some holiday

The highlight of my thanksgiving will have to be some stranger's house the day after Thanksgiving. I went to Kensington with some friends and parked in front of this house with Thanksgiving decorations that were awesome. They had boxes that lit up with holiday images. The best one of the images was just the word TOFURKEY! My other favorite was the cornucopia that showed up on the wall every now and then. Who doesn't love a horn of plenty? When we got out of the car you can here that the lights were coordinated with a song. What song you ask? Well the Adam Sandler Thanksgiving song of course. We kinda wanted to knock on these peoples' door... but we didn't.

Thanksgiving day was whatever. I worked until 3pm ande then rushed home to get my mom and go to Santee. Not a fan of east county but that's where the turkey was, not that I care about the turkey. It was really interesting to have to explain to my cousin what an economic crisis was. What's more interesting is why hadn't she heard that phrase until that day while standing right next to me?? My other cousins are old enough to know what vegan is now, so I had to go through the normal cycle of explaining my life to them and what i will and won't eat and why. This is where I sigh.

Thanksgiving evening was a little odd. I picked up The Mole and went to a friend's house. Little did we know that we would be watching the You tube for the next couple hours. There were about eleven people sitting around the t.v with the apple t.v. conmnected to it yelling out subjects to search that would hopefully give us videos that would make us laugh and giggle. It worked for a good while. I think my favorite was the evil eye baby. This is where I sigh again thinking of how much I laughed that night and what our world is coming too. I think it was decided that that would be a new Thanksgiving tradition. What a holiday. And no I did not go shopping on Friday, but I did go eat some Thai food. YUM.

why hello

my hand hurts... every day. But that's ok, because I had a good weekend for my friend Rechelle's 21st birthday. We're classy so we start at midnight on her birthday at the Waterfront. WHY? you ask? FEVERCROTCH. She's been waiting awhile for that, but it was no Monday of course so she still has some waiting to do. The next day... her actual birthday we went to Hollywood to see the Sounds, one of her favorite bands. I enjoy them as well. We had a hotel room a couple miles away which was nice beacause we're in Hollywood and well it's her 21st birthday.

But here's a fact she likes to start off by saying, "Funny story;" she had food poisoning or something on her birthday because she was ill and her stomach was too upset too drink. I think that may be every parents dream right there.

So, the Sounds was superfun although my friend grabbed my hand to pull me and my blisters, that are humongous by the way, popped. OUCH. I never screamed like that before. I wasn't screaming because it hurt enough to scream that loud but to make her stop. But she didn't stop and I kept screaming at the top of my lungs, but you have to remember that we're at a loud show where no one can here your cries of pain.

We go back to the hotel and sleep. Ashley, a little buzzed hits her leg or something on the air conditioner and says she hit her head on the wash machine. Yet, she's the voice of reason when I want to ride the skate board into the pool.

Next day was spent realizing that when we want to drive around LA we should buy a map, yet we still didn't. We first went to walk around Rodeo DR at all the stores we didn't want to walk into, probably because they wouldn't let us. This is the first time I've been in a car where we have it valet parked. Funny story: we pick up our car and as we'e getting in we happen to notice that Kelly Osbourne is dropping hers off. It takes us awhile to finally agree that's her. She became very skinny recently. Anyway, we're liek say something Chris!! Ask her for directions! because we actually needed to get to Melrose. Chris was driving and was closest by the way. So he rolls down his window and says "Excuse me!" She turns around probably thinking someone recognized her and he asked how to get to Melrose. Changing the expression on her face she actually give us directions. Too bad we were too involved with the fact that it was Kelly Osbourne to listen to what she was saying. Also, she has an accent and her dad is Ozzy Osbourne so it was hard to understand her anyway.

We were definately lost for awhile trying to find the Marc Jacobs stores. Rechelle bought two bags and a necklace from Marc by Marc for $88 and likes to brag about this. I'd say it was a good weekend and a good birthday. She was happy, though she didn't spend it like most 21-year-olds, but we're not liek most people so we still had awesome fun times.

I Will Never Be Mad...

when I'm at Disneyland!

Sunday- Ronnie won two tickets to Disneyland from his work for being awesome, so we went because I love it!!! As soon as we get there I upgrade my free ticket to a season pass. Now I can go whenever I want!!

First things first- Tomorrowland. I don't think I've ever started a day at Disney in another land. I think I just eel like it wouldn't be the same if I didn't ride Space Mountain so we made sure we got a fast pass for it right away, but the return time for it was two and a half hours later! So, we get our fast passes and then wait the less than half-hour wait and ride the best roller coaster ever. We explore Tommorrowland until we have to ride Space Mountain again. Then it' s off to the rest of the park.

