Well, as if I don't have enough to do, I worked a bit on the 26 things project during my lunch break. 26 things is a photographic scavenger hunt where you're given a list of 26 topics to take a picture of. Some examples are monument, animal, symmetry, footwear, etc. It was a lot of fun, and it helped me practice my photographic skills. However, I started it a bit late (last week) so I didn't get the kinda of pictures that I would have gotten if I took the time. anyway, check out my submission:

Yano's 26 Things Project

This is my favorite one - it was taken with a zoom from my office building at the building next to mine:

If you get a chance, check out Alan's and Mona's. They've got some great stuff!

Added some new links to the masses of links on the right hand side. Welcome to Amy, Lea, Rusty and Sami!

Redpac sent this one over. I thought it was pretty funny, and has a message that speaks to everyone.

Save the kittens!

I forgot my ring at home. Everytime I look at my finger I get a mini panic attack, then remember that I left it at home. My hands just feel the same. Maybe I should tie a string around my finger.

Today is going to be another tough day at work. I've got a training class that I haven't prepared for at all. I'm just going to wing it and just hope that my students don't figure out that I'm just pulling the info out of my ass.

And then it's another late night of coding and testing for me. *sigh*

So how's your day?

13 hours later, the lady goes home.

I hate this time of the year!

Help! I'm a prisoner at work!

"When Christine was in working land:
Let my Yano go!
Oppress'd so hard she could not stand,
Let my Yano go!"

I'm a day late, I know, but goodbye, old friend...and thanks for the laughs...

And then there were three...

I had a lot of submissions for my blogathon, and I tried to use them all, but there was one that I had forgotten, but it was for a very good cause. My lone amiga at work, the wonderful, delightful, and sexy as hell, Amy had requested that I post her site. Now this site isn't just any site. It's a site with a cause. Last year, Amy was diagnosed with Celiac Disease, which is also called Celiac Sprue or Gluten intolerance. What is that? "Gluten intolerance is the result of an autoimmune system response to the ingestion of gluten (from wheat, rye, and barley) that damages the small intestine." <--Gluten Intolerance Group Which basically means she can't have most breads, pastas, soups or other things that might have wheat as an ingredient. No Krispy Kremes. No orange chicken.

It's a hard diet to have. She constantly has to check ingredients to make sure that it doesn't contain anything that would make her sick. She has to call restaurants in advance to make sure that they have something gluten free. And some places aren't so nice about it. There are specialty stores where she can buy breads and foods that she knows are gluten free, but to work in an office such as ours, where we're pigging out all the time on everything, is pretty difficult.

So she has started a website, to give news, reviews, and support for other people that have this disease. It's so admirable that she's putting the effort to make the lives of other people who are living with Celiac a little easier. So check out her site:

Gluten Free Empowerment

It's a good site, and it will give you a good view of the life of someone coping with Celiac. She's a strong woman, and she has a lot of us backing her up. Amy Rocks!

So anyway, it was Amy's birthday last Friday, and me and Dan took her to the Fogo de Chao Churrascaria. It was an hour in heaven, let me tell ya! Fogo de Chao is an all-you-can-eat restaurant of...MEAT. Oh baby, my mouth waters just remembering the experience. When you walk in, you can see huge skewers of meat surrounding an open flame cooking. The gauchos, or waiter-chefs, go around with the skewers and slice the meat onto your plate. They have a whole variety of wonderful tasty meats, like the succulent picanha - garlic beef, to the super tender cordiero - leg of lamb, to the delicious frango - chicken drumsticks. And there was more. So much more. And the way it goes is that you have a little card next to you. When you want the chefs to come and slice you meat from their skewers, you leave the card on the green side - 'GO'. The flock to you like bees to honey. When you're eating, or need a couple minutes to recoup, flip your card to 'RED' and they leave you alone. There were a couple times when I did a quick card flip to green when I saw a favorite go by.

And I was in heaven. It was better than 'Cats'. I mean, wow. I am a carnivore, all the way, and this was as close as I can get to going out and hunting my own meal. Meat everywhere! A vegetarian's nightmare! Though they DO have a salad bar, but come on...the meat is practically walking on its own! I wanted to eat everything. I was so full I could hardly move.

And the other wonderful thing about Fogo was that they were so helpful when it came to Amy's dietary requirements. The manager made sure to point out the meats that Amy could have and for the ones that she couldn't, he had the chefs make a special batch without the seasonings that Amy couldn't have. He even went so far as to rush to our table when he saw Amy about to take a bite out of a piece of meat that contained gluten seasoning. So to Andy out at Fogo de Chao, we thank you. You are awesome! It was definitely a good birthday, Amy was a happy, happy girl. And so was I!

So to Amy, yanowhatimean wishes you a happy belated birthday!

Then it was back to my normal sleeping routine, slept at 2, woke up at 6.

Thanks again for everyone who supported me during the blogathon. If you're still interested in sponsoring me, you can still do so by clicking the link above. Every little bit counts, so donate what you can!

And now, back to work for me!

Well, this is my last Blogathon post. I'm POOPED. Here's what's up:

- I have been up for 24 1/2 hours
- My neck hurts, my back hurts, and my legs are cramped
- I did NOTHING of what I originally wanted to do
- haven't eaten much

But that's nothing...here's the good stuff...

- With your help, yanowhatimean.com raised $2,634.00 for Gilda's Club. Thank you to everyone who participated. I had thanked the people who submitted earlier, as well as the people who kept me awake in the chat. Thank you so much for that! But here, I want to thank my sponsors. To Kat, Melanie, Jerry, Chris, Melinda and Claudine, thank you SO much. And another thank you to my numerous anonymous donors. You are all so wonderful, I can't even begin to describe it. You guys really warm my heart, even get me a little misty inside. Your generosity is truly appreciated!
- I made some new friends tonight, and strengthened a couple more.
- I am the center of a wheel and my spokes joined together once again in the Yano chat. My worlds collided, and they had a good time doing it. Thanks for staying up til the wee hours for me
- Blogathon as a whole had raised $86,000. There were 432 participants who blogged for 24 hours, and there were 2990 sponsors giving up the cash. Last year, Blogathon made around $50,000. Their goal was $80,000 this year, and they made it!
- I'm definitely going to do this next year. I'll come up with a theme, and get more of my readers involved

So, it was all worth it to me. Who knew that being up 24 hours on a computer would make such a difference? You all have been great. Seriously, I had such low expectations for this. I wasn't even sure I could do it, I joined because I was curious. But your faith in me, be it by your sponsoring me, submitting articles, or chatting/calling to make sure everything was ok really helped me get through it. I definitely feel loved. Thanks so much for caring you guys!

All in all, it's for this lady on the right. She's been my inspiration to not give up, to keep on working hard, and that even when life sucks, there's still a lot of good to be had. Sure, she's not as funny as Gilda Radner, but she has the same fighting spirit. Yup, that's my mommy. :-D

And if you're reading this after the fact, comment like crazy people! Let me know you care! If I could post every half hour for 24 hours, you can post 5 comments within any of my 48 posts. Give it a try!

So I'm off to bed now. There's a lot I have to do tomorrow, and I'll be a slug, but at least I know that it was all for the greater good.

If I haven't said it enough, and yes, it's 24 hours of awakeness talking, but I do mean it, I LOVE YOU GUYS!

And with that, I shall retire and bid you GOOD MORNING.

These are my cousins. Most of them aren't really blood cousins, but nonetheless, to me, their blood. I would seriously die for these people. OK, maybe not Marilyn, she's a little ghetto ass punk. Just kidding. We are SO close, and having a major holiday with one of the cousins missing always feels incomplete. A Christmas without a cousin is downright depressing! We need to be together. There's about 15 years between the oldest and the youngest, but we all get along fine. I'm so happy to be blessed with such cool relatives! There's not much I can say about them than they are awesome. I can't wait for the next generation of kids so they can grow up close like we did!

You know, I get kinda nostalgic and mushy after being awake for 24 hours. Can you tell by the quality of my posts?

There are so many things that being a short track fan, er, enthusiast, has given me. First and foremost to me, it's given me a chance to meet people from all over the US. Some I'm just aquaintences with, some, I'm friends with, and some I would consider best friends. I guess I'll just list out my thank you's, because I don't know how else to put it.

To all the fans that I've gotten to meet, gotten to chat with, and gotten to know. Thank you so much for being so passionate about the sport. I have had so much fun with you guys in chat rooms and in postings on the OZ or on rs.com. We may have our disagreements at times, but like it or not, we've grown into a family of richly diverse people, coming from all walks of life, having all sorts of opinions. That's what so awesome about us. One thing has brought all these different people together. A love for guys in skinsuits! Long live BT!

To all the people I've become close to in the ST world, and you should know who you are. Thank you so much for being my support, for listening to me rant and rave about the thousands of injustices that I make up in my life. Thanks for all the talks about nothing and the talks about everything. Thanks for asking me for my opinion like it means something. Thanks for letting me share the special moments in your life. Thanks for letting me share the special moments that I know that I would get shot for if they were shared publicly. Also, thanks for keeping me sane, I know it's not an easy job. I will always be there for you, my friends! You are near and dear to my heart.

To Rod, and I know you're screaming like a little girl to be mentioned several times during this marathon. Thanks for including me into your world. It's been tough lately, I know, but we're still friends, and that's what counts. Everything else can be rebuilt to what it was before. You have been such a terrific friend, and I miss the talks that we used to have. Remember, if it wasn't for ST, we would never had known each other. Yes, since the secret is out, you're my internet best friend, for better or for worse. Keep yourself in line, buddy, and we'll do ok. Love you - in a strictly platonic sense. *evil grin*

To the skaters I've met, you are all awesome. You all deserve to be stars. I had so much fun interviewing you all in my travels. I really hope that the sport takes off and becomes as popular as it should be. Believe me, I'm trying everything in my power to help you guys out. You all have such great personalities, and I can only hope that our team becomes better and more dominant. I'll be cheering you all on, all the way!

To Rusty and the rest of rustysmith.com, thank you for letting a crazed fan be part of the 'inside'. Last year I would have NEVER thought I would be where I am today, a webmaster for your site, and more. You all have given me opportunities that I would never have had, and I thank you for that, and more so for the friendship you have given me. You've never failed to make me laugh and we always have a great time when we get together. I'm so happy to be part of the crew.

To Apolo, dude, I know you checked me out twice at Oakbrook Mall. I have witnesses! But really, it's all because of you that I've lived this rollercoaster ride over the last year. Thank you for standing out at the Olympics. Thank you for not going to Milwaukee, so I got to meet Rusty, Shani and Dan instead. Thank you for just being a regular 21 year old guy, who people think they know, but they don't. And thanks for making incredible eye contact with me during interviews. I was melting inside. And dude, I think Rod was checking you out.

Thanks for everything, short track, it's been a ball. Can't wait to see what next season holds.

Sam is always entertaining

Amy is my only female friend at work

Halloween's always a good time

And we're all cool with each other

The thing I love most about work is the people. Amy, Dan, Sam, Bryan, Don and Tony are what make it worth coming in everyday, and what I look forward to coming back to when I'm away traveling. They make me laugh, and they're my friends. We're all around the same age, so it makes it really easy for us all to get along. If it wasn't for this group of people, I'd be outta there! But they make all the stress and anxiety worth the while. We're all in this together, and we get through it together with laughs, playful violence, singing, dance, and a couple handstands. We're a family, and we look out for each other.

OK, so Chris shared his right-out-of-the-shower pics on his blog, so I said I would reciprocate. It's so weird taking pics of yourself in the bathroom, especially in a towel. It felt like porn. Anyway, here they are! Enjoy! Remember, you can still sponsor me!!!

