Sam's Blog

Link: http://www.wyclef.com/

People surprise me sometimes. In this particular case, Josh surprises me because while I was at work today, he did my laundry for me. I thought it was really sweet, especially since he saw me struggle all weekend to try to find time to do it but wasn't able to for many reasons. Either someone else was using it or we were running off somewhere. It was indeed a very busy weekend.

I saw a show on Saturday that I will never ever forget. It was one of those things that happened by chance and to be able to experience it was good enough for me to be content for the rest of my life. I'm not exaggerating either. Josh was able to acquire last minute tickets to see The Kids in the Hall. Most people don't even know what I am talking about. Those that do, know how big of a deal it is. The Kids in the Hall was a sketch comedy show that was produced by Lorne Michaels years and years ago. They were hilarious and so much better than SNL. Their skits were random and witty and marvelous. The best part was that they were comprised of 5 men so most of the time, they would have to dress up as women for some sketches and those were the best. I think my personal favorite is Chickenlady or Girl Drink Drunk. Anyhow, they haven't done anything together for about 4 years but randomly, they decided to put on a few shows in Los Angeles last weekend. Only 3 shows to be exact and that was it. There are rumors going around that they might go on tour sometime soon, but nothing is confirmed. I was elated. It was in a tiny theater, at most 120 people. It was all new material. Every single skit was written on the previous Monday and I saw the show on Saturday night. They are brilliant.

I was also able to watch the movie Tsotsi. It is an Oscar nominee for Best Foreign Language Film this year (South Africa). I went with Donna (1 of my 2 South African friends), Regis, and Josh. Before going into the movie, I have to mention that we saw the movie in the newly built Century City AMC Theaters. It was amazing. Not only do they have stadium seats, but there is so much more space and the design of the overall theater is beautiful. I was quite impressed. I am glad that it was remodeled because the old theaters were awful and always sold out. That, along with the new food court will ensure repeated visits from me. I am glad that it is so close to my apartment too. Yay!! Anyhow, we watched Tsotsi and it was a really moving film. The story was uplifting without being so preachy. Though formulaic and predictable, I thought that it was such a great and honest effort from South Africa. I recommend that you watch it when you can. I don't think it will be out in theaters for very long.

Work's been pretty busy and my workout routine is now more rigorous. I totally passed out after dinner last night because I was so exhausted. (Another reason why I didn't do my laundry. That and the fact that it was pouring rain all through the night.) Today, I had a very long dinner with M. It was nice to hang with just me and her by ourselves. She got a new tablet PC and I had so much fun playing with it. I want one now! Anyhow, I must sleep. I'm way tired.

Link: http://www.weezer.com/

I usually scribble things down throughout the day. Then, I collect all of the tiny post-its and pieces of paper at the end of the day and make sense of it and write a journal entry or a blog entry that I never publish (well, I publish some). I guess it's the writer in me. But lately I haven't been doing that. And it has gotten to the point where I am used to stopping this habit. Now that I think about it, it's kinda sad. I will try to make a better effort tomorrow and the days to come. I feel like I'm in a weird funk. Not depressed or anything like that. It feels like I am just going through the motions lately. Just working, eating, sleeping, drinking, and whatever else I do. It's not that I am not having fun. It's quite the opposite. These past few weeks have been quite action-packed and very amusing. But there's something lacking and I can't quite pinpoint what it is. Maybe I miss writing down my random notes and musings. Maybe I'm just tired and feel like a zombie. In any case, I have to keep reminding myself what day it is and rely on my appointment book more often than I usually do. I usually have the entire week planned out in my head. What's wrong with me? I guess it's just life. Maybe. Or I'm distracted by something that I cannot identify. In any case, it doesn't help that I haven't been getting good sleep these past few days. I bought a new comforter because it has been really cold here at night. It's great and warm and everything but I find that I can't sleep very well with it. I think I need to break into it or something like that. Josh has no problem with it, which is so strange to me because he is the one with all of the sleeping problems. I do hope that I adjust soon because these past few days have been brutal. I'll stop complaining now.

Last week was awesome. To sum it up, it was Valentine's Day, Bob's party, Andrea visiting, Matt's party, Josh's dinner, Camarillo outlets, Dave Chappelle's Block Party, and so much more.

Josh and I stayed low-key for V-Day. He made me dinner - all pink. Salmon, wine, salad, bruschetta, and cherry cheesecake ice cream. He's cute like that. Not too shabby. It was really sweet. After dinner, we went to Bob's party. It was an Anti-Valentine's Day party though it didn't really matter. It was more of an Animation party than anything. I had a good time and saw a lot of people that I haven't seen in a really long time because they have full time jobs now. It was really swell.

