Sunday, December 31, 2000

I have New Year's plans! I'm going to some party with Jon..it's pretty low key..but it's something to do. whew.


When I got back to Seattle yesterday, there was a huge crowd of people wearing purple wishing the Huskies goodbye as they go off to the Rose Bowl. A strange site to greet one upon arriving in this city. Matthew picked me up from the airport and we went out to dinner to this restaurant that we ate at on our second date...yum yum. And we just hung out the rest of the evening. I'm so curious what he got me for Christmas. He keeps talking about it..and has had it for weeks..but won't give it to me until he wraps it. weird.


Today, I've just been doing house cleaning/organizing stuff. I set up the neat-o water fountain that Betina gave me in the living room..the peaceful sounds of water....


I'm half way through the third Harry Potter book. Damn, these books are addicting.


well, that's all. Have a happy new year everyone!

Saturday, December 30, 2000

i'm now in denver, at my father's former phD students' home, typing away at their very neato looking sony vaio. we left this morning from breckenridge...having one very large breakfast before taking off....and then did the usual shopping at the outlet mall and driving off to denver, arriving just in time for dinner. my dad's student has so many cool gadgets around the house...reminds me of..well..me (that is, being gadget girl).

the rest of the time in breckenridge was great---i skied the rest of time, which was definitely worth it. the view from the top of the mountain was magnificent. i just love how i can ride the lift to the very top and still have blues and even greens to ski down on. it's unfortunate that most of my family didn't seem to really want to enjoy the outdoors as much as my brother and me. most of the time, my parents and grandparents sat inside the cabin, finishing off their 20-tape chinese soap opera marathon....so sad. it was just too cold for them and they could care less about frolicking in the snow or taking the gondola up the mountain for some breathtaking views. oh well...i tried. but i have a feeling that this will be the last family vacation to a ski resort. i can't wait to head to whistler in a few weeks...

well, i head back to seattle tomorrow...and there goes a nice week long vacation. i don't even know what i'm going to do for new year's yet...i barely know anyone who's even going to be in town...for all i know, i might just end up by myself in the apartment, watching dick clark on tv. is that bad? or sad? i've always had *plans* for new year's. this year is a first in which i don't. the only people i know of in seattle are jon and matthew...jon may join up with some buddies elsewhere...he doesn't know. and matthew. well, matthew..[sigh] i don't know. he acted a little strange when i suggested that we hang out on new year's. i don't know...everytime i ask him to do something, or hang out...he gets all hesitant and gives me the 'ol "um...yeah..sure...well, i'll see...i'll get back to you". You know, the type of response where it's more like "well, if i don't have any better plans, then sure, i'll hang out with you". i'm kinda getting tired of that attitude from him. he's just a weird boy....but i love him for that...go figure.

Tuesday, December 26, 2000

[sigh] i just got out of a nice, steaming hot tub in the middle of a blistering winter here in Breckenridge, CO...ooooo....my muscles are sooo sore. my family arrived here late Saturday night, where I met up with Ben and hung out with his relatives over in Vail. On Sunday, I attempted my 2nd day ever at snowboarding--over in Keystone with Ben...and boy, was it hard. I wiped out so hard and bruised myself everywhere. I hurt myself in places that I never hurt myself while skiing...including banging my head on the ground several times and getting the wind knocked out of my chest. My brother and I stumbled back down to our lil' cabin at Park Place so exhausted. I woke up so sore on Christmas day that I could not fathom the idea of touching the hard, packed snow on the slopes again....so we just sat around, watching TV, reading my Harry Potter, part II book..and eventually walking out onto the streets of Breckenridge. Such a cute little town...my family then ate our Xmas dinner at a restaurant called Whale's Tail.

