Quarter-Life Crisis and Beyond

Fast Lane to Oldness

2008-11-12T10:02:00.000-08:00

one of my co-workers is this fun, friendly girl who works in biz dev. i always knew she was young, but yesterday, i've never felt older:

hanna: "i'm planning my bday party, are you going to come?"
me: "fun! are you going to karaoke like we talked about?"
hanna: "no, i can't do karaoke at a bar anymore because i need a place that can accept people underage. some of my friends are not 21 yet."
me: (silence...)
me: (feeling sorry for myself...)
me: (starting to walk away...)
hanna: "hahaha. don't you like them young?"

cougar central baby.

Welcome Party

2008-10-26T17:33:00.000-07:00

our offices moved from culver city to playa vista this weekend. today i went in to set up my desk. interestingly, the office is next to home depot. when i drove turned the corner to drive into the office parking, i was chased by several day works (aka friendly mexicans). it probably didn't help that i was driving my truck there on a sunday morning.

now, the question is...will this happen every day to work? will it become a daily routine to wave them off and feel bad that i didn't have a cabinet for them to install or a fridge to haul?

well, i'm going to look at this as a glass-half-full opportunity. i am going to feel popular every day. i'll feel wanted. i'll have my own little greeting party at work.

Where Did Time Go?

2008-09-30T21:37:00.000-07:00

i kept thinking how i haven't blogged in a while, but 2 months? where did the time go? wait...i know...tv. between the presidential race, economy plummeting, the world ending...then you got all these fun shows -- weeds finale (oh my!), project runway, entourage, office (how funny was that!), how i met your mother, etc. etc. etc. oh man, it's been b-u-s-y.

wait, i have more! there's also been managing our fantasy football team, updating my statuses (stati? statum? hmm) on facebook, root-root-rooting for the dodgers...see? you can see why i've been slacking.

anyhoo, let's see. to kick off my return to the blogosphere, here are some random exchanges that have taken place in the last few weeks.

hotlanta. in cab.
i was dressed casually (cargo pants, tshirt), heading back to my hotel after a quick meeting.
cabbie: "you are from california, huh?"
me: "yah! how the heck did you know?"
cabbie: "all rich people are from california."

boston. at christina and frank's wedding.
i get in line to congratulate the couple after the ceremony. i hug christina: "congrats!"
then i turn to frank and shake his hand: "it's nice to meet you."

on phone with misty. tonight.
me: "so it was freezing in boston! i mean, it was like 50-60 degrees! i seriously have no idea how i lived there for 4 years."
misty: "you were drunk."
me: "good point."

epilogue

2008-07-25T10:58:00.000-07:00

after all that, i just had a very successful seat cover experience. maybe all i needed was to whine about it. yay.

Random and a Half

2008-07-25T10:20:00.000-07:00

few random thoughts for you on this lovely friday. tgif!

- few weeks ago, i looked up the origin of the phrase, "steal one's thunder". my guess was that it originated from some greek mythology where one of the gods steals someone's thunder. according to the world wide web, the origin of the phrase is from back in shakespearean days, where devices that produce the sound of thunder included shaking thin metal sheets or rolling metal balls in troughs. one d-list playwright advanced this sound technology with metal balls in wooden bowls. when one theater closed his crappy play but used his sound device for the next play, he said, "damn them! they will not let my play run, but they steal my thunder."

- this thought will only be appreciated by women and it may be a little TMI, but i really have to get it out there. after practice, i master most skills like a good monkey. i approach the problem in different ways and zone in on the best solution. but this! it's frustrating me. it's been 20 weeks at the new gig, and i cannot get the razor thin toilet seat covers to work properly. though they are "generously provided by management," by the time i put down the toilet seat cover and get ready for the toilet-ready position, the seat cover has already crumpled into the water, leaving me with no cover of seat. i have tried to place the cover in different configurations (e.g. patting it down into a more stable position) and even changed the order by unzipping and then placing the cover (which was an uncomfortable sequence), but it's just not ideal. is it too much to ask for that my seat cover stays in place and sails away with the flush without too much work or thought on my part? grr.

- i already put this on my gchat status (thanks, samartini): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36w-CyqCO1A. japanese people are funny. SHINDY ROPAH!

have a fantabulous weekend all.

Divorcing Beantown

2008-07-03T09:38:00.000-07:00

i just made it official. after the lakers-celtics emotional roller-coaster ride, i decided that i cannot have any loyalties to boston's sports. i rooted for the red sox. i rooted for the pats. but the thought of these "fellow fans" rooting against my lakers is still bugging me.

so, this morning, in preparation of our country's independence day (i say "our" because i've been de-alienized for 7 years now!), i proclaimed my sole allegiance to LA sports on the most american platform of 2008 -- i deleted myself from boston fan pages on facebook. i even deleted the sports guy link from my blog.

i feel free. freedom!

Engrish

2008-06-26T20:57:00.000-07:00

yuj told me she just started a food blog for fun. as i'm reading her first entry (http://huge-bites.blogspot.com/2008/06/prologue.html), i'm like, how the heck is she related to me? i struggle through words, phrase...in general, "engrish". and then there's little sister who can spew out poetic-y (great word) entry like that for fun?

Stupid Email Series: Part 3

2008-06-25T13:51:00.000-07:00

this one guy has emailed back on multiple occasions.

actual email #1 (before event x):
Thanks would love to come but SM is far. What do you do what year are you? Are there info on the members in the area?

actual email #2, same guy (before event y):
hi. (1) What's the group like that comes to these?
(2) Is there any website, where we can see pics/background of members?

actual email #2 (after event y):
how was last night? Who was there? Girls? Guys - what's the crowd like?

tina's response (who was coordinating the event):
We had about 30 people and it was a good mix of people. If you're that curious, just come to an event sometime!

tina's desired response:
dude, you're creepy.

epilogue: tina actually ended up meeting him at a later event. and it was confirmatory. he was creepy.

Stupid Email Series: Part 2

2008-06-25T13:36:00.000-07:00

actual email:

I'm interested in attending the annual meeting, but had a question on the brunch choices. Would you know what the vegetarian choice is? More specifically, does it contain nuts or beans? I have several food allergies and can't eat the two egg choices due to an egg white allergy, but the allergy to nuts and their oils, extracts, etc. is life threatening.

my response:

Thanks for emailing. The veggie option is the Healthy Start (Sliced bananas, seasonal berries, cottage cheese, granola, hot oat meal with raisins). I'm assuming the granola part won't work, right? If it's not mixed in, will that work for you?

her response:

You're right about the granola. If it's not on the plate or if it's in a separate bowl that will be fine. I need it not to have come in contact with the other ingredients. Is that doable? Also allergic to stawberries, so if they can be eliminated from the seasonal berries, that would be great. It's not life threatening, so it's O.K. if that can't be done and they are on the plate.

from the event coordinator:
I cannot guarantee the granola will not come in contact with the plate or in cereal, strawberries not a problem if we omit, but will have to be from all plates. I can offer toast and cold cereal from a box or yogurt with fruit, no strawberries.

her response:
How about the yogurt (as long as it doesn't have artificial sweetners (aspartame, splenda, etc.) and fruit option? Bagel with cream cheese works too - even better with smoked salmon!

from the event coordinator:
We have fruit and yogurt, and bagel and cream cheese, no smoked salmon

her response:
That works fine! Thanks for all your help on this.

my desired response to every email:
Please BYOB (bring your own brunch).

Stupid Email Series: Part 1

2008-06-25T13:19:00.000-07:00

i'm planning the annual meeting for our socal alum nerd club. i'm really not sure how i got roped into being volunteer extraordinaire, but here i am. rizzy once told me that there are two types of people in the world: rich people and volunteers. i hope to be a rich person one day. or really soon.

so this annual meeting used to be a dinner at a local hotel. old and very cute grandpa alums would gather at the event in their little red jackets and reminisce the old times. but in order to change things up a little and make the event cheaper (and therefore making it more inviting to the younger alums), i planned this year's event at a local golf course and advertised it as a champagne brunch. the one thing i hadn't counted on was all the random emails that i would get. and you know my patience with stupid emails. enjoy the new stupid email blog entries. i'll add them as i get them throughout my volunteer term.

Actual email 1:
I bought 2 tickets for the MIT Brunch next Saturday. I suggest returning to the dinner format in future years. A brunch wastes the entire day. I will have to give up my regular tennis game Saturday in order to attend. I don't want to do that again.

My actual response:
Thanks for your input and for signing up for the brunch. We will definitely keep your suggestion in mind.

My desired response:
Gasp! Not your tennis game! Do you need us to wipe your ass for you after you poop too?

Random Dude

2008-06-06T10:19:00.001-07:00

i was just looking through pictures....saw this and had to share. he wants to be our friend.

Schappy

2008-06-06T08:38:00.000-07:00

last weekend, i saw the sex and the city movie with the girlies. as expected, the theater was filled with 98% women, 1.9% gay men, and 0.1% men (aka basel, nk's bf; his comment - "if a man tells you he doesn't want to see a show that has 4 women having lots of sex, he's lying"). anyhoo, the movie was as expected, fun clothes, screeching girls, and a happy ending for all.

on monday morning, when i got into the office, one girl asked me what i did for the weekend. after i told her i had an estrogen-filled weekend, she replied, "i wouldn't pin you as a sex and the city type of girl." hmm.

on tuesday lunch, one guy who sits near me said, "i have to tell you, i'm so disappointed in you." i'm like, "why?" and he says, "you totally started the sex and the city conversation with all the girls yesterday. and i thought you had our back."

so i'm on my 5th day of my 13th week at work (not that i'm counting). despite the truth, i guess i don't give off the sappiest retard on earth impression to my co-workers. they'll never know that i teared up when miranda and steve met on the bridge. then again, i totally teared up when the lakers couldn't make a shot in the 4th quarter and lost game 1 last night. i'm sure the boys would understand that. sniff.

Blue Jar, Not Fish

2008-05-27T22:10:00.000-07:00

after 12 years, college friend heidi and her equally genius man haiwei finally tied the knot. i got my butt up to san jose to see them and hang with the mccormick crowd i hadn't kept up with in a while. it was great to see everyone and learn that i am officially the most delinquent person of the group. everybody was either a doctor, an engineer lead, a millionaire, a mother, a father, or all of the above.

before i continue, here's the lovely couple.

my favorite part of the wedding, besides the friends and the endless chinese food at the reception, was during the ceremony. the officiant had haiwei and heidi pour their respective jars of sand into one larger jar. the message was that by marriage they are as hard to separate as the collective grains of sand. his jar was of white sand and hers of blue.

so, when they started to pour the sand very slowly into the main jar, it didn't take long for one of us to start the chain of laughter. the combined jar of sand did not turn "light blue" -- it just remained the same blue from heidi's jar. when the officiant held up the combined jar, crystal and i started whispering things like, "heidi dominates!" or "heidi wins!" really, at this point, they shouldn't fast-forwarded the ceremony to the kiss.

