It's only 9:30?!!!

Sweet Moses, but time is dragging today. I'm 3/4 done with my daily data entry (try saying that three times fast), and I glance at the clock, expecting it to be sometime well into the 10 o'clock hour, but no; its barely half-way through 9. Sigh. Now I have to come up with official looking things for me to, so I can convince my coworkers that I am, in fact a good employee. I don't know why I try to keep up this pretense. Everyday, the desire to come to work in pjs grows stronger. As does the one to just not show up at all. But then I remember that I need to pay my rent, etc. and that sort of makes me want to come to work. Sort of. I need a sugar daddy. But not in a gross trading sexual favors for money and shiny things sort of way. More in a sweet, someone who is fabulously wealthy wants to adopt me as their protegee. That would be awesome! I'm going to have to look into this. If nothing else, it'll make the time go by faster.

I need sleep

Seriously, its getting bad. I've gotten into this habit where I stay up late, but then still get up early for work every morning. And now my body is used to it, so I'm not that tired late at night anymore. Just throughout the entire day. Its affecting my life, too. Today I couldn't find my hammer (I wanted to ghetto-fy my room by nailing up drapes because I'm too poor to buy a rod- hah! rod!). Where was it? In my closet. Next to my roll of masking tape. Of course! Because thats's where such things should be kept. I'm looking into napping pills. It might help.

Yes Ed Norton, that was my ass

I saw Ed Norton friday night, no joke. And he saw my ass. How did this happen you might wonder? (I hope you're wondering and not thinking that this is a normal occurence for my ass to make appearances at movie stars, because it doesn't I swear!) The weekend started when I went out to dinner at Buddha's Belly out in LA for Jen's 25th birthday, wearing *slightly* low cut jeans. Not excessivly low, as I have had people check the scandal level for me before, but lower than I am used to. Before we made our final seat decisions, I had to change my seat a number of times, which made for some prime ass viewing for the table behind. Everytime I got up to move to a different chair (ironically ending up at the same chair that I originally started out in), there had to be some adjustments of the pants before they got too scandalous, and I did wonder about exactly what those who were sitting behind me were seeing. It was only after some appetizers and a few drinks that we noticed who exactly was sitting at the table behind us, and who had a lovely view of my derrier during the seat exchanging. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it was indeed that fine actor Ed Norton. In fact, this was my first celebrity sighting since moving back down to LA (and probably one of the better ones of my life, since others include Bob Saget one time in Santa Monica when I was 12 and meeting Dick Clark when I was 8)... Ed Norton, my ass says hello.
The rest of the night was fun too, with silliness running rampant in Jen's apartment until 2 something in the morning. Shout out to John's grandma's sweet ride and Rider Strong lookalikes. Some day, when I figure out the dame photo posting deal, I promise to put up pictures of Jen, me and our sake baby Raul (trust me, if you saw the picture it would totally make sense), and other random pictures of the weekend. Anyone want to help me out of this technological quagmire?

Time of death of the great coffee experiment: 9:26am. I wanted to see how many days I could go with coffee, and apparently that magic number is 5 days. I think I could have gone for loner if I had got to sleep at a normal time last night, but after a weekend of staying up until the wee hours of the morning, I could not get to sleep last night! Aggravating. So yes, a morning without coffee was not going to happen today. Now a morning without data entry would be heavensent. It doesn't look like that's going to happen. But I have hope.

I live in a backwards house

Seriosuly, everything in my house is backwards; all the faucets turn the wrong way and are switched to the wrong sides and the doorknobs turn backwards, as does the front door lock, which you have to turn the key right to unlock. Its weird. Just part of the charm of an old house I suppose. Which I totally love. Slowly but surely I'm settling in, and getting all my stuff oriented and its actually starting to feel like home, yay! I can't wait to have people over for summer fun. Normaly it doesnt take me so long to unpack, but as I've barely been home in the past few weeks, I've decided I'm allowed. I went up north last week, which was soooo much fun! I spent a few days up in Sacramento, visiting with college friends, a bunch of us were in the same place for the first time in a while, so there was much hanging out and having good times. Then I joined my current college (technically grad school I suppose, but whatever) friends for fun times on the delta. Despite my body feeling like I was beaten repeatedly with a sack of bricks (and don't even get me started on the random burns scattered across my body-very strange), I still have fond memories. There was much more hanging out- this time on water- and silliness as I tried wakeboarding (I totally got up!) and tubing (I totally got the shit kicked out of me!). Good good times. But now I'm back in the land of smog and traffic and backwards houses (the formers of which I could definitly do without). Oh yes, and data entry. Sigh.

