cindy's world

Truly, not having internet at work sucks. I had to run and borrow someone else’s computer many floors up (I took the stairs and arrived panting) to send an email canceling one makeup artist after hiring another one this morning. I’m also way behind in blogging. I also realized, it’s not even like I’m getting a significant increase in productivity without internet. It just keeps me from doing little things like online banking and looking up attorney addresses and phone numbers, as well as looking up weird terminology for my court reporter’s transcripts. I don’t play games online.

Friday was Vanessa (“Busykitty”) night. She graduated with her AA degree on Thursday and celebrated with dinner at Tapas Restaurant in Newport Beach. Mr. W and I arrived ridiculously early, as being with Mr. W we’re wont to do, and sat at the bar while waiting for everyone else to get there. The good thing about arriving that early is that we got happy hour pricing and ordered half-price sangrias and a sliced Spanish chorizo appetizer plate. After the party arrived and was seated and I met a ton of Vanessa’s family as well as Jay’s little girl Jayla, Mr. W ordered more tapas that we shared. Mr. W had been to the restaurant before and got to relive his days in Spain through the food. Vanessa’s sister was also part of the flamenco performance troupe that performed there that night. Mr. W kept whispering to me all night “In Spain the food blah blah,” “Flamenco dancing is supposed to be blah blah.” I guess before Mr. W is as Asian fobby as he is now, he was Spanish. Vanessa’s family had multiple graduations this summer in the group, her youngest sister and brother-in-law with their Bachelor’s degrees, their mother with her Master’s, and a niece graduated from elementary school. They joked about how they represented the entire spectrum of degrees. By the way, Vanessa looked adorable with little girl Jayla on her hip. She toted the toddler to meet us when we were still at the bar, and when Jayla started a whine, Vanessa nipped it right away by asking her gently, “What do want? Use your words.” Jayla responded instantly by using a word and pointing, making it understood she wanted to hang out with Vanessa’s teenage niece Janece (okay, I have no idea how to spell her name) who, by the way, is a freaking hilarious girl. Even tho it rained that night, it didn’t dampen any spirits!

Saturday, Mr. W and I got into a fight bright and early because I was so pissed that he made plans for 8am. Who makes plans for 8 am on a SATURDAY?! I saw no reason why the exact same plans couldn’t be made an hour or two later. The only thing redeeming was that the plans were with Gym Trainee and her son. We went to the same guy Mr. W bought his wedding tuxedos from and bought the son, Evan, a kid’s tux. I always describe Evan as “a 40 year-old trapped in the body of a 10 year-old and seriously angry about that fact”. Evan’s been bugging his mom for a tux for a long time and now, he has one with 3 different vests he could swap out for different looks at upcoming graduation in June and at our wedding in August. After getting the best deal I’ve ever heard of for this name-brand tux ensemble, we set off for UCLA. The 10 year-old was scoping out potential colleges. If you think graduating from elementary school is too early for him to start looking, to Evan this is already delayed because he’d expected to attend college immediately upon graduating from kindergarten and cried his eyes out when his mom had to explain his misunderstanding to him. He’s been researching boarding junior high and high school for himself because he discovered that some scholastic-based programs will pay scholarships toward universities. The reason we were going to UCLA is to let him decide between setting his goals there as a local university, or Yale. Don’t laugh; he has the grades to back that up and I expect to see great things from him in the future. (Did I tell you he taught himself to read by the time he was 3?) Our two UCLA virgins were good sports about walking everywhere on foot, from South Campus to North Campus, to Westwood for Diddy Riese‘s ice cream sandwiches (up to $1.50 now, $.50 increase from last time; I tried an authentic Hawaiian-style shave ice with the scoop of vanilla ice cream inside), back to UCLA to the dorm area, then to the car on campus. (Mr. W bitched and moaned a lot, refusing to walk where I wanted to take the tour and instead took them through back halls and behind buildings where I don’t think we were allowed to go plus didn’t present the best views of campus, and I was pissed at him for the entire night for taking over my tour and other things.) Mr. W wanted to go to the obnoxiously-reputed Ed Debevic’s restaurant in Beverly Hills for dinner afterwards, but when we got there we saw that it was gone (HA-ha!), so we kept going down Restaurant Row/La Cienega toward the Beverly Center. I thought we could hit up Hard Rock Cafe or Browne Derby, but they were both closed, too. I suddenly felt old. “I remember when this wasn’t here and instead it was…”. We did stumble upon a freaking amazing restaurant called The Grand Lux Cafe where a bank used to be. The overhead drop chandelier fixtures were amazing, not to mention the decorative tin ceilings and marble pillars. And the food!! Such a large menu of everything from gourmet pizzas to steak to seafood. And when the food arrived, the portion sizes made our mouths and eyes open wide. Evan was eating his giant burger the whole weekend, and I was doing the same with my 4-person-serving sized flatbread chicken sandwich. The experience was so delicious and impressive all-around that Gym Trainee told me Evan wants to go back there for his birthday this year instead of their usual Lucille’s BBQ, his old favorite. She also told me he was getting his stuff together to brag to his friends about his tour of UCLA when he got back to school. You know the kid’s in a good private school when visiting a college is “brag” material among his elementary school pals. What was I bragging about at 10? Hmm, new Barbie accessories, cool erasers that picked up after themselves, oragami and rubber band tricks.

