The Best Drunk Ever

So I am sooooooooo exhausted from my brainstorming trip to Catalina. Loads of fun, not a lot of brainstorming. And even though I'm so tired, I know that if I don't write now, then I'll forget all the fun little tidbits. So sit back kiddies and enjoy the ride, because when I'm tired, I tend to ramble. So this post will go on for a looong time. (and apparently when I'm tired I like to begin sentences with the word "so")

Yesterday morning started off early, since G and I had to be on the ferry by 8:30am. For he and I, this feat was difficult. We started out a little late, and then G had to run into work because he was working on a super secret project that he wanted to present on the trip. Racing and cursing down the freeways going way over the speed limit, we actually made it to the dock in plenty of time. The hour long boat ride was surprisingly fun. Very windy and cold, but overall a nice time. In the middle of the trip, the captain slowed the boat down so the dolphins could play in the wake of the ship. There were literally hundreds of dolphins "surfing" behind us. It was awesome! I have never seen so many dolphins before. The best were the baby dolphins that would jump up every once in awhile. G and I and the rest of the marketing girls were squealing like little kids.

As soon as we landed, we walked to the (very beautiful) hotel and started "working." By 4:30, we headed to the beachhouse the company rented and did some more "team bonding" by having a mixed drinks contest. Each table had to create a drink and serve it to 3 of our bosses. One group found an old fish bowl complete with shells under a bathroom sink and filled it with their turquoise alcohol. Another melted marshmallows on top and called it "floam." Neither won the contest. After the results, it became an open bar. Imagine over 50 toy ranch professionals in the middle of the afternoon drinking shots after shots toasting them "To the new plant in China!" It also escalated into thunderous chants of various people's names to do Kahlua body shots. Nice. But not so nice for KQ, as I proceeded to head back to my room, bright red, and feeling really sick. That would be hugging the toilet #1.

Made it back in time for dinner, sat down with everyone, but ran up to the restroom soon after. Porcelain rollercoaster ride #2. I thought it wise to head back to the hotel for some R&R. G said that after dinner they would head back to the beach house for some good 'ole karaoke and he would call me. #3. By now I'm wondering if I actually have a severe case of bulemia. I fall asleep, 10:30pm I wake up. No phone call from G! Turns out, they never left the restaurant because there was a karaoke bar there too. In the 3 hours I was away, G has turned into the drunkest, most hilarious gay man alive. And he found a new best friend and found it necessary to scream her name every 2 seconds. I also missed his lively solo rendition of "Like a Virgin" which apparently had everyone wetting themselves. I swear, I have never seen a man get so much action in an hour. Both the ladies and the men couldn't get enough G-love! Unfortunately, in my groggy, hungover state I couldn't remember all the memorable quotes, but I do remember G holding a drink in each hand up to his face and squealing with delight and him picking a new best friend (the VP of design) because she had a "bigger rack."

We eventually made it back to the hotel and the group decided it was time to get into the jacuzzi. But it was locked, so everyone had to scale the gate (that was 2 feet away from a 40 foot drop to the ground) to get in. I tried to pull G away and get him to rest, but he couldn't resist the "man soup" on the other side. Seriously, it came down to 4 guys in their skivvies with all of us girls just watching from the other side of the gate. Eventually BR came with fries, which taunted the girls to scale the gate. I was too tired and felt another wave of nausea coming on, so I had to miss out on all the fun. From what I hear, G had a great time "window shopping." :) Hellooo #4, said I, before finally getting some rest.

When all was said and done, I woke up feeling just fine and G was great after a shower. AND he remembers all the events of the night (I have pictures in case he forgets...). I swear, it must be the German/Norwegian in him because there is no way any normal person could handle all that liquor. And despite all the partying, we actually came away with a LOT of new ideas and a ton of new friends. And no more drinking for KQ ever again.

I can't believe we were only gone for a day and a half because it seriously feels like weeks since I've been in my apartment. And now my head is beginning to spin a little, I feel like I'm still on the ferry on the way back home, so with that I must bid you adieu. Tomorrow I'm off to Tejas, yeehaw!

A little plug to help out a fellow blogger. Since his own BROTHER won't even do it. ;) Check out G's brother's blog too, aka Vitatwin. http://5by5-b-5by5.blogspot.com/

The Vacation Begins!

So tomorrow morning G and I begin our endeavor to Catalina Island for 2 days of fun and brainstorming. We're rooming together, so I'm anticipating lots of girl talk and pillow fights. ;) The rumor that's been going around is that they're renting golf carts and we're having a scavenger hunt around the island. Can't wait! Then right after we return, I'm off to Houston for 6 days with the Q family. I've been pretty good keeping up with Weight Watchers, but I have a feeling that I will succumb to the tasty goodies cooked by the Fattest City in the U.S. Goodbye flex points, hellooo brunch buffets, fried chicken, and crawfish!

