Daily Update

It was running adventure time last night. Running has tapered off for me lately. Not because I'm getting better and don't need to, just because i've been busy (and I haven't been making time for it as readily due to the slight injury that I've mentioned before). But I was ready for the temperate climate of the Australian Out-Back this day. I made a glorious run with the frolicking kangaroo's and ran up mountains with some Aborigines. Every footstep was painful, but I made sure to make every tread count. Since the course is kind of messed up and confusing, I limited my fitness to just over two miles. Mile one ended in 7:35, and #2 ended at 12:32. By this we can see that my ability drops off dramatically after mile 1, but I assure you that if I were to reach for mile 3 or 4, there would be a steady recovery shown, as where I have always considered myself to be a decent long distant runner. Some of my encouragement was helped this time with a running buddy, but having that in mind just scares me to think about what my motivational skills would be like with out that Buddy. The Australian track was flat and cool. The sun sets early in the Out-Back. And, as a matter of fact, it kind of looks exactly like the Track & Field Stadium up at UCLA. (Hmmm, funny how that works.)

On my way home from that Jessica called me and told me to tell josh that his phone was at her place. He is always misplacing it. So I stopped by his place to tell him that. I think his roommates are in the Russian mafia. They look like they should be anyway. After a brief recovery from running, and a short discussion with the roommates, I went over to the Bean Flat. From there we let me decide to go to Carl's jr. Oh la la. This time I got more than a shake, and I'm sure the burger undid all the running I had just attempted to do. But it was Good. From there we stopped by Veteran to watch Masters of the Universe (or HE-MAN). After all, thats where josh's TV is. We only made it half way thru, due to the late hour, also everyone there was trying to fall asleep.

When I got home I then realized how much of a mess I had made in my room when I was trying to clean up the rest of the apartment. It took me another 40 minutes to roll up the fabric, and put stuff away enough to see my bed. In the morning I did some more of the same cause we had some people coming to clean the carpets (finally!).

So during lunchtime today my office had a fun little meeting. One of our guys went on some building tour in Santa Monica, and he wanted to tell our office about it. It was kind of interesting, mostly because the bosses bought us lunch, but a lot of it reminded me of school. I had a handful of classes while in school that dealt with the issues that were discussed, namely 'Green' Building design, ie. making buildings more eco-friendly. It was really basic, and by the end, the whole consensus of the office was, 'We should start recycling our used paper again'. After all, not to many professions will print off a 18"x24" (or sometimes 30"x42") sheet of paper just to see how a drawing will look on that paper. So we're going to start to look into recycling. Toward the end of the meeting I was REALLY bored, so I started taking pictures with my camera, which had been in my pocket.

Lunch was sponsored by the Corner Bakery, and hosted by my Office.

I'm listening to the sweet sounds of silence right now. Its a nice change from lots of talking, or yelling, or sirens.

OCEAN Personality Test

I don't know what you're talking about Jessica, I think you have plenty of personality. It's just that your scores don't tell you so. And I'm happy enough with my results to post them too.

I'm a O84-C74-E74-A79-N14 Big Five!!

High scorers tend to be original, creative, curious, complex; Low scorers tend to be conventional, down to earth, narrow interests, uncreative.
		You enjoy having novel experiences and seeing things in new ways.

Conscientiousness
	High scorers tend to be reliable, well-organized, self-disciplined, careful; Low scorers tend to be disorganized, undependable, negligent.
		You are well-organized, and are reliable.

Extraversion
	High scorers tend to be sociable, friendly, fun loving, talkative; Low scorers tend to be introverted, reserved, inhibited, quiet.
		You are relatively social and enjoy the company of others.

Agreeableness
	High scorers tend to be good natured, sympathetic, forgiving, courteous; Low scorers tend to be critical, rude, harsh, callous.
		You tend to consider the feelings of others.

Neuroticism
	High scorers tend to be nervous, high-strung, insecure, worrying; Low scorers tend to be calm, relaxed, secure, hardy.
		You probably remain calm, even in tense situations.