Everything else is kind of all over the place. Adventureland to Frontierland back to Adventureland to Critter Country while passing through New Orleans Square, where you can find Royal Street Veranda which serves vegetarian gumbo that is delicious.

Every main ride was conquered by us, save the Matterhorn. That ride has too long of a wait and isn't too awesome. We only breezed through Fantasyland even though I think it's rides are worthy, some people don't! We made sure we took a picture with every character we saw and that they would fall in love with us starting with Buzz Lightyear. Boy did he ever fall in love with us. We made him take an awesome picture and he thought we were the coolest making sure to give us a thumbs up as we walked away. Man, those characters know how to make you feel special. Excpet for Winnie the Pooh. He was lame. But Tigger countered that negativity and danced for everyone and stole my scarf...TWICE!! Apparrently he was cold, which was conveyed by rubbing his hands together while crouching over... and wearing my scarf.

Regular street parades and fireworks can never compete with the magic that is Disney. I really don't understand why everything they do is so much better but it is. I like to think it's how they leak everything with the music, but really, it's so much more.

Warning: If you think it's a good idea to ride Splash Mountain after it's dark, it is not. If you think it's no worse in the front of the log when riding Splash Mountain, it is not. Once you hit the splash you think "oh, that wasn't so bad," and then the log settles and a wave just rolls over teh fron t of the log so that it falls in the lap of the person sitting in the front, which happen to be me. So it wasn't a surprise that I happen to be ridiculously sick the next few days. OH! It also didn't help going to see the night time water and light show, Fantasmic and sit in the fron t row so that a constant mist (sometimes a down right rainstrom) is hitting you in the face. uuuugh. I wasn't upset though, at least while I was at Disneyland. The next few days is another story though. Man alive, I love that place.

booooring.

This week was not fun. I worked one day at Barnes and Noble and one day at my other job and my car is broken so I went absolutely nowhere. I did absolutely nothing production. I put together two puzzles, one of them being the world's smallest 1000 piece puzzle. I never want to put together such a small puzzle again. By the end of today I know I will have finished Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage. A video game made for the original Playstation. I'm not excited about today either. I haven't been home on a Sunday in a very long time and so far there is absolutle nothing on TV. So, let me tell you about my friend the MOLE.

Last night I had already been in bed for quite some time when I receive a message from my friend Craig Slike saying he's partying VIP with Neil Patrick Harris who happens to be a big Mole fan. I want to be happy but it just reminds me of the commercial with celebrities telling people why they're going to vote. Neil Patrick Harris said he's going to vote because he fell in love with someone and wants to be able to marry them. BUMMER. Anyway, I'm jealous cause Neil Patrick Harris is awesome and to get to my point, Craig Slike was last seasons mole on ABC's The Mole. I'm happy to say that I met him before he was on The Mole, but only saw him a couple times before he disappeared for a couple months. Where did I meet him you ask?? Why at the Blarney Stone in Clairemont. He happens to have been going every Monday long before I turned 21. When he returned from taping some another friend I had made their was like oh have you met Craig Slike and I actually had from some one else, but everyone was all excited to see him becuase he hadn't been there in months and he was telling people including me that he was in a Tijuana prison. I knew very well that wasn't true and the other people he knew were all very hush hush about something.... which was annoying.

It was just a couple days later I got the text from Mr. Slike telling everyone to watch that season of The Mole. It was kind of exciting. Mondays at the Blarney Stone would go from being Messed up Mondays to Messed up Moledays as we would all go there to watch the show together. I've never seen anything so odd. An entirely full bar on a Monday quiet facing a televesion watching reality TV. The band would play a set, then we watch the show and they would close with a nother set. It was actually quite a bit of fun.

Not too long after the show started we went on aroad trip together. Ashley, Rechelle, Craig and I went up the California coast stopping at every ridiculous roadside attraction, stopping in San Francisco and the Winchester Mystery house and ending at our sole purpose of the trip, the Gilroy Garlic festival. Have I mentioned this? Anyway, it is one of the best things I have ever done and we all tell everyone about it all the time and that was back in August. That was when we really got to know Craig and his cooooolness. We actually documented Craig's fans along the trip because we were excited whenever someone wanted to take a picture of them that we took a picture of that moment! The fans probably thought we were weird. We told them we won this road trip with The Mole on a radio contest.
There were quite a few people that recognized him and they all told him he was the mole, but of course he couldn't say anything then. We didn't even know if he was the mole. The season finale at The Blarney Stone was ridiculous. I wish I could have recorded the entire bars' reaction when it was announced he was The Mole. It was a complete uproar. (is that redundant?) I'm glad I met Craig Slike before he was the Mole even if it was just a little bit. He is really amazing and down to earth. He loves being on TV and doing things, but it really doesn't get to his head. Every time he's been on something or someone has written about him he'll tell everyone about it, but not to show off. He's really just excited every time it happens and so are the people that know him!

