FREE Razor! - some new 4-blade razor called Quattro...

I did tell you all I was getting stupider right?? I unplugged the modem and the router and plugged it back in (I remember thats what Comcast used to tell me to do) and it works fine now... faster than I remember, even! Maybe someone was smooching off our wireless network like we think Marilu was accidentally doing with someone else's. We could barely figure out how to set up the internet here, forget trying to put a firewall on!

I fell asleep during Apprentice tonight and I woke up 2 hours later... now I can't get back to sleep!! I finally managed to change my template though - I loved the old one but I was getting sick of it and I don't think the template was right because I kept getting popups when I went to the page - I don't know what those popups were though cause Mozilla blocks it.

My roommate situation is awesome right now - this is the first time in a long time I've had a "real" roommate/family situation in an apartment I live at... we cook together, we pitch in to buy groceries and stuff for the apartment, no one complains about cleaning up after other people... it is easier to live with people you know and like I realize :) instead of living with complete strangers. Tony is an awesome cook!

Everyone has their little things that get annoying but you learn to live with it :) We can make fun of each other and tell each other things we need to hear and not be offended... For instance, Marilu has a boyfriend now up north and she has totally changed how she acts, sometimes not for the better... I tell her all the time, it's new, just enjoy it and go on from there, but she thinks she's falling in love, etc... and she isn't even divorced yet! At lunch earlier this week, Jon was telling her that she's changed a lot and a lot of people have noticed it. "...You're turning into Darth Vader! ... You'd be the shortest Darth Vader ever though." We did have a semi-serious talk with her (I suggested at least going to a therapist to get over her guilt about her separation/divorce just cause everyone goes to a therapist) and when we came back from lunch, everytime Marilu walked by his office, Jon would start playing the Star Wars music. :)

This is an example of how sad we are... yesterday was April 14th and Charles was doing his taxes after work, roommie Tony was supposed to do his taxes at night (I fell asleep, don't know if he finally did them or not), Marilu and I both filed extensions... keep in mind we work in an accounting office doing people's taxes!! I might be the saddest though - I filed the extension and I only have 2 W-2s and I'm taking the standard deduction, so my tax return will take 5 minutes max. My problem is I can't FIND my W-2s - it's in some box in my room, I haven't been able to find anything since I moved.

Couple quick things before I leave work and tackle my 5 minute commute home...

Adelphia FREAKIN sucks!! My internet at home has been sooooooooo slow lately, slower than dial-up in the early 1990s.


A little late, but "Noooooooooooooooooo!!" to Brian and Greg being eliminated from the Amazing Race... they were my favorite team because they were so funny about it. This year, if you come in last on a non-elimination leg, you have to give up all your possessions, along with all your money and you go on to the next leg of the race with no money and only the clothes on your back and your passport... Brian and Greg did so bad on that leg that they figured if it was a non-elimination leg, they would punish themselves by finishing the race in that their hats, scarves and swimsuit trunks. I'm so upset it wasn't non-elimination!! Brian did this hilarious Heineken commercial with Jennifer Aniston a couple years ago... I like Lynn and Alex too but their obsession with Rob and Amber is driving me nuts! I loved how Alex thought they would be last on last week's episode and started putting on every piece of clothing he had, just in case it was non-elimination! I think I'm in the 1% of people who actually don't hate Rob and Amber because I never watched Survivor, didn't know why people hate them so much and because they're good racers. I know some people get offended by what Rob says on-camera but I have a co-worker who makes offensive comments all the time and he makes it funny. The co-worker knows his audience too so he wouldn't be that comfortable when we're around other people. Back to Amazing Race... I can't stand the old couple because Gretchen's voice is annoying as hell and she's always shouting/whining loud... also because I had this dream a couple nights ago - it involved me, Justin Timberlake, a few co-workers and Gretchen... yeah, I know! How the hell did she get in that dream??

I better go... I forgot I wanted to stop by Circuit City to get Oceans Twelve on DVD...

