Tales from the E-Bar

Frozen Nipples
I approached the table of four, with two twenty-something girls, one twenty-something guy, and one 50ish man. "Can I get you started with an appetizer like our ginger soy calamari or our nui nui coconut shrimp while you're looking over the menu?" I asked. The pepper haired, 50ish man responded by looking me up and down, and, in a rather drunken sounding slur, said, "Yes ... your nipples ... frozen." "I don't think they're on the menu!" I said as I laughed uncomfortably. The other three sitting at the table looked at the 50ish man, (probably their father,) and also laughed uncomfortably. Finally, after they ordered their dishes which did NOT consist of frozen nipples, I was soon bringing out their food. "Is there anything else I can get you?" I asked. The frozen nipple wanting man took my hand and laid a big, slobbery kiss on it, all the while mumbling something I couldn't understand. Ugh, this is disgusting! I thought as I quickly drew back my hand. Later, to top the meal off, I asked if anyone wanted to try some dessert and Mr. Slobber Kiss Man motioned for me to lie down on the table. Ugh. Yuck. Check please!

The Three Shot Martini
Sitting at the table were two middle-aged mexicans, one man and one woman. I came over to the table and asked if I could start them off with something to drink as they looked over the menu. "A diet coke for me," the man responded, "but for the lady, a martini with a shot of vodka, a shot of gin, and a shot of vermouth." He said as he smiled sleazily. "He's trying to get me drunk!" The woman giggled as she returned the man an equally sleazy smile. Aaaaalrighty then. I thought. What a nasty sounding martini! But despite the nastyness, I brought out their drinks and some fiery kung pow shrimp quickly followed about ten minutes later. But when I brought the food out to their table, they were both gone! The only thing there was an empty martini glass. That's rather strange ... Then, about five minutes later, the couple returned from out of no where looking flushed, giggly, and a bit sweaty. Eeeeew! I don't want to know WHAT they were doing or WHERE they did it! Too much information.

My Favorite Customer
My favorite customer: a twenty-something dark haired guy who always comes in and sits at the bar while distracting me when I'm busy. I'm kidding. NOT my favorite costumer. Well one day, after sitting at the bar and downing six bottles of beer, a Bloody Mary, and who knows what else, he asks the hostess if he can be seated in my section along with a sober friend who was coming to meet him there. I told the host, "I do not want that guy in my section! He always bugs me to death." Well ... they sat him at one of my tables anyway. Ohhh goody. Over the course of the next hour, this drunken guy continued to make an ass of himself and embarass is painfully sober friend by saying things to me like, "I just LOVE you!" "We're going to be really good friends. No, I'm serious. We're going to be friends." "You are soooo sweet and midwestern!" "I've been sitting here watching you with your little ponytail bouncing from side to side!" "You're so beautiful!" And my favorite, "Do you have a boyfriend?" (asked about 4 times,) with my response each time being "Yes." And each time he'd say either, "Well ... I have a bunch of model friends who you could choose from. You haven't even seen them yet!" or, "Well ... you and your teacher guy should come to my bar and I'll give you FREE drinks!" Hmmmm. Thanks ... but no thanks.

One of the Most Annoying Orders I've Ever taken
"Can I get the Oriental Chicken Salad with no cilantro, eggs on the side, bacon on the side, wontons on the side, rice noodles on the side, no cranberries, and I want the chicken breaded instead of grilled, I don't want the iceberg lettuce that comes in the salad I want romaine and baby greens only, I want a side of oriental sauce and also some honey mustard. Fat free and on the side. OH, and I want the bacon in a seperate container so I can give it to my dog."

One of the Stupidest Questions Asked
"I want a rootbeer to drink. Oh! Can I get it in a glass?" To which I responded, "No. You can only get it in a bowl." Duh!

Time Line

The Chris and Allison Relationship Progression Time Line

Late February '06: Chris found my profile on myspace and sent me a message. We began to send messages back and forth.

First Week of April '06: I gave Chris my phone number.

April 12th '06: The first time we met in person.

April 21st '06: The first time we kissed. Awwwww!

May 29th '06: The first time we .... uhhh ... errr... ;)

Early June '06: The first time I met Chris' family.

June 28th '06: The first time Chris told me he loved me. :D

June 28th '06: The first time I told Chris that I loved him too. :D

December 3rd '06: Chris met my dad and stepmom for the first time.

February 20th '07: Chris and I are still going! :)

A Sunshine-y Day

Ohhhh what a lovely day it is outside! It's currently 84 degrees outside, (although it says it feels like 81 ... which is still fine with me!) I think I'll take full advantage of the nice weather by going for a run in the park before I head off to work tonight. An excellent idea if I do say so myself.

Last night in Kung Fu, I totally bashed my elbow again with the nunchukas. Bahhhh!!! I had managed to avoid doing that for quite some time ... in fact my elbow was finally starting to feel normal again! Although after only being in the class for 5 months so far, I think I'm doing pretty well thank-you! :P Aside from almost knowing #7, in addition to being able to do #6, tan tui, and limpo by myself, (NOT really sure on the spelling of those ... lol) I almost know the entire nunchuka routine! Gooooo me! :P

Hmmm ... the sunshine-y day is calling me, I must go running!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! (Okay okay, I know I'm a day late, but who cares!) :P

Hope everyone had a lovely day of sappyness and chocolate-y-ness. I know I did! Well ... not so much the chocolate-y-ness ...

Initially for Valentine's Day I wasn't planning on doing anything since Chris and I sort of celebrated it on Saturday, (we exchanged our "gifts" and he took me out to dinner,) and we both had to work that day and we live at a bit of a distance from eachother. But then at the last minute I thought, Hmmmm. Maybe I should butt over to go see Chris after work on Valentine's Day and surprise him. Why yes, yes I think I shall! So I bought a red velvet cake and decorated the top of it with red icing that said, "I Love Chris," (yes, Valentine's Day calls for extra sappy-ness,) picked up a bottle of sparkling apple grape juice, put on my cute new leopard print top, my red and pink heels, and headed over. Soooo sneaky!