The gang gathers together

Me and my FAR boys

The hags get dressed up

The Ruffnecks at formal

My four years at Urbana were the best in my life, and I know I'll get shit if I don't post at least ONE picture of Emer during this marathon. So here they are. The wonderful, amazing friends that helped me through some tough times in school. That I partied with, studied with, cried with, and basically learned about life with. Thanks to everyone in these pictures for all that they've done for me, and so much more!

My memories at U of I are the reason for my favorite quote from the Joy Luck Club:
"I don't know why something that made me so happy then feels so sad now. Maybe that is the way it is with the best memories"

I had the best memories there, and looking back on a lot of them are bittersweet. They were great days, and it was such a carefree time for me. But they're over, and I'm a grownup now. Fortunately, all the people I love from those times are also trying to be grownups, too!

I love the city of Chicago. It has such character, it has such awesome people, and it's so much fun to photograph. That's why I carry my camera around, to take pictures of things that happen in Chicago. Here's some of the more normal sites of Chicago. Later tonight, I'll post some of the more unusual things...

This is a group question being answered by Chris, Rod, Kathy and Leesa, who are kind enough to still be awake, cheering me on...

5 Male Celebs on My To Do List
1) Antonio Sabato Jr.
2) Hugh Jackman (dressed as wolverine)
3) Mark Wahlberg
4) Orlando Bloom
5) Colin Farrell

5 Female Celebs on My 'Yeah, I'd Do You, Too' List
1) Angelina Jolie
2) Ashley Judd
3) Jessica Alba
4) Halle Berry
5) Charlize Theron

So I was asked how Fatima got her name in the chat. She was supposed to me named 'Charlene'. Get it? Christine, Claudine and Charlene? The amazing triplets born 5 years apart. That's what we would have been.

But then something happened. I was a difficult birth for my mom, so she had a C-Section with me. Fatima, too was a difficult birth.

Now all of this is just from bits and pieces we've heard, so it's more like a legend. But when my mom was in delivery with Fata, she flatlined. For a few moments, my mother was dead. However, in that time, my mom had a vision. She saw a woman, shining in the dark, telling her that she wasn't ready yet, and that she had to go back. You're typical 'Light in the Tunnel' near death experience. The woman had on a white veil and a crown, and my mother knew immediately that it was Our Lady of Fatima that had spoken to her. She had seen her statue enough to know what she wore. So this woman brought my mom back to the living.

And so, in a show of gratitude, my mother named her child Fatima. Which is a MUCH cooler name than Charlene! (sorry to the Charlenes out there!)

Well, the late night show was a bigger success than the 8:30 show. I actually had people in the room giving reactions! I'll post up the chat once I clean it up here. :)

The late night "Crappy Webcam Show" starts right now. Click on the webcam link to see the show. I'll be dorky, i'll be silly, i'll be provocative. OK, not that. But it'll be fun!

If you want to chat with my support crew, either IM me at missyano on AIM or join the 'yanowhatimean support' chat room.

See you there!

Once again, from Linda...

They have finally found a diagnosis for my condition. I have recently been diagnosed with A. A. A. D. D. Age Activated Attention Deficit Disorder.

This is how it goes:

I decide to wash the car; I start toward the garage and notice the mail on the table. OK, I'm going to wash the car. But first I'm going to go through the mail. I lay the car keys down on the desk, discard the junk mail and I notice the trash can is full.

OK, I'll just put the bills on my desk and take the trash can out, but since I'm going to be near the mailbox anyway, I'll pay these few bills first.
Now, where is my checkbook?

Darn, there's only one check left! My extra checks are in my desk. Oh, there's the coke I was drinking. I'm going to look for those checks. But first I need to put my coke further away from the computer, or maybe I'll pop it into the fridge to keep it cold for a while. I head towards the kitchen and my
flowers catch my eye, they need some water. I set the coke on the counter and there are my glasses. I was looking for them all morning! I'd better put them away first.

I fill a container with water and head for the flower pots.

Someone left the TV remote in the kitchen. We will never think to look in the kitchen tonight when we want to watch television so I'd better put it back in the family room where it belongs.

I splash some water into the pots and onto the floor, I throw the remote onto a soft cushion on the sofa and I head back down the hall trying to figure out what it was I was going to do?

End of Day: The car isn't washed, the bills are unpaid, the coke is sitting on the kitchen counter, the flowers are half watered, the checkbook still only has one check in it and I can't seem to find my car keys! When I try to figure out how come nothing got done today, I'm baffled because I KNOW I WAS BUSY ALL DAY LONG! I realize this is a serious condition and I'll get help, but first I think I'll check my e-mail.
_________________________
Movie almost over...will have posts of substance, soon!

Still watching 'Waiting for Guffman'. It's hilarious.

I have started to consume my first Red Bull, and have 6 wonderful people keeping me company on AIM. Thanks to Steph, Linda, Sami, Chris, Giovanni and Kathy for being here right now.

I've also pried open a pack of Nantucket cookies. Yum!

I'd also like to thank Bernadette, Deb, Noelle, Dan, Mike, Denise, Leesa, Jen, Lea and Lisa for their posts and IM's throughout the night (and whoever else I forgot!). You guys are the best.

Have I said that enough?

And props to my awesome sister Fatima for sticking by me and reminding me to post, and for hanging out. And to my cool cousin Marian for coming over to hang. And my Tita Vickie for stopping by to watch the movie. All three of them are on my bed right now watching the movie!

6 more hours to go, baby!

Watching 'Waiting for Guffman', so I haven't written anything...I'll post up this great little report that the lovely and sweet Erina sent me, based on the suggestions I had posted...

So email me your favorite joke...
A buddhist monk walked up to a hot dog vendor and said "Make me one with everything."

A picture of your dog...
Can it be a kittie?

Something about your favorite athlete...
Ya know, I've been thinking about this for about four minutes, and I can't think of anything not-naughty, so I'm going to leave it blank...

Tell me how much you love this page...
I love this page! hehe I like how you update regularly (!) and since I can't be online much to e-mail, I like coming to your blog and reading all about what's up, and getting to know you. Plus PURPLE ROCKS!

Send me your favorite site....
Besides yanowhatimean.com bien sûr...
"Eric Conveys an Emotion"

What restaurant makes the best burrito?
I don't know, but I do know a restaurant that has half-nude pictures of Sophia Loren. "Buca" a new Italian restaurant here in Frisco, Texas. Sophia Loren pictures next to Frank Sinatra pictures next to Joe DiMaggio pictures next to Al Capone's prison picture. Hm. And they start you off with a tour of the kitchen. And the bartender is your waiter because he has nothing else to do. And there is Christmas lights everywhere. Weird. Good food, but weird.

So I have been requested to mention 'Pledge Jones'. Go to this site to tell us how much you hate him, because, well, he's pretty hateable.

Yet pretty nice.

And he loves my ass. Almost obsessed with it. It's creepy in a way, but I know it's also a compliment.

And since he requested more skin on my site, I present Jones' ass. Hope your eyes don't burn people. Be happy I didn't present the FULL picture of it. This IS a family show, you know...

Chris over at Akumathon just shot me a question. He's my blogathon buddy, and he's been encouraging me this whole time. He's also a monitor, so it keeps me motivated to post on time so I don't get kicked out. *wink* So here's his question to me:

What will you gain from this experience?

There are many things that I'm going to gain from this experience.

1) I will not get anything worthwhile done while I'm doing this. I've been too busy creating posts

2) I should come up with a theme next year, and yes, I WILL be doing it again next year, so start saving up now!

3) I had no idea that my readers were so awesome. I mean, I know that I've got readers, but I didn't know that they cared so much. I seriously only thought that 1 or two people would be sponsoring me, but I've recieved so much support, not just in sponsorship, but also in submissions and people IM-ing me to make sure I'm doing ok. Words cannot express how much I appreciate it, and how much I love you guys. I want to work on making yanowhatimean.com a site that you can be proud to go to. I'm so happy that I've touched your lives in some way.

4) Come up with better ideas for the Crappy Webcam Show

5) Gilda's Club is going to be REALLY happy

6) I need to store up more sleep before doing this.

7) I've made some new friends, and strengthened more...

8) I love you guys!

When I was in eighth grade, I did a science fair topic on "Osmosis Through Semi-Permeable Substances". I think that was the title. Anway, it was subtitled, "How Gummi Bears Can Grow in Water". It came from the idea that people in school would drop gummi bears in the toilets, and that if left there long enough, they sucked up the water and grew.

So that was the whole premise of my project. Stick gummi bears in an assortment of liquids and note the change in size and weight. Interestingly enough, sugar water created the largest gummi bears after 8 hours of submersion. Bet you would never have guessed that, eh? And vegetable oil had the least amount of growth.

I made it all the way to City Regionals. Didn't win anything, but people loved my samples.

So now you know. Go home and drop that little bear in a glass of water and check it out the next day. You'll see what I mean!

Thanks to Stephanie for the idea!

I was thinking the other day, that even though going to Salt Lake City for the World Cup Short Track was a lot of stress for me, and I lost so much weight because I had anxiety the whole time, it was still a great time.

Why?

Because I got to be on camera, thanks to Rod and Rick. You think the Wachowski brothers are bad ass? The Cajudo brothers are gonna kick ass. We got a ton of footage that weekend, and I got a chance to talk to people who I never thought in my lifetime I would talk to - Bronze medalist Joey Cheek, Australian Gold medalist Steven Bradbury, and the poster boy for the Olympics, Apolo Anton Ohno. It was so much fun to walk around with my little mike and do post competition interviews. Or to just chill with Steven on the side of the ice, sitting on the pads. Or sitting on the floor of a hotel hallway and talking to Rusty and Apolo as they stretched.

We got some good stuff on film. Aside from the great short track action, we got us screaming out the window of the car as Rusty and Apolo jogged around SLC, fan interviews, interviews with the skaters, me drunk and dancing on a bench...good times. I got to meet so many wonderful people, and I'm not talking about the athletes. I made friends with some awesome fans out there. Those were the funnest interviews!

But the image you see above, that was the best part of all. Walking around, catching the action, seeing people's reactions, coming up with questions outta my ass with Rick taping the action on the ice, and me and Rod taping the action off.

One funny story was that we had all shared a room together. We looked like a bunch of Asian refugees all stuck in a room together (Lani and Karen were to join us later). I was in the room before the guys came, and when they got in, they brought all their equipment with them - lights, cameras, bags, etc. We were sitting around talking, and we had just called the front desk to come and fix our toilet. When the guy came in, I was sprawled on the bed, and the guys were fumbling with the cameras. I can only imagine what they thought!

Yano Porn!

Gotta love those Cajudo brothers...

Well, I know it's kind of late to do this, but I just wanted to tell y'all why I'm going through this 24 hour torture. I've got a lot of things to do, a wedding to plan, a lot of work, extra projects, etc. But when I saw the concept of the Blogathon, and I could pick a charity of my choice. Rather than just doing it for my favorite charity - Breast Cancer, I saw a link for Gilda's Club, I knew that this was a cause to blog for.

Why cancer? My mom was diagnosed with cancer about 5 years ago. She got a mastectomy, went through chemo, and went into remission. It was a tough time for our whole family. When someone has cancer, more than just the victim is affected. It affects the whole family. My mom put up a big fight, and she made it through.

Last year, it came back. And it spread to her lungs. Back to chemo and all the things that came with it. She lost her hair again. She stayed home from work. She was weak and cranky and had to take a bunch of pills. And this time, it's a lot worse. She's at the point now that she has some nerve damage in her arm, and can't use it too well. She's lost a lot of weight. She can't hold down food. But she's fighting through it. And we're here supporting her.

But it's not easy. There's a lot of times that I just want to break down and cry, and sometimes I do. It's hard to see someone you love suffer. Luckily, I have a great support group of friends and family. And it's good to see that my mom has a positive attitude, even through the tough times. Everytime a challenge comes my way, I think of my mom, and what she has to go through on a daily basis.

So 24 hours of blogging? No problem.

