almost honest

It's been awhile. Not a ton to say,but hey.

Valentine's Day was nice, and spent with my parents. Saturday we went to a later lunch and went to the movies. The mom and I saw "Valentine's Day" (love!), and the dad went and saw "The Wolfman". There was drooling over Eric Dane by me, for the record. Guh. Just guh. But the dad gave me a pretty red rose (which sits on my nightstand at the moment) and a Target gift card, and the mom gave me a gorgeous new pink purse and matching wallet. Hee. I am addicted to pink and to purses.

Work is good. Tiring, but good.

Am trying to plan a trip to Oregon in April to see the BFF (hahaha!), her husband, and my niece and nephews. Hoping it will all pan out! It also looks like Dad and I will be going to Vegas sometime this summer. I haven't been there in 7 years!

The writing is a challenge so far this year, but I'm relatively sticking to it! Some days are better than others, let me tell you! I have so much story in my brain, and yet, sometimes it just doesn't flow. But I'll get it there, and by golly, I'll have 100k written for In The Spotlight. Because...yes.

Music wise...am completely in love with Lady Antebellum's sophomore effort "Need You Now". They sound amazing, and there's not one song I skip. Amazing songs again. NYN is a given, but I'm in love with "Love This Pain" and "Hello World". Gah. And I lovelovelove how Charles thanks his brother Josh again in the liner notes. It made me smile. I am so looking forward to Josh's new country album within the next few months.

Am currently listening to several live shows from John Mayer that I dled yesterday. He's been doing "In Your Atmosphere" again lately---I love that! At Birmingham, he mixed it with "Something's Missing". Sigh. Love! And geez, he did "Free Fallin'" too. He's trying to kill me. Seriously. I'm still in love with Battle Studies as well. Heartbreak Warfare just kills me. Thank goodness it's the current single!

Ugh. Bed now. Work most of the week, and have Friday off. I've been glued to the Olympic coverage, and I'm knitting a blanket for a friend/former co-worker who is having a baby this summer. So many projects! Heh.

Hope you all are well. Good night! (morning?!?)

It's been awhile. Not a ton to say,but hey.

Valentine's Day was nice, and spent with my parents. Saturday we went to a later lunch and went to the movies. The mom and I saw "Valentine's Day" (love!), and the dad went and saw "The Wolfman". There was drooling over Eric Dane by me, for the record. Guh. Just guh. But the dad gave me a pretty red rose (which sits on my nightstand at the moment) and a Target gift card, and the mom gave me a gorgeous new pink purse and matching wallet. Hee. I am addicted to pink and to purses.

Work is good. Tiring, but good.

Am trying to plan a trip to Oregon in April to see the BFF (hahaha!), her husband, and my niece and nephews. Hoping it will all pan out! It also looks like Dad and I will be going to Vegas sometime this summer. I haven't been there in 7 years!

The writing is a challenge so far this year, but I'm relatively sticking to it! Some days are better than others, let me tell you! I have so much story in my brain, and yet, sometimes it just doesn't flow. But I'll get it there, and by golly, I'll have 100k written for In The Spotlight. Because...yes.

Music wise...am completely in love with Lady Antebellum's sophomore effort "Need You Now". They sound amazing, and there's not one song I skip. Amazing songs again. NYN is a given, but I'm in love with "Love This Pain" and "Hello World". Gah. And I lovelovelove how Charles thanks his brother Josh again in the liner notes. It made me smile. I am so looking forward to Josh's new country album within the next few months.

Am currently listening to several live shows from John Mayer that I dled yesterday. He's been doing "In Your Atmosphere" again lately---I love that! At Birmingham, he mixed it with "Something's Missing". Sigh. Love! And geez, he did "Free Fallin'" too. He's trying to kill me. Seriously. I'm still in love with Battle Studies as well. Heartbreak Warfare just kills me. Thank goodness it's the current single!

Ugh. Bed now. Work most of the week, and have Friday off. I've been glued to the Olympic coverage, and I'm knitting a blanket for a friend/former co-worker who is having a baby this summer. So many projects! Heh.

Hope you all are well. Good night! (morning?!?)

Utterly addicted to John Mayer's amazing "Battle Studies". Fantastic album. Oy. So much love. Heartbreak Warfare, Half Of My Heart (w/ Taylor Swift), Assassin, Perfectly Lonely. Amazing, all of it!!!

