grrr...i hate email viruses. my home account is getting spammed by the latest "W32.Sircam" virus which sends email out to every person in one's address book, randomly attaches a file from someone's computer and says Hi! How are you? I send you this file in order to have your advice. See you later. Thanks" What a dumb message. Of course, I--like many other dumb people--happened to open up the very first one that I got and was suddenly reading someone's cover letter to get an acting gig. That teaches me not to check my email late at night when I could care less about what email I get. Anyhow, I think I'm safe...mostly because, well, my computer's not always online...but I don't know if that means anything. And I'm too cheap to run out and get anti-virus software at this time. i know i know. well, i guess i'll find out from friends soon enough if indeed, i'm sending out similar ridiculous messages to them and they're suddenly reading some psychology lab i did in college. furthermore, i think i'm safe because the virus supposedly resides in your recycle bin if it's found its way into your computer...and my recycle bin is clean.

getting really excited about going to europe. apparently, i'll be driving through this part of the czech republic called the West Bohemian Spas where there are literally hundreds of spas all over the place....hmmm...massage? anyhow, i have so much to do before i go...like...PACK...and prepare for MOVING when i come back. ack!

i finally found a place to live. after a year of living with a roommate, i'm venturing back into the world of living by myself. i think i read a statistic somewhere saying how more and more people in america are living by themselves now as compared to a few years ago. anyhow, i'm really excited about my new home...it's one of four units in an old house built in the early 1900's (that's old for seattle). the landlord is really nice and awesome, which is so important to me. i've got one month to move now...can't wait.

last weekend, i went on the salsa cruise with a few friends..and it was so much better than last year: bigger boat, more people that knew how to dance, etc. I absolutely love the salsa community here...I'm determined to get better.

saw my surgeon the other week and she removed the surgical tape surrounding my incisions. i'm recovering well though every once in awhile, i feel a small pull in my navel muscles. i feel so lazy as i cannot do anything until august...can't lift anything more than 15 lbs., can't work out, etc. i'm so out of shape now.

last night, i hung out with my friend alex and saw startup.com...whoa. it's a documentary following the lives of 2 guys who got into the whole dot-com boom, succeeded immensely and then crashed harder than they ever imagined. i really enjoyed this movie...i'm sure the producers of the documentary had no idea what kind of drama could happen when they first started...and all sorts of things happened...from the CEO meeting bill clinton to one guy having to fire his best friend and co-CEO from the company only months before it goes under. i would love to see the reactions of friends of mine who went through all of this in the last 2 years...traveling to meet VC's, staying up all night programming and eating pizzas, etc.

i forgot to mention that my friend gary is back in town! i'm so excited! he was the only person i knew in seattle when i first moved here as we had studied abroad together in spain...then last summer, he decided to move down to florida for a year just to check it out...and he finally moved back to seattle last week. i'm determined to hang out with him more this time.

ah, the weather has been absolutely beautiful. to celebrate independence day, james invited me to go sailing on a boat with his friend goldie from work, her boyfriend and some other people down in tacoma--my first time on an actual sailboat. we went down there around noon and were on the boat until midnight--->see my pictures. mount rainier looked incredible down there and the air show was tons of fun to see. i just sat back, soaking in the rays and enjoyed the gorgeous day.

i'm starting to feel much better and am able to move around a bit more. i even made it to salsa class with jon on thursday. friday, i saw the symphony again where bobby mcferrin was the guest conductor...enjoyed it very much. at one point, he asked the audience "are there any sopranos in the house who can sing bach's ave maria?", and 4 women leapt up on stage...and bobby proceeded to vocalize the background as these 4 women burst out into a gorgeous rendition of this aria. i was mucho impressed. and on saturday evening, headed down to pier 62/63 with eugene, christina, robert and some other people to see Buena Vista Social Club presents Ibrahim Ferrer...great Cuban, salsa, rumba, etc. music. afterwards, we headed over to wild ginger to get some late night munchies...here are some pictures i took along the way.

i decided last week that i'm definitely going to head over to prague in august to attend my friend peter's wedding. i'm incredibly excited as my bestest friend from kansas, sara, will be there for a chamber music festival. not only will i probably be able to hear her play violin but i get to celebrate my birthday with her and wil in prague (my bday is only 3 days after the wedding). now i have to find a good plane ticket and start booking the hotel....