What Heals Me

Driving

Nothing calms me more than driving on a nice day, with my windows open and blasting my music. It was a great night for a drive, because the lights were out on Devon, right by the forest, so it was dark. The wind was blowing pretty hard, but I had my music up, I was going way over speed limit, and I was at peace. Ahh...sometimes driving without a destination is just what the doctor ordered to begin to heal the soul.

Hmm, I was just taking a look at the referrer searches on my site, and someone found my site looking for Dave's name. I don't know if that's a good thing or bad thing. I would think that half his relatives would read my site and thing 'He's going to marry this psycho?!?!?!'

Lurkers who contact you in IM are fun...

RealMeanGuy: I'm suuuuuuuuuch a big fan of your website
missyano: hahaha
missyano: why so?
RealMeanGuy: I check it more regularly than I watch any television show, ya know
RealMeanGuy: can I have an autograph one day?
missyano: hahaha
missyano: that's hilarious
missyano: what brings you back?
missyano: the drama?
missyano: the laughter?
RealMeanGuy: LOL!!!
RealMeanGuy: THE DRAMA!!!!
RealMeanGuy: You hit it on the first guess
RealMeanGuy: I can't wait for the season finale when you get married for sweeps week
missyano: hahaha
missyano: yeah
missyano: that'll be interesting
missyano: i bet I'll get more readers
missyano: during sweeps week
RealMeanGuy: That's what I'm sayin...
missyano: i'm gonna post that on my blog
missyano: to show people that there are those out there that really care
missyano: who love the drama
missyano: who don't come there for tits and ass
missyano: ok
missyano: ass
RealMeanGuy: !!!!!>:o
RealMeanGuy: You take that back!
missyano: huh?
RealMeanGuy: missyano: who don't come there for tits and ass
RealMeanGuy: I do so!

Yes. yanowhatimean.com. Drama, laughter, tits and ass. Though a lot more ass that tits. Thank you, Mr. RealMeanGuy for a good laugh when I needed it.

Don't really feel like writing anything today. I'm in a pretty horrid mood. Luckily, I always have a spare post lying around, ready for days like this...

All About Me

Well, these things are alway flying around on e-mail, so I thought that I would just post it up. Feel free to copy and paste it and send it back to me. I'm really interested to know your answers. I've added my question to the bottom and answered it...

****************
Welcome to the next edition of getting to know your friends. What you're supposed to do is copy (not forward) this entire e-mail and paste it onto a new e-mail that you'll send. Change all of the answers so they apply to you.

And add one of your own questions to the end of the list. Then, send this to a whole bunch of people you know *INCLUDING* the person who sent it to you. The theory is that you'll learn a lot of little known facts about your friends.

- Christine Feliciano -

1. WHAT TIME DO YOU WAKE UP IN THE MORNING ?
At 5:45 the first alarm goes off. I snooze it until my TV alarm goes off at 6:30.
2 IF YOU COULD EAT LUNCH WITH ONE FAMOUS PERSON, WHO WOULD IT BE?
Conan O'Brien. He cracks me up. I'd love to sit and just watch him be silly.
3. GOLD OR SILVER?
Silver
4. WHAT WAS THE LAST FILM YOU SAW AT THE CINEMA?
X-Men 2
5. FAVORITE TV SHOW?
Angel
6. WHAT DID YOU HAVE FOR BREAKFAST THIS MORNING?
Spam and Eggs
7. WHAT WOULD YOU HATE TO BE LEFT IN A ROOM WITH?
someone who didn't have a sense of humor
8. CAN YOU TOUCH YOUR NOSE WITH YOUR TONGUE?
No, but I can put my leg over behind my head - that's a better talent, eh?
9. WHAT INSPIRES YOU?
People who don't care what other people think of them and who persevere over {guest blogger's insertion - Christine didn't finish this statement.}
10. WHAT'S YOUR MIDDLE NAME?
Sanchez
11. BEACH, CITY, Or COUNTRY?
I'm a city gal
12. SUMMER OR WINTER?
Winters in Chicago, circa 1983. Best memories ever.
13. FAVORITE ICE CREAM?
Graeters Chocolate Mocha Chip
14. BUTTERED, PLAIN, OR SALTED POPCORN?
I would like popcorn with my butter, please.
15. FAVORITE COLOR?
Still have an affection for purple, though all my clothes are black now.
16. FAVORITE CAR?
My Mystery Machine - a 2000 Green Honda CRV
17. FAVORITE SANDWICH FILLING?
Roast Beef
18. TRUE LOVE?
Dave! and ice cream.
19. WHAT CHARACTERISTICS DO YOU DESPISE?
braggarts, ignorance, closed-mindedness
20. FAVORITE FLOWER?
Hibiscus
21. IF YOU HAD A BIG WIN IN THE LOTTERY, HOW LONG WOULD YOU WAIT TO
TELL PEOPLE?
As much as I could, I wouldn't. I don't want people to see me differently. I would become some sort of Fairy Godmother. Helping people out when they didn't know it. *wink*
22. FIZZY OR STILL WATER AS A DRINK?
Still.
23. WHAT COLOR IS YOUR BATHROOM?
Neutral shades of beige and brown.
24.HOW MANY KEYS ON YOUR KEY RING?
5 on my car keys, 3 on my house keys, and 10 for work (of which I only use 3)
25. WHERE WOULD YOU RETIRE TO?
Chicago. If they make me leave the city, California.
26. CAN YOU JUGGLE?
I've tried, but the manager at the Cirque du Soliel shop told me never to come back.
27. FAVORITE DAY OF THE WEEK?
Saturday. It's my sleep in day.
28. RED OR WHITE WINE?
White
29. WHAT DID YOU DO FOR YOUR LAST BIRTHDAY?
Went to vancouver, BC.
30. DO YOU CARRY A DONOR CARD?
Uh, my license is signed to be a donor - but not for the eyes. My eyes are shot for crap.
31. SAY SOMETHING NICE ABOUT THE PERSON THAT SENT THIS TO YOU:
Wally - I'm happy that we've stayed friends throughout the years even though he broke my heart in two when he became the only person to break up with me. Just kidding. He's a great guy, one of the realest people I know, and I can't wait til I move to LA so we can have Buffy and Angel fests together. He's also single and very good looking so if you're looking for a quality man and you live in the LA area, send me an email and I'll hook you up with him.
32. WHO DO YOU LEAST EXPECT TO SEND THIS BACK TO YOU?
Everyone except for Mike. Does anyone ever send these things back?
33. WHO IS THE PERSON YOU EXPECT TO SEND THIS BACK FIRST?
Mike. He loves filling out these things.
34. FAVORITE BOOK?
All the Weyrs of Pern by Anne McCafferey.
35. LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT CANADA?
They're better at ice sports. We'll kick their asses someday.
36. FAVORITE FOOD?
Sushi, tiramisu
37. WHERE HAVE YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO VISIT?
Greece. I love Greek Mythology. Also, I want to visit my cousin's place in Brazil - she owns a bar right on the beach. How cool is that?
38. WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST PET PEEVE?
People who drive slow in the fast lane.
39. WHAT IS UNDER YOUR BED?
Something that bites my fingers everytime I look for something under there. I've got to call the SWAT team to clear it out.
40. What is your dream job?
Working with kids, maximizing their potential and showing them that they aren't held down by their race, age, color or social background, they can excel at whatever they want to do. Uh, I guess that job would be called 'TEACHER'. Art teacher to be exact.
41. FAVORITE CEREAL?
Count Chocula.
42. If you won the lotto what would be the first thing that you would spend money on (excluding pay bills and giving some away).
Shopping spree at Best Buy.
43. Are you a Dog or Cat person?
Dog.
44. WHAT DO YOU LIKE LEAST ABOUT YOURSELF?
I'm very indecisive.
45. WHAT IS YOUR MOST PASSIONATE TOPIC OF CONVERSATION?
Comic books and comic book to movie adaptations.
46. WHO IS YOUR FAVORITE PERFORMER?
Madonna - even with all the naysayers, she's still around, constantly changing, constantly pushing the limits, not giving a shit what anyone else has to say.
47. What do you miss most about being a kid?
Not knowing about how evil people could be.
48. Do you love Jesus?
Yeah. He's a pretty cool guy.
49. What is your favorite cartoon?
The Simpsons.
50. Who is your favorite Buffy character?
Cordelia. She's had such a transformation of character over the past couple years.
51. What did you want to be when you were 8 years old?
A Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader. They were so popular, athletic, photogenic, and BLOND.