Then Aaron and I woke up today to brave the slopes once again..this time at Breckenridge. argh. i am sooo slow at learning. every time i fell down, it hurt ten time as much as it did on Sunday because I fell down on the same bruises. I've given up hope of being a snowboarder. no, that's not really true. but DAMN, it's freakin' hard. It took me forever to go down this one green slope..while my brother was catching on and went up and down 6 times. All I know is that I'm not going to snowboard anymore out here--I'd rather reserve that for when I'm out at Snolquamie. I mean, I'm in Colorado!!! And I'm missing out on some of the great slopes and views because I'm trying to learn to snowboard...when I could just be cruisin' down blues skiing. So while I'm not going to give up on my snowboarding, I'm postponing it for a location where the view isn't that magnificent and awe-inspiring. While I'm here, I'm going back to the skis....

Well, I hope everyone's having a wonderful holiday season! It's really nice to be out here and not worry about work for one week (though I'm feeling strangely good and confident about it at this time).

Friday, December 15, 2000

'tis the season for holiday parties. jed had one at his place on saturday night--lotsa fun. he and 3 guys got together to sing some a cappella xmas music. Check out pictures from this event.
after the party, i went to a rave with betina and ben...which was kinda disturbing. The overall ambience was cool and the music was great. But I was so shocked to see all the young children, high on ecstasy, numbing their minds with twirling neon lights..so disheartening. see for yourself
spoke to matthew on sunday to see how he was doing down in fernley. he apparently won nearly $1000 at craps and then took that money, rented a car, drove to Tahoe, checked himself into a nice hotel and went skiing at Heavenly over the weekend. Unfortunately, he injured himself and tore some ligaments in his shoulder and had to wear a sling for the next two days. Amazon apparently offered to fly him home early---but he turned it down! And volunteered to work a few more days at the warehouse! Funny, considering he almost swore off ever working there ever again after last year's incident in which a microscopic piece of metal lodged itself into his eye.

over the weekend, i did some heavy duty xmas shopping. i was buying gifts for some children that "are in need" through this program at the seattle center. anyhow, the girl wanted an Asian doll---it's much harder to find an Asian doll than you'd think. My only choices were either Kira, friend of Barbie, or Lucy Liu from Charlie's Angels. I thought, Lucy Liu would be so much cooler than surfer girl Kira. But out of all 3 characters in Charlie's Angels, guess which doll is the *the* most popular and completely sold out doll across the nation? Yup, Lucy. So I ended up with Kira.

on monday, i got a sudden call from my smithie friend, liz, who invited me over to the holiday party she was throwing along with roommates. it was so refreshing to hang out and meet a totally new group of people. i feel bad that i haven't really hung out with liz at all since she's moved to seattle...and she just lives, like, up the street from me.

last night, i went to ben's company holiday party at EMP, which was actually a lot of fun. everyone was super dressed up....ben was in a suit! i haven't seen him dressed up like that since i first met him in hong kong 1.5 years ago. they had the Artist's Journey open so I rode that again. but overall, it was quite the bash. Check out all the pictures for this one.

I need to go Xmas shopping like crazy tonight. And then I plan on skiing like crazy this weekend. wahoo!

Friday, December 8, 2000

i haven't written anything since i was in kansas. a lot has happened since. it's weird--there's so much to write about...yet, i feel odd writing about it in this weblog. how private do i want to be about the events in my life?

anyhow, after getting back from kansas, life moved on and i was back in seattle. had a really really rough week with matthew right afterwards. it's definitely tough to try to continue a friendship with someone who you've shared your life with for the past year. when is it time to move on? how long does it take to heal? do i have the right to cry? you can kinda tell what was going on. but things are definitely much better now. this was the hardest it's ever been to try to get through to him. but i finally did and i think we're on the same page now. it's bizarre when his first step after a relationship is my first--hard to deal with.

i miss his friends. he has yet to invite me out to hang out with his friends since the breakup. now he's in fernley and i just got an invitation to see 'the drop' at sit&spin on saturday. i love hearing them and i miss seeing the gang. should i go? we'll see.

i hung out with brad after work today---we went back to his place and had a super super long long talk about his new secret crush and, in general, about our crazy love lives and our opinions of the energy between men & women. it's amazing how i can speak so incredibly comfortably and honestly with him about relationships and sex. i mean, we feel the same way about the topic...and can talk about it forever and ever. we confessed something to each other also tonight...which made me shy. but to find out he reciprocates makes me feel better. oh...it was lotsa lotsa fun hanging out with him. i know a secret...