Win

2008-05-20T17:29:00.000-07:00

i was telling crystal few weeks ago about my friend mark who named his new baby daughter story.

i said to crystal, "...and he named her story as in...like...a stoooory."
she responded, "ooooooh!" and then pause.
few seconds later, she exclaimed, "wait a minute, do you realize what you just said? that was the worst explanation ever!"
i yelled back, "but you understood me!"
she had no comeback.
thus, i won. happy sauj.

btw, i heard kevin and bean quote someone this morning. they said that there be booming business for cat-sitters this friday when sex and the city is released. HAHA

Hiding Go

2008-05-19T21:25:00.000-07:00

since we sit out in the open at work, one does not have any privacy in conversations. normally at other offices, people jump into open conference rooms to have their "oh baby i miss you" or "yes, i can come into interview with you tomorrow" convos. unfortunately, i work at a rapidly growing company where our 3 conference rooms are always occupied with employees doing real work. so, what do people do?

well, it's like playing hide and seek (which i always thought was calling "hiding go seek"...which is obviously stupidly fobby). i got a personal call at work last week. so i jumped out of my seat, put my friend on hold, and proceeded to walk out towards the lobby. someone was there on his cellie. so i walked outside to the smoking area. there were 2 smokers chillin' and 1 other person on his cell. so i walked in the warehouse to hide within our inventory (and grinning cause i thought this was so genius) but spotted another person on his cell between the shelves. beaten down, i walked in the back door where i heard another girl sitting on a staircase -- "sure grandma," she said. i gave up, hung up, walked back to my desk, and proceeded to IM for a really long time with my friend who originally called me.

now you wonder why i have such an IM addiction. i blame work.

301st Post

2008-05-12T21:33:00.000-07:00

so, willets is right. my 300th post should have been a tribute to the humble origins of this blog. it's been just over 3 years since i had my quarterlife crisis, quit my job, moved out of my flooded venice beach apartment, and started to write my trivial random thoughts to the world wide web. i clicked on few entries to jive my memory of what has gone on in my life for the past few years. here's my quick recap...

input: lazy, out-of-shape, confused, fobby girl in search of a new career, love, life...going through a quarter-life crisis

process: kills 3 fish, 1 liver, few jokes, many brain cells, 1 startup idea, internet space for 300 blog posts

output: lazy, out-of-shape, confused, fobby girl in search of a new career, love, life...going through a third-life crisis

hmm, at least there is the new blackberry bold to look forward to: http://www.blackberry.com/blackberrybold/ yay!

Inappropriate

2008-05-06T21:09:00.000-07:00

so the blogger tells me that this is my 300th post. yay. i almost feel like i have to give a kobe-eque gay mvp acceptance speech. to all my 3 readers, this goes out to you. i wouldn't be here at my 300th post of meaningless, nonsensical blabber of random thoughts if it wasn't for you. the 300th post is not an individual achievement. i wouldn't be here without you, my team. we're like a family, man. family.

now that deep thought is out of the way, can i tell you how lame i am? i was driving to a quick coffee break the other day when "talk of the nation" was on. i don't particularly care for the topics on this talk show, but i love it when larry mantle has to cut off some "expert" on the phone due to time constraints. it's totally like the oscars but for talk radio -- the music starts to play over the speech, the expert feels pressured and talks faster, larry tries to butt in with "uh...uh"...and finally he cuts the person off and says, "thank you blah blah blah."

anyhoo, i arrived at my destination before larry had a chance to cut anyone off, so i just sat in my truck. after a few minutes, larry pulled through for me and i got a good laugh. with a goofy, satisfied look on my face, i turned to get out of the truck...to see this random, completely sketchy looking dude is staring at me. i'm all weirded out but i have to walk past him, and when i do, he whispers to me in this totally creepy way, "waaaaaaaaaas it gooooood?"

i'm think to myself WTF but it comes out of my mouth as "yes, thanks. very satisfying."

and no, i don't want to know what the dude was thinking. all i know is that i gotta stop talking to strangers...and learn to keep it to myself when larry hits the spot.

Vacuum Thoughts

2008-04-27T21:26:00.000-07:00

last friday, the new father's office in culver city opened for lunch for the first time. the culver city crowd was obviously dying for a new lunch option because it was like a hollywood club when we arrived there. the line was super long to get in, the doors opened later than expected, and there was even a dude checking ids at the door (i saw one grandpa really excited to get his id checked...too cute). and then once you got in, it was the usual bs -- no table service, so you had to stand in yet another line to order the food. after two lines and over one hour wait time, we got our $12 burgers. and the verdict? it was almost worth the wait. gotta love carmelized onions and bacon in anything. mmm.

so now, the question is this. would the "let's be frank hotdogs" cart across the street have more or less business?

oh, i just saw a commercial for the new dyson ball vacuum cleaner and completely lost my train of thought. i looked it up: http://www.dyson.com/homepage.asp. $399.99? hmm, i kind of want to test drive it.

Coolers and Hard Hats

2008-04-13T20:37:00.000-07:00

i just put away my leftovers for tomorrow's lunch, which reminded me to tell you about my lunch on friday.

my new work is in one of those warehouse-converted-into-office-space locations. the inside setup is very startup-like and cool. i basically sit out in the open with all my co-workers, and when you have meetings at each other's desks, you roll up one of those exercise balls conveniently located around the office. while i enjoy being in a casual, non-corporate type of environment, when it comes to lunch options -- it blows. nothing really is conveniently walkable outside of these warehouses, so we have to drive out to get any sort of food. while it's nice to get out of the office every day, i found that after one month, even the drive to the local in-n-out was getting old.

and as such, on friday morning, i decided to pack myself a little bento box lunch. around noon, after my co-workers ventured off in groups to various lunch destinations, i busted out my cute little lunch sack and IMed katie, the genius with all the answers.

me: "it's nice out and i don't want to eat at my desk, but there are no benches or picnic tables around. where should i eat?"
katie: "duh! your truck! like a tailgate."
me: "that's genius, katie, you really are genius with all the answers."
katie: "construction workers do it all the time. though they always have coolers."

so i ventured outside to my truck, sat on the bed, and started to unravel my lunch sack. then i turned to notice the confused stares of few gardeners nearby, who were eating their lunches underneath the shadows of the one teeny weeny tree in the parking lot. what! have they never seen an asian girl eat her lunch on the back of her truck in the middle of her company's parking lot? hmpf! would they feel better if i had a cooler and a hard hat next to me?

after about 5 minutes, i felt pretty self-conscious and semi-sun-burnt, so i got in the car to drive to a local cafe and to eat my bento in peace.

just fyi, i'll probably just eat my lunch at my desk tomorrow.

Oh Mickey

2008-04-08T08:58:00.000-07:00

a week or so ago, i heard that the guy who invented egg mcmuffins died. as a tribute to this herb peterson, a culinary genius of a man by my standards, i decided to up my morning mcdonalds visits to...um...everyday. there's a mickey d's conveniently located around the corner from my new gig -- it's almost like herb consulted big g to made this happen for me.

anyhoo, yesterday morning, i swung by the mc drive thru for my two egg mcmuffins. granted it was like the 7th straight weekday i was there, but after i shouted my "usual" order into the menu speaker display thingy, the girl greeted back, "you're back."

i felt fat and skipped the drive thru today. maybe once a week is enough of a mctribute.

At the Ho

2008-04-06T20:57:00.000-07:00

yesterday in lovely scottsdale, bschool buddies sarah and nate got married. they are one of those best friend couples that you really feel like they will last. sarah is prim and proper and nate is a fun-loving goof -- when you see them together, sarah seems to always be laughing and nate to just be staring at sarah with puppy-dog eyes. in his speech yesterday, he said, "just look at her and look at me. i still can't believe she said yes." it was pretty cute. my favorite fact about them: when they entered bschool as a couple, sarah wanted to do without school-premise pda, so she and nate would high-five when they ran into each other between classes. the idea of a high-five pda is funny enough, but i think it was funnier to see sarah high-five at all. here's a pix of the couple:

so the wedding. the location was scenic, the weather was perfect, the bride was gorgeous, the crowd was fun, the band was fantastic -- so, minus ucla getting hammered in the final four during the ceremony, the night deserved an A. the country club scenary:

so a few more fun facts. the ceremony was conducted by both a rabbi and a priest, which i'd never seen before. the two gentlemen took turns in conducting the ceremony in their own traditions. oh, the rabbi was way funnier. lindy was proud.

the ceremony was in front of the clubhouse near the 18th green. this made me crack up -- two random golfers finishing up their rounds behind the "i dos":

and last item in my camera that made me laugh. our hotel room at the "hotel valley ho" (actual name! super fun to say), had a bathtub in the middle of the room. here's lindy vanna:

English as a Stupid Language

2008-03-30T22:19:00.000-07:00

just came back from watching "21" with a bunch of mit peeps. there's something about watching a movie featuring mit nerdiness -- you find it all nostalgic when the camera pans over the dome or laughing hysterically at fake mit class names that are clearly just a random permutation of nerd words. "i have a paper due on tuesday in quantitative literacy." tee hee. "he aced combinational algorithm." hehehe. yup, it's not funny to anyone else but us dorks.

though i have to admit, our nerdiness is really wearing thin. instead of missing boston throughout the entire movie, we all came out of the theatre talking about our next vegas trip. and no, not to go count cards -- we just wanted to go hit the dance floor. unch unch unch (that's my clubby music sound and my dancing to it, please use your imagination). ooooh yeah.

what else. oh, i was thinking about how schools with names like xavier could never recruit asians to go there. it would be too hard for the parents to pronounce. yesterday, my mom came over in the middle of my watching the ucla-xavier game. she looks at the screen and says, "oooh, so is ucla doing well against...HA-vi-er?" i start laughing and say, "mom, it's xavier, not javier like a mexican name." she insisted that she had a student once who spelled his name xavier, but pronounced it javier. after a while, she said, "whatever, the team is losing anyway."

and today, i went home to say what's up to my papa. he says, "your team played well yesterday. they beat that....x-team." i tried to teach him how to pronounce xavier, but after three tongue twister tries, he said, "well, that's just stupid."

Happy Easter and More

2008-03-23T20:50:00.000-07:00

happy easter, jc! hope you all got lots of pastel-colored marshmellows to clog up the arteries. mmm.

so, per usual, my ncaa bracket blows. i had pitt in the final four and they lost yesterday. i should've known. i mean, their name is pitt! well, at least i have the bruins to cheer for...if they freakin stop giving me hard attacks with their close games.

on that note, every year i fill out the brackets like i know these schools. someone asked me the other day where davidson was located, and seriously, i don't know where most of these schools are! i googled a few -- of course, my a.d.d. kicked in and i stopped after these: 1. oral roberts - tulsa, oklahoma; 2. gonzaga - spokane, washington; 3. winthrop - rock hill, south carolina; 4. siena - loundonville, new york; 5. xavier - cincinati, ohio...

okay okay, i'm sorry if i'm supposed to know where these colleges are, but i'm an LA snob. you know, the people who ignore the existence of all life between the n-y-c and hollywood. rrrrr.

oh, so, more about my new work. the gig is in the video game industry. i haven't played a video game since super nintendo's mario kart, nba jam, and street fighter ii (i thought ryu was hot). i guess you can count puzzle fighter in college and the random dr. mario challenge with steph too, but as you can see, i avoid games. it's because i know myself too well -- once i start playing games, i'll never stop. it's like a weird mix of competitiveness and dorkiness that only happens with video games. i even deleted the freecell and minesweeper icons from my computer at one point. anyhoo, when the whole playstation, xbox, wii craze came about, my electronics-obsessed self looked the other way, "what guitar hero? what madden?"

as expected, it's not going so well for me. it's like a former alcoholic working as a bartender. a former fatty, working the donut shop cashier. seriously. it's only been two weeks, i'm about to go get myself few game consoles. sigh.

Unretired and Babbling

2008-03-17T21:24:00.000-07:00

so i did the unthinkable last week -- i started a new job. i'm a finance monkey at a local startup, and despite my daily longing for my "reretirement," the gig ain't so bad. but of course, as with any new thing in my life, it provides endless material for the blog. that is, if i wasn't so lazy to write in it!

so, on the first day, my boss and few co-workers told me that the company uses AIM and caught me totally off-guard by asking, "what's your screenname?" without thinking, i answered and made a fantastic first impression as a classy post-mba professional, "it's saujinator." who would've thunk that the screenname i chose at the ripe age of 18 would follow me for this long?

oh, this has nothing to do with anything, but why do people wave down from the overpasses above the freeway? i was driving through the 909 saturday morning and was perplexed as to how people think that is an accepted form of weekend entertainment. okay, fine! i admit, i kinda wanted to join them and look down at passing cars like i'm big g hovering over the world.

btw, aly asked me this last week and i forgot to confirm -- do directors say, "end scene!" or "and...scene!"? anyone?

okay, that was a useless used space in the virtual world. but give me a break, i'm working full time for the first time in like three years and my brain hurts.

