Wednesday, December 26, 2001 12:35 p.m.
ah, the weather is so nice in L.A.--I passed a sign yesterday that said the temperature was 81 degrees..woe is me.

Traveling out here was ridiculous. My flight was at 8:12am and I arrived promptly at the airport at 6:15am. I was able to check my bags in quickly through the self-service e-ticket line...but then I turned around and saw the horrendous line to get through security. It was like we were at Disney land. The line wrapped around the entire corridor and zig zagged twice. By the time I went through security, I had forgotten I had 2 quarters in my pocket and set off the metal detector. I was then scanned and asked to take off my shoes--at which point they scanned my feet and then put my shoes through the metal detector again. By the time I ran up to the gate--7 minutes late--I had missed my flight. What was frustrating was that my plane was still there, sitting at the gate. They had turned down 12 other people ahead of me and sent us all off to the customer service center to get rebooked. The entire time I waited in line, I could still see my plane just sitting there. What's funny is that they rebooked me on a direct flight to L.A., which landed me there 1.5 hours earlier than originally planned; unfortunately, my luggage was on my original flight...so I hung out at LAX with my parents just to wait for my suitcase full of presents. That kind of worried me--technically, my luggage got on a flight that I never got on. There's no foolproof way of knowing if a passenger actually gets on a plane that his luggage gets on. After the TWA flight way back, I would've thought that was something they'd check.

Since arriving here, we've just been eating a lot of Chinese food and seeing relatives. I was suprised by the appearance of my 18 year cousin whom I haven't seen in at least 2 years. She now wears makeup, has long hair, plucks her eyebrows and has a sense of style.

The biggest surprise was seeing my friend Ben. His parents called up my parents and said that he was coming back for Xmas...perfect timing. So yesterday, we all had lunch and Ben took Aaron and I back to his new house in Newport Beach where we hung out for the rest of the afternoon.

Tonight, I go back to rainy Seattle...but I can't wait to take off for Mt. Bachelor and go snowboarding..wahoo!

Friday, December 21, 2001 03:45 p.m.
Ah, last day of work before finally taking off for the holidays. The last two weeks have been stressful and crazy. This week alone, being oncall, has been rather hard. I got paged 2 nights ago at 3am and worked until 6:30am...which didn't help the creeping cold that I now have. But alas, it's all over now..hopefully. Okay, enough about work.

Thomas finally got back from his business trip last week--it's good to have him around again. It's so comforting to know that someone cares for you and will take care of you. I have to say I'm quite content right now.

It seems like a few of my friends have embarked in new relationships lately...Owen is whistling happy with Amy. Jon came back from Fernley and breathed the "g" word regarding Chris..something I've never seen in the 2.5 years I've known him.

Last night, I threw my very first apartment party--my White Elephant Holiday party--which turned out to be a success...really happy with it. I had a good 25+ people show up from all walks of my life here in Seattle. Also ended up with really yummy refreshments and snacks: I made mulled wine, Thomas made his signature cider, Olke brought some homemade potent eggnog, and there was all sorts of food on the table. The gift swap turned out well with its own dramas...the popular gift being Jon's Dukes of Hazard watch. I ended up with a cool leather journal.

Tonight, I'll be meeting Thomas's mom, going to see the Pacific Northwest Ballet's sultan interpretation of The Nutcracker. Tomorrow night, we're going to see The Messiah, which I haven't heard in years. I remember singing parts of that for my high school choir's holiday concert. And on Sunday, I'll be off to L.A. to meet the rest of my family--it'll be quite the family gathering with all my uncles, aunts and cousins..plus my grandparents.

Wednesday, December 12, 2001 04:05 p.m.
saw ocean's eleven sunday night with justin which i really enjoyed. they didn't stick to the original movie but they didn't bastardize it--they made it better. see, the beauty of the original was because it was a rat pack movie (perhaps one of the first) but the storyline was fairly simple for such a complicated robbery. the remake modernized everything. what i liked most was that they kept a lot of major elements of the original and twisted it so it still captured the essence: the idea of shutting off the electricity, the heart attack, the boxing match, etc.

Sunday, December 9, 2001 06:50 p.m.
Just got back from Crystal Mountain where I had my first run of the season---boy, it felt great. Snowboarding came back to me a lot faster than I expected...it helped that Justin was learning to snowboard so I could board conservatively next to him. But by the end of the day, the whole big group of us all went down together from the top, including Justin...so it was awesome. The snow was a little packed so conditions weren't optimal...but there was a ton of snow and it was a lot of fun. I love being out in the snowy mountains during this time of year---it's so beautiful. It definitely confirms why I love living out here so much.

Friday, December 7, 2001 06:02 p.m.
man, i've barely had time to myself this week. i was hoping to really get going on my Christmas cards this week and it just hasn't happened. I'm so frustrated----see, normally I like to print out a picture and insert it into some of my cards..especially for friends that I haven't seen in awhile..with my coolio printer for my faboo digital pictures. I finally ran out of ink and whipped out, proudly, my backup new print cartridge--only to find out that that the freakin' blue ink is messed up. I have no choice but to go out and buy a new cartridge. Makes me mad. I bought that cartridge eons ago trying to plan ahead...but I wish there was a way to test that first.

But I'm going to stay in tonight, make myself a yummy dinner, watch a movie and write Christmas cards.

Last night, Phoebe and I tried holding another Smith alums event...and we got lots of responses and were expecting a decent turnout...but once again, it was just me, Phoebe and Susan. We went to the SAM to see the Annie Leibovitz exhibit "Women" (what a Smithie event huh?). I was so tempted to buy the book for it but held myself back to check on Amazon today--and sure enough, I found a Used version from a seller who had overflow, so it was practically new--and it was only $18.90 (compared to $49 at the exhibit). Score. I love SDP. Afterwards, we wandered down to Art Walk in Pioneer Square where I randomly ran into Jocelyn...haven't seen that girl in so long since she's started law school. Anyhow, we went down to find Rachel but to no avail...hungrily, we found a yummy Italian place and had dinner and chatted until 11:30pm. [sigh] Great evening.

I've done all my Christmas shopping online so far..it's too convenient..and so are credit cards. I think I'm done though and am going to start doing old school Xmas shopping this weekend...so hard to come up with thoughtful gifts...

Monday, December 3, 2001 11:48 p.m.
i get sick a lot. I've been sick for the last week or so. i had a bad head cold...and just as i was getting better, i got a flu shot. now i think i'm sick from that cuz' i'm just achy and weak and have constant headaches..plus, my throat kills me.

this last week, i started holidizing my apartment for the first time ever--it's actually a lot of fun. got a small little fake xmas tree and have been stringing up lights and boughs of fake holly.

work has been crazy...maybe that's why i'm sick...i've been so stressed out. hopefully, this week will start calming down.

javier beamed me a few games to my palm pilot and i've been obsessed with this one--bejeweled--ever since. i'm constantly playing it!!!!

thomas left this morning to york,pa for a business trip...now i've got some free time to myself ;-)

need to get started on my christmas cards...