Unfortunetly, I sort of fumbled the cake as I was getting out of my car and smeared the icing all over the lid, so you really couldn't tell at all what it said.) Bahhh! Oh well. When I knocked on Chris' door, he took awhile to answer it. I feared that maybe since he wasn't expecting anyone, he might not answer the door. But finally, at last, he opened the door and I said sweetly, "Hi, I'm from the personal escort service that you requested!" Heeheehee. :D

Chris told me that when he peaked through the peak hole, he couldn't tell who was outside and he thought I was some mexican with bleach blonde hair wanting a date! LOL!!!! Soooo I successfully tricked him! (He's very hard to trick ...)

And THAT was my Valentine's Day!

Decision Confirmed

So ... my decision to quit Starbucks was confirmed this morning when I got up at 3:45am (after only 3 1/2 hours of sleep because I had to close at the Elephant Bar,) and I showed up ON TIME at 4:30am, only to find no one was there. So I sat down in the cold, drizzly rain and waited. And waited. 5am ... still waiting. 5:30am ... still waiting. 6:00am ... STILL waiting. At this point my entire body was wet with the misty rain and my hands were freezing. Then at 6:15am a car with two girls, probably in there late twenties, pulls up. "Are you guys open?" They ask. (Despite the fact that we CLEARLY aren't open because all the lights inside the store are off and I'm sitting outside in the DRIZZLE. "No. We're supposed to open at 5am, but whoever the morning manager is today hasn't shown up yet." "Oh ... " the girl said, "Well we're just going to wait right here." She said with determination as she backed her car up into the parking spot. Are you kidding? I thought. I just told them we're not open, the manager isn't here, who knows WHEN some one will show up, and even if the manager shows up this very SECOND we STILL won't be able to open for another 30 minutes because we have to actually "set up" everything first. Now extremely annoyed, I just got up and walked off. Yep, I walked home at 6:20am after having waited almost TWO HOURS in the cold. I walked inside, put my pajamas back on, and went back to bed. (AFTER turning off my phone, of course. There was no way I was going to be awakened by some one calling asking me where I was after they decided to show up.) So yeah. This is the second time I have shown up to work and the manager hasn't bothered rolling out of bed. I am SOOOO puting in my two weeks notice on Thursday!

I'm also angry because sitting outside in the soggy cold for almost two hours seems to have made my illness relapse ... my throat and head are BACK TO HURTING after I was finally starting to feeling better over the weekend. It took me FOREVER to fall back asleep this morning because of my dumb cough and then I woke up like an hour later during a dream (in which I was choking,) because I was actually coughing. Grrrr.

On the bright side of things, Chris took me out to dinner on Saturday night and bought me a really cute cat calender for Valentine's Day. OH and he also bought me the season one dvd of Robot Chicken! I was SOOOO excited! :D

A Token of her Affection

Well, I'm back in California! I had a great time visiting my friends, family, and pets, (who I always miss being out here in CA ... )

As a token of her affection I'm sure, my sister left me with a lovely present! An illness. Sunday night I was suddenly hit with an awful headache and fever, which continued through all day Monday. Tuesday the fever was gone, but my throat began to hurt like a butt! Then yesterday, my throat hurt so bad that I literally wanted to cry every time I had to swallow, and I just had this pathetic sounding, whimpy dry cough that made me sound like I was faking being sick, LOL. I think I went through an entire bag of sore throat drops while traveling yesterday. To top it off, I woke up this morning unable to breath because of all the mucus that had decided to congregate in my throat and nose over night. You know those mornings when you're sick and you just have to run to the bathroom to cough up all that nasty green stuff? Today was one of those. AND now I can't taste the food I just bought at the grocery store. :( On the bright side, my throat feels much better now that I coughed up all that crap earlier this morning. :) (I'm sure everyone wanted to know about my green mucus and nastyness.)

Along with my current sickness, I seem to also be suffering from symptoms related to Cuh-ris withdrawl. NOT good. It needs to be cured.

Oh yeah, I picked up my car today. It's finally fixed! Yay! :) Although, it ended up costing $700. NOT yay. NOT YAY AT ALL!

Also, the weather outside today is simply wonderful! (Then again, maybe it's because I've been in Missouri's -3 to 15 degree wintery weather all week!) It's currently 67 degrees and sunny- perfect for mini golf! Now if only I had some where to go mini golfing and the money to do it at this moment ... lol.

Hmmm ... looking at the computer screen is making my head hurt. I think I must stop. Yes, I must.

Reporting from Missouri

Well, right now I'm sitting at home (in Missouri,) and it's currently -3 degrees outside! Brrrrr! Talk about coooooold! I knew it was a bad sign when I walked outside and after about 2 minutes my hair was already frozen , LOL.

But despite the freezing weather, it's been really nice to be able to see my family and friends. After arriving on Wednesday, I stayed with my brother and sister in Kansas City, where we carried on the tradition of renting AWFUL horror movies. This time, we rented "Dark Harvest 3." (After watching 1 and 2 first, naturally!) The movie completely filled our expectations by being as awful as we expected. :::starts talking like Goofy::: "It wasn't me, it wasn't meee, it was a scareCROW!" Hahaha! :P

Friday Michelle picked me up and brought me to Columbia. We've been spending all weekend taking pictures, hanging out, and watching movies. Last night Ana and Esther (along with their husbands,) came over and my dad made fondue. YUMMY.

