any of you'z guy'z i hang out with wanna go to see the hidden cameras with me on november 29th @ the independent? i don't really know which or if any of my friends likes them. (i stole the cute skull you see from their website.)
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tish's event last night at emmas was a success. it was an art & music show, which i only saw the art part--since i left at around 10-ish before the music started. i bought a pair of earrings made by my friend renee, and put in a request for another pair. she makes some rad stuff (i'll try to post more info/pics so you can see how rad).
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i think cold season has hit. i've been fighting something off for most of this week...but it could have more to do with long work hours + physical/building halloween sets of tarps that are five years old & full of dust and paint chips.
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the election is coming up pretty soon. hopefully all ya'll are registered and taking your asses to vote on the 7th. i will bitch your ear off if you aren't. and PLEASE even though it's too late to register and vote in time for this election, just REGISTER NOW while it's in your head, so that you can vote in the next election. thank you.

so... this election i'm finding myself voting more green. not a big surprise considering the sad state of the democratic party. there's a big different between being a liberal & a progressive (i consider myself the latter). i'll be posting more on the election in the days to come. if you're stuck on issues/candidates... the league of young voters has an amazing voter guide to help guide you.

that's all for now folks.

these pillows are super cute. i'd get one. little sushi pillows. mmm i could go for sushi for lunch/dinner soon.

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it's been a little hard for me to blog lately... been working 'til pretty late every day, 'round 7:30/8 so when i get home i just basically make dinner, and watch a tv show then go to sleep. not much fun.

though tonight i'm going out to an event my friend leticia is putting on. it's at emma's (mexican food&bar) in downtown san jose. it's an art/music show. come check it out.

big necked jeffrey; the winner of the third season of project runway. i was happy that he won, i think he took the most chances, and his line was the most varied. overall though, this season wasn't very exciting. there was something missing--like, i don't know--humor. no santino type. no austin or jay type. no wendy pepper to loathe type.
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work has been very exhausting lately. i didnt attend my kick-boxing class at all this week (neither monday or wednesday). i was also going to have berenice color my hair, but i didnt even have time or energy for that. i'll wait until after the haunted house is over, and then i'll get pampered... cuz boy do i need a manicure.

I LOVE CANDY!!!!!!!!! Ahh... it's Halloween season; my time of year.

Halloween is my favorite season because 1) I get to eat lots of candy, 2) I get to dress up as something silly (this year--a corn dog w/ mustard & a scary nurse/insane asylum patient for our haunted house), and 3) the decorations are of cute & scary monsters.

this time of year also means lots of working over time for little ol' me. each year we do a haunted house at one of the schools i work at, and boy does it take a lot of time and energy to do one of them. ive never been in drama or theater stuff before so i'm never used to it when it gets to be october and i'm building sets/scenes out of giant tarps and hanging them from ceiling light fixtures. in the end, its always really freakin' awesome though.

which by the way, if you aren't doing anything halloween night, come on by silver creek high school. the school hosts trick-or-treating at all the classrooms, and then you can pass through our FREE haunted house. woo-whoo.

alright. i'm out for now... not much time for blogging these days.

today was the walk for AIDS in san jose (i believe you can still donate!). i marched with a bunch of our youth advocates. we cheated and took the short cut. this was my 8th year doing the walk, and it just gets weirder and weirder every year. by weirder i mean, taken over by giggly asian girls and mainstream interact/key club high school students. where are all the community groups that work doing HIV/AIDS awareness? there's definitely a presence lacking there (there is SOME presense, but not much)... and there could have been some better information given out throughout the walk. still always a great thing to participate in... and continuously advocate for (expanded testing, rapid testing, tolerance, awareness, etc)...

after that we all went to do health outreach at the berryessa flea market open air health fair. i was pretty drained by the time we got there and set up our CATT table. luckily the youth had enough energy to handle tabling for a couple of hours. they rule. these are definitely the aspects of my job that keeps me sane and coming back to work day after day in this suburban-sprawl called santa clara county.

