Alex's Adventures

Q&A:Oct. 27

I received my Q&A a day 5-year journal in the mail today.

Oct. 27, 2011
Today’s question is: What was the last goofy thing you did?

Answer: Get drunk at San Dimas Wine Shop, then sing to Yoda and Dora in the kitchen, watch glee and then get stuck in a loop of Britney Spears videos.

Monkeys

Today at lunch, I went home and watched some Planet Green while I ate my food. The channel was showing a special on Jungles and Grasslands throughout the world, so I figured it was a safe thing to watch while I ate. It wasn’t. I watched a tribe of natives shoot down monkeys with blow guns and I watched the same tribe breast feed the little orphan monkey babies. I guess it’s like a circle of life thing for this community, but  “ew” is the only way to describe it. Watching those monkeys swinging in the trees reminded me of my friend Ryan’s obsession with monkeys and how he think they would be the coolest pets. Recently, Ryan put together an image of his “ideal” pet which looks something like this:

Yup. That’s a monkey (but imagine him with a cuter, puppy-like face Ryan says), with a lion’s mane, eagle wings (so the pet can fly and get him stuff) and a very fashionable raccoon’s tail. The traits you can’t see in this image are a dolphin’s intelligence and an ability to talk like a parrot, so he can sweet talk people while he’s away fetching things for his master.

That looks pretty disturbing, especially for someone who hates monkeys as much as I do. I don’t think they’re cute or cool to have as a pet (look at what Moe did) or even fun to watch at the Zoo. I think they’re gross, dirty and deeply frightening. Growing up with my dad’s obsession with monkey everything: coin banks, stuffed animals and decorative coconuts has turned me off from the  primate to the point where I “ugh” in disgust every time I see anything shaped like a monkey (like the green gorilla-shaped eraser I saw at JCPenney last week). Let’s just say there is no way I would survive a Planet of the Apes movie.

And just for fun, if Ryan could have a pet monkey, then he must be crazy or in a Disney film.

(3:50:45 PM) Alex: if u were a Disney character u would be Aladdin
(3:50:50 PM) Alex: cuz he has a pet monkey
(3:51:19 PM) Ryan: and a genie!
(3:52:34 PM) Ryan: oh snap… and a princess
(3:52:50 PM) Ryan: prince ryan
(3:52:52 PM) Ryan: it has a nice ring to it
(3:57:35 PM) Alex: ud have to wear those puffy pants
(3:57:41 PM) Alex: idk what if theyre mean pants
(3:57:53 PM) Ryan: I have a flying carpet too
(3:58:12 PM) Ryan: Aladdin had a pretty sweet gig now that I think about it

I guess Aladdin did have a pretty sweet deal especially since he was a homeless thief aka “street rat” at the beginning of the story. What guy wouldn’t want to score a princess with all her wealth and beauty? But that’s getting off the subject of monkeys. Anyways, enjoy the video below, appropriately named “Monkeys.”

The Great -Gasp!- “B”

There are 2  months and 2 days until my self-imposed deadline of reading 50 books in a year. Unless I start reading a book every other day, it’s safe to say that I’m not going to make my deadline. However, my attempt  to expand my reading list beyond V.C Andrews series has been an amazing literary journey.  The latest stage in my journey is ” Bright Young Things,” by Anna Godbersen, a throw back to the days of bootleggers, flappers an materialism of the Roaring Twenties.

As a big fan of Great Gatsby, I had high expectations for this book. It wasn’t a book I went looking for or had even heard of before until it showed up as a Free Book Friday in B&N’s newsletter, but it is definitely a book I’m glad I found. Bright Young Things encompassed the laid back attitude of socialites, the dangers of bootlegger turf wars and the wonder and struggle of breaking out from a small town.  Even the names of the characters had an appropriate historic sound to them: Cordelia Grey, Letty Larkspur, and Astrid Donal. I became so enchanted with the novel that I even based my Halloween costume after the fashions of the 1920s.  Now I can proudly say I have a purple clothe in my wardrobe.

Since finishing the book, I have started doing research on the fashion and events associated with this time period from Wikipedia to documentaries and even  movies set in the 1920s. I am sad to report that Netflix does not carry the original Great Gatsby movie, but you can rent a more recent version of the film with Paul Rudd (Although, I don’t know why you would want to). That guy is in everything! But that’s for a different post…From my understanding there is a new Great Gatsby film coming out next  year starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire. Jack and Spider-Man, that should be an interesting combo.

Anyways, a good read overall, with three distinct characters whose personalities were so detailed and has such depth that I felt I knew these characters personally. I could believe this  story was more of a diary entry than a work of fiction.

The only problem I had with the book was in the very first chapter, the author says by the end of the decade one of these women will be married, one will be famous and the third will be dead. So I wasn’t sure if this book was going to take me through a whole decade, but as I read on I  tried to guess who was going to die and who was going to be famous. And then it ended and no one had died. Instead, there was a sample chapter from the next book in the series. What?! I’ve been had! I didn’t want to get hung up on another series, I wanted to  take a chance on 50 new books this year and read a buffet of stories.