Today my old college roomie Anna came up to visit, which was fun. She, Michelle and I went to the mall and shopped for a bit, hung out at my house, and then met Esther at Ruby Tuesdays for some dessert! I had been looking foward to that because Ruby Tuesdays has one of my favorite desserts ... WHICH brings me to my rant of the day ...

One of my ALL TIME FAVORITE desserts is at Ruby Tuesdays. It's a "tall cake" which comes in this giant sundae glass, (chocolate cake which is layered with chocolate mousse,) topped with oreos, vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, and caramel. SOOO tastey. So we show up at the restaurant and it APPEARS normal inside, (the inside is basically like Apple Bees ... actually the menu is alot like Apple Bees too ... ) and we sit down, and the first thing we notice is the crappy music that's playing. It's like ... elevator MUZAK. Which ... it has the decorative atmosphere of a sports bar, so WHY is MUZAK playing? Then, our waitress hands us the menus, which have COMPLETELY changed. It was as if the restaurant was trying to be all upscale or something. The prices went up, the portions got smaller, and the food items completely changed. At this point I was getting a bit panicked, because dessert wasn't even LISTED on the menu. So I asked for the dessert menu, and got handed this little piece of cardstock that was trying to look all fancy with like SIX desserts listed on it. Luckily, I saw "Tall Cake" listed. Of course I ordered it, (for my entire meal, because it's a HUGE dessert, one that I have NEVER finished, even when sharing!) The waitress brings it out, and first of all, it's no longer in a giant sundae glass. It's on this little glass SQUARE shaped plate. AND it was about 1/4 the size it used to be, (even though it was the SAME PRICE.) Soooooo dumb. I was SO bitter. Needless to say, I finished it all by myself with no problem. Grrrrrrr.

Snow = Ballistic

Yay! After walking home for over an hour in the yucky cold weather, (had to drop my car off at the repair shop on my way home from work,) I'm finally going home to visit tomorrow! Now ... if my plane gets cancelled due to SNOW ... (because it's supposed to snow in KC tomorrow,) I think I will go a bit ballistic. (Is that even how you SPELL "ballistic?") Yes ... yes some one, or someTHING will die. I guess mother nature would be the first on my death list. Hehehe.

Hopefully I will have some lovely pics of my travels to post this upcoming week! : D

Later all!

Wishlist

I've decided that for my next "big purchase," I'm going to save up for this. I have several things on my wishlist, but I think the computer will be my next purchase since I already have my keyboard, and so when I get a computer I can start puting my songs from the keyboard onto my computer and then onto cd!!! Yay!!! Of course ... it will probably take a loooong time to save enough money seeing that I'm having to spend a crap load on my car. :(

Oh, and after the computer, I want a video camera so I can make and edit movies on my computer!

This morning when I brought my car in, they said it would take at least 2 days to fix, (which normally would be a HUGE inconvenience seeing that I need my car to get to work everyday,) BUT since I'm going out of town for a week, I won't be using it! They said I could just drop it off tomorrow after work and leave it with them to fix during the week while I'm at home. (Although that means I'll have to WALK the rest of the way home after work tomorrow ... blahhhh ...)

And ... blah.

A Drizzle Saturday

Today was rather rainy. And misty. And kinda cold. Now that I'm off work, I do believe I will go make myself some tomato soup. Yummm.

Mmmmmm!

I had the most DELICIOUS drink at T.G.I. Fridays with Chris the other night! For those of you who like mudslides, this one is just as yummy if not better! Two words: Chocolate Mint. You can either get a hot drink, (cocoa, kahlua, Starbucks Coffee liquor, and Bailey's Irish Cream,) OR you can get the same ingredients except in a martini, (no hot cocoa ... something else, ) OR you can get it cold and blended, like a shake with ice cream! SOOOO yummy. I had two, but I wanted to try them all. :P

T.G.I. Fridays also has a yummy drink recipe site, complete with mudslides and daiquiris!

A War in the Restroom

Today at the Elephant Bar, as I was leaving to go home I went to go use the restroom. I walk in, and there's these two elderly women in the bigger "handicapped" stall, (and by elderly I mean canes and walkers,) and one of them says to me, "Miss, could you help me? My friend has fallen over." I looked and saw that the other elderly woman was on her knees inside the stall and said, "Oh of course! Is she okay?" She was okay, so I helped her up. I continued by going into the next stall, seeing that I still had to go to the rest room. While I was going pee, the two old women (still in the handicapped stall,) started arguing! "Don't flush the toilet-" "No I need to flush the toilet," "NO DON'T flush the toilet!" "STOP IT, I have to go to the bathroom!" "JUST GO!" Then I heard one of them start to go pee and she started yelling, "GET BACK IN HERE! Don't you leave! Now PUT that down!" And there was this smacking sound, as if she was HITTING her. Hmmmm. Needless to say, I got some more mild entertainment at work today.

Sleepy Thursday

I think these signs need to be posted at the Elephant Bar tonight. I work from 5:30pm till who knows when, and I already worked at Starbucks this morning from 4:30am - 12:30pm. The funny part is, me and the guy who were supposed to open the store this morning arrived on time. However, the manager with the key was LATE- (by TWO hours,) and so we just sat in the guy's car for 2 hours and waited. He had HEATED leather seats in his car. I must say, they're quite nice. Although, I had to shift positions every so often because my butt would start burning! :O Hehehe, we also snickered evily as tons of confused people kept walking up to the door only to find it locked. They'd stand there for awhile, looking in, ultra-confused, then they'd start to walk off, then come BACK to the door for a double take. It was mildly entertaining.

Other then that, my eyes are ssssstinging! Oh that and my elbow hurts because I probably fractured it by accidently bashing my bone with the nunchukas on Monday ... ooops ... and ouch.

Hmmm ... maybe I'll have the ability to write something more intelligent tomorrow ...

Taken Care Of

(You'll have to just imagine the really cool picture I had for this blog right here, because BLOGGER isn't cooperating right now ...)

