BLINGO Winner! Yeah!

Yeah! I finally won something on Blingo! (See huge sidebar BLINGO icon/link).

I'm trying to work on one of my ISRs and decided to search something (now I can't even remember what!), and I got a nice message saying I won! I won a movie ticket, but how nice that they gave me the option of collecting a $10 iTunes gift certificate. I opted for that since 1) we receive so many movie tixs as gifts, 2) we NEVER go to the theatre any more, 3) BF ends up giving them to his parents (like today).

I won I won I won! :D I can't help that I get so excited over winning any (free) contests. Up to date, Berkeley Cousin has won tons of cool prizes, including an iPod shuffle, Visa gift cards, and movie tickets. (She also gets another movie ticket since she referred me and I won a movie tix/GC).

I think I'll get a couple of Collective Soul songs since a stupid VW dealership person jacked my CD. Seriously, my taste in music is so old skool and eclectic so why in the world would someone jack a Collective Soul CD circa 1995 of all things? They must've really wanted it as much as I want it back!

Free Dessert!

(I think I start every post with "today," but in any case) Today was BF's day off so we've been chillaxing for most of the day, despite the insane amount of schoolwork I have. Call it denial or procrastination.

From Monday until last night, BF literally worked day and night to complete a kick-@$$ website for a client/homie's homie. I suppose his insomnia helped him pull his two all-nighters, just a teeny bit. Check the site out. OoOoOOo! She even mentioned BF's name! He's famous by association! (I keep telling him that, but he doesn't believe me.) The first time she came over to discuss the site, I thought she was really down to earth and modest, considering she was recently proclaimed as one of "LA's Top Female DJs," next to DJ Irene (BF's personal favorite). I finally got to hear her spin that night at Avalon, too.

For lunch, we went to Cheesecake Factory in Marina del Rey, and we had the most delightful dining experience (partly thanks to Mystery Guest). Our server was like the server from Heaven (later, we overhead him saying he's the District Trainer). He even gave us the choice between the two best seats in the restaurant -- both overlooked the beautiful marina on this lovely day. The best part was when I busted out a gift certificate for a free dessert (compliments of bro and MasterCard), he leaned in real close and said, "I'm not supposed to tell you this, but read the back of the card." Turns out we could get a free dessert with EVERY entree we ordered. Two free slices of gourmet cheesecakes? Heavenly! Funny b/c BF was initially mortified at the thought of me using a "coupon" at this restaurant. I said, "I don't care what you think; I'm getting my cheesecake and if you're that embarrassed, then I'll just have the cheesecake all by myself." What can I say, I have a major sweet-tooth. He seemed to let on a little excitement when we found out we could get 2. Ha!

We ended up ordering his favorite, Adam's Peanut Butter Fudge Cheesecake, and the new, "not even on the menu yet" cheesecake, Mixed Berry Custard Cheesecake. Now comes the embarrassing part. I gave him my MasterCard, but it got denied. Why? Not b/c of my unemployed, full-time student's bank account (who was denied financial aid the past 2 quarters and now the next entire academic year! What gives, man!), but b/c it expired in February! Stupid me had a flashback of how I continually threw around under my desk the new card with the authorization code sticker. Oh, so that's why they sent me a new card back in January. Thankfully, BF had a MasterCard. As I often joke, "having a BF is so useful." ;)

I just got my new card authorized so I'm good to go! When I told the CR lady my last name, she commented, "I like that." Such a random comment. I believe this is the second time a CR has said that to me. What's so lovely sounding about my last name?

Just like HS

Dude, I felt like I was in HS, today. In the EDSP class tonight, 3 cellphones and a voicemail ringer went off. But that wasn't what made me feel like I was in HS.

The COMD grads - including me - ditched the last half of our class - again. =P Boy, do we represent well!

I don't think I really ditched much in college. Nope, not even that terrible 8 A.M. stats class! HS, I had perfect attendance frosh year. Soph year came around and I ditched soOoOOOO much. What can I say? I always tagged along with my senior brother. If he didn't feel like going to school, then I wasn't going to school either. Awesome.

