where a kid can be a kid

so i've been neglected lately. just kidding cristina. anyway, i hadn't seen cristina in a while so i butt my head into her business and called her on saturday night.
me: are you playing at noon Mass tomorrow?
cristina: yeah
me: ok, i'll be there so i can finally see you
cristina: ok, that's cool. we're going to chuck e. cheese afterwards. do you want to come with us?
in my head i was like, hmmmmmmmmmmm ... but then i decided, sure, why the heck not? and this is what i got. i got my ct. this usually refers to cuddle time, but in this instance, i got my cristina time. hehe

this is supposedly the hardest game. it just looks too confining to me. blah.
this is ang as she won her 100 tickets!! woohoo!!! she was so excited. i wonder what she's like in vegas
the look of pure delight
this poor ride got so much action that day. talk about weird body rolling. whoa
talk about feeling old. yes i am. i try to blend in but the bags under my eyes are so heavy.
cristina and janice - thanks for being mom and organizing everything janice!
these two fit on the screen somehow. quite entertaining
the roomies with chuck
they attacked chuck before he got back inside. that poor rachel's birthday must hate us.
out of all the winnings, everyone got a kazoo. i think gp's was broken.
there's the final group pix - go noon Mass!
yay - i'm not a homewrecker! jk. but you know i had to put it in.
thanks for a fun Sunday afternoon guys! i'll be back at chuck e. cheese next weekend with my nephews (who are 3 and 5).

the brown memo

so saturday night joey and i went out to our friend, john's, party ... i had gone shopping the week before when we were in vegas at the br outlet. now, joey's a simple guy. i don't think stripes are in his wardrobe. but, cel and i thought that it would look good on him. so we took a chance and got the brown striped shirt. we originally wanted the rust-colored polo but there was none in XL. anyway, i always pictured it with brown sandals too ... i didn't know he was going to wear it because i didn't think he would wear it so when i got dressed to go meet up with them, i was wearing a brown shirt as well. he smirks at the thought of the brown striped shirt, but deep down, he liked it. ...
this is the scratcher game that we played. joey, vincent and i did each had a crossword one. vincent got 5 words and the bonus and ended up with a $50.00 winning ticket. joey pretends to win with his, but he lost.




this is john's party. this is vincent, rob, john and joey. john was my best friend in the latter years of high school and early years of college. and then we drifted apart. our worlds are very separate now, sometimes he still can't believe that joey and i are together. but joey sees him more often than i do. weird how things happen like that - people can be so close and then kind of separate. not in a bad way but sometimes life really just get busy. but then again it's up to us to invest in the relationships that we really want to work, right? ok. that went on a weird tangent. that was saturday night/sunday morning.

welcome ms. kim!

so i went to visit the kims yesterday at the hospital. i actually went to the wrong hospital. i got the text and it said encino tarzana regional. so i google'd it and went along my merry way. when i was in the parking lot, i called fil and he said to come on in, to go to the women's pavillon. when i got there, there was no women's pavillion so i asked at the gift shop. they said that there were no babies there, i had to go to the tarzana campus. apparently it happens a lot because they had a printout of directions on how to get to the other campus. so anyway, i went to the tarzana location and got to see the kims. here they are ...
look at the happy family ... cute huh?
yes, she's a girl. it's so cool. they keep her at the bedside the whole time.
here are her prints. they look so itty bitty.
here's her lojack system so that she won't get snatched away. i now feel secure.
here's fil changing poopy diapers.
lara doesn't like it so much
there. her eyes are open. ms. lara aline gopez kim.
doesn't she look like an anne geddes picture?
here's the happy cousin, carelle.
mia was very scared to hold her. look how tense her shoulder is.
here's lara's ate denise ready to take care of her.
that's me. lovette has now introduced me to lara as tita paparazzi. so that's my new name. anyway, there were no babies that we saw born that day. everybody seemed to have been induced to have their babies early or held off until today. as long as they didn't name their kids damian i think they would be ok. ok, off to work

birthday wishes

i already know what i want for my birthday. and it's only june. grey's anatomy season 2 comes out on september 12 - 2 days after my birthday. i am soooooooooo there. woohoo!

