SOTM - In the Crossfire (Starsailor)

Seems like there's a lot of good music lately.  Picking the SOTM has been harder than usual, but I suppose you can never have too much of a good thing.  (Or can you...?)

The other day I was driving to work and thought that I'd take one of those "here's a picture of me taking a picture of myself in the car" pictures.  I thought this one turned out kind of cool.  Very O.C.  I think it's all in the lense flair and the way the palm trees line up with the office buildings.  If only my hotel was in the background.

That same day, I managed to sneak a photo of the lobby.  The big bushy thing coming out of the centerpiece is a bunch of cherry blossoms - like big ole branches from a tree.  I don't think I've ever seen cherry blossoms separate from their tree.  It was really cool.  I sincerely hope that one day I can afford to have Couture (our florist) install crazy contemporary floral arrangements in my foyer each week.  But I'm getting ahead of myself.  First I need a foyer...

Super Smash Bros. Brawl dropped on Sunday.  I haven't gotten to play it very much yet, but I can tell that it's going to be my new addiction.  Or maybe our new addiction.  I probably won't get around to playing it much on my own, just like every other videogame these days, but something tells me I'm going to get sucked into playing it by the roomies with some frequency.  The night before last we were supposed to play for an hour, ending at 1am because everyone had work.  We ended up playing until past 3.  And now I'm collecting friend codes so I can play online too...  This is going to be a harsh blow for productivity - as though Facebook wasn't already bad enough.

Last night after work I decided to drop in for the end of Rho Rho's GBM and we greeted with a plesant surprise.  Shortly after I sat down, the Pledge Parents announced that the chapter had selected a namesake and to my (partial) surprise, it was me.  I had hoped to be in the running, but I actually felt like other people had a better chance than me, mostly because my role in chapter operations has become less direct in the last couple of years.  But, I guess that they do still know who I am after all.  I was pleased to see Jessica Tu and April Fajardo's names on the board as well.  Long ago April and I used to joke about which of us would get to have a pledge class named in our honor and finally settled on sharing it.  It would either be the Fajacker Pledge class or the Thajardo Pledge class.  It was hard to choose which because they both have such a ring to them.  I wonder if it's too late to have my name "adjusted" for the record.  haha  But in all seriousness, I'm deeply honored to be Nu class' namesake.  My only regret is that they're actually going to get to meet me, which I imagine being anticlimactic.  Kind of like expecting Justin Timberlake and getting Clay Akin.  OK, maybe not that bad.  But once your name is stuck on something, it's kind of intimidating.  I sure hope everything goes smoothly with this class...  Just my luck it'll probably be the first class to not cross.  That'd be classic.  =)  Anyway, if you're in Rho Rho and you're reading this, thank you for this honor - it means a lot to me.  And if you're not in Rho Rho, my chapter kicks ass.  FYI.

SOTM - Krwlng (Linkin Park)

Interesting week.  First off, I'm still sick.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that as the mucus levels die down I'm in the last leg of this little "adventure", but I know I've said that several times over the last month and I certainly don't want to jinx it.  My challenge since last weekend has been keeping my activity level to the bare minimum so that my body can focus on recovery.  Unfortunately, this process isn't aided by work, Disneyland and rock concerts.  That said, life could be much much worse, but more on that later.

Last Saturday my family visited Disneyland as a group (like the actual theme park) for an entire day.  It's not unusual for us to go to Downtown Disney together, but entering the park itself is another beast entirely.  Despite being a weekend, things went pretty smoothly and we managed to hit everyone's major stops in the park.  Then we headed over to California Adventure to have dinner in the Vineyard Room, which was very good.  You could easily have forgotten you were in a theme park in favor of a Napa restaurant if not for the sweeping balcony view of a roller coaster and giant ferris wheel.  Oh!  And I ran into Becky and Ben Meyer while I was in Disneyland Park, which is noteworthy because they live in Arizona.  It's truly a Small World.

