Ooooowie!

So ... the man in the picture is responsible for my puffy, sore, and bruised forearms! lol. Yes, that's my Kung Fu teacher, Sifu, and last night we did TONS of blocking drills. Tons. Nonstop. And I was the only girl there so I had to keep blocking punch after punch from big-boned guys. Ouch. It hurts. So Bad. But I still love it! :P We're having our "Kung Fu Christmas party" two weeks from Saturday. Yay for fun Christmas parties! :)

Last night, I woke up every hour on the hour. It was REALLY annoying. I would either wake up because 1.) I couldn't breath through my nose, 2. My throat hurt, or 3. As a result of not being able to breath through my nose, I had to breath through my mouth, and I would wake up unable to even swallow because my mouth would be so dry! Even in my dreams, my mouth would be dry. It sucked.

On the other hand, I'm excited for my dad to meet Chris this weekend! :D

"That's Hot."

Last night as I was eating dinner I was looking at one of my roommate's "In Touch" magazines, and there was this big picture of Paris Hilton with a quote she said which read, "All that matters is dress cute wherever you go." Now, if I were in a magazine, I'd want my quote to say, "All that matters is dress comfy wherever you go." (And of course, I'd be wearing my big, comfy sweatshirt in the picture!) :P Take THAT Paris Hilton!

Wow, I can't believe it's almost December. Ludicrous.

I totally want to snuggle up on the couch with a warm blanket and cocoa and watch a movie. That sounds nice. I guess it would help if I had a dvd player. DAMN. AND cocoa. Seeing that my roommates decided to drink all of it. Double Damn.

And those are my thoughts for the day!

In Loving Memory

Today my blog is dedicated to my mommy, who passed away 8 years ago from today.

"Mama thank you for who I am
Thank you for all the things I'm not
Forgive me for the words unsaid
For the times
I forgot

Mama remember all my life
You showed me love, you sacrificed
Think of those young and early days
How I've changed
Along the way

And I know you believed
And I know you had dreams
And I'm sorry it took all this time to see
That I am where I am because of your truth
I miss you, I miss you

Mama forgive the times you cried
Forgive me for not making right
All of the storms I may have caused
And I've been wrong
Dry your eyes

And I know you believed
And I know you had dreams
And I'm sorry it took all this time to see
That I am where I am because of your truth
I miss you, I miss you

Mama I hope this makes you smile
I hope you're happy with my life
At peace with every choice I've made
How I've changed
Along the way
And I know you believed in all of my dreams
And I owe it all to you, mama"

~Il Divo~

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Ok ... I realize it's two days late ... but ... I was BUSY on Thanksgiving! And yesterday ... well ... I was STILL busy! :P

I hope everyone had a lovely day. I spent Thanksgiving with Chris and his family, (we went to his grandma's house,) where many more relatives were encountered. We sat, ate, drank, and chatted. Sounds lovely doesn't it? Actually, it really was! There was turkey, two types of ham, rolls, mashed potatoes, this maccoroni stuff, cranberry salad, this other casserole stuff, lemonade, coffee, and lots of wine. Chris' uncle was big on the wine ... I would barely finish my glass and he'd be pouring me another! LOL. And no, I didn't have ten glasses. I think I had about 2 and 1/2. But what was even better was that Chris finally had a couple glasses and was seeing Karaoke Revolution in his head. In fact, when we got home, the first thing he did was start playing Karaoke Revolution. In between songs he'd be like, "I'm sauced!" It was quite funny.

On a side note, I just realized that I forgot to have pie! Chris' aunt was passing out little jell-o cups with chocolate pudding and I had one of those, and then I totally forgot to have pumpkin pie. Geeeez.

On another side note, Chris just bought the eye cam thingy for PS2 which means we can put our own heads on the characters in Karaoke Revolution! I'm way excited about that. I told him we needed to take Toasty's picture and make a Toasty character. LOL.

Finding The Right Direction

Alright, so I've decided that by the time 2007 rolls around, I need to have made my decision regarding which career choice I want to focus on pursuing right now. Whether it be wedding planning or acting, by January 1st I need to know which direction I'm going in so that I can make goals and start taking the necassry steps I need to take in order to get to where I want to be. So ... yes ... hopefully over the next couple of weeks I can make a decision and start goal setting baby! :D

Oh yeah, something I found interesting was that in the campaign earlier, the political parties spent about $160 million in ads attacking congressional candidates and only about $17 million on positive messages. That's just over $1 of nice for every $10 of nasty. Tsk tsk.

Hit Me Karaoke One more Time!