This is halloween

Pumpkins.
I know very well it's not a good idea not to carve your pumpkin too early but I thought a week in advance was going to be alright. Well, it's not. It took two days for my pumpkin to grow mold and it was quite upsetting. That's not as sad as Ashley's pumpkin though, that was rotten when she cut it open! She chose it for its unique stem and was perfectly fine on the outside. I was kind of jealous of its awesomeness until we saw a gnat fly out of it cause it was slowly dying from the inside out. She ended up sharing a pumpkin with her boyfriend Chris resulting in an adorable tin man. I on the other hand let out my inner anarchist and carved Noam Chomsky into my pumpkin. The pumpkin patch we went to was terrific because it had a corn maze. We went after it was dark so it was actually a little scary. Maybe more worrisome than scary. It definitely had a very Mel Gibson in Signs feeling.

ELLEN.
We got on the Ellen Halloween show and I couldn't be happier. Ashley, Chris, Rechelle and I dressed up and drove to Burbank so we can dance with this awesome woman. It was a long day but I had fun even though we didn't get any free electronics. I got to dance next to Ellen so I can almost die now. I have to wait to see Conan's hair in person to do that. Chris and Ashley were mickey and minnie (aaawe), Rechelle was Andy Warhol (it looked realy good) and I don't know what I was, but I wore and awesome wig. I'm gonna say I was two parts strawberry, one part Judy Jetson. In between commercial breaks they make people dance non stop, somethign I'm kinda use to so I was encouraged by the previously mentioned to participate in a dance contest, so I danced in the aisle and it felt weird... and I didn't win. hA! I like to think the girl her one just had super loud friends because all she did was walk up and down the aisle. I'm not bitter. Wanda Sykes was on the show. I had forgotten how funny she is. You should you tube her on this episode. Don't you tube the magician that was on it though because it was not good and we had to sit through him twice. Ellen is great, everyone should go at some time.

Halloween.
OH my goodness, Halloween at the Blarney Stone. People had been asking us what Ashley and I were going to be for quite some time, but we refused to say. Some people think it's lame to keep it a surprise but this needed to be kept a secret until the moment we walked in the door to get the effect we wanted and DID achieve mind you. We went dressed as Fevercrotch themself. They happened to be dressed as Waynes World but it was awesome nonetheless. The look on ther face when we walked in with our instuments was priceless, they even stopped playing the song they were starting. The rest of the night was a ridiculous amount of fun. I like to keep an assortment of odd things in my car so when our bar tender was sad that she was dressed up with everyone else I brought in my strawberry wig and the jumpsuit I used to wear at Sea world and she was more than happy to sport them all night. One of my favorite halloweens yet. We won the costume contest hands down. We hope we helped them feel liek they've officially arrived as a band. ;)

"if you're looking for someplace to drink"...

You can go to the Blarney Stone Irish Pub in Clairemont and find out why Monday is my favorite day of the week. Local talent and cover artists FeverCrotch will test your lyrical knowledge of pop classics including a healthy dose of Weezer.

When I was first invited to partake in this Monday night event I felt like I was in a scene from a movie. It was a room full of strangers singing at the top of their lungs songs I know and love, all with smiles on their faces. The fact that sobriety was lacking in most participants probably helped set the mood, but nonetheless it was a great moment and I’ve returned every Monday ever since.

The act of Fever and Crotch consists of just two young men that know how to work a crowd. The singer, Sean O’donnell also heads the band playing guitar, while longtime friend Matthew Gorney keeps it together by playing the cajon, what some people may refer to as “the box.” Aside from only having two instruments the integrity of the songs they play are kept intact. Along with the many covers, Fevercrotch has a few entertaining originals such as The Blarney Stone Theme Song and Super Nachos. Never played the same twice, 97 forerunner is a hit in which they talk about the similarities and differences of the 97 forerunners they both own individually. Having the same car as the other person in the band, to me, screams dedication.


Recently Fevercrotch had the chance to perform in front of a crowd of thousands at the latest Weezer concert in San Diego. At every venue a select few are chosen to be apart of the Weezer hootenanny. This is where the twenty or so people that are chosen play their instruments along with Weezer on stage for the first encore. It was amazing to see them up there sharing the spotlight with the headlining band and I was happy for them. In between the two songs they all played together, the lead singer Rivers Cuomo, questioned Gorney about his box. Nervous and drawing a blank Gorney gave Cuomo very short answers compared to the long and elaborate stories I’m used to hearing at The Blarney Stone. To top it off, in the middle of a song Cuomo called out “box solo,” which for the loyal Fevercrotch attendees, is known to be O’donnell’s line every week.

