I had to look for my old cell phones this week so my sister could turn them in and get the $50 mail in rebate from Cingular... I didn't realize how much junk I accumulated in my apartment in less than 2 years. I need to take an entire weekend and just organize everything in my apartment! I have a lot of those Office Depot white boxes stacked up in my closets filled with useless junk I don't need (great set decorators for Office Space by the way - Peter has some stacked up in his apartment also). Anyway, I found a case of CDs I forgot I had... 98 Degrees!! They were my favorite boy band because they were the cutest group... except for Justin. I don't know why Monica ever thought he was the cutest but we made fun of her taste all the time. Like I was telling Steph, Justin from 98 Degrees soils the Justin name :). Nick was my favorite and watching Newlyweds makes me like him even more. He and Drew are so cute when they hang out! So now, the CDs I have in my car are: 1. Justin Guarini, 2. Justin Timberlake Justified, 3. Tyrese (the newest one) (just so when Dante drives my car he can't complain about me only having gay CDs in my changer), 4. 98 Degrees (and Rising), 5. Pop mix CD, and 6. 80s mix CD. My five minute commute only lets me listen to two to three songs a day.

Back to the cell phone bit - I found this old old old Sony phone I had for Sprint... this was when people first got cell phones and gave up their pagers. Must have been around 1996-1997. The thing was huge and heavy!! I know that when the Cingular people open the box for the rebate, they're gonna laugh at how ancient it is. Its amazing how small cell phones have gotten now. The Sony one was about the size of a TV remote...

In other news, I love Bruce Willis... I cried in Armageddon (won't give it away for people who haven't seen it).

I caught the tail end of the Bachelor last night - just the rose ceremony... this one woman was crying hysterically because she wasn't picked. It's the first freakin episode and she's talking about how her heart is broken on national TV. What, she knew the guy for like 2 days? And she already knew what she was getting into with the show! Its not like he misled her or anything, he just didn't show any interest in her.

Amy's boyfriend Rob needs a place to stay and Amy's parents don't want him living with her so I offered our living room for him to stay at a couple nights a week. Right now he's staying with her friend in Santa Barbara and he has class at Pasadena City College one day a week. That is a hell of a commute, even if it's for one day! He was talking about payment and we were just joking around - I told him buy me From Justin to Kelly but he can't buy it online. He has to go to a store so someone can see him buy it. I was telling Mike about this and Mike said that wasn't enough. He has to wear a "Justin Guarini Rules!" shirt so people know he's buying the movie for himself and not a sister. I've hung out with Rob three times and we're already on terms where we make fun of each other relentlessly. How does a relationship like that start anyway?? I just realized that this is the way I am with my close Asian male friends (Mike and Steve mainly) - I have no romantic interest in them so I feel comfortable around them. When I first met Rob, I told Amy "he's really good looking for an Asian." That�s a huge compliment coming from me :).

The assistant is single handedly keeping the copier/fax repair service in business!! The admin person made a comment yesterday, �It seems like every time she touches the copier, something happens to it.� She burned her hand trying to fix a paper jam a couple months ago and I don�t know why she tries to figure out how to fix anything wrong with that machine. She breaks it because she simply can�t just hit �COPY/START� � I don�t know what fancy shit she tries to do with it. I honestly don�t know how she survives. This girl is dumber than Jessica Simpson!! Eileen and I were comparing her to Milton from Office Space, where it�s just impossible to try to talk to her about anything.

I got the 24 Season 2 DVDs last weekend but I haven�t started yet. I know that when I do start, that�s all I�ll be doing non-stop for the couple weeks (there are 7 DVDs this time and a lot of deleted scenes � I gotta watch the whole season first just the way they showed them on FOX and then re-watch the season with the deleted scenes added).

I am such a spoiled brat. I was telling my mom I was going to Costco to get those DVDs and I asked her if she wanted anything from there. She wanted these two little cleaning supplies and then she gave me enough money for everything. I want to be able to do that for my kids someday. My mom, sis and I had lunch on Sunday and whenever we go out, we never worry about the price of anything, we just order whatever we feel like. Shark fin soup costs like $20 a bowl (!!) and my parents are cool with it. We spend $200+ on certain dinners� that�s TiVO right there!! If I spend $20 on a meal, I think it�s too much, but that�s cause I don�t make too much and I�m just used to fending for myself. I don�t know how I survived before I got my raise. I�m still broke all the time!