bored

TELL ME ABOUT YOURSELF - The Survey
Name:	Alexandra
Birthday:	December 15th, 1981
Birthplace:	Thousand Oaks, CA
Current Location:	Claremont, CA
Eye Color:	Hazel (thats what it says on my drivers license, and that can't be wrong, right?)
Hair Color:	Brown
Height:	5'7 on a good day
Right Handed or Left Handed:	right
Your Heritage:	Romanian and British
The Shoes You Wore Today:	flip flops from target
Your Weakness:	too many to list...
Your Fears:	electric doors, car crashes, cancer
Your Perfect Pizza:	lots of veggies, no nasty meat products
Goal You Would Like To Achieve This Year:	acquire a real job that doesn't involve data entry
Your Most Overused Phrase On an instant messenger:	totally
Thoughts First Waking Up:	I hate my job soooo much right now.
Your Best Physical Feature:	my eyes
Your Bedtime:	depends on the day
Your Most Missed Memory:	watching 90210 in our bras sophomore year in chaparal apts.
Pepsi or Coke:	pepsi
MacDonalds or Burger King:	mcdonalds, their fries are so much better
Single or Group Dates:	I'd take either at this point (sigh)
Lipton Ice Tea or Nestea:	lipton
Chocolate or Vanilla:	vanilla, it goes with everything!
Cappuccino or Coffee:	both, mmm caffiene!
Do you Smoke:	no, its nasty and causes cancer
Do you Swear:	all the damn time
Do you Sing:	badly
Do you Shower Daily:	yes, are there people who don't?
Have you Been in Love:	yes, sigh.
Do you want to go to College:	so much I went back for more :)
Do you want to get Married:	somedays
Do you belive in yourself:	sometimes
Do you get Motion Sickness:	only when my mom drives
Do you think you are Attractive:	I have my moments
Are you a Health Freak:	about certain things
Do you get along with your Parents:	better now than ever before
Do you like Thunderstorms:	yup
Do you play an Instrument:	i like to pretend that I play the piano
In the past month have you Drank Alcohol:	heh, perhaps :)
In the past month have you Smoked:	no
In the past month have you been on Drugs:	not that I'm aware of
In the past month have you gone on a Date:	no
In the past month have you gone to a Mall:	no
In the past month have you eaten a box of Oreos:	no
In the past month have you eaten Sushi:	no
In the past month have you been on Stage:	no
In the past month have you been Dumped:	no
In the past month have you gone Skinny Dipping:	no
In the past month have you Stolen Anything:	no, man I am so boring!
Ever been Drunk:	yes
Ever been called a Tease:	at my highschool sophomore homecoming dance, I danced with this guy and then his girlfriend broke up with him (even though we just talked the whole time and nothing scandalous happened) and my friends called me a homewrecker
Ever been Beaten up:	no
Ever Shoplifted:	maybe
How do you want to Die:	unexpectedly
What do you want to be when you Grow Up:	happy (that was such a lame answer)
What country would you most like to Visit:	all of them, no seriously, who wants to take me?
In a Boy/Girl..
Favourite Eye Color:	blue/green
Favourite Hair Color:	dark
Short or Long Hair:	short, but sometimes long
Height:	tall
Weight:	not 5000?
Best Clothing Style:	nerdy emo type
Number of Drugs I have taken:	is this still in a boy/girl (because that would be weird, think about it)? more than 1, less than 10
Number of CDs I own:	100+
Number of Piercings:	3
Number of Tattoos:	1
Number of things in my Past I Regret:	23
CREATE YOUR OWN! - or - GET PAID TO TAKE SURVEYS!

Olympia by Edouard Manet 1863  

random observances from work...

Okay I need to get out more. Seriously. Its summer and my nerdiness has risen to new heights. I'm currently at work (with little hopes for escape for another hour and half, hence the blogging), doing some lovely data entry. Basically I'm typing up numbers from one excel file into another excel file, only (here's the kicker!) the new one is horizontal while the old one is vertical! Madness I tell you, sheer madness!
So anyway, the numbers are sales amounts of the stores for each day and are mostly in the low thousands. I've noticed that whenever the numbers resemble a historic date I start trying to remember what happened in the year. Like for 1863.56, I would think of Manet's painting of Olympia or for 1939.24, I think of Germany invading Poland and the start World War II. My inner (hell, who am I kidding, I've never been able to hide this) history geek is rearing its date-loving-historical-fact-quoting head. I've been doing this all week and have been pefectly entertained. Admitting you have a problem is the first step, right?

