The other day we went to Walmart to look for cheap portable DVD players for our vacation. Ben often gets really fidgety in the cart so I just let him wander around, while, of course, I keep an eye on him.

He's gotten into the funny little habit of dancing in public. First it's a little dance, but if some random shopper passes by and comments, he'll dance again, much longer and more elaborately. He's a little ham, my little guy is!

We were in the electronics section and Ben found the videogame demo section. You know, the place where they have controllers set up and kids stand for hours playing for free? The controller was just within Ben's grasp, but he had to get up on his tippy toes to touch it. He really didn't care whether or not he was controlling anything on-screen, it was the controller he was interested in. I just stood on the side and watched him reach to grasp the buttons.

Soon, an boy came by, about 9 or 10 years old. He was on those shoe/roller skate combo things that I find really intriguing. He rolled up to Ben and the controller and I was expecting him to nudge Ben out of the way so he could play. But to my surprise, he stood there and bent the controller holder so it was more accessible for Ben to play with. At first, Ben thought he wanted to play with it so he stood aside, but when the boy just stood there and pointed to the controller, Ben cautiously went back and played with the buttons as the boy held it for him.

Ben then ran away to check out other things, and the boy went back to his shopping (or waiting for this parents). Ben went back to the controller, and once again, the little boy came by to help him out. Ben tinkered around a bit with it as the boy watched and held down the controller. When Ben was done, he looked up at the boy and did his best 5 second dance. The boy laughed and said, "You're a funny little baby!" and walked away.

The next day, Ben and I went to go watch Dave play at his company softball game. There was a boy there, about 13 or 14, who was there to watch his mom play. The three of us were in the dugout, and didn't speak for the first several innings. But Ben was so entertaining with his yelling and running around, I could tell that the boy was warming up to him. What finally broke his cool exterior was when Ben did his little hand dance - the boy laughed out loud. After that, he played with Ben, putting a baseball in his hood and making sure he didn't run off onto the field. Ben liked the boy so much that he raised his arms to him, asking him to pick him up. The boy looked at me confused, and I said, "He wants you to pick him up." He looks surprised, and gingerly picked up Ben and sat him on his lap. Ben spent the next several minutes sitting on the boys lap and watching the game. It was cute.

There are many times when I see the behavior of kids and cringe, scared that they're going to hurt my son (like the kid who stepped on Ben's hand at the playground the day of the softball game) or be a bad influence on him. It's times like the ones above, though, that make me feel a little better about letting my little boy into the big, big world. Not all kids were meant for the super-nanny...some of 'em turn out quite alright!

originally written yesterday

Is it just me, or has it seemed like it's been raining every day in Chicago? Every day there's rain, every other day there's a thunderstorm. A couple weeks ago, we left a bucket out on our deck, and the thing is almost full.

So today (or whenever I get a chance to post this up since currently I have no power but I have to leave my laptop on to recharge my phone) I was working on getting a presentation ready. Dave had the day off (did I mention it's our anniversary today?) and he had taken Ben to the pool since it was a nice, warm day. I had the house all to myself.

I was IM'ing with my coworker, trying to work out issues and throw ideas back and forth. We went on a little bit of a tangent and started talking about hazard, flood, and other types of insurance needed for homes, since he's in the process of buying a home. He's in Texas, and will slightly be affected by Hurricane Dean. He mentioned "windstorm" insurance, which is just a fancy word for hurricane. I mentioned that here we usually have floods and things like that. I wondered to myself if we had any sort of "windstorm"-type insurance for tornadoes.

Not 10 minutes later, my television (which I always keep on for background noise, and I was actually half paying attention to the move "The Remains of the Day") had started beeping, going to a blue screen with just text on it. It flashed, "Tornado Warning!" I was trying to read the text as an announcer started talking. At the same time, the home phone rang. It was Dave, telling me that a tornado had been spotted nearby. He told me to stay down in the basement. I hung up and tried to listen to the rest of the announcement - it had mentioned the suburbs right next to us and didn't know if they had mentioned my suburb. I listened a little more, and the announcer said, "A funnel has been spotted. The tornado will be hitting at 3:20". Unfortunately, I didn't have my watch on. I grabbed my phone - the time was 3:16. Four minutes!

I made a mad dash around the house, bringing down my laptop, house phone, cell phone, candles, lighter and flashlight first into the basement. I looked outside the window, and it had just started raining. I then ran up to the second floor and grabbed my backup CD's of pictures, box of Benjamin memorabilia, several mini videocassettes - included the day of Ben's birth, Claudine's raw wedding footage and any other tapes I could get my hands on. I also grabbed some batteries for the flashlight, which I had noticed was getting dim.

I went into the back corner of the basement, behind the bar, and arranged all my stuff. As soon as I sat down, the power went out. I lit my candles around me and waited. I could hear the rain start to hit the house pretty hard, and the thunder got louder and louder. I tried to listen for that "roaring train" sound, but it never came. I twiddled around for a bit, read a bit of the sketch books that I got from the convention, and waited. Still nothing.

I snuck upstairs to see what was going on. There were still cars passing by the house (I'm on a busy street) and none of them seemed like they were in a panic. So I opened the front door to look outside. I realized it was pretty windy out there and had a bit of difficulty closing the screen door because of the wind. I ran back downstairs.

After another couple minutes, I decided to come back up again. I went outside this time, and looked around and saw no funnel cloud. The rain had slowed down to a little drizzle. I looked into the sky again and there was a huge flash of lightning, very close. I went back inside the house.

Updated this morning

I didn't bother going back downstairs, thinking that the time had probably passed for the tornado warning. I searched for a screwdriver to open up my flashlight (it's a child's hippo flashlight) and I found our other "real" flashlight. I changed the batteries, and then went downstairs and took a nap on the couch.

Dave called a little later and I realized it was getting dark. I went up to pack some clothes, deciding that we'd just stay at his in-laws for the night, so I could get some work done and we could have some electricity. He came to pick me up and said that it took him FOREVER to get home since so many traffic lights were out on the major roads, and there was a lot of flooding on the streets.

We checked the basement to make sure there was no flooding and left. Luckily, we took another route that didn't have as many inactive traffic lights, but it still took a while to get over to the in-laws. Once we got there, Dave went into their basement and saw that there was water seeping in. They worked on cleaning up the water and I started to get ready for my presentation.

The news gave a ton of reports of uprooted trees, whose root systems were weak because of all the saturated water. No tornados touched down, but there was plenty of flooding and power outages - 320,000 of my fellow Chicagoans were out of power as well. They mentioned that it could take DAYS to restore power to everyone!

I heard a phone call in the middle of the night, turns out it was Dave's brother saying that he was experiencing some water damage at his place. I went back to sleep, but woke again when Dave's father said that he had gone to check on our place and we had some flooding in the basement. Nothing major, but about an inch of water. I thought of all the stuff we have stored in the basement (my comic books!) and got up at 5:30 to head back home and assess the damage.

Dave's dad and I headed home, and the power was still out. I headed into the basement and saw that Dave's dad had already done damage control. The furniture was raised up on cans of food, stuff was put on the pool table, and the barstools were placed on the bar. We went into the closet to move out our snowboards, comic books and other boxes we had in there. One of my boxes of comics was heavily saturated with water, but luckily all the books in there were bagged in plastic. The only casualty was a trade paperback of Ultimate Spiderman.

We did a quick stop by Home Depot afterwards to see if we could find a generator, but it turns out that they were sold out of them at around 6:15 this morning. Crazy!

So here I am, at my in-laws, getting ready to get some work done and waiting for the next set of storms to come in this afternoon. Hoepfully it doesn't cause any more flooding. Keep your fingers crossed!

So I've been working in the Milwaukee for the last several weeks, and Ben has been in the care of Dave, and when Dave's been working, his parents.

My in-laws love to take Ben to different places, to the mall, to their friend's homes, to restaurants, etc. One of their friends from out of town was staying with them last week, and they were taking him out to places, bringing Ben along.

They were at a restaurant eating dinner one night, and Ben was in a baby chair. Dave's dad took him out of the chair to let him cruise around the table. He thought that Dave's mom and her friend were aware that Ben was crawling around, so he went to the bathroom.

A couple minutes later, one of the cooks comes out of the kitchen. Guess what he's doing? Carrying Benjamin! Turns out that Benjamin silently crawled away from the table and wandered into the kitchen. I'm sure that the cooks in the kitchen were pretty surprised to see my little tyke crawling in.

My in-laws' friend sees Ben and goes up to the cook to thank him for bringing the baby out. Once Dave's dad got back to the table, they had a good laugh about Ben's little adventure.

Can you imagine what trouble he'll get into when he starts walking?!?!?

Last week (which seems like eons ago) I was in Milwaukee. Normally when I'm out of town it's pretty hard for me to go to sleep. I usually stay up until 1 or 2 in the morning, just working, playing on the internet watching whatever's on cable. I try to sleep earlier if I know I've got an early morning, but it never really works.

So I was in Milwaukee, asleep after yet another late night, and all of the sudden I hear this loud beeping, coming from all over. Then a voice screams into the room, "This is a fire alarm, please exit the building. Do not use the elevators." Or something like that. Then right after the voice, there's another voice. "This is the fire chief. There is no fire. Please stay in your rooms."

It went on and on like that for about 20 minutes. Loud beeping, "exit or die", "no, it's not real, just stay!". I was debating as I was lying in bed, wondering if I should leave, just in case. I heard doors on the floor opening and closing, through I don't know if anyone left. I looked at the clock and it was 5:30am. A mere half hour before my alarm was going to go off. That helped me make my decision. I was pissed that the alarm went off so soon before I was going to wake up, so I went to back to sleep.

20 minutes later, the beeping again, same message about leaving the building, then another voice says, "There is no fire, stay in your rooms!" I set my alarm to go off 20 minutes later.

Of course, next time I hear an alarm I'll make sure to leave the building if that "Nah, this isn't real" voice doesn't come on. However, this is the fourth time this has happened to me...hope I don't get used to it and ignore it when it really happens!

The other day my father in law was over making dinner on the grill in the back deck. I was washing dishes and he popped his head in the door and loudly whispered, "Christine, come out here!"

"Hold on, I'm doing dishes..."

"Hurry! You have to come out here quick!"

I came over by the door and he pointed to my backyard. When we bought the house it came with a hammock in the back. Since Dave is crazy about his lawn being green, he always takes it down and rolls it up when he's done so the hammock doesn't affect the lawn.

Standing above the rolled hammock was a opossum. He was moving slowly off the roll. "Did he come out from inside the hammock?" I asked

"Yeah, he crawled out from the middle. I guess he was sleeping there. I think he may be dying."

"Nah...he's ok." I said as I went back in to finish the dishes.

A couple minutes later my F-I-L rushes in again and exclaims, "It's dead! That thing is dead!"

"No, he's just pretending to be dead. That's what opossums do, they pretend to be dead when they're scared."

"No, he's dead. I poked him with a stick." Clearly, my F-I-L is not scared of rabies or sharp little animal teeth.

"He's pretending..." I said, and continued with the dishes. He went back outside to check on the corpse.

In popped in his head once again - "He's gone! He ran away while I was talking to you ...you're right! He was only faking it!"

Yep...that's what opossums do.

Then a week later, Dave found this big guy hanging out on the deck.

At first we thought it was a beaver...but of course, it's your average woodchuck. But isn't he a cutie?

I was at my client's site yesterday, and she was taking me around during lunchtime. One of her coworkers, a friend, came up to her and asked, "Where is the weight watcher's meeting?" My client walked her over to the room where the meeting was being held (she was a member herself). The meeting hadn't yet started so people were standing around outside the room.

There were glass doors in front of us looking out on a small lobby. In the lobby we could see three heavy set women who looked like they were lost. My client's friend told my client, "Hey, they must be looking for the meeting." "Yeah, let me tell them where it is," replied my client.

We walked out of the glass doors and my client asked the women, "Excuse me, are you looking for the weight watchers meeting?"

One of the women then glared and said, "No, we're looking for the HR Benefits meeting."

"Oh," said my client, "um, it's in room 140."

As they were walking away they were mumbling to each other, "Ha, I know I'm a big woman but I don't need no weight watchers!" "Thinkin' we're looking for weight watchers. Hmph!"

I had to try really hard not to crack up. Actually, I did once they went away. My client was so embarrassed that she thought they were looking for the meeting!

One day when I was at work I went into the bathroom and noticed that there was someone else already in there. The person was in the last stall, and they were pretty quiet. At first I thought it was a silent pooper (you know, the person that pretends not to exist when they hear someone walk into the bathroom as they're taking a dump). However, as I walked into my stall I hear her say, "Mmm...oh" then a second after that she silently whispered, "Oh no!" Then quickly after, she said in a louder shocked voice, "NO WAY!"

I was thinking, "Man, that must be one nasty dump. I wonder if she knows that someone else is in the bathroom with her? Should I ask her if she's ok?"

She continued on..."Wow!"

By then I was wondering what the hell was coming out of her to cause such a reaction.

Then I figured it out after what she said next, "I can't believe you said that. That's incredible!"

Duh. She was talking on a cell phone while she was in the stall. No magical, monstrous poop. Just a gal on the phone.

Boo...it was so much more interesting before I figured it out!

Overheard in the ladies' bathroom at the movie theater:

girl: Hey mommy, what's that? (pointing to the tampon/pad dispenser)

mom: Um, it's a candy machine

girl: ohh! candy! I want some!

mom: Oh, well, it's empty.

girl: But I want candy!

mom: Fine, I'll get you some outside.

girl: Mommy, why do they have a candy machine in the bathroom?

mom: I dunno, I guess some people get hungry when they want to go pee.

girl: That's weird!

mom: I know...let's go!

The mom shouldn't have said candy...she should have said, "It dispenses brussel sprouts" or something like that.

I can't wait for the day Benjers asks me that. I'll just say flatly "Women bleed from their vajayjays. This is where they buy stuff to keep it from ruining their nice pants."

Today I laundered my first load of baby clothes. I bought the special baby detergent (though didn't get the super expensive one) and I was ready to go. Since I'm starting up my hospital bag, I need to put some clothes in there for the baby. I want to make sure that I wash all the things for the baby before they're used.

So I picked out some outfits, burp cloths, socks (they're so tiny!) and receiving blankets for my first load. I threw it in the washer and decided to go to the grocery store to do some shopping since we're out of milk and I had a craving for some. It was about 11 at night, but I knew that the market was open til midnight. I wondered if it was a bad idea to leave the washing machine going while I was gone, but decided that it probably wouldn't catch fire or anything like that so it should be ok for the hour that I would be gone.

I got back, parked the car in the garage and went into the house through the garage. I was using the spare key for the car so I didn't have an actual key to the house, so the only way I could get in there was through the door in the garage.

I was worried about the ice cream that I had in the trunk, so I wanted to put my groceries away quickly. I opened the door into the house and *BAM*, the door would only open 1/8 of the way, too small for me to fit me and my big fat belly.

WTF!?!?!

I looked at the crack in the door and saw the culprit....

The laundry room is room you enter when you're entering the house through the garage. Sometimes when I do laundry, the washing machine shakes so much it moves from its place. Normally it's only a couple inches, but there have been times it's moved more than a foot.

To my dismay, this was one of those times. It had moved so much that it blocked the door. The way it had moved was so it was lodged between the door and the dryer.

I was stuck in the garage. I could move the washing machine a couple inches, but it was hard to manuever it around since I could really only stick in my arm. I stood there, wrestling with the door and the washing machine, but I was getting nowhere. I was trying to think of my options - I could call up my sister to bring her set of keys. Oh wait, I didn't have my cell phone. I could drive to my dad's place and pick up a set of keys from him, but it was almost midnight and I didn't want to drive any more. I could drive to my in-laws, but I didn't know if they were home or not. Dave was on call so he wouldn't be back til the morning.

And the most worrying thing was that my ice cream was melting!

I got a second wind of energy and was able to move the washer out of the way after several back and forth moves. I made sure not to use my stomach muscles because I was paranoid that I'd pop the baby out. Wouldn't that be something? Having my baby in the garage because I couldn't get in the house?

Happily, I was able to get in the house and throw my ice cream in the freezer. I left the rest of the stuff in there for Dave to get in the morning...I was too pooped!

Next time, I won't leave that sneaky washing machine on at home alone!

I got to a whole variety of different client site, from the government to schools to hospitals to banks to huge companies. I was at a state government office once, and I had a badge that let me walk around the building without an escort. This really helped when I needed to leave for lunch or walk to the vending room.

During one of my first visits, I passed by an area that had a window that looked at the courtyard outside. I saw several people standing outside talking and milling around. This wouldn't have been weird if the two men hadn't been wearing the exact same thing - white t-shirts and green and white striped pants, almost looking like pajama pants. The other two were policemen, but since the building also house the police offices, that wasn't anything out of the ordinary. I walked by.

Later on in the day, I was in the bathroom, and there was a woman in there cleaning the bathroom. She said a pleasant "Hello" and I said hi back. I then noticed that she had the same striped pants and white shirt as the two men outside.

"Aha! That's what the maintenance people wear!" I thought to myself. Pretty ugly outfits for maintenance people. They stick out like a sore thumb!

I was then talking to a coworker later on the week who was also working at the site. He mentioned to me, "Isn't it weird that the convicts are just walking around?"

"Huh?"

"You know, they're free to walk around the building when they're doing their maintenance chores. They're the ones in the green striped pants. How could you not notice them?"

"Oh. Yeah. Those guys. Um, yeah, that's kinda weird." I replied.

Ahh...the lightbulb goes on. The people who were wearing those strange uniforms were convicts! Turns out it was a work program for the convicts - if they had good behavior and worked hard, they were allowed to go outside the prison and work in the state offices. Of course, the state offices had security and everything around it, so there really is no danger.

So I admit to being a bit weirded out when I'd see the green stripes (as I called them in my head), but they always polite and friendly, so there was really nothing to be worried about.

I wonder if all the states do something like this...

This story is from several weeks ago, when we went to the Santana concert at the Taste of Chicago.

Mel, Fatima and I had gone to the bathroom (well, bathroom isn't the right word for it. ultra-toxic port-a-potty is more accurate) and we had just finished washing our hands at the fountains they had set up. We were going to go back to our table where everyone else was. Budweiser had set up a place for its employees to watch the concert, which was in a shaded area next to the bandshell, so it was a little hard to maneuver around because there were trees, roots and grass all around. We were walking back and then I saw Fatima trip over a root in the ground.

Then her shoe fell off.

She went to retrieve it and realized that her cute little stylish flipflops that she had bought in Texas were broken. The side strap had broken off, as had the strap by her toes. The shoe was completely unusable. I offered her a ride on my back, she was frustrated and refused, choosing to take off her other shoe and just walk barefoot back to the table.

Once there, we let everyone know of what happened. Fatima had no shoe! We debated tying napkins around her feet, but she shot that idea down. Finally I offered to go back into the mass of sweaty humanity that was The Taste to go to the souvenir booth in hopes that they had some sort of footwear there. I mean, flipflops are 'in' right now, wouldn't it be logical that they'd have official 'Taste of Chicago' flipflops? Melanie agreed to go with me on my quest and off we went.

We maneuvered around the crowd like pros. We were women on a mission! There was a poor girl out there with no shoes! I wanted to shout out to the crowd, "My sister has no shoes! Out of the way!" to part the people, but I don't think they would have cared. We finally made it to the souvenir booth, where they had an assortment of keychains, t-shirts and hats. But no shoes!

Then Mel suggested that maybe we leave the taste and go to Michigan Avenue to see if there were any stores open that had shoes. We made our way through the crowd and walked over to Michigan Avenue. We found a souvenir shop open, but no luck there. A woman then suggested Osco, which was several blocks down the street. We walked down there, tired and broken. We wandered around Osco, and finally, tucked in a little corner, we found the flip flops. Alas, we had no idea what size she was! We just got a pair that fit Melanie and hoped for the best.

Then I looked at the price. $9.99 for a pair of freakin' flip flops!!! They're ordinary rubber flip flops, I didn't know why they'd cost so much. Grumbling a bit, I went to the cashier and she rang it up: Seventy nine cents. Looks like that 9.99 was actually 99 cents. And they were on sale!

So we ventured back to the Taste, fought our way through the crowd back to our area. By that time, the guys had somewhat fixed fatima's shoe, but it really wasn't in walking condition. She was very thankful and enjoyed hearing about our adventure.

As we all left the Taste, she was carrying her dear, broken flipflops in her hand. We all knew there was no hope for them, but she didn't want to let them go. However, after some prodding and chanting from the rest of us, we persuaded her to throw them in the trash. We had a short moment of silence, and moved on, Fatima in her not-so stylin' but highly functional flip flops from Osco.

I had the weirdest dream the other night. You know how your subconscious usually reflects what's going on in your conscious life? Let's see if you guys can psychoanalyze me from what's going on in my nocturnal mind....

-------------------

I'm going on a trip to a college for some partying and fun. There is this person who hooks people up with cheap lodging in the nice dorms - they find out what students are going home for the weekend and offer their rooms to people visiting the university. Not only their rooms, but their identities.

It makes no sense, but that's how dreams work, I guess.

I go to this dorm and get my 'assignment' from this person. He gives me a key and a fact sheet on the person I'm impersonating for the weekend. I go up to the room, let myself in and it's a great room. I read a couple of my notes and I'm taking the place of an Asian girl and learn a little about her. I walk out of the room and see her next door neighbor. I'm terrified he'll realize I'm not the girl, but he casually says 'Hi' to me and calls me by her name.

I go out and check out the sights on campus, having a good time. As I come back into the dorm, I see a crowd of people in the lobby and the girl is in the middle. I hear whisperings from other people that someone had impersonated the girl and the girl had found out that someone was in her dorm room. They're calling campus authorities to find the impersonator and arrest them. I panic. I realize I've left my luggage in her room, along with my ID's.

I debate what to do. I see the cops coming. The crowd is dispersing and the girl is off to the side, standing alone. I go up to her and confess what happened, that I had taken her place so I could get cheap lodging for the weekend, but I was really sorry. We talk for a bit and she's really nice, and she tells the cops it was a false alarm.

She takes me around the sites of the campus and we have a great time, and she invites me to come and visit her anytime.

----------

The dream was much longer than this, and actually was interrupted at one point when Dave woke me up to move my sister's car. I wanted to continue the dream so I chanted to myself to finish the dream before going back to bed, and it actually worked, the dream continued. However, that's when it took that dark turn when the girl came back to town.

So what do you all think?