Leap Forward

2008-02-29T18:53:00.000-08:00

happy leap day! i can only wish you that once every four years so i figured, hey, it's a perfect time to blog again and reintroduce myself. hi hello, this is your long lost blog friend sauj. it's a friday night and i'm sick. you know, just congested and sniffly enough that you shouldn't go out, but not dead enough to take that nighttime nyquil just pass the f out for the night. and besides, a lakers game is on in a bit so i can hang on and we can catch up. :P

so, what have i been doing? really, i have zero excuse for not blogging. except that i don't have much to blog about. i'm still in my mini-retirement phase where #1 priority is where to best schedule my daytime nap. between naps and meals, i'm usually reading obsessively about sports -- i'm really excited about pau and the lakers, but rooting for shaq to do well. gosh, i love that big goof.

let's see, what else. since i last entry, team tina hit vegas for tina's 30th. many of us -- jenn, andii, cp, alice, nk, katie, hazzy, etc. -- flew our old asses to vegas to act like we were 22 again. we all thought we were doing a pretty good job of fitting in -- that is until crystal started to bust her moves on the dance floor. yes, my chinese floormate from mit who learned calculus in 6th grade and always felt the need to recopy notes from lectures for learning purposes...

"is this the same crystal that we knew in college?"
"i wanted to sway and be chill but had to step it up cause of crystal – she took it to another level!"
"who knew crystal was all hip-hop asian!"

my explanation to the girls: "crystal turned black in atlanta." their collective response: "ahhhhh."

hotlanta -- where the players play, and nerdy asians turn cool black.

Mini Peeps

2008-01-17T19:25:00.000-08:00

i love babies. okay, i take that back. i love kids. i don't really know what to do with a micro human being that's just crying, pooping, and eating (oh, what a good life!). but when the micro thang reaches a certain mini age where i can chase it, throw it, and scare it -- i'm pretty good with them. it's like the mini and me are on the same level.

anyhoo, back to babies. so my friends all over the nation are popping out these suckers. (congrats congrats!) my email and snail mail inboxes are full of baby photos and cards...and these little ones are so darn cute!

but as with all things in life, i do have one complaint regarding this matter. why does everyone feel the necessity to sign emails with the baby's name included? "we would like to announce the arrival of baby x. love, mommy, daddy, and baby x." why is the baby x announcing himself to me? are baby x and i on email terms? i didn't think so. so, until the kid can type an email to auntie sauj on his/her own, let's not confuse her please.

on that note, congrats to all the new parents! i'm glad to know you married ones and i have even LESS in common now that you have little micro peeps in your households.

with love, auntie s

Oh Happy Day

2008-01-16T21:46:00.000-08:00

circa 2003 when i used to live with steph, the tv was either stuck on the food network or repeatedly playing one of two movies -- bridget jones diary or about a boy. though i agree that both movies were fun to watch, i did not understand how anyone could watch a ligthearted movie not once, not twice, but over and over again. steph told me she left these movies on for ambient background noise, but really, in my opinion, those movies just did not deserve the repeatability of say...shawshank redemption or sound of music (one for quality quotes and one to sing along to, duh.)

now fast forward to...late 2007 / early 2008. writers guild strike ate my regular shows and pooped out crap like cashmere mafia. so, what do i find myself doing between the weekend run of sports? well, i just finished watching bridget jones again. along with a third showing of sister act 2: back in the habit, fourth viewing of devil wears prada, and a fifth time through gridirong gang. i mean, i was just totally wrong before. these types of movies are totally touching and moving -- yes i cheered for rita when she forged her mom's signature to go to the all-state music competition, of course i teared up when andy just didn't recognize herself anymore, and i for sure giggled when the rock said to his team, "are you shitting me? do not tell me you don't know how to spell mustangs!" (hehe) -- and it's still good the second, third...nth time around! who knew!

and who knew that the oh happy day was when jesus washed and not when big jc walked. man, this whole time i was singing it wrong -- good thing i just googled the lyrics.

Happy 2008!

2008-01-15T18:28:00.000-08:00

wow, how has two full weeks already passed in 2008! i know it's a bit belated, but happy new year, everyone! that is of course to the two people who still read this thang :)

not too much going on here. i had told many people that i would just enjoy the holidays and figure out my life in 2008. i love you too, friends -- to all of you who greeted me with "happy new year; what are you going to do with your life," thank you for reminding me of my lovely bum status.

oh, speaking of bums, why do bums in cold cities just stay there? i mean, if i were a bum in boston, i'd walk my way to this lovely january LA weather -- if i'm sleeping on the sidewalks, i rather my sidewalks be warm, sunny and 75, no? yup, you're right, i only said that to make the point that it's lovely here in LA -- suckers!

hope everyone is enjoying all the fun sports too -- lakers (sad about bynum), ucla bball, pats, t.o. crying, and of course the most fun boxing match ever -- obama vs. hillary.

Sister Fashion

2007-12-29T10:24:00.000-08:00

while at anthropologie at the grove few days ago, i saw few korean nuns walking around. and by the sales rack, my eyes met one of them so i said hello. as i sometimes do with random thoughts that pop into my head, i just blurted out and asked her why she was there at the store. in her peaceful nun way, she told me, "look closely at what all the sisters are wearing." as she continued to smile in her peaceful nun way at me, it dawned on me that they all wear normal clothes underneath their sister gowns. i laughed and then, we chatted about christmas, her home convent, etc. she was nice. but of course she was nice.

then this morning at noah's on larchmont, i spotted another group of korean nuns hanging out and having bagels. as i passed them, i nodded a little hello and of course noticed their individualitic garb underneath their black and white nun clothes. where did they get those clothes? are they donations? do they get shopping money from the priests? can they buy clothes at retail prices? oh, so many questions! but i behaved and just came home with my dozen bagels without opening my big mouth.

then it hit me. i had joked in a recent email about how i was a "korean nun-wanna-be" -- a joke i thought was appropriate and funny in light of jc's bday. but since, i've now spotted two groups of nuns in less than three days at my usual hangouts.

hmm. i don't think big g jokes around. i'm a bit weirded out.

Rain Rain

2007-12-18T22:41:00.000-08:00

it's raining here in LA. the weather people on the news are loving this "storm watch 2007." on the 2 pm news, this one field reporter lady was standing outside in oxnard. she squats down to have the camera point at this little puddle of water and she says, "as you can see from this puddle here and the drops within it, the rain is really coming down!" so the puddle was like, 0.00000001 millimeters and there was like four puny drops of water -- no wonder people make fun of us LA people.

speaking of this "torrential" rain, i have a little window a/c unit that makes a whole lot of noise when the rain drops against its metal surface. i've been meaning to put a towel or something on top of it, but always forget since...it never really rains here. anyhoo, last night, after my first softball game in the "storm," i decided to wedge a cardboard box on my window railing as a little umbrella for the a/c. but this morning, i wake up to the rain "pounding" against the metal and think to myself that it was nearly impossible for that box to have fallen out. i go outside to examine the scene, hoping to just find the box lying near by...but no, there is no box near the window. instead, i spot the homeless lady at the bank next door sporting a new cardboard box hat in the same dimensions as my a/c rain cover!

no, i didn't ask for my box back. it is almost christmas. and she wears is very stylishly.

Oh Kids

2007-11-27T13:04:00.000-08:00

hope you all had a fantastic thanksgiving. not much to report from here in sauj's cabesa except one entertaining story from mama yi.

during dinner over the weekend, my mom asked me: "have you heard of a soldier boy? i think he dances." i answer her, "why are you asking?"

her reason: "one of my students walked in early to class one day and was doing some dance steps. he said, 'mrs. yi! this is soooo hard.' and proceeded to practice these really easy moves. and you know, saujin, i learn stuff like this quickly, so i just said, 'what's so hard?' and followed his steps. while this was happening, the rest of the class started to file in and they all stopped and started yelling, screaming, and applauding. i tried to settle them down but they kept begging me to do the dance one more time as they got out their camera phones and stuff. of course i refused. one kid who is failing my class promised to study for the next test if i did the dance again, but at that point, i knew it was something stupid."

so i explain to her who soulja boy is. and she exclaims, "i knew it! those [insert korean expletives here] kids! of course they were entertained by a middle-aged asian lady doing a rapper's dance!"

we laugh. then chew through dinner.

about ten minutes later she says, "...though it is my fault. the first boy didn't ask me to dance. it was just frustrating to watch him!"

more dinner.

then another comment, "...kids these days. they don't even know how to dance! how sad!"

so, bottom line: she's no marie osmond, but my mom does the superman. can yours?

The Juice

2007-11-18T17:27:00.000-08:00

last week sometime, i had a battle with a pomegranate. seriously. i don't know what possessed me to buy a pomegranate. i think it was joann who once told me that getting information out of me was like juicing a pomegranate...and i think i was just curious when i saw one. oh, and my aunt had made me fresh pom juice once, so i figured, hey it can't be too hard! (and yes, this is what happens when you're in mini-retirement phase -- you stroll through the grocery store thinking thoughts such as this and you make fresh squeezed juices during the weekday to pass the time.)

anyhoo, if i were tina, i probably would have looked up 10 websites that told you how to properly make pomegranate juice. but that's no fun. so i just hacked at the durable fruit, removed and stuck the seeds in a blender, put it through a strainer, and tada, had a nice $3, 30-minute, 1 cup of juice. but for that one weenie cup of juice (which i drank very very slowly), i had to wash down the entire kitchen and take a shower because i had purplish red juice stains all over the place.

so, lesson learned? no, it's not "i need to get a job," sheesh. it's "juicing a pomegranate is a great way to waste time and i should do it way more often!"

except...it's one dang expensive fruit. i may need a job after all to afford this hobby. isn't it ironic, don't you think.

Remove Me From Me

2007-11-11T11:47:00.000-08:00

sometime last week, elissa asked me, "can third cousins marry in korea?"

this question, which i have no answer to, sparked a debate. what does the term third cousins mean? i learned a while back that a second cousin is the child of a first cousin...or so i thought. princeton dictionary agrees with my defintion, but it pretty much stop there. according to matt, wikipedia, and rest of the world wide web, there's a whole another word that can clarify the generation gaps in the cousin-ish relationship -- "removed"...

so, first cousins share the same grandparents; second cousins share the same great-grandparents; and third cousins share the same great-great-grandparents. and if your second cousin has a kid, then that kid is your "second cousin once removed" and if your third cousin has a grandkid, then that grandkid is your "third cousin twice removed"....but are you thinking what i'm thinking? WHO THE F CARES.

well, giuliani's 14-year (second) marriage to his second cousin was supposedly annulled due to that relationship. in case you were keeping up with rudy's weird past, i wanted to make sure you knew his marriage was not to his first cousin once removed -- cause that would be really weird.

and with that, who else is oddly obsessed with mike huckabee!

Fishin' on the 16th Hole

2007-10-28T22:06:00.001-07:00

i just saw an infomercial for the "instant fisherman" -- a portable, compact fishing pole that you can whip out, unfold, and use in a jiffy. it's weird enough to think that someone would need to bust out a fishing pole in an instant like a jack in the case of a flat-tire emergency. something like: "oh suzie, look at that pond, let me whip out the fisherman and catch you a fish for some roadside sushi."

but if that wasn't weird enough, the infomercial featured all the convenient places to store the handy tool: "...it will fit conveniently into the side pocket of your golf bag!"

