FallingLEAVes of Sunshine

Tnoight, around nine, I left my house to go pick up my brother in Glendale. As I was going up Colorado, I drove past the Galleria and saw some police activity going on. There were three/four guys sitting on a sidewalk, with a couple cops with them. After I picked up my brother, we went back down Colorado to get back to the freeway. The same guys were still there. The second intersection after that, we were stopped at a red light. Normal stuff right? Well, to my right, this white SUV pulled up next to us and the driver got out. First thing that came to my mind is... "is he going to say something to the guy in front of him? I hope he doesn't have a gun." Don't worry folks, he didn't have a gun. However.... He started to pummel the driver of the black SUV. My windows were rolled up and my music down low. But I could hear the thud of each punch. He just kept hitting him through the window, which was rolled down. I was telling my brother "oh my goodness, what do w...

Who I saw today and how much I spent.... today, after I finished my LONG shift at work... I picked up Nina so she could come with me to the Galleria so I could pick up my things at my store. This week is a 50% off promotion for all associates. So, I had some things on hold at my store that I wanted to buy. Instead of parking near my store, I parked near the food court. Nina and I were walking when she saw someone waving at us. I was oblivious (just like I was oblivious to how close that guy was standing behind me at the Dodger game) to this person. Nina saw who it was, recognized him, and turned me towards the person. It was Gabriel! Mind you, I haven't seen Gabriel since his last day. He was on his dinner break. SIGH. That's all I've got to say about him. On the plus side, Juan/Johonny/John/whatever-his-name-is was still at Gloria Jean's when we walked by. So, does anyone care to speculate how much I spent at Talbots today?

That's where I'm working this week! They're short on staff this week and my manager asked me if I wouldn't mind working there. It would be a nice (very nice) change of pace, so I said I would. The reason they're short on staff: 1) The store manager is helping with the opening of another store somewhere else 2) They have one associate who only works on weekends (we have one of those too) 3) Another associate is on vacation in Brazil for this week So, if you have six or seven employees, and half of them are gone... who do you have running your store? The one associate I met today only works two days this week. I see their shipper/receiver more than anyone else. It's a small store, so we only have two/three people in the store at one time. Yet, there's three entrances: the main one, one in the middle, and one in the back. The one in the middle and in the back are connected to the store next door, the Kids store. It has been quite an experience. The women there...

At least, that's what Kelly said to me this morning. They only administer the test once, and if you miss it, then "the ship has sailed, at least for this job position."

I just got home from work around 3:30 and I checked the new and old messages on the house answering machine. The fourth old message was from Kelly, from Human Resources at Burbank Unified School District. She called to tell me the appointment for my test for the job was at 1:30 on Wednesday, September 6th. AARGH! I didn't get the message till Wednesday, September 6th at 3:30, two hours after I was supposed to take the test! I checked the caller ID on the phone, and the message was left on Friday, September 1st, at 4:44 PM. Why didn't I checked the old messages sooner? Now the other question is... who checked the messages in the first place and didn't TELL me I had a message?

My camera's busted. I'm not sure how, but it's stuck. When I turned it on today to take a picture and I tried to zoom, it wouldn't zoom. Instead, it beeped and shut off. But now it's stuck. It'll only turn on for the play back and that's it. I don't know what to do! If it doesn't get fixed, I'll be cameraless because I don't know where my 35 mm is. On top of that, my battery charger is missing. Waaah! So, today, the high school department went to see a Dodger game. Don't yell at me... but I've lived in the shadow of Dodger Stadium all my life and I've never been to a Dodger game. Until tonight. Great game. Garciaparra, Loney, and Drew hit homeruns.

For the last couple of days, I have been struggling to get on here! I don't know why, but every time I tried to log in, I ended up on my gmail account instead of my blog. Weird, huh? Finally I got in today and changed my password, so hopefully that helps. Argh. For days I've been looking for my nail clippers, and I've given up on finding them. Now tonight, I'm looking for the battery charger for my camera. Guess what I found? My nail clippers. Don't you love when that happens? To continue on from my April post, to anyone who wants to know, I am not interesting in anyone. I was just asked the other week, and the answer is no. I give up. The bus isn't coming and the bus isn't stopping for me. Let's see... our new pastor and his family arrived on Saturday. After the ladies' bible study, I took Nina home. On the way to her house, we went to Starbucks. Afterwards, we were going to drive by the parsonage to see if the Parkers had arrived yet. Well, there...

