Wish upon a star...

UCLA IS RANKED NUMBER 12!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2005-10-13T00:36:35Z

Recent pictures (bars, parties, doctor stuff, cats, etc.):
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=37z8c8vj.aljwenvn&x=1&y=8yatc9

i'm so bad at updating!

first off, holy shit! UCLA IS RANKED NO. 12! i was SO excited this past weekend when UCLA beat Cal! I couldn't even believe it. We're ranked number 12 right now, which is amazing, and we knocked Cal down to 18--so surreal...of course they finally get good when I leave. Hopefully the boys will keep it up and not loose it. Our schedule for the next few weeks doesn't seem bad at all though--we definitely have the talent to win the next few weeks, which would be so cool if we could go into the USC game undefeated. I still can't believe how well they are doing. I wanted to be at the Rose Bowl SO bad on saturday when the game was on. i can't believe that the first time i can't be at games in 4 years is when they go and decide to play well! it would have been the most amazing game to be at. oh well

well, let's see...we finished gross anatomy! crazy, considering it's supposedly the hardest class our first year and kind of like an "initiation" into med school. But we finished last week, which was amazing. We had our final last monday (which was all day from 8am-5pm and consisted of 4 different tests!)--we haven't gotten our grades back yet, but I'm pretty sure i did really well. So, now I can put a check mark next to passing my first med school class--yay! we started block 2 last wednesday, which consists of embryology, histology and biochem. it's remarkably easier than last block. and so nice to be sitting in lectures all day, rather than over cadavers--though i must admit that it definitely gets boring in class all day. we have our first midterm in a couple weeks for this class--doesn't seem too bad yet, though i presume it'll get worse.

after the anatomy final, we had a huge party at our apartment. we invited the whole 1st year med school class and literally over 100 people came throughout the night--it was amazing! i was really drunk, which felt so good after studying my ass off. but everyone seemed to be having fun, until the party got broken up around 2am, but it was totally worth it. finally our class got to bond, and basically everyone came because: 1. it was monday night and what else would you do to celebrate, 2. after going through the hell of anatomy, everyone wanted to party, and 3. everyone was planning on coming. even some random people i would never expect to come showed up, which made it all the more fun. and everyone loved our apartment, because it's amazing of course! :) we went through a whole keg and MANY bottles of hard alcohol. but, we bought the perfect amount of alcohol because we still had a few bottles left over at the end, so obviously didn't run out. it was perfect

we've been going out a lot more lately, which has been fun--found some good bars and stuff. when i started school people said that med school would be more fun than college and i didn't see how that was even possible, but i'm starting to understand now. because we work so hard all day, that when we do get the chance to go out, we party hard. work hard, play hard--always has been and always will be my motto. plus, even when we're studying hard, the material is SO interesting and is exactly what i want to be learning, so it doesn't seem like that much of a task. in fact, i never expected to like med school as much as i really do. i mean, i thought i would like it because medicine is what i want to do, but i didn't think i would actually like the process of getting there. But, it's actually amazing--the information is so incredibly interesting and it is so satisfying to know that everything I am learning is actually useful information that I will continue to use throughout the rest of my life. the more and more we learn about the practical aspect of being a doctor, the more i like it as well. in doctoring class, we've been learning about how to give physical exams and interviewing patients, etc. we are all assigned preceptors, who basically are mentors for us for the next 4 years. There are 3 students per preceptor and jaclyn and I happened to get the same doctor, who is an OB/GYN. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your perspective), he doesn't quite understand that we're only 1st years and told us that next thursday we're doing pap smears. My jaw fell open when he said that. I mean, i'm willing to learn, but the poor patient! if i were the patient and knew first year med students were giving me my pelvic exam, i would freak out! we'll see how that turns out!

we went to the Philadelphia college of physicians last week and learned about the history of medicine. we were half asleep during that portion of the afternoon, but after we went down to the Mutter Museum and is was so fascinating to see the accumulation of medical history in there. i loved it.

jill and i got our first experience of being stereotyped a few weeks ago. we were in Fado, a bar in center city, and jill was dancing with some guy and he was totally cool, but the moment he found out we were med students he totally freaked out and got self-conscious. When he realized that all of us around him (about 15 of us) were all med students, he got really uncomfortable. we then realized that we'll probably be getting this for the rest of our lives. i mean, for guys it's one thing because most girls would love it if a guy was going to be a doctor. But for us girls, most guys will just get intimidated. of course that's a complete generalization, but it's probably true the majority of the time. i mean all this guy kept saying was that our "doctor friends were all staring at him because he wasn't good enough." lol, i guess that means for those who aren't already attached, it may be that from now on we're limited to the other geeky med students. haha ;) but at least we're all the cool kids of the geeks and not engineers or something! hehe, jk. But, it is true in some sense also because it's so hard for people not in the medical world to really understand what our life is all about right now. i mean, obviously some people do get it--like John seems to understand somewhat, but i really don't think most people would. even my parents, while I love them and all, are so funny because i'll call my mom stressed out about something and she'll just say things like "don't worry. take a break. you'll do fine. you're so smart." and it's so frustrating to hear things like that, cause while it's all in good intention and everything, sometimes i just want to scream back, "I CAN'T TAKE A BREAK. I DON'T HAVE TIME. AND NO, IT'S NOT OKAY CAUSE EVEN IF I STUDY FOR THE NEXT 40 HOURS STRAIGHT, I WON'T KNOW EVERYTHING! I MIGHT BE SMART, BUT SO IS EVERYONE HERE!" lol, I mean, i have done fine, but i hate hearing that it's no big deal and not to worry, when I obviously do have to worry and when it is very possible to do bad. i'd rather just have my mom or whoever listen to me vent, rather than try to fix a situation that can't be fixed.

scotty and alicia came to visit me this past weekend! it was SO fun to have visitors from LA. they came in on friday night and i dropped them off to the airport on monday morning. we went around philly and did touristy stuff, like liberty bell and independence hall. we also got some really good food at different restaurants. jill and i showed them school and the cadaver lab--they were kind of grossed out about that! but it was so fun to show them what i've been doing for the past 2 months and to show them where i live and such. unfortunately it was pouring on saturday, but it somewhat cleared up on Sunday at least.

it's pouring here in philly right now and is starting to get pretty cold! unfortunately everyone keeps telling me to just wait, because this isn't even close to being cold supposedly! which is crazy, because it's definitely LA winter weather here right now--it's supposed to keep pouring until next Monday and then finally it'll clear up, thank God! it's so gloomy and depressing when it's gray all day!

in 2 weeks (the 27th), the rest of the family is coming here to visit for the white coat ceremony and to chill. that should be exciting! i always thought the white coat ceremony was when they give us our white coats, but apparently not since we got our coats earlier this week. i think the cermony is basically taking an oath and our parents put the coats on us--symbolism and such. i'm excited for that though. should be a fun weekend! and then the following monday will be halloween--definitely going to do something cool for that.

alright, not much else going on here. i'll try to update more though who knows if people actually read this! haha

9/11

2005-09-12T04:06:16Z

My life is so busy right now that I hardly have time to stop and think...but it is important that we all remember the victims and heroes of 9/11. May they rest in peace.

"Futer Doctore...for realas," right Liz?

2005-09-05T19:41:55Z

Pictures from Philadelphia so far:
http://amazon.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=37z8c8vj.52145r3v&x=1&y=-b5840c
http://amazon.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=37z8c8vj.ag3tq6hv&x=1&y=-yk3qwt

For all my avid fans, I've decided to update. I really have been meaning to do this, but i literally have no free time and the few sparing minutes i do get, i devote to sleep!

since i last wrote, i started med school for real. it's pretty damn awesome. the people are all pretty chill and nice, which is important. school itself is really hard, in the sense that there is WAY more information than seems physically capable of learning. In the past month, i've learned SO much more than i would learn in a whole quarter at ucla. Right now, our main class is gross anatomy, in which we dissect cadavers in order to learn the anatomy of the entire body (yes, everything, including everything from heart and limbs to the much more gross eyeballs, ass and you know what). My lab group is amazing--it's me and 4 other guys (andy, aaron, alex and jason) and we all get along really well, usually joking and such during class. Our cadaver is a guy and we named him Gustavo. he died at age 80 of a renal failure. He's actually a pretty cool cadaver--nothing too majorly wrong with him and he's not really fat or anything (thank god!), so no digging to find things is really needed. Jill, on the other hand, got what we call "swamp thing"--a big, greasy, green lady. lol, that sounds horrible.

we had our first anatomy midterm on Friday and I kicked its ass. There was a written and a practical section (each worth half the test). I literally studied my butt off for this test--i've never spent so much time studying. It wasn't like a last minute thing though--if it were like that, I would have failed because there's no way you could possibly learn that information in a day or even a week. But we all study hours and hours every freakin day, and still don't feel 100% about all the info. But anyway, they posted the answers to the written after we took it and I graded my test and only got 2 questions wrong!!! (1 multiple choice and 1 fill-in-the-blank) Needless to say, I was pretty damn ecstatic! I'm not sure how I did on the practical, but I think i did decent on it, so overall i think i kicked ass. (thank god!)

one cool thing about med school, is that we're on the honor system, meaning during our test and stuff there was no proctor and everyone had the exact same test. so different from ucla, where there were always a few proctors in the room and like 5 different versions of the test. the professors/doctors here actually trust us--pretty cool feeling! i also really like all our instructors because they are all down to earth and seem to really want to help us learn and want us to really understand why what we are learning is important. they always tell us how no one could possibly understand what medical school is and how difficult it is unless they've been through it themselves and so they are always there for us and they understand what we may be going through. it's kind of a nice and comforting feeling. plus, they all go out of their way to learn our names. doctors who i've never met before and who haven't taught me yet will know my name--so different and strange, but also so nice.

last thursday (before the midterm), alicia sent me a package of homemade cookies and on the same day, mom, dad and nicole sent me a package from mrs. fields with obviously delicious cookies and brownies and a cute teddy bear dressed up as a doctor. it was so sweet. alicia also sent my flowers my first week here--so fun to get packages!! i love it!

other than school, there's not a whole lot of time to get out and explore. everyone is really cool and we try to go out as much as we can. my roommates, jillian and jaclyn are awesome--i feel like i've known them for years. it's nice to come home, because our apartment feels very homey. saturday night, kevin, jordan, jill, jess, jane, laura and i went to a few bars in manayunk. it was pretty cool, but last night was more fun--kevin, evan, ed, jill and i had jello shots (a little chewy, lol) and went down to center city to some bar/club--i think it's called blue martini--where we met up with some other people from our class. i was pretty tipsy so it was really fun. i had 5 jello shots and 5 regular shots before we left, so you can imagine! the jello shots were pretty damn strong too. we're definitely going to Shampoo next weekend since real world philadelphia went there all the time and it seemed very cool. other than that, just been studying all hours of the day and attempting to working out (jill and i joined LA Fitness--so ironic that it is the main gym out here).