Permanent markers do not equal blue pens

In case you were wondering, while both these writing implements can be used on various mediums, in actuality they are not on equal footing and should not be used in exchange of each other. Maybe I should send out a memo to my coworkers, as this morning I arrived at my desk to find it bereft of all of my blue pens, but somehow gaining in permanent markers. Which are not as valuable to my daily activites as the blue pens. Sadly. But at least instead of finding my desk completely empty of supplies, this time I still have some. Maybe I can use them to barter for some new pens. Sigh.

I have measured my life with coffee spoons

Or more accurately, with books. Its that time of the year when I move all the objects that make up my life from one living arrangement to another (in truth, I'm little early, its usually the end of August when this joyous occasion occurs, but anything that will get me out of the Inland Empire sooner I'll take). So I've been boxing up my possessions, which are mostly made up by the large amount of books that I own. 364 days our of the year I love my books, but on that one day when I have carry each and every one of them from one place to another, they are definitly not on my happy list. But as soon as they're in their new room, I'll take solace in them once again, and try to forget just how heavy they are all together. In a sick way, I enjoy moving, there's such a hieghtening of expectations and anticipations of what the new place will bring. And I'm really excited about this new place. First of all, its in downtown Claremont, and might actually be the first place that I've proactively wanted to live in. It has a soul- unlike the apartments of the past. I'm also hoping that perhaps with a new living arrangement will come new trends in my life, maybe I can finally close up some slightly open doors from the past. A literal fresh start. As I learned last night, I would not be the only one to do so...
I'm writing this as I sit on hold for what appears to be until the end of time. Sigh. Between the holding and my computer trying to die slowly, I could really use a vacation. Permanently. Perhaps with my living situation, I'll be gifted with a new job. One which doesn't involve the hated data entry. A girl can dream.

Harmony in Red by Henri Matisse 

In the future I'll be realizing how young I was...

It's official. I'm getting older. This realization didn't come alongside a birthday celebration (because mine's in December, hint hint), but instead out of a conversation I had with one of my students. We were talking about 1983, for some reason which I can't remember, and then about what year were born. Nicole is in the fifth grade, and was born in 1994. Which was bad enough. But when I told her the year I was born- 1981 (a great year, by the by), her eyes about popped out of her head! She couldn't even fathom such a long time ago. And that was when I realized that I was officially older. Not ensure consuming, depends wearing oldness (despite the bursitus and various other elderly ailments), but I'm definitly moving away from my youth. Which freaks me out. I'm content with the knowledge that I'm slowly becoming more adult like, but at the same point, I wonder what exactly I have to show for my aging.
The other night, I spent some quality time at my local Barnes and Noble (as I frequently do), and I started reading Prep by Curtis Sittenfild (which was pretty engaging, I'll definitly read more the next time I'm there). After reading the auther information, I noticed that she was 27 or 28 and she has a best selling book published. Shes four years older than me. Which not such a great difference. I'm constantly hearing about people who do amazing things in their mid twenties, who have actual accomplishments. Which makes me wonder what accomplishments I'll have by my later twenties (as I'm already somewhat immersed in those middle years at the ripe age of 23). The only thing I'm pretty certain of at this point is that I'll have my masters degree, which will hopefully lead to some job, that ideally won't involve data entry, and instead be heavy on the creative aspects. I suppose only time will tell at this point. And whenever that mysterious future becomes the equally mystical present, I'm sure I'll still be experiencing these twin tensions of feeling both young and old, and desiring to accomplish more. Weird.

photos

www.flickr.com More of Alexandra the Great's photos

Note to self: Don't leave wine bottles in car on hot afternoons...

Also, don't stick my face the unknown grocery bag at the bottom of the pantry, because there just might be month-old potatoes creating rank aromas in said bag. Thank you roommates. I've learned so much on this random Friday. The day started out normally enough; the morning was spent by me being bored at work, as usual. Then I headed out to Claremont and found a place to live! I'm living in a house a block away from campus with one other girl who's doing a one year pre-med program. The house is super cute and I'm pretty excited about the whole situation. After that I went to he Ford dealership in Claremont because Tina won something from them in the mail (and was out of town) and needed me to pick it up. I had to pretend to be Tina, which was funny because people who know us get us confused sometimes too. It turns out she won a free 3 days/2 nights stay at her pick of a bunch of hotels in the US. So we've decided to go on a romantic vacation together some time, because everyone at CGU already think we're lesbians, so it makes sense. The dealership was seriously random, they asked me all about my car, if I had payments, the mileage, etc., and I also got to spin a prize wheel, where I won a visor cd holder, yay. Totally random. After that I drove home and hung out for a bit, until around 5 when I decided to go to the library, because yes, I am that cool. As I started driving, I noticed that my car smelled a lot like wine. Interesting, I thought, glancing at my backseat, only o discover that the bottle which I had in my backseat (because I brought it to Tina's house last week, but we didn't drink it, and then I was going to bring it to Elaine's tonight, so I had just left it in my backseat- no because I'm an alcoholic...) had exploded! Apparently, in the desert heat, the cork exploded out of the bottle, and wine escaped onto my seats. So now my car smells like the inside of a wine jug and I have a large red stain on my seat. Awesome. So these are the things I learned yesterday. All in all, quite a random day!

