R.I.P. Gerry

This has been a tough week, first James Brown, now Gerald Ford. My coworker Michele and I had a conversation today about who would be the third. My bet is Fidel Castro. That might just be wishful (as awful as that is) thinking on my part because I really would love to go to Cuba.

I'm All Out of Christmas Miracles

Okay, I'm going to try to get a couple hours sleep before I've got to shower and get pretty for work. I feel Red Bull in my future. Man, not sleeping sucks. Wish me luck!

The Best Present Ever?

The running joke last week was based on the "Dick in a Box" ("DIAB") video Justin Timberlake and Adam Samberg did on Saturday Night Live a couple weeks ago. If you haven't seen it, click above and watch it before you read any further. I'll wait.

Okay, so all my friends have decided to tell me they hate my new job because I'm always working and have been pretty much on radio silence for the last month, other than very set, scheduled plans. It's very unlike me, but my point of view is this: It's getting me ready for when I have to become a hermit when school starts January 24th. Moving on. Tuesday I get some ims from Agie telling me they are drinking (and have been since 1 pm) and that I need to come out and join them. From about 5:30 to 8:30 I got ims from Tim, Bob, Herb and Agie telling me to come over and keeping me entertained by asking questions like "Guess what Tim got me for Christmas? It came in a box." to which my reply was "You should give him your box in a box." My mom would be so proud. Anyways, the joke kept coming up so that when I got to their house there was talk of actually doing Step 1: You cut a hole in the box. It didn't end up happening that night but there was a lot of drinking by everyone but me (my year of good decisions apparently started early, although given last Friday night, it may not have stuck - thank goodness for dry runs...no pun intended). Bob and I went to bed around 11:30 because we needed to get up at 7 for him to drive me to the metro. It would have been a great plan except for the shots. It was really warm in the guest room. He was really drunk and naked. Which was a problem really only when he decided to walk around the house while everyone was still up giving me no option but to text Agie saying "We are not having sex. We are not even making out. Please let that be known even though he is walking around naked." He put the moves on me (not unexpected given our brief, but semi-sordid history), I said "not when you're this drunk and not in Agie and Tim's house" and he proceeded to throw up the rest of the night. Now, I'm not saying he was sick with rejection, I'm just pointing out more good decision making on my part (again, reference the Social D/Bouncing Souls posts about how I need to avoid crushing on this guy) and a miserable night of sleep for both of us. He got me to the metro barely in time and apologized for his behavior. No biggee from my point of view, plus I had to get to work.

Flash forward to Debby and me in HiTimes Sunday. At one point I asked her "What do you want to get? Other than a piece of Todd of course." Which started us giggling. She then revealed she had DIAB stuck in her head which caused us to giggle even more (again, we're 12, we admit it). So Todd comes back with some recommendations for wine and asks if that was us giggling he heard way back in the storeroom. It was and I then felt obligated to tell him what was so damn funny. He had not seen the video so I made him promise he would YouTube it when he got a chance. I"m confident he'll be thankful. Our next errand involved getting her mother a gift certificate and since I was in desperate need of one, getting me a manicure. I noticed I had a missed call from Agie so I called her back and found out from Bob, who answered the phone, that Tim had called my number and handed the phone to Bob telling him he had a call. After Bob apologized to me again for the other night, and I again told him he really had nothing to apologize for, and then he apologized again, I got Agie on the phone and told her how we had the song stuck in our head. She thought it was due to the pictures she had sent which showed steps one (cut a hole in the box) and two (put your junk in the box) which had been done at the Christmas Eve dinner they were having. I gotta tell you, the pics are priceless but I shall hold onto them for potential blackmail purposes in case I need another early ride to the metro.

The rest of the night I was getting texts from Agie's phone saying things like "Are you ready for step 3?" (That's where you make her open the box....) It got to the point I had to tell Bob to start using his phone just so I could kinda keep track of who was texting me. It was highly entertaining especially since I didn't get the pictures until I woke up Christmas morning. There is much, much more to the story, but I shall protect the box givers at this point. If New Year's finds us all together I can only imagine the trouble we're going to get in.