weekend work like this makes me really not want to go and sit in my tiny closet of a cubicle tomorrow morning. luckily our advocates at silver creek high school are planning their second-annual healthy haunted lounge (our fifth year doing a haunted house at various schools), so we get to have a planning meeting in the afternoon.

that's all for now... basically my weekend was spent working for the most part. i managed to sneak in time for a sushi dinner saturday night with the boyfriend and nicole, the boyfriend's sister. (she's awesome and let me burn the new beck cd!) also managed a trip to mervyns for some new bras, socks and underwear.

oh. i hella party. i hella do.

so i thought i was supposed to work today at the open air health fair @ the berryessa flea market. come to find out that its actually tomorrow. now after i do the walk for AIDS its off to do five hours or so of health education outreach. goodie.

despite going to the flea market for nada, me and jasmine (one of our youth advocates) made a day of it, and i bought one of those GIANT spicy-salami sticks that my sister was obsessed with. they are fucking huge and cost 16 bucks! oh but they are so delicious. i also bought some chili-lime pistacios. i looked all over for lucas, the mexican chili-powder candy that my sister is obsessed with and that we used to eat 24-7 as kids, but no luck. this is the story that goes with the lucas search: my sister LOVES this stuff... LOVES this stuff. while she was pregnant with my nephew dylan she craved this stuff like crazy, and now that she is pregnant with baby number two (sidenote--hopefully with a little girlie), she is craving lucas even more.

only here's the rub: last december the FDA decided to crackdown on the mexican candy because of lead levels... of course, lucas was investigated and plucked from the "market". i thought--i bet i can still find that shit at the flea market. so... while i was there i looked everywhere for it. no luck. so i called her and told that even the mexicans at the flea market won't sell the candy--therefore it's probably best not to ingest it. i dont want my little neice/nephew getting lead poisoning (or my sister for that matter). apparently ben (her husband) is VERY happy that we have had no luck finding lucas.

sorry rach, i tried. i really did.

i bought a "new" bike! well... it's new to me, but definitely not NEW. its a 65-68 (the guy didn't know the exact year) raleigh sprite 27 cruiser! i dont know what that means, but i dig it. i found it on craigslist and got it for half of what the guy was asking (i paid 75 bucks). i've never bought anything off craigslist before... it was a little weird. it's a fixer upper (as you can tell), but i'm super stoked about it! i already wiped it down a bit and put more air in the tires. i think the back tired needs a new tube, plus i've got to get a new wire for the back brake & replace the gear shifter but HEY! I GOT A NEW BIKE!

i can't wait to pimp my bike, give it a rad paint job and "nicole-it-up". i'm excited. now i can be part of the bike gang with jocelyn, robin, eidelyn and olga (lulu and virginia said they aren't into the bike thing).

either way, woohoo.
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i was looking forward to coming home, enjoying the rogue "dead man's ale" i just bought and watching grey's anatomy. rogues ale is fucking awesome, by the way--it's brewed in oregon and has rad bottle art (view at right). check out there website too--they have some really amazing sounding beers. so anyway... i sit down to watch it [grey's anatomy] on the replay (what you kids call tivo) and it wasn't there! i did some investigating and figured out that nathan set something to record at 8:30 tonight (the same time greys anatomy repeats--so it erased my saved episode!).

oh well... i will watch it at 8 and then battlestar at 9 p.m. its a good tv night for me. i was planning on going over to barnes and noble to check out "the end" a series of unfortunate events release party at 7 p.m. but now that i'm home, i'm in "home-mode" and i don't want to leave. i'll definitely pick up the book this weekend though.

in honor of my most favorite saturday night live weekend update anchor, norm macdonald, here's a note to self for later:

follow up on this band: the prototypes. song: dis moi (cute french girl pop).
follow up note: checked them out on myspace just now (10/12, 7:24 a.m.). some songs are cute, some are too similar.

currently listening to: somaFM: indie pop rocks.
mood: a little on the bored-side (waiting for 6 to come 'round so i can go to my kickboxing class).

i thought this was pretty rad, pinball shots up close & personal. click the picture for link...