He was never much of a school person anyways. We took 2 classes together at Chaffey one summer, and he pulled a COMD/EDSP move -- he left during the breaks -- but would instruct me to stay and take notes (or I was too paranoid to leave). And like the great role model that he was, he'd cheat off of me during quizzes and exams.

Nowadays, I wouldn't dream of ditching a grad class. Thankfully, EDSP is an undergrad class...

I scream for ice-cream!

I was being a grouchy-ball for several reasons today, but bro bought me a (ginormous) ice-cream bar from Costco, smothered in chocolate and almonds. I felt sOOoOOoOOo much better after that! Ice-cream is the all-time panacea!

Until I got home and couldn't find the Sex & the City DVD boxset I sold on ebay and have to mail out tmrw. Apparently, BF accidentally threw it away. (How in the world to you throw away a NEW DVD boxset and not remember? Crazy!) Knowing that I've been a real grouchy-ball today, I did my best to maintain good behavior. Unfortunately, I ended up going downstairs and digging through the trash to fish it out. Thankfully, he had just taken the trash out a few hours ago so our bag was neatly plopped on top.

Do I dumpster-dive all the time? Not at all. The only other time I've ever been in a dumpster was in college. I accidentally threw down the trash chute one of my childhood keepsakes (a Hello Kitty handkerchief) and there was no chance in heck that I was going to not go after it. Needless to say, when two of my roomies got home and walked past me knee deep in trash, they couldn't stop laughing hysterically.

The things I do in my spare time. Gross. I guess I'm not as much of a germaphobe as I thought! =P Still, gross.

I could go for another ice-cream bar tomorrow...

LA vs. SF

No, this is not the typical trash talking re: The Bay People vs. SoCal Peeps. :) Although SoCal rules!

Today, Gramma, Dad, bro, & I went to the Dodgers v. Giants game. We had awesome seats, compliments of his homieG, Ms. Susie W. She even personally escorted us to the Club seats -- in the shade and with cushioned seats! I asked my bro what she does and he recalled, Community Affairs. What does that mean?

Welp, I don't know if this is representative, but during the 4th inning, she visited us and told my bro that she just finished hosting a meeting/luncheon with the Dodgers players' wives and (multiple) girlfriends and had to go back to "do art" with them. How crazy is that. Haha.

Gramma had a great time; she LOVES watching baseball. She is definitely a bigger Dodgers fan than me, but Lakers, I'd say there's hard competition. Dad watched, but I think he was more fascinated by the outrageous concession prices. Everytime somebody came back with another beer or nachos, he added it onto their "tab" and reported to me how much they've already spent. Of course he didn't believe my bro about a small beer being $8. He never believes my bro when it comes to dollars and cents. Poor bro and silly Dad. As for me, I had a great time at my 2nd Dodgers game. A huge part of it being our seats. :)

Thanks, Ms. Susie W, who is resigning from her position in 3 weeks to pursue a Masters in Urban Planning! Congratulations! (Not that she reads this blog :)

Daddy & Me Day

Today was a fun day “off.” I drove to Dentist Aunty’s house and then Dad picked me up. We went to the Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens for a Daddy and me day. I planned this about a month and a half ago, during that weekend when Daddy came to West LA. Why so far in advance? Well, the first Thursday of every month is free admission, but I was taking finals last first Thursday of the month.

The last time I went was in 1997 with Mom. Mom and I took individual pictures in front of the Japanese bridge. Today, when I asked Dad to shoot a pix of me in front of the bridge (I really like the Japanese Garden), I thought about how I was standing almost at the same spot about 10 years ago. Deja vu...

