renegadeRICEcracker

mmm... fire...

yay! beach fires! yesterday we gathered to barbeque and light fires at dockweiler beach. mimi and i got there a couple hours early to stake out a pit, but being memorial day weekend, it was PACKED when we got there at 2 (ish), so we had to set up the bbq sans fire pit. fortuitously, shortly before sunset the group with the pit next to us packed up and we swooped in.

we barbequed.

we made s'mores.

i was unable to blow out candles because someone inexplicably placed our lighter thingy in the cooler, with the ice, so it wouldn't light, but we faked it.

afterward people came over and we played chez geek and therapy. it was a good time.

prince is HOT!!!

words i never expected to utter. ever since high school when i to my shock and horror saw japanese teeny-bopper prince fans on tv saying how sexy they thought prince was i have been dismayed and confused over the number of people who seem to find prince even remotely attractive.

well, no more. yesterday on a whim (last minute ticket opened up) i went to see prince at the staples center. i don't know prince that well, and really i only recognized a few of his songs, but prince is HOT in concert. he is an amazing dancer, he is an amazing performer, he is amazing with a guitar, he is amazing with a bass (his female bass player and female sax player were also HOT), and he is TOTALLY sexy. one of the people we were with seemed really perturbed that the rest of us would so readily sleep with this 4'11" man but YES! I WOULD!

he is still not hot on posters, t-shirts, or other pictures. but HOT. yes. i want.

asians love with bad food

i stole this from jkt. i had to. i am just so confused. why? why did someone think this was a good idea? did they think that seeing other asians eat mcdonalds would make them want to eat mcdonalds? did they think there was some tie between asian pride and eating mcdonalds?

i am not particularly offended by it, i am just really confused. one of my co-workers suggested that it is an attempt to show that asians eat more than just rice. (which is true. we eat noodles, too.) another pointed out that it should be www.i-am-a-fat-asian.com, which is also a fair point.

anyway, i thought mcdonalds had more money than they apparently do to spend on marketing ideas. it's good to know at the very least that they are culturally sensitive by recognizing our high fashion, high tech, and green tea drinking tendencies.

asians love with food

my dad came into town this weekend. what this means is that i ate this weekend. continuously. he came in saturday morning, and we drove to little saigon for vietnamese food and a little shopping. then we went home, hung out for a while, and made dinner. took a walk, watched some tv, went to sleep, etc. sunday we drove to monterey park so my dad could show me a place to get vietnamese sandwiches. we didn't eat too much so that after we could drive to another place to have another dish we were craving. then we drove home and hung out for a bit. then we made homemade dumplings and ribs before i took him to the airport. i had a great time but i'm sure i amassed some unwanted weight.

i also saw shrek 2 this weekend. good movie except for all that inner beauty nonsense -- us los angelenos don't go for that crap. I'M KIDDING. it was very cute and i liked it a lot.

grumble grumble

so it's 5:45am and i'm still not sure when i get to go home. my only hope is that the atty i'm working with has a flight to catch at 9am, so he has to leave fairly soon in order to get home and pack. i am expected to come back "tomorrow" morning, "refreshed," so i can give this thing a careful proof, so i'm thinking i should get going. i mean, it has to be done and i don't particularly begrudge any of this, but i wish that i didn't feel nauseous from exhaustion.

asian fusion

i ordered lunch from a new thai place today (reminiscent of undergrad, its menus are long and organized in the same manner as thai beer's and every other late night thai restaurant in the west l.a. area). i got the pad see yu, which is good, but i swear it tastes like they've rubbed wasabi into the chinese broccoli. very odd.

i'm hungry!!!

i have to wait until this partner is done with a conference call before he can go to lunch. he was bugging me and another associate separately about having lunch so we consolidated and are going to have korean bbq, which makes me happy. but the waiting until 12:45-1 does not. this is terribly interesting, i know.

