First weekend with Austria (not Australia)

So, I'm successfully distracted from longing for Portland and, once again, happy with Los Angeles. Our Austrian girl is awesome and, thankfully, speaks english very well so it's not hard to communicate. Friday we met and went to dinner with Fragola, Ulrika and Bird. (I think I might have mentioned that already, but oh well). Anyway, it was fun and BJ's was super greasy and fatty just how we all like our food. The spinach-artichoke dip and pizookie (spell?) were heavenly, as always. Dinner gave Cathi a nice look at the difference in portion size in Europe and America. I've promised her at least an extra 10 pounds by the time she leaves. She keeps commenting on how many asians we have- it's kind of funny. I mean, yeah it's true but I never really notice. So on Saturday we got ready for my dad's office party at our house and then stayed awhile before going to the Santa Monica pier and the promenade. We walked around, watched some dancing Hari Krishnas, which you must see...

Watch some crazies getting their dance on at the promenade, but more noticably- a half-naked bum joining in on the action.


That night we went to Habibi for some hookah and a $10 per person minimum, which sucked but at least we got to smoke some tasty death.

Sunday we all "slept in" (9:00?). I think I've forgotten what it means to sleep in. I want to sleep all day and wake up for some TV at 4:00 then dinner before I go back to sleep again, like I used to spend my summers. Good times. So after we woke up, we hung out for awhile and then got ready for Rodeo Drive, which everyone knows is a tourist Must. We visited Marilyn's grave and took pictures. We all looked a bit too happy to be thinking about her death.



We picked up Alejandro, went home and almost immediately left for the Swiss Fair. Yeah, you heard me. The awesomest people in the world congregating for bratwurst and raclette and spatzli and wonderfully off-key music.

See the professional Swiss harmonica players in the back?


On the way home, we stopped at the other essential tourist spot, the Hollywood sign. For some reason, Ava was wearing a helmet. That night, we went bowling and I WON. Boo-yah. The creepy guy who gives you your shoes hit on Cathi and gave her his number because she wouldn't give him hers. Isn't it a pretty good sign that a girl isn't interested when she refuses to give you any way of reaching her and shows no interest while you're staring down her shirt? C'mon guys, really. After that, the night was still semi-young, so we headed over to Westwood to see The Devil Wears Prada, which was different from what I imagined it to be but good nevertheless. Then we were all pooped, so we went home and slept. Living is so tiring.

Cathi

See Ava climbing on illegal grounds?

Alex had a turn with the helmet

PDX, I miss you

I just saw my last post and was traumatized all over again.

Anyway, I had a quasi-breakdown, or maybe just a realization last night. I know it's taken me a lot longer than most other Reedies (and I blame Alex), but I haven't been dying sans Reed. I think I'm actually having a pretty good summer and at least I'm making money, even if I can't keep any of it. Then yesterday it dawned on me how much better Portland life is. No blistering heat, the coolest people in the world, no traffic, cheaper gas, the freedom to come home whenever the hell I want to and smoke/drink all day. I miss my Reedies and I miss my school. I tried to call some people and no one answered and I felt even lonelier than before. If you're reading this, CALL ME!!! You know who you are.

*Side note- Technically I'm at work right now and the phone just rang so I began in my professional, slightly suggestive adult voice, but then for some reason I said "Yeah" in a Southern accent. Maybe it wasn't even southern, just bad. What is wrong with me?

Anyway, the Austrian girl comes today. I'll take her to dinner with Molly, Fragola and Birte, and I hope it goes well. I really hope she knows enough English to actually talk.

I noticed a typo on our website, so of course I told my boss. Now I have to write it up and make a new folder for website corrections and fix it and everything. Sometimes I should just keep my mouth shut and avoid creating more work for myself.

ATTACK OF THE...fly?

I can't believe this motherfucker. I tried to kill it with my mirror. It escapes the first three times that I slam the mirror on my desk (it was the only thing handy), mostly because the mirror is just too bulky to swing at a fly fast enough. So the damn thing decides to fly straight at my face and hit me in the eyeball. As I'm disgusted and bewildered, it flies down my shirt and starts knocking around between my breasts. At this point I'm practically hysterical because it hit me in the EYE and and is STILL caught down my shirt. It wouldn't get out of my shirt- it just kept flying back and forth, bouncing off each boob! Finally I had to scoop it out because the asshole wouldn't get its filthy body away from me (I wasn't gonna kill it down my shirt, though I easily could have).

Pervert.

Lance? Gay?