Special birthday shutouts go to Patrick and Mary this week for making me feel slightly less insecure about my own old age.  Sadly I was unable to attend Mary's birthday celebration because I was tied up seeing a Linkin Park concert with Patrick.  This was my second time seeing them live, but my first time seeing them in a dedicated tour concert.  They really are pretty awesome live.  You can tell that they appreciate their audience.  In fact, they even come off as humble.  Another nice thing is that the crowd was really mixed.  There were even some families there with young kids (who were decked out with tiny faux-hawks).

More Fuzzy-Cam (TM) pictures!

After an otherwise nice week, things took a downturn at work on Wednesday.  I arrived and found one of my coworkers standing alone in the grass field behind the hotel with his lips pressed against a cup, apparently very deep in thought.  I greeted him as I passed and he seemed badly shaken by something.  Shortly after changing into my uniform, I ran into my boss who asked me to, "go for a walk."  My first impulse was worry that our department had bombed a AAA review and we were all fired, but that fear was quickly put to rest.  It turns out that a member of our department had died on Tuesday.  I'm not going to go into detail here, but the circumstances surrounding it were very very bad.  Understandably, the entire department was a little vacant for the rest of the day.  To make matters worse, no other department had been told yet, so it was as though we were in some kind of emotional bubble.  If you can imagine having just learned that a close coworker had passed away, and then having to smile at an approaching guest and brightly ask how you can be of service.  It was strange day, to say the least.

Everything surrounding Wednesday's news served as a violent reminder of the complexity life, morality and identity.  Rarely is anything black and white - all things are shades of grey.  The person my department lost was a point of light in my life.  He was truly kind and cared for the happiness of all those around him.  He was a delight to work with because he always had a spring in his step and was glad to lend a hand wherever he could.  And hardly a day went by that he didn't try to get the gang together for a beer after work - and everyone was always invited.  Many people looked up to him and admired him for his positive spirit and constructive attitude.  What we didn't know was that his history contained darker chapters.  He had not been a positive force in everyone's lives as he had been in ours.  I still don't know all of the details, but the question is how do I remember him now?  When you watch the news and see that someone shot a grocery store clerk, conned thousands of dollars from the elderly or raped a college student, it's easy to write the aggressor off as a dark spot in the world.  What kind of value could a person like that have in society?  Throw him in jail, or worse.  But what you see on the news is only a single act in an entire life.  How do you judge a person who has done both bad and good?  Clearly you can't ignore one or the other, but how do you reconcile the two when they are at odds?  Unfortunately, I haven't found the answer yet.  Maybe in time...

But on to brighter things.  OMG, CUTE!

I came across this today and my heart nearly melted in my chest.  I want one.

I know it's only Thursday, so if anything else exciting happens tomorrow or over the weekend, I'll be sure to update.  Until then...

Oh!  Almost forgot.  Check out the new flash intro on my website.  Not bad for a first effort, I think.

SOTM - Wolves at Night (Manchester Orchestra)

YAY BIRTHDAY!  I've emerged from another birthday weekend a little older, a little wiser, and very tired.  Where to begin?  Let's take this bad boy chronologically.

I guess the excitement really begins a couple weeks ago...  So I'd had my LG Chocolate for what felt like eons and it was really time to send it out to pasture.  For starters, the interface made me want to tear my hair out, but that had little to do with the phone's natural life span.  More importantly, the battery had gotten to where I could only talk for about a half an hour and it was dead.  My "new every two" thing wasn't due to kick in until April 16th, but I thought I'd take the phone into the Verizon store anyway to see what could be done.  The guy there basically told me that to get a new phone, I'd have to upgrade at full retail and that my only (non $300+) option at this point was to buy a new battery.  And that's how I purchased a $43 battery for a two year old phone that was going to be replaced in two months.  The more I thought about this transaction, the more it upset me, so finally I called Verizon's cancelation department.  I explained what happened and that I'd really have expected better after sticking with them and their neutered phones for 6 plus years.  I'm glad I called because I was able to get my new every two discount pushed up, an immediate contract renewal, $50 additional taken off the cost of a new phone to compensate me for the battery that I'd bought, a month taken off my wireless bill, and a new phone overnighted to me for free.  w00t!  As of Wednesday of last week, I'm a happy camper.  =)

I present the very sexy LG Voyager.  You'll notice that the picture quality is a marginal improvement from the Chocolate. (sarcasm)