So, last weekend was the Harvest Crusade in Anaheim. Shelley and I went on Saturday night. What could've been a 45 minute drive took practically two hours. Lovely southern california traffic. We missed the worship service with the Harvest Crusade band. We heard most of it while we were making our way to the Stadium and trying to find seats. We were on the bottom part of the third level to the left of the stadium (if you're facing the stadium). We got there just in time for Joy Williams' performance. She sang "Stay," "We," "Hide," and "By Surprise." Towards the end of her performance, I saw someone moving around on the second stage. They had two stages, kinda in an L shape. The other guy wasn't wearing any shoes, so I was like, "hey, that's Todd Agnew!" He came on and sang "In the Middle of Me," "Let Everything that Has Breath Praise the Lord," and "Grace Like Rain." Crystal Lewis came on...

Hey, I need ya'll to pray for me about a new job opportunity. Yesterday, I was checking my e-mail during my day off. There was an email from a librarian at PCC (the college I go to), and she sends out job announcements to all the library students at PCC. Normally I don't pay too much attention to these, since usually I'm underqualified. The last one I considered was at Franklin High, which was close by. But the hours and pay wasn't what I was looking for. Then yesterday's email didn't catch my eye either... until I looked at the bottom of the email and saw who the email was coming from. It was the SAME librarian I worked for when I was in high school! I called her up, and she didn't recognize me at first. But when she finally did... she got really excited! And I got really excited! I didn't think I had a chance getting this job, and I still don't. But I'm gonna try. I'm gonna try. So, what is the job? I went online today and got the applicati...

... you only have one freeway to take to work, and you end up on the wrong one! Yup, that happened to me this morning. To go to work, I usually take just the 5 freeway. Well, the onramp is right before the 2 Freeway, and if you don't change lanes, guess which freeway you end up on. I was in such a fog on my way to work, that I didn't realize I was on the 2 Freeway until I was halfway to the first exit. By then, I realized I was no longer on the 5 freeway and I had to take the 134 Freeway to get to work. Now that's sad. Instead of taking one freeway to work, I had to take two. On the bright side... I went to get my mocha at Gloria Jean's and Johonny/Juan/whatever-his-name-is mentioned that he hadn't seen me in awhile. HE NOTICES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sigh. Why was I tired this morning? Well, we did have youth camp last week. Saturday was my recharge day and what did I end up doing? Getting up before nine to take my cousins to a "Rock the Bells" event in San B...

Back in May, I suffered a blown tire due to stupid driving on another person's part, add to that a spike in the side of the road. Due to my financial status at that time, I only had enough cash on hand to replace that one tire. Jack wanted me to replace my tires while I was in Portland. Again, due to my financial status, I couldn't afford it. Too bad I did't. Because guess, what? I NEED NEW TIRES. How did I discover this? Tonight, while taking Nina back home, the front right tire popped! My guess, they're old, and my car had more weight on it than usual. Nina was in hte front seat, in the back seat I had three of my cousins, and my brother (17, 14, 14, 13 are their ages), PLUS my mom bought like packs of water (3) and gaterade from Smart and Final today (it's like Coscto for those who don't know what a Smart and Final is). So, I'm guessing with all that additional weight, the front tire couldn't handle it anymore. I was making the second to last turn at...

So, last night, while I was trying to sleep, I heard some rustling in my neighbors banana plants. If you don't know what those look like, I'll upload some pictures later. It being late and dark, I used my lamp to see what it was. A pair of eyes looked back at me in the dark. It was a raccon1 Guess the subject gave that away, huh? But can you guess what the raccoon was doing? It ran back and forth along my neighbors house. It took me a sec to realize what it was doing. It was when I saw something the size of a kiwi fruit scuttering back and forth. The raccoon was chasing a mouse. The chase didn't last long. A short scuffle in the banana plant, a few squeeks later, the raccoon scooted along, its prey dangling out of its mouth. A long time ago, a raccoon was in our backyard. My mom put a bag of moldy hot dog buns in our backyard. Late at night, again, I heard a noise. I peer out my window, and lo and behold, it was a raccoon. It got into the bag of moldy hot dog buns and had a...

After chatting with my cousin, I realized I needed to update my Key Ring Collection. It's on my Bebo profile, but it wouldn't let me update it. So I decided to put it in my blog entry. My cousin and I both collect state things. I buy shot glasses for her whenever I go to somewhere (which is very limited) and she buys me key rings. Juan and Shelley have also contributed to my collection. Now that Nina and Karla are going to Midwest Camp, I wonder if I could hit up Nina to get me one! Here are the state keychains I have so far: New York, Maryland (Washington DC), North Carolina, Massachusetts, Hawaii, Illinois, Oregon State Keychains with My Name: Nevada (Las Vegas), North Carolina, California, Oregon (? have to check) International: China, Iceland, Taiwan

At last! After seeing two other couples in the church go wireless, I’ve finally joined the club. The club being those who have wireless keyboards and mice. I loved using a wireless keyboard and mouse while I was over at Dan and Terri’s, as well as Juan and Shelley’s. It makes it so much easier because I tend to take the keyboard off the desk (because it’s too high for me) and place it on my lap. Which of course, limits me to how far I can take the keyboard. Too bad it wasn’t an ergonomic keyboard. That would’ve been sweet! Anyway… today Gabriel told me that he was gonna miss me. I’m gonna miss him a lot. He’s the only guy I’ve ever known to make me feel…. Special. It drives me nuts how I feel when I’m with him, but that’s all coming to an end very soon.