Well, it's been a REALLY busy last two days. Yesterday, some of the bridesmaids came over for the Yano Invitation Sweatshop, er, Workshop. We had some pizza, watched movies and put together the invites for the bridal shower as well as the wedding invites. It was a lot of work, but we got through it with a lot of laughs. It was really good, because it made this whole wedding thing fun again. The selection of movies, however, gave me a little cause for concern - Runaway Bride and Serendipity. Two movies in which the bride doesn't marry the person she initially intended to marry. A hint, maybe? Dunno, but I think I'll stick with Dave. He's pretty swell. I love those girls for coming by and working so hard for me yesterday. They are the most beautiful, funnest, kindest girls around.

As for today, I mailed out the invites, became best friends with the lady at the post office (a smile takes you a long way) and then the in-laws came over. We all get along pretty well, but as you all know, the invite list is the cause of much stress to me. I think that having both sides of the family there without out Dave was pretty tough for me. I realized today that most of my stress comes from when people are either pushing me too hard, or when they're taking my control away. And yes, there was maybe a moment or two where I felt like sticking my calligraphy pen in my eye socket. Me and Fatima were up until 5 in the morning getting everything together, and I admit, I was a little on edge. I was ready to stick up the white flag and say, 'Y'all can do whatever you want to do. Just tell me what time to get there and make sure you spell my name right on the program.' I know they have good intentions, but still. Argh!!!!!

So if anyone asks you, this wedding is MINE. ALL MINE.

Oh, and Dave's too. But just a little. *wink*

Another memorable moment in LA...

I took a cab to the airport, and was pretty much on the phone the whole way there, chatting away. We get to the airport, and I had the cab driver some cash. He turns around to me and says, "Hold on one moment, miss."

He pulls out this book, and I think to myself "If he tells me that Jesus is the way then I'm outta here!" But he opens up the book, which is actually a picture album, to an old photo of a handsome young man. He points to it, and says "This is your taxi driver." I nod my head, and say "Oh, wow!"

But the show isn't over. He turns the page to a pic the same young man in a uniform. "This is me, in 1960, in Red Square." His Russian accent is pretty heavy, but I get the gist of what he's saying. The picture across is him, as a young man on the beach in swimming trunks, with a familiar looking beautiful woman. "And look here! I was on the beach with Sophia Loren!" Well I'll be, it IS Sophia Loren embracing him on the beach! "You lucky man!" I say. He nods and smiles. Then a picture of him with a bride (who wasn't Sophia), "Here is my wedding day, with my beautiful wife." And then the pics of the kids, two little toddlers in the park. "These are my twins, they both just graduated college! One graduated in Chemistry, the other in Business." "Oh, you must be so proud of them," I say. "Yes, yes, they are good kids!" Then to a picture of a young man. "This is my oldest, he has a family of his own now." Then the last picture a picture of his whole family, with the grownup kids and everything. "This was taken 4 years ago. This is my family!" "What a beautiful family," I exclaim. Because really, it was. It was a pretty good looking family!

And then he says, "I just wanted to share it with you. To show you that I am more than just your cab driver." I thank him, give him my cash, he goes around to take my suitcase out of the trunk and he wishes me goodbye. I say "have a nice rest of the day", but I had the biggest urge to hug him goodbye. I mean, we SHARED something in the cab. He was more than just my cab driver! *wink* Gotta love LA!

1. How are you planning to spend the summer [winter]?
1) Getting all my wedding shit together.
2) Getting ready to move to LA

2. What was your first summer job?
Working at the airport when the soccer World Cup was in town. I met so many interesting people from all over the world. I worked at a sports store, and this was when the Bulls were still at the top. Tourists would be a shitload of our overpriced sports apparel.

3. If you could go anywhere this summer [winter], where would you go?
Hawaii. I love Hawaii. I'm always wanting to go there. That, and my tan is fading. I need more!

4. What was your worst vacation ever?
Wow. Uh. It's gotta be a family trip. I don't know which one, but some of them were hellish. Oh, I got it. Me and my sisters went to stay with my aunt in Cincinatti when we were young. We were horsing around and we broke a plate she had on display. Just like the Brady's, we tried to hide it, but were unsuccessful. For our deceit, we were grounded. During our vacation.

5. What was your best vacation ever?
Oh, I've had so many good vacations!!! I think that the one that is closest to my heart is when me and my sisters went to Orlando together. It was the first trip that the three of us took on our own. We had such a blast, driving around in our red mustang convertible. Was it a mustang? I don't remember. But it was a lot of fun. Even though it rained a lot, it was great to experience Disneyworld with my sisters!

I'm really tired, but I just wanted to post a quick one. Maybe not so quick.

Anyway, Dave's on call tonight, so he couldn't hang out. So Melinda had said that she'd drive down to LA from San Diego to meet up with me. So I invited Rod, too. My two short track connections. Then I thought that I'd invite some friends I've made from my other message board that I go to. And luckily, Sarah, Soo and Raven were able to make it. And I realized that one of my comic book message board friends, Sam, just relocated to LA, too. So I invited him, too.

So all these aspects of my internet life, hovered around a table for 4, sticking pieces of raw beef into boiling water at a sushi restaurant (shabu shabu). It was kinda weird in a way. Outside of Rod and Melinda, I'd never met these people before. It was kinda cool, meeting all of them for the first time. It was nice to have all these people from different aspects of my life in one place. All in all, it was a great time. It's good to know that when I move to LA, I'll know a lot of people here already.

Afterwards, I got a tour of the studios of Aspen MLT, Michael Turner's company that he created after he parted with Top Cow Comics. Got to hang out and chill for a bit, and it was cool to see Talent working on some art, talking tech support with Peter, and hearing all of Sam's stories. Sam was really great to give me the royal treatment. I even got to escape with some contraband. They'll be none the wiser! *wink* I can't wait until the Chicago Con!

Definitely a strange night, but really funny in a way!

Met up with Paula, Peter and Rod today for dinner. This was Dave's first taste of my short track life. Too bad he was so tired from working 14 hours. But dinner was great, the conversation was awesome. It started out with them giving us suggestions for places to live, but as dinner progressed, out came the stories of car chases, drive by's and drug dealings. Yeah. LA is looking REALLY impressive right now! Just kidding. It was a lot of fun. It was nice to see Rod again (as I suspected before, the buddha belly is shrinking - I believe that Rod is losing weight! He's wasting away! At first I thought he was Kate Moss!) And Peter and Paula were great. I coulda stayed there and gossiped forever. If only all stalkers could be so lucky and find stalkee parents so willing to fraternize with stalkers!

Since we were at a brewery, I felt obligated to have the 'Sampler'. Little did I know that the glasses were so big! But I was a trouper and finished them all. Of course, my motor and speech skills waned as the night went on. I apologize for any sudden outbursts of laughter, balls of spit hurling through the air, table pounding, story interrupting, shouting, and the permanent Cheshire grin that I'm sure was on my face.

Tomorrow: Worlds collide...

So we went out ring shopping yesterday. And Dave is as picky about his rings as he is about his clothes. Question for you all - are our wedding bands supposed to match? He really liked this band that I wasn't overly fond of, and there's no chance of me getting a band to match it. I know that all in all it's our decision, but I was wondering if there's some sort of tradition or something.

And I never realized the importance of cleaning my engagement ring until I held it up next to all the other rings. I could feel my ring's shame at it's dirtiness. Any ring cleaning tips?

Where In The World Is Yano?

Los Angeles, CA

Yes, I'm in LA again for work. It's really cool, because Dave lives here now. He's been looking for places to live for us, but it seems that all the nice places he's been finding have asbestos. What the fuck's up with that? Doesn't that stuff cause your babies to have 3 heads or something? Anyone know anywhere good to live in LA?

So I decided to start a new thing, since I've been traveling so much, the 'What's outside the hotel window?' picture. This trip has a pretty good view, since I'm in a pretty swanky hotel in downtown LA.

Yesterday's party was tons of fun. Had some REALLY good food, and we stocked the cooler up pretty well with yummy things to drink. I don't know if I said this before, but my little (yet not so little) cousin David is in town, so we took a 'Sanchez' family pic. Me and all my first cousins that live in the US on my mom's side. We're a small bunch here, there's a lot more in the Philippines. Maybe someday we'll have a reunion or something. Marilyn and David haven't yet met their cousins in the homeland yet.

