ohthatjessica

hi everyone. i just want to say that i'm sorry for having neglected this LJ, and well, everyone i am friends with through it. it's been quite a crazy year.

so last time i posted (no lie, it was 10 months ago) i was getting ready to move to isla vista. i moved, it went well. my roommate amanda was really great, and my other suitemate, mayra, was our quad's RA but she seemed really cool. it turns out, nearly a year later that i think she was totally fake, but that's another story.

i started school on sept. 28 and left that night to go back home because i was having my bat mitzvah (finally!), and the service was friday night/ saturday day. rachel and i led the morning service, and read from the Torah and partied. it was lovely. i'll put some pictures up from this past year soon.

the fall quarter at school was rough, at my community college i had gotten used to 16 week semesters, and at UC schools, they have 10 week quarters. it was crazy. i took the class from hell (film studies 96) and ended up with a C+. i had never been so relieved and happy to be average in my entire life. turns out, i had one of the higher grades in the class. you know how you trudge along, suffering, thinking you're the only one who doesn't get it and then later you talk to people who had been in your class and realize they felt the same way? that is this class. everyone in the film studies department hates it. but i saw some great films in it. everyone should see "northfork" and "joyeux noel" if they haven't already. great films. oh, and i was really homesick for awhile there fall quarter, having missed halloween (a big deal at home) and celebrating my 21st birthday with my family. i couldn't wait to go home for thanksgiving, and i took the train so i could avoid traffic. the trip from school to home was fine, but i ended up getting the stomach flu thanksgiving morning and couldn't keep down any food for almost three days. i almost couldn't take the train back to school. it was ugly. i got better just in time to finish a paper for the class from hell. good times.

winter quarter was better, i had gotten used to the quarter system and resolved not to fall behind in my studies. yeah right. i applied for a few jobs and then no one wanted me because my availability was so spotty. i had a weird class schedule. i did take this awesome music class though, and since i did so well on the midterm, i decided to stop going to class pretty much. i went to 5 of the 12 classes after the midterm. i was missing a lot of notes, so before the final i did a little research on wikipedia and managed to get an A in the class still. oh, and i volunteered at the santa barbara international film festival. the only film i saw was "factory girl." i recommend it. it was very tragic but interesting. i love the costumes. and the editing is really great, i love how parts of it get really psychedelic and seem like a music video. go rent it.

spring quarter was BY FAR the biggest quarter, maybe the biggest changes in my life so far. i had been looking for a place to live for the following year, and amanda and i were looking to live together, but she wanted a single room (difficult to find and very expensive in isla vista) and i would share with someone. 2 places got rented out from under our noses, and i was still waiting to hear back from the university-owned apartments. she couldn't wait any longer, so she signed a one bedroom lease on her own. then i found out that i didn't get into the university apts. i was really upset. then, i was at a Passover dinner at my friends' apartment one night, and a girl named lauren had invited me to her sorority's (AEPhi) spring rush. if anything, she said, i would have a place to live next year. i wasn't really interested at the time, but i kept the flyer. the next day, i receieved a response from an email i had sent in regards to a housing listing. the girl who replied had been living in the sorority house, and she wasn't a member yet, but she was going to rush that quarter and the girl who would be sharing the bedroom in the apartment with me was an active member. so i decided to meet with the girls and rush the sorority. i was given a bid and accepted it, and became a pledge. i'm actually in a sorority! i never thought i would do it, of course, but AEPhi is the only house i would consider joining. it's nationally recognized as a Jewish sorority, even though most of our sisters aren't, and they are genuinely good people who like the diversity in the house and embrace it, unlike the stereotypical sorority girls (blonde, skinny, rich, snobby clones) that make up most of the sororities around here. i love my sisters. i also got involved with a film festival at school, called Reel Loud. all the films have to be silent and made on 16mm film reels. then a live band performs the soundtrack. it's really a lot of fun. i worked on four films (appearing in two different films as a zombie!) and of course, the one we worked the hardest on didn't get in, but it was awesome experience. i learned a lot about how the film department works and how to improve things for next year's competition. i also got a job at school, in the video services department, as a camera operator. it's not much, it only pays minimum wage, but it's a little bit of money in my pocket. actually, i got two jobs. i also am on the associated students program board, who plan all the film screenings, lectures, and concerts at the school. i'm the tickets coordinator for all ticketed performances. last year they had some amazing events, like jon stewart and bill clinton as speakers, and the killers in concert. my first job with them was backstage at extravaganza, a huge annual free show in the soccer stadium. a local band opened, followed by suburban legends, mickey avalon, ben kweller, and TI. it was an awesome show. i didn't stay to see T.I, but the first three acts were great. i'm still not a huge mickey avalon fan, but it was a fun performance. i looooved ben kweller's set, of course. i never realized how short he is! he's a little guy. but totally adorable. he rolled up in a white minivan rental with his wife and son, and rolled down the window, and completely unassumingly (is unassumingly a word?) said, "hi there, i'm ben. where should i park?" i loved how normal he was! i worked for like 9 hours that day and i don't even think i got paid. oh well.