Yesterday I was at dinner with some friends, and Chetan was talking to some of his medical buddies about this guy named 'Hawk'. As with most conversations, I was half listening to the conversation, but when he said 'Hawk', my ears perked up a bit, because that's a pretty unusual name. It made me think of my TA (teaching assistant) for Biology in college, whose first name was 'Hakan', but he told us to call him 'Hawk' for short. He was a pretty cool guy, only several years older than us, and since we were freshman he gave us pointers on what bars were cool and often told us stories about crazy parties he'd been to.

Then Chetan said Hawk's full name, which made me do a double take - he said the name of my old TA! I asked him if Hawk went to U of I, and Chetan said yeah, and I told him that Hawk was my TA. We had a good laugh about it. Who would have known? Not that I'd tell Chetan to tell Hawk I said 'hi' or anything. I didn't do that great in the class, I hardly remember anything from it.

Dave was telling me in the car on the way home what a wild coincidence that was, but I didn't think it was that wild. I guess because it was tiny compared to my weirdest 'It's a Small World' experience.

-----------------------------------------

Several years ago, my sisters and I went on a sister vacation to Orlando. We did the usual things, Disney World, Universal Studios, etc. We were at Islands of Adventure (which is the AWESOMEST amusement park. If you like thrill rides, go there!) and the Spiderman ride had just opened up.

The line was about 1 1/2 hours long, but it actually ended up being about 2 1/2 hours because the ride kept on breaking. Any of you who have waited in line at an amusement park know that you get familiar with the other people in lines, what their faces are, when you're going to run into them. For that hour, those are the only faces you see.

There was a family that was in line ahead of us who were also on vacation. I remember them so well because I was remarking to my sisters that the son, who was about 16 or 17 looked just like a young Davy Jones. But better looking. There were two sons and their parents in line, and they were speaking Spanish. They were a very good looking family, and of course, I had about 2 hours to remember their faces.

Then, after we rode the ride, I forgot about them. On a sidenote, SPIDERMAN ROCKED! It was totally worth the wait! I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

...

About six months later, I went on vacation with Dave's family to Puerto Rico. Our hotel had a casino in it, which is pretty dangerous to me since I've got that whole genetic gambling addiction thing. After a day of sightseeing, everyone was pretty much pooped and passed out. However, I couldn't let the night get by without going to the casino to try my luck. Dave's brother Justin and I headed out to try our luck.

I sat at the roulette table to play for a couple hours (I can make my money last for a while at that game) and I noticed a family sitting at the table with me. Not just any family, a family with two sons, one that looks like Davy Jones! Yes, the very same family that I was in line with at Islands of Adventure. I didn't say anything because a) My Spanish sucks, and b) What would I say? "Hey, I was watching you guys when we were in line for the Spiderman ride. Do you remember me? I was the sunburned girl who was torturing her sisters!'

But still, that was totally bizarre.

If that's not 'a small world' story, I don't know what is!!!

I heard a couple interesting conversations yesterday when I was traveling back home. It's not like I was trying to listen on purpose, but sometimes you just can't help it!

Conversation #1, overheard at the tiny food court.

Little Girl: (calling to her mom who is in line for food) Mommy!
Mom: Yes?
Little Girl: I just wanted to tell you I love you.
Mom: I love you, too, baby.
Little Girl: (moments later)Mommy!
Mom: Yes?
Little Girl: Daddy wants me to tell you that he loves you, too!
Mom: Tell him I love him too, baby.
Little Girl: Daddy, mommy loves you!

Can I get a collective 'Awww'? When I have kids I'm going to train my kids to do that so other people can be all mushy gushy on their blogs, too.

Here's another one, that's WAY different than my first one....

Conversation #2 - heard inside the plane:

Guy#1: Hey, so HOW did you end up in the shower with her?
Guy #2: I dunno, after we went swimming I said I was going to take a shower, then she said she wanted to come too.
Guy #1: Are you serious?
Guy #2: Yeah!
Guy #1: Wow. So how was it?
Guy #2: It was AWESOME!

For Dave's birthday I got him a new phone to replace his ancient one. This one not only has a color display, but also has a camera. Dave's never had a camera before, so this should be a nice start. After some instruction, he's learned how to use his phone, though I doubt he's taken too many pictures with it. He usually leaves the picture taking to me.

So I was checking out his phone the other day, and I saw that his main picture, the picture that is the background of his start screen, was a picture of his University of Illinois Illini hat. It was what we had used as a sample during his 'photo class'. Being the self-centered wife that I am, I brought it to his attention:

Me: Hey, one would think that you would have a picture of your wife as your start screen on your phone. Why do you have the Illini there?
Dave: Are you 25 and 0?
Me: *silence*
Dave: I didn't think so.

Damn those Illini! Next year, I'm joining the tourney and I'm going to pound their asses so I can get my rightful place on Dave's cameraphone!

I'm home from Boston! Took me about an hour on tech support to get my internet back up, but I'm sure you're happy to know that not once did I break down crying screaming, 'Why? Why me?!?!?' to the heavens.

Since my client was across the street from my hotel, I didn't need a car. However, I did need a cab to drive me to the airport. The secretary called the cab company, and by the time I was done with work, the cab driver was downstairs waiting.

He came out of the car and the first thing I thought was 'He looks like Quentin Tarantino.' A shorter, hairier, creepier Tarantino with bad posture. He was nice, though, trying to make conversation and helping me put all my stuff in the taxi.

So we're in the taxi, making small talk (which I hate) and he has some foriegn accent, sounding Eastern European. Then my mind started wandering - if I would have guessed his ethnic background, I would have said Transylvanian. It just had a very Dracula sound to it, but a deeper, slower Dracula. Then I realized who he reminded me of. Igor. The hunchbacked guy that's always in the dark recesses of any castle, always ready to help Dr. Frankenstein or make sure that the lab is prepared.

He asks me where I'm from, I say Chicago. He laughs, and then states that it doesn't look like I'm there because I have such a dark tan. (What?!? I'm totally turning Redpac white!) He was nice enough. I felt bad that he probably lost his job at the evil scientist's lab in the homeland.

Then he asked me, "Are you a scientist?" Which really made me want to laugh out loud, since only a moment before I was imagining him, as Frankenstein, hook up Frankenstein's monster to the table, waiting for lightening to come. I shook my head no. "I work on computers," I informed him.

"Oh! Computers! So you're still a scientist - a computer scientist!"

"Um, yeah, I guess I am!"

"Wow. That's great," he said, and I swear he looked wistfully out the window, thinking of happier days with his own scientist boss, bringing monsters to life in the middle of the night and casting spells with eye of newt.

Ahh...never a dull moment in a cab, I tell ya.

When I was making final calls for our ski trip last week, I was double checking what time everyone was getting to the hotel.

Now I rarely use my phone (or answer it, as anyone who knows me will tell you). However, I have a TON of numbers, because I always try to save phone numbers when people call me.

I realized I had my cousin Marlon's cell phone number stored on my phone, so I gave him a call. He had one of those generic voicemail messages that just states the number of the phone. I hesitated, thinking that I could have the wrong number. "Oh well, if it's a wrong number then they'll ignore the message," I thought. Since it was late at night, so I left a message for him to give me a call.

The next morning was crazy busy at work. I was finishing up a conference call when I saw Marlon calling on my cell phone. I got off the phone with my client and went to answer the phone, but too late, the phone went into voice mail.

I called him right back, and there was no answer. Since me and Marlon always joke around, I left him a voicemail that sounded like this:

"Yo, Marlon! It's Deluxe, son! Why you be calling me then not pick up the phone when I call you right back, bitch? Hit me up when you get a chance because I wanna know what's the 411 with the ski trip, homie. Peace out!"

Yes. I'm a dork.

Right after I hang up the phone, Marlon calls me back. I answer the phone with a thuggish, "SUP!"

...and the sound I heard next both terrified me and made me roll on the floor laughing.

"Christine? Is that you? This is your Tita (Aunt) Rosie! Did you call my cell phone?"

Yes. I accidentally called my aunt. Marlon must have called me from his mom's phone.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry, Tita! Is this your phone?"

"Yes, are you trying to call Marlon? He has his own cell phone."

"Oh. I'm so sorry!"

"That's ok, here's his number."

"Thanks. And please please PLEASE don't listen to your voicemail from me. Just erase it! You don't want to hear it."

"Oh, don't worry honey!"

I wanted to crawl into a hole leaving that ghetto message on my aunt's voicemail! Later on I told Marlon the story and he got a kick out of it. Lucky for me, she doesn't know how to check her voicemail, so I'm off the hook for now!

Last night I drank free beer and ate hops at a brewery, met a giant pickle, watched the Wolves lose, entered a bar through a bookcase, played blackjack with Fantine and The Bishop from the production of Les Misérables and played tour guide to people who have lived in Milwaukee when it was my second time there.

Today I rode in a car that could only go in 1st gear for 122 miles and saw the Oscar Meyer Weinermobile doing 75 down I-294.

Who wants to guess what tomorrow might bring?

In tribute to Will Eisner, I'll post up my Comic Convention recap, that I've been too lazy to post up. Sure, it was in August, and sure, Will wasn't there, but I've gotta post this baby up sometime - it might as well be today.

Truthfully, this wasn't the best con I've been to. Not because it was a bad convention, it was just because there was so much going on around the time of the convention that I couldn't fully enjoy all my time there. This was the first time in a long time that I hadn't gone to the Friday of the convention. I spent the rest of the weekend trying to play catch up, which isn't easy, since I was so used to just taking my time, talking to people, getting sketches, going to panels and such. I didn't even really get a chance to check out all of the shops in the back. Nonetheless, I still had fun. I got some great sketches, and saw some familiar friendly faces and some new friends.

Without further adieu, here's my highlights:

- Amber Benson, who played Tara in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, was one of the guests of the 'con. She's much prettier in person, and seemed friendly and easy going with the fans that lined up to meet her. Didn't have the patience to wait in line. However, I was in the bathroom at the same time with her, while the infamous Wizard security guy waited for her outside. Had a little eye contact and we smiled. That's about it. Oh, and she washed her hands. That is something important to know. Because if she didn't, well, eew.

- I got to meet Greg Horn, whose art I adore. I was a little bit intimidated when I met him - I don't know what I expected, but he was just a regular guy. When I went up to talk to him, there was a woman who worked at the booth with him. She whispered something to him as I was talking with him, and he said, "Didn't you work at the Aspen booth last year?" I was a little bit stunned. I didn't really think that anyone would recognize me with the glasses, haircut and blonde highlights. I said that it was me, and he said I had looked familiar to him, and the woman was the one who had recognized me from last year. I didn't even KNOW Greg was at the 'con last year. I would definitely have gone to meet him! Anyway, it was pretty cool (yet pretty weird) that he remembered me.

- I owe Sean Chen $10. A lot of the artists were charging for sketches, so as much as I could, I tried to stick to those artists that were free. However, Sean Chen was the very first artist that I asked to do a sketch for me, back when he was doing Wolverine for Marvel. At the time, it was a free sketch. Since he was on his own in Artists Alley, he was charging for sketches. It was $15 for a head sketch and $30 for full body. I asked him to do a head sketch of Psylocke for me, and he was pretty busy and asked that I come back on Sunday morning. I came back Sunday morning, and he already had a couple names in his list. But he assured me that since I came the day before that he would do a sketch for me, so I left him with my book, and he said to come back in an hour. So I wandered around for a bit, after the hour was done, I came back and he had already began my sketch. It was turning out really awesome and I was really impressed. We chatted a bit (tried not to disturb him too much while he was sketching) and he was really cool. He put a lot of work into it, and I appreciated that he took the time - even though I was paying for it. Anyway, he finished up the sketch and showed me the finished product and I praised it and thanked him. Since I loved it so much, I decided to give him $20 instead of the $15 for the head shot. Gotta help the guy make a living. I handed him the money, and he gave me a smile, then a weird quizzical look. I walked away beaming and happy with my new sketch. Later on, after REALLY looking at my sketch I realized that Psylocke had legs. Which I noticed before, but I didn't realize my error. Sean did a body sketch for me, and I only paid him $20. And the idiot that I am was beaming and proud of myself for giving him a little extra - which actually wasn't! So yeah. Somehow I'll get him the money I own him...it's only fair!

- I DID see Jason Mewes again, but I was stuck in a huge crowd of people and he looked especially shaggy and slightly bearded, and it just was too weird. That, and I didn't have anything for him to sign. I was stuck in a mob of people at the View Askew booth who were trying to get him and Kevin Smith to sign things, each of them going up to fans and taking pics, signing autographs, etc. I did, however, get to meet Kevin, and since I didn't have anything for him to sign, I did the dorkiest thing ever. I looked him in the eye and said to him, "I don't have anything to sign, but I just wanted to shake your hand and say that I really love your stuff!" Am I a loser or what? He looked me in the eyes, took my hand in both of his hands and shook hands with me, and said slowly and sincerely, "Thanks." Which was really cool, unless he was speaking really slowly because I thought I was mentally challenged for coming up with a stupid line like that.

- There were a couple people that weren't there that I really missed, who I've seen at cons before and have always been cool and friendly. Mike Wellman, also known as "The Chief", who headed Mac Afro and Gone South, who is one of the first creators that I got to know and hang out with. Mark Brooks (who is finding this entry on google as we speak) who did an awesome Psylocke for me last year and who has one of coolest cats I've met at a 'con. Ale Garza, who calls Psylocke 'that hot Asian chick' (then again, who doesn't?). And Talent Caldwell, who loves comics so much he can talk forever about them - I hope he gets to do his dream comic someday - the X-Men, and who has done one of my favorite Psylocke sketches (and didn't need to look at the other sketches for reference). He's a sweetheart and I hope I see him at a 'con again! I'll even bribe him with potstickers if I have to!

- One of the people I was sad that I wasn't going to see in Chicago was Tone Rodriguez. He gives the best hugs. He likes to call us his little Asian threesome (or twosome, when Mel isn't around). We saw him at the LA 'con and he said he was tired of traveling, so he wasn't going to any more cons. So me and Fatima were surprised when we were walking around the 'con and heard on the loudspeakers, "Tone Rodriguez, artist for Alien vs. Predator is doing free sketches at the booth - ticket holders only!" As soon as we heard that, we wandered around looking for the booth he was sketching at. We finally found it, and saw a huge line wrapping around, waiting for a sketch. Of course, we didn't have tickets. So we stood on the side, just watching, hoping that maybe he'd see us. When he did, he invited us over to hang for a bit while he sketched, gave us a big hug and asked why we didn't stop by sooner, to which we said he wasn't even in the program, so we had no idea he was there.

- Since we were in a hurry most of the time, I didn't get a chance to hang out at the Aspen booth as much as other times, and only got a chance to stop by the booth for the first time late Saturday afternoon, and was reprimanded by Peter for waiting so long. Said hello to the rest of the gang, and saw that one of our buddies from last year was working the booth again. We stopped by again later that day (we had to run to a panel so we didn't get to stay) and learned from Liz that she was leaving the company and moving to Italy. We were so sad to find this out, and we all got a little emotional with Liz. She's such an awesome person, kind of like our den mother, making sure we're okay, taking care of us, and just being really cool. It'll be sad to see her go! But she said that she'd be around at some of the cons, so I hope that we get to see her again sometime soon! On Sunday we went to the Aspen panel, and Peter was the MC. I had a little cold going on that weekend, so I was coughing a bit, and Peter announced, "Hey you, Feliciano, keep it down! Or if you're going to cough, make sure it's a hearty cough! If not, get some water in the back!" I wanted to shrink. But more than that, I was surprised that Peter knew my last name...even if it IS my maiden name now. He poked fun at me a couple other times. And then later, some people I had met on message boards came up to me because they figured out who I was. Which was pretty cool, because I would have had no idea who was who! Later on that day, we hung out at the booth a bit more and took pics.

- Got another Psylocke sketch from Sean Galloway, which makes my total 3 sketches now. He's a cool cat, super friendly and very chatty. Just the kinda guy that keeps fans coming back again and again. Like me!

- I got my first ever caricature done, and I felt like a moron sitting there as people were walking by, while the artist drew my picture as Psylocke. The sketch looks cute, yet nothing like me, but Fatima said the artist was HOT. I wouldn't know. I didn't have my glasses on at the time.

- At the Marvel panel, a bunch of the fans from Brian Michael Bendis' message board planned a surprise birthday cake presentation. Joe Quesada (i still say his name with some distaste, but not as much because of this) went along with the plan, and Bendis was pleasantly surprised when they brought out the cake and candles, and got the whole panel to sing Happy Birthday. I just missed out on getting some cake. That's what I get for being so shy. Another great thing about the panel - one of the writers, when asked if Psylocke was ever coming back (she was killed off. Twice.) returned the question to the audience, "Do you guys want her back?" I whooped and cheered like a moron. If I had a foghorn I would have used that, too. So then he said maybe, maybe they'll try and fit her in. Yay!

- After years of seeing Kabuki artist David Mack at the convention, I finally introduced myself to him. He remembered my secret name from a messageboard (Yano, yeah, big secret name, I know) and he was SO nice. I don't know why I was scared to talk to him before. He was so cool that he hooked me, Fatima and Melanie with a bunch of his books and gave us a great deal on his art. He is genuinely a great guy, so if you ever see him at a 'con, say hello to him. Maybe he'll even dance for you. He didn't for us, but I heard that he took part in a dance off in the lobby later that night. Crazy comic book artists.

- You should read Michael Goodman's CIderview Project. Not only is he a great guy (who is single and good looking) but he also makes good cookies. So I've been told. Because he didn't save any for me.

- Not only did I buy a couple comics and comic-related stuff there, I also stocked up on Pocky - those delicious Asian chocolate dipped sticks. Mmm...tasty! Can you believe that someone was selling them there? Yum!

Yeah...so that's about as much as I remember from my convention experience. Next year I'm definitely going to go all three days and take part in the after-con things, since I'm always hearing stories about the *interesting* stuff that happens at night.

So for now, here's my pictures!

Wizard World Chicago Pictures

Just wanted to post a concerned letter from a faithful reader pertaining to the 'looks like you're naked' current webcam shot:

"In other news, is your naked picture an indication of where your site is going? I heard yanowhatimean was going triple X, but I didnt think it would happen this fast. I figured you'd wait until readership began to dwindle and THEN hit it up. Thats the standard MO for stars like you, no? Is it for the money? True, there's big bucks out there in porno-land, but at what cost? Is it drugs? Tell me its not drugs."

Dear Concerned Reader,

The picture isn't naked, I'm wearing a sleeveless top. Contrary to rumors, YWIM is NOT going XXX any time soon. If I keep on losing money at Pokerstars, that may be an option, but not right now. When that time comes, I know of several people experienced with porn and prostitution who can help me along the right path, and of course, you'll be the first I call. Don't you worry your pretty almost shaved head about that. And it's not drugs, though once again, if ever I have the need I know where to get them - as well as all the Skoal Mint I could ask for.

Best wishes and happy holidays,
Yano

So the lesson here, people, is just because I look naked on the webcam doesn't mean I am.

A couple weeks ago Dave and I were at home, just hanging out. Dave went upstairs to do something, and then called out my name. "Christine! Come here! You gotta see this!"

I went over to the stairway and he stood there pointing at the wall. I looked to where he was pointing and saw one of the biggest, strangest bugs I've ever seen. It looked like it would have been the love child of a millepede and a daddy long legs. It looked huge and hairy - like the Chewbacca of bugs. In a word, we were terrified.

"Kill it." Dave said.

"What? No way! You kill it!"

"Come on! Kill it!"

"You're the man, you kill it."

"Fine, we'll both kill it."

So we tried to figure out to kill the beast. We knew that we may only have one shot, and if we failed it would attack us and quite possibly, kill us. We were thinking of using the slipper as our murder weapon, but the monster was a bit out of reach. We thought of the rubberband method, but we couldn't find any rubberbands. I then told Dave of a method that I used at home to kill millipedes and silverfish - 409 cleaner.

"What?"

"Yeah, I think the chemicals burn up their insides. It works for me."

"But that thing is a lot bigger than your average bug, Christine!"

"What other choice do we have?"

"Fine. You get the 409."

"Ok, but you're the first one to try it!"

So I got the 409. Dave dangled off the stairway and aimed it at the bug. He sprayed several times. The animal started scurrying. We both ran down the stairs screaming like little girls.

"It's on the move!" we cried to each other, waving our arms around and running in circles.

The 409 did nothing. Well it did something. It just made the supermillipede-beast angry. We had to try again. I was sure my idea of the 409 would work. I grabbed the 409 from Dave and ran up the stairs. I sprayed the bug, screaming as I did so. I followed the bug as it moved across the way, running down the stairs as I did so.

Nothing. Just a wet wall and an even wetter bug. I'm thinking that this 409 mutated bug was actually getting stronger and bigger as the night wore on. After a couple more failed attempts, the bug was within reach. I ran down and grabbed Dave's slipper. I measured the distance. If I missed this time the bug would be getting a lot more pissed that the repeated sprayings with 409.

I raised the slipper and hit it.

When I raised it again, there were only the furry legs left on the wall. The body was gone. The body was gone!!!

Then something fell from the slipper. The lifeless carcass of bug-beast.

I screamed, dropped the slipper, and ran down the stairs, leaving Dave for cleanup duty.

If we could have mounted the head of that thing on the wall we would have. We were the victors that night! Master hunters of the thousand legged beast!

Dave had a half day yesterday, since he was on call the day before. He stopped by his parents house to chill out and have lunch. When I came home, I started up dinner and we were talking. He then pulled out an envelope from his bag.

"Guess what my dad's manager found in his desk drawer," Dave said.

"Um, I dunno. What?" I replied, wondering why I would actually care what this guy found in his desk drawer.

Dave held up the envelope. "Our marriage certificate."

"Our what?"

"Our marraige certificate. Yours and mine." He put the envelope on the table. It was the envelope that was sent to me from the county, and inside, a copy of our marriage certificate. I had two made when we got married - the other copy was in my backpack, I never really wondered as to the whereabouts of the other copy.

"Are you serious?" I asked.

"Yes I'm serious. My dad's manager was cleaning out his desk, he found this envelope, and he asked my dad if this belonged to me."

"Really?"

"Really!" And although Dave's a pretty imaginative guy, THIS was a little too out there to be a practical joke.

"How the hell did it get there?"

"I have no idea! I was thinking that maybe you know!"

"No, I don't know! I didn't even know where this copy was. Maybe your dad accidentally brought it to work."

"But how did it get in his boss' office?"

"I have no idea!"

Which left us to ponder how it got there. But we had no good theories. Of course, if we were in TV Land, it would have been because I was having an affair with my father-in-law's manager, but come on, let's be realistic. I wouldn't leave behind evidence like that! Who would bring along their marraige certificate on an adulterous tryst?