A-minus Fan

2007-10-28T21:24:00.000-07:00

the soxies just swept. and it's still good the second time around (especially when you still find yourself gasping and yelping at a ellsbury catch in bottom of the ninth inning up 3-0 in the series!).

so, i got questioned this weekend -- "i thought you liked the dodgers?" yeah, you called me out. in the nba, i only love the lakers (and cute players like richard jefferson, core maggette and d-wade). in the nfl, i only love the pats. but in the mlb, i like both the red sox and the dodgers. i justify it as my american league and national league teams -- and really, how likely is it that these two specific teams would meet in the world series in my lifetime?

well, i said that to my skeptical, questioning (a-hole) friend. and he asked, "what if they did. who would you root for?" then, i was torn. that's a toughy, but here it is:
though the heartbreaker of a ball club can't keep any franshiable players on its roster for more than a year, i live in LA. i listened to vin scully on the radio in my youth. and the excitment from dodgers getting into the playoffs in 2004 off of steve finley's grand slam still is unmatched to any red sox moment of this year. yeah, if i HAD to choose, i think i would have to bleed blue. but really, i hate you, skeptical friend, for making me feel like a bad fan. but for now...

go sox! and yankees suck.

Droopy

2007-10-21T21:20:00.000-07:00

gosh. as i'm cruising for articles on the red sox's game 7 win (yay!), i come across an article about seattle's super duper sonic rookie kevin durant: "...durant realized a dream Saturday night when he was on the same court as his boyhood idol, tracy mcgrady."

boyhood idol? holy crap, we're getting old. sleepy-eyed, straight-out-of-high-school, born-the-same-year-as-me, could-be-cute-if-his-eyes-were-level tracy mcgrady is some nba star's boyhood idol? oh man oh man.

and yes i watched the entire red sox game tonight and no i'm not sure why i feel the need to look up articles of a game i watched in its entirety 30 minutes after it finished. but what else am i going to do? i'm not drunk. i already applied foot cream. hmm, maybe i should go check out the level of my small, sleepy, asian eyes....if i can see them. ha! i crack me up.

Da TeeVee

2007-10-13T11:18:00.000-07:00

few days ago, i decided to indulge myself on some television the 2007 way -- via the internet. due to the shotty dsl in the ktown house, cbs and nbc's internet players were out (office, chuck, and how i met my mother will have to wait). but fox and abc's players worked quite well -- so i caught up on the simpsons, back to you, grey's, private practice, ugly betty, etc.

okay, granted that i have questionable taste in tv shows at times (i know you just said, back to you? are you 50? and yes, i used to like two and a half men at some point LONG ago in my life (okay, last year, you biatches)) but this one new show totally caught my eye. i heard some reviews about pushing daisies before, but didn't really quite understand the premise. i think you just have to watch it -- it's witty and funny...kinda the royal tennebaums humor. anyhoo, it's on abc's website...if you're bored, it's just one quick rec from your professional boredom curer friend. and no, it's not anything like two and a half men! sheesh. stop giving me a hard time about it!

Classic Me

2007-10-07T10:13:00.000-07:00

i was reminded to tell my stupid story from last weekend in btown.

act 1 - during dinner with tina on friday
me: "hello?"
someone (a girl): "hey sauj! this is [muffled blah-blah]."
me: "who is this again?"
someone: "this is [muffled two syllable name]. don't tell me you don't know who this is!"
me (feeling weirdly pressured): "OOOOOH, hey! how are you?"
someone: "what are you up to?"
me: "we're gonna go hit up roads for old times sake tonight."
someone: "hahaha!"
me: "i know i know. what are you doing tomorrow?"
someone: "we're going to sanctuary at 10. come!"
me: "okay, i'll ask the girls and hopefully we'll join you!"...pause (thinking on my feet)..."oh, you wanna give me a buzz before you leave tomorrow?"
someone: "okay! cool. see ya tomorrow!"

tina: "who was that?"
me: "i have no idea."

act 1.1 through act 1.9 - all night and all morning the next day
me: "crap, who was that?"

act 2 - back at hotel room before dinner next day
me: "dang it, i still have no idea who that was. can someone just call the number and tell me who answers on the voicemail???"
others: "you're so stupid."
me: "tina, c'mon! call from the hotel phone so i don't feel stupid."
tina: "fine!"...dials...someone picks up....tina hangs up. "nice, i just crank called one of your friends."
jenn: "you are so stupid! what's the number. i'll look it up on the internet."...."okay, it says it's a wireless number. c'mon, who did you tell you were going to be in boston?"
me: "amy...neeli...christina...i already talked to all of them."
jenn: "you suck."

act 2.5 - 5 minutes later.
me: "ohhhh! jyoti! i told her!"
jenn: "okay, i'll look her up on the alum page"...(her picture and her cellie pop up)..."there you go! you really are stupid."

act 3 - 2 minutes later.
my nonchalant text to jyoti: "hey stinky. you still going out tonight?"
jyoti's text reply: "who is this?"

of course, i proceeded to give her a hard time about not remembering.

Cougar Rebuttal

2007-10-02T16:41:00.000-07:00

sorry, i'm mistaken. tina says we can't be cougars unless 1) we're divorced or 2) over 40.

the world wide web defines "cougar" as
"a middle-aged (or above) woman, dressed to the nines, out on the prowl looking for young (20-35 year old) men"

...so relatively, aren't we cougars to these little college boys? haha. okay okay, sorry for the shot in confidence.

we are hot. the end.

Cougars

2007-10-02T16:19:00.000-07:00

our weekend trip to beantown was fabulous. i hadn't been back to boston in almost six years, so i spent most of the weekend saying, "awwww, remember when..." it turns out most of the "..."s were drunken stories, which made me wonder if i did any learning at the masschusetts institute of technology.

anyhoo, one of the highlights of the weekend (besides jenn and katie confronting the logan bomb scare-slash-"it's just art" girl from few weeks ago as well as red sox clinching the division title) was when we were walking past fraternity row and saw the sigma chi house. we had spent many a nights at the basement bar of this house. upon a chorus of awww's, jenn decided we had to say hi to the bar. so she rings the doorbell, gets some dude to answer, and says, "hi. we used to hang out here. can you give us a drink?" (classy points. ding ding ding!)

and that's how we ended up at the basement, drinking busch light (see picture below). but unlike our experience 10 years ago, no guy at the house really wanted to pay attention to us. and it wasn't because we weren't wearing low-cut shirts or that we didn't exude "the sexy." my conclusion is that we had become the unthinkable...we had become cougars.

Efficient and a Half

2007-10-01T00:57:00.001-07:00

just now upon arriving at lax from boston, the ground crew announced the connection gates:
"...for those connecting to jfk (new york), please proceed to gate xx..."

wtf. yes, I would like to book a trip to san fran via paris please.

more about beantown trip post-zzzzz's.
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

I'm Still Full

2007-09-26T18:42:00.000-07:00

i promised some of you this picture -- my breakfast yesterday morning. no, i don't eat like this everyday. yesterday was chusuk (korean thanksgiving) and this is the table our fam set to remember and honor our ancestors (please refer to lil sister's blog for a better explanation).

and you ask, how much of this did i help with? i transported almost ALL of the plates from the kitchen to the living room. not only am i full still, but i'm sore.

Lots of Girly Brainpower

2007-09-26T18:31:00.000-07:00

on monday, misty and katie came from NM to visit LA, and so we had a quick mini-reunion watching monday night football. i just wanted to upload a pix of my favorite girlies. and rick. and the old gentleman who might seem like he doesn't belong in this picture but we actually know him and he's quite a social ladies man for someone who graduated from mit in the '50s. gooo tech.

Amigos

2007-09-19T15:53:00.000-07:00

i was walking around old town pasadena today when these two kids asked for some money on the street. they looked about 16, had guitars and backpacks with them, and looked kinda nice for scruffy-looking kids.

anyhoo, it took me a few steps before what they were saying registered in my head:
"can you spare some change? we just want to buy a small bag of weed. just a small one. c'mon."

gotta admit, i kinda wanted to be their friend.

Analogies

2007-09-14T10:11:00.000-07:00

sam bowie : mj :: oden : durant (i actually hope oden comes back strong...i feel so bad for those portland fans)

belichick : rule interpretation :: janet : wardrobe malfunction (go pats!)

everybody : fridays :: sauj : everyday!

tgif everyone!

Fashion Over Function

2007-09-11T13:40:00.000-07:00

in a recent IM conversation with jenn, she said she's picking up golf. normally, my girlfriends who pick up golf ask me for recommendations on driving ranges, club fits, and easy par-3s around LA. normally. but you see? my friend jenn has her priorities straight. her first golf request? she asked me if i could go shopping with her for cute golf outfits, preferably pink tennis-like-but-okay-for-golf skirts.

me: i think girls do pastel capris
jenn: but i saw these women wearing them!
me: okay, okay.

later in the convo...

jenn: i really suck. i tried to putt with my pitching wedge
jenn: that didn't work the way i wanted to
me: hmm...that's...
jenn: it had a "P" on it so i thought putt!
me: ...creative...
jenn: bryan says i have to get lessons

halleluiah!!!!

Momentary Lapse

2007-09-04T22:52:00.000-07:00

so bschool is all about getting a job. it's like a trade school for middle management so understandably, "employment statistics" are quite important to the school. it's been 2.5 months since graduation, and so for those of us who are career deliquents, we get friendly reminders and "check in" emails from the career center peeps.

for some reason, today's reminder bothered me a little more than usual. it told me that sept. 15th (the 3 month mark from graduation) is a critical statistics for the school; prospective students look at this stat along with recruiters and the people who rank the bschools. i scanned the current employment list, and it seemed like everyone had landed a gig...so, needless to say, i felt like a bad alum. for a second.

accompanying the career center email in my inbox was an email from tom addressed to a small group of our classmates. the subject? "unemployed and proud: let's get drinks," which suggested we celebrate the fact we can still go to a bar in the middle of a weekday afternoon. yay.

then, like a big dork, i counted the entries in the spreadsheet: 270. our class was 330 so hey, looks like more people than just tom and i are screwing up the stat. phew.

then, another thought hit me. after sept 15th, the career center won't be sending any more guilt trip emails for their stat! ahhhh. now i can sleep in peace.

White and All

2007-09-03T23:11:00.000-07:00

elissa and matt got married this weekend. as expected, she looked beautiful, and they looked super cute together. yay.

the ceremony was great and reception was fun...though i didn't quite make it through the night. i gave my "i'm leaving" whisper to aly when the real dancing started. i say "real" dancing because there was no way i would have missed my second favorite part of this lovely jewish wedding -- the hora (first fav being screaming "mazel tov" and "l’chaim" at random moments during the night. oh, and the hora is that jewish circular moshpit dance intermixed with the married couple crowd surfin on chairs. double yay.)

so anyhoo, i slipped out with the rest of the grannies in the audience around 11 pm...and boy, was i glad. i was feeling a bit off all night due to the heatwave but it wasn't until i walked in the door that i realized i had broken out in cold sweat and dizzying neusea. needless to say, i didn't get a wink of sleep last night, which sucked cause the power was out all night as well. i hope everyone else was okay. i guess i'm just fragile. please, handle me with care.

well, the weekend didn't start badly though. it was actually really fun. on saturday night at the rehearsal dinner, aly and i had an opportunity to clear up an argument that elissa and matt have had for a while -- who actually asked who out on the first date. we gave a little speech during the dinner and gave out t-shirts to the family members. long story short, i agree with elissa and aly agrees with matt, and no, our little speech didn't clear up anything except who was on whose team.

anyhoo, hope you all had a wonderful weekend! now that labor day has passed, i'm putting away my many white dresses. cause you now me -- i'm a fashionista.