the house i was going to move into seemed too good to be true. it was on del playa, aka the big party street, on the ocean side, with three bedrooms and two bathrooms, a decent sized kitchen with a dishwasher, and three balconies, one overlooking the water. turns out, the landlord is psycho. i went to our school's community housing office and asked them about a disrepancy in the lease agreement, and they basically told me to get out of the lease if i could, because the landlord was more trouble than he was worth. i also found out the girls were really flaky, and no one wanted to take responsiblity for ensuring we would get our security deposits back in full at the end of the year. with that combination, i had my doubts. but i told my parents i really wanted to live there.

i had my last final friday evening until 6pm, and then my boyfriend (!), kunal (more on him in a bit), helped me pack everything i had brought up in two cars into my one car to go home. i had to leave that night, because i was going back to my old job at TLC and we had mandatory summer training the next morning at 8. oh joy. so i got home safely, took two days to unpack. i got up early the next morning and went to training, and it went well. easier than i had remembered. i spend most of the afternoon napping, and then after dinner, i had gone to the grocery store to buy some popcorn and candy for my family so we could watch a movie. when i came back in the house, my parents pounced on me and announced that i would be taking out a very large loan for next year, because i was going to pay for ALL my living expenses (rent, utilities, food, toiletries, sorority fees, everything but tuition and books). i was so blindsided, i burst into tears. my dad started yelling, and i ran upstairs. my mom actually said, "we didn't think you'd take it this badly." i was at a loss for words. i had to get out of the house and luckily, mary called right then and i asked her to come get me. she picked me up and we drove around for awhile. i went home a few hours later. the next day, my parents told me that if i posted a listing online for the del playa house, and found someone to take over the lease, and moved into the sorority house, that they would help me out with my expenses. so i did. it took me almost two months, but i found a new lessee (thank God!) and will only live on del playa for the month of august (while i'm in summer school) and move into the AEPhi house september 1.

now it's july 29, and i'm actually supposed to be going to the gym, but reading some comments on friends' facebooks prompted me to check up on livejournal. so much has been going on! i want to hear from everyone about your lives. i miss you guys!

this week is my last week at summer TLC (the childcare program i worked at when i was living at home). in the summer, they run it like a day camp, and i get paid to play with kids all day. it's freaking fantastic. i love my job. i'm sad to leave it, but glad to be going back to IV soon. tomorrow night kunal comes back from india, and thursday he's coming here! we're going to see the format thursday night in anaheim and then he's staying the weekend. i don't know what we're going to do here yet. saturday, my friends lyndell and chris are supposed to have their housewarming party/lyndell's b-day. they get back from their honeymoon on friday. they'll probably be too tired to have the party, but i really want kunal to meet all my good friends from back home.