Not only are the Fevercrotch above and beyond musically talented, but comically inclined as well. It’s hard to believe that someone wouldn’t get tired of going to the same thing every week, but aside from the songs, the show in itself is never the same. Whether it’s talking about their daily life or making a comment about someone in the audience it’s hard to walk away from this act without cracking up at least once. All in good taste, apart from the name, O’donnell and Gorney make a great comedy and musical duo.

If your not one who normally goes out on a Monday, Fevercrotch is known to play later in the week at other venues as well as an occassional weekend performance. For more info and dates you can check their page at www.myspace.com/fevercrotch

Sorry to get all serious

I like to think that I'm more aware than the average person(just a little bit), but not as educated as I could be on politics. I do have things that I am passionate for and there are certain things that I definitely stand on one side about, but I hate getting involved in political discussions. I love hearing other people talk about their opinions, but I don't like to participate, because I take a lot of things personal and I know very well that people won't see eye to eye on everything. So, I let people live their lives the way they want to and I live my life according to how I want things to be in the world. I know I can't change the world, but that doesn't mean I have to make the same choices, so I change the world that I live in and my surroundings. This will be the first thing I've written that is politically motivated since high school and I don't like it one bit.

I was working cash wrap at the good ol' Barnes and Noble last week. For the retail unsavvy that means working the cash register, something I don't do often and am quite OK with that. I had a customer who was purchasing books ask me to check when a certain book was going to come it again. I looked it up and informed her that it has been back-ordered and could take weeks. She said "Ahhh, my wife is going to kill me, that's all she's been wanting." I am immediately consumed with emotion and can't keep the smile off of my face. If she noticed, she would have thought me insane. I tell her which stores have it(cause I'm thinking her wife needs this book!)and i finish the transaction.

I'm glad there were no customers after her because my eyes got a little watery with all these thoughts running through my head. It was not that long ago she would not have been able to say something like that, but now she can and no one is hurt after the matter. I saw the world be a little less stupid right in front of my eyes that day. The LGBT community has not gone through nearly the struggle African Americans have gone through but I think it IS the civil rights struggle of our era. It's a time where every little thing is a move forward and a slap in the face of ignorance. I guess I just thought it was moving to see that change can and does happen.

I also realized how passionate I was about this subject. It shows that now, the subject is not just about not giving certain people rights, even though I would be all for that too, but it's about taking peoples rights away. I can't even imagine what it would feel like to want something, so bad, for so long and finally be able to get that, but that's the thought that makes me all teary-eyed, and to have that possibly taken away from you is even harder to imagine. As someone who believes in altruism above anything(even though I am an asshole) I couldn't be happier to see people who love each other have the same rights as every one else. I realize that I just put an emotional reason for my stance and I'm OK with that. I am well aware of all the reasons there are to be against this proposition, but that's not what I wanted to talk about. These are real people with real emotions and real love. I suggest voting No on Prop 8.

i really almost forgot.

I didn't even know it was Sunday and when I did I realized I have forty minutes to write of something awesome.

Double A had their television debut this week in the new Weezer video for troublemaker. The video sucks, but making it was too much fun so I will talk about that.

It was a Wednesday night and Ashley closed at Barnes and Noble so I had to wait for her to head off to Los Angeles to film a video shoot. We had to send tons of Emails and wait for several replies before we got the ok, the day before. We didn't want to drive in LA traffic so we left that night. But we didn't have to be there til the next morning so we stopped to give Fevercrotch our regards on the way out of town. The singer also known as Fever asked someone how to get us in to the shoot cause we were worried it might not happen, and he said we were in, but we heard nothing from his contact so we just thought it was cute he thought he did something for us, even though we ourselves in with the emails.

We stop at a twenty-four hour Wal Mart in an attempt to make shirts that say trouble and maker in the parking lot, but Wal Mart failed to provide us with the tools that we needed.

We get to the shoot about 7am and we're one of the first ones there. When its time to check our names off and get teh red wrist bands ashley notices our name on another list and we ask oh which wristband to we want!? They reassured us that Yellow is the choice color of wristband and they were right as they designated us "friends and family" of the band. We felt bad realizing Mr. Fever had pulled through tenfold and we professed our love of him and vowed to buy him drinks in the near future.