my average day is like this: wake up around 7am, grab quick breakfast and coffee, anatomy conference starts at 8am, lab starts at 9am, and then we have class until either noon or 3, depending on the day. then study in the med school 24 hour study lounge until around 6ish, then go home (or maybe the gym) and take a speed break, then start studying again until around midnight-ish. ya, pretty boring right? the good thing about school is despite the endless hours of studying, i really like it. it doesn't even seem like too much of a task, because it is so interesting and i know what i am learning is actually useful and important information. i like knowing that what i am doing now will actually be useful in my life as a doctor. Ironically, I still don't really feel like i'm in med school. despite the fact that i am studying my ass off, going to classes, dissecting cadavers surrounded by med students and wearing scrubs everyday, it still hasn't really hit me that i'm actually here. maybe it never will until i graduate.

our white coat ceremony is on october 28. i'm excited because mom, dad, nicole, billy and sabrina are all definitely coming--lol, i'm going to have a fan section. i guess they just figured that would be a good opportunity to come visit. john might come that weekend too--i hope so!

overall, i really like my life right now. med school is so rewarding and the people are great. i thought i would be really homesick and/or lonely, but i really have no time to think about it, so i'm not at all. and it's comforting to know that everyone here is in the same position. i really haven't felt homesick at all suprisingly. that's not to say that i don't miss LA, because I obviously miss it a hell of a lot and miss all my friends and family, but it's just a different and new experience here. i am SO glad that i chose to come to the east coast. i'm really happy right now with everything and never thought i would enjoy med school THIS much. i'm so thankful and glad that it all worked out.

and lastly, i'll try to update as much as i can. i never expected to be this busy, but i'll really try! i miss all you people in LA--you know who you are. ty and liz, i hope law school is amazing and you're kicking its ass...i'm sure you both are! john--i'm so proud of you for helping out with hurricane katrina. mel--i hope tink is still being cute and fun and hopefully the job search is going well. and to all the rest of you--i miss you and love you more than you possibly could know! muah muah muah muah muah!!!

Bye-bye City of Angels, Hello City of Brotherly Love

2005-08-11T04:28:58Z

To all my LA people: I love you and miss you all a lot. I really do.

Well, I'm here in Philadelphia. I flew in last Monday, August 1. My last week in LA was really great. I'm so happy that I got to spend time with my closest friends one last time. On the Thursday, Ty, Liz, Merrill and I went to Dolce in Hollywood (Ashton Kutcher's restaurant)and it was really good. The food was actually really tasty, which is suprising for a celebrity hangout. And the decor was pretty awesome too--there was flames behind all the alcohol bottles in the bar!! Friday I went to dinner with Alicia and Saturday night Mel and I went to Javan for persian food (yum!) and then saw Fantastic Four and Must Love Dogs. Sunday was a last family dinner in westlake with everyone and it was really fun. The whole time it was great, but it never really hit me that I was really leaving. In fact, even now I get that I am here for good, but one part of me still thinks that I am on vacation and will be going back to LA soon.

On Monday, John and I flew into Philly and got to the apartment. All my bags I checked on were heavy so we had to pay an extra $75 for the bags. oops! :) Tuesday I met one of my roommates (Jillian) and Saturday I met the other one (Jaclyn). Both are really great! I'm so happy that I ended up living here in Alden Park and living with them. Our apartment is huge and we each have our own rooms. Both Jaclyn and Jill are really similar to me and seem chill and know how to have fun, which is great because you never know with med students! I'm very happy that I ended up with good roommates, though I've never had a problem in the past with it either :)

Mom and Dad flew in on Tuesday with Maddie and stayed at The Omni in center city. They were here until Sunday and it was really fun because we got really nice dinners every night and they bought me everything I needed for my apartment, including a really nice new TV/DVD/VCR for my room. I think we spent around $2500 on stuff and that wasn't even on big furniture because I already have all that which they bought me last year. But, it was really fun cause we got all the stuff for the kitchen that we needed and stuff! On Thursday, we drove to New York City which was awesome. It was hot and humid, but we walked around and went shopping and chilled it was fun. John and I saw the spot we sat for New Years this past year :) hehe, good times. We were there for 2 nights and got 2 really fancy dinners. The first night's dinner was a super nice place, but the food was only okay and the second night we went to a place called Gotham which is a fantastic restaurant. It's really fancy with a multiple course menu, so we got a lot of food and it was all absolutely delicious. We had to cut dinner a little short though in order to get to Lincoln Center on time to see the musical "Light in the Piazza." The musical was entertaining, but not too spectacular--I've seen many many many better ones.

We drove back on Saturday and stopped to buy more stuff for me. That night we went to South Street in Philadelphia for dinner, which apparently is the cool place to hang out in the nights. Then mom and dad left on Sunday, which was kind of a bummer, but John is still here which is really nice. It's great to have a familiar face when you're in a place where you know nobody.

This past Monday was officially my first day of medical school. Well, it was orientation, but still. We have orientation until tomorrow and then classes start for real on Monday. I actually have really been suprised by med school thus far--the people are much cooler than I expected. I honestly expected everyone to be really geeky and stuff, but that doesn't seem to be the case. everyone is really nice and friendly, which is a good relief since orientation has been so boring with all the speakers. One cool thing is that they planned events for us every night--Monday was bowling night at a bowling bar (like Lucky Strikes in Hollywood). It was pretty cool, though I suck at bowling. Jillian and I pretty much had the worse scores in bowling history! awesome :) tonight there was a pool party with food and drinks. There were med alumni and faculty there, but then they left pretty early and it was just first and second years with $1 beer--we played flip cups...it felt like the beginning of college all over again! everyone who was there was fun and chill. tomorrow night there is a pub crawl and friday night there's some party/club thing. so it should be cool!

another thing that i like about med school is that it kind of reminds me of high school in the sense that it's small, but also mainly that nearly everyone is white, smart, relatively well off and they're all good kids basically. i know that's not all high schools, but that was how mine was. it's good to know that you are surrounded by all good kids, even if they act stupid sometimes--you know they really are good.

John leaves on Sunday evening and then I probably won't see him again for a long time, which will be weird. I think once he leaves it'll really hit me that I'm staying here for good. But, at the same time, I'm really glad he was here during this orientation week, because I had him here but I also met a lot of new people. So now when he leaves, I'll still know a bunch of people and the roomies and I get along really well, so it'll be fine. I actually like living here so far. I'm not as homesick as I thought I would be. I think this is going to be a really great experience and I have a feeling med school is going to be really fun (minus all the ridiculous amounts of work). Though the weather here kinda sucks--it's hot and humid. supposedly september is a really great weather month and then it just gets cold.

So, classes begin Monday and our first block is solely devoted to anatomy for 7 weeks. Which means every single day for the next 7 weeks, I will begin my day at 8am dissecting human cadavers...a wonderful start to the day ;) it'll be really cool though and I am SO excited to start! but dissecting first thing in the morning doesn't sound too appealing, especially cause it's everyday. plus, 8am is an ungodly hour for me. i'm so not a morning person. and we're all going to smell everday which is just gross. but what a learning experience it'll be!!

we got our first pair of scrubs this week. that made me happy! and we got fitted for our white coats!! it's fun being in med school and being surrounded by med students and doctors. everyone is so intelligent and i have so much respect for all the doctors. i can't wait to begin learning...i'm sure i'll regret saying that in a few weeks when i'm studying my ass off...

All my bags are packed...

2005-07-25T08:49:07Z

Disneyland Pictures: http://amazon.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=37z8c8vj.bllt5ncb&x=1&y=-3wo2uy

I guess I just get worse and worse about updating. I'll just explain the last week instead of the last 3. On a side note, my cat is flipped on her back right now and stretched out to capacity. lol, she's adorable :)

anyways...so last friday night, went out with heiwad and nate to some moroccan restaurant to check out izzy's girlfriend who was belly dancing. it was actually a really cool place and i totally want to go back! we then cruised the sunset strip in heiwad's new sunshine yellow beetle--yes, that is his new car...it's awesome! and if you know heiwad, you know that it's totally high tech--has basically everything you could want in it technologically speaking. anyways, it was really fun and i hadn't seen heiwad in forever so that was really nice. plus nate was awesome! then all last weekend was kind of a blur, but basically it was spent packing crap because tuesday my movers came to move all my stuff to philadelphia!!! that means for 2 weeks (now only 1 more) I have no stuff, except for a few clothes and basic necessities!! and no bed! good thing the roomies have queen size beds each so we can canoodle together :) so tuesday my movers came which was great and then i had a bunch of errands to do cause my car is being shipped to philadelphia (i didn't want to drive cross country just yet...i'll do it eventually cause i know it's a great experience, just right now i want to spend as much time in LA as i can). In the night, we saw Wedding Crashers, which by the way is freakin hilarious! i was laughing from the first minute--it's just one of those movies where you just keep laughing and laughing and laughing. love it! Wednesday was incredibly fun because Tyler, Liz and I went to disneyland and also met up with Danny. We had a great time! It was ridiculously hot in the mid-afternoon which happened to be when we were waiting in line for space mountain, so that wasn't fun, but besides that the rest of the day was amazing. We went on basically every big ride (all the mountains, etc.) plus got to go on the new Buzz Lightyear ride and the new Winnie the Pooh ride, which by the way is really cute. We even took pictures with pooh, eeyore and tigger--how cute are we?! And danny works at goofy's kitchen taking professional pictures, so we got free pictures with pluto which are absolutely adorable. In the evening we watched part of the parade--it was a new one that I hadn't seen before with floats from all the major disney movies and then in the night, we got to see the brand new fireworks show they put together for their 50th anniversary and let me tell you that it was absolutely phenomenal! I absolutely loved it--so much better than their old one, though of course that was good too. I was just staring at the fireworks smiling and i couldn't stop because they were just so great. so all in all, disneyland was really fun as usual--I got to get my mickey mouse ice-cream which i love and of course a churro!!! They're also opening a Finding Nemo submarine ride in 2007 which i'm totally stoked for!