i met kunal at the end of winter quarter, he is a mutual friend of our friend anthony. it turned out that the three of us had 2 classes together in spring quarter, so we saw each other monday through friday. we started studying together, then kunal and i started hanging out outside of class, and then we realized we liked each other. i asked him to the AEPhi formal and then we started dating. we've been together for 2 months. he's a wonderful person and i adore him. he's a musician (!), he plays bass, mostly, but also guitar, drums, tablas and sitar. he's in 4 bands. he performed with one of them at the reel loud festival and it was really great. i was proud of him. he's a film studies major, too, and he's close with his family. all the things i look for in a guy! and i love the fact that we started out as friends, i think we have a great relationship. i hope you all can meet him sometime! even my parents like him, that's a huge deal. he met ashley and felicia and some of my other friends from back home when we went to newport beach for ashley's 21st birthday, but he hasn't met kaitlyn or mary or anyone else. kaitlyn is leaving thursday for a cruise on the italian riviera with her family, that lucky duck. mary has been busy recording with her band, predicting departure. i saw them play at her church's fiesta, they were great. i have a bunch of pics i took of them that i have to give her still. i keep saying i'll do it and then i get sidetracked. lyndell, who i've known since the 8th grade but we lost touch in high school and reconnected a few years ago, just got married last week! she had 8 bridesmaids, since she's an only child and her parents can afford it! i was one of them, along with mary and kaitlyn, 3 high school friends, and 2 college friends. turns out, one of her college friends was my friend in kindergarten, when i lived in lancaster! we were in the same class and she came to my 5th birthday party! small world, huh? lyndell and chris had a beautiful wedding in san juan capistrano. i'm so happy for them!

like i said, i've been super busy and i'm moving back to IV next sunday, but i promise i won't neglect my LJ anymore! i'll keep everyone updated more often! <333

here are my pics from my trip! you can see them even if you don't have a facebook.

http://ucsb.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2047635&l=3d3ca&id=3625243


http://ucsb.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2046689&l=9009b&id=3625243

:D

Subject : Hey Jessica, it's Payman

I'm having a thousand of these printed up right now. They'll be at your door Monday morning, 10:30 at the latest.

Peace out,
Payman





hahahahahahahahahahahahha
awesome.

i'm home. i arrived safely to LAX around midnight tuesday morning. don't worry, i'm not going to be the target of any missiles. actually, most of the action in the middle east right now is nowhere near where we were visiting, but about 15 friends of mine are still in israel and i am worried about them.

warning: this is pretty long. i don't feel like adding cuts right now.

but israel in general is amazing. i had the best time. my only complaint is that we didn't stay long enough in each place, i wish the whole trip had been longer. a lot of people have asked me what my favorite part was and i can't even pick one. there were so many great things. and great moments. our group got along really well, that made things even better. there were 40 of us, and we could have all hated each other and had a terrible time, but everyone clicked really well and we all became really close very quickly. i suppose that's because you only have those two options when you're halfway around the world and stuck with the same 40 people for 12 days straight: either make friends or don't. i left israel with 38 new friends, i swear (not counting myself, of course, and one guy who was just a jerk). actually, maybe more than 38 friends, if i count the israeli soldiers who were just so great. everything was great. sure, some of the hotels were kind of old and dingy and sure, we got sick of eating schnitzel and shwarma every day, but for a free trip, you can't complain that much.

i'm going to go to longs tomorrow to check if my pictures are in. if not tomorrow, then hopefully they will be back on monday. i didn't want to risk taking my digital camera so i took 7 disposable cameras. i dropped off 6 of them the other day. the last one i have a few more pics to go. i had them put all the pictures on cd, too, so i can upload them online. i'll probably put them on shutterfly or something like that so i can email the link to the album. i just hope the pictures came out all right. it's not like digital, where you get that instant gratification and you can check to see if it was good or not and retake the picture if necessary. keep your fingers crossed!

as much as i would have loved to have been able to stay longer, i'm glad to be home. not just because of the impending war, but 12 days is a long time to be away from home. it's the longest i've ever been away from my family. i even started to miss my little sister, haha. i guess i'd better get used to it, i move to santa barbara on september 24. i sent the contract back to the place where i'm living right before i left and the owner called and said i'm in while i was gone. so at least i know i have a place to live up there, it's one less thing to worry about.

