Y'know I don't get God. I certainly don't expect life as a Christian to be full of happiness and no worries. Yet, it seems like when something good happens, something bad accompanies it. Or maybe it's the other way around. Anyway, it's one of those mysteries of God that just blows my mind.

Yay, God is good! At least, I'm sure God had to be involved. There was one spot left for the Photoshop I class, three people were in lottery for it, and I got it!!!

So my schedule goes:
Monday -- Kaplan 6 to 9
Tuesday -- SMC 1:30 to 9:50
Wednesday -- Kaplan 6 to 9
Thursday -- SMC 12:15 to 5:20, Crown Bible Study 7 to 9:30
Friday -- SMC 5:30 to 9:35, though I go early

I might have some Saturday tutoring coming up. Extra $$$ = good.

I just sat through 3.5 hrs of mind-numbing boredom. It's the first day of an introductory computer class (for graphics) where he started with... (dum da da dah) how to double-click. I kid you not. The way he was talking... I felt like I was trapped in a room full of 40-yr-old technophobes.

I should have gotten out during the break, but that's when I was still deciding whether or not I belong in that class, and I realized too late that I didn't. Brain slowing dying....

Okay, I feel like whining so brace yourself.

My parents and a couple of friends wished me a happy birthday on or right before my birthday... and that's it. Sure I don't expect friends that I haven't seen or talked to much to remember, but I would expect my own siblings, people that share my gene pool, to say something. And then there's the matter of a couple of friends that have been my closest friends since childhood.... Believe me, I'm not bitter, just a bit disappointed.

I've taken two classes so far. My schedule is still so screwy. I'm not going to go into details just yet. Today's class was action figure drawing, and the model was this really tall and slender woman with an absolutely flat stomach and not an ounce of cellulite. Dang, that's all I can say. The drive hasn't been bad so far, except I have to endure rush-hour traffic on Thursdays to make it from class to Bible study. We started Crown Financial Bible study. Everything's fascinating so far. E-mail me if you want an elaboration.

Nooo... don't look at me... I'm hideous... I'm revolting... I'm... OLD!!!!!!!

Heh heh. I'm just kidding. Turning 24 wasn't as traumatic as I thought. I think because I was surrounded by other people that were older than me. Of my peers, that is. Big thanks to y'all that called. A big phooey to y'all that didn't.

According to the chinese zodiac, this is my year. Well, the year for all 24 yr olds. And 12 yr olds. And 36, 48, and 60 yr olds. Whatever. I'm currently at SMC waiting for class to start. The drive wasn't too bad. Mainly cuz all the congestion was going the other way. Listening to Ryan Seacrest call Lisa Fox a slut on the radio made it more enjoyable. So is a possible job prospect! Wish me luck, and please pray for me! Even if you're not Christian!

For the first time in a long time, Valentine's Day didn't make me bitter. Well, I was never actually bitter before, but from the time I learned what Valentine's Day was 'til about two year's ago, I was never crazy about the day since it reminded me how... lacking my social life was. Then, the last two V-Days (not this year's) I actually had a boyfriend. And... it was nice. But then I realized that it wasn't any more special than any other day of the year. It just gave you an excuse to get mushy.

So this Valentine's Day, boyfriend-less, I just enjoyed the day like any other day, went to a church Valentine's fellowship, and at the end of it, I feel pretty good. No sense of bitterness. Not even subconsciously.

For the fellowship, we went to dinner theater and saw Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. It was pretty good. I mean, it's a real low-cost production. The stage was small, the sets were minimal, and the cast was small. The choreography was so-so, but then, none of them were really great dancers. However, they all sang well, and it was an entertaining production. Part of that is from the libretto, of course.

One highlight was that the guy who played Joseph was hot. He had a niiiiice chest. And he was a better singer than the others. Or perhaps he was just better mic-ed. Anyway, overall it was an enjoyable day.

Addicted to Minesweeper. Hand hurts, may be ruining mouse, yet still can't stop!!! Best times: beg - 15 sec, int - 63 sec, exp - 345 sec. Tryin' to beat expert time.

Aughhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!

How could I have missed the payment reminder e-mail? Now I have to pay a $25 late fee as well as $3.50 in finance charges! Arghhhhhh!!!!

My legs are killing me from all that jumping yesterday!!!

I used to think that blogs were a cheap excuse for people to not keep in touch with you, but I'm finding it has the opposite effect. Mainly cuz I'm a lazy person and really bad about contacting people. Anyway, I like to read blogs of people that I sorta know but are not that close to (and therefore a bit wary of contacting personally, though in a perfect world, we shouldn't fear doing that). I hope that any of you out there that are reading this because you knew me from afar and just want to see what I'm up to w/o actually sending me an e-mail, well, that's okay cuz I do it too. But drop me a line (or at least sign my guestbook) once in awhile and I promise I won't bite... hard. ;-)

We had steak today for dinner. Mmmmm. I usually have two types of cravings: sweets and meat. And by meat, I mean hamburgers and steaks. I think I helped contribute to my ex's bad diet whenever I had these cravings. We cooked them on broil in the toaster oven, and that took darn near forever. It was a perfect medium, though. Medium well in certain spots. But the meat temperature never reached 150. Which makes me think that we baked those steaks more than broiled them. My parents and I were discussing the last time we had meat at home, and I remember buying filet mignon from Costco once, when they were on sale (and they were being served in the Costco buffet), but that was back in OC, more than 3.5 years ago. What's sorta funny is that since they were so thick, we had cut them thick-wise to make thinner. We didn't know that filet mignon was suppose to be cut that thick.

