dissonance

Let me tell you about the time...

Everyone has stories they will remember forever and will probably bore their grandkids to tears as they tell them over and over again. Here are mine.

• Won ~$700 one New Years - Around my freshman year in college I went to some New Year's party thing and at the stroke of midnight the people organizing the party started throwing stuff in the air. Everyone thought it was fliers. I grabbed a handful and saw that it was $20 bills. Stupid me, I screamed, "OMG it's money!!" and then everyone dove for it, but not before I got my share, aww yeah. Rumor has it that they were only supposed to throw $1s.  I think I bought everyone after party food at Denny's or something.  Or maybe we went karoake.
• Survived roll over car accident - Me, Angelina, Joe on the way to a party (ok ok, a rave, hahaha). Our car spun out and flipped over the side of the road.  Everyone walked away.  Gee, can you blame me for being optimistic about life?
• Smoked Leonardo DiCaprios cig - Was at a club in LA and apparently it was celebrity night (I also stood next to Tobey Maguire - very short and a bad dancer =P) and ended up dancing next to LD.  He was so fucking drunk and he practically shoved his cig in my face.  I took a tentative puff, said "Uh thanks" and handed it back to him.  He was kinda grody looking with a baseball cap and sweats.
• Was returned home by strangers (briefly mentioned here) - When I was really young, my upstairs neighbors kid wanted to rebel. He stole some money out of his mom's purse and dragged me to some mini-mall.  He bought me ice cream.  We realized we were lost.  Strangers picked us up, took us to their home, and called his parents. I remember they had a nice black dog.
• Was on TRL - When I went to NY two years ago, my friends and I got tickets to be on TRL. You have to be under 25 so that was our last chance (another reason being 25 sucks).  Anyway, the guests were Pink, Smallville guy, and Jack Black.  It was pretty fun but we were pressured to look like we were having THE TIME of our LIVES ("eeeeeeeeee~!").

One of my fears is that I will one day be talking to people and they will quip, "Heard it."
And then I say, "Oh but how about the one when I --"
"Heard it."
"Oh but you did'n --"
"Heard it. I'm going to the bathroom now, bye."

Which means I must fill my life with more stories so that this never happens to me.

Tooting my own horn

So very tired. Stayed up late finishing my first sweater. Toot toot.

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Also, I'm about halfway done with the letters but I think I'll be sending them out all on the same day, probably by the end of this week.

We're all damaged goods

I'm currently obsessed with the movie Playing by Heart.  It's corny as hell, but it still gets under my skin and has an unbelievable cast:

Angelina Jolie: Adorable
Ryan Phillipe: Adorable
Jon Stewart: Adorable
Gillian Anderson: Kinda annoying but only because she's so pessimistic
Sean Connery: Solid
Gena Rowlands: Solid
Anthony Edwards: GOOSE!!! haha... he was ok.
Jay Mohr: Surprisingly good
Dennis Quaid: Good in a subdued, subtle way

It's got the same sort of feel as Love Actually, but more serious, and everyone in the movie has some sort of tie to everyone else (which doesn't become apparent until way at the end).  It also takes place in Los Angeles and it was kinda funny to see Phillipe and Jolie at a rave at the Mayan.

It's also got some awesome quotes. Most of the best ones are from Joan (Jolie) and Trent (Stewart).

• Joan: What, is that a rhetorical question? Why is my life so complicated? Gee, I don't know. Why is your life so fucking simple?
• Joan: I want to get rid of you as much as I want to get rid of that crap from Ikea.
• Joan: When was having sex or not having sex not a problem?
• Trent: Yeah I know, the flowers are a little much, but I'm late. But only because I had second thoughts about the flowers and threw them away halfway down the block. Then had third thoughts and went back and got them.
• Trent: I'm not men. I'm not a group. I'm just me.

Doin a lil east coast swang

My adolescence is complete. When I was in middle school, I was very jealous of all my friends who got to go to concerts. I missed out on seeing NKOTB, Debbie Gibson, Janet Jackson, Madonna...etc. Well I am jealous no longer, because last night I got to see arguably the best R&B group evaaaarrrr.

How can you not love Boyz II Men? They taught us what harmony was. They made it ok to be completely sappy. They showed us the subtle yet crucial difference between “coordinating” and “matching”.