The video theme was breaking world records. Here are some that were broken:
Worlds largest dodgeball game- NOT FUN, somewhat painful.
Worlds largest logo made of nachos- only thing we didn't participate in as it was before we realized the power of our yellow wristbands.
Worlds smallest drum set- pat the drummer was the only one who did this actual
Worlds longest car pool with teeth- We sat in the front seat in the middle and look ridiculous.
Worlds largest air guitar something...?- This felt stupid, but was funny.
Worlds largest skateboard- you can see Ashley ducking on it in the video!
Worlds largest hootenanny- I played the flute and Ashley the didgeridoo(sp?)
Most guitars being smashed in a music video- there was only one shot so it had to be good.
Worlds largest pie fight- WOW. that was great. and disgusting and the last thing we did before a two hour ride home. I was covered in custard and Ashley in tapioca!! that's gross.


With our handy dandy wristbands we met the lead singer, River Cuomo's father, though we had no idea who he was at the time. I noticed he had a yellow wristband and asked him what that meant. He wasn't quite sure what we could do with it but tried to figure it out with us and we decided it meant we can do anything. His name was Norman and he was sweet. We told him we wanted to be in the car that the singer pulled to break a record and he only wanted to be in the air guitar scene. We told someone else that worked there what we wanted they got us the OK. When we were called upon for that later, Norman was excited for us and was like you did it!! and he showed us pictures he took of us in the car. We were like wow, river's dad has pictures of us in his camera. The other awesome thing about these wrist bands was lunch. Instead of waiting under a red tarp area called "holding" we got to walk around the set and have "the good lunch." While everyone else got boxed pizza, we chose from a buffet of food that I have to say was very vegan friendly and quite tasty. We sat at a table, next to Norman which also happened to be two seats away from Mr. Cuomo, the younger one. This is when we heard Rivers ask Norman how mom was doing and it hit us who this man was. He wasn't just some awesome old guy, so then we felt kinda weird, but still awesome. We never stop that.

We had a great time even though it was shot and we were there from beginning to end, a whole 13 hours. We weren't elitist and spent time in the holding area as well because we did meet really nice and fun regular people too. We shared our hoopla of instruments. OK I'm gonna try to name everything we brought: Flute, Guitar, mini accordion, cowbell, tambourine, spoons we stole from Denny's the night before, finger cymbals, tap shoes, kazoo and a didgeridoo.

I hope that was all of it cause it was a lot. While showing people or hoopla our backpack felt like a never ending Mary Poppins bag. But like I said, there were good people there who tried to keep their spirits up the whole time and got their own hootenanny going by playing Weezer songs with all the instruments they brought. There's a video of Ashley and I dancing to this on you tube somewhere as well. I guess we tend to get around. Thanks to everyone there and the people who got us there. It was just an overall really fun day, but everyday is pretty fun when Double A is around.

I trolley dance, do you trolley dance?

I had a lovely Saturday morning starting off at the wrong location. NO i did not wake up in a strangers bed! I went to watch the 10th annual San Diego Trolley dances presented by the Jean Isaacs dance studio. The only problem was that it started at the Hazard Center trolley stop NOT the Horton Plaza trolley stop. As a writer, you learn to pay close attention to details. We needed the exercise anyway and for those of you who didn't already know, get with it already: Horton Plaza offers three free hours of validation... during business hours of course. The drunk after hours crowd would get lost trying to find the validation machine anyway, let alone be able to figure out how to use the thing.

We, as in Ashley, of Double A, Rechelle and I, also of Double A, finally get to the initial point of trolley dances at Hazard Center. Now, this is my first year doing this so I wasn't too sure how it would work, but you spend two hours on a trolley "tour" of five locations where dancers will put on a performance for you near a trolley stop. If I were you I would be thoroughly intrigued by now.

We bought our tickets that consisted of a lanyard with a thin sticker on it stating, "trolley dances 2005." Ashley's was actually very used and had three previous stickers on it before her current one. I support the arts as well as recycling, so I was OK with this.

The First Stop:
As well as the first trolley dance was at Fashion Valley. As a group-a very large semi-manageable group-we walked down the stairs and across the street to the "stage area" There were dancers dressed as homeless people. While waiting for everyone to arrive and get situated one of the "vagabonds" went through the crowd with his hand out. Our personal group trolley cop, the genius he is, followed this man and attempted to escort him out until someone informed him that he was a dancer. Everyone laughed at this trolley cop and he was embarrassed. It was already a good show by my standards. As I suspected it was modern dance, and was confusing but still nice to watch, not to mention the unconventional location.


This GUY: As usual we ran into some eccentric personalities on the trolley. Waiting to get back on at the Fashion Vally station, this gentleman started off by asking everyone why they were hungover. Though loud and in your face, he was very smiley and nonthreatening. I was personally a fan until they made him leave. Here's some of the things he said: "White people get hungover too!" "You drank with your mom last night, now you hung-OVER!" "The one and only, never leave you lonely"(after hitting on some girl). "mmm I like white girls TOO!" "white people"(after standing next to some white people." and my personal favorite. "I'm Obama, Damn it!"

