My whirlwind tour of SoCal went something like this:

Thursday, Nov. 10:
3:30p - arrive at LAX
5:30p - finally pick up rental car after waiting for 2 hrs (Rent Rite is cheap but argh, it was frustrating)
6:30p - dinner with friend (Rowland Heights)
8:30p - meeting up with friends at friend's home (Anaheim)
1:00a - getting back to cousin's place to sleep (Aliso Viejo)

Friday, Nov. 11th:
8a - meet in Buena Park to run errands with bride-to-be
12p - casual lunch with bride-to-be's parents and relatives
2p - run errands for bride-to-be (Buena Park)
3p - meet up with friend for coffee (Garden Grove)
6:30p - spontaneous dinner with friend and his wife since they happened to be in the area
8:30p - salsa dance lesson at Cal State LA and free dancing (LA?)
11p - out for snacks and food with friends (San Gabriel)
2a - get to friend's house to sleep after missing the exit several times (Rowland Heights)

Saturday, Nov. 12th:
10:30a - breakfast with friend and his wife (Fullerton)
1:45p - meet in Buena Park to carpool to wedding reception location to help set up
3p - start help setting up at restaurant (San Gabriel)
5:40p - get dressed for wedding reception
6p - wedding reception begin
11p - clean-up; head back to Buena Park
1a - back at friend's place to sleep (Rowland Heights)

Sunday, Nov. 13th:
9a - breakfast with friends (Irvine)
1p - 9p - hang out with cousin's in-laws, witness her brother-in-law's daughter learn to ride a bike without training wheels for the very first time (Burbank?)
11p - 2a - hang out with cousins (Aliso Viejo)

Monday, Nov. 14th:
SLEEP IN UNTIL 10:00AM (MUCH NEEDED)
10:20a - breakfast at home with cousins while practicing Chinese together
11:20a - meet Mr. Syndromes for the first time and have boba (Laguna Hills, Irvine)
2:20p - check out friend's new apartment (Laguna Hills)
2:50p - leave for LAX
3:50p - majorly stressing in traffic on the 405 freeway
4:15p - return rental car; got one day free after talking with manager about pickup frustration
4:25p - shuttle arrives
4:35p - arrive at airport
4:40p - arrive at gate, all sweaty and gross
4:55p - depart LA

Next time I will leave earlier. Yes I know, I stressed myself out for no reason. Thank goodness it all worked out.

I really felt like I got a lot done during this trip. I got to see and spend time with loved ones (and meet some new people too!). Thanks to everyone who set aside time to hang out with me and/or provide accommodations! Feelin' da love ...

Oh, the pictures. Tons 'n tons of pictures. Ahhhhh ...

Oops. Passed out from exhaustion last night after a long day at work (yay, but tiring). I have 3 hours to pack and get my act together. Here goes!

With my new speakers (an upgrade to my laptop speakers on a budget!), I am now tuning in to Shoutcast (Digitally Imported's Deep House station, to be exact). Oh how nice it is to have bass. (A neighbor's unsecured wireless internet is definitely contributing to my happiness here too.)

Scored a sweet deal on 'em. After tax and rebates, $15. Thank you, bensbargains.net (again).

Any high-end brand speakers with high-end prices will easily blow these away, but ... for $15, I am super happy. [does the Caroline dance]

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[back from doing the Caroline dance]

I'm having an early Christmas. A friend just dropped some gift cards on me (thank you thank you thank you!!!). Oh man, I am totally blown away. All of them were pretty straight forward, you know, "card has no value until activated by checker" and whatnot, except for the American Express gift card. I pulled that sucker out and there was this whole sheet full o' fine print. It's all good. Will read fine print for money.

Dude, I did it! I finished a 28-mile bike ride participating in the Tour De Doughnut!

I only ate 4 doughnuts. I think that's probably the upper limit at which they still taste good.

Ow, my arse.

I have been reminded that it is unwise to pick your nose after chopping up a bunch of hot chili peppers.

Feelin' the burn ...

I feel so popular. I have 101 friends on my Friendster now. I will admit, one of them I do not know but added when she added me because I was just starting out on Friendster and wallowing in the throes of Friendsterlessness, and one of them is a dog. But I'm friends with the dog. Fo' sho'.

It's pretty interesting to see who knows who, I have to admit. Sometimes I'll just sift around and click away and be amazed at how small the world is. And revel in my false sense of popularity. Hey, leave me alone, I was never one of the popular kids! At least I can be semi-cyber-popular! Well, one thing I will give Friendster credit for, and that is reconnecting me with friends I've lost touch with (and regrettably, there are many, due to my laziness). Friendster has been neat in that if I find someone, I guess I can let them know that although I haven't been good at keeping in touch, I have never forgotten them.

Of course it gets tricky when so many people my age are getting hitched and I can't add them cuz I don't know their new last name.

I know you want to join and add me. JOIN AND ADD ME JOIN AND ADD ME JOIN AND ADD ME JOIN AND ADD ME JOIN AND ADD ME JOIN AND ADD ME JOIN AND ADD ME

Chatting with Sam, a long time friend, for the first time in a very long time:

corona13 (11/1/2005 4:00:41 PM): did i um, tell you about the rap song i wrote?
lecrivains (11/1/2005 4:00:53 PM): no!
corona13 (11/1/2005 4:00:59 PM): it's nothing epic, but it's hilarious, in my opinion

...

lecrivains (11/1/2005 4:05:25 PM): i like it.
lecrivains (11/1/2005 4:05:36 PM): the song is cool..
corona13 (11/1/2005 4:05:40 PM): HAHAHAHAHHA yay thanks!
lecrivains (11/1/2005 4:05:48 PM): the caroline has rhythm. cool!

...

lecrivains (11/1/2005 4:20:46 PM): i added your song to my iPod.
corona13 (11/1/2005 4:21:35 PM): HAHAHAHHA YES!!!!!
corona13 (11/1/2005 4:21:42 PM): that is freakin' awesome

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That made me feel good. I mean, Fri and I got added to someone's iPod! Wow.

Congratulations to Sam and his wife on expecting a baby girl in February. He's gonna be the best daddy ever!

This morning was bizarre. In between snoozing on my alarm clock (as usual) and trying to ignore people calling the house NONSTOP for an hour straight (very unusual) I had this weird dream that some contruction workers had broken into the house and were building this really ugly statue on the roof. I was aghast because if the landlords were to find out about this, I would for sure be in deep doodoo. I was telling the workers to stop and that they were building on the wrong house and to take that thing off the roof but they insisted that we had ordered it. Weeeird.

A disjointed post for a disjointed start to a day.

I was too tired to go to the Hallowe'en parade, so I just went to a little costume gathering tonight.

It was nice.

I gave a girl a lap dance as an upcoming birthday gift for her - as per her request.

Someone threw up at the end of the night but it wasn't me. Whoa.

I'm now peeling everything off and showering and washing all this gunk out of my hair and getting all the makeup off my face so I can just collapse. Into. Bed.

Yay for an extra hour of sleep.