i finally made it out to the elysian tonight to say goodbye to my friend cathy who decided to leave the company to move down to california to work at a small start-up. she and i had orientation together...[sigh]

Monday, November 27, 2000

my last night in kansas....

i met up with dan for lunch today, whom i adore. i really miss being able to have talks with him. he still has that penetrating stare that just makes me want to confess everything to him ;) anyhow, he's probably going to propose to his girlfriend before the year is over. dan-->engaged?! not that i can't imagine he's prepared for it...but wow. i just never thought he'd find love so young...but i'm definitely really happy for him. tonight, emily and i went over to erin [bresnahan]'s apartment where she lives with her husband now. she got married last summer.

so many of my friends from kansas are getting married or engaged--and they're all still like 23! are they abnormal or is it just me? i just cannot imagine making such a huge decision in my life right now. not that it's a big wall {marriage} but it's a major choice that one makes in his life...and i just couldn't do that now. i asked joanne the other night if she freaked out when her husband proposed to her in college...and she just said "i don't know..you just know!" But do i? what if I have met the one...but blocked the possibility in my mind? is my approach to life skewed? is it wrong that i don't want to think about marriage for years and years and years? i know it'll be much harder later...fewer eligible men...for a reason? i don't know why i'm freaking out now. i'm just dumbfounded.

Sunday, November 26, 2000

i just noticed how every time i come home to kansas, i stay out really late. no wonder my parents think i'm such a party animal.

i saw Unbreakable Friday night with my matt mcguire---I was a little disappointed. Not the hype that I expected it to be. I mean, there was a cool twist at the end and all, but I just didn't really get into the comic book analogy. I can honestly say I enjoyed The Sixth Day more than Unbreakable. Is that bad?

I shopped all day today...well, started off with the usual dim sum at Bo Ling's at the Plaza with the Wongs. Then met up with Sara...ran into some random high school people---Jason Schweitzer and Mike McGuire. Then Sara and I waited 2 hours to get a table at the Canyon Cafe to eat dinner....eventually, we finished and headed over to Jed's place for us to see for the first time. Emily was there with her "shady" friend Carlos (bad pun) as was Joanne [Bjorge] and her husband. We went into Westport tonight---this was my first time...pretty hopping. We were there late...though I was one of the first to leave cuz' I just wanted to crawl into bed. But it was a lot of fun to see the whole crew and hear about people.

Friday, November 24, 2000

happy turkey day.

oh how nice it was to wake up this morning and slowly crawl out of bed...to find a nice, warm lunch all prepared for me already. i spent most of the day preparing for the dinner..and making some phone calls to long lost friends in between. my thanksgiving is unlike the typical thanksgiving. it's like "let's invite all the chinese people we know in kansas (2 families) and eat chinese food...and throw in a bit of turkey." I was actually surprised this year--we had mashed potatoes. We never have mashed potatoes. Anyhow, I prepared the salad and pumpkin pie...which turned out really well (yay!). The Wongs came over and I had time to catch up with Rod. What an ambitious guy---I hope to have such confidence in myself in the future. He's in his second year at med school right now...and plans on getting his MBA in the midst of it...and when he gets that, he'll finish getting his MD. At which point, he can just do health consulting for a few years and probably retire before he's 35.

Rod and I went to see "The Sixth Day" tonight---it's actually a much better movie than I expected. There were a lot of revelations about what our future lives could be like---really cool. The twist on human cloning was done well and just overall scenery was great. In the end, it's kinda scary to think about where we could go with our technology. Go out and watch it. see what you think.

Thursday, November 23, 2000

well, i'm home now in kansas. [sigh] right after i got off the plane, my parents whisked me off to this really yummy French bistro in downtown Kansas City--called something like Le Fre Frogue. My parents just call it the French Frog restaurant. Anyhow--the food there was delicious and I had a good dinner conversation with the parents. I was sad to arrive home and find out that my brother isn't coming home for Thanksgiving---I thought he was. This will be the very first Thanksgiving without the entire family together.

