conniesWebpage

JULY 06

10:10 PM 7/4/2006
happy fourth of july! hope everybody had a fabulous weekend. before i launch into my update, i just wanna send a quick thank you to all the courageous men and women who have fought for and protected our country's many freedoms for the past 200+ years. a special shout out goes to cpl. odani over in NC and sgt. **** in UT (aka The Deputy Who Shall Not Be Named, at least not on this page). i'm proud to know such incredible men who also happen to look fantastically hot in uniform. i wish i could post pictures, but i'd probably get my ass kicked in the process.

anyway, i had a crapload of work to do this weekend....and i hardly did any of it. i saw the devil wears prada friday night - jeez, can i just say that the clothes/shoes/bags were so gorgeous that i thought i was going to pass out? saturday i drove up to a friend's bbq in glendale, and then came down for dinner. bbq'ed AGAIN on sunday, met up with matt and hans sunday night, went to south coast with my mom on monday and ran into jenny shen in front of tiffany & co., which was a fantastic surprise. woke my ass up early this morning to go hiking at pacific palisades with tom, went to a bbq in beverly hills afterwards, headed back down to another bbq at my cousin's house, dropped by keri's house to catch up (missed the bbq there but saw the leftovers), and then went back to my cousin's again to watch the fireworks. needless to say, i'm about to keel over from exhaustion.

so on our hike this morning, tom decided that it would be a good idea to make me climb up the side of a boulder using a rope. i was like, "dude, i don't think so," but tom insisted that i could do it. 5 minutes later, i had slammed into the boulder next to me twice and accidentally slid off the rock once into the waist-deep water below. as i was standing half-submerged in the water, i looked up to see tom torn between acting concerned and laughing his ass off. i was like, "i TOLD you, this was a bad idea!" i eventually made it up the rock, dripping wet. what's worse is that i completely ate it at work last week (that's another story in itself) which left me with the world's most painful bruise on my right knee. and i gotta say, bouncing off a rock certainly doesn't help the healing process.

we had a good laugh about it once i got up...headed back shortly afterwards, with tom ahead of me on the trail. while i was in the middle of telling tom that i would yell "TIMBERRRRRR!" if i tripped, i fell on my ass. coincidentally, he chose that exact moment to look backwards at me and witnessed the whole thing. more laughter. more bruised ego. i told tom it was a good thing i didn't have a crush on him, otherwise i'd be seriously mortified.

me after my little dip in the pool. everything from the waist down is completely soaked. i'm smiling through the pain.

tom, not doing a very good job of hiding his laughter.

so despite little scratches here and there and my seriously jacked up knee, i had a pretty good time. we saw a rattlesnake, which was cool. all right, i gotta go ice this knee now. i'm so lame. later, everybody. :)

11:03 PM 7/16/2006

sad, but funny!

tom sent me the story above - i totally cringed when i read it. some cops have no sense of humor.

it's been disgustingly hot in LA this past week - it's so miserable. then again, jj's wedding is this friday, and i'm pretty sure michigan isn't gonna be much better. i haven't even started packing yet - i figure, why mess with my tradition of stuffing everything into a suitcase 10 minutes before i leave for LAX? so i'm leaving thursday morning at the butt crack of dawn, which means i need to get everything for work taken care of by wednesday. haha. why do i even try?

anyway, since i really have nothing to write about interesting, i'll sign off now. hope everybody's doing well and not melting in this heat. i'll write more later after i get back from detroit. in the meantime, enjoy this gorgeous arrangement of peonies from empty vase. coincidentally, peonies happen to be on one of my favorite types of flowers. feel free to send me a bunch. thanks. :)

9:05 AM 7/20/2006
sitting in the denver airport on my way to michigan for jj's wedding...i'm so incredibly tired, thanks to my late minute, 3am packing. and i forgot my camera. good one, genius.

anyways, i drove down to OC last night to meet up with eunice and watch lifehouse @ the pacific ampitheater - it was awesome. and i must say it was fantastic to see my favorite ex roommate again (me: "dude, you're wearing armani sunglasses!" euni: "no, no, they're not armani. they're EMPORIO armani. you know, the GAP in the BR/GAP/Old Navy family of the armanis.") jeez, i've really missed our intellectually stimulating conversations... anyway, afterwards we walked to the OC fair, where we were conned into spending $20 on a dumb dart game in order to win a really cute stuffed curious george. me and eunice looked at each other and were like, "dude, this is what boyfriends are for." by the way, i won the dang prize with the very last dart i had in my hand. so maybe we don't need bfs after all. we also made a minor detour through the petting zoo on the way back to the parking lot. i think i want a goat now. or maybe a little lamb.

all right, i gotta get some work done, so i'll end this post now. i'll write more after the wedding. have a great weekend, everybody.