For any of you doing the blogathon, here's a pretty cool Blogathon quiz.

It seems that July is National Ice Cream month, and I'd like to introduce you to the best ice cream ever - Graeter's Ice Cream in Cincinnati, OH. God, just thinking about it makes me salivate. The ice cream is so creamy and awesome! My favorite ice cream from there is Mocha Chocolate Chip, except it's not chocolate chips - it's chocolate CHUNKS. I'm talking icebergs here. And they are as soft as butter. Yum. Their Raspberry chocolate chip isn't bad, either! *drifts off* Oh. You're still there? So if you're ever in Cincinatti, make sure to stop by there. They also ship from their site.

Thanks to Lily for the idea!

This is from the Lovely Lea the Lioness...

Have you seen that new reality show "Fame" on NBC before? It's like "American/Canadian Idol" except the contestants are triple threats - dancer, singer, actor.

Well I got an email from my mom today. Apparently, her high school friend, Socorro, is the third cousin of the first-ever "Fame" winner - Harlemm Lee. Check out this website for more info (including a picture of Harlemm): http://www.nbc.com/Fame/. Maybe I'll find out that one of my mom's other friends are 1st cousins with Mikey Bustos of "Canadian Idol." Hehehe... That's what being a Filipino is all about man - we're all connected somehow!!! =D Sweet.

I don't know how many of you watched the show, but we had some good fun. All 4 of us in the room. *wink*

Here's a sampling of the comments and chats. Names have been changed to protect the REALLY bored....

coolchica1: how's it going?
missyano: are you watching?
coolchica1: i just got here
coolchica1: what silly things did i miss?
coolchica1: ;)
coolchica1: you're completely insane
missyano: many
missyano: i've run out of ideas
coolchica1: who else are you chatting with?
coolchica1: i'm curious who else has nothing better to do on a saturday night
coolchica1: ;)
coolchica1: that's lovely
coolchica1: get a screengrab of that one
missyano: do you wanna come in the room?
coolchica1: just me?
coolchica1: that's pretty boring
missyano: sami's in there
coolchica1: oh yeah?
coolchica1: hahaha
coolchica1: i'm not sure i want anyone to know i'm watching this

coolguy: sex shee
missyano: i've run out of ideas!
coolguy: girl be pimpin
coolguy: hehe
coolguy: jsu tsit there and be sex she for a few more minutes

OK, time for my first ever 'Crappy Webcam Show'. Click on this link for the refreshing feed. Nothing dirty, just me doing stupid, fun things, and a range of guest stars. I said I'd be doing screenshots for people who miss it, but I think it would be too crazy. I'll do a recap of it later.

So the way its going to go is how the normal webcam has been going - except this time every 15 seconds it's going to refresh. I'll try and do something silly and stupid as much as I can. We'll see how it goes!

If you'd like to chat during the webshow, just go into the AIM chatroom 'Yanochat'. If you don't know how to get into it, just shoot me an AIM and I'll invite you. My AIM name is MissYano. Hoping you all have a good time!

I'm at the halfway point now. Whoo hoo! I know I'm past the easy part, and it just gets harder from here, but I've got a lot of people cheering me on, so it's helping me out. Thanks to everyone that's been here for me so far, whether it be by chatting, sponsoring, submitting, emailing, reading. Every little bit helps!

Half an hour until my webshow. Still no idea what I'm going to do, but it'll be interesting, that's for sure! I've got to start getting props together.

And I had a suggestion about the webcam chat...I'm also going to have an AIM chat going on during the show. Go to the AIM chatroom 'Yanocam' and we can have a good time being dorky!

Is the name of the movie I'm watching on TV right now. Anyone else watching it? I was watching the replay of 'The Restaurant' earlier, and although super-chef Rocco DiSpirito is one hot number, I'll just wait until tomorrow's new episode. I'm a fan of Charlize Theron and big monkeys, so I'll just hang with Disney for a bit.

Update on the crappy webcam show: Still don't know what to do for my half hour. However, I'm managed to line up a couple guest appearances - my sister Fatima, my cousin Marian, my dog Ewok and depending on his schedule, my rabbit Luscious.

One of the best 80's cartoons ever was Jem. It was about this woman named Jerrica Benton, whose father left her a recording company as well as a top secret hologram machine. With this, she became the singer Jem, who everyone loved. Her sister had the 'Marsha! Marsha! Marsha!' syndrome, and was always jealous of her sister's popularity. The group also had Aja, the blue haired Asian wonder, and Shana, the purple haired black beauty. They were later joined by the salmon pink haired Mexican sensation, Raya.
Rio, the plum haired hearthrob, was torn between Jerrica and Jem, being unaware that both of the women that he loved were actually one and the same. Oh the drama!
And throw in the Misfits, the bad girls that became Jem and the Hologram's rivals, and you get a great pre-teen soap opera. Especially knowing that Stormer, one of the Misfits, was actually a goodgirl deep down inside!!!

God, what a great show.

This interesting article was sent over all the way from Hawaii by Deb.

Hawai'i teens top prospects in U.S. luging

It's basically about these kids from Hawaii, who got 'discovered' and are now going to be part of the national development program for the luge. Yes, the Olympic winter sport. Some of these kids had never even seen snow before! There are 12 spots in the program, and 3 kids from Hawaii made it. 'Cool Runnings', anyone? How do you see that someone has a natural talent for the luge? There's only two places that have a luge track - SLC and Lake Placid, NY. It's way beyond me, but these is a great story.

I mean, how cool would it be to see these Hawaiian kids make the 2010 team? I'll definitely be cheering them on! So you heard these names here first - David Chang, Rachel Kwak and Trevor Wold. They're going to be big stuff someday!

Thanks for the article Deb! I know you're proud!

You know, after a while, this gets to be a little monotonous. I'm just sitting here writing posts and watching what weird faces my webcam can catch me doing, when I had an idea - a crappy webcam show!

Clean, of course. This is a family show. OK, it's not. But still.

So at 8:30 pm tonight, I'll do stupid things for my webcam. Faces, hats, motions, body parts, guest stars, etc. Every thirty seconds for half an hour. For your entertainment, and in the hopes that maybe I'll make someone laugh. Just like Gilda did. Which reminds me - Gilda's club is my sponsor. So if you enjoy the webcam show, give a little to blogathon and my charity. We're at $78,000 for the blogathon total, all going to different charities. Our goal is $80,000.

Yes, I will pimp myself out on the 'net for charity.

So don't forget. 8:30pm CT for silly, crappy webcam goodness.

And I was notified that the club hopping demographic of my website might enjoy a show, too. Since we at yanowhatimean.com do our very best to make our drunk readers happy, too, we'll be adding a 3am CT show. Drunk people are more likely to donate, too. *evil grin*

I really have no idea what I'm going to do. And no, Jones, it's not going to be porn!

I'm open to suggestions for things you'd like to see. For those of you that miss it, I'll try to post up screencaps.

Elvis Costello's 'Veronica' is on the radio right now. I love this song!

Just took a shower. I feel very clean, and what's even better - AWAKE. I'm going to make myself look presentable now, because maybe if I didn't look like crap, I may be able to lure more sponsors. *wink* The wonders of a splash of lipgloss and a little eyeliner. And you guys get to see the wet look, too!

It's already been 9 hours, and I can't believe how much of the day has passed me by. Here's the things that I thought I was going to work on that I have not had a chance to yet:

- Thank You cards
- Speed Reading magazine (don't worry Steph, it'll get done!)
- call the priest
- work on photo project
- play with new camera

Well, there's still 15 hours left. I'm sure I'll have time. :-D

This next set of pictures is dedicated to the best roommates that a girl can ever have in college - Nikki, Emily and Jaygee. We had a 3 floor, 4 bedroom apartment on Elm Street in Urbana. During the time that the 4 of us lived together, we had some of the best times of my life. Jaybee graduated after a year, so it was just the three of us (and a fourth roommate, but she wasn't around much). Why the name "The Luscious Lolas of Elm"? Well, Lola means grandmother to most Filipinos. And to most people out there, we were the big sisters, the ones that had been around and who knew what's up. And I have no idea who came up with Luscious Lolas. But the name just stuck. That's actually where my bunny's name came from. And although Nikki is genetically, Italian, she's Filipino inside, baby. We had some great times in apartment 18! Pillow fights, late night cramming, potluck dinners, pre-parties, meetings, Papa John pizza nights, middle of the night talks, drunken revelry, barbeques, down low hookups, you name it, we did it. Good times were held in 18!

I will be cleaning my room. Stitch will entertain you on the webcam. :)

Well, it's really 15. I had posted this on one of my message boards...

5 items I have brand loyalty to:
- johnson & johnson's Q-Tips
- chapstick
- boston gas permeable contact solution
- heinz ketchup
- old navy casual clothes

5 songs I know the words to, even without the music:
- Vanilla Ice - "Ice Ice Baby"
- Gloria Gaynor - "I Will Survive"
- USA for Africa - "We Are the World"
- Smashing Pumpkins - "Today"
- Sir Mix-a-Lot - "Baby Got Back"

5 bad habits I have:
- i procrastinate
- don't balance my checkbook
- lose my keys often
- don't check voicemail messages
- take on more than i can handle

Props to Mark for making up the questions!

Wow, this is harder than I thought it would be. Updating every half hour at first seemed easy, but I find that other things are distracting me, and when I turn back to my computer, BAM! it's time to update again.

But still, it's a lot of fun. I'm meeting new people, working on some stuff on my computer, and most of all, supporting Gilda's Club.

Maybe next year I'll get some stuff ready. I won't be as frazzled as I am this year, and I'll have a lot more time to prepare!

Many thanks to Amy, Denise, Lea and Noelle, who seem to be enjoying the posts and the webcams. I'm not tired, Amy, I'm just unshowered. That's slated for the 4:30 hour. *wink*

Some of you may wonder why I never really talk about work, or the names of my clients. Well, one day, in the early years of 'The Purple Planet' (which was the name of this site before yanowhatimean), I had listed down where I work. A couple months later, I get an email from a client of mine, at my work address, saying 'Hey, I didn't know you liked comics! I love the X-Men!'

Of course, since there is a distinct line between my online world and my work world, I had no idea how he found that out. So then I wrote him back and said 'Yes I do, how did you know?' And he said that he searched for my company's name on Google, and he found my webpage.

Scary.

So I took it off. But too late, I was on his favorites list because a couple months later, he sent me an e-card for my birthday.

Eek!

Never again!

This was submitted by another ultra-cool member of the yanowhatimean.com family, Lisa. It's just a list of stuff that you can check out in your free time...

CDs
Smile Empty Soul (Smile Empty Soul)
Staind (14 Shades Of Gray)
Trapt (Headstrong)

Songs
Smile Empty Soul (Bottom Of A Bottle)
Staind (So Far Away)
Staind (Epiphany)
Trapt (Headstrong)
Trapt (Made Of Glass)
Trapt (Hollow Man)
Trapt (These Walls)
Trapt (Still Frame)

IMs
IM Austin Powers or Smarter Child (they're computers in case you didn't know. lol) and post the conversation or parts of it.

Websites
My Poems Lyrics My Blurty

Movies
The Boondock Saints, X-Men, The Patriot, Remember The Titans

Books
She's Come Undone (by Wally Lamb), The Outsiders (by S.E. Hinton), White Oleander

Thanks Lisa, you rock!!!

Speaking of readers, who's out there in the webland watching my rants about nothing and everything? Post to show me you're out there! I know you're watching!

Also, it's never too late to sponsor me. Just click on the link above. You can also click on the webring to watch other people take part in the blogathon. Everyone else has a theme. My theme is that I don't have a theme. Maybe next year. This year I have to plan a wedding!

As you may notice in the second picture, I had a LOT of hair as a child. I was actually born with a full head of hair. And my mother loved putting curlers in my hair and treating me like a doll. As you can tell in the first picture, I'm not enthusiastic about the whole process.