yesterday i got a free hair cut from my friend berenice at head to toe salon in campbell. she just recently got her cosmetology license, so she needs hair models (tuesday & wednesday--if you're interested).

the haircut took awhile (2.5 hours) but it was a model-lesson type of deal so i didnt mind. PLUS they always offer a beverage of your choice when you go there... so you know i was having a beer (they also offer wine for you winos). plus berenice gave me a chocolate chip cookie so i was all set.

i am totally happy with the haircut. i love it. plus her boss checks over her work to give her tips and make sure everything looks good--in case you're worried about leaving looking like a beauty school hair model. ha.

any way... i recommend it. she also needs guys who need haircuts to practice.
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monday night i went to mexico lindo for dinner with teshia and jocelyn. i was annoyed that we went to eat mexican food and they ordered salads. silly girls. we could have just gone to togos.

after dinner we went to karaoke at the blank club. jocelyn ("walking on sunshine") & michael (know the song, not the title) sang, me & teshia did not. i have too big a case of stage fright to sing. i heard my first incredibly HORRIBLE version of "sweet caroline" (one of my all-time favorite karaoke songs) while we were there. the lady was super drunk (which can make for good karaoke or very bad), and in this case it was definitely the latter.

tonight is the finale of project runway. we are attempting to revive our project runway girls night get-to-gether in honor of the season 3 finale. i'm rooting for michael, but i'm excited to see jeffrey's line.

time for me to leave for work.

yesterday i came into work around 8:30ish and i am walking to my cubbie to set down my stuff, and i see what i think is my co-worker lorna.

my first thought is: wow. lorna is here early.
...
my second thought: why is she wearing a fuzzy russian hat? ... and why does she look so much shorter?
...
then i realized... THAT ISN'T LORNA.

it's a GIANT GORRILLA.
...
people kept walking by and proclaiming...

"lorna has a lot of hair".

"oh wait.... what is that? is that a monkey or a bear?"

yesterday was a good day.

i saw the departed on sunday. let me start by saying that i had to gradually become a fan of martin scorsese. i had a bad initial watching of goodfellas and while i loved taxi driver, i kind of shied away from many of his other movies. it wasn't until i went to see bringing out the dead (I THINK one of his underrated flicks), that i started opening up more to some of his previous classics (as well as revisiting goodfellas a couple of times).

i thought he [marty] was robbed with gangs of new york at awards season, but i have to say--i didnt quite enjoy the aviator. i heavily questioned (WHY OH WHY) is leo dicaprio becoming his new bobby deniro?

BUT--now we are at present day, and here i am watching the departed. while i'm still heavily weary of 12-year-old paper-boy dicaprio, i have been definitely stoked for this movie.

right off the bat: i highly recommend the movie, two thumbs up, etc. etc. definite quality acting across the board, from matty to leo to jack to alec to wahlberg to sheen to even vera farmiga (the girl-role)--who reminds me of cate blanchett. the script is really fucking good--the film is actually funny at times and you genuinely fucking care about the characters (pardon the language but we are talking "dirty cop" movie here-so its practically warranted). i found myself caring and rooting for certain characters (leo actually--and partially for jack). plus jack has a fucking rad wardrobe (take note of the leopard print--click the movie tickets for a sneak-peak), and everyone complaining about how jack is always jack--get over it! that's what is so great about him. he's an amazing actor, and how great is it to see two great villains (the joker & jack torrance [the shining]) combined into one character for this flick? well i think it's pretty fucking great. AND let me also say this: leo looked like a MAN in this movie... a real live man. he's all grow'd up--THANK GOD.

and on that note--i highly recommend checking out this movie. to put it simply: it fucking rules.

this weekend was spent babysitting my parents adorable little beagle, penny. she's about 2 and a half years old (i believe), and she's awesome!

my parents have a pretty amazing little house nestled in the outskirts of alum rock park. looking out from their back deck you see the hills, and at any given time the following animals: deer, wild boar, wild turkeys, peacocks, and once mom was scared by a mountain lion one evening.