this week was busy, considering i was recovering from massive jet lag: tuesday i went to the doctors and got the OK to return to work, my nose is fine. and i went to the mall and bought some cute clothes i probably didn't need. wednesday, we went to the hotel where we're holding the bat mitzvah reception and tasted the food so we could pick our menus and then we went to the fair and ate even more crap. and saw the peking acrobats. i went on the bumper cars and couldn't figure out how to get my car out of reverse! thursday we met with the decorator for the reception and she has some awesome ideas that we are all very excited about (except my dad, since he's paying the bill). last night i went to shabbat service and saw a panel of holocaust survivors speak. when i post pics of my trip, i'll write about yad vashem, the israeli holocaust memorial museum. it's incredible. i ran into my friend from OCC, gilad, at temple. he's working there now, as a religious school teacher and youth group advisor for the junior high kids. i warned him about my sister and her friends. they're not bad kids, but they are just too much sometimes. my sister is totally the ringleader, too. she's a great kid, but she is the weirdest kid i've ever met, i swear. more power to her, i guess.

i'm dying in this heat! it's awful! i almost suffocated in my room typing this up until i remembered to turn the ceiling fan on....ahhhh. i went to my friend marisol's house in corona today for a pool party. it was something like 107 degrees in corona. the pool was our best friend today. i got home and showered and started to get ready for another party, but it started an hour ago and i'm too tired now. andrea had sent out a mass text message earlier to invite everyone to a "white trash" party, dressing up required. so i spent the whole drive home from corona mentally planning my outfit, then got home, fed the dog, picked out my outfit, showered, ate dinner, and went online to get directions to her apartment, when of course, i got sidetracked again on facebook and ended up talking on AIM to niki from the trip and payman from the film festival...and long story short, didn't get the directions. when i finally did, i realized they are not the same directions i remember andrea giving me awhile back. i texted her and she hasn't responded. i'm sure she's too drunk already. i think that's a sign. a sign to stay home tonight and get a good night's sleep. my shoulders are so tense, i'm going to take a soma and go to bed. tomorrow is the thank you picnic for the staff and volunteers for the newport beach film festival. we're going to eat wahoo's and work on our tans, ooooh yeah. and in the evening i think ashley and felicia and whoever else is around are coming over for dinner and drinks and gossip.

i feel like i've missed so much being gone!

i'm bored.



i leave in 10 hours! i can't wait!



i'm going to tgi friday's with mary and kaitlyn and maybe ashley for dessert tonight, like a mini-going away party. and then i'm not going to be able to sleep! i'm so excited. i guess i'll come home and shower after i go to dessert, maybe it will make me sleepy. i have a few more things to pack that are last minute and then i leave at 3:30 am for LAX with my mom and dad.


we thought at first that we were going to have to get to the airport at 3 am, since the flight leaves at 6:55 am and you're supposed to be there 4 hours ahead of time for internation flights because of security and everything, but a few weeks ago we got an email from the trip organizer that basically said, "Juuuuuust kidding! LAX doesn't open until 5 am. and the police don't let you wait outside the terminal before it's open. so get there right at 5 sharp and we will check in for our flight." whoops! i'm glad they cleared that up though. we might have a little problem otherwise.


by the way, i love william beckett. i know he's skinnier than the anorexic actresses in hollywood, but seriously, he's so dang cute. just sayin.


this is going to turn into another one of those random, pointless entries. you love it.


i'm kinda aggravated, i wrote two awesome essays today for scholarships and then went to enter them online, and one went swell, but the other one i realized i didn't properly answer the question. so i scrapped the whole thing. not the essay, i'm saving it in hopes i can use it later for another scholarship entry, but this one competition sucked anyway. it was only for a max of $500 and they wanted to know exactly how much you are spending on tuition and which lenders you're getting loans from, etc, and frankly, that's none of their damn business how much my tuition bills are. they're just going to solicit me for other crap. the last few weeks i've been getting awful amounts of spam mail in my hotmail account. it must come from one of those scholarship search sites i signed up for. i bet they sold my information to third parties. damn fine print!


i looove the new cartel single. it's a perfectly-crafted pop song. catchy and sing-along-able. it has a really good hook. the video is great too. it's simple but really effective. everyone knows it's mocking myspace without being too obvious.