It's been kind of a bad couple of days. Started getting sick on Thanksgiving Day, and was full blown sick on Black Friday. Yeah, hello--color me a retail grunt. I love working the holidays (and yes, I am being sincere), so being sick on Black Friday sucked. I muddled through, and still went in to wok on Saturday, obviously not feeling well. Luckily, I have a great boss who sent me home at like, 1 pm. I went straight to Urgent Care, where I then proceeded to get my ears stuck with sticks (literally), and leave with three prescriptions. Joy of all joys, back on an antibiotic, a steroid for the inflammation, and ear drops for my ears. And a nose spray. Gah!

I then proceeded to have a minor meltdown on Satruday afternoon, wherein there was a lot of crying and feeling pathetic (I hate being sick, seriously). There was also a lot of fighting with my computer, which has been having issues since McAfee decided to be stupid and reinstall itself, then proceed not to work. So yeah, Leo the Gateway essentially got a virus and died. Ugh. So during said meltdown, the parents, in an effort to keep me from being all pathetic, took me to Sam's Club. This is where I ended up buying myself a brand new HP desktop with an amazing monitor and a slimline CPU. Way cool. I admit to being in a weakened condition when I made the purchase, but I am so glad that I did. The computer's name is Chris (gah, I know. It was going to be Zach, but the name just didn't seem to fit. Heh. It was then going to be Finn, but then I remembered that that is what my mother named my Wii.) and he is so awesome.

I've spent all evening backing up my iTunes music from the old computer, and it took 16 cd's to do so, but I have all my music, apps, and podcasts back! Now, I just have to redo all of my playlists, which sucks, but it won't take long, I don't think. Then I can sync Timmy the Pod to the computer and be all up and running.

Oy...off to bed. The meds are kicking in and I know it'll kick my butt soon. Work the next couple of days, and have two days off to recover some more. I actually used sick time the last couple of days, which I never do...but I needed it.

First things first, this is a partial GIP to show off my Timmy. I can't believe I haven't had an icon previously of my boy, but now I do. Hee. Timmy!

Second of all, I just got an awesome concert call from my friend and co-worker Jess. She's in Mountain View, CA seeing John Mayer and she called me during "Vultures"--which is one of my favorite songs. He sounded awesome! It made me smile tonight.

My vacation has been great. Dad and I spent two days at Disneyland and we had such a nice time. We spent the first day at California Adventure and rode an incredibly awesome roller coaster. Ran into an ATL client as well, which made my dad laugh. I was wearing my red Fresno State shirt and we had people stopping us in regards to our Bulldogs and the College World Series. Heh. The second day we got up very early and got to the main park right as the gates were opening. Dad and I got right on all the big stuff, and we had tons of fun. We rode all the good stuff and then went back to the hotel to nap for a couple of hours. We went back that afternoon and rode Pirates again, and did a few other rides, including the Jungle Cruise, which I hadn't been on in years. Good times. We shopped, and I got pins for all of my managers, and a new baseball Mickey antenna ball for Sam the Saturn. We didn't make it to the fireworks, as we were freakin' exhausted, but we got to see one of the awesome parades. Dad got some great pics--as soon as Mom cleans them up a bit and gets them on CD, I'll post some here and on MySpace. So yeah, an awesome, awesome trip. Yippee!

Back to work tomorrow. I've missed my team, but it's been so nice to be away from things for the week, let me tell you. I feel much better now that I've had this time off. I wish I could have been writing, but hey, the muse has been relatively useless lately.

Bed soon, methinks. Ugh. ;)

First things first, this is a partial GIP to show off my Timmy. I can't believe I haven't had an icon previously of my boy, but now I do. Hee. Timmy!

Second of all, I just got an awesome concert call from my friend and co-worker Jess. She's in Mountain View, CA seeing John Mayer and she called me during "Vultures"--which is one of my favorite songs. He sounded awesome! It made me smile tonight.

My vacation has been great. Dad and I spent two days at Disneyland and we had such a nice time. We spent the first day at California Adventure and rode an incredibly awesome roller coaster. Ran into an ATL client as well, which made my dad laugh. I was wearing my red Fresno State shirt and we had people stopping us in regards to our Bulldogs and the College World Series. Heh. The second day we got up very early and got to the main park right as the gates were opening. Dad and I got right on all the big stuff, and we had tons of fun. We rode all the good stuff and then went back to the hotel to nap for a couple of hours. We went back that afternoon and rode Pirates again, and did a few other rides, including the Jungle Cruise, which I hadn't been on in years. Good times. We shopped, and I got pins for all of my managers, and a new baseball Mickey antenna ball for Sam the Saturn. We didn't make it to the fireworks, as we were freakin' exhausted, but we got to see one of the awesome parades. Dad got some great pics--as soon as Mom cleans them up a bit and gets them on CD, I'll post some here and on MySpace. So yeah, an awesome, awesome trip. Yippee!