I’m stuck in a limbo, do I buy the next book since I got the first for free, or should I carry on with my quest and read the next books in my mental queue? I think for now I’m going to read the books I’ve been looking forward to reading instead of getting stuck in a loop of series books. The last time I decided to continue reading a series, I ended up purchasing/reading four Pretty Little Liars books and spending about $50 on books in a 2 week period and I just don’t have the budget for that right now.

Updated 2011 Reading List

It’s now my halfway point to my goal of 50 books by Christmas. Here’s an updated list of the books I’ve read so far this year.

1. Remember Me? by Sophie Kinsella

2. Confessions of a Shopaholic  by Sophie Kinsella

3. Homer’s Odyssey by Gwen Cooper

4. Pretty Little Liars #1

5. Pretty Little Liars #2

6. Pretty Little Liars #3

7. Pretty Little Liars #4

8. Wicked by Gregory Maguire

9. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by Frank L. Baum

10. Listen by Rene Gutteridge

11. Life’s a Beach by Claire Cook

2011 Reading list

This year I vowed to read 50 books by Christmas. After 3 months into the year I’m on my 9th book. So here’s a quick list of the books I’ve read so far this year:

1. Remember Me? by Sophie Kinsella

2. Confessions of a Shopaholic  by Sophie Kinsella

3. Homer’s Odyssey by Gwen Cooper

4. Pretty Little Liars #1

5. Pretty Little Liars #2

6. Pretty Little Liars #3

7. Pretty Little Liars #4

8. Wicked by Gregory Maguire

9. Emma by Jane Austen

Ryan is Awesome or Awesome Ryan

Pretty Little Time Suckers (NOOKbooks #4-7)

I’ve been totally addicted to these Pretty Little Liars books since I started reading the series about two weeks ago. I’m already on the fourth book and there are currently 8 novels, but soon 9-12 will be out too. I keep seeing the ads for the show on Disney Family channel, but I’m so far behind that I have no idea what’s going on in the show, so I’ll wait until it comes out on DVD and Netflix it then.

The best way I can describe these books is like The Baby-sitters Club meets The OC, and Kristy and the gang have been bad, bad girls. I love my share of teenage angst and drama in movies and books and this series does not disappoint. I was expecting to read a few pages and totally hate it, like the Twilight series.  So I downloaded a sample…and I was hooked.  I love mysteries and scandal (probably why I am addicted to “Snapped” as well) and Pretty Little Liars has all that.

First there is the mystery of what really happened to the beautiful 13-year-old Ali who disappeared on the last day of Seventh grade 3 years earlier. Ali was the Queen Bee of her group of friends: Aria, Emily, Hannah and Spencer (Really, who names their kid Spencer?) It’s three years later and the girls have moved on, but still can’t shake the memory of their missing friend–mostly because she knew secrets about them and individually she was the only person they told.  Then  there’s the question if she’s alive or dead.  And finally there is a mysterious character “A,”  who contacts all four girls (via e-mail and texting–duh) and tortures them with the secrets she knows, but only Ali could know. So is Ali back or is there someone else who knows all their dirty little secrets? Think you’ve figured out who is “A” or how Ali disappeared? Guess again, because Unbelievable (PLL#4) has me switching my vote.

The excitement from these books has me reading every chance I get. They’ve been total time suckers: work breaks, late nights, waiting to get my haircut, anytime I can fit in a few pages, I do. I am that hooked into unraveling the mystery and reading all the scandal.

Warning: the PLL series is a bunch of cliff hangers and will suck you in to read the next one. I’ve already invested about $36– at $8.99/book and will probably have a bill double that once I finish all of them.

Successfully Saving (NOOKbook #3)

I have just finished reading and watching “Confessions of a Shopaholic” By Sophie Kinsella. It was so funny and so real, I laughed out loud like a crazy many times. Although it’s just a story, real people are facing some real debt and and aren’t sure what to do about it. I’m not going to give out any financial advice..because I totally don’t have any. But the book left me with a feeling of nostalgia from 2 years ago when my spending way way out of hand and also some thoughts on the future.

Rebecca Bloomwood is an amazing character with a love for high fashion, but a great lack of self-control. I know I have drooled over amazing jeans or jacket that I just couldn’t afford and had to walk away. Rebecca goes out and get what she wants and from what the book describes looks fantastic in it as well. But her salary as a journalist working for a low-end magazine “Successfully Saving” isn’t enough so her father suggests two options, Cut Back or Make More Money.

I have run into this dilemma as well. With the recent purchase of my house I am currently on the Cut Back plan and actually have been for several months. I had a hell of a summer last year, first with my mom being hospitalized several times, then my grandma dying and finally my job being cut back to half time. Working half time I was given the option to apply for assistance from EDD. It was many weeks before I saw my first paycheck, so I definitely had to cut back. That meant no extra spending: pedicures, shoes, wine tastings, movies, pretty much everything. I even contemplated canceling the cable in my apartment but I figured with all this free time I had now I would probably spend a good portion of it moping and watching Oxygen. Which I totally did.