Sunday, Mr. W was a sweetheart and made a point of letting me sleep in. We eventually got up and ran a bunch of errands like getting ocean water for his fish tank, more liquors I could use for my cocktails, a book about the Japanese surrender in WWII that my judge wanted for his birthday (I can’t read that stuff; hence why he’s the judge), and then visited my parents. During a delicious homemade dinner, my mom gave me some motherly essential advice for the wedding (this week it was to avoid sunlight so I don’t accidentally get tan; last week it was to stop working out immediately so I don’t get big; it seems like my lifestyle is just a huge mess to my mom), then we all went for a brisk but long walk around the hilly neighborhood. My mom’s been attending dancing and tai chi classes regularly with her friends at a local park, and my dad was using the alone-time to reacquaint himself with his beloved pastime of fishing, so they were both in great spirits this weekend. They also both look significantly healthier from their increased activity levels.

Monday, Mr. W and I went to his ex-bro-in-law best buddy’s house for the wife’s birthday. She turned 39 and bought herself a brand new cherry-red Corvette. Mr. W’s son had told us that they had a huge party the day before (Sunday) with like 70 people in attendance, so the fact that we were not a part of that but had been invited instead to a BBQ the following day was confusing to us. We were like, “If you didn’t want to invite us to your party, there’s no need to throw a SEPARATE one.” I was wondering how they’d behave about their party, whether they’d keep it from us or make some excuse. But they talked about the event the night before and the guests they knew in common with Mr. W as if expecting us to know about it, giving people updates and talking about all the leftover food they had, pulling a few items out for us to munch on. The wife said something about one of their guests wanting to bring a cake, but that wife had told the guest that she was going to have cake with the kids and us the next day (which turned out to be a delicious raspberry jam white cake). So I guess they’d deliberately planned a more intimate BBQ for us and the kids (their kids and Mr. W’s kids are cousins, and they had their girlfriends and friends over, too) so they could hang out with and talk to us the whole time. The wife had also deliberately arranged this hoping that Mr. W could get together with and talk to his MIA daughter. I’m not sure if meeting up is going to make communication between them any better, but at least it broke the ice.

Today (well, I consider it Tuesday even tho it’s way early Wed morning), I was a good girl and despite not having Mr. W or Gym Trainee on the same lunch hour as me, I nevertheless hit the gym alone at lunch and worked my upper body, and went back after work for a cardio session. Yay, me!

Oh, photos to follow.