The California Recall debates are on right now and I can tell a lot of people are watching it. My neighbor in the next building is watching it the same way he watches sports. I can hear him cheering on Arnold so I guess he's on my good side now (he usually roots against the Raiders and Lakers). Everytime Arianna Huffington speaks, he yells "shut up! shut up!"

I can't believe these candidates are supporting the drivers licenses for illegals without security checks, etc!! Arnold didn't want to come out and say, "They're illegal!!" (he talked about security risks instead) but I'm glad McClintock did at least (he said they cut in line and we're rewarding them for it). The other three candidates were talking about how great illegal immigrants are for this state. For all the hard-working illegals out there, there are enough of the opposite. And, so many legal residents don't have auto insurance, what makes them think the illegals will get auto insurance now that they have legal drivers licenses? The law Gray Davis signed sucks for a million reasons but mostly it makes it easier for terrorists to change their identities and assimulate into our society.

Stan is at a seminar today :)...

This week has completely sucked. Emmys sucked and the show was boring. No one I wanted to win really won anything (except The Daily Show). I think the only time my favorites won most of the awards at any show was the Oscars the year Titanic won everything. Kiefer was looking cute but he looked out of place at an Emmys and not an Oscars. I really really wanted him to win... I wanted 24 to win also but the same old shows always win. Geez, how did I know Sopranos and West Wing was gonna win everything. Sopranos gave us a break last year when they took a season off.

The thing that sucked the most this week is the Raiders game last night. It was unbelievably horrible!! I owe a couple Broncos fans dinner now. :( We have this bet twice every year though and I got lucky last year. Oh wait - I remember something that sucked even more. The UCLA - Oklahoma game. I knew we didn't have a shot against the #1 team in the country but still, we coulda at least scored half as many points as they did!! Steve and I were talking about the good old days when we were in college and we had an amazing football team led by Cade McNown and we were ranked #2 in the nation... we went into games knowing we'd win, the only question was by how much. (We beat Texas 66-3 one year). We don't know how that feels anymore. Say what you want about Cade McNown now, but back in college, he was an incredibly smart QB. If we just needed a yard or two, he would go to the line of scrimmage with no play called and just draw the defense offsides. We had a fun offense with a ton of trick plays - our WRs would throw passes to the QB sometimes... Ah, the good old days. We're lucky to score anything this season.

At lunch today, I watched the suckfest that is Passions. I can't believe Sheridan is still in that basement!! And I thought she was sleeping when they kidnapped her so why is she wearing high heels?? She's been in that damn basement since July and her kidnappers are 2 females who aren't always armed. Why the hell doesn't she run for it and try to escape?? Stupid Sheridan voluntarily gets in position for the kidnapper to tie her up with masking tape after asking them, "What are you doing??". Kim from 24 escaped/attempted to escape from kidnappers so many times and they definitely had guns! So today, one of the kidnappers was attempting to take Sheridan somewhere else and then Sheridan thought she heard Luis's voice. Instead of yelling "Luis" like she has been for however many months she was in the basement, she does nothing. Oh, I guess the kidnapper stopped her from yelling by softly placing a hand over her mouth - that's why she didn't yell. So they get back in the room and she waits until the door is closed before she starts yelling "Luis!!" Oh my god. I think this is why I love 24 so much - they don't treat the viewers like idiots.

Forbes' List of 400 Richest Americans - I envy each and every person on this list, but can someone tell me how the person who came up with Beanie Babies ended up #30 on this list? $6 billion dollars just from selling those little stuffed animals?? One of my clients gets the FSB magazine (Fortune Small Business) and this month's issue has more stories on how people got started (Hugh Hefner, Kate Spade, Charles Schwab, Tom Golisano (Paychex), Tom Monaghan (Domino's Pizza) ...). I don't know if I could ever be that innovative but you have to take a huge chance to make it big. I was reading about how Kate and Andy Spade struggled when they first started and they were thinking about closing the business because they were putting all their money into their business while all their friends were buying their first homes and putting money into the stock market. It just seems like they were destined to succeed. That goes for all these people who are profiled in the magazine. I want to read about someone who tried and failed miserably! (just to make me feel better). I've only failed to get something I really wanted once in my life (I'm still young) so I need a reality check.

