ah, long time no blog. so much to say. as of yesterday the hollywood sign was in danger of being burned down. don't really know how that happened. pretty quick moving blaze though. i think they put it out before it got to the actual letters but you can see from the pictures that it was pretty stinkin close. the kicker is that you can't see the flames but they moved up the back side of that mountain and then came right back down the front. it's freaky.



so, it's been two weeks since i've blogged. i don't know that i have much to say.

i get to go home in three days, i'm pretty excited about that.

i was needing some new jeans and actually found a KILLER pair that i love, that doesn't happen often. i also bought a really cool book. it could be my new fav. it's called, "ever wonder: ask questions and live into the answers." i love it. the first page just has the question, "when was the last time you did something for the first time?" no kidding, there are a few questions in this book that are amazing questions.

How would you introduce yourself to God?
If you think life is hard, what are you comparing it to?
What do you pack to pursue a dream and what do you leave behind?

it jsut goes on and on. i might randomly pick questions and answer them here. i loved it.

here is a funny story from a guy at work. i love this kid.

this past weekend he went to vegas with a group of guys for a bachelor party. none of the guys had ever gone to a strip club before. maybe one had, i can't remember. so, they get a little tipsy and head to a strip club. at this point in the story gabe explains to me that since none had been to a club before, they didn't know they etiquette, 'how do you ask a girl how much she is?'
so they are sitting around and decide to buy their friend who is getting married, a lap dance. after a long debate of who to get for him, they let him pick. he points to a girl across the room and the group of guys leaves him behind to go ask the girl for a lap dance. so, they go over and talk to the girl and say, "our buddy here is getting married, he's never had a lapdance, we'd like to get him a private dance." at this point in the story, all parties are on the same page.
so the girl heads over to their friend and they walk into the back room. the VIP room, if you will. at this point, the girl who is dancing is under the impression that the groom is paying. the groom is under the impression that all the guys had already paid.
after they are gone for about 15 minutes, the group of guys start getting a little worried because they hadn't reappeared from the back room. so, they track down a bouncer and he starts radioing around trying to find them. he assured them that 'this happens all the time.' they lose track of people every once in a while. so, they finally track them down in the back room and pull them back on the floor they all huddle up and straighten everything out. well, while the guy was in there he decided to live it up. the girl asked him what he did for a living and he decided that in vegas, you don't have to tell the whole truth. so, he responds, 'i'm a stock broker from new york.' this is when my friend gabe pointed out that of all positions you do not tell a stripper that you are is 1. a brain surgeon, 2. a stock broker and 3. bill gates. if you flaunt that you have money, they will want more of it.

so they, while in the huddle, are broken the news that the total of 20 minutes would be a whopping...$360. are you kidding me??? so they all freak out and explain that they have no money to pay $360. so after explaining all of that they agreed that they could pay 180, and they would have to leave immediately. so, they did. i guess all of the guys had brought money to get lap dances for them selves and had to chip in all of their money for the one for their friend.

i seriously had tears when gabe told me this story.

so funny. is it bad that my life is boring enough that i don't have enough good stories on my own but i post other peoples stories? bummer.
until later.

don't worry, uncle mark, there is life after 26. hasn't been the prettiest but i'm alive.
k

and spell check isn't working, so tough.

it's official. i'm 26

it's strange. i suddenly feel like an adult.

the night before my birthday my friends steve and sharon took me out to dinner where i was surprised by a group of people for dinner. it was so great. sharons sister ruth and her husband kevin and their girls kaela and becca. (adorable girls who are my adopted nieces out here!) also steves parents gloria and dennis were there. it was so much fun, such a great time and sharon completely surprised me. the best part was that we had just gone for our walk and we were talking about surprise parties... so funny!

the morning of my birthday i was on my way to work, i know it's sad that i worked on my birthday but whatever, and got to talk to my friend amber who sang happy birthday to me. ¡olè! and i got to the back door of work and was ambushed by about 15 people with birthday hats and confetti, that was a first. very funny and about made me wet my pants. surprises aren't that good for me in the morning.

while i was at work i got a gorgeous arrangement of flowers, so that was exciting

for my birthday steve and sharon made me dinner to celebrate which was wonderful. thanks steve and sharon!

we then worked on our project for a few hours and i headed home.

so i have flowers in my room which is such a great smell to wake up to. though, i mentioned to my mom that i feel like i'm at my own funeral. i have two floral arrangements in my room. it's very surreal. but it's amazing how they brighten a room.

my brother called to say, "happy birthday, you're now officially a day older than a quarter century. yowza. now i feel old.