Party at my house for Fata's graduation. Come on over for some free food and drinks.

Yesterday, me and Bryan went for a walk during our lunch break. Fortunately for us, it was Chicago's "Music on the Mile" - various groups and musicians, playing music up and down Michigan Avenue. We stopped to listen a bit in several locations. The tourists were out in full force, with shopping bags, cameras and whiny kids. Bryan enjoyed the eye candy that the warm weather brought out. "I'm glad thinking impure thoughts isn't illegal, or I'd be arrested right now," he remarked after a young strappy tank topped vixen passed us. We realy enjoyed the music, especially the Irish band. We were ready to break out the Irish jig right then and there. But unfortunately, no Guiness to give us the liquid courage, so we just tapped our feet. We also got to watch this hip jazz trio, and the Chicago Chamber Orchestra. Here's some pics:

1. Is your hair naturally curly, wavy, or straight? Long or short?
Long and incredibly straight.

2. How has your hair changed over your lifetime?
I was born with a curly mass of hair. At about 3 years old and onward, I had the very not fashionable bowl cut. In fourth grade I channeled a young Michael Jackson after a perm gave me an afro. In seventh grade, my mom had an 'experimental' phase, where she cut all my hair off and I suffered being called 'Sir' by store clerks and strangers. High school, I rebelled from the scissors of death and grew my hair. In college, it was up to my ass. Then I got the 'Rachel' haircut. My BF at the time got upset with me, but oh well, hair does grow back. Broke up with the boyfriend, and I chopped off a good chunk of hair, got a cute lil bob and highlights. Got bored of that, grew the hair out, got blond highlights. Hightlights too much maintenance, went back to black, the end.

3. How do your normally wear your hair?
In a bun or pony tail when I'm at work or at home. When I'm out, I just wear it straight, sometimes I comb it. *wink*

4. If you could change your hair this minute, what would it look like?
All blond. Just to see what it looks like.

5. Ever had a hair disaster? What happened?
Yes. I was in my cousin's wedding, and her color was blue. Me and my cousin thought it would be cool if we colored our hair blue for the wedding. My hair was highlighted blond at the time, and his bangs were highlighted blond, too. So we went to this store on Blemont and Clark and got some royal blue hair color. It actually turned out REALLY well, our hair was electric blue for the wedding. Then three days later, it started to fade. And my hair turned green. (blond + blue = green) And later, greenish gray. I went to my stylist, and he tried bleaching my hair again, and it wouldn't take. The green wouldn't let go. So we had to go with Morticia Adams black, which is about 30 shades DARKER than my natural hair color. He was pretty upset.

I don't know why, but lately I've been SUPER tired all the time. I actually got 7 hours of sleep yesterday. I put my head down for a little nap, and didn't wake up til it was time to go to work. It's been like this for the last couple of weeks. I'm always exhausted. Today at work, I was in a conference call demo, and I totally fell asleep. Luckily, I think my manager was falling asleep, too. I think it might be mono. Or maybe my body is getting back at me for depriving it of sleep of the past year.

I think I just may take a nap right now!

So I'm at work, and I get a call from 'S', a fellow coworker. He's at a client site, doing some customizations...

"Christine?"
"Hey "S"!"
"Hey, how's it going..." Insert idle chitchat here. "So anyway, I was wondering if you could do me a favor."
"Sure, what do you need?"
"Well, I need for you to give Bryan a message for me. The tech line is busy and he's not answering his phone."
"OK, what should I tell him?"
"Tell him that I took some fat blocker today. And I had a buffalo chicken wrap, potato chips, and a bowl of beef stew. And now it's hittin' me, real bad. And I don't have access to a bathroom right now! So as I sit here in my discomfort, Bryan was the first person to cross my mind. He would have wanted me to share this moment with him."
"Hahaha. Uh. OK. Are you alright?"
"As soon as I find a bathroom I will be!"

And so I told Bryan. And he laughed. And then he recounted his own story of 'an attack'.
"So I went running the other day, and I was pretty far from my place, when I felt it. I felt the attack. I panicked. Do I keep on running, and risk losing control? Do I walk home, and prolong the experience? Dare I duck into a deserted alley and do my business? I decided to take the high road, and walked quickly home, accident free."

Man, you gotta love working with a bunch of guys.

This pic was taken last week, after we saw the sun come out following a quick rain shower. Me and my sisters were in the car on the way home, and the sun peeked out from behind the clouds. "Find the rainbow!" I cried. Being the driver (as I always am), it was hard for me to look, but right before we pulled up in front of the house my sisters found it. Fatima ran up the steps and screamed for me to hurry and take a picture before it faded away.

That's the Feliciano Girls, always looking for rainbows after the rain...

So as I said in the earlier post, I went to our friendly neighborhood bakery to go and pick out my cake. After looking at so many cakes, I was mighty hungry. (We didn't get to try out any samples, but then again, I didn't even think to ask!)

So I was looking at the baked goods they had for sale, and DAMN, they looked good. Fatima was with me, and at first she was telling me not to buy anything. But as soon as I pointed out the tiramisu cake, she sang a different song. We ended up leaving with a slice of tiramisu, a slice of gan misu (like tiramisu, but with nuts and in a roll), chocolate covered cheesecake, and a fruit tart. Of course, this wasn't all for me. My cousin David is in town and I know he's got a sweet tooth.

So we tried the tiramisu, and it was HEAVENLY. Damn. Gotta stop by that place more often!

After that, I brought Fata to Archivers, wanting to show her what a magical place it was. And she thought it was 'ok'.
"Ohh! A rotary cutter! Isn't this cool?"
"Yeah. That's nice."

"Look at all the different kinds of paper!"
"Uh, it's just paper..."

"Pens! Glitter pens! Gel pens! Calligraphy pens!"
"Don't you have a lot of pens already?"

"Look at all the pretty albums!"
"Have you even MADE a memory book yet?"

"Embossing! You can emboss your own paper!"
"That looks pretty. You know what? It smells in here."

Ahhh...the perfect person to take with me shopping. I went in there thinking I'd buy a lot, but after Fata's comments gave me a reality check, I left with just 2 periwinkle glitter pens.

Note to self - do NOT take Fata comic book shopping. Our next stop was a comic book store. I'm still trying to get all the missing books I need. And I just about bought half of the store.
"Ohh, the Ultimate Daredevil Elektra trade paperback. Should I get it?"
"It's your money, do what you want with it"
"OK!"

"Do you think we should get the back issues of X-Men Unlimited?"
"It's your money..."

Yes. I love Fata code for "Yes, I want it. Get it!"

I'll add to this post later, but just wanted to put this in before I continue with the invites...

Left work early to go meet with the baker. There were SO many cool cakes, and she had asked me to look through her picture catalogs and pick my favorites. I chose about 10, and later on, when we were going over the pricing for each of the cakes, did I realize that 4 of the cakes that I chose were the same cake, except presented differently. Who am I to turn my face at fate? It was the winner.

I've finally gotten a couple moments to go over the birthday greetings and such for my birthday. A special thanks to my parents, Claudine, Fatima, Tita Ely, Jaygee, Linda, Rod, Sonisa, Jerry, Don, Lucinda, Sarah, Alan, Kathy, Noelle, Joanna, Butta, Mike, Lisa, Melanie, Vernimal, Candace, Sheilah, Denise, Mike, Deo, Emer, John Jay, Jamie, Gil, Vanessa, Stephanie, Ramona, Lara, Blue, Bernadette, Sarah, Zen and anyone else I forgot for all the pre-, during and post birthday greetings. You all are the best!

So a friend of mine, J--, told me that she had just gotten a part-time job at this store that she's been talking about. Being a curious cat, I stopped by there on my way home from work, thinking that maybe I'd see her there, and also because I wanted to check this place out.

As soon as I walked in, I felt it. It hit me.

I had stepped foot into the house of evil, and it goes under the name "Archivers".

Ok, ok. So it's not evil. To the lay person, it's just a memory scrapbooking superstore. Scrapbooks everywhere. Patterned paper everywhere. Stamps, stickers, embossers, patterned paper punchers, designer rotary cutters, everywhere, everywhere EVERYWHERE!