On Friday, Ty and I met up with Amelia and we went down to Maloneys (quite possibly my last time there...tear). we drank at amelia's before going of course and it was funny cause it was friday night and it wasn't jam-packed like we are used to since it is summer. though the athletes and stuff are still around. but it got more crowded and it was really fun. we all ordered drinks and they were ridiculously strong. then some guys bought us shots of jager and i hate, i mean really HATE jager! i hate the taste of black licorice so it was horrible, but i was already drunk at this time and they bought it for me so i took it...i then proceeded to get sick which really sucks because i don't get sick very often when i'm drunk--i can count how many times on one hand, the main one of course being my 21st bday ;) so that wasn't cool. i went to sit outside and was basically outside maloneys by myself because i was really out of it. the maloneys bouncer guys was super cool--he's always nice. somehow i managed to remember ty's speed dial on my phone so i called and they all came out and we left--it was right around 2am anyways. luckily on the way out, danielle was coming to meet us and i knew she was sober so i grabbed her hand and told her to take me to her car. she was a doll--YOU WERE AMAZING DANIELLE!!! she totally took care of me, though after vomiting twice i was done and just passed out, but in danielle's bed. some guys came back to the apartment with us--nice guys though i would never even be able to recognize them if i saw them again.

yesterday we saw charlie and the chocolate factory, and while it was cute and the story was basically the same and all, it still was different from the original--darker in my opinion. though i still liked it. then we got Damon&Pathyias for dinner, which I will definitely miss--that place is amazing. honestly, it is so freakin delicious i'll be sad to not eat there all the time! this morning ty and i went to the Polo Lounge at the Beverly Hills Hotel for brunch...it was delicious! the ambiance was great (we sat on their outside patio which was accompanied by a musical trio) and my food was really good minus the nut i found in my desert which was not cool at all...i'm just glad i didn't eat it!

the past few days i have been watching season 2 of 24--it is such an addicting show!! Season 2 is much better than season 1, in my opinion. It's amazing how many hours you can keep watching before u realize how much time is gone by. I should be done with it by tomorrow...maybe then I can get season 3!! :)

i have one week left before i leave for philadelphia. my flight is on monday, august 1 in the morning so a week from tomorrow. it's so weird because it hasn't really hit me yet! despite the fact that i have no stuff in my room and my closet's empty and i know i'm leaving, it just hasn't sunk in yet. it'll probably feel more definite when ty's movers come on tuesday and all that stuff is gone. then our apartment will definitely feel empty cause only mel's stuff will be here. mel's sticking around in the apartment for the first 2 weeks of august, because her new apartment lease won't start until then.

so this last week in LA, i definitely want to do my favorite things one last time. i know i'll be back here obviously since i want to live here the rest of my life and since all my family and friends are from SoCal, but not being here on a daily basis will be odd, and most likely when i come back i'll be in westlake with the parents, not in west LA. so far the plans are tomorrow night dinner with all the sisters in LA, thursday night Ty (and possibly others) and I are going to Dolce (mmmmm, so excited!) on Melrose in Hollywood for dinner, and Sunday is a family dinner before I leave. Then I fly out Monday morning and mom and dad fly out Tuesday and they are flying with Maddie. Hopefully by next Tuesday or Wednesday my car will be in philadelphia and so will the movers with all my stuff. Thursday i'm going to new york for a few days cause dad has to meet some business guy out there so that should be fun. we're going to see "the light in the piazza" which is apparently the new cool musical so that should be great. plus, since my parents are taking us of course we'll get many yummy fancy dinners! i'm really excited :) Plus, i'm totally excited to go out and buy all the crap i need for my apartment. mom's excited to take me shopping as well--basically we're just going to walk through the stores and throw everything into the cart since i need so much stuff, especially kitchen stuff. but it'll be fun! plus i'm sure mom and i will go clothes shopping so it should be a fun week. dad and mom leave the day before orientation starts and then my classes start august 15th. it's weird that it's almost here! i can't imagine saying that i'm actually going to be a medical student--that is just so odd because it sounds so smart and mature and old and i just feel like a kid still! though i guess i am significantly younger than most first year med students. but still--i'm sure we'll get work on the first day of classes and that i am not excited about at all. i like this carefree relaxing life where i just chill and go out all the time...much better :) On the other hand, I am SO excited to be beginning and to start a new thing. i know it'll be an amazing experience.

someone told me today that i smile a lot. i guess i do. i guess i'm just generally happy or easygoing. life's much better when you're optimistic. on that note, since it's almost 2am i think i'll call it a night...

dancingv @ 2005-07-01T00:23:00

2005-07-01T19:12:04Z

John left a few hours ago to go up north forever, well at least for the next year. It was so weird and sad, knowing that I wouldn't see him for a long time. I think I've cried more in the past month than I have in the past year. I miss you already, Johnny. And Ty is in Tahoe and Mel's at home, so no one is here right now...I was feeling lonely so I hung out with Ben&Jerry :) They did the trick

I can't believe it's already July--I feel like I always say that. Only one more month until I move to Philadelphia...so crazy! I still need to hire a moving company. I finally settled with one company to ship my car. Sadly, my car leaves me on July 12th!! Less than 2 weeks, which is crazy. I don't know what I'm going to do the last couple weeks of July. It'll be really strange. But I also have a bunch of other stuff to do before I go--like physical, dentist teeth cleaning, getting maddie all checked up, changing mailing address, changing banks, etc etc. And I still don't know where exactly I'm living, but I'm going out there next Wednesday to look for apartments. I'm living with a girl named Jillian, who seems really cool and nice. We also might get one other roommate and get a 3 bedroom...we'll see what happens.

One thing that I did get done finally was get my car serviced, but the regular $140 service turned out to be a lot more. First on Tuesday evening, I was going to leave the movies and my car wouldn't start. That's never happened to me, so I called AAA and they came out and jumped my car. My battery was completely dead, it wasn't that it just needed recharging, so I had to buy a new battery from them and have it installed. That was a little over $100. Then I got my car serviced the next morning and on top of the normal service, I had to replace all my roters, so my bill turned out to be over $600....plus, they said I would need new tires sometime in the near future so I'm going to go get them sometime this week before I go, and am going to get all-season tires, so that's another $400. So, basically in 2 days I spent $1200 on my car! crazy. good thing my parents still cover my expenses, or I'd be screwed.

This weekend is 4th of July!! Yay for pretty fireworks, peaceful atmosphere, relaxing and having fun. Supposedly Tahoe is the place to be for the 4th.

Let's see, what else? Nothing else really new. I've seen a lot of movies lately:
--Mr. and Mrs. Smith (good, but not great. it's actually really funny at parts)
--Batman Begins (really good, of course)
--The Perfect Man (really cheesy)
--War of the Worlds (entertaining, but still should've been done much better)
...and I'm going to see Bewitched tonight, which I'm excited about cause of Will Ferrell and Nicole Kidman! I also still need to see Madagascar, which is supposedly super cute!

alright, time to go make more appointments and figure out moving stuff

"I hope you had the time of your life..."

2005-06-24T21:19:53Z

UCLA Graduation '05 pictures (really fun pics!):
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=37z8c8vj.72y1xi7v&x=1&y=txp40h

Graduation weekend was super fun! yes, super! last week, ty and i painted our cars all UCLA-esque. They look awesome and i keep getting thumbs up and stuff when i drive--fun! friday was the college of letters &science grad--cookie monster was the speaker...take that trojans, thinking you're all cool with lance armstrong! i think i already wrote about this...so i'll skip ahead...

Saturday was the pscyh graduation at freakin 8am...so after a few hours of sleep, we got our asses up and trudged ourselves to pauley. ty and john were in the grad, along with a bunch of other people i know through classes and such. i sat w/john and ty's family. it was incredibly long and boring. After, we walked around campus taking pictures and stuff. then we went to the fairmont in santa monica for cocktails. the view from the top was gorgeous--you could see the beach all the way to malibu. i never really realized how beautiful the coast of california is! at least from far (up close, santa monica doesn't look as gorgeous because of the trash and stuff). we had a lot of champagne and then piled into the hummer limo to head out to geoffrey's in malibu for ty's graduation celebration. there were about 25 of us in 2 limos, riding in style. geoffrey's, of course, was delicious with a 4-course meal. mom and dad were there too and they had a good time. i think everyone did. we were there till about 7ish, then drove back to the fairmont--got home, went to say bye to will before he left for bruinwoods for the summer, then went to the W hotel in westwood for drinks and to chill w/trevor, liz, Jason, ty, julie, dana and me. good times, but by this time i was super tired cause it was about 1am and we had been up since 6am and had only gotten less than 3 hours of sleep the night before! so finally came home and literally crashed.

Sunday woke up around 9:30am and went to say bye to matt before he left for BW...last time in 409 and last time seeing matt for awhile. but, i'll see him again in the summer when ty and i got up to lake arrowhead...after that it'll be awhile since i'll be off to philadelphia. so said bye to matt, which was sad, and his dad and sharm and then went to royce for mel's communication graduation. the comm department grad is really nice cause it's small--their student speaker was awesome too...he started out by singing the beattle's song "there are places i remember" and it was just really good. i liked the decorations they had on the stage in royce--more personal then pauley is for department grads. they walked in with pomo&circumstance playing of course and it was played on the massive organ and sounded really good--it made me teary. cause the psych and english grads didn't use that song (god alone knows why), so it was the first tiem i had heard it in awhile...they played it on friday, but that grad is so chill and loud and fun that it's just happy. but hearing it made me teary--damn graduations!!! i'm going to miss my UCLA. anyways, i had to leave mel's grad early b/c ty and liz's english graduation was right after...i walked with ty and liz in the english grad. it was really fun! we brought our crunk cups and had a shot of rum at the beginning and end of the ceremony--good times...the people around us were laughing. for the english grad you can write whatever you want on the paper you hand them, so i wrote that i majored in english and double-majored in Chemical engineering...when they announced that, literally the whole audience and all the other grads gasped and were like "wow" and started clapping. it was absolutely hysterical...ty and liz's families were laughing because they knew. fun times. (liz also said she minored in LGBT studies, lol). so now i have a BA in english, hehe jk. so after sunday's grad, we all went to El Cholo on wilshire for lunch. i left early and met up with john and his family b/c his family was leaving to drive back up north. john's mom and ginny decided not to stay the week. also, sunday was john's birthday!!!! so we hung out at his place for a little bit--we were both really tired and fell asleep, but when we woke up we came back to my place to get ready to go out for his bday. except instead of going out, we decided to have fun at our apartment. so we went to the grocery store and bought lots of food, cheese, snacks, bottles of wine, and stuff to bake a cake. then came home and had a lot of fun! liz and jason came over so they were here, plus ty, julie, john and me. we baked john a cake and decorated it short-bus style...it was awesome!!! opened some bottles of wine, had food, played drenga and twiquor--basically got really drunk. there were 6 of us and we finished 7 full bottles of wine....including a couple really nice ones, so that tells you how drunk we were! lol, it was really fun though and a good way to celebrate john's 22nd.

monday was chill--we were all really tired. i can't remember what i did. tuesday night we celebrated john's bday and grad with my family at Cha Cha Cha in encino--fun restaurant! john had an aweseome time cause my parents got him nice golf clubs for his grad and money for his bday and i got him a PS2 with 5 games, memory card, extra controller, warranty, etc. for his bday. that among other stuff from sisters, more money, etc. made him really happy! spoiled, lucky boy ;)

yesterday was really fun! liz, john and i met up with ty at her apartment in malibu and we painted!!!! it was really fun and we actually did a good job. now all her walls are a light blue and match the gorgeous ocean view...grrr, so jealous! but seriously, the place is beautiful and the colors of the wall make it look really good. ty's going to have fun next year, and hopefully liz too! we'll see...I, on the other hand, will be in the ghetto streets of philadelphia ;) hehe

it's weird that school is over and summer is here. it's weird that i'm going to be starting med school in a little over a month. time goes by so freakin fast. i'm getting excited though! but everyday, i think about how i'll miss all my close friends--that'll be very weird. i don't want to think about it...

anyways, back to the 24 marathon! we rented all of season one of 24 and have been watching it...we watched 13 hours so far in the past few days--that's intense, but the show is so good and addicting.