So then we slowly drove home...I was quickly reminded of how extremely flat Kansas is. Then we took the ever familiar West Lawrence exit, $1.25 toll. So surreal. I haven't been home in a year and everything seems foreign to me. I walked into the old kitchen and noticed the new stove and dishwasher my mother had just gotten installed a week ago. Then my dad excitedly grabbed me and showed me the cool Direct TV satellite channels that we get now--why didn't we have something like this when I actually lived here? The biggest change--> I walked into my bedroom to find a crazy flower print bed with matching curtains. Whatever happened to my favorite cow pattern?! So, I was a freak in high school and loved cows...loved all sorts of cow decorations. And I had a hilarious matching comforter set with curtains. Looking at it now, it's kinda horrifying...but it reminds me of how silly I once was. Anyhow, the cow pattern is gone, replaced by "guest bedroom" decor. Aaah.

My friend Sara came by and picked me up and we went to our old hangout, the Bourgeois Pig. Drank 2 yummy martinis and caught up in our lives. Then we called Jed (who now has a cell phone!) and found him hanging out at Matt and Rachel's place. We drove over there and saw some familiar faces, sipping beer out in the cold. It's bizarre to see Matt...he was my "high school sweetheart" as I generally like to put it. And Jed...he's just the same guy as he always is. No surprise that he was just over at Duffy's tonight, singing karaoke. I can't decide if much has changed...or if the pace is just slower here. I can always come back home and find the same people doing the same things every night.

So anyhow, I'm home now, typing away on my dad's new computer with this really nice 21" screen. Parents tend to buy a lot more toys once the kids leave--does anyone else notice this?
Tomorrow's the big day. I plan on making that yummy salmon salad that Matthew likes to make...and my first attempt at pumpkin pie. Shouldn't be too hard--but a big accomplishment for me. And then the Wongs will be over and I can catch up with Rod.

I wonder how Betina's doing back in Seattle. tee hee---she has an office crush...and office crush has a crush on her. Things are going well...I'm so happy for her.

Monday, November 20, 2000

okay, so things are supposed to be calm at work. yet, i'm still here. is there something wrong with this picture? i'm just getting too wrapped up in things. boy, i need a vacation.

for the first time in months, i had someone ask me about my future career plans here. that just feels so good. i feel like i've been neglected for the past 10 months...i've had FIVE freakin' managers in this last year. i don't know if i'm bitter. well, i am. but i know there's really no one to blame. a lot of it is due to reorganization. but god, i just needed someone to reach out to me and say "audrey, i care about you and what you want to do in this company". i'm about to manage people myself...and i hope i can give them the respect and care that i expect to get myself. i'm making a good move. yeah.

there was a farewell party for wade over at juli's place on saturday night--there was a really great turnout. between me, jon, juli and betina, we probably spent almost $500 on food and drinks---it was quite a feast. fortunately, i think everything was consumed so it was worth it.
i go home in TWO days! HOME! i got a call from my friend dan in kansas city this morning---it was so great to hear his voice. there are so few people that i see when i go back home now. and when i run into people, it's just weird...i'm not sure what to say anymore. it's the same thing every year:

"hey! how are you! missed you so much!"
"yeah, me too! what have you been up to?"
"oh, i'm still in seattle, doing my thing. and you?"
"yeah, i'm still in lawrence, doing my thing."[silence]
"so...have you heard from so-and-so?"
"oh yeah, so-and-so is up to this-and-this"
"cool....umm...what about so-and-so-2?"
"yeah, i heard this about so-and-so-2"[silence]
"yeah, well, it was great seeing you! like old times!"
"yeah! see ya around"

Not that I don't love hearing about what others are up to nowadays...but after that, it's hard to have a conversation anymore. How we grow apart....of course, there are the exceptions. But it's like I'm in a warped world when I'm in Kansas.

