Sad news. An Optimist Drowns in Half-full Tub.

Tout Va Tres Bien, Mada-meu la Marqui-seu

It's a typical Tuesday night, I'm listening to the kind of music she doesn't like...

Wait, what?

It's Monday!

The start of another week. But a week can't start until I tell you about my weekend:

Friday night: really nothing, except that I got an email from my doctor saying that my knee x-ray came out normal. So all's well, I'll just keep letting it heal slowly but surely, and will try physical therapy. Rather good news to start the weekend, don't ya think?

Saturday - errands, walk on the beach (5 day storm made a new 5ft cliff down there), went to friend's house for dinner (Malaysian curried noodles - oh so so good), poker and Apples to Apples.

Sunday - Beach volleyball (I actually played this time! I stayed by the net as the setter, didn't move more than a step... and I have to say, my knee does not feel any worse at all). I then went out to dinner to have Pho, and saw "The Book of Eli" with a couple of friends. Very good movie! I don't want to spoil it... but in a way, at the end you feel like "The Sixth Sense" where you go "Oh, that makes sense and I want to go watch the movie again to confirm it!"

Anyhoo, I've said too much. Really good movie though.

Yesterday and the night before, while watching some TV, I started doing bicep curls, triceps exercises, and shoulder exercises with these 5 LB weights I have. I love doing it in front of the TV! It's brainless! Except for one thing. After only 2 days of working those arms, at work today, in the middle of my meeting, I put my elbow down on the table and rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrriip! Shirt rips by the elbow. They all thought I was going to turn into the Incredible Hulk. My complexion has been rather green lately... :)

So this weekend I should be going to Vegas, baby! That's right! Vegas with the Volleyball peeps. They want to party and dance, and I'll just go to the all-you-can eat restaurants! Lol. Who knows. I'll keep you posted and post some pictures!

Today I'm grateful that I had a great day at work, left at a decent time, and have been on Windows Live talking to my sweetie for 3 hours. Saves my cell phone minutes :)

Good night everybody!

Cartes de Visite

Oh, another thing to add to my New Year's resolutions:

Not a biggie, just more for a fun factor:

Collect business card from every single place to eat I visit. That way I'll keep them and look back someday at my California years. Again, I'm not staying here forever, and I'm all about souvenirs... and I can reminisce about how much I used to go out to eat and why I like food so much. I'm grateful to have discovered so many places last year... may this year be just as great.

That's all, folks! Hope you're having a great day!

La Vie Est Belle

Bonsoir bonsoir,

It's getting late and I will be going to bed soon... it's definitely been an interesting week. Even after working 50-52 hours I still haven't gotten everything done at work... we are so busy! Great thing, the economy is recovering. But man, have I been exhausted this week! No energy to cook or anything. Let's see, this week's recap...

Tuesday night, saw "Un Prophete" ("A prophet") a very good French movie. It was a special screening at Sony Studios in Culver City (that place is huge!) in a tiny theater that seats perhaps 30 people comfortably in black leather seats. It doesn't officially come out until the end of February but I recommend it. Lots of violence thought, be ready for it. After the movie I went to an Indonesian place, apparently a food joint that most UCLA students love to go to. I had myself some delicious chicken lime soup and browsed their grocery stores with lots of good stuff. I even found an Indonesian version of French chocolate cookie thingy's - "Prince". Remember them? So tempted to buy... but I'm trying to be good.

Speaking of being good, I'm proud to say that I've lost 7 pounds since I got back from Salt Lake... simply by cutting my calories a bit and doing 100 sit-ups every morning. Hurray! Now, back to the week in review...

Wednesday I saw the doctor about my knee and another kind of pain. Again, just take it easy, but since it's been two months now why don't you get an x-ray to make sure nothing's broken. She can give me a cortizone shot or take advil to ease the pain. "Will it help me heal faster?" "No, but alleviate the pain" Well, I don't care, I can tolerate the pain even though it's a real pain in the buttocks (or in the knee, rather). If it won't let me heal, I'm not putting unnecessary drugs in my body. She suggests physical therapy since I like to keep active and right now the knee's preventing me from doing that. Oh, and you need to get an ultrasound for your other kind of pain you're having. Greaaaaat.