i made my first official court appearance yesterday, which i suppose is not such a big deal but was exciting for me. we had a summary judgment hearing in the pro bono case i've been working on and i got to sit at the counsel's table with our ACLU co-counsel and make an appearance on the record and everything. it was kind of crazy -- we went last on the morning calendar, so we started argument around 9, went until noon, broke for lunch, waited until the judge's afternoon calendar was done, and then argued from 3 to 4:30 -- my co-worker was saying we will probably never see an SJ hearing go that long ever again. now there's (almost) nothing to do but wait.

yay internet radio!

i finally downloaded an internet radio player yesterday because for some reason my windows media player does not buffer correctly and i end up with 15-second snippets of song interspersed with 10-second blocks of silence. this made things sad and painful whenever i forgot my iPod. the other happy thing about internet radio is i can see who is singing what. i have already come across numerous songs that i like very much but never knew who sang them. not that i remember now, but i trust that it will settle in and leave some residual knowledge one way or another.

i was thinking that i somehow escaped the negative effects of sleep deprivation but i think a tension headache just revealed its unpleasant presence a few seconds ago. i never fully recovered from this weekend's late night friday korean food/karaoke outing. i went thinking i would get a nice buzz going and leave it at that, but we had pitchers of that lemon soju (yeah, you chicago people remember that -- or don't, as the case may be). on top of the fact that i completely lost track of how much i'd been drinking because i was indiscriminately doing shots whenever anyone else was, the people i was with decided the lemon soju was not strong enough so they were making shots of some kind of rice alcohol (think that crap that ted had that tasted like ass) with a tiny bit of lemon soju on top. needless to say, i was hyper and in an extremely good mood until i went to the bathroom and puked my guts out. oops.

no, i didn't get fired

for all the concerned people who've been leaving me messages asking if i'm okay, no, i didn't get fired. everything's fine. i deleted the message (but for some reason couldn't make it go away for a full day) because we had a meeting shortly after the big mistake and everything is fine. basically, i have learned, and i quote, "i'm going to give you the david duchovny rule of advice -- TRUST NO ONE." that is to say, just because you have given explicit directions, and explained what everything is for, and where everything should go, when you have a big crazy filing you should stand there and look at every single page, even though there be 500 of them, and make sure that you oversee to whom your secretary talks and maybe even talk to the messenger yourself to make sure everything goes the way it's supposed to.

none of this is helped by the fact that my secretary hasn't done litigation in 20 years, so i have to be able to also check all the service rules and all that because she is liable to mess up the little crucial things that usually secretaries know how to do. this is not her fault -- from what i understand she is a kickass corporate secretary. but that is neither here nor there.

oops, now i feel bitchy.

secretary discussed below just came by to say that she totally forgot to take the cookie and that she hopes i didn't think she didn't appreciate it, and that she really did but it was such a crazy day.

oops. i suck.

the 30-second bunny troupe!

yet another gem: the 30-second bunnies theatre troupe presents the shining.

so, yesterday we had a SUPER hectic filing. my secretary worked through the day, finally taking time to eat her lunch late in the afternoon at her desk (poor woman was a corporate secretary and now HATES litigation), and a floater/temp secretary worked on it too. by 2 pm or so, they were just collating and stuff, so there was nothing for me to do and i ran to get something to eat. i stopped by mrs. field's and got them cupcake cookies to show my appreciation for their working so hard.

the temp secretary was like, "oh thanks," and then when she sat down at her desk and saw it, the first thing she said (loudly into my office, because i sit, like, 25 feet from her) was, "oh, connie, this is not NUTRITIONAL! now a filet mignon on the other hand..." then she spent the rest of the afternoon bitching about how hard she had to work. she seemed displeased when my secretary showed no sympathy ("i haven't taken my lunch yet!" "yeah, me either."), so someone else told me she went to another area and was freaking out loudly about how the head secretary "yelled" at her for not taking lunch (head secretary woman is very soft spoken, super nice, and very professional, and i can't see her much yelling at anyone, so i'm pretty sure this was just to make sure everyone knew she worked through lunch.). then she left the cookie on the ledge in front of her desk like it was trash.

