Wish I had a fucking boss who didn't lose things all the time, yell at you to find it and two months later, come to you and tell you he found the shit on his desk. Aargh!

First of all, MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Secondly, Whoohoo - there's gonna be a Seinfeld DVD! Kramer Cracks in "Seinfeld" Feud! Even though we've all seen every episode of this show ten million times, the DVD will be good to have. I wonder if they'll have deleted scenes like they do for the Friends DVDs.

I'm sitting here at work looking at all the cars going into Westside Pavilion from Overland (this is the view from my window - thats the mall on the upper left)... damn, the traffic is bad! Westside Pavilion sucks too and its this crowded? Yesterday I was trying to get to Westwood and stupid me decided to take Overland up. After needlessly sitting in that traffic for 15 minutes, I turned on a street and decided to take Manning instead (one street over - parallel to Overland) to pass all the mall people - saved me a lot of time. I'm so glad I know this area!

Damn Raiders... found a way to get their asses beat bad on Monday Night Football.

Yahoo! News - Poll: Dean Trailing Bush by Wide Margin - will this turn into a repeat of 1996, when the media was successful in having us believe Bob Dole had a chance even though the polls said differently?

There's a lot of things I regret not doing in my life but one of the major ones is this journalism program at the Republican National Convention in San Diego in 1996. I got the brochure my senior year in high school and it was a good way to spend the summer break before college. I had the summer free and money wasn't a problem so the only thing that stopped me was sheer laziness. I'm so bad with follow-up. How different would my life have been if I had done this? I might have still ended up as a boring ass accountant ("business manager" sounds better) but at least I coulda said I did something most of the public don't get a chance to do (attend one of those conventions). Back in high school, I wanted to do something journalism related for my career but life doesn't turn out the way you plan it. If it did, according to my college plans, I'd be working at a Big 5 (4 now) accounting firm, working my ass off, married to a guy who wears business suits to work everyday, living in a modest house with a nice front yard with our 3 kids.

I watched Only You this weekend (Marisa Tomei, Robert Downey Jr.) and everytime I saw the Italian guy Bonnie Hunt's character hooked up with in Italy, I kept yelling - "NO!! HE'S EVIL!! He tried to shoot Kiefer!" (He's the bad guy this season on 24).

I am now the proud owner of a From Justin to Kelly DVD (thank you Steve!)... so that means, 3 people in the world own that DVD now. It's not a bad movie, just really really cheesy.

States Ranked: Smartest to Dumbest ... figures. See why I said East Coast was way more intense? I was in New York for first grade and when we moved to California the next year, I was learning the same things in second and third grade that I learned in NY. I love LA though and there's an explanation for the low rankings here... all the people who can barely speak English and still manage to graduate from COLLEGE! There are plenty of smart people in Southern California... its just the masses bringing down the average.

I was at work all day today... Why wasn't I complaining? You know I'm good for that. Seriously, I don't know why I was fine with going to work. I'm not even getting OT for it. I took Tuesday off for a ton of errands and instead of using one of my personal days, I decided to just make some of it up on Saturday. I was working on this new client's accounts, basically putting a whole years worth of transactions into the computer. Its been a while since I used my brain to figure shit out and it felt goooooooooood. I miss having to think.

Yahoo! News - 275-Pound Prostitute Strips Attacker - This story is just wrong on so many levels!!

I think I'll eventually move from LA... Check out this house in North Carolina (here's the virtual tour). It looks amazing and it is a third of the price my parents paid for their new house. Real estate is so expensive in Southern California!

You know how sometimes you just question the life you lead and you wonder what life would be like somewhere else? I love LA but what would it be like to live in a small town where everyone knows everyone? I guess I'm thinking of situations like Sweet Home Alabama or Hope Floats. Maybe its that Simple Life shit. I've dealt with traffic all my life, even in OC - what would it be like in some other state?

If my parents hadn't moved to California from New York, I'd be a completely different person than I am now. What if we had stayed in Louisiana?? Or even Brazil or Taiwan? My life would be so different. People are so much more intense on the East Coast. They're more passionate about stuff than people in LA (in general).

I wanted a job like my friend Sebastian had for Andersen Consulting (I think they changed their name to Accenture or something like that now) - they'd send him to different cities to work for a short amount of time and the company pays your rent, etc. You get to experience so many lifestyles and when you're finally ready to settle down, you know where you want to be.

Why is it so hard for me to find something I want to buy for $5.01?? I found this awesome deal on a cute dinnerware set I don't really need and now I'm trying to find something for $5.01 so I'd get free shipping. I want the Evolution (David Duchovny, Orlando Jones, Seann William Scott) DVD but I don't feel like paying $13.49 for it. At least this has kept me busy all morning.