Friday was my last day of vacation. Mr. W took that day off, too. He picked me up Thursday evening and said, “Tomorrow we’re going to the beach. Should be nice weather.” I’ll bet, it’s been in the 90s UP the last few days! When I left Andy’s practice on Thursday late afternoon, my car informed me it was a scorching 103 outside in Pasadena! Ick. Friday morning, as I donned the bikini, Mr. W informed me that the beach we’re going to is the San Onofre nude beach. He’d been wanting to go since our campout with the jujitsu people.
I declined, I protested, I argued, I refused!
Mr. W could not be deterred.
So I thought, okay, he wants to roam around nekkid letting his junk flop in the cool ocean breeze, but I can take advantage of the fact that it’s “clothing optional” and opt to wear clothing. Depending on how I feel when I get there, I MAY even drop the top.
We hiked down a steep decline to get from the parking area to the beach, and after we hit sand, we turned left and walked way past the last lifeguard tower. We expected to see a posted sign, but instead, the only sign that we had now arrived was a roundish older man with no tanlines walking toward us with a li’l furry sumthin’ sumthin’ bobbing under his robust belly. “I think we found it,” I said.
“Oh really? You think this is it?” an oblivious Mr. W squinted into the sun and sand.
“Yeah. I do,” I said, pointedly and yet cleverly nonchalantly nodding at the guy 100 feet away.
Mr. W and I walked the length of the rather small area, then came back to a spot he liked, and he pushed his umbrella into the sand, laid out the large beach towel, pulled a container of cut watermelon out of his pack, and stripped down. I meekly removed my tanktop and skirt and sat around in my triangle bikini top and modest boy short cut bikini bottom. Mr. W proceeded to spray himself with sunblock, and then asked me to help get the spots where the sun don’t shine but apparently will shine loud and bright today! I did as I was told, then he offered to put sunblock on me. I’m paranoid of odd tanlines when I have to be in a strapless dress in a few months, so I handed him my rub-on sunblock lotion. He told me to lay on my stomach, and he got my back. I think he told me to get the bikini straps out of the way, so I may have untied them in the back, I don’t remember. But I KNOW that he pulled down my shorts a little to get my lower back and in mid-sunblock-application, he slickly just ripped my shorts off. I couldn’t exactly stand up and run after the shorts, so my brain just detached and went to my happy place — I was on my couch in my living room watching TV, Dodo napping on his back near me. Mr. W thought me strange to not be mentally HERE right NOW to enjoy the warm sun, ocean breeze, waves lapping, out in the open nekkid.
Over time, I peeked around. It was 90% men, and the two or three women there were there with their boyfriends or husbands. Most of the people there were alone, and simply stretched out on their loungers or beach blankets napping in the sun, turning over occasionally to ensure an even tan. Most of these people were older rather furry men. There was absolutely nothing lewd going on. I see more impropriety at regular clothed beaches. Mr. W and I were probably the most borderline inappropriate what with our usual cuddling and his playful slaps on my bare butt and all. I thought I was checked out a few times by men, but can’t be sure whether they were checking me out or the hot muscle-clad Mr. W. Given the reputation of nude beaches, I’d say probably Mr. W. We’d occasionally see a nekkid jogger run by the water edge, or nekkid men walk from one edge of the beach to the other looking straight ahead or at the shoreline. There was one youngish guy in his 20s who looked around a bit by the shoreline, and he was definitely kicking his schlong around with each step. He seemed a bit attention-whorish, but I can’t imagine that the “gift” he was making sure everyone saw could be comfortable inside pants. Poor guy.
We left in a few hours, after Mr. W got to play in the water nekkid and I got to watch a nekkid dog play catch with a ball thrown by his nekkid owners in the water. We stayed in the beach areas for awhile, checking out a few houses we were interested in among 3 beach cities (Mr. W’s financing got approved Thursday! Yay!).
I can’t tell if I got a tan or not, since my usual telltale sign is how dramatic the contrast between tanned and untanned areas are, and obviously I didn’t have any new white blocks.

I heard that work re-set all their internet access such that when I return on Monday, I will not be able to get online at all for anything. Damn it! That means fewer posts like this one above. I made it extra-juicy just as a last hurrah thing for you guys. =) Of course certain friends like MOH Vicky are squirming and wincing at the detail.

Friday night Mr. W’s gamer bro, bro’s wife, Mr. W and I caught a musical impersonation brothers-sister act in the Las Vegas Hilton, “The Scintas.” Probably the most interesting thing about the evening is that that when the cocktail chick came around to take drink orders, I decided to order the Brain Hemorrhage shot, which I’d always wanted to make/enjoyed making but never tasted. I like all 3 ingredients: Baileys – yum; peach schnapps – yum; grenadine – yum. Together…curdled Baileys chunks I had to chew? Does not inspire a repeat performance in my mouth. When the waitress brought our drinks, she handed me my shot and said, “The bartender enjoyed making this so much he made you like 3 drinks’ worth for the price of 1!” After placing the standard shot in front of me, she put a rocks glass FULL of the stuff down in front of me, too. That Asian can’t-waste-food gene made me chew up the whole drink. Never again.