The truth is something which is probably simple and innocent - the envelope may have gotten lost in some paperwork brought to the office by Dave's dad and then moved over to his boss' desk.

But that's pretty out there, don't you think?

When I was in Columbus, I saw that there was a sushi restaurant by my hotel. I haven't had sushi in months, so I thought about it all day, fantasizing about those tender, mouthwatering pieces of raw fish.

I got to the restaurant and was a little sad that the selection of different sushi and rolls. Nothing out of the ordinary. So I decided to go with a tempura dragon roll (shrimp tempura roll with eel on the outside) and a simple salmon roll. I put in my order (it was takeout), picked up a magazine from the rack and stood at the counter, flipping through the pages.

This guy comes into the sushi restaurant, and you could tell he was in a hurry. He looked at me and said, "Hey, there!". I responded with a meek, "Hi." Really wasn't in the mood for making new friends, but I wanted to be polite.

He picked up a takeout menu and looked through it quickly. He puts it down and looks at me.

I know what's coming. Do you?

So the guy turns to me and says, "Can I have a spicy salmon roll, a Philadelphia roll and a california roll? And make it to go."

I stared at him blankly and said, "Sorry, I don't work here."

The man then imploded into himself, totally embarrassed. "Oh my god, I'm so sorry! You were standing at the counter and I, uh..." and he stopped, realizing that if he said any more he would be digging himself even deeper into the hole he had created.

"It's ok, it's an easy mistake." I said, trying to calm him down. "The waitress is over there, but they're pretty busy tonight."

"Oh, ok." So he waited. And I waited. It was a bit uncomfortable and it was taking so long that I was about ready to take his order and bring it ot the sushi guys for him. Finally, he mumbled something about missing a ride and left.

Right after he left, a family came in. The looked at me. I smiled at them and pointed to the waitress, before anything was said. They then smiled at me and waited to be seated. Crisis averted.

Not to say that I wouldn't like to work at a sushi restaurant. But I think they'd fire me immediately after finding out that someone was eating all the eel and salmon sashimi.

Just wanted to share a series of emails with you with a completely random stranger...

#1

#2

#3

#4

Why do I feel like I just had a one night stand and woke up alone?

I feel like he just used me for my gmail invite.

Well actually, he did.

Hmph!

At least he said thank you...

This is one of the stories that I'm almost obligated to share, since if it was someone else I would have totally posted it here. So here's another one of those "Laugh at my expense!" moments, so enjoy it...

So I was watching "The Empire Strikes Back" the other day with Dave and his dad. It came to the part where they were in the cloud city and Lando Calrissian was showing them around.

"Who is that, he looks familiar", Dave's dad asked.

"That's Billy Dee Williams." I replied.

"Oh. What else has he been in?" he asked.

"I'm not really sure what movies, but he sang 'Ghostbusters'." I said.

And then Dave bust out laughing. "That was Ray Parker Jr.! That's not the same guy!"

I realized that yes, Ray Parker Jr. is the man who sings "Ghostbusters", not Billy Dee Williams. However, I thought really hard, but in my head, the image of the guy who sings "Ghostbusters" WAS Billy Dee. I had no recollection of what Ray Parker Jr. looked like. I know when I was a kid I watched that damn video a million times, but in my head, all these years, it's been Billy Dee. Of course, Dave was cracking jokes like, 'Christine, they don't look alike at all! How could you even confuse them? Just because they're two black men doesn't mean that they're the same person." Hmph!

So I looked them up, and you have to admit they look a bit alike, right?

Right?

_______________________

In other news, I didn't realize that the drive to Indianapolis from Chicago was so dark and full of construction. The ride wasn't too bad, but I felt like I was the fastest one out there - doesn't anyone drive fast anymore?

When I got to my hotel, I popped the trunk to get my suitcase out and rearrange some of my stuff. I looked at my hands and there was this mysterious greenish goo on my hands. WTF? Then I realized that a whole bottle of antifreeze spilled in the trunk, soaking everything in it - including my laptop case (luckily my laptop was in my backpack in the front sear) and my suitscase. Eeew. Does anyone know if that stuff is dangerous? I'm wondering, since I got it all over my hands. I don't want to have 3 armed kids with 4 nipples.

The other day I was helping out my coworker Sam with a client issue. I was leaning on the side of his desk and we were both looking at the monitor, and I was giving him some tips to use. All of the sudden, his computer turned off. We were both like, "What the hell! This sucks!" He's had some crazy problems with his computer, but this was the first time it shut off on its own. We looked for what caused it, and I realized that it was me. His desktop was right at the edge of his desk and my ass was right at the on/off button. So when I was leaning on his desk, I was actually leaning on the shutoff button. My ass has amazing powers!

Yeah, we got a good laugh out of that one!

Just wanted to share this email with you. There's nothing better than getting an email out of nowhere from an old friend, who, after having an experience, thinks of you as the person that they want to share that moment with.

Yes, I feel special. And you'll feel special, too, after reading this...

________________________

Yes, I LOVE my guy friends! They never cease to make me laugh!

I'm writing from my hotel in downtown Columbus, OH. It's a pretty nice downtown area here with some nice architecture. We're right by the river, too. What river? I have no idea.

I actually flew into Dayton, OH, because it was about $300 cheaper. It's only about 70 miles away, which is a commute I'm used to after working at Thousand Oaks all the time. The airport there was a lot larger that I thought it would be. As I was coming off my plane and heading towards the rental cars, I saw a mother and son standing by the windows, looking out. They were obviously waiting for a plane to come in. The mother was holding up a little doll, that was dressed up in military fatigues and a helmet. It was cute - it looked like a little cartoon. She pushed a button and it started dancing to Queen's "We Will Rock You" (kinda like those dancing Santas you see during Christmastime, but not as creepy) She held the doll against the glass as if he, too, was waiting for someone to land. I was pretty sure that they were waiting for someone from the military to come home from the war. As I got closer, I could see that she was wiping tears from her eyes.

"Mommy, don't cry. Daddy's coming soon! Why are you sad?" the little boy asked.

She put her hand on her shoulder and held back a sob and said, "I'm not crying because I'm sad, I'm crying because I'm so happy he's finally coming home!"

Just about made me want to start crying, too!

*sniff*

You may remember that one of my New Years resolutions was to learn one recipe a month. But I've been stuck in a rut of backed fish, hapburger helper and thai peanut noodles.

So I've been trying lately.

So the other day, I wanted to make a taco bar. Dave loves tacos. So I went to the grocery store, got some taco mix and the rest of the fixings. I knew I was only cooking for two, so I kept my portions of everything small. Got a pound of ground beef, grabbed a couple tomatoes, picked out a small head of lettuce, sour cream, taco cheese, etc.

Got home, started cooking everything up, diced the tomatoes and chopped up the lettuce. The lettuce didn't really feel leafy when I was chopping it up, the whole thing was pretty tough, but I attributed it to the fact that it was so small.

So when Dave got home he was pretty happy to see the taco bar I had set up. We started constructing our tacos, and he looked at the lettuce and said, 'Oh, we're using cabbage instead of lettuce?'

Then the light came on. I had accidentally grabbed a cabbage. DUH! No wonder it was so tought to chop up! Hey, it's not like I buy lettuce on a regular basis. We got a good laugh out of that one.

Seems like there are a lot of people interested in my LAPD in Hollywood story, so here it is...it's nothing TOO exciting...

Anyway, when I went to LA for Mo's grad party, me, Rod and Dan went to meet up with Brian, Jen and Mo at Miyagi's. We got there pretty late, but not late enough for me to get a triple Jack and Coke, which was served in this gigantic glass. Since I hadn't had much to eat that day, that was all I needed to get to drunken happyland.

The place closed at about 2:30am (as do most bars in LA), and I was pretty unused to bars that closed so early, and I felt like my night had just begun. So Rod decided to take us on a little sightseeing adventure. After getting our car, it was around 3am, and we went to Mann's Chinese Theater. It was pretty fun going there, and there was no one else around. If you look at my 'Vacations' pictures, you'll see that I wasn't below lying on the dirty, gross ground to take pictures.

We walked by the Sony Theater, which is next to Mann's, and saw that there were a bunch of people camping out. We asked the person in front and they said they were waiting for American Idol tickets. (This is the Kelly Clarkson year). With nothing better to do, I took out my camera, but it in movie mode, and proceeded to interview the different people in line, as well as take pictures with them. The were all enthusiastic, and I led them in chants proclaiming who they wanted to win.

As I was doing my interviews, a police car rolled up, and the cop opened his window and asked Dan what was going on. Feeling a need to get me involved, Dan asked me over and I went up to the squad car to explain. Of course, I really hadn't watched American Idol, so I had no idea what I was talking about. But I did get some of my new friends to bring up their boom box so they could play their American Idol CD for the cop.

I made some idle chit chat with the cop, and he had asked me if I had been drinking. Since alcohol acts as a truth serum to me, of course I said yes. Did I say yes? I think I said yes. Never did I think that there ever existed a public intoxication law. Fortunately, I think the cop was amused, and I wasn't causing a ruckus, so he humored me and kept on talking. That, or he was hitting on me. Anyway, him and his partner, (who I had addressed as "Officer #2") were pretty cool to talk to. They didn't seem to be in a hurry to go anywhere. They kept on asking for my name, which I didn't give to them, and Officer #2 (who was pretty cute) pulled out his handcuffs and said, "Oh, we have ways..." But I was oblivious to any trouble, and Dan and Rod were nearby anyway. Later on, the topic of kids came about, and I asked Officer #1 if he had any. He said yeah, then I asked him if he had a wife, and he said, 'No, but I'm looking for one..' I laughed, but the internal alarm started going off. Then he asked me if I wanted a ride. That was my cue to leave, so I said thanks, but no, my friends were getting antsy. Of course, Rod and Dan were very close by to intervene in case I DID get myself in trouble. But they found the whole situation humorous, and were rolling their eyes the whole time, and maybe a bit irritated that I was flirting with jailtime like this. So before they left, they asked if I wanted to hear the siren, and I said sure, so they turned on the lights and siren and sped off into the night.

So I said goodbye to the cop and his partner (who was also in the conversation). I asked them to turn on the sirens as the left, and they turned on the lights and the sirens and punched the gas as they sped away. Me and my Idol lovers all cheered.

The End.

So I'm in Pittsburgh right now. My flight left Long Beach at 10:20am, and our plane landed at 9:15pm Eastern time. That's technically about 11 hours of my life that have disappeared. Luckily for me, I checked out my intinerary before heading out, because I thought my flight was leaving from Los Angeles. It would have been a pretty funny story if I was looking for my Long Beach flight at LAX.

So when I'm on the plane, I realize that I had given Dave my driver's license to hold when we went to the Sunset Room, because my pants didn't have a pocket. And I forgot to ask for it back.

So when I went to the car rental place, and they asked for my drivers license, I gave them my state ID. And the guy said, 'I need your driver's license.' Then I sheepishly told him, 'Um, I forgot it at home.' Then Mr. Manager, who is standing within hearing distance, says, 'I'm sorry, but we need a valid driver's license.' I then told them that I have my driver's license number, but no go, they said that they wouldn't know if I had it revoked or something. No matter what I tried, I couldn't rent a car. Hmph.

So then I had to take the shuttle to my hotel, and I'm left to be taxiied around Pittsburgh.

Oh, and since I made my reservations last minute, there's only smoking rooms left. So it stanks in here. Stank-o-licious!

I don't know if this is representative of how exciting it is here in Pittsburgh, but one of the top news stories is how a duckling was bludgeoned to death by a 10 year old boy. Um...ok.

Sucks to be me. Argh!!!

This is pretty long...watch out!

Finally getting to posting up my Maui review. By now my 'Memento' memory has erased most of my memories (which is why I started this blog in the first place - so I remember things) but lucky for me, I jotted down some notes in the airplane. But I have to write this soon because Manny and Rachel are planning on going, and I promised Manny I'd tell him where to go...

So here's little snippets of what I remember, things that you should do and shouldn't do, etc.

Before we start, click here if you want to see the galleries. I just wanted to say that now in case you didn't make it to the end of my Hawaiian novel.

- When we first got there, it was raining. The locals said it was rare that it rained that hard for that length of time. We had planned on doing our snorkeling on the first day, but we were told that it's hard to do when it's raining and that we need wait a couple days for the water to clear up. So we had to rearrange our schedule.

- It's a plus to be Filipino. We got our parking for free after the old Filipino attendant asked us if we were Filipino. When I took out my money to pay, he just shook his head and pointed us to the door. Most of the locals we met there thought we were local, too.

- We went to a luau, I forgot which one, but since it was raining, it was indoors, so it felt more like a Hawaiian wedding than a luau. If you want to go to the most popular luau on Maui, the Old Lahaina luau, you'll need to make reservations before traveling there because spaces take taken up quickly. If I was going to go back to Maui, I think I'd rather check out the Feast at Lele, which is a more intimate luau, with food that represents the different islands of Polynesia. It's also a sit down dinner, rather than a buffet, like most luaus. But we had a great time at our luau, and the food was awesome, even though at the time I had given up beef and Dave was raving about how good it was. Oh, I remember now, it was at the Hyatt. I love me some kalua pork!

- Our breakfast of choice - the spam, egg and rice breakfast from McDonalds. Only in Hawaii can you get spam at Micky D's!

- Lahaina was a great place to shop and just check out the scene. We stopped by Whaler's Village, and ate at the Rusty Harpoon - their seared ahi wrap was delicious. Don't bother going to the museum, it's kinda boring. Though we did get a good laugh when we watched the whale movie, and the lady said that looking at a whale was like 'looking at the eyes of God'. Um, it's cool, but not THAT cool!

- Everyone told us to do the Road to Hana, and since it was raining, we thought we might as well do the trek, since we'd be going through the rain forest anyway. It was really beautiful, but I guess from the hype everyone was giving us we expected more. Due to the rains from the previous days, the waterfalls were in full effect, and the rainforest was lush and green. We did one of those mini-bus tours, and we had a fun bunch of people. Our tourguide, Wes, was awesome. He was this 40 something old surfer guy who had grown up on the north side of the island, and he had the best stories. He gave us a crash course in Hawaiian history, local legends, his own memories in different spots, and partying with celebs like Willie Armstrong and Steven Tyler. He was ultra cool. In any other environment I would have been intimidated by his coolness. He took us to his favorite spots along the way, and my favorite was this area right along the coast with hardened lava all over the place and a blowhole that let the water through. It was pretty and all you could hear was the waves crashing against the shore.

- We also stopped by the Seven Sacred Pools, which were beautiful. Since we were on a tour, we were crunched for time, so rather than explore the whole trail around the pools, me and Dave went to the bottom pool to swim for a bit. The bottom was uneven, and I don't know how to swim, so I never made it to the waterfall side. But it was a beautiful view. I only wish I got shots from the bridge that people jump from!

- Bring water socks, sometimes the beaches have rocks, and they could hurt your feet. You may also want to invest in some of your own snorkel gear, because there's some great snorkeling spots along the beach.

- Make sure to catch a sunset. There's a lot of places you can turn off the highway that have some spectacular views.

- We got up at 2:30 am to drive up to Haleakala crater, which took about 2 hours, which wasn't as long as we thought it would take. It was an windy way up the mountain in the dark, but lucky for us there was a full moon to guide our way. We wore long sleeves and brought our jackets, because we were forewarned that it would be chilly at the top of the crater. When we got there, there were about 4 or 5 other cars at the summit already. We got out of the car and IT WAS FREEZING! It was cold and the wind was howling. I was almost afraid to go to the observation area because I didn't want to blow off the mountain. We stood around for a bit and finally went back in the car to warm up and nap a little. By the time we decided to get out of the car, the parking lot was packed and there were tons of people there. Dave went into the observation room and I decided to brave the biting cold and wind outside so I could get better pictures. At around 5:30am, the sun started to rise. It was the most incredible thing. Being so high up on the mountain, we were above the clouds, so when the sun came up, it slowly painted the sea of clouds below it. When it finally broke through, the world around us was covered in this golden glow. It was really amazing to see. I must have taken a million pictures. We really were on top of the word. After that, we took a nap in the car and didn't end up waking up til 9. We toured around the crater after that, and it's pretty amazing. You feel like you're on another planet looking out into the red earth and the craters left by the extinct volcano. Not something you expect from Hawaii!

- Later that day, we went to Kamaole Beach I, II, and III. Not very imaginative names, but very good beaches!

- The next day, we checked out Big Beach and Wailea Beach. Dave wanted to find Little Beach, which was the topless beach, but unfortunately couldn't find it. I'd have to say my favorite was Wailea beach, because it wasn't too huge, but not too small.

- During our honeymoon, we did the most romantic thing possible - watched 'The Passion of Christ'. OK, I'm just kidding. But it was a bit weird, but we didn't have anything to do one night and saw a late showing of it at the theater. Great movie. Though I wouldn't suggest seeing it on your honeymoon.

- We went on a dolphin excursion, but unfortunately, it started to rain again and the prime snorkeling spot was pretty rocky, so we never did see our dolphins. (One day, dammit! One day I'll see one of you pesky little sea mammals!) We did get to do some snorkeling at Molokini crater, where the water was pretty clear, outside of some debris from the storm. Our captain told us there were many whales in the area. There was a little snorkeling fish class, where we swam (I had my little tube floaty and looked REALLY cool) with a marine biologist and she pointed fish out to us. That was neat, because most of the time you see the fish, but you have no idea what they are, or what they do. She told us that if we stick our heads underwater, we could hear the whales sing from far away. I went off on my own and put my head underwater, and I could hear them singing, very softly. That rocked.

- After that, we went snorkeling in Turtle Town, and I never thought the turtles would be so huge! One swam right by me. They are just the cutest things, and their swimming is just so effortless. One day I'll get my underwater camera developed.

- So there's this law that says that boats cannot sail to within 300 yards of a whale. If it happens that a whale should swim within that 300 yards (they stay underwater and sometimes pop up), then the boats must stop their motors and wait for a whale to pass. On our way back to the dock, we saw many whales in the distance, their dorsal fins in the water or breeching (launching their bodies out of the water and slapping back in). Our boat had a captain, co-captain and several marine biologists. We were sailing along then we saw this mother whale and her baby within that 300 yards. The captain turned off the motors, and we sat there and waited for them to pass by. The suddenly the crew started getting really excited. The mother and baby were going to pass right underneath the ship! Everyone was running around, pulling out their cameras, and the captain was ringing the bell. I never thought a whale could be so huge, but she was almost as big as our boat. So the two of them passed, and after, the little baby launched herself out of the water, learning how to breech. Soon after, mama whale showed baby how it was done and breeched out of the water as well. The whole crew was laughing and smiling and said that had never happened before. To me, it totally made up for not seeing the dolphins!

- My last day in town, I got a cold. I was all sniffles and sore throat. But all we had left was the whale watch. We already had whales the day before, and had debated on going since nothing could top our experience. But we paid for it, so went on the ship. So we got to the boat and headed out of the harbor, and we saw some whales on one side. We watched them and ohh'd and ahh'd. Then the captain exclaimed, 'There's one right on the side!'. We then had to stop the boat, since the whale had come in range. We were excited to see her come closer, and had our camera's ready to take pictures as she passed us. But she didn't. She came right up to our boat and stayed there. The guide theorized that the whale like the sound of the motor, or maybe was using our boat as a shield to get away from any whale suitors. Nonetheless, we were ecstatic. She stayed next to our boat and surfaced every now and then, blowing air out of her blowhole and wetting us, coming above water to take a peep at us, and just chillin on the side of the boat. It was so awesome I can't even put it into words. And the coolest thing is, we couldn't get away because she was by us. We had to wait it out until she got bored of us and went away. I guess this is called a 'whale mugging', where people on a boat are stuck with a whale until it goes away. But hey, we weren't complaining having our own personal whale to hang out with! She was gigantic, and I swear, she winked at me. Finally, an abandoned boat that was moored to the dock passed by us, and Whalea got confused and went and followed that boat. We started to sail away, but then she found us again. We stopped the motors. By this time I think she was tired of us, so she went away. But it was the BEST experience!

- Try the seared ahi tuna at The Lahaina Fish company. You don't even need a meal, just order two plates of those and you're to go!

When Marian and Shannon were here, we drove around a lot. On Friday, we headed out to a club, all dressed up. As we were driving out of my apartment complex, we saw something on the side of the street. A group of girls was heading towards us and pointing at the side of the street. It was a opossum, which had gotten hit by a car and was lying at the side of the road. There was an large amount of blood and it was a pretty grisly scene.

We had to maneuver around it and the girls on the street just stared at it pointing. We were thinking that the girls were debating on moving the carcass out of the way. There was nothing we could do so we left. After the club, we decided to stop by the apartment to get out cameras before heading out to Hollywood for some late night sightseeing.

As we came across where the possum was, we saw that it was moved to the other side of the street. The girls or the apartment security must have dragged or kicked the body to the other side, since there was a messy trail of blood across the street.

We got our stuff, then headed out again. As we were coming across the carcass once again, I thought I saw movement. I stopped the car so the possum was in my lights. Then we all started screaming, 'It's still alive!!!' The poor possum was trying to move, and the only thing it could do was open and close its mouth. It was like it was screaming and there was no sound coming out. We had no idea what to do. And we had figured that the possum had moved itself across the street, trying to find some shelter. We couldn't do anything for it, so we just left.

But I vowed that if we came back, and it was still alive, I would run over it and put it out of its misery. Of course, I wouldn't have had the guts to do that, but that's what I wanted to do. Fortunately, the possum was dead by the time we got back. No movement, no silent screaming, nothing. And the apartment security was kind enough to give the possum's final resting place some orange cones so no one ran over him.

So rest in peace, little possum. We only had moments together, but I'll make the sign of the cross in my head each time I pass.

And yes, Fatima, I think it's the very same possum you saw when you were here. I'm sorry for your loss.

Argh. I hate it when I'm grumpy.

Here's a story to lighten up the day.

Dave hates the shoes I wore for the wedding. Not my nice shoes that I wore for the ceremony, but the Sketchers I wore for the reception. They're the most comfy pair of shoes I've ever worn!

Since the wedding, I wear the shoes all the time, because I'm not just going to hide them away somewhere just because they have silver metallic streaks. And Dave hates them. He calls them my 'Wacky Shoes'. I never bother putting any of my shoes in the closet when I take them off, but my wacky shoes always mysteriously end up in there. The other shoes are left on the doormat. When I ask Dave how they get in the closet, he just says, 'I don't like them out in the open like that.' As if the wacky shoes would take a life of their own and attack him. So I've come to terms with it. The wacky shoes will be found in the closet.

