Christine's Musings

2003-01-02T23:28:00.000-06:00

fyi - Change your links to http://www.yanowhatimean.com Join the party. Have some fun!

2002-12-31T18:57:00.000-06:00

Happy New Year's Eve!

Well, it's the holiday that bears my name. New Year's! What? Happy Year. Feliz año. My last name would be too long if they translated the whole thing to 'Feliz año nuevo'. The Feliciano's will be partying it up tonight! Like we do every year, I'm heading out to my cousin's place, where we eat, eat, and eat. 2002 has been a good year to me. Sure, it's had its ups and downs, but a lot of great things have happened this year. I got engaged. Claudine got into med school. Fatima learned she would graduate (finally). Maui and Jane had a baby, the start of the next generation of cousins. I've met a ton of new and interesting people thanks to this lil' blog here. There were a lot of bright spots in my life this year. So I wish you all a wonderful and prosperous 2003. Be safe today! This could very well be the last post before I bring over the new format. Hopefully it will be tomorrow, but chances are, it will be the day after.

2002-12-30T12:58:00.000-06:00

Whew! The Season is Over

Whew! The Bears were shut out yesterday in an embarrassing game. Urlacher did what he could, but without offense doingtheir job (which is to score, in case they forgot), you're not gonna win the game. You'd think that after the first two interceptions that Burris would try passing to someone in a Bears uniform. Well, to his credit, I did see him throw one SWEET pass. But still. I'm so happy that this season is over. Let's use this time to reflect and look to next year. And heal, boys, heal. Hope that next year we don't have as many injuries. And since I'm complaining about the Bears, let me show you a picture of lovely Soldier Field before it was gutted and torn up: Ahh, so pretty. So nice. Historical. A place where a lot of magic happened. Sweetness. Gale Sayers. Iron Mike. Dick Butkus. A beautiful stadium. Which will be transformed to this monstrosity: Ack! Ugly! A spaceship has landed in Soldier Field! Who gave the OK for this design, anyway? I find it really sad. They could have at least stayed with the classic design of the stadium. I can't handle the two architectural styles. BAH!!!! On other sporting fronts, watch out for the latest Michael Jordan Gatorade commercial. Can't find a link to it, but let me tell ya, it's pretty badass! Michael Jordan of the present faces off against young Michael of the Bulls (complete with hair!). I love the trash talking in the spot. And the end gives me a little giggle, too. Since the new year is coming up, I decided to give you all a little preview of the new site. Actually, the site looks exactly the same, I'm just changing around some of the formatting and fixing up the content. Just click on the 'pics' link up on top (or just click on the word pics) to check out the newly formatted picture pages. Sorry for you dialup people. Sucks to be you, I've got thumbnails! Someday, when I win the lottery, I'll get you all DSL connections. I'm feeling really sick right now, and I've taken a couple DayQuils. I've got to cancel my blood donation. And I was kinda looking forward to losing a couple ounces before the new year. And the free cookies. And juice. Oh, and saving a life, too *wink*. Will have to do it in 2003.

2002-12-29T20:34:00.000-06:00

Harry Potter is Catholic

So I'm at church this morning, and I look up at the altar servers, and who do I see? None other than our favorite scarred wizard in training, Harry Potter. It was him. I swear. He had the glasses and everything. I always thought that he would be Anglican. But he's Catholic! Who would have thought? Me and my family went out to eat at the banquet hall where I'm having my reception. They seemed to like the place. The food was OK. The chicken was really good, but the meatballs were so-so. Oh, by the way, there's a big update on my wedding blog. You'll be able to check out my hall and the church where I'm getting married. Ohh..I'm watching the Bears right now, and URLACHER IS KICKING SOME BOOTAY! Whoo hoo! How awesome is he? Awesome enough to be the number one selling jersey in the NFL! He's just broken Dick Buttkis' record of tackles in a season (is that it?). I love this game. Did anyone see the MudBowl yesterday? It must have been really fun for the Chiefs and Raiders to play on a muddy field, in the pouring rain yesterday. It was cool to watch them schloshing around. Every time they ran, a big *splash* would happen. Good times! Good times! Since the New Year is coming up, I thought I post up my multiple resolutions...I like to have a lot, because I never stick with 'em anyway... 1) Exercise at least 2 times a week (right now I'm at 0 times) 2) No more snacking after 9pm 3) I will not renew any more of my magazines. I never read them anyway. 4) I will not buy any more magazines at the airport. 5) I will take more pictures with my camera. There's a lot of times that I really wish that I had taken some pictures. 6) I will be better with returning voicemails and replying to emails. 7) I will submit my consultant reports and my expense reports right after I return from a trip. 8) I will try and get at least 4 hours of sleep each night 9) I will get a new membership card to Bally's 10) I will put gas in my car BEFORE the gas light turns on 11) I will watch my posture. I'm a big sloucher. 12) I will try and schedule my time more efficiently at work. Um, I think that's all for now...

2002-12-28T18:09:00.000-06:00

OK....been on and off cleaning my room. Here's a little thing I found on a message board...Feel free to answer 'em if you want. I think that they're pretty interesting questions... 1. If someone tripped over chairs in a public place staring at you, what would be your first assumption for the reason for their actions? They tripped because they were staring at me. Do I have a booger? 2. If you got clothes you hated for Christmas, do you ask where they got them so you can exchange or ask for a receipt or throw it in the back of a drawer or wear them cause you don't care what you look like? No, there's many occasions that I don't really care about where heinous clothes are OK to wear. 3. What do you think of that West Virginia guy that just won 314.9 million? Man! When's it my turn!? Too bad after taking the lump sum it's only 100 million something...;) 4. If a picture of you wearing nothing but a red sheet was up in a public place and you had to be there one evening and people stared at you: how would you handle the admiration/fame? I would avoid the location where the poster is, and if anyone mentioned it, I would just smile and say 'Thank You' 5. If you had a mother-in-law and you hated her, but she bought you a ton of great Christmas presents: would you try to like her or is it that you cannot be bought? I always try to like people, but if I didn't like her already, good presents aren't going to do anything for her. Oh, but I'm not giving back the presents! 6. If you had to take care of someone's house and pets while they were gone and you couldn't get a door open, would you try to kick it in? I'd look for a window first. Trying to kick in doors hurts. 7. Does it bug you that people stare at you in public while you're eating? No. It would bother me if they were counting my chews, though. 8. If you had to take care of someone's house, and they left you more than a page of things to do while they are gone for TWO full DAYS, like water their plants that look like they haven't been watered in a month...etc. Would you do it? (Hypothethically, they are really nice people) Yeah. I'm a sucker for that stuff. That's a good idea, though, I'm thinking of maybe going on a trip and finding some sucker to clean my room while I'm gone. 9. How long could you work at a high paying job that you were totally bored with? Forever. You can find many things to do when you're bored at work. 10. How many days late did you return your last video rental or library book? What's your personal record for late returns? 4 days. Luckily, Blockbuster doesn't charge per day. It just renews the rental. My personal record is 25 days. I was away on Christmas break and I forgot about the movie. 11. If a belly-dancer was scheduled to be at your work for a birthday surprise, would you react? I'd make sure I had batteries in my camera. And a notebook to take notes. That could be a good skill to have.

2002-12-28T11:53:00.000-06:00

Must....Clean....Room

It seems that I have lost the floor of my room. Have you seen it? I think it's come to the point where I really must tidy up around here. It's getting even a little too messy for me! And I like having a clean room for the new year. You know, starting the new year right. Yesterday, I totally fell asleep. I was supposed to go out and hang out with 'Alki-Man' and his amazing friends, but I put my head down for a little nap at 9 and have a fuzzy recollection of Fatima trying to wake me up at 11, and then next thing I know, its 3 in the morning. Sorry guys, I'll have to come out and play next time. So today, I'm on a mission. Find the floor of my room. Wish me luck! BTW - Bought Christina Aguilera's latest CD, Stripped. As much as I don't like her new image, the latest CD is REALLY good. I thought the whole thing might be Christina trying too had to be a ghetto RNB queen, but she touches on a lot of genres of music. I'm liking it. Especially track 12. Very Monkees/James Bond/Sheryl Crow-esque.

2002-12-27T13:13:00.000-06:00

Going to My Happy Place

Hmm, you would have thought that I would have posted something since I called in sick yesterday. But I was really busy, last minute Christmas shopping and catching up on everyone else's blogs. I was also working a bit on the 'New Improved Yano What I Mean dot com' site. It's looking good. Well, it's actually looking rather plain, but it'll change. So anyway, I'm back at work today, and since everyone else in the universe is on vacation, it's pretty slow today. So we took liberties with our lunch time. It was an excellent lunch today at Su Casa, with good conversation, good people, and best of all, good margaritas. So right now, my senses are a bit, um, enhanced. I kinda feel like I'm typing super fast, and I'm laughing at everything. Yes, the stupid buzzed smile. Oh, there's nothing better than having a couple drinks during your lunch break. And why not!?!? I've been given a second lease on life. I'm going to enjoy it! Well, I'm going to enjoy drinking. Just kidding.

2002-12-27T13:11:00.000-06:00

The Friday Five! 1. What was your biggest accomplishment this year? Getting engaged and picking a date and reception hall without killing anyone. 2. What was your biggest disappointment? Realizing that I haven't been saving money like I should have been. SAVE YOUR MONEY PEOPLE! WEDDINGS ARE EXPENSIVE! 3. Will you be making any New Year's resolutions? I always do, and I never stick to them. 4. Where will you be at midnight? Do you wish you could be somewhere else? Probably at my family party. We celebrate New Year's every year together. I'll wish I was in a million other places, but a part of me will be happy where I am - with family 5. Aside from (possibly) staying up late, do you have any other New Year's traditions? We always take a cousin picture before midnight, then at midnight, an aunt or uncle always throws a bunch of change into the air that we scramble to catch to get good luck for the next year. Then again, maybe they just find it funny that we're crawling around on the floor looking for change...

2002-12-25T23:57:00.000-06:00

Miracles Happen On Christmas

a.k.a.

The Christmas that I Almost Died

Well, it was a pretty eventful Christmas this year....so much had happened! To start it off, Christmas Eve, my family headed out to Dave's home to spend dinner with his family. Our families get along really well, which is great. Our parents enjoy each other's company, and Fatima and Justin were already friends from U of I. Dinner was awesome. There were a lot of great meat products to choose from. Then we took a million and one pictures by the Christmas tree. Those pics are in my Dad's camera, but one he gets those developed, I'll post them here. After taking pictures, we headed out to the evening mass. Normally, we're at our other family party and we go to midnight mass with all the cousins (which I mentioned in my previous post). But this time it was just our familes that went to Dave's church (the church that we're going to get married in) for Christmas mass. It was nice and everything, but a little part of my really missed going to mass with my other cousins. I'm a sucker for sentimentality, and midnight mass is one of my favorite traditions. But it was a nice mass, and it was great to share it with Dave's family. Maybe next year we can con them into coming to our midnight mass. Anothing thing I'd love to mention was the snow. The weathercasters had been commenting all week about the fact that we weren't going to have a white Christmas. There's something about snow on Christmas that just makes the whole thing complete, so I was a little bummed that was no expectation of snow. However, lo and behold, it snowed on Christmas Eve, leaving us with 3 inches of snow, enough to stick on the ground to have a true White Christmas. YAY! My dream of a white Christmas came true. *wink* After Dave's, we headed to my aunt's place where the rest of my family was at. We took more family pictures, then the presents were passed out. There weren't as many presents this year for us since we chose to just do a grab bag between the cousins. But I did get a nice amount of presents, so I'm not complaining. Click here to see us open presents I got my little flower girl a really cute Stitch doll (you can see it in an earlier post - it's the one that's in the tree) and I knew it was going to be a hit or miss as to if she would actually like it. She's 2, and she's a shy little thing. As you can see from this video, she was a BIT scared of it. Ahh....once she watches the movie, she'll learn to love him. She better! Watch Nina Run Away from My Present After opening presents, we spent the rest of the night playing Cranium and Trivial Pursuit. I ended up going to sleep at around 6:30am. There was a lot of laughing, shouting and eating taking place before I went to sleep! I eventually ended up waking at around 12 on Christmas day. We ate some more and just hung out talking. So we're talking about funny things that happened the night before, and I'm eating Claudine's cookies. Maui brings up this funny story about me sitting on Melanie's head, and we all bust out laughing. But unfortunately for me, I was swallowing a cookie at the time. So I started coughing, thinking it would come out. And this whole time I'm still laughing. But then I realize that the cookie isn't coming out. By now, my cousin Marian's like 'Christine, are you serious?' and I start nodding my head, and the realize that although I'm making a coughing action, there's no noise, and I'm starting to turn beet red. Maui, who's a nurse, comes around and does the Heimlich on me. This dislodges the offending cookie (and I actually end up puking) and in all actuality, saves my life. But then again, he was the one that told the joke that got me gagging in the first place! So after a lot of coughing after that, we had a good laugh over my near death experience. So Maui gave me three things for Christmas - Near-Death, Life, and a cute sweater. The 'Didja hear? Christine almost died!' story must have been told 30 times today. Miracles DO happen on Christmas!

2002-12-24T16:32:00.000-06:00

Merry Christmas!

Well, Christmas starts for me today. First, my family is going over to Dave's for the very first Feliciano/Estacio Christmas. Weird! But it should be a good time. Our families get along very well. After that, it's time for our family Christmas. It's the best! There's about 30 of us that get together, and we keep one room open for the tree and all the presents (usually you can't see the tree there's so many presents!). We then chow down on tons of food, take family pictures, then head off to midnight mass. We take up about 3 pews there, and an uncle or two always ends up nodding off and snoring (ok, I've been accused of doing that, myself, too!). Once we get home, an uncle puts on the santa hat and passes around the presents. We all open them up at the same time and stay up all night playing video games or board games. Christmas day we end up waking up at about noon, then eat leftovers and play more games. Wishing all of you a wonderful holiday, filled with laughter, love, and GOOD FOOD!

2002-12-24T11:32:00.000-06:00

How do you like the new holiday colors? OK, off for some last minute Christmas shopping!

2002-12-23T10:15:00.000-06:00

Back to the Funky Buddha

Shopping wasn't too bad on Saturday. I went to an obscure mall that no one thinks is cool anymore, but has enough of a selection of shops to meet my shopping needs. No one was killed in the parking lot that day! I'm still not done with all my shopping yet, but I'll do the rest during lunch today. Saturday night me, Dave, Chetan and Gil went to the Funky Buddha Lounge on Saturday night. I hadn't gone out dancing for a non-birthday event in a while, and it's been a REALLY long time since I've gone to the Funky Buddha. I had almost forgotten why I love going to that place. Although the danceflooer is smaller than my bathroom, the music was great, all night long. The played this AWESOME old house set that got everyone out on the floor. I miss the days of going out dancing all night long. Chetan's friend was friends with the DJs there, so we got the 'We're with the DJ' line at the front door. It was interesting to watch the interactions between people that night. Flirting, avoidance, and rejection. So fun to watch. And I realized that a drunk is more annoying when they're telling everyone repeatedly that they're drunk. I had a good buzz going, so maybe my drunk person tolerance was low, but I don't know. Talking about being drunk is just a cry for attention. Yesterday I watched the Bears lose, once again. That team is just falling to pieces. We then had family movie night, because Claudine and Fatima are both home from school. We ordered pizza and watched 'The Lord of the Rings'. I don't think I can ever get bored of watching that movie. Tonight me and my sisters are going to go and watch the Two Towers. I'm really excited to see it, because I've only heard good reviews about it. I think yaccs (my comments provider) is down. Don't worry, though, I'll be putting up the new site soon!