Yahoo! News - Tens of Thousands Warned to Flee Isabel - Isabel looks too much like Israel... I thought something huge was happening... and that Bush would somehow get blamed for it.

Some GEMS from the *brilliant* assistant... the exact text of some memos she wrote us:

1) After Stan and I discussed, we have agreement that I will work part time temporarily, and the schedule will be from 11:00 am to 5:00 pm. This schedule is adjustable according to my doctor appointment or other physical necessities. I appreciate your time and understanding for this request.

2) I have an appointment with M**** M**** International on Friday Sep 19, 2003 at 1:30 a.m., and I won't be in until 5:00 p.m. If you have anything that needs me done, please let me know earlier.

1:30 AM?? Is that a booty call?? I had to block out the name of the company in case someone knows them because I don't want them to know what a dumbass bookkeeper they're stuck with. (Or bookeeper, according to her resume). I was going nuts last week because I had to go through and do work on some files and she either puts stuff in the wrong client file or she doesn't file them chronologically. An easy 20 minute task turned into an hour of cleaning up the file. Eileen told me, "Don't blame her. Filing wasn't on her resume. FILLING was."

Oh yeah - something I forgot to mention earlier. Roomie's boyfriend came by Saturday (don't know how he got in, I was asleep) and I guess the roomie was hanging out with some other guy in her room. All I heard was yelling, banging, knocking stuff over, etc... He kicked a hole in her door so big she has trouble opening and closing the door to her room now. The instant I heard him leave, I signed off instant messaging onto my other name. I didn't want to deal with that shit anymore. Fucker was back the next night. Yeah, I don't expect to see any of my security deposit after I move out.

FINISHED!!!! I finally finished 24 and damn, that was a good ending! I was up til 3AM last night watching it because I couldn't stop. The show was perfectly cast too, even the guest stars. I don't think anyone could have done a better job in those roles. I never thought I would like Kiefer so much either. (It's not as bad as liking Nicholas Cage) He sorta became a nobody after Julia Roberts broke off their engagement but now I like him better than I like her.

I also caught the repeat of Sex and the City. I kinda knew it would happen but ... BLAIR!!! I know Miranda loves Steve but Blair is perfect!! If she doesn't want him, I'll take him. He's a doctor for the Knicks too... I loved last week's episode when he offered Steve the courtside seats and Steve turned him down because of pride - "Naw, I like sitting up in the nosebleed seats."

Is $10k more a year worth a commute from West LA to Pasadena?? I'm so used to my five minute commute to work, to not having to work hard, to having lunch with Dante every day... but Debbie IMed me yesterday telling me that she left Deloitte to work at a mid-tier firm, they're hiring like crazy over there, and she has lunch with the recruiting manager all the time. It's a tax position and it's a better career path than I'm on right now. (I don't know if they'd hire me because I don't have the relevant tax experience though.) I like what I'm doing now, but business management for celebs won't get me that far later on. Jay told me this when I almost left to go work with him last year. I'd have to get my own clients if I wanted to make it big. Eileen has been here for 8 years and she doesn't make that much and they're not gonna make her a partner here. I've reached as far as I can get at this company also and I've only been here 2 years. I'm in charge of a couple client accounts. Whoohoo. We have an incompetent assistant here who would probably be given my job if I left. Hmmm... thats scary. I don't know if I can do that to my clients. :) But anyway, at a mid-tier accounting firm, you move from staff/associate to senior to manager and maybe even partner with time. You can even go into the private sector after working at these places. I'm not sure about mid-tier firms, but the Big 4 accounting firms give you laptops, meal expenses, pay for your travel and all these extra perks. I'd have to work harder but thats what I thought I would be doing at this age - work my ass off so I can make more $$ later on just sitting on my ass and bossing people around. We'll see what happens. I don't want to get my hopes up.