pirates and jedis, oh my!

My Pirate Name: Mad Dog Bonney
Part crazy, part mangy, all rabid, you're the pirate all the others fear might just snap soon. You can be a little bit unpredictable, but a pirate's life is far from full of certainties, so that fits in pretty well. Arr!

So if I ever decide to embark on a civilization-free life on the open seas, I guess I have my name all picked out. Awesome.

Other things that are awesome: freakin' Episode III of Star Wars (yes, I've already seen it, because I watched it at midnight last night!) Maybe its my inner geekiness coming out, but I totally dug the movie. And I don't care who knows it. The force is strong with me.

working thoughts

"Oh coffee,
you are so awesome."
-Ode to Coffee

I've tried to deny my feelings for some time now, but I can't keep quiet any longer. I'm totally addicted to coffee. Every morning, I drag myself out of bed and to work with only the hopes of sweet sweet coffee waiting for me to keep me going. It might be the only redeeming quality of this job. Because the its not the joys of data entry that keep me coming back. Yes, it must be the free coffee- oh and the paychecks. Those help too.

Continuing the grand tradition

So it's been a while since I've posted at work. Mostly because some of my most recent jobs have not been as computer oriented as this one (which I just started a few weeks ago, under seriously random circumstances). Which makes me reflect on just how many jobs I've had in the past year since I started this blog. As of last summer, I've babysat, worked in a bookstore, worked in a museum, tutored, worked retail (whose name shall not be spoken), worked at multiple shoe store offices (seriously, I'm on my second, both of which found courtesy of craigslist), taught in an after school reading program, and have become a research assistant. I'm not a flighty person who goes from job to job, so I'm not entirely certain how this happened, but that's how I've been paying the bills this past year. What's really scary is that there were few months where I didn't work at all. But hopefully this summer I won't be adding anymore positions to my resume and just be sticking with my current jobs of teaching, researching (which I'm so excited about! published work, yay!) and the one where I update my blog at; office assisting. Other plans for the summer include reading for pleasure (I acquired a library card from the city of Rancho Cucamonga, because yes, I am that cool) and taking lots of fun trips and adventures. I have some high hopes, which I think will be met. I suppose only time will tell :)

a few more hours and i'm halfway done!

So I have my last paper of the semester due tomorrow, and I could not be more excited (or stressed). I'm super excited to be done, and to have some actual free time that doesn't involve reading for class. Of course I still have a good five pages standing between me and that happy dream. I'm writing a paper about the relationship of the artist and the postmodern society, which is a topic that I'm really interested in, but unfortuanately at this point I just want to finish it. Sigh. What can you do? On a totally random note, my friend Joe emailed me a story that was in his textbook (he's studying in China right now), which was about a young girl and her family. Keep in mind that this story was in a textbook about family life in China. (the asterisk's are joe's comments)