HAHAHAHA at the end one of the guys in a hoodie is holding a deer statue, like the deer head in the "myspace movie." that movie was great, but i hear the kid's other work is crap and he's got an overblown ego now to boot, ever since he signed a development deal with MTV. but a development deal doesn't mean anything, you have to back it up with more good work.


go check out scarlet grey's new song on myspace if you get a chance. "violent like vanilla." it's great. they're finally coming into their own. if only record label politics didn't get in the way now, it would be swell. they would probably be on tv now.


grrrrrr i hate bugs. there are soooo many bugs around here! that's the worst part of summer. yuck. i wonder if i'll need bug spray for israel. at least longs drugs is open 24/7 now.


ok the pointlessness is over. i'm going to go watch the end of "a goofy movie."


awwwwww mannnn, it's over. i'm going to go dance around to "I to I" on the closing credits anyway.


if we listen to each other's hearts
we'll find we're never too far apart
and maybe love is the reason why
for the first time ever
we're seeing it eye to eye

oooh yeah.



oh and if you need me while i'm in israel, my cell # will be 011972524233191. that's if you really, really need me. i do get free unlimited incoming calls but outgoing it's 34 cents a minute and it's going to be billed to my parents' credit card.



yeaaaaah 6 and a half hours until i leave!



you think i'll survive 12 days without a computer?
aww, my mom just bought me a cute little luggage tag in a "J" shape.


i'm still bored. entertain me until i leave, please?

i'm soooo excited. i got the itinerary for the trip last week. this is what we're doing:

2006-06-15

ITINERARY – bus 18

Please note that this is an outline of your itinerary. It represents the main stops along your journey. This itinerary of course will change here and there, (weather and security allowing) but in general these are the things you can expect on your trip. We purposely left out the exact timing as our programs allow for flexibility under the guides discretion. You shall be updated daily about your itinerary by the Israel Experts staff. Please also note that all IsraelExperts trip are different from one another.

SEE YOU SOON!!! :)

NOTE - SUBJECT TO CHANGE


Fri, June 30th:

• AM arrival in Israel. Meet your guide and set off on your adventure!
• Tour the old city of Jaffa.
• Shabbat preparation, candle lighting in hotel followed by Oneg Shabbat + dinner
• Accommodation – Kibbutz Gvulot

Sat, July 1st:

• Kibbutz hike
• Lunch
• Israel map program – interactive politics and geography lesson.
• End Shabbat with the havdallah service, songs, and spice.
• Accommodation – Kibbutz Gvulot


Sun, July 2nd:

• Visit Ein Ovdat national park and view the "Big" and "Small" craters in the Negev desert.
• Visit Kibbutz Sede Boker and take in the views and beauty of the Negev desert landscape and Ben Gurion’s tomb.
• Travel to the Bedouin village Kfar Hanokdim for camel riding, music, and a delicious Bedouin style “hafla” dinner.
• Accomodation – Kfar Hanokdim


Mon, July 3rd:

• Sunrise at Masada - Ascend the historical fortress of Masada, the sight of the last Jewish stand against the Roman army.
• Hike in the Ein Gedi desert oasis and float in the Dead Sea, the lowest place on earth + lunch
• Evening program: introduction to Yad Vashem - Israel’s national Holocaust museum.
• Accommodation – Caesar Hotel, Jerusalem

Tue, July 4th:

• Today 8 Israelis join you for 3 days!
• Hass Promenade.
• Visit the Jewish Quarter in the old city of Jerusalem + lunch
• Yad Vashem Holocaust seminar
• Accommodation – Caesar Hotel, Jerusalem

Wed, July 5th:

• Visit Mt. Herzl - Israel's military cemetery and the burial place of Yitzhak Rabin, Golda Meir and Theodore Herzl.
• Travel to Gan Hashlosha and bathe in the Sachne and hot springs.
• Explore Tsafed - the city of Kabbalah, art, and mysticism.
• Accommodation – Kibbutz Haon