I'm finally caught up with all my projects at work, and KISS is in England, so this week has been great so far. I know that as soon as I get back from vacation, it'll be crazy deadlines again and late nights, but at least I'll be somewhat refreshed and ready to jump right in. In addition to work, I also need to SERIOUSLY start looking for a new place. It dawned on me that I only have a month left to find a place, pack up all my crap and move, so I've got to start hustling. Speaking of apartments, DB never emailed or called me back (re: The Brave Little Email). Oh well, his loss. But maybe it's really my loss. I googled him and found this article about him written in college. He won a grant to study at Cambridge, was a Rhodes scholar finalist, was the president of his class 3 out of the 4 yrs, volunteered in Africa, sang in the gospel choir, and he also dabbles in oil painting and photography. Damn. There's a few more acheivements I didn't include too. At least it gives me hope that there are still a few overacheiving, nice single guys out in the world. But it'd be nice if I could actually nab one!

So I'm off. Am leaving work now to drive around MB and HB to find some rent signs. Hopefully I'll still post whilst I'm away, but if not, have a great 4th!

The Brave Little E-mail

So I didn't get the apartment. DB was nice enough to email me back today and say that another guy "threw money at them" so they couldn't resist. It's fine. I think it's easier to find an apartment than a quality singl guy anyway. So with some help from G, I emailed him back:

"Hey D (I put his real name here, but for the sake of anonymity),
Thanks for getting back with me so quickly. I can't say I'm not a tad disappointed because your place was really nice. But no problem, I've still got time before my lease ends. It was nice meeting you last night, and if you ever want to hang out sometime, give me a call. My number's on my business card. ;)

Have fun in Vegas and good luck with your toy company!"

It was Vitamin G approved, and he actually hit "Send" for me because I was too nervous. D's probably in Vegas so he won't get this until later. We'll see if he responds!

In other news, we had a huge, long ass presentation today. It was the boys and girls pkg groups presenting their new projects to each other. But the boys went first and took forever and a day, so by the time it got to the girls group, we had already been sitting in the room for 2 hrs. KISS and his puppet went first and KISS bombed, as usual. We were supposed to talk for 3 minutes each. He talked for at least 10, I would say. But it's not just that he took too long, it's that he basically squeezed 15 bullet points (with about 3 sentences under each bullet point) onto 1 ppt page and read the entire thing out loud. And it was stuff that everyone already knew. It was painful. Oh, and he gets really nervous when he speaks (which shouldn't happen when he's an art director!), so as one of my co-workers so eloquently said, "I couldn't tell if he was going to faint or have an orgasm." So of course, guess who gets to present after him? Yours truly! Fortunately I had my shit together and ran through my 2 brands in the alotted 6 minutes. Might have gone over a little bit...But everyone afterward said I did a great job (yay, doing well in front of all the bosses!), was confident, really had passion about my brands, and revived the presentations. Woohoo! (Giving self pat on the back.) There was also a little cutie who works on the boys side (KA, it's not the phantom hottie. No idea what happened to him). This guy is a copywriter, looks pretty young, not a hottie per se, but I dunno, he was kinda cute! G says he has a big nose, which is true, but it's not as bad as PH's hawk nose (and french tipped teeth)! So anyhoo, I was glad that I didn't bomb in front of him either. And who know's? Maybe I made an impression on him... On another happy note, KISS is gone on vacation for an entire week and a half! It's time to par-tay!!!

"Kept" is on VH1 tonight. If you guys haven't seen this show, definitely check it out! It's about all these guys competing to be JH's boy toy. I know it sounds like just another reality show, but really, she teaches them about etiquette and manners and how to deal with the paparazzi and the life of a celebrity. Grace under pressure, fashion, everything. It's great! And JH is actually much cooler than I thought she'd be. So if you're home on a Thursday night like I am, watch it!

The Neverending Search for a Roommate

Or a 1 BR apartment. I think I'm just a little too lazy about this, or I just don't show enough enthusiasm to the person renting out the apartment, because I've been searching for a new place for a few months now on and off, and haven't found a single thing. I think the worse thing is people tell me they have friends that need a roommate, so I get my hopes up and every time the person flakes out or doesn't respond to my email. And then I get kinda offended. I think it's the same feeling as the whole "So why are you still single?" (refer to ML's post). I am a GOOD roommate! I'm easy to get along with, am not very loud at night, like to clean, don't smoke, no pets, likes to bake cookies but doesn't like to eat them. I mean, COME ON. Really now, really.