Friday: had my first on-property strategy meeting, which went well, although went way longer than it should have because the GM has a short attention span (he admitted himself), but they're always glad to see me and keep saying they love what I do... so that's a good self-esteem boost. The rest of the day there was so much I planned to do at work but didn't get to do because, you guessed it, other stuff came up. That always seems to happen, doesn't it?

Today was fairly relaxing, drove by an open house and decided to go in, because that's my hobby. The house was up for 2 million. You know, I thought, if it were 1.7, 1.8 million, I would've put in an offer... but 2 million was just a little off budget. :) Now, I hate lying. It doesn't feel good, and I'm horrible at it, so I don't lie. Worst case scenario, I just don't tell the whole truth... "What kind of price range are you looking for?" "Um, well, really more like under a million." (That's not lying, right?) and the questions continued... the agent really wanted to find a house that's ideal for me.... really nice lady, and she actually gave me some really nice tips, advice, and overall know-how on what to expect when I'm ready to buy a home, after she got the hinch that I'm really looking for a cheap-o house. Not that I'm looking to buy here or now anyway, I just love visiting homes. I love getting ideas on architecture, tiles, paint, molding, decorations, landscaping, etc... and if it's got a Mediterranean look and has charm, you've won me over. Nice lady. Hate lying, though.

Next I went to KP to get my ultrasound... I ran across the road by PCH to avoid a cop giving me a ticket for jaywalking (I guess they're pretty strict here), and running wasn't the best for my knee of course... why do I keep doing that?? Right after the ultrasound I got my knee x-rayed. then I stopped at Whole Foods, got my vegan food for the week and indulged in a slice of pepperoni pizza and orange chicken for my linner. At 8PM, my friend calls me as I'm in the middle of my TBS movie "Hey, we're heading to that Mexican place for margaritas, wanna join?" "Sure!" "Ok, we can pick you up. We're actually right around the corner." Lol. I got ready in 3 minutes and off we went. Of course, margaritas for them (3 of them) and coke for me. Chips and salsa too. More fun than not doing anything, right?

Tomorrow's laundry and other boring crap. No volleyball - it's actually supposed to rain the next 5 days, that's nuts!! Should've taken advantage of walking on the beach today or something.

Monday I'll be working from home and hopefully get all my projects done. I've been feeling rather happy lately. Not sure why. I mean, I could be miss pessimist and think, "Great, I'm 25 years old, my knees are giving out on me, I have pain like a 50 year old and other crap happening to me". And I did think that way briefly. But you know what? I'm lucky. I have a great life. I have tons of people in my life that I love and love me for who I am. I have a great career right now, live in a great location, have great friends, am in love with the man of my dreams, my parents would do almost anything to help me if I need it, life is good. When you think of the tragedy of the Haiti quake, we have a lot to be thankful for. And please, I encourage donating to help them out. Texting was easy and felt great!

And also, life is short. I'm living it up. I'm going out with friends and discovering LA County without spending a fortune. I'm going to Vegas in 2 weeks with my buddies (nothing too crazy), will spend a lovely weekend with Babe for Valentine's, the next weekend in Palm Springs with M&B, Mom's coming back in April to Orange County, $teve is planning to visit SoCal in April/May too... the next quarter is all planned out! LoL.

I wish you all a fantastic holiday weekend!!

Les Bonnes Resolutions

I started typing this blog a few days ago, and am continuing today…

Tuesday 1/5:
Well, it’s 7:12 AM and I’m still not flying over the Salt Flats or Vegas. Unfortunately, the airplane had an overheating issue, and because the maintenance guy seems brand new and careless, he said “Um, I don’t know how to fix a 439”. Great. Let’s all unboard the plane and get on a new one. Sigh… At least, we know before we’re in the air!!

Man, I took this early flight and went to extra lengths of doing only carry-on luggage so that in LA I could get out of the plane, grab the shuttle and go straight to work. I’ve got work to do and most of it should be done in the morning!! Now I’ll probably be at least an hour late. But considering that from 8:15 to 9 we just have our morning chat about “what did you do this weekend” anyway, if I miss that, I can just catch up with everyone at lunch or something. No biggie. I’ve only been gone for 2 weeks and there’s so much I need to catch up on!!

While I’m here and super tired as I got about 4 hours of sleep and about to embark on a 2 hour flight followed by a 9 hour work day, why don’t I start typing out my lovely New Year’s Resolutions?

