Game on!

Thursday night was Game Night at Shirley & Lorena's. It's so weird saying that! It felt just as weird having to knock on the door to get in! I got there around 6. It was just Shirley and I for a while so we got to talk. It was nice being able to talk to her one-on-one. It had been a while since we've done that. Marie came over and joined us in the conversation and do I have to say it was a very interesting conversation.

People finally started trickling in around 8. We hung out and ate pizza and yummy amaretto pound cake with a bit 'o Smirnoff to wash it down. We didn't get around to playing until around 11. It was girls vs. boys in a game of Taboo. Baaaad move for the boys! We beat the boys bad! It was so much fun! We left around 12:45 a.m.

So much to do

It's been exactly one week since we've moved in and we're still not finished. On Wed., Johnny, Marie, Winnie, and my sister came over to help paint the kitchen, dining area, and the master bedroom. It all came out really nice. Thanks, guys! That took up all of Wed. so we lost a day to unpack and such but we're getting back on track. The garage is finally clear so I can park my car. Things are starting to come together.

Merry Christmas to us!

So after all the headache and stress that I was dealing with up to Friday we received a call from Tuan at 11:30 a.m., Friday, saying that everything went through and we had our house. I felt a wave of relief just wash over me. I felt so glad that we didn't have to deal with the possible rain or anything. Thank God because we spent about 5 hours moving. One truckload and 5 carloads. Ray and I unpacked and cleaned until 1 a.m.

Saturday was spent working on the house from 8 a.m.-noon, went to Ikea with Johnny and bought some fun stuff. We met up with my family at 5 p.m. for Xmas mass, then headed over to Ray's cousin, Romeo & Sheila's, for a party. Left around 11 p.m. to go to my cousin's for their party. Stayed 'til 1:30 a.m.

Sunday we headed over to my uncle's/grandma/s for my grandpa's prayer service at noon. Had lunch there then headed over to Ray's other cousin, JJ's, house for another party, then up to SF to see Liz's. Just got home at 10:30. It's now 12:30 a.m. and we're still working. God, I'm so tired but I'm so glad to be here!

Too much stress

I am in such a bad mood. Thanks to some dumb-ass signer's advice we didn't opt for the automatic mortgage loan payment so I find out last night that doing that is part of the loan requirement. Apparently, if we don't do the automatic payment then we don't get the loan. So, TT had to email us the form to fill out but by that time it was after business hours. So I had to drive over to the damn escrow company this morning to turn in a form that could've been taken care of at the signing if the dumb-ass signer would have just kept his mouth shut instead of thinking he could spew advice whenever he feels like it, knowing that people would most likely listen to him! Because of this whole fiasco we will not get our keys until tomorrow, the latest 5 p.m. We reserved a truck at 11 a.m. and we have a washer/dryer coming in the afternoon and no knowledge of when we'll be able to access the house. I'm soooo pissed off.

Tipping

What's the standard tipping percentage for average/normal service? Just like there's a difference in prices for each meal, is there a tipping difference for breakfast, lunch, and dinner?

Monochromatic? Complementary?

God damn, why are there so many different ways to paint a damn room?!?! You would think that once you pick a color that won't blind or depress you, you slap it on and then you're done. But if you want to do it right you have to consult a color wheel and decide if you want to stick to warm or cool colors. If you want to mix it up you need to decide what scheme you want to use. There's monochromatic, complementary, triadic, analogous, split complement, and double complement. After about 1/2 hour of going back and forth on this issue and also spending almost an hour in Kelly Moore, Ray and I have decided to stick with 3 schemes: monochromatic, triadic, and split complement. I think my head hurts........

Signing your life away

That's what it literally feels like when closing escrow. You have a fat stack of papers to sign and initial, and after about 1/2 hour of signing and initialing, your signature starts to waver a bit. Until you hear that some people have had to resign certain documents because the signatures didn't match up with the other signatures. So that gave me strength to focus on the signing! We finished signing in about an hour.

Estrogen brunch

Sunday, Dec. 18th:

Winnie hosted an Estrogen Brunch this morning. So once again I drove in the rain up to the East Bay. She has a really cute and cozy place. I liked how she turned her big coat closet into a study area with a desk and her laptop. That's definitely worth a spot on one of those Home & Garden shows! In her bathroom she decorated her shelf with these postcards laminated on the top. Ingenious! I was very impressed by that creative and cheap way to make a plain white shelf look more interesting!

Anyways, so the brunch consisted of cinnamon cake, turkey and pork bacon, waffles, and this egg casserole dish. So good! Jess, Marie, and Xuanthao were also there. I had a lot of fun just hanging out with them and talking about random things. Unfortunately I had to leave around noon to get to my parent's.

The rest of the day was spent sitting in Valley Fair traffic for which was a waste since we just ended up turning back. I was completely stressed and on the verge of road rage. I did enjoy some broccli and cheese soup at Quizno's, which although rather cheesy was still good. The rest of the day was spent holed up in Ray's room sitting out the storm. It was mad crazy pouring out there!

Narnia and pizza

Saturday, Dec. 17th:

Ray, Johnny, and I went up to Oakland for Marie and Jess' joint birthday celebration. Initially it was suppose to be at the Farmer's Market near Marie's place but we were rained out. We ended up meeting at Marie's place, enjoyed some yummy Cheeseboard pizza and snacks. I couldn't tell who were Marie's friends and who were Jess', and not to sound racist or anything, but there were a lot of white people. We seriously felt like the minority! After a bit 'o pizza and a very short game of Taboo some went home and the rest walked to the Grand Lake Theater to watch either Harry Potter or The Lion, Witch, and Wardrobe. Since Ray and I already saw Harry, we chose Narnia. Johnny and 2 others joined us. It was not a bad movie. I wouldn't say it was epic or amazing but I enjoyed it.