But to me, it was something more. It was the equivalent of a kid walking into Disneyland. I drooled. I sighed. I broke out into a sweat. I walked from display to display. I had to tell myself 'Calm down, it's JUST a store.' I haven't been this enthusiastic about a store since the first time I walked into Hobby Lobby.

The thoughts 'If only I had a million dollars, I would buy...' and 'Ohh, embossing! I can do that!' came to my mind constantly. A million and one scrapbooking projects came to mind as I went through each and every aisle. Little voices in my head whispered 'What every girl needs is a rotary trimmer' and 'You know, being a stay-at-home mom working on scrapbooks wouldn't be TOO bad!' and 'Christine, you can MAKE the time to make these scrapbooks - you don't sleep anyway!'

Can you imagine what a kick-ass wedding album I can make, given enough time and the archival 12x12 satin top-loading photo memory book album, complete with bow and expandable pages?

Only through prayer and slapping myself in the face several times did I leave the building unscathed, with my pocketbook untouched. Also, the Dave on my shoulder that was grumbling, 'Christiiiiiiiiine, we don't have the money for this!' helped, too.

Doesn't matter. I'm going back there on Thursday for the 'Wedding Creations' craft workshop.

J--, your soul may rot in hell for telling me of this place.

I love that girl.

Seems like there was an email sent out about me, and I wasn't a recipient of it. What, is That Damn Jones scared of a little Asian girl? Why Jones, why? Luckily, a good soul had sent to me.

It's a fun little ditty about my ass. I'm honored. Though I'm wondering if I should be concerned that someone even took the trouble to make up a song about my ass.

Dave said I'd give up after doing 10, but I'm up to about 125 invitations that I've written out. I have about 80 or so left. My whole family and everyone else still thinks I'm crazy for writing them all out, but I've got some good workers helping me out (Fata and Claud) by writing out addresses in pencil first, so it lessens the percentage of error. I think my family is pretty impressed, with each invite that I make, my script is getting better and better. I really like using the dipping-pen-in-ink method, because I get consistent and dark ink each time. Maybe when I get home I'll give y'all a sample.

I am actually having a really good time doing this. It calms me and destresses me from all of the crazy wedding stuff that's going on.

Next step - doing the INSIDE envelopes. *wink*

Reading Pleasures

The Idiot Girls' Action-Adventure Club by Laurie Notaro

I loved this book. It's almost like reading someone's blog archives. Yes, I'm a geek. Laurie Notaro, takes the reader through the many interesting events that happen in her life. She makes ordinary day-to-day experiences turn into hilarious broadway productions. From the rules of the ladies' bathroom to being mistaken as a homeless person after going out with a hangover, she's got a book packed with misadventures that will make anyone laugh. Laurie smokes, drinks, doesn't work out and doesn't have a steady boyfriend. That's enough fodder for a book, if not two books (her next book is coming out in July). Check it out. It's a great read!

At the Movies

The Italian Job

This movie is kinda what you expect it to be, based on the commercials. I haven't seen the original with Michael Caine, but after watching this, I'd like to. It's got a solid story, exciting chase scenes, an easy-on-the-eyes cast and some pretty slick tricks. Mark Wahlberg is nice to look at, especially when he wears tight shirts with short sleeves and plays basketball. Yeah. It was worth my $8.50 right there. As for his acting, he's got the soft-spoken, hot-headed, sweet tough guy act down pat. Charlize Theron was, of course, gorgeous. Neutrogena needs to hire that girl to do skin care commercials, her face is flawless. Her hair is flawless, too. And she's a tough chick. I love her. The rest of the ensemble is good. Ed Norton is creepy, mean and slimey. Seth Green is a loveable computer geek. They all work pretty well together. And yeah, I admit it, I'm starting to feel affection for those damn mini-Coopers.

All in all, I love movies about thieves. This is a good one. Not as good as Ocean's 11, but still pretty good. Mark Wahlberg is hot.

Just wanted to wish all the Dads out there a Happy Fathers Day.

Um, I guess I'll write the 'Ode to My Dad' now.

Now before my dad got with my mom, he was a HUGE playboy. And a stud. I would have to admit that he was a pretty good looking lad, tearing it up and breaking hearts in the Philippines. Every pic I've seen of my dad from that time, he always has some mischievous twinkle in his eye (that's where I get it from). You could tell he was a wanted man. He met my mom, but unfortunately, she moved to the States. But he kept at it, and they had a long distance relationship, and won her heart. After he married my mom, he moved over to the States.

When I was born, I was the ultimate daddy's girl. There's a million pics of me and my dad, and my dad always has this huge smile. But as the years passed, looking at the pictures, he smiled less and less. Having to support a family of three, and not having the life that I know he envisioned when he first moved here, I know that it has probably been tough for him. Now, it's a rare thing to see my father laugh. He has so many burdens that he has taken upon himself, like taking care of our mom, retiring from a job he loved, paying bills, fixing up the house, etc. When we see our dad smile, it's a big thing. When we see him laugh, we're ecstatic.

So more than anything, me and my sisters strive to make our father happy. It's a tough job, and many times, we've been in the doghouse when we haven't met his expectations. But we all know that he just wants us to be the best. He wants us to have a life that he and my mom worked so hard for us to have. He knows that inside, we have a potential that we can reach by working hard, being responsible, and not giving up.

Lately, my dad has been emailing his old highschool classmates, many of whom have also moved to the States and share similar stories. We've never seen him so happy. He's always quick to share a story from his youth. He spends hours on the internet writing letters to friends and talking on the phone. And he laughs more now. I think that he has learned that the weight of the world doesn't lie on his shoulders. That he isn't the only one who moved to a new country and felt the pressures to succeed. My mom is so happy that he isn't a brooding worrywart anymore. I don't know the last time he's given me the 'Christine, I'm so disappointed in you' look. It's one of the many times that I shout out to the heavens, 'Thank God for the Internet!' *wink*

So to my Daddy, I love you, and Happy Father's Day.

A quick post because my Texan cuz' Kathy is in town today.

A wonderful, beautiful, ultra-cool chica named AMY sent this to me today.

When's the last time you got a compliment?

"You've gained a lot of weight since U of I."

A simple statement, really...But a simple statement that brought forth some interesting responses:

"DAMN! That U of I dude, or chick, was brutal!"
"boy, U of I person, you really need to zip the piehole."
"UofI dude: if you don't have something nice to say than shut yo damn mouth..."
"If you're gonna say shit like that, have the balls to post your name."
"It's either a girl that was always jealous of you at U of I, or a guy who wanted to date you that you turned down."

To which was responded:
"I did not criticize Christine's character. I made an opinionated statement regarding her weight (my opinon). Why did everyone assume I was out to be malicious? I did not say she was a "fat pig" (she is not). It was your individual feelings regarding weight gain that caused all of you to reply with animosity."

Wow! Drama on yanowhatimean.com! I've hit the big time!

Well, it IS a fact that I've gained weight since U of I - 20lbs more than my lowest weight (pre-fashion show). It happens. I was warned of this mythical 'slowing of the metabolism' many times during the 'skinny years'. I'm 28. U of I was 10 years ago. Back then I walked to class every day (when I woke up for it), I danced all the time, I ate cheap food because I had no money, I played football. Now, I travel and eat steaks and crap. My definition of 'exercise' is walking to the train station. I sit at a desk for 9 hours a day. Things have changed.

Yes. I've got a little more junk in the trunk.

True, I always talk about losing it. True, I've been trying to eat better lately. On the other hand, the cruise mixed with various parties and lunches involving buffets doesn't help my quest. I just don't have the motivation. Maybe someday, I will.

I remember the first time someone told me I was fat. I was 19. I weighed 117lbs. And he meant it. In his eyes, I was fat. Can you believe that? He told me to go work out. Maybe to go and work out with this hot girl that he knew. I think it was then that my dislike for working out came.

To my fellow U of I alum, the truth hurts. That's the plain fact. It's the truth that I've gained weight, but I think the way that it was presented wasn't in the most tactful way. And to tell the truth, it hurt me. First, that you had remained anonymous. I think that's the thing that was the biggest issue to everyone. Second, well, no one likes being told that they've gained weight. If you had said something like 'You're so white you make albino's look tan' then it wouldn't have been such a big issue (well, to albinos maybe). But, unfortunately, weight IS a big issue in our society.

