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	JANUARY '10 ARCHIVES 12:20 AM 1/4/2010 happy new year! at approximately 4:00 in the afternoon on jan 1st i achieved my new year's resolution by finally passing donkey kong country 2 with lynn. we shrieked like banshees. now we can actually move on and do productive things with our lives instead of playing SNES for hours on end every other weekday night. like working out, for instance. haha. right. 2010 is going to be the decade of change, i can feel it already. in all honesty, i'm still having trouble believing that Y2K was 10 years ago. i actually remember it pretty well. it was our first winter break at college and it was the best feeling in the world to not have to study or do anything remotely productive for a solid two weeks (hurray UC quarter system). we all dressed up for new years. i was in an express cardigan set and a poufy floor length skirt. i remember i thought i looked super cool. now i realized i looked super dorky. but didn't we all? i will try to dig up some old pictures from my college hard drive so we can all see how far we've come. i'm sure in another decade i'll look back at pictures taken now and cringe at terrible hair and horribly outdated clothes. and at the top of the cringe-worthy list will be the following picture, which was taking at the most unflattering angle possible: me and lynn, at her annual NYE party. this one was super low key though, thanks to last minute planning. here's erin, and she's not blinking! it's a miracle! haha. :) speaking of erin, we went out to the buffalo wings place near del amo on wednesday night, and then joined matt and hans at BJ's for an early bday celebration for matt. i cannot believe the kind of crap i have consumed over the past couple of days. it's gross. this past week at work was stressful and when it was all over and done by wednesday afternoon, all my willpower flew out the door. in the past five days, i've had wings, a root beer float, a ton of fudge, party chicken, cheesecake, cookies, cheese dip, chili dip, stuffed potato skins, garlic/cinnamon breadsticks, lemon bars, five cans of soda (freaking sunkist, so good) and lynn's pepperoni/salami/cheese pastry thing that tasted like heaven but probably doomed my hips to hell. what a way to kick off the decade of change. maybe i will shoot for 2020. all right, i actually have to run since it's getting kind of late and i have to be somewhat alert for my first day back at work in four days. i've almost forgotten what my cube looks like. oh wait, it's seared in my memory until the day i die. later, kids. hope you had a safe and happy new year's. if anybody's around in torrance tues night, my bday party is at spiers. all dinners are under $10.99. YUM. 12:01 AM 1/11/2010 happy birthday tooooo meeeeeeeeeeeee! day #5 of being 28 and so far it's just the same as 27, only a little bit more depressing. haha. thanks to everybody who sent me nice birthday wishes, and extra bonus friend points to all two of you who remembered without the help of facebook. a few minutes after midnight, i was drinking a strawberry shake from in n out while sitting in the parking lot of the hospital i was born in 28 years ago. kinda surreal. the next morning we went to breakfast at spiers (that's high class dining right there) and then cheesecake factory for dinner. lynn brought over a birthday cake to die for. literally. i think there were about a billion calories in the frosting alone. SO WORTH IT, though. tom took me to drago centro for lunch, and jack and keri both sent gorgeous flowers to work: beautiful, no? i transported both of them home with me on friday night because i couldn't bear the thought of them wilting in the office over the weekend. jack's arrangement alone weighed about 40 lbs. needless to say, when i got to the parking lot, my entire body was burning. like, every single muscle. and hopefully some fat too. THEN i had to go back to the office and get keri's arrangement, along with my laptop, purse and giant 4" honda binder for my client meeting tomorrow. and that was just the easy part, cuz then i had to drive home while trying to keep both vases upright. i had a slight mishap in the beginning right when i merged on the 110s, but fortunately the flowers survived. this morning i had to go get the interior of my car detailed because there were bits and pieces of oasis all over the passenger seat and a giant water stain on my floor mat. who would have thought after dumping out all the water in the sink, there would still be an entire gallon's worth trapped in the oasis itself? NOT ME. but you know what? i look at the flowers sitting at home right now and i would glady lug them back and forth all over the place again, because they are just THAT pretty. what else... oh! how could i forget. i went to medieval times with my family last night for the final closing ceremony