my co-worker said that he thinks this must be her first firm job because she didn't seem to realize that hectic filings are pretty par for the course (and that most people don't really say thank you that much at all). her response was very, "oh, this is not enough." (you work at a law firm!!) apparently my profuse apologies and shows of appreciation throughout the day only made her feel more righteous in her princessyness.

now i don't ever want to work with her because she seems to expect a prize for every little thing she does and will make me feel guilty if it's ever more than she wants to do. because, you know, this office revolves around her.

will you marry me?

okay. so i had this dream last night in which i proposed, yes, PROPOSED to jkt. (it seemed in the dream that we were dating). this is what i remember:

i was in the driver's seat of my car (romantic, yes), only it was, like, my high school/college car, so i think it was in my old blue toyota corolla. there was some sort of tension because her mom (yes, her mom, and no, i've never met her mom) was there. jkt gets in the back seat, and i am holding this ring with a huge (huge!) rock on it (it was actually quite a pretty ring), and i turn around and diagonally am talking to jkt and holding out the ring. she starts crying or getting emotional or something (we apparently were in a pretty serious and intense relationship) and i'm saying something about how important she is to me and all that crap. then her mom gets in the front seat so i turn back around and hide the ring or something.

the next (and last) scene i remember is us sitting in a cafeteria like setting telling all our friends we are getting married, and i guess i've started to doubt things because i've spent a whole lot of money on the ring (it was a HUGE rock) and then there is some weird discussion where jkt says she doesn't know why i spent so much money on the ring because it was her grandmother's. and i say, "it was your grandmother's?" and she says, "yes." so apparently even though i bought it from some store (or, i don't know, maybe it was a pawn shop) it was her grandmother's.

and then i woke up.

anyway, jkt, i guess this is all the evidence we need that i am completely in love with you and really am just waiting to shove c out of the picture.

dueling loves.

TiVo seems to be all better now, to my great relief. however, i discovered that my TiVo's failure to tape Smallville (i love it!) is due to a change in line-up that now has it against the new episodes of That 70s Show. so sad. anyway, i ditched the superhero for the potheads.

i saw mean girls this weekend. it was cute and very funny, though my enthusiasm quickly turned to abject horror when mitch said it was better than clueless -- i was personally offended. this is like when people said legally blonde was better than clueless. mean girls is a good movie. but it's not clueless.

tooka-tooka -- BONK!

tooka-tooka (too'ka-too'ka), n., v., —n. 1. the sound the TiVo® service makes in 2x fast-forward or rewind (or 3x, in the interest of brevity). 2. the desire to speed past acts, events, or people that don't interest you. —v., 3. to skip past the boring stuff, such as when Ryan Seacrest won't shut up during American Idol.

i just got this e-mail from TiVo about new "TiVocabulary." really, the only important part of the e-mail for me was, "So, if you find yourself muttering "tooka-tooka" or "BONK!" as your boss rambles on or proudly proclaiming your fine self as a "TiVotee" at parties . . . ."

the "BONK!" for some reason set me laughing out loud in my office. big fan.

that's all.

curses!

TiVo is toying with me. it told me to update my lineup, so i did. however, after i did, i noticed that tivo stopped recording family guy and futurama. upon investigation, i discovered that this was because my TiVo seemed to think cartoon network was not part of my cable lineup. so i set it to digital extended basic, which definitely includes cartoon network. it still won't record them. on my season passes, it simply says that there are no upcoming episodes, which, frankly, i know to be a bald-faced lie.

i mean, when i re-signed up for cartoon network, it showed an accurate lineup. and when i go to the guide, it shows an accurate lineup. but when i click on a showing to record it and then check out its season pass, it tells me that the episode is not on the to do list and that there are no upcoming episodes. grrr...

i e-mailed tivo. we'll see how they redeem themselves.

on a shittier note, i was all excited because they were going to move my office (i HATE my desk -- it's shaped like a surfboard and SUCKS) and let me into the vacancy left by my favorite associate. they just called and said they might be putting a lateral in there. now i'm all pissed off and don't feel like working.

law plates

today i parked behind a car whose plate read "lawsage." this in some ways tops that visiting professor's "lawprof," but i am not sure where it falls in relation to the one i saw on PCH reading "de novo."