I'm taking a break from studying for dinner and the Apprentice... I took the day off work today to study (I would have taken tomorrow off but the bookkeeper I work with already had planned to take that day off and we work in teams so I figured today was good enough - it's a pretty light week because we did so much last week). It was such a nice day too - I went to the big Coffee Bean on Ocean Park and just sat outside and studied. (After studying I stopped by 24 hour fitness to pay my membership renewal and realized I lost my drivers license which put me in panic mode because I need the drivers license to take the test. Thankfully I found it when I got home). All this studying brings back college memories - studying at the study room in the UCLA library because 'everyone' was there, going to Jerry's Deli to study after the study room closed at 2am, studying in Ackerman all night finals week and getting free coffee from Kerchkoff... and finally, the 'pity' shopping spree after my last final for the quarter. Believe me, on Saturday after this section of the test, I'm going on a BIG pity shopping spree! This is the first time I've studied for anything in 5 years!! Thank god tomorrow is payday...

I can't believe I wasted the first sunny weekend since I moved to Santa Monica in the apartment studying!!! With my luck, it is going to rain every weekend from now on, like it has before.

Sorry about the light posting but I've been trying to study for the CPA exam - April 2!! I've been downing Red Bull to help me concentrate :).

I hardly go on the internet at work anymore because the "office consultant" sent out an e-mail about the company internet policy last week and we know he has been printing out reports on our internet use. I swear, even good companies can turn into Office Space - except for the hating work part (me not hating work, some people totally do but thats every office). We got an office consultant late last year, there's a lady who they keep moving around (our office is too small for all the employees they need so they move the part time lady who does tax stuff - her office is currently in the small copy room), some people seem to show up to work whenever they want (one of the ladies I share an office with - she was asking us once, "you're not late if you're in before 10 right?" and she's used every excuse in the book to call in late/sick - she's averaged a week off a month in the time I've known her... another lady was demoted (she was telling everyone she wanted to be an assistant again, she doesn't want to be a bookkeeper anymore, so they did it) and she got so mad she was demoted that she went in that day to tell the office consultant she was taking a 2 week vacation and she was supposed to be back yesterday but she called in and resigned.

Oh shit, I better hurry up and start getting ready because you know you need to get off your ass in the morning when Michael Jackson shows up to court... I'll have more Office Space examples later...

Yahoo! News - Mario Vazquez Drops Out of 'American Idol' - I can't believe this! I was looking forward to this season too and he was my favorite :(.

This is a completely innocent picture but it is the funniest picture ever - Yahoo! News - Sports Photos - AP

I'm watching today's Oprah right now on Tivo and Shemar Moore is on... I wish they'd just keep the camera on Shemar instead of moving it around all the time!! Oprah gets more steady face time than her guests!

Damn tornado warning!! I'm missing Shemar Moore time... it's ok because Oprah is interviewing Kimberly Elise right now and Shemar isn't on camera as much.

Diary of a Mad Black Woman looks like it'll be good...

I was at Best Buy last night returning a USB adapter - why is it so hard to find a wireless one that works with Tivo?? Stupid me just realized tonight that I can just buy it from the Tivo store... Anyways, I was in line and I see someone I think I recognize... I think it was cute Brian from Canyon Point at UCLA - Juli's friend! Juli and I both had a crush on him - he's half black half white, 6 feet (the perfect height) and soooo nicely built. SMART too :) gotta love those. He was on the customer service phone in front of me and I was just staring at him... the jeans he had on looked amazing on him and his shirt fit him perfectly. Just when I was thinking, he must have a really nice butt under those jeans, he turns around and looks at me! I KNOW I didn't say anything out loud!! Is it possible for someone to read your thoughts like that?? I should have said something to him and I've been kicking myself all day for not doing anything. At the very least I coulda asked him if he had gone to UCLA because he looked familiar.

I'm loving this 5 minute commute to work again. The lights on Olympic Blvd. are freakin short though!! Steph was right when she said that if you live close to work, you don't venture out into other areas as much anymore. This week has been an exception though because I've had to do a lot of errands here and there. I was waiting all week for a day I could just leave work and come home to relax without having anywhere else to go.

I met one of the surfer dudes downstairs and he IS cute!! He was wearing a nice white button down shirt with jeans... I'm loving this life now :)

1. MOVING SUCKS.

2. I have become dumber over the past couple months - I could not figure out how to set up my internet access on this computer - took me a couple hours and I got frustrated so I gave up, then when I came home last Sunday, Tony had it all set up. Whoohoo, the benefits of living with smart people! It took me 2 hours to figure out why I wasn't getting any "Live TV" with my TiVo... We don't have a phone line at this apartment (no need for one) so I took the TiVo over to my friend Andy's place to set up Adelphia's cable lineup and I had to skip a lot of the setup steps because I wasn't at my place. I was about to give up and then I went to settings, played around with it and found the right screen to change the connection and get my Live TV.