Christmastime in the OC

So since I seem to have been hit with the insomnia stick, I shall post about this weekend. I ended up flying home, well to LA, on Friday, getting in around noon. I gotta tell ya, the extra $1 I paid to fly first class out there was very much worth it. Plan B's legs need room people. Debby picked me up at LAX and off we went to enjoy our weekend. We did a little errand running and shopping and grabbed a bite to eat. We ended up not having dinner with Jimbo and Nicky as originally sorta planned so we headed out to have a yummy dinner at World Cafe in Santa Monica. We both felt the need to be more social (first mistake) and so went to a bar nearer her home...I would love to tell you the name of it but am unable to...we ended up talking to a group of Entourage-ish guys (think not known and without a caustic, but lovable Ari character) whose house we ended up going to (second mistake). I was way too tired and drunk to be socializing, especially with strangers. Thank God for Debby. She got us home where I passed out from exhaustion (remember, I'd been up since 1 am West Siiide time) and booze.

The next morning (Saturday), my cousin Brett came to Santa Monica to take me to breakfast at my favorite breakfast spot in all of OC, Mutt Lynch's. During the drive I got to talk with him about how he was doing since being back from Iraq. I'm happy to say he's changed but in a he's older and more mature way rather than a he's gone to war and been scarred kind of way. I'm unhappy to report that the following quote is taken verbatim from our conversation "I have no problem fighting for oil". Sigh. Regardless, it was incredibly good to see him and hang out with him. I love my family very much and my cousins are like the little brothers I never wanted, but have always been glad to have. So, Blaise and Alan (a dear friend from high school who I just reconnected with after some 10 odd years of being out of touch) met us for breakfast and then Michelle appeared with her daughter who is almost a year old and is already starting to talk a bit. Man, she's cute. Still don't want one ever. The surf was gnarly...biggest, strongest waves I've seen in Newport without a storm. After breakfast, Blaise and I headed down to the parlor to get our ink done (see post below for final product). After that, we headed out to the 909 (dread!) to my aunt and uncle's house in Chino Hills. It was so great to hang with them again. I haven't seen most of their family for about 3 years. I'm pretty sure the last time was after my grandmother died so it was great to spend time with them on a joyous occasion. We had great food, good laughs and played games until about 8:30 when I pulled the plug because Blaise still had to drive me back to Santa Monica (see? I can be a good friend too). During the visit, my cousins and aunt managed to talk me into going to Kyle's wedding in May in Hawaii. I feel as though I'll be playing favorites with my cousins since I didn't go to my other aunt's kids' weddings (there have been two in not fun states and bad times) but I've been assured no one's feelings will be hurt so I'm off to Hawaii next Spring. Woo hoo.

Sunday (Christmas Eve) was spent having brunch with the girls at Duke's, right on the beach in Huntington. So beautiful. I tell you, if I were at all the settle-down, get married, have kids type I would move back to Huntington in a second. But I'm not so DC is it for now. Don't get me wrong, I do want to settle down and get married, just not the kids part. Anyhoo. It was really great to see Terri and Laura again and Debby's sister Ann is always entertaining. Near the end of the meal, we noticed Tyson, the skateboarding bulldog (click on title above for link). He is the cutest thing ever. Seriously. The dog loves to skate and is so sweet. I went and took a couple pics for Agie (the owner of two bullies who are too too lazy to even try skating), talked to Tyson and his owner and got to feed him some water. After brunch, Debby and I ran a couple more errands which is where our giggling started. For any of you who have had the pleasure (?) to be around us, you know how we giggle. I'm not a big giggler. Seriously. I love to laugh, but giggling is something really only Debby can bring out in me and boy did she at HiTimes. We were tasked with getting her brother a bottle of wine for his stocking as well as some wine for Christmas Eve dinner and a special request from Tim for a beer Agie likes. We ended up being adopted (for lack of a better word) by this guy Todd who is, as it turns out, the future Mr. Plan B. He was tall, good looking, funny, able to banter with me, had one full and one 1/2 sleeve and was intelligent. Plus he picked out a kick ass white wine that I loved just by me telling him I like dry, crisp citrusy whites. Sigh. If only he lived here. I'm sure we'd skate off into the sunset together. Shut up. Let me believe in my own, personal Christmas miracle at least until the New Year. So, during our foray into the wine cellars Debby and I get a certain song stuck in our heads (I will say more on this in a separate post since this one is turning into a novella) and we ended up giggling like 12 year olds the rest of the time we were there. People were quite amused by us. Dinner with Debby's family was great fun. It's always so nice to spend time with her family. They are so welcoming and loving it was as comfortable as hanging with my own family, almost more so probably.