So the latest endeavor happened tonight, we'll see by Friday if I get the place. I've been checking out Craigs List pretty regularly and every time I respond to someone's ad I feel like I'm writing a personal "24, likes to do this, likes to do that, stable income...". Tonight after hanging out for, like, 10 minutes at PH I headed over to MB. It's 2 guys, both 26 yr old, with a 3 story apt a block from the beach. When you're on the 3rd floor deck, you can see from Malibu to the O.C. It's gorgeous. But there's 2 downers: limited parking and no washer/dryer. But the 2 guys seemed really cool. One in particular, DB, was a cutie. I gave him my business card so he could email me "yes" or "no". If it doesn't work out, I'm thinking of emailing him back and asking if he'd like to hang out sometime. I googled him (heehee) and his stats sound pretty promising. What do y'all think?

The call for help

So I saw DP at the Friday night dinner. He looked very nice, as usual. But I don't know...I'm thinking of throwing in the towel on this one. I just don't think he's that into me. My friends, however, seemed to have taken different sides: KA seemed emphatically against it at lunch today. Yesterday G said it's his loss (aww, thanks!), and my friend CC said although he was definitely "crush worthy," it was time to move on. So now I am reaching out to my blog support group to ask for advice. Here's the situation: so I've seen DP a few times at different things, mainly Habitat, and it's just been sort of polite conversation. We've also had a few email exchanges but again, nothing at a friendly, super casual level. I was hoping to chat more with him on Friday and actually work up the courage to ask him out for fair-trade coffee, but my seeing him this weekned basically consisted of: him sitting with his volunteer group at a table, me sitting at another table. He seemed to be quite chatty and telling different stories, everyone laughing. Didn't really want to interrupt, so nothing happened. Then later, saw him downstairs chatting with a girl and a guy, again didn't want to interrupt. And I'm pretty positive he could see me in his peripheral vision, so at any point he could have approached me and said hello. The program started and everyone was quiet while they handed out awards. At this point, FINALLY, as he passed right in front of me without saying anything to get water, he turned around to come back, I made eye contact with him, so on his way back to his friends he whispered hi to me, we hugged, and then he walked away. After the program I looked around and he was gone.

So I never had a chance to really talk to him. I guess if I wanted to butt my way into conversations I could. But I never feel comfortable doing that. My feeling is that if he was remotely interested in getting to know me better, he would have at least said a few more sentences to me. And I have a sneaking suspicion that had I not made eye contact with him, he would have blown me off altogether. Plus, normally when I see him I'm in my dirty, work out clothes shoveling dirt, no make up, hair tied back. But on Friday I got especially dolled up in a super cute outfit with my hair all nice and shiny and nicely applied makeup. And I still got Nothing.

What more can I do?

The Diarrhetic Seagull

So if you haven't noticed by now, I'm trying to start all my posts with the word "The." It's getting harder and harder. Not sure if the spelling is right in today's title. A seagull that has diarrhea. That's what it looked like on my car after work today. I just got my car washed last week, and it still looked pretty good. So imagine my horror today when I approach Gus Gus (my car's name) and find this HUGE white bird poop covering half of the driver's side window. And this afternoon was a really nice, sunny day but there's no way in hell I'm rolling down my window! So I have to drive around with this gigantic BM plastered inches away from my face. And it's so embarassing driving around with it too, people try not to stare, but you can see them shaking their heads wondering why you don't go to the car wash and get that taken care of. So I just HAD to get it washed off right away. It didn't take very long, but there's still flecks of it left. Ugh.

G and I had a late late lunch at GS. We love that place. It's just good stuff. And the entire staff knows us, which is good and yet a little sad too. Cutie McCuterson was our server. He was very friendly to us today! I'm not such a good flirt and I don't know if it makes G awkward if I attempt to in front of him (not that he would be jealous or anything, but I can just see him laughing behind his napkin or making fun of me later). But he looks really young, and then what if I pull an ML and things don't work out and we have to stop going to GS? That would be terrible! Cutie McCuterson is cute, but not cute enough for me to stop eating at GS at least twice a week.

Tonight's my volunteer appreciation dinner at church. Hopefully DP will be there. I've got a nice outfit picked out tonight and then afterwards I'm going to try to go out with KA and the gang to HB.

Side note: Check out this new singer/songwriter Amos Lee. He opened for Norah Jones while she was on tour. His voice and songs are really mellow and soothing. I would say it's a mix of Otis Redding, Marvin Gaye, and a female Norah Jones. She sings vocals on 2 of his songs, I believe.

The Strike on Coffee

So this post is going to be a bit depressing, so if you're in a good mood today, it'd be best if you didn't read further.