Daily Update

Yesterday was kind of slow in the office. Not from the amount of work I was supposed to do, but from the amount of concentration I had. I found myself concentrating more on what I was listening to, than to what I was looking at. In that respect it was an intense day. Lots of fighting, cheering, growling, and lots of other emotions as well.

In my office, there's Steve, my new office neighbor who likes to talk to himself and hold arguments with his pens and paper. he swears too. Don't forget Peter who likes to mumble and start conversations at awkward places or times. Danny is aways helpful with his many repeated over-explanations, and then Patrick and his many smoke breaks. What an office I have. They're all great in their own ways.

Just as I was planning on getting ready to go to the Dancing night at the other ward building, Plewe calls me. He needed more help with Dental School Applications. So again, I was suckered into helping him. As he was there, I helped him a bit, then I left. Not as many people were at dancing than I remember last time. I was there long enough to notice that Jessica wasn't there. Let me recall to you that Jessica said that she said yesterday evening; "You (pointing to me) and You (pointing to josh) need to be at dancing tomorrow, cause I (Jessica) need someone to dance with". So that led me to believe I needed to show up. But oh no, Josh showed up at her place and 'prevented' her from going, meaning: he talked her out of it. So as I was on the phone Kristen walked by me and we both decided to ditch the dance scene and go hang out at the Bean's.

At Jessica's we had a mini Tetris tournament. Two people were playing on two different laptops, and then two others were playing on the Super-Nintendo. What was even better was when the girls started referring to some of those games as 'The Fight of Their Lifes', which I assumed meant the 'Battle' of their lives. Either way its simply awesome to hear girls talk about Battling tetris pieces. Some of us broke off and played Yatzee for a minute too. I didn't do so well this time.

Some of us made a Carls jr. run right before we all parted ways. When we left jessica's house I was indeed hungry, but when we got there, I kind of lost that lovin feeling, but just to spite my stomach I got a shake anyway. It was good. What wasn't so good was I think they forgot I was there, with the subject matter they were discussing. By now I've forgotten all about it after crying myself to sleep.

Now that I've finished Harry Potter my mind has been busy pondering what has just happened through-out the whole story. It was indeed quiet amazing. I've read more in my free time in the last two weeks than I have in the last whole year since I finished school. I typically will write letters to authors or directors and suggest to people what they should do different the next time they try a story. It took me a total of two weeks and two days to finish all 7 books (4145 pages in total).

Today at work Susan noticed I was wearing jeans. After she pointed it out to me, I asked her if she liked them. As she giggled she said that they weren't appropriate. My immediate (unfiltered) response was "Well, do you think this is appropriate?" and I started posing like a jeans/underwear model would. She started laughing hysterically, yet quietly. Super cheesy, but super funny. I'll remind you that Susan is the lady who thinks its funny how I walk up and down stairs too. Another side story from one of our last few 7-11 hang-outs, speaking about unfiltered. I accidentally let the 'Old-jim' pop out in a snappy response to what one person said.
I giggled as I realized that I shouldn't have said that in front of all those people, or at all for that matter. I've been so good lately suppressing the Old-jim.

Lunch was sponsored by Jamba Juice.

I'm listening to Talk radio, and Cindi Lauper right now. My ears are kind of bored to be honest. I've been so used to new adventures so often.

Daily Update

Eric and I signed up a new Roommate today. He seems like a cool kid. I met him once. He wants to move in as soon as he can, which is fine by us (less waisted money for us.)

There was another Frisbee practice last night. It was fun, yet at the same time I exhaled exhaustion at every breath. At the start of our practice, there was me and one other dude, then 6 other girls. Oh we weren't complaining, thats for sure. I think our girls are going to kill any of the other teams. They were vicious! One of them tried to gouge one of my eyes out. I'm not sure which one, there were so many. Of course, after our warm up game, the girls decided to play guys vs. girls. It was a lot more running than I had expected. A lot more. The girls had 2-3 times as many players as we did. I felt like a fighter pilot over pearl harbor for a second. I would run straight, 3 'Zeros' would cross in front of me, and two behind. I would cut left and two others would follow me around. I'd cut backward, and there were the previous two waiting for me. It was difficult to shake them all, which just led into riskier passes, and luckier catches. Occasionally the 1 kamikaze would just ram right into me as well. The happiest moment of the night was when the lot of girls started trash talking just as much as I was during the warm up game. I
think Kristen was the worst, kicking the frisbee when it fell, exaggerating about injuries, and embellishing upon 'possible' penalties. I didn't know if I was supposed to cry out of intimidation, or cheer out of excitement, so I just stood there giggling confusedly instead.