So Fatima and Melanie were in town a couple weeks ago. We were all hanging out in the living room chatting and talking before going to the convention. Then we got up to leave, and Mel was like, 'Hey! Where are my shoes?' We looked around and couldn't find them. Then I came to a realization. 'Did you check in the closet?' So she opens the door, and there they are. 'I never put them in the closet, though.' And the thing is, her shoes look very similar to my wacky shoes.

We confronted Dave later. 'Did you put my wacky shoes into the closet today?' He nodded, knowing that he was saving the world by keeping my wacky shoes in the darkness. 'Those weren't mine! They were Melanies!' The look on his face was priceless as he apologized. We all got a good laugh out of it, and all the wacky shoes were free to be outside for that weekend.

Remember the drunk phonecall entry?

Well, that isn't the end of it!

I had talked to my sister when I was on the way to the airport in Atlanta, and she had said that there was a drunk call to the house the same night I got mine. Unfortunately, my dad answered, and he got pretty upset and hung up the phone. They called again and he let the answering machine take it. There's no caller ID at him, so he had no idea who it was, but suspected that it was Fatima's friends which he wasn't happy about.

So when I get back to Long Beach, I call my cousin's cell phone, and it's not in service. So I call his house, ready to scream into the phone, 'WHY ARE YOUR DRUNK FRIENDS CALLING ME!' But he wasn't home.

So later that night I get an IM from my cousin:

Him: Hey.
Me: WHY ARE YOUR DRUNK FRIENDS CALLING ME!
Him: Oh man, they called you too?
Me: Yeah, and they're freaky!
Him: No, they're not my friends. My phone got stolen!
Me: It did?
Him: Yeah. When I was at the poolhall. I guess those jerks called everyone on my phone list!
Me: Yeah! They called my house! And talked to my dad!
Him: Are you serious?!?!
Me: Yeah!
Him: Yeah, we were walking around, and my friend is like, 'Hey, your phone is calling me' and that's when I realized I didn't have my phone.
Me: That sucks!
Him: Yeah! I didn't know how bad it was til this morning when my brother was banging on the door, asking me if I got my phone stolen. I guess they called my house, too!
Me: They were funny at first, but then they got really jerky.
Him: I know. I've been getting a lot of angry phone calls from friends today. And the thing is, I had all my numbers in there, so I can't even call people to apologize!
Me: They probably called everyone on the list. They even made it seem like they knew you...
Him: Yeah...they told everyone I was too drunk to talk. I'm so angry!
Me: Oh well, nothing you can do now!
Him: Yeah. It sucks.
Me: Next time, watch your phone!!!

So it turns out, not only do I get drunk calls from friends and family, I get 'em from strangers, too!!!

Just got the most bizarre phone call at 2am on the East Coast.

Saw the number, and it was my cousin. Got a little worried to get a call from him so late at night.

Then I picked up the phone, and it wasn't him. Or at least I don't think it was. Whoever it was was pretty drunk. Yelling drunk. Laughing, giggling drunk. And they just started talking to me like they knew who I was, but I had no idea who I was talking to. Even when I asked, they were slurring so bad I couldn't understand. Then the phone was passed to someone else who wasn't my cousin, and they were babbling, too. Then passed to someone else. I got a pretty good laugh out of it, but then again, it was really weird. Here's some choice quotes:

- "Girl, girl, when you gonna hook up wit us? We're having a goooood time!" [sorry, can't. i'm in atlanta] "Atlanta? What da hell you doin' out dere?"
- "My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard, uh huh. uh huh. uh huh huh huh..."
-"We're so CRAZEEEEEE right now! Woman, come and party with us! Let's hang! Are we gonna hit it or what? I wanna be wit you!!!" [sorry dude, i'm married] "What? You're married, but you're not buried! AH-HAHAHAHAHAH!!!"
-"Where's your cousin? I dunno! He's around here somewhere! But he cares about him, baby. Let's talk you and me."
-"Sup girl. Mmm...you sound tasty. Yeah, baby, laugh for me again. Mmm...yeah...I like it like that. Oh...so good. Luagh again. Yeah, you know how to do me right. Ohh...oh...oh! Yeah...was it good for you, too?"
-"You don't know me? I know you. I seen yo' picture, girl! You got one hell of an ass on you!' [thanks, assmunch]

And I have NO idea who these people are. Maybe I do. But I can't figure it out by the slurring and yelling into the phone.

So this whole episode makes me ask myself, 'Why am I the person people call when they're drunk?' So many times I've gotten the drunken phone call, people who want me to go out, people who want me to help them sober up as their driving home, people who want to yell at me when they're in the car with other people, people who want to complain about their relationships, people who meet Leann Rimes, etc. Why me? Do they enter my name on their phone under 'CALL THIS NUMBER WHEN DRUNK'?

Though I'd be lying if I said that I didn't enjoy listening to all your drunk asses. It's hilarious. Though the voicemails from strippers I can do without, thank you very much.

Since I'm stuck in Texas on dial-up, the comic con pics will just have to wait. As will the 'con recap. But as I was typing it up on the plane, this one was pretty long, so I decided to break it off from the others...

___________________________________________________

OK, with the passing of time, I realize this isn't the story of stories. But it's a pretty good story still.

So we were wandering around the comic con looking for people to do sketches. As we're walking, we start to pass a group of guys. I feel that one of them is staring at me, and I look at him. He looks vaguely familiar. Then I realize it's Jason Mewes, who played Jay in 'Dogma', 'Mallrats' and 'Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back'. At first I didn't recognize him because he's a lot taller from what I remember, and his hair is cut short and he had a nice tan going on. So he's looking, and I'm looking, and he says slowly, 'Hello...' You know, that creepy 'Hello' that guys say sometimes. I'm a little stunned, but I manage to say a cool, 'Hello...' back to him. Then we pass. And as we pass, he says, 'Sexy! Sexxxy!' I don't remember hearing this, but Melanie and Fatima heard it clearly. Melanie didn't realize who he was when we passed. Fatima was looking at something else and just heard someone say, 'Sexy' our way. The first thought in her head was, 'Who the fuck would have the balls to say that outloud here?' Because, well, comic cons really aren't a place where guys go to pick up women, nor do you get the type of guys that have enough courage to pick up women. So we're still walking, and I whisper to them, 'That's Jay!' And the girls are like 'What?' 'That was Jay, from Jay and Silent Bob!' So then I stop and say, 'Hey! I should take a picture with him!' I mean, we already said hello, we're practically best friends now. Then they tell me that they heard him say, 'Sexy' as he passed, and Mel said it was the dirtiest 'Sexy' she had ever heard. I didn't recall hearing it, but I was in such a daze that I didn't hear much after 'Hello'. Yes. He had me at 'Hello'. Just kidding, Dave.

So I walk back, and he's at the View Askew Booth hanging out. He's surrounded by an agent and some security. But I didn't notice them. As I was approaching, Jason saw me and smiled. 'Hey, sexy!' he called. 'Can I have a picture with you?' I asked. 'Sure, anything for you.' So we stood and posed for a picture, and he was talking the whole time. He acted just like his character Jay, I guess playing the part wasn't too much of a stretch. But the whole time he was like, 'Damn, you're so sexy.' Then after the 3rd or 4th time he said that (or a variation of it) he said playfully, 'I'm just kidding with ya.' Then he went right back to macking. And after taking the picture, we chatted for a little. 'Damn, so you're into comics?' and I said yeah, and he was pretty surprised. 'Are you going to my thing later?' he asked (He had an autograph session). 'No, I don't know what's going on with that.' He looked at his handler and said, 'Hey, what's the deal with my thing later?', to which the handler replied, 'They handed out tickets this morning and there aren't any left'. So Jay half whispers to him, 'So, can we get these three girls in?' The handler smiled at him and said, 'Anything you want is fine with me.' So Jay turns to us and says, 'When I'm doing my signing thing, just come up to my man here and tell him, 'Sexy's here'. He'll let you in.' I said thanks, and since a crowd was starting to builld once people realized who he was, I decided it was my time to get out of there. I said bye, and he said, 'Later, sexy' and made one of the LL Cool J kissy faces.

I just laughed at the thought of going up to the handler later and saying, 'Sexy's here. He's expecting me.'

So later on, when it was his time slot, we went over to the signing area. There was a huge line there. I felt bad for thinking about cutting in line, so we didn't even try. That, and the signing started late because Jay was signing with Kevin Smith, who was running late. Everyone was pretty stressed. So me and my girls just hung out at the side of the signing area with the rest of the people who were taking pictures. So I'm clicking away. Then he looks up while he's signing, and he sees me. I wave hello, and he gives me the nod. I smile. Then he mouths, 'SE-XY' to me and does the kissy face again. I laugh and giggle. Then I realize that people in line are looking at me like, 'Who the fuck is she?!?' I then proceeded to make myself invisible. But I stayed to get a few more shots since the lighting was kinda whack there. Every once in a while he'd look over and make this really lustful look which would cause all of us to laugh. Me, Mel and Fata were talking about how he's a lot better looking in real life, especially with the tan and shorter hair. That, and it looks like he's been working on those arms. After being there for a few minutes, we had to go to watch a panel, so we got his attention and waved goodbye. He looked at us like, 'Huh? What? Where are you going?' And Fatima said, 'We're going to the Aspen Panel.' I then said, 'We'll see you tomorrow.' Then he slowly waved bye to us. Once again, I realized that everyone was watching again, so I made sure to get out of there quick.

So yeah. That's the story. I know you're all rolling your eyes out there. But seriously, it happened! Unfortunately, I never saw Jay again. It just wasn't meant to be. I had to leave Sunday to drop the girls off during the time when Jay was scheduled to appear. But I appreciate the moments we had together. :-P Really, though, I'm flattered. This also proves my suspicion that he checked me out during the Chicago con of '01 when I passed by him. I swear he said 'Hey' to me, but I didn't believe it and just kept on walking.

Yes. My head is blowing up. These strokes of ego are needed every now and then.

Am I a stalker? Yes. But he started it!

It's that way cool 'Cute but Psycho' bunny tee that Marilyn gave me that reeled him in. That shirt is HOT.

Is what I SHOULD have said today.

So I'm on a conference call with the president of our company, our sales person and a client. We're going over a statement of work for a site visit next week. It was pretty much, 'Here's what we need...' and the prez saying, 'We can do that...Yes, that can be done.' We were going over items on a document that they had sent us, and just going down the list with no problems.

I was paying attention. I swear. For the first 20 minutes at least. But really, no one was talking to me. I was just there as a backup. Then I lost my concentration. And all of the sudden I heard the Prez say, 'Yeah, we'll definitely look into that. Christine, test this out and we'll work on this later today, ok?'

'OK!' I say.

But I have no idea what he's talking about. No clue. Then there was another thing that he asked me the check into, later on. Which I heard.

So I checked on that second thing, still trying to figure out what the first thing was. I talked to Dan to test it out at the office and he got the same results that I did. I also tell Dan my predicament, and he laughs. I told him to tell the Prez about the results that he got. The Prez is appreciative, then tells Dan, 'Tell her to call me later and we'll work on the other thing.'

WHAT OTHER THING!

Argh. Wish me luck on my phone call!

I'll probably just have to suck it up and say that I have no idea what he wanted me to look into. *sigh*

And some good news...Fata and Melanie are coming into town tomorrow! It will be so awesome to see people from home!

Update: Called. Left voicemail. *whew*

Here I am, sitting in my luxurious hotel - the Comfort Inn. *sigh*

I didn't really think about it this morning when I left for the airport that it was a holiday. But nonetheless, I left early so I'd get there 2 hours before my flight. There wasn't much traffic at 5:30am, so I made some really good time. Parked my car in the lot and took a shuttle to the airport. Then I saw the lines for check-in, which were out the door. And I realized, not only was it a holiday weekend (not for me!) but the All-Star game was that weekend as well, and a LOT of people flew in for it!

Didn't see any recognizable basketball stars there (though there was an increase of tall people there), but I don't think I've seen so much NBA paraphenalia in all my life. People had jackets, jerseys, bags...all sorts of teams. And the bling! Some of these guys had chains bigger than me! Have fun going through security with that! Saw a couple people who obviously worked for the NBA, since they had NBA business cards for their luggage tags. This one woman who was in the WNBA had this sweet matching set of Louis Vuitton luggage. Nice life!

The line took FOREVER, and that was just the e-ticket line. By the time I was done with my e-ticket stuff, it was only an hour before my flight. While I was waiting in line, I watched the security line, which wrapped around the top floor. It was a madhouse in there! I looked at my watch, and hoped that I would get through security in time. As I was stepping to the line, an airline attendant came up to me and asked what time my flight was. She then directed me to a shuttle bus outside.

I got in, and there were other passengers in there that were as bewildered as I was. We didn't know why were were directed to this shuttle. Then a man came in and said that the line for security was more than an hour long, and that about 15 people an hour were missing their flights because of the security line. They were going to send us off to the international terminal to do security then shuttle us straight to our gates.

So we zoomed to the gate in our pretty shuttle, then went straight through security since there were only a couple international flights leaving, then hopped back on the shuttle. Then they brought us right to the gates, and we showed them our ticket and ID and went right into the gate area. Total time: 15 minutes. How lucky am I?

Well, not that lucky. My connecting flight in San Francisco, which was set for 2 1/2 hours after I landed was delayed because of rain, so I sat in the airport for about 3 1/2 hours picking my nose.

But finally I landed in St. Louis, got my rental car (which was upgraded to a Blazer because I came so late because they had nothing else) and drove to my hotel in O'Fallon, MO. When I asked the guy at the counter for directions to O'Fallon, he said, 'Missouri or Illinois'? What an odd question. Missouri, of course. Because my client is right outside of St. Louis, MO.

I look on the map, and see that O'Fallon, IL isn't too far from St. Louis, about 25 miles. O'Fallon, MO the same distance, but in the opposite direction. Hmm. Interesting.

I drive over to my hotel, check in, and ask the front desk how far my client is from the site (my client is the one who suggested the hotel, because it's close) and she was embarrassed to say she didn't know. Must be new.

I get in, switch on the TV, and start working on stuff for tomorrow. Then I remember that I need to check the email that my client wrote with the directions to the site. I'm looking at them, and they just don't make sense.

Then I realize.

I'm in the wrong O'Fallon.

How was I supposed to know I was supposed to be in Illinois? No one told me that!!! And who knew that O'Fallon, Illinois also has a Comfort Inn?

So I scramble to change my reservation, and the girl at the front desk says it's not a problem, I can check out. But I remember that I made my reservation through Travelocity, and sometimes they pre-charge it. I call Travelocity, and there's nothing they can do. I've checked in already. She says I need to call the manager of the hotel.

So I call the front desk, and of course, there's no manager on duty. But this is a different guy, and he says he'll check into it. It's been an hour. Haven't heard from him yet.

So right now, I don't know what to do. Keep on trying to fix this mess and get my ass to the Comfort Inn in Illinois, or just suck it up and drive more than an hour to my client's site. The St. Louis morning rush hour is a big unknown to me.

I think I'll keep on trying.

Argh!

I hate traveling for work!!!

If you've seen a movie in the theaters lately, you may have seen my latest favorite commercial - Coca Cola's Delux_247. That ad just cracks me up. I was talking like him all during break. I think I was pretty much driving everyone crazy when I kept on telling to call me Delux.

So on New Year's Eve, unable to sleep, me, Marlon, Marian, Claudine and Marilyn started playing a game of Spoons. The object of Spoons is to get four of a kind in your hand. Once you get four of a kind, reach into the middle of the circle and grab a spoon. There is one less spoon than people playing, so once you see someone grab a spoon, grab one too, because the person left without one gets a letter - first S, then P and so on. So I guess the ultimate object of the game is not to be the one without a spoon. We haven't played the game ever since we were little kids, maybe because of some spoon related injury since we tend to get a little rowdy and violent when we play.

We let our little cousin Enzo play for a bit, but he just couldn't hang and he stopped playing midgame. The playing was close at the beginning, but then Marilyn started to lose really bad - she was just concentrating too intently on her cards she didn't notice that all the spoons were gone. And the way we play it, is that the person who ultimately spells SPOONS has to do a dare. We thought of some pretty gross ones, like she had to smell all our socks or wear her clothes backwards around the house.

But once she lost, we thought of the ultimate embarrassment. Our task for her was to go up to 3 aunts and one uncle of our choice and say to them, 'What's my name?' and when they said 'Marilyn' for her to snap back, 'It's DELUX, son! It ain't that hard!'

Of course, they would have no idea what she was talking about and think her to be crazy. Which is just how we liked it.

So like a gang of 7 year olds, the rest of us huddled together laughing and giggling behind Marilyn, who did NOT want to be humiliated like that. Of course, we chose my father first. So she went up to him, and asked 'What's my name?' And my dad already had the 'Are you crazy?' look on his face. 'You're name is Marilyn,' he replied. Marilyn, laughing the whole time, spits back, 'No! It's Delux, son! It ain't that hard!'

And runs away.

And my father looks at the place where she was standing, shakes his head, and walks back to the couch to watch the football game.

We only made Marilyn do it one more time, partly because we could tell she was dying, partly because she just got a blank stare from the aunt she did it to, and partly because we were laughing so hard we couldn't breathe.

Ohh....the cousins are a loveable bunch, but damn, are we cruel to one another, too!!!!

I know a lot of this isn't going to make sense, or may be inside jokes, but hell, it's my blog, so I'll put in what I want! It's really long, so if you don't get bored after the first few paragraphs, feel free to continue by clicking on the link below. Without further adieu, here it is:

- I flew in and my plane got in late at night. Our shuttle also had a pick up for the flight after mine, so we waited. While we waited, our driver told us his life story and we gave him some consolation about his upcoming divorce, and he gave us some advice about marriage.

- Unfortunately, the flight after us was WAY delayed. But you know what totally made up for it? It was Yang Yang A we were waiting for. I was giddy like a little schoolgirl. She was very nice, and amazingly beautiful. Those helmets don't do her justice at all.

- Friday morning, me and my roomie Bernadette went to breakfast with Noelle, Corin, Torrie, Denise and Susan at Tommy's. We had a lot of good laughs, and we were really excited about the upcoming races. I don't know if it was senior citizen's day at Tommy's or what, but the average age in there was about 70. I think we were the only ones there outside of Butta and Tysha who DIDN'T get the discount.

- I love our little short track family. Coming to these things is like a mix between going to Thanksgiving Dinner at grandma's, going to your 10 year high school reunion, and spending quality time with your teenage cousin. There are so many different kinds of fans out there, from different backgrounds, from different locations, each with a different reason why they came to Marquette, whether it be because of a love of short track, or of one particular skater, or just to come out and see the circus that is short track fandom. We all came, we had a good time. True, it wasn't one big group of fans that hung out together all the time, and I would be lying if I said everyone gets along. Because they don't. Too many different and strong personalities. But everyone was happy with their own group, and there's a single purpose that brought everyone together, and that's good enough, because it looks like everyone had a great and memorable time. And nothing could beat the enthusiasm that each one brought to Marquette. We were crazy fans, and we loved it. It was truly wonderful to see everyone again, whether I talked to them or not. I apologize if I didn't, but most of the time the time didn't feel right, or I was just too shy to approach people to talk, just as people were too shy to come up to me I later found out. I just hid behind my camera most of the time. Or my laptop. But to those of you who did say hello, thank you. It was great to finally meet Monique, Tysha, Lucinda, Sue and Jill for the first time. And I can't tell you how much it meant to me to have people ask about my mother and how she was doing. Probably the top two questions people were asking were 'How's your mom doing?' and 'So how's married life?' Sooz even went so far as to tell me to come to the next competition with a little one in the oven. We're working on it, Sooz.


- There was some AMAZING racing in Marquette. The Koreans were definitely a force to be reckoned with. Ahn and Choi seemed almost unstoppable (almost). And I had never thought that the ice in Marquette was known to be particularly fast, but there were a couple records broken - the top 4 finishers in the 1500m all beat the world record. When I heard that Korea, China, Italy, Canada, and Japan were all going to be in attendance in Marquette, I knew we'd have some good races. I was a little concerned for the US team, since all the major players would be there, so it would be a lot harder than SLC, but we did well enough to have Apolo and Rusty in the 3000m. And both of them did extremely well. The 1000m final was great to watch - when Apolo and Rusty came in and broke up the Korean chain the crowd was roaring. The 3000m was an excellent race, as well, with two Koreans, two Canadians and two Americans. But probably the most exciting was the men's relay final, with Korea, Japan, Canada and China. All the teams were close throughout the whole 45 laps, and it was a clean race, with no DQ's and no falls. Watching Korea and Canada switch leads in the last laps had the crowd screaming and biting it's nails.

- Some people may say I got a media pass so I could get kickass seats. Or so I could be closer to cute guys in skinsuits. Or have an excuse to talk to a cute guy in a skinsuit. Or so I can sit in on the press conferences. Or because I needed the internet connection. But the truth is, I got the media pass for the free food. Those Bavarian crème chocolate éclairs were to DIE for! I ate half the box, and took a couple home with me.

- Even though the media was comprised of mostly fans, there were a couple media people there that were, uh, actual media people. During the 1000m races, I sat on the media side of the arena to get some better pictures of the start line. Me and the rest of the gals in that area were playing a little game of musical chairs, trying to get the best seat without any obstruction from the block chasers. There was a point where the only seat left was next to this localphotographer/reporter, and we had a little exchange:

Me: Um, is this seat taken?
Dude: Yes it is, by you!
Me: Well, thank you!
Dude: Just don't tell my wife.
Me: It will be our little secret.
Dude: (staring at my chest, but in reality, trying to read my credential, or maybe not) What media group are you with?
Me: (showing him my creds) I'm with rustysmith.com
Him: Oh, I see. Are you his wife?
Me: (busts out laughing, then stops) HA! Uh, no. I work on his website. I have a husband. But it isn't Rusty.
Him: Oh. So do you come to these things often?
Me: About once a year or so. It's a lot of fun, isn't it?
Him: Oh yeah. It's really cool to see. You know, there's a lot of cute Asian girls skating.
Me: Uh, yeah, there are, I guess.
Him: I love to watch them.
Me: (internal alarm starts) Yeah, well, I think I forgot something in the media room. I'll see ya later.
Him: OK, I'll keep this seat open for ya.
Me: Uh, thanks...

- Thanks so much to Denise for driving me around. She is the coolest chick around. And I'm not saying that because I think she might have mafia connections. Or because Rusty Smith gave her his supersized check from the banquet. She's just the best.