Using the stick

Even though our initial plans were cancelled, Shirley, Johnny, Ray, and I still decided to hang out so we went to S. First Billiards to shoot some pool. I finally got to use my new cue stick and Ray and Shirley gave me some good pointers. I don't know why they took so long to say anything! Anyways, we played for about 3 hours. It was fun. I hadn't done that in a while and it's always fun to get on Johnny's case about women!

This and that

Saturday I moved out all my belongings into the garage and moved my necessities into Ray's place. It was a tough transition and it'll get even tougher when we start moving into the house. I feel kind of detached from it all since I haven't seen the house in almost a month. We're having our walkthrough tomorrow so I'll be able to get to see it again and start imagining how things will be situated and decorated.

This week has been kind of blah. I had been feeling a bit under the weather although nothing to be worried about. I was suppose to have dinner at J's among others, but my recent under the weather feeling has caused a cancellation. Another nail pounded into the life that once was and entering a whole 'nother world that I will unfortunately be affected by. It sucks sometimes, but hey, life is always constantly changing and you shouldn't always fight change. Unless of course it'll kill you.

Moving out

Tomorrow I am moving out all my bedroom items into the garage and shacking up with Ray at his place until we can move into our house. In the end, Shirley's sister was able to move into my room so once again I had to start thinking about mad packing. At least they let me hold out until tomorrow so that gave me almost a week to do what I gotta do. The next few weeks are going to be very weird. It's kind of like I'm in limbo.

You do your job and I'll do mine!

Don't you hate it when people who aren't in your line of work try to tell you how to do your job? And they say it to you as though they are experts at it. I hate it even more when it's the parents who try to tell me how to do my job. I'm sorry, but don't tell me that because I chose this profession I need to be this perfect teacher who never gets frustrated and upset at a student. I don't say to you that you chose to be a parent so I guess you are suppose to be the perfect parent that never yells, never gest upset, and never gets frustrated at their child. But oh wait, your patience only has to deal with a handful of kids, whereas I have to deal with 20! How does THAT make sense?

Winding down

Today we bought a beautiful dark wood coffee table with rattan baskets that go on the second shelf for $30 off of craigslist. Since we were going to put the black loveseat over by the fireplace I figured we would need another table there. I had seen this wonderful dark wood storage chest at Ross but it cost $99. I searched through craigslist last night and found this coffee table. Luckily no one bought it yet so we swung by there this afternoon and bought it. What a find! Except for a few scratches on the leg and the side of the table it's perfect! And, they only had it for 8 months so it's fairly new. I definitely feel like our house decorating scavenger hunt is finally over. Now all we need is a washer and dryer!

The madness ensues

Yesterday afternoon we hung out with Ly. We ended up going to Bed, Bath, and Beyond and got a TV stand, shower stand, laundry hamper, and kitchen towels. We stopped by his cousin's place because they were giving us their black loveseat and we wanted to take a look at it. It was perfect for placing in front of the fireplace so we agreed to take it. We then went to Ross and got pillow seats for our dining chairs, a red runner, and 2 sets of placemats. We went back to my parents and saw "Mr. & Mrs. Smith."

Matrix-style Holiday party

Friday the 2nd was Ray's work party. The theme was the movie, "The Matrix," but we chose not to dress accordingly. I finally wore this cute black dress I got with Shirley last Dec. when we were shopping for a New Year's Eve dress. I am happy to say that I still fit it! The party was held at the SJ Art Museum. We each got these cool sunglasses to go with the theme and they played the movie on one of the walls. Since the venue was an art museum, the food couldn't be in the actual galleries so it was seriously like holiday shopping trying to get to the food. It was so frickin' crowded. They had a room with casino tables and each one of us got "$500" to spend. One room had a chocolate fondue fountain. It was so cool putting the strawberries through the flowing chocolate and soooo good! By 10ish my feet were killing me. I knew I shouldn't have worn those shoes but they looked so much better with the dress than my other shoe! We went home at 10:30.

Attempt #1

Thursday was the first attempt of a prospective renter. This person emailed on Sunday or Monday and they sounded like a great candidate. We set up a time on Thurs. afternoon for her to come over and look at my room. I got Shirley and Lorena to get off work early and guess what? She didn't even show up! That is so frickin' rude! I can deal with people emailing about inquiries and then never responding because maybe they found something else. But, if you went so far as to make an appt. and then don't honor it or at least call or email that's just downright rude! I just wanna lash out the person when I emailed them, but I decided to call out their downright rudeness in a nicer way and they haven't emailed back (and this is a person who emails back within minutes) so I'm thinking she's either dying somewhere or she's a total BITCH!

KABOOM!

I just recently experienced my first roommate explosion, which I somewhat found annoying. I'm sorry, but if you don't like confrontation and expressing things that REALLY bother you than is that really my fault? Is it my fault that you hold it in so long and when you finally decided to say something you explode at the person? Does anyone deserve to be talked to in that manner when they were never privy to this issue so they were never given the chance to work it out? Is it worse to be "confrontational" or to be quiet about things and letting it fester until they explode on unsuspecting people?