Friday, November 17, 2000

i'm getting so bad at adding anything to my web diary...as bad as me answering emails nowadays. what is this overwhelming need to keep this updated? is it more for myself or to keep everyone informed? i don't even know how many people actually read this thing. so given that, i'm just going to say it's for me.

besides, my site is down. i'm sad. alex is switching ISP's so meanwhile, everything's down...i can't check email, nada. i've successfully switched DNS servers...but i still need an IP address...which I can't get until alex has a much cooler ISP to deal with. so if you click anywhere above on any links, it'll die. so i guess this web diary is my only version of any sort of web site for now.

went out to see the odyssey at seattle rep tonight---it was really amazing. god, i miss doing theatre...being in it, behind the scenes, striking the set (believe it or not).

work has been taking a toll on me--an upcoming code freeze has gotten a lot of business owners to throw last minute ideas and projects my way. i can't wait til all of the new music web devs are completely up-to-speed on things.

i wonder if i should be concerned about the way matthew and i are handling our break up. i don't feel weird about it..and neither does he. so i guess it's fine. but i feel like others would think it's wrong. so does that matter? i don't think so. but does what others would think matter to me? it shouldn't. i'm too preoccupied with what others may think of my behaviors.

i made a visit to my new doctor this week and boy do i love her. i just wanna walk over to virginia mason and yell at my previous doctor and tell her how awful she was. i finally feel taken care of.

wow, i'll be home a week from today.

Sunday, November 5, 2000

my site went down this week. freaked me out briefly.

i'm sick now. fall is truly here along with yucky health. i've been sniffling all day...and made the mistake of downing benadryl and nighttime theraflu at 1pm. i was pretty drowsy throughout the rest of the day.

i'm excited to go home---2 more weeks. i haven't been home since last year. i really wanna make a pumpkin pie.

the time after a breakup is interesting. you have to re-access your time and your friendships. i suddenly have all this time and don't know what to do with it.

saw legend of baggervance last night. it was much more of a golf movie than i expected. too much "imagine the field, just you and the ball, your authentic swing...". just didn't do it for me.

Tuesday, October 31, 2000

today was so long. 8am meetings are not my thing. my team met from 8am-5:30pm straight today. no break. well--5 minute ones about 3 times. it was all information that i found interesting. i felt like i was back in college though---slouching on my chair...in the same position for 2 hours.

my new hotel stations is lacking. broken arm chair, no monitor, just a heap of plastic accessories thrown together in a plastic bag sitting on the desk. how inspiring.

halloween was pretty trippy but overall lots of fun. went to 2 parties--the first was at some friend of ben's. and the second was a party sponsored by the church of mez in some warehouse in west seattle. my pink wig glowed under the blacklight--how utterly magnificent.

Saturday, October 28, 2000

i'm hangin' out over at my friend Ben's place right now as he transforms himself into Neo to go out to a halloween party. He and I went shopping all day--at North Bend and then a little at Bellevue Place. I just had this urge to just go out and shop. This happens after every breakup--the need to go out and splurge and spend lots of money on myself...only to come back home and pity myself.

It's been a really really hard week. It's hard having someone that is a constant part of your daily life suddenly not want to be there anymore. someone who knows me so well...who knows when i am happy or pissed...who's been so integral in my life in seattle. and for it to happen so immediately.

i miss you so much matthew.
here's a halloween idea to have wild eyes

Wednesday, October 25, 2000

i'm so sad today.