Enjoy the young Yano pics. More coming soon!

The first in a multipart series.

I'm still eating lunch, so this is a quickie.

There was one time in college when I was so drunk that I passed out on the floor of my apartment. We had a bunch of people over, and a friend of mine, also intoxicated, thought it would be funny to fart on my head. I woke up to all of my friends screaming and howling with laughter.

This is also the same night that they had to help me up the stairs, help me brush and take my contacts out, and left me in my room to die. Of course, my recollection was that I made it up the stairs myself. Anyway, I took the sheets off my bed, grabbed my pillow and a teddy bear, walked right over to my roommates room, threw it all on the floor, cried, 'Sleepover party! Everyone sleep in Nikki's room!' and proceeded to pass out on the floor again.

Ahh, U of I. How I miss you so.

Well, faithful readers, it seems that I have a handicap. And injury, if you will. Last night, while sleeping, it looks like I was bitten by a bug. Or something that bites. Anyway, I was bitten on the palm of my hand, and anyone who's been bitten there knows it's not your average bite, because that part of the hand is so meaty. No worries, though, I have bandaged my hand in a neat little flourescent pink bandaid. The 'active sport' kind, which will allow me to still have movement. So my typing abilities are impaired, because to type, the bottom of my palm is being thoroughly irritated, even with the bandage. Ech. When I find that bloodsucker, I'm gonna kill him. And laugh an evil maniacal laugh afterwards.

This webcam stuff is a trip. I look like the biggest dork.

Off to lunch now!

I love taking pictures of flowers. They don't move, and they always come up so beautiful in pictures. Hopefully once the wedding is done, I can get together my photos page on my site. I have a whole ton of flower pictures to post. I work on Michigan Avenue in downtown Chicago, and they're always changing the flowers. There's always many flowers ready for my camera when I'm walking around for lunch.

Lyrics from one of the best hair bands ever, Poison.

Man, whenever I hear that song I get so nostalgic. It totally reminds me of highschool, waiting for Maui to pick me and Mel up from school. He was a senior, and class for him got out 20 minutes earlier for us. We would wait outside, and the gals would gather, because Maui would always bring his friends, Jeff and Ken, and the girls at my school LOVED his friends. They were hair band guys all the way - long, blond hair, torn jeans, screechy voices. They were in Maui's band. And they'd come screeching into the parking lot, sticking their heads out the window. And this song would always be playing. And all the girls would seethe in jealousy as me and Mel hopped into the truck with them. Man, I miss those guys!

This was submitted for my blogathon postings by the wonderful Linda J.

Dog Pet Peeves About Humans

1. When you run away in the middle of a perfectly good leg humping.
2. Blaming your farts on me... not funny.
3. Yelling at me for barking... I'M A FRIGGIN' DOG YOU IDIOT!!
4. How you naively believe that the stupid cat isn't all over everything
while you're gone. (Have you noticed that your toothbrush tastes a little
like cat butt?)
5. Taking me for a walk, then not letting me check stuff out. Exactly who's
walk is this anyway?
6. Any trick that involves balancing food on my nose... stop it.
7. Yelling at me for rubbing my ass on your carpet. Why'd you buy carpet?
8. Getting upset when I sniff the crotches of your guests. Sorry but I
haven't quite mastered that handshake thing yet... idiot.
9. How you act disgusted when I lick myself. Look, we both know the truth,
you're just jealous.
10. Dog sweaters. Have you noticed the fur? Imbecile.
11. Any haircut that involves bows or ribbons. Now you know why we chew your
furniture up when you're not home.
12. When you pick up the crap piles in the yard. Do you realize how far
behind schedule that puts me?
13. Taking me to the vet for "the big snip", then acting surprised when I
freak out every time we go back.
14. The sleight of hand, fake fetch throw. You fooled a dog! What a proud
moment for the top of the food chain, you nitwit.
15. Invisible fences. Why do you insist on screwing with us? To my
knowledge, dogdom hasn't yet solved the visible fence problem!

Ohh, live updates on yanowhatimean.com...

So anyway, just now my mom bombarded me with 10,000 questions about the wedding. "Does your flowergirl have flowers?" "Have you called the church?" "Have you started packing?" etc. etc. etc.

Right after that, my mother in law to be called and asked if we invited this couple who's wedding we had attended. Me and Dave aren't really close to this couple, it's more of the brother of a good friend. And that wedding had 600 people. Ours is 260. She, too, also asked me 10,000 questions.

Then my mom says she's stressed about the wedding. I tell her that she stresses me out.

Everything is taken care of. Everything will work out. I realize that I only get into a panic when other people start pushing me.

Argh!

The blogathon continues!

Never realized til this morning that my blog time is an hour off. So let's pretend like I'm blogging mountain time, shall we? Let's say, um, Colorado Springs, CO?

I love Stitch! He's the best. I have a mini-collection of Stitch stuffed animals. "Ohana means family." It's the cutest movie!

This picture was drawn by a friend of mine, Sam Campos, who also draws the comic "Pineapple Man". Right now he's hanging out in the LA area, missing Hawaii, doing 'stuff' for Aspen Comics, working on the sets of movies and meeting Jessica Alba, not to mention TONS of other celebs. Lucky guy! And he is the ultimate coolest, let me tell ya!

He's drawn me a couple things, when I get a chance to find them, I'll post them up sometime. He's hooked me up with a LOT of cool things, and we get along great. It'll be cool to hang with him on the west coast when I get out there. I'm crossing my fingers that he'll be able to fly out to the Chicago Comic Con this year!

Computer has started to revolt. Updates as they happen.

It seems that my task bar isn't responding and that I can't pull up the pictures I want. Grr. And there was so much I wanted to share with you at the 10 o'clock hour! *sigh* Well, let's do this before I go off and reboot. I'll write a haiku.

Sorry for the crappy post.

So I've set up my webcam, which I haven't used online for a LONG time. It's kinda weird to have a webcam up, I feel like I should be putting on a show or something.

My room is really nasty, I don't have any makeup on, and I haven't taken a shower yet, so don't expect the best pictures. I may or may not be in the picture when you see it. It refreshed every 30 seconds, so I'll try to stay in front of the comp as much as possible. But I thought it would be something fun to do. So click on the link, I'll keep it up on the top of the page for easier reference, and SPONSOR ME! I'm pimping myself out to get sponsors. It's for a good cause!

Here's a never before published picture of the new sibling group that will be created after the Feliciano/Estacio nuptials. It's really great, because we all get along with each other. Fatima and Justin are like brother and sister already - they were very close friends in college.

L-R: Justin, Claudine, Dave, me, Fatima

My bed is calling. But I shout at it and say, "No! I will not go back to you, you heathen! There are people depending on me."

But it looks oh so lovely and comfy!

So anyway, in addition to the entries that you all had mailed to me (It's not too late to send me an entry!) Here's my quick list that I had jotted down about things that I can talk about if I run out of senseless crap to post:

Fox Force Five
favorite anime ever
purple planet
how i started at work
why i never mention my company name
several shout outs to ST
picture archives
ode to motu tsunami
back in the PSA days
resurrection high school virtual remix
things i've done while drunk
lists of 5
psylocke
comic books
salt lake city secrets
obsessions
room cleaning updates
thank you card updates
music playing now
jem
the superbowl shuffle
the frog folding business

Welcome to the start of Blogathon 2003 on yanowhatimean.com! I can't believe I'm awake. Well, I've been half awake for the past hour and a half, wanting to go back to sleep, but terrified that I wouldn't wake up.

But here I am!

So let's begin.

I'm sleepy!

I've gotten a couple phone calls and emails asking about where I'm registered. You can find my registry at http://www.crateandbarrel.com/gr/default.asp, Target and Marshall Fields. The name is under Christine Feliciano, and the wedding is *gasp* August 23rd.

Tried adding more to the registry today. The Crate and Barrel was running low. And looking back on it, getting a tent at Target isn't the greatest idea. Nor is the $54 bathroom garbage can. What the hell were we thinking? Those little UPC guns give you this sense of invincibility, I tell ya!

Today, I said goodbye to a dear friend.

She's been with me through a lot over the past year. We've gone on vacations together, went on walks down Michigan Avenue, stalked Olympians together, she's come to parties and bars with me, she was there when Dave proposed, etc. Basically, she's been there for every major event in my life in the last year.

Yes, I'm talking about Cammie Sr., my camera. She used to go everywhere with me, tucked away in the camera back that everyone laughs at, ready to take a picture of anything that I fancy. She's seen a lot, maybe too much. If she could tell the tales of the things that I've taken pictures of!

She was an Olympus Camedia C-700. 2.1 megapixels with a 10x zoom. She made movies. She had a personality. She loved me. You could tell by the pictures that she took for me. But I knew that we couldn't be together forever.

As much as I loved Cammie, I needed something more. More pixels! Better quality! And my wedding was coming up, I want really good pics for that. Also, the comic convention is drawing near. But I have no money. The wedding is sucking me dry.

However, I knew that Amy has been on the hunt for a camera. And with her being new to digital cameras, she definitely needed something easy to use. *lightbulb* My Camedia is a perfect candidate, and I know that Amy will give her a good and loving home. So I decided to sell Cammie to her.

It wasn't an easy decision, and I felt like I was betraying Cammie by buying a new camera. But I found the perfect solution. Cammie Jr. The Olympus Camedia C-750, 4 megapixel 10x zoom. Just like Cammie Sr., but better. I got her yesterday, and she looks exactly like her predecessor. Which is a good thing! I'm really excited to use it and see how it goes.

I brought in Cammie and the rest of her attachments in to work today, just in time for Amy'e birthday (more on that later!). I gave a short tutorial on how to use Cammie to Amy and her husband Tony, and then said my quiet goodbye.

So goodbye Cammie, I've loved you well. I'll never forget the times that we shared together.

The Original Cammie, ready to be boxed

Cammie II, the new kid in town

You know, when I started this Blogathon deal, I was thinking I'd end up sponsoring myself and that one or two people would be sponsoring me, and only after having their lives threatened.

But I actually have sponsors. More than two! And I only had to threaten one person!

Just a quick note to sponsors: Please make sure that you check in your Blogathon accounts how much you're sponsoring me for. There seems to be a mix up in the numbers. If there is an error, please contact the blogathon administrators. If there isn't, well, uh...I'll get back to y'all later on that.

And I have gotten a ton of submissions of things to add. Thanks to everyone that's submitted jokes, stories, websites, and postitive vibes. You really don't know how much it means to me. I really didn't think that anyone would care. It's good to see that you all, posters and lurkers alike, are taking part in this.

Maybe next year I'll start earlier so we can get more together.

Thanks once again, everyone. I've got the best readers out there!

This is why I keep my mouth shut, well, most of the time, anyway...

"Be not judges of others, and you will not be judged. For as you have been judging, so you will be judged, and with your measure will it be measured to you. And why do you take note of the grain of dust in your brother's eye, but take no note of the bit of wood which is in your eye? Or how will you say to your brother, Let me take out the grain of dust from your eye, when you yourself have a bit of wood in your eye? You false one, first take out the bit of wood from your eye, then will you see clearly to take out the grain of dust from your brother's eye."
Matthew 6:1-5

Yano quoting the Bible? Someone in Heaven is laughing right now as they see pigs start to fly by. Seriously, I don't even know if I did the quote thing right.

So I went on this really hot date yesterday. My date was awesome - paid for my ticket, bought me dinner, bought me water and M&Ms to eat during the show, bought me a program, held my hand during the show, and even walked me home. Yes, I was on a date with myself.

If you don't recall my week of complaining, a couple weeks ago my family went to go see "The Lion King" without me. I had bought us all tickets for Christmas. Kick ass seats. And then I forgot what the date was, and had to go out of town for business. So they went without me, and brought my mother-in-law to be in my place.