We visited the desert, rose, and Japanese garden and then checked out two art galleries and the library. We visited Blue Boy and Pinkie, which brought back memories of Pastor Aunty’s Monterey house. Pastor Aunty had both of the paintings in the hallway where Dr. Cousin, Director bro, and I spent countless hours playing “Kamikaze” and “spaceship.” As a kid, those two paintings scared the bejeezus out of me. No clue why. Just something spooky about them…

See the Gutenberg Bible? This was our last stop. Dad was very excited to see this. :) See the descriptor card for the Gutenberg Bible? It’s so nicely shot b/c Dad accidentally shot with flash. :( The employee that I had approached moments before to ask if it was okay to shoot pixs without flash, yelled, “NO FLASH! NO FLASH!” The Red Hat Society lady standing between us shot my dad the dirtiest look and said, “That is certainly inexcusable!” and uttered something else out of disgust. I was mortified! Dad apologized to the two employees and explained the honest mistake (he switched the battery which automatically tripped the flash), and both of them said it was no big deal, they understood it wasn’t intentional, and “it happens.” Because the employees were so forgiving, I was really annoyed at how the Red Hat lady yelled at my dad like it was her business. That was the last stop of our two-hour adventure.

After lunch, I made the only cousin home swim with me. I haven’t swam for over 5 years! Cousin and I swam for about 40 minutes! I would have swum longer, but I wanted to beat traffic going to Dad’s. My plan backfired b/c by the time I was primped, Gramma was taking a cat-nap and I didn’t want to disturb her since she already gets little sleep as it is (I swear I get my poor sleeping patterns from Gramma...).

Well, we met Dad at the Beijing restaurant near his house. Gramma so rules! She lectured about how the wooden chopsticks have bleach or some chemicals that are bad for us. As she lectured, she busted out something that looked like a pencil bag. I thought, how cool is gramma if she busts out a pair of chopsticks! And of course she did! But they weren’t like any of the ones we normally use. This pair was fancy; the bottom-half is made of metal! Totally made me think of the Joy Luck Club dowry chopsticks. Gramma has the coolest stuff!

Pepsi and Tequila at Kern River

What an awesome day!

I think I ran on pure adrenaline the whole day because 2 hours of sleep could not have carried me thru 5+ hours of white water rafting! (+ 1 cup of coffee + 1 McD's sausage egg McMuffin)

I went to bed at 1:30 AM and woke at 3:30 to get to bro's by 4:15. We left around 4:30 and barely got to White Water Voyages at Kern River in time (8 AM). This was also Elsa's first road trip and she did us proud, taking those curves up the mountain just perfectly.

Our trip began with some safety tips by the comedian trip guide. FBIL/b-day boy chose our guide, a dude with "Santa Cruz" hugely tatted across his upper back. I thought it was lame (I'm a highly biased tattoo snob -- who thinks that getting a tattoo of my turtle is cool) but he turned out to be the best raft guide! They kept calling him Jenkins, which made me think of Sammy Jenkins from "Memento," but that was supposedly also his last name; first name made me think of (r) from Latham, but just pronounced in a different way. Our group of 14 got split up amongst the 5 rafts so bro, FBIL, and I sat with a BF/GF couple also from LA (they both go to CSULA also!). I felt soOOoOOoO bad for the GF b/c she didn't know how to swim and was absolutely terrified. Unfortunately, she sat with us/me, the girl who LOVES going to roller coaster drops with both hands up. My dad would be so mad at me if he knew all the crazy things we did during the trip!

So, I sat behind my bro on the left side and pretty much followed his strokes. Unfortunately, the sweet girl sat behind me and just couldn't get in sync with us the whole trip! Thank God we had to wear helmets b/c homegirl actually hit my helmet twice with her paddle. Hm...unless it was b/c she was mad at me for always egging the guide on to bring us thru the crazier "holes." :D So, we did two trips that worked it's way up to Class IV rapids before lunch! I even rode "the bull," which was basically sitting at the bow of the raft, hanging onto the perimeter line for dear life, riding through some rapids. It was awesome!