to this week's birthday festivites. surprisingly, my mom got really into it. she even made me buy the ridiculously overpriced/cheesy $20 souvenir picture. i think the average age of the audience was probably 10, but we had fun anyways. there was also a couple on their honeymoon there. umm. medieval times would NOT be my first choice for a honeymoon destination, but i guess whatever floats people's boats.... all right, gotta clean, get ready for tomorrow and then sleep. adios, kids. have a great week. 7:07 PM 1/17/2010 just got back from our girls' weekend trip to rancho valencia resort in del mar. it was so fun and relaxing that i never want to go back to work ever again. i'm not joking. somebody please hand me a winning lotto ticket, because i am TOTALLY cut out for a lifetime of sitting by the pool, goofing off and taking naps. highlights from the weekend include hiking at torrey pines (and looking for the mexican nationals that escaped from the capsized boat), snacking every 20 minutes thanks to keri and lynn's endless supply of junk food, lounging in the jacuzzi, almost burning off my arm while attempting to get our fireplace started (twice), reading the paper on our private patio, taking a yoga class in the morning at the gorgeous spa (which would have been a really relaxing experience had we not been in the same class as the lady who breathed like darth vader), getting lost about fifteen times while driving around, enjoying the view of the ocean from our lunch in del mar and finally, last but not least, sleeping a full eight hours. yes, EIGHT. obscene! first stop: que pasa! for lunch. and if somebody out there could explain when to use que pasa vs. que paso, that would be much appreciated. hiking up the steep incline. keri demonstrating the perils of our hike. the view on the way up. gorgeous, no? apparently erin did not get the fat pants memo. and yes, our shirts are tied around our waists like third graders. on the way back from torrey pines. champagne and cookies/truffles waiting for us in the room after the hike. we polished most of it off pretty quickly. our nice room. 850 sq feet of pure relaxation. 4 girls = 14 pairs of shoes. i think we're missing a pair of erin's heels in this picture. waiting at market for dinner. still waiting. it would have been the perfect vacation except for the fact that it was over wayyyy too soon. now i have to go back to work tomorrow. woe is me. i went on a ride along in compton late fri night and it was an eye opening experience. a hooker called me a bitch and it made me laugh. i wish i could make a living out of driving fast and chasing bad guys. i mean, being a CPA is sorta close. except for the driving fast and chasing bad guys part. all right, i'm outta here. anybody up for a vacation next week? haha. adios, kids. 10:23 PM 1/24/2010 busy season #4,238,390 began this week. YEE-HAW. also, my five year anniversary with EY is exactly one week from now. that is just insane. i can't believe i started at this firm when i was twenty three years old. TWENTY THREE! i was such a baby back then. well i still am, but whatever. the past five years have brought me a tremendous amount of stress, way too many white hairs, a bad ass car and a ton of really sweet purses and shoes. no increase in savings though. go figure, haha. the worst of the storm clouds were right over the NE corner of the EY building on 7th and fig. coincidentally, directly over where i sit. anyways, this past weekend was pretty uneventful. worked out fri night, last night and this morning and am now walking around the house like a grandma. aaaaaaand i have a sore throat. which is totally awesome because you know, i've really missed being sick. i mean, it's so ridiculously fun. for all of you guys who are missing out, come on over and i'll cough into your food. it'll make me feel a little bit better to know that all of you are feeling a little bit worse. haha. i'm a giver! my family and i went to kooza down in irvine tonight, and while it wasn't nearly as awe-inspiring as O @ bellagio, it was entertaining enough. it better have been, for the $100 i paid per ticket (see first paragraph of this post re: savings not going up). we were accosted by the event photographer as soon as we walked through the gates. the first picture was somewhat normal, and then we were explicitly ordered to act goofy for the second picture: apparently my mom, dad and sister didn't get the memo. my mom was not particularly pleased with this picture. so of course i had to shell out $20 to get it printed out so that everybody in our living room can now see a nice, normal family + connie the picture-wrecking weirdo. i do like the ucla-colored tents in the background though. GO BRUINS. all right, i gotta get some work done and then get to sleep at a decent hour. let me know if you want some of my cooties, i'm more than willing to share. adios kids.