Second Stop: Morena/Linda Vista
Here we had two locations to wonder about and watch some dancing, and they will both be modern dancing. We actually get excited when we hear about the first dance that takes place in a pool. It wasn't exactly the synchronized swimming we were expecting but it was really cute and different. And there was this kid playing in the jacuzzi behind us who's dad kept shushing him. The best part though was when some innocent bystanders were in the middle of watching the act when the outside pool shower all of a sudden turned on and they all ran out of the way. WE had to hold in our chuckles. I guess we're insensitive.

Next we head on over to the nature preserve. There is a big uproar about the fact that we have to walk on dirt. After the panics were settled and arrangements were made, we made our way down to the first point of dance as there would be several here. The theme was kinda like hikers who were hiking and then started to dance instead. There was a violin here as well. I like violins. I think this was the most uncomfortable perfomance as it was the hottest part of the day and at not one of these dances were we able to attain a decent view of what was going on most of the time. It was a good chance for us to catch up on text messages though.

Third Stop: Old Town
Nothing too interesting here, but the dances were really fun and I actually could tell what was going on although it was still pretty much modern dancing. It was called "Ode to a Cowboy" and was western themed with a few quick draws involved. Johnny Cash' s "Folsom Prison" was used in this act, which was more upbeat than previous musical selections. There was more acting along with the dancing used in this one too. Oh! Violence was a big theme in this one. The dancers at certain points either really liked each other or wanted to kill each other. Very good dynamics. Kept us on our toes, but we actually got to sit at this performance so that was definitely a metaphor.


Fourth Stop: Little Italy
This one was called "Alice and the Escape from Fire Escapeland." At the trolley stop we were met by an odd "girl" who made us follow her and a "rabbit" to a nearby fire escape. This dance was interesting not just because it took place on a fire escape but it was modern BUT infused with hip hop. I personally just had a step class and recognized the stomp the yard movements used. Go me. I thought it looked out of place and forced and would have rather it been all hip hop, but that's OK. I like to broaden my horizons. I really do. The picture is one of my favorites. The "Alice character looks as though she's suspended in midair. It's good.

Fifth and Final Stop: Santa Fe Depot
Overall, this is my favorite dance. It was more jazzy and choreographed. I happen to like things that are more structured and are against things that aren't, such as poetry and modern dance. I highly respect people that can do either one though, because I would struggle with both. This last dance was also a repeat and was done at the first San Diego Trolley Dances. There were people in trench coats dancing with luggage carts. Ashley really wanted it to be a commercial. She REALLY wants it to be a commercial. At the end they all left waving with one hand and pulling their cart with the other but two small children followed at the end of he line doing the same thing with tiny luggage carts. It was kind of adorable.

Thank you and good night.

A Follow Up

I was deleting messages in my phone today, because it told me to and I remembered why I have some many undeleted ones. I was saving three sent messages to Ashley that I wrote after the test we had in class last Monday. So, this can technically be a follow up of last week's blog in which I gave you my daily occurrences.

I was very upset that I had forgotten my book at home; the one I was casually reading at the time. I also had half an hour to kill between the time I had finished my test and the time I had to be back in class. I'm quick. Anyway, I decided Ashley needed a nice little story, so I came up with one. Three text messages consisting of three "pages" each later, this is what she received:

Ok, so one time there was this bunny and it jumped and I was like whoa shit!! Cause it jumped ten feet into the air over a fence and I tried to catch it cause I thought it would make me rich. Turns out it was just a regular bunny that had super-bunny-strength for a sec, like when grandmas pick up cars, cause it had to get to its husband bunny and save him from Conan O'Brien who would never intentionally hurt a bunny


But turns out that on tonights episode Conan is going to say "nyaaaahh" while shaking his head to the side, making his hair bounce for the seven billionth time in the shows existence, with the end result being world peace and the death of said bunny. But wife bunny realized all she had to do to save husband bunny without preventing world peace was bring him an intact dandelion for him to eat which explained the hurry the bunny was in to get to the


yokel's house cuase his yard was full of weeds and such. I continued to follow wife bunny only to see her carefully prance to her death trying to protect the dandelion when she got hit by a car, but at least they'll be together now, and I know that i'll definitely be watching Conan tonight though.

7 days of Amber

Here lies the past week of my life.


Sunday: I had a lovely day of entertaining the kiddies at Barnes and Noble.
No. They do not pay me enough.