Saturday was designated to be “Gaming All-Nighter Day” at gamer bro’s house. The two men gamed on the Wii, then they gamed on PS3, then bro’s daughter (who’s getting married in June) and I went to her 4pm bridal dress fitting and alterations appointment since I had a little experience with wedding planning now and knew the right questions to ask and knew how to help her in/out of her dress. After we got back, we, along with gamer bro’s wife and gamer bro’s daughter’s fiance sat around and waited for the two men to stop playing so that we could go eat. They would not stop for a long time until finally Mr. W just stood and abandoned the neverending game. We had the mandatory Chicago-style pizza at their usual joint and gamer bro encouraged us girls to go see a movie, the later the better, so the guys can play more games. While the daughter’s fiance left to tend to his night shift, the brothers went back to gamer bro’s house to resume their gaming and the three of us women hit up Starbucks to kill time before our 10:05p movie. Man, they had conversations I could never imagine having with my own mother! There are just some things I wouldn’t want my mom to know about me, and details I never want to know about my dad’s marriage with my mom. But it was cool these two women are so close that they’re girlfriends on top of being mother-daughter, and that they felt comfortable enough around me to draw me into their very personal conversation topics. I was touched. The movie we saw was “Forgetting Sarah Marshall.” I chuckled through a lot of it despite the three drunk girls making noise at the end of our row (the daughter was so annoyed at them and at smelling their alcohol down the row that she got an employee to come do something about them. He told them to put their alcohol away and they did — for half an hour. Luckily for us they all left early.). When we got back to gamer bro’s house, it was 12:30a, the guys were in the midst of a trivia-type game on PS3, and we didn’t make it out of there until 1:30a, 4.5 hours past Mr. W’s normal bedtime. He was all riled up from the game playing, however, and since he commented on what great weather the wee hour provided, I suggested we sit on the front porch swing awhile and enjoy each others’ company alone, something we hadn’t had all weekend. In the midst of what I considered a GREAT discussion in which Mr. W was listing all the the things he loved about me and how I enrich his life (hee hee), the light in the office room behind us went on so we went inside his parents’ house, where we were staying. Turned out Mr. W’s dad was still up and wanted to show us photos of the rocker brother in the tux we’d brought along for him for our wedding. Rocker brother had been by their parents’ house that day while we were at gamer brother’s place. The jacket was too big but everything else fit, so we brought the jacket back with us to exchange.

Sunday, we got up early and went with Mr. W’s parents to a really cool-looking casino, where we met up with rocker brother for a Mother’s Day breakfast. This casino was attached to a giant multi-story Turner’s Outdoorsman store and had a huuuuuuge salt water aquarium in the center with tons of blue tangs, yellow tangs, stingrays, tiger sharks, and other ocean fish. There was even a separate high fish tank on the wall with jellyfish illuminated with color-changing neon lights. Mr. W and I left for home after a politically-charged breakfast discussion which I thoroughly enjoyed (made me like rocker brother more cuz we’re totally eye-to-eye on a lot of issues), making sure to stop by the outlet jewelry store with my $305 cashback and coupon for my better-than-free wedding band. They actually gave me money back. I ended up buying an Alexandrite and white gold pendant & chain for my mom and a silver heart locket for my grandma for Mother’s Day, so they still made money off me.

We got back to my house around 4:30p, regrouped and I spent some quality time with my Dodo boy, and took off to meet my parents and grandma for an early Mother’s Day dinner at a Chinese seafood restaurant. The dinner started off a little rough as everyone’s indecision and lack of opinion over what to order ticked my mom off, but all the jewelry cheered her right up. Now I have to figure out how to top presents like that next month for Father’s Day. I’m already gonna start off that weekend behind as we’ll be in Vegas again that weekend, this time for gamer bro’s daughter’s wedding.