Early birthday gifts aside, all the excitement began on Friday.  I was fortunate enough to be joined by Kelly TPJ for dinner at Taco Rosa.  I hadn't seen Kelly (or Taco Rosa, for that matter) in a long time, so this was a welcome outing.  Next, I joined the APOers in Anaheim at the new Guppy House.  There were about 40 people there from Rho Rho (UCI), Rho Pi (UCSD), and the host Omega Sigma (CSUF).  After a couple hours of that, I returned to Newport Beach to pick up my coworkers Mary and Sal, and we headed out together to West Hollywood to meet up with Jason Q.  We all convened at The Abbey around midnight to start the night off.  (Incidently it was Mary and Sal's first time there.)  Not surprisingly, my associates were very generous and started buying me drinks.  For those who don't know, drinks that The Abbey are incredibly delicious and also incredibly strong.  After a red apple martini, mojito, and cape cod, I was feeling pretty good to go and we all rolled over to Rage.  I ran into the usual array of folks at Rage and, while I was preoccupied with Hellos, Jason bought me another cape cod.  I knew this was a bad idea, but I didn't want to be ungrateful, so I reluctantly took the drink.  The rest of the time at Rage was almost too much fun (if there's such a thing) and then it was time to go home.  Jason offered to let us crash at his place, which was appreciated.  We climbed into a cab and all rolled over to his apartment.  For those who don't know, motor vehicles are the kiss of death for me when I've been drinking.  I barely managed to keep it together on the ride to Jason's place and upon arrival I burst out of the cab and ran over to the grass outside his building.  As I was doubled over his neighbor's lawn, Jason reached into his pocket and announced, "Uhh, I don't have my keys..."  So, they decided to grab another cab and return to WeHo, but there was no way I was going to survive a cab ride at this point.  Mary and Jason hopped into the first cab they could hail and Sal and I stayed behind, where Sal proceeded to berate me for my weakness.  He also did fun things like press on my stomach to "help" me get all the booze out of my system and drag me up and down the street because it was so cold.  I'm not sure how long it was before Mary and Jason returned, but it felt like an eternity.  Finally we made our way into Jason's apartment where I didn't last long before I was thrown in his bed to go to sleep.  Apparently then I missed out on half of the evening as my cohorts proceeded to drink a bottle of red wine, a bottle of white wine, half a bottle of champaign, and eat a pizza, mac & cheese, and a bag of frozen chicken nuggets (or, more accurately, Mary ate a bag of chicken nuggets and Sal and Jason wondered where they all went).  The next morning I felt marginally better and we all drove home around 11:30.  Sadly, I only have one picture to commemorate the evening, compliments of Sal and his iPhone...

Sunday was a much lighter day.  I returned to LA around 7:30 to meet up with Chris and Rachel (who kindly drove down from Santa Barbara) and Pam and Ray (who kindly drove down from next door) for dinner.  We went to this little curry/udon/sushi house called T.O.T. in Little Tokyo where they have a kick-butt curry udon.  After that we rolled over to The Edison, which was very cool.  (Thanks Jason for the suggestion.)  The place had a 1910s sensibility that was really well done.  It must have cost a fortune to build because everything in the place was custom.  Next time I go, I'll be sure to get a reservation so we can have a table and try out the food.  Ultimately the evening ended relatively early at 11pm, which was fine with me because I was still a little tired from the night prior.  I'm really glad I got to meet up with everyone that night.  It's a rare treat that I get to see any of them, so seeing all four together was pretty awesome.

Finally Sunday was my chill day.  I met up with my family at The Winery at The District for dinner.  For those who haven't been, it's actually an excellent restaurant in an unlikely place.  I totally stuffed myself on designer "pizza" and flat iron steak, and then it was time for bed.  Oh, and my niece, Camryn, made me the CUTEST birthday card.  =D

I thought all the birthday festivities were over, but today at work I got another surprise.  My boss, Lisa, was kind enough to pick up a cake for me at Gelson's and everyone signed a card for me.  I <3 my work!