Gabriel quit his job this week. His last day will be next week. Of course, I knew this day was coming. I just didn’t know how soon it would come. He kept telling me that he was planning on leaving this summer. Guess that day came sooner than either of us knew. His job at Coach promoted him.

So … I “dumped” Heidi as my other half. Why? Because I don’t feel like I truly have another half. There isn’t a single soul on this earth that I feel is my “other half.” It stinks also to think of it as that way. Why can’t we be a whole person without needing someone else to be our other half? There’s always this perception that a person (particularly a girl) can’t be a whole person unless there’s someone else to complete her. Let’s see … I think the person who said it best was Charisma Carpenter in that movie she made that also starred Holly Marie Combs. What was it called again? It had something about someone dating? Anyway, I liked her speech at her cousin’s (?) bridal shower about why did she need a man to make her complete? She was successful and happy. She didn’t need a guy to make her feel like a whole person. BTW I just remembered the name of the movie. See Jane Date. Once again … why do I feel like I need someone else to make me feel whole? And why am I up at two in the mor...

“ You and me … we don ’ t really do so well when we ’ re apart. ” Miles Wilson, page 124. Okay, so I ’ m back to reading those “ Love Stories ” that I read in high school and middle school. I read one yesterday (my favorite one) and I just read “ A Kiss Between Friends, ” which is interesting because they don ’ t kiss till the end of the book. My conclusion at the end of the book? Love doesn’t happen that way. Why am I all bent out of shape over this issue lately? Is it because I think Linus likes someone? I’ve liked Linus for so long (well, on and off). The truth is … maybe I was never actually interested in the real "Linus.” I think that’s always been the case. The interest is not actually in the real guy, the real person with the flesh and bones and blood running through his veins. There never was a real interest. The guy never existed. Only in my imagination. The person I was interested in wasn’t the one I saw from time to time … but the person who I imagined hi...

“ I needed to be part of a story I know would end happily. ” Allie Parker, pg. 83 “ Ask me Craig! Ask me if I’m doing anything New Year’s Eve! I know it’s stupid and old-fashioned, but I’m one of those girls who like to be asked out by a guy. ” Julia Parker, pg 184 So, I just finished reading “At First Sight” for the umpteenth time. Last time I think I threw it against the wall. Don’t get me wrong. I love the story. I love Allie and Ben and Tim and Julia and Craig. I hate to be all “woe is me” in this entry… but man … that book sure brought on an onslaught of feelings. Mostly the kind where I feel hopeless. Of course I have been feeling hopeless for awhile now. It’s something that keeps coming back. It hasn’t gone away and I don’t know if it ever will. See… times like these I need another Parker figure in my life. That’s all I really need… really. Just an assurance that one day I will find that special someone someday. Partly, I can agree/relate with Allie. Maybe that’s why I r...

Here are some pictures of my first flat tire! What happened you may ask? Well... I was going from the Lighthouse (Glendale) to Nina's (Eaglerock) and decided to take the street. Instead of going up Verdugo, I went up the street that's behind Target. There's a tight corner which is also kinda blind spot. This car comes around that corner quickly, and my reaction was to turn the wheel so we wouldn't hit. Instead, I hit the curb! Well, as we were going down the street I felt that my car was driving weird. I picked up the boys (Kevin and Harold) at Kevin's house (which used to be Nina's) and went to Nina's to get the present. Nina's neighbor was outside and told us our tire was flat. We tried to change it, but called J.R. to come help. He put on the spare tire, we went down to some other place and bought a tire. So now the spare is back in the trunk and I'm $65 poorer that I was before. Oh well. At least we made it to Tyler's birthday party.

Following Melina's post... I give up. I'm never gonna get to go out on a date. I'm never getting married. I just give up. Apparently the date on the return policy expired, because it's never gonna happen. (Referring to the book, "If Singleness is a Gift, What's the Return Policy?" Why the sudden rant? After reading Melina's blog (and Matt's comment about the length of his singleness) brought on the despair about my own singleness (which I try not to think about EVER) plus the suspicion that the most recent Linus may indeed have found someone else. So what's the plan then? First of all, I want my book back so I can read it again and remind myself why I should be satisfied with my singleness. Second, I'm gonna read my other book again (Sassy, Single, Satisfied). Third, I will find more books to read! Fourth, I will remind myself: I can be happy being single! Why? 1) Don't have to share a bed with anyone (Many problems there: snoring, blan...