End Is Near

2007-08-31T21:07:00.000-07:00

it's unbelievably hot out today. but more weirdly, i read a book.

seriously.

every occasion for presents, my sis gives me books, clothes, and/or makeup. i guess she thinks i should read more and look better. anyhoo, over the last 4-5 years, i've accumulated a pile of books from the little sister, and i finally picked one up and....finished it. either i'm really bored from the new unemployment or the book was actually fun. try it out: magical thinking by augusten burroughs. it's a quick read.

Palabras

2007-08-30T10:03:00.000-07:00

last night, i held my final tastination food tour (stan is taking the company forward from today on). it was at an oaxacan restaurant and i played tour guide. for the life of me, i could not pronounce the word "oaxaca," which is supposed start with the "wo" sound, not the "oh" sound. no matter how much i heard the word in my head, i just couldn't replicate it verbally -- i guess that's what happens to a korean girl trying to imitate a white girl trying to pronounce spanish. what can i say, my tongue is MIK ("made in korea")!

speaking of words i can't pronounce, why is the word "prepubescent" the hardest word in the english dictionary to say? don't ask why i was using the word to begin with.

anyhoo, more english fun. we made these marketing tshirts for the company yesterday which has the slogan: "take your tastebuds places." unfortunately, the tshirts dudes screwed it up and dropped the last s: "take your tastebuds place." the thing is, my fobby self actually went to approve the proofs and didn't even catch that. oh well, it's just a meant-to-be tribute to original mr. fob!

The Hills Quality

2007-08-22T19:49:00.000-07:00

i think i've finally caught up on all episodes of one of my fav shows on the discovery channel: mythbusters. for those of you haven't seen it, the show has been around for about 5 years -- these guys go around trying to confirm or bust "myths" such as the "five second rule" and "your eyes will pop out if you sneeze with your eyes open"...stuff like that. it's probably my inner geek that enjoys this show (they're almost as geeky as alton brown / good eats! my heart just skipped a beat). but is it only me that when i watch any show on the discovery channel i get that bloodhound gang song stuck in my head?

...you and me baby ain't nothin' but mammals...

hmm. "sweat baby sweat baby" just doesn't mix with these mythbuster geeks. though i think in season one, they busted a myth that silicone breasts can explode at high altitude or low pressure. kinda related.

okay, onto my next obsession -- korean soap operas on the internet. yay.

My Hos

2007-08-22T11:15:00.001-07:00

i was at a starbucks in silverlake mid-day yesterday, and this morning around 10, i went to get some bagels at noah's in larchmont. both times, it was smack in the middle of a workday, and these places were full of people lounging around. i'm not even counting the moms with kids (why they bring kids to a coffeeshop is another q) or the students pretending to study (i can spot these peeps easily...i was just one of those :)). seriously, what do these people do? i guess they can be actor-slash-waiters or hos-by-night, but they look so normal...and so my age...and...

wait, i guess i was there too. maybe they're all unemployed mbas already looking to move on from their startup gigs as well.

Brrr

2007-08-19T19:04:00.000-07:00

i don't think there is much i miss about working in an office building -- except the ever-blasting a/c. the other day when the summer LA sun boiled my room to a toasty 90 degrees (even with celing fan on high), i kept reminiscing about my summer days at chanin. vps and mds who had windowed offices would lower the temp control so freakin' low that we little plebians who lived in the inner cubicle bullpens would just freeze our little arses off. after a lot of useless bitching, i remember debbie and i resorted to bringing in scarves, gloves, parkas, and even beanies to keep ourselves warm. yeah, a little ridiculous for august, but hey, a girl's gotta do what a girls gotta do.

ah, a useless story. but i just told it so i can feel a little cooler. okay, it's time for me to take yet another cold shower. my new slogan -- "cold showers: not just for drunk people anymore."

hmm.

Inspirational Medical Fraud

2007-08-13T21:19:00.000-07:00

i was just catching up with my college roomie lani and reminiscing about our interesting medical ways during college.

lani had this esophogus issue where the tube bent in a weird way. so when she swallowed a piece of food, she sometimes had to bend over and let her head hang upside down in order to proceed with her digestion. to make sure she didn't look odd in the process, we (christina and i) used to "accidentally" drop things on the floor during meals so that she can pick it up and digest at the same time. we were good roomies.

as for me, i was in this new topical drug clinical study to examine some skin flare-ups that i had. in order to track my progress, they asked that i fill out a nutritional chart -- i had to write down everything that i consumed in this calendar. the biggest problem was that each date had only a small writable real estate, and on the first day, i filled up the entire box by 10 am! i felt like a pig and stopped writing.

then, it came for my monthly checkup. i realized that i had a month full of non-data, so i did what any clinical trial patient would do -- i made it up. the girls helped me sanity check by crossing off data such as having a burrito four days in a row. we were good roomies. (oddly enough, the doctor did not find any correlation with my food intake and flare-ups. ha.)

so what are the roomies doing now?
christina is a registered nurse and lani is getting her phd to better understand the effectiveness of certain medical treatments.

Yum

2007-08-12T22:03:00.000-07:00

more from the headlines: grocers to sell dunkin' donuts coffee
(yay, more reasons for me to go play at target!)

as for the weekend, no idea how it flew by, but it included a lobster, a ginormous king crab leg, caviar, and a zantac.

Four! I mean Fore!

2007-08-10T17:24:00.000-07:00

during our golf game yesterday, we ooohed and ahhhed over tom's iphone.

tom: "one of the best features is the google maps. you can type the address or if you forget the name of the place you're looking for, you can type 'cecil's and ribs' and it will bring up the map, address, and the phone number, so you can call it directly!"
me: "um...doesn't the blackberry do that?"
gabe: "yeah dude. mine does."
tom: "well...um...mine has a touch screen!"

good work tom.

for me, "good" wasn't exactly the word that i would have used for myself yesterday. i sprayed and losted seven balls into the bliss of the desert course. needless to say, i need to play more and get golfy back!

on a side note, today there's one piece of news that doesn't affect me at all: "milk prices rise to record highs." go lactards!

Fav Weekend Trivia

2007-08-05T23:31:00.001-07:00

abby said she recently met these irish-mexicans who call themselves the "leprechaunos."

i love it but couldn't think of one way to work it into everyday sauj-speak even in my 2-hour drive back up from sd. anyone?

okay, time to pass the f out from the long, fun-filled weekend. happy b step-on-me!!

Lawyer Talk

2007-07-31T12:15:00.000-07:00

in order to get liability insurance and a bank account, we decided to incorporate the company. even with this simple company structure, there are all these required legal documents, including one to retain the lawyer to draft these suckers in the first place. even after my banking days of reading about liens, claims, terms, etc., i freeze up and my eyes just glaze over when i face any document with lawyer-speak. why can't they just write in plain english? don't they know that's already too much reading for me?

speaking of...yesterday, stan had this printout for his upcoming dmv appointment. according to the paper, the purpose of his visit was to "register, renew, or transfer the title of a vehicle or a vessel."

vessel! now there's a power word. my goal of the day: to get our almost-retained lawyer to use that word somewhere in our docs.

Ebonics

2007-07-28T18:33:00.000-07:00

my friend kat left for japan today to teach english for a year. this is our conversation from last saturday...

me: "you been learning japanese?"
kat: "no. the program offered free japanese classes for the last four saturdays, but i missed them for one reason or another."
me: "is there one today?"
kat: "yeah. i was going to go but i found out about the stila warehouse sale. so i'm here in line instead. one class wasn't going to make a difference."

so wise that kathy.

on another note, the "g" key on my keyboard sticks. but i realize the letter g isn't that critical to me anyway. all the -ing words on my emails end in -in, which just makes me seem gangsta. kinda makes me want to play ebonics scrabble that we used to play in high school where you spell out words in any way you desire. i think nikki creamed us once on a triple word: "faxiz".

High on Fumes

2007-07-23T23:28:00.000-07:00

last week, our investor deal fell through. given the restrictions that the money it came with, we decided that it was the best thing that could've happened at this time. after all the drama unfolded last monday, i decided to do something that every normal human being would do after a "breakup" -- i painted my room.

the picture below sucks, but basically, the room is blue. well, "#777 summer nights" according to benjamin moore and his people.

and for those of you wondering, what did partner stan do post-breakup? he got a haircut. such a copout. :)

oh, yesterday night, i saw a rainbow in the LA sky. i thought was still delirious and high from the paint fumes so i took a pix to confirm.

Me Slow

2007-07-16T23:55:00.000-07:00

a notice to all friends having important personal announcements:

i'm dense. i'm a.d.d. please don't mess with my head. if you have important news such as i'm having a kid, please call and say, "sauj, i'm preggers." or email with the FIRST line saying "sauj, i'm gonna pop out a junior" in large font, capital letters, and flashing neon lights.

do not write nonchalantly about how your boss has b.o. in the same email.
do not write about opening a cookie store.
and definitely do not start the last last sentence with "oh yeah, by the way, i forgot to mention..."

i miss messages like this. or i think it's a joke. and when you call me 11 days after the original message and say, "okay, i'm serious," i can only say "I HATE YOU" and not squeal a high-pitched "congrats" as a nice girly girl like myself normally would, SANDY.

but hey, it's been a few hours: "eeeeeeeeek! congrats dorkus." good thing the kid will have auntie pia to negate out the retarded influences that aunties crystal and sauj will strive to be. i need to strategize now to outdo crystal's run-of-the-mill fit-an-apple-in-your-mouth routine.

It Just Never Dies

2007-07-09T08:49:00.000-07:00

this will only be funny to those who know and have heard about my junior high ways. though i did make a reference to my everlasting fame once before on this blog, last night brian made me crack up like no other over IM.

...as we were chatting about the new company set-up, etc., riz breaks out with the following:

rizzy: have you decided who is going to be your corporate secretary?
you know, the person that does all the BOD minutes and such?
me: ....
rizzy: cause i'd like to make a nomination
me: ....
rizzy: saujin yi for secretary!

Grade Me

2007-07-05T22:30:00.000-07:00

post-mba / struggling entrepreneur's progress report:

A+ to my office / bedroom ceiling fan, my savior from this week's summer heat.

A to all my IM friends who keep me entertained during the work day.

B to our last meeting location (bob's coffee and donuts in the farmers market). all was good until stan asked for a cup of ice. he got ice sans cup. interesting experience.

C to the homeless lady at the next door bank who frequently yells at me for apparently stealing her husband...in spanish. thanks goodness for senor barbosa and high school spanish. i can understand her and enrique iglesia's lyrics.

C- to the little korean kiddies in the preschool across the street who sing way too many high-pitched songs during my nap time...er, i mean business hours.

F to not making money. But a BIG FAT F- to the number 5 -- i lost an all-in hand holding a full house of 7s and 3s to 7s and 5s at a poker night few days ago. losing money when not making money...hurts. even more than when enrique sings about "si tu te vas."

Wise Words

2007-07-01T16:32:00.000-07:00

last week, stan and i were trying to decide if we wanted to take a deal proposed by a potential investor for tastination / fob. we called a trusted professor who told us this about first start-up experiences (oh, he pauses a lot between phrases...insert dramatic effect):

"sometimes. you have to bend over. hold your ankles. and take it like a man. only then. then! you can learn to walk straight."

yeah mba.

on a side note, thanks to all of you who told me i wasn't the idiot for clinging glass wedding tradition thingy. it was confirmed at clif and waimei's wedding last night that it indeed is an american thang. oh speaking of wise, in-n-out truck rolling in during reception? that's pretty genius.

second side note, to all the canadians, happy canada day, eh!

