Useless random babble

I think I need an iPod touch to go next to my bed so I can stream pandora radio. I often fall asleep listening to the radio or TV.

I just recently learned how to use the sleep function on the TV.

I can fall asleep without those vices, but there are nights my mind wanders.

I want to go line dancing.

I need new t-shirts. I buy tons every year only to dislike them after wearing them a couple times.

Tshirts just seem to wear out.

I went to Nordstrom Rack the other day and found several 7 Diamonds shirts I wanted for only $34 (regular $75-100), but they were all smalls.

I went to the Rack closest to my house - 30 miles close - and they had none. Pobrecito.

My dad thinks I should hyphenate my last name. I've always gone by my last name, as my mom, and sister. He says given my interest in Spanish culture I should do it. I already think I have the coolest last name, so that would be really uncool doing that. FYI in Spanish culture it is the father's last name + the mother's last name.

I had a convo with my bf about last names the other day and he said it would have to be his last name and then mine because of the flow. He wasn't too keen on my last name though, but it is awesome sauce, so I don't know what he's talking about.

I loathe hot weather.

I am so grateful I have an awesome car dealer who did some "warranty work" for me on my car even though it is out of warranty.

TV Land seems to be putting jingles on all their shows, and while they're harsh, I like the thought.

Oh, and I love the new ABC 7 Eyewitness News iPhone alarm app. Alysha, Garth, Phillip, and Leslie are waking me up every morning.

Snippets from my life

1. Tagalong made me feel better by calling me at 10:30p.m. tonight asking if I could help her with a project, and in the process just calmed my nerves, and reassured me she is fighting for me to have the same prep as I did this year.

2. Lunch with Blondie is always fun - and we can mostly manage to not talk about school even!

3. Olive Garden twice in one day is sometimes good.

4. Jack Off Buddy's expertise has been interesting, especially with his insights about the dreams I've been having about work.

5. I have found my dream small car - if I were rich.

6. I found some really cool t-shirts on Nordstrom's website that have pictures of popular literary works on clearance that I'm tempted to buy, but can't bring myself to spend that amount. And there's even phone cases to match!

7. I start physical therapy soon for my leg - it turns out there is something wrong - Kaiser misdiagnosed when I initially saw the doctor. The doctor only did an x-ray, but should have done an MRI as that si the only way a torn meniscus can be detected. My BF's friend encouraged me to ask about that, and sure enough. I start physical therapy for it soon.

8. The chiropractor is fun. He's cool to talk to, love a nice massage before being twisted and cracked in several different directions. My neck always feels so good after. The gal who I had last week who did my massage is on the verge of amazing. She found so many knots I didn't even know I had.

Airport Shuttle

Haven't blogged much about my BF and I, but we are doing well.

He ventured off Monday morning for a long week in his home state. I spent a good deal of time at his house mowing, pruning bushes, and stuff like that. He got back Saturday night. I picked him up at the airport. We tried to do dinner with our friends J&B, but it didn't happen. Instead we drove over to South Coast Plaza to try to go to an italian place there, but it was a 75 minute wait. We drove back our way, stopped at Olive Garden for some nom.

I left last night, Father's Day, around 5pm to go see my BF again and take him to the airport. It was our weekend getaway. We had a blast exploring Downtown LB. Saw lots of interesting people and stores. Tried an awful mediterranean/Lebanese place. I love me some tabbouleh, baba ghanoush, or hummus, but this stuff was smokey and had hardly any flavor. This was a highly rated place on yelp with an incompetent hostess who we saw doing anything and everything in the restaurant from sweeping it, to wiping tables and setting them, to dropping off checks and swiping ATM cards. She was so disorganized and all over - had she not been doing all that we may have been sat 20 minutes earlier.

After a disappointing dinner we ventured into the LB to visit downtown for Pinkberry - unfortunately it was 10 and they were just closing. We found an In-N-Out for milkshakes and went to the hotel where we watched TV and played around. I really enjoyed feeling his body next to me. I slept really well. I was up at 5 to take him to the airport, then back to the hotel to get caught up on the morning news shows, then took off about 8 for breakfast, a look at Bellmont Shores, and other neighborhoods in LB.

This is his busy season and he will be traveling a lot over the next several weeks, so soon we will have some time to ourselves. We have dinners planned this weekend with friends. Woo!

It's Father's Day

And I came home to visit. My dad has been laying on the couch all day sleeping as he had a late night out at a ball game. How boring. He already saw the gift I got for him in the garage under a tarp, so I was disappointed and it was anticlimactic giving it to him. He was like "oh, thanks."

So here's some of the scary stuff my dad sings constantly. Like where in the hell did he ever learn these 2 songs? Where did he come from?





Update: Me asking a question became a disagreement because I guess he didn't like the question - what time was he going to want dinner, so he went to get Jack in the Box for the family instead. Guess we're having a late dinner. He's been asleep on the couch all afternoon.

Catchiest song hooks

I have been eating up VH1's new countdown of the 100 hottest hooks. They've featured songs like Rehab by Amy Winehouse, So What? from Pink, and Live Your Life from Rihanna.