3. How do people live without TiVo?? I didn't have Tivo completely set up Sunday and Monday and I was DYING!! You have to rush home to watch a show, you can't pause, you can't go back if you miss something. I had to call my sis Sunday - "can you Tivo Desperate Housewives for me?" and Monday - "can you Tivo American Idol for me?" My roommates are missing their shows too so both of them are getting Tivo... if they activate it under my account, it's only $6.95 a month instead of $12.95. The new Tivos look so much cooler than the one I have!!

4. You guys have to see Fat Actress - the show is hilarious! Actually, the first episode is... the second one is kinda blah but it's still good. Showtime is having a free preview weekend March 4-7 and Fat Actress premieres on the 7th... I went to the premiere last week and it was way more fun than the L Word one. Raven Symone was sitting in front of us and she's so much chubbier than I remember her being... Kelly Preston and Mark Curry (Hanging with Mr. Cooper) were also there. The after-party was at the Geisha House and Kirstie Alley was dancing with everyone... she seems so nice. Her assistant on the show was pretty cool too... He and his friends were just dancing their butts off - I love goofy guys. Mark Curry kept looking in our direction :).

I have been doing a lot of cleaning these last 2 months, throwing away things from my childhood, etc... it hit me how much I hate the person I have become these last few years. I was so sheltered, so responsible, so organized (to the point of being anal) and just so much better than the person I am now. I want to start all over but before I can do that, there's a lot of debt I have to clear. I can't believe all the shit I used to do for Dante, all the lies I believed, all the suffering I did just to make him happy.

All these what ifs enter my mind... what if I had gotten a job at a Big 5 Accounting firm (it's now the Big 4 but I'm used to saying the Big 5), what if I hadn't had to interview with that ass Charlie Osaki, the head of recruiting for Deloitte at the time (who got fired a couple months later because of sexual harassment), I would probably have gotten the job there and I would have never met the guy who ruined my life. Maria had set me up with Deloitte and they invited me to all the recruiting events that fall and everyone seemed to like me except for Charlie. I was in a small group of people who they invited to all the events and I think everyone else in that group did get an offer from Deloitte. Someone told me that they went to one of those recruiting events with Charlie and he would point out - "look at that girl's ass", etc. and that's probably part of the reason he was fired. The day of my interview, I know Charlie deliberately chose me to interview - I don't know what grudge he had against me. I always tell people, I guess my ass wasn't big enough for Charlie. (My ass wasn't as big as it is now :)).

I don't know if I would have been happy at one of those Big 5 firms because I know a lot of people who went on to work for them and left as soon as their 2 years were up (you need 2 years experience to get your CPA license and the Big 5 was the best way to get it), but it was the way I had planned my life so it was such a disappointment for me that I wasn't able to get in. I was supposed to work for a Big 5, work my ass off for a couple years and enjoy the benefits of the hard work later... I was supposed to meet someone who was in the same field, who wore suits to work and who just commanded attention because they were just that amazing. Oh yeah, and he's cute (of course), fit and a little taller than me. I was supposed to be married in my late 20s and we were going to have 3 kids (girl, boy, girl), the house with the nice yard, and both of us were going to be making good money so we wouldn't have any money issues in our life... Life certainly doesn't turn out the way you plan it.

Even with all I went through working for Stan, I'm glad business management just fell into my lap like that. I was working for a criminal defense attorney after college (a lady I worked for part-time when I was in college) and I told her I wanted to go into accounting instead so I told her she needed to find someone... when she found a person to take over my job, I knew I had to get off my ass and look for my accounting job... it took me 5 days from the time I first sent out resumes to the day I signed my papers to work for Stan. I know now that if I have to do accounting for the rest of my life, I'd rather do what I do now - business management for entertainment clients. The entertainment industry part makes the job more fun - these people make lucrative amounts of money for what they do and some spend equally lucrative amounts of money on unimaginable stuff. We always have a lot of stories to tell in the office.