After practice we 'quickly' decided to visit 7-11 again, it was another ward reunion. Most of the team showed up just like last night. we ran into more people we knew as we filled our slurpee cups as full as they would go. Then we hung out in the parking lot chatting it up. Another story-time moment was when a delivery truck pulled into the parking lot to drop a box off. Some lady decided to go and yell at the driver, who didn't even care that she was there. The funnest part was when Kristen decided to openly laugh at this lady's anguish. It wasn't just a 'hey look
at that', it was an almost uncontrollable 'Ha Ha', while pointing. The lady was in the wrong cause she came after the truck did, so more of the group joined in the laughter. She stormed off, slammed her dress in her car door, and was forced to
wait till the truck was done.

It seemed like the night was over, so I went back to my place for tv and ice cream. I casually invited josh over. He came, and then the Beans stopped by too. It was a lovely evening. We watched 'Dirty Jobs' and made fun of each other. I was super tired, it was even painful to fight off sleep. When I finally gave in and my eyes sunk back into my skull. I think Angry-Pants noticed this, my quiet-delight, because her response was to throw a pillow at me, rushing my conscious back into reality.

I listened to Harry Potter get into and out of trouble all today. I finished his story just after 4pm. I giggled with excitement, I cried out of sorrow, I cringed with anger throughout the whole story. I would listen to it at work, and read it at home, it worked out quiet well. (Now what will I do when I get home?) I now know why all those crazy kids would stay up and read it non-stop until they finished it; I found myself doing the same. I must say it was a double surprise ending for me. It wasn't exactly what I thought would happen, then it changed, then completely
different things happened, but it was all good.

Lunch was sponsored by Good Earth. Woe is me for attempting that place again.

Daily Update

I went to the first showing of the Shakespearean plays on Friday evening. They were nice. My camera ran out of battery moments into the first play, so I was annoyed. It cramped my style, but whatever. I helped out with the set. I decided to decorate exclusively with shimmering fabric. The fabric created an enclosed space that hugged the stage, livening the atmosphere, and bringing a free flowing attitude to space. That only helped the attitude of both plays. I pinned the streaming fabric to the black static curtains that were already there, thus breaking the monotony of the usual church stage. Don't forget the curtains above, which is where my work started. Drooping curtains, dancing from the top-front of the stage, slowly lowering to the back, and then down to the floor. The plays were 'much ado about nothing', and ' Midsummers night dream'; both of which deal with ideas of 'hooking' people up. My idea for the set came from Baroque Europe, where almost all paintings have an outrageous amount of fabric/cloth, and winged Cupid babies, with their bows and 'love arrows'. The Cupids were the subject of the plays, so I felt that the free flowing fabric could be the subject of the set. I think it turned out quiet handsomely. I've added a picture to my blog, if interested.

After the play a bunch of us went to Enzo's Pizza in the Village. Then we went over to Lindsay's house to enjoy some of her birthday cupcakes with her. Someone pulled out some sparklers from the 4th and some of the kids pranced around in the street for a little bit. I didn't participate cause I knew they were illegal in this city, and didn't want a repeat of what happened last year.

I finished the 6th installment of the 6th Harry Potter book finally. It left many questions that still need to be answered in my head. Now I kind of understand why people get so anxious to find out more. Good thing I didn't take interest in the series until the last book came out. I stayed up way to late listening to it. 1 became 2, 2 became 3:30 and by 4 I had to yell at myself, cause when I was in school I vowed never to do late nights like that again, unless 'proper reason' was present. But this night it wasn't. So I slept for a three hours.

