a new year...

i am so determined to make this new year great! part of me feels like positive change is just around the corner and minor blips that i've already encountered are nothing.

but first a recap of the past holiday weeks:
-i was off from dec 23rd to jan 2nd - what a long vacation! the break made me feel like i was still in school

-we had a christmas eve party at our house w/ some family friends. all the kids are my age now, but most of us are down to play games. we played cranium, taboo, and spoons, plus for some reason, we got into a question and answer period with some of the older "kids" (they're actually over 30) about pregnancy, which was interesting, but i won't bore you with the details about my new found knowledge regarding breast pumps

-christmas was lo-key and was spent at my uncle's house in dublin and my aunt's house in union city. two of my uncles have new babies (allison and christian) who are both so cute and not at all cry babies. my little cousin lea is showing signs of being the ultimate middle child -- she was whining the whole night whenever her parents were paying attention to allison and not her. but she's cute too and is loving to her new little sister.

-despite making all these plans to go snowboarding, i did not go. shucks :(

-i was in san diego from dec 29 to jan 2nd, which was a lot of fun. my old roomies jane, eileen, and ro were all down in sd as well as oscar, who was in for winter break.

thursday night, i was able to meet up with my cousin, kristy, who was in town from singapore, in downtown sd. she and my other cousins took me out when i was in the philippines in 2000/2001, so i was happy that i had a chance to meet up with her. her job is really interesting -- she works for a big consumer products firm and she is responsible for the marketing and advertising of on of their brands in australia (e.g. tv campaigns, newspaper advertsing, promotional pricing). and she's 2 years younger than me -- i'm kinda jealous. afterwards, eileen, jane, and i went to bar dynamite, a small hip-hop spot. bar dynamite was fun, but some guy that i didn't want to dance with booed me and gave me a thumbs down across the dance floor. who does that?! lame-o. no wonder no one wants to dance with you. besides, i didn't feel like being the meat in a dance sandwich.

friday night, jane, eileen, ro, chris, novette, and i went to the house of blues cuz ro's brother ollie hooked us up with tickets. the house of blues was so fun and afterwards, we went to los alazanes (sp?), formerly albertos, near my friends' house in chula vista, where i got my 3 rolled tacos with guacamole grub on! i soooo love mexican food.

saturday night was new years eve and we all just wanted to do something lo-key. so we hit the family party scene at eileen's and then i spent the rest of night just playing scrabble at jane's place with her brother and his friend. also went to zapata's in paradise hills during the day and got an oh so wonderful california burrito (carne asada, fried potatoes, salsa, cheese, and sour cream!).

sunday, i watched "rumor has it", which actually wasn't that bad. more of a rental (but what movie in the theater isn't a rental these days), but not as bad as all the reviews out there.

back home monday, where i slept so much in preparation of the work week.

besides that, my birthday is coming up, and i don't feel too stressed out about getting another year older. my parents have been on my case lately about my having grandchildren which is starting to get torturous. they don't even question if i'm dating anyone or interested in anyone--they simply question (rather repeatedly) when they are going to have grandchildren. what's wrong with these people?!

also, it's dine about town time in san francisco, until jan 31st. i went to fringale for lunch on friday, which was excellent. here's the link if you're interested: http://www.sfdineabouttown.com/.

my parents and i are doing a mini-biggest loser competition. $100 each, and the winner who loses the biggest percentage gets the pot. i figure that i'd be down to pay $100 to motivate my parents to lose weight.