And just because this song is so perfect for right now...

"Another turning point, a fork stuck in the road
Time grabs you by the wrist, directs you where to go
So make the best of this test, and don't ask why
It's not a question, but a lesson learned in time

It's something unpredictable, but in the end it's right.
I hope you had the time of your life.

So take the photographs, and still frames in your mind
Hang it on a shelf in good health and good time
Tattoos of memories and dead skin on trial
For what it's worth it was worth all the while

It's something unpredictable, but in the end it's right.
I hope you had the time of your life.

It's something unpredictable, but in the end it's right.
I hope you had the time of your life.

It's something unpredictable, but in the end it's right.
I hope you had the time of your life."
--Greenday--

a compilation of my favorite UCLA memories

2005-06-18T10:05:27Z

Today was the UCLA College of Letters and Science graduation...and I walked in it as a 2005 groupie! it was awesome! walking this year was so much more fun than last year though--seriously, cause duh, all my best friends were there. the best part was that our speaker was COOKIE MONSTER!!!! i was ecstatic--i mean, cookie monster is practically my idol! ;) the real speaker was some guy who works on sesame street but he had a full-on 5 minute conversation with a cookie monster puppet who ate a UCLA cookie at the end--the best ever. after graduation, liz, ty and i took pictures in the inverted fountain and in the fountain in the main quad...a great ucla tradition that had to be upheld. the pictures are really fun, especially the charlie's angels and the statue ones. we're going to go back and take more tomorrow w/the boys

tonight was the last 409 party ever (tear). so sad to no longer have those 4 boys to laugh at and with. fun times. i'll definitely be teary tomorrow when will leaves and sunday when the rest of them leave. and tomorrow will be the last time i see tanu for awhile (though, tanu, we don't talk about such things) and then all those people who are really cool and you talk to when you see--all those people who knows when i'll see? crazy! but at least most of my closest friends are at least around LA for the summer. yay!

i don't know why i'm writing in this right now...it's 2:41AM and i have to flippin get up at 6:30 tomorrow morning, which is an ungodly hour. the sun better be up by then ;)

as a tribute to the end of our UCLA career, I've been compiling a list of my favorite UCLA memories from the past 4 years. so here they are in somewhat chronological order...

FAVORITE UCLA MEMORIES:
FRESHMAN:
-rob and john riding down sunset on bellhop carts
-using ty's extra meals to swipe into the dining hall just for hot cocoa freshman year
-riding scooters w/helmets down the dorm halls w/jess
-melissa and my head spinning while drunk in Birch club210
-the laundry room w/rob in birch! lol
-SAA campus spirit retreats
-bowling in Tucson w/campus spirit
-Spirit Babies!
-covel biscuits
-dining hall brunch
-mel's bed collapsing, literally
-downtown disney yariba yariba w/jessie, stevie, luis, mel and rob
-studying at the getty
-the gang hanging out at my place in westlake
-studying for physics in dennys at 4am w/john
-rob being on price is right
-mel and my first trip to ralphs freshman year and being really excited about it
-lsd beaver bunny and junior
-mint oreos from hilltop
-wednesday nights: taebo w/jude, carusos for soup in a breadbowl and ice-cream, and dawsons
-club 210
-chair surfing on the ghetto chair
-snood
-breakfast for dinner
-halloween at pike w/jessie, stevie and mel
-the drama of the room next door
-capture the flag in the sculpture garden at midnight
-bonfires on manhattan beach
-road trip up north
-pre-halloween celebration at stanford w/ali and devon
-brunch at devon's w/old HS friends
-cruising down sunset w/mel and shawna...forever
-diddy riese and boba all the time (minus the boba for me)
-CNTV and taking pictures
-leaving astronomy early everyday w/chantal to get KrispyKreme instead
-first day of college (black sunday) when ty f-ed up her leg and angie claimed she could help b/c she was "premed"
-long talks w/eric in the hall
-welcome week bbq on the lawn by janss steps
-my first trip to Target
-watching movies in Rob's room in Sproul w/Steve and Mel
-Roscoe's chicken and waffles after SC game
-EasyMac and Oatmeal
-my first pizookie
-Puzzles smoothies
-decorating for the all-hill halloween w/eric
-Camping in Yosemite and chasing bears
-the MacShack
-nneka's friends banging on our door and me being freaked out
-trying to always beat up Mario
-having to always go outside to use my cell phone
-lucy being her wonderful self
-always having flowers in our room thanks to Ty's mom
-the introduction to damon&pathyias which became the favorite for the rest of college

SOPHOMORE:
-picnic at toys r us when magic mountain was closed
-brunch at belair hotel w/john
-HW Club in A3 lounge
-jumping in the freezing cold lake in yosemite
-chocolate chip cookies, pinwheels, mini croissaints, good ice-cream flavors, orange chicken...the favorites in the dining hall
-suprise 19th bday party
-the pope's table at bucca
-acing my ochem test on spectroscopy after studying my ass off
-santa cruz boardwalk 10cent Tuesdays
-the internet class and all our "group" projects
-C&O first week dinners
-allegeria's w/john
-toys for tots magic mountain days
-OC fair in the summer
-theme dinners in the dining halls
-rob and john coming back from beta bid night
-a certain person always puking in our elevators
-heiwad's procrastination
-being hit on by random man on the way to santa barbara
-Dinner for 12 Strangers..."D12, what? what?!"
-baseball and other illegal games in the deneve quad
-apartment hunting and finding the perfect place
-stupid parking enforcement giving me a ticket while i was sitting in the car
-crash bandicoot and halo
-the crash battle b/w john and rob--loser buys pizza
-the 4 tall white boys (matt, noah, ben, whitney) downstairs
-matt's collage of memories on his wall
-always bitching about chem lab w/manoj
-vince and i getting royally screwed over by the mysterious girl in lab who messed w/our extraction
-grilled corn on the beach
-distracting the boys while playing pool at Billiards
-heiwad's electric tape poster
-being the one to always help everyone w/chem lab stuff
-our odd RA and when she would yell at us for nothing
-Mel and I getting our fish, Skully
-New years in SF in the ghetto hotel
-Mel drinking the arrowhead bottle filled w/vodka, thinking it was water

JUNIOR:
-the sweetest thing
-"do you like pina coladas"
-everyone staring at us during bbsa formal 2004
-burritos every day w/nate!
-putting dreds into Nate's hair all night long
-many all nighters studying for biochem and microbio
-writing a 20 page paper on different species of GRASS for obee
-norcal for the stanford game
-massages and laying by the pool in vegas
-my graduation brunch
-saki bombing at miyagis for john's 21st
-ty's mom's random packages...like the super scary halloween cup
-snowboarding in tahoe
-carpooling w/mel to school
-watching all the Friends DVDs in order w/mel
-randomly deciding to check into the fairmont santa monica for the night
-movie premieres
-"sorostitutes!"
-cocounut schooner at beta
-being Mrs. and Santa Clause for Halloween w/john
-New Years in Tahoe--putting our keg in a trash can
-John's face at Dukes when we gave him a new computer
-Magic mountain on the hottest day ever w/john, ginny and mel
-hanging out in Beta w/Rob
-riding the bull for the first time at Saddle Ranch
-when the bellarmine boys came to check out UCLA and we got them all drunk
-benitos!
-MCAT hell
-my MCAT geek buddies in princeton review class
-series finale of Friends
-starting to work in the lab
-neuroscience 116
-EMT class
-"F27, we meet again"

"SENIOR":
-monday margaritas, followed by monday karaoke
-roei scaring the crap out of me when he hid in the car
-maloneys
-my 21st bday at saddle ranch
-singing disney songs really loud on liz's 21st up north
-"i'm a future doctor"
-bitches and bastards
-new years in New York
-san diego for the giants/padres game
-gordon biersch cake-throwing and spin the dijon bottle
-pimp and hos for halloween! (and having to pose for millions of pictures)
-apartment parties
-mucho travling
-being a syrup whore always
-ray charles concert
-being on the boat in vegas and not understanding that we were on a boat
-way too much reality TV w/ty
-drenga and twiquor
-peppermint mochas
-cafe 50s pj night
-pizza (and beer!)
-my newfound love for cheese
-stealing the "free" newspaper bin
-getting published!
-geoffrey's brunches
-playing tennis all the time
-roadtrip up north w/mel, john and steve in the liberty
-"i love smiling, smiling's my favorite!"...and acting like Elf in NY!
-"for every sprinkle i find, i shall kill you!"..and all of family guy
-napolean dynamite and the excellent quotes that come with it
-"sinfully delicious"
-watching all the sex and the citys
-john taking me to chinois for my bday lunch and getting me a massage
-danielle, ty and i getting pierced and tattooed
-riding howard w/mel and sarah
-matt singing "i feel like a woman" with us at karaoke
-papas and beer and the whole rosarito trip
-caesar's palace in vegas and staying out till 5am
-being the worst bowler at lucky strikes
-turning in my last paper ever and being done with college
-playing badmitton w/john's family
-the one night of margaritas, beers, saki bombing and back to maloneys
-will making us breakfast
-being the only group of non-asians at becky's party
-bbsa formal on the harbor
-being LA tourists and being so full on beer
-the 409 boys
-being a BBSA groupie
-being a Class of 2005 groupie
-facebook and all it's magic
-traveling a lot, especially seeing all of india
-walking in graduation w/2005 groupie on my hat
-medical school applications and the feeling of being accepted
-dancing in the inverted fountain
-making crunk cups and brownies
-randomly going to chicago and getting plenty of room service and movies
-all the BBSA board girls

okay, so that's my list...it's fun to read over. i'll add more as i think of them :) goodnight for now

But tomorrow's another day....so bring on the rain

2005-06-15T09:52:33Z

It should first be said that I'm not one to usually cry. In fact, I'd say in a 12 month span, I'd probably guess that I cry 5, maybe 6, times. I know that's not a lot; it's just how I am. Unless it's a bad year or something like last year or senior year of HS. And I've always been like that--even when I was young. My mom used to think it was odd. But it's mainly because I usually don't let things or other people bother me. It's not because I'm supressing feelings or anything. But I digress...