How can I begin to describe how WONDERFUL my day has been today? Should I try to describe? Why yes, I think I shall.

Recap: Thursday I found out that I probably needed at least $800 in car repairs due to a leaking oil gasket which was neglected for months because of WAL-MART. So I was of course freaking out, because I did NOT have $800 available to spend on car repairs! (I had been working on saving money in my "emergency fund," but was only up to about $350- $400.) Sooo, panicked, I worked all weekend long at the Elephent Bar, and worked a double shift on Saturday. I ended up making over $300 in tips during those two days.

On Friday, I was talking with my roommates about the stresses of life and financial situations like these. My roommate Lesley said, "Allison, God knows you work hard. He knows you're not lazy. He knows you don't go out and blow your money irresponsibly. He'll take care of you." And then I thought, I really don't trust God when it comes to money. I'm constantly stressing over whether I'll have enough money, CONSTANTLY. I depend on only myself to take care of me financially, and it's pretty exhausting. So after our discussion, I was like, "Okay God. I'm going to try and trust you with this. You know I don't have enough money, but I know you'll take care of me."

The result? The next day (Saturday,) as I was driving to work, the "check engine" light in my car which had been ON previously, turned OFF. Then, over the weekend, I made more money in tips at the Elephant Bar than I have ever made in the past 5 months since I started working there. Over $300 in two days. Today, my dad told me he sent me a check for $1,000, and to thank God, not him, for it. To top it off, I took my car back to the repair shop this morning, and the cool asian dude who took care of it on Thursday told me, "Just check your oil, to make sure there's enough. Because we replaced the gasket and you might need to put a bit more oil in." "Ok ... " I responded. Waiting. Waiting for him to tell me what other $800 repair my car needed. "And?" I asked. "That's all. Just take it to a gas station at some point to make sure you have enough oil before your next oil change." "AND?" I asked again, sure that he was forgetting to tell me some awful news. "And," he said, "that's all."

Wow. That's all. Talk about being taken care of! Now I have $1,400 saved up in my emergency fund JUST for emergencies, and about $250 in another fund that I just started today. A fund I'll use for eventually buying another car with, or for any other big needs.

Thaaaaank you God! You made my day. :)

My Italian F**K YOU

How can I begin to describe how WONDERFUL my day has been today? Should I try to describe? Why yes, I think I shall.

During the past few weeks, my brakes have been squeeking so I figured I needed to get them replaced. So today, I drove to Brake Masters to do just that. To my suprise, after checking them out the girl said, "Actually, your brakes and your brake pads are fine. They're just squeeking because they're not great quality," (a certain family I was staying with this time last year replaced them,) "so you really don't need to get them replaced for at least another 5 months." Phew, I thought. Finally I get a break! But before I decided to leave, I asked her if she could replace my "air filter," because for the past year that I've been going to Wal-Mart for oil changes, they've been telling me I need a new air filter. So ... she takes the air filter out and shows it to me. "No, it's really not that dirty. You don't have to get it replaced. It's fine. But what I'm really suprised about is, why Wal-Mart didn't tell you about this." She said as she pointed to my oil gasket, which was completely stained with oil. "This thing has been leaking, so your oil has been slaushing out." Oh ... so THAT'S why I've been needing an oil change every TWO months, my oil's been disappearing! It was starting to make sense. Usually the cost to replace a leaking oil gasket is about $75. Not bad uh? UNFORTUNETLY, Wal-Mart never even bothered to tell me it was leaking during all of my MANY oil change visits, so oil has been leaking INTO THE ENGINE AND TRANSMISSION of my car. Because they didn't notify me of a MINOR problem, it has now turned into a MAJOR problem.

So today I spent $19.50 to get the air filter replaced, (even though she said I didn't have to do that,) and then I spent another $94 for them to replace the leaking oil gasket and to completely clean out the engine, which was caked in all sorts of crap. They told me to drive it around over the weekend and to bring it back on Monday, where I will most likely have to spend about $800 to get the transmission/engine problems fixed DUE TO THE LEAKING OIL THAT WAL-MART NEVER BOTHERED TELLING ME ABOUT!!!

And as I was driving home from the repair shop, my car was jerking back and forth like it was having a prolonged seizure that lasted the entire 10 minutes I was driving home. (They said it would do that for the first 20-30 minutes because of all the chemicals put into the engine to clean it out.) But nothing beats the fact that my car just DIED as I was pulling out of the parking lot and my favorite purse's strap just BROKE OFF MY PURSE as I was paying at the counter. (And thus spilling all of my crap all over the floor.)

Now, the only problem is: Where do I get the additional $800 to fix this whole ordeal? Good question. I don't F**KING know.

"Don't be, Laaaaame!"

well, I took my first "bar test" at the Elephant Bar today so I can hopefully start my training SOON!!! The test is looooong, (and it's only one test out of about 4,) with over 100 questions. Yuck. I told the manager I was going to totally not be able to answer the questions in the "beer section" of the test because I never got the "beertender" study guide, and he was like, "Ehh that's okay. Just do what you can.' Soooo yeah, I think I did lovely other than that!

In other news, I finished writing and recording the music portion of a song on my keyboard, yay! :D

In other not-so-good news, I bought the magix recording studio for PS2 and was SUPER excited when I found it, (because the one they have for the computer is AWSOME and it's how I made my previous song recordings,) only to find that it TOTALLY SUCKED. And it was the "deluxe edition!" Deluxe edition my butt! It was confusing, the recording on the mike sounded bad, and it didn't even work with the controller so I couldn't use any of the special voice features! LAME. Laaaaaaame. THIS is the one I want and need!

I also realized I'm going home soon to visit- yay! :D

Hmmm ... right now I want something to eat. I'm hungry. And I want a Chris. And a Toasty. And a Michelle. And a Fritz. And - the list goes on!