libo, libo

and so another vegas trip ends. it was a different one of sorts. a few months ago i posted about a bet that i had won - my friend, cel, and i bet a vegas trip that she couldn't talk to her ex-bf for at least six months and within 2 weeks she lost the bet. so we planned for a vegas trip in june. lo, and behold, it's june already. but joey's cousin, vince, and his familia were heading out to state line this weekend so we decided to combo the trip. i had work friday night so when i finished at 7:45 AM saturday morning, i drove straight to cel's place and then we headed out to state line at 8:30. joey and vince left on friday during the day. we made good time and got to state line by 11:30. we called the boys and decided to eat lunch before i went to sleep - mind you i had no sleep on the way there either. so i finally went to bed at 2:30 saturday afternoon (that's literally 24 hours after i woke up the previous day!) and trust me, i was delirious by then. so i napped until 7:30 and then got ready to go out to the strip. here are some highlights ...

this is me and joey after i napped, showered and changed. we actually got lost exiting the parking lot from buffalo bill's and were running parallel to the freeway before we realized there was no freeway access. joey then made a song similar to gilligan's island about how we had gotten lost ... i don't think he could repeat it though


i found this cool huge-antic bench in front of the buffet line at aladdin. i couldn't resist, i had to lie down.

look who we found at mgm! it's my and danny ... hello calmelats! joey was on a mission to find the long drink things so we walked from bally's to mgm to find the drinks. we saw some interesting things along the way including one guy sitting on the sidewalk getting his car searched and the other guy getting searched, with an open beer case in his car and then we saw him getting cuffed on the strip! the crowd watched as the cops cuffed and arrested him. don't worry, cel was our dd!

here are the drinks that we finally found ... my and i shared two of these things - they were red white and blue - strawberry margarita, pina colada and blue something or other. we only had the yardstick - that's why we had 2! and the boys had the mad dog thing (46 oz) of 190 octane with an extra shot! boy, did that make a difference!


here's us after a few sips of our drinks! actually, that's us pretty normal, my jumped in on purpose.
you ask what joey is doing? he started talking to these two filipina women at the wheel of fortune slots. he asked us how to say "thousand" in tagalog. and we told him "libo." so every time they got a spin on the wheel of fortune, he started chanting "libo, libo" the one lady (in the orange) looked at him at first, and then started chanting with him. so for the rest of the night - and weekend - he kept chanting "libo, libo!)


these are our good night pictures to my and danny - i think it's about 3 AM by this point in time.

just switched places with danny and we got a girl picture in ... go scrapbooking!
we found this empty thing at the end of the night and thought that we would frame ourselves so that it looked like a picture! do you think it worked?

anyway, this is how we ended our night. we were too tired to get steak and eggs so we wanted to go to jack in the box, but they were closed because their computers were down. we finally went to bed at 5 AM. tired but good times for all. when we were going to pay on sunday, vince had a voucher for one free night, but they said that someone had already paid cash for the room and that he would be refunded his voucher. so we ended up with a free room! we think his family paid for it before we left - how cool is that? anyway, good times for all.

she's here

look! ms. lara kim is here! welcome little one! you've long been awaited! can't wait to meet you - we're super excited!

it's all in the numbers

there's this whole article on the LA Times sports page about numbers. it's kinda cool. the NFL won't let Reggie Bush wear his beloved No. 5 because running backs must wear a number between 20 - 49. how retarded is that? so then he had to "buy" the number 25 from a teammate who has worn that number for 8 seasons. Reggie is donating 25% of the his jersey royalties to Hurricane Katrina victims and then half of those funds go to the charity of the other guy's choice. that was a nice exchange but apparently people have had to pay for family vacations, new kitchen sets or lump sums of $40,000. to have a certain number. that's crazy. talk about superstition. i didn't realize that all NHL clubs retired the number 99 for gretzky - all clubs - wow - what an honor! thus, mario lemiuex picked the number 66 because it's 99 backwards.

celosa

so i once told one of the nurses i used to work with that my favorite color was yellow. she looked at me, straight-faced and said "are you celosa? (is that even the right spelling?) anyway, she asked me if i was the jealous-type. i had to stop and think about it because i wasn't sure. but as i have moved on from that conversation (which was over 4 years ago), i have come to realize that i am. how sad.
last night i had a dream that still proves that i am. well, it was a pretty upsetting dream. anyway, all of my high school friends were hanging out - which isn't unusual - in a place similar to central perk in friends, but there were couches where people could lay down as well. what was unusual was that jenn - joey's ex - came with her bf. our godfather has told her that she has to hang out with us so that everyone is aware that she is ok with me and joey being together and that she's over him because for a long time, he believed that she wasn't. anyway, so we're all hanging out and joey says about 2 words to her throughout the night. we all went to sleep (in the dream) and when i woke up, joey wasn't on the bed with me, but lying on the couch with her. they were sitting opposite of each other so that their faces were about 2 inches apart - that's some close space. and her bf was nowhere to be found. our other friend, joan, was there and she saw me wake up and see this. she said for me to calm down. well, i wasn't so calm. they told me they were all going outside to play football. i said, why don't you guys just leave - now? and i kicked them out of the house. no questions asked. and they left - together.
needless to say, i woke up from my dream after that. what's wrong with me?