- We came in late to the banquet, which is typical of me. Always late for everything. It was the first time I've ever gone to one of these things, and when we came in late, I felt like all eyes were on us crying 'Shame! Shame on you for being late!' I don't know what I was expecting, but it wasn't as exciting as I thought it would be. It was pretty cool to be sitting with the Finish Lynx guys and between the Canadian team and the Korean team. Seeing the skaters outside of their skinsuits and helmets was an eye opener. The helmets do the women no justice. The Canadian women were gorgeous, as were the Italians. The food was excellent, and I was Susan's drink orderer for the night, and I didn't disappoint. It was cool to see the awards given out. When the Koreans were called up, they were so cute because they did this little run up to the stage. Those Koreans, always on the move. When Apolo's name was called, there was this huge roar of applause, and we heard one of the Canadians exclaim 'Ohno! It's getting hot in here!' Which made us all laugh, because he was referring to a sign that Lupe was carrying which was featured on the front page of the local paper. There was this huge rush of people that went to the stage to take pictures. I took a picture of it, but it didn't turn out too well. After that, it was people milling around, finding skaters to take pictures with, chatting with different people, and Apolo constantly had a good sized mob of people with him. I basically took pictures of people with other people for them. The camera gal. I got to talk to Rusty a little, and got our traditional picture taken together. I did manage to see Apolo for a split second as he was trying to leave, and I made eye contact and did the 'nod' of acknowledgement, but then he was swept up with other fans so that was that. I pretty much went through the banquet in a daze. Too much to watch, too much sensory overload.

- I didn't get to see much of Corin and Torrie of World Short Track in SLC, but I got to spend a lot more time with them in Marquette. Outside of the arena, they are just about the cutest couple ever. It's great to see them interact, and they are such great people. And they love and know the sport so well, it's great to talk to them about it. I know a good amount about the US skaters but not tons about other skaters. But Corin and Torrie were glad to educate me! Every once in a while, it's nice to take a break from talking about the skinsuits and ass and talk about the actual sport. Even outside of the arena, Corin was all business when he saw skaters, chatting up skaters left and right. All WST, all the time.

- Guinness, lemon drops, jack and cokes, pucker shots, kahlua and cokes, jager bombs, vodka tonics, car bombs. All the right ingredients for a fun night. From what I remember. Which isn't much. But I do remember helping out the owners of the bar, who were taking the place of their bartender. I gave them the recipes for drinks and educated them in the finer points of making drinks and mixing shots. I also learned that a drink called Bomba is the perfect replacement when you run out of Red Bull.

- My favorite media person was a Korean girl named Choi. Not the skater. The girl who had her head stuck in a notebook for the whole competition who would growl and snap at you if you interrupted her during the races. She was one of the hardest working media people I saw. Not the best pool player, but a pretty good reporter.

- I have to remember that my actions may be misinterpreted by people from another country. I had videotaped a couple of the races while I was in the media section. Behind the media section was the area where a lot of the athletes sat in between races. As I was reviewing my tape on my viewer screen, I could feel the eyes of the Bulgarian team (who were sitting behind me) watching my tape, too. I turned around, gave them a serious look, then pretended to hide my viewer from their line of sight. I laughed then smiled at them and gave them a better view. But they weren't smiling. I don't think they got the joke.

- A big thank you to the Japanese lady who taught me how to say 'Smile with your teeth' in Japanese ("walla te"?). I never got to use the line on Satoru Terao because I didn't see him at the banquet, but it's good to know for future reference!

- Sometimes I felt like I was still at work. I fixed the copier in the media room, helping with other people's computer problems, and taught people how to use their cameras. A consultant's work is never done.

- One of my favorite images from Marquette was seeing Susan's Fabio Carta sign amidst all the OZ gals. It was so big she was hidden behind it when she held it up. Fabio was the best. He came and sat behind us during the men's relay heats, and was giving us information on the relay. It was so cool to have him there, and I laughed because every time the Italian men would have a bad pass, or when they would be passed up, he would exclaim, 'Uh oh!' to himself. He definitely made himself a lot of fans that weekend by being so friendly, personable and photogenic!

- Kimo is like Santa at these things. He's always got something up his sleeve or a little something to give away. And he never fails to crack everyone up! Ghetto Santa and sweet, pretty Jan, holding up her 'Apolo we had dinner with you' sign. Must have been a bitch to bring on the plane!

-I actually got a chance to talk to Hyun-Soo Ahn. Well, kinda. There was a bit of a language barrier. After he won the 1500m, he came into the press room, and Apolo wasn't there and Turcotte was being interviewed by the local press. Ahn was looking around like he needed help, and since I guess I was the only Asian there, he came up to me. Since my Korean is pretty rusty, well, ok, non-existent, it was hard for me to understand him. At first I thought he didn't know where the locker room was. But then I realized that he was going to go back to the locker room. I told him that it was all right (as if I had some authority!) but made it a point to tell him that he HAD to come back. He never did. But then again, he probably had NO idea what I was saying or why this strange Asian girl was making these weird bird-like hand gestures. While we're on the subject, Ahn has REALLY grown up. He's taller and he even colored his hair. We were joking around during dinner that I'd start a site for him: www.LetsGetItAhn.com.

- One of the most memorable things about Marquette for me was the people of Marquette. They just embraced the sport and all the athletes. They just weren't cheering for the US team, they were cheering for everyone. All the local people I talked to had such a hunger for knowledge about the sport, it was incredible. For most of the races I sat in front of this father and son who were new to the sport. Every now and then we would answer their questions about the sport, and Corin even gave them his worldshorttrack.com business card to check out the site. The next day, they had visited the site, printed out the helmet sheets and everything. On the first day, the son seemed pretty lukewarm to short track, when I turned around and said, 'Short track is really cool, you'll see,' he gave me this, 'yeah right' look, since he was a hockey player. By the last day, he couldn't get enough of it. The whole town of Marquette was hyped up about the World Cup. From all the posters in the airport by school children welcoming each of the countries to the cut out skates adorning the light posts in downtown Marquette, I don't think there was anyone in Marquette that didn't know the World Cup would be there. And who knew that clowns, swing bands, and a wildcat mascot would add so much to the festive atmosphere? Me and Corin did some swing dancing on the side, but it didn't catch on...but it was a lot of fun!

- I didn't take any pictures with any of the skaters other than Rusty, mostly because I was too shy to ask, and it just seemed like they had a lot of people taking pics with them as it was. I was happy with just watching other people take pictures with them. But the one person that I KNEW I had to get a picture taken with was someone that I had seen around the rink throughout the competition. Someone who had caught my attention, who had that certain je nais se quois. A fire in his eye, the agility with which he moved, his smile, his attention to style, something about him drew me like a moth to the flame. He was the NMU Wildcat. Holy hotness, Batman!

- I need to start a petition. A petition to make it mandatory that all ice arenas serve churros at their food stands. There wasn't a churro to be found in Marquette!

- One of my favorite moments during the women's relay was at the end, when Caroline Hallisey was helping Maria Garcia skate off the ice. Maria had suffered a concussion earlier in the day, but the women needed to do the relay to get points so they could do it at the Worlds. I think Maria may have skated a couple laps, but the rest of the girls covered for her for the rest of the race. Afterwards, Caroline linked her arm with Maria's and gently skated with her off the ice. It was really touching to see.

- Phone service in Marquette sucks for Sprint users. I was roaming the whole time and didn't realize that my phone rang 5 times during breakfast - I thought the ring belonged to someone else. Roaming sucks! I'm scared to look at my phone bill. I got and received a lot of calls that weekend, some having to do with work, or when trying to coordinate a meeting time, or searching for lost friends who come in 2 hours late to the competition. You know who you are.

- I got a lot of exercise in Marquette, mainly because my seat was all the way on the other side of the rink from where the media room was. And the media room was down a set of stairs. And my seat was down a set of stairs. There was a lot of running around in-between races to upload pictures in the media room then back to my seat to catch the races. Fortunately, years of working in downtown Chicago has taught me the long lost art of people dodging.

- It was great to hear Andy Gabel call the races. The energy and excitement in his voice was really infectious. You could tell that he was just as excited about the awesome racing that was going on as the crowd was. He also made sure to add in little tidbits about the sport, like strategy in races, when the skaters start speeding up in a race, etc. He did an excellent job!

- Apolo was definitely a favorite for the weekend, and everyone in a way expected him to do well. It's a lot of pressure, but I think he handled it really well. The Koreans were definitely strong throughout the whole competition. Apolo got third in the 1500m, which was great, but there was nothing better when he came first at the finish line in the 500m final. He knew he had it, pumped his fist in the air and went around joyously for his traditional hi-5 around the rink. The applause and cheering was deafening, the crowd was out of their seats, and the smile on Apolo's face was a mile wide.

- In Marquette, it was easier to figure out who DIDN'T have a press pass than who DID. I swear, it seemed like everyone was in the media room the last day. Between rustysmith.com, ohnozone, fabiocarta.com, usspeedskatingfans, world short track, ohnovelocity, apolo anton ohno portal, speedreading, and so on and so on, there were a lot of media/fans in the room. I almost felt like I was at an Apolo signing. It's truly showing the speedskating community how dedicated the fans are to supporting the sport and covering the sport for other fans, since there isn't a lot of regular media attention to it (like NBC or ESPN). And it also shows that the number one source that fans use to get information on competitions is on the internet. On the down side, in a way, is that I don't know if press passes were given out liberally, but it seems like anyone and their mom can make up a website and get a press pass. Is that a good thing? I dunno. Hopefully press passes aren't limited to websites in the future!

- On a similar note, I had my 14 minutes of fame when I got interviewed for the local paper. It was so weird to see 'Christine Estacio' in print, but it was really cool, too. Basically the article had to do with what I stated above - how the internet community gets its short track information through fan sites and official fan site, mostly from reports from competitions given by other fans. The interview covered a lot more than what was in the article, but I was honored just to have my name in print.

So yeah, all in all, I had a great and memorable time. There's a whole bunch of memories that will never see the light of this blog, mostly because I don't remember them. But as much as this short track world can be stressing, Marquette showed that it could be wonderful, as well.

So I'm back in Thousand Oaks, experiencing yet another different hotel. I give this one a 3 out of 5 stars. To me, a hotel where you open your door and you're outside is a MOTEL. This place's only saving grace is the wireless internet. I don't know if I'll stay here next week while I'm out here.

So I've been gone so long from Company X that my ID no longer worked on the doors. It turns out that my background check was never sent in by my office. Maybe they found out about all my unpaid parking tickets, or my time in a Turkish prison. But luckily, I got it straightened out (with a nice, hefty bribe...j/k) and I was able to get in.

Did I tell you that Dave's parents are in town? Well, his dad is staying over at our place and his mom is staying at her brother's. Since I used the car this morning, and Dave used the car, there was no car for Dave's dad to use. So he just stayed at our apartment. All day. With nothing to do.

So what does he do to pass the time?

My laundry! I was only home for a couple hours yesterday, and I had to leave for Thousand Oaks this morning, so I didn't get a chance to do it. So since he had nothing to do, he decided to do my laundry. Now, it's not that I don't appreciate it, but the thought of my father in law folding my underwear really freaks me out. I mean, he's touching my underwear!

*freaks out*

Whew.

Well, it was a really nice of him to do...that leaves me with two hours free this weekend!

Convo I had in the parking lot of the El Torito Restaurante:

Me: Wow, I'm so full!
Father-In-Law: Are you pregnant yet?
Me: Uh...no...
Father-In-Law: When will you be?
Me: Uh....I dunno...

This is one of those not-so rare Christine-get-your-head-outta-your-ass moments. Enjoy at my expense.

So I'm at the Buffalo airport, waiting for my flight...I get there about an hour and 15 minutes early, so I decide to power up the laptop and work on some Marquette pics, and chat it up with a friend. So there I am, clicking around in Photoshop and yap yap yapping away like a chihuahua on speed. Then all of the sudden, I hear something on the airport intercom. It sounds like my name. I say on the phone, "hold on..." and I listen...

"Last call for passenger Christine Estacio for flight 152 to Pittsburgh. Christine Estacio, please come to gate 28."

Oh shit. I'm AT gate 28 and I had entered some sort of time warp where I had been talking on the phone for 1 hour and 5 minutes. The whole fucking plane had boarded already. I snapped my phone shut, yanked the laptop cord out of the socket, grab may jacket, purse and laptop case, snap shut my laptop and gather the cord around me and look up at the gate. It's empty, except for the airline workers, who look at me, and know that I am the Christine Estacio they have desperately been searching for. I run to the gate, which isn't very fast because my power cord is still dragging behind me and I haven't even bothered to put my laptop back in its case.

I run up to the woman taking the tickets and say, 'I'm so sorry!' and she looks at me with scolding eyes and says, 'Honey, they're all waiting for you!'

I hang my head down in shame as I run out of the gate.

And just my luck, I have to board outside. The guy at the door says, 'The plane is on the left.' I nod and run out, and, hey, there's 2 planes on my left, buddy! I'm so frazzled, I pick one. I run up the stairs into the plane, and realize that I threw my ticket in my bag somewhere and I have no idea what my seat is. So I just pick one. And I sit down, still with all my shit in my arms. I finally get my stuff packed away and under the chair in front of me when a thought comes to me. What if I'm on the wrong plane? There were TWO planes on the left, and it's not like when I got on the plane they told me where I was going. So I'm sitting there in a panic.

The flight attendants make an announcement about the flight, but at that very moment, the lady sitting next to me decides to start conversation, so I don't get to hear the end of the sentence, "It will be an hour and 5 minutes to -" Where, dammit?!? Where the hell am I going!?!?!

But as you can probably guess, since I'm writing here in my blog, that it was the right flight to Pittsburgh. And when I got there and went to my gate for LA, I made sure to stay off the phone. Except to call back my friend. Because I realized that I just shut off my phone, without saying "Goodbye". So I called back to let my friend know that, yes, I'm still alive. Wasn't knocked unconscious, or kidnapped by midgets wearing Elvis costumes, or *gasp* miss my flight because I was on the phone. But I kept the convo nice and short.

No more phone calls to pass the time at the airport!!!

[Updated: Thanks to Noelle for bringing back a painful memory from my trip TO Buffalo. Yes. I admit it. I should have learned my lesson when I was on the phone waiting for my 10:10pm flight TO Buffalo. There I was, chatting on the phone, and I looked at my watch and it was 10:15. I turned around, saw that the door to the gate was closed, and the monitors no longer had Buffalo on them. I ran to the main desk, cried 'Can I still get on the plane?' The lady looked at me and calmly said, 'Yes.' I looked at the closed door, then at her, pleading with my eyes for her to open it. Then she said, 'We haven't boarded it yet. We're running a little late.'

Phew!]

After getting home one day from the hospital, Claudine called her boyfriend while I watched the Cubs and checked my email. Here's a bit of the conversation:

Dan: How was your day today?
Claudine: It was okay, we were at the hospital all day.
Dan: Aww. Is everything ok?
Claudine: Yeah, I guess, it's getting better.
Ask her if she saved you any pizza.
Dan: Did you save me any pizza?
Claudine: Well, my dad has the leftovers...wait, how did you know about the pizza?
Dan: I just know.
Claudine: My aunt brought it over in the afternoon.
Ask if she at least saved you any of the raspberry slushie.
Dan: Howabout the raspberry slushie? Did you save that?
Claudine: What? Did you talk to Christine?
Dan: No, not since work.

Claudine turns to me. I'm yelling at the Cub's pitcher on TV.
"Did you talk to Dan?" she asks.
"At work. Why?" I answer.
"He knows about the pizza."
"What about the pizza?" I ask.
"That we had it."
I look at her quizzically, shrug my shoulders, then go back to the game.

Claudine: Come on Dan, did you go to the hospital after we left?
Dan: No, I've been home.
Tell her to pick up Ewok's bone, he dropped it.
Dan: Pick up Ewok's bone.
Claudine: (picking up the bone) Huh? How did you.....
Dan: I heard it drop on the floor.
Claudine: Oh.
Ewok dropped it again. Put it on the couch to make sure he doesn't drop it again.
Dan: He dropped it again. Why don't you place it on the couch so that he doesn't drop it again.
Claudine: (picking up the bone and looking out the window) Dan! How do you know this?
He's growling at her.
Dan: Now you've made him angry!
Claudine: Dan, how are you doing this? Are you outside?
Dan: No, I'm home. Look at your caller ID.
Tell her to put her feet down from the table.
Dan: ...and take your feet off the table, you look like a slob!

Claudine jumps up and stares at her caller ID. It's Dan's number. She looks at me. I'm concentrating on the game, the Cubs are losing. She looks out the window.

Claudine: Dan!!! You're freaking me out! I haven't had much sleep, I'm stressed out, I'm irritable and I'm not in the mood for this!
Tell her to sit down
Dan: Why don't you sit and calm down a bit?
Claudine: Dan, quit it!

She sits down. She looks at me. She looks at my computer. Unfortunately, I'm in mid-type, and on my screen, she sees an open AIM window:
MissYano: Ask her if she saved you any pizza.
MissYano: Ask if she at least saved you any of the raspberry slushie.
MissYano: Tell her to pick up Ewok's bone, he dropped it.
MissYano: Ewok dropped it again. Put it on the couch to make sure he doesn't drop it again.
MissYano: He's growling at her.
MissYano: Tell her to put her feet down from the table.
MissYano: Tell her to sit down.

She looks at me. I have a guilty grin on my face. I type in one more phrase:

MissYano: We've been discovered!!!

Claudine looks at her phone:

Claudine: Dan!!! I hate you guys! You're so mean to me!

Ahh....it's the little things that entertain me...

Well, I'll wait til I get more pics from friends before I put up my wedding gallery. For now, I'll post up all of my Wizard World pics, which I took last August. If you've forgotten my experience, you can live it in my "Adventures of a Comic Book Booth Bitch" post. One thing about that post: You never know who's reading the stuff you post on your site, so beware!!! It's all good, I meant every word of it, and I had a terrific time.

Yano's Wizard World Chicago Gallery

Thanks to everyone who mailed me suggestions about galleries to use. It seemed like there was some sort of consensus on "Gallery" being the best one out there. However, since I like making things difficult for myself, and I'm just stubborn about the design I want, I'm going with a different kind of format. I had always loved the way that Mona had her picture gallery formatted, so, well, I just stole the design. OK, I asked Raven to help me out with it, which he happily did. I know I'm making more work for myself, but I like the control I have with this gallery. So thanks to Mona for using the format that I've always wanted, and to Raven for designing it. Now if only I could get my pictures as good as Mona's!

Anyway, tell me what you think of the new gallery. I still need to iron out a couple things, but I really like it, and I'll probably convery the rest of my pictures to this format.

I haven't told a story here in a while...

We had a lot of relatives come into town for the wedding. One of these relatives was Dave's grandmother. In Tagalog, 'grandmother' is 'lola', so that's what I'll use, since it's less letters.

Anyway, we're hanging around Dave's house and chatting with Lola and Dave's aunt and uncle from the Philippines. Dave's aunt asks if I've met their daughter Cathy, who now lives in California. I said yes, I had first met her several years ago when she had come to Chicago to visit from the Philippines.

Then Dave's lola says, "Oh, I know about Cathy's visit to Chicago! You made her drive you all home when you all got drunk!!!"

I look at her appalled.

Dave looks at her appalled.

"Um, I don't remember that..." Because really, I don't. Nor does Dave. We look at his grandmother like she had just sprouted wings and grown a third eye.

"Don't try to hide it," she laughs, "I got it from a reliable source. She was visiting from the Philippines, she didn't have a license, she had never driven in the city or on the highway before, but no one else could drive, so she had to drive you all homel. Then she slept at your house because she didn't know how to get home!" She wags her finger at us.

"Are you sure? I don't remember that at all, Lola," Dave says. By now, everyone is intrigued.

"Yes! You all went to the disco and stayed out late. You took her out all the time, but this time no one could drive home."

"Maybe you don't remember because you were all DRUNK!" Cathy's mom pipes in.

Me and Dave sincerely don't remember. I remember hanging out with Cathy on the fourth of July, but nothing else. Dave's mom tells Lola that maybe she's mistaken.

"Believe what you want. I know it's the truth. I didn't hear it from the two of you, and I didn't hear it from Cathy, but it's a good source. I'm not lying."

Later on, I'm talking to my friend Jen, and I tell her about it. She laughs and says that Lola was telling the truth, and she coincidentally was recounting it to her boyfriend the other day. After she had enlightened me, it all came back in a mad, post-drunken rush.

Way back, when Cathy visited, it was during my old clubbing days. We'd go out to the clubs starting on Thursday, drink, stay out late, and do it again the next weekend. We had taken Cathy out, and we were dancing on the platforms. Cathy had told us that in the Philippines, it was usually the easy girls or the prostitutes that danced on the platforms. That made us laugh and we made her dance up there with us.

And yeah, I guess we were drinking. And she had to drive us home. And we all passed out. And they went home the next morning.

It all comes back now....in little bits and pieces.

So yeah, Lola was right.

Damn, what else does she know from her 'reliable source'? Grandmothers just know these things. It's spooky.

Here I am, on a plane to LA. I'll keep on typing 'til my battery dies. I don't want to make this too long of a story (not like the epic 'Memoirs of a Ex-Short Track Stalker" from February) but I'll try to get in as much stuff as I can on my way to LA. I know these story won't appeal as much to my core readership (well, what I think my core readership is, although I know you comic book lurkers are out there, too) but let me tell you gals, these guys are sweet, friendly, and mighty good lookin'.

So, to start things off, I go to the Chicago Comic Convention every year, this is maybe my 5th or 6th year going. I was going even before it was called Wizard World Chicago. I dunno what possessed me to go that first year, maybe it was the promise of getting FREE comic book stuff. At first, I just went for one day, but when I discovered you can get sketches done and that there were panel discussions, I started going for all three days. And every time I told someone I was going to the con, I would get that 'You read comic books?' or 'Are you crazy?' look. Basically, because I'm a girl who reads comic books. Also, who could stand to be at a convention for 3 days?

But it's a lot of fun. Me and Fatima go every year. She is the Robin to my Batman. The Lilo to my Stitch. The Tonto to my Lone Ranger. The Silent Bob to my Jay. You get the picture!

So this year, we had bought tickets to go and were really psyched about seeing Jim Lee and Sean Astin. And I have a friend, and I don't know if he wants to remain nameless, but I'll let him be nameless for now, who asked me if I was going to the con, to which I said I was. And then he asked 'Well, if they need help at the Aspen booth, do you want to help out?'

