live well. laugh often. LOVE much.

poopy was the "word of the weekend" when we were on vacation. i'm not really sure why we appointed poopy as word of the weekend, but andy, kyle, and i had a good time abiding by the rule. other than the shocking news of the fire that toto shared with me on sunday, we all had a really good time on vacation. let's see, toto dropped me, andy and kyle off at the airport on wednesday night at around 9:30pm. we checked in, kyle ended up having to get body searched because he left his nextel on his hip, and we boarded our flight barely on time. we got to watch a movie... it was "alex and emma" which i wanted to see when it came out. delta charges a whopping $5 for headsets, but luckily, chakee's laptop case had headphones in it, so i got to watch it for frizee. i watched the entire thing even though i was drowsy from the dramamine, and actually fell asleep during the last 15 minutes. so, i have no clue how it ended. lame, right? it scored pretty low on my scale (2 out of 5 stars), so i was okay with not seeing the end. anyway, we had a layover in atlanta, where we actually had to change planes, and it was 5:30am local time, but it was actually 2:30am our time. we went to our new gate, but i had to run to the starbucks to see if i could get an "atlanta" starbucks mug. the line was longer than all hell, and i had to walk super far, just so the starbucks girl could tell me that they didn't have any. neat. anyway, we boarded the plane, i went back to sleep, and before i knew it, we were in baltimore. well, the 3 of us picked up our rental car... went looking for something to eat since it was 8:45am there (but really 5:45am). our rental car had one of those Hertz Neverlost things. it was a GPS and it was damn cool. it took some time to get used to because sometimes the verbal directions came a million years early and you made a right turn way too early, and sometimes it came at the last minute and you would pass your turn. but the cool thing was, if you did make a mistake, she (we called it a she because the voice of the spoken directions was a woman's voice) would recalculate your path and get you back to where you needed to be. when i was driving, we started calling it "neverlost, unless you are marlou" because i kept messing up the directions. but it wasn't really my fault. so, our plan was to drive to D.C. for a few hours while we waited for sean's plane to land. i forgot how spread out it is out there when everything here is so squished together. we tried to find a place to eat, but ended up at a mall. that was fun. we eventually got to D.C. (it was only half an hour away from the airport) and just drove around. we never got out of the car (except to buy 2 starbucks mugs for me) but we just saw the sights from our car. we headed back to baltimore to pick up sean, then we headed to wilmington. our hotel that sean reserved actually ended up being in pennsylvania, but that was only 20 minutes from where the wedding was. we took showers, and went in search of a place to eat dinner. it was colder than a mother that night. we found this little bar/restaurant in downtown wilmington, which in san diego, it probably would have been packed cause it seemed like a really cool place, but it had about 20 people in it. we ended up staying there after dinner to have drinks (in which kyle proceeded to hit on the bartender hard core) and played on their touchscreen game thing. we went back to our hotel at 1:30am (a late night out there) hoping to find a denny's to munch a little before going back to our hotel. they don't have anything like that out there, so we ended our night. we got up the next morning to check out of our hotel so we could check into our hotel in wilmington. we found a perkins restaurant (kind of like ihop - similar to denny's but not open 24 hours) and on the menu, next to bacon, sausage, & ham was the word "scrapple." we all came up with our own ideas as to what scrapple was so i asked our waitress. she didn't have a very appetizing description of what it was "it's like pork" she said. i've so far looked it up since we've been home and here's what i found: scrapple website. scrumptious. we got to our hotel, waited for andy's other friend, shawn - from new york, to get there then we got ready for the wedding. it was freezing out there that night and it's not as if i had one of those thermal long sleeve dresses on. it was a small wedding, probably less than 100 people and i wasn't a big fan of the ceremony. 2 of the 3 passages that were read during the ceremony were "how do i love thee" and that one about "love is patient, love is kind." don't get me wrong, those two passages definitely encompass love and blah, blah, blah, but i thought they were a little cheesy and a bit overused. or i'm actually just mean. eh, i don't care. so after the ceremony, they had the open bar hour with appetizers. that probably wasn't the best idea, especially not with andy and his friends. so, andy decided to be DD that night, so i drank with andy's friends. well, we all proceeded to get pretty drunk so dinner was quite entertaining. included was the discussion about shawn and kyle being gay lovers, me trying to cut into my filet mignon with the provided butter knife and my steak flying across my plate and into my glass, and our table ringing our bells incessantly just to get the new wedded couple to kiss. after the wedding, we ended up going back to the bar we had been to the night before and when kyle and sean wouldn't leave, me, andy, and shawn went back to our hotel. we all slept in, hungover and happy until we had to check out of our hotel again. we ate at denny's (far, far away) and when we headed back to D.C. to spend the remainder of our vacation, shawn went back to new york. well, this will have to be continued because it is time to leave work and go home.