Once I started spending less, I noticed that I was less tempted to spend at all. These material things weren’t going to satisfy me, it was just going to feed into the monster inside of me that needed to shop and shop. And then one day in September I came home from work and Joey had been on the phone with a Realtor and had looked into a loan for a house. He was tired of trying to negotiate with our landlord who was raising the rent a ridiculous amount. Considering that our washer was left broken 3 weeks  after we filed a notice of repair and the damn hoodlums were able to  shut off our  main breaker twice because there was no lock on the panel, we were definitely not going to renew our contract.

For the next two months I barely spent anything knowing that we would have to come up with a good down payment.  It’s been exciting and expensive being a homeowner and fixing up our fixer upper. So even though I didn’t get those shoes I wanted or go on vacation to Harry Potter land with Ryan, I totally saved and got something better that will last a lifetime…well at  least the next 30 years.

Overall, “Confessions of a Shopaholic” was a great read, I finished the book in about three days. Rebecca’s antics are hilarious in the ways she tries to avoid her debt or reason it (Well I definitely needed to buy that wine, it’s essential–excuses I am familiar with) and struggles to keep her life together. The British slang had me checking the online dictionary several times. In the end, Rebecca solved her continuing money issues with epiphany on shopping and spending and I learned that Sophie Kinsella may just be my new favorite author.

You are overweight

My Mii

I’ve had the Wii Fit a little over a week now and for the past 8 days the one constant thing the Wii says to me is “You are Overweight.” Let me tell you, this thing lays on more guilt than your mother.

Ever since my friend Michael invited us over his place to play some Wii Fit  in the summer, Joey and I have walked past the game at Target nearly every week and stared longingly at it. Back in August we had our hours cut to half time…everyone in the company, including the managers and it really cut into our extra money. Money we had saved for our Hawaii trip, money for buying things like the Wii Fit, going to a Dodger game and basically everything. This was right after my grandma died actually, so sad times all around.  But our hours have been restored and after some critical adjusting, I was able to learn how to save my money.

Finally it went on sale and now I have my Wii Fit. It’s totally fun. I get to do a few Yoga poses between balancing on an iceberg, running along a river and flying out to a boat in a chicken suit.  But the Wii board is a serious trainer. There is a daily body test with short games testing my balance, memory and agility.  And based on my test scores, weight and BMI it calculates a Wii Fit age. Today I was 21. Which is awesomeeee because I’m really 24. But my BMI is a little high. It said i gained 2 lbs and that joey lost 2 lbs. it told me I need to lose about 8 lbs to reach my initial goal of losing 5 lbs. =/ Sheesh!

Today I watched Joey get mad at the board and jump on it because it wasn’t registering his exact movement and I thought, is this really going to help me lose weight? it’s great to see the changes in my weight from day to day, and know my BMI and really be conscious about it everyday.  But I’m not sure how much I can actually lose. The other day I had gained a few pounds and the Wii Fit made me pick a reason why I thought I had gained weight. So now I was totally responsible and aware of these changes. I spent today drinking water, green tea, eating fruit and salad, trying to change my eating habits before the Wii Fit yells at me again.  Maybe the games won’t shed the pounds as easy as real exercise, but the guilt definitely keeps me motivated.

Cat Scratch Fever

It’s been a while since I sat down and actually wrote a short story. I’ve been having crazy nostalgia lately so most of my thoughts and dreams have been about memories, but a few weeks ago I had an awesome dream, one where I’m actually laughing when my alarm goes off and wakes me up instead of trying to throw the damn thing out the window. And it inspired the beginning of a short story that I have been jokingly  calling my Great American novel. And just like the inspiration that came, it was quickly out the window again. I have an idea of where this story is going, I just have to find the right words to get me there. So here’s the beginning of it. Any fun comments, thoughts, or interpretive  pictures will be gladly accepted. =)

Coral Leigh opened the door to her apartment, threw down her purse and keys. Kicking off her shoes, she sat down on the couch to greet Adonis, who had been waiting for her all afternoon.

“Another stupid day of work, thanks God it’s the weekend. I don’t know what goes on that the receptionist’s mind, but somehow she likes to make her job and mine a lot harder than it needs to be.”

Adonis stared back at her, giving her a little nod to continue her story. He liked to listen to her talk, but responding only if she asked him a question. It was a silent agreement between the pair that had made them so compatible.

“You know, Don, I wonder what I’m doing at that job anyways. I mean she seriously suggested we celebrate Boss’s Day? Like isn’t every day Boss’s Day? Especially her, it’s no wonder she can afford the things she does with the tricks she turns. Well, I’m not whoring myself like that. I’m waiting for Mr. Right. He will come soon. I just know it.”

Adonis’s green eyes watched her tousle her hair as she smiled. kissed him affectionately on the nose and winked at him.  He wanted to express his deep affection for her, but there was something caught in his throat. Not only the words, but something bigger brewing…

“Awww, Adonis, that’s gross!” She yelled and ran for the bathroom. Coral Leigh returned with a rag and carpet cleaner. “You know, if you’re going to heave up hairballs, do it on the tile please.”

The cat lowered his head in apology, and began licking himself clean.