Family Party

The party at Anjelo and Regina's was a lot of fun. It started out a little tense for some of us, because one of Dave's past acquaintances was sitting on the couch. I felt a little awkward, but in the end we were fine. Anjelo's family was super friendly and gracious. Dave made this amazing vegan turkey, or "quail" dish that was a big hit. Regina's sweet marshmallow potato also rocked the party. Everyone had a great time meeting each other and enjoyed the food. We also played a boardgame called Apples to Apples, that started out a little slow but won everyone over once we all "got" the game.

Today I slept in 'til 10:30, was kind of happy about that. Woke up and booked the tickets to Seattle. Checked work emails and answered a few. It was a slow start. The gym was not busy at all. Came back and made myself some salad. Caretas and Eduardo gave me some steak and sausage right off their grill. So I ate some more :) Met up with Sylvia and gave her her present. She was screaming in joy when she saw the camera case. That was a good sign. We went to the mall, which was not very smart. There were so many people! The lines were just crazy. At the same time, it was good to see that people are shopping and spending to save America's economy! After that we went to see my dad's friend so I could get pineapple cakes from him. Could I pack any more driving into this evening? We had dinner with Dave and Jose at Hong Yei, again a great time. Then I took Sylvia back to where she parked her car, all the way back in Rowland Heights. Finally came back home after 10PM. Lots of driving today it seemed! Still, a wonderful day to spend with friends and have laughs with each other.

Full Saturday

So glad the weekend's here. Yesterday work was kind of weird and intense. It sure made the day more eventful. Later went out with PK and David for some frozen yogurt. Then we went to PK's for some chat and gossip. For some reason, hanging out at PK's always involves watching Youtube at some point. We did that again last night. Some were fun, some were kind of dumb. I would love to sleep in some more this morning, but my routine wouldn't allow me to. Woke up fairly early and spent a good amount of time online reading and emailing. Did a little of apartment hunting too, nothing good it seemed. Whatever happens it will work out just fine. Later I'm going to meet with Judy. She just got back and is going to bring me some yummy snacks. After that I have to run to get a cake or dessert, then head out to Dave's. We are going to visit Anjelo and Regina. A nice full Saturday this is going to be.

Scoops finally!

Finally went to check out Upright Citizens Brigade last night with Dave and Jose. It was not good. I barely laughed. The jokes were flat and unoriginal. We were there to support one of Dave's actor friends from his theater show. I was going to say a lot of negative things but Jose did it for me. Secretly I thought if this was one of my friend's show, or one of my films or tv show, Dave would tear it apart immediately and ruthlessly. He was actually not too mean about the whole thing, I guess he liked the actor friend. We had Thai food at Yai's, which was just okay. I used to love the food there a lot, last night it was a little disappointing. Lastly we went to Scoops for some mind-blowing ice cream. I had pomegranate & marscapone cheese and vegan caramel & Oreo cookie. They were SO good! Totally made up the disappointment that was the "comedy" and dinner.

Nice apartment

So tired from work today. So glad the weekend's here. The rain is falling. The temperature is still freezing. It's going to be slow, cold, and barely movable. Speaking of moving, I saw one of the better apartments tonight. Caretas came with me. It was a very nice unit. Too bad the carpet was all dirty even though the owner claimed they steam cleaned it twice. The walls were painted blue, from the living room to the bedroom. I am a fan of the color, just not sure I want the whole place to look like pool water. There's no in-house AC, so that means anyone who wants to live there will need to get two portable ones for each room. I also wished the garage would have washer and dryer, but oh well, it is what it is. I liked it, not enough to move into it. I guess that means I will stay. Until I find something I really love. Isn't one of life's big lessons is to love what you have? Let's see how well I can learn and appreciate this lesson.

Freezing

Got a phone call today from one of the apartments I checked. Again, they wanted more than I was willing to pay every month. It is starting to feel like more and more I should stay put, which really isn't a problem. After doing all the housing research in the area, it's probably a good idea to wait a while. LA rained finally yesterday. This year has been so dry. I suppose it's better now than never. Of course along with rain, the temperature just drops a few more notches. My bedroom becomes freezing every night and in the morning it's like I just slept in a refrigerator. Yea... So what was that about staying in this apartment again? Sigh. Nothing's truly perfect. I'm sure if I do move into a newer apartment I will most definitely find many things wrong with this room or that room. We'll see. I'm always open to change, but never forcing myself into one.

First day apartment hunting

I did a little apartment hunting this afternoon. It wasn't very successful. Although I did visit some nearby areas that looked very pretty. The apartments I saw or heard back from were either more expensive than mine, or not an 1 bedroom apt, or smaller than mine. It was disappointing, but I reminded myself this was just the first day. And also, I don't HAVE to move. I mean, it really depends. If there's something awesome out there and I happen to find it, great let's make a deal. But I'm not going to lose sleep over it. Then again, I probably will. I'm just complicated and contradictory like that.

Moving out

So my rent is going up finally. Is this a some kind of sign prompting me to get my butt out of this place? Not sure. I do think it's funny my landlord still has one unit vacant for months, and somehow decided that raising every tenant's rent was a sound idea. I used to like living here. I still do, to some extent. Then again, my "sinkerator" hasn't worked in a long time, my bedroom is always freezing because of the poor temperature insulation, my carpet feels old and gross, paint is falling off all over, I can go on and on. I do love Caretas, my awesome neighbor, who is mainly the reason I'm still here. Then again, consider that I live above two parking storage areas, and my landlord drives a big ass truck and that weird neighbor with the old beat up Nova that takes forever to get going and I get to hear all the lovely noises these two dumb gas-guzzlers make every morning and many nights... Yea it's time. I'll have two months to hunt down a place and get my stuff out of here. Done thinking about it. Now get on with it.