Since then, I've been enduring my dad talking about it, how 'amazing' and 'spectacular' it was. I've been dying to see it since it came out. When I was in New York a couple years ago, I was almost willing to sell organs to see it. And I missed it.

So two weeks ago, I bought a single ticket. Just me. And I got a front row seat, since I was by myself. I've never been to a show by myself, not even a movie. It was a totally bizarre experience. Before the show, I just sat there and read my program. During the show, it didn't really matter that I was alone. I had a great seat, even though at times I didn't see what was going on in the back. They had a lot of action on the stairs in front of me (I was front row aisle, right by where the actors enter the stage).

The show was amazing. As good as my dad had said it was. Julie Taymor is a visionary, she has the power to create the beautiful world that I was transported to for three hours. The blending of the colors, music, dancing, singing and puppetry is nothing short of spectacular. Taymor's puppets were a perfect blend of animal and human. Combined with the choreography and clever puppetry, you could feel them becoming the animals. And the voices, wow. I can't even describe them. I think my jaw dropped every time the woman who played Rafiki sang. Her voice was so clear, and so amazingly strong, WOW. I was so happy to hear songs from the Lion King CD no one bought, 'Rhythm of the Pridelands' embedded in the musical. I don't know if any of you have heard songs from that CD, but they're awesome. Lebo M. rocks! The African rhythms and the way the voices mingled together was beautiful and haunting. I'll definitely be adding the soundtrack to my Amazon Wishlist.

Another cool thing - since I was in front, I was right in front of the orchestra. Go band! The conductor was sticking his head out talking to people before the show. He was really cool. Behind me, I heard a mother talking to her daughter:

Mother: See that man? He's the conductor.
Girl: I know! He's the one that leads the band!
Mother: Yes, and the band is down there.
Girl: He waves around his wand and stuff and the band follows, right?
Mother: Yes, he has a wand, but it's not a magic wand.
Girl: Yes, it's magical! When he waves it, then you hear music. That's magic!

Ahh...a young band geek in the making. I love it.

So it was a great experience. Outside of almost getting mugged on the train for my Lion King plastic bag. If you ever get a chance to see 'The Lion King', go see it. It's definitely worth the money paid. You'll be humming 'Hakuna Matata' the whole day after.

So I've been asked, 'What's my goal for Blogathon 2003?' Well, I think my initial goal was to get more than one sponsor, which I have (thank you anonymous sponsors!).

But I think another goal I have is to give you, my readers, an outlet to do some good. There are so many chances for us in our everyday lives to go out there and do some good in the world, and I'm giving you one more thing you can do.

No money to sponsor me? That's ok! There's something else you can do to help me out.

I'm looking for submissions of things to post. I know I talk a lot, but I may have some trouble coming up with 48 different posts in 24 hours. So email me your favorite joke. Something about yourself. A funny story about something that happened to you. A picture of your dog. Something about your favorite athlete. Tell me how much you love this page. Tell me how much this page sucks. Give me a movie review. Tell me who's talking smack about me. Send me your favorite site. What restaurant makes the best burrito?

Anything. Everything. I'll give your site a plug. I'll name my cyber-children after you.

So shoot me an email at missyano@aol.com with whatever you want me to post up on July 26th. It'll be like a group blog, but not really.

Thanks for your support!

So I'm opening up my presents at my bridal shower. Since I'm registered at Crate and Barrel, I've got a million and one taped Crate and Barrel boxes to open. I know the crowd is terrified at the knife I wield to open the boxes. I don't think that they think my Xena: Warrior Princess impersonation as I slash the boxes is too funny. Poo on you, it's my party. Live with it! J/K, they loved it.

So after going through about 200 Crate and Barrel boxes, I see something that catches my eye. True, it's a Crate and Barrel box. It says so all over it. But it's in red. Weird. All the other ones are black.

I remove the tape and look inside. Strange. Red tissue paper. All the other boxes had periwinkle tissue paper, which is the color of my wedding. (Crate and Barrel is cool like that, you know) I exclaim, 'Wow! A red Crate and Barrel box, with red tissue paper!' I take out the tissue paper, and discover a hurricane lamp inside. I don't fake surprise, I mean, it's actually cool. [note: I didn't fake surprise for anything - I was genuinely surprised that these people even bothered to COME to my shower, much less give me anything.] I'm pretty stoked about getting it. Down deep inside, I've always wanted my own. I don't know if I'll ever use it, but it would look great on our non-existent coffee table. Maybe around the holidays I can throw a wreath and holly around it and it would look really festive.

I move on to the next gift.

But my trusted super sleuth bridesmaid Jenny isn't fooled. She's a bridal party pro. She goes to bridal showers, bachelorette showers and weddings for a living. She has a second sense about these things.

After the gift opening, she casually went to the gifts, pretending to seal the boxes for transit. But she opened up the hurricane box. And laughed. And called Fatima over. Fatima looked astonished, and laughed.

Later on, they told me I had been regifted. Like Sherlock Holmes, Jen told me that a crime had been committed, right under my nose. Jen knew that Crate and Barrel only carries the red boxes during Christmas, and that she knew that the present didn't come from my registry because it wasn't packed with the periwinkle tissue. When she looked at the gift receipt, her fears were revealed. I had been re-gifted. Someone had given me a gift that they had already received.

A Christmas gift!

A Christmas gift they had gotten in December of 1992! 11 years ago!

Geez! If you're going to regift, at least take out the gift receipt. If I try to return that bad boy, Crate and Barrel will roll my ass outta there.

That's ok. The hurricane lamp has found a home to love it.

One more month and my life changes forever.

Am I freaking?

No.

Ok. Just a little.

Maybe a lot.

Nervous?

No.

Really, I'm not.

Just stressed.

Really stressed.

And poor.

And freaking.

Wow.

One month, eh?

So I have this really crazy idea.

And yes, I know that I have enough stress in my life, but I feel like I haven't done my part for the world at large for a while. Yes, Lifesource called me for more blood, but I can do more than give blood.

And I love blogging, as you can tell by the massive amounts of crap that I pour into my little hole in the internet.

So I find out about "Blogathon 2003". Check it out:

Now, remember when you were in school and you would bowl for charity? And for every pin you knocked down you got, say, ten cents? Or run for a dollar a mile? During the Blogathon, people update their websites every 30 minutes for 24 hours straight. For this, they collect sponsorships. Pledges can be a flat donation, or a certain amount for every hour the blogger manages to stay awake.

Yes. 24 hours of blogging. Every half hour for 24 hours. 48 posts.

I know it's crazy, but it's for a good cause. What cause? Where does this money go? It goes to the charity of my choice. And no, it's not Christine's Wedding Fund (though you're free to donate to that if you'd like). I've chosen Gilda's Club as my charity. Gilda Radner was a comedienne who died of cancer, who said that there was a need where people who lived with cancer, as well as those that loved them, could find a place to give emotional and social support for each other. That is how Gilda's Club came to be. Membership is free of charge, and the club offers support and networking groups, lectures, workshops and social events for members.

This is a perfect cause for me. Most of you know of my mother's battle with cancer, and although I she'll probably never step foot into Gilda's Club, I know that there are people out there that are going through the same things that I am that need a place like this. And I've always admired Gilda Radner, who always made me laugh. She's always been someone that I've looked up to.

And yeah, it's totally legit. I checked it out. And I can do it. I know I can. What else do I have to do with my Saturday? It will inspire me to work on my bridal shower thank you cards. And maybe to spruce up this page, as well as the other 10 pages that I have in the works. And maybe clean up my room. And start packing for Cali.

Can I stay up for 24 hours? I don't know. I better. But I'll have my trusty sidekick Fatima to help me out. I can do it! I know I can!

So what I need right now are sponsors. That means YOU, loyal blog readers. You can make a difference.

So click on this handy little link, check out the site, and see if you want to sponsor me. It doesn't matter how much. This isn't a contest to see who has the deepest pockets. (though that helps, too) And I know that there are 1001 charities out there begging for money. Believe me, I know. But if you could spare that $4.86 it costs to get your iced White Chocolate Mocha with soy no whip cream, that's enough. (visions of Sally Struthers saying 'for the price of a cup of coffee, you can save this child' float through my head) Every little bit counts.

You can sponsor a little, you can sponsor a lot. You can sign up for a flat rate, or a per hour price. You can put your name on the list, you can sponsor me anonymously. Once the blogathon is over, you'll get an email showing you how to give your pledge to my charity. Check out the site if you have any questions.

There's not a lot of time. I'm coming into this pretty late, so please spread the word. If you don't want to sponsor me, sponsor someone else. There's a list of people who are taking part and all of their charities in the blogathon page. I'm pretty sure that everyone will see a charity there that is close to their heart.

And get ready to watch me blog on Saturday, July 26th. Wish me luck!

Didn't mention it yesterday, but I took a sick day yesterday. I've been feeling like crap lately and I haven't been able to get better. Don't think yesterday helped any, either. Oh well.

But now that I'm back at work, it's back to the grind. Last week's part work/part work depression/part staring at my screen doing nothing/part doing other 'stuff'/part standing around chatting with coworkers is all over now. The president is back. And it looks like he's my manager now. Eek!

So one of my new responsibilities is to tell clients that I have to bill them for my time. Usually this dirty work was left for a salesperson or my other manager. All I have to do is show up and do the work. But being the busy guy he is, the prez doesn't have the time to do it, so it's left to me. I hate playing the numbers game with clients, throwing out huge amounts of money that they have to pay my company for my time. I've never been good with sales. And I hate breaking the news to people that they have to pay extra to get stuff done. I know that's the business I'm in, but still! It's tough.

And now that the prez is back in town, the work that I've let pile on my desk has multiplied. Once a procrastinator, always a procrastinator. Not only do I have last weeks work, but I've got some 'special projects' now. Damn!

There is an assortment of strange bugs outside my window today. Way up on the 33rd floor. Up against the backdrop of the ominous and dark low flying clouds overhead, it feels like armageddon is coming.

Someone asked me the other day why I didn't have an Amazon wishlist. I didn't know that there was such thing. Also, if I had one, would anyone buy me something from it anyway? Then I thought to myself, what the hell, make one, and if someone gets something for me, well, bless their hearts.

So here's my wishlist.

I know, I know...I have weird tastes.

Last Saturday I had my second wedding shower. Last week's was for the young'uns, this one was for all the relatives. We had it at Dave's aunt's house, and it was quite an experience to see the aunts and uncles from both sides of the family in one place. Talk about worlds colliding! So of course, I'm not great at social situations like this, so half the time I was having a little internal freak-out. I'm not great at playing the hostess, and I'm even worse at being the guest of honor.

The basement was packed, there were a lot of bodies in there. I think I did an OK job of mingling, but I did a horrible job of remembering everyone's name. Both sides of the family seemed to get along pretty well. Everyone loved my dad's barbeque. I don't know who's responsibility it was, but no one had the bridal bingo ready. I mean, what's a bridal shower without the cheesey games? So we were tying to get everything together, and had sent Melanie out to go buy pens. The crowd was getting restless. People wanted me to open my gifts, but we kept on saying that we were going to play bingo. We didn't know how to hold the masses back until Melanie's return.

Then one of my bridesmaids, and her name will be changed to protect the innocent, fainted. At first I had thought that Pachel had just fallen down the stairs, but then I was told the she had fainted. We looked around for a doctor in the family and found one. Everyone was in a frenzy and wanted to see what was going on. Then they told me to call 911. I said 'Are you sure?' and they looked a little uncertain. But then Pachel started fainting again, and they yelled at me to hurry. Of course, this wasn't my house so I didn't know where they phone was. So I ran to Dave's aunt asking for a phone, and she brought me to a corner where the cordless phone was at, and it wasn't there. So she's yelling for the phone, and she tells me that there's a phone in the kitchen upstairs. I run past the crowd that is fanning Pachel and go up the steps and find the phone. I call 911, and say that someone had fainted and fallen down the steps. Then she asks me the address. I don't know! I yell out, what's the address here? But by then the dispatcher had found the address. The ambulance is coming.