2002-12-21T20:23:00.000-06:00

Awwwwwwwwwwwww shit! 'Saturday Night Fever' is on TV. That's gotta be one of the best movies ever! I love disco!

2002-12-21T14:49:00.000-06:00

Mall Wars Begin

Well, I've been horrible with my Christmas shopping, and I have to go out today. Wish me luck. Going to the mall around this time makes me really apprehensive. The last time I went to the mall around this time of year I almost killed someone for a parking spot. I had it first, dammit! Well, it's my own fault for not starting my shopping early. Here's the second part of Linda's survey thing...I'll tell ya how my shopping goes later! 10.If you were another person, would you be friends with yourself? Hmm, at first I would think that Christine was a snob. But then we would start talking about comic books and tiramisu and we'd be best friends forever. 11.Are you a daredevil? Sometimes. 12.Do looks matter? Unfortunately for me, yes. I admit it. But after the initial attraction, it becomes a correlation of your looks and your personality. I've met many guys who at first were not attractive to me, but after knowing them, they became a LOT more attractive because of their personality. Luckily for me, Dave is a hot guy with brains and personality. Not to mention a killer jumpshot. 13.Have you ever misused a word and it sounded absolutely stupid? Always. I like throwing words into conversation that I have no idea what they mean, but they sound right. Sometimes I'm right, sometimes I'm wrong. Damn vocab in highschool English class! 14.Do fish have feelings? Yes. And sometimes, they tell me to do very bad things. 15.Are you trendy? Somewhat. I'll buy one trendy thing a 'season'. Usually I stick to fashions that have some longetivity, though. I admit, however, to giving into the 'Rachel' haircut of the mid-90's. Someone shoot me if I do that again. No, someone shoot me if I go back to my high hair days of the late-80's. 16.How do you release anger? Playing with graphics in photoshop, playing playstation, causing other people pain. Just kidding. Just causing Claudine pain. *evil grin* 17.Peanut butter or Jelly? Neither, though putting peanut butter on Ewok's mose if the funniest thing ever. 18.Do you trust others easily? To a certain point. I've been screwed over too many times to trust people completely without knowing them well first. 19.What was your favorite toy as a child? Uh, I don't remember much of my childhood (it's the drugs!), but I do recall having this little desk, where I kept all my paper, my crayons and other stuff. I would spend hours sitting in this little desk drawing. 20.What class in school do you think is totally useless? Calculus. I haven't used it yet. 21.Skydive or Hang glide? Skydive. Someday I'll get to it. It looks like such a rush! 22.Have you ever been on radio or television? Yeah, I've been on TV. I was the drum major for band and they televised us during the St. Patrick's Day parade. Please, don't ask about bandcamp...that question is SO old! 23.Do you have a journal? That's where you are, silly... 24.Do you use sarcasm a lot? Yes. 25.Have you ever been in a mosh pit? Not intentionally. Just seems like I end up in them.

2002-12-20T21:27:00.000-06:00

Today the president of my company handed out our Christmas presents - a charcoal grey company shirt (which is way cooler than the other ones that we have), a pretty snazzy metal lifetime guaranteed pen, and A RAISE! Whoo hoo! It's not a huge raise, but we''ve had a pay freeze for the longest time, so any money is a good thing. It really helps out this year, with the wedding coming and all. I'm not going to complain at all. I'm pretty thankful, and I'd have to say a little surprised. I was expecting a gift certificate for dinner or something like that! Maybe work doesn't suck THAT bad. Well, just some people at work suck! Here's my goofy Stitch pics. Bryan took the first one, and the second one is a picture of Stitch chewing on a leaf in my new tree.

2002-12-20T14:14:00.000-06:00

Mini-Snow Storm

I'm back in Chicago again, back in the office. It's not too cold outside, but it's really windy. And it was snowing earlier! Well, it looked like a mini blizzard outside a couple minutes ago, but now the sun is out and shining. It snowed for a couple hours, but nothing even accumulated. I hope it snows for Christmas, that would be so nice! We had our holiday luncheon today (I know what you're thinking - how many holiday parties does her office have?) and I am completely stuffed. My coworker's mom made the AWESOME pecan tarts - I had about 4 of them and my belly, though singing the praises of pecans and powdered sugar, is aching!!! I'm about to pass out from so much food. I went Christmas shopping at the Disney store. They've got tons of stuff on sale. When I get home, I'll post the pic the Bryan took of me at my desk. Me, him and Loretta had a little photo shoot at my desk. I bought this big 'Stitch' plush and I can't stop hugging him. He's so adorable! I like pretending like he making like growling Stitch sounds. I'm a dork!

2002-12-19T21:11:00.000-06:00

Enteract, Back in Effect!

Thanks to the perseverance of Rick my Enteract account has been brought back to life! If I could find a picture of him, I'd make a little altar here for him! But he gets a thousand thanks for working so hard to get my old account back! So all of you lost sheep that were getting the 'Forbidden' error, welcome back! And make sure you change your link to http://www.yanowhatimean.com. I'm still working on the rest of the pages of the new site, like the links and the pictures, but hopefully it'll get done by the end of the year!

2002-12-18T23:48:00.000-06:00

It Must Be The Hair

So I'm still in New Haven. I was working on getting my work done with my client's web administrator, and we were cracking jokes and whatnot. Then later on, I'm talking with my client and some other people, and my client says 'Good thing they sent a girl this time! Joe was bending over backwards to help her out. And I haven't seen him laugh in years! I think he enjoyed having a pretty girl in his office.' Yes, flattered, but on the other hand, I feel like a piece of meat! I have a brain, too! Really! And my hair must be in amazing shape lately, because yesterday, I was doing a demo of our program for a couple clients, and one woman asked me to move around my hair, and she was like 'Your hair is so beautiful and thick!' Uh, yeah, just try doing anything creative with it. It's got a mind of its own! And another client today interrupted my demo and said 'I'm sorry to keep on interrupting you, Christine, but can I touch your hair? Just run my fingers through it a little?' Um, how can you say no to that? I felt a little violated. Dude, it's just hair. Here's a little something that Linda sent to me...I'll do the first half, then the rest later... 1.What is your full name? Christine Feliciano 2.Sweater or Sweatshirt? Sweaters. All my sweatshirts seem to have disappeared 3.Do you wish on the stars? Whenever it's early enough to see the first star of the night... 4.Which finger is your favorite? My thumb. I have this annoying habit of giving people a thumb's up sign... 5.When did you last cry? Sometime this week. I've been a little emotional lately... 6.Do you like your handwriting? For the most part, except I can't write in straight lines. 7.What is your favorite lunch meat? Roast Beef 8.Any bad habits? I'm really forgetful, and I bite my lips a lot 9.What is your most embarrassing CD on the shelf? New Kids on the Block Greatest Hits. Embarrassing, but I love it!

2002-12-18T04:09:00.000-06:00

It's 5am, I'm still awake doing CRAP work for the office. Yano is not a happy girl. Not only to I have to work at my client's site, I also have to work on the normal stuff that I do at the office, too. Grrrrrrrr.... So I'm up, working, and watching 'Juice'. What a badass movie!

2002-12-17T18:59:00.000-06:00

Animal Gangbang

Well, I was thinking that I'd have to cut sushi out of my diet because of my tight budget, but I forgot that clients pay for my meals when I'm out of town. Thank God for sushi in Connecticut! I'm in heaven! I also stopped by Best Buy to get some X-Mas presents. It's one of the biggest Best Buys I've ever seen. I had the credit card things there. Why even bother signing them? It never looks like your signature anyway. It was the ultimate test of my willpower not to by anything for myself there. Funny lunch conversation today. I was talking with my client, who's got 7 dogs, 3 cats, chickens, mules and horses, and we were discussing my dog, Ewok, and my rabbit, Luscious. I asked her if she had any problems getting them to interact together, and she usually no. Then she said that she used to have a rabbit, but one day...'I caught two of the dogs on top of the rabbit. It was a gangbang! They were taking turns holding the ears of the rabbit down down while the other was in the back, going on like there was no tomorrow.' WTF! It was hilarious, like something out of some black market prison animal porn. And I would never have thought this lady would have even KNOWN the word gangbang!

2002-12-17T18:51:00.000-06:00

Today's This-or-That 1. Christmas dinner: turkey or ham (or something else)? Turkey, pancit, egg rolls, pot roast, rice, fried chicken, pie, and much much more! 2. Candy canes or chocolate? Chocolate! 3. Fruit basket or fruitcake? Fruit sucks 4. Mulled cider or mulled wine? Mullet? What? 5. Eggnog or hot chocolate? Hot Cocoa! 6. Holiday cookies: homemade or store-bought? I only eat Claudine's cookies. They are the best around. 7. Roasting chestnuts or popping corn? Chestnuts 8. On the buffet table: veggie platter or cheese tray? Cheese! Vegetables suck! 9. Apple or pumpkin pie? Pumpkin. With lots of whip cream! 10. Christmas Day breakfast: before or after gift-opening? It happens around noon, when we all end up waking from the late night.

2002-12-17T02:04:00.000-06:00

Sleepless in New Haven

Here I am in New Haven, Connecticut. Eck! Lousy work has shipped me off here for the whole week. No fun the week before Christmas. I need to take care of the rest of my Christmas shopping here, I guess. So I'm watching 'Sleepless in Seattle' here, and I've got to say that its one of my favorite movies. *sigh*

Where is Yano Today?
New Haven, CT

I also wanted to share something with you that a friend of mine, Derrick wrote in his blog, well, actually, I consider him family. After reading this, I got all teary eyed and emotional...and you'll see why...

Hello all!!! Today marks a new chapter of adversity for Derrick. I hate when people refer to themselves in the third person, but oh well. The reason for my new challenge you ask? Today is the official date where I will begin to quit smoking. I say begin because I know that I will have momentary lapses into nicotine binging, be it when I am out at a bar drinking, after a big meal, or out of pure boredom. The thing is, I am beginning to try to quit today. One may wonder what makes a lifetime smoker such as myself decide to quit. No, it wasn't the truth ads, although they are somewhat amusing and informative, I feel that smokers, in general, ridicule those ads. It wasn't people around me that were begging me to quit. No, I was always rather good at brushing them off. I am quitting for a family member of one of my closest friends. I should say my family member, but it's not at that point yet. Well, she was not a smoker I don't think. At least for the couple of years that I've known her she wasn't. And she is one of the many unfortunate people that have cancer. I am quitting for her. It's not that I have told anyone this, or am I pledging this to anyone, but the way I see it, I smoke, and I do not have cancer, she does not smoke, and yet she does have cancer. That shit just ain't right. So yes I am quitting for her. This woman that I hardly know is my one true inspiration for quitting a habit that has controlled 13 years of my 25 years of existence on this planet. So wish me luck people. I know it's gonna be a long journey, I will probably tag another few unwanted pounds on my already overweight body, I will have mood swings and be absolutely irritable, but please deal. I will probably have a few more smokes before I'm completely done. Don't blame me. I read yesterday that it takes the average smoker 18 years to quit. Can you believe that? So again, wish me luck, cuz I'm gonna need it.

Wow. So I'm going to support Derrick 100%. I think he's such an awesome guy to do this. I find it so touching that he was inspired by my mom. She would be so proud if she knew this. But then again, she'd kick Derrick's ass for smoking in the first place. *wink*

2002-12-16T01:08:00.000-06:00

Bob Chinn is Disappointed in Me

Well, yesterday was our company party, and it was held at Bob Chinn's in Wheeling. Before going out there, we stopped by Golf Mill to buy our gift exchange gifts. That place has really changed. Here's me with my friends Sully and Stitch. The office party itself was tons of fun. I had a couple drinks before we sat down to eat, and when we were led to our table, I was talking with Sam's fiance, and I didn't realize that although I saved a seat for Sam, someone had taken the seat I saved for myself. So I looked around for another seat at the table. None. Not one seat at the table with all my friends. So I looked down, and the only seat open was the one next to the company president. I panicked, and tried to figure out how tipsy I was. Pretty tipsy! But I went down to sit next to him, and he puts his hand over the seat and said 'Anyone can sit here but Christine'. Aww...rejected by even the president! So then I say 'Sorry, there's nowhere else to sit. And anyway, we need to talk about giving me a raise!' After saying that, I realized it was a ballsy thing to say, and he could have fired me on the spot. But fortunately, he laughed. *sigh of relief* He was in a great mood that night, so I really had nothing to worry about. It was just weird to be eating next to the president and across from the vice president. It was cool, too, though. I was happy that he laughed at my jokes, and that I didn't have any problems with my motor skills. He bought my group these plastic fish jackets, which were at the moment really cool to have, but no way am I ever wearing it in public. But maybe I'll wear it around the office. My VP knows Bob Chinn, so he came by our table to talk with her, and gave her some free scallop sashimi. He offered for me so try it. So I took a piece of ginger and put it in my mouth. And then he said 'No, you must eat the ginger and scallop together!' So I take some of the scallop, and put it in my mouth. And he's like 'No, together!' And I'm nodding, because they ARE together, in my mouth, and I can't talk. But he just shook his head and kept on talking to our VP. Oh well! Afterwards, a small group of us went out to another bar. I was at my 'I've -drank-enough-alcohol-so-I'm-gonna-rock-at-pool' stage. I rocked the house playing pool! All in all, it was a good night.

2002-12-13T16:59:00.000-06:00

The End of Enteract

Short note (really busy at work). http://www.enteract.com/~yano has officially died. I don't know why, and I don't feel like investigating. I was fortunate enough to have it as long as I did. It was sheer luck and the kindness of my friend OJ that it's been around this long. So I don't know what happened, but I'm pretty sure it isn't coming back. So I'm having a premature beginning to http://www.yanowhatimean.com. I wanted to have a big opening party for it after I redesigned the whole site, but what can you do. Welcome to my new domain! So please change your links, and I'm sorry about the inconvenience. More good things are to come from my site...it'll be ALL GOOD! Yanowhatimean? I'm gonna kill that phrase to death.