Ohhhh guess what? Chris bought Karaoke Revolution volume 1 the other day off e-bay, I can't wait! Now we can spend even MORE time going hoarse and busting our vocal chords! Heehee. And, I should point out that Chris got like a perfect score singing Whitney Houston's 'Greatest Love of All' song. Yeah ... scary. When your boyfriend beats you at singing women's songs, you kinda have to wonder.

Oh, and don't try playing Karaoke Revolution after having one too many drinks, because you'll be so embarrassed at how HORRIBLE you will do. In addition, it's probably best to not get drunk in front of your boyfriend because he is likely to embarrass you by taking scandalous pictures of you ... among other things. : P

Gulp

On a side note ... you know what would really suck? Getting sucked into a black hole. While I've always been fascinated by the solar system/planets, I've always been terrified of black holes. There's just something about the sucking vaccum of a black hole that's rather terrifying ...

Did you know that if I were in a space ship and was a distance of about 10 times the black hole's radius away from the center of a black hole, that it would take only about 8 minutes to get sucked to the horizon, (depending on the size of the black hole,) and then only another 7 seconds to reach the singularity (center.) And of course, once you reach the center of the black hole the force of gravity is so great that it rips your body apart. Sounds like fun, doesn't it?

What the Bloody Hell?!

What the bloody hell is going on?! I mean, it sure FEELS like hell's temperature with it being 88 degrees so far today- in NOVEMBER. All I want is some cooler weather, is that so much to ask for? Cool enough that I don't start sweating 5 minutes after going outside, and cool enough that I can wear the super cute jacket/hoodie that Chris bought me! Grrrr. It's funny how the people with the cold weather complain about it being too cold, and then you have people like me who complain about the "nice weather," lol.

And did you know that the sun's visible outer layer has a temperature of 11,000 F? Yeah, that's pretty hot. So it COULD be worse. :P

The Birthday Boy

Ok, so for Chris' birthday on Wednesday I suprised him by cleaning/decorating his apartment. I had been planning it for months, and had bought lots of home decoration stuff, (I went with a Japanese/Oriental style,) to use. So I went over to his apartment Tuesday night, (I had asked Chris if I could come over on Tuesday night because I said that "my roommate was having a bunch of friends over", lol, not really.)Anyways, I needed to come over on Tuesday so that I could be there on Wednesday to decorate his place while he was at work. (I also told him that I had to work Wednesday night, heehee.)

The moment Chris left for work at 7am, I got up and began cleaning/organizing/decorating. I really enjoy doing that sort of thing. I MEANT to take before and after pics, but I forgot. GRRR on me. Anyhow, it took me about 7 hours to do everything, and it turned out really nice. Although, I was SO freak'in nervous all day long because I didn't know how he'd react. I was like, "What if he doesn't like it?" or, "What if he gets offended that I decorated is apartment without asking?" or, "what if he walks in and goes, WHAT THE HELL???" Well- none of that happened. He ended up liking it! :D Yay.

I also bought him Karaoke Revolution Party and Volume 3, which we played. I must say, Chris does a GREAT rendition of "Take on Me" and "R-E-S-P-E-C-T," heehee! ;)I also took him out to dinner at The Elephant Bar, which was yummy as usual.

So yeah, it's been a nice couple of days!

The Tale of Chris and Costco

The unfortunate tale of Chris and Costco, as heard by me while on the phone with Chris ...

It was a cool, blustery evening as Chris headed to Costco to get some last minute shopping done before closing time. After a long day at work, he was in a hurry to get back home. He got his shopping done swiftly, buying 40 lbs. of kitty poo litter, 48 cans of kitty food, and two boxes of Pepsi. Proud of the fact that his entire shopping trip only took 20 minutes, Chris headed out to the parking lot with his shopping cart, (which was full of 40 lbs. of kitty poo litter, 48 cans of kitty food, and two boxes full of Pepsi, of course!) so that he could unload his purchases into his car and head home. When he realized- his car was no where in sight. "Surely my car is just ahead," Chris thought. He continued walking foward, looking both left and right. But still ... no car was in sight. He looked back over his shoulder, thinking perhaps he had PASSED his car by mistake, but in vain. Slowly, panick began to set in. He felt knots beginning to tie in his stomach, and his head began to spin, as he pushed that cart full of poo. I of course, was on the other end of the phone the entire time. "Have you found your car yet?" I asked. "Nooo," he replied. Trying to remain calm, Chris pushed his cart into the next isle, positive that he would find his black 2005 Mazda waiting for him. I waited anxiously to see if he would find his car. Unfortunetly, I knew it was a bad sign when I heard groaning on the other end of the line. "What's wrong?" I inquired. "Allison, I think some one stole my car! This isn't good!" I could hear the panick in his voice, and the rumble of the shopping cart filled with poo as he began to push it faster and faster, as if pushing the poo faster would make his car suddenly appear. "I don't see my car anywhere!" Chris panicked. "Are you sure you didn't park it on the other side?" I asked calmly. "NO!" He yelled, with his unbridled terror streaming out in his voice. This panick went on for twenty minutes. That's TWENTY minutes of pushing 40 lbs. of cat poo, 48 cans of kitty food, and TWO BOXES OF PEPSI. Finally, after a long moment of intense silence, Chris said, "Oh yeah, I parked over on THAT side of the parking lot!" AND well, you can guess what happened next.