Back to work tomorrow. I've missed my team, but it's been so nice to be away from things for the week, let me tell you. I feel much better now that I've had this time off. I wish I could have been writing, but hey, the muse has been relatively useless lately.

Bed soon, methinks. Ugh. ;)

Anyone who knows me knows I am a John Mayer fangirl--and today was a huge fangirl moment for me. His new CD/DVD "Where the Light Is" was released today and after work and doctor-y stuff, I got my copy, and a copy of the CD for my mom. I came straight home, loaded the two CDs onto my iPod, then loaded the DVD in my player.

For over an hour and a half, I was in John Mayer concert heaven. The acoustic set is amazing, and I finally have a CD version of "In Your Atmosphere", which is one of the songs I have never heard him do live. he also does an incredible cover of "Free Fallin'". Sigh. Ilovehim.
The JM Trio set rocks, and "Wait Until Tomorrow" is fantastic. His full band set is awesome, and I love him so very much for keeping "Why Georgia" in the set.

My little JM loving heart is so full tonight. I plan on watching the DVD again before I head off to bed. Eee!

And selfishly, I am also excited to get a different copy of the DVD, as I have a coworker who manages one of John's band members (yes, literally) who apparently got a copy autographed for me. Um, color me psyched! I may squeal and never touch the shrink wrap. LOL.

Let's see--the parents and I went to the Fresno State rally last week and welcomed our National Champion Bulldogs home. It was absolutely incredible. Over 7,000 people packed our stadium and infield. It was so much fun, and the team was so grateful. An awesome night. And on a Fresno State note, our boys were nominated for an ESPY Award for Best Upset. Hee. I already submitted my vote. Woohoo! Way to go, 'Dogs! I also picked up my championship game T-shirts, becasue I have to have commemorative gear to show FSU pride!

Ahahaha--Justin's commercials for the ESPYs are great. Just brilliant.

Work has been interesting and stressful lately. I'll do a locked post on this topic sometime soon. On another random work topic, a nice client brought us little boxes of fresh blueberries tonight. They're so good!

I've been talking to an old friend again lately. You know who you are. It's been very nice to catch up. I've missed you. Truly.

Finished Shadow's Return, the new Nightrunner book. I liked it a lot. I'm now passing it on to my mom to read.

Day off tomorrow. Going to go take a couple of things to the parents' house and spend the day with them and the dogs. Heh.

Back to squealing over the Mayer. Because--love. Incredible, incredible, overwhelming love.

So yesterday the dad and I went up to San Francisco to the 2007 All Star Fanfest. It was so awesome. We got to see the 2007 MVP trophy and the World Series trophy, and a bunch of cool Hall of Fame stuff. We had a lot of fun, and I got an All Star shirt and a brand new orange and black Giants jersey. My old one had Jason Schmidt's name on it and now he's a Dodger traitor, so I refuse to wear it. Heh. This one has no name and number on the back, so I can't lose. But Dad had a friend he plays baseball with that runs an embroidery shop, and could have a number put on the back if I want. If I do it, I'm either going to do #22 (for my beloved Mike Matheny), or #37 for Jack Taschner. I can't decide. Heh. But Dad and I had a great day in SF, and got a little lost on the way back home, but it made for a fun day. We got home and watched the rest of the Giants/Cardinals game. Tim Lincecum totally made my day by ignoring the sign from the third base coach to score. Hee. He's adorable and gutsy.

We actually listened to a lot of Live Earth on XM Radio, but I missed Keith Urban. Got to hear John Mayer, who did an outstanding job. He picked a good four song setlist too, with Belief, Vultures, Gravity, and Waiting On The World To Change. I did, however, get to hear Keith Urban and Alicia Keys, and was blown away. Keith must have been psyched to sing with her, and they were amazing together. The guitar solo was incredible. The XM idiots irritated me, though, and one of the guys was all "Who knew he could play like that!?". I gave my dad a look when the idiot commentator said that. Luckily, the other guy redeemed it by saying "Well, his fans sure did.". Thank you, Captain Obvious. The fans know. And there's a lot of us, thanks. But Highway 16 on XM replayed Keith's Live Earth set from yesterday this morning. He was awesome, and Stupid Boy sounded so good. I may have gotten a bit weepy. He did a terrific job, as did Mayer.

