Office is closed for the YEAR! Whoohoo!! I've never had this before - an incentive for everyone to finish their work early so we can have an extended break. I love this office - the days before holidays we work 8 am to 2 pm... when I was at my old job, I always had to be there until 6 and when I left at 6pm, Stan would get mad at me. I love being at a place where people actually have lives. We got off at 5pm today and we went drinking as usual at the bar downstairs - before we went down, Marilu, Jon and I went to say bye to George, the main partner. He couldn't join us downstairs because his wife was sick but he told Marilu to send him the bill for all of our drinks.

I just can't get over how awesome these partners are. Everyone who knows George loves him. There's even a character named after him on a CBS sitcom - the executive producer is our client. Shane (the computer guy, Don's old boss) joined us tonight and he was just telling us how he goes over to George's house sometimes to do computer stuff for him and he and his wife are soooo in love still and they're the coolest people ever. Last week, someone called for a reference on Lisa (she worked for us for 7 years but then her family moved to New Mexico, so she moved with them) and George gets on the phone... "Lisa? She's out of jail? I'm soooo happy for her because I thought she'd be in there for a month at least!" The person knew he was joking and that just made a better impression because instead of the usual boring reference, now the person will remember Lisa.

I'm going to Vegas for New Years with some co-workers... Marilu's brother got us 2 rooms (for free!) at the MGM Grand. This is the first time I've done anything big for New Years... just wish I had a guy to share all of it with :). I really do hang out with my co-workers too much but we have so much fun!

Other news - I got into a car accident last week... it was soooo stupid, I should have been more careful. I am never taking the 10 West to work again!! 2 accidents in 6 months! The first one wasn't my fault - some girl rear ended me and pushed me into the car in front of me and that car into the car in front of them. Stupid girl was uninsured too. This time, I was looking to switch lanes and the car in front of me suddenly stopped so I swerved and I think I swerved too much (cause I didn't expect the car to suddenly stop and I guess I panicked) because I lost control of my car (yeah, my 4 wheel drive car, but I'll explain later) and a car hit me. It was totally my fault though cause I was sideways on the freeway... The guy in the car that hit me was an illegal alien, didn't have a license, didn't have tags on his car and didn't have insurance, so I feel soooooo bad. I don't know if my insurance will take care of him. The damage looked terrible on the body of my car but inside the car, you can't tell I was in an accident as bad as that. Audi's are freakin sturdy!! I damaged the rear wheel axle so my car is undriveable and I haven't had a car in a week... so tough to live in LA without a car. Missed all the after-Christmas shopping but I shouldn't do that anyway. I started thinking too much this week and I realized maybe it was meant for me to not have a car and not drive this week because of all the rain. I might have gotten into a worse car accident.

I shouldn't have lost control on a 4 wheel drive car but when Dante took my car in for new front brakes 2 years ago, he didn't get the Audi factory brakes so there was nothing to connect the anti-lock brake sensors and because of that, my anti-lock brake system was out. I had Audi brakes for the back tires but Don told me (too late!) that if any of the sensors are out, the whole system is out. I should have replaced the front brakes as soon as the anti-lock brake lights came on in my car but I figured as long as my brakes worked, I didn't have to replace them until the brakes needed to be replaced. I took my car in for a brake inspection after the light came on and they told me my brakes were new but they just didn't have that extra thing to connect to the sensors.

I HATE TIME SHEETS! Someday I'll find a job where I don't have to do them but what nice paying job doesn't require time sheets? Attorneys, CPAs, computer nerds and anyone who works in those industries all fill out time sheets for billing. I've been doing time sheets the last 3 years of my life. You fill in what you can and then the rest of the time you bill to the clients with flat rates... If I worked for JP, I wouldn't have to do time sheets because he billed all his clients 5%. I'm trying to fill out the last time sheet of the year right now so we can get out of here today...

I've been so busy at work I haven't had any time to post. We've been working hard to close out all the December year end corporations so we can close the office early (for the year!) I've stayed late at work for a variety of reasons - finishing up work, hanging out with the co-workers or just on the phone with people. After work, I've been going shopping (I can't call it Christmas shopping because that would mean I'm buying things I intend to give other people) and I've actually been hitting the gym a couple times a week!

I was talking to my lunch buddies about that Oprah show and first of all, Tony comes out and says, "That's a repeat from a couple weeks ago! The book was sold out at a lot of places..." so I don't know if his opinion is really an authentic 'guy's opinion'. I like what he said though when I described my situation to him - "yeah, he's into you." I told them how I called Don on Sunday and woke him up (the 3 hour time difference TOTALLY SUCKS!!). I got the voice mail but he called me back as I was leaving a message and Tony asked - how long did he stay on the phone with you? 20 mins... I was wondering why Tony asked that question and he said, "Yeah, he's into you because if a girl wakes me up out of my sleep, if I even call back, I'd just say - I'm sleeping, I'll call you back tomorrow." Tony is a totally nice guy too - too nice even - so Don wasn't just doing that cause he's a nice guy. I'm so through with the "bad boys" - they freakin suck! Adriana (co-worker) was telling me that physically Dante is better looking than Don but Don has all the other qualities you need in a guy. Personality can turn a cute guy into the ugliest guy in the world.