2002-12-13T11:39:00.000-06:00

Too Much Partying Makes Yano a Slow Girl

Head hurts. Tummy grumble. Must...move...slowly. Hangovers suck! Luckily, mine isn't too bad. But I've got TONS of stuff to do today, so I've got to keep on movin'. Happy Friday the 13th! Yesterday's building party was a lot of fun, though. There was a lot of free pizza, and the desserts were awesome. And of course, my favorite thing, open bar. There's just something about those two words that brings a smile to my face. So of course, I took advantage of it. And the bartenders were VERY generous with their pouring of the spirits. I was quite happy. After the party, we headed out to Mother Hubbard's for more drinks and some pool. The Christine/Jerry team beat the Abie/Syed team 3 to 1 at pool. We rule! We had more drinks and a car bomb or two, and I got a chance to play with Abie's phone cam. It's pretty neat. I know it was getting bad when the drunken phone messages started happening. Dan, the devil that he is, once again called people on my phone without my permission. Dude, I got a rep to protect! There was also a lot of love advice given, and for some reason, I remember yelling and hitting the table a lot. But it was a lot of fun....good times!!! Fortunately, I arrived home in one piece. Unfortunately, I'm not feeling too good right now!

2002-12-12T11:30:00.000-06:00

Picture Time at the Christmas Bazaar

I worked pretty late yesterday, and since I was already late going home, I decided to stop by the Christmas market which is by my subway station. It's held at the Daley Center, and it is also the location of the city Christmas tree. This tree is MASSIVE. They also have a bunch of little shops, mostly of European origins, selling homemade crafts and food. There were many things that were begging me to buy them, like these beautful painted ornaments that were lit from the inside, or those russian dolls that have 10 dolls fit into one another, or German bratwurst, or potato cakes, snowman windchimes, cute hats with pompoms on top....so much to buy! Fortunately, I left buying nothing. But I DID take some great pictures. oops, i just realized that i didn't rotate two of the pictures...heh heh...i'll fix 'em soon! Today is also our building party. I work in a skyscraper in downtown Chicago, and every year they throw a little party in the lobby for all the tenants. Free food, and free drinks! I love the word FREE! It's always a good time, and it's nice to see the people who work in the same building as you. We always end up a little, uh, happy. I'll recap on what happens when I get home tonight. If I can type. *wink*

2002-12-11T15:43:00.000-06:00

Busy Day!

Two little boys, taking a bath. How cute! (one is Rusty naked *wink*) Yesterday I tried finishing up my Christmas cards, but I ran into roadblock after roadblock. First, my zip drive died. Then, I had to type up my mom's Christmas labels. Then, my calligraphy pen wouldn't load up the ink. The I realized that after working at a computer for the last 5 years, my calligraphic penmanship now looks like I'm writing with my toes! Ack! Tonight. It will all get done tonight. Well, I slacked off a bit yesterday, and it really seems like I'm paying for it today. I was on a pretty long conference call with a pretty tough customer. Actually, there were 5 other people in the call, and one of them was French. His accent was so thick I could hardly understand him. But it was a pretty cool accent. And I've got tons of projects that I've been putting off that I need to do. Hmph! This calls for an long walk to the Sports Authority! I need a break! [more than an hour passes] Well, back from the Sports Authority. We didn't know where the elevator was, so we took the steps up to the 6th floor. What a workout. Bryan ended up buying some skis at an AWESOME price. I was tempted to buy some myself. But the little Yano on my shoulder hit me on the head and said 'NO CHRISTINE! NO! YOU SUCK AT SKIING ANYWAY!' True, Yano Conscience, true! We had a great time loading the ski's into the cab! I came in about 10 minutes late for my 3:30 meeting. My manager hasn't made any comments or anything, maybe he forgot about it. I hope so!

2002-12-10T15:55:00.000-06:00

Rolly Polly Shot Glasses

It's kinda warm outside! I came in from a walk with Bryan and I was almost sweating. Ahh, it's nice to have the temps in the lower 40's! During our walk today, we stopped by Crate & Barrel, and I saw the oddest thing - roly shot glasses! These shot glasses have a round bottom, so you totally feel like they're going to tip over, but they don't. It was pretty neat. They also have roly drink glasses and vases, too. We were rolling 'em around, it was kinda fun, but very nerve racking. Wacky! Yesterday, I got about 80% of my Christmas cards done. Which is pretty great, considering that it's ME doing it. I always end up writing these little sentences and what-not, rather than just saying 'MERRY CHRISTMAS! Love, Christine'. Well, actually, for most of my cards it's going to be 'Christine & Dave'. Now all I have to do is address them and send them out. Tonight it might be a bit more of a challenge for me to do, because I'm really tired at work right now, so I may go home and just nap for a while. Hey, I just thought of something...this is my last Christmas as a single person! Weird! Did you guys hear? Glenn Quinn, who played Mark on 'Roseanne' died last week. He also played Doyle on 'Angel' for the first season. They suspect a drug overdose, but it isn't official. How sad!

2002-12-09T21:50:00.000-06:00

Ohh...I really messed up that last post. I can't even get in to edit it! Anyway, the Flash Flash Revolution game was from Dave K. Have lotsa fun with it. I did! Half time. Bears are losing 14-0. Grrr...There's still time! FYI - the link down there is broke, just like the Bears. Use the one up here!

2002-12-09T20:25:00.000-06:00

The good thing about losing my ATM card is that for the past week, I had no money, so I bought nothing. If I had the urge for donuts in the morning, nope, no money. If I wanted to buy something stupid, nope, no money. Today, I felt like I accomplished a lot today. I went to the bank to get a new ATM card, went to the post office for some stamps, went to the mall and bought some belated b-day presents for Mel and Jen, (Mel, hope you didn't get it yet...) and bought my Christmas cards. For some reason, I didn't think Target would be busy during the day. It was almost as busy as it is at night! And their selection of Christmas cards isn't as good as it was in previous years. Yes, Christmas cards. I'm notorious for giving them. A year late. I dunno. It just takes me so long to write them out, and most of them I mail out, but there are a few friends that I know I'm going to see, so to save postage, I don't mail them, and I just hold on to them until I see them again. Of course, I always forget to bring them with me when I see them. So they end up getting their Christmas cards about 8 months late. Yep. I'm a slacker! But after writing this, I'm going to write them out, address them, and send them out tomorrow. Really. ok, I give myself a 30% chance of actually doing it Whoo hoo! Mike Brown just picked up a fumble! Beat the Dolphins, I know you can!!! FUCK. Jim Miller just threw out an interception. Hot damn. Grr.... You want to waste some time? Ever played Dance Dance Revolution? Here's an online version, called Flash Flash Revolution. It gets pretty crazy! Thanks to Dave K for that one.

2002-12-09T10:43:00.000-06:00

Playing Hookey from School

So I called in sick today. I had been wanted to call in sick last week (I picked up a cold in Washington DC) but I had so much stuff to take care of, I couldn't call in sick. But they're sending me out for a week to West Haven, CT for ALL of next week, so I won't have a chance to get any of my Christmas shopping done. And weekends aren't good, either, because I abhor going to the malls on weekends during the Christmas season. So I'm doing all my Christmas related chores today - buying Christmas cards, getting Christmas stamps, getting wrapping paper, ribbon, looking for little Christmas deals, buying the little kids presents (the older cousins are just doing a grab bag this year, and YES Melanie, I'll send you the list. I just don't know what I want!) and writing out my Christmas cards. It's going to be a long day. I was thinking I was going to wake up at noon after calling into the office, but I ended up waking up at 8:30am. That's no fun! But I couldn't go back to sleep, so I just started doing some preliminary work. Hmph. Off to the mall I go!

2002-12-08T13:30:00.000-06:00

Phenomenal Woman, My Hero

I'm rarely serious here. But today, I want to talk about my hero. And no, this hero doesn't make life changing speeches, this hero hasn't won Olympic medals, this hero hasn't gone into burning building to save lives. But this hero has changed my life. This hero has the determination of an Olympic athelete. And this hero has saved a life - her own, as had inspired me to make my own better. I'm talking about my mom. Regular readers may remember that months ago, I had discussed how my mother's cancer had returned. She had it about 4 years ago, but had gone into remission. But this year we had found that it had spread. She's been doing chemotherapy, taking more pills and medication than I can count, and once again, the hair has fallen out. But rather than give up and be beaten, she's been fighting it with every ounce of her self, and has tried to keep herself in good spirits. She has stayed strong, where many other people would have given up. It's inspired me to see her be so strong - growing up, you usually don't see this strength in your parents, you usually wave them away with a toss of your hand. But I see a strength in her that I haven't seen before. Now I'm not close to my mom like other people are, we don't have late night talks, I've never discussed a boyfriend with her, if we go shopping, I meet her at an appointed time, and she has yet to pick out an outfit that I would be caught in public in...but I admire her. And I try to show my love for her with hugs and kisses, that's the only thing I know how to do. But somehow, I know it's enough. So when you're thinking about how sucky your life is, how pitiful it is, remember that you can always fight the adversity you meet in life. Rather than wallowing in your misery, overcome it. Don't complain about the things in your life that you can change, or that you can change your outlook on. So I dedicate this poem by Maya Angelou to my mom, my phenomenal woman. "Phenomenal Woman" Pretty women wonder where my secret lies. I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size But when I start to tell them, They think I'm telling lies. I say, It's in the reach of my arms The span of my hips, The stride of my step, The curl of my lips. I'm a woman Phenomenally. Phenomenal woman, That's me. I walk into a room Just as cool as you please, And to a man, The fellows stand or Fall down on their knees. Then they swarm around me, A hive of honey bees. I say, It's the fire in my eyes, And the flash of my teeth, The swing in my waist, And the joy in my feet. I'm a woman Phenomenally. Phenomenal woman, That's me. Men themselves have wondered What they see in me. They try so much But they can't touch My inner mystery. When I try to show them They say they still can't see. I say, It's in the arch of my back, The sun of my smile, The ride of my breasts, The grace of my style. I'm a woman Phenomenally. Phenomenal woman, That's me. Now you understand Just why my head's not bowed. I don't shout or jump about Or have to talk real loud. When you see me passing It ought to make you proud. I say, It's in the click of my heels, The bend of my hair, the palm of my hand, The need of my care, 'Cause I'm a woman Phenomenally. Phenomenal woman, That's me.

2002-12-06T12:25:00.000-06:00

Apologies to The Red-Headed White Devil

Well, it has been brought to my attention (on more than several occasions), that I had not posted Dan's birthday on my blog. I didn't think he cared, and it's not like Claudine posted anything on here for him, either. But I send my apologies, and also my thanks for housing all the crap that is on this site. So anyway, Happy belated birthday to Dan. Now leave me alone! Also, happy birthday to Stephanie! Good luck to Dave, who has got a med school interview at UIC tomorrow. I'm crossing my fingers. I really want to stay at home for his residency. Good luck to Rusty Smith, Apolo Ohno, Shani Davis, and Derek Gray in Bormio, Italy this weekend, who are competing at the World Cup for Short Track. I'll be watching! If you're bored today, and looking for something fun to do, and you're a Michael Jackson (well, if you're NOT a fan), check out this site...Catch the Baby! Lots-o-fun. I haven't been updating this as much as I should because I've been addicted to the Sims online. What an awesome game. Goodbye real life, I'm living the Sim life now!

2002-12-05T01:21:00.000-06:00

The Happiest Place for Pigeons

Well, I'm back from DC. It was a pretty successful trip, except that the database server went down right before I left. But it wasn't my fault! Anyway, we were done early (not much you can do without a database) and so they said I could leave early. So we started chatting about this and that, and I noticed that they kept on changing the subject to different things. After a while, they had said 'Did you notice that we keep on changing subjects? We're trying to trick you into staying. We don't want you to go!" Aww. That was really sweet. What a great client! Anyway, I took a nice walk during my lunch today, and I followed the signs to the White House, and I actually found it! I'm so proud of myself. I was thinking that I was going to get lost in downtown DC. So I stood outside and took pictures for a while. I looked for George Dubya and Co, but didn't see anyone. I also noticed that DC has some of the FATTEST pigeons and squirrels I've ever seen. They get fed by so many people, they're seriously obese. I have a picture of one squirrel who was so stuffed that he couldn't move off the top of a bench. It was so funny. The first pic is the DC Metro - the subway system. Doesn't it look really alien and futuristic? Rod's been helping me with ideas on my redesign. To thank him, I've posted his name here, because it always gets him so excited to be in my blog. Visit him and make him feel loved!

2002-12-03T00:13:00.000-06:00

This or That Tuesday 1. Go out and buy gifts, or shop online/mail order? Last year I discovered the joys of shopping online. It's easy, and you don't have to carry it all to the car. I had a really bad experience at a mall parking lot which has caused me to avoid malls during the Christmas season. It's not worth getting an ulcer over. I'll go once or twice to check out the decorations and such, but other than that, target.com and amazon.com are my weapons of choice. 2. Gift cards/certificates or pick out gifts? I like to pick out gifts, no matter how hard it is. 3. Pay cash or charge holiday gifts? I've got a Mileage Plus card. By buying gifts for other people, I'm buying myself a trip to Hawaii. 4. Are most of your gifts mailed or given in person? In person. I'm not keen on mailing big packages. 5. Are you an early-bird or last-minute holiday shopper? Last minute, though I vow this year to start early. 6. If you shop in stores...big chain stores or smaller specialty stores? It depends. I travel a lot, so I end up in little stores every once in a while. If I find anything, I buy it. But chances are, I'll find it in a bigger store. 7. Wrap gifts yourself or have them wrapped at the store or mall? I have two little elves named Claudine and Fatima that get paid by the hour. But I insist on putting on the bows myself! 8. Shopping on *Black Friday* (day after Thanksgiving)...did you or didn't you? Not this year. I know that if I did, I'd go crazy. I've been REALLY good about saving money for the wedding, and I haven't been shopping at all. If I went out on Friday, it would be over. I would buy everything in site. 9. Is your holiday gift list large or small? Small. I accept cash and checks can be paid out to 'The Christine Wedding Fund' thank you very much. 10. Is it better to give or to receive? I'm totally serious when I say that I love to give presents. I love to buy people little knicknacks that remind me of them. Of course, I'd be lying if I said that I didn't like getting presents too, but I think my sisters can vouch for me when I say that I give a lot more than I recieve. *cough* *cough*

2002-12-02T23:43:00.000-06:00

Metro-Gal Gets a Flick

I'm so proud of myself. I took the Metro (that's what they call the subway system here) and I didn't get lost. I was concerned that I would, but the directions that I got were good. The Metro here is pretty cool. It really reminds me of hige underground alien caves. There's even little UFO-like lights that blink when a train is coming. I took a picture of it, but I don't have my cable to upload it. I tried to be quick and cool when I took the picture, because I didn't want to look like a tourist. I quickly took out my camera, clicked the shutter, and put my camera back in my bag. Unfortunately, this lady saw me take the picture, and said really loud, 'Honey, you want me to take your picture in the Metro tunnel?' Sweet, yes, it's nice that she asked. But I was like 'uh, no, that's ok. Thanks a lot for asking.' as the rest of the rush hour crowd stared at me. Oh well, DC gets points for nice, helpful people. The reason I'm here is to help out a client that's been having a problem with the installation of our product. I'd been working on the phone with them for a month or so, and they just decided to have me come down and take a look at their whole setup. After a lot of testing and stuff, I determined that it isn't even our product that's causing the problem. Which is a good thing. So we set up a whole new test server, and we got everything working. Once I brought up the system, one of my contacts flicked me on the shoulder. A flick of pure happiness, but a flick nonetheless. (flick = putting your middle finger against your thumb and 'flicking' it on someone or something) I've never been flicked by a client before. It was weird. But kinda funny, too. I'm watching 'Sweet November'. What a cheesey movie. But I can't stop watching it. I admit it. I'm a sap. Oh my god. I'm at the part where Keanu is singing. I think I might actually puke. And I thought him saying 'Whoa' in every movie was horrible. (ok, i like that) Oh, but he is the ultimate eye candy!!! Happy Birthday to Jen! I know she's not looking forward to another birthday, but I hope it's a good one. Not like she reads this anyway. And a Bon Voyage to Lizzy, Susan, Noelle and the rest of the Bormio traveling circus. I hope you guys have a great time!

