Random Uselessness

What happens now?

2009-06-26T09:44:00.000-07:00

As usual, I have fallen off the face of the blog planet. I have such a love/hate relationship with technology, its bound to happen time and time again.

So, no, I have not spent the past few months trying to get my mother back across the border. We have both arrived safely back to the U.S. I spent some time in Sacramento, Tahoe, San Jose, and San Diego before I came back to the place where I can fry an egg on my sidewalk...Phoenix.

So what happens now? After being on the road for 10 weeks, I admit it is a HUGE letdown to come back to a place where I must walk at least a mile to see another human being. It is a letdown to come back to a job that I don't love and can't imagine doing the rest of my life. It is a letdown to go from being surrounded by people practically 24/7 to going back to being by myself. So what is the solution? Its time to pack up my things, move to California, and go to law school. Oh yes, you've heard it hear first! Its a plan I started in motion at the end of last year, but was sort of top secret since I wasn't truly sure it was right for me.

Now to the questions:

Where am I going to school? Santa Clara University
Where will I be living? Um...good question?
When am I moving? Yet another good question...
Where are the rest of the sabbatical pictures? Hey! What does this have to do with me moving?

Ok, ok..so I hear you all loud and clear. I'm not the best planner, and technology and I have only recently started speaking to each other again. All I know at this time is that I have given AZ a valiant effort, and in the words of Jon Bon Jovi, "I've seen a million faces, and I've rocked them all!" So watch out California! If you aren't ready for gay marriage, you may not be ready for K.Love!

Movin on up

2009-04-03T13:37:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, we took a roadtrip to a small town called Avila. Its about half the size of Salamanca and it has the best preserved medievil fortress wall thing surrounding the city. For a few Euro, we were able to scale the wall and run around looking at the city from above. So they are getting ready to kick us out of the internet cafe, and this may be my last entry since its my last day in Salamanca. Today is my mother´s birthday, and she was more than excited to spend it in the streets of Salamanca. She somehow managed to accidentally meet a bartender friend of mine named Carlos, who I didn´t even recognize right away because it was daylight. Its pretty rare I´m out and about during the day since the nightlife rarely dies before the sun comes up. Anyways, tomorrow we are off to Madrid! I have spoken to Raul, my new friend in Madrid, a few times on the phone this week, and he said its a big party weekend this weekend. He will be taking me out tomorrow, so it will be nice to have a tour guide instead of me fumbling around and trying to figure out things on my own. On Monday, Luis will head back to the U.S. and I will be moving on to Barcelona with my mother. Javier Bardem is filming there as we speak, so I´m hoping to chase him down and tackle him if for no other reason than to say I did. Oh, and also, I found out that my mother somehow managed to sneak her tiny self into this country. She never went through customs, we actually aren´t clear how she got around it, but she has no stamp or paperwork saying she entered through Barcelona, so should be fun trying to get her home. Hasta Luego!

Hurricane Georgina

2009-04-01T12:55:00.000-07:00

I thought mom visiting would be a blessing, but I was kind of doing better on my own. She took the same path I did getting here, fly to Barcelona, pass through Madrid, and arrive at Salamanca. What took me 5-6 hour took her almost 15. Why? I can´t even begin to explain, especially she since knows the language way better than I do. Upon her arrival she managed to blow out both of my energy converters and almost started a small fire in my apartment. However, she is now settled here, and having a fabulous time. She met more people on her first day here than I have in three weeks! The awesome thing was that she was able to get me some antibiotics from the pharmacy, and I´m FINALLY on the mend. I´ve gone shopping with her, and finally sat down and wrote out some postcards, so they are on their way kids. On the nightlife front, I got a little to excited with the Ponche chupitos the other night. I helped Luis meet some American´s since he´s having such a hard time with the language, but then got so drunk that I ran away to go dancing. On the plus side I met a nice group of guys from Madrid that kept me out until 1 o´clock the next afternoon. Of course, my life can never go smoothly, so upon saying a nice goodbye to one of them, I proceeded to skid and fall down a small staircase. I now have one butt cheek that is basically black from the bruise. Also, I will add that my mother has been kind enough to invest in several scarves for me so I can walk out in public and not be embarrassed, if you get my meaning. Anyways, I will be meeting up with them again when I head to Madrid on Saturday. I´m down to my last 2 days here. It will be hard to leave. I suppose I´m kind of well known around here now. One bouncer at the Irish Rover wants to meet my mother before I leave. I can´t walk into a club or on the street even without someone saying hello. My cell phone is even ringing with Spanish numbers I don´t recognize! I´m not sure what kind of impression I have left of myself here, but as we all know, K.Love can´t help but leave her mark.

Mom´s on her way

2009-03-27T10:15:00.000-07:00

Well this week has gone by fast. Aside from me sleeping through most of it, Luis and I have enjoyed the city as well as the night life. We are both ancy to get back into tourist mode, but are waiting the arrival of my mother so we can city hop. This is my last week in Salamanca, next weekend I head to Madrid! Highlights from these week include us being able to find a table and a restaurant and order food we actually liked, going to a Spanish film, and discovering a love of wine. He has tried to blend in a bit and taken up smoking temporarily. Its seems to work well here. Guys and girls come up to him constantly now either to bum a cigarette or borrow a light. His knowledge of the Spanish language is more limited than mine, so he´s getting a bit frustrated. No matter how hard we look, people who understand English seem non existent here.

There was some celebration last night going on that we didn´t understand. I thought we´d be daring and go to a new dance club. Apparently I found the little vegas section of this small city because all the hard core drugs you can imagine were being done out in the open. I suppose the strangest part for me was that the cops were just standing and talking right outside the door. We didn´t stay long and went back to my favorite place where I scored some rediculously oversized hat and ran around until the morning not being able to see a freakin thing. Go me!

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

2009-03-23T09:56:00.000-07:00

Of course things had to be going to well! Lets see, well when Katy was here she was maced, and someone thieved my PSP. Now, I´m on my fourth day of being sick trying to entertain my buddy Luis. Its hard to try and entertain when I feel awful. I hope it goes away soon. I have no idea about medical terminology in Spanish, but sadly, I think I may need a doctor. I wanted to visit some other towns this week, but don´t know if I can manage. Things will get better I´m sure, but its no fun being since, especially in a different country.

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

2009-03-19T09:58:00.000-07:00

Ok, well today I´m feeling much better, so here goes my attempt at a better blog entry! Katy has been here a week, and the first few days we did all the touristy things like viewing the churches and museums, and walking down around the river. Since then we have joined the spanish crowd for their lively night life. Things I´ve noticed since I´ve been here. The food is very bland. I´ve tried authentic dishes such as paella, and while its ok, I thought it would have a lot more flavor. Their pastries make up for it though. I can´t describe how amazing it all is. The fashion is very different. The spanish aren´t afraid of color! Red pants are very popular here. Also, the guys wear the most beautiful scarves. What else...while everyone here owns a cell phone you wouldn´t know it since texting isn´t a big deal. Even then, I don´t really see anyone walking around talking. Its pretty cool to see people actually socializing in person, instead of only over the phone. Siesta time runs from around 2-5, which now makes complete sense to me since we´ve been going to sleep at 9 a.m. Nobody really speaks or understands English is this particular city, but they are very patient and helpful when they try to communicate with Katy. All the students hang out in Plaza Mayor to talk with their friends, nap, sunbathe, you name it.