Granted, they’ve been out of the loop for a while now. Mabel and I were very excited, yet apprehensive because 1) there was only 3 of them and 2) they have a new album so we were freaked they might not sing anything we knew. So we took out some insurance to guarantee a good time: Sushi and sake bombs!

After a couple of bombs (ok 4… ok 4 each) and a ton of sushi, we headed to the venue which was a few of blocks away ("4^th & B is on 4^th… and B… right?" "I… I think  so…"). The crowd was fantastic. You could just tell it was a bunch of fans from our generation who had nuthin’ but love for the boyz. There were a couple of fans to note however.

First is $10 hooka 10 years too late:

You can see Mabel in the corner because I had to pretend I was taking a picture of her.

Then we got these guys (Mabel called them "Boyz 2 Men"):

I’m still deciding if they’re awesome or a bunch of choads.

We started out pretty far from the stage:

But we made our way up:

And up:

And holy crap look how close we got!

I am proud to say that I have shaken hands with 2/4 Boyz II Men. Girls were going crazy for them! It was so fun(ny)! We were all just having a great time. We even saw the bouncer/bodyguards singing along. I’ll let Mabel tell the story of the defining exchange she had with another woman when she stepped on her toes.

The show was over before we knew it, and Mabel snagged the playlist from the stage (Bouncer: "Get OFF the STAGE!")

On the way back to the car we saw a strange sight. Are drugs being sold via bananas nowadays? Because I saw this "deal" going down and I had to take a pic:

Anyhoos, a GREAT night all around!

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Thanks to everyone participating in the letter writing project. For those who haven’t submitted entries, it’s not too late.

Dear you, Sincerely mi

I used to write letters. I had a penpal in middle school.  I exchanged letters for a whole summer with my first crush I met at summer camp (right up until I was HIS worst.date.ever for MY winter ball... anyway, story for another day...)  Letters then declined to corny greeting cards during college. Now it's occasion cards and mostly just for my parents or if I see one that's "perfect" for someone I know.  But that's so lame, making Hallmark come up with trite messages for me.

My personal writing skills have definately declined. Even when I sign cards nowadays the most I can think of is, "Hi. Congrats/happy birthday/etc..." or "Hi. Enjoy." or "Hi. This is your daughter. Miyon.  Thanks for stuff." (which is all I know how to write in Korean)  I hate the stupid office birthday card that everyone is forced to write in.  (I'm tempted to use these  from now on. I hear it's most effective when you misspell their name and make up random memories.)

Anyway, it really bothers me that I've lost my ability to write.  I have this blog but 90% of this is just ramblings to myself.  It isn't communicating anything in particular to anyone in particular.  Just futile words being pitched into the void with approximately 1 in 4703955 chance that they hit anything.

So... I have a proposition that will help me tap into that lost reserve of creative communication, as well as making you feel like a "special person".   E-mail me your address and I will send you a letter on a piece of actual stationary that is collecting dust in my drawers!  I have some pretty awesome paper (and by awesome I mean so tacky that it made a loop back to awesome) that I've collected over the years.  By my calculations this venture will cost me about $1.48 in stamps, amuse me for a couple of hours, and hopefully amuse you for 2 minutes.  Even if I only know you from blogland, go for it!  I will feel that much less pressure to impress you.  And don't think that you're ineligible because you live in San Diego and/or I see you at least once a week.  If anything you deserve a thank you letter more than anyone else for hanging around with my lame ass.

Oh, and although I could use the cash flow, I solemnly swear that I'm not just collecting addresses to sell to marketing companies.

Stars at Casbah

Tonight I went to The Casbah with Cindy and John to watch Stars perform.  I liked the venue.  "Intimate" is the best way to describe it, but in all honesty a real hole in the wall, which is just the way I like it for concerts these days.

Before the show started I shelled out a couple of bucks (with a little help from John) and bought a t-shirt:

The opening act was Apostles that Hustle... or something like that.  They had an impressive variety of acoustic instruments that included: castanets, marachas, reindeer bells, triangles, flamenco dancing, shakers shaped like apples and bananas, and oh yes, COWBELL (I need more cowbell.) Despite the cornacopia at hand, they failed to move me.  John bought their cd.