why am i here at work? on top of the smoky nightmare that surrounds us and is invading our building, we are having construction done so it's loud, and dusty, and a big scary maze to get anywhere in our office. we have plastic up everywhere and big pieces of drywall, and wiring all over the ground, it really is alot of fun. and outside looks so scary. the sun is all orangey-red and it looks like armageddon. when i drove to work thru the 15, everything on both sides of the freeway were charred. how weird. it's dark outside, but there is this weird lighting in the sky, that looks nothing like daytime. i gotta go. i have a whole bunch of work to do. i'll explain the scrapple title later. i'm just glad that everyone i know is okay.

hey, we're in washington D.C. andy had to go on the internet to do some stuff for his homework, so we dropped kyle and sean off by the sights, and we are at the martin luther king jr. memorial library. i only have 4 minutes to post and this computer is going to log me off.

we've been having fun. being on vacation with the 3 boys/kinda 4 boys with their other friend, jersey, with us. today we should be going to arlington cemetery. that should be fun. well, i have 2 minutes so i'm just going to log off now. this keyboard sucks the big one. the space bar doesn't space and sometimes it gets stuck. peace out from the east coast.

ooh, i am so ready to get on that plane and go on vacation. i'm really excited cause i think we're gonna have alot of fun. we don't leave until tomorrow night and we take the red-eye out and land in atlanta, ga, have a layover for a little bit, then we arrive in baltimore, md at 8:30am. i've checked the weather a few times and it is gonna be CHILLY out there on the east coast. especially seeing as how we're having a heat wave here and today is supposed to be the hottest day. it looks like it's gonna be around the mid-50's to low-60's the entire time we're out there and we are just gonna barely miss the thunderstorms that are supposed to start on monday which is the day we fly home. i'm excited. i actually have a real reason to wear my scarves and thick sweaters. chakee is letting me borrow her laptop so that i can do some work while we are out there. i have to work on my statements of purpose for my grad apps and i think that would be prime time to do that. my head will be clear, i won't have to worry about anything else, and i bet i'll have some downtime so i've got it all figured out. it will be a bummer if i don't get anything done, but let's think positively. and thanks in advance, chakee, for letting me use your laptop. i know you'll be destitute without it, so i'll owe you.

we also are gonna be spending time in washington, d.c. andy's never been there, so that will be alot of fun.

i am sad, though, that i will be leaving our dogs. i'm gonna miss them. and it makes me sad. i have to pack tonight and meya is pretty perceptive when she seems me doing that and does cute stuff like obstructs the suitcase so i can't put anything in there, and blocks doorways so i can't go out them. i'm probably a little too attached to the dogs, aren't i? hmmm, ya think?

i didn't win the $76 mil. damn. i guess luck only lasts so long and takes you so far. BUT, i did go to the shoe pavillion in clairemont and found cuter shoes than the ones i bought earlier for only $15..... i would have rather won the lottery.

today has been a strangely "everything works out" kinda day. i went shopping for a dress for the wedding we're going to next week, and ended up with a dress from robinson's may that was original $160, marked down to $109 then it was 80% off. YIPPEE. then i found bad ass shoes from shoe pavillion that were on clearance for $20. yay me. i ran errands all day. i got a haircut, bought a gift for the professor i volunteer for because she's having a housewarming party today, and even bought a lottery ticket. luck be a lady tonight. andy worked today, but instead of going to his actual work, he and kyle volunteered at this street fair in carmel mountain and andy even had a few cool things happen today. oh yeah, and the parking gods were shining down on me all day today because everywhere i went, i got the BEST parking.