Katy has had so much fun here, that she changed her flight to stay a few more days. Since everyone smokes here, we decided to do laundry yesterday. What we failed to remember is that we have no dryer, and that jeans take a wicked long time to airdry. Since so many people recognize us, we hid in our apartment wearing our workout clothes because we were too embarrassed to see anyone. After sitting around for about 6 or 7 hours, they were still wet, but it was her last night, so we slipped them on and went out anyway. We were pretty miserable, and doing our best not to let anyone touch us. It was pretty hilarious. Tonight will be pretty sad since she is leaving, however, tomorrow morning Luis arrives! I´m very interested to see how people react to us. Unless I completely butcher a sentence, people don´t know I´m not Spanish. Luis is hispanic as well, and is going to attempt to speak Spanish, so I wonder if we´ll be able to convince people we are natives. hasta Luego

Happy St Patty´s Day

2009-03-17T10:25:00.000-07:00

Here I sit, a broken survivor of the Salmanca night life. Our schedule here has been to sleep a few hours mid morning, walk around the town all afternoon, sit in our balcony and stair at the passersby til evening, the go out and stay out until the sun comes up. If I weren´t so hungover, I would be able to better describe all we´ve done. On the plus side I´ve been working my butt off practicing my spanish. I think about it so much, I have even started to dream in spanish. Very odd. Salamanca is a smaller town than I thought. Last night, Katy and I kept running into people we had met over the week. One guy recognized me immediately as I walked in the door and I had no clue that he had been our bartender just a few nights before. We ended up stumbling on a club that was full of people that spoke English. The funny thing was we hated it. We felt like we were back in the U.S. and now that I´ve experience a little bit of the European style of going out, it seemed like everyone was completely rude. Its really hard to explain unless you experience it. Lets see, what else...oh yes, we´ve managed to be kicked out of a place everyday since we´ve been here. Every museum and store keeps its own hours, and we have no idea when things open or close, so we usually get chased out of each place we try and visit. The crazy event of yesterday was a woman had some sort of anger tantrum because she couldn´t find the water in the grocery store, and attacked the poor cashier in the front. I, being as brave as I am, ran around the corner and hit trying to avoid being scratched by her. I´m pretty sad, because tonight is my last night with Katy. However, I only get a day to recover because then my buddy Luis will be showing up. When I can finally for more coherent thoughts, I will write a better blog, but I am alive and all is well. Oh yes, and I have lots of pictures!

Please Passengers Proceed

2009-03-12T14:18:00.000-07:00

I finally made it to Spain! I sort of did it in a roundabout way and connected through Barcelona to Madrid. The airport etiquette is much different than I´m used to. When I boarded the connection, instead of boarding by rows or zones like I´m used to. Its a free for all run to the door and board as fast as you can. Also, when getting off the plane, instead of deplaning row by row, its a free for all who can run into the aisle and down it the fastest. I literally had to look for gap and run into it, and run with the flow of traffic before getting plowed by the people behind me. From Madrid I made my way to the bus station. Then I finally arrived at Salamanca. From the outskirts you could already see the beautiful architecture it had to offer. Inside the city is much more amazing.

I took a taxi to my apartment in Plaza Mayor. If you don´t know what this is, I suggest renting Vantage Point, which was filmed here and around Salamanca. Its a large pedestrian square outlined with cafes. In the middle groups of friends just pick out a piece of ground and plop down to chat or people watch. My apartment is right above all of this. The owner of the place gave me a tour, a tiny little place that has everything I need including a washing machine in the kitchen! Maybe not as exciting as it sounds, but from what I knew the nearest laundrymat was a few blocks away, and I wasn´t looking forward to draggin my luggage there.

My first day was relaxing enough...I simply unpacked, and made some phone calls. I awoke today to a large group of people chanting. When I opened my bedroom window I was excited to see my first protest! I couldn´t totally read the sign, but something about the education system. This gave me flashbacks to when I was 5 and in Peru and was scared to death by the crowds. I ran and hid under the bed at that time because I thought the police was the army. heh. This time around it was much more exciting. Had I been a bit faster, I would have joined, but I was half asleep as they passed by. I wandered around the square and found a supermarket. I think I lingered too long and walked around the same aisles too many times because one of the clerks began to follow me around the store. I assume they thought I was trying to steal, in truth, I have never seen most of these products, and I need to attempt to read them before buying. I did try to grab a bag of grapes and run to the cashier, but the lady stopped me to weigh and price them. Who knew.

This evening I attempted to get myself lost. Every block you walk there is a different church. However, since I´m staying in the main square of town, it was always easy to find my way back. I´ve found several bars and restaurants I will like to try. I also found this wonderful internet cafe only two doors down from my apartment, and its open til 2 a.m. Actually, most things in this city open late and stay open all night, so finally! A place on my time schedule!

The only interesting thing that has happened to me today is that the red cross boys keeps stopping me. I allow this because they are young and cute, but I have no idea how to flirt in my broken Spanish (help me mom!). They, along with the cab driver, think I´m a student here. My first reaction is hooray! I look young! However, when I scan the crowd I can pick out the students as well. They are dressed in sneakers and tshirts with oversized bags and hats or ponytails, while the rest of the crowd is more dressed up. I realize its most likely my sloppy manner of dress that makes me look like a student, but whatever! I´ll take it!

My friend Katy is arriving tomorrow afternoon, so that should be a whole new adventure in itself. I also found out last night that my friend Luis bought a last minute ticket and will be joining me a day after Katy leaves. Good times!

Baltimore and DC

2009-03-09T10:50:00.000-07:00

My time on the East Coast is almost up. I realize I suck at blogging, but here is a short update.

The weather has taken a turn for the better, so I've been able to explore more. My highlights of Baltimore are mostly eating and drinking. :) I've never had a "real" crabcake before, so I'm used to the flat patty west coast style with lots of breading. Robb took me to a place called the Lexington market and ordered me just one. I was going to object, because I thought I could eat at least three until I saw the thing. It was the size of a grown man's fist and was all meat. Also most places around here you can order steamed shrimp by the pound, and over sized beers for a few bucks. I did get to see Michael Phelps and Jenna Bush's houses. I wanted to knock on Jenna's door to see if secret service would tackle me, but sadly, nobody was home.

Robb and Helen took me to DC on Sunday. I asked to do all the "touristy" stuff, and they delivered. I also asked that we walk everywhere so I can work off all the beer. Lucky me, everything in DC is Vegas walking distance, meaning that its SO oversized it looks like its close, but in reality its a few miles away. I got to see all the standards, the White House, the Lincoln Memorial, and I also got to see the Hope Diamond! This is that jewel featured in the DiCaprio version of Titanic. Good stuff.

I've posted what pics I have (minus DC) here: http://picasaweb.google.com/kristielove3. I will try and post them as I have time. Tomorrow its goodbye US, hello Espana!

Welcome to the East Coast, B*$@H!

2009-03-04T17:20:00.000-08:00

The last night in Charlotte proved to be a fun one. :) I learned over our Thai dinner, that the restaurant we were at is the first Thai restaurant opened in Charlotte. When did it start? 1988! Slow and steady wins the race, no?

Upon leaving, my limited knowledge of the east coast led us to the Beantown Tavern, which I thought had something to do with beans, but apparently is a nickname for Boston. What was supposed to be one beer led to five, and as soon as the owner came out and bought free shots for the bar, I knew it was game over.

Two hours of whopping sleep later, I caught my next flight. My next stop was to visit my friend Robb. Tired, Bobbert and I decided to embark on a roadtrip to Philadelphia! Upon entering Pennsylvania, we are greeted with a billboard of a very pissed off looking woman, giving us what appears to be the middle finger. I was so shocked, I didn't read what it was for, so Robb captioned it "Welcome to the East Coast, Bitch!". Nice.

