Monday, November 25, 2002 some of my new years resolutions i will not watch so much tv. i will un-addict myself from tetris. i will keep on exercising. i will stop downgrading myself to make others feel better about themselves. i will keep to under 300 anytime minutes on my cell phone. i will excel at my hobby. i will keep on looking for a job. i will wake up at a decent time in the morning. i will learn how to cook one fancy dish. 12:40 PM

Saturday, November 23, 2002 i cant sleep its almost 6 am. i am supposed to be sleeping -- i am supposed to go to the beach this morning. i hate when my sleeping schedule is all screwed up like this. tonight michelle, maratee, james and i had dinner at la paella and dessert at cozi's. being drunk on sangria and then mixing it with smores and a latte is not a good idea. 5:41 AM

Friday, November 22, 2002 MY ENLARGER CAME IN!!! this is so exciting. yesterday, my cousin, ryan, asks me to dinner at some sushi bar in fort lee. i go and get ready and in the process, ups stops by to drop off two boxes...one is the size of me! i cant open it yet because i have no place to put it and the instructions say that i have to put it together on a stable desktop. which i dont have yet. but the carpenter is coming on monday, so my little darkroom is on its way. yipee. anyhow, back to my original story. my cousin and i have dinner and then go to his sister's confirmation. after it ended, we all went to the auditorium where there was picture-taking with the bishop. so my cousin is taking pics of his family when he starts being stupid and starts taking candid pictures of everyone. he caught a really bad one of me stuffing my face in cookies and i tried to take the camera away from him so i could delete this picture. but he's a little bigger and a little stronger than me so i wasnt about to win that battle. at the end of the night, he asks me to take a picture of him and his sister and i take the opportunity to run away with his camera so i can delete this picture. no joke, he comes after me full force. there we are, two twenty-something year olds, running around adults and wrestling for this camera. at one point, he was climbing on top of my back wrenching my arm in one direction and i was like, "dude, the bishop is standing right next to us." but this guy had no shame, screaming about artistic integrity and how as an artist, i should respect his creativity....all the while wrestling me to the ground for this camera. anyhow, he won. i did not get to delete the picture, so i expect to be seeing it posted on the internet somewhere. then i spent the rest of the night trying to clean out the basement. i succeeded in getting one bookshelf out of there. i have two more to go and then the space will be clear to start. 3:11 PM

Thursday, November 21, 2002 november is going by so fast, yet this week is going by so slow. a number of inanities i would like to address. i believe that 'the bachelor' belongs with the gwen girl - the third girl he dumped before the finale. my tires were slashed on sunday night in the pouring rain in bayonne. we believe that the culprit was the car that was blocked in due to our parking. poor james had to change two tires during that storm while ed and i stood out in the rain and held flashlights for light. suprisingly, i was calm and not at all mad at the events that had just taken place. i guess things just turn out ok because i got four new rims and tires out of it for free. james gave me his stock wheels from his vw which are a huge step up from my hubcap wheels. i saw harry potter last night. i believe with every movie they make, i will like ron weasley less and less. he's got the same vacant expression on his face throughout the whole movie. ebay guy hasnt gotten back to me yet to tell me if my money order has come in or not. which is odd because i dont think that mail should take that long to get to michigan. but i have been passing the time with my camera...so i have lots of film to develop when i do get my stuff together. 2:01 PM

Tuesday, November 12, 2002 update wedding, good. reception, good. 10 months, good. won ebay, good. tired. later. 4:44 PM

Thursday, November 07, 2002 5 hrs, 9 min + if all goes well, i will be wearing an omega C760 to myra & tom's wedding tomorrow. i decided to forgo buying a new dress for the wedding and just make a bid on an omega C760 enlarger on ebay. there's about 5 hours left to the bid and i am anxiously awaiting to see if anyone outbids me. because the sooner i get the enlarger, the sooner i can start the darkroom project. actually, i should clean out the basement first. 4:57 PM

Wednesday, November 06, 2002 major project of 2002-2003 1. clean out back part of basement area. 2. create a makeshift counter. 3. buy photographic equipment: enlarger, tubs, jars, chemicals, etc. 4. set up photographic equipment in my new little darkroom 5. learn how to develop and process my own black & white film. i was in barnes & nobles yesterday doing some preliminary research in starting my project. i cant really start this weekend or next weekend because i am booked solid for celebratory events. friday is myra's wedding, saturday james wanted to visit old bridge, next friday is my cousin's sweet 16 and then that sunday is james' niece's baptism. but in between the shopping for the dresses and the presents i have been looking up stuff on the internet and at the bookstore. and according to the people writing these books, i am able to do this with little effort and a small budget. i just wont buy anything extravagant for the next month. ah, crap. christmas is coming. how about everyone just help fund my project as my christmas gift? that would be swell. i'll keep you updated. yesterday i had dinner with bles and her soon to be married sister who was just about to freak out about last minute wedding hang ups. for something that's supposed to be a celebration of one another's love and crap like that, it just seemed stressful and anxiety-ridden. i guess it would be, planning something that big. she didnt even seem excited, which i was expecting her to be...getting married and all. this was a person i met with dreadlocks and manic-panic red hair and 12 eyelet docmarten steel-toe boots smoking il legal substaces which will remain nameless. and now she is matching her louis vuitton bags to her camel colored stiletto boots and her cream colored suede jacket while her perfect highlights perfectly complement the perfect shade of eye shadow and lipstick on her face. wow, things change. dont get me wrong...she is still the same wonderful person that gave me a baby powder backrub when i cried because i hit my head on the ladder back in the sixth grade. she still gives me sisterly advice about how to deal with boyfriends and asks if i am ok with everything in my life. she tries to instill her life lessons into bles and my life so that we dont make the same mistakes she made. its just a little scary how people mature when they get older. i cant even see myself past 27. and i am almost 25. and i remember her when she started academic highschool as a freshman. and now she is getting married. wow. 1:27 PM

Tuesday, November 05, 2002 shopping for the birds i have been shopping non-stop these past two weeks and i have nothing to show for it. its always during these crucial times when i can never find what i am looking for. and yet, when there is absolutely no ocassion to call for it, i find the perfect dress/pant/suit/shoes and no justifiable cause to buy it. this usually happens during christmas and my birthday when everyone is asking me what i want and i have no reply. but where was everyone when i was yearning for a palm pilot? my lomo kompact automat? my canon eos rebel 2000? but i did treat myself for lunch to some carne asada grilled steak tacos. hmmm...so good. 12:42 PM