HAHAHAHA!

If you need a laugh- watch this video. Here's a cat's reaction to getting it's back scratched ... LOL

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=911585152

Today as I was walking into the Library, there was this black guy sitting outside the front door, and as he saw me approach he said, "Daaaaamn! Here comes a two-legged Golden Retriever!" Golden Retriever?! LOL- THAT'S one thing I've never been called before! (And the only reason why I mentioned that it was a "black" guy in particular, is because black guys ALWAYS seem to comment on my legs/butt, and they ALWAYS start with "Daaaaaamn!") LOL! I mean come on, does this picture look like ME?

Tasty!

I was talking on the phone with Michelle last night, and I am SO bloody excited about going home for Christmas so we can have our traditional gingerbread house making night! I absolutely love making gingerbread houses ... so much fun, and OHHH so tasty! :P Although I'm not really sure on what "type" of house I want to make yet ... last year I did the more traditional gingerbread house while the year before that Michelle and I did houses in the style of "Hagrid's hut" from Harry Potter. Too many choices! :D

And DAMN ... I'm so sore right now from Kung Fu class these past two nights- but I guess that's to be expected! I'm still going to class tomorrow night, gotta get my money's worth! :)

Well anyhooo I need to get running, (literally,) even though I'd much rather get snuggled up in some blankets with a movie and some cocoa! (Oh, and cookies would be nice too!)

Crossroads

I feel like I've come to a crossroad in my life, and the car I'm driving has stalled in the middle of the road, unable to turn left or right. I'm sitting in the driver's seat, frustrated and scared, trying and re-trying to get the engine to start ... but to no avail. Finally, I open the glove compartment to take out my road map to see which way I'm supposed to go, only to find that it's missing! Confused, I realize that even if I do manage to get the engine started, I don't even know which direction I am supposed to go!

I've always wanted two careers: An acting career and a career as a wedding planner/event coordinator. I love both areas, and I have training and experience in both.

In acting, I grew up acting and singing in plays and musicals, and making movies to enter into local film festivals. I minored in theatre, and have had classes of all kinds, including basic acting, stage movement, technical theatre, improv, stage make-up, and tv, film, and commercial classes. I've also taken 7 years of private voice lessons, and I took 14 years of piano lessons.

In wedding planning/event coordinating, I gained experience by interning for a wedding planner, and helped to plan several weddings. In addition, I've planned many parties and social gatherings, and have taken various classes to help me with my skills, including interior design, graphic design, advertising, and many business related courses. I also toootally possess the skills needed to be a great wedding planner, which include: I'm goal-oriented, organized, can multi-task, I'm creative and artistic, I'm detail-oriented, and I love planning things in advance and scheduling them. I'm also a list-maker, (I own a planner and make lists of everything I need to get done- I even have a whole budget section for each month!) And last but not least, I'm a romantic at heart.

So the current problem I'm having is ... which career to pursue? Initially, I moved out here to Los Angeles last year to pursue my acting career in film. I've realized that, while I still love acting and film making, there are so many things about this business that I don't like. First, you really can't trust anyone in the business- anyone. Second, people seem to care more about your looks than your talent. Other, less-talented people have been chosen over me just because they're a size zero. It drives me NUTS. Third, you have to be constantly hoping for more auditions, which are hard to come by, and even harder to book. Those are just a couple reasons.

When I first moved out here, I was reved and ready to go! I was like, "Bring it on!" I set goals for myself and worked towards those goals every day. But lately, I just haven't felt so motivated. I feel like the flame I once had has dwindeled, and is close to going out. Maybe it's just because I've hit the "one year mark" of being out here, and I'm simply burnt out. Maybe I just need a little break to get my engine started again. But on the other hand, maybe I really don't want to continue down this road. I no longer feel I need to be a "movie star" in order to be happy ...