Given that the weather is SO bitter cold, and I'm still rockin' my AZ gear, we did in 3 hours what takes most people days. We saw the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Liberty Bell, and the stairs that Rocky ran up during his boxing training. Top this all off with a few beers and the greasiest creation ever created, a Geno's Cheesesteak, slathered with hot sauce, and served with a side a EXTRA Cheesy Cheesefries. Fast forward six hours later, and here we sit, in his pad in Baltimore, with what sounds like Havelinas getting ready to burst out of our stomachs to attack.

I'm not sure what is entirely in store for the rest of the week. What I DO know is that this elusive sunshine will be poking his head out again tomorrow, and I will be able to feel my face again.

Goodbye Charlotte!

2009-03-03T13:56:00.001-08:00

Just a quick post on the past few days. The Charlotte area experience the most severe snow storm it has had since 2004. Only a few inches fell, heck, the streets were completely snow free, but apparently this state goes into a big panic and shuts down! All schools were closed. Classes we were going to try were canceled. Needless to say, zip lining is out, as well as most activities since I did not pack for such an incident! On the plus side, Tiff and I have had a lot of bonding time hiding from the snow at the gym, or watching movies, etc. For my last night in town we are going to a Thai restaurant she has wanted to try, and the going to hide in her apt and attempt to carve up a cantaloupe since its going to be a whopping 15 degrees! Tomorrow, I'm making a side trip to Philadelphia to eat a cheesesteak and cruise the downtown area, and then to Baltimore to hang with Robb and Helen. Hopefully warmer weather will greet me there!

The Adventure Begins

2009-03-01T09:01:00.000-08:00

So my last week in town was pretty exhausting. Instead of taking it easy, I decided to go out EVERY night and see as many people as I could. The result? Learning how to function on 2-4 hours of sleep a day, my left knee lost on a street in downtown Phoenix, and a big bruise of my butt courtesy of an evil staircase.

Now, that brings us to Saturday. My first flight. In truth, I couldn't quite wrap my head around the idea that when I set foot out my door, I wouldn't sleep in my bed again for months, nor would I have to lift a finger to do any work. Anyways, the flight itself was uneventful, except for when the pilot announced our final descent, the passenger next to me whipped out a bible and started to pray. Scary.

My girl Tiffany picked me up, and we grabbed lunch where I ate the largest plate of Barbecue I've ever had, drenched in Tobasco sauce, and served with Jalapeno deviled eggs. Apparently the lack of sleep has made me a pregnant woman, and I have been covering all my food in spicy sauce!

Lucky for me, she was tired too, so the day consisted of catching up with Lost, taking an hour nap,and (much to my surprise) some gym time. I crashed, hard, got a whopping 10 hours of sleep! Woo-hoo! I believe there is sushi and a pedicure in my near future, assuming I survive the gym again. And, from recent discussions, it sounds like there may be some zip line something or other happening? Stay tuned...

Former Alcoholics Make Me Laugh

2009-02-15T21:42:00.000-08:00

As you may or may not know, in a few short weeks I will be starting my sabbatical. What is a sabbatical? It is 8 weeks paid time off from said company for employees to "recharge" themselves. Since I will be traveling all over the U.S. and beyond, I am attempting to try and start blogging...again.

Yesterday was Valentine's Day. A fine holiday, I suppose, but it gives most males a reason not to be romantic the rest of the year. Given that I have no primary male in my life, I took to the Internet to search for one. And there I found him. He's 5'8", dark hair and eyes, 57 years old with a comedic wit to boot. His name is Robin Williams. This man has Golden Globes stacked on top of Emmys on top of Grammys on top of..well you get it. He is a well decorated entertainer, for for a mere $100, he was going to entertain me for an evening.

If you enjoy improv comedy at all, this man does it better than any I've seen. Although he does have prewritten jokes, he never sticks to the script. I saw him several years ago (and you can see this routine on his Broadway show DVD) and I was smitten. I had to see him again no matter what the cost.

Lucky me, I landed a seat in the 8th row, dead center. If I had made a run for the stage, I would have been able to grab his toe before security took me out. I was THAT close. I figured out what I like about him most is that he does *smart* comedy. What I mean by this is that anybody can tell a story or joke about themselves, but he weaves in very relevant themes with politics, the economy, even what happens in the city and state he is performing him. Even though he has been off the drugs for years, and more recently off the sauce, he still has a manic wonderful energy about him. I'm glad I chose to spend this romantic holiday with him, and a $5 chocolate chip cookie.

10 years!

2008-11-22T22:37:00.000-08:00

A day late, but Weiland has turned 10 years old!! Woo-hoo! May you survive another 10 with me. :D

The Scorpion King Part 2

2008-05-23T11:44:00.000-07:00

So how is it that my life is SO full of responsibilities takes almost a month for me to get back posting a blog? Well, the sequel is always more disappointing than the original, so here we go.

I wake up from this nap of my about 11 p.m. The next day my roommate was going to move in. I was still feeling groggy, but I wanted to get his room cleaned out so I started moving stuff out. All is going well until I decide to move my exercise ball. I carried it in front of me and I couldn't see when I feel this painfully familiar burning feeling again, but this time in my foot. I thought it could possibly be a joke, but I turn around and there is the little bastard whipping his tail around in circles. He didn't kill me the first time, a mistake I'm sure he means to correct. I scramble to shoo the dogs away since this is my fight. Mano a mano. We have a bit of a staredown and I decide I'm so brave I'm going to throw a tissue over him to blind him and them scoop him up. His tail is still swishing back and forth, but I do manage to grab him. I'm a fool and decide to take a peek at him and my anger quickly fades away to sadness. His tail is slowed down and had fallen, the light fades from his eye, his pincher hands have stopped pinching. Shocking as this may be, I outweigh the guy by a ton or so, so I ended up squishing him when I stepped on him and he gave my one last stab. At last, my friend, we are even.

I toss his remain in the garbage outside and call my sis to tell her what terrible luck I have had. She tells me to go back to the emergency room. Clearly I'm allergic to the venom, and I still have the dose from a few hours earlier wandering around, so I might react more harshy this time. I call up my gal pal Leah and request a ride this time, which she graciously gives. Let me tell ya, the ER isn't exactly hoppin at midnight on a Thursday, so the staff was very amused that I was stung twice not only within hours of each other, but by the same scorpion. Again I'm given the field sobriety test, pumped full of drugs, and left for observation for a few hours. Luckily Leah was with me this time, so the time passed quickly. At about 2:30 I was released and went home and passed out for the next day and a half.

You see, dear readers, I don't need to leave my house to find drama, I seem to come across it when I stay home as well. :)

The Scorpion King art 1

2008-04-28T08:32:00.000-07:00

As may of you have heard by now, I was brutally attacked Thursday night. So there I was, sitting on my couch, finishing up a homework assignment for my evening class. I felt a small tickle on the back of my arm. Its starting to get pretty hot in AZ these days, and share this common trait with my lab in that we both shed excessively in the heat, so I figured it was one of many hundred hairs that was stopped mid-flight and stuck on my arm. I casually brush it away only to feel a burning sensation the back of my arm. I looked down since I was confused as to why my own hair would burn my, when this mighty midget comes marching around my arm to confront his attacker. It was a scorpion. Scorpions aren't known to attack people unless threatened, but this little sucker broke into my house, scaled my couch and then my body, yet he looked me up and down like I was the bad guy. I had my best poker face on as I devised my plan to creep into the kitchen to fetch a paper tail and remove the intruder tail first. I made it about halfway when I apparently flinched during the staring contest because he turned around and went back to the back of my arm. No worries, or so I thought. I took about two more steps when I feel him take a left turn and go under my sleeve and climb into my armpit. Ok, now I'm panicking. He's making his way down my side, and I happen to be wearing my "fat" jeans. From what I know about scorpions I know he only needs the slot a size of a credit card to get where he wants to go, so the one inch gap around my waist was more than enough for him to slide through. Now I know many of have seen the recent movie clip of Hillary Duff in War, Inc where she drops a scorpion in her underwear and dances around as though it turns her on. If I were Brett Michaels, I might try this out as well to see if I agree, but I am not. I figure I'm going to be stung a second time, but I need to get the scorpion off my me, so I decide I'll just whip my t-shirt off.