My brother was in a car accident this weekend. He was sitting in the passenger seat of an BMW M3, it was 12 midnight, they were driving 120 on the canyon roads in OC. They hit a water spot, the car went out of control, flipped a couple times and landed upside down. My bro and the driver (19 year old white guy from a rich family) were just lucky to be alive but my bro has scars on his face from the glass and the driver got this huge gash on his head (you could see his scalp). My brother did tell me something funny though - he said when they were telling the cops that they smelled gas so they hurried and got out of the car and ran, the cops told them, "You guys watch too much TV." In every movie/TV show, cars explode after they crash. You come to expect it. Anyway, I'm just glad they're ok. If anyone out there races, DON'T DO IT!!! Its SO not worth whatever high you get from it. We knew a guy in high school whose brother died while racing one of my mom's friend's sons. The mom's friend's son just left the guy there too and drove off and I can't remember if they charged him with anything but the mom of the guy who died had a nervous breakdown. Just not worth it.

There's this girl who Mike doesn't like talking to but who calls him all the time. He complains to me on AIM that she's on the phone yakking and how the hell can someone talk so much! I told him to come up with a list of excuses to get off the phone, like Seinfeld did. He came up with, "My pimp is coming over, gotta go." I told him, "No NERD!! You're the pimp!! You're supposed to be the pimp! You're supposed to say, 'My hos are coming over, gotta go.'" Hmmm... I wonder if anyone remembers the sweet old Lucy from high school and college. I've changed so much.

I'm watching the UCLA game right now and I look at all those students in the crowd, especially the freshmen... its their first year, first football game, first time living away from home, etc... so much to look forward to in their next 4 years. I miss that time in my life. When I knew so much was possible, when I didn't have any worries about anything but studying, laundry, finding a TV before Friends and Seinfeld came on... and getting up to Hedrick Hall for dinner because the basketball team ate up there. I feel so old! I had a great time at UCLA and I wouldn't trade that for the world. When I was there, our football team didn't SUCK either! Wait, they did my senior year but the first 3 years were so good that it made up for the last year. It was so good those first 3 years, it made me think Cade McNown was the cutest. I'm not even gonna get into that.

finished another disc and a half... so much has happened already and I'm only a little more than halfway though the season!

finished 3 discs!! So I've sat through 12 hours of full concentration. This show is affecting my mental health though - I don't trust anyone and I'm paranoid that people are out to get me.

Mike and I are planning a 2 season marathon when he gets back for winter break. We figure we need about 48 hours total because each episode is probably about 45 minutes (without the commercials) so TV time would be about 36 hours. We also requested a little break between seasons, a couple breaks to get food and a couple bathroom breaks.

So someone's car was booted because of unpaid parking tickets... right in front of his job too!! I'm nervous cause he's driving my car to work now. He drops me off, goes to work, picks me up for lunch and picks me up after work. Actually, we trade off on who drops who off - I have a parking spot in the garage though so its easier for me. Good thing we live/work so close. This forces me to be good though - I can't sneak out if I don't have the car.

I've been way to busy watching my 24 Season 1 DVDs to do anything else recently. I'm on hour 10 right now and it is so gooooooooooood!! So many twists and turns! I've always been a spoilers freak but I discovered how much fun it is to watch something without knowing what's gonna happened next. Steve better get used to me IMing him "that bitch ****!! I can't believe she did that!" :) (I won't ruin it for people who haven't watched but seriously, you SHOULD watch!) I watched bits and pieces of season 2 when FX had that marathon on Labor Day but now that I know the characters - WOW. Another show to add to my roster of shows I watch... basically, anything on TV. I need my TiVO before the fall season starts!