Andrea visited for one day only and we had a smashing time at Tom Bergin's (#3 Irish Pub in the US). It was a cute little spot. Tiny but cute. Nate and I chose awfully cheesy and wonderful music from the 80s on the jukebox and rocked out to ABBA. Fun! It was good to see Andrea again even though it was only for one night. As Nick Lachey would say..."Give me just one night, una noche" hehehe. I can't believe I know one of their songs.

Friday night was very low-key, Lisa came over and brought pizza and we watched Team America and the most recent episode of Frontline with Meth as its topic. Both were very fascinating to watch and I greatly enjoyed the lazy Friday night, especially since it was raining. The pizza was delicious!

Saturday was Matt's party. His parties are always fun. There wasn't too many people there because of the rain, but with absinthe and brownies, everyone had a good time. I took a lot of interesting photos there. There were a lot of people that I didn;t know. Matt travels in a separate circle than most of us. He knows a lot of Emerson people (he's an alum) that have also moved to LA and they run the full spectrum when it comes to personality and their sense of fashion. We stopped by Del Taco on the way back and I got the new Macho Taco. It was yummy. Not as big as Taco Town's taco, but I highly recommend it after a long night of drinking. Overall, it was a lovely night.

The next day was Josh's official birthday. He didn't want to make a big deal out of it at all. He decided at the last minute to go to dinner at Buca di Beppo and not many people were able to attend. It was okay though because that meant more food for us! As always, the food and service was superb. Afterwards, we went back to our place and opened some wine and watched the second season of The Dave Chappelle Show. I had seen bits and pieces of the show in the past, but it was hilarious to watch it all the way through. I took some random pictures from that night here. I've been on a camera kick lately. I always have it with me at every event. Yeah maybe annoying but I'm the nerdy yearbook girl at heart.

On our day off, Lisa and I decided to go to the Camarillo Outlets. It was very dangerous. We spent so much money there (more than our budgets should have allowed). It was insane. But I did get a lot of stuff and I even bought things for other people so I guess it wasn't too bad.

Tuesday was work and then we went to see a sneak preview of Dave Chappelle's Block Party. It was a lot better than I expected. Actually, it was quite good. The Fugees have a mini reunion and there are other great musicians performing including Mos Def and Talib Kweli. You should go see it when it opens in theaters on March 3rd, though I am not sure how widely distributed the film will be. I hear it's going to start in 800 theaters, so not too shabby.

And finally, I blame Nate for getting me hooked on Grey's Anatomy. He let me borrow the first season and I've been watching it all week. The first season is short and I hope to catch up to the second season very soon. I've always liked the show, but I watched a few episodes in the middle of the first season and didn't know what was going on. I hate that. I'd rather start from the beginning and its also nice because there are no commercials. So this is my life right now. Angela came over and she brought Tito's and we watched a few episodes. I think this will start up our Tito's tradition again. Yay!!

Link: http://www.massiveattack.co.uk/

I admit that I am a MySpace user. I mean, I am pretty easy to find on there, it's not like I'm hiding. But this thing has exploded and there are millions and millions of people on this now. They can't keep up and the servers are getting clogged up. It's more user friendly than Friendster ever was and it's customizable. I usually go on there when there is some kind of activity with my profile, either a new friend request or a new comment or something like that. But there's so many people on it now that I get some sort of request daily. I'm not that popular, believe me. Most is just random bands in the area trying to push their music on to me. But it is such a fascinating site. I just spent the last hour browsing around and looking at people's sites. Not just random people, but they are people that I know. It ranges from high school or college or even FAMILY. Whoa. All of my little cousins that I haven't seen since they were "little" are now in their teens and all grown up. It's quite scary to get sex surveys on my bulletin board from my 17 year old cousin. It's actually quite traumatic. But it is a great way to keep in touch with old friends that you are not that close to and friends that live far away. I guess emailing them would be as effective (assuming you have their email address, which proves difficult with old friends) but MySpace is more noncommital, in a way. It's the same thing that text messaging has done to replace actual phone calls. Don't want to email someone? Might as well leave them a comment, or if they're lucky (and you're web savvy) leave them a picture or cute phrase. Sometimes that's all you need to do.

So I have a profile on there that explains myself. I have been lazy with updating the info but I'm sure that will change soon when I am bored at work. But I still find the reach of this internet phenomenon to be amazing. I find one friend and then another friend is linked to them and so on and so forth. I feel like I am spying on them, though I add most of them to my profile. But there's always those people in high school and college that you didn't know so well and you wonder what they have been up to. Whether or not they are happy or unemployed or something. So I sat here for a good hour browsing profile upon profile. I found that the kids from my high school are doing great and fabulous things with their lives. Some are in Modesto and some never wish to return. It's kinda nice to know that most people are well adjusted human beings now and all that crazy high school drama is over. Life begins and you move on from Johansen High and UCLA...