Wow, I really went off the subject... :)

I was going through my stuff at my parent's house and I see all the folders I had made for everything in my life. First off, the no-brainer, I had all my bank / credit card statements / bills 2 hole punched and in manila folders. I had folders for Target, Best Buy, and whatever stores I go to a lot and the folders were filled with receipts. Then I had folders for newspaper articles, mall pamphlets, fast food menus, directions to random places, application papers, etc. I also had random little notes in a folder. I found a folder labeled "Hawaii 2000" and I found the plane tickets, the little brochures we collected there, pictures, receipts, etc. I remember I did all this for the criminal defense attorney so I wanted to organize my life that way too.

I'm so glad she was my first real job - she taught me a lot of things that I wish I hadn't lost when I worked for Stan (he was so disorganized it was unbearable to work for him). My grammar was also so much better when I worked for her. I got disorganized in the 2.5 yrs I was with Stan because it was impossible to be organized around him and after a while, you just don't care. My grammar plummeted because I had to deal with assistants who barely knew English and after a while, you just dealt with it and you don't bother correcting the grammar on the letters the assistant sent out because no one else seemed to care.

Argh, I'm sleeping on an air mattress this week because I moved my bed to the new apartment last week... you ask why I haven't fully moved into the new apartment yet? The cable/internet isn't going to be set up until Saturday :). Some people understand me!! No cable, no internet = nothing to do. Plus, I'm here at the old apartment still packing my stuff. I'm so bad at this - I procrastinate because the deadline for me to move out is 10 more days. I'm going to try to do the bulk of the moving this weekend though.

I went to "the L Word" premiere tonight at the DGA building in Hollywood... thought it would be a good place to meet cute desirable guys (employed and well-connected) but halfway through the after-party, I realized it was a bad idea. Yeah there were cute guys there but the party was in West Hollywood and you know what that means - its hard to figure out the straight guys from the gay ones. This one cute guy was doing an interview on camera and I totally thought he was straight but then after the interview, this guy comes up and gives him a kiss... woops, my mistake.

The L Word is a good show, but it's not for me. I'm watching Sex and the City now so I can go to sleep with things back to normal... um, not that there's anything wrong with that.

I can finally get back to work now... I was getting slightly annoyed at Don because I had been signed onto AIM for half an hour this morning and he hadn't messaged me Happy Valentine's Day yet. I don't know why I was getting annoyed because he has no obligation to - we aren't a couple... but he's a nice guy and it would be nice if he did. Why have I become so girly?? I was moody last week because I found out he dated another girl at this company 2 years ago (I've never met her because she left a while ago - she was 30 and 2 years ago he was 20, so I guess I'm not that much of a cradle robber... I have no reason to be moody - everyone has exes and my ex moved in with me while Don and I were still dating (because he "had nowhere else to go" which can be translated into: he was jealous and just wanted to ruin things for me). I'm not a completely bad person though! If Don wasn't moving to Florida, I would have cut off all contact with the ex.

Now that Amazing Race is over, I've been catching up on the other shows... I was watching the American Idol auditions and at first that guy Mario reminded me of Wilmer Valderrama (Fez from That 70s Show) but during the Pasadena auditions, I started seeing a little Justin Guarini in him... maybe it's the way he sings or the way he looks (minus the hair of course). After watching the new season, I started missing Justin Guarini so I popped in my American Idol 1 DVD (thanks Steve, my source for embarassing DVDs). If Justin is googling his own name, I just want to say - Justin, I still love you!

What is my pre-occupation with the name Justin?? I keep finding more Justins to love. Besides Justin Timberlake and Justin Guarini, I found another crush - Justin Bruening from All My Children... I think he looks like a cuter version of Don. :)

I won the fourth quarter in our office Super Bowl pool!! Whoohoo, a whopping $25! Still, money is money and thats paid for lunch so far this week.

I am officially a resident of Santa Monica now... we got our apartment last week but I've been way too lazy to pack my stuff - mostly because I thought Dante would take over my lease at this apartment so I could take my time but I talked to my roommate and she didn't want him staying here. Oh well, glad I'm not going to have to deal with her anymore, that pain in the ass! I told her I'm moving out the end of this month and I already gave her an option but she didn't want to take it, so if she can't find anyone by February 28... thats her problem. She already screwed me over the month before she moved in, so I have NO sympathy for her.