I've been so busy/lazy I haven't blogged in a while...

Sunday - I spent Saturday night, Sunday morning and afternoon at my parent's house in OC so I completely missed the biggest news this year. How can someone who prides herself on knowing all the news, political and celebrity gossip, etc. not know that Saddam was captured until after everyone and their mommas knew?? In fact, my mom was the one who told me and my dad had told her! My parents barely know English and they knew!! I'm losing my touch. My roommate barely watches American TV (she sticks to Chinese programming and videos) and she was the one who told me on Tuesday night that there was a Primetime Live interview with Pres. Bush.

Monday Night Football was awesome because a former Bruin finally did something in the NFL! Freddie Mitchell (wide receiver for the Eagles) threw a 25 yard TD pass in the game. He did that all the time at UCLA... oh my gosh, I miss my college years... when UCLA was actually good in sports. How the hell did UCLA's basketball team just lose to UCSB the other night??

Tuesday - don't read if you haven't watched that episode of 24 yet and you're planning to... I yelled NOOOOOOOO when Tony collapsed and I almost started crying but then he got up so I was ok. Why is his wife acting like such a bitch though?? It's all part of the job, especially that job and if one person is higher up on the ladder than the other one, they'll know top secret shit they can't tell the other person. It's not like he was cheating on her or anything. Steph thinks it's hilarious how into the show I am. I can't believe we have to wait 3 weeks for the next "hour".

I knew it was too good to be true to have a competent assistant. Stan has this agreement at this office where he gives the big company a percentage of his profits in exchange for office space, computer help and employees the big company pays for (the employees - me, Eileen and Daniel - work just on Stan's stuff). The one employee (he was smart and he was from UCLA) the big company had left last week and they hired this Asian girl (Jane) to take his place but she's not as bright and she doesn't speak English as well as Daniel so the big boss tells us he's going to have Daniel and Jane "split up" the work between Stan and the big company. This is just a nice way of saying, we're gonna take the smarter employee and leave you guys with the other one because your work isn't as important. I understand where the big boss is coming from though - he sends Daniel out on audits, etc and its better to have someone competent go out to the clients instead of someone quiet who barely speaks English. I miss having Daniel to give work to though - whenever he had questions, he'd IM me instead of come into the office every 5 minutes like Jane does. Oh well, it was good while it lasted.

On Wednesday, I saw something that will scar me for life. Stan had changed to go jogging and I guess he had to come into our office to tell us something before he left. I shudder now just thinking about it. He was wearing what looked like biker shorts and his legs are so freakin white. They're also skinny and the skin is a little wrinkly. EWWWW. I told Dante the next day that his legs look so much better than Stan's and he said, "Thanks for comparing my legs to a 60 year old white guy's."

Through the magic of TiVO, I'm watching All My Children again and that soap is far and away better than Days and Passions! The actors and actresses really know how to act on that show and the writers are also so much better. None of that people talking to themself shit.

My ringtone on my phone is "Rock Your Body" - JT of course... Dante has been getting that song in his head lately (he's been singing it) and he hasn't figured out why yet. He doesn't get the words right either. He keeps singing, "It's been so hard to walk away..." and I correct him every single time - "IT'S Don't be so quick to walk away... dance with me... I want to rock your body... please stay." Why do I get offended when he sings it wrong??

Today is the worst day ever... just been so irritated and pissed off this week and it came to a boil today. I don't function well when I'm pissed off. I scratched up my car at lunch today trying to find a parking space because Dante didn't leave me enough room in our long ass driveway to park behind him and he wasn't picking up his phone. I was driving through the back and the space is really narrow - I scratched it up bad... this is gonna end up costing me $1000, I just know it. Its taken me a long time to save to get my front bumper fixed from a previous accident and now this happens. I don't know what is wrong with me either... its not that time of month. Dante has been taking the brunt of my stress. Yesterday he had a huge headache and I was going off on him about something minor because I was pissed off from something else that happened with someone else earlier. I can't go into detail about what has been bothering me all week on the off-chance the person still has the address to this journal, so email me if you want to hear it... if you're a friend from college or a friend I've made recently, its not you :). Email me - I need advice on how to deal with it. Anyway, Dante was trying to make me feel better today (he knows what has been stressing me out and he wants to do something about it but I don't want him to be mean) and he offered to help me fix my car, but I just snapped at him, "Why do you even care about me?" I don't know where that came from and I feel so bad taking it out on him when he's trying to be nice. He has a BMW now named Bridget (I don't know why) and he considers my Audi (I named it Justin, what else? :)) Bridget's "boyfriend", so he says he has to take care of Justin too because Bridget can't be seen with someone bruised up. I guess I'm so not used to someone helping me out, I don't know how to deal with it when I do get help.