Link: http://www.billyjoel.com/intro2005/index.html

So I am back to a semi-normal schedule. It was an extremely busy week and I kept trying to post but was never able to finish it. I volunteered at the Alumni Association again. It's cool to be an Ambassador for that organization. I feel good when I go and see that it's beneficial to all of the members. It's a nice feeling and the workshop that we sponsored was very successful.

I was also able to meet up with old friends for drinks during happy hour and it was an excellent time. We had a mini Orientation reunion that consisted of Lindsay, Jono, Michelle, Isy, Gabe and Jesse. We had a really good time and caught up on each others lives. It's been so long since we've all seen each other together. We need to do it more often, yes indeedy.

On Friday night, we all gathered to pay our respects to the last 4 episodes of Arrested Development. Though they may be picked up for another season, it's entirely possible that it may not happen. They did a very good job with the ending though. They made it as though it was their series finale and it was funny and sad all at the same time. We (Josh, Nate, and Marty) went over to Lisa's place and grabbed some Tito's and sat there and enjoyed the 2 hour spectacle that was before me. I didn't care that it was the opening ceremonies of the Olympics. I think Fox put them up against the Olympics on purpose so no one will watch it. But I, along with many others, were watching it and it was fabulous. Now that it is all over, I am really sad. The DVDs will be out eventually but nothing can replace the show. I wish that it can go on and on like The Simpsons or Married with Children and other crappy Fox shows that they let go on what felt like forever and ever. The Simpsons still has its moments, but it's not what it used to be. Sigh. Another good show is gone.

Saturday night was an interesting experience. Josh and I went to Cha Cha Cha for Priti's birthday dinner. It was yummy Carribean food and they had good sangria. We then went over to Tripp's place to hang out with Kurt and others (Rachael and Keren) and we hopped over to The Golden Gopher to meet up with Charley for her 21st birthday extravaganza. But I found it to be crowded and really unnecessarily loud and small. It was nice to see Kurt again and he seems to be doing pretty well. The bar was what Tripp called, "The whitest bar that he has ever been to," which says a lot because he is from Virginia. It's not too shabby for downtown LA, but it doesn't help that there were prostitutes hanging around Josh's car when we got out of the bar. I guess we were in their territory.

This morning was wonderful. It was 80 degrees out and clear skies. I felt somewhat guilty going out with a skirt and flip flops while the east coast is being covered by 25 inches of snow. I find it so hard to comprehend. But my logic is that they chose to live there knowing that there will be snow, so they should be prepared. I hope they are, it sounds like it's a pretty bad storm. But as I sit on the patio of Highland Grounds, I am reminded of what a great city LA can be. We all gathered up, the usual suspects for our monthly brunches, plus a few new faces. I like that there are more and more people that come to brunch. It's always nice to get to know more people. We had a friendly garden gnome on our table that took a liking to Nate. The food was yummy and I think everyone had a good time. I think that we are going to make that a permanent residency for our monthly brunches. I uploaded the pictures of this weekend here, so check them out when you get a chance. After brunch, Alexis and I hung out in her apartment complex and soaked up the sun near her pool. It felt awesome to relax and chat and do arts and crafts. It was really relaxing and was the perfect thing to do on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

I had dinner with Lisa tonight. Just me and her. I haven't hung out with her in a while (the Arrested Development party doesn't count). I think she is in a good place for the most part. I am proud of her for finally accomplishing one of her goals that she's had for a while. It's good to know that everything is going to work out in the end. Go Lisa! She keeps me grounded and it's nice to have her around.

A very special Happy Birthday to Amy P. (Her birthday was yesterday.) I'm sorry you had to get the flu on your birthday. I hope you live it up when you feel better! Get well soon!!

Link: http://www.coldplay.com/index.php

So I guess I kinda jinxed myself with a recent post and got really sick last weekend. Before I forget, I do have to mention that last week, Josh and I went to the Fairmona concert in Los Feliz and it was excellent. The guitarist/vocalist is one of Josh's friend's brother and they hired Josh to do their website for them. It is a fairly plain website, but the band wanted it to be simple and straightforward. This allowed Josh to become more familiar with php and a lot of nerdy computer programs and therefore gives him more experience come time to find a job (which should be right about now, along with finishing his thesis). Anyhow, they were a very cool band and they just released their first EP, which you can listen to on their website.

