24 Fiasco

after a 3 week break, i'm back in classes. it's actually quite funny to see everyone again. it doesn't feel at all we've missed a beat. same annoying people, same cool people.

anyhoo, gotta tell you about yesterday. so i was watching 24 like an addict that i am with zero sleep and got to disk 5. but when i went to the box to retrieve it, i was surprised to find two disk 4's and no disk 5 (there are 6 dvd's total)! i was so distraught that i sat blankly for two minutes...then, i went to my computer, looked up the synopsis for the next four episodes (which would have been in disk 5), read them, and then popped in disk 6 to finish the season.

im-patience is a virtue, man. i get shit done. boooyah.

Can't...Stop...

no i'm not talking about my drinking (oj) habits. i'm talking about just coming home from hollywood at 1:45 am and popping in episode 9 of season 4 of 24 (the drinking is making me want to blog all of a sudden). i didn't originally start watching season 4 because i didn't want to have yet another show to be addicted to (project runway already takes so much time!), but my good friend hasmik-jan gave me the dvds...and...well, i just started watching last night at 11 pm and watched 8 episodes before i fell asleep.

i hope to get some sleep tonight, but dang that hasmik!

Merry Armo Christmas

today is armenian christmas. i hope all of you have grand plans to celebrate the day. my mom, who teaches at our old high school, has the day off today because glendale unified school district has declared the day a holiday due to the number of kids who are armenian in the schools. glendale really is second armenia. oh, i mean "ge-len-dale". -ian.

speaking of holidays, i only have a few more days before school starts up again. i've been enjoying my time off so much i don't think i'm ready to think again. i went to meet my advisor yesterday who was worried that i was doing nothing in terms of summer internship recruitment or anything remotely close to a career search. in the middle of the discussion, he told me that maybe i was best off back in an investment bank. i laughed so hard my stomach still hurts (yes, i'm that out of shape).

Happy New Year!

hope everyone had a great eve. thanks for all of you for those drunk dial text and voice messages. i knew i can count on all of you. 2005 was full of changes and fun, and i really hope 2006 has a lot of great things in store for all of us.

anyhoo, to ring in the new year, a quick tribute to a few of my favorite things...

- my toy stores: sports chalet and home depot. i seriously feel like a kid in a candy store whenever i go into those stores. but then again, when i leave home depot, i always get this guilt trip driving past those mexican dudes on the streets waving you down for a job.

- my uber lush friends: only jenn and tamra can pull off checking out a new bar at 3:45 pm after a nail appointment. oh, this bar wasn't even open for business yet, but they were able to coerce a "happy hour" price for a full bottle of wine.

- my techy fam: i think this picture says it all. my granny on her cell at 9 am this morning saying "happy new year!" to her granny friends. kinda like that boost mobile commercial, eh?

Alive

it's been one fun week. my last final was last thursday morning and immediately thereafter, the partying began. after a day of debauchery, we left for whistler, where it was three straight days of boarding, hot tub orgies, and boozin' til wee hours of the night. oh, four hours of hot tub drinking = not good for the head. i think my favorite quote of the weekend was my roomie screaming, "i want my f*&*in vodka!!!!" in the halls of the hotel. it just seems so appropriate.

anyhoo, i am back alive to nice and warm LA and feeling quite behind on xmas shopping. i guess having zero presents bought three days before xmas is not the best show of preparation. but wtf is wrong with all my friends? they're all on top of stuff and sending xmas cards early...makes me feel so retarded. thanks, friends. you poops.

oh, a normal picture from the top of the mountain...

Survival of the Fittest

i'm in the middle of my first quarter finals right now and am down to one more tomorrow morning. as we're sitting around "studying," someone says (with beer in hand), "i've definitely gotten stupider since high school. i think it's because i drank too much since then and killed off my brain cells."

my buddy replies with one of the most fantastic quotes i've heard in a while: "no, you've gotten smarter. you've just gotten rid of the weak brain cells." ahhh, darwin.

In Da Spirit

a few of my classmates and i walked into westwood for an extended lunch today. we spotted dr. phil getting taped in one of those outdoorsy restaurants near cpk. i wanted to yell out, "i love you man!" but then i would be lying and that's no good since it's almost christmas.

Actress Slash Dart Champion

on friday night, i crashed the chanin holiday dinner at buffalo club. okay, maybe "crashed" isn't the exact word since i was actually invited as a guest, but seriously, i felt like one of those sketchy alumni who come back to their old frat to party with the new college kids. despite the initial weirdness, alisa made sure alcohol was a-flowin' to me and i got over it. it was great to see everyone...and for some reason, i was roped into doing an improv skit to make fun of my old boss peter. my memory is a bit foggy on what i actually said, but i remember skip (top dog) extending me an open invitation to chanin dinners for life...

and despite a massive hangover on saturday morning, i got up to go to the usc-ucla football game at the coliseum. of course, even after a tailgate and a broken heart (the trojans destroyed the bruins), i still persevered to the annual mit young alum holiday party at tim and tamra's house. initially, i proclaimed to james and tina that i was breaking up with my old boyfriend, booze, but i made up with him sometime soon thereafter and more fun was had. even though i didn't converse with a single new nerd at the party, i do remember my glorious comeback victory in drunken darts against tim and kevin.

so, ladies and gentlemen, this weekend's lesson: drink lots and you will find your hidden talents.

