fun this weekend and it started on Thursday night. Angie rounded up some people to watch turtle racing at Brennan’s in Marina Del Rey. We prepartied at Angie’s new condo. It was very nicely decorated and very colorful. I really liked it. Lisa, Marty, Nate and I went and met up with some of Angie’s classmates (from USC of course, but we were all amicable) and a few others like Bank and Justin. It was good times and the races were funny because the turtles had no idea what was happening and they took their time towards the finish line. Booze and turtles made for a great combination and Marty was very amusing that night. It was cute. Lots of fun!

I worked really late Friday night and didn’t do much. Josh and I watch some episodes of Arrested Development Season 2 while eating Chinese food. It’s so funny!! It is really one of the best shows on TV. Please watch it when it comes back in November. Tobias Fünke is my hero! Ramona was in town on Saturday and she had 2 things on her agenda: sushi and drinks. I thought it was a grand idea and Josh and I took her to Kabuki and we had YUMMY sushi. Man I love that place. We went to Dina’s afterwards to preparty and met up with Marshall and Kurt and we went over to Three of Clubs. It was an interesting bar that I’ve never been to. It had a dance floor in the back playing old 80s and 90s favorites primarily and the front was a bar that had a jukebox and played arbitrary music, such as Johnny Cash and whatever else people chose. I think that Andrea and Nate would really like this place, but it’s not for everyone. It was WAY crowded and stuffy though, so we left and went to The Well. The Well was less crowded and a more hipster type of place. Music was a lot better and we stayed there the rest of the night. As we were walking out, Josh and I saw Joey Slotnick, from the old show, The Single Guy, and he was standing next to his very good friend, David Schwimmer, who was wearing a baseball cap. It was weird seeing them there because I figured that they would be at a better, more posh bar. But it was cool. Pictures from most of these events are posted on my Flickr account, starting here.

I need to get back to studying. Whee!

S&TC quote of the day:
"Just below the surface, we are all raw and unexposed." – Carrie (Season 5 – Plus One is the Loneliest Number)

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Sam is: indifferent. She has to study.
Current Music: "Journey to the End" by Rancid

Link: http://www.soulwalking.co.uk/Tony%20Toni%20Tone.html

So you know that you're in LA when it's raining outside and you forgot your umbrella and as you ask around the office, you realize that no one has an umbrella either. Mind you, it was thundering and raining really hard last night and has been all day today off and on. Maybe we're optimists and think that it will clear up? Or, like me, we don't know where our umbrella is because we forgot where we put it the last time it rained a long long time ago. But my ENTIRE floor didn't have one with them, really. A coworker from our New York office was visiting and he was laughing at us because its so typical. So we drove to California Chicken Cafe for lunch so we wouldn't get wet. Ah, rain...it's not so bad when you're inside all day.

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So I get a letter from the DMV and I open it and it says, CONGRATULATIONS! as if I won something. Apparently I am eligible to renew my license by mail or internet. That in itself is exciting to me because that means that I won't have to wait in the long lines at the DMV. But as I scroll down to the bottom of the page, there is a stub below and it states that I must pay $25. When did that happen? When did rates go up? And I find it rather arbitrary that we have to pay the government $25 every few years so we can have a license that we are required to have to be able to drive around the state. It just sucks, but I hope that money is going towards something good.

Ughh. I'm in a constant state of tiredness with no end in sight.

Link: http://www.stipko.net/oingoboingo/

I can't believe how fast time is flying. Everyday I come home from work and I want to post something, but never get around to it. Work has been extremely busy since the other assistant quit. I am doing both jobs right now until they find someone new. I don’t mind so much, but it is a bit stressful at times and it requires me to stay late everyday. I don't mind staying late because I get paid for it, but it threw me off for a few days because I really couldn't get much done in my personal life as I had hoped. All in all, it’s not that bad, it is what it is and it's only temporary, so I don’t mind too much.

I have been productive in some things like keeping up with my television shows and watching most UCLA football games. They are doing really well so far this season and I hope that they keep it up and beat USC this year. That would be so awesome. But considering that USC is the #1 team right now, I am not too sure (though I still think that Notre Dame was robbed at their game today, they totally should have won, in my opinion, but fair is fair, I guess). It was an excellent game though. Josh and I have been going over to Emud’s place to watch Lost after class on Wednesday nights. There's usually around 8 people there and it's nice because we can fast forward through the commercials and everyone sees or catches something in the show that I didn't catch. We would have a discussion about it and make up theories about things on the show. It sounds like we're all nerds, but really though, it's awesome. I really do hope that they answer some more questions next week. I have a feeling that there will be a few more seasons, so I doubt that we will get any absolute resolution any time soon.