HELL YEAH!

Aspen MLT, as I might have mentioned before, is the company started by my favorite artist, Michael Turner (see the 'art' section for some of his art - yeah, I know the section sucks right now...I'll fix it in time!). There's only a few of them in the company right now, and I guess they weren't sure if they needed help at the booth. So of course, me and Fatima jumped at the chance to help out. We were as giddy as schoolgirls.

So we stopped by the booth on Friday morning, and they told us that they were ok, but to check with them later on in the day. We got to do some cruising around the 'con, and came back, and they said they were OK with help for the day, but might need us for the next day.

The next day, we came by in the afternoon to see if they needed help. By then we were thinking that they would be OK with help for the rest of the 'con. But since Michael and crew had a panel to do in the afternoon, it would only be Liz working the booth, as well as two Wizard volunteers. (Sorry I forgot your names, guys!)

So me and Fatima got to be Booth Bitches for the rest of the afternoon, and although it was a lot of work selling the art and comics, and answering questions, we had TONS of fun. It was interesting to see what it was like behind the table, and to actually see how much stuff these companies sell at comic cons. It was a LOT. It was pretty amazing how much people were shelling out for the posters and comics. But if I had the money, I would have bought all the prints. But we had a lot of limited edition stuff to sell, and the prints we had were GORGEOUS. Me and Fatima were drooling over them the whole time. Michael, Talent, Peter & Co had some really great stuff. We were in heaven selling this kick ass art to other people who loved the art, and chatting with them and joking around. These people loved the art as much as we did. It was REALLY cool!

So we worked there Sunday, too, and were really sad to have to leave early. Everyone at Aspen was SO cool to us, and we have to especially thank Liz Brizzi for being so patient with us when we were learning the ropes and for taking in the questions we couldn't answer for people. And also Frank Mastromauro for letting us work there, and for getting us sloppy joes on Sunday. We knew that he was busy already, and he took the time out to get us something to eat. He rocks! And to Peter, who could be a bit intimidating at first, since he's the size of most skyscrapers in Chicago, but who is cool as hell. And to Talent, for being a really cute guy, and for taking the time out to make a SPECTACULAR sketch of Psylocke for me in my sketchbook (I'll scan in later). And to Mike Turner, for looking eerily like Noah Wyle and creating this cool company that for a brief moment in time we pretended that we were affiliated to. Thank you so much, Aspen!

So, here's some other highlights from the weekend:

- Got a sketch done by Mark Brooks, who will be doing the upcoming series of Deadpool. He was an AWESOME guy who took a lot of time to work on the sketch of Psylocke that he did for me. He was cool, friendly and funny. I promise Mark, when Deadpool comes out I will definitely buy it and preach to my other comic book friends to buy it because 'Mark is such a neat guy.' And no, I will not be selling your sketch on EBAY! But I stole one of your pencils and it should be up for sale as we speak. Just kidding.

- Also got a sketch from Tone Rodriguez, who did a Psylocke sketch for me last year, but I enjoyed talking to him so much when he was sketching for me last year that I went back for more this year. He's such a funny guy, he had me and Fatima laughing the whole time. And he gave me a hug! He's a hugger! I love hugs from big burly comic book artists! He's the best. He's someone I will definitely be looking up when I try to infiltrate the comic book world in LA. Note to all the comic book girls out there: Tone's a huggable guy.

- Saw what I'd like to call 'my old friend' the Chief, Mike Wellman, who did Mac Afro with Luke Lizalde. Remember that comic that I was in? Yeah, that one. And he assured me that yes, that was me in the comic. Wheee!!! It was great to see him again, and he's got a new comic out called 'Gone South' which I will definitely buying once I have the funds.

- Got a picture taken with a man dressed in a 'Predator' outfit. The first time I was rubbing his belly. Then I went back for a picture because he was such a damn cute alien, and I asked him for a hug, which he gladly gave me. Note to self: Do not accidentally stick your hand in the armpit of a man who has spent all day dressed up as the Predator, because your hand will be moist and smelly. But I thank him for the picture.

- George R. R. Martin, I will be cursing your name! He's one of my favorite authors, and he was supposed to be at the 'con, but since he had to finish his book (which I have been waiting for forever) he was not able to make it. He is SO lucky that I didn't lug my big hardcover books to the 'con to get signed. I apologize to the guys working the booth, who I think I scared by taking my books and slamming them onto the table and damning them all to hell. I didn't mean it guys, it was the heat of the moment. But George, I'm over it now. I will just curse your name every once in a while. Just finish the book, ok?

- Funny exchange #1: at the Aspen booth

Dude, just how old do you think Mike IS? He's only a couple years older than me!

- Sorry to our 'little brothers' that were helping out at the booth with us for being so old. I know they were a little disappointed when they found out I was 28, a mere 12 years older than them and much to old to hit on. Well, they tried. It was cute.

- Rafael was the most easy going and sweetest person I met at the 'con. He just had this melodic quality to his voice which just showed that he was a gentle and kind soul. He drew me a female Mexican masked wrestler. I thought it would be a challenge, but I guess it wasn't! Watch out for Somnabula, everyone!

- Me and Fatima were hanging out at the Jay's Comics table, when the older woman there said she liked my shirt. I smiled and said 'thanks' and she looked at me, and replied, 'Have you been here before?' I said 'yes' and she proclaimed, 'I know you girls! You come here every year! Oh my, you both are so grown up now!' She was so sweet it was like seeing an old auntie. Then she saw my ring, and she said, "Oh my! And you're getting married, too!" To which I said, "Yeah, we grow up, then we get married!". She was such a darling. The next day, I was at the booth again, and her son came up to me and said " My mom was telling me about you yesterday, and she said 'There were these two girls there today and you would recognize them if you saw them!' and I saw you, and immediately knew it was you. Congratulations on the wedding!'. It was so cool, to be recognized by these people, it's like coming to visit old friends!

- Life as a comic book artist isn't easy. We didn't get to talk to Mike Turner too much because we saw how incredibly busy he was, doing signings, sketching for people, being part of panels and such. Poor guy was just packed with stuff all the time. There was one instance where he was doing a signing and sketches, and he really had to go to the bathroom, but he kept on getting interrupted on his way to the bathroom. I wanted to just say, 'Let the man pee!'

- Pet peeve of the con: People who get more than one sketch. Yes, I know you paid to get into the con, yes, I know that you waited in line to get a sketch, but spread the wealth, yo! There's a bunch of people behind you who've driven really far, just to get ONE sketch. Be courteous to your fellow geeks (i say the word affectionately, being one myself) and let someone else have the joy have having a sketch done. I had see too many people with the look of disappointment when the line was capped for sketches.

- There were so many great books there that I wanted to pick up, but didn't have the money. Hopefully once I settle down, I can grab some new titles. I'll definitely be picking up 'The Ultimates', 'Gone South', 'Violent Messiahs', 'Red Star' and 'Kabuki'.

- There were a lot of characters walking around, and one of them was Darth Vader. I watched as people took picture with him, some asking for poses where he was choking them or doing the jedi mind trick. I asked him if I could take a picture with him, and he said, in a low menacing voice, 'YES'. Then I asked if I could get a hug, because, well, even evil ex-jedi's need hugs, too. SO he said yes, and I took a picture with him. Then after Fatima took the picture, he reached behind him, pulled out a camera, and said "Can I have one, too?" Uh, yeah, sure Vader, as I could say no to you! So we took a hugging picture with his camera, too. Who knew that Anakin Skywalker had a Canon CoolPix? Not I!

- On Saturday I was wearing a 'Girl's Rule' t-shirt. Lots of comments on it, lots of men challenging the fact that girl's rule. But we do, so they all lost the arguments.

- A suggestion to my fellow geeks - try out soap. It helps. Sorry, but some people there just STANK.

- Talent Caldwell's mom is the cutest thing, and it's even cuter to see Talent with her.

- Although I liked to call us Booth Bitches, because we were doing the behind the scenes work at the booth, I would not go as far to call us "Booth Babes". Which brings to mind the Evil-Lynn that was there, or the Vampirella that was there two years ago, or any other scantilly clad lasses that adorn a booth. We were far from that! Guys would line up to take pictures of these girls. But to tell the truth, it made me and Fatima laugh really hard when guys would ask us if they could take our pictures. I mean, we're not babes. Just volunteer bitches. Nonetheless, it was cool that they wanted our picture.

- Funny Exchange #2 - At the DC area, taking a picture with Batman and Wonderwoman

- A couple people thought I actually worked for Aspen. I said no, I was just a lucky girl who got a break. I was also asked which character was based on me. I said none...yet. *wink* Then one person pointed at Aspen Matthews and said, 'She looks like you!' Nice try, guy! I said, 'Thanks, I wish! Sometimes when I read the book, I pretend she's me, but nope, it's not!'.

- Have I told you guys that Sam Campos is just about the coolest human being on the face of the earth? I just wanted to say that. Thank you.

- Although we were quite excited to see Sean Astin before the con, I think the excitement of working the booth took over. We waited in line to see Sean for a while, and saw him come in. He's really cute, and has lost a lot of weight since the movie. He's almost in 'Toy Soldiers' form. We knew that the wait would be long and tedious, so we stuck around for a bit, got bored of waiting, said 'fuck it', and left to check out the rest of the con. Another day, Samwise Gamgee. We shall meet another day!

Damn, didn't know this would be this long! Thanks for sticking around long enough to read it. Wait! I'm not done! There's more fun!

- Phrase that I can live the rest of my life without ever saying again (well, until next year anyway): "We've got limited edition prints here. They're hand numbered and each one is already signed by the artists. $35 for one, $60 for two, and if you get four or more, it's only $25 each, which saves you $40! Get them soon, because they're selling out fast!"

- More Aspen ass-kissing: Peter just oozes coolness, there's just something about him. Frank has the nicest smile, it's nice and big. Talent has gorgeous eyes, and he's just CUTE. I love Mike's voice, it's got a Disney stud quality to it. Liz has an awesome French accent, and as one guy said at the booth - 'It's really hot!' Aspen is DEFINITELY a good looking company.

- I got to see Jim Lee again. He's SO cool. Wow. No sketch, though, but SOMEDAY. SOMEDAY I will get a sketch from you, Mr. Lee!

- I saw this huge line at the back of the con, and I had no idea what it was for. Then I saw that Rob Liefeld was in the house. Wow. Haven't heard from him in a while. I guess people still care! And he was doing sketches, too! Damn!

- Best Fatima quote of the 'con: "When Mike was heading out to the bathroom, he looked at me and nudged me with his hand. Can you believe it? Michael Turner's magical, gifted hands touched me! I'm so happy!"

- Humberto Ramos looked at me. He gave me 'the nod', I swear. I don't know if it's because he recognized me as the girl who was stalking him two years ago and asked for a picture of Psylocke, or if he thought that he knew me because I was working the Aspen booth. Nonetheless, it was cool.

- Best pickup line of the 'con:

- Comic book kids are just about the most polite kids on earth. Just about every one that we gave a free sticker to politely said "thank you". It was so much fun to see the wonder and joy in their eyes when we offered to give them 2 stickers. "Two stickers? Really? Gee, thanks!" Ahh, to be young again!

- We were so happy to have Liz around. If we didn't, we would have been lost sheep. She was like our mother hen and we were her chickees. She was SO cool, and so nice. At first I was a little intimidated by her, but she was so easy to get along with, and we really grew attached to her.

- Best way to end off the day: We were sad to leave early, but I had to catch a plane to LA for work at 6pm. I'm sitting at the airport talking on the phone and reading my comics, when who saunters over to the gate but Mike Turner! So I sneak up to him and ask him to sign my book. He looks up, surprised, and laughs. He invites me to sit and chill with him before the flight. It was kinda weird sitting next to him while I was reading the book that he drew. And I don't know if my hands were shaking because I was sitting next to him, or because I had my first coffee in a month. I think it was the coffee. It was still pretty cool to sit with him. I didn't want to bother him much, though, because I knew he was SO exhausted from the 'con. I was content just being within spitting distance. *smile* Then again, he never DID sign my book. *evil grin*

OK, I think that's all. More will probably come to me later on, but I'll let you guys off the hook for now. I had a TON of fun, and once I get the pics formatted, I'll post them up. I might even have to make a seperate gallery for my Wizard World Chicago pictures, there's so many!

Thanks to all of you who made it this far. I'm thinking that only the geeks got to the bottom, but maybe you ST girls made it this far, too. Thanks to everyone at the 'con for making it such a fun time for me. Looking forward to the LA con in March! Don't know if I'll be working the booth, but I'll definitely be there!

I am definitely a lucky girl, and in no way will I take this experience for granted.

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.

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.

Another memorable moment in LA...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Bruce, no..."

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

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

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

And then I wake up.

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

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

Where Is Yano Today?

Denver, CO

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

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

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

Then the tram stopped.

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

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

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

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

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

CAUTION! Drunken post ahead!!! (2 kahlua and cokes, 1 car bomb, 1 jaegermeister, 1 purple hooter, 1 jack and coke and uh....yeah..there was more, but you get the picture.)

You know, as of late, I've been complaining a lot about my life and all my stresses. And something I tell everyone (sidenote, i type as fast drunk as I do sober, but not with as much accuracy - the backspace is my friend) when they have a bad day, or bad month, is for every bad, there is a good to look forward to. And tonight was my good. No, it's not that I consumed a good amount of alcohol (water is my friend). It's that I got to see old friends. And when I'm with these people, there is no bad in my life. Only the happiness that I felt during the best four years of my life. Only the knowledge that for the rest of my life, I know that I will love these people, and that they will love me. I love my friends from Urbana! I only wish that we could have all been there together...

So my Mike is getting married in a couple months, and he's been living in California for the longest time. But him and his lovely wife-to-be Ann came into town today, and we all met up at Betty's Blue Star Lounge for some conversation, dancing, and in true Urbana style, some drinks. Lotsa drinks. It was great to see him again, and it was great to have my boys all together in the same place.

Warning!!! Thoughtless rambling coming ahead! (as if it wasn't thoughtless rambling BEFORE this warning).

Let's rewind a little. Junior year, college. I'm in a relationship. I'm in school. I had a routine. Boyfriend, school. But then I meet these four freshman guys. And they change my life. They help me realize that there's more to life than a boyfriend and school. There are way too memories that were created at 711 W. Elm Street to go over here, but I'll love these four guys forever. Emer, Deo, John Jay and Mike. The best little pseudo-lil brothers that anyone could ask for. Those were some crazy times, staying up til dawn running around the apartment with Nikki and Jaygee. It was the apartment where FAT-ERMA lived, which was the name that our phone number spelled. Pochaco wrestling, late night Gumby's, drunken Lambda parties, potluck dinners with charades after...all memories with my roommates and my boys that lived at FAR. (The Florida Avenue Residence)

So yeah, I'm a drunken nostalgic fool right now. And it was nice to see my boys together, because it's been a LONG time since I've seen them all together in one place. And how lovely it was to see Alki-Man come out and play (thanks Emer). And surprisingly enough, Alki-Gal came out, too (thanks to Mike for celebrating my birthday 10 days early). It was great to have everyone together again, it was great to talk about old times, and I'm the luckiest girl in the world to have a fiance as great and as patient as as big of a beefcake hunk-a wonderful burnin' love as Dave. He's the bestest, and I can't wait to be married to him. And my boys love him, too.

And thanks, guys, for wanting to take a picture with your Elm street gal. It means a lot that it meant so much for you to get a picture of all four of you and me. Dar, I can't wait til I get those pics sent to me. You're the best for taking the pictures for us!

Jamie, good luck on that waitlist. DePaul would be at a loss without you.

Gel, sorry for getting all sappy and 'remember when' with you. Blame Emer.

OK, so now my rambling must end. I'll drink up the rest of my water and retire for the night, because I have to wake up early and drive to DeKalb.

Oh, and I watched the Matrix tonight, too. Kick ass! More on that when I'm in a better state of mind....

Before this month, my dad hated the computer. He only went on when he HAD to type something out, or send an email, or check on his banking things.

But then he was contacted by one of his friends from highschool. And then he was added to his highschool mailing list - it's been 40 years since highschool for him. He asked me to help him get his email, and I ended up reading one of them, and it went a little something like this...
"It's me again. I do apologise for not telling you that our group has finally tracked down one of the cutest guys of Class63, Vic Feliciano!"
Yup, my dad was a stud in highschool. I grew up with stories of his various escapades, and how many girlfriends he had, and what a stud he was. And tell the truth, my dad was a cutie in highschool! He must have LOVED getting that email.

So I had to teach him how to use email. And save email. And send attachments. Everything. And the guy is on my computer all the time now. He's an addict. He gets about 9 emails a day, which is a change from the 1 email he got every 6 months. It's really funny to see. After contacting his high school chums in the Philippines, he's been a little happier. He's more inclined to laugh. He's got more of a spring in his step. It's good to see. So I don't mind as much giving up some computer time to let him get his kicks from his old pals.

I guess this internet addiction thing is in the genes!

On a related note, I received an email today (yay for reader feedback!) which made me look over my post from yesterday.

Exhibit A: "Sometimes it upsets me that people can say things without thinking how it affects other people, and no matter how righteous they might think they are, or how much they think they are watching out for someone else's self interests, they fail to see the people they might be hurting along the way."

Exhibit B: "So just ignore all the mom-types out there"

All said within the same paragraph. I hate it when I find out that I've just contradicted myself. Damn my gemini-ness! To you mom-types, I apologize. I never meant it to come out that way. It was something said in the heat of the moment, and what would we be without our mom-types?

So to the mom-type, thanks for calling me out. I never meant to offend, and I hope you keep on reading!

As I may have mentioned before, I live in a predominantly Polish neighborhood. As usual, I was late for work today, so I took a later bus. I get on the bus, say hello to the bus driver, who is this kinda good looking thirty-something African American male, and I sit down. Near the front of the bus is this little old Polish lady, chatting away with the driver, as a lot of people do...

"How long have you been doing this route?" asked the lil lady.

"For a couple months," answers the driver.

"Do a lot of people try to speak to you in Polish?"

"A couple times people have tried explaining things to me in Polish."

"Oh, do you speak any Polish?"

"No ma'am, I don't."

"You're a good looking young man, are you married?'

"No, I'm not."

"Aww, that's a shame. You'll find someone someday. So you don't speak Polish, eh?"

"No ma'am. I'm not Polish."

"No, I guess not!" lil lady exclaims.

"I'm Irish," he says. And then he looks at her and winks.

Then the lady lets out a big wallop of a laugh. "Ha! You're a good one, you are. I'm happy you're my driver. That's my good laugh for the day."

Yeah...it was mine, too!

Amy and Tony's Cinco de Mayo party was a blast. Never thought white people could throw such a great Cinco de Mayo fiesta. Just kidding. And yes, it wasn't the cinco de mayo, but the tres de mayo was close enough! I had a lot of fun, a lot to drink, and did a lot of dancing. I've also got a lot of interesting pictures. There would have been a better picture of Jon's ass, but unfortunately, it's just TOO hairy to post on my site, so you're just gonna get a look at a cheek. The food was phenomenal. The cheese dip was amazing, the flautas were delicious, and I couldn't stop eating the steak that was grilled for the quesadillas. And Tyson's frou frou blue island flavored pucker went well with whatever I mixed with it. DJ Jerry did a great job dancing with that pole, even though he didn't let me take a picture of him. And he told me to post something here, but unfortunately, I wasn't in a state to remember it...it was something like 'Jerry loves [something] and [something].' I think it was something like 'Jerry loves dancing with poles and Mexicans.' Or something like that. I laughed a lot. And I realized that I suck at playing 'Asshole.' And that after a couple drinks, Dan gets just a little more annoying. Just kidding, thanks for the ride, dude. But Claudine, if you're out there, Dan slapped my ass. Really hard. You need to keep your man in check!

Here's my pictures...

So I'm on the bus, spacing out into my own world, and I look a couple seats in front of me. I see the back of someone's head. 'Dude, that guy has a pretty neat doo-rag on. Haven't seen one tied like that before' So I'm kinda admiring the bandana-type head covering on this person's head, but something just doesn't look right. Then this person turns around.

DOH! It's a nun.

My bad!

A quick, funny story.

Sam was helping out a client today, and he needed some help from me. I went over and sat next to him in his cube. So we put the client on speaker, and we were talking her through a problem she had. In the program that she was using, there was an icon that I wanted her to click on. So I'm trying to describe the icon on her toolbar, which was a hand holding a red circle, with two blue circles underneath. And I say, 'Ok, click on the button on the toolbar, next to the A-Z button. You see it? It's the one with the hand. The hand and the two blue balls. Blue balls, do you see them? Click on the one with the blue balls.' Then I realized that I said. And I stifled a laugh. And I would have made it and kept that air of professionalism. But I looked at Sam, and his eyes were HUGE. And then he started laughing. And then I started laughing - REALLY hard. So I covered my mouth. And I tried talking to the client, and luckily, she didn't understand what the joke was, and didn't ask. But I had to take a moment, we were laughing so hard. And I tried talking again, and I would start laughing again, after hearing Sam snicker next to me - we were almost crying. Then Orlando stands up from his cube and says 'How am I supposed to work when you're making comments like that, Christine?' and I laugh even more. Lucky for me, this client likes me and has a good sense of humor. And lucky for me, my new manager who was sitting behind us has a sense of humor, too.

Whoo. Good times. Good times.

And if you have no idea what 'blue balls' are, look it up. This is a family show here!

So I'm going down into the subway, and this guy passes by me. He was kind of in a hurry and brushed past me. I glance at him, and he's wearing baggy pants, and big jacket, a bandana and baseball hat. First thing I think of is 'thug', just like a lot of guys that take my train. Nothing wrong with being one. I'm not surprised that he didn't say 'excuse me'. So I'm walking down the stairs, he passes by me, and ahead of me is this old blind man, taking his time going down the steps. 'Poor old guy, he's gonna get pushed over' I think. So thug is rushing down the stairs and gets to the old guy. And then he pauses. 'OK sir, I'm on your right side. You're almost there, you've got um, 7 steps more to go.' Thug then places his hand under the blind man's elbow and helps him the rest of the way down. After they get to the bottom, Thug pats the old guy on the back and says 'You have a nice day now', and rushes to the train.

You know, sometimes I love being wrong about people.

So I've finally finished my SLC review. It's only taken me 10 days to write them. I guess I'm a bit, um, verbose, because the whole thing is 21 pages long. And I didn't even write about EVERYTHING! But I'm done, finally. Thanks to all the proofreaders for going through it for me. I hope you all enjoy it! I'm not going to post it up here, because it's WAY too long, but feel free to comment on it - I'll put in the comment post at the bottom as a link. Also, if you don't have the 5 hours to read the story, there's a link to download a zipped version (about 600K zipped. YES, 600K). I'd really love to hear your opinions!