2002-12-01T21:53:00.000-06:00

The Adventures of Alki-Man

I'm in D.C. today. Whoo hoo! I'll be here til Wednesday, and I I'm hurtin'. I only have a dial up connection, and anytime I log in, it's on the company card. Argh! Well, it will give me time to work on my page and get it all nice and pretty. I'm watching 'My Dog Skip' right now, and it's the cutest movie. Anyone with a dog should watch it. It'll make you cry!

Where is Yano Today?
Washington, D.C.

Yesterday we partied for Marky's birthday. It was a really good time, and I saw a couple people I haven't seen in a while. Emer was a bit hammered, which is a surprise. Ok, no it isn't. So early on in the night, he comes up to me (and he was already long gone) and asks, 'Christine, do you know what super hero I want to be?' I'm thinking he's going to say something like 'Superman' or 'Batman' or something. So I bite, and say, 'What?' And he says 'I wanna be Alki-Man.' It figures! And later on in the night, where I'm at the point where I'm holding him up, he says to me, 'Christine, you're gonna make a post about this. I want you to make a post about me. And put some pictures in there.' 'What pictures, Emer?' 'I don't give a fuck, put Psylocke or somethin'. Or me. Just don't post any more pictures of those skater guys.' Ha! When's the last time I posted a pic of a skater guy? You just wait til February, buddy, there'll be skater guy pics galore. So I tell him I'll dedicate my post to him, and I'll post up some pics. So here's some pics of my favorite drunk Emer, and Psylocke. (some of the pics are kinda old, you can tell by my hair)

On a side note, the room service guy just knocked, and when I opened the door, he just stood there. Then he said 'May I come in?' I swear, my vampire alert turned on. I mean, isn't he SUPPOSED to come in? Mental note, pack crucifix and garlic for next trip.

2002-11-30T20:22:00.000-06:00

Mark Your Calendars

Finally, we've got a date for the wedding! Whoo hoo! Well, it's still tentative until we find a reception hall, but I'm pretty sure this is the day. It's going to be Saturday, September 13th, 2003, so mark your calendars! It's going to take place at Dave's church (I'm tired of getting the run-around at my first choice church). We went to meet with the pastor yesterday, and I definitely have a better feeling with this priest than I did with the other priest. He was really great. I'm really excited now! You can read more about my wedding drama in my wedding blog I downloaded the beta version of The Sims Online yesterday, and I can't stop playing it. The gameplay is like the original, but you can actually chat with other people. It's a lot of fun. It's really addicting. I'm never going to blog again. Just kidding. I'll take breaks and write entries. Muhahaha. But really, I'll be going to DC this week, so I can't play Sims anyway. I'll just be working on my website. But if you DO end up playing it, look for me in Alphaville, under the name of Moreta Dragoon.

2002-11-29T17:49:00.000-06:00

Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree

Just a real quick post. We put up our Christmas tree. It took longer than we expected because we were missing a couple things and had to make a quick run to Walgreens. My arms are sore from putting up lights, but the tree looks gorgeous. I took a bunch of pictures, so I'll post them up tomorrow when I get a chance.

2002-11-28T12:51:00.000-06:00

Happy Turkey Day!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! We're heading out to my cousin Melanie's today, where we spend every Thanksgiving. We're planning on having two turkeys (one baked and one fried), stuffing, pie, and more food than could feed a small third world country. I can't wait! We'll be eating all day. Later this afternoon I'm heading out to Dave's family Thanksgiving party. Should be a good time. Yesterday was a great time. It's nice to go out and see a lot of people your age. Nowadays when I go out, the crowd tends to be a lot younger (or maybe I'm just going to the wrong places). But it wasn't like that yesterday. I saw lots of people from my old days at school and it brought back a lot of old memories. And the music KICKED ASS! The old school house music was so great to hear, and the dancing was so much fun. I haven't danced like that in a long time. Unfortunately, Bad Boys Blue didn't perform. Hmph! But that's ok, it was a great time. The bartender felt guilty that every drink I asked her to make she didn't have the liquor for, so she hooked me up with whatever she DID make for me. Hey, no complaints here! I was very, uh, happy. But there WAS one strange moment, when it was pointed out to me that I had one ex-boyfriend, one boyfriend, and another ex-boyfriend all within a four foot radius of me. It was kind of a coincidence, but it was weird nonetheless! I would never have thought that I would be one of those people that had multiple ex's in one room. But it doesn't matter. They all get along anyway. And it didn't matter, because I still had fun! So anyway, it's Thanksgiving...so here are some of the things that I'm thankful for (in no particular order): my family, my fiance, my friends, my puppy ewok, my bunny luscious, my health, my job, tiramisu, the sims online, people who write long emails, steak egg and cheese bagels, adobe photoshop, on-line shopping, remote controls, student discounts at movies, cd burners, movie trailers, clinique bonus days, late night chats, short track skaters, tony hawk pro skater 4, quick dry nail polish, salvation army bell ringers, comic books, buffy the vampire slayer, long drives alone, biscuits and gravy, joe boxer commercials, people who comment on my page, christmas lights on michigan avenue, frequent flier miles, blogging, law and order, McDonald's 99 cent menu, newborn babies, my digital camera, chocolate eclairs, friends who don't mind if you don't call them back, thumbsplus, caller id, webcams, sushi, kazaa, when the bears win, concealer, www.yanowhatimean.com, 8 hour lipstick, scanners, smallville, message boards, old school house, my dsl... there's tons more...but I'm hungry! I gotta go! Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

2002-11-27T11:14:00.000-06:00

No Rest for the Procrastinators!

So much for slacking on the day before the holiday. I had a meeting with the president of the company today, and he told me that my next consulting gig has to be done perfectly, because it's one of our biggest clients. Yeah, that's no pressure. So I'm under a bit of stress to make sure that I get the job done well. But it doesn't help that I just found out about this on Monday, and that the client isn't calling me back. How am I supposed to do something perfectly if I'm not even sure what I'm going to be doing? So today will be a lot of testing of all of the customized stuff, as well as trying to get all the other stuff done that I was going to do next week, but won't be able to, since I'm going to be gone. Argh! Earlier today, me and Dan were checking out google and I was checking to see if you can find my archived pages (which it doesn't look like you can). We entered 'comic convention michael rosenbaum chicago' to see if we would find my page, which we didn't, but we found this little treat at Entertainment Geekly. It's a report of the convention done by a guy that was there. Dan was reading it, and he wanted to see if he had said anything about Luke Perry. What had happened at the con was that Dan had gone to the Luke Perry panel (who is starring in his own sci-fi show), and tried stirring up some controversey. Funny enough, Dan was actually mentioned by this guy!

I know we're in good shape when the first question is from some gimp who jumps up and smarms, "Did you honestly think that 8 Seconds would be your ticket to stardom?" Geeks show no mercy.

Yep. That's Dan. Totally smarmy. Tonight I'm gonna head out to an old school party and watch Bad Boys Blue in concert. Remember them? 'A Train to Nowhere' and 'Save Your Love'? Should be good times. And it will be great to see old faces again! And tomorrow is Turkey Day. Can't wait. There's nothing better than eating yourself into a food coma. Yum!

2002-11-26T21:38:00.000-06:00

www.yanowhatimean.com is in effect!

Well, I guess I thought I could keep it a secret til I was done with the revamping of the site, but I've been outed! I went out and bought www.yanowhatimean.com. Sure, it may not be the easiest domain to remember, but I think it's catchy and a lot of you agreed. Now there's nothing on there right now. I was tempted to just copy my site and move it there, but I want to start anew. Well, it will probably look the same, but I want to really clean the rest of the content in here up. I'm really excited. And fortunately (and unfortunately) I'm being shipped off to D.C. next week, so I'll be able to have a LOT of time to work on it. Yay! Thanks for all the suggestions everyone. And don't worry if your favorite wasn't chosen - I'll be changing the design and title of thie page periodically. I'm sure you'll see one of your choices up there eventually!

2002-11-26T19:33:00.000-06:00

This or That Tuesday 1. Stuffing: baked inside the turkey, or separately? Inside the turkey. Then all the nice yummy turkey juices are soaked into the stuffing. Mmmm... 2. Fresh or frozen turkey? Frozen. Not many places you can get a fresh one around here. 3. Cranberry sauce: jellied or whole berry? I'll pass on that. Looks like a big blood clot. 4. Stay home or visit friends/relatives? Friend/Relatives. I don't know what any holiday would be like without spending it with my extended family. Me and my cousins are close. 5. Do you cook Thanksgiving dinner, or let someone else do it? My dad. He's the best cook ever. This year, we're having fried turkey. Whoo hoo! 6. Traditional turkey dinner, or an alternative (such as vegetarian)? Traditional. Vegetables suck. 7. Regular potatoes or sweet potatoes? Regular potatoes for Thanksgiving. Though I love sweet potatoes, butter, cinnamon and sugar. 8. Homemade gravy, or the jarred stuff? Homemade. That's the best stuff. 9. What part of the turkey do you prefer...dark or white meat? I like dark meat, just like my men. 10. After dinner: football or Christmas movies? Football. Playing football. Or watching football is ok, too.

2002-11-26T02:10:00.000-06:00

Great Things Come In Small Packages

Me, Claudine and Fatima are back together again! Whoo hoo! After we picked up Claudine from the airport, we went over to our cousin Maui's place to visit the newest member of our family, Jillian. She is just the cutest little thing you've ever seen! Adorable! Precious! Beautiful! There aren't enough words. She was sleeping for most of the time we were there, so I didn't get too many action shots. Jane told us the whole story about her 16 hours of labor. Something that I'm not looking forward to, yet in a little way, a bit curious about. She didn't spare any details. But that's what I want to hear. I don't want to hear a sugar-coated description of childbirth. I want the truth! It's weird, yet wonderful to see Maui as a father, carrying little Jilly Nilly around, changing diapers.(that shall be my pet name for her. Everyone has a pet name for her. I want one of my own!) Who would have ever thought!

2002-11-25T16:55:00.000-06:00

The Lights on The Magnificent Mile

So I guess work is sending me out to Washington D.C. next week, for a whole week. EEK! How am I going to survive? Rest assured that I'm going to have a new look for this page once I come back, because I'll have NOTHING to do out there. Well, I do have a few friends out there. There was one friend in particular I wanted to meet up with, but she's going to be outta town. But I'm sure I'll still have a good time. Maybe I'll do some sightseeing or something. We'll see. Glad the whole sniper thing is over. Anyone know anything fun that I can do in D.C.? Today is fucking cold. I forgot what the onset of winter is like. But it looks beautiful outside, on Michigan Avenue. They've got all the Christmas lights up and everything. It's gorgeous. I love this season! It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy. And it makes me want to spend lots of money. But I won't! Hope it warms up a little for Thanksgiving. And work is kicking my ass. You'd think that people would be on vacation right now, but it looks like everyone's trying to get their work done before the holiday. Ack! Take a break people! Slack off on your 3 day week. Three posts in one day. I'm on a roll.

2002-11-25T16:51:00.000-06:00

Here's my results from this Personality Test I took today. I got it off of Richard's site. I think the results are a bit disturbing. Histrionic! I'm not histrionic, dammit! *tears out hair and stamps feet* Hmm..ok, maybe I am. *wink* Disorder Paranoid: High Schizoid: Low Schizotypal: Moderate Antisocial: Moderate Borderline: Low Histrionic: Very High Narcissistic: High Avoidant: High Dependent: Moderate Obsessive-Compulsive: Low Paranoid, Narcissistic and Avoidant. Yep, that's me!

2002-11-25T10:40:00.000-06:00

Bears Win!
Bears Win!

Finally the Bears finally pull in a win. Against the Detroit Lions. In overtime. Geez, can't we just have a nice, old-fashioned, honest-to-goodness win? We used to be such a great team! But now our quarterbacks are falling apart, and we've got to fight hard to beat even the crappy teams like Detroit. But hey, it's a win. I'm not going to complain too much about that! And when Chandler went down, Miller did a great job, even with his injury. And let's hear it for Dez White, who often is in the shadow of Chicago's more popular receiver, Marty Booker. He made a couple great catches yesterday, including an awesome touchdown catch, which you could see here. So yeah, it wasn't an easy win, but it was a win all the same. And it ended our 8 game losing streak. I was getting a little worried there.

As for the domain naming, I've decided to go with 'yanowhatimean.com'. So looking back at the archives, (and thanks to Linda for finding it) it was kwalan a.k.a Alan who came up with the title, so he'll get a prize. I don't know what, but maybe you guys can help me think of a prize for him. I think the 8x10 autographed Yano glossy picture may be a bit too much.

2002-11-24T13:01:00.000-06:00

Ode to the Dark Claud

The thing about having two sisters, is that what you do for one, eventually you'll have to do it for the other. My father had always raised us to be fair and to be equals. Constantly growing up, I had to split EVERYTHING with my sisters. So now, Claudine gets her share of Christine blog-lovin'. So where do I start? Claudine is the middle sister. She has all the middle sibling hang ups - in the shadow of the oldest sibling, not getting as much attention as the youngest. I'm three years older than Claudine, and her and Fatima are nearer in age, so they've always been closer. That, and they've shared a room forever. However, me and Fatima are close, too, just because we share similar interests and style. That's how the alliances have been within our family, me and Fatima, or Claudine and Fatima. It hasn't been often that it has been me and Claudine - basically because Fatima could beat us up if we ganged up her. But I've always been the big sister. And I've always used that fact to my advantage. Did you ever watch 'The Hogan Family'? I'm the just like the oldest brother in that family - born to torture and wreak havok in the lives of my younger siblings. So I give Claudine a lot of grief. We don't always get along. And yeah, there have been times I've said to her 'I have the biggest urge to punch you in the face right now.' But the thing is, I really admire Claudine. She's the best kid of us all. Me and Fatima won't deny it. She's the daughter that every parent wished they had, and I'm not saying that out of jealousy or with any sarcasm. She's the smartest. She's responsible. She's tortured by guilt laid upon her by her parents. She obeys. She easily makes friends. She cooks and bakes. That, and she can fit in most household garbage cans. Ha ha ha. She is really a role model, someone you could look up to. Well, you'd have to be lying on the floor to look up to her, because she's only, like 4 feet tall. Anyway, me and Fatima have been joking about replacing Claudine with another sister, because she's been away at school. And I know Claud feels horrible about it...but I gotta poke fun at her - it's my favorite hobby. But really, no one could replace our Claudine. We love her too much. And who would bake me cookies and let me lick the bowl? Uh oh. This post is longer than Fatima's. I'll come up with more accolades for Fata later. FYI - looks like yanowhatimean, yanosworld and gotyano are in the lead for my domain name!