It's 2:30 in the morning and I'm laying in bed after watching Mr. and Mrs. Smith (good, but not over-the-top-fantastic...though those 2 are a hott pair) and I'm trying to fall asleep. And I should be able to fall asleep--IT'S 2:30am! but i can't. and i just started thinking again about starting med school and moving. i started to feel really nervous and apprehensive and nostalgic. and i started to cry. i'm nervous as hell to be moving across the country and i'm sitting here in tears writing in this journal thing because writing helps me. it scares me so much to think that i only have a month and a half left in california. with graduation this week, i already am facing all of my friends moving away and i've come to cope with that situation, though come this weekend we'll see how that coping goes. but i know that everyone else is moving, but the fact that i have to move scares me shitless. don't get me wrong, i'm also incredibly excited to be starting a new chapter in my life, but still. i'm not nervous about med school itself, though the work, i'm sure, will prove to be as daunting as it seems. it's just this moving part.

i started thinking about what my last day in LA would be like. I was thinking about the last time I leave my apartment and lock the door; the last time I walk out the front door and look back at my building; what i will be thinking on my last night when i'm probably sleeping at alicia's place. and then i thought about the drive to the airport on august 2nd and what that will be like. i'll be looking out the window and trying to capture every moment of LA that i can because it will be the last time i will see it for awhile. i've never been away from LA for more than 6 weeks. and then when i do get to the airport, what i will say to my sisters who I assume will be dropping me off and I can imagine saying that i love them and will see them at thanksgiving...in 4 months! and the last time i hug them for a while and the last time i hug my friends for awhile. and then after i get to philadelphia, when everyone leaves to fly back to LA and i'm by myself. and thinking about this just makes me cry and it's silly, i know, but i'm just scared and it's just how i feel.

there's nothing anyone can say to make it better. it was my decision to move and i'm very happy about that decision; i know this anxious feeling is temporary, but waiting for it to pass is not fun. everyone always says not to worry, that i'll make new great friends. but, that's not what i'm worried about. i know that i will make new great friends...because i get along well with people and i always can make friends easily. but just because i will make new friends does not replace the fact that i'm going to be thousands of miles away from the people that i already love here in california. no one can replace the people i love right now. those people will always be in my hearts and you know who you are. my forever people--people i will always love and want in my life.

i don't really know why i'm going on about this. millions of people do this everyday. if i had gone to Columbia or Julliard, i would have had to move 4 years ago cross country. i'm sure i'll read this tomorrow and laugh about it, especially since i am writing it on here. i'm not one to usually express this sort of stuff when all the people on my buddy list can read it by clicking on a link. but here it is...me exposed

"and tomorow's another day, and i'm thirsty anyway, so bring on the rain"

For all those dying to know more about me...

2005-06-09T07:10:13Z

I haven't done one of these in years! but, i'm bored...so here it is :)

BASIC INFORMATION:
1. Full Name: Vanessa Tabatha Vaz
2. Nickname: V--that's the most popular
3. Birthdate: February 11, 1984
4. Zodiac: Aquarius
5. Place of Birth: Woodland Hills, CA
6. Place of Residence: Los Angeles, CA
7. Nationality: Indian...though something has to have gotten mixed up in my family tree somewhere (i think there's portuguese and something else european in there)
8. Hair Color: Brown
9. Eye color: Brown
10. Height: 5"8 or 5"9, take your pick
11. Siblings: 3 older wonderful sisters
12. Pets: Madeline, my cat!...and for another couple weeks, miso zeus

THE LAST PERSON YOU:
13. Talked to on the phone: Nicole
14. Told you loved: Mom
15. Cryed in front of: John
16. Got in a fight with: I have no idea, I don't get into arguments very often
17. Went out of town with: Tyler, Liz, Jenn and Jason
18. Got an email from: Alicia
19. Talked to on AIM: Kyle
20. Text messaged: Mel
21. Ate with: Tyler
22. Watched TV with: Mel
23. Went on a date with: John

IN THE LAST 2 WEEKS HAVE YOU:
24. Cried: no
25. Cut your hair: no
26. Worn a skirt: yes, many
27. Been mean: i hope not
28. Been sarcastic: probably
29. Hugged someone: always!
30. Wished on a star: no...though my night away message may say i do
31. Laughed until you cried: yup, I do all the time
32. Played truth or dare: nope, but I played "I never" a bit ago
33. Spent time alone: yup
34. Prayed: yes
35. Gotten drunk: yes, probably too many times for a 2 week span
36. Watched a movie: several
37. Been sick: no
38. Worked out: a lot

HAVE YOU EVER:
39. Said "I love you" and really meant it: definitely
40. Gotten into a fight with your pet: I yelled at Maddie yesterday for tearing up the carpet
41. Danced naked: all the time!
42. Stalked someone: I'm not that psychotic or desperate
43. Wished you were the opposite sex: nope
44. Been to New York: many times
45. Been to Florida: yes
46. Been to California: of course!
47. Been to Hawaii: many times
48. Been to Mexico: many times
49. Been to Canada: a couple times
50. Been to Europe: a few times
51. Been to Africa: once
52. Been to Australia: nope...this is the next stop
53. Been to Asia: a few times
54. Gone white water rafting: yup, so much fun
55. Gone hiking: yup
56. Gone skydiving: right now no, but in a few weeks the answer will be yes hopefully
57. Gone Bunjee jumping: nope
58. Been so drunk you don't remember: parts have been fuzzy, but i usually remember everything
59. Smoked anything: nope, not with these lungs
60. Taken illegal substances: nope
61. Kissed someone of the same sex: yes on drunken nights
62. Kissed someone of the opposite sex: umm, yes...is this really a question?
63. Had a threesome: not so much
64. Been really sick (a serious thing): unfortunately, yes
65. Been hospitalized (besides birth): unfortunately, yes again
66. Gone out in public in pajamas: many times, most recently for Cafe 50s PJ night!
67. Skipped school because it was raining: yup, i'm a typical southern californian, but i do like the rain
68. Kept a secret from everyone: any secret I do have I always share with at least one other person
69. Published anything: Yes! Got my first paper published on 4/20/05 in the Journal of Neuroscience!
70. Cried during a movie: yes
71. Had a crush on a teacher: does a TA count?
72. Owned "New Kids on the Block" gear: lunchbox and matching thermos, thank you very much!
73. Prank called someone: when i was younger
74. Had a dream come true the next day: no...but i did have my prayer for an earthquake come true that night...i know, i know, what an ignorant prayer--i was young
75. Done anything illegal: yes

WHICH DO YOU PREFER:
76. Apples or bananas: bananas
77. Red or blue: blue, but my favorite color is pinkish-purple
78. Wal-Mart or Target: neither
79. Spring or Fall: spring
80. Summer or winter: summer b/c of warm days and nights, winter b/c of rain and xmas
81. High school or college: college any day
82. Night or day: night
83. Lace or satin: satin
84. Wine or beer: light beer
85. Croutons or bacon bits: croutons
86. Ranch or Italian: ranch
87. Pepsi or coke: neither,i like water
88. Pool or beach: pool to swim, beach to chill
89. Simpsons, Family Guy or Southpark: another tough one...right now, Family Guy
90. NorCal or SoCal: SoCal!
91. Bar or Club: Club, I like to dance
92. Humanities or science: Science geek, of course :)
93. Coffee or Tea: Coffee
94. Starbucks or Coffee Bean: the buck
95. Early bird or night owl: night owl, i hate waking up early
96. Blondes or brunettes: Sexy brunettes!
97. Optimistic or pessimistic: Optimistic almost always
98. PC or Mac: PC
99. Soup or salad: both, together with some warm bread
100. Chicken, Beef or Vegetarian: pseudo-veggie, b/c i'll eat chicken once in a while if i feel like it, just rarely
101. Drink or smoke: drink
102. Football or basketball: both! that's why they have different seasons!
103. Cats or dogs: again...both are wonderful
104. Lust or love: love the giddy feeling of lust, but love is wonderful love--did that make sense?
105. On the phone or in person: in person
106. Are you more like Rachel, Monica or Phoebe: monica, but less neurotic
107. Carrie, Charlotte, Miranda or Samantha: definitely Carrie

FAVORITE:
108. Movie: italian job, love actually, LOTR, Napolean Dynamite,the Incredibles, My best friends wedding, anchorman,etc
109. Book: harry potter, brave new world, great gatsby, the giver
110. College Class: Chem 14C, Music 15, LS3, Neuroscience 116
111. TV Show from childhood: Saved by the bell, Care Bears, Full House, Rugrats and more i can't remember
112. Current TV show: ER, OC, Gray's Anatomy, Desperate Housewives, Amazing Race, American idol, Sex and the City, Friends, Family Guy...too much TV?
113. Ice-Cream flavor: cookies 'n cream, mint chocolate chip, cookie dough
114. Type of cookie: plain chocolate chip...yummmm
115. Type of food: I like all types...especially mexican, indian, thai
116. High School memory: Junior retreat, cheerleading camps, fire in Gibbon's English class, grad night, prom, kairos, school closing during el nino, slumber parties!
117. College memory: SAA retreats, riding scooters down the hall w/jess, skipping 8am classes w/ty freshman year, those nights in birch club 210, roadtrips up north, toysRus instead of magic mountain, HW club in deneve lounges, Future doctor night, 21st in vegas, new york, the night of margaritas, saki & maloneys w/the boys, mexico, many fun dates w/john, and again so many more that i can't think of right now
118. Condiment: maple syrup and ketchup
119. Store: Nordstroms
120. Breakfast food: french toast
121. Alcohol: rum and tequila
122. Mixed drink: margarita, rum & diet coke, AMF
123. Shampoo: I like the smell of garnier & herbal essences, but i use some salon one in a purple bottle which also smells really good & is supposedly better for my hair
124. Soap: dove
125. Cartoon character: Eeyore, Dash from Incredibles, Chip from Beauty & The Beast, Puss'NBoots, Nemo, Elmo (puppet, I know)
126. Perfume: Ralph Lauren Romance, Body by Victoria, Channel Allure
127. Toothpaste: Aquafresh or colgate--anything minty fresh, none of these new weird flavors

WHICH FRIEND:
128. Has the funniest laugh: Scotty
129. Have you known the longest: Nick (since 1st grade!) and the Duffys
130. Most independent: Tyler
131. Most fun to party with: Liz
132. Funniest: Matt, Chris and Will together
133. Smartest: Ali
134. Most likely to succeed: definitely everyone
135. Most likely to fill out this survey: nobody
136. Do you spend the most time with: Tyler
137. Knows you the best: John
138. Can you talk to about anything: Mel and John
139. Is your favorite at another school: Kelly B.
140. Lives the farthest: Nate right now
141. Are you likely to stay in contact w/after college: hopefully everyone!