On a side note, I finally finished consolidating my student loans. I was hesitant before because they said that it's not the best thing to do if I still plan on going to graduate school in the future, but after switching jobs recently, I am not too sure if I will be going to school anytime in the near future. I am still not ready to go back yet. I'm taking a class for work right now and it's a lot of work for me right now. I guess the long hours at work don't help because I have to stay up late some nights doing homework, but it's not that bad. It is so hard for me to get back into the school mode. I still have to get myself into doing homework and getting ready for my presentation next week. I still get terrified speaking in front of people. I used to do it all of the time in high school because I was on the speech and debate team, but I always get so nervous right before. I hope to get over it soon, but realistically, I know it's gonna take a while. And after many emails back and forth and planning, I finally booked flights to San Francisco for New Year's Eve. I am lucky because we coordinated it so we all can fly there and back on the same flight. Kate, Monica, Alexis and I are going to have a smashing time there! Oh, the excitement!! Also, I am in the middle of watching the 6-part version of The Men Who Killed Kennedy. Eva and I are fascinated about JFK and we found out that Sunil was as well. So we all went over to the girls' place and watched the first two installments of the series. It provides some interesting angles to the story and I hope to learn more about it. I can't wait to watch the rest of it!

The past two weeks have definitely been a blur. Some of the things that I did included:

Coffee and studying with Angela at the Coral Tree Café.

Dinner at Newsroom with the boys, (Kurt, James, Josh, Wen and Tripp). We watched the boobie girl sitting next to us most of the night. Good times.

Josh and I went to Ventura to visit his family and to celebrate his dad and brother's birthdays. We went to Aloha Steakhouse and the steak was yummy! I must go back there when I am in town again. It is making me hungry just thinking about it. Josh's mom and I discussed what we should do for Thanksgiving now that Josh is vegetarian (for the most part). It will be an interesting holiday season, to say the least.

Had dinner and dessert with M the other night. She is doing so much better and seems way happier than the previous week. I am glad that she has found some stability and peace.

Had dinner and coffee with Lisa. I hadn't really talked to her since her little cousin passed away and her trip to the east coast. It was nice to just chill and talk to her. She’s doing a lot better and things are becoming more "normal" to her, which is always nice to hear. It just takes time and I am glad that things are slowly coming together for her in general. I was really worried about her for a while, but I know that she's a strong cookie and that she deals so amazingly well under many situations. But I did miss her, hence our rendezvous to Beverly Hills that night.

And lastly, Josh and I had a party at our place last night. We were afraid that our place would not be able to accommodate a lot of people, but it worked out smoothly. At one point, it was packed, but people left early because there was another party for someone else in Josh’s program. We made a makeshift "VIP" area in my bedroom, but it was just me and some friends hanging out because it was too crowded in the living room. Anastasia brought cupcakes from her work and they were fabulous. I missed them so much. Now that I don’t live with her anymore, I never get to eat any cupcakes (which is probably a good thing for my body), but they’re oh so good! I had a lot of fun and many thanks to those that came!

Josh and I went to see a screening of Chicken Little with his friend Matt. It was a cute movie overall, but the tonal change in the middle of the movie made it hard to transition for a while. It is a great kids movie, I suppose. I was kinda mad because most of the songs in the movie were not original, which struck me as odd for a Disney movie. They had a lot of modern older songs in it (such as "I Will Survive" and "If You Wanna Be My Lover") and I am not sure how I really feel about that. We picked up Kurt afterwards for dinner at The Palms, but they were super crowded so we decided to go elsewhere. There was a new vegan restaurant down the street and we went there and it was really yummy. Tastes just like chicken!

Alrighty, time for bed. I will be doing homework all day tomorrow. It is way exciting and I can't wait to wake up for it! Haha!

S&TC quote of the day:
Aleksandr: I love your house. It's so you.
Carrie: Small and artless?
Aleksandr: No, warm and lovely. (Season 6 – Out of the Frying Pan)

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Sam is: :zz: tired and sleepy!
Current Music: "Love Will Come Through" by Travis

Link: http://www.greenplastic.com

I'm so busy, argh! I will post soon, I promise.

Link: http://www.queenonline.com/

Things are going to change. One of my coworkers put in their 2 week notice, so that means we will have to find someone else very soon. But until then, I will have to take on their workload. It's not a bad thing. I would rather wait for a long time for them to interview every candidate in order for us to hire someone that is qualified and good for the job. But I am not looking forward to the work. I think it's more of a challenge for me and I am hoping that I have been trained well enough to take it all on. I know that there will be people helping me, but it's scary and exciting all at once. Maybe I can prove myself early on in this job by hopefully doing well during this transistion. I surely hope so. In any case, I don't mind too much because at least I will be in control of all of the accounts and know what is going on in them.