i got a card from amber who i've been friends with for 21 years? 22? i don't know the amount but since kindergarten and the card is PERFECT for that! on the front it says 'you know what's amazing about us?' and it has a picture of two girls, one blonde and one red head, and inside it says "we're much too young to be such old friends" and it's so true! she even listed some of the things we've been through together, it's amazing how long of a list it is for only being 26.

so here's to 26. we'll see what the year holds but so far the plan is that this will be the year i turn it all around.
and...go!

k

more on this later but sharon and i have been walking every night. here are the pictures of where we walk. it's about 3.5 miles. yeah, you read that right. shocking huh? it feels really really good too! above is the picture of where we normally walk.

below is where we walked tonight. keep in mind that you can't see the hills on that map. there are a lot of hills. also, tonight we took horse trails so there were way more hills. also, we saw the 'nellie gale streaker' the other night. i guess a guy got arrested a week ago for running naked through the 'nellie gale' community. very high class neighborhood where i live. well, he went jogging right by us just in time for sharon to see some butt cheeks.

ah, california.

so it's been a while and i feel like i should update my blog. i don't really have anything exciting to share.

my friend sharon and i have gone walking the last three nights and we've walked 3.5 miles each time. except tonight where we had to turn around early cause i had to pee really badly. note to self: don't guzzle water before heading out for a long walk. DUH

my sister turned 34

my mom's birthday was this past friday as well.

my brothers birthday is on the 30th.

i'm exhausted because of this time change thing that i can't really seem to understand.

i get to go home soon!! i'm so excited. i can't even express it, i wish i would be home longer than just two days but i'll take what i can get.

i think i'm going to go to sleep now. tomorrow is my day off and aside from waiting for more materials for the video i'm working on, it'll be a cleaning day. i was SOOO NOT ready to live with a boy. SO NOT READY. ***just fyi, he's just a roommate no one panic here. i knew i could live with him because we have equal distain for each other. it works out well.

my friends sharon and steve bought the coolest scale. that's right, i'm blogging about a scale. it's so great. it tells you your weight and then body fat percentage and then the percentage of water. WOWZA talk about an eye opener! and that's all i'm going to say about that.

peace, love and i'm out.

i live in a really cool place, i'm not gonna lie. due to the recent rain, i now have snow capped mountains to look at while driving to work every morning. someone asked me when i moved out here if i thought i'd just get used to seeing them and start taking them for granted...i haven't. every day, i drive to work and say, 'i can't believe i live here.' i say the same thing when i see a whale from shore from my favorite beach. the freeways i can do without but the mountains and the ocean are priceless.

i have a big project that i'm doing right now, due in a couple weeks. it'll be good to have this under my belt it's a great project to work on and it's been great getting back into the editing saddle again. it had been a while. i missed it and i'm making up for that now. i'm loving it.

i've been selected to be in a corporate video for my work. this should be interesting. there is a whole big story behind it but i'll tell you about that in a less public place... anyway, i have to drive to santa monica on monday for filming. pretty excited about it. the minute i heard i thought, 'i should go tanning...get my hair cut...get my nails done...buy new clothes... the list went on. don't worry, they were all thoughts, though i might freak out last minute and do them all...we'll see.

my dog is bitter with me right now because all we do is stay home. it's very sad. i feel so bad for her. luckily it's getting to the point that it's light out when i leave work which means in no time at all, we'll be back playing at the park every night after work...

i have a list of people who think i'm dead or missing because i haven't responded to emails or phone calls... i promise i'll track you down as soon as i can.

oh, and here's the other thing, if you know me at all, you'll know that i'm quite the hypochondriac. i always think i have something. well for the last four days i have had really bad jaw pain. not tooth pain, jaw pain. it hurts to swallow and yawn, it's strange. it almost feels like a nerve or muscle thing (my roommate thinks its from stress). anyway, because i'm paranoid, i went to the webmd website and went to the symptom checker. they have you select a region, i selected the head. they have you select a specific part, i selected jaw. it has you select the symptom...pain, bruising and about 10 other options, i selected 'pain and discomfort' and it pops up a little window that says, "if you're experiencing pain in your jaw please seek prompt medical attention." are you freaking kidding me?!? that's exactly what someone like me needs to NOT hear. so, i'll be going to a walk in clinic tomorrow after work if it doesn't go away. either that or i'll start taking some serious pain killers.

alright, with all that in mind, i'm off to bed. i'm going hom to indiana in one month from today. pretty excited about it. even though i'm only home for about 2 days and then i'm going to iowa to hang out with the fam. which, here's a side note before i actually go to bed.

i tried to explain my family to someone the other day and it's not something easy to do. i typically say, 'it's like my big fat greek wedding but we're dutch.' more on that stuff later.

anywho, now i'm really going to bed. here's to hoping my jaw doesn't fall out of my head.

k