This weekend was the United States Bartenders’ Guild‘s National Cocktail Competition & 60th Year Anniversary Celebration in Long Beach. Saturday, Mr. W and I volunteered for the after-dinner cocktail competition located at the Westin Long Beach Hotel. The winning cocktail was made by a competitor from Las Vegas with a drink he called “The Big Easy.” His garnish was a kumquat with a big smiley mouth cut out of it, candy eyes, a small sprig of broccoli hair, and the best part — he stuck a tiny twig of dried rosemary stem into the mouth, LIT IT, and as it glowed red and smoked, that was the kumquat head’s cigar! It was beautiful weather, free food and open bar. We walked away with a big bag of those little 1-oz sized bottles of a new vanilla liqueur by Grand Marnier called Navan and another bag of little bottles of Hennessy Cognac VSOP, leftover from the goodie bags they were giving out to guests. We also got some nice Boston shakers from their Absolut Vodka sponsor and Mr. W scored some nice shirts and an odd handcarved wooden bowl. Since we helped out, we were also invited to the formal banquet dinner that night…at the famed Sky Room in Long Beach! $200 formal dinner, open bar, live 1940s style entertainment, 360-degree panoramic view of the city and the ocean and Queen Mary, for free! It also appeared that I rubbed elbows with some big wigs in the industry. But not as much as Mr. W did; I guess it’s a male-dominated field or he just looks more professional than me, but he walked away with tons of contacts and business cards. The only downside to the night was a big group of rowdy disrespectful people who ended up sitting at our table, and they could not stop laughing and throwing napkins, doing stupid drunk things throughout the speeches and award ceremony. It got so annoying that Mr. W and I left early in case a food fight broke out or something. How rude.

Sunday, we again volunteered to help set up for the last event: a champagne buffet brunch aboard the Queen Mary ship. Gym Trainee and her son came by and ate with us, since Gym Trainee volunteered for the competition setup on Thursday or Friday. The event coordinator gave us a care package before we left: 2 unopened bottles of premium vodka, 2 new bottles Tabasco Bloody Mary Mix, 3 or 4 bottles of a rose champagne from the brunch. She also said that if we want to join the guild, just fill out the application online, send it to her, and we’re automatically in (I get the feeling they’re normally selective, requiring a resume and certifications to be sent with the application). It’s nice to work closely with and make a great impression on influential people!

Since Sunday’s Bartenders’ Guild activities were done around noon, we were free in the afternoon to attend my old friend Lily’s get-together at their new beachside apartment in nearby Seal Beach. We stopped by a supermarket and picked up some orange juice and cranberry juice, and with the liquors they had on hand at home, I played bartender and Lily’s husband Arnold gave me a standing invitation to go to any of their future parties to share my new trade. Haha.

I think all in all, I had a total of 2 drinks on Saturday and 2 small glasses of champagne on Sunday. Mr. W drank his weight in alcohol. We definitely made out well.

Tuesday night after bartending class, I met up with Christi (flip flop girl) at a charged-by-weight, make-your-own frozen yogurt place called Cherry On Top in Diamond Bar. She drove all the way there from her meeting in LA and I drove there from my class in Cypress and we pulled up about 20 seconds apart. That’s what you call synchronization! I’d told her about the shop over dinner Monday night, saying that the first time I’d gone in there, I’d instantly thought, “Christi would love to see this.” The decor is like teeny bopper chic done up in the cutsy Sanrio way. Round stainless steel table with swanky swivel-out round seats in the middle, giant clear plastic cherries rain from the ceiling over the main table, lit up from within, circular cushions attached sideways to the walls like big naugahyde buttons, all tables aglow from light within the patterned frosted glasstops. Flat screen TVs playing MTV (Tila Tequila was on) mounted high on the walls.

Christi instantly whipped out her camera and retreated to the far end of the room and started focusing away. One of the guys behind the counter strolled up to her, blocking her view, and told her that photos aren’t allowed in the place. So after we got our yogurts (hers was all tart flavors with healthy fruit toppings, I had the PMS formula of random yogurts with chocolate chip cookie dough, yogurt chips, Heath bar bits, chopped Andes chocolate mints, blueberries, and candied pecans), she sat with her back to the register counter, lined up her little digital camera to point at the center of the room, turned off her flash, and nonchalantly looking forward, she clicked the camera from underneath her arm. A few photos later, the best one was unfortunately blocked by some weird shadow in the corner. I pushed her to post it anyway (she was preparing for the debut of her upcoming Food Blog).

After the yogurt, she asked how far I lived from Diamond Bar, and the navigation device told us just over 8 miles, so she came over and visited Dodo. Just as she’d previously said, she loves all things furry (and it’s a rare animal that’s furrier than Dodo with his dense otter-like fur coat) despite the fact that she’s allergic to cats. She instantly befriended Dodo and as he meowed his side of the conversation at her and rubbed his face into her hand, she cooed greetings at him and commented on how soft he was in between sneezes. After the visit, she had a long drive back to LA but I was happy she finally met the other significant fuzzy boy in my life!