With the night ending, my Partner in Crime, Ashley, and I go out of our element, into the weekend-night-scene. We arrive at newly revamped locale, The Office, in support of a new salon industry mixer night- Vanity Sundays. It was cute. Sweet ladies in bunny costumes serve you drinks with live music, as well as a DJ/guy playing an Ipod. We wore dresses and we usually do not. All in all, it was a big day for us, aka "Double A." We also do not know how to pose like ladies.

Monday: My favorite day of the week.

When I used to work every Monday, Ashley and I would like to tell everyone how glad we are on this day because they all seem to hate Mondays. Now I enjoy them even more because all I have is class, then a couple hours to myself, then it's off to see America's favorite cover band, Fevercrotch (see future blog).



Tuesday: I wake up, take my sister to work (because her car has broken down) and then take my grandma to daycare(because my sister's car has broken down.) Sometimes I want to stay there with my grandma because they're always doing arts and crafts fun-stuff. This time I walked her in and there was music playing. As soon as the beats hit this woman's ears, she's rocking back and forth, swaying her arms in the air. This is the moment I realize, thats where I get it from. The caregivers like to tell us how my grandma is the best dancer there.

Next, I head to a job interview. Oops! Didn't I say I wasn't going to do that anymore? I'm really not even too sure what this job is, but i spent five minutes before my interview, in my car, writing out how I would convince a high school student to work towards going to college. I was hired on the spot. I was even impressed with some of the things that came out of my mouth. For ten hours a week I am now a College Peer Advisor. http://www.sandiegocalsoap.com/star/index.php .That's CAL-Soaps website. It's who I work for... it's legit. I am just happy to be working in an educational environment again. After this interview, I head over to Best Buy to wait half an hour for them to find my last paycheck, from over two months ago. I never liked them there, not one bit. After, I have lunch with an old friend... this, on the other hand, makes me happy. Then off to Barnes and Noble til midnight.


Wednesday: Go to classes, then straight to Barnes and Noble. Very exciting.


Thursday: Wake up, do the sister/grandma routine of the week. Following this, I did one of my favorite things: buying groceries. The cashier and bagger were rather impressed with my selections. What can I say? I love vegetables, especially ones I've never used. I bought some white, green bean-looking things. I still don't know what they're called but I felt I needed to cook with them. Went home, did homework til another night of closing the good ol' B&N.


Friday: I've got the whole day off! This is where I break into an Oingo Boingo song. Don't be surprised if there is dancing involved as well. I start the day off reading THURSDAY's newspaper, with no help from the cat.
I am then off to watch some old friends practice jujitsu on each other in the park. I am not too sure what that's about, but my friend Liz and I find other ways to entertain ourselves with the boys, hugging closely on the ground, in the background. Some of the awesome things we managed to do: Liz knitted while Amber read FRIDAY's paper. A visit from the ice cream man. Then we fly a kite that I happen to keep in my trunk for "just in case" reasons. The boys finish so we go eat at Ranchos, then decide to play volleyball until it gets too dark. Rather than going for my idea of watching little kids play a major game of soccer down the street, we sit in the park and do nothing for two hours. This is before we go see some show at some place. The first band(don't know the name, don't care), were hardcore/metal and weren't very much fun for me. The second band, Tiltwheel, have been around forever and were good-time fun. Another friend gets a hold of me when he's done with the San Diego Beer Fest.... we go catch the last two songs of a Fevercrotch set and the night ends there.


Saturday: What everything was leading up to the rest of the week. It's Pagan Pride Day at Balboa Park! Really not as interesting as I thought it would be, although I did see a lady predict that some guy had a cat. Turns out he has TWO, so I guess she was double correct.
There was live music and a couple girls taught us how to play some games.There was a pentagram with pegs sticking out. We had to throw rings at it in attempt to get them around the pegs. There was another pentagram as well. This one had holes in which we had to throw bean bags through. Not too sure what the point of these games were, but we won prizes so that was cool. Ashley got a Pokemon and I got this red dog.
We went on a Halloween costume adventure where I wanted to purchase this Alligator head in the close-out section. I was willing to pay less than five dollars.They wanted to charge me $29.99. IT HAS NO EYES!!! ... those people were insane. My final big event of the day was a viewing of "Burn After Reading." I enjoyed it... on a couple different levels even. I decided to go to my place of work ON my day off to buy season two of Dexter, but it was sold out. That's not so much fun, but a coworker is going to let me borrow it, so money was saved in the event... that's always nice. Now I'm here battling my cat over who gets more room on the chair, with Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets on in the background, because that's what my ex-boyfriend, who is technically my husband, put on before he fell asleep.