2002-11-23T14:29:00.000-06:00

Oh...and it's

Dave's Birthday Today!

2002-11-23T12:43:00.000-06:00

Name My Domain!

OK, so you guys helped me name my page, howabout helping my pick a domain name? I have domain name envy. Everyone has a domain name but me! OK, not everyone. But I'm planning on buying a domain. And does anyone know any good web hosts? (ahem, KATHY) Here's a couple that I've come up with, if you know of another that has a cheaper, or has a comparable package, I'm looking! Blue Domino IPower Web WSS WebSytz Webmasters.com Prohosting And domain name should I get? www.yanosworld.com www.gotyano.com www.yanowhat.com www.the-yano.com www.yanowhatimean.com www.yanosweb.com Vote for your favorite, or suggest a new one. I want the name to be generic enough so it will stay the same, even though I change my web page name (which will be often!) I'm planning on making the plunge on Monday, so vote/suggest quickly!

2002-11-22T13:45:00.000-06:00

Stood Up By The Priest

Well, we went to the church yesterday and we were supposed to meet with the priest, but he never showed. The receptionist said that he had left for a dinner not 10 minutes before we arrived. She tried calling his cell a couple times (why does it seem weird to me that a priest has a cell?) but he never called back. So we left. So we're still without a date. *sigh* That's ok, we still have an appointment with Dave's church. Me and Bryan went to Nordstrom for a midday snack and ran into the huge Hagrid display. This was made entirely out of Legos, and it was built by kids and parents that stopped by the mall. They each got a project sheet, a rubber hammer, and legos to complete their piece of the big Hagrid. It was really cute to see all the little kids work so hard. It's pretty huge, as you can see here. It took 2 days to complete. Speaking of Harry Potter, I'm heading out to watch it again tonight. Should be a good time. Hopefully I don't fall asleep.

2002-11-21T16:03:00.000-06:00

The Beginning of the End

As some of you know, I reverted back to my natural hair color a couple months ago, after having blond highlights for about 2 years. I'm so-so about the change. Sometimes I like it, sometimes I don't. However, I'm saving a lot of money by not having to go to the salon every 3 months. So I'm back to basic black. Until now. Maybe it's been there all this time, and I never noticed. Maybe I should be paying more attention to my hair. Maybe it's new. I don't know. But the other day, I was looking at my hair in the mirror, and I saw something. I couldn't believe my eyes. Maybe it was just a reflection of the light. Maybe some blonde hairs were missed when I got my hair colored. It couldn't be! No! The horror! Yes, I found a GRAY HAIR. Oh no! Gray hair? The end is coming. And I haven't even gotten married yet, or had kids. How could I be punished so? Why God? Why me? *shouting out to the heavens as the camera pans away* OK. I'm being dramatic. Speaking of...I was at another script reading yesterday (it's every other Wednesday for me) and we had some really great scripts to read. A couple of you have asked what these little readings are. Well, when I was in college, and a few years after, I acted in a couple of things. However, when I started traveling a lot for work, I didn't have time to do a production, but I still wanted to take part in the acting community. So my old director often holds workshops for new writers, and I take part in script readings for these writers. A couple writers and actors sit in with the director, and we read the scripts aloud. It helps the writers to hear their work, and to be evaluated by other writers. This goes on for weeks, as the writers do rewrites, and the director picks the best pieces and puts up a production of short skits. It gives me a chance to practice my acting chops. I often miss it a lot. And my director wanted me to take part in a staged reading. Rather than reading the scripts in a room, the staged reading is for the almost-finished product, but it is read on a stage, complete with blocking and a small volunteer audience to critique. It's nice to be wanted. But I can't do it! Damn my schedule!

2002-11-20T16:06:00.000-06:00

Things You Should Not Say Outloud

First of all, I'd like to say Happy Birthday to my cousin Melanie. Hope you have a good day! I finally got a chance to change the colors in the comment boxes to match the original ones here. I know kathy, I know, I should just use an external style sheet. Someday. Someday I will! Here's an interesting story to share with you. A friend of mine from work (really, the ONLY female I consider my friend at work) was recently diagnosed with Celiac Sprue, which is a disease where you get a chronic reaction when digesting glutens, which are often found in cereal grains. Because of this reaction, and what it does to the intestines, a strict diet must be followed. It's not a life threatening disease, but you've got to stay away from certain types of grains, like wheat (which means bread) and MSG (monosodium glutamate) which is used in a lot of products. All in all, it's not a picnic. She's a tough cookie, so she can handle it. So the story comes in when she's talking to another coworker, and this other woman asks her why she was in the hospital last week. And knowing this person, we'll call her 'Fluffy', I know the reason she had asked was not because she was concerned about my friend's health, but because she was wanted gossip. Fluffy is also in a managerial position in the company, and holds a good amount of power over us. So my friend explains what happened, and that she has celiac sprue, and also the changes in her diet that she has to make. So then, Fluffy says 'I wish I had that disease. I could lose some weight!' *gasp* What do you say to that? Isn't it common sense that you don't say anything like that to someone who has a disease? I was pretty appalled that she said that. And it's kinda scary that this person is a manager. Oh well, so goes the drama that I call work. So if any of you know any recipes that don't involve anything with MSG or glutin-based grains, send it over. My friend is looking for some good food to eat, now that the orange chicken at the Panda Express is off limits! And one more thing - Rod finally has a web blog. Now when I ask him how his day has been, he can say 'Read my blog!' which is what I always say to him! Welcome to the Bloser subculture, my friend!

2002-11-19T22:47:00.000-06:00

All about the Fata

Well, my sister Fatima was home this weekend and was a little miffed that I didn't mention her at all in my blog. So she gets her own paragraph. She came home last weekend to play Ricebowl. She did a kick ass job playing center on the O-Line. Too bad the championship game is delayed for a couple weeks. She also watched Harry Potter with me and Dave. Her friend (and our sister in training) Thara came, too. You know, I think the reason I'm online all the time is because my sisters are gone. I really miss having them around. Not only to talk to and play paper rock scissors with when it's time to wash the dishes, but it's nice to have a sibling there for you, when you just need someone to talk to or watch TV with. And who's gonna help me pick out clothes to wear? I think I've been making horrible fashion choices lately without them here. Ewok can't answer me when I ask, 'Does my butt look big in this?' It sucks being an only child, even if it's only for a couple months. So I miss Fatima and Claudine a lot. Even if I don't show it on the rare occasions that they DO come home. I'm so happy when they do. And even when Fatima DOES finally graduate, we won't have much time together because once I get married, there's a good chance that I'll be relocating. *sigh* Oh sisters! This or That Tuesday... 1. Long or short hair? Long hair. Tried the short hair, it gets in my face too much. 2. Microwave or conventional oven? Microwave. Fast. Now. 3. Plain or Peanut M&M's? I like the crispy rice ones. Tasty! 4. "101 Dalmations"...animated or live-action version? Animated. Definitely. 5. Drink out of bottle/can or pour into a glass? Glass, lots of ice. 6. Sunlight or moonlight? I love the bluish tint of moonlight. 7. Kermit the Frog or Miss Piggy? Piggy. She kicks ass. And she's damn sexy. 8. Glasses or contact lenses (or neither)? Contact lenses. Wearing glasses is too traumatic. 9. Action movies or chick flicks? Chick flicks. I'm a sap. 10. Toilet seat...up or down ? UP! UP! UP!

2002-11-19T13:18:00.000-06:00

Haven't done a quiz in a while...In honor of the movie, I give you the 'What Hogwarts House are You?' There's also a bunch of other quizzes for you there, too. So what are you?

2002-11-18T18:52:00.000-06:00

The Yano Wedding is in Effect!

I got a call from the priest of my first choice church today. Didn't think that he'd ever call back, and I was kinda discouraged about the rules of the church, but he may be able to pull some strings. I've posted a little on My Wedding Blog, and I've also put in a couple dresses that you can post. Today was a boring day, so I'll talk about Eminem's 'Lose Yourself'. I'm really finding myself drawn to the song, and it's suprisingly inspirational, which is something I would never have thought Eminem to be. There's just something about how it talks about taking chances, and really going all out Anyone watch 8 Mile? I haven't heard a bad review for it yet, and I've talked to about six or seven people about it. There's just something I find strangely appealing and sexy in that guy, I don't know what it is. And is it me, or does Draco Malfoy from Harry Potter look like young Eminem? Don't forget to get up early tomorrow morning to watch the Leonid meteor shower. It won't be that good for another hundred years, so be sure to check out. Make up your wishes so you can make a whole bunch tonight.

2002-11-18T02:26:00.000-06:00

Let it Snow! Let it Snow!

Today (well, yesterday night) was the first real snow of the season. It wasn't much, maybe about an inch. There's something thrilling about the first snow of the year. It almost makes you want to burst out into song as the snowflakes fall apon your face. I bursted into a little rendition of 'Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow!' in the Barnes & Noble parking lot. It snowed some more overnight, and I love waking up in the morning and seeing the fresh snow on the streets and the trees, driving near the forest preserve and seeing the snow on the trees. We went to go watch Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets yesterday. We were originally going to see the 8pm show, but it was sold out online, so I bought tickets for the 9pm show. Of course we get there right before the movie starts, and there aren't any seats together. So we were able to switch our tickets for the 10:30 show. I really like the movie. From what I remember of the book, it held pretty true to the story. But I'll have to admit that Dobby was annoying the fuck outta me. Get in the corner with Jar Jar Binks, Dobby! But the acting was well done. I love little Ron Weasley...he's got the cutest facial expressions. And Hermione is getting to be quite a looker, she's got the prettiest eyes. There was a good lot of funny parts, and even some scary parts - Moaning Myrtle kinda creeped me out a bit. And Kenneth Branagh was meant to play Gilderoy Lockhart. He was great at the part! The movie was kinda long, though - Dave fell asleep. Then again, he didn't read the books, and had only gotten past the 2nd cassette that I gave him of the audio version. But to me, I enjoyed it. Not as much as the first, but I liked it!

2002-11-16T19:33:00.000-06:00

White Dancing with the Love Monkeys

Well, my friend Lara was in town from Milwaukee to see her favorite band, the Love Monkey perform at the Cubby Bear in Lincolnshire. Dan came along, too. The band was really good, and the crowd was pretty into it. But I realized one thing. Well, actually, I had suspected it, but Dan pointed it out to me. The band mostly played rock music covers, and I was kinda having a hard time dancing to it. I'm not a rock dancer. I'm a hiphop dancer. That's what was going through my head. I looked at the people around me, trying to imitate their moves, but my hips just don't move that way! I'm not used to jumping up and down when I dance! But Dan then put it into better perspective for me, since he was just chilling and watching the band. When I sat down to take a break, he said, 'Christine, you'll never be able to do the white person dance'. Ah! That's what it was. So he tried giving me some pointers. But it just didn't work. But I still had a great time!!! It was really nice to see Lara again. Today was Rice Bowl, and I didn't play this year. Rice Bowl is a yearly football tournament between the Asian clubs of the colleges in Chicago - Loyola, University of Illinois - Chicago, DePaul, Northern and my school, the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. Normally I play as an alum, but I just didn't feel like it this year. Though I did go. And I admit to feeling a pang of regret for not playing. I love football, but I'm really out of shape this year. Maybe next year. My little cousin Nina also had her 2nd birthday party today. She's so adorable. I'm thinking of maybe having her as my flowergirl, but she's got to go through the interview process first! But isn't she the cutest? I've got about a year to train her to walk down the aisle. It will be pretty intensive training, but she's a tough lil lady, I think she can handle it!

2002-11-15T15:54:00.000-06:00

And Can I Have a Skoal Mint, Please?

So we all take turns going to the Walgreens downstairs to get snacks and whatnot. I don't usually go, because I usually don't need anything, or the guys volunteer to go before I can think of going. Today, I was a tad bit hungry, so I decided to make a Walgreens run. So I ask if anyone needs anything, and Sam give me this sheepish look. And I'm like, 'Uh uh. No way...' and he says 'Please?' The thing about Sammy is that he likes himself a big fat dip of tobacco every now and then. Well, just now. There is no then. I've given him the whole gum cancer speech and what not, and he had given it up, but he's back in the habit again. And now he's got me off to buy his dip. Ack! The last time I bought dip for him, the little Filipino lady at Walgreens had looked at me in disappointment (a whole bunch of sweet lil' Filipino women work at my Walgreens). So I get in line to get my stuff rung up, and it's a little olf Filipino lady ringing my stuff up. I've got some Pringles that are on sale, only if you have a coupon, and she pulls out an add from behind the counter so I can get the good sale. She smiles at me with that 'I know you're Filipino too' look. Then the shocker... Me: Um, can I have some Skoal Mint, please? Tita Flor: What? Me: Skoal Mint? Tita Flor: Oh. (eyebrows narrow) I need to see ID (starts searching behind the counter for the Skoal, looks up) What color is it? Me: Uh, green? Tita Flor: (still looking...pulls out a blue pack) It's blue. (slams it on the counter....a line is forming behind me. I can feel their eyes burning into my back, 'this little girl dips?') Me: Oh....uh, so it IS blue. Sorry about that. Tita Flor: (leaning in towards me and whispering, but loud enough for everyone to hear) Is it yours? Me: Oh! No...it's not mine! (Tita Flor looks at me disbelievingly.) Really! See? (I pull out my lower lip and show her my gums and lower lip) Tita Flor: (shaking her head) And they make you buy it for them? Me: (looking tortured) Yeah....they do! Tita Flor: You should tell them to stop. Me: OK...I will Tita Flor: You'll save their lives! Wise advice, from a wise woman. Gave the advice to Sam. He said thanks as he started packing his dip. Tsk tsk, some people will never learn...

2002-11-14T21:36:00.000-06:00

Stick Foot in Mouth

Back to work today. Since I've been out since the beginning of the week, today felt like a Monday. So in a way, it's like having a two day work week! Whoo hoo! The morning flew by. I went to lunch with Bryan and Sam at 2, but it felt like it was 12. But once we got back from lunch, it seemed that every time I looked at my watch only a minute had gone by. Well, fortunately today I wasn't sleepy. There's just too much for me to do. I was talking to a client of mine today. We've been talking for the past couple weeks, but I've been away, and never got to finish some issues we were working on. So I'm talking to her on the phone, and she wants to schedule a conference call for Tuesday, because she'll be out of the office until then. So I'm like 'Oh, are you going on vacation?', and she's like 'Uh...well...' and I think to myself, 'What did I just say! What if there was a death in the family or something!' So I'm like, 'I'm sorry...you don't have to tell me'. And then she's like, 'Oh, no, that's ok. Well, see, I'm in a relationship, and uh, a baby came into the picture a couple months ago. And so we had a civil ceremony. So this weekend, well, uh, this weekend is when the actual wedding was scheduled to take place, so we're still going to go through with all that.' She sounded really stressed out, I mean, it was just kinda like she was just going through the motions of it. I didn't know what to say but, 'Uh, well, congratulations and good luck then.' 'Uh, thanks'. God, I really messed that one up. I'm getting used to this new look and feel for my site. There are still a lot of changes I want to make, but I just need to remember that I can't change everything at once. Thanks to everyone for giving their input. Nothing much else happened today. But I did find an interesting site. It looks like supermodel drag queen RuPaul has his own weblog. It's pretty nice. It's sounds so normal compared to what I thought it would be. And that was the one thing that I don't remember RuPaul being - normal.