Here it is:
Memoirs of an Ex-Short Track Stalker

Well, I've got a little break here, and rather than continue my SLC novel, I thought I'd break it up with a top 5 list. So my first SLC top 5 list is my 5 favorite interviews.

1) Caroline Hallisey. I think she's one of the few people who actually emailed us back saying that they would do an interview, and who actually came up to us to do it. She was really great, and I would have to say that she was a lot prettier in person. Those helmets just don't do a lady any justice. She's known Rusty for a whie, and she was such a sweetheart to talk to. She definitely got a lot of cheers from me when she was racing.

2) Noelle and Todd. For once, Dorothy and the Wizard of OZ are on the receiving end of the interview. It was great to talk to them and hear their views on how the internet has kept short track and its stars in the public eyes since the Olympics.

3) Andy Gabel. He's the president of US Speedskating and a legend of short track in his own right. He's been in 3 Olympic games, and competed in his last one when he was in his 30's, something you wouldn't really see much of in short track. He's a hero to most of the skaters, and he's got a lot of ideas for the future of skating. I have to admit I was a bit intimidated to interview him at first, but he was very easygoing during our talk and he really put me at ease.

4) Steven Bradbury. I wasn't prepared for him to be there. I had no questions ready. I had heard he was doing the commentary for NBC, and I thought it was a great idea. He was really open with doing a one on one interview (he had actually joined in on an interview I was doing with Jack Mortell). So with him, I really just made up questions as I went along. And he was SO cool and really laid back. Rod had told me that I was acting very much like a fan during this interview, probably because I was gushing a bit. Seriously, I don't even remember what I asked him. But this guy is cool. Can't wait to hear his comments on NBC.

5) Alex Izykowski. I had seen Alex off and on all weekend, largely due to the fact that he was Rusty's roommate. He was pretty shy. And for the first couple days, he probably said about 10 words out loud. But the last day, we were getting ready for the interview and the mic was broken, I had a chance to do an off camera mock interview, (you could almost call it a conversation, but I was the one asking him all the questions) and it was a lot of fun. He answered most of my questions, and he was pretty open and candid. And he's a funny guy, too. Girls, make sure to give this guy a lot of attention - ask him for an autograph, ask him for a hug. He likes that.

For those of you wondering about the video, we'll probably be promoting it through Rusty's website. It will probably take a while to edit, but it'll probably be available on DVD when it does come out. Thanks for all the interest, and I'm glad you all are enjoying my story!

And the blog goes on, even after SLC. I've been working at a client site, and I swear, the place is as quiet as a tomb. It's in this big room with just the netilation pipes and tubing and stuff as the ceiling. I don't hear anyone talking. Just the white noise of the air being pumped into the room. It's so lonely and quiet I want to scream. I can't work in a place where it's this quiet. I would crack. I need noise. I need distractions. It keeps me awake!

I went to Walgreens to go shopping for a Valentine's card (Dave is coming in tomorrow - YAY!) and there's a herd of people looking for cards. I wanted to yell out 'SLACKERS! PROCRASTINATORS!' but then I thought, hey, that's why I'm here, too! Heh heh....

Hmm....I know I already did a daily report of my adventures in Salt Lake, but I just want to get the whole thing in one place. I'll probably be reiterating a lot of the same things, but hopefully I'll hit on some things that I didn't talk about. My time there went by so quickly, it's just a blur of taking pictures, running around with the mike, meeting people, trying to remember names, trying to be cool when I'm really in awe of the people I'm interviewing and trying to catch a couple hours of sleep a night. So this is gonna be a REALLY long post, I can feel it already! So let's start from the very beginning, a very good place to start...

Prologue: What the Hell Am I Doing Out There?

Well, I guess it all started with the Olympics. Sports Illustrated and NBC did a great job of promoting a little known sport called short track, and crowned Apolo Anton Ohno as the posterboy for the SLC games. For those of you that watched, he certainly lived up to the hype, producing some of the most memorable moments of the games. That, and the guy is pretty easy on the eyes. So yeah, I was intrigued by the guy. Maybe just a tiny bit obsessed - if you call sitting in Dave and Busters with a homemade Apolo pin on, making friends with the bartender so he could switch the big screen from hockey to short track obsessed, then so be it. Note: I didn't make the pin. It was a great sport to watch. Apolo didn't win 4 medals like people had wanted him to, but he did win a lot of hearts. And Apolo wasn't the only one to take home a medal, his teammate Rusty Smith also took home a bronze.

Time goes by. I meet Rusty at the Milwaukee Worlds, we become friends. I meet Rod online, the guy who works on his website, we become even better friends. Rod and Rusty come to Chicago, we have a dinner, we hang out, we keep in touch. I'm on the Rusty forums all the time. I become an assistant webmaster on Rusty's site. Etc. Etc. Etc. Sorry, that's the super short version...

And the SLC World Cup looms in the distance. Tons of fans are planning to go. Short track is still amazingly popular, even one year after the Olympics. Rod gets an idea to make a documentary on what happens behind the scenes at a competition like that. Everyone SEES what happens on the ice, but what happens off the ice? What kind of preparations do they go through? What do they do with their free time? Who are the people behind the scenes? What are these skaters really like? Have they been affected by the sports new found popularity? So he gets started on the project. I get asked to do the interviewing, thanks to some great on the spot interviewing I did to some American Idol fans outside of the Kodak Theater after one too many Jack and Cokes. Rusty's cool with being followed around with the camera. Emails are sent out to various people within US Speedskating, the Utah Oval and NBC. Interviews are scheduled. Production meetings are planned. Lists and schedules are being made. What seemed like a simple easy project turned out to be a production. But I was excited. And I knew the Rod and Rick (the silent webmaster for the site) were a little stressed, having to find out and rent all the equipment that would be needed. And we only had one chance to get it right.

Chapter 1: The Arrival and THE Interview

So I pack all my things and head out to Salt Lake. My plane comes in at noon, and my friend Denise comes to pick me up. We haven't really met in person before, so of course there's that weirdness when you meet for the first time. But it didn't last long. We've been writing so many marathon emails that I feel like I know her, and we got along instantly. I call up Rod and Rick to tell them I'm in town. The US Team practice started at 10 that morning, so I wasn't with the guys while they were filming. Of course, I was a bit sad that I couldn't make it to practice, but there was nothing I could do. Me and Denise headed over the Homestead, which would be my home for the next 6 days.

Upon arrival, I notice that there was no free shampoo sample, giving the Homestead a very low score on my hotel rating scale. What can I say? I travel all the time, I've become a hotel snob. I also realize that the room isn't that huge. Rod had informed me that they had a LOT of equipment, and I was hoping that the closet space would be adequate enough. I called up the guys, and they said they'd meet me at the hotel. I sat and watched TV in anticipation.

So finally the guys come in, and they weren't kidding about how much stuff they had. There were 2 high quality cameras, lighting, mikes, tripods, tapes, batteries, a laptop and a lot of clothes. They brought more clothes than I did! They were exhausted from their ride in (they drove 10 hours from Long Beach) and from covering practice. But as soon as they came in, Rod says, 'We've got gold'. I didn't understand him at first, but then he explained to me that they were able to get access to a lot of things during practice, and they got some great footage. Rod gave me a brief view of the footage he got, and I was excited. It was just practice, but they got a lot of footage of everyone interacting. Rusty wore a wireless mike so you could hear their conversations. There was one point where Apolo was stretching, and Rusty came up behind him and was helping him out, and then, I got confused...'Rod? What are they doing? Are they wrestling?' Rod nods his head. My jaw drops. Here's Rusty and Apolo, just behaving like normal guys, messing around during team practice. It's nothing, but when you think about it, WOW! Yes, this is gonna be GOOD!

We all settle in for a little and grab some food. We call up Rusty to see what he's up to and he mentions that he's going to go for a jog. We head over to their hotel and go up to his room. Rod suggests that Rusty runs over the the Delta Center, which is a couple blocks away, so we can do a quick interview with Rusty at the place where he won his bronze. Rusty then gets a call and asks the caller if he wants to go for a run. He gets off the phone and says, 'That was Chunks, he's coming with'. I feel a little twinge of nervousness. Yeah, in a way, I'm here on business, but there's still that little fan inside of me that's like 'Whoa!' So we go to Apolo's floor and Rusty gets him from his room. I'm a little nervous because I'm wondering if Apolo will recognize me from when I saw him in Chicago. I see him, we make brief eye contact and I walk into the elevator. I get a feeling that he just might recognize me as his one-time stalker from Chicago. But hey, I'm not a fan right now. I'm a filmaker.

So we follow them with cameras as they start jogging, and we run to the car to catch up. They're quick little buggers, because once we got into the car we didn't pick up on Rusty's wireless mike. We drove around downtown trying to get the telltale static that notified us that we were getting closer to Rusty. We were pretending that we were crocodile hunters looking for our prey. Then Rick heard the static and we drove closer to where we thought he would be, but didn't see him. So we just decided to go to the Delta Center to wait for them. Rick heard Rusty coming and we finally got them in our sights, jogging around the building. They came by the car and laughed when they realized we were there waiting and filming. They stopped for a bit and talked about what happened to them at the Delta Center last year, then they were off again jogging. Me and Rod were joking around in the car as we were driving back, pretending to be crazed fans, screaming at the top of our lungs, 'WE SAW APOLO! OH MY GOD! WE SAW HIM! I CAN'T BELIEVE IT! *girlish squeal of joy*' Of course, we were just kidding. Well, at least I was. We had a great laugh over it.

Once we were back at the hotel, Rusty and Apolo did some stretches outside of Apolo's room. Rusty then suggested that we do the Rusty/Apolo interview then. I was a little taken aback, because I was expecting that to be one of my last interviews to do. I told Rusty that I wasn't ready and that I didn't even have my questions on me. Apolo then said that he didn't know if he'd have time the rest of the week to do it, so that moment would be the best time. So Rod and Rick set up the cameras and started rolling. I was a bit unprepared, so Rod started asking the questions first. After a while, I got into it and asked my own questions. It was really an incredible interview. The chemistry and the friendship between Rusty and Apolo was so incredible to see. These are two guys that have known each other for most of their lives. It was so fascinating to witness the two of them interacting, talking, and joking around. And of all the interviews I've seen of Apolo, this is the most comfortable I've seen him. I think it helped that Rusty was there, and that we were friends of Rusty, and that we were all just chillin' on the floor of the hotel hallway while we were doing it. But they were so at ease, Rusty calling Apolo 'Chunks' and Apolo calling Rusty 'Smitty', and we had a couple good laughs. And even though this was the professional Christine on the floor leaning against the wall, Yano, the fan inside was screaming with delight. I can't wait to share this interview with everyone! I did have one slip-up though. We talk talking about celebrities and going to celebrity parties when Rick asked Apolo, 'Have you ever gone to the Playboy mansion?' and the Yano fan inside immediately said 'Yes' about a second before Apolo did. He had his head down, but as soon as he realized that I answered for him, his head popped up and he had a look on his face that was like 'WTF?'. And here comes Rusty to the rescue, who busts out laughing and embarrasses me more by saying, 'Christine knows EVERYTHING that goes on!' or something to that effect. Unfortunately, there was no hole for me to crawl into, so I just quipped, 'It was on the internet...' Or maybe I didn't say anything. I kinda blanked out for a second there. Yeah. Major cool points there. Not.

But it was a great interview. It seriously lasted about 45 minutes or so, but a lot of it was just talking about whatever and chilling out. But it was definitely mindblowing. My head was reeling. The lasting impression I got from Apolo was that he reminded me of some of the guys I work with, by the words that he used and his slang and his body language. I could definitely tell that he was a shy guy, but pretty playful and outgoing with people he knows. He was really cool, and I loved watching the two of them interact together. It was a good time. Definitely!

OK...this is taking longer than I expected. Stay tuned for more later. I'm not even done with day 1 yet! I've got to go to a client site now. Work! These people expect me to work!!!

Well, we started off the day pretty early. The races started at noon, so we had to be there at 10am. We got there, and I sat in the press area for a while, but I felt kinda weird cheering for everyone from there (no one else was really cheering) so I just moved out to the bleachers with the rest of the fans. The races were OK. Today was the 500 meter races, which is Rusty's strongest distance. But he got reall screwed when he got impeded (well, I feel he did) and it wasn't called. So he lost the race. We were really bummed out. Apolo made it to the final, but he just ran out of room and he didn't medal either. SUCKS! The Canadians sweeped the race.

The relay was pretty good though. It was the US vs. team China (their B team). It was close for a while, but our guys managed to get a great lead and win the race. At least one good thing came out of today!!!

We also watched the relighting of the Olympic torch today (it's the anniversary of the Olympics) and we stood out in the freezing cold to watch everyone make speeches. But the fireworks show they had was worth the frostbitten toes. After the fireworks, we had the rustysmith.com dinner, where all the fans that were in SLC from the site got together for dinner. They were hoping that Rusty himself would be coming for dinner, but he had a charity gala to go to. So they were kinda bummed that he wasn't going to be there. Luckily, though, RUsty got out of the dinner early and stopped by our dinner. The group was so happy to have him there. He was really great, taking pictures and letting people wear his medal. Today wasn't a good day for him (not to mention a very LONG day) and it was great that he took the time out to say hello to his fans. Most people in the same position wouldn't do such a thing.

Since dinner let out a bit early, we decided to go out dancing and play pool. We were debating on which bar to go to when we saw Joey Cheek, and he told us where he was going (which was one of our choices) and we went along with him. Now the thing about SLC is that to go into a bar, you need to either be a member, or have a member sponsor you. Since none of us were members, Joey sponsored us, which was really cool. I owe that guy a drink. He rocks! The bar was OK. NOt the type of music that I like dancing to, but it was OK. The pool tables were so busy there were stacks of quarters on the edges and a million people waiting to play. We did manage to get one game of pool in at the very end of the night. GOod times!

And now, it's time to download the 120MB of pictures I took today. That's about 250 pictures I took!

Well, the races started today, but not until 6pm. We got up bright and early to video the team breakfast. Lanie, Rick's wife, is here with us now so she came along. Since neither of us were taping (it was just Rod and Rick) me and Lanie kinda felt a little out of place there. I tried to be as unobtrusive as possible. I was almost gonna leave. But hey, there was a buffet there, and who am I to say no to a buffet? After that, we had a good talk with Paul Marchese, who makes the skates for a lot of the skaters - not just in the US, but internationally. He's a really cool guy.

Once breakfast was done, we hung out in Rusty's room and did some more filming, like his daily diary and him packing up his stuff for the competition. Then we gott suckered into watching this B-movie on HBO called 'Cheats'. It sucked, but it's one of those things that when you start it, you can't stop. Two hours in Salt Lake lost in the black hole known as 'Cheats'.

Once we were done at Rusty's, we went to pick up my cousin Karen from the airport. It's great to have her along. She's definitely an Apolo fan. Lanie, Rick and Rod are pretty much immune to the fannish-ness of it all, and every now and then I get flashbacks, but Karen's a fan. This is her first competition and she's never seen Apolo in person before. It's cool to see the competition through her eyes.

We got to the Oval at around 4:00, and there were already a lot of people there. Luckily, I have a press pass, so I coould go to the press area. At first I thought I was really cool that I got my own section, but I ended up sitting by Lanie and Karen as the races progressed.

The competition was awesome. Unfortunately, Apolo got DQ'd on his semifinal heat. Rusty, however, had a great preliminary heat when for most of the race he sat in the back, but within the last lap or two, passed up the other 4 people in his heat. It was a blast to watch. He made the finals, too, but unfortunately, he got fourth place. But that's cool, though - there's still races tomorrow! And every final he makes counts towards his overall score. The relays were breathless. The crowd was TOTALLY into it, and it was so fun to watch with eveyone.

Afterwards, we went to dinner with some other people that Rusty knows (Rusty had to get some rest - the races were done at 10pm, and racing starts tomorrow at 12pm). Dinner kicked ass. I mean, I've only met Lanie 4 times, and by the afternoon we were saying the same sentences. And we had just met Rusty's friends that night. But at dinner we all just got along so well that we were laughing the whole time. I swear I didn't laugh that hard since I did my dorky dance for Fata and accidentally drooled. But we had a lot of good laughs, and there were even times where we laughed so hard we cried. I'm proud to say that we closed out Chili's. The staff had their coats on already by the time we left.

Ahh....it was a good day. And I'm pooped. Goodnight!

oh, and here's more pictures!

Went to the Olympic Oval and took some exterior shots. The place is pretty big. Anyway, since the guys did some filming yesterday already, they knew a lot of the people. It was a little weird for me. I also got to meet a lot of the other fans from the different websites and such. It was really cool to put a face to a name. I did some more interviews yesterday, which went a lot better than the impromptu Rusty/Apolo interview yesterday. I think I'm getting a lot better coming up with questions and using the handheld mike. I got to talk to Jack Mortell, the team leader, and he was great. He's really enthusiastic about the sport and he had a lot to say. I also got to meet and interview Stephen Bradbury, the Australian that won the gold when Apolo fell. He's a really cool guy (and he's got that awesome Australian accent, too) and I had a fun time interviewing him. Also got a chance to do an interview with Joey Cheek, a long tracker who won a medal in the Olympics also. He was really easy to talk to. And he's kinda cute, too. And I adore Caroline Hallisey, and she was SUCH a sweetheart. I like her a lot. I will definitely be rooting for her while she's racing.

After practice, there was a fan presentation. Some of the fans got together and made t-shirts for the skaters. Jack Mortell was such a great guy to get everything together and give them a chance to present the t-shirts to the skaters.

After that, I went to a press conference (my very first) and just watched. It was pretty neat to watch, but not as crazy and hectic as I had anticipated.

So, it looks like we got a of good footage today. Hopefully we'll get a chance to get more interviews in tomorrow. Tonight, I'm having dinner with a whole bunch of the fans. It's gonna be REALLY interesting.

Whoo hoo! I'm having a ball!

Here's the pics:

Sorry, in a hurry, sorry if some don't work!

Well, I got into Salt Lake about 12:30 yesterday. A friend of mine picked me up and took me to the hotel. It's weird meeting people who you know from the internet. You never know what to expect. I mean, you've seen pics oft hem and everything, but still, it's still a weird feeling. But we got a long just fine. The weirdness was minimal.

So I checked into the hotel. It's OK, but since I've been traveling so much for work, I've become of hotel, and this hotel a) has no hairdryer and b) no free shampoo. Sorry, it's low on my scale of 'Hotels I Would Come to Again'. But hey, it's a place to sleep.

Waited around for Rod and Rick to come by, then grabbed some food and hung out for a bit. Then we went off to the hotel to get Rusty and get some footage. We followed him and Apolo around when they were jogging. It was a little weird to see him again. I was wondering if he recognized him as his sometime stalker from Chicago. I think I caught a hint of recognition in his eyes. But luckily, I was somewhat able to almost keep my cool. We interviewed him and Rusty for a good while, and I'd have to say, it was an AWESOME interview. They were pretty candid about a lot of things, and the were really relaxed. The fan inside of me (I was in 'business mode' at the time) was screaming and giggling the whole time. I would never have thought that I would be doing this, but it's ending up to be a lot of fun. This video is gonna totally kick ass. I'm really excited about it!

So today is US team practice, a press conference, the fan dinner and hopefully out for some dancing. It should be a very INTERESTING day.

Yesterday Corin and Torrie invited me over for dinner. It was great and really tasty, except for one thing. Green beans! (sorry for not telling you guys!) I should have warned them ahead of time to my preference of not eating anything that was grown from the ground. But they were on my plate, and they went to all the effort of cooking me dinner, so I chowed down. Truthfully, the green beans weren't that bad. By eating a proportionate amount of pasta with the beans, I hardly tasted them. I'm quite proud that I finished all but 1 and a half green beans. My father would be proud!

Afterwards, we talked a lot, about Dave and the wedding, and how they met, and of course, about short track. Which they know A LOT about. It's nice to talk to people who know a lot about the sport, who don't necessarily have one favorite skater, but who can see the full picture. And I also got to see their pics from Bormio, which there were A LOT of. It was a really good time. I'll definitely look them up again next time I'm in Denver.

At the airport, I got randomly picked for the super security. This is where you have to take off your shoes and they use the metal detector all over your body, and every time it beeps, they have to check out the area. It's THIS close to an anal probe, I swear! Anyway, there were two guys that were going through my bag, and they went through every inch of it. I was talking to the lady who was doing the metal detector, and she was really nice. Then one of the guys that was checking out my bags says 'Are you getting married?' and I say 'Yeah, you saw my Bride's magazine, eh?' And he says 'Yeah, congratulations!' And since everyone heard, all of the security people are congratulating me on my wedding, telling me stories, asking me questions, etc. It was kind of a weird experience, me standing there, with my arms away from my body, in my socks, talking about my wedding to complete strangers. So anyway, I'm done, and everyone is wishing me luck on my wedding. And I tell them, 'You guys are pretty swell!' Yes. I actually said that. How nerdy am I?

Well, it was a pretty eventful Christmas this year....so much had happened!

To start it off, Christmas Eve, my family headed out to Dave's home to spend dinner with his family. Our families get along really well, which is great. Our parents enjoy each other's company, and Fatima and Justin were already friends from U of I. Dinner was awesome. There were a lot of great meat products to choose from. Then we took a million and one pictures by the Christmas tree. Those pics are in my Dad's camera, but one he gets those developed, I'll post them here.

After taking pictures, we headed out to the evening mass. Normally, we're at our other family party and we go to midnight mass with all the cousins (which I mentioned in my previous post). But this time it was just our familes that went to Dave's church (the church that we're going to get married in) for Christmas mass. It was nice and everything, but a little part of my really missed going to mass with my other cousins. I'm a sucker for sentimentality, and midnight mass is one of my favorite traditions. But it was a nice mass, and it was great to share it with Dave's family. Maybe next year we can con them into coming to our midnight mass.

Anothing thing I'd love to mention was the snow. The weathercasters had been commenting all week about the fact that we weren't going to have a white Christmas. There's something about snow on Christmas that just makes the whole thing complete, so I was a little bummed that was no expectation of snow. However, lo and behold, it snowed on Christmas Eve, leaving us with 3 inches of snow, enough to stick on the ground to have a true White Christmas. YAY! My dream of a white Christmas came true. *wink*

After Dave's, we headed to my aunt's place where the rest of my family was at. We took more family pictures, then the presents were passed out. There weren't as many presents this year for us since we chose to just do a grab bag between the cousins. But I did get a nice amount of presents, so I'm not complaining.