Sometimes you get crap in life, but you may also be surprised by the bright yellow dandelions that grow out of crap. Excuse me if this post doesn’t make as much sense, I had bourbon for lunch today (with cherries and sugar muddled together, plus vermouth) because I DESERVE it after the day I had yesterday, goshdarn.

Yesterday we were “dark,” meaning my judge took the day off (to take care of some family issues), so his staff was available to float. At 8:30 a.m. yesterday in my regular courthouse, my supervisor said, “Sorry. They need you in Torrance. General Civil department.” That’s 3 freeways and over 30 miles away.

Crap Chunk: I walked into a criminal courtroom in the middle of morning calendar call, and NOT a civil courtroom. I didn’t bring any of my criminal law materials with me. Calendar was also hard because criminal attorneys have a tendency to assume you know who they are so they don’t check in with you. You have to guess or flag them down after the hearing to know who they are.
Dandelion: The court reporter was wonderful. Things that I had missed, she read back the proceedings. (The clerk who was temporarily subbing in there when I walked in didn’t take notes on the morning calendar hearings.) Also, a supervisor walked in with two giant manuals so that I at least had some of the codes necessary to work the program.

Crap Chunk: Since the courtroom handled a lot of cases in the morning and is in trial, I knew I would have to work through lunch. I didn’t have breakfast, and would now not have lunch. I can’t leave during lunch anyway because I didn’t have keys to return into the building.
Dandelion: The bailiff walked in during lunch carrying a large Pizza Hut Stuffed Crust pizza, saying “Anyone want pizza?” He told me to help myself, and then left to do some work. I had two slices, they were my saving graces.

Crap Chunk: The regular clerk screwed up her verdict forms for the jury so bad that it caused major confusion when the jurors THOUGHT they had reached verdicts and turned out they didn’t. The judge wanted the verdict forms corrected. I don’t have access to her computer profile/login so I can’t touch her old verdict forms, so I had to retype 3 verdict forms (a full page long each, single-spaced on MS Word) from scratch. After 4pm. Regular courtrooms would’ve already adjourned for the day at 4pm. But this judge wanted me to retype the verdicts and give them to the jurors pronto. I got them done around 4:20pm cuz I’m a fast typist. The judge sent the jurors back into the jury room with the new forms, and everyone including 5-6 backup deputies (since this is a gang-related murder trial with defendant’s peeps in the audience) waited until 5:05p, when the jurors finally reached their verdict correctly. I read the many looong verdicts (all guilty), and the jurors were finally discharged at 5:30p. The judge did some last minute things and got off the bench at 5:45p. (A normal courtroom would’ve recessed 1 hour 45 minutes prior.)
Dandelion: The judge came back in after 6p and said, “I like your work ethic. Let me know if you ever need a job.” Another clerk working late in the building said that for THIS judge to say that, he really really really means it and she’s never known him to have ever said anything like that to any relief clerk, it’s an extreme compliment. Yay.

*Guys (males), avert your eyes and skip this one*
Crap Chunk: I went to the bathroom for the first time since I’d left the house that day at 6pm, and found that surprise! My period had come early.
Dandelion: There just happened to be a tampon sitting outside the dispenser in the restroom, so I “stole” it. Plus, getting my period early means that hopefully, it’ll come early the month of the wedding, too, so I won’t be PMSing and bloated during. Otherwise I’m estimated to get it right around the wedding day.

Crap Chunk: I’d been dying of thirst but the jury room drinking fountain had an “out of order” sign on it, and the drinking fountain in the back hallway squirted water back against its spigot so that I can’t get to it.
Dandelion: I thought I’d try my luck and open the little fridge in the jury room. Sealed bottles of water!!! I “stole” one. First bit of liquid I’ve had all day, after 6pm.