(I didn't photoshop that by the way; it was stolen from http://www.perezhilton.com)

No one, and I mean NO ONE, saw that coming. I mean, Lance Bass being gay was a real shocker. We don't see many men as masculine as him coming out these days. And, being in N*SYNC, the manliest boy band out there, it just doesn't fit.


Honestly, though, did anyone REALLY believe this guy was straight?

Catherina

Cathi, not Christina. (our Austrian girl)

Here's what she looks like. I think she's the one on the right.



And she gets here Friday afternoon!

Billie Jean

This song is HORRIBLE. And Michael Jackson is an asshole.

It's funny, because I was in my car this morning listening to the Michael Jackson tape that my sister just found (yes my ghetto car only plays tapes)and Billie Jean came on. Of course, it's a song that everyone loves, that everyone loves to dance to. I was instantly brought back to memories of prom, with Alex in the middle of the dance floor and everyone watching him. He went crazy, practically breakdancing (but really rolling around on the floor). Everyone loved his moves and the intense energy he emanated. We all wanted to be with him then, to be a part of that ardent passion.

AND THEN, when I got to work and looked up the lyrics that I can't fully understand from the song, I was shocked and appalled. Mainly because I had no idea he was such a jerk. I mean, yeah, we all know he's a pedophile rapist (not a person who rapes pedophiles, but a pedophile as well as a rapist)- but I didn't know he was like this. Don't you despise guys who get a girl pregnant then deny it? Well I do. Poor girl, that Billie Jean. Someone go send her some child support. And I wish I could say that I'm not boycotting Michael Jackson and his music, but it's just so catchy.

In case you are uninformed as I was, here are the lyrics to Billie Jean:


She was more like a beauty queen from a movie scene
I said don't mind, but what do you mean I am the one
Who will dance on the floor in the round
She said I am the one, who will dance on the floor in the round

She told me her name was Billie Jean, as she caused a scene
Then every head turned with eyes that dreamed of being the one
Who will dance on the floor in the round

People always told me be careful of what you do
And don't go around breaking young girls' hearts
And mother always told me be careful of who you love
And be careful of what you do 'cause the lie becomes the truth

Billie Jean is not my lover
She's just a girl who claims that I am the one
But the kid is not my son
She says I am the one, but the kid is not my son

For forty days and for forty nights
The law was on her side
But who can stand when she's in demand
Her schemes and plans
'Cause we danced on the floor in the round
So take my strong advice, just remember to always think twice
(Do think twice)

She told my baby we'd danced till three, then she looked at me
Then showed a photo my baby cried his eyes were like mine (oh, no!)
'Cause we danced on the floor in the round, baby

People always told me be careful of what you do
And don't go around breaking young girls' hearts
She came and stood right by me
Then the smell of sweet perfume
This happened much too soon
She called me to her room

Billie Jean is not my lover
She's just a girl who claims that I am the one
But the kid is not my son

Jill Greenberg

There was an article about her in the LA times today and I've been intrigued by her since I saw it. There's a ton of controversy about her exhibit "End Times" where pictures of crying babies are shown such as the following...







To get these reactions, Jill gave them each a lollipop and then took it away. I guess it is pretty easy taking candy from a baby. So the controversy starts with all these bloggers going crazy over the fact that these 2-3 year old kids are being tortured and caused irreversible grief. Because the 20 seconds that they're crying over a lollipop will really haunt them for the rest of their lives. Oh dear. People are SO amusing.

It's Hottt

It's 96 degrees and sunny in the 90049 area, as it has been for the last week-ish, and it's supposed to stay this way all summer. I feel like the sun is burning a hole through the roof and into my brain. I'm frying with no air conditioning and the hottest room in the house. I was told to leave work early because of the spreading blackouts all over west LA. Fifteen stories of stairs is never fun with thousands of traveling people and no elevator, even if it's going down. People are retarded and put their AC on blast, and then no one gets to enjoy it. I should start some kind of campaign to get power back to LA. All kinds of power.

Anyway, because of Alex's request, I'm putting up Disneyland pictures. We went a week ago and I never even mentioned it- probably because I was still dying over the enormous amount of money that the Happiest Place on Earth drained from me. I don't understand how people can afford to go to Disneyland. However, that WAS one hell of a fireworks show.

I almost forgot

We're having an Austrian girl live with us for a couple weeks. Her original host family bailed, and we thought it would be fun to have another teenage girl in the house, sooo our home of four will soon become 5. She's 17 and her name is Kristine or Christina or something like that. More details when I get them myself. I bet she just wants to come here because of Ahhnold.

It's true.