i'm obsessed ...

with grey's anatomy. i shouldn't have found my grey's anatomy season 1 dvd. i ordered 2 at christmas time, one for me and one for dana. i finally gave dana hers on sunday night but i couldn't find mine. cristina said she had seen it in my glove compartment, and lo and behold there it was. i had sunday night and tuesday night off. because i can't sleep during the night anymore, i watched all 9 episodes between those two nights. i can't wait for season 2 on dvd. there's so much to cover. i kept expecting the one abou tthe hysterectomy and the one about meredith's mom coming through the ER but i guess that was all early this season. i think i have to start watching my gilmore girl season dvds in the meantime. but i may be boycotting since i hated the end of this season. anyway, have a good night.

the bet

last week joey met cristina at IHOP. when he was taking me home,

joey: i met her at mina and danny's luau.
me: i don't think she was there. she was at the wedding, maybe you met her at the wedding.
joey: no, she was on the swing bench.
me: no, i would have remembered her there. wanna bet?
joey: do YOU want to bet? (this is in reference to the fact that since joey and i have been together, i have NEVER won a bet! NEVER! and that's over 2 years of betting!)
me: (since i was too proud at this point to back down) yeah, let's bet. i'll call her.
joey: are you going to call her now?
me: yeah, i'll call her now.

so i call cristina and apparently i phrased the question wrong.

me: just had a question, did you go to danny and mina's shower?
cristina: yeah, i was there with reg. we came at the same time
me: you were? are you sure? i would have remembered (meanwhile joey's laughing in the background)
he said i phrased the question wrong. if i would have had a leading question instead, she would have gotten the hint and said, no, i wasn't there. and then i would have had this picture to prove it. this is the reason i lost the bet. you're not in the picture. had you been in the picture, i would have remembered. see, it's not my fault.

communication

now i understand why i can't hold grudges. because then i start to feel bad. after my angry post yesterday i realized maybe i should stop and think. it still perplexes me why i would be blamed in this situation but i just wanted to say my part and i guess i feel better. putting all anger aside, i decided to say ... just listen ... and i did. and i guess it's okay now. that's one good thing i learned from my ex-bf. never say things out of anger. whenever we would fight, he would stop and say we couldn't talk about things now and then he would leave and then he'd call me when he was ready. by the time we would be talking again, i would have thought things through and then we would actually communicate. so that's one good thing he taught me. so now, when i deal with fighting words, i stop and say, i can't talk to you right now and don't respond until later. yeah it's annoying but it takes the emotions out of things and you don't spill out all of these nasty thoughts and words, you know what i mean? joey thinks it's pretty effective because he said that if i were to yell at him (and i don't, but if i did) then he would just tune me out. that's what he used to do with his ex. she would nag/yell/ nag at him over things and he would just tune her out which would just frustrate her more because he wasn't listening. but now that we both figured out our fighting styles, we tend to communicate better.

angry

i'm angry. and i don't get angry. grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. why do people expect certain things and then when they don't get exactly what they want or hear exactly what they want to hear do they get see a need to blame someone for this??? arrgghhh. i really don't know what to say.

i just called joey: i'm so angry
joey: at me?
me: no, just angry at something ... explanation
joey: listening - he's good at that part
me: ok, just wanted to vent. have a good day

so i thought that would help but i'm still angry. but i don't hold grudges because i've always said that they're a waste of time and energy. so i'll just let it go soon. not now, but soon. arrrrrrrrrrrggghhh.

amazing what long showers can do. i just took one and i stood there thinking. i think i know why i'm angry. i didn't step back and think about the situation until now. i thought i was being consulted by a friend as a friend. but i wasn't. i was being consulted because i was my friend's friend. i was being used. i think. and that's why i'm angry. because i was used and now i'm being blamed. and that just sucks.