As for the people that responded, well, I know as well as you that it wasn't as much an attack against you as it was people who are watching out for me. Trying to lessen whatever sting I felt from those words. It's really touching that people stuck up for me. Thanks guys. Free banana splits all around. *wink*

Oh, and UofI poster, I'm glad you came back to explain yourself. I thought you were just a drive-by poster. I hope you never meet Fatima face to face. You think that the people who responded got riled up? When Fatima punches it HURTS.

OMG. I just realized my subconscious reason for gaining weight. So when Fata punches me I've got a cushion!

See...I can see the bright side of everything.

Must go barf now.

Not.

1. What's one thing you've always wanted to do, but never have?
Sky-Diving

2. When someone asks your opinion about a new haircut/outfit/etc, are you always honest?
Depends on how close I am to that person. If it's a stranger, then I'll be nicer, but I won't be overly complimentary. I'll be more honest with someone I'm closer to.

3. Have you ever found out something about a friend and then wished you hadn't? What happened?
Um. Whenever you get that 'Damn, I wish I didn't know that' feeling, it's never a good thing. Also, whenever you get that feeling, it's not usually a story you want to share on your blog. ;)

4. If you could live in any fictional world (from a book/movie/game/etc.) which would it be and why?
Anne McCaffery's Pern. I love her books, and I would love to see what life is like where people get to ride dragons and talk to dolphins.

5. What's one talent/skill you don't have but always wanted?
I've got two - Swimming and Singing. True, it's hard to do both at the same time, but I would like to have either skill.

Don't have much to write today. Actually, I don't have the time. So I'm just gonna dig into my 'Spare Blogs for when I don't have time' bag.

I don't think I've ever shared with you my strangest dream ever. For you dream interpreters out there, feel free to interpret away.

It starts out on an island, where a prison is built. I'm part of a covert operations team, sent in to weed out some terrorists who had taken over the prison. (Sound familiar?) There's about 5 of us there. One of the people on my team is Bruce Willis. Yes, THE Bruce Willis. Don't ask why I'm having dreams about Bruce Willis. Winona Ryder is also with us. She's actually not part of the team, she's Bruce's girlfriend who came along for the mission. Once again, don't ask. I can't control my dreams.

Anyway, We're in the basement of the prison, and we have to try and get to the west end of the prison, where the terrorists are holding some people hostage. We're making our way through, and we realize that Winona is gone. Bruce says that she must have gotten scared and stayed by the beach where we entered the basement. We get to the area where they're guarding the prisoners, and manage to take out the men on guard, and get to the prisoners. We go forward with the prisoners to where we know an exit is. We break through the gateway, and find outselves in a pretty modern garage. There's a bunch of cars there. In the garage, we see Winona. She looks angry. She tells Bruce that all along she's been working with the terrorists, and that we've fallen into their trap. She's got a can of gasoline, and she begins dousing the whole parking lot with gas, as well as herself. The girl has gone mad.

Bruce calls her crazy. She says she never loved him. Bruce looks at the rest of the team, and says "Get everyone out. I'll handle this." The look in his eyes tells us that he's not expecting to come out alive.

I turn to Bruce and say, "You can't do this! There's got to be another way!"

"You know there isn't," he says to me, as he looks into my eyes, and clutches my shoulders. "I've got to do this." And at that point, we have a moment. You know, one of those movie moments, where the two leads realize that they're in love with each other. Queue the sappy romantic adventure music.

"Bruce, no..."

"Listen, I promise, I'll call you after this is all over. And you better answer your phone, because it'll be me on the other end." he tells me. Yes. That is the stupidest line ever. "Now get outta here!" he yells as he shoves me toward the exit.

As we all start running away, I hear him yelling to Winona, and I hear her screaming. Then I hear him say 'NO!!!!!' And I hear the explosion. And just like in the movies, I hear it first, but I can feel it coming, as the sound of the explosion gets louder. "Everybody down!" I scream. Just in time, because as we dive down behind a doorway, a huge fireball comes through and the ground starts shaking. I can almost feel the heat from the flames.

After the explosion, we start running, and make it outside of the prisoner. The hostages are safe. The rest of the team is safe. I collapse from exhaustion, as I look at the prison, which is crumbling down into dust. I reach into my backpack for some water, and realize that Bruce's phone is in my bag.

And then I wake up.

Doesn't that suck? I tried going back to sleep, but I couldn't finish the story.

Hope you enjoyed it! I like to call it - 'Armageddon the Rock'

Ok, I've calmed down a bit. Played hookey from work yesterday to do wedding stuff and recharge. First thing I did (I was so stressed, that I actually woke up at the time I normally went to work and didn't sleep in) was print out the latest list, go to my parents and say 'OK, it's not that I don't want to invite everyone on this list, because I would love to, but it's that THERE IS NO ROOM IN THE HALL.' So we went over the list again. And anytime my mom said, 'Well, maybe we don't have to invite...' and BAM! a flash of my red marker and they're gone.

Fatima was my bridal bitch for the day. We went to the bakery to look at cakes, Circuit City to get some virus software, Best Buy to get me my birthday present from Fata and Claud (a new scanner - my old one is ancient) and Father's Day Cards, the mall to check out some shoes, had some gyros with no onions and extra sauce, went to Michael's to get some calligraphy pens, pencils, erasers, ink pads and stamps, the paper store to buy some paper for my wedding shower invitiations and a paper cutter, and the bank. All in all, a low stress day.

At night, me and Dave were going to pick out rings, but my aunt didn't have any samples, so we just hammered out the guest list. Dave's a very analytical and logical person, and he wanted to have an exact number of everything, and even though I presented him with printout after printout of Fata's detailed excel guestlist, he was determined to go through it, person by person. A bit stressing, but I think that I've gotten over the fact that I can't accomodate everyone I want for the guestlist.

Funny bit - We were coming up with the 'Final Numbers' (Dave likes to use that term, but that 'Final Number' always changes) when we realized that we had forgotten to add in our parents into the count. Ironic that my father had just told me that morning "You know, if it's such a trouble, I don't have to have a seat at the reception. I'll be too busy talking to the guests to eat anyway." Little did he know how true his words were at the time.

Dave, Claudine, and my Dad all say that I'm crazy try writing out all my invitations myself. Dave told me 'Hey, you know, my friend told me that there's a computer program that can print them out for you...' I wanted to hit him on the head and said, 'Yes, I know you computer-phobe - it's called Microsoft Word Mail Merge, don't you think I would know?' But I took a breath and said 'I know, but I want to personalize them. I think it looks better when it's hand written.' Which to me, does. So what if I have to personally write out 225 invitations? Dave made a bet that I'd get sick of it after the first 10 invites. Well I'm up to 14 invites done, you rat-ass bastard! Take that!

Speaking of the rat-ass bastard that is to be my husband, he left for California today. I miss him already! :( Chances are, he won't be back in Chicago until before the wedding. So I'm left to rely on my wedding support team here.

So, I guess all this will be worth it, something to laugh about later, once it's all done and over. And, well, one of the things that's driving me is that I'm marrying the guy of my dreams. We may not agree on everything, we may have little in common, but he's my man, and he's been with me through thick and thin. Gives me proof that there's such a thing as a soulmate. And so I present to you the gallery of Christine and Dave sweetness and cheesiness. Get your barfbags ready.

Well, I guess it had to happen sooner or later, but I've finally broken down. It happened earlier in the night, when we were going over the wedding guest list. The bane of my existence. The room can only fit 270 people. After numerous cuts, we had the invite list down to about 350. Still too much. We did counts on who we thought would definitely come. Still too many. I talked to my mom about her list. She was inviting obscure people who I had no idea who they were. And a huge chunk of her list was people that she didn't expect to come, but who she wanted to be notified of the wedding. But even taking all of those people out of the count, there were still too many. Then there were the people that my mom wanted invited, who I really didn't care to have at my wedding.

And I know that I had to cut friends. There were just too many. And I love my friends, and it was the hardest thing for me to cross those names off the list. These are the people that I would love to share this wonderful day with. But I felt a little better when we came up with the idea of having a separate invite for friends to stop by for cake and dancing after the dinner. So at least I can see my friends on my special day.

So then that leaves me with the thousands of relatives that will be offended when they find out they haven't been invited.