Anyhow, I got food poisoning on Saturday night. I had steak pho from Noodle Planet and if you know me and Josh at all, you know that we eat there a lot. I am not sure if it was bad beef or the fact that I hadn't had beef in a while (I figured that it was a few slices of beef and it wasn't going to kill me, but I was wrong). We were supposed to watch a movie after dinner, but a few people backed out and we just decided to stay in for the night instead. I started getting stomach pains around 11pm and they progressively got worse as time went on. I threw up for the first time around midnight and it was awful. I would try to lay down and get some rest but after about 45 minutes, I'd throw up again. This continued up until about 6am. Poor Josh was cleaning up after me and couldn't get any sleep either. I didn't realize how much fluid can be in your stomach at one time, but it was amazing to me because everything came out. All different colors and flavors. I think that I threw up some bile during my last round. That was a fantastic aftertaste in my mouth. I finally slept for a bit and felt horrible the next morning. Josh was a dear and went to the store many times for me and my diet consisted of soup, bread, water, and Gatorade for the next few days. I took Monday off work because I still wasn't feeling that great. That was my first official sick day since I started there in June. I don't like taking sick days ever, but I really wasn't feeling too great, so I rested up. I didn't start feeling up to par until about Thursday and I started eating solid foods. I feel great now and I think that everything is back to normal, minus my workout schedule and 8 hours of sleep. I had a really hard time sleeping all week due to my condition and also because I just bought a new body pillow and am not used to sleeping with it quite yet. Josh loves his pillow and sleeps great with it, but I think that I will have to break mine in. Our bed feels a lot smaller with two body pillows on it, but its so much better for your back and Josh gets better sleep and hopefully I will as well.

So my week has been uneventful for the most part. I was able to watch all of seasons 4 and 5 of Sex and the City and a few movies and catch up on my favorite TV shows (like all 3 of them). Speaking of shows, I am really mad at Fox because they are airing the last 4 episodes of Arrested Development on Friday, February 10th and is putting it up against the Olympics. I mean, I think that they WANT them to do bad in the ratings and that way they can justify canceling the show afterwards. So sad. I do hope that the show gets picked up by a different channel, though I am not sure if that will allow them to use John Beard in any of their new reports. I like him. So I think that an Arrested Development party is in the works and I am a bit bittersweet knowing that it may be the last episodes that I will ever see again. I want to go as either Anyong, Lucille 2 or Maeby. I guess there's always Marta and Kitty too. Either way, it should be a fun night.

This week has drained me though. Physically and mentally. I feel so unproductive since I haven't really been doing anything at all. I barely started to hang out with friends last night. I realize that I am a lot more active than I thought. Even if it is just going out for coffee or dinner or drinks with people. I postponed dinner with M until Friday. We went to Barney's Beanery, which coincidentally was the chosen restaurant for Gabe's going away lunch (he got promoted and is moving to a different network, though he still remains in the building) that same day. I didn't mind going there for dinner because they have thousands of things on the menu. After dinner, I grabbed drinks with Alexis and her friend Erika. And by drinks, I am meaning coffee. We were going to get drinks but none of us felt like drinking. We are old and tired but it was a lot of fun to hang with them.

After I got back, I got a phone call from Josh around 3am to pick him up from the animation lab. He was totally drunk adn he was funny. Every year, the animation alumni and current students get together during Superbowl weekend and choose a theme and stay up all weekend animating something related to that theme. This year's theme is ninjas vs. pirates. I think it will make for good short films. Anyhow, Josh got drunk and injured himself a bit playing foursquare. I don't know how that happened, but apparently he kept on falling down a lot and bruised his tailbone pretty badly. He was beligerent and he cracked me up. I have only seen him like that one other time and that was New Years Eve two years ago at Nate's place. I am glad that he doesn't get that drunk too often because he's pretty high maintenance. I figure that he has done so much for me all week so I should step up and take care of him. That was a bit difficult because he refused to go to sleep and drink any water. I finally convinced him to drink some water by force feeding it to him. He was totally fine this morning besides his butt hurting.

This afternoon for lunch, Nate and Josh and I went to check out the newly designed Century City mall food court. Now I know that sounds lame but this food court is high class. They still had a few of the same businesses as their old food court, but they added so much stuff like Korean BBQ, sushi, a Fuddrucker's (which is so good and the closest one was in Burbank or the Valley, so I am really excited), an Italian restaurant and more. It's located upstairs in the back of the mall, where I never even knew anything existed. They have real utensils and an outdoor patio. The design is really modern-looking with metal and glass everywhere. I like it, but it seems way too fancy for a mall food court. I do want to watch a movie in the new theater there though. I am sure I will watch one there soon.

I went to a Coldplay concert tonight with Lisa, Angie, and Aussie. It was a great concert and the lovely and talented, always angsty Fiona Apple opened for them. We had decent seats and Coldplay put on a wonderful show. He has one of the most amazing voices and I was blown away by their stage presence. Very good night indeed.

Tomorrow is the Superbowl and bowling for Dre's birthday. I think I'm back to normal again and it feels fantastic.