My House is Still Happy/Harmonious.
At first glance, my family is a happy and harmonious home. My dad is a factory supervisor. My mom is a manager at a market. And me, I’ve already started middle school, and am the class leader/captian *this is a much cooler thing in Asia than in the States*. My classmates and I jokingly say, “Everybody’s house is official. Who could be in charge of who?” …*ok I don’t know how to translate that joke…, apparently it’s funny though*… Everybody feels that their house is a happy one, an I feel the same about mine. Until one day I accidentally overheard my mom and dad talking.
Even though the door was closed, I could still hear my Dad’s solemn voice coming through it: “Tell me, Is Little Hong Mr.Zhang’s child, yes or no? Tell me the truth!” I simply could not believe my ears. I thought my mom would become so angry, loose her temper, maybe even go so far as to hit my Dad. After a while, I still didn’t hear anything from my mom, I was so anxious! Suddenly, I heard mom cry, then right after that, she confirmed Dad’s suspicions.
My dad isn’t my blood-dad, he had suspected that since I was two years old. But he always thought that it didn’t matter, because the thought that my Mom still loved him, and that that was enough. Now, more than 10 years later, why has he all of a sudden brought this all up again? Because, he found out that the man he suspected 10 plus years ago of sleeping with his wife is not just a past lover, but is still my mom’s lover!
Hearing this, I in my heart uncontrollably blamed my mom for this: mom, why would you lie to dad for so many years!? You know what I think? My Dad is the best dad in the whole world!
My mom had told the whole truth. The inside of the room was silent. After a while, dad said, “So many years have gone by, I originally couldn’t, wouldn’t, ask you this question, but I cannot endure you constantly making me look like an idiot. You have to make a choice today: you either stay with me, or with him. If you go with him, then we will immediately divorce.”
What? Divorce?!!! That’s way too frightening/horrible! I quickly rushed into the room and yelled, “You CAN’T divorce! Dad, isn’t mom being honest enough with you?” then to my mom I said, “mom, can you honestly say you want to be with that other man? If you divorce dad, I’m going with him, and you’ll lose your me, your daughter, forever!”
When I ran into the room, dad had been very surprised. Mom was even more so. She took my hand, and while crying said, “child, I can’t loose you both.” Hearing my mom’s words, I turned away from her, crying, I yelled out, yelled out for my dad. I saw my dad was crying too. Dad pulled my hand over and said, “This problem will only stop if you draw a period in it’s way. *…something like that…* But you will always be your father’s child…
A few days went by. Mom wouldn’t speak. She never stopped working, And dad, like always, helped her work. Slowly, mom started to smile again. The day before yesterday, my mom bought my dad a suit. It fit very well. I saw my dad’s face slowly crack into a smile too. Now, our house is still like before happy and harmonious. And from the bottom of my heart I say, “ Dad, you’re amazing!”

Yup, still not studying

Instead of studying, I've decided to share some more random observances on my life. First of all, let me say that I'm typing this as Access Hollywood is on in the background (I'm waiting for the OC, bitches!), and can I just say that I'm over Britney and her baby? Not that I'm wishing her harm or anything, but the amount of press that this has generated is a bit obscene. As my favorite morning show Kevin and Bean on KROQ said, if the pope had impregnated Britney, then yes, that would be newsworthy and deserve a lot of press. But she's a pop star! So maybe people can calm down a bit, for my sanity. In other baby news, I was listening to NPR this morning and they did a story about a woman who was surrogate for an impotent couple. Apparently, she's going to have quintuplets-unplanned. The reporter started talking about her $15,000 fee, and I must admit, I was totally expecting to hear how she was demanding more money or something. But the lady had waived all the money, saying that the parents were going to need all the money they could get. Now that's a baby story that deserves press. But seriously, I thought that was such a wonderful gesture, and it was a great way to start off my morning. Which was very full, as I started my new job today. At another shoe company. I don't know what it is about me and shoe companies, but apparently I have an affinity for assisting offices that deal with shoes. I'm not sure what that says about me, but it's money so I'm not complaining. Instead, I'll stick to complaining about my classes and reading and paper writing and more reading etc etc etc...

This is how much I don't want to study

So here I am, sitting on my couch. I should be writing my paper, or reading some poetry, or something about colonialism, or primitivism, or postmodernism... are you catching a drift? But I'm not. I have no motivation whatsoever. And I don't care. So put that in your pipe and smoke it grad school.
So instead, I'm going to write about the lovely things I saw today. While driving home, I saw a truck with the decal that said "My Other Ride is Your Mom." I only wish I was joking. Then, not two seconds later a car full of shirtless highschool boys, who made gestures at me and my roommate. Thank you Inland Empire for these lovely memories that I'm sure I'll treasure. If only these were the exception and not the rule about life down in Rancho Cucamonga. Hopefully soon, I will find a cute one bedroom place close to campus and I'll never have to leave Claremont's city limits. I'm counting the days.... seriously.

Blame Grad School

So yes, I realize that I have been more than lax in my postings. I can only offer one explanation. I have become a slave to my books-they control all aspects of my life. In fact, I had to lie and tell them I was doing research on buying more books just so I could sneak onto the internet. But seriously, just a short post before I have to get back to the joy that is Amiri Baraka and his angry angry writings. Recap this past month: lots of reading, little bit of polo (yay! so excited to be playing again!), some social activities, and more reading... try to contain your jealousy.