Have been scribbling in my notebook lately. The mom gave me an old ledger that she found at the house and I've been scribbling notes for my Reasons Why series. I've easily got 20 ideas written down, and it's been fun to see where and how I can develop Tony and Hannah and their friendship and eventual relationship. There's so much I can play with, and it actually may turn into a novel, if I can develop Tony in a different way--and original way, including a name change. We'll see. I'm concentrated on my writing again, for some reason. I just want it so bad, I guess. I lovelovelove my job, but I still have the whole author thing in the back of my head.

Work is good. I've missed a few days with the food poisoning incident (which is all better now), but I'm back at work with almost a new enthusiasm. My final interview for store manager @ River Park (it's basically just to put my name on paperwork, really, and to find out a bit more about me) is July 31st and I'm getting my brain prepared for that. It'll go well and I'm not worried, but it's nice to be ready and have the proper language in my head. This fall is going to change my life completely, and while I'm excited, I'm sad too. I won't have Rach to rely on anymore and yeah, that scares me. I know I can do it, but it's nice to have someone I trust completely around. Something to get used to, I guess.

Had a store meeting this morning, and then I have to pick Rach up at 2:30 to had back to do the split shift and work 3-8 today. Have Wednesday and Thuirsday off, so that'll be nice. I need to clean my apartment and such, and I really need to go get a new little bookcase for my writing books, which I really need to pull out of boxes and set up again. Meep.

Off to nap (maybe) before I shower again today for work. Have a good day!

So yesterday the dad and I went up to San Francisco to the 2007 All Star Fanfest. It was so awesome. We got to see the 2007 MVP trophy and the World Series trophy, and a bunch of cool Hall of Fame stuff. We had a lot of fun, and I got an All Star shirt and a brand new orange and black Giants jersey. My old one had Jason Schmidt's name on it and now he's a Dodger traitor, so I refuse to wear it. Heh. This one has no name and number on the back, so I can't lose. But Dad had a friend he plays baseball with that runs an embroidery shop, and could have a number put on the back if I want. If I do it, I'm either going to do #22 (for my beloved Mike Matheny), or #37 for Jack Taschner. I can't decide. Heh. But Dad and I had a great day in SF, and got a little lost on the way back home, but it made for a fun day. We got home and watched the rest of the Giants/Cardinals game. Tim Lincecum totally made my day by ignoring the sign from the third base coach to score. Hee. He's adorable and gutsy.

We actually listened to a lot of Live Earth on XM Radio, but I missed Keith Urban. Got to hear John Mayer, who did an outstanding job. He picked a good four song setlist too, with Belief, Vultures, Gravity, and Waiting On The World To Change. I did, however, get to hear Keith Urban and Alicia Keys, and was blown away. Keith must have been psyched to sing with her, and they were amazing together. The guitar solo was incredible. The XM idiots irritated me, though, and one of the guys was all "Who knew he could play like that!?". I gave my dad a look when the idiot commentator said that. Luckily, the other guy redeemed it by saying "Well, his fans sure did.". Thank you, Captain Obvious. The fans know. And there's a lot of us, thanks. But Highway 16 on XM replayed Keith's Live Earth set from yesterday this morning. He was awesome, and Stupid Boy sounded so good. I may have gotten a bit weepy. He did a terrific job, as did Mayer.

Have been scribbling in my notebook lately. The mom gave me an old ledger that she found at the house and I've been scribbling notes for my Reasons Why series. I've easily got 20 ideas written down, and it's been fun to see where and how I can develop Tony and Hannah and their friendship and eventual relationship. There's so much I can play with, and it actually may turn into a novel, if I can develop Tony in a different way--and original way, including a name change. We'll see. I'm concentrated on my writing again, for some reason. I just want it so bad, I guess. I lovelovelove my job, but I still have the whole author thing in the back of my head.