I was watching Nightline on ABC late last night and the story was so sad I started to cry in bed. The segment was based on a new documentary coming out about illegal child labor in other countries as well as in Texas. The only part I caught (because I was too upset to watch the rest) was about Kenyan children picking coffee berries for us greedy consuming Americans. The kids were too poor to go to school (which only would have cost $13), so their parents sent them to these coffee farms. They work all day and only make 6 cents. The branches of the coffee plants scratch the children and the pesticides covering the plants thus infect the kids' wounds. One kid said that it felt like someone was pouring boiling water over his face, arms, and hands every day. HOW AWFUL!!! I feel like a terrible human being today. And I think back to yesterday morning when there was a line out the door for Starbucks. How dependent on coffee have we become (second highest imported good after oil) that we can ignore these millions of tortured Kenyan children for our $3.00 cup of java? So starting today I'm going on strike against coffee that does not have the "Fair Trade" sticker on it (Fair Trade means the coffee is from farms that pay their workers the right amount).

And then in Texas (saw the preview before the commercial break), thousands of immigrant children are also pulled out of school to work 10 hrs a day, 7 days a week picking vegetables. I think they get something like a penny per pound of vegetables. So the vegetables I eat everyday could have been picked through the sweat and tears of a 10 yr old mexican child. :*(

There's also a website where you can find out more about helping out to stop this tragedy and the documentary: www.stolenchildhoods.org.

The BEST show on television

Veronica Mars is airing its pilot episode tonight at 9pm on UPN. For those of you who think UPN is a terrible network with really bad shows, I used to think that as well! But G and KA can confirm (as well as Kristen on E!) that this show had far and away the best season ever. UPN is re-airing the entire season over again, starting tonight. Then tomorrow night you get ANOTHER episode. How lucky are you?! Please watch it, you won't regret it! And when you've become a fan too, you get a nifty little t-shirt designed by yours truly (with some special help from G-love and Kreme. Ew, that sounds kinda gross.).

The Winks

So I finally gave in (wow, I'm really bad when it comes to peer pressure) and registered at match.com. After hearing a coworker's success story and ML taking the plunge, I figured it might not be too bad. So I've gotten a few winks and an email, and you would think that would give my self confidence a boost, but...is this terrible to say? The guys that are winking at me and the one who emailed weren't such fabulous catches. If anything, they kinda make me feel WORSE about myself. Like, this is who is attracted to me? Maybe match.com wasn't such a good idea afterall.

On another subject about crushes (and there will be a lot, so please tell me when it's become out of hand), I saw my Habitat 4 Humanity crush (DP) yesterday at church. I've only actually hung out with this guy at build sites a few times but we've emailed a bit too (all times based around church volunteering, however). He's also in the design field, super cute, really sweet, but we just don't move in the same circles. And the few times I have had contact with him, I've always been to chicken to ask him out. Or pass him a note. :) And I'm afraid my attraction to him is just physical.

So anyway, yesterday I saw him at the end of mass and realized he was there to help coordinate the blood drive. Now one of my friends just so happened to be donating blood, so I quickly volunteered to be his "moral support." Is that bad of me as well? Doing something "charitable" but really for my own selfish reasons? But it was to no avail anyway. DP stood outside the whole time on his cell phone while I ate Cheezits inside while watching blood drip out of my friend. And then as we left, I saw him talking to the co-coordinator of the blood drive and didn't really want to interrupt so I just didn't say anything at all. Maybe it's just not meant to be. Maybe he's just a jerk, because I'm pretty sure he saw me and could have easily said hi or coerced me into giving a pint (which would have been really easy for him because clearly I give in way too quickly to peer pressure).

On a positive note, my evil boss, KISS, left work today at 11am to do "in store checks" which I'm praying stands for "going on another job interview." Cross your fingers!

The "In" Crowd

Okay, so I finally succumbed to creating a blog! I don't know how exciting this will be, the pressure might be too much for me to write something clever or have a funny story of the day. What's up with the name of my blog, you may ask? Well, the other pkg nerds out there might know, but for the rest of y'all: a 9LWW stands for 9 languages, world wide. These can sometimes be the bane of my design existence. In my line of work, you design these really beautiful packages to be sold to domestic retailers. And then here comes the international demand. Somehow you're expected to cram 9 different languages onto this one little box and have it still look decent (and sellable). I think that's a beautiful metaphor for life. You start out with the best of intentions and aim for theses wonderfully thought out goals. Everything has a place, every element just right. And then others load you down with their expectations, requirements, and before you know it, you're a 9L. Same on the inside, but horribly complicated and confusing on the outside.

Wow, pretty deep! Hopefully I'll have something a bit more exciting to write in my next post. I'm pooped. This one really wore me out!