Study Break! :P

YAY! :D I'm really excited because we managed to "talk down" or rent increase, so now they're only raising our rent by $60 TOTAL! That's only $15 extra per person!(and YAY I can do math, lol!)

I've been studying the bar guide ever since I got off of work this morning, so I thought I deserved a nice little break! You know ... to refresh myself! To regain the energy and strength needed to study!

Ohhhh how I want this Kill Bill jumpsuit! It would go greeeeat with my matching yellow and black nunchukas!

Woops, should probably go take care of some other things so I can get back to studying! :O

Woo and a Hoo.

Oooooouch! Last night in Kung Fu, I totally took a beating! I was working with the nunchukas and Sifu was trying to teach me "one of the most difficult moves in the set," and I totally just BASHED my elbow like 4 times in a row! It's all blue, yellow, and pink now! Hehehe- it's kinda pretty! :P Sifu said I'm "not going to be so cute anymore" because I'm going to be all bruised! AND I also got my "official" Kung Fu uniform, which is ... hot. I mean temperature wise. I think I sweated almost a gallon in it. As Sifu put it, "No more sexy little outfits!" (Although ... I wouldn't really call a pair of black sweat pants and a tank top "sexy" LOL.)

Today at work, (at The Elephant Bar,) my manager just came up to me and was like, "I'm going to give you your bar test at the end of the week to see where you're at." Uhhh ... that's Friday. That's ... TWO days from now. Let's see ... I only have to memorize like a BOOK'S worth of information and a million drinks before Friday- Woo hoo! Better get started!

Tomorrow was SUPPOSED to be my day off but I told some one from Starbucks I would cover a shift for them ... which means I have to get up at 3:45am now. BLAHHHH!!!! I've decided I'm not even going to go to bed before 10:30-11pm because I can't fall asleep before then. My sleep pattern is all jacked!

Chris has been babbling excitedly over the new iPhone, which after looking at, I have to admit looks pretty nifty! Me wants!!!

Well anyhow I'm going to try and go running and start studying all the countless drink recipies I need to memorize!

...

What? You mean I could actually afford a cute little apartment for the price of half a room?

Wait a minute, you say I can afford a cute little one bedroom apartment for what I'm currently paying for HALF a room?

I could even afford a nice apartment for the price of less then ONE room!

:::gasps::: I could even afford a one bedroom, ultra-nice apartment in a really nice community??

Okay ... I think I've made my point. OH- and all of the apartments listed allow cats!!!

NOT happy-making

So ... I'm very hostile at the moment because my roommate Lesley came up to me earlier today and was like, "How much do you pay for rent?" and I was like, "$433," and she said, "Oh. Well starting next month it will probably be $533. They always raise the rent every year." Woah ... $533 PLUS utilities which is about $50 ... which means I'll be paying $588 a month to SHARE A ROOM. Let me repeat that. I'LL BE PAYING $588 A MONTH TO SHARE A ROOM. That is ridiculous. If I was in Missouri, or another state for that matter, I could get a nice 2-3 bedroom apartment for what I'm paying for HALF A ROOM. Not cool. Not happy-making. I really can't afford to pay an EXTRA $100 each month on rent- I already have enough trouble paying it as it is. I could rant all day about this- but I won't. :/

PLUS I have come home TWICE this week when no one was home, only to find that my roommate left the curling iron ON. Not good. Burning down apartment = BAD. That and SOME ONE'S been drinking all my orange juice everytime I buy some. :::SIGH:::

I'm SO fed up with things right now. On the bright side, I love a Chris! And he's only ... what ... 45 miles away? :(

Stupidity

I'm trying to get motivated to go running but I'm so, so very tired ... having to be at work at 4:30am throws off my sleeping patterns! And I need MORE energy after running for Kung Fu tonight ... I've decided that there's just not enough energy to go around right now- lol. OH and I totally burned my finger this morning while at work because of all the people who kept ordering *&%#@! cappucinos!!! Stupid 170 degree foam. lol.

YAY I'm working on a song, (well, a couple actually,) on my keyboard which I'm way excited about! :D

Anyhow this blog isn't very interesting ... no ... no it's not. Maybe I should stop. OR I could keep babbling. I think ... I would like to keep babbling. However, I really need to go running so maybe I should stop. Yes ... I've decided. Because I have other things I need to get done right now, I will stop babbling. :P I'm dumb.

YAY!!! :D

OH BABY!!! Today, I just bought THIS beautiful Yamaha full-size portable grand piano!! :D I'm sooooo excited!

Some Features:

* 88 piano-sized, light-weighted keys are touch sensitive, giving you more flexibility in your creative expression

* 500 instrument voices and 150 accompaniment styles

* USB MIDI and Flash ROM allow you to connect the keyboard to your computer and the Internet for more lessons, and so you can download your written/recorded songs onto your computer to put them on a cd

* Interactive Yamaha Education Suite makes playing easier and more fun for novices with lessons, grading and 100 songs to learn

* Large backlit LCD display

* Easy song arranger and 6-track sequencer

* Includes matching stand, power adapter and quick-start DVD

PLUS- Chris bought the new Karaoke Revolution: American Idol game yesterday! SOOOO excited right now! :D

Woah.

Woah. Today at work was SO busy- which is good! (That is, when the hostess doesn't seat you like 6 tables all at the same time!) Yeeeeah. Stressful. The picture above was me today at work. AND I got my poor wrist smashed while at work. :( Youch. It hurts.