Work is good. I've missed a few days with the food poisoning incident (which is all better now), but I'm back at work with almost a new enthusiasm. My final interview for store manager @ River Park (it's basically just to put my name on paperwork, really, and to find out a bit more about me) is July 31st and I'm getting my brain prepared for that. It'll go well and I'm not worried, but it's nice to be ready and have the proper language in my head. This fall is going to change my life completely, and while I'm excited, I'm sad too. I won't have Rach to rely on anymore and yeah, that scares me. I know I can do it, but it's nice to have someone I trust completely around. Something to get used to, I guess.

Had a store meeting this morning, and then I have to pick Rach up at 2:30 to had back to do the split shift and work 3-8 today. Have Wednesday and Thuirsday off, so that'll be nice. I need to clean my apartment and such, and I really need to go get a new little bookcase for my writing books, which I really need to pull out of boxes and set up again. Meep.

Off to nap (maybe) before I shower again today for work. Have a good day!

Last night was my third time seeing John Mayer in concert. This time, he completely blew me away. Fresno in '04 was awesome, and last year at Concord was great, but this time in Fresno? Amazing. He was completely on with the voice, the guitar, everything. I had my mom and dad with me and they had a great time too.

He did 15 songs, which includes a three song acoustic encore, ending with "I'm Gonna Find Another You". What's funny is that the official site has the set list wrong. Heh. He must have changed some things at the last minute. He didn't do "I Don't Need No Doctor", which I was surprised at, but he did a fantastic new song that will most likely be on the next album called "The Hurt". Oh man, this song was killer. It apparently was supposed to be on Continuum, but didn't make it. Hee.

He did "Why Georgia" so perfect last night and I only got teary for once second, I swear. The crowd sang along like crazy. So awesome. He also did "Vultures", which is my favorite, and he did an amazing job on "Gravity", which the whole crowd knew. It must have been gratifying to hear the crowd sing along with that one.

Old song wise, he pulled out "Neon" and "3x5", which blew my mind. I've never seen him do either song live, so I was incredibly pleased. Plus, he had David Ryan Harris with him and he rocks.

Fresno, CA (6/6/07) Set List (in the wrong order, but still...):
Waiting on the World to Change
Neon
Belief
Good Love is On the Way
No Such Thing
I Don't Trust Myself (With Loving You)
Why Georgia
The Heart of Life
Vultures
Bigger Than My Body
Gravity

-- encore --
3x5 (acoustic)
Slow Dancing (acoustic)
The Hurt (acoustic)
I'm Gonna Find Another You

Yeah, so I'm on Cloud 9 today. My head is pounding, but oh so worth the 11th row seats. Hee. He is a gorgeous, gorgeous man.

Happy, happy, I am. Next week is Keith Urban, which I am completely excited for. I'm afraid our seats aren't a good as I was hoping, but there's a runway AND two stages, so I don't have a problem with that. Plus, it's Keith. Whee!

Got home at two this morning. Heh. Last night was tons of fun. Went over to Rachael and Jason's and played with the kids, and a bunch of their friends came over and then Lallen, Marcus and Lauren came and everyone played card games and drank. Well, I didn't drink, but I was the peanut gallery for the game and cheered everyone on. We had a great time, and I then proceeded to get home very, very late. Heh. Happy St. Patrick's Day it was. It was nice to be around my friends (and family, for that matter, really) and laugh and have a good time. Plus, drinking friends are vastly amusing.

It's been an interesting week. First off, my grandmother is not doing well at all. As of right now, she probably won't make it through the rest of the week. She was bad a couple of weeks ago, then made an amazing recovery, and now it's back to worse. So we'll see. This is my dad's mom, and my Mexican side of the family, so it's kind of emotional and a big chaotic thing. Sigh.

On the good side of the week, on Friday, the mom and I scored 11th row tickets for John Mayer in June. Heh. Section 2, Row K. Meep. I'm going to throw things at the man and proclaim my undying love. Seriously. Hee.

Also on Friday, I met up with my dear brightillusions for dinner at California Pizza Kitchen, and we chatted for a couple of hours about all sorts of stuff. It was nice. I needed that. After I went to Barnes and Noble and found two new books and a great character naming sourcebook. It's fantastic.

Finally went and started a silly MySpace thing. I'm still trying to come up with a unique URL, but so far, nothing I like is working, so I'm sticking with the numeric name for awhile. I'm over here (http://www.myspace.com/163964561) if anyone wants to add.

I need to finish my "college" fic for the prompt at pdficchallenge. Meep. Must get it done by tonight. And pick for this week. Haha.

Off to be productive. Or go back to sleep, either way.