Ha!

2007-06-26T08:57:00.000-07:00

here's a note from my trusted source of info. like bo, "kev knows." here is the encyclopedia himself:

"No, there is something wrong here. Unless midwestern catholics are somehow classified as asian, the silverware-on-stemware tradition is very much American. Wikipedia (the world's most dubious authority) agrees with me. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wedding_traditions"

ha take that! though i hear midwestern catholics are wanna-be asians. another tradition is to throw rice right? that screams fob influence. :)

Info Alert

2007-06-25T23:19:00.000-07:00

i was at mike and becky's wedding this weekend and learned something incredibly fascinating. a wedding tradition that i always thought was american, turned out to be...not. let me recreate this mind-blowing conversation for you. i am THAT generous.

polly (derek's wifey): "you know at weddings when you cling the glasses and the couple has to kiss?"
laura and me: "yeah, totally."
polly: "is that an asian or an american thing?"
the asians (derek, laura, and me): "american!"
polly: "i don't think so. ask the others at the table."

me to dylan (sitting next to me): "you know when you cling the glasses at weddings and the couple has to kiss? that's an american thing, right?"
dylan: "um, what? never heard that before."
me (smacking him on the arm): "don't lie!"
derek: "maybe he's too young. ask jaime."

me to rest of table who happen to be white / "american": "what does it mean when people cling glasses at weddings?"
jaime (while others nod in agreement): "someone's about to give a toast."
me: "the couple doesn't have to kiss??!?!"
others: "no. never heard that before."

polly: "see?!?!?!?"
the other dumb-founded asians: "weird."
me to dylan: "sorry i hit you."

see? aren't you glad you spent the last minute reading my rendition of this fascinating conversation? oh, here's a pix of the lovely newlyweds. (and akosa, not that you read this, but biting someone's forearm and leaving teethmarks = not any wedding tradition i've heard of either. it still hurts!)

random shoutout:
willets - can't wait to have you in the best coast. sun, surf, smog, and traffic eagerly await your arrival.

They Called Me CF

2007-06-21T09:26:00.000-07:00

back in '99, some of my college buddies and i spent a summer in ann arbor. we spent most weekends camping, swimming in lakes, crossing the border to windsor (go canada's drinking age!), visiting motown museums, and more. towards the end of the summer, we were headed on a small road trip to ohio to see an offspring concert. in the drive over, misty was showing off her newly-developed pictures:

misty to kevin: "hey, look! isn't that a fun picture of me and sauj?"

this picture, similar to the last one in my last blog entry, was one of those flip your camera around, stick your arm out and take a funny picture with you and your friend kind of picture. except we were doubly funny as misty and i were making these blowfish faces.

kevin: "haha. sauj, it looks like someone drew your face with a compass!"
me (being sensitive about my very round face): "um, not funny dude."
misty: "hahaha! sauj, you're compass face!"

so. why was i reminded of this not-so-entertaining story?

well, at least my granny tells me that my face...is round...and bright...like the moon. hmm, come to think of it, maybe it's time i consider a post-mba workout plan.

10 Anos

2007-06-20T20:05:00.000-07:00

it's been 10 years to the day that my fellow nitros (don't ask -- our high school mascot was a dynamite stick) and i graduated from ghs. though our reunion isn't until the fall, i assume that most of us have accomplished a lot in this period of time. i frequently hear of news like, "did you know such and such had her second kid?" or "so and so just opened a law firm in pasadena" and feel proud of the fact all the gtown hooligans are all making something of their lives.

so, what did the last 10 years bring me? a fancy gown, a hood, a lei from tina (she really wanted to say "i got you a lay"), and a very tasty can of coke.

oh, and some awesome amigos (i.e. new set of hooligans to keep track of). yeah, the mba thing was definitely worth it.

Sauj Math

2007-06-11T23:05:00.000-07:00

after you go on a 6 month hiatus from drinking and then suddenly, you decide to have a wham bam thank you ma'am rockstar weekend in vegas, what does your body do? reject living for a while. even though my headache went away post-alka selzter (i love you!), my tummy is still nauseous and my body is sore. okay, so the sore part is not from the drinking but from my out-of-shape lazy ass self trying to put together some sexy-only-to-yourself-when-your-drunk dance moves for two straight nights. but you get the point. me = hurtin'.

so, to demonstrate my retarded drunkenness, let me tell you how i lose money in style in vegas. here's me at the hard rock single deck blackjack table.

episode 1
dealer named kim who has worked in casinos for 18 years even though her plan was to take a one-year break before applying to law school (showing a mother f'in king): "yes?"
me (holding a 6 and an 8): "hit please."
kim: "a 9."
me (sliding my cards face down): "cool."
(kim finishes dealing. she shows a 17.)
kim: "um, you can flip your cards over when you bust."
me: "huh? i had good cards!"
kim: "you have 23."
nora chimes in from the peanut gallery: "can you believe she went to mit?"
me: "hey! don't you have mit alums in some blackball list in casinos?"
kim: "i highly doubt you are on it."

episode 2 (two deals later)
me (holding a 5 and an ace): "hit please"
kim: "4."
me: "hit please"
kim: "Q"
me: "yay!"
(kim finsihes dealing. she shows 18.)
me: "go me. i win, i had a 20!"
kim: "um, yeah, you had 20 TWICE. you can really stop the first time you get it."

i know i make my alma mater proud. me and my retarded, aging, weak sauce, drunk, card shark, dancing machine self. thanks vegas!

Fobs

2007-06-09T08:46:00.000-07:00

before heading to our dis-orientation in vegas, i thought i'd post a picture of our fob team. few of you have asked, who the f are all these people you keep talking (sh*t) about? here they are. haha. :)

An Addendum

2007-06-06T19:56:00.000-07:00

oh, last week sometime, i actually looked at the back of that "horny" shot glass that my mom uses for the family dining table's carnation vase.

from the bottom is says:

2 oz. - cold as ice
4 oz. - getting a headache
6 oz. - maybe a quickie
8 oz. - horny as hell!!!

this only has to happen in a fobby family, right? yeah, that's right, i said the f word.

More Nerd Careers

2007-06-06T19:51:00.000-07:00

oh phew. something for the girls too on the mit list. i'm offended. but then again, i'm jobless right now...hmm.

WAIT, but i full on admit i love celebrity gossip (who can't stop reading about paris' night in jail?). oh well.

------

Casting Females With Brains ASAP!!! Please Forward.

Are you tired of turning on the TV and watching the same cookie-cutter girls over and over again?

Do you love math, science, computers, comic books, or games that require thinking?

Is fashion and style low on your list of priorities?

Are you a girl who is all brains and couldn't care less about celebrity gossip?

Is it difficult to find a good guy?

A Major Television Network wants you for a show shooting for 6 weeks this summer!

Please send us an e-mail telling us about yourself along with a current picture and a contact number ASAP!

Come on girls! Let's level the playing field!

If you fit the bill we will need you to audition this week!

Nerd Career

2007-06-06T19:45:00.000-07:00

only on the mit alum list do you get the following announcement. what? shouldn't they be looking for the beauties on our list? haha.

------

The CW Network's breakout hit reality show BEAUTY AND THE GEEK is casting for season four in the LOS ANGELES AREA

Produced by Ashton Kutcher and Jason Goldberg ("Punk'd"), BEAUTY AND THE GEEK pairs gorgeous but academically impaired women with brilliant but socially challenged men to test intellect and social skills. This cycle will remain true to the series' format, pairing the women with the men for a chance to win up to $250, 000 cash prize.

ARE YOU A GEEK AND WANT TO HELP A BEAUTY?

We are currently seeking...

• Intellectually endowed but socially inept men who can turn a shopper into a scholar

• Beauties and Geeks willing to work together and compete for the opportunity to win a substantial cash prize!!

Yay!

2007-05-25T02:35:00.000-07:00

i've drunk-dialed before. drunk-emailed before. but never drunk-blogged before. until now that is.

our business plan team, tastination (formerly known as mr. fob) won the school's competition tonight. Going up against four other teams, which included med devices and homeland security software, our measly little idea won. needless to say our team celebrated...and celebrated well (i just got a text from laura that she tossed her cookies). somewhere in the night, annu told me that i had to announce to the world that we won on my blog when i got home. so, ta da.

anyhoo, i'm too retarded and tired to make sense, but thank you all for your support. we'll be having a food tour soon...and with our winnings, including a 6-month lease on an office space, we're soooo open for business. :) yay!

TMT (Too Much Tina) and More

2007-05-14T23:50:00.000-07:00

okay, warning. longer entry than normal. i feel like lindy.

this weekend was a blur. i spent most of it with tina II - a concert, few bars, a comedy show (that we never made), a housewarming, a mothers' day, and few more etc's. i basically recall yelling "TMT, TMT!!!" to tina for no particular reason. so what do you do when you don't remember? you turn to your handy camera to remind you of your stupid times.

so, i just looked. i got two pictures for you.

1. the preferred parking situation
due to last weeks' fire at griffith park, the keane concert was moved from the greek to the gibson in universal. tina had won vip tix with comped parking for the event, but unfortunately, with the venue change, it was quite confusing. after tina yelled at a parking booth guy for making us pay and sweet-talked a preferred parking guard, we self-directed ourselves into the preferred parking area because we claimed ourselves v-i-p. once we got out of the truck, we realized that every car around us had these pink slips on their windshields. so, what does tina do? she goes to the car next to us, rips its pink sheet in half and puts it on my truck. voila. tina = an action hero.

then, we start walking towards the venue and then my worrywart consciences kicks in. "tina, what if i get towed?"

so, after a few "dude, you're retarded"s, we decide to f our v-i-p status and move to the common people's parking lot. as we're driving in, our half-ripped, stolen pink slip that is still hanging on our windshield catches the attention of another parking attendant. she furiously waves us over and moves several cones to make way for us to get to yet another preferred parking area! moving at like 0.00000001 mph, i drive towards her with my guilt-ridden face. tina = not so much an action hero. here's the stupid 1/2 ticket.

2. mothers' day moment
i went to gtown for dinner yesterday. what do i spot in the middle of our dinner table? just a pretty pink carnation in a thin vase with some writing on it. as i get closer, i realize it's a shot glass sandy got me during college that i left at my parents' house...here it is. if you can't read what it says: "Caution. sober to horny in four shots." yup. mothers' day dinner centerpiece.

oh, we picked tastination. www.tastination.com. we present this baby in the finals of our biz plan competition next week. fun times.

Mr. Word Smith

2007-05-08T12:20:00.000-07:00

the fob renaming project is way way harder than i ever imagined. we're currently at about 40 back-and-forth emails with potential names. the biggest hurdle is that the urls for the names we like are not available...such a bummer. anyhoo, currently, we're messing with names like:

- ethnicfoodie.com
- tastination.com or tastynations.com
- mr. (or dr.) juan ton

thoughts? the juan ton thing cracks me up so much...but i figure we'll run into the same issues as mr. fob.

oh, and speaking of misters and doctors, i just updated my resume. i figure it's about time to find a job. here's my last line:

interests: golf, snowboarding, discovering new restaurants, following the NBA, and mastering dr. mario (NES version)

...yup, i still hope to beat steph and mama yi one day.