Ok, I just feel like there needs to be another paragraph here, not because its appropriate writing, but the last one was way to long. So, I rip my shirt off and toss it to the ground, and luckily to not get stung again. I shake my shirt out to try and find the sucker, and he's not there. I start looking around for him because I'd like him to leave, and can't find him. My computer was on so I messaged my sister about what happened and how I was just going to write it off and go to class, but she suggests calling the doctor. The nurse who answers tells me I need to get to the emergency room asap to find out if I'm allergic to the venom. Fine. I call the front office of my class to tell them I will not be there, and the woman who answers immediately goes into a frenzy naming off potential side effects. Can I see? Yes. Can I breathe? Yes. Am I naseous? No. Do I have a ride? No. So she tells me if I choose to start driving myself to pull over if I feel strange at all and to call 911 as certain venom can take a person out very quickly. Well isn't this fantastic news. So what do I do? I proceed to try and hunt down my assassin because if I'm dying, he's going down with me. After several minutes my voice of reason kicks in (a.k.a. my sister) and says to forget my enemy for now and get myself to the hospital. I curse his name outloud since I'm sure he's still around and can hear me, grab another shirt, and drive myself to the ER.

Unlike most people's experiences, I only wait 1-2 minutes before escorted back to the doctor. First I get asked if I got a good look at my attacker. I did. I'm asked to describe him carefully. I look around for the sketch artist, to make sure I give him every detail, but my guess is he's behind the one way mirror. Then I get asked a serious of unrelated question (Does my boyfriend beat me, do I prefer coke or pepsi, etc) and then start doing an equivalent of a field sobriety test. In the middle of this test I notice I'm having trouble focusing and my head is a bit cloudy. Oh great. I'm drunk. Not so, it seems. The attacker I described is the only known scorpion in these parts that is poisonous and it seems he got me. There is good news and bad news in this. The good news is they classify symptoms from level 1-5. I'm a level one, so I should be fine...for now. The bad news is that it can take 4-6 hours for the more severe symptoms to develop, so I will be kept in a petri dish for observation. If I happen to hit a level 4 or 5 they have a new experimental anti-venom drug from Mexico that hasn't been cleared for use, but they feel strongly that it is effective. Right. For the next few hours I sit on a hospital bed doped up out of my mind. My stomach is doing backflips and it feels like the scorpion is running laps from my elbow to my shoulder. Apparently this is fine, but if he makes a break for my wrist or chest it means I've jumped up a few levels. Eventually they are satisfied that the worst has passed, but to watch myself the next few hours and to come back if something out of the ordinary occurs. I drive the one mile back home and collapse on my couch for some much needed rest. Actually, I could really use some sleep right now so I'll just call this part 1 and finish it up a different time. Good night, all. :)

The start of a new decade...

2008-01-15T09:10:00.000-08:00

If you didn't know this already, I crossed over the twenty something line on Christmas Eve this past year. It was a joyous week of celebration where I made a great new friend, enjoyed the company of my mother for a few weeks, and completed a lot of the "to do" stuff I have been putting off. I don't feel any different being 30, but coincidentally I have a lot of big changes happening this year. If I can actually commit to writing on here, I will keep you posted on all the new experiences this year brings. Cheers!

Well its been a long time

2007-07-16T13:21:00.000-07:00

I've been bouncing around the internet world for awhile. I've had a year long affair with myspace, but its lost its appeal. Every person in the world can track you down there, so I'm trying to come back old friend, even though I'm not great about writing. The only thing I've learned in the past year is that Scott Baio is 45 and single, which means he has a girlfriend, but isn't married. How does this equate to being single? Inquiring minds want to know...

Past memories

2006-05-11T10:30:00.000-07:00

So I should have posted this a few weeks ago, but I'm lazy, and then I forgot, but I saw something today that reminded me of how silly/strange people are. So, lets rewind back to January. I heard a song on the radio, and I'm like hrm..thats pretty good. I did a search on Itunes and was able to find it and some other songs. The band's name? 30 Seconds to Mars. Ever heard of them? Yeah most people haven't. Anyways, about a month ago I was browsing upcoming concerts and saw that they were coming to town, and that tickets were only $15. Score! So, I decided to take Luis for his birthday. I decided to read up on this band since I didn't know anything about them and discover that Jared Leto (aka Jordon Catelano from My So Called Life) is the lead singer. I was stunned just because I can't think of any actor who has successfully launched a music career. Now, I feel the need to list out solo acts that never made it; Bruce Willis, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Don Johnson, and Eddie Murphy. Has anyone ever bought a Bacon Brothers (Kevin Bacon) CD, or Dogstarr (Keanu Reeves). Nope. So, anyways, yes, stunned. Now forward to concert night. I have a good buzz going on, I bust through towards the front of the crowd. How did I do it? I was looking for my "friend" Julia. Anyways, it was a great show, so i'm like, ok, I'll go do the meet and greet thing. I'm frantically texting my sister to think of what to say (liquor = mind numbness) and she says to ask if his passion is in music or acting. Simple enough. So I cruise through the band, actually stopping and chatting with Shannon (his bro) for a bit. Nothing significant, but I like him. Plus he's wearing eyeliner and I'm a sucker for guys with eyeliner. Anyways I make it down to J.man and he doesn't really look at me, so I sort of shove my CD in front of him. I say "This is the point where I ask you something profound, right?" And he said "No, please don't". Well I'm drunk, but I'm thinking well my questions really isn't that difficult, so I ask him if he prefers acting or singing. He does give me direct eye contact this time, now lets freeze frame this moment. I've never thought Jared was attractive. Well, I mean, I could tell he is attractive, but he's very pretty, and I don't do the clean look. And for those of you who don't know, here are some definitions from the K.Love dictionary. Clean (as in reference to a person) - Nicely groomed hair, clean-shaven, dresses to impress, lots of times falls into the metro category. Dirty (as in reference to a person) - usually has facial hair, piercings, tattoos, dark hair, and tends to wear all black or dark colors. May wear eyeliner or nail polish. Anyways, now that Jared is a musician he has darkened his hair, wears all black, and yes, lots of eyeliner that makes his baby blues pop. He's more my type of guy now, but judging by all the US I read I know this is just for the stage and he's more clean in his day to day life. Anyways, now that reality is moving again he says "It really doesn't matter does it because I don't have any talent". Then he sort of tosses the CD at me and turns away. I was a bit stunned. Was he looking for sympathy? No, I believe he was intentionall being a jerk. Now the liquor wanted me to say "Well that may be true, but thats not what I asked you", but my mind said "Get your ass out the door before security carries you away". So that was it. Anyways, time has passed and I resumed my listening of their music. I received notice that they apparently put out this new video, so I give it a watch. Now its actually a pretty cool video, sort of The Shining feeling, but there is this one part where Jared runs into himself, and they appear to be singing at each other, and then simultaneously scream at each other. I laughed out loud. It looked quite silly. Its hard to explain. Its just one of those things you need to see. Anyways, Jared thanks for the laugh, but I still think you are a jerk.

A word about the gym...