For New Years Eve I had two options: a.) Either sit in my apartment by myself with no tv, dvd player, OR computer, or b.) Go spend it with Chris at his daddy's house in Chino Hills. I chose "b." :P

We watched the movie "Cars," (which was just as funny as when I saw it with Michelle over the summer,) ate pizza, talked, watched "American Dreamz," and played Scene-It.(Which Chris won and I lost!) Grrrr. Although, I WOULD have come in second-to-last if Chris' brother John hadn't gotten a double roll at the last minute! Blasted double takes! :P

In celebration of the new year I was going to post my "new years resolutions" in today's blog- but I think that's going to have to wait until tomorrow. I'm hungry and I need to do laundry!

Happy '07!

Since I probably won't be writing tomorrow, (seeing that the library will be closed,) HAPPY NEW YEAR! Woo hoo!!! May your 2007 be as lovely as 2006 was! (Or, if you had a crappy 2006,) may your 2007 be better than your 2006 was! :P

The Day of Bitches

Today in the mail I got a book called, "The Total Money Makeoever" by Dave Ramsey from my dad and Carolyn, (-AND a cd with a compilation of broadway musical songs!) While this book probably sounds boring to most people, I'm actually stupidly excited about reading it! I skimmed over it before work today and it looks to be full of usefull information, (AND in the section I just happened to read the author makes a reference to ROCKY!) Heehee. :P Anyhow, maybe this book will help me to avoid future financial woes. :D ALWAYS a good thing.

I also had to wait on (pardon me,) a complete and utter bitch at The Elephant Bar today. I was so pissed at one point that I was brought to tears. After she left, all the other servers were like, "Man, she seemed like a bitch!" It was her birthday. No wait- it was her DAD'S birthday. Does that give her the right to be a bitch? I don't think so. Then I got another table. Two snobby looking women- and OH- it was one of their birthdays. Ohhh goody. That was fun. And GUESS what happened after that??? ANOTHER birthday. I mean- what about birthdays makes people think they have the right to be a total rude bitch? (I'm just having fun using the word bitch right now because I never say it- can you tell?) Yeah. Today was the day of bitches.

Christmas Robot Chickens

So last night while at Chris' place, I discovered a television show that made me laugh so hard I wanted to wet myself! (Ok ... maybe not "want" to wet myself ... more like ... involuntarily wet myself!) Heehee. :P It's called Robot Chicken- and the FUNNY thing is, at first I thought it looked really dumb. I mean, I was just like, "Ahrrg. Look at this crap on tv!" But, as I began to watch it, it was really quite funny. In fact, the more I watched, the funnier it became! (There was a marathon on last night- and I was all drugged up because I was having the worst period cramps EVER!!!) I'd LIKE to say that it was so funny because of all the drugs but ... but no. It's funny. :P

I spent almost an entire week at Chris' place, which was really nice. (Even though I was uber sad my flight got canceled, at least I get to go home next month!)We finally got diamond records on all the songs on Karaoke Revolution Party- after singing 'Brick House' about a MILLION times!!!! GAHHHH!!! I hate that song. We also watched lots of movies, like 'Superman', 'The Family Stone', 'Hide and Seek', 'The Nightmare Before Christmas', 'Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire', 'Just Friends', and 'Little Shop of Horrors.' Fun times!

Christmas Eve I spent with Chris and his family over at his grandma's house- talking, eating, and having a jolly good time. There I was presented with part of my Christmas present from Chris- The limited edition 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas' dvd and ... 'ROBOCOP 2'!!!! Heeheehee. Yes, I'm aware that many readers will be confused by my excitment over this particular dvd. He also got me the PLUTO special edition Cartoon Classics- very exciting. OH and he bought me dinner at the Olive Garden, YUMMY. Oh AND a ticket to 'Rocky Balboa'- yay!

Chris and I stayed at his dad's apartment Christmas eve night- along with his brothers and his brother's girlfriend ... where I had a dream about his brother David wetting the bed ... but ... THAT'S beside the point! LOL. Oh and we went to Denny's on Christmas- Tasty!

And there you have it ladies and gentleman, my Christmas week! :D

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! (Or, as my brother would say, CHRIS-mas, lol.) Chris and I are about to watch Robocop 2! Heeheehee. And heeee.

Chris' quote of the day: (As he's speaking to me,) "No wonder I'm attracted to you. You're like a female David!" (David, by the way, is Chris' younger BROTHER. Yeah. Need I say more? ... ehem ... brotherly love.)

"I'll NOT be Home for Christmas"

Right now, I'm sitting in Chris' apartment listening to Chris sing the song, "Sweet Caroline" as nasty images flow through my head ... ewww ... yuck. (Sorry, inside joke.) I also just got done watching "The Nightmare Before Christmas," which was quite jolly. (Mizzy and I watch it every year!)

Well, I was SUPPOSED to fly home last Wednesday, (the 20th,) but unfortunetly, my plane got canceled that morning due to a blizzard in Denver, (which is where my layover was.) So, I desperately tried calling the airline (United,) THREE times, but couldn't get through, so Chris drove me to the airport in hopes that I could talk to a person ... NOT so much. The guy in charge gave me a number to call ... the SAME number I had tried calling earlier. So I tried calling AGAIN, and finally got through after almost an HOUR of waiting and listening to MUZAK. In short, I ended up having to get a refund, (seeing that my plane was CANCELED,) and I TRIED to get on a different plane, but everything was already full. (Of course.) So I tried ANOTHER airline. All the flights were booked for that day. AND the next day. AND the day after that. The only flight they had open was for Saturday night for about $700. I was like, "Uhhh ... I don't THINK so!" So yeah, I won't be home for Christmas. :::sniff sniff::: I cried at the airport. :( (Although, I DID book a plane home at the end of January, with my roundtrip, NONSTOP flight costing a total of ONLY $167!) :D

I'm really sad I won't be able to see my family/friends over Christmas, and that I won't be able to do all the Christmas "traditions" that I've done ever since I was a little kid. Oh well, I guess that means I'll just have to create some new ones. :)

Since I had taken an entire week off of work, I've been staying at Chris' apartment, which has been quite nice, because normally he's swamped with school and work. We've been watching movies, playing Karaoke Revolution, going to Cinnabon, (yummy!) etc. The other night, we went to go see Rocky Balboa, which was actually quite good! (I admit to having developed a soft spot for good old Rocky!) :P When we got out of the theatre, Chris said, "That was a holy experience." LOL.