Ahh, but soon after Stars showed up and they were well worth the wait.  Vocally they match their recordings perfectly.  The lead guy was quite lively and very entertaining to watch.  It's great to see someone on stage just not give a flying fuck.  The energy is contagious.  Look at how close we were! (I tried to capture the guy's style, but it may be too dark to tell)

It was such a GREAT SHOW!!!  They sang every single one of my favorite songs from each of their three albums: Elevator Love Letter, Your Ex-Lover is Dead, and Tonight as an encore.  And being the dork that I am, I asked if them if I could snag this from them off the stage:

Which is unimpressive in and of itself, but I took it because on the back was this:

Their playlist from tonight!  Which we actually saw them write out 5 minutes before they went on, haha... gotta love that kind of preparation.  If you ever have a chance to check them out, DO IT!

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Now that the excitement of Stars is behind me, I can draw full attention and groupie-geekiness towards the BOYZ II MEN concert that I'm going to with Mabel on Thursday.  Hells yeah, you read that right... BOYZ II MEN.  Motown philly is indeed, back again. (Hey how come there's only three of them?  They better sing Water Runs Dry)

Drink + Google =

Droogle

Still a little buggy but fun.  Liquor Cabinet sounds like a good idea but I can't test it because I don't quite remember what we have in the house right now. (a common side effect of the morning scotch)

Canada, you are on FIRE!

Sprung

I knew something was different today.  The sky was blue blue BLUE and the sun was gracious enough to hang around until I left work.  Spring is officially here!

Along with the coming of spring, I have noticed it has brought an advent of flying insects.  While smacking butterflies on the 56 breaks up some of the monotony of the morning commute, the disgusting mess it leaves on my windshield is something I can do without.  (On a side note, "Smacking Butterflies" is going to be the name of my band.)

Tonight, it was still bright enough outside that while I ran on the treadmill at the gym, I could almost enjoy the sunset through the windows, while intermittently being bizarrely annoyed at the woman next to me that was walking, nay, strolling on her treadmill and watching the evening news on the tv.  Why that annoys me, I have no idea.  But it probably says something about my tolerance for... people... on treadmills... or something.

When leaving the gym, Natural Anthem by The Postal Service is an excellent song to listen to.  It makes me feel like I'm the star of some Nike commercial.

So please don't get upset at this portrait that I paint
It may be a little biased, but at least i spelt your name right...

Break the cycle

It drives me crazy when I see these kinds of screen names:

qtCaLiGrl323
~*~*hOt Laydeee *~*~
x*CHIC*x
SwtAznGirlE

I made those up, but I think they illustrate my point.  Especially anything that uses "AZN".  AZN? Really? 

You know what I picture when I see these screen names?  I see a skinny little girl with long hair and blonde streaks.  She drives a black Civic. She works at Bebe during the day and promotes Climax parties at night.

It's like they all shared the same manual when they signed up for AIM:

1. Don't spell anything right. A good rule of thumb is to leave out vowels.  e.g. Girl should always be Grl.  Sweet = swt.
2. Use capital letters like You'Re oN cRaCK.
3. How will they know you are cute (cte), hot (hawt), asian (AZN!), or sexy (sxy) unless it's in your screen name?
4. Don't forget your area code because there just might be TWO fLYsweety4U's out there.
5. You can't use that squiggly line enough. And don't forget to embellish with asterixes!  **~*~**~*~*~*~~~***~*~*~*~ That's so hot!! ~*~*~*~~~*~*~***~~*~~~***

Hehe, I had to check my buddy list to make sure I'm not making fun of someone I actually know and I think I'm safe.  Hey no offense if you have something remotely like this, but honestly... we've come a long way from AOL chat rooms. Break the cycle.  Yeah yeah, my screen name's dumb too, but it's not DuMB.  Ok that made no sense but whatever. I'm going to bed.

Still no cure for cancer

I wish I were paid to drink forties and discover the obvious.

Conclusion of scientific "study": Bums drink forties cause they can get drunk on the cheap.

Quote from the article: "Rhonda Jones-Webb, an expert in alcohol consumption..."

Rhonda, you are one lucky bitch. How do I get your job?  I have years of experience and numerous references.