RANDOM STUFF:
142. What do you want to be when you grow up: an MD...pediatric neurologist
143. How many hours of sleep do you need a night: 9 is good, 10 is better
144. Longest Relationship: 3+ years
145. What kind of car do you drive: Jeep Grand Cherokee
146. Last movie you saw: the interpreter
147. Last smell you smelled: chinese food!
148. What are you going to do after this survey: sleep!
149. Are you bored: no, this survey is quite entertaining ;)
150. Are you lonely: nope
151. Are you happy: almost always
152. Are you superstitious: nope
153. Do you watch soap operas: i watch Days if i'm home when it's on--sadly, i've been doing so since 7th grade...but it's so addicting, right ty?!
154. How many people are on your buddy list: 212
155. How many are on-line right now: 82
156. Are you talking to anyone on-line: not right now
157. What are you wearing: pajamas
158. Do you believe in God: yes
159. Do you sleep with a stuffed animal: i have a few on my bed...usually sleep with buppy or lily
160. When was the last time you worked out: yesterday
161. What book are you reading now: Straight Talking by Jane Green
162. How many kids do you want: 2 or 3
163. Names for your future kids: Andrew, Matthew, Shawn, Madison...I used to have more names
164. What is the last 4 digits of your cell: 0543, pretty easy to remember
165. Where do you want to go on your honeymoon: Somewhere tropical I've never been
166. What is the weather like right now: Absolutely perfect :)
167. How do you eat an oreo: twist it apart, eat all the cream, put it back together and eat the cookie
168. Any allergies: All nuts
169. Pet peeves: rude people, non-smilers, backing out on your word, pessimists, complainers, things that are messy, bad grammar, posers, arrogance, too-cool-for-schoolers
170. What's your biggest accomplishment: getting into medical school
171. What did you think of this survey: long and random

past events and upcoming plans

2005-06-07T06:58:10Z

Thursday party and Wine&Cheese party Pictures:
http://amazon.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=37z8c8vj.2szstplf&x=1&y=vhmnd

The past few days have been pretty fun! Let's see...last Thursday was senior sendoff and then after we went out to various apartments and ended up at Becky's party, which was totally packed but really fun. the group i was with were pretty much the only non-asian people--gotta love UCLA! but seriously had a really good time! friday night was tanu and danielle's wine and cheese party, part deux...it was mainly just the girls, which was really fun! girl parties are the best. again, we had an awesome time. saturday i played golf and scored a birdie for the first time ever on a par 3 course! i was really excited. in the night, i took the duffy's out for their 21st birthday...we went to marcello's in westlake which was SO good and i hadn't been there in forever. we got some really good wine! sunday was mom's birthday so I chilled at home with the family. we saw Xzibit at dinner at paradise cove in malibu and had a delicious cake. mmmm

so that was the weekend. it's been fun! not much else new to update. just been trying to figure out the best way to move all my crap cross country and trying to spend the last few weeks hanging out with friends as much as possible. i'm already planning out the whole summer and it looks pretty busy...this coming friday night is crunk cups and brownies, saturday i'm going up to calpoly for billy's graduation, then the following weekend is UCLA graduation with several parties/celebrations to go to--that weekend is going to be crazy! After graduation, ty and i are finally going to go down to SD for skydiving. first weekend of july is in tahoe for 4th of july, then a week up north visiting everyone, the following weekend is disneyland and the OC with liz, after that is Vegas most likely, and then after that is hopefully bruinwoods to visit the boys...and then I'm moving! crazy! so lots of fun stuff to do before hell begins :)

right now i'm bored and tired...i was going to go to moday karaoke, but didn't feel like getting up and going out, oh well. tomorrow i might do el dorado. we shall see. k, i'll update more later

UCLA, how I will miss thee...

2005-05-31T08:09:03Z

I've been requested to update by multiple people, so i suppose i will. geez, if it takes me this long to update this journal thing now when i have not very much more to do than sit on my butt, i can only imagine what it will be like come august when i start med school! though, i suppose it will be a form of procrastination to get away from crazy studying, so knowing me it'll be updated every night.

happy memorial day! if i were in school, this holiday would be so much more exhilirating...

3 more weeks. crazy. 3 more weeks (which will fly by) until this school year is over and everyone moves away and on with their lives. it makes me sad to think about. i can't even imagine. literally, i can't imagine it at all...not going to maloneys on thursday nights, not going to acapulcos for margarita mondays followed by brewco for monday karaoke. not hanging out at ucla and in westwood. no longer seeing movie premieres blocking the streets when i am just trying to get home. not being able to run into at least 10 people i know on bruinwalk everytime i'm there. not being able to work in the lab and see my favorite geeky, but wonderful, PhD students. and come the end of july, not coming home and seeing mel and ty every day. not being around my best friends and the people i love. no longer living in my amazing apartment. not being down the street from john. not being 45 minutes away from my family. not being able to come home and just sit and watch our regular tv while watching the cats play together. not being able to laugh at our favorite lime and coke commercials and watch Friends before bed. not being able to chill at friends' apartments for random OC and martini nights or just chill to chill. not being so close to alicia and scotty that they can bring me homemade ice-cream whenever i want or am having a rough day. not being in crazy LA and not having to sit in crazy LA traffic. no more random late night runs to coldstones or the grocery store just to buy both coco puffs and cocoa krispies for a "sinfully delicious" (and chocolatey!) treat. no more beach. no more of my favorite 409 boys who can always make me laugh. no more cafe 50's pj nights. no more wooden center. no more fun games with my tennis partner. no more geoffreys and diddy riese. no more excitement when getting swiped in for dorm brunch. no more saying i'm a college student. no more of that wonderful sense of community--where you know that everyone around you is a bruin or a bruinfan, where every license plate has your college name on it, where 1 out of 2 people are wearing bruinwear, where the grocery store has a UCLA neon sign in the window, where you just feel comfortable and at home and you know that everyone around you has something in common because they would all defend your school in a heartbeat if necessary; a place where you can wear your UCLA sweatshirt proudly and smile when you see another bruin. i will miss all this dearly...these past four years have been the best years of my life. a time that i already find myself looking back upon and smiling

Doctor V in the making

2005-05-20T05:14:47Z

wow. well, today was just another normal day--tennis, baja fresh, groceries, and OH YAH i saved a lady's life. Yah, that's right! it was crazy and exhilirating and amazing and terrifying. i was waiting in line at the grocery store and a 70-something little lady was a few customers in front of me checking out when all of a sudden she collapsed on the ground. just fell out of nowhere and passed out. there were about 10 people around instantly and more came. There was no doctor around so I said I was an EMT and stepped up. I did the basic ABC's and she wasn't breathing and didn't have a pulse so another guy who was CPR certified and I started CPR on her. Another person ran to get some orange juice and water and the manager automatically called 911. it was amazing how a bunch of strangers came together to save another person's life. by the time the paramedics arrived, we had resuscitated the woman. she was shaky and her alert level was off, but we got her breathing and her heart beating weakly. She wasn't diabetic and said she didn't have any medical conditions, so I'm assuming she was just hypoglycemic at the moment or something along those lines. anyways, it was an absolutely amazing feeling afterwards when she grabbed my hand and stared at me with tears in her eyes and just said "thank you dear." and she asked for my name and phone number. i'm still in shock from it all. i mean, i know I'm EMT certified, but I've never actually had to perform CPR on a real person. the whole time me and the other guy were just looking at each other with a look of fear and hope in our eyes. the paramedics asked us a few questions of standard procedure and then zoomed off code blue to st. john's. so amazing and it makes you feel good--i mean, it's one thing when you are in a hospital or working on an ambulance, but it's another when you're just being a lay person in the store. i still don't really believe it and it was several hours ago...i guess this sort of thing will be a normal occurrence for me in a few years!

just watched the OC finale and can I just say "oh my gosh!" i won't say anything for those who haven't watched it yet, but wow wow wow. tomorrow's nicole's birthday and i think we're going to benihanas for dinner, mmmmmm. this weekend should be pretty fun too with a bonfire in manhattan beach on saturday evening and dan's bday party saturday night among some other stuff. won't compare to mexico from last weekend of course! i was looking at the pictures from mexico again (they're posted below) and i was just smiling because it was SO fun. alright, time for ER finale!

the grass is greener on the other side

2005-05-19T07:32:01Z

why do we always want what we can't have? natural human instincts are so f-ed up. even if our lives are close to perfect and nothing is going wrong, we still desire something more...even if we consciously know that if we actually got what we were yearning for, it probably would never work out to be as great as we initially expected. it's more of the joy of not being able to have it that makes it so appealing. and what happens when we finally get it? our attention is quickly diverted to something else that is more new and exciting and even more unattainable. and i'm not just talking about getting people's attention, it's other things too. like what jobs we want, where we want to go to school, who we hang out with, even what foods we eat. it's such a selfish way of being and yet is is so instinctual and something that everyone can relate to. would you really like her if she didn't have a boyfriend? would you really want to go to the ivy-league school if everyone could get in? why do you care if she talks to another friend and not you? one of my good friends (who i absolutely love, so don't judge) invariably seems to "fall in love" with a girl, dates her for a while and then inevitably he meets someone else who he becomes more infatuated with...someone else who he can't have because he already has a girlfriend. and then he lusts after this new girl for awhile, eventually breaking up with his original girlfriend to be with the new girl, and this endless and torterous cycle continues. it sounds horrible, but it such a subconscious act of his. it's nothing he means to do, no feelings he mean to hurt, it just happens, naturally. we are so selfish. we don't want anyone else to have what we ourselves can't have...even if we don't really want it in the first place. i know this sounds ludicrous, but it's true. believe me. we really should spend less time wishing or trying to change things and more time being greatful for what we have. let's just hope that if we do eventually get what we want, it's worth it. sometimes it just is.

jealousy and desire have a funny way of working hand-in-hand

"learn from the past, hope for the future, embrace the present"

!Viva el Mexico!