Click here to see us open presents

I got my little flower girl a really cute Stitch doll (you can see it in an earlier post - it's the one that's in the tree) and I knew it was going to be a hit or miss as to if she would actually like it. She's 2, and she's a shy little thing. As you can see from this video, she was a BIT scared of it. Ahh....once she watches the movie, she'll learn to love him. She better!

Watch Nina Run Away from My Present

After opening presents, we spent the rest of the night playing Cranium and Trivial Pursuit. I ended up going to sleep at around 6:30am. There was a lot of laughing, shouting and eating taking place before I went to sleep! I eventually ended up waking at around 12 on Christmas day. We ate some more and just hung out talking.

So we're talking about funny things that happened the night before, and I'm eating Claudine's cookies. Maui brings up this funny story about me sitting on Melanie's head, and we all bust out laughing. But unfortunately for me, I was swallowing a cookie at the time. So I started coughing, thinking it would come out. And this whole time I'm still laughing. But then I realize that the cookie isn't coming out. By now, my cousin Marian's like 'Christine, are you serious?' and I start nodding my head, and the realize that although I'm making a coughing action, there's no noise, and I'm starting to turn beet red. Maui, who's a nurse, comes around and does the Heimlich on me. This dislodges the offending cookie (and I actually end up puking) and in all actuality, saves my life. But then again, he was the one that told the joke that got me gagging in the first place! So after a lot of coughing after that, we had a good laugh over my near death experience. So Maui gave me three things for Christmas - Near-Death, Life, and a cute sweater. The 'Didja hear? Christine almost died!' story must have been told 30 times today. Miracles DO happen on Christmas!

I'm in D.C. today. Whoo hoo! I'll be here til Wednesday, and I I'm hurtin'. I only have a dial up connection, and anytime I log in, it's on the company card. Argh! Well, it will give me time to work on my page and get it all nice and pretty. I'm watching 'My Dog Skip' right now, and it's the cutest movie. Anyone with a dog should watch it. It'll make you cry!

Where is Yano Today? Washington, D.C.

Yesterday we partied for Marky's birthday. It was a really good time, and I saw a couple people I haven't seen in a while. Emer was a bit hammered, which is a surprise. Ok, no it isn't. So early on in the night, he comes up to me (and he was already long gone) and asks, 'Christine, do you know what super hero I want to be?' I'm thinking he's going to say something like 'Superman' or 'Batman' or something. So I bite, and say, 'What?' And he says 'I wanna be Alki-Man.' It figures! And later on in the night, where I'm at the point where I'm holding him up, he says to me, 'Christine, you're gonna make a post about this. I want you to make a post about me. And put some pictures in there.' 'What pictures, Emer?' 'I don't give a fuck, put Psylocke or somethin'. Or me. Just don't post any more pictures of those skater guys.' Ha! When's the last time I posted a pic of a skater guy? You just wait til February, buddy, there'll be skater guy pics galore. So I tell him I'll dedicate my post to him, and I'll post up some pics. So here's some pics of my favorite drunk Emer, and Psylocke. (some of the pics are kinda old, you can tell by my hair)

On a side note, the room service guy just knocked, and when I opened the door, he just stood there. Then he said 'May I come in?' I swear, my vampire alert turned on. I mean, isn't he SUPPOSED to come in? Mental note, pack crucifix and garlic for next trip.

Well, we went to the church yesterday and we were supposed to meet with the priest, but he never showed. The receptionist said that he had left for a dinner not 10 minutes before we arrived. She tried calling his cell a couple times (why does it seem weird to me that a priest has a cell?) but he never called back. So we left. So we're still without a date. *sigh* That's ok, we still have an appointment with Dave's church.

Me and Bryan went to Nordstrom for a midday snack and ran into the huge Hagrid display. This was made entirely out of Legos, and it was built by kids and parents that stopped by the mall. They each got a project sheet, a rubber hammer, and legos to complete their piece of the big Hagrid. It was really cute to see all the little kids work so hard. It's pretty huge, as you can see here. It took 2 days to complete.

Speaking of Harry Potter, I'm heading out to watch it again tonight. Should be a good time. Hopefully I don't fall asleep.

Well, my friend Lara was in town from Milwaukee to see her favorite band, the Love Monkey perform at the Cubby Bear in Lincolnshire. Dan came along, too. The band was really good, and the crowd was pretty into it. But I realized one thing. Well, actually, I had suspected it, but Dan pointed it out to me. The band mostly played rock music covers, and I was kinda having a hard time dancing to it. I'm not a rock dancer. I'm a hiphop dancer. That's what was going through my head. I looked at the people around me, trying to imitate their moves, but my hips just don't move that way! I'm not used to jumping up and down when I dance! But Dan then put it into better perspective for me, since he was just chilling and watching the band. When I sat down to take a break, he said, 'Christine, you'll never be able to do the white person dance'. Ah! That's what it was. So he tried giving me some pointers. But it just didn't work. But I still had a great time!!! It was really nice to see Lara again.

Today was Rice Bowl, and I didn't play this year. Rice Bowl is a yearly football tournament between the Asian clubs of the colleges in Chicago - Loyola, University of Illinois - Chicago, DePaul, Northern and my school, the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. Normally I play as an alum, but I just didn't feel like it this year. Though I did go. And I admit to feeling a pang of regret for not playing. I love football, but I'm really out of shape this year. Maybe next year.

My little cousin Nina also had her 2nd birthday party today. She's so adorable. I'm thinking of maybe having her as my flowergirl, but she's got to go through the interview process first! But isn't she the cutest? I've got about a year to train her to walk down the aisle. It will be pretty intensive training, but she's a tough lil lady, I think she can handle it!

So we all take turns going to the Walgreens downstairs to get snacks and whatnot. I don't usually go, because I usually don't need anything, or the guys volunteer to go before I can think of going. Today, I was a tad bit hungry, so I decided to make a Walgreens run. So I ask if anyone needs anything, and Sam give me this sheepish look. And I'm like, 'Uh uh. No way...' and he says 'Please?' The thing about Sammy is that he likes himself a big fat dip of tobacco every now and then. Well, just now. There is no then. I've given him the whole gum cancer speech and what not, and he had given it up, but he's back in the habit again. And now he's got me off to buy his dip. Ack! The last time I bought dip for him, the little Filipino lady at Walgreens had looked at me in disappointment (a whole bunch of sweet lil' Filipino women work at my Walgreens). So I get in line to get my stuff rung up, and it's a little olf Filipino lady ringing my stuff up. I've got some Pringles that are on sale, only if you have a coupon, and she pulls out an add from behind the counter so I can get the good sale. She smiles at me with that 'I know you're Filipino too' look. Then the shocker...

Me: Um, can I have some Skoal Mint, please?
Tita Flor: What?
Me: Skoal Mint?
Tita Flor: Oh. (eyebrows narrow) I need to see ID (starts searching behind the counter for the Skoal, looks up) What color is it?
Me: Uh, green?
Tita Flor: (still looking...pulls out a blue pack) It's blue. (slams it on the counter....a line is forming behind me. I can feel their eyes burning into my back, 'this little girl dips?')
Me: Oh....uh, so it IS blue. Sorry about that.
Tita Flor: (leaning in towards me and whispering, but loud enough for everyone to hear) Is it yours?
Me: Oh! No...it's not mine! (Tita Flor looks at me disbelievingly.) Really! See? (I pull out my lower lip and show her my gums and lower lip)
Tita Flor: (shaking her head) And they make you buy it for them?
Me: (looking tortured) Yeah....they do!
Tita Flor: You should tell them to stop.
Me: OK...I will
Tita Flor: You'll save their lives!

Wise advice, from a wise woman. Gave the advice to Sam. He said thanks as he started packing his dip. Tsk tsk, some people will never learn...

Back to work today. Since I've been out since the beginning of the week, today felt like a Monday. So in a way, it's like having a two day work week! Whoo hoo! The morning flew by. I went to lunch with Bryan and Sam at 2, but it felt like it was 12. But once we got back from lunch, it seemed that every time I looked at my watch only a minute had gone by. Well, fortunately today I wasn't sleepy. There's just too much for me to do.

I was talking to a client of mine today. We've been talking for the past couple weeks, but I've been away, and never got to finish some issues we were working on. So I'm talking to her on the phone, and she wants to schedule a conference call for Tuesday, because she'll be out of the office until then. So I'm like 'Oh, are you going on vacation?', and she's like 'Uh...well...' and I think to myself, 'What did I just say! What if there was a death in the family or something!' So I'm like, 'I'm sorry...you don't have to tell me'. And then she's like, 'Oh, no, that's ok. Well, see, I'm in a relationship, and uh, a baby came into the picture a couple months ago. And so we had a civil ceremony. So this weekend, well, uh, this weekend is when the actual wedding was scheduled to take place, so we're still going to go through with all that.' She sounded really stressed out, I mean, it was just kinda like she was just going through the motions of it. I didn't know what to say but, 'Uh, well, congratulations and good luck then.' 'Uh, thanks'. God, I really messed that one up.

I'm getting used to this new look and feel for my site. There are still a lot of changes I want to make, but I just need to remember that I can't change everything at once. Thanks to everyone for giving their input.

Nothing much else happened today. But I did find an interesting site. It looks like supermodel drag queen RuPaul has his own weblog. It's pretty nice. It's sounds so normal compared to what I thought it would be. And that was the one thing that I don't remember RuPaul being - normal.

When I got to the train station this morning, there were a ton of news trucks there. As I was trying to get to the train I went to see what the ruckus was. It ended up being none other than Rod Blagojevich, the governor-elect of Illinois. So now I can say I've been within 5 feet of a governor. Exciting.

I've discovered another annoyance with having an engagement ring - wearing gloves. When I wear my leather gloves, the ring migrates to the crevice between my pinky and my ring finger, which gets pretty uncomfortable and annoying. Not that I'm complaining, I'm just making an observation. Ok. I'm complaining.

Meaningless, but Highly Entertaining Conversation of the Day: Discussing cell phone use in movie theaters. Which evolved to a lively re-enactment of the scene from 'Scary Movie' where the girl is in the movie theater and her phone rings, and she's talking to her friend on the phone. I guess it's one of those 'shoulda been there' moments.

CD for the Commute to Work - The Jackson Five Greatest Hits - Ahh, how I loved Michael Jackson back when he was black. This CD has got so many feel good tap your feet songs on it. I just remember some of the guys from college dressed up in fro's doing their little Jackson 5 impression. Oh the memories!

Work is getting busier and busier for me, which in a way is good, as long as I'm not dealing with irritated customers. I like to keep myself busy because it makes the day go faster. I just need to schedule my time better. I'm horrible at that! Tomorrow, I've got the late shift, which is WONDERFUL, because I get to sleep in. Whoo hoo! Then I'm going to watch the premiere of 'Red Dragon'. I'm pretty excited about that. I had always wanted to read the book, but I guess I'll read the book after watching the movie.

Tonight, I clean my room. I've got relatives from Canada coming this weekend, and they're staying in my room. Which means the place must be spotless. I haven't seen my floor in a couple months. I must trick these people into thinking that I'm neat and clean, rather than the hopeless slobby packrat that I really am. I've got a big closet. I'm sure it will all fit in there. I'll MAKE it fit in there. Man, I hate cleaning.

Ahh...it's the little things that make me happy. Before I reflect on this little thing, let me take you back to the day I met Michael Rosenbaum (Lex Luthor from Smallville):
[I was explaining to my parents the reasons why I went to the Chicago Comic Convention]I also said that Michael Rosenbaum would be there. And it was dad's turn to say 'Who is that?' and I replied, 'He's Lex Luthor from Smallville'. And my dad's face lit up and he said, 'Are you going to meet him?' and I replied 'I'm going to try and get an autograph for Kristine. So my dad says, 'When you meet him, tell him that your dad told you to tell him 'I like you in Smallville. I think that you're a really great actor.' Dude, I didn't even know that he watched the show! ...So when we got up there, I had the 8x10 that Kathy bought for Kristine, and I asked him to sign it. As he was signing, I said, 'My dad told me to tell you that he likes you a lot. He thinks you're a great actor.' I wasn't really expecting him to say anything back. But he then said, 'Cool! Where's he at?', to which I replied, 'He's not here, he's not into comics'. And then Fatima took a picture of me and Michael. I said thanks, and before I left, he said, 'Hey, tell your dad that I said HI'. I thought Michael was cute before, but he's even cuter in my eyes now! So after that, I called up my dad and told him about the exchange. My dad was pretty excited. It was really cute. Then he asked me, 'Did you get me his autograph?'. What a funny guy.

So I get home, and my dad's watching TV.

"What are you watching?" I ask.

"I'm watching my man Rosenbaum!" he says enthusiastically. Then he completely zoned me out. [*He was watching Smallville - sorry!]

How cute. That definitely brought a smile to my face last night...

Today Dave's got his medical boards. He's been studying for the past 6 months for them. I know that he's really worried and stressed out about it, but he's one of the smartest, most hard working people I know. (and he's got a cute face and a hot bod to match!) I know he's going to do great. It's not like I'm biased or anything. *wink* I wish him lots of luck.

Two funny stories to start the day.

I was almost late for work today. First of all, I woke up late. Actually, I convinced myself to wake up late. So I'm running out the door, and I'm dressed in this really comfy and cute tank dress. Before leaving, I check in the hallway mirror for that last 'Does my ass look big in this?' look. And lo and behold, 'What the hell?' there was a hole in my dress, right on my ass. Don't know how long it's been there, but after closer inspection, it suspiciously looked like rabbit teeth marks. Damn that rabbit! So I had to run in my room, and find something else to wear. Luckily, I caught the bus right as it was coming to my stop. Good thing I did the ass check. I would never hear the end of it if someone saw the hole at work.

Also, yesterday, I actually left work on time. So i'm waiting for the train, and when it comes in, I see that there's a seat open in the back. I get on, and I see that Claudine, my sister, is sitting in the seat right in front of the empty seat. (she get on the train a couple stops before me) So I sneak into the seat behind her. I lean forward, and softly blow in her ear. No reaction. SO every couple seconds, I blow again into her ear, each time a little harder. I can see her start to tense up, but no verbal reaction. I wanted a reaction, dammit! So I take my bookmark and start flicking her ear. A couple flicks, nothing. But then she FINALLY turns around and almost screams when she sees me. She was SO pissed off. And I was totally laughing my ass off. How I love torturing that girl.

And a HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Amy. Who seems to be enjoying my page and the secret life I hide from her. :)

Well, I was going to post up pictures of the comicon and tell a million stories of all the fun things that happened at the comicon...something happened last night...

I'M ENGAGED!

Yes! Dave actually didn't have a spech to make at a convention. He proposed! Yay! Wow, my head is still reeling. The ring is absolutely beautiful, and he had such a wonderful night planned. It's kinda weird, though. I mean, I've got a fiance now. Crazy! I'm so happy! Yay yay yay! And everyone around me knew except for me. They all planned it, and no one slipped. Not even my mom! There's just so many things going on in my head right now, but they're all good things. Except that I'm really paranoid that I'm going to lose this ring. Or that the rock is gonna pop off. Mental note: must be EXTRA careful with ring.

Somehow, all the comicon stories seem insignificant right now....

So I was 30 feet away from Tom Hanks yesterday. Didn't know that he was in town for the 'Road to Perdition' premier. I was walking to the train station, and there was this big crowd in front of the Chicago Theater. At first I thought there was a show there, but then I saw everyone looking at one place, and the cameras. The TOM! But then the cops made me move out of the way. HMPH!

Today I'll be training some people on something that I have NO idea how to train on. It's crazy! We'll see how much BS I can pull out of my ass. Should be quite interesting!

Meeting Apolo Anton Ohno at the Chicago Sportsfest
Well, I'm not that good at telling stories, but here it is. I was supposed to go with Dave, but he bowed out, so I ended up taking Fatima. So she was a sweetheart, and she came with me to be my camera girl (she doesn't understand the fascination with Apolo, and has no idea why he's so popular - I think she actually despises him, not him, but his popularity). We got there, and there was actually a lot of cool sports memorabilia. So we browsed around, and bought some stuff. Then we met a couple other fans, who were all really nice. I know that Fatima was dying with all our Apolo talk. So Apolo came out, and he signed autographs and talked to fans. His father, Yuki, was there, too. So my turn came up, and the first thing I did was shake his hand, because I made a bet with Claudine right after the Winter Olympics that I was gonna shake Apolo's hand before the next Olympics. Then I asked him if he was tired, and he shyly said 'No, I'm doing ok' and other things, which I really don't remember. It was all kind of a daze. But at least I said something this time! Fatima took some good pics, and she said the funniest thing - 'I wonder if he could feel the hatred eminating from my body.' Well, not everyone could be a fan. She was just tired from waiting around. She was actually going to go up to him and say 'You did a great job at the Olympics - I love you, Rusty!' What a dork. But I love her for suffering through this with me! All in all, it was a great time.

So the whole experience was SO different from the Rusty dinner last week. I mean, I said a total of about 15 words to Apolo, and me and Rusty actually had conversations. I'd have to honestly say that I had a much better time hanging out with Rusty, but then again, the circumstances were way different. Personalities, too. Apolo was pretty shy and bashful when I was talking to him, but Rusty is outgoing and confident. But they're both cute, and they're both great!

But don't get jealous, Dave, you're still my #1. As if he's even going to read this. He doesn't know how to use the internet. :)

Day two at the military base. My client had pointed out some antelope hopping around the base. Pretty happy hoppy antelope! But then I had found out that they have the antelope there because they are more sensitive to humans when there are chemicals in the air. If they find dead antelope, it's time to throw on your gas mask and run. And I was told a couple stories of people getting bitten by brown spiders, and your arm will totally turn red and swell up. And this doesn't happen outside. This is inside, baby - while you're at your desk! How crazy is that!?!?

I got to hang out with Olympic Bronze Medalist, Rusty Smith yesterday. We had a dinner for his fans at Navy Pier, and we all had a great time. He was so nice and sweet and he signed autographs and let everyone hold his medal. It was really an awesome time. Claudine, Dan and Tina were there too, and to my surprise, Dan behaved very well, and actually got along pretty well with Rusty. Unfortunately, I got to meet Rod, too. Yuck. Just kidding. I finally met my nemesis, Rod, and we surprisingly did not kill each other. ;) Really, though, Rod is great guy. (You can give me my $10 now, Rod) Yay! I've eaten dinner with an Olympian! Next up on my list of things to do is to actually GO to the Olympics! I'll have the rest of my pics up as soon as I get my DSL up and running. Same thing goes for the Canada trip.

Dave is finally home from New Jersey. Whoo hoo! No more long distance relationship! Yay! Yay!

Back from vacation! Don't have much to say now, just a couple key phrases to sum up my weeklong vacation...it will mean nothing to you, but I guess you had to be there. It was lots of fun....most of the time!

Killjoy!, auto-locking "the club", dropping the kids off at the pool, the Harrison "hot spring" in a cage, rhodedendrons, full serve gas stations, rats at burger king, jumping off logs, chipped teeth, "hug the bear!", playing cards, sleeping on hardwood floors, whale watching in the gift shop, classic cars, skating movie & eating bugs, the Kings-Lakers series, brown mojitos, the Canadian-US exchange rate, rain at Whistler, the 'salmon enhancement program' - boot camp for sushi, bad luck birthmarks, Evette the Corvette, Wunderbars and Aeros, the "honour" roll, stray eyebrow hairs, homemade bubble tea, seaweed strips, Tony Hawks Canada level, "it's getting hot in here...", three ducks on the $20, leather gimp outfits & men on leashes, the Spice Girls & Alicia Silverstone, roots berets, scary shadows at Elsje Point, black squirrels, rolling offertory bread, exploding crab legs, parts of the body with three letters, "can you spare a square?", www.gaymart.com, the pocky van container, three sisters pond, pictures up Marilyn Monroe's dress, rats at Burger King, "eat the crab fat!", giant pocky's, make your own hotdog, the amazingly entertaining "The Ladies' Man", Kokonee beer, "eat the salmon, it's sockeye", Loft 6, missing and switched underwear, three and a half hours in Dallas, taste testing slurpees at Mack's, lines = lineups, parking lots = parkades, "I'll have an iced tea, no ice, with a cup of ice on the side", the quadruple shot americano, Fear Factor's beetles, tongue trick, pros and cons of the male thong, "Who's older, Christine or Claudine?", the Fluffer, wandering Jews, "blazing", the empty Vancouver airport, the tastiest barbeque skewers ever, fighting over the bill, dancing on stage, eh?

Here's my recount of my Apolo Anton Ohno experience from yesterday.

I came, I saw, I wimped out.

So I had to pick up my friend, and we were running a little late, so we got to the shopping center about 1/2 an hour later than I wanted to. The line was ENORMOUS! Dang! The security was telling us at my end of the line that chances were, we wouldn't be getting an autograph or picture, but it was up to us if we wanted to stay. So then we stayed. When he came (we couldn't see him from our vantage point) all the girls started screaming. I went out of line (my friend held our place) and went up to where he was signing autographs to take some pictures. There were tons of people up there trying to take pictures, too. I got a couple pretty good ones. But I really didn't like the shirt he was wearing!

Finally, we got up to where Apolo was going to be and they announced that Apolo would just be handing out pictures of himself. So I thought 'Well, i'll just take a pic of him when I get up there'. But when I actually got up there, the guy was like, sorry, no pictures, and I got all flustered and walked up to him, watched his hand pick up his picture and hand it to me, and I turned around and walked away. I don't even think I made eye contact! Dammit! Didn't even say thank you! I was really out of my element. I'm supposed to be good at this! I'm supposed to say something smart and witty! But I just blanked out. I hardly remember anything. I'm such a loser! But my friends insist that he totally did a double take and watched me walk away. But I'm thinking he was thinking 'What's up with the zombie?'

And when he was leaving, my friend Tina actually intercepted him, grabbed his arm, and said to him 'MissYano says HI'. Yeah, like he knows...what sort of cryptic message is that? The funniest thing is she said that his security guys were totally all over her, saying 'Don't touch him!' She's crazy.

So that's my anticlimactic Apolo experience. I'm a loser.

But really, as I watched him (I took some breaks from the line) I could tell that he was really shy. He was giggling, laughing and blushing the whole time he was up there. They guy is as cute as a button and he was a lot of fun to watch.

So I would definitely love to meet him again and maybe actually say more than two words!

No worries, Dave, you're still my number 1. =P