There are moments in life when you miss someone
so much that you just want to pick them from
your dreams and hug them for real!
>
When the door of happiness closes, another opens;
but often times we look so long at the
closed door that we don't see the one
which has been opened for us.
>
Don't go for looks; they can deceive.
Don't go for wealth; even that fades away.
Go for someone who makes you smile,
because it takes only a smile to
make a dark day seem bright.
Find the one that makes your heart smile.
>
Dream what you want to dream;
go where you want to go;
be what you want to be,
because you have only one life
and one chance to do all the things
you want to do.
>
May you have enough happiness to make you sweet,
enough trials to make you strong,
enough sorrow to keep you human and
enough hope to make you happy.
>
The happiest of people don't necessarily
have the best of everything;
they just make the most of
everything that comes along their way.
>
The brightest future will always
be based on a forgotten past.
You can't go forward in life until
you let go of your past failures and heartaches.
>
When you were born, you were crying
and everyone around you was smiling.
Live your life so at the end,
you're the one who is smiling and everyone
around you is crying.
>
Don't count the years-count the memories...........
>
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take;
but by the moments that take our breath away!

i finished the lord of the rings trilogy the other day. i was so excited to finish it. i actually read the last book pretty fast considering it took me more than six months to read the first two, it took me like 2 weeks to finish the third one. i REALLY wanted to see how it ended. anyway, it felt a little anticlimactic at the end. not that i was disappointed, but anyway, the word itself just pretty much describes it. but i am bursting just to tell someone else how it ends since i know now.

this week went by fast. probably cause i know i have a lot to do. we're going out of town in two weeks, and at the same time, my work is now rearranging the entire office. we technically have 3 suites, but we are moving one of our companies that is in one of suites to temecula, then the people in the other suite are all moving up to our suite, then our suite is getting moved around with the building/adding of new walls, taking down of walls, and installing new carpet. things will probably be crazy for a while.

well, gotta go. i'm supposed to be writing a couple letters to faculty of two of the schools i'm applying to, but i've been avoiding it. i need to get these out asap, so i should probably work on them.

another successful day in the pursuit of graduate school. i went and talked to that former professor of mine and the meeting went REALLY well. she was very helpful, sounded more than willing to write me a good letter, and even OFFERED to read/edit my statement of purpose letters. i was quite appreciative. anyway, so that means i visited my old alma mater and it was nice to be back. they have all kinds of new shit 'round those parts. the new starbucks was my excitement. they didn't have one of those within a few exits when i was there. and they have the library up, but it isn't functioning yet, i guess. and, i walked thru the cafeteria to get to the bookstore and it smelled the same. funny, huh? also, i went to buy a new csusm sweatshirt (cause i'm cool like that) and now they have a new mascot. when i was there it was the tukwut (it's the indian word - the tribe of whose land that used to live in that area - for mountain lion), but now all their shirts/sweatshirts and the like have "cougar" on them. hmmm... that was interesting. i asked the cashier if he knew when it changed and he asked this other cashier and the best answer they could come up with was that it changed to "cougar" when they stopped being the "tukwut." hmmm... really? thanks for the information.

anyway, i only wanted to put a story on here that i saw on someone else's website. a girl named melissa. the story made me cry and i couldn't handle it. here goes:

Just then, another knock on my door. Did this bitch forget his tooth or something? And I only say that because a different, actually invited houseguest last week, lost his tooth while casually talking. He did a �psshhhhhhhh,� like saying, �bitch please� and his tooth fell out. It was hysterical. I played like I didn�t see it. He then said he had to check on his car. As he left, he acted like he was tying his shoe, but really he grabbed the tooth off the ground. He came back and his tooth was back in.

tell me it's not the funniest story.

wow, i haven't blogged in a while... a week and a half, actually. i've been really busy. work was super crazy all week, so i haven't really had time to actually blog. and when i did have time to blog, i had to attend to other, more pressing issues.

did you take the 15 minute blogger survey? man, with one year i moved into the 25-29 age bracket. actually, not that i care... being 25 is just that... being 25.

so, good news on the graduate school application front. i contacted (due to the advice of the professor i volunteer for) one of my former professors from csusm to ask her if she'd write me a letter of recommendation for graduate school and she contacted me today. we're meeting next week and she said she'd be happy to write a letter for me. YES! i have now fulfulled all my letters and that rocks! i feel so relieved, i can't even explain. i'm pretty excited about the application process even though i know my statement letters are gonna be crazy to write and paying for each app is going to be torturous, as well. but yay me. i can't believe i put this off for as long as i did. i guess i'll see a few years down the line how good (or bad) that was for me. but hooray... i'm on my way!

well, it's almost time to leave work. i'm going straight to a friend of mine's house because she has some family from out of town here and she's having a little get-together at her new digs in la jolla.

i just got paid... it's friday night... party bumpin.... feelin right....

today was a nice day.