2006-04-18T11:17:00.000-07:00

So I hate working out, but I like the gym because this is how you see people for how they really look. They don't care about clothes, hair, or make-up. Well, except for this lady a few weeks ago who came in with full on makeup and huge 80's hair. I actually got up and moved across the gym because the smell of AquaNet and perfume was making me sick. She even worked out with a personal trainer. Of course, the way she lifted weights is the way I lift peas up to my mouth that are on a fork..slowly and cautiously so as not to cause a disturbance in the force.

Well, my fun this day was this girl jogging in front of me. I didn't really notice her at first, but then I looked at her and noticed about every 5 seconds her pants would fall half way down and would expose her *sexy* black thong. Now I have always been against the spandex movement, and actually against the size 2 girls who wear size 0 jeans and somehow manage to make it look like they have a fat roll, but wear clothes that fit and don't literally fall off you body. I watched here in this weird jogging situation for about 1/2 an hour. I was mortified since, although not a plump girl, she should not be showing her thong let alone RUNNING in it. Sheesh!

Well hi!

2006-04-04T16:44:00.000-07:00

Oh yes I didn't realize I had fallen off the face of the earth for so much time. I think I just got lazy. Its been a long, grueling day at the office and I'm ready to take off shortly, but thought I'd practice typing again. I'm nursing a sprained foot from Saturday's fun at the Music Festival. I got to hear G.Love and Train, but ended up spending most of my time in the port-a-pottie line. At least it had a view of the stage. In my drunken happiness I sort of slid across the sidewalk, spared my ankle, but mangled my foot. Such is me..such is life. Cheers!

Happy Tuesday

2006-02-14T14:20:00.000-08:00

So I haven't seen any hearts or flowers yet today, which is nice. I have however received some online cards and lovely texts. Not much news in the way of Kristie's world. Only 2 more days and I will be with some of my buds I haven't seen in awhile in the city of Austin. Hooray for..uh...what is Texas famous for? Death Penalty? Ribs? Well I hope for the best. Everyone have a great president's day weekend.

2006-02-13T15:27:00.000-08:00

In response to Captain Jack's 2/7/06 post which can be found here: http://markzak.com/blog.asp

Hrm, I typically make it a point not share my views on anything people are willing to start wars and/or die for, but I am a walking contradiction, so I never make any sense.
This whole "freedom of speech" comes from a document that governs the U.S. only, not any other country. While I too am all for it, I don't really expect a lot of the rest of the world to adopt or understand it since there are places where women are forced to still cover there faces or people (yes men too) are fined a rediculous some of money if they don't vote. (That last point might cause an uproar, but in the U.S. voting is a right, not a requirement).
That aside, I assume these people that are rioting are looking at this from a religious aspect. I think most if not all religious groups actively speak out against anything that may poke fun at their beliefs. Religion is basically a foundation most of these people have built a life upon, unlike in the U.S. where I think there is a lot of apathy and people look at sunday service as an obligation or a burden, not something necessary, like lets say eating. Remember when the Last Temptation of Christ came out? The Catholic church through a fit and tried to stop it from ever hitting theatres. Or more recently, the Da Vinci code. Again, this book was readily attacked by the Catholic church who would have, I'm sure, stopped its publication were it invading the writer's freedom of speech. JC to these folks is like a father figure, so to speak. If I were to write a book about him eating people, and it gets published as a work of fiction because clearly (i hope) it isn't true, I think you'ld be slightly hocked off at me.
I suppose my point is I understand why they are mad. Heck, Republicans get mad at political cartoons published by liberal papers and yell "false!" all the time. I do think it seems silly in our eyes because they are reacting in violent ways. Keep in mind they are in countries where unfortunately your voice isn't heard unless you make a big fuss. I'd say that we in the U.S. are just as guilty of this silly behavior, but we pick money over violence and are incredibly sue happy. You get burned by coffee? Sue! Somebody said you have an eating disorder? Sue because you have a rep to maintain!
There we go, thats my 2 cents. :)

El beste del oeste!

2006-02-01T13:09:00.000-08:00

You look confused. Yes, so am I. I'm on day three of having my house ripped apart. The drilling isn't so bad, but I've noticed the mariachi has slowly gotten louder. Today is a fun new addition, as one of the workers (even as I type) is singing along in his falsetto voice. After hearing Pemma talk about them, I have invested in a pair of noise reduction headphones to help ease my pain. They do work, however I must remove my newly purchased armor when I go to the restroom, go outside, or go anywhere in general. The lead dude has informed me that they will be done tomorrow, and next week the carpet will be changed. Its a different group of workers, so I'm curious as to what musical I'll be exposed to.

Aside from being annoyed, and now retardly broke, I have yet ANOTHER trip coming up. Yes folks, I am looking for that new town to move to, since I started to get that scared "omg..I don't want to be here for the rest of my life" feeling. Up next I'll be going to Austin with some of my closest friends from Cali and Maryland. Now, its been quite some time since this group has gotten together. These were the guys I hung out with back when I was completely insane. I'm now moderately sane thanks to medication. ;) Ok, I really have no idea what I'm talking about anymore. *sigh*

Welcome back, Kristie!

2006-01-30T09:26:00.000-08:00

Well its been a few weeks, but now I'm back in AZ. I went on vacation to San Jose for a few weeks to visit the fam, then went down to the New Orleans area with Pemma to volunteer some time for Hurricane Katrina relief for animals. If you have some time, visit bestfriends.org or Best Friend's Network specifically for Hurricane Katrina survivors. Lots of stories to tell from there, I'm trying to find some time to collect my thoughts. Right now its kind of hard though because as I type, my floors are being ripped out. Yes folks, I've decided to do put some new tile and carpet in the house. Its not the entire house, but it is a significant portion. Afterwards I will probably be changing my rediculously bright walls to different and more annoying colors. I'm hoping this makeover will trick my brain into thinking that we've moved again, and I can sit pretty for another year or two. And FYI, I just learned when a telemarketer calls they get REALLY hocked off when you have drills going on the background because you can't hear anything. She actually hung up on me! Ah, fun stuff. Well, back to work (or as much as I can do since its very hard to concentrate).

Don't Trust a Big Butt and a Smile!

2005-12-21T10:40:00.000-08:00

What does that mean? Well its just a summary of the past weekend. Friday night I went out for my birthday (which is actually on X-mas Eve). We started off at Ra with 1/2 price sushi and saki bombers. We stayed about 3 hours and my roommate, Brian, and Luis were trashed, but I was fine (thanks to Robb for years of training!) The real fun started at Macayo's. A few other people showed up, and I decided to "act" like I was kissing Pemma. Well it worked, sort of. I threw her back from her chair, cupped her mouth, and was a good 2 inches away. The crowd gasped and she, with her fine laughing skills, starting laughing in my mouth. How is this possible? Its hard to describe, but I could feel the vibration from her laughter. I did not laugh (which was good because I would have dropped her), and that was the end of my show. My roommate ended up suckling on my ear later. Why? Because I told her to go ahead to the club and I'd meet her and she thought I was mad so she was trying to soothe me. I believe she thought she was being sexy, but having a drunk girl slober all over the side of your face is anything but a turn on. Later, Brian fell off of his bar stool. I didn't see why, but I saw the aftermath of friends helping him up so we would not be kicked out. I then helped him finish his tacos (by this I mean grabbing handfuls and shoving it into his mouth) and then it was off to Margarita Rocks. Jen and Mike pumped me full of Vodka, and I was finally in the land of drunkeness. The music was "old school" and this song Poison came on. Brian told me it was Bell Biv Devoe, a group of teens who I had not thought of in years. Then there was a big drunken mess, saying goodbye to samir, eating at Greasy Tony's, and then waking up naked in my room with the TV on. I deduced I had set Brian up in the guest room, was planning to watch TV in mine and was trying to change my clothes, but must have passed out.