2005-05-16T06:42:55Z

mexico pictures:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=37z8c8vj.3jqbr1wj&x=1&y=-cfdeq

Just got back from our trip to Mexico with Phi Psi and it was such an awesome and fun weekend. we got there on friday evening after a long busride with a stop in SD for food. our hotel was in a great spot in rosarito--right in the middle of everything, which made it really fun but also really loud because we were surrounded by clubs so you could hear music pretty much all day and night. plus it overlooked the beach. there were probably about 100 people who went and almost everyone went to Papas and Beer on friday night--a great club on the beach with a bullride, volleyball, good cheap bar and dancing. it's fun to be clubbin on the beach--so MTV spring break. so friday night was lots of fun-we left with jason, liz, jenn, tye, nate, and ty and met up with everyone else. we met some cute marines and there were lots of people, mostly americans. we were all drunk, but not wasted. plenty of good margaritas and beer! we then stopped at the good old machos tacos around 3am for some good mexican food before bed. mexican food is so freakin good!

saturday we woke up late, got delicious mangos on a stick, and chilled on the beach all day with probably about half the group, so there were a lot of us and it was very relaxing and fun and plenty of drinks to go around. definitely got a pretty significant tan also. saturday was a good day, because as liz put it, we didn't know what time it was ever and we were in bikinis all day. good times. oh, except that we were hit on all day long--we couldn't walk anywhere without getting whistles and whatnot--sleezy men.

liz, ty, jenn and I then went horseback riding on the beach!! how fun is that?! it was gorgeous and we went around 5pm so it wasn't too hot or anything. the only bad thing is that we were riding in our bathing suits so now my ass really hurts from rubbing against the saddle!we then went back to our hotel and jumped in the pool/spa and then went for a nice siesta which lasted longer than expected. By the time we woke up and were dressed and stuff it was about 10pm and everyone else had eaten so Jason and us 4 girls went to a mexican restaurant that was so good! they had tamales which made liz happy and the environment was cool--it was like a disneyland ride. got mango margaritas and enchiladas and we were so full after. stopped at a liquor store and got a big bottle of bacardi (our second one for the day) for $7 which is always nice. went back to our hotel and partied in the room. we wanted to get drunk before going out

....so when we finally left to go out it was 2am! hehe, another plus about mexico--clubs stay open almost all night long (which is bad when you're trying to sleep and can hear the music blasting). we were all really drunk by this point and went back to papas and beer since it was the place to be. again, we had a really fun time. we met some guy who was having his bachelor party and he wanted to "sponsor" ty and me to ride the bull together, so we did. but then after he wouldn't ride it alone and since it was his bachelor party and all, i went up with him again. it was pretty hilarious and really fun. i got plenty of free drinks and a free bull ride this weekend, so no complaining here ;)

we were all running around our floor of the hotel when we got back and in other peoples rooms and stuff. by the time we got to bed it was around 5am. but we all passed out nicely. this morning we went back to machos tacos before leaving--good burritos and frijoles y arroz. yum! we drove back to LA in the afternoon. stopping at the border took forever cause we all had to get out of the bus and walk through the border and they had to check our bags and everything. then we rolled out and watched the big lebowski and old school on busride back.

overall, a really fun trip! best quotes from the weekend:
"embrace your socioeconomic status"
"merman!"
"i stuck my finger up my vagina and nothing was there!" (you just had to be there for this one)
"i don't understand how you can purge by sticking your finger down your throat. i mean, it just makes me gag, not throw up. it's like having a big penis in there"
"i have busted a nut"

...there were many more wise sayings this weekend, i'll have to ask ty and liz cause i can't remember right now. i am so exhausted right now also and am ready to crash. my legs hurt a lot also--my quads are sore from dancing, my inner thighs are sore from the bull and my butt is in pain from the horse. lol, it's awesome.

oh my gosh

2005-05-10T04:01:52Z

oh my goodness, i can't believe i forgot to post that...my fish died :( my fish that i have had almost all of college. my fish that just last week i was talking about how proud i was of how long it was living. friday night i looked at him and he didn't look well...and we pronounced him dead saturday morning. mel and I did the honor of flushing him today....sigh, so sad.

RIP Skully Junior

mother's day weekend

2005-05-09T19:51:38Z

new pictures (springsing/trackmeet/dodgers/ourhouse/mother'sday): http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=37z8c8vj.axsackzf&x=1&y=trd5xp

i'm not very good at updating apparently. well, after a long and weird last week, it was nice to have a very fun and relaxing weekend! friday night i played a really good game of tennis and then went home for mother's day late. saturday we saw interpreter and i really liked it! i like movies like that, so i thought it was good. then went out with mom and dad to marmelade cafe for dinner and hadn't been there in forever, so it was really yummy. we met the thompsons there! which was really weird because i haven't seen lori and jim in forever! AND i found out that one of my best friends from when i was little, who i completely lost touch with around age 9, is now married and has a 10 month old baby!!!!!! needless to say, i was in a complete state of shock...though, now that i think about it, i guess it's not that suprising...

i got to drive mom's SLK benz around this weekend...i love when she lets me drive her car :) daddy always lets me drive his car, but mom's more anal about it, so that was nice

anyways, sunday was mother's day and my mom was very happy that i woke up and went to church with her! i was pretty proud of myself too :) now when christmas comes around, i can't say i'm a twice a year catholic. but church was good and i always see so many people there who love my family, etc, so it was cool. my sisters and i planned a picnic for lunch at this place in TO called gardens of the world--it was really gorgeous there and the weather was perfect! so we had a fun picnic and then we played 3-on-3 ultimate frisbee and were having a lot of fun tackling each other, etc...until the nazi garden lady showed up and told us we weren't allowed to play anymore. lol, i love my family always breaking the stupid rules. good thing she didn't notice the glass bottles in our picnic basket or the alcohol. hehe. so we were all tired from running around, so we came home and i decided it would be fun to take pictures of our house cause i don't have any (see above). mom and dad stopped at the car dealership cause mom is probably gonna get a new benz (she's deciding between the SL500 and CLS500...i'm rooting for the S-class). then we all watched National Treasure w/nicholas cage on the big plasma (and dad just got the surround sound fixed, so it now sounds much better), which i thought was a good movie...but i'm really easy to please when it comes to movies. then we went to an italian restaurant in agoura for dinner and the food was delicious!! soo good...good wine, good food, good service, they even have a full martini bar which alicia had fun with. our waiter was awesome. i love fancy fun restaurants!

so that was my weekend. life is pretty chill right now. i like having this livejournal thing--it'll be nice to look back on in a few years and see what i was doing. though of course none of my really personal thoughts go in here, cause, well that would be weird. this weekend is mexico with phi psi-so excited! oh, and only 6 more weeks till graduation...which means it's time to party hardy. yes i'm a geek.

dancingv @ 2005-04-30T10:26:00

2005-04-30T17:39:32Z

Last night was spring sing--it was really fun!! and our last one...so sad. but lots of cool people were there and the special guest was babyface, which is awesome. even all the performances were really good, my favorite being the mario brother acapella guys!!!! so hilarious! yesterday during the day i went to westlake to get my hair highlighted, cut and deep conditioned--good old Maggie, she's been doing my hair forever! i can't bring myself to go to someone new, even if it means i don't have to drive to westlake every time! but i like it a lot, something new but not drastic.

today's merrill's last track meet at 'SC so we're going to go cheer her on...and it's not raining! despite the fact that i love rain, that wouldn't have been fun. and might i add, what a gorgeous day it is! sun's shining, bird's chirping...it might be deceivingly cold, but if not i want to go to the beach this weekend. i haven't gone since i was in hawaii in october--that is entirely way too long. ty decided that tomorrow night she wanted to have a family guy party (lol!) so it's family guy and buckets of KFC (courtesy of my wonderful uncle--mmm mmmm...gotta love free KFC), along with all the sides, tomorrow night...so random.

it's already the end of april, which means, once again, we missed last wednesday pajama night at Cafe 50s!!!! we BETTER go next month

oh! i played tennis again this week...hadn't done so in forver, but it's so fun, so i'm going to start again. and i also got DP twice this week--a little excessive? i think not! thursday is cinco de mayo...which of course means muchas margaritas, coronas, tacos y enchiladas..mmmmmmmmmm. and i'm really sore right now...and hungry, so time to eat, adios!

what i've been up to this past week

2005-04-25T23:33:07Z

pictures from the past week (karaoke, giants/padres game, maloney's, formal, LA touristy stuff, amelia's party): http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=37z8c8vj.9w3vxzqj&x=1&y=-1mya49

last week was a busy, but really fun, week. john and i saw sin city last weekend, which was...well, let's see, weird i guess would be a good adjective. but it was close to what i expected. monday i did resarch for a bit and then we went to margarita mondays, which we hadn't gone to in forever! the guy who checks your IDs recognized us and asked where we had been for such a long time--hehe, funny. then ty and i went to monday karaoke at brew co and met up with the boys and some other people. there were a lot of people there so it was pretty fun, though we were only there for a couple hours. many margaritas later, ty (and i, i guess) decided it would be a good idea to drive down to san diego the next day to go to the giants/padres game, since matt, chris and drew and some other people were going and had an extra ticket. so the next day, we drove down to SD in the afternoon and watched the game, which the giants completely loss, but it was fun. i mean, pizza and beer--couldn't get any better! alicia was in SD on trial and her hotel was only about a mile from petco park, so we met up with her for a little while after the game and then drove back to LA, getting home around 12:30am.