That concludes my weekend, but I do have one side note.  At the end of last week I got a statuette to add to my collection.  I actually ordered it a very long time ago, so it's pretty exciting that it finally arrived.  Brownie points if you can tell me what game the character is from and Super Special Ultra points if you can tell me the character's name.  Just leave a comment with your answer.  =)

SOTM - Older Chests (Damien Rice)

This update is so long overdue, it's crazy.  I guess I should just blaze through the last couple of months and get to now...

At the end of December I went to Vail for a family ski trip and it was 'frickin freezing!  I didn't ski as much as usual due to the weather, but when I did make it up the mountain, the conditions were great.  And while off the mountain, the family and food were wonderful, as always.  I left the ski trip a couple days earlier than the rest of the family so that I could then attend Regionals in San Diego.  Again, fun times.  Rho Pi (and Helmi in particular) did a fantastic job of hosting it, and the Zoolander theme was awesome.  And I got to dress all fancy the whole time, so that was cool.  And that suit that I mentioned in the last update - awesome.  It's just a shame that I had to sell a kidney to a shady Chinese man to afford all the ties I bought to go with it.

In January I went to Las Vegas with Jessica Tu for her birthday, which was FANTASTIC.  I had a super blast.  Good food, good friends, lots of drinks, and a little clubbing.  Good times.  I finally got to see Tao too, which was very cool despite the fact that once you're inside you can't really move.  Oh, and I saw April Fajardo, Kevin Liang, and Shirly Lee for the first time in I don't know how long.  Actually there were a ton of people I knew there that weekend.  If I recall, there were four different inter-related groups all there at once, each of them for a different birthday.  It's kind of cazy walking down the strip and just running into Kevin Nguyen or whoever it happens to be.  Hopefully it won't be too long before we make another Vegas run...

Waiting to go into Tao


The drink in my hand there is the Grand Lux's tahitian pineapple - incredible.


I love Kathleen in this shot.  What am I saying?  I love Kathleen in general.  =P

The rest of January was largely uneventful.  At the beginning of February I came down with the flu, which has lasted in total for over two weeks.  The first week was kind of like a hangover that wouldn't go away with fever and chills.  Fortunately that didn't last too long, but the virus wasn't going to go away without a fight.  It settled into my throat and gave me a nasty case of tonsilitis that lasted over a week.  At one point I drove to the ER at 4am because the pain was consuming me.  After waiting for over an hour, they told me that I had a viral sore throat and should take ibuprofin.  They then charged me $100 and sent me home.  Thanks for nothing.  Then the pain continued, but my tonsils swelled up like a puffer fish.  After two days of torture, I decided to get a second opinion.  The second doctor (who was competent) told me that I had tonsilitis and prescribed me an antibiotic and steroid to take down the swelling.  He also sent me to see an ENT because he was worried that I was developing an abscess.  Fortunately the ENT said that I didn't have an abscess, but there was still a chance that I might develop one and he thought that he might prescribe me a stronger antibiotic, but decided against it.  So, yeah.  Thanks a lot Irvine Regional ER.  Your ibuprofin advice was spot on.  From now on, I'll be going to Hoag for my emergency medical care needs, thankyouverymuch.

Now, two and a half weeks later, I still have a pretty good cough, but it's nearly out of my system.  I finally returned to the gym last night, which was very exciting.  The downer is that I lost over two months of gym progress over the last couple weeks.  Hopefully I'll be able to make up for lost ground quickly.

I think that's about it for now.  I'll try to update a little more regularly going forward.  Until next time...  HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY EVERYONE!

SOTM - The Underdog (Spoon)

Stuck-Up Bitch Whore!  What a terrible way to end an awesome weekend.  Every few month I get a guest at work who really upsets me.  Apparently I was overdue.  Anyway, let's cover the pleasant stuff first...

This weekend I had a 28 hour APO family line extravaganza.  Actually, I guess my weekend starts before that...  It begins at South Coast Plaza on Friday when I took my suit in to be tailored.  I had my suit fitted about a year ago, so it no longer fits me.  When I got there, I found out that they can't take it in enough to fit, so I had to buy a whole new suit.  As you can imagine, this was both exciting and painful (the painful part being the price tag).  So I've officially swapped out Boss for Dolce & Gabbana.  Hopefully this turns out to have been a wise (and sexy) choice.