The next day, all partied out, I accompanied Jen and Mike to their annual Intel party. I sat and watched this Mardi Gras festivity, although nobody was being festive except my companions. I was happy though, since it was free food and drink. At then end of the night, I stole some masks and noticed the HUGE face outside the building. "How fun would that be to take?" I said. So Mike is all "Lets do it". No, picture this, there is a roundabout with a 6 foot mardi gras face hanging from the top of it. There are 4 valet guys hanging out there, and partygoers all coming out. We pull up in Mike's truck, Jen leads her head out the window and says "Hey, we just want to let you know that we are supposed to take the head". Now, we have no idea if this is company property or the country club property, but the one valet dude looked confused and said "uh..ok". Mike jumps in the back, yanks down the sign, and we take off. It was just like being in high school again (back when I used to steal roadsigns). It was a good laugh that finished off the night.

Ok, that had nothing to do with anything BUT I decided to download the MP3 of Poison. So I estimate at this time these guys were probably around 16 years old, but I was listening to the lyrics, and holy cow are they sexual. My favorite line, however, is when the youngest one sings "Don't trust a big butt and a smile". You know what means? Yes, dear readers, I too an classified as Poison.

Kristielove.com up and running!

2005-12-10T12:50:00.000-08:00

Well kind of. Ok, not really, but its better than it was. I posted movie reviews for the following: Assault on Precinct 13, War of the Worlds, George Romero's Land of the Dead, The Skelton Key, Guess Who, I Heart Huckabees, Dukes of Hazzard, Paragraph 175, and yes my favorite, Glitter.

Friday laughs

2005-12-09T09:47:00.000-08:00

Well I've managed to make it through another week without too much excitement. So, I encourage everyone to watch Debbie Downer for a pick me up. My favorite line? "By the way, its offical...I can't have children". The delivery of this line is classic. Keep you eye on Horatio Sanz too. He tries to dry up his tears with Mickey waffles. Flawless! (takes a bit of time to load.)

2005-12-05T08:40:00.000-08:00

So, over the course of this year, I have lost that sparkle of life people seem to enjoy. I have been, for the most part, a hermit. So what does a girl do? Why chop off all her hair of course! My hairstylist even gasped. I've had her for 3 years now, and while we've played with color, we've never really chopped off this amount of hair. It ended up clogging their little vaccum up. Anyways, after that she put a red base to even out the color, then put a little Manic Panic in to "bring in da funk" a tada! I've gotten nothing but good comments along with "wow, only you can wear that hair and make it look good". (you don't see it here, but in sunlight it looks pink!). So my boring attitude has fallen away with my boring hair, I think. Put the Love back in K.Love, baby. :)

2005-11-20T20:52:00.000-08:00

Walk for Animals! First, thanks to everyone who pledged. Weiland and I raised a little over $300, which equals helping 2 homeless pets! It was a great day FULL of free stuff. Weiland has toys and several boxes of biscuits. I couldn't resist buying this rediculous hat for him. We spent the first hour browsing the stands, eating lunch, and visiting Santa (thats right! Santa in the park!). After some absurd warmup routine we got in the pack near the back, because hey, I walk slow. It was awesome. All the dogs were off, except of course my boy, who got confused and was walking sideways. When we FINALLY made our way, he pulled and made me go fast enough so we were in the lead pack. One lady was like "Wow, he means business!" He's dedicated to walking for his homeless brethren, I suppose. It was a well organized walk, with water stations set up every so often for pooches to stay hydrated. As we rounded the turn, I'm feeling pretty good until I realize we are walking WAY close to the lake. Some girl was like "Don't jump!" and there was Weiland, standing at the edge, eyes all aglow. I actually took note that all the lab owners were pulling their dogs off the edge. Gotta love water dogs. We did find some steps, and when I saw other dog owners letting their dogs in, I let Weiland jump in for a quick swim. Newly refreshed, we finished the race, lounged in the grass for a bit, and headed home for a nice long nap. I unfortunately just realized my official race photo is going to be posted in two days, but I think I threw the website away. No matter, you can see my attempt at capturing this day here: http://albums.photo.epson.com/j/AlbumIndex?u=4119026&a=31967262&f=. Thanks for the help everyone!!

And I'm back!

2005-11-16T14:19:00.000-08:00

I'm back from my vacation, and no I did not get the writing done I was planning on, but I got in a lot of staring time with Tobias. It was great. He'd stare at me for an hour, look away for like 2 minutes, and look back at me with a crinkled brow as if saying "who are you?". I get to see him again for x-mas. I'm hoping he'll know how to smile by then because I feel like I bore him.

Other than that all is well. My friend from Iowa, Sarah, came to visit. She didn't have much money, so we only went out of the first night she was here. It was just like old times. Nothing too unusual happened except some guy I gave a good-bye kiss too decided he liked my tongue ring and bit my tongue. I know, makes no sense right? We actually did some landscaping when she was here, and fixed up the house a bit. The yard looks much nicer, and it really showed her there is more to this world than Iowa. Of course I hate to see visitors go, but it will be nice to get a full night of sleep.

Thats all on the news front for now. Events coming up: Walk for the Animals on Sunday! Weiland and I will post photos. Also, Weiland turns 7 on Monday! Make sure to get your birthday cards sent in time!

Oh, boring halloween.

2005-10-31T14:08:00.000-08:00

For the first time that I can remember since I've been in AZ did just about everybody I know leave town. No big parties, and no big excitement for this holiday for those of us who stuck around. On a pleasant note, Eric Anderson did come to town for a few days. Other than that, it was a humdrum weekend, but I DID get some movie watching done. Yes, yes, I will be on vacation next week and devoting part of my time to getting my site http://www.kristielove.com/ up and running. Well, HAPPY HALLOWEEN TO ANYBODY WHO CARES!

I'm a loser baby...

2005-10-26T10:00:00.000-07:00

First, I think Stay is an awesome movie, I highly recommend. It was while watching this film I decided I want to marry a guy like Ryan Gosling. Don't get me wrong, Dave will always be my dream guy, but Ryan seems more tangible to me. While Ryan looks eerily like my ex bro-in-law, he as absolutely fantastic to watch on film!

So I promised (I think) to post regularly on my supposed weight loss. So while I'm still too shy to reveal my actual weight, what started this journey, but I put on 20 lbs over the summer. I've just finished up week 4 (even though I've only worked out 3 weeks since I twisted my ankle last week) and I'm +5 lbs from where I started. Thats right, now I'm 25 lbs heavier. The good news? I had put on 10 lbs in the first 2 weeks, and have lost 5 of that already. Apparently my body is adjusting to the trama I put it through, but this is good news. At least I'm heading in the right direction. I can't find my starting stats for weights, but here is what I'm at now:

Leg Extension - 75 lbs
Leg Curl - 50 lbs
Abductors (inner thigh) - 70 lbs
Abductors (outer thigh) - 100 lbs
Leg Press - 140 lbs
Chest Press - 52 lbs
Seated Row - 50 lbs
Shoulder - 30 lbs
Calves - 105 lbs

So I'm not a lifting champ, but I did manage to go a bit from where I started. For now, I'm stuck on a stationary bike and only working upper body, but hopefully I'll have some more good news in month 2's weigh in. :)

Happy Halloween from the Cannibalistic Sheep

2005-10-25T11:20:00.000-07:00

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

2005-10-19T10:46:00.000-07:00

Weiland and I are participating in a walk hosted by the Arizona Animal Welfare League to Walk for Homeless Pets. Its AZs largest "no kill" shelter. If you have a few spare bucks and would like to donate, Weiland would be most happy. Please let me know and I can send you my home address if you wish to mail in donations. Our goal is to reach at least $150, since that is the cost to save one homeless pet (vet bills, etc). Thanks to those of you who already pledged. Weiland and I will send you photos of our event!