Oh, I also managed to get thrown out of the raft. Yeah! I couldn't stop laughing while I was in the water b/c weirdo me thought it was hilarious! What also ran through my mind was how my bro was probably terrified beyond relief (hey, my brother loves and cares for me to pieces). FBIL quickly scooted across the raft (he was seated next to me), and tried to rescue me the absolutely wrong way, as we were just schooled half an hour earlier; he grabbed my foot! Haha! Our guide, JJ, started tripping out and was like, "No! Grab the lapels!" as he lunged forward but totally ate it (I found out later). Thankfully, FBIL yanked me up from out of the waters as I continued to laugh hysterically like a madwoman. I thanked FBIL and then apologized to my bro for scaring the daylights out of him.

If you were going through those rapids pictured on the right, wouldn't you get thrown out? JK, those are Class V, which we were not trained to go through.

Secretly, I'm still laughing, thinking about that experience. I'm not surprised that I'm the only one that got thrown out of that raft through the whole trip. I like to think that I'll be the one that things do NOT happen to, but knowing me -- and as friends will attest -- things always happen to me. Kind of like how things always break around me. ;) I secretly prayed that homegirl wouldn't get thrown out b/c I can't imagine how terrifying any part of the trips must have been for her.

Lunch was a nice spread along a creek. All of the guides laid out deli meats, cheeses, veggies, and fruits in a beautifully appetizing way, and we made our own sandwiches. I love sandwiches and eating, but I hate those kinds of meal experiences b/c I know that I'll be one of the first to begin eating (I was actually the 3rd to make a sandwich out of 30 people) and be the last one to finish by a mile stretch. Heck, I didn't even finish my sandwich and I still finished eating about 10 minutes after the last person. To make it worst, I came to realize that I truly am a messy eater (good thing BF doesn't read this blog) and I make my meals look so unappetizing! Leave it to my bro to notice, but at least I admitted to him first before he teased me! So, we had those huge bread slices, the ones that are 1.5 size bigger than normal sandwich breads. Instead of eating my sandwich vertically, I attempt to eat my sandwich horizontally the whole time. So for the 45 minutes or so that I'm eating my sandwich, I held it with both hands the entire time. I only realized that when I looked at my bro's vertically eaten sandwich (my bro makes any food he eats, look soOOoOO appetizing like commercials).

After lunch, we did two more even crazier runs. The first was called "Pepsi" and our last run, the wildest, called Tequila. That was an appropriate name b/c I've always heard that Tequila brings out the worst in people or makes drunk people do the craziest things. Rafting through Tequila was insane, but soOOoO much fun! Through our 4 trips, JJ led us through the rapids as if we were freestylin on BMX bikes (yes, like the 80s). He had us doing 360s in the rapids!! He also had us do "flips" or what I like to think of as "wheelies." We all bum-rushed to the back of the raft, where he was, and then ride thru the rapids. B/c of the weight shift, our raft felt like we were gonna flip over! He also had us do the "circle of trust," where we all stood on the edge of the raft while holding hands, leaned backwards...and then he paddled us so we were again doing 360s.

Where the water was calm, I jumped out twice to go for a swim. The first time, I hung onto the perimeter line for dear life b/c I didn't want to suddenly get pushed out and have to have the whistle blown for me. The second time, I got a little crazier and managed to distance myself about 5 feet from the raft (wow). Of coure I couldn't get back in myself so JJ lifted my lapels until my feet were practically dangling in the air. Haha. I tried to lift my bro in, but he didn't want me trying; he probably thought that I'd head-dive into the water instead of pulling him into the raft.

Last but not least, of course I got sunburned!!! Actually, I didn't put anything on my blindingly pale legs so my legs are burned crisp (I was wearing pants earlier). I put sunscreen on too late so now I'm walking around home in my chonies, with Noxema and aloe vera caked onto my thighs. Pretty gross.

I'm soOooOOOOO glad my bro used his charming, not-shady-salesman techniques to persuade me to go on this once-in-a-lifetime experience. Although, I have a feeling that it'll be more than just once in this lifetime. :D

Update: P.S. I forgot to add that we saw a deer!!