8:55 PM 7/24/2006

dude, it is hotter than hell right now. i stepped off the plane from michigan expecting a nice breeze and got this miserable, 90+ degree stickiness instead. yuck.

anyway, check out euni's page for a picture of the $20 curious george i won her. our goal is to get really good at carnival games so that by the time the OC fair comes around again next year, we can win each other lots of stuffed animals and actually rip the vendors off instead of the other way around. yes, we are losers. but don't come crying to me the next time you can't make three baskets to save your life or toss a stupid ping pong ball into a floating red cup.

jj's wedding was fabulous - the venue was gorgeous, and the bride and groom were so ridiculously happy i almost forgot to be jealous. i took lots and lots of pictures with james' crappy camera so once he sends them to me, i'll post them here. i've learned a valuable lesson from this quick trip - never try and get in and out of detroit in less than 48 hours, unless you like being miserable, sleep deprived and hideous. i flew back in on saturday afternoon...tried to work, but it was way too freakin' hot to be productive. the deputy came over again and we went to the range in torrance with our guns. i spent the next 30 minute getting schooled, and then we drove down to los alamitos for dinner... caught a spectacular lightning storm on the way back up, which was probably the coolest one i've seen since omaha.

so i went to nordstrom's with my mom yesterday and spent a good ten minutes searching for a parking spot. i finally found one in BFE, hit my right blinker, and sat there for another five minues waiting for guy to leave. several cars passed me as i was waiting, and then right as the truck finished pulling out, a car came around my left side and stole the spot. so i shifted the car in park, walked over to the car, and tapped on the window. i was like, "excuse me, but i was signaling for that spot for five minutes. you stole it." and the dude goes, very deliberately, "i didn't see you." i thought i was gonna lose it right then and there. i will recap the pleasant conversation that followed, word for word:

me: what do you mean, you didn't see me? you had to drive around me to get to that spot! how could you not notice?
dude: (getting rude) i told you, i didn't see you!!
me: are you freaking kidding me? you did too see me. four other cars before you saw it too.
dude: well too bad! this spot ain't got your name on it anyways!
me: what is wrong with you? you know you stole it!
dude: so whatcha want me to do about it?
me: i want you to back outta this space!
dude: hey, this motherfucker ain't moving! and you can't do nothin' about it! so you can go find yourself another spot!
me: fine. forget it.

so i walked away, but not before turning around and flipping the guy (and his buddy sitting next to him) off. that little move earned me a mini-lecture from the deputy later on: "not a very smart move, connie. what if he had pulled a gun on you?" i'll admit it wasn't the brightest thing for me to do but it was the most blatant parking-spot stealing i've ever witnessed in my entire life and i honestly thought if i was nice about it at first, the guy would back up and give me back my spot. umm, apparently not.

8:28 PM 7/31/2006

dude, summer needs to slow the heck down. actually, in light of the insanely high temperatures lately, maybe summer needs to hurry the hell up so i don't collapse from heatstroke. i've been sleep deprived and cranky for the last week, and it doesn't seem to be getting much better.

me and keri went to see curtains on its opening night @ the ahmanson last week - it was pretty good. that's what the above picture is from - we took it during intermission and seriously annoyed the hell out of the old white people sitting behind us. on thursday i went to the range with the deputy to transfer the gun over to my name - i got there and the guy working asked for my handgun safety certificate. i was like, "huh? i don't have one." so then i had to take a 30 question test on the spot, which i seriously thought i was gonna fail. fortunately i ended up passing (with a 90%, hallelujah), so in a little over week, Brady will be back in my hands and officially be mine. scary.

so i worked most of the weekend, but took part of sunday off...drove down to los alamitos in the morning, and then headed to the westside to have brunch...now it's monday night and i'm so exhausted that i'm gonna go to bed. at 8:30 pm. my life is officially over.