I dunno, I guess it all hit me - that I can't everyone I want there. That I needed to make some tough decisions. That a spot that a friend could have had is being taken by some obscure relative who I don't even remember. That some friends can't bring dates (sorry guys). That this is going to cost A LOT of money. That Dave is leaving for LA on THURSDAY, and after that, well, he's not coming back til the actual wedding. That there's still so much that me and Dave need to do. But he won't be here, and I'm on my own to coordinate everything. Thank god for having sisters. But even though, it all hit me pretty hard.

And I started crying. Silent, angry tears. I hate it when I cry. It makes me even angrier. I should have planned this all better. What was I thinking getting a place that housed less than 300? I should have known that our parents would do this to us. Tears because I had to cut people from the list. I just didn't want to work on the wedding anymore. Poor Claudine and Dave, they didn't know what to do.

People ask me if I'm nervous. No. I'm stressed. I don't like having to categorize people into an A-List and B-List. I hope I have enough money to pay for all this. I hope that I have fun at my wedding. I hope that my guests have a good time at the wedding.

Argh!

So last Saturday, we took Nina out to hunt for her flowergirl dress again. The David's Bridal by my house didn't have much of selection in her size - she's pretty young for a flowergirl, only 2 years old. Well, 2 1/2.

So I stopped by her new house, with a a stuffed Nemo doll in hand. I'm not below bribing little children with Disney toys to make them like me. This time, I made sure that Nemo wasn't scary looking (see the 'Nina runs away from scary Stitch video') Of course, she loved him. She even requested that he ride in the car with us.

So we get to the store, and we pick out her dresses. I make a bet with her mom that Nina's going to be a dress flasher - that is, at some point in the wedding, Nina's gonna lift up her dress. Because you know, little girls do that. And Gail says no way.

So Nina goes in to try some dresses, and as soon as she comes out of the dressing room, BAM! up goes the skirt. Fortunately, there's enough layers in the skirt that there is no possibility that she can lift the whole thing up. Nina tries on the various dresses, goes to her regular pedestal, and this time, the sales lady brings shoes and a tiara. A little girl that was there with her mom helps Nina put on the crown, like a lady in waiting. Nina is in heaven!

And we knew that she had found 'THE ONE' after she refused to take off the dress, and went into the corner and stared off into space. After about 10 minutes in the corner, she came out and changed back into her civilian clothing. Her moment as a princess was over, at least until August.

I can hear my thunder being stolen as we speak!

reading pleasures

Lamb : The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore

I really love this book. The first time that I've felt that my 12 years of Catholic school did me any good. If you're easily offended, skip this book. This story is narrarated by Biff, Jesus' best friend, who chronicles the years that the Gospels don't mention - 6 - 33 of Jesus' life. Biff goes through life with Jesus, his confusion what being 'the Messiah' means, not being able to 'know woman', dabbling in Taoism, Buddhism, and Hinduism, falling in love with Chinese food, and accepting his path as the savior of the world. Biff is Christ's protector, his best friend, and has sex with all the women that Jesus can't.

This book is hilarious, and it's going on my list of 'books to tell people to read.' There are a lot of references to all the religions of the world, especially Christianity and Judaism.

"Joshua, you're the Son of God. You're the Messiah. That implies -- oh, I don't know -- that you're a Jew! You can't eat bacon."
"God doesn't care if we eat bacon. I can just feel it."
"You're going to need more than that to usher in the kingdom of God, Josh, no offense. We can't go home with 'Hi, I'm the Messiah, God wanted you to have this bacon.'"
"I know. We have much more to learn. But breakfasts will be more interesting."

Moore is going to hell. And I'm going to hell for loving it.

at the movies

finding nemo

This movie is absolutely adorable! I remember not expecting much from it when they were showing trailers for it way back when. But Fatima saw it, and insisted that I see it. So we went, and it was great!

Pixar has outdone themselves once again. I remember being amazed at Sully's hairs in Monster's Inc, but that's nothing compared to making waves, and simulating movement under water. Finding Nemo not only is visual masterpiece, but it also has a great story, with characters that you immediately grow to love. Ellen Degeneres' character is a trip, the turtles are raaadical, dude! and Nemo, well, I just want to take his fishy little face and squeeze it til it pops.

There were some scary parts, though, because it IS underwater. The sharks aren't the only scary thing in the sea! But I stayed tough, I even looked at the screen during the scary parts and didn't hide my head in my jacket, or start crying like the wimpy little 5 year olds in the audience.

Speaking of, I hear that many fish have been liberated from home aquariums after kids have watched 'Finding Nemo' and been flushed down the toilet. Little do these kids know that the sewage system will most likely give these Nemo-wannabes a slow and agonizing death during the water.

Getting an honorable mention are the previews for 'Brother Bear', Disney's next animated movie, which got me a bit misty eyed. Also, Pixar's 'The Incredibles', which reminds me a lot of the CrossGen comic, 'The Crossovers', which chronicles the everyday, normal life of superheroes. I'm counting the days!

comic you should be reading

fray, dark horse comics

Somehow I missed this issue coming out. Then again, I didn't go to the store in 2 months. Anyway, I love Fray. The fact that the comic comes out every 7 months is just a minor annoyance. The story follows Melaka Fray, a vampire slayer 200 years after Buffy's time. Life is way different, but there's still vampires to kill. Joss Whedon kicks ass with the story in this book, and Karl Moline's pencils give it a gritty, futuristic feel. Kat - you need to pick it up when the trade paperback comes out!

yummy for my tummy

frapuccinos

Well, they're out of my price range right now, and have WAY too much fat (22 grams), but it doesn't stop me from staring at the people walking out with them from the Starbucks in my building.

addiction

sleeping

Been SO tired lately! I've been falling asleep at about midnight each day. *gasp* that means I've been getting more than 5 hours of sleep each day!

Here's a quick synopsis of what I did last weekend. Ok, not so quick.

Friday night -
Got home from Denver at about 10:30. Pooped. Tired. Grumpy. Watched 'Lilo and Stitch' to enhance my mood. Fell asleep on living room couch. Dog jumps on my face to wake me up in the morning.

Saturday -
Met Dave at Woodfield to go help him pick out a tux. There were about 5 million people in the store, since it's the prom season. Watched Dave as he tried on tux #1, showed it to me, tried on tux #2, showed it to me, tried on tux #1 again, showed it to me, tried on tux #2...you get the picture. He's a picky guy.

Stopped by my cousin Gail's new home. We then went to David's Bridal to have Nina try on some more dresses. This time Maui, Mel and lil Jillian came along for the adventure. More stuff on Nina's dress antics later. However, I'm happy to say that Nina has picked her flowergirl dress for the wedding and looks adorable.

Went all the way out to Bumblefuck, Egypt for Dave's cousin's grad party. Had some good food. Some good cake. Some good pie. Realized that if I'm to fit in my wedding dress, I've got to stop eating!

Went to the Funky Buddha for a friend's birthday. But I blogged about that already.

A pretty busy Saturday for me!

Sunday -
Went to Church. Dave came along, too. Had some good talks with God. Asked him to make all the pounds that I gained from the cruise be passed onto Claudine's skinny ass frame. Still waiting for an answer from the big G.

My family and Dave's family went to an all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet. Ate a lot. Swore to myself that this would be the last time I gorge myself on food. After that, we had an Feliciano/Estacio family field trip to the Factory Card Outlet next door. Went around the store and made a fool of myself by walking throughout the store with 2 helium balloons, wearing a Hawaiian lei and a pirate hat. Claudine rolled her eyes at me. My mother called me crazy. Dave's mom gave me a patient smile and walked away. All is right with the world.

Later, we went back to Dave's and the parents chitchatted about god knows what while me, Dave, Claudine and Fatima watched the 'I Love the 80's' marathon, and then proceeded to pass out and snore on the couches. Gotta love the food coma!

Me and my sisters topped off the night by watching 'Finding Nemo', which was a LOT better than I thought it would be. Pixar did a great job. Loved the movie. Got a little scared, too. But, unlike some of the little kids in the movie theater, I didn't cry during the scary parts. Wimps! Go see it. And eat some sushi afterwards. Because damn, though Nemo looks good on-screen, I think he'd look better at the end of a pair of chopsticks.

Just kidding. It's the hunger talking.

I stole this from Kathy's page. It's a pic of the cousins at our old apartment building.