I'm sitting at my Uncle Sun's computer typing this, and his computer is damn slow!!! 500 Mhz P3 chip with 64 megs of RAM. No wonder it's so slow. The internet connection's also at 28.8. Sooo ancient.

Anyway, I'm pooped. I came over to my Aunt & Uncle's around 10 am to help make balloons and put up decorations. The kids started arriving at 11. Nothing like a buncha 3-6 yr-olds jumping around on those air jumpers to tire you out. I figured out the secret to getting kids to like you: play with them. *gasp! No way!!! Yep, it must be a surprise to all y'all, but that's the key. And so my relatives keeps remarking on how the kids love me. And it's for no other reason than, I play with them. Not just stand around and watch, mind you. Actually get in that jumper and jump around with them. Because of that, they love me. So now, young grasshopper, you know the secret to baby-sitting. Go out there in the world and make me proud.

Speaking of the jumper (y'know that I mean, those inflatable gyms that has air blowing through it, and the kids jump around on the inside), I think I re-twinged my back when I tried to do some flips and such. As y'all know, I hurt my back doing hankido my senior year. I think the combination of the flips and the fact that I've been sedentary for months, led to my current everything-hurts-when-I-move state.

Now I'm soooo tired, I'm not sure how I'll drive home. On a different note, anybody see the Michael Jackson interview? It was so disturbing. That whole thing about his face and the kids sleeping over... shudder. I think I get his psyche, though. Every teen goes through low self-image (which was made worse by his father) but not every teen has the money to go through plastic surgery. And being in the public probably hasn't helped. I see it like if you gave an anorexic a ton of money for plastic surgery. Of course she will get lipo-ed up the wazoo until she's a freaky shadow of a person. Well, I see that with Jacko's surgeries. He doesn't have a normal self-image, yet he has the money to transform himself into what he thinks is normal, though it's freaky to everyone else.

Now, he's a great entertainer, I have to say. Possibly one of the greatest. And if he wants to spend money to look like that, then I say, who cares? My concern is that he needed psychiatric counseling about this matter a looong time ago.

Another thing: I think this whole kids sleeping over thing is Jacko's denial that he is a grown man. A grown middle-aged man. I think his mind is still trapped in the mind of a pre-adolescent boy. And to a 12-yr-old boy, having sleepovers with other 12-yr-old boys is no big deal. I saw it when I saw him shopping. He shops like a kid in a candy store. What he wants, he gets. Now, I'm not sure if he did molest any of those boys, but that may also have to deal with pre-adolescent sexual experimentation.

I worry that his kids are getting royally messed up right now. (Anybody else think that Debbie Ro was a paid surrogate who were forced to marry when the news leaked out?)

I just hopped over to view my Guestbook, and well, it seems my little rant against Kaplan has gotten some responses. Ooh!

To clarify, what had happened was that the center manager had sent out an e-mail with an Excel worksheet asking us to fill out the ones we wanted (with alternates). Well, I sent it in (though I do have to say that it was a few hours late since that night as I was writing the e-mail the Santa Anas knocked the power out) and then a few days later I e-mailed the center manager asking him about my status. Well, then another week later, he called me to schedule an appointment to discuss pay stuff (everybody had to do it) and then he informed me that he passed off the job of class scheduling to the associate manager. Well, the next day I e-mailed her about my status. And that's when she replied saying that classes are first come first serve, and that there were only two classes left. Well. I got pissed at that (though not to her) and made my little rant. Basically, they ignored my requests. Like they never even got that stupid Excel file. So as of now, I only have one class that meets twice a week until the end of March. And then I have no frickin' income... AGAIN. There won't be more classes 'til summer. Yeah, I'm ticked.

What the heck am I doing with my life? So far, I've just been escaping, not dealing with it. Classes start in two weeks but I don't even know what my schedule is. Or at least what classes I want to crash. My not getting the Thurs/Sun class for Kaplan, however, has enabled me to attend Crown Bible Study and take Animation I at SMC. But I really could have used the extra six hours a week. *sigh. It seems like I've sent a gazillion e-mails to job listings, yet nary a reply. It's gotten so that when I do get a reply, I have no idea what job it was that I applied for. Could somebody please tell me that things will get better soon? I mean, really sure, like I'm-psychic-and-I-can-see-the-future sure?

My face is breaking out. Argh.

That's it. I am sick and tired of Kaplan. Maybe no one told me, but there seems to be a one class limit on the number of classes I can teach. Not officially, but all I ask for are three little classes, two of them in February and one in May, but it's like they didn't even look at my requests! It was only when I finally asked about my status when they asked me which one I wanted out of the only two classes left! Stupid!!!

I gotta get a better job. Screw the pay, it's not worth dealing with all this crap.