what a combo

so i had to work on thurs, fri and sat nite. i went home on sunday morning about 8:30 and then woke up at 11 so i could meet joey for 12 noon Mass. i couldn't complain because he was going to go to Mass with me before work. it was so cool because the meditation song was my favorite Days song - Maria Ina Ko - is that right? anyway, I had never heard that song outside of Days and I was like wow, thanks. anyway, the gist of the homily was that we are all children of God. it was a good one. then I get a call from Mark that the homily he heard from Fr. Pat was a good one too. Mass in Latin being misa, meaning to send forth and for us to go out into the world and spread the Word. that's cool. I then went back to sleep and didn't wake up wake up until about 1900 when Dana called me to see if we were still going to meet up. I said ok, I hadn't eaten since 2300 the night before. so off I went to D &B's and met up with these three. we're cute huh? j/k. anyway, we had lots of interesting conversations and we didn't even have to have any alcohol.
we get to the bar while we're waiting for our table and we ordered water and ice tea. wow, how adventuresome.
we got the food and power play combo and we didn't even get a chance to play our games.
interesting conversations of change and no change. some that i don't necessarily agree with and some i do.
more conversations about platonic relationships and how they can't exist. really, though, they can't exist.
relationships, more relationships, and more relationships.
hook ups vs. dating vs. relationships - what's the fine line?
when to do the lean. 90/10. does it really work?
skinny ______
people's bubbles and getting into them.
educational night.
i think we're very open people.
we're not catty. that's good.
when's ghetto spa night part II really?
shortened names. i'm thinking poo or oop. hehehe - i think i like the latter. jk
oh well. off to work now. i'm sure there's more that i missed but i'm really tired. hope you all had a good memorial day weekend.

best wishes and congratulations

I stole your title day - i didn't know what else to call it. anyway, congrats and best wishes to jay and cici on their engagement! wooohoo! weddings in 2007, here we come!

laughter

my examples of laughter. please just imagine the sound. that's me laughing at something. i think something's really funny.
this is my nephew, lucas. can you see the laughter? it's more of a screech at this point.
i think this is alcohol-induced laughter, but laughter none the less. doesn't joey look like a joker?

one of the things that i love doing is laughing. it's fun and it makes me laugh more. i was talking to my the other day and she has a new laugh. for those of you that don't know, mina has a silent laugh so since most of our communication is over the phone, she wants to make sure that we know she's laughing. so she has "found" a new laugh. it's gross. so gross that it makes you laugh too. ask her to do it for you. put her on speaker phone so others can laugh with you. it's gross.
yesterday joey visited me before i went to work. i lost a bet with him the other day because i didn't phrase my question to cristina correctly. so we drove my car and then when i was getting out of the car, i couldn't find my id badge. i searched through my purse and then i found it in my car. well, we had ordered our food and i looked in my purse and realized that i didn't have my wallet. joey looked at me and said "how convenient." i always tend to misplace my wallet when i need to pay for lunch - but seriously i couldn't find it. when we got back to the car after lunch, there, sitting on my chair, was my wallet. "how convenient" he again responded and we both burst into laughter. and it was like jolly laughter, straight from the belly, hearty, whole. it was nice. one of the first things that i noticed when joey and i were together was his laughter. although we were roomies for three years, i never really noticed him laugh before because he always was so melancholy. but now he laughs. and i laugh with him. and we laugh together. i love it.

sleep

i'm supposed to be sleeping now. i wanted to train my body to sleep in so that i can stay awake tonight but it's not working. i slept at 3 am so that i would hopefully wake up later since i have to work at 7 PM tonight. didn't happen. i woke up at 8 and tried to go back to sleep and then i woke up again at 10. and now i'm awake. i'll do some stuff and try to take a nap again in a little bit. please pray that i stay awake tonight because i'm really worried. thanks.

happy anniversary o's

happy 3 year anniversary to my favorite orense couple - pia and jerome! their wedding happened before i had my digital camera so i don't have any of their wedding pictures on my computer, but here are some photos i dug up from my life as a paparazzi. this is when they smiled with their eyes open. they started to close them over the years - this is at my and danny's wedding. cute, huh?
cute, they match. this is from lovette and fil's wedding. i think they lit candles. i missed the ceremony to be at another wedding but i really wanted to be at this one - really - and arrived fashionably late to see everyone and to share my congrats!
these are a little out of order but this is when the eye closing begins. and they didn't even plan this one. i took the picture and they asked each other if they closed their eyes and they both did! i guess you start to think alike once you've been married.
i think this is the only picture that i have with them that they're not running away from me. this is when i jumped so i think they felt sorry for me.
and this was taken after the next one .....
to my favorite toe holding couple - the o's - happy 3rd anniversary! to many more years to come! and i can only pray that i may find as much happiness in a relationship as you two have shown possible. love ya both!