Tuesday, October 24, 2000

god, i'm still at work. i feel like blegh. i need a break.
wow. my entries are getting further and further apart from each other. it's been one whole week since i've written anything here. but what does that matter except for all of you so curious about my mundane life?

i can't even remember last week. it flew by. i probably just worked a lot. surprise. the weekend was pretty fun--hit the 'ol fenix underground for the first time in months where this funny cover band, kryboys, was playing. sunday evening, i went to a smith recruiting event where only 2 high school students showed up. so sad--there was such a great turnout last year. anyhow, it was fun to just sit and chat with a small group of us about our lives at smith. it's odd how *any* alum from smith can just reminisce and talk for hours. i don't know if i should be scared about that. nah. i seem to also appreciate smith a lot more since i've left. i mean, look at me now--i'm involved with the club and in charge of getting together the most recent alums to have fun.

last night, a group of about twenty members of the music team went bowling over at roxbury bowl in west seattle. my team was "tania's teasers" with robert, ron, mukund and christina---and we won!!! oh yeah!! i played a ridiculously good game for me--my last game was somewhere around 168. we were the only ones in the entire alley and the staff dimmed all the lights and turned on the disco ball. [sigh] what a fun team.

what a crazy 2 days it's been. a new web dev for the music team (wahoo!!) just started and i've been trying to train her. it's overwhelming to think about how much i've learned since coming here.

Tuesday, October 17, 2000

another crazy day at work. i can't believe that i was able to get a certain test up and running--kudos to joe wilson. he totally saved me.

Look! I'm an Internet appliance!

Monday, October 16, 2000

what a long week---and i havent' written anything here in so long. i feel guilty about it somehow. like, y'all come here to see what i've been up to lately--and i don't write for one week and suddenly it seems like i dropped off the face of the earth.

on wednesday, we threw a birthday dinner party for betina at the melting pot---yum yum yum.
on friday, i made a very serious decision about my life here at work...i decided to leave my current team and to join another. it was kind of hard but i just needed to take that risk and do that. i've had such a tough year too and just need something refreshing. it'll be sad to leave but at the same time, i'm ready for a fresh start elsewhere. anyhow, my transition won't be for awhile--like, next year so that there's time to train a new person.

jed and i won the "dumb hikers" award yesterday. so we decided to hike mt. si...but we started off a little late and still decided to climb the full 4 miles up to the top. by the time we started descending, there was only like one hour left of daylight left; needless to say, we ended up walking at least the last 1.5 miles in almost completely darkness, led only by the light coming out of the LCD monitor of my digital camera. and it's a pretty rocky trail too...my ankles were not happy with me at all. [sigh] but all in all, it was a crazy and unique experience. never going to do that again.

finally finished reading Hannibal this last week. it was just like darren explained it to me--it's pretty good throughout most of the book, keeping the reader captivated in Harris's words..and then the last 40 pages just blow up and all hell's loose. what the hell happened?! it'll be interesting to watch the movie...now I know why jodie foster decided not to take up clarice's part again.

Monday, October 9, 2000

geekcruises.com. this is a little scary. I read an article in Wired magazine last night about some guy's experience aboard the Perl Whirl cruise to Alaska with people like Larry Wall and Randall Schwartz.

boy, it's been awhile since I wrote here. the weather's starting to get colder here in seattle. i can't believe it's october already. whatever happened to the pretty fall leaves to remind me that fall was around the corner? oh yeah, i'm in washington. it's bizarre being here in this city where it's green year-round. it always looks the same---just a little colder and some rain here and there.

last weekend was fun. betina had a friend come into town that she's known for years. turns out her friend's mother knew my mom growing up in hong kong. this world is too small. we attempted a night out in kirkland, which failed. then tried to cross the bridge back to seattle and ended up getting stuck because of some random test for boat crossings. and finally, we went bowling until 3 in the morning. not a bad game for that time of night.

i'm alone in the apartment now. betina's in vancouver to recruit UBC kids like I did last week. what an interesting experience. i wasn't sure what to say when a computer science student came up to me and asked what the URL was to "my company's website". * * * * doh. I just tried archiving my entries for the first time cuz' they're way too long. now i've got 2 of the same entry...oh well.
what a yucky day. it was such a gorgeous weekend too. on saturday, i had lunch with jed sitting in the sun down at the waterfront eating clam strips. then we drove around to the aboretum and volunteer park. this city is beautiful.

matthew comes back today--yay!

ate brunch with katrina and had the best conversation with her. also met up with phoebe to talk about the first potluck dinner with 'junior smith grads'.

i don't know what i'm doing with my life. i'm still doing what i did when i first graduated. i've always wanted to open up my own massage/spa shop.