I'm sad that Kris and Jon lost the Amazing Race at the end... that put a damper on my week. The host called them the "kissiest couple ever on the Amazing Race" :) They were so fun to watch and I totally want a relationship like they have. OOOH!! That's what I'll visualize this year - the tarot card reader at a client's holiday party told me to visualize what I want and I will get that or something better in the span of a year (so I'll get it before December 11th). The visualization card was my "present" card... my "future" card was the card of change and since the party, I have a new car and a new apartment. I'm working on the new man and new CPA license :) What else can I change??

New York Post Online Edition: news - Kobe's accuser is married and pregnant??

It's amazing how I stuck with Kobe during that whole criminal case but mess with my Shaq and I'll hate you forever...

Shit shit shit shit shit... I was catching up on 2 weeks worth of 24 just now and when I turned on Monday's episode... "WHAT THE HELL!!! WHY ARE THERE ONLY 15 MINUTES RECORDED??" I was on a plane at 8pm Monday, I didn't turn the channel, so I figure the only one stupid enough to risk me killing him for turning the channel while TiVo is recording is Dante. I'm so glad I'm moving so no one can mess with my TiVo!!

Anyways, I got on the TWoP message boards and Tony was back in this episode!! That made me soooo much more pissed. If I had watched it and seen Tony show up when I wasn't expecting it, I woulda used the reaction I have saved in case I ever saw Justin Timberlake in person and screamed like there was no tomorrow. Does anyone have a copy of it?? I need more friends with Tivo. :(

My trip to Florida was fun - it was just like me and Don hanging out on the weekends except instead of going 5 mins to his apartment, I flew 2500 miles to hang out with him. It was so nice just seeing him again and it was so relaxing. The only bad thing about seeing him is I get used to someone doing everything for me, even if it was only for 4 days and now I'm back in LA and back doing everything on my own. I got to see his house and its still mind-boggling how this 22 year old has his own 3 bedroom house with a huge backyard, a circular driveway, a big living room and a game room (big enough to have a pool table and a wet bar), etc and he is only paying about $1200/mo for mortgage. I hate LA... everything is overpriced! I don't know what I was expecting to see in Lakeland but there are some amazing homes there around this one lake he took me to. His house was ok but these houses around the lake are movie-type mansions.

Oh my gosh I can't wait til next Tuesday! I can't believe how addicted I am to the Amazing Race... so addicted I seriously want to move to Scottsdale, Arizona (where Jon is from). I saw on some list that Scottsdale is one of the fastest growing cities in the US or something like that (maybe - hottest cities to live in, can't remember) and after coming back from Florida and seeing how people can afford to buy houses for less than an arm and a leg, I want to buy a house in Scottsdale and catch the wave while it's still hot.

I've been so sour on LA lately - I pinpoint it to the day they declared Kobe the king of the world and sent Shaq and Phil Jackson packing.

Craving ice cream so I'm going to get off my big butt and go get some...

Just when I thought I couldn't love Amazing Race more... I've had this poster in my bathroom of Nice, France for a year now (it's colorful - brightens up the bathroom and looks amazing with a thick black frame) but before I got it, I hadn't heard of Nice, didn't know where it was on the map, etc... and they went to Nice this week on Amazing Race! I definitely need to add that to my imaginary travel plans. I just bought this book off Amazon - 1,000 Places to See Before You Die - and I've done maybe 10 things max in the book so I need to get started...

Going to Lakeland, Florida isn't on that list but I'm headed down there next weekend. I get to be treated like a princess for 4 days! It is going to be great to see Don again - I haven't seen him since Thanksgiving and yes, Jenny, I will get a pic of him so you guys can see what he looks like.

So many changes in my life! I got a new car last week - a new Audi, new bodystyle but the same model I had before... I miss my old car but this car is awesome!! There's this scene in the movie In Good Company where Topher Grace bought a Porsche after he got his new job and as he was driving out of the dealership, he hits a car... that scene was going through my mind for a week before I bought my car!!

I'm looking for a new apartment because I can't stand living with this roommate anymore... She is sooooo petty and I hate petty people. Who argues over butter (especially when I haven't asked you for utilities money for 4 months)?? I got the feeling she was petty the month before she "officially" moved in (some bullshit story about how she wasn't planning to move until the next month so she felt like she shouldn't have to pay the rent for this month even though when I was looking for a roommate I said I needed them to move in right away), when I was paying rent for the entire place but she was there ALL THE TIME for a full month. I'm so nice I always end up being the person who gets walked all over and I'm sick of it!

So much more to say but I have a million things to do...

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.