wednesday morning I had a flight to NY at 6:30am, so I had to wake up at 4:45ish and ty drove me to the airport. I was in NY all of wed and thurs and flew back late thursday night, landing in LA around 1am-ish. John picked me up from the airport and we met up with everyone at Maloney's around 1:30am for one last drink before it closed, since it was Julie's 21st and we had to have a birthday drink!! Oh yah, Julie from London was here this weekend which was really fun!! After Maloney's, everyone else got some UDog and seriously everyone and their mother was there. All the people who were at the boy's party had come down among others, crazy. Friday we just hung out and then in the night was the BBSA formal, which ty was in charge of, on a boat going around the marina del rey/santa monica harbor. a bunch of us went to shanghai red's for dinner first (that restaurant is SO beautiful when watching the sunset) and then boarded the boat and partied on the water. it was really fun!! i think everyone had a good time. matt and will even came and looked so handsome in their nice clothes :) after formal, matt, julie and merrill came back to our place and we all crashed in the wrong beds. good times

saturday morning woke up. matt went home cause he was driving up north and the rest of us decided to take julie around to see some of the touristy LA stuff. so, we drove up sunset and had brunch at Mel's Drive-In and then showed her the strip. then we went to hollywood and saw the walk of fame, all the stars, chinese mann theaters, etc. we were going to go to the wax museum, but then decided that $16 on wax was not worth it and instead went to a bar next door since we had an hour to kill, so john and ty proceeded to get 2 for 1 beers which were huge and they each had 2, and needless to say were incredibly full and had to pee for a long time after that. we then went and saw Sahara in the grauman's chinese mann theater, which was really beautiful inside. suprisingly, i liked the movie, cause i didn't think i would, but it was good. after the movie, ty, julie and i went to the ucla men's volleyball game against csun. it was so frustrating cause northridge won the first 2 games, then we killed them in the next 2 games and then on the final game we were winning and lost the last point so they ended up winning, cutting us out of the finals. grrr, and this was supposed to be our year to go all the way! oh well. after the game, we went to bjs (mmmm, more pizza and beer!) and then went over to amelia's for her 22nd birthday party. by this time, we were all really exhausted but it was still a good time!

sunday morning we were going to go to geoffrey's, but then it looked like it was going to rain, so instead we got danny to swipe us into deneve for brunch in the dining halls! it was so freakin good--i haven't had dorm brunch in a long time. julie was pleasantly suprised by how good it was and how much variety we have. hehe after that, john and i picked up alicia and sabrina and drove home for the day to see the parents because they came back from vietnam/thailand/hong kong on thursday night. they were very happy to see all of us! :) so we stayed home all sunday, chilled with the family, i got some new clothes (yay!), and then had a good family dinner.

so that was my week--busy, but fun, just like i said. this week should be more chill. i can't believe it's already 4th week! i know this quarter is going to go by so fast and then we're all going to be done with college and moving away...so sad, makes me cry inside....which makes ty cry inside :) hahaha but, the rest of the quarter should be fun. we're going down to san diego in a couple weeks to go skydiving and i'm going to mexico on may 13th with Phi Psi (jason invited me) and of course a bunch of other girls. and i'm probably going to go to yosemite with kelly and nick and some other guys in june and then julie (another julie) just invited us to costa rica for a couple weeks in the summer, which sounds really tempting cause i've never been there, it's relatively inexpensive and we would get to go white water rafting, hiking, parasailing, surfing, etc...sounds like a blast to me!!!

okay, enough of an update...and remember, "for every sprinkle I find, I shall kill you!!!" lol, i can't stop saying that, gotta love stewie. adios for now :)

blah

2005-04-11T09:09:09Z

i worry too much about people i care about...and in turn, i somehow manage to dig myself into very deep holes. believe me, it's true

dancingv @ 2005-04-08T13:14:00

2005-04-07T20:36:20Z

Ty's 22nd Bday pictures: http://www.kodakgallery.com/BrowsePhotos.jsp?showSlide=true&Uc=17q2fqe7.5ybtzqnf&Uy=-z2cb4d&Ux=1

I got my belly button pierced! I love it! it's hott, me thinks

i love my friends. honestly, they are the best--always there for me when I need it. they know who they are, so great :)

monday i went horseback riding with mel and sarah. horses are so cute and beautiful.
In the night we all went to maloney's to watch the game. Go UNC! there were a lot of people there and it was really fun...I had no idea that they served food there and it was actually pretty decent. it was weird being in maloneys when the sun was still up. tuesday night we went to el dorados of course and it was so much fun! i love how tuesday nights there are basically UCLA night--pretty much the entire football, basketball and tennis teams were there, to name a few. it was really hot though cause there were so many people dancing and such--good times. yesterday was ty's 22nd bday. during the day we went to get me pierced and danielle tattooed in hollywood and got lunch at johnny rockets. in the night we went to lucky strikes in hollywood for some drunk bowling--good times :) except for the fact that i've discovered i'm the worst bowler in history, and no that's not an exaggeration. lol, i think i'm the only person who can roll zero four times in a row. haha, funny :) but at least i learned how to hold a bowling ball correctly

this quarter is going to be really fun, i'm excited. definitely some vegas trips in store and san diego to go skydiving!!! can't wait for that...we should plan it soon

John Paul II

2005-04-03T00:11:22Z

The world has lost a great man and a true example of love. John Paul II, may he rest in eternal peace.

boys

2005-04-02T19:46:46Z

i decided that my favorite boys are those with light eyes, dark hair, light skin, and nice smiles (preferably, with dimples)...and of course, beyond that there must be intelligence, humor, compassion and motivation. and a cute accent is always a nice bonus. my 2 cents for today.

dance and medicine

2005-04-02T19:43:12Z

Happy April Fools Day! well, i guess it's over now but still

I just watched Center Stage (again) and my god, that movie evokes so many emotions in me. I know it's not the greatest movie in terms of acting or plot, but i love it. i watch it and i can't help but think "dammit, that could've been me." and then it makes me sad for a while, but then happy when i remember how much i love dancing. then, i usually sit there and think about how i should just go take classes for fun again, but then of course i get scared since i know my technique will be greatly diminished, my flexibility has certainly lessened, and i'm sure there will now be 15 year old girls who are far superior than me. sad. this was the first time i watched the movie where i stopped and realized that the one girl's bf was pre-med at columbia. when they are fighting over who's career goal is more trying, i realized that i could definitely see both perspectives...

my whole life i have been goal-oriented. i worked my ass off before college to become a ballerina and mildly succeeded until the unfortunate turn of events (damn hole in lung). but still, i worked my ass off--classes every day, 3-4 hrs per day, sometimes more. it was tiring and exhausting, but boy did i love it. and while this goal obviously did not begin at age 3, it definitely was formed by the time i was 12 or so. and now i have the goal of becoming a doctor. and i can definitely say from both perspectives, that they are equally hard. i know, i even laugh at myself when i say that because obviously medical school is ridiculously competitive (65% of people don't get in), but you would be amazed at how competitive the dance world is too. i mean, you have to be creme de la creme to get anywhere. medical school requires a lot of brains, but dance requires a lot of physical talent. unless you've seriously danced with the ultimate goal of it becoming your profession, you would be very suprised at how much technique is needed--every little arm, head, foot, leg movement is essential to be "perfect." i wouldn't be suprised if the statistical odds of succeeding were far less in dance. i very clearly remember going to audition after audition after audition starting when i was 13 to attend intense summer programs at various accredited ballet institutions. i was lucky enough to be accepted into several and spent my summers dancing away. but so many girls don't get in and this is just to study for a mere 3 months at a school. the competition to get into a real year-long program or better yet, a company, is almost impossible. i still wonder if i would have ever made it into nycb. i like to think i would have eventually :)

and now, i'm going through this whole med school thing and it's like that same failure is always looming around the corner. except before i was never rejected from places, and now that is not the case--a good thing i suppose. rejection is hard. i mean, college was simple for me and i was lucky enough to get in everywhere i applied. so not the case for med school. i have more rejections than i can remember. i don't like rejection, but hey we all have to go through it and it only makes you more gracious when the acceptance does come along. i already know where i probably will go to med school and am excited and anxiously awaiting post-interview to hear back, but i think i'll get in. i hope so. knock on wood. though, i know i can't really be picky in the whole process cause really there are so few med schools that all of them are good. and i used to think i wanted to stay in cali, but everyday i become more convinced that i really want to live on the east coast for 4 years. it's only 4 years and i know i'll never live outside of cali if i don't do it now. it'll be different since i'm such a socal girl. i mean, i'm cold if it gets below 65 and seriously the only time you will see me wearing anything but flip flops is if i'm working out. but despite my love for this state and the sun, even if the cali schools do come through for me, i think i'll probably just have to turn them down. that'll be hard and scary, but i like to think i'm strong and independent and this will make me even more so. i know so many people who haven't gotten accepted anywhere and have given up their dream. i refuse to do that. i was forced to give up one dream and i will not give up another. vaz's aren't quitters :)

okay, enough rambling about that. this past week has been good. parents left last night on yet another vacation. they are going to vietnam, thailand and hong kong for the month. mom really wanted me to go with and i know it would be an awesome opportunity to go and see all these cool places (i've been to hong kong, but not thailand or vietnam) now when i'm young and it's being financed by the parents (hehe), but i just really didn't feel like going on another vacation right now. and i really didn't want to spend another month in asia, because i love it and it's fascinating, but it's also very different so there's only so much at a time you can handle. plus, school's almost over which means we'll be moving out and moving on with our lives, so i want to spend the last quarter here with my friends. i hope i don't regret not going later! i don't think i will...besides, since i've been to almost the whole rest of the world, this leaves me with something new to see when i'm older.

sunday is john and my 3 yr anniversary! how crazy is that? such a long time, but it's good, really good. i'm convinced everything in life happens for a reason and whatever it is that brought me to him was definitely the best thing that could have happened to me. i'm not sure how we're going to celebrate since john is studying for the mcat which is in 2 weeks...i'll probably treat him to a nice expensive dinner, maybe ivy since he's never been there or i haven't been to charthouse in a while. there's also a few new restaurants i want to try--giraffe and capo. ty needs to come back so we can go to geoffrey's. :) i think i want to go to shanghai red's for brunch tomorrow

alright, this entry is long enough for now, adios :)

I want to be a princess

2005-03-26T07:08:25Z

John and I watched Friday Night Lights last night. I liked it! Best quote from Coach Gainer at halftime:

"Being perfect is about being able to look your friends in the eye and know that you didn't let them down, because you told them the truth. And that truth is that you did everything you could. There wasn't one more thing that you could've done. Can you live in that moment, as best you can, with clear eyes and love in your heart? With joy in your heart? If you can do that, gentlemen, then you're perfect."

I also just watched Princess Diaries...and despite how cheesy that movie is, I can't help but notice a few things:

1. The whole "leg popping" thing is so true. That exhilirating feeling of new love at the first kiss...mmmmmm
2. I want to be a princess. really want to. mel and i watched the prince and me the other day and that made me want to be a princess too. not only do they get the jewlery and the huge filled closets, but they also always seem to have the perfect falling-in-love story...gosh, to live like the movies :)