Monday, September 25, 2000

got back from l.a. last night. had a really great weekend, doing the family bonding thing. I saw relatives that I hadn't seen in so many years. The biggest surprise was a family I hadn't seen in over 10 years. The last time I saw the kids, they were only about 2 years old. Kids have grown up so much now...the oldest one is 14 years old and is taking AP Computer Science!! I can't believe they even offer that in high school nowadays...."Gung-Gung" seemed really happy with the celebration, having all his friends and family around him. yay! i also learned a little bit more about the family history. turned out that my grandfather was actually the son of the first concubine, not the first wife; however, the first concubine had all the children, so she was just as important. it's odd to meet his brothers and sisters and not know whether or not they had the same mother.

it was also strange being in L.A. again. It brought back memories of when I was last there and of people I was there with....

Thursday, September 21, 2000

i leave for l.a. tomorrow. i get so stressed before i travel anywhere for any length of time. i have so much to do before taking off. i still have to assemble grandpa's birthday present. plus, i have no idea what I'm supposed to do at this celebration. supposedly, i have to "emcee in english". ack.

matthew is also leaving for europe tomorrow for about 2.5 weeks. =(

jed finally found an apartment...which is only like two doors down from me. i can literally see his apartment building from my bedroom window. also, he works only about 5 blocks from me. crazy huh?

Monday, September 18, 2000

[yawn] i hate monday mornings. this morning, i woke up late. i'm upset.

weekend was fun. an old friend from college--jed schmidt--moved to seattle and arrived on friday night. yay! we went to the cirque du broadway on saturday and just went around the city, looking at neighborhoods.

yesterday, i went to the puyallup fair. the place was huge with so many rides and fair food all u want. there were also a couple places selling spas/hot tubs on the fairgrounds. note, a coupla places. why would anyone drop a couple thousand on a hot tub while eating krusty pups and riding the zipper? but people do. i saw people signing papers and everything. i like llamas. it's rare to look at an animal that happens to be on the same eye level as you..and is not afraid of you.

Thursday, September 14, 2000

ack, this is a bad omen. look at the time. i'm going to die.

went to the first board meeting of the seattle smith college club last evening. it was actually a lot of fun. we started off talking business and ideas for upcoming events, the budget, the schedule, the new focus of the mission, etc. and then we just launched into a more casual, laid-back conversation about each other and what we do since this was the first time meeting all of them. i loved hearing about what house each person used to live in. in my senior year of college, i worked on a group project in my psychology seminar studying the various factors that affect cohesiveness and living in smith college dorms. one of the factors i was interested in was the stereotype of each house and the way others may perceive you simply because of what house you lived in. for example, one may easily infer that was a big party girl because i lived in cushing, or the quad. during my research, i contacted several alums and asked them what they remembered about certain houses, and surprisingly, the stereotypes have varied through the years. so as i met each of the alums last night, i wondered what the stereotype they had of lamont house, my house, while they were a student at smith.
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four hours later...i just said goodbye and a "nice workin' with ya" to erik macki. so sad. he's leaving amazon to get his masters in education and teach foreign language in high school. what a wonderful thing to do. it was so awkward--i've known him here for so long and he just knows...everything. he was a great asset here and will surely be missed.

Wednesday, September 13, 2000

bizarre flash. check out nosepilot.com

Tuesday, September 12, 2000

hmm..haven't written in awhile. i'm sitting at work right now and we just got this ridiculous email about the heat and air-conditioning in the building. It reminded us that the hours when these are turned on are only between 7am-6pm on weekdays and 8am-1pm on Saturdays. And if want either to be turned on outside of these hours, we have to order it through our facility coordinator at least 48 hours in advance at a price of $23/hour/floor. We have to get approval first and then place an order for this service. Can you believe this?!!? How ridiculous is that? We are a 24 hour store and most of us work past 6pm every single day in addition to coming in on the weekends. How will sitting in a 90-degree cramped office space affect my productivity? how dumb.