I was talking to Kimiko at work yesterday and Caymi was walking by... she stopped and she told me, "Lucy, your butt is getting bigger!!" I didn't know what to say to that :) Maybe because my butt is getting toned, it's lifting and that makes it look bigger?? I was telling Don about this, trying to use it as an excuse to get out of our gym deal but he wouldn't let me - he said, Caymi should be the last person talking about a person's butt being big - hers is super big, even for black girls.

If my butt really is getting bigger, all I can say is, damn clients!! They're sending gift baskets left and right... we've gotten used to it though and if we've gone more than a day between gift baskets, people go crazy.

I've been to a couple Christmas parties so far this year - besides our office party, I went to a client's holiday party and Jennifer and Brian's Christmas party.

There was a tarot card reader at the client's holiday party so of course, I had to get my cards read... she told me to pick a subject and I chose "Love" because I already love my job and I don't want to change anything about it. My "past" card was something about charity - I supposedly learned in the past that if I gave, I got more in return. (I really learned that if I give, I get screwed over big time). My "present" card was some visionary card that means in the time span of a year, I have to visualize what I want and I will get that or something better. I was thinking, fat chance, he's not moving back to LA and I'm not moving to Florida so I shouldn't waste the "visualization" on him... My future card was the card of change - Mercury or Cancer or some astrological sign is supposed to remove all obstacles in my way to help me get what I want. Hmmmm... All I will say is that if Adriana gets a promotion or gets pregnant between now and April, I will be "visualizing" my ass off until next December!! I'll probably get the something better... someone as amazing as Don but 2-3 inches shorter and maybe a little cuter although Don is cute enough for me - I'm not that shallow anymore.

Almost everyone at Jen and Brian's party is or wants to be a writer or director, so people had some great stories. It is the smallest world though - one of the guys at the party worked for one of our clients and we were trading stories on how crazy the director is, how he can't do much for himself and he makes us waste so much time on the most useless stuff. He had to spend so much time trying to get the name of one of the director's projects changed on IMDB (Internet Movie Database) because it was plural when it shouldn't have been.

Bryant-Malone feud turns personal and ugly - What a troublemaker! This is part of the reason why I haven't watched a Laker game since Dr. Buss decided Kobe was the king of the world... Does the boy get along with anyone?? So this is supposedly what happened... Karl was sitting next to Kobe's wife at a game and he was wearing cowboy boots, etc... so she asks him, "What are you hunting for?" and he says, "little Mexican girls." And she felt uncomfortable enough to tell Kobe and call Karl's wife. All I can say is, I guess she doesn't have a sense of humor either, just like her husband. How are you supposed to answer a question like that anyway - What are you hunting for? One of my co-workers here has her best friend's husband calling her up all the time and telling her "I Love You" and she still hasn't done anything about it... (we do tell her to though but I Love You is different from I'm hunting little Mexican girls).

I raided my niece's CD collection yesterday and now I'm up to 1306 songs on my iPod ~ 3 MB... This thing is amazing - it's gotten me to the gym 3 times in the last week (the iPod and Don - we made a deal that everytime he goes to the gym, I'd go to the gym too... I'm so behind because he has nothing to do all day and he's getting into arguments with his dad all the time so he goes to the gym to cool off). I've been doing a lot of cardio also - I usually hate cardio but when you're on the elliptical machines listening to your music, you don't realize how much time has gone by.

I was catching up on Oprah this weekend and there was a show with one of the writers from Sex and the City, promoting his new book - He's Just Not That Into You. He was saying that if a guy is into you, he'd call when he says he's going to call, he'll give you the attention you want and he'll rise up to make sure he gets to be with you... My question is, if a guy always calls when he says he's going to call and always picks up your calls or calls you back right away even if you woke him up, does that mean he's into you?? Or is he's just doing it because he's the nicest guy in the world? I don't think Don is into me like that (if he was, we'd give the long distance thing a try) but he always calls/calls back - the longest he's taken to call me back was 10 minutes... because he was getting a haircut! :)

Whooooohoo!! There's gonna be a second season of Laguna Beach!! Oh my god. I'm so pathetic.

I'm loving the Amazing Race this year - even more than last year, which would probably be the first time I loved a second season of watching a show more than the first. I love Kris and Jon... not only is Kris a Bruin, but she seems like the nicest person and she and her hot boyfriend are so sweet to each other.

The iPod didn't take too long to load - I just did it wrong. I had a later version of iTunes installed already so the CD program installation didn't complete and I had the iPod plugged into the computer for 8 hours for nothing.

So much to talk about but Nick and Jessica are on and I haven't seen this one so I'm not in the mood to write right now... Shut it. Don't judge me.

I won an ipod at our office Christmas party today! Too tired to say anymore for now... went to Third Street Promenade - Hooters and Yankee Doodles after the party so I'm pooped.

How long does it take this thing to load??

I'm in a good mood because I've talked to Don a couple times this week... I was telling him Justin made me feel better but JT can't cuddle with me and make me warm at night and that its been freezing since he left. He said something about Justin being only one man, there's only so much the guy can do and told me not to wear out the CD and DVD... I was shocked - "How did you know I have the DVD??" (I actually have 2 copies of it but thats beside the point) :)

I'm working 9-noon tomorrow... then we have our office Christmas party! Saturday I have a client's holiday party and next Saturday is a friend's Christmas party too... I need to go shopping and get more dresses. I told Don about the client's holiday party and he was teasing that I'm going to the party to pick up a rich guy. I wanted to take him but he's not here!! (The client is amazingly successful - we just deposited a couple million into his account last week and he got another check this week... only $58k... bummer).