END WEEK.

i like gum

I have been looking for Orbits positively pomegranate flavored gum ever since I had heard of its existence months ago. I went up and down the coast in August from San Diego to San Francisco looking for this limited edition masterpiece. Every time we stopped somewhere I looked for it, with no luck and no success.

I had just about given up hope until I received the text "I got you the best present ever" from one, Ashley Nicole Hulson. Ok, when she sent me that message I had no idea what it was she had gotten me, but upon receiving it, I couldn't have asked for anything better!! Thank you, for finding me what I have been looking for all of my life, or at least the last couple of months.



As a fellow gum enthusiast, Ashley understood what it would mean to me to try this new flavored, chewing gum. 1: I only chew Orbits, so its exciting when a new flavor comes out and 2: It's not everyday they come out with a flavor that doesn't have the word mint in it. At least since middle school, I was known as the gum girl. People knew they could come to me, ask for gum, and not be denied or disappointed.

I had a daily battle with my tenth grade English teacher. It's a battle I still face today being employed by Barnes and Noble. Everyday I walked in... late, she would say "Amber, spit out your gum." Sure enough, I had gum and I would spit it out. On one occasion, this teacher of mine made the class wait until my friend and I arrived to start the class. As usual we walked in a tad bit late and as soon as we walked in the whole class told me to spit out my gum. That teacher of mine thought she was so clever, knowing how predictable I was at the time. On a side note this is the same teacher that, two years later, cried because the year she retired the same friend and I were the only ones who brought her flowers, cause in all reality, she was a great teacher and she deserved them.

Now, back to being me. Barnes and Noble thinks they can tell me I can't chew gum. I especially like it when I'm told one day, to spit my gum out by a manager and the next day, I see the same manager chewing her own gum on the book floor. I just wanted to point that out, I don't like to complain about my retail jobs because what else would I expect. But it's so easy to do just that. I love working in a book store. I'm pretty sure I'll end up being a librarian.

All in all, I love gum... Orbits to be exact and have NOW tried every flavor I know of in existence. My daily gum of choice continues to remain Raspberry Mint. This was very important.

Spring Awakening

I don’t know why, but I felt like I needed to see this quaint new musical called, Spring Awakening. It could have been the five Tony awards it acquired this year, or the amount of controversial attention it received. What I do know is that I was surprised, impressed and awkwardly uncomfortable through the duration of the evening.
I honestly knew nothing of what this play would be like, other than an article I read in the San Diego Reader and a sample of the soundtrack that I listened to while covering a break in the music department at work. To be even more honest, neither of those enticed me much to go out and actually see this production. It wasn’t until I found out that the production was closing that weekend at the Balboa Theatre, when I decided this was something I probably shouldn’t miss. I’m glad to say that I didn’t.
Before I get to the part where I actually go see, Spring Awakening, I feel it is very important to discuss the acquiring of my tickets. If there is one thing the reader takes away from this blog, I hope that it is the awareness of the availability of “rush tickets.” Now this concept, although new to me, reeks of genius! For two hours, starting three hours BEFORE the show begins, the same tickets people have already paid more than double for, are on sale for twelve and twenty dollars. It’s reasonable that these won’t be the best seats in the house because the advance tickets buyers already picked those, but they really are not horrible. It just provides an opportunity for those theatre lovers lacking the required funds, like say, a full-time student, to attend things they never would have before.
My friend and I get arrived right as the play was beginning and the opening scene is of a little girl asking her mother the time-old question of where babies originate. This is a typical question found in today’s entertainment world, but because of the mothers answer, the audience later discovers that this was a very defining moment in the young girl’s life. For the unsuspecting, this also introduces the main theme of the play: sex. Who would have thought??
I wasn’t kidding when I said the play was awkwardly uncomfortable. From the scene where a young male student holds a picture in one hand while physically pleasing himself with the other, to the moment where the new, young couple basically has sex on stage, I knew this was not a play I would want to see sitting next to my mother. Once I got over the initial shock, I appreciated the raciness of the whole thing that is truly needed to convey the issues and emotions that adolescents deal with today. I should know; I was one of them!
Overall, my personal favorite thing about this production was the band/orchestra being in plain sight the whole time, upstage of the actual actors. The reason I was reluctant to actually attend this play at all was because, from what I knew, the music was more modern and pop-based, unlike the traditional musical that I enjoy. To my surprise the collaboration of classic musical influence and modern rock was truly moving. I could hear every instrument, individually, do what it needed to create this modern day masterpiece.
The music and the concept are well on their way to becoming a much more talked about event. I wouldn’t be surprised that when this tour of the production is over and the second is on the way, tickets will be sold out nationwide. I advise those that can, to attend and invite everyone you know AND their mothers (if they would be comfortable in that kind of situation).