2002-11-14T01:21:00.000-06:00

What I Did for My Jersey Vacation

Ok, so it wasn't a vacation, but as you can see, I was a busy little girl. I'm playing around with different formats, and I kinda liked the name 'The Funk Phenomenon', cuz I love dancing to that song. I also liked 'yanowhatimean' so maybe during my next trip I'll make up another format. We'll see how much I like this. Being a Gemini, I get bored really easily, so this page is probably going to be changing a lot. Anyway, enjoy the new look. I also changed around the 'links' page, because the other one was a piece of crap. This one is still crappy, but doesn't smell as bad. And since I haven't posted a picture in a while, I'm giving ya a picture I like to call 'Invasion of Stitch!'. Click on it to get the bigger version. I took it when I was in The Disney Store. I took a couple pictures in the back, and I wanted to take a couple more of the Christmas display in the front, and I asked the lady if it was ok to take a picture and she was like 'Uh, sorry, no.' Lucky for me she didn't catch me in the back, snapping away!

2002-11-12T22:16:00.000-06:00

Rainy Day in Joisey

Number of Times I Got Lost Today - 8 This is starting to be a habit. But let me explain myself. The way to the client involved going by the mall (now renamed The Bermuda/Jersey Triangle) and the directions I got just weren't clear to me. For some reason, I just kept on ending up going around and around the mall. And U-Turns aren't easy around here. And then there was an accident on the street, so there was some extra traffic. I finally ended up pulling out the map and figuring it out on my own. And then I got lost on my way home because it was dark and raining pretty bad. Not too many streetlights around these parts. Number of Times I Tried Unlocking the Wrong Car - 4 Well, that should actually read 'since I've been here'. It's not just today. And I swear, it seems like every other car here is silver! I think I tried getting into the same car twice (on different occasions) in the hotel parking lot. But that one was the exact make and model of my rental. But I'm sure you've done that before, putting your key in, turning it, trying the handle then thinking 'Hey!' looking in the car, and seeing stuff in the car that isn't yours, then sheepishly looking around to see if anyone saw you and quietly slinking off to where you suddenly remember where you parked your car. Oh, the joys of traveling. I think I'm in withdrawal. I need to play a game. I saw a commercial for Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 on TV and it was really cute. I actually laughed out loud. And felt a little pang in my heart - I miss my playstation! I miss my SIMS! I miss my Medal of Honor! I need help! Maybe after this I'll play some solitare or minesweeper or something. I'm starting to have the shakes after not playing some sort of game for so long. Watched Smallville tonight. That show is so great. I love the little inside jokes that they throw in, like Clark being afraid of flying, and little Ryan (was that his name?) mentioning how his favorite comic hero has a flying fortress - 'Hey, that sounds like a good idea, exept for the floating part' says Clark. Cute. Really cute. And I LOVE the casting of the X-Files ex-Cigarette Smoking man as the corrupt mayor of Metropolis. Is it me, or does he always have the same kind of role? Coincidence? I think not!

2002-11-11T21:55:00.000-06:00

Adventures at the Mall

Number of Times On the Way to the Mall I Took a Wrong Turn and Got Lost - 2 Blocks away the Mall is from the Hotel - 3 Damn the twisty curvy streets here! Haven't they heard of 'This way to Mall' signs? How am I supposed to know that the big buildings and bright lights was the mall? Number of Times On the Way Back I Got Lost - 1 East, West, the sun has set! I don't know! Pick a direction and hope it's right. Bah! Wrong again! I'm so glad I'm not a bird. I'd be flying towards Greenland right now. The mall was pretty huge. I'd have to give it a 8.5 out of 10. It seems to have every mall-type store I can think of, and a good mix of high end stores and cheapie stores. It would have gotten a 9 if it had a better food court. Speaking of food, I went to grab some dinner there, and I stopped by this place called 'The Parthenon' or something. Anyway, I ask for the gyro plate, and the girl is like 'A What Plate?' Ok, so I'm from Chicago. I've eaten at Greektown. I call 'em YEE-ROSE. 'Can I have a 'YEE-ROE'?' That's what I've been brought up to say. So this little teenybopper at the register is like 'A YEE ROE? Oh, you want a JIE ROE.' yells to the back 'One JIE ROE plate!' And I ask for a receipt. She gives me a blank stare. She asks the other Britney wannabe - 'She wants a receipt.' They both look a little worried, but the other girl calls out to the back, and someone tells her. So she asks me what I got. I say THE WORD. 'I got a YEE ROE plate.' Blank stare. I give in. 'JIE ROE. I got a JIE ROE plate.' Ahh...I see the lightbulb turn on. Ack. Next time I'll just write it down. I saw the cutest thing in the toy store. I was checking out the latest Barbies they have out (some of them are amazingly tacky) and there was this mother and daughter in the same aisle. The mom is picking different Barbies, showing them to the little girl (she's about 4), and asking which one she wants. So the little girl is saying 'No' to most of them, but then the mom pulls out this Ballerina Princess Barbie or something, and the little girl goes, 'Yeah, that's the one I want, mommy! She's almost as pretty as you!' Can I get a collective maternal sigh? *sigh* I've discovered that malls are dangerous places for me. If I want to save money, that is. Especially malls that rate an 8.5 out of 10. I had to get out of there because the temptation was too great. So many cute tops. So many pants on sale. So many cool necklaces. *wipes drool* Oh, and the Disney store! Go in there and check out all the adorable stuff they have. The only thing that stopped me from buying stuff was that I can't carry it on the plane. In my head, I also had to chant 'Save money for the wedding. Save money for the wedding.' You know it's getting bad when you're thinking of people you're taking off your invite list, just so you can buy a new pair of pants. But I didn't! Ok. ONE pair of pants. But I need new pants. And I could have bought so much more! Ack. I need help! Can you tell I'm bored now?

2002-11-11T16:43:00.000-06:00

Number of Times I Took a Wrong Turn and Got Lost - 3 Number of Times I Got Lost and Feared for My Life - 1 - Trailer Park Lots of twists and turns in this part of New Jersey! Anyway, today was just blah. Working at a client site. They're mighty friendly people, but the work is slow because anything that's done needs to go through the help desk, so there's a lot of waiting time. But that's ok, because I had to clean their data, anyway. Gonna head out to the local mall now. I should get a little map of malls around the US and mark them off as I go to them. I seriously have gone to 50 different malls since I started traveling. I'm a mall slut! On a more serious note, keep the families of the ones lost in yesterday's string of tornadoes in the midwest in your prayers. If anyone of you saw pictures of the theater that those 60 children were in (they were warned, so they went to the cellar) and how the roof was blown off, you'll know how horrifying this all was.

2002-11-11T01:06:00.000-06:00

The Temporary 'Jersey Girl'

Where is Yano Today?
Fairfield, NJ

Well, I'm in Jersey right now. My flight was delayed for an hour, so I ended up getting here at around 11:30pm. I was looking for my ride (my client had arranged for a driver to pick me up) but he was no where to be found. I felt like a kid whose parent forgot to pick her up after school. So I had to wait FOREVER in line to get a cab. Argh! So I'm here for a couple days, so I don't know how much I'll be updating this thing. Anyway, I'm sure nothing exciting is going to happen, anyway! But while I'm here I think I'll work on cleaning up the rest of this site. It could use some cleaning up! And the Bears did it once again. And I REALLY thought they'd win again. But they blew it. All the had to do was play a little defense - and they had AWESOME defense for the first half...they just had to hold 'em. Oh well. There's always next week.

2002-11-09T19:08:00.000-06:00

Blah Blah Saturday

Today is just a 'veg out' day. Time to take care of the things around the house that I've been neglecting. Like cleaning. When was the last time I talked about cleaning my room? Exactly. This place is a sty. Even for me! Yesterday I watched my Spiderman DVD. That's such a great movie. I can't wait til 'The Hulk' comes out. That should be awesome! I also watched 'Ghost' for the 50th time. What a sweet story. And every time I watch it, I still get a bit teary-eyed. Ahhh...he said he loved her! Since nothing's going on, I was thinking of putting up my favorites from the 'Name This Page' contest earlier - here's my favorites, you can either add more, or choose which one you like the best:

The Beginning of the End (of my Social Life)	Yano's World	Yanoville
Behold the Drama!	Live from Chicago...It's Yano!	Yano for Dummies
Yano's Web	Going Out of My Head	It's All About the Yano
The Many Faces of Yano	A Little Yano Won't Kill You	Between Dreams and Reality
Who Needs Oprah, When You've Got Yano?	A Yano A Day	¿Como se Yano?
Yano What I Mean?	The Funk Phenomenon	Got Yano?
A Little Less Conversation	The Idiot's Guide to Yano	How to Stalk and Be Stalked

2002-11-08T12:38:00.000-06:00

More Adventures with 'Medal of Honor'

Played a little more last night. It's so much fun, but I die all the time. First I tried using a submachine gun, but it just wasn't accurate enough. Then I switched to the rocket launcher, but you've got to reload every time. I then went on to the sniper rifle, which I like, because it's good for long range shots, and you don't have to reload each time. But I still kept on dying. Maybe I should finish up the single player game before playing the multiplayer. Nah...I'll just keep playing online!

2002-11-07T19:44:00.000-06:00

What a busy day for my blog! Anyway, the protest didn't turn into a riot. Fortunately, it was quite peaceful. But the police were in downtown in full force today. On the two block walk back from lunch we counted 28 cops on the street. At around 2pm, the bicycle police started lining up next to the Tribune building (which my office overlooks). Unfortunately, I left my camera with Bryan to take pictures of the protest since he's working late, so I have no pictures of my own right now. I grabbed these off of the Chicago Tribune's site. I stayed after work for a little, thinking that it wouldn't take too long for the protesters to reach the Trib, but I had to go home (can't miss 'Friends'). But my path home actually came by the protest path, so I got to see them. It was such a bizarre sight. I stayed and watched for a little, then walked toward the station. Which was the same time that the police in riot gear were moving to the next block. So basically I'm walking along, right next to 100 cops dressed in riot gear, complete with visors, shields, tear gas and batons. For some reason, it felt like a scene out of 'V: The Final Battle', having all them walk in single file, all dressed the same, some with German shepherds, not saying a single word, people passing by taking pictures...It was kinda creepy. But then the serious mood was lightened a little when I heard one of them say, 'We need to get a band, you know, a drummer and a guy with a trumpet', which received a couple chuckles. Bizarre, I tell you, just BIZARRE!

2002-11-07T12:33:00.000-06:00

Welcome to Life, Jillian Jose Mendez!

Just wanted to welcome Jillian Jose Mendez, who was born earlier today, to this crazy little rollercoaster that we call life. And congrats to her parents, Jane and Maui, for creating a little bundle of joy for me to run psychological tests on.

2002-11-07T12:03:00.000-06:00

Dream Interpretation Time

It's really weird, but I somewhat vividly remember 3 dreams I had last night/morning. Kinda weird. Usually I only remember one, if I remember my dream at all. Must be because I got more than 4 hours of sleep last night. What a luxury. Anyway, here there are...feel free to interpret what my subconscious is telling me.

I'm in school again, in Physics class. I realize that we've got a physics exam that I haven't studied for. I'm looking around the room in a mild panic, and I see a friend of mine sitting a few desks in front of me to my left, reviewing with the person in front of me. I have no idea what they're talking about. Then the girls that sit next to me ask me about my ring, and they start congratulating me. And one of them asks 'Girl, when did this happen?' and another girl says 'DOn't you know? That's what she wasn't here on Friday!' As I'm sitting there, I calm down and realize that I don't care about how I do on the test because I'm never going to use physics in my life.

You know when you have a dream, and you just have a creepy feeling about it? There's just this oppressive, evil feeling. That's this dream. I don't remember much, but I remember standing outside of this house. It's got about 3 floors, and in a way, looks like the house from 'Charmed', but painted white and a little weather worn. So I'm looking at the house, and I have this immense feeling of dread. There are ghosts in the house, and they are looking out of the windows all over the house. I count them and think to myself 'I only see twelve, where is the thirteenth ghost?' I take this time to look at the people I'm outside with, and I realize that we all have luggage with us and that we're staying in the house for the night. Yep, that's about all I remember!

I'm at a party, and I see an old coworker of mine. I greet him and his wife. WIth them is their baby girl (in real life they have a little boy with Down's Syndrome). She asks if I want to hold the baby, and I take her, and she warns me that the baby is very sick and has very brittle bones. As I'm handed over the baby, I can feel the bones grinding together, and I feel a mix of pity and caution. I'm holding the baby, and she's gorgeous. I look at her again, and she's suddenly 2 years old and healthy. She gets up from my lap and runs away. I go upstairs and see their other son and my little cousin playing videogames. The little girl is sitting there watching with them. That's it! So whaddya think?

2002-11-06T23:48:00.000-06:00

Get Your Riot Gear On

Well, the annual conference for the Trans-Atlantic Business Dialogue is in town and it looks like the city is in for some protesting. There's actually a parking ban in downtown Chicago, because the protestors are going to be marching on the street. They started the parking ban today (even though the protests are starting tomorrow) and there's police everywhere. I guess when the conference was held in Seattle, there were protests and riots and the city was in shambles. So it will be interesting to see what happens tomorrow. The protest is scheduled to end right across from my building, so I'll have to take some semi-aerial photos. Should be an interesting day! I had another script reading today, and let me tell you, my Marge Simpson voice sucks. I just can't get it raspy enough. I was never good with trying to imitate voices or accents. Maybe I'll practice for next week - I think we might do the Simpsons piece again. I played 'Medal of Honor' for the first time online today. It was tons of fun. I can see why Bryan is addicted to it. It's very 'Saving Private Ryan'. I think I suck really bad, I'm not used to playing games like that on my PC. I mean, if had to kill people with a skateboard, I would kick ass, but using a submachine gun, well, I'm not that great. But it's still a lot of fun playing war. And keep my cousin Jane in your prayers, she just went into labor. It's our first cousin-baby! The next generation starts here. I'm so happy for them. I hope everything goes well. You'll definitely get an update as to what happens with Jane and Maui's baby. We've been without a baby for such a long time!