(L-R) back: Maui, Trully, Vernon, front: me, Mel, Kathy, sitting: Karen

This was taken before Claudine, Jeff, Fatima, Kristine and Marlon were born. This pic really brings back memories of the old neighborhood. Thanks Kat!!!

There's getting to be too many links on the right hand side, so I've divided the blogs up a bit to the blogs of people I interact with, and the blogs that I read. Even dividing that up was pretty tough, but oh well. I use my site as my link page, and it was getting hard to find the links that I wanted.

Also added the Reviews! Reviews! page that I'm a part of, as well as the other sites that I've helped out with or built myself. And yes, to those of you that emailed me, I've added the link to my old Psylocke page, because people are still finding my site that way. And of course, can't forget Rusty's page. Still adding more stuff.

Went out to the Funky Buddha today, and I haven't been in that place in forever. It was jam packed when we got in (the cut off the line for a while after they let us in). I saw some people I haven't seen in a LONG time. I love the Funky Buddha Lounge, you've got an eclectic mix of people there, and the music is always danceable.

So we ran into our friend Brian there, and it ended up that he had gotten the VIP area with a couple of his friends, one of them being my friend Jerry, who for some reason, makes me happy every time I see him. So we got to go beyond the velvet rope to the VIP couches. We got our own bottle of vodka, a carafe of red bull, a well endowed waitress that much to Dave's delight was the spitting image of Christina Aguilera, a bouncer to keep the riff raff away and a great view of the rest of the club.

The guys had done a shot together, and had an extra one, so they gave it to one of the guys in the VIP group next to us (there were only two VIP groups). He was part of what I called in my head, the wife beater club, because, well, they all were wearing wife beaters. Wife beaters are those white tank top like things that guys wear under their shirts. And I'm sure that these guys were wearing normal shirts when they arrived, but it was hotter in there than a mofo, so they became the wifebeater club. Little did the guys know that the guy they gave the shot to was the head of the wifebeaters (he wore a black one) and in appreciation of them sharing a shot with a stranger, sent over a choice bottle of champagne. Good times!

So we had some good dancing. And some good conversation. Like checking to see how many numbers of strippers that my friend had in his phone (22, including the cell phone of one of the strippers moms). Or how our one friend confessed to our other friend that him and his girlfriend had sex on our other friend's bed at school, when he was away on summer break. Or detailed descriptions of threesomes had during 'the months I was a whore' as a friend called it. Or how Brian has become the shepherd of lost sheep - he's been hanging out with the guys who have just gotten out of long relationships and who need to do bad things to get their ex's out of their system. And no better man to tend to that flock than Brian! Gotta love the guy.

So it was a good time. Nice to see old friendly faces and to see that they're doing something with their lives. Even if it IS whoring around.

Man. All that free alcohol, and I'm the designated driver. SUCKS!

You know you've done it - put your name in a search engine to see what it comes up with. It's part curiousity, part ego, part being freaked out what kind of internet trails the FBI can use against you. Here's the top 10 Christine Feliciano's on the web. Some are me, some aren't.

1. Fabio Carta - Grazie!
Fabio Carta, an Italian speedskater. I helped out the webmistress by giving her a couple of my pics from the Worlds in Milwaukee. I have NO idea why this page comes up first!

2. LiveWire 1.0 Page 3
A Christine Feliciano that isn't me, actually, I think her name is Christina Feliciano. This page has a nice little poem about two leaves dying or something like that.

3. Rustysmith.com: February 2003 Archives
I help out with this site. On this page, I give out my hotel room number for any would be stalkers to come out and find me. Note to would-be-stalkers - I am no longer at that hotel

4. The Inner Psyche
Ahh, sweet memories of my Geocities Psylocke page! This was my second website that I built, and this link goes to the 'LoCal' version, since the original was pretty graphic intensive. Haven't updated it since 1999. Poor page...I haven't been able to look at it since those bastards at Marvel killed her off - twice!

5. Yano What I Mean?
FINALLY, in 5th place, is my actual website. Geez.

6. bjflores.com :: linx
BJ's site, if you wanna see some great design, check it out. He's got a flair for it.

7. What to do? What to do? Midwest
Back in my acting days, one of my performances was actually mentioned in a magazine. Whoo hoo!

8. downloads
Back in the heyday of comic book fanpages, my Psylocke page was the shit. All kindsa people linked to it. *sigh* No time anymore!

9. Newszap! Delaware Obituaries
Note: I have never lived in Delaware.
Note2: I am not dead.

10. LEAGUE 2A BOYS LEAGUE 2A GIRLS
Results for a track meet. This is not me. As you might know, the only time I run is when I hear there are Krispy Kremes in the break room.

neon yellow drink
keeps eyes open while working
thank god for the dew!

So I've been working on this account for the past few weeks, and any of you that keep watch on business news know that there's a big hullabaloo going on with Peoplesoft, Oracle and JDEdwards. It's all the talk here at my client site. (which is one of those 3). It's kind of exciting to watch, all these software titans duking it out.

Anyway, it's a big account, which explains my internment for the past couple days and working side by side with the pres. I was part of the demo for the client yesterday, and we actually got applause after it was done, and I was told 'In these tumultuous times, I'm thankful that you guys have provided us with this one bright spot'. Wow. Who knew software could bring such happiness?

So the pres is happy with me, and actually said 'Good Job', which previously was considered one of those pigs flying and fat lady singing or I've-got-everything-ready-for-the-wedding moments. I was happy. If I was at the office, I would have bragged, just a little. I was ready to do my peacock strut. I got that little morsel of praise that I've been yearning for the last week.

But then he said, 'I know you're busy over the next couple weeks, but I'll tell your manager to dedicate any other free time we have to help develop the sites of some of our other big accounts. I really want you to be involved with that.'

Argh. Burned!!! Kicked myself in the ass with that one. If I did a mediocre job, then he would have just let me off the hook. But I think that the sensei wants his grasshoppa to do bigger and better things. Which means more traveling and more work. Hmph!

Well, at least if I make myself invaluable, they can't fire me for moving to California. Maybe I might even get a *gasp* raise!

Where Is Yano Today?

Denver, CO

You know, I'm chock full of stories this week.

So I'm at the Denver airport at 8:30 in the morning. Not to many people heading to baggage claim. I'm sitting in the train, and I'm the only one in my train car. I look through the window to the train car ahead of me, and I see that there's a man in a wheelchair in there, and he, too is the only passenger.

He's in an airport wheelchair, and I know that airport wheelchairs are always pushed by someone that works for the airline. However, I didn't see his handler there. How could they leave this man by himself? They're supposed to be with him at all times! This poor man is handicapped, and he's in the train car all by himself! I was sitting there getting angrier and angrier at the injustice this poor man as experienced, forced to wheel himself around the airport.

Then the tram stopped.

And the handicapped man got up and walked off the tram, pushing the wheelchair. And I saw that he was wearing a nametag, and carrying around a walkie talkie. Ahh...there's the lightbulb.

So fear not, there was no injustice done at the Denver International Airport. Just a worker resting his feet on the train between pickups.

Gotta get to the airport by 5:30am to head out to Denver, the last stop on my crazy traveling tour.

Yesterday night, I was called a 'goober' - first time I heard the word since 8th grade. I've heard the words 'Neo Maxi Zoom Dweebie' and 'Radical Dude' and 'Far Out' since then, but I thought 'goober' was way past extinct as a word used to burn another person.

Man, I hate traveling.

It's so fucking early in the morning.

No Cork in Sosa's 76 Bats Tested by MLB

Who, that makes me breathe a little sigh of relief. I was so distraught yesterday when I heard that they found cork in a bat that Sammy used against the Devil Rays yesterday. He made a base hit, broke his bat, and the umpire saw cork in the middle of that bat. Sammy explained that he used it for batting practice, to make homers for the fans. He grabbed it by mistake.

I was worried. I don't know if you guys know how much of a hero Sammy is here. How the bleachers at Wrigley go crazy when he runs to the outfield, patting his heart and kissing his forefingers and pointing to the crowd. What a great sport he was during the homerun race with McGwire. He even had a cartoon shown last year, going over his life. I cried. Ok, I teared up. I really admired him.

Then this happened, and no matter how it turns out, there will now be that little bit of doubt. I'm happy that it truely looks like it was just a mistake, which Sammy admitted to, but man, this sucks! I really don't think he's guilty, but personally I think it could ruin any chance he has of breaking the record again and having people think he did it legitimately. Hopefully he doesn't get suspended. Even though he's been sucking since he came back from his toe injury, I'd love to see him keep on playing. Who knew a toe was so important to making home runs? Samson had his hair. Sammy has his toe.