Early on Saturday morning I had to bring Jeff to the airport, at 7am. For some blasted reason jeff feels it necessary to always get the earliest flight possible, then only asks for a ride the day before. (And although I may have done that in the past I've repented of my ways, as much as possible.) Lets just say that Good thing that I had turned my phone off of silent mode as soon as I agreed to this torture; cause somehow, someone turned my alarm off without my conscious self knowing. Luckily after 3 repeated phone calls, I woke up. After the airport trip I decided to stop at a few stores before I went home again to catch up on all my lost sleep. I went to Costco and was going to get new tires put on my car, but they didn't have my size. jerks. So I went inside and they had the 7th installment of the Harry Potter series, so I purchased one for myself and dove right in as soon as I got myself home.

The heat was trying to kill me, it attempted to do so all day long. After my shopping adventures I had to recover from the heat with a cold shower. Its effects only lasted a little while. I tried dousing my misery with a cold milkshake and burger from Jack-in-the-box, but it didn't really work like I wanted to. It just made me feel sickish. I stopped by Josh's place, and it was an oven too. Shortly after messing some of his music library up which was on his computer, I left.

My room mate Jim moved out today. By the time I got home Jim had hired a group of guys (who didn't speak english) and they had moved almost everything down to an extra large moving truck on the street. His empty room looks much larger after he vacated it. Now we just need to find someone to replace him (soon!).

In the evening I went back for more Shakespeare. This time I was armed with my camera. I got plenty of pics. After it all a group of us, after much deliberation, decided to go to Wendy's for food, and then to the grocery store for food for tomorrow's eating festival. As there were four of us who were trying to decide, it took a while, and after we decided on the order of our visits, we then invited more people to come with us on our hunt for food. It was fun, and it lasted late into the night.

You know how I've been trying to clean my room for a while? Well, I finally got a chance to. I was cleaning and listening to HP at the same time. Again, like last night, I cleaned room late into the night. This night was more reasonable though.

Church was average. The bishopric is trying to take over the Elders Quorum, and i think Plewe is oblivious to it I think. After words Josh and I were making food at my place. Well, preparing it anyway. We were all going to make our own pizza's. Mmmm Mmmm good. Plewe actually came over to do some of his homework too. That was a nice surprise. The food was good, of course. But I must admit, the best part was the desert: Fruit Pizza. At first I didn't Love it, but probably cause I was full from other food. But after a bit, I Really started craving the soft delectable cookie concoction. It was a glorious spongy soft sugar cookie, heavily smeared in the most delightful cream cheese frosting, then topped with a succulent medley of raspberry, blueberry, peach, and kiwi fruits. It is amazingly addictive! I kept having more and more and more, until I went into a sugary fit where I just started shaking randomly. I flung myself into bed and drooled myself to sleep dreaming of the next chance I would get to eat more of this 'Fruit Pizza' Delight. Another 'Mmm Mmm Good'. We also hung out and were watching the Cooking channel for a while. They were having Cake contests, and Iron Chef stuff. Like usual people would slowly trickle out during this all. Just as the last guests were trying to leave, Josh convinced everyone to watch a show called '12 Angry Men'. It was about a jury deliberation, showing both fairness, rationalization, and stereotyping behavior at each side of extreme. Quite interesting I must stay.

I'm still listening to Harry try to get out of trouble and save the day, and my co-workers argue about professional sports.

Lunch was sponsored by In N Out.

Food Fit For A King

Ohhh Yaaa. There really aren't enough Wendy's stores around. We frequent the closest one which is in Culver City.




This is a small taste of Sunday nights Dinner. A glorious spongy soft sugar cookie, heavily smeared in the most delightful cream cheese frosting, then topped with a succulent medely of raspberry, blueberry, peach, and kiwi. It is amazingly addictive! I kept having more and more and more, until I went into a sugary fit where I just started shaking randomly. I flung myself into bed and drooled myself to sleep dreaming of the next chance I would get to eat more of this 'Fruit Pizza' Delight.

Shakespear in Summer

On Friday and Saturday I went to see shortened version of A Midsummer's Night's Dream, and Much ado About Nothing. I helped with the sets. See the glorious flowing garlands in the background? (that was me) (thats Phil & Jill off to the right)