Crap Chunk: The looooong trial minutes took forever to type (over an hour to be exact) and the overtimer bailiff could only stay until 6:30p to let me out of the building. But I still had to close up the trial file, inventory 100 trial exhibits, photocopy the verdicts and question while blotting out the jury signatures (to protect their anonymity) and seal any original documents with juror signatures in a confidential envelope, paginate and file the jury instructions, blah blah blah. I wasn’t gonna be done for a long time.
Dandelion: The overtimer bailiff (not the same one who bought the pizza) inventoried ALL 100 exhibits for me, put them in order, locked them in the judge’s chambers for me which is where the judge said I could keep them for his clerk. And another clerk who was working late in the building had a “bate stamp” which paginated all the jury instruction pages for me. And she stuck around for AN HOUR until 8:30p to direct me on where to turn in the various things I had to turn in after work, and to let me out of the locked building. And she drove me to my car cuz it was dark and I didn’t park in the nearby employee lot.

Crap Chunk: There was a 6pm Homeowner’s Association meeting that I told everyone I would be available for, that I had to miss cuz I was stuck in Torrance Court. It was a presentation put on by a termite company we’re considering hiring to treat our homes. The president had called me 3 times while I was in the courtroom, but I didn’t know cuz my phone was on “meeting” mode.
Dandelion: There was a 6pm Homeowner’s Association termite treatment presentation that I missed.

Crap Chunk: It was now almost 9pm, I hadn’t had dinner, and I was over 40 miles from home.
Dandelion: Christi (Flip Flop Girl) had flown in on business just 5pm that evening, and had called to tell me her whereabouts, asking if I was free for dinner. She was about 4.5 miles away. We met up and she treated me to an authentic Japanese dinner, saying I deserved a treat after the hellish day I had. We had a nice dinner, nice chat, and planned to meet up again tonite after bartending class for frozen yogurt.

Crap Chunk: I spent 11.5 hours in Torrance Court.
Dandelion: My supervisor approved 5 hours of overtime pay (giving me my lunch back in money) plus mileage. Cha-ching!

The air’s been either super-dry or over-irritant-enriched lately, cuz my eyes have been irritated. I didn’t even put in contacts this morning, and my eyes are STILL dry. I keep yawning to stimulate the ol’ tear ducts, but they’re apparently all dried up. AND, I look rude and bored to the jury.

Tonight Mr. W and I are going with his ex bro-in-law best bud and best bud’s wife (same couple we went to see Formula D with last weekend) to see a play called “I Do I Do” or something like that. His best bud got us tickets. It’s a 2-person play that follows a couple from the point of engagement or marriage through 60 years of marriage, through their joys and tribulations, trial separations and reunions. I hope the friends don’t think I’m rude and bored when I yawn through the whole evening. Maybe I should bring eye drops.

We didn’t end up going to the jujitsu instructor’s wedding on Saturday. Mr. W wasn’t thrilled with the idea all along and thought the groom’s email invitation to crash his wedding was “cheesy.”

Instead, we hooked up with Mr. W’s close friends (his ex-bro-in-law and wife), had lunch at The Curry House, then went to the Formula Drift race at Long Beach. This was the friends’ first exposure to drift racing, and they picked up on it very quickly, even developed some favorites that they cheered for. My godbro’s family hooked us up with 4 great tickets at the Grandstand in upper center, perfect views.

After the race, we walked around Long Beach looking at house possibilities and strolling along the sand for a few miles and eventually wound up at Shoreline Village, where we had dinner at Parker’s Lighthouse. I didn’t know that this beachside seafood restaurant had a casual dining 3rd floor with a bar in the center and a circular 360-degree view of the ocean and city! As we ate, the sun set and lights turned on along the beach and the Pike. It was very pretty. Even the night was warm as we walked back to the car; we had a heat wave this weekend and temperatures flew into the 90s. Mr. W even got a sunburn despite his sunblock spray.

I guess it would be nice to live at the beach, drifting to sleep to the sound of the waves.

Our Sunday was very low-key. Lots of “Angel” watching and hiding out indoors from the heat, then an evening walk to get frozen yogurt and hit the grocery store, where Mr. W added light and dark rum to his alcohol collection. I now have all the ingredients to make a Long Island and Long Beach Iced Tea.

Last nite, my gym trainee and I got together and did our “homework.” We’d planned to hit up Downtown Disney’s Uva Bar after work to observe the bartender in action, but it almost didn’t happen. Her 10-year-old son was at the airport with a bunch of schoolmates getting ready to leave on a school trip to Missouri, and you know how the news stations kept talking about the 1000 American Airlines flights that got canceled? Yup; they were booked on American Air. The teacher had to make alternate flight arrangements when their connecting flight was canceled, and gym trainee was poised to go to LAX and pick her son up if their (nonrefundable) trip was canceled. I went online and had their flight updates automatically sent to me on my cell, and all night long while we were at Downtown Disney I got notifications of 40-minute delays. Their 5:20p flight was pushed back little by little until they finally left at 10:20p. They already missed a reception program at the arrival site. But at least they got to go!

