we totally won our volleyball game. it doesn't eliminate the crushing loss we had last week, but it does go a long way towards making us feel better. but i did have an unfortunate incident, as we were moving courts, i grabbed a set of VW keys which i thought were ryan's...turns out they belonged to another guy, who was so not happy with me. whoops. i was just trying to be on the lookout for my team. besides, who just leaves their car keys on the floor like that? in the parking lot, i made helen and ryan hide me from him as he drove away. i talk big, like i'd actually brawl, but really, i'm more likely to hide until they go away.

i seriously look forward to our games. it is so much fun to be out there and playing and hitting. :D it's almost like the IMA, but more expensive and without the refs and with a lot of emphasis on post-game drinking at the outback steakhouse. i wish 24 hour fitness has sports leagues...that would make my 3-year membership much more worthwhile. it's just so exhilirating and more so when we're winning.

i have also decided that at work, patients/customers are no longer the enemy. there was a period of 2-3 weeks where i was in no mood to deal with patients/customers at all. i think it may have been just a thing...like the novelty of working there has worn off, as it has almost been a year since i started working. but now, i'm all better and can answer the phone with some semblance of cheerfulness.

i saw the rundown on saturday and i have to say, it was quite entertaining. and currently, i'm watching the rock on the craig kilborn show, and dude, i really like the rock. now i feel like watching the scorpion king. :D

the tonight show's "jay-walk all-stars" is the best!

i drove 3 hours to seattle today and made it just in time for our 7 o'clock volleyball game. sadly, we were not victorious today. let me draw a picture for you - in "The OC" terms. our team will be ryan from chino. the other team, let's call them evil luke the waterpolo player. our team wasn't exactly the underdog team, we were just way shorter [just like ryan from chino!], but we were nice and called the mistakes that we made, like being in the net, etc. the other team, not so much. [we 'fessed up just like ryan when he burned down the house] and there was a moment where one of the girls on the other team hit it twice [double hit] and we called them on it. then a wee bit later, a guy on our team blocks it, then hits it [totally legal]. so a guy on the other team makes a huge deal out of it, and in the end, he's wrong[just like how evil luke is so often wrong]. he said, "sorry, we don't know the rules like you guys." umm...right. it was a disappointing loss, because, they so weren't better than we were, just taller and not as forthright [just like luke]. at the end of the day, we lost, but at least we lost with integrity. but i wanted to kick somebody in the head [just like how ryan feels towards luke] ok, i'm done. can you tell i'm having oc-withdrawal?

good thing more shows are premiering this week, like one tree hill. woohoo! it is an entertaining show. it is not in the same league as gilmore girls/everwood or the oc, but it has it's moments. the popular brother on the show is horrible. i don't know if it's the writers that make him sound so unbelievably lame, or if he just stinks as an actor. his portrayal of a jerk-jock boy is a little over the top, but everybody else is cool. and now to watch my taped gilmore girls - yay!

i am home in portland for the weekend and it has been busy. a wedding on saturday that was great. as the bride and groom walked out of the sanctuary of the church, they blasted a hip hop/pop song from the 90s...i think. anyway, the groomsmen and bridesmaids donned sunglasses and strutted along to the music. it was totally funny. and yesterday we had the bridal shower for chris and then a bunch of us helped paint some tiles, which was fun and according to some, therapeutic. we watched a little bit of the emmys as we were painting.

so i was reading through the list of winners and one category was "outstanding variety, music or comedy special" when i read the title of the category, all i saw was "outstanding comedy special" and the winner: cher: the farewell tour. i did a double take and then saw "variety and music". whoops. sorry cher.

i set up my uw e-mail to work within outlook express since i know uw is going to cut back my storage capacity or get rid of it altogether. and as i was doing that, i had time to look through e-mails from the last four years and it's funny to discover that i've corresponded with many different, and often random, people. even better is that as i read through some of the e-mails, it triggered some good memories. this then caused me to think on how over the last couple of weeks, my memory has been triggered a lot, by a time of day and a certain amount of light in the nightsky, the way the air smells after the rain we've been having, the temperature outside. maybe it's the changing of the seasons, both weather-wise and life-wise.

this past weekend's main event - garrett's bon voyage to japan bbq:


here are dennis, simon, chong, siobhan, and guest of honor garrett


that's abe, dennis, garrett, and melvin


people milling around and eating


down a pathway lies this tiny stretch of sand/beach. it was mentioned that the background looks fake. against said background are noah, cassie, helen, stuart, and abe


garrett and his sister ginger


the mandatory group photo


a fun version of the mandatory group photo

mariners won!!! it was such an awesome game! i'm not a huge/die-hard baseball fan, but i definitely support the mariners and it's so much fun going to safeco field for games. edgar martinez made it to 2nd base - with a busted toe no less. the whole stadium stood and cheered. seattle loves their edgar. and randy winn with the grand slam! i think he's earned a better nickname than "winnie." the other fun part of the game was some people a few rows in front of us were busted by the alcohol monitor guys for having brought in a flask. tsk tsk.

last night i was at my church fellowship and after the study, we sat around and pigged out on ice cream and other snacks. while pigging out, we started some interested discussions. i learned quite a lot about people's feet. some people have a bigger 2nd toe than big toe. apparently that means they have tempers. a couple of the guys are flat-footed, which means they'll never be drafted, so i'm told. one guy has big feet and can spread his toes really far apart...he says that he can stabilize himself that way in case it's windy. hahaha. this all reminds me of another person, and i can't remember who it is, but they are able to interlock their toes, as people would do with their hands while praying for example. how's that for a neat human trick?

in other exciting news, my roommate went to canada and got the "magic straight perm" or as some call it, "the japanese ion straight perm" done. it looks fantastic. she says people keep trying to pet and touch her hair. i can relate and when it happens to be, sometimes i just want to turn and bite their hand off. :) i'm a little anger ball when it comes to certain things. i'm unpredictable.