2002-11-06T12:33:00.000-06:00

A Semi-Brush With Fame

When I got to the train station this morning, there were a ton of news trucks there. As I was trying to get to the train I went to see what the ruckus was. It ended up being none other than Rod Blagojevich, the governor-elect of Illinois. So now I can say I've been within 5 feet of a governor. Exciting. I've discovered another annoyance with having an engagement ring - wearing gloves. When I wear my leather gloves, the ring migrates to the crevice between my pinky and my ring finger, which gets pretty uncomfortable and annoying. Not that I'm complaining, I'm just making an observation. Ok. I'm complaining.

2002-11-05T20:08:00.000-06:00

Excuse My Dust!

Still playing around with different formats. Don't mind it if you come here and the site looks totally fucked up! Anyway, I bought 'Medal of Honor' to play with Bryan and Orlando. Bryan seems to be addicted to playing it online, which is funny because he always makes fun of Anthony playing Everquest online. So I welcome Bryan to the land of the nerds. I tried playing it, and my video card wasn't good enough. True, the thought of buying a new computer crossed my mind, but I just went out and bought a new card. I'm a software gal, I don't know hardware at all. So when I was at Best Buy, the salesguy was helping me pick out a card, and he asked me what I needed it for. So after I tell him 'Medal of Honor' his eyes light up and he gets all excited talking about playing games online. Now this guy is about 19 or 20. Then he asks me, 'So hey, how old are you?' I didn't come to Best Buy to get picked up!!! But I'm flattered, and I say 27. He looks a bit surprised (the ghetto hat takes off 10 years, I think) and then covers it up with 'Cool, it's good that you still play games at your age!' OUCH. Thanks a lot, kid. I've been addicted lately to McDonald's Steak and Cheese Breakfast Bagel. Those things are DAMN good. I was looking at the dollar menu, and I noticed that the medium drink, which is $1, is cheaper than the small drink which is $1.09. What's up with that? Why even bother having a small drink, then?

2002-11-05T14:15:00.000-06:00

I'm a 'Tard

I've been trying to spruce up my site and I've messed it up. I admit it. I'm a 'tard.

2002-11-04T17:20:00.000-06:00

Tony Hawk is My Hero

It was a good weekend, filled with a LOT of Tony Hawk Pro Skater 4. Well, not a lot. After an hour or so, my head starts hurting. Maybe I shouldn't sit directly in front of the TV. But I've opened up a few levels already, and I'm loving the challenges this time around. Very inventive. What a great game! Saturday after napping to get rid of my THPS4 dizziness, we headed off to Emer's birthday shindig at Betty's Blue Star Lounge. If you're looking for a place that isn't too packed, that has great hip hop and ond school house, head on over there. There was a lot of good dancing to be done. It also helped that I had a couple drinks. After for not drinking for so long, my tolerance is really low. It's nice because it's a LOT cheaper. As I always see whenever I see everyone from school, I love going to these gatherings and seeing old faces. It was funny, because a couple didn't know that me and Dave were engaged yet. I was talking to Mariza about Dave being relocated when he does his residency, and she was like 'So are you guys going to do long distance again?' And I was like 'Uh, no...we're getting married', which after I said it we screamed like little schoolgirls. And yesterday, I watched the Bears lose again for the millionth time in a row. I was so angry I went to play Tony Hawk. Ha! Just kidding. Ok, I'm not. Anyway, I've got another game called 'Medal of Honor' that Bryan's been playing online that he persuaded me to buy. I'm not one for battle simulation games, but this one looks pretty cool. However, I've got to get a new graphics card to play it. Hmph. Thanks to all of you who've been giving suggestions for my site. Keep them coming! Now here's my answers for this thing called 'The Friday Five', where they ask you different questions on a Friday and you answer them on your blog. It's pretty interesting. I give it one month until I get really bored with it! 1. Were you raised in a particular religious faith? Yes. I was raised Catholic. Catholic grade school, Catholic high school, yup yup....that's me. 2. Do you still practice that faith? Why or why not? I still go to church, but I admit, I don't pay attention. But I do go and reflect on my life, the good things and bad things that I've done, and sometimes I have little conversations with God. He's a pretty cool guy. However, I don't know how much I have in the church as an institution with power. 3. What do you think happens after death? There's a place after this. There are too many instances of near death experiences and their similarities, there's something better after this. 4. What is your favorite religious ritual (participating in or just observing)? Midnight mass on Christmas Eve, with the choir in the loft singing Christmas carols and everyone all dressed up. 5. Do you believe people are basically good? No. I think that sometimes people are born bad. I can't really explain why I feel this, but it's a feeling...

2002-11-03T13:27:00.000-06:00

Name This Page!!!

I was just thinking the other day that this page has nothing to do with a planet. Why the hell is it called Christine's planet? I don't know. For those of you who may have seen my page last year, it made a little more sense, when it was 'Christine's Purple Planet' and all my links kinda looked planetary. But now, no...I've just got my purple fluff. So I think it's time for a change. So...I'm looking for suggestions. Be as silly and stupid as you want. Just tell me what you think I should name it. The winner gets a prize. I don't know yet, but it'll be cool. If I don't get any good ones, I've got a couple in mind. Right now, the frontrunner for the title is 'The Bears Better Win This Game Or I'll Never Cheer For Them Again'.

2002-11-02T20:14:00.000-06:00

Gladiator is on TV right now. Damn, it's a great movie!!!

2002-11-02T17:13:00.000-06:00

The Beginning of the End of My Social Life

Well, I caved in and bought Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4. I no longer feel the need to go out and socialize or do anything away from my PS2. THPS4 is all I need. Ok, and Dave, too. But he has to sit there and watch. He can't play, because I don't want to have to beat him. As for the game, I'm LOVING it!!! As I've said before, I was so good at THPS3 that I wasn't challenged, and I beat everyone that I played with. But THPS4 is kicking my ass, which is GREAT. I needed a good ass whoopin'. I haven't read the instructions yet, but it looks like everything is more or less the same in terms of moves. There are a couple new moves that they got which are pretty awesome. And the gameplay is a bit different, but I like it. The tasks are done on a task by task basis, rather than having a listing of all your tasks that you need to finish within a certain time frame, you're giving tasks one at a time, with a time frame for each task. This is awesome because you get more time to finish your tasks, but if you don't feel like doing a task, you're just in free skate mode. Have no idea what I'm talking about? Well then, you gotta play the game! Ahhh....I am such a happy girl! Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!

2002-11-02T04:56:00.000-06:00

Bored? Loved playing with your Rubik's Cube when you were a kid? Check this out: Virtual Rubik's Cube

2002-11-01T13:16:00.000-06:00

The Wicked Witch of the West Si-yeeeeeede!

It was a fun Halloween. Our work party was a success. We had a great selection of food, and the decorations fit the mood nicely. The dirt pie was much anticipated and appreciated. Hopefully I'll get some pics up this weekend. (along with the rest of the pics I've taken in the last 3 months!) We had a little gathering at Melanie's place, ate wings and White Castle and watched Friends and the movie 'Frailty'. 'Frailty' was a pretty good movie, though I missed a little 'cuz I fell asleep. I stayed up too late the night before making my dirt pie. Oh, and I was 'The Wicked Witch of the West Siiiiiide'. Pretty lame, but I was in a pinch! Stupid Invention of the Day - Today at work we're discussing what kind of underwear that women find sexiest, and being the only woman in my area, they asked me. So I told them boxer briefs. Then it came down to discussing solid vs. pattern, then solid (solid). Then what colors (dark). From there, it progressed to dark colors being better to hide certain stains. So they then came up with an invention - having a strip in the back of your underwear so when it gets, uh, unclean, you tear off the strip and there's a new strip underneath. Geniuses. I work with geniuses! Who needs to do laundry? Not my boys! Looks like winter is upon us. The temp right now is 36 degrees, and it's only November 1st. The average for this time is the mid 50s. Ack! And after the time change, it's dark when I go home. It's quite shocking to look out the window at 5pm and see all the streetlights on. And now, a moment of silence for Jam Master J of Run DMC and Darrian Chapman, a Chicago newscaster, who both passed away this week.

2002-10-31T18:59:00.000-06:00

Gotta go to my Halloween festivities, but here's a shot of my costume....can you figure out what I was? Hint: 'West Side' is written on my knuckles. Like my poses? Hell yeah, I'm a fucking loser.

2002-10-31T04:38:00.000-06:00

Halloween Happenings

So it's 4 in the morning, and I just finished my worms and dirt. Actually, it's just dirt, because I forgot to buy the gummi worms. Oh well, I can always add them in tomorrow. No one eats them anyway. It's my fault I procrastinated so long. Oh well, at least it's good to know that my dirt tastes DAMN GOOD. It just takes so long to make that dirt of of crushed Oreos. It took me a while to figure out what to have for my costume. The daily crappy webcam pic should give you a hint as to what I'm going to be, but trust me, you'll never guess it. It's really lame, but hey, it's a costume. Today at lunch Dan didn't finish his food. I told him that his eyes were bigger than his mouth, because that's what my mom would always say. But then he corrected me and said, 'It's 'Your eyes are bigger than your STOMACH'. Ohh...yeah, that's what it is. But then the ever witty Amy replied that one with 'Yeah, because there's nothing bigger than Dan's mouth.' HA! How true. So in honor of Halloween, I'll give you my top ten scary movies (haven't done a top ten list in months!).

The Exorcist III

Event Horizon

The Shining

The Amityville Horror

The Ring

The Sixth Sense

What Lies Beneath

Poltergeist III

The Exorcist

The Omen

What are yours?

2002-10-30T15:28:00.000-06:00

www.yanoneedsawebsitedomain.com

Well, I've been debating about getting my own website domain, but it looks like www.yano.com is taken. Any other ideas? I don't know what to get. I really should get my own domain and space because I feel bad that I'm using up Dan's space, and I want to move all my stuff from my Psylocke site, because I keep on overloading my bandwidth on Geocities. Tomorrow is Halloween and I still don't have a costume. It really crept up on me this year! But I'm not going to party or anything, I'm just going to have a nice night with friends, watching scary movies. I also need to get my little Halloween baggies together. Tonight, it's time to make some dirt and worms. What is this dirt and worms I speak of? Basically, it's my specialty Halloween dessert. It's made out of chocolate pudding, cool whip and crushed Oreo cookies, with little gummy worms sticking out of the crushed oreo 'dirt' topping. It's always a hit at the parties. I'm getting a craving for some now.

2002-10-29T02:57:00.000-06:00

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

I can't believe that Halloween is this Thursday. What planet have I been on? I don't even have a costume planned!!! And I'm on a budget, so I don't even know if I want to buy a costume. I may just have to be inventive and make something up here. Argh. Stress! So I did my Halloween candy shopping. This year the candy of choice is Reeses Peanut Butter Cups, Snickers, and Milky Way. My favorites. Ok, they're not. They're the ones on sale. But the peanut butter cups ARE my favorite. I remember being a little kid and separating them, and secretly stealing one or two of Claudine and Fatima's. I also bought my little halloween baggies, because I always put my candy into little baggies, with other little treats. This Halloween, we've got spider rings and pumpkin stickers. How cool am I? Unfortunately, my Halloween decorations aren't that great this year. I'm missing a lot of stuff from last year, and I don't know where it is. Usually, I have my little tombsontes up in front with my blinking eyes in the back, but I can't find the stakes for my blinking eyes, and the tombstones are MIA. Oh well. I'll have more time next year, wherever I am! Looking for a costume? The Costume Idea Zone should help you out. Are you enjoying my Halloween colors? Can it be any more annoying? Can it be any more SPOOKTACULAR? Ahh....I'm a loser.

2002-10-27T23:07:00.000-06:00

Angels in the Outfield

How unoriginal can I get? Anyway, congrats to the Anaheim Angels for winning the World Series. It was a great series, and it was really touching to see the Angel's win their first championship. Too bad Gene Autry passed away. *sigh* When will Harry Caray help the Cubs win their long awaited championship? Damn that Billy Goat Curse! And can I tell you how much the Bears suck? Can I? Every time, I give them the benefit of the doubt, and BAM! They lose. Grrr... And what sucks even more was that Walter Payton's record was beat by Emmitt Smith today. Don't get me wrong, Emmitt definitely earned it, but as a Chicago gal, I've got a soft spot for Walter 'Sweetness' Payton. The game hasn't been the same without him! Watched 'Angel' today....don't know if I like the direction that show is going... As you can see, I've changed my titles. I just need a little change every now and then.

2002-10-27T19:07:00.000-06:00

One Week Later and I'm Still Alive

this is the arm that I'm going to marry

Well, I called some reception sites and found out that there's still some availability next year. I gave them a pretty broad range (August 16th - November 8th 2003) but it's good to know that it's not too late to book a hall. All this wedding planning can get pretty stressing. And I've added a new post to my wedding blog so check it out when you get a chance! Dave came by yesterday and was using the computer. He gave me a lot of grief about posting his ugly constipated pictures on the internet. And for as much grief as he gave me, I think he LIKES the webcam. I turned it on and he was like 'You're not going to catch me on that thing again', but like a moth to the flame, there he was a couple minutes later doing stupid poses. Oh, the power of the webcam! So I've got this nice flex shot of him. Whoo hoo! Check out that bicep! I'm not marrying this man for his mind, my friends, it's all about that bodacious bod, baby! He's just a piece of meat. Eye candy! Ha! So yesterday we went to go watch 'The Ring' (it's my second time) because Dave hasn't watched it yet. On our way there, I realized that it was exactly one week before that I had watched it. I was waiting for some sign of my impending death, but as you must have figured out already, I'm still alive. Watching the movie for a second time wasn't as bad as the first time I watched it. It was nice to know that I caught Dave shutting his eyes during one of the scary parts. I'm happy he enjoyed it. The last movie we watched, 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding' he wasn't too fond of. I loved the movie. Two weeks later, he didn't even remember watching it. Gives me a lot of high hopes for my wedding!

2002-10-26T11:39:00.000-05:00

Adventures in St. Louis

OK, there were none. They flew me out to St. Louis on Thursday, and I came home yesterday night. Not too much time to check out the local scene. I hate it when they send me out of town with less than a week's notice. I know, I could have said 'no', but I've also been kinda experiencing cabin fever in the office. They haven't sent me away in a long time (which is because I'm on the blacklist for I don't know what), Well, it wasn't a tough job to do, just some training and helping the client setting up their system. I would have liked to see more of St. Louis, but maybe next time! Nothing else much has happened. It's been a pretty boring week! Since there's nothing going on in my life, why don't you check out Wil Wheaton's blog. Yes! He has a blog! And it looks like he's filming a movie right now. I used to have the biggest crush on him after watching 'Stand By Me'. Make sure to read the 'If you've never been here before, you should read this.' part. Today, you get to read about his first encounter meeting CHEF, Issac Hayes. It's really cute.

