I am not ready for this week.

Notes for the day:
- saw someone at the mall purchasing a poledancing pole.  I'm not sure what concerns me more: the fact that it was a teenage boy, or that they sell that at the mall.
- accidentally pocket (purse) dialed 911.  oops?  The girl was really nice when I told her it was unintentional.
- writing inspiration struck for the first time in months.  Unfortunately not for my NaNo Novel, but for articles at least.  So, hurrah!
-jeans shopping is the bane of my life (alongside traffic).  Especially when you're short and chubby.

Obviously, I was at the mall today.  It was a half-hearted attempt at shopping for clothes for myself (which is, on the whole, unsuccessful 98% of the time) as well as an equally as half-hearted attempt at finding my brother a birthday present.  He's just a hard person to buy for.  He has very specific interests and likes -- which you would think would make it easier, but for some reason it's incredibly difficult to find something within those parameters.  He plays the guitar, he works at Panera and likes basketball.  Made worse by the fact that he's one of those people who buys things for himself when he wants them, and the choices are getting even slimmer.

Anyway.  I am not ready for this week.  I have to work an extra day (normally I only work 3 days) since a coworker has to be somewhere, and the prospect of working 4 full days seems so much more ginormous than working 3.  Even though last week I went in on my day off, too.  (I know, woe is me for having to work FOUR WHOLE DAYS.  I get it.)  I was planning to use my two days off to search for brother's bday gift, but I'll just have to shove everything I can into that last day.

The only thing seemingly redeeming about this week is the weather.  It's supposed to be rainy and cold all week, and I am so excited.  I love colder weather and am so glad that it means autumn is officially here.  Holiday season is on the brink! (Or is already here, if you go by department starts and Target and whatnot.)  Plus, this is a bit morbid, but usually this time of the year my city is freaking out about Santa Ana winds and dry weather.  The end of October is a particularly dangerous and harrowing time in terms of wildfires (Firestorm 2003 and the Witch Creek Fire of 2007 that burned my suburb were all this same time those years), and the fact that it's raining and wet is very good for us.  Therefore, yay for jacket + scarf weather and yay for no fires!

Hope everyone else's week goes well!  Any exciting plans for anyone?

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This post contains drag queens. And pictures.

You know that point in blogging where you've been gone so long, you don't really know how to come back?  It's like...do I acknowledge the absence? Do I just post as though no time has passed? A little of half?

I'm totally there.

I'm getting worried about NaNoWriMo. Not even the fact that I will (hopefully) be working and have less time, I'm more worried about the creative aspect of it. Last year, I was all about this thing. I had so many story ideas that I was jumping at the chance to get down 50k words for any and all of them. That's why I managed to hit 52k in one story, and 35k in another at the same time.  The creativity and inspiration carried on for awhile, but...it slipped. And at this point, it's pretty much gone. I have a few story ideas floating, as always, but nothing that I'm totally interested in banging out 50k for.  And, it's 50,000 words - that's a commitment nothing has become worthy of.

I don't know what to do about that.

I went up to Irvine last week and got to see a few of my friends who I haven't seen in over a year. And it was absolutely amazing.  They're all Italian exchange students, and most had returned to Italy after their year studying at my university.  A few of them have come back to study for their PhDs, so I managed to go up and have lunch with a group of them.  It really made me miss those who haven't returned, but it was lovely seeing the others. It means a lot that they still care about me so much, even if I was only really friends with them for 4 or 5 months.  Italians make the world a better place, in my opinion.

That same trip really upset me, though. It's kind of odd how that worked out, but being back on campus was terrible. Not only did it feel awkward returning because I have such crappy memories of college, but it was crazy to see all the construction done. It's like a brand new campus, and I hate that I feel so out of place. I mean, obviously I still know the campus is set in a circle and Humanities is right across from Engineering and there used to be a tire swing in the center of the Park.  Those things don't quite go away.  But seeing the new Humanities building, and the entire new Second Year Housing buildings, and this massive parking structure at the ARC...it was just too weird.  The place I called home for 4 years isn't anything like it was, and that disturbs me slightly.

By the way, did you know that when you have over 1000 unread posts in Google Reader to get to, the number stops?  It just says (1000+).  Good to know.