They used freaking "laser" beams!

2005-10-18T09:45:00.000-07:00

First, I am the hugest klutz and managed to twist my ankle with the first 2 minutes of my workout with my PT. ARGH!

Second, thank you, whoever, for Julian McMahon. I've been having recurring dreams about him and they are SO good.

Anyways, I decided to give over to vanity and try this laser hair removal thing. I'm too lazy to shave my legs as much as they require. So here is my experience with it. First, they stick you in an ice cold room and give you a little robe to wear (i was getting my legs and armpits done). She loaded me up with towels though to keep me from freezing. Then I got handed a pair of VERY squiffy goggles to protect my peepers from the "laser". The "laser" itself is about nickel size, and while blowing ice cold air on the area its treating, it beeps as it zaps. She drew all over me with a white pencil (since the "laser" is drawn to pigment) and asked if they offered to sell me some numbing cream because this was going to hurt. Actually, no they hadn't, but I didn't really want to invest more money. She then handed me a squeeze ball for my stress. Oh boy.

She started with my armpits. The pain was more shocking then anything because it was such a small area to treat. However, I really got to feel it when she did my legs. People say it feels like being snapped with a rubber band really hard. WRONG! I've felt that pain, and it stings and lingers a bit. This actually reminded me of an 80s contraption called the epilady. The new epiladies are cute, but the original ones had this slinky attached to it. Your hair would get stuck in it and ripped out by the roots. Thats what this felt like. All my hair was being ripped out (even though it was being zapped out of existence). Unlike the epilady or a rubber band, the pain was instant, and then gone. I felt fine most of the way, I didn't need any breaks, and I did squeeze the ball when she went up my shin and around my ankles since I had no fat to lessen the pain. She was so happy she exclaimed "wow. You have a HIGH pain tolerance. I want to crank this machine up." So after about 1 1/2 hours in the chair i left the clinic with red blotches legs. I couldn't use lotions, or even sweat, for 2-3 days so I would not irritate my skin.

The results are fantastic so far! I have 4 more sessions scheduled (the next in jan), but this is what I've noticed so far. My hair growth has slowed down immensely. I have not shaved since I had it done (5 days) and I only now have some stubble that would have taken me only 24 hours to grow before. I do notice a bit of my hair hasn't grown in at all. Apparently it can take up to 3 weeks for the hair to fall out, and I should only expect about 20% per session (so next time would be 40%, then 60%, etc).

The verdict? Its great. Totally worth it if you can handle some discomfort for an hour or so. People get tattoos and piercings and all sorts of weird things. The only great thing about this is that when I turn 75 people won't say "what the hell was she thinking when she did that", well, unless leg hair on women becomes stylish someday. As an extra note I should add the hair should stay away until the time (ha ha!) I get pregnant. Apparently since all a woman's hormones are in high gear they start to grow more coarse (or even just more) hair. The horror.

K.Love

2005-10-11T15:26:00.000-07:00

ok, I haven't mastered the art of this blog yet, hence the separate entries for the pics, but he looks like a smurf here. I love it! That's his daddy, Mikael. He's swedish hence the funky spelling. (and yes folks, he has watched the Swedish chef on the muppet show, and alas, he is *not* speaking swedish. Oh the horror!)

2005-10-11T15:23:00.000-07:00

The newest edition to the K.Love crew, little Tobias Mikael. :)

pics o' me pup

2005-10-04T09:11:00.000-07:00

Here's Frappy and 1/2 the reason I've become a hermit:

The Clock is Broken in Arizona

2005-10-03T11:57:00.000-07:00

Well,
So this past weekend turned out pretty darn sweet. Friday night i got in a little late, and so i missed October fest in Tempe. Honestly i'm having a little trouble with the math here. Friday night was September 30. October Fest, as the name implies should take place in, well, October. So they wanted to get an early start, sure i could understand. Why then, did it STOP at 11pm!? That's just plain retarded!
So yea, missed out. But had a great time at the Tavern with all sorts of fun people. Chalupa was present and quite livley. K-love's always laughing and having fun. Her new roomate was pretty cool, too. Pemma, however, gets a "D" for her laziness. BOOOO! At least Greasy Tonys is still in business.
Oh yea, one more thing.
GO TROJANS!

2005-10-03T09:34:00.000-07:00

Tobias Mikel Cars was born ~ 2:45 a.m. on October 2, 2005. Wee-haw! (Oh! If you are a visitor this is not *my* baby, but my new nephew.) Congrats Myra and Mikael! :)

I'm a New Yorker!

2005-09-28T10:03:00.001-07:00

So I know I am supposed to cover Beerfest '05, but I don't know what to say except the rains came, and they came hard.

Ah school. I love it. Well let me rephrase that. I love the social setting school provides, but don't like the homework involved. Really though. Classes are great because you are locked in a room with other people for at least an hour, and during that hour you make temporary new friendships because you have a common bond. Maybe you all in there because you have the same interests, or because you need the same pre-requisite, or (as in my case), you want to get your ticket erased from your record.

Yes, dear readers, after 5 years K.Love has received her first speeding ticket. I was fortunately enough to be able to go to driving school and get my record set back to zero.

My instructor's name is Walter. A retired cop back from the east coast. He had that harsh accent that could be heard when saying "the tree second rule" or "he don't know what he's doin'." I discovered he and I share a lot of qualities, which lead me to believe I'm an east coaster deep down inside. How can I tell? Well here we go:

1) Have a scary angry side - Right when we walked in the door he threatened us to be quiet, don't bring in food, no cell phones, etc. We were all scared straight. I have been told my angry side can be just as scary.

2) Be naturally funny - Walter had that old man-dry sense of humor. He seemed like he was pretty serious, but the stuff he was saying was hysterical. I find people laugh at what I say a lot. I suppose they could just be laughing at me though.

3) Inability to control one's mouth - Now I am, what I like to call, *too* honest. In reality, the self edit feature in my brain doesn't work, so any thought I have just sort of tumbles out of my mouth. Same with Walter. In the beginning of class I noticed a woman with a baby. I thought it was a little odd. Sure enough 20 minutes into class it starts to bawl and will not stop. After awhile Walter stops class and tells her she has to leave. Babies aren't allowed and this is why. She argues that he is hot, he won't take his bottle, and 20 other excuses. I of course want her to leave since its annoying me, but 2 guys in the back say "let her stay!". Ironically the two mother's that I'm sitting between both agree that she needs to leave. Anyways, the mother decides to get bold and says "will anybody in this class that wants me to leave please raise their hand." Before I can get my hand up Walter interrupts and says "its not their decision. its the rules. I told you that when you first signed up. Can't you get a babysitter?" She says they have a hard time giving him his bottle. Now, here is the groan worthy part. He then says "Well, where is the father?" Now there are 75 people in the class and I've never heard such a ruckess. Even I know that is not a very PC thing to say, but as I scrunched down in my seat I knew I was sort of thinking the same thing...

4)Ability to speak so fast you confuse your audience - When we'd fall behind the class schedule, Walter would read through the manuel at lightening speed. I could hear student's asking "what did he say?" and look confused. Since I'm quite experience in the art of speaking fast I was able to pick up when he left words out or sort of made up his own words because he was going to fast. I'm a master at this!

5) Low tolerance for stupid people - There were 3 specific students who just HAD to keep asking the most stupid questions. Like when Walter said "according the law if you taking a left turn and the light turns red before you are completely out in that intersection, and you still turn left, you're breaking the law." Enter lady is pink hat "Why?". Walter - "Because its the law!" Urgh...where is common sense when you need it. Just shut up and let the man teach.