Please don't suspend Sammy.

Get well, Sammy's toe!

So I'm still here in my dungeon, shackled to the conference room table building a webportal for 'Big Company That Just Got Bought Out'. It isn't as bad as it was yesterday. Maybe I'm just getting used to the long hours and tedious page building, but I think in this case it's a good thing.

So one of our big time web developers came to help out with an issue we were running into, and he was working on my laptop. I've known this guy for a couple years now, but he sits on the other side of the office, so I don't get to talk to him much. He's got really long blond hair, a la the band Nelson from the 80's, and he is the coolest, laid back guy ever. The most interaction I have with him is at company parties, when either him or I get drunk, I always ask him if I could braid his hair. And no matter how drunk he is, he never lets me do it. I got close once, but evil gleam in my eye sobered him up.

So he's working on my laptop,and I'm standing behind him, 'learning', which has been my mission over the last few days. And he runs his hands through his hair. I get a whiff of shampoo. And it smells REALLY good. Kinda like freshly picked strawberries off the coast of Maine after a light April shower. So I get a little closer to take another sniff. I'm trying to be sneaky about it. Then he turns around, sensing something suspicious. I do my best 'What? Is there something wrong?' look. I suppose that I could have asked him what shampoo he uses, but I don't think we're at that point in our relationship yet.

Still here. I'm starting to get something akin to Cabin Fever. Conference Room Fever.

All work and no play makes Yano a dull girl.
All work and no play makes Yano a dull girl.
All work and no play makes Yano a dull girl.
All work and no play makes Yano a dull girl.
All work and no play makes Yano a dull girl.
All work and no play makes Yano a dull girl.

Starbucks is my friend.

Help! I've been at work for the past 12 hours. And I'll be here for a lot longer, too. I was supposed to go to Denver, but the president of the company wanted to help me work on the stuff that I was going to do out there. There's a lot of stuff that he can customize on the spot, and since this is a BIG client, he wants it done his way. And he wants to show me how the new product works, and how to use it effectively.

So essentially, I'm in programming boot camp. He's Miyagi, and I'm Daniel-san. It's like those old Kung Fu movies, when the teacher hits the student with the bamboo stick to teach them some sort of lesson on life. It's torture for the student, but it all carries good intentions - to learn. So I'm stuck here in a conference room with the president of the company for two days. My coworkers give me looks of pity as I pass by them during bathroom breaks. He has good intentions, and I'm learning a lot, but it's not easy to learn from him. He said himself once in a meeting, 'I'm a tough guy to work with. I'm harsh. I'm critical. But to work at this company, to work with me, you need to grow a thick skin.' (or something like that)

I just did a measurement. My skin thickness is at about 4 feet right now.

Guess who's back! Didja miss me?

Thanks to my guest writers. They did a great job! They'll be getting their undisclosed per blog monetary amount soon enough. I'm knee deep in emails right now (personal and work) so it's going to take me a couple days to sort through them all. Thanks for all the birthday greetings. You guys are the best!

Anyway, I'm pooped, so this is going to be a short one (I think). It was a pretty eventful vacation, so I'll be writing my novel on the plane tomorrow (I'm going to Denver tomorrow - BLEH!) So I'll give you some quick highlights - by the numbers:

0 - times I was on the internet during my vacation
1.25 - times I worked out on the ship
1.5 - days it rained during the cruise
2 - voicemails I got from work during my vacation
2 - times I fell asleep during one of the cruise shows
3 - number of deer we saw before going to the haunted cottage on the island
3 - times I took Dramamine to ease the mild seasickness
4 - days we were on the cruise ship
5 - times I stopped by the 24 hour ice cream bar outside of the regular dessert time
5 - pounds I gained on the trip
6 - times I watched 'Minority Report' on the ship, without ever catching the beginning of the movie
6.3 - number of hours it took to drive from Miami to Jekyll Island, GA
7.2 - number of hours it took to drive back to Miami from Jekyll Island, GA
9 - times we heard Sean Paul's 'Shake That Thing' on the way to Miami
11 - number of mosquito bites I have
17 - approximate number of hours I'll be spending in Chicago before I'm off again (to Denver)
30 - number of people at the wedding I attended in Georgia
40 - cents a minute at the internet cafe on the boat
60 - percentage of the girls 16 - 24 that had belly button piercings on the ship
70 - percent of the people who worked on the ship were Filipino
80 - minutes of video footage I took
100 - megabytes of pictures I have on my memory card

OK, and here's some pictures:

OK. Must go scratch now.

fear not, yano's loyal readers, christine shall be returning to you this evening... after she kicks our asses for not maintaining her blog at its usual standards... =P

but for now, how's about the sunday edition of "the friday five":

1. What do you most want to be remembered for? I don't know. Just to be remembered fondly and with good memories is good enough for me... and hopefully that people thought I was a good doctor.
2. What quotation best fits your outlook on life? Do unto others as you would have done unto you.
3. What single achievement are you most proud of in the past year? Getting through my first year of medical school.
4. What about the past ten years? Finally getting my butt into medical school.
5. If you were asked to give a child a single piece of advice to guide them through life, what would you say? Once you figure out who you are, don't let anyone try to change you into their version of who you should be.

yet another of "yano's lost blogs," missing for who knows how long, until recently discovered in a file called "blogs.txt"...

Day 7 of Christine's Summer Vacation

You know, I had my first homepage on the web in 1994, at the beginning of my sophomore year of college. (Yes, I'm THAT old. I'm sure some of you weren't even born yet) I was an addict to IRC, and I was chatting all the time. (some things never change, right?) U of I was one of the pioneers in the internet, and we were all pretty e-mail and internet savvy. My friend Mike showed me his webpage. I thought it was really cool. So he taught me how to make one. I went out and got myself a free Prairienet.net account. Then I built my page. And I learned how to figure out HTML code by seeing the source of other pages. Notepad was my page editor. I remember that Yahoo was the best page ever back then.

So my page was one of the first webpages out there. By the time I graduated, I had about 23,000 hits - not because my page was popular, but because it was one of the few pages out there to see. I learned Photoshop (V2.1 or something) to manipulate the icons on my page. I was constantly at the scanner in Lincoln Hall, scanning pictures to put on my page. I constantly updated my page with links and pictures. I had the most interesting guestbook entries at the time.

Once I graduated, I moved from the $15 a year Prairienet account (they had to start charging, since so many people wanted space), to a more robust account on enteract.com. I paid for the first year or so, but I had a friend that worked there, and after a while, I didn't have to pay anymore. However, after graduation, I really lagged on working on my page. I just had too many things to do and was too uninterested in it.

But in the early 2002, Mike, the one who got me into this whole internet hell in the first place asked me if I knew what a 'blog' was. I had no idea. I was hardly even connecting to the internet anymore. When he told me about the concept, I thought it was quaint. A web journal, eh? A page that is constantly updated with whatever is going on in your life, loaded with your experiences, your opinions, anything you want. Iiiiiiinteresting....It looked like it was time for me to dust off the old source code for my webpage. This 'blog' revolution sounded enticing.

I set it up. I linked it to my main site. I thought I might as well give it a try. I had always wanted to have a journal of sorts, but every time I tried it, I'd forget and eventually give up. Maybe having it online would force me to stick with it.

I gave it a month. I really didn't think it would last this long. I become so disinterested in things so quickly. But not with my blog. It's been more than a year, and my blog is still going strong. I'm always taking little notes in my head about what I'm going to blog about. I started it out for myself first, but when I put in the comments, I almost felt a small amount of pressure to post. It's like there were people out there depending on me. I never thought that anyone would care enough to read my silly posts, but well, you're reading it right now, right? Who would have thought that I would have regular readers? Not I!

I admit, I love it when people come here and post, or when they privately tell me that they're lurkers. I really appreciate all of you that come here day in and day about, reading my numerous misadventures. I love to see your comments, getting your emails, and seeing our little yanowhatimean.com community grow. You've all helped my through some really tough times, and I hope, in some little way, I've helped you through some tought times, too.

Boy, I'm a sap.

Thanks for coming by. Thanks for posting. Come back again soon.

Whew!