I have to admit though, despite extreme exhaustion and general listlessness towards life, I've been craaaazy busy. Lots of celebrations and outings and general doings going on. Brother's girlfriend's birthday happened, so we did it up big (ie, bday party at her house that included an egg hunt. Yep.)...a friend graduated again so we partied downtown...went to a concert that was shameful mostly and surprisingly fun...hit up Hash House, the most awesome breakfast joint ever--where the flapjacks are literally bigger than a pizza--and got caught in rain...and got crunk with drag queens.

What? You want pictures? Why SURE!

Yep...the shameful concert was a Jonas Brothers show.  Two of my friends and I were able to get tickets for less than $20, so we were like...why not?  It's catchy and fun and I was am a die-hard *NSYNC fan for life, so this crowd ain't got nothin' on me. And I admit (as I have on this blog before) that one of my guilty pleasures is Demi Lovato music...

and she was the opening act. So, plus one more for me!  Have to say though, she's not that great live.  She's incredibly pitchy and doesn't know how to properly breathe while dancing and moving around.  So, a bit distracting, almost slightly disappointed, but...it is what it is.

Gotta admit, Jonas Brothers were...I mean, it all sounded right. Pretty much no surprises in their performance, except I didn't think Joe Jonas could get any womanlier...and then he took off that jacket from picture 1 and revealed that the black makes-me-look-like-i-have-cleavage shirt is actually an oddly fitted tank top and I was effectively proven wrong.  But so it goes, right?  So. It. Goes.

Just a few of the drag queens we got to party with!  The one we have a picture with was our table's hostess for the night and she was awesome.  The one in the coral/peach dress was our favourite for the night because she was so freakin' cute I pretty much just wanted to be her.  This was all at Lips, a dinner/drag show bar in San Diego that's apparently quite famous.  Food was good, entertainment was top notch...I'm pretty sure I'll be headed back there sometime.  When I'm made of money anyway, because shit's expensive, man.

Requisite bathroom photo?  It was mostly just to show how faaaancy the girl's bathroom was!

Lastly, the birthday cupcakes I made for brother's girlfriend!

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Crummy weather and autumn!

For the first time in about 3 months, I have a weekend with nothing to do--and that is how I am going to keep it.  I can't take much more of this running around and being stressed out. Especially since in about 2 weeks, it gets to start back up with my brother's birthday, continue into one of my best friend's birthdays, and then the next thing I know it is going to be full-fledged Holiday Time!  Simultaneously the best and worst time ever, in my opinion.

So, any other Southern Californian falling sick due to this fucked up weather?  Because seriously, as if my immune system wasn't messed up enough, this week started in the high-90 degrees, rose all the way to 112 degrees, and then two days later it was in the 80s with craaazy rainfall!  And I mean full on thunder storms, lightning, windshield wipers on blast rain...and then you step outside and it's hot.  Do you understand how hard it is to dress for rainy weather when it's hot as death outside?  Terrible.

Anyhow, I've got to finish lunch and head back to work, so...Fill-in-the-Blank Friday time!

Link up here!

1.   True happiness is understanding and accepting that hopes, dreams and goals are necessary to have but not always meant to be.

2.  The most surreal moment of my life was walking across the stage at university graduation. I was so happy and stressed and confused and worried. So much work and effort and heartache had happened to get me to that point, it was hard to believe I'd actually succeeded. I still feel as though my diploma is one big joke (it doesn't help that Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed it).

3.  My favorite texture is uhhh...I have no idea. Something soft and pleasing?  Yeah. Sure. That.

4.  My signature color is grey or red, depending on what it's for.

5.  My signature style is comfortable and functional. I'm really not a fashion girl, and I dress for the weather and situation. My only real add-ons are jewelry and a scarf, if it's cold out.

6.  If I could choose one store to spend my life savings at, it would be Macy's. Because that's preeeetty much the only place I've ever been able to find decent jeans.

7.  My best thing about autumn is EVERYTHING. I love the crisp air, the changing colors, the anticipation of holidays and colder weather, getting to wear scarves and boots and cute peacoats.  Autumn means the beginning of the end to a good year (hopefully) and the hope for an amazing new one. Autumn is snuggling under a blanket for the first time in months.

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