I still like my roommate but damn, stuff she does unintentionally BUGS me! She's 21 so I just ignore what she does because she's young and she doesn't know any better, but still. Apparently she has all these guys in love with her... she was whining to me one day, "My boyfriend wants me to stop talking to other guys. I can't do that!! I don't know what to do with all these guys. They all tell me they love me. You're lucky, you only have one." Am I wrong to be offended by that? (And besides, I'd rather have my ONE instead of all those ugly ass guys you talk to!) I was a little pissed off when Dante told me she was in my room hanging out with him and watching TV on Saturday after Jenny and I left to go to my sister's apartment to tan. She also told him that those other girls he talks to (2 of them came by the apartment) are pretty. What the hell is up with that? And why was she in my room kicking it with him?? If they were in her room, fine, he went to talk to her. But its different when she goes to my room to talk to him. I don't go to her room to hang out with her boyfriend when she's not there. That fucker keeps messaging me to bitch and moan about her but I'll get to that later. I never hung out with Eileen's husband or Kristi's boyfriend. I think its crossing the line - am I overreacting??

Ok - on to her boyfriend. Everything was cool Saturday night, I was in my room watching 24 :) and then I hear a bunch of noise outside my room and then I hear the door slam and I heard him start his car. (He doesn't lock the freaking door to our apartment anytime, especially when he leaves the apartment mad, which REALLY pisses me off - we don't live in a gated building and its not like this is the Friends set where they can always leave the doors unlocked.) I shoulda signed off AIM right then and there but at least I'll know for next time. (Add uclalu to your buddy lists - thats the screen name I use when I don't want to talk to certain people.) So, he gets home, he gets on IM and starts messaging me and I couldn't pretend like I wasn't there because I was chatting with some other people so it doesn't do the "idle" thing for me. He goes on to BITCH and MOAN about how bad his life is, how bad she treats him, etc. for 3 FREAKING HOURS!! After the first hour, I kept telling him every IM - You need to get some sleep, blah blah blah. (trying to throw in a HINT)... I even had to turn off 24 because I was rewinding every 2 minutes. That was pissing me off more, wasting my time while I was watching 24. Some things I found out during those 3 hours. 1) He parks his car across the street from our apt to see what time she comes home, who she comes home with, etc. 2) He goes up the other set of stairs to look into our apt to see if she is hanging out with anyone in the kitchen. 3) He checks her email, instant messaging. (Great, 2 fucking stalkers for our apartment... some of you can guess who the other person is - "bean bag"). He talked about how badly she treats him, how she made him come that one night and take her to 3 places to buy food for this guy she was hanging out with that day and she prepared the food for the guy, had the boyfriend give her chopsticks, spoons, napkins, etc. to give to that guy (my reply: Why do you put up with it then??)... how she calls him fat and ugly... how he has to lie to his parents to spend time with her and how she wants him to spend the night all the time and he can't do that (She just needs attention, when she sees me having fun with Dante, she'll get all moody and stuff)... how he's not enrolled for classes this quarter because you gotta be there the first day of class and that day she wanted him to take her to an interview for this job that she just started and she doesn't like now (You can't live your whole life around her. You need to do stuff on your own. Nicer way of saying - Get a Life.) The thing is, I DON'T CARE!!! Bitching and moaning to me isn't gonna do anything except waste my time and make me avoid you next time. You're not even my friend!!! Get a freakin blog to bitch and moan! :) I can put up with bitching and moaning from my friends cause they're my friends and thats what we do! This idiot needs to get some friends and get a life. He kept telling me how much it hurts, how its over, etc... Whatever. I knew the idiot would be back over the next day and to my *absolute* amazement he was.

I need to get my own place. I've had that scene from Home Alone running through my head lately - where Macaulay Culkin is jumping on the bed yelling, "I'm living alone! I'm living alone!" *sigh* Someday.

2 nights ago on Big Brother they had an update on Justin and the other people in the jury house... Justin and Nathan were talking about how Justin got his "cardio" in with Dana. Dana is so ugly and so manly!! Just in the right place at the right time. I was thinking about earlier this week when Dante and I were talking about Janet Jackson and Jermaine Dupri (this was before we read about her dumping him over the phone) - how we don't know what she sees in him. Chris Rock was saying on the MTV VMAs that "It's like a Bentley being on sale for $4 and you just missed buying it!" Anyway, thats how I feel about Justin and his "exercise partner".

So Stan had a date last night!! Heehee, and I'm publicizing it to everyone. When Eileen found out she called me right away and we were planning on going by to see what this lady looked like... what type of person would consider going out with Stan. We're so mean :).