Downtown Disney was unexpectedly crowded. The usual parking lot was full and they had to open overflow parking. On a Thursday? What was going on? And of course as we were trying to make our way to the bar at the other end of the walk, there were oblivious moseying teenagers and adults, and unruly children randomly darting around and arbitrarily stopping right in front of us, that we had to maneuver around. I was reminded of why I hate going to Disneyland in the summer. The Uva Bar itself was pretty crowded, too. We were lucky to find 2 seats in the circular outdoor bar area. The bartender was working by himself when we got there, and there was a slight delay in getting some service, but when he did come around to us, he greeted us with direct eye contact and a smile. Unfortunately, his work station was at the other side of the circular bar so I couldn’t see him pour directly from the bottles to check out how long his pours are. I did occasionally catch him shake and pour from the shaker, though. I had my usual there: caramel apple martini, Mezza platter (3 flavored hummus and pita bread) appetizer which we shared, and ahi tuna salad with a Mediterranean twist (zesty lemon dressing, hummus at the bottom of the plate, couscous, mint leaves, romaine lettuce, and GIANT cuts of seared rare ahi). Gym trainee had a Manhattan and a burger that she said was delicious, too. MAN they use real alcohol in their drinks. I was laughing about how she said she drank some of her drink, got buzzed, stopped drinking, ate dinner, finished her drink, and got buzzed again.

After dinner we walked off our alcohol with shopping. She bought some bath bomb fizzies and bath salts at Basin, which is also one of my favorite stores, but I was being frugal. There was a bath bomb that the clerk demonstrated for us and as it fizzes away, little tiny multi-colored Mickey Mouse heads pop out! That’s soooo cute. Of course she bought one.

After wandering around Downtown Disney, we went back to my house and watched half of the DVD that came with the class, which is another assignment for this week (to rewatch the DVD). We’re such good students.

Mr. W’s splurge of the month was the Nintendo Wii game system. When you buy the Wii package at Costco, it costs the same as anywhere else, but the package is much bigger. I think it has something like 3-4 games, controller bumpers, 2 standard controllers and 2 nunchucks. We spent a significant portion of the weekend shooting zombies in House of the Dead 2 and 3, and Mr. W got up early and played Super Mario Galaxy while I was asleep. Today, while I was in bartending class, he “boxed” with his neighbor.

Tangent: Speaking of bartending class, we got to play with water in class today, and turns out my free-pour is pretty damn accurate. My 3-count yields a full jigger, as we found by free-pouring into a glass and then pouring the glass into a jigger for measurement. The low IQ of some of the classmates dropped my jaw a few times, and my gym trainee (who’s taking the class with me) was shocked that I was shocked. She pointed out that people aspiring to be bartenders, especially those who are in their mid-20s, unemployed, and living at home with no clue what they want to do with their lives, don’t tend to be the sharpest tools in the shed. Yeah okay, but still. How could you get lost cutting a lime in half, and not know how to tip a bottle to pour into a glass, and think you’re supposed to empty a full tall glass of water onto a serving mat? Where did you think the water was going to go? Do you SEE a hose attached to the mat? And why do you think you’re leaning over a SINK? Anyways…

Back to the Wii: Because the Wii connects to the internet and seems to imply that you can make your personal Wii characters (called a Mii) mingle and interact with other people’s characters, we figured it’d be fun to connect to Mike (wilco) and Christi (flip flop girl) all the way in Northern California and have our Miis hang out. I called them on Saturday night to ask how we link up. Turns out it’s totally complicated for us cuz we have to exchange Wii system codes, add each others’ systems as “friends”, and allow our Miis to roam globally. Mr. W and I couldn’t even find the screen to get our code information. Mike said it was a 16-digit number that could be found by looking into some envelopes on the screen or something. It wasn’t until way after we’d hung up that we stumbled into the right screen with the right envelopes. So now we can add Wii friends and mingle around the globe! I know Jordan had said that she wanted to get a Wii so she could go Wii bowling with us from Florida.

So who wants to be our Wii friends?