Thursday, September 7, 2000

last night, went to watch this cool Parisian band, Tahiti 80. They had a really positive vibe--most of their songs had a sad sort of theme but with a tone that everything's going to be all right. As if no matter what happens, life's going to be good. What was cool was the fact that each member of the band played multiple instruments--they each had a turn on the keyboard or percussion at some point during the show. they were just jammin' and having a lot of fun.

last night i dreamt that jeff few was given his choice of 3 SUV's to drive and he chose some orange and red futuristic looking one. but then he took off on some souped up motorcycle with angie sitting in the back and he started speeding through this crazy dirt road full of speed bumps. angie was wearing pink leather pants. then the dream ended with him and angie on the donny and marie osmond show talking about their experience. odd.

mp3.com lost its copyright case. damn.

Wednesday, September 6, 2000

i'm so tired. i stayed up until 2am watching the first "Halloween"--it was actually my first time watching that. did you know that, up until Blair Witch, it was the highest grossing independent movie?

check out aimster

Monday, September 4, 2000

labor day weekend is over. i had a pretty busy weekend. moved into the new apartment on friday---fortunately, had the help of a bunch of awesome friends and finished up finally around midnight. had a little trouble with my couch--it's a bit longer than we expected...but we got it in.
on saturday, i went to bumbershoot and saw george clinton & the p-funk all-stars and tracy chapman. in the middle of the day, emily arrived into town with her boyfriend scott and i was able to drag them back to bumbershoot with me.

on sunday, i returned to bumbershoot to see ozomatli--what an amazing band. they really should've played outside. they're an outdoor band. i love their music. should buy a cd. then saw ani difranco later---how cool it was that she was a mainstage show considering she was just a small stage performer last year. it was actually kinda strange seeing her in such a large audience setting....not really the same.

today, emily and scott left for their 15.5 hour drive back to san francisco...and i finally started unpacking.

just realized my long distance service didnt' transfer over in my move. i'm annoyed.

Friday, September 1, 2000

move-in day.

i've got most everything packed up in some sort of box or another. it's amazing how many original boxes I have---helps out a lot when it comes to moving though. i'm going to be sad and miss my apartment. most of all, i'm going to miss the view from the balcony.

so last night, i got a phone call from my kansas friend, emily, whom i haven't seen in a year and have barely talked to. anyhow, she's in san francisco now and she and her boyfriend decided to take a random drive up to seattle. more house guests. yay!

go to bumbershoot this weekend.

Tuesday, August 29, 2000

what a dreary day in seattle. i thought it'd be beautiful and sunny like it was this morning. blah.

the creator of lucky charms died. what's even worse--he was killed in a car accident while he and his wife were on their way to the hospital to visit their comatose daughter. both died in the accident. furthermore, their daughter died 4 days later.

we expand even more

more packing last night. this time, my 'entertainment' was put away--cd's, dvd's, tapes, etc

Monday, August 28, 2000

[yawn] another work week.

yesterday, a bunch of us went to Tina & Glen's for a leo/virgo party...i actually got some presents, which was so sweet and unexpected.

i started seriously packing last night. all of my winter sweaters are now put away in addition to my printer, scanner, picture frames, random trinkets and books. five more days to go before moving.

did you know that each u-haul place charges its own rates? you would think that there'd be some universal u-haul rate...but no. the first place i called said i could get a 14' van for $29.95 and 39 cents/mile for 6 hours only. then i called another place and i could get the same van for $19.95 and 49 cents/mile and could grab it at 1pm on friday and keep until 7am on saturday. appalling.

Saturday, August 26, 2000

So today I decided to completely change my hair...well, I didn't really change it that much. It pretty much looks the way it did senior year of college. But I took off a good couple of inches and rehighlighted part of my hair. what a splurge. i thought i could continue having long hair. after graduating, i kept telling myself "i'm going to grow my hair out". now it's back to the way it was. oh well. it's lighter and won't be a drag as much now.