I do love Alex. And while I get really frustrated sometimes, it always ends up being alright. We had the most wonderful time last night all the way until I left his house a couple hours ago. I've only been without mah boo for a couple hours and I already miss him. Sad? Things are feeling a bit better. I guess I needed the weekend to cool off. And now, instead of making appointments for tomorrow, I'm blogging. I refuse to work today. I didn't even sell any vitamins today- and my appointment for tomorrow has to reschedule. But I'm not gonna stress it because there are more important things. Like my sanity, for example.

I've just finished my new facebook album which I proudly present:

Oaxacan Wahoo

It LITERALLY took FOREVER to upload because Ava's stupid computer is laaame. Fernando's birthday was last Friday and he had a surprise birthday party, which I went to of course. It was a blast and a half, especially being the first time I've really gotten drunk since I've been in LA. I know, it's hard to believe, but I just haven't had much partying time. Enjoy the pictures- I think they're awesome.

Workaholic?

These days all I do is work. For the Baileys at home and Westbourne, Hale Enterprises, Nonzero Architecture and the occasional babysitting job. I'm third in the nation this week (again) and catching up to number one in the scholarship race for Hale, but I constantly feel like my life is falling apart. I don't even have enough time to blog, to upload pictures. When does Aline not have enough time for pictures? My health is fucked up (I can't remember the last time I excercised), my sales job still scares me, I'm fucking up my relationship and I think there are fleas in my bed from Pounce. No, that's not all. I'm liking my schedule for next year less and less. I should have taken biology instead of chemistry- I don't know what I was thinking. Most of all, I don't know what to do about Alex. Everything fucking sucks on the inside even when it looks so wonderful to everyone else. They expect so much from me. I want to lay down and rest but I can't. Help? I have to make some more phone calls, set up some more appointments.

The Shot I Could Have Gotten

...if I wasn't being rushed into the ArcLight by you-know-who

Did I call THAT bragging?

This week I'm number three in the nation. Mother fucking three.

Testimonial?

Get ready for some bragging.

I've been working for Hale for almost 2 weeks now. Yesterday Mr. bossman asked me to do a video testimonial for the website. Probably because I'm one of the top sellers in the nation for the first week and probably will be this week as well. To see the list of top sellers,

Shazam!

Everything else is pretty shitty except for the one person who keeps me going, my love, my mexican ball of fun. So let's pretend those things don't exist and just look at the stats. #12 in the nation my first week! Woo hoo!

Hospitals

Alex went to the emergency room today because of his crazy hyperactive sunburn today. I also found out my grospapi has been in intensive care since Monday for his heart. This is the second time this month he's had to be rushed to the hospital because of heart problems. Fuck.

sooo ready to be independent

National holidays are fun. Beach days are fun. Being independent sure is fun. And THAT is why I'm ready for the 4th of July.

Sooo lately, I've been feeling really shitty about high school friends, really great about old friends from way back in the day, and out of touch with Reed friends. I want to forget about the ones who don't care about me and embrace the ones I haven't spoken to in so many years, but know so well. I LOVE them. Alina, Sami, Alexis who is now just Alex. This job is forcing me to remember the people I haven't stayed in touch with, and it's wonderful. I just hope they feel the same way. And of course I adore my Reed friends, I'm just not that good at keeping in touch when I can't see any of them in person. KC came and went in what seemed like seconds and I can't believe our time slipped away so quickly.

On another note, I'm really excited for Frankie and Johnnie's pizza tonight. Mom isn't home for dinner and we (dad and I) ain't cookin'!

Oh yeah, there are some things I've forgotten to mention and they're not particularly new. My mom got accepted into LMU (Loyola Marymount University) where she'll be going this Fall. Eventually she'll be getting a doctrate, so she's working her way up now. I'm proud of her but at the same time I think she's being a little selfish for sucking up so much money when both Ava and I have to go to college too. Just a thought.

I'm bringing in the bucks like mad with this new job. I've sold over $1,000 in Hale products just over the weekend. I know, it's pretty awesome. But I need more referrals. I need potential customers because I'm running out of numbers. My products basically sell themselves and people don't buy them because of what I do, but because they really are the best on the market. And I'm really proud that I can compare nutritional facts with absolutely every product out there and come out on top. I could go on for pages about how great our products are, but we should set up an appointment for that. It's funny how this is actually getting me interested in health and nutrition. Of course, I've always been interested but now I want to go deeper, like finding out why Iron and Calcium are incompatible when taken together or why our FoodBound technology works so well. This shouldn't be exciting, but for some reason it is. Buy Hale!!!

My Hale Website

CLICK HERE!!!

But please don't try to buy anything on your own- the pricing is too complicated. Get in touch with me first, preferably by e-mail, and I will help you!