Back to the family line extravaganza, it all began with a potluck at 7pm on Friday night.  This led into a party, which led into late night discussions, which led to 3 hours of sleep.  We awoke early the next morning to go to Disneyland only to have our plans abruptly haulted by some last minute cuts from the roster.  In light of this, we changed gears and went for dim sum, Target to buy toys for $10 or more, Knott's Berry Farm with admission in exchange for said toys, and The Beverly Center for dinner at The Grand Lux Cafe.  I can't remember the last time I covered so much ground in such a short time.  Despite being exhausted by the end, it was a great time.  Thanks to Foong, Sophia, Alex, Thomas and An for a memorable weekend.

Saturday I slept in and then joined Rho Rho at Disneyland around 3 in the afternoon.  It was a pretty standard holiday Disneyland visit, which is to say fun.  The lines were suprisingly short too.  Strangely, I think the highlight for me was when half of us were walking along knawing on giant turkey legs.  After the park, Cindy and Leonard from Rho Pi came back to my place to sleep, but not before spending over an hour on Rock Band.  (I love that game.)  Finally, this morning we went to Plumbs in Costa Mesa for breakfast, which officially ended my weekend.

That brings me to the unpleasantness.  Tonight work was pretty slow.  In fact, I don't think I really needed to be there.  They basically paid me over 60 bucks to deliver a fax and drive to Balboa Island.  That is, until the very end of the day.  I made it almost all the way through my shift when the front desk manager came over to me and told me that she had a very "particular" guest who wanted reservations for this Saturday at Mastro's Ocean Club.  She told this guest that she had just the man for the job.  I called the guest who explained that she simply need a reservation for 2 at Mastro's O.C. at any time they had available.  I didn't expect this to be easy because it's the Saturday before Christmas, but figured that since she was flexible on the time it should work out.  I called the restaurant only to find out that they had sold out for a private party.  (I don't know why popular restaurants insist on doing that kind of thing on their busiest nights.)  I called the guest back with the bad news and offered to help her with other suggestions.  I started with some restaurants that have a similar vibe to Mastro's, but she irritatedly explained to me that she wanted a beach-front restaurant.  And they certainly weren't interested in going to South Coast Plaza for Mastro's Steakhouse - after all, they're coming to Newport Beach for a reason.  So, I attempted to explain that there are no "good" beach front restaurants in our region, which she refuted, insisting that in an area like ours of course there were.  I told her her best option was Studio at The Montage, which has a stunning ocean view and excellent cuisine.  She then reiterated that they had no intention of driving all the way from Los Angeles to Newport Beach to travel another 25 minutes to dinner.  So, I told her that the next best thing was Duke's in Huntington Beach.  This is where the $#*! hit the fan.  She made an indignant snorting noise and said that she knows Dukes and, um, no.  So I moved on to the Cannery, which is on the water in the harbor, but not on the beach.  Before I got a third of the way through a description of the restaurant she butted in with (snickering) "Uh, but is the food good?  Because, honestly, I can't even believe you suggested Duke's.  We're looking for a really great meal, not a cafeteria.  Really, I'm shocked you would even recommend that to me."  OK, first off, I was telling her what her best on the beach option was.  I never said that Duke's was fantastic.  And secondly, Duke's is no cafeteria.  It may not be ultra gourmet, but it's a good restaurant.  For the next several suggestions, she continued to scoff and second-guess me every other word.  Finally she had enough.  "Ugh.  OK, I'm too tired for this.  Look, just send me an email with some suggestions.  I gave my email address to Monique (the front desk manager)."  I then got to stay at work 30 minutes past the end of my shift working on her email.  Stuck.  Up.  Bitch.  Whore.  I'm very patient.  I can deal with annoying guests.  But what I can't handle is someone suggesting that I don't know how to do my job.  I will never understand people who need to validate themselves by belittling others.  I guarantee you this woman has no taste.  All she knows is what's popular.  What has the right look and the right price.  Oh, and she knows how to be a bitch so that she can get attention and feel like hot $#*!.  But the thing that bothers me most - knowing all of this, I still let her get to me which is exactly what she wants.  Thank God I'm off this weekend when she checks in.