Thu, July 6th:

• Gadot observation point
• Travel to the former military outpost at Har Bental and take in a stunning 360 degree view of Israel and Syria.
• See the Banias - the largest waterfall in Israel, and visit the remains of an ancient city.
• Rafting on the Jordan River.
• Accommodation – Kibbutz Haon


Fri, July 7th:

• Learn about the poets and pioneers of Israel at the Kinneret Cemetery through poetry, song, and storytelling.
• View the security fence and discuss Israeli/Arab border issues at Givat Haviva
• Shabbat preparation, candle lighting in hotel + dinner
• The Old City of Jerusalem - visit the Kotel
• Oneg Shabbat
• Accommodation – Prima Kings hotel, Jerusalem

Sat, July 8th:

• Walking tour of Jerusalem
• End Shabbat with the havdallah service, songs, and spice.
• Free time on Ben-Yehuda Street.
• Accommodation – Prima Kings hotel, Jerusalem


Sun, July 9th:

• Visit Independence Hall where David Ben-Gurion proclaimed Israeli Independence in 1948.
• Afternoon stroll on Shenkin Street + lunch.
• Visit Rabin Square - the site of the Prime Minister's assassination at the end of a 1995 peace demonstration.
• Mini Israel – See hundreds of models that are exact copies of sites, buildings and landscapes of Israel – see all of Israel within an hour!
• Enjoy a closing banquet at the beautiful environment of Neot Kedumim.
• Accommodation- Ma’ale Hahamisha


Mon, July 10th:

Depart from Ben Gurion Airport at 12:45 PM flight AC085/793

this cast is driving me nuts! it's a funky piece of plastic that is glued to my nose...and the glue has already melted and 3/4 of the cast isn't even touching my nose, but of course, the part that is still touching is right over the bridge of my nose, where i broke it, so i'm afraid to take it off yet. maybe tomorrow. it's itchy and it's making me crazy! i need to get my mind off it, but i can't seem to focus on anything else because this dumb cast is always in my line of vision...sigh.

i'm getting my nose set tomorrow. not a nose job, not out of vanity, but they're going to surgically set it so hopefully it will heal correctly (and straight), if you don't get it fixed within two weeks of the injury, the bones start to repair themselves and then they will stay crooked until you get a full rhinoplasty to fix it, which insurance doesn't cover under any circumstances. but hopefully i can at least take the cast off by the time i leave for israel. i leave next thursday morning! i'm sooo excited!

i may change the order of these by the time summer ends, but here's a start:

10. park ranger: "do i smell weed?"
mike: "no, no, that was our cigars...yeah, cigars."

9. standing in the parking lot outside B street beach when mike jumped out of the car window when he realized what julia really wanted...oy, i have no idea how that girl ends up hanging out with all of us all the time. no one likes her, anyway. not when she sleeps with all our guy friends and talks trash behind everyone's backs. that will not do.


WORST MOMENT OF SUMMER:

1. i broke my nose! i collided with a third-grader at work on thursday. we were playing baseball and i was fielding and i turned to grab the ball and turned back around to throw it when the kid was running full-steam and we smacked heads, er, noses. well, my nose and his head. i knew it broke as soon as it happened. it started gushing blood and i was crying and it was a big ugly mess. now my nose has this awful bruise and it's really quite crooked. because it's being covered under workman's comp, i have to see a specific specialist. i'm going tomorrow at 11am. hopefully (and this means keep your fingers crossed) it won't affect my going to israel. i'm supposed to leave in a week and a half. yikes.


also, i didn't get the lottery to live in the dorms at UCSB. i opted to be put on the waiting list for the university-owned apartments and now wednesday i'm going up to santa barbara with my parents to look at the apartments and at the privately-owned buildings that are run dorm-style, i guess those are my options. what a week it has been.