Anyway, about the other thing, I feel like a friend has been taking advantage of me recently and I don't know how to tell her to stop because I've been so nice in the past. You know how you're fine with a person and you overlook the little things but then when you decide you can't stand it anymore, every little thing starts bugging you? Thats the stage I'm at right now.

Steph and I were just talking about this yesterday - how some "friends" think because you have a job and you make money (however little that might be), they think you should pay for shit when you go out, just because. I think this friend thinks that because I let Dante live with me, I help him out with stuff, etc, that she should get the same advantages. She doesn't understand that its completely different when its a relationship (however screwed up that relationship might be at times). I work hard for my money (even though it may not seem like it at times) and I should be the one deciding how I spend that money! I want Dante to stay with me and that should be my decision.

Ugh, now that I think about it, I feel like a whole set of friends take advantage of me (still not you :))... I never had a problem with my college roommates re: money because it always evens out in the end. I pay for some shit, they pay for some shit... its not one-sided like it is with this set of friends. I'm always the one getting screwed! Anytime I go out with this friend, she only has a couple dollars so I always cover her for the rest ... "I'll get it next time." Is it next time yet?? Am I just being selfish??? Its my fault for always trying to be nice, for being a doormat and I don't know how to change things now. I just feel bad because I take my frustrations out on the wrong people sometimes.

I have to wait until my client gets here to sign some papers before I can go on lunch... I'm so sleepy right now.

24 is soooooooo good!! Steve and I were complaining last week that this season has been pretty boring but both of us have definitely changed our minds after last night's episode. This season had been BLAH to me because my favorite guy got shot and was in the hospital the last 3 weeks (the equivalent of 3 hours). He's back and damn, that was a good episode. At the end I must've yelled WHAT?? like 20 times at the screen. Thats the beauty of 24 though - you never know what to expect.

Whoohoo, Eileen has Ricola! I only had 2 cough drops (Fruit Breezers) left here at work and I had them both already... I'm waiting for a client to come in and sign some papers (single black director -gotta flirt :) too old for me though) and I don't want to start coughing. Anyways, I ran out of cough drops and Eileen gave me Ricola cough drops - love those things! Steph and I were just talking last night about how her friend ODed on Ricola in high school - I was laughing so hard.

A certain cross-town rival school got S-C-R-E-W-E-D this weekend... I feel for you guys, but what can you do? I'll put aside hating you guys for the month. It sucks. AND, how does a school lose their last game of the season by a blowout and still get to play for the championship game?? When UCLA was on track for the championship game back in 1999, we knew as soon as we lost against Miami (because of one stupid play by a back-up QB turned WR who plays for the Titans now), we didn't have a chance at the championship game.

I've been gathering more info about the CPA test... They let you take it in parts now! Back when I studied for it years ago, you had to take all four parts when you take the test and it was an 8 hour test over 2 days. Now, you can concentrate on one part, take that part of the test, study for a month for the next part, that that, etc... pass the test in stages. This means instead of studying my ass off for 5 months, I'd have to study hard over 8 months. It delays my Hawaii celebration trip a couple months but it'll be worth it. Since I already have my 2 years work experience, I'll be certified when I pass the test and pass this ethics exam. Then... CHA-CHING! By 2005, I should be making $18k more than I'm making right now.

NBA Suspends Malone for Elbowing Nash - I've gone from hating this guy for the past 11 years to loving and defending him... but seriously, that "elbow" he threw was just his regular game, I don't know why they made a big deal out of it. And the worst thing is, the game he is gonna be suspended for is Sunday, against UTAH! His former team. At least let the man play (and BEAT) his former team!!

I was just getting better from my cold recently, but I feel worse tonight. Stupid Dante was making me laugh so hard, I used all my energy and now my throat is sore again. We were listening to the radio in the car and because we watch way too much MTV Jams (the ONLY "Music TeleVision" channel that actually plays freakin music videos), he was lip-syncing along to the songs and acting out what the singers in the videos do... No Doubt's It's My Life - he was doing the Gwen Stefani thing, crying to the cameras and all. Jessica Simpson's With You - trying to act all cute for the camera; there's a part where she's just lying on the floor singing so he sinks down in his seat to where he's lying on it, lip syncing and swinging his legs back and forth every once in a while. Argh, I feel all light headed from laughing so much.

Tonight's What Not to Wear... they're making over an actor/director who wears way too much high school, college shirts; tank tops that show too much of his armpits; sporty clothes even though he doesn't play sports, etc. He even surprises the hosts with a Wonder Woman outfit when they open the fitting room door to critique him. Stacy and Clinton throw all these things out and send him out shopping so he goes to FCUK and buys all these shirts that say FCUK High School, FCUK University, Inter-course Activities FCUK Polytechnic... he did clean up nice though.