So this year, as I mentioned on my last post, will be focused on my physical and emotional health and well-being. Intellectual well-being too while I’m at it. So here goes.

1. Choose and stick with a healthy lifestyle – for life. Which means, very minimum to no wheat and no cheese. Limit chocolate & sweets. PORTION CONTROL. Chew and enjoy your food. You’ll eat less that way and enjoy the flavors.

2. Do sit-ups in the morning on the yoga ball. I’ve got a song I can do them to, which amounts to 106 crunches. This will take 5 minutes out of my morning but give me energy to get ready 5 minutes faster.

3. Exercise at least 4 times a week. Muscle toning, cardio, Beach Volleyball and walking are all great, but I need to be careful with my knee, so choose wisely.

4. Keep going to bed at 10 and waking up at 6. Get to work by 7:30 every morning. I’ve been a little lazy this year at getting to work around 7:50, and although Boss Lady M is flexible, I get more work done that way. Plus, I can leave earlier, avoid traffic and gain 1 mpg. Yay!

5. Go to work with a purpose. Preferably not to be “to get through the day.” Learn and keep learning. Do more than expected. Do it right the first time. I came out here because I wanted to gain work experience; I should take full advantage of the resources, tools and opportunities that have been given to me.

5. Read. This is a new one. But when I think about it, I’ve started 2 books since college and never really finished them. I never read. Usually because I find books boring. The only book I’ve ever read and found interesting was a Harry Potter and one on health/nutrition. I want to read and be more knowledgeable. I’ll aim for reading 15-30 minutes before going to sleep. I know it’s what 60 year-olds do, but hey, I live & sleep alone :)

6. Cook more. For myself and for others. For myself to test it out, for others to be the food critics and have a good time. Use healthy ingredients. Use spices. Add flavors and deliciousness to healthy, wholesome foods.

7. Go out more. Explore the state you live in. Enjoy the company of friends. Be more outgoing. Do something nice for everyone you meet.

8. Stand/sit up straight. No one likes a slouch, and hey, I may gain an inch, reverse that scoliosis (haha, or at least prevent it from getting worse), prevent neck and back pain, and overall look a little more attractive. I know Babe will love this resolution. Oh, and mom, too. Tiens-toi droite! Tiens-toi droite! Tiens-toi droite! Tiens-toi droite! Tiens-toi droite! Ok Mom, I got it :)

Now it’s Saturday morning… and I feel good. No, great. I slept in (till 9, a little too much!!), am eating banana and almond butter for breakfast, am cooking some beans to make my delicious “Curried chickpeas and gingered black beans” for lunch, have lost 6 pounds already since Tuesday night by carrying out my resolutions (yes, I HAVE been doing the sit-ups, controlled my food portions, and stopped wheat!) Bottom line is, I feel great.

Tonight I’m going to be having dinner in KoreaTown and play some cranium with friends. Should be lots of fun, I can’t wait! I’ll try to stay true to resolution # 1.

This week has been pretty interesting. Work was crazy busy (still is), my boss was stressing me out a little, because basically she told me I’ve got the easiest job out of us 5 and other branches (which is true) and I should be all over this particular issue at work that blew up in our faces last week while I was gone, and partly because I asked someone to double check on something and she did not, but hey, it IS my fault, even though I tried my hardest to figure it out before I left on vacation, I AM the manager and I should’ve caught it sooner I guess… or been more authoritative or something with her, even though she’s not my direct subordinate… but guess what, people are out of town, or there are time zone differences of 15 hours, and not everyone does what they’re asked and ugh… what a pain. And what a long sentence! I think my boss is good for me, because she expects a lot out of me and she should, it’s been a year now and I need to be all over this stuff. She just stresses me out a bit though.

Today I’m grateful… to have friends and family wherever I go it seems. I mean, I absolutely loved my Christmas and New Year’s Eve vacation to Salt Lake and it was great to be home and see everyone. The only thing – it doesn’t feel like home right now, at this stage of my life. At this stage of my life, SoCal is home. When I go back to Salt Lake in a year or so, that will be home again. I can’t wait! Well, I can, but still looking forward to it :)

Anyway, I hope you all have a fantastic weekend… just like I plan to!