In other news, Angela and I pretty much found out that Sunday nights are good for us to hang out. Though she is studying, we seem to get some quality time in there somehow, with some Tito's as well. Josh and I are trying to meet for lunch more often. This is so good because I doubt I will see him that much this quarter with classes and work and stuff. He's so sweet.

The drive back to LA wasn't too bad. I drove from Fresno to the Grapevine and it was cool, some traffic, but not too shabby. We got back around 4pm yesterday and I am still exhausted and I still haven't unpacked. I must get my life back in order!! I think this is the last of my long distance traveling for a while. I get to enjoy my weekends in LA or the LA area (I may be going to Ventura this weekend) but nothing too big. I have to save up my energy for New Year's in San Francisco. I am still very excited about it! Anyhow, I'm taking M to a fancy steak dinner tonight to thank her for being so generous this weekend and in general. Her family was super nice and hospitable and she wouldn't let me pay for anything. Very sweet. But I am anxious to try this new restaurant, The Lincoln. I have been hearing great things about it. Yum!!

And M, keep your head up babe. I know that it will be better soon enough.

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Sam is: :o hungry and excited to try something new
Current Music: "Feelin' Good" by Nina Simone

Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109831/

In the past six months, I have been to four weddings and a funeral. It's crazy to think that pretty soon, everyone will be getting married left and right and these 4 weddings wouldn't be a big deal because I'll be going to tons more in the future. M and I just got back from Loretta's wedding. We all grew up together and went to junior high and high school together. Loretta and I have known each other since Capistrano Elementary School! Wow. She has been one of the nicest people that I have ever known. I had met her husband, Vince, a few months ago at Sokhary and Alan's wedding and they seemed so perfect together. It was as if they were meant to be together. There was so much happiness today. I could feel it. I can actually FEEL how much they loved each other. It was amazing. The wedding was great overall and it was such a perfect day for it. It was sunny during the ceremony, with a nice breeze. It wasn't too hot or cold. I miss these fantastic Modesto days, right before the leaves change color and it starts getting cooler.

We sat next to Sokhary and Alan at dinner and we finally caught up on each others lives. I saw them at their wedding, but hardly talked to them because they were so busy, like all couples at their wedding. So it was nice to find out what she is up to and how the newlywed lifestyle suits them. They are both very happy and I can tell by the way they look at each other and talk to each other. It's amazing what you can get out of body language alone. They are so comfortable around each other, which is to be expected because they have ben together for 12 years, since 8th grade. Sokhary's little cousins that lived across the street from me growing up are all grown up now and it's so weird to see them so big and mature and responsible. One of them requested me on MySpace and I didn't even recognize them at first, but when I started reading her profile, it clicked. They grow up so fast! We also caught up on how our mutual friends are doing and it's nice to hear about them all because I don't really get a chance to talk to some of them often.

The car ride to Modesto felt so short because M and I were just yapping away about everything under the sun. I learned so much more about her and her family and her friendships with people. It's nice to know that we can always talk about something and never run out of things to say to each other. And it feels like I can relate to her even moreso and become even closer, which I didn't think was possible because we were already so close. Her mother is also very lovely and takes good care of me when I am there. She really is so sweet and I owe her so much for letting me into their home everytime I am in town since I no longer have a home here. It kinda makes me sad that I don't have any place to come home to. I hear that my old neighborhood has gotten bad and filled with a lot of gangs and such. It's so sad for me to think about it because I am so attached to it still. I know that there are new people living in my house and it makes me disheartened. But I have a new home in Modesto now. They are my surrogate family and they are the best! They treat me like another daughter and it's very comforting. I am heading back to LA tomorrow morning and I have a feeling the ride will be fine because I got some trashy magazines (US Weekly and In Touch), my journal, and M to keep me company. Woohoo!! I used to always dread the drive to and from Modesto, but it's not that bad anymore. I guess you just need the right company and reading materials and music.

I find that everytime I go away for the weekend, the weather in LA is amazing and sure enough, I hear it's great. But for once, the weather is great here too and I am enjoying the weekend very much. They even let me do my laundry here, which saves me so much time and stress. I know that it sounds impractical for me to lug my laundry over 300 miles and back, but M has an SUV, so we had room in the car and time to do it, so hey, why not? I know this good weather in LA will last for a short time, so I think I will go to the Getty sometime soon. Anyone wanna come with me? It's so beautiful there and a great place to study. Hit me up within the next few days!

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Sam is: feeling great
Current Music: "Big Empty" by Stone Temple Pilots