i can add another scenario for the "if winter quarter is like autumn quarter" thing - i'd probably chew my own arm off.

i'm currently watching a group of people play risk, yes...risk and it's really amusing - but i think it's only amusing because of the mix of people who are playing. there seems to be a whole lotta funny that just can't be explained, but has to be witnessed.

my time at home is quickly coming to an end, and school starts up in just a couple of days, and darn it, i'm not ready to go back. it's like...NOOOO!!! [think homer finding out that donuts and beer have been eliminated from the entire planet.] arg...i love just sitting around and having nothing to do - of course that whole deal would get tired after awhile, but after spending all of autumn quarter just barely surviving, it's kind of nice to veg. i'm seriously hoping that this quarter will be way more chill than last - i might not survive if it's just as crazy. ok...that's a little extreme. it's more like i'd be like an animal that's been caged and starved and taught to be mean.

after a short stop to costco earlier today, i've found the reason why my vision's been all wiggy. it seems that my Rx on my lenses have been switched - and i don't know if it was my own error when i wrote the order, or whether it was a lab error. i guess i'll find out when i go to work on next friday.

ARRHHH! and my parents are all like "blah blah blah grad school blah blah blah" and i'm like..."i'm never going back to school...i'm never going back to school..."

my parents seem to have normal friends. the dinner was fine, though our original plan to drive separately did get vetoed. and we had a bit of an adventure finding their house...i felt like chevy chase and family searching for wallyworld. it was a little ridiculous how long it took us to find the house. note to self: check address and directions online - do not rely on dad's sense of direction. when we got there, it turned out to be more than just a few people...it was like a whole phatty party of adults - and their kids got to stay home. we made nice with the kids of the host friends and watched some football and 2+ hours of the iron chef - and as fun as the iron chef is, it might have been one episode too much. [i'm definitely securing the two vehicles thing next time.] and my big nagging fear that this was just another ploy of my parents to marry me off turned out to be unfounded. hooray! the dinner host family had three boys - high schooler, 5th year college kid, and college grad. so, we weren't subjected to odd conversations by the adults - we had the kiddie table.

the guy in college actually goes to rice down in texas and he actually knows the people that i went to high school with who went to rice - talk about small world. and the grad was an almost prototype asian kid who played some musical instrument and was in the PYP so he knew my neighbors tim and alan. trippy. and they were really into the food network - i had no idea that channel had such a following :)

and in another weird turn of small world events - the mom of some guys i sort of knew from high school was at the dinner, along with aunty margaret and uncle phillip from the church i went to when i was in jr high/high school, before i left for college. it was like the randomest gathering. but all in all, it wasn't the nightmare that i envisioned it to be, so it was like a pleasant evening.

happy new year everyone!!!

i spent my new year's eve in two parts - the first part of the evening was spent running through downtown portland on a photo scavenger hunt with a digital camera, and our team won! [good job jeana and george!] our prizes were gift cards to starbucks - hello caffeine :D and the second part was just hanging out for a low-key evening at patty and joany's house out in clackamas. we had pizza and watched movies - xxx, the movie with vin diesel, and barbershop. i would say skip over the vin diesel movie and just watch barbershop, which was totally hilarious. i think the rest of the party crew is still over at the wong's house playing risk... haha...aren't we just outta control? if alternate realities existed, i wonder what it would've been like to see all of us as crazy party people... i think if i hadn't already committed to going to the scavenger hunt/movie/pizza night, i would've stayed home and read or crocheted or something - i am so boring. :)

it's weird to think that it's 2003 now. goodness the years just pass faster and faster. well, with a new year, i should probably make a list of some kind about all the things that i'll resolve to do, but never really get around to doing. does anybody actually keep their new year's resolutions anyway?

i just found out that us kiddies have to go out to dinner with my parents tomorrow night because some friends of theirs have invited us out to dinner at their home in lake oswego. our only stipulation is that we drive separately from the parentals so that we can make an early escape as soon as we've eaten. there will be zero tolerance for hanging around post-dinner, just in case my parents have weird friends or something. and i still haven't figured out why we have to be there - but if there's even a hint of parading us kids around like we're trophy children [because we're so not], i'm outta there.

ok, be safe and merry kids.

the neat part about school holidays is that i get to see friends that i haven't seen in forever! at church earlier today, i got to see patty [formerly a husky - now a duck], her boyfriend michael, and our friends tomo and gori. it was nice to catch up, but it was also another reminder that the old group that we hung out with all the time prior to all of us going to college is sorta gone. we've all got our own thing going on now and well, we're just not as close as we all used to be. growing up...a tad bittersweet. and i guess it doesn't help that i suck at keeping in touch with people - with me it's like, out of sight, out of mind. i should definitely make more of an effort to keep in touch with peeps.

eeeee...i'm using wendy's titanium powerbook g4 right now! it's so beautiful...so shiny...and all widescreen action. wow...i would totally get one if i actually needed something like this, but since i honestly have no real use for it... ah well.

i found something fun on the web today. so friends, try this: type in your name and then youaremyfriend.com in your browser's web address line. so, for example: http://bradpitt.youaremyfriend.com - but where it says "bradpitt" you would insert your own name. it's really quite fun. :D

gripe of the day: holiday and post-holiday shoppers and drivers. granted...since i'm out and about at stores too, it makes me one of them, but honestly, don't these people have other places to go?

i'm just trippin' because in times such as these, parking is such a hassle to find...even crappy parking. and for some reason, drivers are suddenly lamer than usual. for example...parking lots with rows of angled parking...it alternates between directions in which you drive - yet i encountered two separate drivers in two separate lanes who were going in the wrong direction, as in driving towards me head-on. i'm starting a new habit...keeping a pad of white paper in the car, along with a big black sharpie - so that i may write "helpful" notes to these sucky drivers - i see this as a community service. :) like...the other day, i was out with my mom and andy, and there was this jeep grand cherokee that was like *this* close to us...i mean supremely close - ridiculously so - and had i had the paper and pen, i could've written something like "i don't think you can get any closer to our car, so would you mind backing off?" i suppose i could just forego the whole note thing and go militant. perhaps a nice bb gun [is that even how it's written...bb? anyway...]

so to combat all the tension created by the whole bad driver encounters thing, i've taken up crocheting and started up with the knitting again. it's quite relaxing and i suggest that everyone try it - boys too [though for you boys, i wouldn't go around declaring "guess what??? i'm knitting!!!" because then people might start to give you funny looks...] plus knitting/crocheting is so much fun! gosh...if only my papasan chair was here at home with me - then it would be perfect! ok...that was my inner granny - i'm better now. but i did get wendy hooked on crochet and now she's like a crocheting machine. chris wanted to learn too, but i think she got distracted by something. :)

so ever since i saw the two towers (for the second time), i've totally been like "i need to know what happens!" [yes *gasp* i have never read tolkien before - no, not even the hobbit, although i saw the cartoon when i was in elementary school - does that count?] so i decided to finally start reading the fatty all-three-books-in-one book that i bought from costco last year after the first movie came out. progress is slow, but it's fun. but sadly, i'm only at the part where frodo has left the shire and encountered the elves on the way to his new house. so in terms of the movie, it's like the first half hour or something. but if you haven't read it, or if you have, but it's been awhile, you should read it! reading is fun and you should all try it. :D

oh yea, and i changed the look of my blog...the whole magenta/pink motif was starting to bug. i was lazy and used a pre-made template instead of making my own and the blue stripey thing is a bit sedate, but it'll do for now - at least until i feel like coding my own background.