Anyway, that's about it. I'm covering a shift for some one at the Elephant Bar tomorrow night, and then I'm spending Christmas Eve and Christmas with Chris and his family. Should be nice! :) (I told him this means that he needs to come to MISSOURI next Christmas!) Heehee.

BLOCKED

Ok so first things first: I officially can't check myspace anymore at the library ... which ... sucks because the library is the only place I currently have access to a computer! So if anyone sends me a messasge on myspace and I don't respond right away, that's why. I'll be able to check it every once in a while on Chris' laptop most likely, but that's it. (When the office area in my apartment is done being remodeled I'll have access to myspace again, but that could be another 2 months or so!) But yeah. Grrrr. Annoying.

Speaking of being BLOCKED ...

The other day Roger, who I shall now call my EX, (I don't usually like the title "EX" just because it sounds so harsh, but he just earned it,) sent me a message on myspace that said, "You have a bunch of mail at my house..." (Because I used to live there and then moved) And that's it. So, I responded by saying, "Oh it's probably junk mail, which can go in the trash can." That's a reasonable response right? I mean, I answered his question! Nope. I guess he was making some lame attempt to get me to come over to his house, because he responded all offended, "That's all you have to say???" And now, as of yesterday, he has deleted me from his friends list on myspace and has set his profile to "private," which means I can no longer view it because I've been booted off his friends list. LAME. If he's hoping that I'm going to message him all upset about it he's going to be sorely disappointed because he's not going to get any sort of rise out of me. That and the fact that I don't love him- I love CHRIS.

Oh and I went to the Kung Fu Christmas party over the weekend, which was fun. (But COLD.) And there was a giant cooked pig with the face, ears, etc. all still attached. NASTY. I didn't like pork much before- but I DEFINETLY don't want it now!!!

Watch Out!

As of last night's Kung Fu class, I'm now the proud owner of this little baby! (Much to the displeasure of Chris, who says I'll hurt myself with them more than anyone else, lol!) Although, mine have a cooler picture of Bruce Lee on them, heeheehee. I've already learned the first "strand" in the nunchukas form! (And I've already bruised my elbow!) Yay! :P

On a side note, I'm really annoyed with myspace. I have to use the computers at the library, which work fine, and usually work with myspace. They're working just fine, (as in I have no trouble opening any sites,) EXCEPT since yesterday, myspace won't open. It wouldn't open yesterday and it won't open today. GRRRR. It's starting to frustrate me!!! Mehhhh!!!

I was going to write an entire blog on the lovely Christmas party we held at my apartment on Saturday, but I keep finding other things to write about ... sooo ... I'll just say that it was lots of fun, Chris came, the apartment was all purty with candles and decorations, there was lots of cakes and pies, I wore a really cute shirt, we had a random gift exchange and I got post-it notes with love messages on them, and Chris ended up with a hangover from drinking too much wine. :P OH and we accidentally violated Santa-Pirate. LOL.

Dreams

If you read my last blog, you would know that I had those "stressful" and annoying type of dreams on Sunday night. By stressful, I mean that all night long I dreamt I was at work, (The Elephant Bar,) BY MYSELF, and everything was going wrong. I was the only waitress working, the food wasn't getting made, etc. When I woke up, I felt like I had been working all night!

Well, yesterday Chris asked me what type of dreams I had after he read my blog, and when I told him he responded, "Oh. Usually when girlfriends say they had a bad dream, it involves their boyfriends ... like chopping off their boyfriends' heads!"

Well ... SINCE he brought that up, my brain decided it would be a lovely idea to take Chris' words literally and give me stressful dreams involving my boyfriend last night. Hehehe. The dream was kind of funny actually ...

I don't remember exactly where we were ... outside in some part of Los Angeles probably. I was sitting there waiting for Chris, and he came up to me carrying a fuzzy blanket and a fuzzy jacket. He said (in a gushing tone,) "Allison, I spent all day Sunday with my ex ... and she's become such a nice person! She's so wonderful, and she gave me this soft blanket and jacket. I just love them. And I love her too ... so ... I'm afraid it's over between us." And just like that, I had been dumped! Obviously I was quite upset about this in my dream, and I found the whole blanket thing utterly retarded. (lol.)

Afterwards, I had another dream in which I was really upset that Chris dumped me, and I was going to my Kung Fu private lesson when my TEACHER began hitting on me. I was like, "I want a CHRIS- NOT a Kisu! Daaaaaamn!" Hehehehe.

I blame having these dreams on Chris, lol. Thank you darling! :P

A Bumpy Morning

Warning: This e-mail contains ranting.

Today ... is NOT making me happy. Yep- it's been one of those days.

It started with me having stressful crappy dreams all night ... you know ... the dreams that cause you to wake up all stressed and upset? And even though they clearly didn't actually happen, they get the day off to a bad start anyway?