So I go back downstairs, and by now they had moved Pachel over to the couch. She's lying there with her eyes closed and they're discussing what to do. We've called her fiance to tell him what's going on, and he's half asleep. Only after we tell him that she fainted and the ambulance was coming did he wake up. We're all sitting there when the paramedics arrive. I'm pretty sure he's surprised to see all the people in the basement. "Is there a party going on in here?" he asks? There are two other paramedics with him, and they ask Pachel several questions. She doesn't want to go to the hospital because she's feeling better. So she has to sign a waiver. So they're standing there, talking to her, taking her blood pressure, when two more paramedics come down the stairs. Now several of these men were pretty good looking. One of the aunts came up to me and asked, "Just how many times did you call 911?" Just once, I say. When the second set of paramedics came down, Jen turns to me and gives me a look. It was a devilish look, which echoed the thoughts in my mind. Was this whole fainting spell an act by Pachel, so the male strippers had an excuse to come down? Because some of them sure did look like strippers. I was waiting for the music to start playing and the lights to go down.

But no strippers. It was for real. She signed the waiver and the paramedics were on their way to go. But not before the Titas (aunties) had offered them food. Several times. And when they said that they had dinner at the firehouse, the Titas offered to wrap some food up for the rest of the station. Yeah, can't hide from the Filipino hospitality!

So Pachel's drama cut up the monotony of the party. As soon as the paramedics left, I cried, "Who wants to play some Bridal Bingo?" We passed the cards out and I called the bridal words. It was tough to be heard over the chitterings of 30+ women, but I think they had a good time playing. After the games, I made sure that Pachel was still doing ok, and told her that I knew she was trying to steal my thunder. I had realized that she was just jealous that I was having a party that she needed the attention drawn to herself. Just you wait til your bridal shower, missy, I'll show you drama!

To top the day off, I opened up my gifts. I never really realized how powerful having a registry is. I got everything I wanted, and more! It's incredible! Now the question is, where to store all this stuff for the year that I'm gone!

All in all, it was a good time. My panic scale was pretty low, as was my stress level. Pachel had apologized for ruining my party, but I told her she didn't ruin it, she made it that much more interesting. My party will be the bridal party that everyone wil be talking about - where they fit so many people in the basement that someone passed out. She's ok, so it's ok to joke about it. We had some really good laughs later when we were talking about the paramedics being strippers. I had fun. My guests had fun. Hell, even my dad had fun.

So I'm at church, (c'mon, you know I'm a good lil' Catholic girl) and we get to the last song of the day, and it's "How Great Thou Art". Now having this song come up in the song rotation is like having "Love Like This" come up at a hip hop club, or "American Pie" come up at an Urbana bar. I could almost hear the whispers of "Aww, hell yeah!" and "Hot damn, this is a damn good song" come up from the parishoners as the reader announced the song. It's one of the few times that I'll hear the whole congregation sing. It's my dad's favorite song. Even my mom sang, which brought a smile to my face. Everyone was grinning from ear to ear, and the voices were so loud. It was awesome. God, I love that song.

So Fata turns to me and says, "Man, you know it's a gonna be a good day when they bust out 'How Great Thou Art'"

Aww hell yeah, sister friend. Hell yeah!

The whole family went to see Cirque du Soleil's Varekai yesterday at the United Center. It was my parent's first Cirque show. I had bought three tickets for me, Fata and Dave, and Claudine had bought the tickets for my parents. Dan had already bought tix for him and Claudine. So we were all sitting in different sections. Dave couldn't come, so my aunt from Cincinatti came for the weekend, and she came with us. Now when we get there, I notice that my set of tix is for row 'B'. My parents have row 'F'. I offer my dad to switch places with me and Fatima. My dad says no. We walk into the big tent. I ask him again, 'Are you sure? Our seats are a lot closer than yours'. He gives me the 'Don't ask the question again' look and says, 'No, our seats should be fine.' Ok, have it your way. The usher seats my parents into row F, which is a great set of seats. Then the usher seats me, my sister and my aunt, way closer to the front of the stage. We sit down. I look behind me to make sure my parents are OK. My dad is standing up, looking at me, pointing to me, then pointing to his seat. I can see the 'Row B' envy in his eyes. I look at Fatima, who has witnessed the exchange. We laugh, get up, and head towards 'Row F'. As I pass my parents for the ticket exchange, he said 'Wow, you guys are REALLY close'. I laugh in his face, 'I told you so, but NOOOOO....row F was ok with you! Ha!'

The show was great. I love Cirque. Ever since the first time I saw it in Vegas, I've loved it. My favorite is Mystere, just because it was the first one I watched, and at the end, I just felt like I'd been enchanted. It was such a magical experience. The best one to me is 'O', in Vegas. Definitely worth the megabucks I paid for it. I've seen a whole bunch of the others, and they never leave me disappointed. This one was no exception. The costumes were incredible, the acrobatic feats left me breathless, the clowns were hilarious, and the music was beautiful. And their bodies. Wow. On more than one occasion me and Fata turned to each other and said 'I wonder if he does bachelorette parties?' Another thing I love about Cirque is that the music is live, so if someone messes up a trick, they can keep on trying again and again til they get it right.

This was actually the first show in Chicago, so the audience was really into it. You could feel that the cast was working off our energy, and that they were really having a good time with what they were doing. The things that these people could do, absolutely amazing! From juggling human bodies with their feet to swinging around the audience in a hoop, it was all awesome. I think my dad said it all - "I clapped so much I think my hands are numb."

I've been waiting for Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill" to come out for the longest time. And from the latest news reports, it looks like my wait will be worth it, since they are thinking of cutting the movie in half (it's more than 3 hours right now) and showing it as two movies. How awesome is that? I get to see Uma Thurman and Lucy Liu kick ass twice! During lunch yesterday Mike said, "It's a big risk, though, because what if people don't like the first movie, and they don't go to the second? They'll lose a lot of money." To which I answered, "Hello! Have you SEEN the trailer? Do you really think it's gonna suck?"

October 10th can't come soon enough!

the freaky eye

Blond: By Request

reading pleasures

Wizard Magazine

song stuck in my head

'Love At 1st Sight' - Mary J. Blige

at the movies

Old School on DVD

comic you should be reading

Exiles - Marvel

yummy for my tummy

Guacamole Doritos

addiction

stress

I was at work today, and working really hard (not) and heard a peal of thunder. (does thunder peal?) I looked outside, and the sky was blue. 'What the hell was that?', Bryan the wannabe weather man said. We looked to the west, and there they were, storm clouds. Bryan immediately pulled out his super scientific weather site and said that we were due for some showers. Um, duh.

So the clouds moved slowly over us, and we played the 'count the seconds between the lightning and thunder' game. Soon we were covered in darkness and the heavens opened. With snow. Well, that's what we thought at first. but as they were hitting our windows, we realized that it was hail. Man, it's been a while since I've seen hail. And I've never seen it from 30 stories up. It's cool. It looks like fat snow. So we watch the ants that were actually people run around on Michigan Avenue, looking for shelter. We laughed as they scurried in circles, looking for somewhere to go. We were watching for lighting to hit Sears Tower, seeing it, going 'Oooooh', then jumping and laughing when the thunder would crack. Then the hail turned to rain. Lots of rain. Lots and lots of rain. It took me 20 minutes just to get to the highway after work. But rain is good. And I love watching lightning.

Earlier today I had lunch with a couple downtown PSA-ers. Met up with Mike, Karen and Ray (yes, Ray). A strange combination indeed! But it was a good time. A majority of the conversation was about a singles party that Karen threw. She invited all her single friends to come, and each single had to bring a single friend of the opposite sex. The only problem she had was her different groups of friends stuck together, and no one really mingled.

So we tried brainstorming on ways for people to get to know each other, without forcing them to talk. And then we talked about maybe playing sports to get people to interact. And dodgeball, for some reason, came up. So we came up with 'Single's Dodgeball'. Two teams. Mixed. You throw the ball at someone you're interested in. If you hit them, then you go off to the side and talk for 3 minutes, then back in the game. If they catch the ball, that means they don't want to talk to you. Move on buddy. This whole scenario got a lot of laughs. Imagine getting whacked in the head by someone what was interested in you, what a conversation starter! "Um, I dink you bwoke my node! But I dink youwr pweddy hot, too!"

Good times!

Guess who's back...
Back again...
Yano's back...
On her super-fast DSL connection that has been shut off for a week...

Let the good times roll, baby...

I'm excited. In my hand, I have printed out my receipt for my tickets to Wizard World Chicago 2003, the biggest comic convention in the midwest. Whoo hoo! Three days of comics, comics, comics! I will be free to revel with such awesome comic book creators like Michael Turner, Brian Michael Bendis, Talent Caldwell, Greg Horn, Mark Millar, Humberto Ramos, Peter Steigerwald, Barbara Kesel, Adam Kubert and so much more. And the guest of honor is, *big sigh*, Jim Lee. The man who's art brought me into comics in the first place. My idol. My hero. Wow.

Here's a sampling of his art:

Also present will be Ray Park (Darth Maul), Warwick Davis (Willow), Kevin Smith (Silent Bob) and SEAN ASTIN! Yes! Samwise Gamgee! Hopefully his feet are hairy. And while I'm standing in line, waiting for an autograph, I shall chant 'Rudy! Rudy! Rudy!' and ask him to play some one on one football.

I'm so excited. And I just can't hide it. I'm about to loose control and I think I like it!

I'm a geek and proud of it.

Celia Cruz, the Queen of Salsa, died yesterday of a brain tumor. She was vivacious, energetic, and always gave a memorable performance. When you hear her music, you can't help but move your body. Her name and her music will live on, and she will be dearly missed.

I know that with her and Tito Puente up in heaven, there's some good singing and dancing going on.

Is it just me, or a lot of people dying off?

Celia, my ass shakes today in your honor.

Long, long ago I wanted to be an artist. I have no idea where my drawings are, or I'd share them with you. In college, I discovered the wonders of computer graphics, and the greatest program ever, Adobe Photoshop. Nowadays, with this page, work, the wedding, and life in general, I haven't had a chance to play with Photoshop like I used to. However, I just wanted to share a couple of the things that I've stirred up over the last weeks. The first two are pictures of Psylocke, my favorite X-Men character. I actually have a site dedicated to her. The line art is from the original artist, but I've colored the pics myself. Photoshop is like a box of crayons with a million colors to me. The third picture was just me fucking around with brushes and layers in Photoshop. I've always liked Marilyn Monroe, so I made a little background image of her.

Photoshop is therapy. It always calms me down and makes me contentedly happy.

Enjoy!

Me and Amy are at the Apple store right now. It's like Geek Heaven. We've been here for the last hour playing with the pretty Macs and taking pictures of ourselves on the sample digital cameras. We're the ultimate herds. But then again, there's only 5 other chicks here. If you're single and looking for a geek of your own, head out to the Apple store on Michigan Avenue.

Macs aren't too bad. My page looks pretty good on one. I used to be a hard core Mac user, but Microsoft won me over. Hmm...maybe it's time for a change!

Melanie has some pics up from my bridal shower, so go check 'em out! Fortunately, she doesn't have the pics from later on that night. *snicker*

It's 4:25 pm.

I had the new Guacamole Doritos for breakfast.

And lunch.

For dinner, I think I'll put some cheese on them.

They're mighty tasty, people!

I've gotten a lot of hits for people looking for the wedding gown that Reese Witherspoon wears in Legally Blonde 2. Here's a link for it.

Legally Blonde Reem Acra Bridal Gown

Ask, and you shall receive!

To add to the already 1,001 stresses of my life, we had a second round of layoffs yesterday. We have now gotten rid of 20% of our company.