while i was there i went swimming in their little "club house" pool. it was completely empty, and pretty cold (but you get used to it). the hills surround the pool and theirs a little pond surrounding the pool that sprouts a little water fountain. it was pretty fucking awesome scenary for swimming. no one can really see you in the pool from their houses either--it's pretty private.

my parents are always overly supplying us (me & nate) with food and goodies when we agree to puppy-sit, which is AWESOME! we basically have the laziest weekend imaginable, because we're set up with the snacks, plus they have every movie-cable channel possible, including on-demand (which im still waiting for COMCAST!).

thus we mostly spent time watching episodes of survivor: segregation. and baseball. we attempted to watch phantoms... you know... "affleck you the bomb in phantoms"-phantoms. i fell asleep. i think it's more than a sign that its time for bed, when you go upstairs and penny is already asleep upstairs on her little chair-bed.

anyway, getting back to penny... she is the cutest, sweetest little girl. she mostly just sleeps, but who can blame her, she's a dog afterall. she likes to bark at all the wild animals, and she also enjoys licking the dishes as you put them into the dishwasher. observe at right. i like the pink collar my mom gave her.

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today is my day off and im definately enjoying it. i was waken up before 8 a.m. by the phone, but i wasnt that pissed. actually it was good to get up early, so far i've played around on myspace, hooked up the subwoofer (arf! arf!)-computer speakers for the sirius radio that my dad gave me (i'm gonna test them with my ipod in a bit), uploaded some photos from my camera to picasa, and now i'm just about dressed and ready for a day of hanging out with tish and berenice, then after my kickboxing class, dinner with joce & teshia then brit-pop karaoke at the blank.

today should be a good day.

music:
mood: upbeat.

i just made my first iTunes purchase! woo for me being years behind on technology! my first ever purchase was a live version of "streets on fire" by the new pornographers. not a big shocker there. i also bought a live version of "new slang" performed by the shins & iron & wine. i'm HELLA indie-rock.

i'm now going to go completely broke 99 cents at a time! what the hell have i gotten myself into!
as you can tell i've recently purchased a video ipod (my baby is pictured).

i'm a little sad because they don't have the ugly betty episodes up for download. its my only show conflict and i was going to try to watch it ala my video ipod--but no luck. i guess that's what tv on dvd is for.

i'm still scouting out a good car-adapter... i've been told the iTrip isn't all that, and that there are some better alternatives. if anyone has something they like that is 30gb video ipod compatible--holla at your girl! also--i'm looking for an rca adapter to hook it into the tv as well. i know there is the apple brand, but my sister says its not necessary to purchase it, that you can get a cheaper more generic one, you just have to play with the inputs because apple purposely makes it weird so you "have" to use their products. apparently digital video recorder adapters work--so that is what i shall be looking for... i am not technologically savvy, so i will be reading some consumer reports.

ok. i'm going to continue exploring this itunes thing and just music in general...

i just discovered that i have monday off! sweet. a three-day weekend is just what i needed. of course, scoring a day off due to columbus day is a little sad (rape? pillaging anyone?), but i will make sure not to let it go to waste. i will work really hard to be as lazy and useless as possible. or maybe i'll actually do something... go shopping in san francisco/santa cruz or go hiking. or maybe i'll do something girly like use my birthday gift from nathan--which was a day at a spa, with a nice massage, seaweed wrap, facial... i've never had any of those done. being pampered sounds like a good thing to do.
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by the way, i'm already behind on my exercise schedule. i turned off my alarm instead of hitting snooze and slept in. whoops! but i did manage to get some time in on the exercise bike, as well as a few stength exercise-yoga type moves. maybe i can go for an evening jog tonight (before earl & grey's anatomy!)--if it's not raining.

while in the shower just now, i decided that tomorrow is going to be the day i start my regular exercise routine. i feel like if i make a set schedule and post in my blog--that if [when] i skip out on something i will read it on here and feel blobby & lazy& sucky.

soo... this is my tentative routine:
mon/wed: kick-boxing class (which i'm already in)
tues/thurs: morning jogging + some strength training
friday: swimming
weekend: outdoors activities (tennis/hiking/basketball/bike riding--note to self: search craigs list for used bicycles).