All in all it was a good class, and its nice to know that at least one person out there is as completely un-PC as I am. :)

2005-09-26T13:48:00.000-07:00

czesc!

Sweet Caroline

2005-09-26T11:28:00.000-07:00

well hellllllloooo!

i have been invited to join this forum of silliness!
how can i describe my excitement? I’m giddy. very very giddy. its like a kiddy pool filled with alcohol-laced fruit punch.

i will get the honor of seeing k-love this up and coming weekend. this is also exciting. i'm sure this blog will probably double in size based on one little night of our mis-adventures. i can't wait!
i awoke this morning to Neil Diamond's 'Sweet Caroline.' Oh we must go karaokiiing! only time will tell....

So I was driving back one night...

2005-09-23T13:31:00.000-07:00

Hi! This is my first post to this blog *waves*; Kristie is waaaay on the ball because I suck at completing stuff, like the following:

setting up my own WordPress blog database
Thank You notes
House cleaning
journal entries

... basically stuff that I'm all hopped up and raring to go with in one moment and all zombified the next.

Yes. I said it...

zombified.

and not the fun kind of zombies that we saw in "Shawn of the Dead". Like zombies that go around running in my head for the next 5 years going "why didn't you complete me? wuhhhhyyyyyyyyyyyyy?" and then they keel over and start shuddering and writhing on the ground, whilst I resurrect more zombies, who then eat the flesh of the fallen ones.

Yep. exactly.

Anyway, let's get back to WHY exactly I felt the need to post here today --- let's say, it involves Death Metal, Frappy, and a red light.

So I'm walking to my car from the PetSmart where I'm taking Frappy to puppy training. He's been a good boy and he's almost completely good with the sit command. The PetSmart is situated near a "Guitar Center" and a "Tower Records". As I'm getting into my car, I hear the sounds of some really bad death metal lead vocalist shouting and think to myself, wow, that kinda sucks. ...even for the amateurs at the Guitar Center. ...or maybe Tower Records is having amateur night. As I drive to the main drag with Frappy on my lap, the shouting begins to get louder. I look to the intersection where I need to turn right where there's this guy standing around pacing under the mercury vapor light. I think to myself
uhhhh. I don't think that's right...
but at least he's actually singing to music, based on the headphone wires dangling from his head...

and as I got closer, yes, the "music" got louder, until Frappy and I were serenaded so sweetly by the sounds of his voice under the red glow of the traffic light. His sweet voice, now at my passenger side window, gently lulled me to the awareness that

those weren't headphone wires, but shoelaces...

and I don't think he'll make it into any band anytime soon.

First workout

2005-09-23T08:33:00.000-07:00

For those of you who don't know, I've recently developed a new layer of fat around my entire body. Its soft and jiggly, and it must go away! This week I signed up to work with a personal trainer twice a week, for 3 months. I figure if they can't discipline me enough to go to the gym nobody can. Today was my first official meeting with Ron. When I had first walked in, there was nothing there but young hot guys ready to train. I luckily found the only girl, and requested that I get a not so attractive gentleman to help me out. I have enough pressure, I don't need to worry about my butt jiggling in front of some hot guy's face. I'll share my starting stats at some other time, but lets just say I'm off the scale as far as poor health goes. Ron is retired, and says he actually doesn't work out himself, but he's in better shape in his lazy state than I am in my active state. He seems to take this very seriously and hardly cracked a smile. Those of you who know me know I need to laugh and make it easier on myself. The only time I'm serious is when I'm angry (though my temper is better than in college, still happens fairly regularly), or if I really need to get my point across. I did finally break his shell when he went to measure my waist and asked "Where does your hip bone start? See this? This is where mine starts." I sort of poked my squishiness and said "Well here is where mine is, but its hidden by this nice layer of fat." I was being serious, but he laughed and said "Well thats what I'm here for." So we only got to complete my fitness test, and he is working out a program for me, which I will start with him on Monday. Till then I need to do 1 hour of cardio each day. I made the comment that I wanted to be less pear like, so he stuck me on the elliptical trainer w/o arm movements. I hate to say it, it was fun though. I actually like doing cardio, shocking as that seems. Once I get in the zone, it feels pretty good. I also have the best mix on my iPOD shuffle. I call it K.Love's World Mix. From the U.S. I have some Daft Punk and Basement Jaxx. From Europe I have E-Type and thats really it (Mikael, send me more stuff!). For some Latin American flavor I threw in a little DLG. And for that pure Hispanic groove, some Celia Cruz. Her stuff rocks! The only drawback is that I must remember I'm not working out at home, but in a gym. In my acting classes I learned to be in the moment and forget everything else that is going on around you. I caught myself throwing in some nice hip movements when DLG was on. I just really hope I don't find myself singing out loud like I do at home. What an embarrassment.

So, my best friend in the world, Robb, is coming back to visit this weekend. Its going to be awesome, but tomorrow will be a slight challenge for me, since we are attending every calorie lover's dream...beer fest. All you can eat and drink for $30. Luckily I've been there a couple times, so I know what lighter beers I like and probably won't stray. Its my food choices that kill me. If I remember correctly they had all that bad food that goes great with beer; Pizza, chicken wings, Krispy Kremes (well I'm sure somebody likes dunking it in their beer), etc. You know what is remarkable amazing? When Robb lived here, we'd go out all the time, either to eat, or to go to the pubs and end up at places like Greasy Tony's. Through all of that I managed to maintain my weight, but as soon as he moved I definitely eat out less and managed to pack on the pounds. In whose world does this make sense?

As far as the homefront, I'm in the process of refinancing my house (yeah!) so I'll just have one payment instead of two. I'll also be able to pay off my credit cards and such. Good stuff! Yesterday Brian (BOOFAH!) and I headed to Ikea and bought some bookshelves for the den. I'll be getting my new desk within the week. I'm slowly trying to makeover my house so it doesn't look like a penniless college student lives here. My proudest accomplishment? Actually buying an small TV stand to replace the end table my TV has been on for 5+ years.

So I know some of you are asking, ok, why did you give in and start a blog? I'm pretty anti-technology. Always behind the times. I mean a blog to me says "Hey, I think I'm pretty swell, and instead of keeping a diary, I'm going to share it with everyone so they can tell me how cool I am." I still pretty much feel this way, but a lot of friends have moved away, and my mother and sister both have higher priorities than BSing with me on messenger, so I don't get the daily interaction with them I'm used to. We are a very tight knit unit, so instead of writing 20 e-mails about the same thing, I figured this would be the easiest. Keep in mind, this is the edited version of my life. The really "good" stuff will be kept on my online diary, which only a very few select individuals that I trust. Ok, well one wasn't exactly invited to my diary. His wife accidentally left her password saved on her account, so he logged in and took a look. Its ok though. This was a guy who broke into my closet, put on my spandex like workout clothes, and ran out in my living room and gave me a cheer. If he's brave enough to do that, than I'm brave enough to let him read. :) Also, this is just the beginning steps of them Pem-K takeover (just a temp made up name). Pemma and I have plans to take over the internet. Ok, well not really, but we have lots of ideas we share with each other that might be fun to share. I mean really, the internet is full of useless crap anyways, we will just add to the fun. :)

Must go shower...

k.love

First Entry...sort of

2005-09-19T14:34:00.000-07:00

So since my family has all but disappeared, I have finally been inspired to start my own blog so they can know what the heck is going on in my life. I actually don't really have much to say now since I woke up, but hello, world! My attempt at trying something new.

k-