The next morning I woke up, got a stocking from the family, had breakfast with Debby, her parents and her brother and then headed off to the airport, to which I arrived 1 and 40 early for my flight. This was one time I really didn't mind since we were driving from OC to LA and had no idea what the traffic was going to be like. It gave me time to relax and call my parents to wish them a Merry Christmas. After my delightful first class trip to CA, I decided to burn some miles that I have sitting around and upgrade for my trip back. I got on the plane and looked at the front row to see someone in my seat. As I was looking up, I said "I'm sorry, I think you may be in my seat". I really wish I would wait to say things sometimes. I looked up and Jimmy Kimmel was starting to stand while apologizing and looking down at his girlfriend Sarah Silverman. I just said "Oh. I'm sure you two would like to sit together" (I'm a total dork). He was very nice, asked if I was sure it was okay. I said "Well, where is your seat?" trying to be jovial. It worked and his seat was the next row down and a window so I was stoked. Oddly enough, one of the last people to get on our flight was Tanya from the Real World (Chicago maybe?). During the flight the 5'2" girl in front of me decided she needed to recline for the really long, cramped hour flight. As her seat hit my crossed leg I mentally cursed Jimmy Kimmel and then as we were walking out, I did it verbally. I found myself next to him and behind Sarah coming out of the plane and said "I want you to know I had the only person in our section who reclined in front of me and it's all your fault" and I shook my fist at him and said "Damn you Jimmy Kimmel" as he and Sarah (who is really very stunning and pretty in person) chuckled. He pointed out that she had reclined as well but that wasn't good enough. I should have extorted seats for his show or something. Too little good thinking too late! The rest of the trip was fairly uneventful and I got home about 11:45 Monday night. Worked a full day today and thankfully the week is promising to be very quiet which I need after working 12-14 hour days who knows how many weeks straight now.

Okay, I'm closing up this post and writing up the song one.

Objects Are Smaller Than They Appear

In addition to having Jimmy Kimmel steal my seat on the flight home (never fear, I still got to sit in first class while managing to make him and Sarah Silverman laugh), seeing Tyson the skateboarding bulldog in person at Huntington pier, and spending time with family and friends, I finally added on to my back tat (and now, I can honestly say I'm done).

Don't mind the crackly skin - it's about to peel - but thought you might want to see my new art.  The artist was really great (didn't hurt that he was cute) and has studied Asian lettering in a number of different countries. A lot bigger than I intended, but smaller looked not as good. Plus, now I can totally pass as a member of the Japanese mafia.  The left is grandfather, middle love (he prettied up my existing one) and the right is grandmother.

Hope you all had as merry a Christmas as I did and that I get to see you all soon!

Second Artist of the Day

He's a cute boy with a kind heart and a guitar. No wonder Plan B enjoys him. Mat Kearney - check him out.

So Much to Tell, So Little Time

Fighting with Verizon - should have internet at home within the next 2 days (way to give me a small window there). I've been slammed at work so there's been no time to update. For now I will leave you with the artist of the day - Joshua Radin.