Now since the first round of layoffs, a common topic of conversation has been 'Who's next?' Many theories were thrown around, and we had a couple names on our list of people we though would go, and people who we wanted to go.

Often I think about my position here, and how valuable it is to the company. Considering that my group has been the big moneymaker for the company, I would like to think that my job is pretty secure. I also suspect that my job is not in peril, since I broke the news to the company that I'm moving to California and they offered for me to keep my job while I'm out there. If I was in any way close to being on 'the list' they would have let me go in a heartbeat.

I think the biggest shock yesterday for me, and the rest of my team, was that they fired my manager. Not the manager that took away our music, laughter and fun - he was let go in the first round of layoffs. This was the manager that had turned my team around for the better. The manager who worked his ass off to get me gigs and to make sure that everything ran smoothly for me. The manager who stood between me and the clients so I didn't have to deal with a lot of red tape, who emailed me 30 times a day with my things to do, just because he knew I would forget, but he did it in a non-nagging way. The manager who actually had regular weekly meetings where we got praise and good vibes, rather than being reprimanded and told that we weren't working hard enough.

*sigh*

I really liked this guy. He was probably the best manager I've ever had (sorry Norm!) In a meeting once, my team actually told him that we were so happy that he came to our company. He was making things happen. He was making me happy to be at my job. He understood how tiring the traveling was making me and did everything he could to make it easier for me when returning to the office.

It was a shock to see him go, and even harder to understand why. I wanted to yell at someone 'Why!? Why did you let him go?' Why someone who had made such an impact on our group, and to the company in general, was let go. But upon hearing the reasons, well, they made so much sense and no sense at the same time. Times are hard, I know that. The computer software industry has become so fickle lately, and companies everywhere are suffering. It just sucks so bad that someone who had made such an impact on us would be let go.

Several other people were let go, but we had pretty much known that they would be the next ones out. My manager was a surprise. An evil, twisted surprise.

Dave Berry, you were the best. We'll miss you and we didn't want you to go.

So now, we just sit in a daze. There's a million things to do, but without my manager here, everything is so uncertain. Sure, someone has been appointed a temporary manager to handle our affairs and customer relations, but it's going to be a tough transition.

Tough times ahead, my friends, I can just FEEL it.

Yesterday my bridesmaids threw my a bridal shower. Since just about all of my female friends are in my bridal party, it was a pretty small and intimate shindig. The party was a Hawaiian theme, and all the gals got dressed up in sarongs and leis. I was anointed Queen Kamaniawahnaleime for the day. (Get it?) We feasted on desserts and potstickers, and sat like fat pigs digesting for the rest of the day. I got some great presents, like a DVD, margarita glasses, espresso beans, and much more.

We also played some of your standard bridal shower games, like the toilet paper dress contest (happy now, Denise?) and bridal bingo. There was also a game where I had to answer 10 questions about Dave and the gals placed bets as to how many I got right. Fatima was pretty confident in the bond between Dave and I, and guessed 10. Everyone else was around 5 and 6. I knew I was in trouble for this game, because me and Dave had already talked about how many little things we didn't know about each other. In the end, Jeanette won with her guess of 4 questions answered right. Yup. A mere 40%. But they were hard questions! I mean, here's my reasoning for some of my wrong answers:

1) Dave's favorite ice cream?
-> My answer: Strawberry.
-> Dave's answer: Mint Chocolate Chip. I don't know if I've ever seen Dave buy ice cream. I'm the pig in the relationship, not him. In the post convo, Dave said "yeah, you're right, I don't think I've ever had mint ice cream in front of you."

2) How does Dave like his steak?
-> My answer: Fried. Dave is the king of frying his steaks. After much laughing by the girls, the question was clarified - How does Dave like his steak DONE. Oh...it was between Well Done and Medium Well. I chose Well Done.
-> Dave's answer: Medium Well. I was close on that one!

3) Dave's favorite hobby?
-> I said watching Sportscenter or listening to Sportstalk radio
-> Dave's answer: Working out. Yeah, after I heard that I knew I was wrong. After telling Dave what I said, he said 'You know, if watching Sportscenter was a hobby, that would be it. But it's not a hobby.' Whatever, dude.

So as you can see, I was close.

After the party, we went out. Whenever I would ask anyone else where we were going, they would just say 'Don't worry about it.' So I figured out easliy where they were going. So we headed out, and by being tricky and sly, I got Jaygee to slip. Oh yes, we were heading out to Excalibur's 'One Last Stand', a huge mass bachelorette party. Other than the announcer, DJ, bartender and the rest of the 'staff', the club Excalibur is filled with hundreds of screaming, horny, drunk women. It's hilarious. What happens there? Well, uh, I can't really say. Let's just say I don't remember. And that I'm pretty sore. And I didn't know my body could go into those positions. I think I've pulled a muscle in my neck. And all my dollars seemed to have magically disappeared.

So after all the free drinks, champagne and other activities, we headed out to Cherry Red. The music was awesome, and the dancing was good. Of course, I hardly remember it. Met up with some of the guys. It was a pretty weird combination of people there, but it was fun. I actually had a conversation with my ex, which I haven't had in, uh, about 5 years. Which is a good thing because he's in the wedding court. Then he bought my a Rumplemintz shot which sent me over the top for the night. More dancing, switched to water, lots of laughing, and I lost my shoe while walking past the bar. Fortunately, some good soul found it for me and put it back on. Just call me Cinderella!

Later on, I was relaxing on Jaygee on a couch, and like the man magnet that she is, she was fighting off the men left and right. There was one cutie that came by, and she was talking it up with him as I was watching the action on the dance floor and trying to stay awake. She introduced me to him, and he said, 'Oh, we've met already, over by the bar!'. I look at him and say, 'I did?' (FYI- I could have met the President and not have remembered it at this point) And he says, 'I'm the guy that found your shoe!' Oh! So I thank him profusely for finding my shoe, and he says, 'Well, to tell the truth, I'm the one who stepped on it in the first place. It was my fault, so the least I could do was find it for you!' Wow. Gotta love honesty in a guy.

All in all, we closed the place down, drove back to Jen's and napped on the couch, just like old times.

Good times. Good times.

I love my girls.

Here's a couple pics. There's quite a few that we took, so I'll make a gallery sometime this week.

I'm back home in Chicago now.

I was talking with my dad yesterday, and the first thing he said to me was, 'You know what? You have to go out and see the Lion King. It was fantastic!'

I wanted to say, 'You dirty bastard, rub it in why don't ya!'

But I didn't. Because I've never heard my father use the word 'Fantastic' before. He went on to describe how he had never seen lighting used like they used it in the Lion King. And how impressive the singing and the costuming was. He was gushing! 'It was 10 times better than Phantom of the Opera!' Well, to tell the truth, the only thing my dad really had to compare it with WAS Phantom of the Opera. Unless you count the David Copperfield magic show, and 10 years of the Ice Capades. But he loved it. And the rest of the family loved it.

I think I'm not as upset about watching the Lion King as I am about not being there to share it with my family. I love shows, and I wanted to share my love of them with my family. It's been 4 days since they watched the show - how I would have loved to listen to my dad's reaction right after watching the show, if this is what it's like days later.

But oh well. I told my dad I'm just going to get a ticket for myself. He said, 'No! I'll see it again! You don't have to go alone!' I think he's doing more for his benefit than mine! *wink*

On other news, my DSL is fucked up. I have no idea what is going on, and I can't bear doing dial up.

And my bridal shower is today. I think the girls have some tricks up their sleeves, but I can't figure out what. Should be fun, though!

1. Do you remember your first best friend? Who was it?
No question, it's Melanie. She's known me since I was in the womb. Chances are our moms bumped bellies together when they were preggie, trying to get us to kick each other.

2. Are you still in touch with this person?
Well, she still lives next door. But my life has been so hectic lately, I haven't been in touch with anyone lately. We keep up with each other's lives through our blogs!

3. Do you have a current close friend?
Several. I'm a low maintenance close friend. I can go for months not talking to friends that I'm close to. But once we get together again, it's like nothing's changed. That's the way I like it. When anyone complains, I come back with, well, that's the way I am.

4. How did you become friends with this person?
My closest friends I've met in college. I've met a couple close friends through various stalking escapades. You know who you are.

5. Is there a friend from your past that you wish you were still in contact with? Why?
Probably my two best friends in highschool. My life changed so much in high school, that I just lost touch. But we went through such so much together it's kinda sad that we aren't as close.

So I was talking to my goofy friend Ced the other day, and he was talking about being in the middle of reading Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. I was pretty surprised, because Tom Clancy is more his style. And he's raving about how kick ass the Cedric character is (because that's Ced's real name). All me and my sisters could do was give each other veiled glances and shake our heads.

So he finally finished the book, and told me how angry he was about the outcome. We were chatting about it, and thought of making our own book. 'Harry Pothead and the Sorcerers Get Stoned'. Dumbledizzle is the headmaster, and Harry Pothead hangs out with his homies Ron Weazle-mah-izzly and Hermionaynay. We went on for a while about it, talking about Hufflepuff Daddy, and Harry using his Magic Stick on all the girls, especially Cho da Ho Chang, the Chamber of Porno, when they play Quidbitch their brooms are pimped out with hydraulics, etc.

It was funnier when we were talking about it. I swear!

Here I am, sitting in my hotel room, watching 'The Lost Boys'.

As the rest of my family watches 'The Lion King' at the Cadillac Theater in Chicago.

As much as I love The Lost Boys, I'm thinking my experience isn't as visually impressive as what my family is experiencing at this very moment.

But no one said life is fair.

*cries*

OK. I'm done. Maybe I'll go work out.

I'm in DC now, and I had dinner with my friend Noelle. She had suggested going out for Filipino food, since she's never had it, and since I would know the best stuff to get.

It's totally bizarre going to a Filipino restaurant. I've never really been to one by choice, since I get the real thing at home, anyway. It's really weird to order the food off the menu, because I know the names, but I've never seen them written down. I saw all my favorites, like kari kari, sinigang, calderetta, pancit, crispy pata, dinuguan, bangus, etc. I couldn't decide what I wanted, and it was hard for me to describe some of the things to Noelle. She wasn't yet ready to have the dinuguan (if you knew what was in it, you'd be scared, too!), but she settled for the calderetta - beef in a tomato sauce. I went for the standard favorite, adobo. And we got the mini pork eggrolls.

I ate, and felt like I was cheating on my dad (the best Filipino cook ever). The food was good, but there's nothing like home cooking. Though the adobo was REALLY good. It was strange to order from the little Filipino auntie, who I felt like kissing on the cheek or calling her 'Tita' (auntie).

But it was a good meal. I think Noelle liked it. Of course, we talked and talked and laughed and talked until we pretty much got kicked out. The night was still young, so we went to go and get some dessert. We ordered a slice of peanut butter pie at another restaurant, and we were expecting a small piece, but the thing was a MOUNTAIN.

And of course, more talking, more laughing, more squeals of 'WHAT!?!?!' Until, once again, we closed the place down.

Good times. Good times.

So here's a pic of our peanut butter mountains...

A quick story while I'm waiting for my dinner date...

So at Maui's 4th of July party, his friend came with his newborn twins. They were absolutely adorable. Now the father is Filipino, and the mom is Irish. The babies are fraternal, but you'd never know it! The little boy is almond brown eyes and cocoa skin. The little girl has big blue eyes and is very light skinned. We laughed just imagining these kids telling people that they're twins when they grow up. No one will believe them! But dammit, they've got good looking parents, and they're mixed, so you know that they're gonna be gorgeous!

I'll keep you all updated throughout the years.

If this blog lasts that long.

I'm surprised it lasted 3 months!

Where is Yano Right Now?