Insert Name Here

2007-05-02T11:46:00.000-07:00

as i mentioned a while back, few bschool friends and i have been trying to run a small business called mrfob. we take people to undiscovered authentic ethnic restaurants, order them food, and teach a little something about the cuisine. the whole thing has been so much fun...until last week when we started to receive complaints that the name of our company was not...um...PC.

there's so much more to this story than i probably should tell in a public forum like this. i guess we always knew our name is edgy, but i absolutely love it. it's fobulous! since i and the world around me have always used it in a playful manner, such as calling myself a fob, i never thought much of it. but i've learned that american society is more sensitive than pmsing chicks.

in any case, my team currently is considering new names. i tried to rebel, but i know it's the right thing for us. we've kicked around some ideas, but you = smart / creative / politically correct and have better ones?

my favorite thus far is going by a symbol (perhaps chopsticks) and calling ourselves "the company formerly known as mrfob." har har, i make my fobby self laugh.

Random K Thoughts

2007-04-18T10:40:00.000-07:00

me @ home. yay.

after a whirlwind travel through korea, i'm home in one piece. i started from the south in jeju (korea's hawaii) and traveled up the east coast and then ended in seoul for a few days. i never really traveled through korea before and for how small the peninsula is (maybe the size of socal), there's so much character to each little region. the food, the accents, etc...it's like if people in westwood spoke with a totally different accent than those in pasadena.

fortunately, on the organized portion of the tour, i was able to meet some new friends -- other korean americans visiting from the states. we kept laughing at stupid things that would only be funny to us, such as:

- the name of the main volcanic mountain in jeju island is called halla mountain. halla!
- the fish cake skewer soup is called oh-dang. ooooh dang.

crap like this...on and on.

this is us busting up a soju tent near sorak mountain (don't mind the random old guy on the left...we made friends in the tent).

as you can see from the pix, there was a white guy in the group. he was the husband of one of the korean american girls. to the jr. high girls in korea, the blond hair-blue eyes made him look like some celebrity. this is them screaming and running up to him for an autograph at some park.

hmm, what else. at some point, i ate live squid. seriously, these suckers were like gliding off the plate!

oh, and did you know that you can go shopping at like midnight in seoul? we were bargaining for pants at 1:30 am. i walked out of the shopping mall and saw that you can even get classes made 24 hours a day. you know, just in case you broke your glasses in your sleep.

anyhoo, i'm too pooped to make this blog entry make sense. but oh dang, i'm glad to be home. halla.

Soooo Full

2007-04-12T16:41:00.000-07:00

i'm alive in motherland. i woke up early to go on a little hike, but it just started raining, so i'm spending my free time emailing before i have to catch the bus.

korea is great. it's very scenic and the spring time here is gorgeous...with the blossoming flowers, etc.

i always thought i look pretty standard korean but it's been really interesting to see how many koreans address me in english even before i say a word. maybe i just look lost.

the best thing about this country is the food. i feel like i'm in grub heaven...i keep eating big meals and then snacking on the street stands and then buying little packages of junk food at the convenience stores for the downtimes in between. i don't say this often, but i think i'm actually full.

People

2007-04-07T00:40:00.000-07:00

so for days i was looking at the word "tibetans"(people of tibet) and thinking...how the heck do you pronounce that? is it like the word "haitians" (people of haiti)? and at yesterday night's dinner, i learned that "tibetans" does not have an "i". so tricky.

anyhoo, nothing much to report here except that i'm off to korea for a little vacay starting tomorrow. i'm going to see the koreans (people of korea). i plan to wave around my american passport as bait to see if a man will bite. just kidding. geez, how desperate do you think i am!

well, i will try to blog while there, but if not, don't miss me too much!

Make Me Alien Again

2007-04-02T22:02:00.000-07:00

jury duty sucks. i haven't even gone in yet and it's totally ruining my game. i really mean game!

a new sf friend (from my trip in feb) called me this morning: "i got opening day tickets in the box at candlestick tomorrow. wanna fly up? only thing is you have to decide right now..." and i, on total break from real life right now, was like, "sure!" and then it hit me.

"oh crap. i have to call later today to see if i have to go into jury duty. i'm on call this week."

"so does that mean you can't?"
(pout, pout) "yeah. ugh. well, it's okay. i hate the giants anyway." (pout, pout)

and yeah, you guessed it, i don't have to go in tomorrow. i miss my resident alien status.

White Flag

2007-03-27T20:34:00.000-07:00

dang, i've been lazy. drained of energy from...laying down. i can't even muscle a blog entry for you foos.

it took too much effort to flip from one side to the other while watching every minute of march madness games last weekend. nevertheless, 3 of my 4 final four picks are in (go ucla!) and for those of you who turn off the gtown game with 5 minutes to go, you suck!

anyhoo, what is it about getting super sick after you're done with something big? after i quit work, come back from a trip, or graduate, my body's white blood cells just decide to stop combatting those icky viral attackers? a-holes i say.

well, i promise to have more interesting things to say soon. maybe i just need a little booster tequila shot. 4,3,2,1, get yo' woman on the floor!

Madness in March

2007-03-18T15:46:00.000-07:00

sorry for the MIAness once again. but i had good reason -- i was finishing up the quarter and...ta da, i'm done with classes for good! give me an m! m. give me a b! b. give me an a! a. what's the spell? a big fat dork! thank you thank you.

well, i shouldn't say i'm totally done. i still have to grade a stack of papers and then...it's all madness i tell ya. i have big plans to...find a job. :)

anyhoo, onto more fun topics. marchy march. who's your pick? i got UCLA going all the way in one pool. i had to, i'm a bruin now you know.

hmm, anything else interesting in my world? i saw razorlight in concert recently (thanks rizzy!), got a short haircut (thanks fobby hair stylest man!), and wrote some fun final papers (thanks profs!). oh, a recap of a recent convo:

"joann, some first year told me that i had a dry sense of humor."
"sauj, you so don't. you laugh at fart jokes. your sense of humor is like the lowest common denominator."

awww, thanks jojo.

Fatty and Phatty

2007-03-08T08:09:00.000-08:00

on monday night, i had my last finance class with professor cockrum, a 70+ year old ex-investment banker, who is funny as heck in his sharp-yet-aloof grandfathery sort of way. anyhoo, in the middle of our three-hour class, we get a 10 minute break. at the end of the break, everyone was assembled back in the classroom, attentive and ready to go. then, you heard cockrum looking up at the backrow and saying, "WHERE'S FATTY? IS HE OUT FEEDING HIS FACE?!?!?!"

it was hilarious. the guy he was referring to is this part-time student named fadi (i think pronounced fah-di). it's been three days and annu and i still can't stop laughing about it. hmm, come to think of it, it's not even that funny. but still. FATTY!!!!

well, what was actually phat was christina aguilera's performace on tuesday night. she freakin' can sing! i know my musical taste is all over the place, but christina was most def hot and spicy. she sang all my favs: candy man, circus song, hurt...and busted out some "classics" like fighter, beautiful, and moulin rouge. oh, and she brought up a dude from the audience during the naughy boy song and i turned to jenn and tina and said, "dude! who is that guy? he's like a celeb!" then i realized i only know him through the celeb gossip blog i read -- he was perez from perezhilton.com. and he is def just f-a-t.

anyhoo, a little shoutout to the little sister: happy b, kid! your insurance rate drops today! and for those of you wondering, i just called her and she did recognize my voice. she's definitely a better person than i am.

Run Lola Run

2007-03-04T12:04:00.000-08:00

today is LA marathon day. per usual, the route went through ktown, so i decided to walk my lazy butt a few blocks to see the runners. well, i actually had another inspiration this time -- laura and erin were running in the 'thon and i was hoping to catch them for a little cheering session.

while getting ready, my aunt decided she wanted to join me. we walked to the corner of 6th and oxford and waited for the numerous people passing us by. i told my aunt to be on the lookout for tallish chinese and white girls...big mistake. she would point out every asian / white girl combo in sight from then on. "there!" "no, auntie." "how about them!" "no no."

even with this duo-effort, somehow we missed them anyway.

BUT i did manage to take a picture of this totally oblivious korean lady crossing the street through the marathon. a picture doesn't do justice but she was really walking at a .0002 miles per hour speed direclty through the runners. go ktown!

oh, on a side note, i had the best blueberry pancakes for brunch yesterday at a place called marston's in pasadena. as alice called them, "they're kinda crepe-y"...doesn't matter what they are, they are G-O-O-D!

Contribution Denied

2007-03-01T12:55:00.000-08:00

i'm a law-abiding citizen of the united states. i try to vote when i can (yes, i can vote; i'm not an alien anymore...i've been a real citizen for over 5 years now!), i never park in handicap spots, and i pick up trash on the street if i see it. so, i couldn't let the street signage go misspelled for too long...i had to report it like a good samaritan that i pretend to be.

per laura's suggestion, i called the beverly hills mayor's office. a perky lady picked up the phone.

me: "i know this is totally random, but you have a misspelled sign in your city. can you let me know who i should report this to?"
the perky lady: "do you know what street it was?"
me: "yes, it's moreno street. the little sign at the corner of moreno and little santa monica is messed up."
TPL: "oh! someone else already reported it! don't worry i already told the public works and transportation office."
me (disappointed): "thanks."
TPL: "thanks for calling!"

sad. hmm, it wasn't one of you faithful blog readers who one-upped me, was it? :)

on a side note, i finished that china dolls book. very cute, very chick lit-cheesy, but if anyone wants a quick and relaxing read, let me know...

Dyslexia in 90210

2007-02-28T10:18:00.000-08:00

yesterday morning, i'm back-street driving through beverly hills to get to century city for work and i get stuck at a light. i'm staring up at the traffic light and the street sign and i see this, which is perfectly normal.

then, i start to look around and i see this:

is it weird that the government doesn't spell check? do i need to be a good citizen and report this? i don't want any other fobs to get confused.

and no, i'm not a danger to society by taking pictures on the road. don't you all chat on cellies, type on crackberries, drink coffee, eat bento boxes, and take pictures while driving as well? at least i don't do make-up and hair in the car! i mean, THAT would be dangerous.

Teeny World

2007-02-25T16:34:00.000-08:00

so i think today is officially day 8 of my bday hanukkah. last night the world spewed out few of my old buddies from csfb days into the city of LA - catania from canada, fobby from hk, and pazzy from sf. it was fun reminiscing about the crappy analysts days...no wonder more of us ended up in the peace corps than lasted in banking.

anyhoo, this morning while i'm at my parents' house picking up my mail, i decide to call my sister to catch up:

yuj - "hey"
me - "yo. calling you from home cause my cell is out of minutes."
...then i tell her about my reunion last night with "rob the hk guy," "jee the one who married the korean korean girl," "paz the bolivian," "catania the canadian"...then she cuts me off:
yuj - "unni, your descriptions suck. do you really expect me to know these people?"
me - "hmm. i guess not." (are you wondering how i describe you now?)
...we continute with more convo about random bs.
me - "anyhoo, i better run, but let's talk again soon. call me when you get bored. but not before wed cause i'm out of minutes until then."
yuj - "um...don't you have free night and weekends?"
me - "oh man. you're right! crap, i lost my excuse not to call people back. dang it."

oh, look at sis's snow artistry; she's very talented: http://rhymeswithhuge.blogspot.com/

what else. oh, on friday, i went to this book promotion event at school to get some free grub and found out one of the authors is a ny lawyer girl i worked with when i was at my last job. i never met her but spent a ridiculous number of hours on the phone with her discussing a bankruptcy case. since we both had unique names, we "recognized" each other. first time that's come in handy.

anyhoo, she and her cousin co-wrote a chick lit novel called china dolls and they are on a book tour. the book is a story about three ny asian-american girls...a "cross between joy luck club and sex and the city." i'm about half way through right now and it's quite cute. go support the asian peeps and read it...

but talk about small world! i'm telling you, don't piss off anyone, you never know where they will show up in your life next. wise words from the old lady. no, not my mom, me!