what is wrong with people??

a coachella adventure

last weekend i headed to indio for coachella. this was exciting because i had not seen radiohead before. or the pixies. or junior senior. etc.

i bought the tickets a month or so ago, and i had them electronically e-mailed to me. i remember opening the file and looking at the tickets, and thinking that it would probably be better to keep them electronically because if i printed them out i would be sure to lose them. i did not check my e-mail for them again until 8pm friday night, 2 hours before i was supposed to leave for the hotel. the tickets were not there, ticketmaster had no live representatives answering their phone, and if i covered the hotel and tickets by myself (i would have to, if my friends were unable to go because i somehow lost the tickets) i would be out 900 bucks. for those of you who have seen me freak out, you understand that i was not doing well. twas not a good night.

anyway, i was all panicked when mimi suggested that i e-mail ticketmaster, which i thought was pointless because it was so late but i did it anyway because there was nothing else i could do. it worked. i had my tickets when i woke up at 8am.

coachella itself was lots of fun. it was fucking boiling so we sat around in the shade drinking beer most of the day (i slackassedly did not look at a schedule until 7:30, so i missed junior senior), people watching, playing bitchy "if you had to which would you fuck?" games, and drawing out lots of hypotheticals in a similar type of game (we came up with gems such as "bald chick or girl with no eyebrows?" "really really overweight chick or bad body acne all over?" and "bad b.o. or chronic bad breath?" one of my favorites involved a missing front tooth, but i don't remember the comparison.). when we finally got up, the pixies were starting, so we watched them and then radiohead. they both rocked and radiohead was phenomenal.

afterward we got something to eat and then headed out with the massive droves of people. it took a little while to get to the street, and then a cop directed us down a dark dusty road where the cab stand was. after 20 minutes or so, we got to the "cab pick up area," which was a dark street lit by one floodlight and lined with concert goers milling around looking for cabs and a couple cops. we called for a cab, as directed by a cop, but the line was busy and then there was a voicemail and then it was busy and then there was no answer. the cop informed us that half a dozen cabs had come by an hour earlier, and that maybe we could catch one if we kept walking further down the street.

so we walk over half an hour longer down this dark road until we get to a similarly dark and creepy intersection where people are sitting all around looking for cabs and a cop is telling us not to wander off into indio by ourselves. we sort of mill around and try to position ourselves favorably for cabs. we see only one cab every 45 minutes or so, and they are full, or they won't stop, or they are flagged down 100 yards ahead. one cabbie stopped and said, "you need a ride?," and when i said yes, he laughed and said, "too bad!" and drove off.

we finally settled down around this fruitstand/store that people were gathering around, and we all secretly thought we were going to sleep there. we were tired, and dirty, and smelly. every once in a while we would look up and gage whether to run toward a cab that had slowed down, already descended upon by at least 30 people.

we finally did get a cab. the cabbie was crazy and had been driving around for an hour and a half looking for a guy in black shorts and a yellow t-shirt, who had called an hour and a half earlier. he wouldn't let anyone in but he kept stopping to talk to people through his window, so my co-worker headed over to the cabbie and mellowly eased him into taking us. there were people all around, all trying their best to smoothly persuade the cabbie to let them in and offering him lots of money, so this took no small amount of finesse. i was duly impressed.

we did have to drive around for a while, however, looking for the guy with the black shorts and yellow t-shirt. he drove us back up that dark road that was spotted with people on both sides begging for a ride, looking at us through the windows with desperate eyes (i swear to god, that must be what it feels like to be super amazingly rich). oh, and he was crazy. he slowed for every single person who waved him down, and told them he had an appointment and that there were no other cabs he could show. he explained his entire predicament to a cop, who didn't care, and tried to explain to people why he couldn't let them in (he also asked a cop if the intersection we were at was a four-stop, which didn't make me terribly confident in his driving abilities). then sami asked him some random question and he launched into a long rambling story that i couldn't really follow so i fell asleep.

when i woke up we were back at the hotel. three and a half hours after the concert, we were home. concerts did not used to be this complicated.