I need to make a decision, and soon. I hate dawdling around in the middle. Right now I'm neither working as hard at pursuing my acting career like I should, nor am I working hard towards my wedding planning career. When I know where I'm going- I like to go full throttle. But how can you go full throttle into something if you're not even sure where you're going? I do NOT like to just "half ass" my way in both directions- like I'm doing now. Grrrr on life and it's big decisions ... grrr I say!

The Prestigious Rocky Balboa

Despite the fact that I worked Friday, Saturday, AND Sunday, (as I almost always do,) I still managed to have a lovely weekend. I got off work around 4pm on Saturday and went to go see Chris ... and guess what we did? Coincidentally, despite the fact that I just posted a blog the day before on never seeing movies in theatres because they're too expensive, Chris took me to go see 'The Prestige,' which I thoroughly enjoyed!
It's one of the few movies I've seen this year in addition to 'Ice Age 2,' 'Cars,' and 'Pirates 2' ... (notice how they're mostly "kiddy" movies, LOL.) Anyhow, I highly recommend seeing the movie because it's one of the few good movies I've seen in a long while, and it actually has some unexpected twists in it, which is more than you can say for most movies these days. (Plus, you get to watch 2 pretty magicians for two hours! : P Just kidding! Well, mostly anyway ... )

After the movie, we returned back to Chris' apartment so that I could have the privilege of watching the first installment of "Rocky," (starring Sylvester Stallone, of course!) I had seen bits and pieces of it before, but never the whole thing. Chris made the unfortunate move of showing me "Rocky Part 4" first a couple months ago, which left a bad taste in my mouth. Almost like when you eat onions ... the onions themselves are bad enough, but then they just leave this awful taste in your mouth! And it's like, WHY would I want to eat MORE onions? They're nasty! Well in the same way, I was always like, "WHY would I want to watch more Rocky? He's nasty!" Yeah, kinda like that. All in all, the movie really wasn't as bad as I expected it to be. In fact, it was actually some what enjoyable. : P Chris is quick to point out that, "Rocky was nominated for 10 academy awards and won 3!" He's been babbling about the NEW Rocky movie that's coming out at Christmas for awhile now. He gets this mental glow in his eye as he watches the movie trailer, (yes, I was present at the trailer watching- I saw it for myself!) Hehehe. It's funny. : P

And that was my weekend. Working, going to see Chris, watching movies, and relaxing. Lovely, aint' it?

A Word of Advice

A word of advice: If your boyfriend ever asks what turns you on, tell him. Do not throw a flustered fit of embarrassment for 45 minutes, otherwise he will become upset with you. (Gee I wish I had known this before last night's phone conversation!)

Movie Tickets = Too Much Money

I could really go for seeing a movie right now. I just realized that ... I haven't seen any movies in the theater since I saw 'Pirates 2' with Chris! And before that ... I think the only other movie I've seen this year is 'Ice Age 2.' I know ... it's pathetic. And there's actually been several movies that have come and gone that I wanted to see. Currently, I want to see 'Saw 3,' (seeing that I've watched the first 2,) and I heard that it was good. But damnit! Movie tickets are just too bloody expensive. Especially out here! I mean it's like $10 for one movie ticket. Come on. I could wait for the movie to come out on dvd and BUY IT for little more than that. Grrrrr. There's a reason why I've only seen 2 movies this year ... lol.

Happy "Late" Halloween!

Happy ... errr .... LATE Halloween everyone! :D I actually TRIED posting this blog yesterday when it was Halloween, but it wouldn't let me post this cute jack-o-lantern picture yesterday, (which is essential,) so I decided to try again today and it worked. YAY! I figure ... one day late is better than nothing ...

For Halloween I went to go see Chris (well ... AFTER getting stuck in traffic for two hours, but thankfully I spent those two hours on the phone catching up with Michelle!) We grabbed some dinner to-go at Jack in the Box so that we could take it home and watch scary movies. Unfortunetly, there was diddly squat on to watch. Our choices were basically 'Jeepers Creepers,' (a winner,) 'Friday the 13th,' (yaaaay,) and 'Halloween 4-5,' (soooo boring.) On cinemax demand there was a WHOLE category called "Tricks and Treats," (which is supposed to have tons of scary movies,) but ... it was EMPTY! On HALLOWEEN the HALLOWEEN movie selection was empty. HOW LAME. So after enduring more of 'Halloween 5' then we could handle, we played Scene It instead. (And for the first time in forever in game-playing history, I actually BEAT Chris! :P) I was WAY excited.

And there you have it- Halloween 2006. It really could have used a nice game of Eldon!