Wild Child

2007-02-22T11:34:00.000-08:00

so everyone's been asking - so what did you do for your big day?!?!!

um. yeah. i'm lame. i ate bfast (yes, seaweed soup) with parental units. i went to work. i went to class. i said what's up to big g. then i went home and slept. wooooo hooooooo!!!!

BUT, get this. the night before? for the big celebration with my anderson friends?!?!
i went bowling.

yup. to quote yuj:
"you're wild.
WILD."

i know. giving up booze has def made me lame. but as katie says, we can always go out for some "mocktails" this weekend. anyone in? sat night at the W. canada, fobby, et al will be in town.

this will be me: "bartender! i would like a cranberry vodka please." "oh, hold the vodka."

I Heart My Friends...

2007-02-21T17:10:00.000-08:00

thanks for all the love today - emails, e-cards, texts, IMs, friendster / myspace messages, phone calls - i love you all!

some of the classics from the day:

nora / jenn - "stupid, happy birthday"

sandy - "ms. yi, it has been brought to my attention that you are old today..."

riz - "i just wanted to say, happy ash wednesday. also, happy new yorker magazine day! (first issue published today in 1925). also, happy comminist manifesto day! (1848). and happy romanov dynasty (1613) and washington monument (1885) days!"
"...and... um... well i guess that's everything. i don't recall any other important items happening on this day."
"oh, wait! i totally forgot! happy international mother language day!"

yuj - (in an unrecognizable very very squeaky voice and from a non-caller IDed number) "happy biirrrrrrrrrthday!"
my response: "who is this?"
yuj: "you don't recognize your only sister's voice?!?!?!?"
me: "i was just kidding."

um. i wasn't kidding. sorry yuj. love ya.

Neutral Face

2007-02-20T14:18:00.000-08:00

i've had this conversation with many people before, but something just happened that triggered the thought for me again. there's a dude presenting in front of class, and it's a q&a format. when he's listening to a question from the prof, he seriously looks like he's going to cry. the poor guy has a sad / whiny / crybaby neutral face!

have you thought about your neutral face? sv is convinced she has a biatch neutral face though i think it's more of a contemplative one. how about you? what's yours?

mine is definitely sophisticated, uber chic, intelligent, come-get-this-mama face.

Mr. Brightside

2007-02-17T15:53:00.000-08:00

i can't believe how awesome it is out today...even for LA. it's over 80 degrees and sunny...and hot-diggity-dog, it's also a long weekend in my favorite month! so all this added together, you would think i would be oh-so-happy. but for a bit there today, i wasn't.

my computer pooped out on me last weekend and after a little tease of life through the week, it officially went kaput yesterday. it sucked. i just didn't realize how dependent i was on my laptop. and though i got a loaner (i love you price center girls) to get me through the weekend, i was determined to find a laptop surgeon to revive my baby.

so with instructions from ibm / lenovo, i went to a few stores today but totally got the run-around. after i was fed up, sitting in my truck and sweaty from the 80 degree weather, i called them back and started complaining, "dude, wtf." just like that.

the guy on the other end gave me a new set of instructions about mailing it in, etc. and then i said, "why didn't your associates tell me this sooner? i just went all over the city!"
and he said, "look on the brightside, you got a nice scenic tour of the city you haven't seen in a while, right?"

i laughed. barely.

anyhoo, my laptop will be going into operation in hot-lanta on tuesday via post office. please wish it luck. i hope it survives, but hey, if it totally dies even after surgery then at least it can see denny and that really cute paramedic guy from grey's anatomy.

btw, totally unrelated, did you know it is "lo and behold," not "low and behold"? i just looked it up.

Be. Mine.

2007-02-14T10:37:00.000-08:00

happy vday all! i used to get annoyed at valentine's day but i'm at a new phase in life where i get annoyed at the people who hate valentine's day. you hear the "oh, it's a hallmark holiday" or "there is nothing more UNromantic then when someone tells you to be romantic"...blah blah blah. i guess vday has become like really bad movie - it's so bad that it's good. three words: stomp. the. yard.

speaking of vday, congrats v! our "classmate friends" sarah v. and nate got engaged over the weekend and it's quite cute. i gave her a hard time about notifying me over email while i was in sf...mainly because she couldn't hear me squeal like a little girl.

oh and about sf, i got a funny message from crystal who said, "...i hope you're doing well in sf - is it weird that i know where you are because of your blog? i feel like a stalker." well, stalker-slash-avid-reader james, who lives in sunnyvale, texted me after reading the entry and we were able to hang out in sf. thus, i welcome stalker-ism.

let's see. so today (yes, vday) is papa yi's bday. he was born full of love and heart-shaped candies. this morn, i got up at the ass-crack of dawn to drive up to gtown to have bfast with the parentals. mama yi cooked up seaweed soup (it's what koreans have on their bdays). YUM. only prob is that we had our massive indian fob dinner last night (which was fantastic, thanks to all of you who came) and i think the residual indian food was and is currently fighting against my korean bfast in a warzone called my tummy . oh, and i had to sit through 1.5 hours of traffic to get to westside this morning...and...okay okay, i'll stop. But really, there's nothing more that says "happy valentines day" than some good ol' T.M.I.

Hello Droppee

2007-02-09T16:54:00.001-08:00

i am currently sitting in a school in the middle of san francisco as part of a four-day entrepreneur training program. i am one of nine mba fellows here - suckers who "volunteered" a weekend for a chance to work with a group of entrepreneurs in improving their businesses. okay, it's not bad at all, but i am tired, internet-less (thank god for bb), and dressed in biz cas on a friday afternoon. wah.

about two hours ago, a professor from anderson arrived in order to teach the afternoon session. the thing with this prof is that for the last three quarters, i have signed up for his class and dropped it. the worst was last quarter where i went to his class for two sessions, got cold called, and the dropped it thereafter. anyhoo, despite my paranoia, i didn't think he would remember me so when he arrived, i said, "hi professor sussman, i am saujin" shaking his hand. and he responds, "saujin yi. you dropped my class like a bad habit!".

for the first time in a long time i had no comeback.
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

Avid (Well, BORED) Blog Readers

2007-02-06T22:26:00.000-08:00

last friday, i got all dolled up (well, clarification - tina / jenn dolled me up as i'm quite incapable of doing it myself) for anderson's casino night. it's basically prom (with booze) for mbas with the excuse of fundraising for charity. anyhoo, upon my first lap through the venue, it wasn't the open bar, auctions, dance floor, nor my sexied out classmates that caught my attention -- it was gabe's fiance gloria who came up to me and said, "you are the last person in the world using bar soap. body wash!" glad someone is reading this pointless blog (hi glo!).

hmm, what else. on sunday for the superbowl, i went over to tom and dan's for their "frybowl." the boyz fried up everything from buffalo wings, tater tots, onion rings to hot dogs. they even fried up dessert -- fried oreos, snickers bars. as you can guess, sauj's fragile tummy let her owner know this type of fried fiesta is a no-no -- i had a hard time sleeping sunday night and it wasn't because i was recapping grossman's ass performance during the game.

speaking of fragile, i just came home from trish's where eileen and i visited her newborn for the first time. trish told me that i could hold the kid, and after a quick lesson from mike (her hubby), i had the baby in my arms. and i should've expected, about ONE-POINT-TWO seconds later, the baby was busting up crying -- dang, kid, i got the point! you are no fan of mine! but it's okay, i can be patient until the kid grows up and learns to read (blogs). he and i can discuss the merits of bar soap (specifically, dove cool moisture) vs. body wash.

Price Is Wrong, Bitch

2007-02-01T14:10:00.000-08:00

i'm so sad. i'm supposed to be in the audience of the price is right taping right now. instead i'm sitting in class. i even practiced my "1 dollar bob!" because i was so sure i will be picked...but alas, i couldn't use it. what happened you ask? well, the mit club was supposed to provide 20 people today. we had 19. one stupid chick (i don't know her so i can call her "stupid") called sick in the morning and we couldn't find a replacement. so, 19 of us got screwed from seeing bob.

i'm so sad. i was so sure i would win a camper today. sad sad sad.

well, i'm determined to see bob before he retires, so i'll be putting together a group to go see him within the next two months (prob a thursday). if you want in, email me. and if you get sick and screw me over from playing plinko...i WILL punch you in the face.

sauj's current mood: sad with a splash of fiesty

Viva Viva

2007-01-29T23:07:00.000-08:00

first of all, why is "exclusivity" the hardest word to pronounce ever. just when i master the formerly-known-as-the-hardest-word-to-pronounce ever, "spontaneity,"...this freakin' word comes out of left field and gets all tackled on my tongue. (oh, and why is it "left field"? i love left field. that's where i resided from little league to high school softball and chewed up a lot of sunflower seeds. but i digress.)

anyhoo, to more important stuff. today, i got a hold of a pair of tickets to see a speaker series event featuring the former mexican president vicente fox. well, it wasn't just any old pair of tix...it was v to the i-p, baby - second row where you can see antonio villaraigosa (he introduced fox)'s winkles, fox's wifey doing the kissy kissy holas with the front row, etc.

but the best part of sitting up close? you can see that the presidente was reading his speech script from his blackberry!!!! (the same model as mine. who's cool now?) sigh, only if i had the senor's email address - i would've pinged him a little, "you're doing good, man. buen trabajo!" (is that even a phrase? hmm.)

Chillin' Drillin'

2007-01-25T20:25:00.000-08:00

the soap dish in my shower always accumulates water. even if i remember to pour out the water, the bottom of the soap (dial with aloe right now) gets all mushy anyway with the leftover water that i couldn't shake out. anyhoo, tonight, i had it. so, i drilled a 1/4 inch hole at the bottom of the plastic dish (safety note: i couldn't find my pappalardo lab safety glasses so my ojos went unprotected). result - it's working great:

hmm, what else. oh, i think i'm losing it. my ADD has fully invaded my short memory territory. there was a moment today where i took out my cellie to check the time. after looking at the time, i put the phone back in my bag...and then forgot what time i just saw. hmm, maybe i'm just aging? old fobby girl = me. wah.

oh, here's my fob moment of the day - it's "you have piqued my interest" not "you have PEAKED my interest." engrish. it's so hard.

Credit Where Due

2007-01-21T22:45:00.000-08:00

okay, peyton finally pulled it off. good for him. i give him his props...that was mighty fine. see? i give credit to those who deserve it. which take me to...

so, many peeps (lindy, laura, etc.) have been crediting me for the "the end" phrase. wrong. i'm actually a victim / stealer / copycat (damn, more cat references...wtf) as well. that was from ex-roomie steph.

oh, few other phrases that i use ridiculous too much so thus i must credit the origins:
- "sad" (used when i'm...sad.) - i think this was from j. shapiro in college.
- "wow" (used usually when i have no comeback) - i think this might be basel from work?
- "jive turkey" (no idea how it's used actually) - i think this was a result of misty putting an email through an ebonics translator...

okay, the end.

Underrated

2007-01-20T15:33:00.000-08:00

i treated myself to mickey d's deluxe big breakfast this morning. it's the usual big breakfast (hash brown, egg, sausage, bacon, english muffin) with pancakes added. it was quite delicious (my artery disagrees) and i was like, "man, mickey d's bfast is so underrated!" to clarify: i thought it, not said it.

on that note, i started thinking about some of the most underrated things in my life (i'm not listing the cheeasy things like fam, friend, etc...where do you think i am? in women's leadership class?). underrated = i forget to say "you rock my world" but without it i would die.

- chapstick
- IM (lately, gtalk)
- socks (and for that matter all underwear)
- gas (for fueling your car...not crystal's smellies)
- per laura right now on IM: "oxygen. we never thank oxygen. the list could be endless."

i guess she's right. way to ruin my entry momentum, laura.