and this was after the good news, that i got placed at o'neill TLC for summer, with the cool leaders. well, the site coordinator is really sweet and the assistant is a nice guy, plus andrew, this other leader who i worked with last summer (and is not so bad too look at!) is working at o'neill for the summer, i was really looking forward to it. nicole (the site coordinator) even called the day i broke my nose, earlier in the day, to tell me they were going to let me work monday-wednesday next week when i'm really not supposed to work at all if i miss a big thursday field trip, but they were going to make an exception since it's the first week of summer at a new site and i'd have to get to know the kids. i really really really hope this all works out. i'll find out tomorrow. i have a feeling i won't get much sleep tonight.

i burned my tongue on hot coffee earlier so all i had for breakfast was a handful of wheat-thins. at noon. i think i'm going to buy the reuben's accomplice cd now that my stereo works again. but i should really wait until next friday when i get paid. i'm off to lunch with kaitlyn and i'm taking the digital camera along. i feel like gettting dressed up today even though we're probably just going to go to islands. but it's not about the destination, it's about the adventure gettting there. or something like that. then i'm sewing later. must finish pillows. must fix jeans and black cardigan and skirts. school starts monday. i am excited because i get to take awesome classes (film, spanish, sociology, photo) but am dreading the 6 am wake-up call. and morning traffic. could be worse, i could be at work telling people we are out of ipods, you shouldn't have waited until 3 hours before you leave for new york, mexico, iraq, canada, the moon (take your pick). i'm going to wear my big sunglasses everywhere today. go incognito.

i can't decide what i want for my b-day...an ipod or a digital camera. i'm sick of taking my discman to the gym but i only got it 6 months ago and i feel kinda bad about that since my parents paid for it (my mom broke my old one). i suppose my sister could use it. and i always can take my parents' camera places except they protect it like the kid in little giants who came to practice with foam wrapped around himself for padding. and they don't know how to use it. my b-day isn't until november anyway. i'm more concerned right now with getting certain days off for concerts (the format in sept. and oct, mainly) and my aunt's wedding.

the sun didn't come out today until 12:30 pm. it looked like it was going to rain. i slept with the window above my bed open last night and now my hair is frizzy. so now i have to go wash it again before work. and my computer sucks. somehow some adware latched on and we can't get it out, even though i swept the hard drive twice this morning. so every time it says "i love you!" on some comment or something similar, it has "love" underlined so you can search for ads or whatever. and it won't let me change my settings on my livejournal because of it. wherever it says "personal preferences," the "personal" becomes a link and yeah, i am frustrated. my grandmother is doing much better since she had heart surgery last week (friday the 13th, no less), she has to stay with us for 6 weeks while she recovers. the bbq is still on for the 29th. but i painted my nails hot pink and i just found out that the format is playing at the grove in anaheim in october! all is well with the world. and i found the digital camera. it was in the downstairs closet in its case the whole time. so, new pics soon? maybe. i do work 32 hours next week. i should stop answering my own questions and go get ready for work.

i hate my profile picture, it looks so staged and stiff. who wants to go to this party with me tonight? it's at this apartment of two girls i work with, it's supposed to be crazy, i'm just not allowed to go by myself because it's in laguna beach and i have to drive down that terrible 2-lane road called laguna canyon road and my parents are worried about me being out late...what else is new? anyway, i'm taking my camera. i'm sure there will be plenty of interesting photo ops. and i just figured out how to edit these and make them look all fancy. see, i'm getting it. i'm so proud of myself.

who's going to the format on sunday? oh yes, i am!

yessss! i can go to the format show on sunday!! i only have a work meeting from 8:30-10:30am and then i can go! now i must go fax the troubadour to get my ticket.

Dear Jessica,
Here is your horoscope
for Monday, July 26:
Take a deep breath -- the worst is over. Any unpleasant events that come about are only psychic leftovers, and will be only a distant memory by tonight. See? Deep breaths.

i withdrew from the class i was taking. it was too much work to cram into half the time of a regular semester and getting a c would just drag down my gpa too much, so i said screw it, i'm done and went to school and withdrew. now i have time to do what i want to do! like go to the beach, which i haven't done in forever, or parties or more shows (speaking of which, i have to get my ticket for the format) or finish making my shirt to wear to the angels game tomorrow night. so there. in other words, i get to enjoy my last month of summer break!