What song would you say has the hottest hook?

There's so many catchy ones, but there's a few that really stick to mind for me:

Lady Antebellum's Need You Now


Amy Winehouse's Rehab


Superbass by Nicki Minaj


I'm Yours by Jason Mraz


Anything Kesha

I tended to stick to pop songs like they did, but there's many catchy country songs too.

And I am that good where after hearing the first few chords can identify the song going to be played.

What do you think some of the catchiest song hooks are?

Stalked to get together

After trying for nearly a month I finally tracked The Guy down. I pinned him pretty well on Monday and we agreed on today.

Hung out about 1 until 5. How was it? Great! I really missed his insight and conversation. We picked up right where we left off and talked about iOS6, Mountain Lion, our boyfriends, how he feels about his boyfriend moving in/where they're at, how things are going for Mike and I about moving in, his dealer, him living within his means and only spending 1/4 of what he did when he was with Josh, and how successful I've been. We are hoping to hang again in the next week or so...

International Traveler

The past 3 weeks have been amazing!!! In the course of nearly a month my dream to Spain unfolded. I was looking at cruises a few months back, found a cheap one, and encouraged my bf we should do it. We looked at other cruises and didn't really find a good one. We talked about it, and decided that we would do it. I would pay for the cruise, which was about $50 a night for a 7 night cruise, and he would cover airfare. The planning began, and I mapped out all the cities, landmarks, and restaurants we needed to eat at. 

So here's what we did- 

Left for Spain on a red eye out of LA. Landed in NY in the morning and spent Memorial Day in NYC doing what New Yorkers do - going to GMA, Coney Island, Little Italy, and then headed to the airport for a red eye to Madrid. 

Woke up in the morning in Madrid where we spent some time debating how to use the Metro to get to the hotel. The maps weren't as easy as provided, but thanks to some experimenting we sound discovered we were on the right track. What a beautiful Metro. 

Got to the hotel and saw how voyeuristic the room was - the shower was in the middle of the room - that was hot to watch btw. 

So here's the highlights and important things from Spain in the order we did them: 

- Parque Retiro

- bus tour

- Fountain de Cibeles

- Gran Via

- Museo del Prado (So cool to see artwork I'd studied)

- Plaza Mayor 

- Palacio Real

- Walked through the gay area/party area, Chueca

- Salamanca, the ritzy area

- Mall in Salamanca

(Photo of Parque Retiro)

Some tidbits about Madrid

- Cheap wine was good

- People were somewhat unfriendly

- Couldn't get used to flagging down a waiter, flagging to get our bill, almost felt as if we were intruding

- Food was not good - everything was served on bread, icky calamari everywhere with no taste

- Ate thai when we couldn't take more bad tapas - not what I'd pictured

- Madrid people looked down on my Spanish until I got differences in basic words (bano vs. aseo) etc. - we found a charming bar we went to 2 nights with friendly people, which was nice. 

Went to a coastal city where we saw the following: 

- Roman ruins (INCREDIBLE!)

- Really old churches

- Good food

- fun outdoor cafes

- Picasso's boyhood home

Tidbits about coastal city:

- Friendly people

- Good food

(Picasso's boyhood home)

Took an 8 day cruise on one of the world's largest cruise ships - it was the largest at induction in 2001. Info about the ship/people: 

- British like their sun

- Speedos on skinny guys are sexy

- The service on the ship was atrocious due to a language barrier between the staff and people on it

- The cruise catered to an English crowd at times too much, and to Spanish too much at times

- Awful cruise director who seemed like a game show host

- Good wait staff only in the dining room

- Some not so friendly bartenders - but nicer the longer they had been around on the ship

- Room steward and all service staff had a language barrier understanding basic things we were asking whether we asked in English or Spanish

- Dumb cruise ship policies especially towards gratuities 

- Friendly Americans

- We were placed twice at a Spanish speaking dinner table, and I felt soooooo bad and offered to switch tables many times for my bf so he could have interaction because I knew he wanted it, and so many days he had only spoke to me. 

- A big promenade instead of a nice walkway for seating was interesting, but took away from the intimacy, but on such a large ship it was necessary it seemed

The stops:

- Loved Valencia - very old, good food, nice people

- Rome - soooooo many people everywhere, which detracted from it making it feel very touristy and blah (so many people like NYC x3) 

1 more day when it was not so busy would have been nice

Saw Trevi fountain, Vatican (so different than we expected), Coliseum

- Florence - charming city! Friendly people! Great shopping - watches and suits! Loved Il Dumo, the big river, the trees, the city smelled wonderful

- Corsica - unfriendly French, expensive prices (4 euros for a soda), we had a definite language barrier, and I felt helpless, as did Mike. We couldn't even get one dude to give us a menu in a restaurant... obviously we weren't that hungry. Saw Napoleon's boyhood home, found a French cafe on the water with friendly Spansih and we dined on 2 bottles of wine and tapas

Back to Spain for a day, then off to Switzerland for the night, Germany, and back to LA!

It was honestly the trip of a lifetime as cliche as that sounds - and I love my boyfriend is so agreeable after a little convincing.