I opened at Starbucks this morning at 4:30am, and whoever closed the store last night seemed to have forgotten their job, because NOTHING was stocked. Arg. But that's beside the point. The point is, I was working on bar and was in the proccess of making a nonfat latte with extra foam. As I was about to put on the foam, this young, twenty-something, brown-haired, name-brand-wearing girl poaks her head over and says, "No I don't want that foam. I want GOOD foam." "What do you mean?" I asked, seeing as how I had just freshly prepared the foam. "That's too runny." She pointed out. "Oh, that's because it's fresh. It has to sit for a little while in order to stiffen up-" "Well I'll wait here all day, I want my foam." She snapped. At this point, I was getting annoyed. Fast. So I let it sit there until the foam was nice and stiff, and was ABOUT to pour it in the cup when she says, "I want you to make my latte over. It's old now." I had to keep my lips tightly together in order to stop myself from saying something rude. So, I make the latte. AGAIN. For the third time, I'm about to start putting the foam on when, "I wanted nonfat foam." Well THANKS for telling that to me NOW after I made it with regular milk! I thought. I responded, "Make it yourself, bitch." (No not really, but I WANTED to!)So I went through the whole proccess again, with nonfat milk. Keep in mind that we're really busy and I have a whole line of drinks to make. Finally, I top off her f**king latte and she just gives me this glare that says, "It's still not good enough, but I'm sick of waiting." Seriously, I almost lost it.

To top things off, I was walking home from work almost 2 hours ago, and decided to take the stairs instead of the elevator. As I entered the stairwell, there were these two squirrels inside chasing and playing with each other. I laughed to myself because they looked like the ones from 'The Sword in the Stone.' Unfortunetly for me, I was so distracted by the squirrels that my head crashed into the sharp edge of this large, metal thing below the stair case. OW!!! %$#@! I knew it was a bad sign when I had to immediately sit down on the spot in order to stop myself from blacking out. After 2-3 minutes or so, I continued walking up the stairs and took off my Starbucks cap to feel how bad of a bump it was. I knew it was ALSO a bad sign when I looked at my hand and it was all smeared in blood. Yuck. By the time I got to my apartment my hair was all matted in a red sticky mess. Luckily, Kara helped me hold ice and paper towells on it, but now I have a gigantic bump and large gaping gash on the side of my head. I showered to wash the blood out of my hair, but two hours later, as I sit here and type, my head is STILL bleeding and I feel dizzy and tired. Oh and my eyes are having a hard time focusing ... and my hands feel almost a little numb ... is that a bad sign? Hehehe. I think I'll probably go take a nap shortly to stop the pounding ... good night! (Or afternoon!)

Barista to Bartender

So today I finally got my bartending training manuel so I can be a bartender at the Elephant Bar! What does this mean? It means that, a.) I'll hopefully be making alot more money, b.) I'll know how to make ALL sorts of drinks, and c.) I have to memorize about a MILLION different drinks over the next couple of days. (Yeah, "c" is the one I'm not really looking foward to, lol.) Oh well. I'm rather excited to extend my knowledge of drink making from espresso drinks to alcoholic ones! =)

This morning Sifu, (my Kung Fu teacher,) woke me up by calling me at 8:10am to see if I wanted to have a private lesson today! Unfortunetly, I had to decline because I had to work ... that and my calf muscle still hurts from pulling it during Tuesday's class.

Yesterday while I was at Chris', I watched 'E.T.,' a movie I hadn't seen in probably a decade! It was quite cute. Afterwards, I watched 'War of the Worlds,' which was pretty good ... although I'm still rooting for E.T.- definetly the cuter alien. :P

Well, I'm starving so I'm going to go stuff my face with whatever I can find in the pantry, good night all!

A Yummy Weekened

Damn I'm full! My dad and Carolyn came out to visit me this weekend and we went out to eat 4 times! BUT- it was quite yummy for the tummy! :P

They got here Saturday morning, so I of course gave them a "grand tour" of my apartment and the surrounding area, which included the park, The Grove, and The Farmers Market. We ate lunch at The CheeseCake Factory, (which I hadn't eaten at since Trevor and I saw Barry Manilow in Chicago YEARS ago,) and it was reeeeally good.

Saturday night, Chris came over (for the first time!) so I of course gave him "the tour" as well. He arrived almost 2 hours earlier than I was expecting, and my parents were at their hotel taking a nap, and all my roommates were at work ... soooo ... yeah ... we came up with a way to kill time! ;) Heehee. And some more heee. Yummy. I got us reservations at Maggianos at the Grove, and dinner was super yummy. We talked with "the parents" and overall, I thought it was a lovely evening! (I almost choked on my pasta when my dad said he thought Chris looked a little like TREVOR, L0L!) Now THAT was funny. Hmmm- must've been the hair. And Chris almost choked on his pizza when Carolyn started talking about how she watched The Jesus movie in mandrin Chinese- lol.

Sunday my dad, Carolyn, and I drove up to Malibu and took some pretty pictures at this little secluded beach. We found a cute restaurant right on the beach and ate lunch there, (I got french toast,) and my dad ordered fish tacos ... something he's been obsessed with for awhile now. Afterwards, we went to The Beverly Center, (a huge mall,) because my dad wanted to see the shops and he was convinced that a "Woody Allen film might have been filmed there!" Unfortunetly, he was sorely disappointed when he realized it wasn't the right mall. THEN after THAT, Carolyn wanted to see some "mansions," so I gave them a little tour of Beverly Hills. To top the day off, we headed to The Elephant Bar for dinner, (where I was subjected to being embarrassed by Carolyn by being forced to take pictures in front of the big elephant head, with LOTS of people watching ...) On the way home, my dad wanted me to show him where the Jay Leno show is filmed, (because it's in Burbank,) sooo we did that too!

And THAT, ladies and gentleman, was my weekend. =)

Kicking Butt

Yay! After Kung Fu last night, my teacher pulled me aside and said that he's been really impressed with my dedication, hard work, and with the way I've excelled in the class, so he wants to give me private lessons once a week to teach me "techniques that he doesn't teach to just anyone in regular class!" Isn't that cool? He also said to "keep it a secret because other students might get jealous"- OOPS- looks like I just leaked the secret! =P But none of you are IN the class so it doesn't matter! Oh yeah, and the picture above is tooootally me! I even wear a hoodie to practice when it's cold! =)

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!