25th!

today was ellen's 25th anniversary as a comic. she played her first stand-up act on the tonight show with johnny carson. she was 27 at the time and ellen got all teary-eyed watching herself (so did i, but that's a side point). i wonder if in 25 years, i'm going to look back at my stupid blogs and cry at my youthful genius.

Alias Cancelled!

can i tell you how glad i was to hear this news? i mean this show jumped the shark 500 years ago!

i would make this blog entry longer, but i'm about to run to a wine club event. and yes, that counts as an academic club for my resume!

Frozen

after weeks of almost-too-hot weather, LA was hit was some pretty cold winds yesterday. though windy 50-degree weather doesn't seem too low for those of you east-coasters, but hey, it's all relative. we were waiting outside of this new club called mood in hollywood last night, and the little street vender guy was selling flowers per usual...and fake leather gloves! despite the fact i wondered where the heck he busted out such an inventory of gloves, it goes to prove how cold it was here yesterday.

anyhoo, i've been asked to update on few items:
- the latest word i taught my japanese study group mate is "brown-noser"
- bob, though he is battling a left eye infection, is still alive (oh, left is from his point of view)
- food of weekend was: ham, stuffing, gravy sandwiches in semi-sweet rolls
- quote of the weekend (from alice): "banana republic is a victim of obesity" (we were discussing banana's bigger-than-normal / make-people-feel-better sizing scheme)
- and, the answer to the #1 question: yes, i'm still single, but i've narrowed the field down to 20 boys, it's all good.

***oh, for those of you who complained that i changed the comment settings on this blog, it was so that the retard spams won't pop up. but i changed it back so anyone can comment, but you have to do those word verification thingies. i hope that works better!

Seeing Triple

what a crazy weekend. there was lots of bbq-ing, 85 degree weather, dancing...man, i'm pooped. so on friday night, i went to the superdiamond concert in hollywood with some anderson kids and bethie. my school friends were quick to tell me how funny i was the night before at the international beer bust. towards the end of the night, while drunk, i went to play IM flag football. the whole team was pretty drunk, but apparently, there were several plays where i was playing offense when i should be on defense, talked trash to some undergrad, and forgot to put my flags back on. i tried to play off my drunkenness with "i was just running some diagonal routes!" but i think my friends figured me out. needless to say, our team lost.

Mmm...Beer

so i'm sitting in my finance class blogging. we're not allowed to have our computers out, but hey, i'm talented and really bored.

so, this afternoon, we're having the "international beer bust," essentially a festival featuring international foods, music, performances...and of course, beer. there are about seven korean kids in our first year class and we're grillin' up some galbi. but the more interesting thing is that the indian group is doing a dance and was lacking a few girls...so i'm dancing. yes, me and my uncoordinated self is dancing. well, at least beer makes me more limber.

oh, continuing on my sorority love, i just met the nice alumni couple who is funding my anderson education. one of the first things she said to me was, "did you know we're sisters!?!?!? i'm so glad we can offer a fellowship to a fellow alphi phi!" i was speechless.

btw, my finance prof is hilarious. he says "crap" or "shit" every other sentence. i told my classmates that i would buy beer for whoever gets him to say the f-word.

Say Cheese

my morning commute, which takes about 45 minutes, is like a grand tour of LA. i leave glendale to drive through hollywood, right by the hollywood bowl, hollywood / highland area (kodak theatre, jimmy kimmel show location, grauman's chinese theatre...), sunset strip, beverly hills, and then to school. on the days i leave a bit late, i always drive by tourists walking around, looking at the stars on the sidewalk, taking pictures, etc.

this morning, i almost spit out my coffee when i saw this group of asians intensely taking pictures of this asian middle-aged woman posing with someone dressed up as spiderman. after the pictures, "spiderman" picked up the lady just for fun, and the asian group, with this frieghtened looks on their faces, backed away slowly...like this woman had been taken hostage. i don't know. i'm not doing justice to the scene that i witnessed. it was hilarious.

on a side note, isn't it so stupid when people use headsets on cell phones but feel the necessity to hold up the mic right up to their mouths? so much for hands free...

Secret's Out

over the weekend, at a party with bschool friends, i spotted this girl from mit i hadn't seen in four years. carolyn, who lives in nyc, was visiting one of my bschool friends...and they happen to know each other from a past job. small world.

anyhoo, i was hanging out with her for a while, and a few friends came up to us, so i introduced her.

"this is carolyn, a friend from mit. we used to live together and i hadn't seen her in forever. she was actually visiting geoff and i just ran into her!"
"awesome! were you guys roommates?"
"oooh, no. uh...we just lived in the same house."
"oh. how many people were in the house?"
"like 60."
"oh. and you guys knew each other?"
"well, it was...um..."
"...were you in a sorority?!?!?!?!?!"
"uh..."
"HAHAHAHAHA, that's the funniest thing i've ever heard!"