Springfield, VA

- I have finally made it to Virgina. Got a 7pm flight into Washington Reagan, which got moved to 7:30, which got moved to 8:05, which gave me flashbacks of yesterday. The positive spin? I'm almost done with Harry Potter.

- Finally got into Washington DC at about 11pm. Got my rental car, which is a Chevy Tracker. A green Tracker. I feel like I'm cheating on my car. But then I think to myself, 'I'm trying out this car so I'll know that my green CRV is a much more superior machine.' And it IS.

- Had to drive to Dulles airport to pick up my bag, which was sent there this morning. Had no idea where I was going. Are there no streetlights around Reagan? It was a bit scary. I felt like i was driving through a secluded forest. It gave a nice view of the moon, though. If it wasn't so cloudy, I would have seen the stars, too.

- Got to Dulles, parked my car, ran into the terminal. After searching for the United baggage office, I saw Pauley the Pully with a pile of luggage. She cried silently for me. I walked into the office and said that my bag was outside the office, and the lady said, 'Girl, if you see your bag, go on and take it!'. Hmm...good to know that security is so tight there. I grabbed Pauley, she silently squealed for joy, and walked off with her.

- My main credit card didn't work at the front desk of the hotel. Neither did my backup card. I was gonna pay in cash, but in desparation I gave him what I thought was my expired company card, but it worked. Hey, I'm not going to fight it!

- I missed 'Paradise Hotel' tonight, I think. I no longer have a regular TV schedule. However, I get 70+ channels of cable here.

And one of the brightest parts of today was that for some reason, I was given a 'Premier' ticket. Could it be? Could I hope that maybe they felt sorry for me and put my back in the club? Or maybe all the ticket takers decided that they were tired of my dirty looks when they said 'and now the premier members can board before everyone else because they're really cool and it sucks if you used to be a premier and you got bounced off because your company hated you last year and didn't send you anywhere, but sorry girlie, you have to wait in line with the rest of the commoners'. We'll see what happens when I come back. If I get the magical ticket of gold rather than the blue ticket of blah.

Buddy Ebsen, better known as Jed Clampett from the Beverly Hillbillies, died yesterday. Goodbye Jed. Goodbye Barnaby Jones. Goodbye man who would have played the Tin Man if it hadn't been for an allergic reaction to the silver paint. You'll be missed.

Superstitious folk such as I always believe these things come in threes...who's next?

Haven't had a test on here in a while. Here's a fun one that tells you your personality based on your name. I stole it from Sarah, who stole it from stef.

Your Name and Personality

Here's mine:

Wow. That's so me. I think....

Sorry, not all names are in there. Don't blame me, blame the system!

Where Is Yano Today?

Chicago

I checked on my flight again, and saw that it was moved to 10:30. Then to 11:30. Then to 12am. I was starting to get a little restless, and a bit grumpy myself. Harry Potter isn't a book to read when you're already grumpy. It's not a happy book. Well, not the part that I'm at, anyway. Fortunately, a game of 'Name that Tune' with a friend on the phone lifted up my spirits considerably. I mean, who wouldn't get a little bit happier after hearing someone sing 'Two of Hearts' by Stacy Q? Anyone remember that? Anyone?

So at 11:30, after I've been sitting in the airport for 4 1/2 hours, they announce that my flight has been cancelled. Would have been nice if they announced that before! So they say to go to gate C18 for customer service, and there is a whole mass of humanity that rushes over there. And there's at least 200 people in line before us, from other flights that had been cancelled. There's an announcement that the line is at least 2 hours long. So I call United's 800 reservation number. And I wait half an hour. But young Mr. Potter keeps me company. And I reschedule my flight. But for another airport. And there's no flights open til tomorrow night.

But what about my luggage? I wait in yet another line to find that out. And it seems that my luggage has a spot on the 6am flight to Dulles. But hey lady, I'm not flying into Dulles anymore! I have a choice of leaving a message at Dulles to transport my bag to Reagan, have it sent back to Chicago then to Reagan, or just driving over to Dulles to pick up my bag after I land at Reagan. My poor bag! It's so lonely right now!

So after that was all said and done, I got home at about 12:30. Not too bad. I mean, I can still be in line right now, right?

I'm so grumpy!

Argh. So I don't know what to do now. I guess I'll just go into work and see what happens. *sigh*

I got this idea from Noelle's blog, and I think it's pretty fun. I'm always checking my referrers anyway, so I thought I'd share. People find this page in the strangest ways usuing search engines. I'll keep better track of the obscure ones, but here's a couple from the last couple days...

Best Seattle Haircut - Hmm, need a haircut in Seattle? I know of a excellent place to go. Check out Yuki's Diffusion. You get a good haircut, great conversation, and he's one of the sexiest hairdressers this side of the international date line.

JLo Ass - I used to be the #1 JLo Ass search out there, but no longer. If you've got a free moment, check out the comments under my JLo Ass post. Quite interesting.

Booty Call Denver - Hmm, I may not know of anywhere in Denver that you can get a booty call, but go about an hour south, and there will be more booty than you'll know what to do with.

Once you go black you never go back - I get this one at least once a day. I was talking about my hair, dammit, my hair!

just got my driving license and afraid to drive - Wow, could this be Claudine searching my site? Don't be afraid to drive. It's empowering. So much faster than public transit.

Eminem Yano - This one is pretty strange. My only theory for this search is that Eminem is stalking me and wonders if there is already an "Eminem Yano" out there, because he figured that when he married me, he would take my name, which most of the internet population thinks is 'Yano' anyway. Gotta love those stalkers!

So I've been so busy with doing wedding stuff, that I haven't really had time to think about anything else lately. Work is still work, so they're still sending me out all over the place. Tomorrow I fly out to Virginia, and I'll be there 'til Thursday. I kinda knew that it was coming, but nothing was set in stone until last Wednesday. But once it was set, and the papers signed, there was no way I could get out of it.

And I totally forgot that I have tickets for "The Lion King" for Wednesday. That I bought for my whole family for Christmas. Which I got the most AWESOME seats for because I bought them in October. I've been dying to see it ever since it came out on Broadway. So my family will be going without me. *cries*

So I'm going to see if I can find a ticket for a time when I'm here. Just one ticket. Because that's all I can afford. And even if I wanted to bring someone, there is NO WAY I'm going to get a good seat for two. Damn, I haven't seen a show in Chicago in the longest time, and I mess up the one time that I treat my family to a really good show. *sigh* That's what I get for not keeping my calendar up to date!

This fucking sucks big time!

*cries again*

I think I'm stressed.

Goodbye to Barry White, who passed away yesterday. He was the master of mood music, smooth, sexy and full of good lovin'. Here's my little tribute to him, the lyrics to my favorite song by him...'Can't Get Enough of Your Love, Babe'.

Happy 4th of July everyone!

I'm going to go eat barbeque, drink some Citrona, listen to some music, play some games, and play with Jillian (see, I spelled it right!) over at Maui's place. Have a good holiday! Don't drink and drive!

After years of trying to make it to the top, I have finally become the #1 search for 'Yano' on Google and Yahoo.

Take that, Akiko Yano, Sho Yano and Yano's Digital Garage! And my name isn't even Yano! Whoo hoo!

I'll enjoy it while it lasts. Probably a week.

It's the little things that make me happy.

Now if only this page would come up when you search for my REAL name.

1. What were your favorite childhood stories?
My favorite childhood stories were Grimm's Fairy Tales and bible stories. I had this picture bible story book that I read all the time.

2. What books from your childhood would you like to share with [your] children?
I was a real bookworm as a kid, so there's a lot. Maybe my favorite, though, was The Chronicles of Narnia. I loved those characters so much!

3. Have you re-read any of those childhood stories and been surprised by anything?
I have a leather bound copy of Grimm's next to my bed, and I read it every now and then. Reading it as a kid, you never realize how absolutely GRUESOME it all is, and all of the violence and sexual undertones that all the stories have. I mean, Cinderella's stepsisters cut off part of their feet to fit into the slipper. Gross. I'm surprised it hasn't been banned! :-P

4. How old were you when you first learned to read?
My grandmother taught me how to read when I was about 3 or 4.

5. Do you remember the first 'grown-up' book you read? How old were you?
Geez. I dunno. Does Encyclopedia Brown count as a 'grown-up' book? If not, then maybe it was a trashy romance novel that my aunt left lying around or something.

Yesterday I went on my 'once-a-week-with-Mike' lunch, and we headed out to the Taste of Chicago. The Taste is the biggest thing that happens in the summer. A bunch of restaurants from all over Chicago get together, set up booths, and provide food for the 3 million people that go through there during the week. They've got everything, from gator nuggets to italian ice, from turkey legs to crab rangoon, from McDonalds to Harry Caray's, burgers, pizza, ice cream, beer, it's all there. Oh, land of everflowing happiness! So we went, and I had me some crab rangoon, garlic cheese bread, a churro, rainbow ice cream, and chicken satay. It was quite tasty.

new blogs

reading pleasures

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, by J.K. Rowling

at the movies

Charlie's Angels:Full Throttle

comic you should be reading

Soulfire, Aspen MLT

yummy for my tummy

Taste of Chicago

addiction

friendster

As if Dave even reads this thing...

Anyway, I went for my first wedding dress fitting yesterday. I brought Claudine and Fatima with me. Claudine hasn't seen the dress yet. It was so great to put it on, it's mine, all mine! It almost fits perfectly, except it's too long, and the straps need to be taken in a little bit. It's got some beading in the front, and the back has criss cross straps. I'm so excited! I love this dress!

But I need to walk around in my shoes a bit to break them in. They were KILLING me when I was standing there for 20 minutes watching the seamstress pin up my dress.

And I need to work on my posture. And tone up my arms and back. And get rid of those tan lines.

But I love my dress!

I can't invite everyone I want to my wedding, but nothing's stopping me from sharing all my experiences before, during and after it here for you all. (I know, then what the hell is the wedding blog for. I'll update someday, I swear!) Thanks to all of you who've given me support and encouragement when I've been stressed out about this. Enjoy the pictures!

Message in my voicemail at work this morning, from my coworker Bryan...

"Christine....listen to this message I got this morning...

'Hey Bryan, it's Dan. Um...I might be late tomorrow...even though I'm late shit, uh shift...yeah...You can't tell I'm drunk...But...um...I'll trytobeontimeasmushas I canbe...but...I might be a lillate....*hiccup*...[pause]...uh...yeah, you like that muthafucker?!? .....alright.....I'll be a lil late...'"

I love drunk messages. Especially when it's not me leaving them.

I got tickets to an advanced screening of "Legally Blonde" yesterday. I had really enjoyed the first one, more that I thought I would, and well, the tickets were free. Having a cousin that works at a leading unnamed brewery has its priveleges.

The movie was good, pretty much what you expect, using much of the same formula. There were a couple pleasant surprises in there, but basically, you know what's gonna happen. The old gang is back, and Elle is going to D.C. to get a bill passed to stop animal testing for cosmetics. To save her dog's mom. So her dog's mom can come to her wedding. SO she goes to DC, all dressed up in pink, and finds out its a big, bad world there, and gradually (just like in the original) her wardrobe gets more mature as you see her working harder and harder towards her goal. Sprinkled through the movie were cute little jokes, dance routines, lots of dogs. And I admit it, when she was talking to the statue of Lincoln I got a bit misty eyed.

They also talked about Elle's upcoming wedding a lot, which annoyed me to no end. Hell, I went to this movie to FORGET about my wedding plans, not to relive them!

Reese Witherspoon is hopelessly likeable. She just exudes cuteness. And is it just me, or has Luke Wilson in every movie that's out this summer? (I heard he was Jennifer Connelly's stunt double in 'The Hulk'.) I really enjoyed seeing 'The Airplane Dude' from MacGuyver in the movie, too.

All in all, it's a fun movie, don't know if I would actually go out and see it in the theater, though. I think people who really loved the first will like this one a lot, but I'm poor. But I would definitely rent it.