Wednesday, August 24, 2005

marielley

i hope y'all get this. debstah you're hawaii vaca sounds amazing, and i totally think you should live the dream and work for a newspaper in hawaii, that would be more chill than my monastery business, and def more glamorous.. anyways i just got back from traveling to austria, prague and northern italy with the fam. billy joel was so right when he said, " slow down you crazy child, when will you realize vienna waits for you?" yah, i know i'm lame for quoting billy, but he just lays it out on the table. it was really good because i could spend quality time with the folks during the day and go out with the crazy twin at night. in prague i realized that i actually do, upon occasion, enjoy beer- pillsner dark draft, who knew?also, in prague liz and i thought we were going to a discotheque (these peeps we met from spain asked the bartender for directions to a club "with dancing", big mistake), and we ended up stumbling into a stripper joint which boasted a "marquis de sade" theme. someone needs to work on their czech. if y'all don't recognize his name, he's the perv from the 18th century who i think could really relate to john mellencamp's heart felt sentiment " come on baby, make it hurt so good" wowie, let me tell yah. i also had a lot of good, clean fun in the alps, checking out where the sound of music was filmed and what not- bellisimo! alright, later gaters, i got to go meet my uncle pete for lunch. best of luck, everyone is doing such exciting things this year. all my love, marielleyyyy

Bri-Bri's Back

after the friendly encouragement from debbie, i've taken the 240 seconds it takes to post a blog. the only thing i've learned this summer is that one should never shop at radioshack unless you're either lazy or indeed need a cell phone. for the people in the back who haven't heard what i've been doing this summer, i spend my days as a hot-tempered sales associate at the shack and my nights as a free-loading server at the allen center on campus. it's nice to have something to constantly do since most people are just as busy or not even here. it is awful to think that i now work as much as i used to nap. *tear*

the shack, which gets its name from the cabinet on a boat where the radio is housed, seemed liked the best fit for me seeing how i'm a geek to the nth degree. i now realize i should've just joined the geek squad. i'm paid on commission which is annoying and stressful. to not be guaranteed pay (well i am guaranteed $6.50 an hour) and to feel like i have to pressure people to buy more in order to make more is very stressful. it's funny cuz my manager has the same qualms with suggestive selling yet can easily justify it by saying he's making sure they get the best experience from what we're selling. it's not so easy for me to agree with him considering my mom is one of the many people who in the 90s spent twice as much as what they had. i'm most likely going to quit at the end of september cuz it'll be too much work to have during school.

the allen center is a wonderful job to have during school. we do so little and hopefully i'll be able to be bartending during the year which will be fun. who wants a cocktail? it's also very nice not having to worry about eating that night cuz they feed me. how wonderful. not the best food but free food for me is always welcomed. finally the feed-a-lineman foundation has found a benefactor. a bit late but still it's going to use.

speaking of jobs i was contacted about a co-op job for spring/summer at northrop grumman. to all those who don't know what that is, it's a defense contractor for the military that has a location out in rolling meadows, il. there used to be a kid, phil, in isrc who worked there a few years ago for co-op and actually got a job there after he graduated. i'm hoping i get the job but you never know. i would need a car to get out there everyday considering it's a 40 minute drive. at the allen center, i used to work with a kid whose brother works for them in maryland. he was telling me about the different levels of security clearance and how his brother is working on some highly-classified projects that even he can know some of the aspects of. that'd be fun but kinda weird at the same time. either way it'll be good to get my first co-op job. then i'd feel like i was getting somewhere with that.

i haven't been working the entire summer. in the middle of july julia came to visit and i went last week. when she was here we just bummed around evanston. we saw batman begins and so should all of you even if you've seen it already. we hung out with merina but sadly not marielle. damn you and your salsa parties, marielle. oh well. when i went out to ohio, we headed up to sandusky for a few days and camped out. haven't done that in almost 10 years. i again remembered why i hadn't: too many bugs. fuck 'em all. we went to cedar point. their rides are a lot of fun. a much more exciting atmosphere than six flags which is all i'm used to. they had more than one song playing throughout the park. we didn't get on the top thrill dragster which goes 120 mph and up 400 or so feet but we did go on millennium force which is over 300 feet high. it was a hoot.

flying to ohio made me miss being able to travel but luckily i get to visit my brother out in california. oh yeah my brother's out in california. he moved out there at the end of june and actually got a job within a month of being out there. he's staying with my uncle in sacramento so hopefully at thanksgiving i'll be able to fly out there. i found some flights for under $200 but it would require me missing 4 days of school. hehe. either way i think julia and i are gonna go out there. i don't think i'll be backpacking in italy for christmas depsite how much fun that sounds but london is almost a certainty. i can't believe the taxes for an international flight are over $200. oh well. i found out a friend from home is gonna be in london all spring semester so it'll be nice to see him.

so much money but thankfully i can afford this which is awesome. i also was able to afford a new video card for my computer. i turned it off one day and it never came back on. thankfully my brother gave me three of his so i wasn't without one but a couple of weeks ago i finally had the time to look at it and decided to buy a video card that can also capture tv like tivo. hehe. i really shouldn't have given more reason for me to stay on my computer but it actually lets me get away from it a bit more. nice. alright i'm a geek we know that already. well i'll let all that sink in or let you all ignore it. whichever. but i hope you're all having a good ending to your summers.

brian

Tuesday, August 16, 2005

Komzilla attacks Los Angeles!

sat aug 13
-Kommi arrives
-u2 is our car soundtrack home
-Kommi presents ceremonial gift of nuts. Debbie bows and eats.
-cat-nap.
-Tofuzilla: we visit the tofu festival in Little Tokyo
-we gaze into each other's eyes under a tofu-lit night and cheesy festival jazz

sun aug 14
-SIX FLAGS magic mountain! with Debbie's posse (see pics)
-kommi's face= green
-Debbie gets perterbed by boyfriend's cuddling in 95 degree heat.
Too close for comfort. Kommi was amused.
-D & K konk out in car while boys blast heavy metal.
-D's mom comes upon D making out with boy toy. Mortification ensues.

mon aug 15
-6 am. Debbie sneaks out undetected by unconscious K-dawg
-11 am. Kommi awakes from slumber. Debbie returns with passport.
-Debbie dumps Komal at local mall and D interns. Ugh.
-Universal Citywalk! mexican food, a sock store, a carrot-top Californian with whom we discuss hair bleaching and "bling bling" Jesus. Debbie buys fuschia hair dye....correction: "New Rose."
-we watch movie "Angie," a free-spirited Geena Davis who gets knocked up. "Dump the kid, travel the world!" -Debetella
"Pleasantly entertaining." -K-meister

tues aug 16
-Kommi wakes up late...again. Will we make it to the beach before the crowds descend like a pack of seagulls?! Only time can tell. Tune in soon...

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