there it is. wish me luck, and if anyone wants to join me, let me know! company is always good encouragement.
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i just finished watching the veronica mars season premiere. sharp and sassy as always. this is my favorite show on television right now... with battlestar galactica maybe a close second. (not counting my name is earl--cuz its a comedy and in a different category). AND speaking of battlestar.... in both this week's GILMORE GIRLS & VERONICA MARS there were battlestar galactica references! which is FRAKIN' awesome! speaking of BG--season premiere is FRIDAY NIGHT! i would totally stay home to watch it, but i might go with nathan to check out the departed, which i'm also really looking forward to. there's something about matt damon with that boston accent that really turns me on.

any way... getting back to V-MARS, the premiere was great. it's always a little awkward to do the high school-to-college made-up-school that everyone goes to transformation, but everything seems good so far (on-going cases w/ mr. mars and mizz mars are both en-route). plus in the buffy-verse they managed to pull out one of it's most hilarious seasons (season 4) when they transitioned to college--so lets hope miss mars + co. can do the same. one small complaint about the new season: i am NOT digging the slow-downed version of the dandy warhols theme song. this new one seems too emo.
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on a totally unrelated note: nathan and the "don't stop believing" softball team lost their playoff game last night. it was quite a sad loss, but the team took it well.

and with that... i leave to make a cajun catfish & orzo dinner & to finish watching contempt. i dont know what orzo is exactly but it looks like a noodle/rice thing (nathan got it from work). the catfish is in honor of my fishing catch-and-release.

i got off work earlier today because i had a doctors appt (basically i TOOK time off), so i decided to hit up a matinee at the campbell plaza down the street from my apartment. i was in the mood for stupid-funny. dumb-funny. so i decided on school for scoundrels. i kinda have a "thing" (not really a "thing-thing" just a sorta-"thing") for billy bob thorton. i also ADORE sarah silverman--who had a TINY part playing the bitch (type-cast?) friend/roomate.

any way, i also decided theater over netflix because roeper said it had JUST ENOUGH laughs to recommend the movie. ummmm. what laughs? it was anger management part 2 except that billy bob wasn't messing around--he was really a dick doing all this mean stuff. there was a lot of mis-used talent in the movie, including david cross.

overall--roeper can eat it, i don't recommend a theater viewing of this--wait for cable.
..............................

veronica mars season premiere starts in five minutes! but i'm off to nate's softball game. actually i'm running late so i'd better end this.

two weekends ago, me and my boyfriend (nathan) went up to clearlake to hang out with my family. my mom & dad had rented a house on the lake for a whole week. they also rented a boat for a couple days. my sister, my brother-in-law and nephew also came up. and then there was also penny (parent's adorable beagle).

it's been awhile since i've done the boating/fishing thing, but i really enjoyed it. i can easily see myself doing that type of stuff a lot more often. we went out on the boat a bunch, and i went swimming in the lake. i think me and ben (bro-in-law) were the only two who went for a swim. it was hard enough convincing nathan to go on the boat (but he did eventually!). me and him had some good times fishing. he caught the first one... a blue-gil i think... a smaller-ish fish. :) i, on the other hand, caught myself a decent sized catfish. we ended up throwing it back because none of us knew what to do with it (how to get the hook out--as it was deep inside it, or how to clean it, etc), so we threw it back in the lake.

it was good times. next step: convice my parents to buy a boat! i'm hooked. aha. get it... hooked. anyway... click on my clever drawing for pictures of the clearlake adventure.

xoxoxo, nicole.

music: snow patrol: eyes open. (track 6 & 8 i'm totally in love with!)
mood: cramped (pap smears are not my friend--is that too much info? oh well. its clinical so its not dirty.)

so.... yours truly has a little problem keeping with one blog. i can't help it! i'm a creator! plus i wanted something really simple looking, to go with my simple way of blogging, and my simple way of life.... hence: "simple stories. a blog by nicole."

here it is. enjoy it!