2002-10-24T15:09:00.000-05:00

Being Marge Simpson

Yesterday I went to a script reading. Basically a script reading is when a writer creates a script, it helps to hear actors read the parts. What they have in their heads may not come out correctly when they have it on paper and its read aloud. Anyway, my old director asked me to come and read some stuff, and it'a always a lot of fun. That, and he fixed Dave's computer, so I own him. I miss acting a lot, too, but with my hectic schedule and traveling and all, I just don't have the time. My favorite bit of the night was a rough draft of a piece that one of the writers is going to try and submit to "The Simpsons". I was cast as Marge, and I have an awful Marge impression. I just can't get my voice that scratchy! But it was really a funny piece. Hopefully the it's accepted. We also talked a lot about the Simpsons, because my director knows someone in the cast. I won't say who, but he's a major player. When he visited 'the set' he said that it was the happiest bunch of people that he's seen work together. That's great to know, because "The Simpsons" is a great show, and it's been on FOREVER, so they better get along! So in the news there's speculation that they MIGHT have caught the sniper in DC. I hope so. You hear in the news about what's been happening, kids not going to school, no outdoor football games, people not going outside of their houses, etc. I had talked to a client from DC and she had said that when they go for gas, they wait until the gas light is on, and they run out, put the nozzle in the tank, then run back into the car. And I didn't realize that without football or outdoor soccer games, scouts for colleges aren't attending so those kids that are depending on athletic scholarships to go to college aren't getting that chance. It's this horrible ripple effect that's happening. I really hope that these are the guys, and I hope they get punished.

2002-10-24T01:15:00.000-05:00

Here's the test of the day:
Which Buff Girl Are You? Find out @ She's Crafty Can one be the slayer, and yet have such a thirst for the taste of blood? (see post below)

2002-10-23T17:14:00.000-05:00

Give Life, Save a Life, Free Cookies, Loose Some Weight

So yesterday I went with Dan to give blood. Haven't done it in a LONG time. I always say I will, but I'm too lazy to cart my ass over to the bloodbank. So when Dan asked me if I wanted to give blood with him, I thought it was a great idea. Helping someone out. And I've got a pretty popular blood type. And free cookies and juice! That, and hey, I'll lose a couple ounces. COme on...it's all about me! Heh heh. Just kidding. So it's the coolest thing to see you life essence flowing out of you, into that little plastic bag. I was afraid that I wouldn't pass the tests or the questionaire. Here's some of the questions that stumped me for a little:

Are you a male who has had sex with another male since 1977, even once?

Have you have been given money or drugs for sex since 1977?

Have you had sex with anyone who been given money or drugs for sex since 1977?

Have you been an inmate of a correctional institution (including jails, prisons or detention centers) or someone who has been incarcerated for more than 72 consecutive hours during previous 12 months? Those as just the ones that I remember. I had to hold my giggles. They had a hard time finding my vein, and I guess I've got slow moving blood, because they kept on coming by and asking if I was squeezing my little stress ball. Someone came in and left during the time I was pumping out my juice. And once I was done, some blood squirted out, but the guy didn't see it. So while he was processing my stuff, I was watching my blood clot on my arm, and I had the strangest urge to lick it. Must be the vampire in me. No wonder I don't like sunlight and I have such a hard time putting on makeup because I can't see myself in the mirror! Anyway...my arm is still sore. Don't really feel any different without that pint of blood, though my right hand has no feeling and my fingers are blue. Just kidding. But it IS pretty cold, which is weird....

2002-10-22T16:38:00.000-05:00

The quizzes that I post here are internet equivalents of the Melrose Place whores. They've been around the block a couple times. This quiz was first posted on Bernadette's site, then on Linda's, then mine...I'll grab more from their sites over time. For now, here's a cute one...Anyway, it's true, I like the cuddle and kiss. Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy...
What Sign of Affection Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

2002-10-22T11:56:00.000-05:00

Say NO to Crack!

So last Sunday, I went to church by myself. Going to church by yourself is no fun. Anyway, a couple minutes after mass starts, this man walks in, and sits a couple pews in front of me. Dude, it took me a couple seconds to figure out what was wrong, but then it came to me - he had plumber's crack! Yeah, all through mass, there was his ass crack, staring me in the face. I tried not to look, but it was like a magnet to my eyes - 'Look at me!' it cried...It's like watching a train wreck, you can't keep your eyes off it. Damn the Bears for losing to the Detroit Lions. All they had to do was hold the ball for a couple minutes!!! We suck! Sunday night, I hung out with Jaygee - my best friend from Orlando, and Jen. It was pretty fun. We made some wedding plans (but really didn't because we kept on going on tangents) and came up with a couple ideas about the wedding that I don't remember. All I remember will be posted in my Wedding Blog. Afterwards we went out for sushi, which I haven't had in a very long time. Yum yum, it was GOOD! It was really great to hang out with the gals. We all have such good laughs when we're together. I always make fun of the guys for rehashing the same old stories when they get together, but I realized that we do the same thing. It's good to laugh! I only wish we had more time to hang out, but she was only home for the weekend. Wanna hear something sweet? (Emer beware, I'm gonna talk short track speedskater stuff) I've been helping out a little with this site, www.worldshorttrack.com and one of the webmasters went to go see Apolo in Denver and as a thank you for helping out with his site, he got a recording of Apolo saying Hi and thanks for all the stuff that I do. I admit, I got a bit giddy listening to it. Today, it's cold outside, and it's cold in the office. Luckily, I have a window seat, so at least I get some warmth from the sun. Mental note - bring in a blanket tomorrow.

2002-10-20T15:10:00.000-05:00

Never Watch Another Videotape Again

Went to a surprise party of my 80 year-old grandaunt. I wasn't sure if that was a good idea, but she made it through OK. Had lots of good food, finally played 'Kingdom Hearts' (which I just might buy) on Melanie's playstation (one of her massive collection of 4 playstation games). Also watch Memento for the 50th time, but that's ok, because the movie is the story of my life, so every time I watch it, it's like watching it for the first time because I don't remember. Later, we went to go see 'The Ring'. It's basically a movie about this videotape that after people watch it, seven days go by and they die. Naomi Watts watches it, and she's trying to find out why the tape was made, the secret behind it, and how she can stop it from killing her. Haven't been that spooked by a movie in a long time. And it was great to see it in the theater, because there's something comforting knowing that you're not the only one screaming. Or whimpering. There was a lot of scary imagery, and it's a great movie with a lot of jump-outta-your-seat parts. And more than once I said something like 'No! Don't open the door!' I also found the shape of the straw in my Coke very interesting during the 'scary music something is going to pop out so I don't want to look at the screen' parts. A lot of good ole' Halloween season fun with that one. I definitely suggest you go see it. But then again, afterwards I was freaked out and I don't want to ever watch another videotape again. Creepy!

2002-10-20T14:56:00.000-05:00

Another Comic Book Story

Haven't blogged in a while...Well, I'll do a day by day blog since my last posts... Friday Well, I headed out to Schaumburg on Friday night to see my favorite comic book artist, Michael Turner, the artist of Fathom, who was at a shop doing autographs and sketches. Drove all the way out there, and got this beautiful sketch. He called it Aspen's "Are you looking at me? Are YOU looking at ME?' face. I was a little star struck, so I didn't talk much, I just laughed at him aplling around with the other people in the shop. Also got to look at some of the original art that he brought with him, and they were gorgeous. The most expensive one he had with him was a $6,000.00 Medieval Wtihchblade pinup he did. Wowsers. I really admire the guy. During the peak of Fathom's popularity, Mike was diagnosed with cancer, which kept him off the drawing board for a couple years. But he's back, and better than ever. So anyway, when I first met him at the Chicago Comic Convention, he had really liked my thumb ring, which has waves on it (Fathom, underwater, waves, get it?). He asked me if he could have it, and I said for $15 he could. Hey, anytime I can make a buck. Just kidding. He then asked to try it on. He put it on his pinky, and it got stuck. After much pulling and laughing, we got it off, and he drew this marvelous sketch for me in return for my troubles. So when I saw him on Friday, I gave him this ring that I had found that was very similar to the one that I had. Unfortunately, this one was too big, but he wore it on his pinky anyway. What a swell guy! Later that night, we headed out to Angelo's birthday shindig at Big Wig. I've never seen the place so packed so many Asians there. Then again, 3 different people were having parties there. The music was great, but the dancefloor was HOT HOT HOT! I almost melted. But we had a good time. Always nice to see people at these little get togethers...

2002-10-18T10:54:00.000-05:00

At Home Sick

Well, I've finally given in to my sickness. It's a crappy day outside, and I'm feeling crappy. Stress at work is not going to get my cold any better. However, I'm at home, and I'M STILL WORKING! There's just some stuff that I've got to take care of today, that I'm sending into the office and blah blah blah. There's also a lot of stuff that I need to take care of here at home, like wedding stuff. I pledge to myself that I will call at least 3 reception halls today! Watching 'The Other Half' right now, and these guys are so cheesey. But I did get teary eyed when they brought out this pregnant woman, whose husband was sent away because he's in the military. It's their first baby, and chances are he'll still be gone when the baby is born. So the guys had elected themselves to be the 'surrogate dads' while he's away, going to lamaze classes, watching the ultra sounds, etc. They had called the husband today, and they (and the wife) were talking to him. Danny asked the stupidest question, which was 'So, do you feel bad that you can't be here for the birth of your first baby?' Um, DUH!!! So the husband answers, 'Yeah, more than anything else I want to be with her right now, to experience this whole thing, but there are also so many things going on in her life that I want to share with her, that I can't, like flat-tires, stopped up toilets, birthdays, I just miss her so much.' Awww, and of course, she started crying. OK....gonna clean up the room. More later.

2002-10-17T21:20:00.000-05:00

No decorations will be put up today. It's been raining, and it's really cold outside. Can't risk getting more sick than I am. Anyway, here's that pic that I was talking about earlier today. The scan isn't too great, but it'll have to do. I'm one of 'The Nebula Riders' - sexy, scantily clad women that ride around saving the universe. Yup. That's me!

2002-10-17T16:57:00.000-05:00

Foul mood alert!!! Well, today, it seemed that a good friend at work may have been let go. I really don't want to go into the reasons or anything like that, but we're all in a little bit of shock. My feelings swayed from anger, to disappointment, to sadness, to hopelessness, to anger again. That, and I'm still sick! Grr...Our happy little family here had been broken up. But then, later on, we found that he was given a second chance. Whew!!! Can't stand to have our little Scooby gang break up. We've got a good thing going! But it really stressed me out. It makes my belly hurt.

2002-10-17T09:08:00.000-05:00

My First Comic Book Appearance

I was talking to my friend, Luke Lizalde, who draws the comic book 'Mac Afro' and for his last issue he gave me a cameo. Of course, I don't think it looks like me at all, but it's the thought that counts. I've got the scan of it at home, so I'll post it up here tonight. My character even has a speaking part. Whoo hoo! Good luck to Luke, who's gonna be brushing up on his art skills and hitting up Marvel for a job. Come on, who wouldn't hire a guy who can draw like this? It's freezing here today, the high is supposed to be the mid-forties. I've been wanting to put up my Halloween decorations around the house for a while now, but it's been too cold. But tonight will be the night! I've got to get them up soon, because it'll just get colder.

2002-10-16T09:33:00.000-05:00

Power Rangers, Car Bombs and Single Men - Lookin' for Love

Geez!!! It took me an hour to drive to work today. It was only drizzling, but everyone was driving SO slow. It always happens that when you leave the house late, you're going to get to work even later! And it's freezing outside. It's only supposed to get to 46 degrees today. And I swear, in my office, it's even colder. It must be 40 degrees in here. I'm starting to lose feeling in my fingers. I think I may put my jacket back on. Yesterday night was a good time. I went to meet up with the guys at John Barleycorn to celebrate Gel's birthday. By the time I got there he had drunk a bottle of wine and had a shot of goldschlager and tequila in front of him. He had many more drinks after that, including the car bomb that I bought him. There was a lot of great, funny conversation. For a while, I was the only girl there, so I got to listen to a lot of the guy talk. They were discussing that the amount of happy people in relationships versus happy single people that they knew was 28 to 1. The found one more happy male, which upped it to 28 to 2. (Happy single says: 'I've been hearing that sex is over-rated anyway!' Unhappy single replies: 'Yeah, they say that because they can't get any sex!') The rest of them are tired of being single. Poor single guys, with a shortage of young single women. If you're single, female, and looking for love, I've got a panel of good looking young men for you to choose from. E-mail me an application. *wink* We also discussed favorite old TV shows (the Wonder Years vs. Boy Meets World debate) and cartoons ('Why couldn't Lion-O's sword be long all the time? The rest of the time it was so puny, you can't fight with that thing!'), and there were some confessions made (like how many of them actually went to the theaters to see the Power Rangers movie, just to check out the Pink Ranger). There was also a lot of geeky comic book talk that I loved. All in all, it was a nice night, it's good to hang out with old friend. I can never get enough of reminiscing about the old days of college with them. We still laugh out loud at the same old stories. I love those guys! I've also created another blog to talk about all my wedding stuff. Check it out at My Big Fat Filipino Wedding. Lots of people have suggestions and questions, and there are a lot of ideas that run through my head during the course of the day. I just want to keep everything together, and I think that the planning of this wedding will make one entertaining read. It will also give me a place to rant when the pressure starts building up!

2002-10-14T18:50:00.000-05:00

Winning has a Price

Well, Saturday I went to a family party, and we sat around and watched football and rented movies. Trully is the easiest person to go to Blockbuster with, because every movie you suggest to rent she says 'YES!'. I guess you don't get to watch a lot of movies out in Brazil. SO we rent 6 movies, because she has a lot to catch up on. We get back, throw in 'The Scorpion King', which was her first choice to watch, and she falls asleep halfway. Later that night me and Dave met up with some co-workers to watch the Chicago Wolves home opener. We played against Cincinatti Mighty Ducks and spanked their mighty little asses 8-4. Hockey games are fun to watch. Especially when they fight! But Saturday I was about 2 feet from getting hit by a flying puck. Someone tried a slapshot on the goal and it ricocheted off the gaolies mitt and flew into the crowd. It was the freakiest thing seeing it fly towards me. I had a slow reaction and ducked afterwards. Looking back, it seemed like it was in slow motion. It eventually hit a guy on the chest, but what a trooper, he had the presence of mind to catch it. After the game, we partied at Boogie Nights. In a way, I prefer dorky places like Boogie Nights, where you don't have to care how you're dressed, or how your dancing to the 'be seen' places that I've gone to before. It's a lot more fun when you don't have to worry about how you look. Dave didn't think that he would be he had a really good time, too. There's so much humor to be found when watching the crowd in places like that! Yesterday we played Whirlyball against some clients. We didn't have a good turnout of people from the company, but we beat our client nonetheless. I scored a couple games, which I'm happy about, and I had some pretty good assists and passes. However, I got hit pretty badly a couple times, so I'm really sore. There was one time when I got hit at full speed with my back turned (a total cheap shot), so I didn't even have a chance to prepare myself and I think I may have done something to my neck. But that's ok, because he was a sucky player and he had no game. That, and I got a couple of good shots on him later on, as did Bryan. If you're ever in Chicago, I'll take y'all out to play. It's a good time.