Holy Short Hair Cut

I just got back from getting my hair cut and I was really nervous. I pretty much decided what I wanted within 5 minutes and based on what Julia suggested. This was the first time I went to James since Kristine moved away. So I was really nervous! James took forever cutting my hair and I kept looking down. I was getting freaked out because of all the hair I saw on the floor. And when I looked up, wow my hair was short. Well, it isn't short per se. But it's short in my book. I haven't had my hair this short in a long time. It's a couple of inches past my shoulders, so it's not that short. But I'm so used to having it half way down my back. Julia told me she was really nervous for me when she saw how short it was, but it's actually growing on me. I think the way he styled my hair looks awesome. If only I can reproduce it. I guess that's what I'll be doing this weekend. Doing my hair til I figure out how to style it.

Ho Ho Ho

It's official! Aprille, Veronica, Melody, and I just signed up for the 5k Santa Run. I'm so excited and at the same time nervous. I've never ran more than one mile before so this will be a little hard but will be a great experience. I've always wanted to do a marathon, so this will be a preview to one. I've been training this week and guess what. My allergies to grass had decided to come back. Bad timing! After every run, my allergies will kick in for the next 2 days. It sucks ass!!! How the hell can I train when I can even run?? This sucks. I might end up just running on the treadmill, but that's so boring. Anywho, next weekend, we pick up our santa suits. I really can't wait!

Mean Girls

Apparently the Aprilles and I get mean when we're drunk. And when I say mean, I don't mean like picking on people mean. We were at the club XS on Friday with 2 of their guy friends while Julia was sleeping in the room. And I guess Steve witnessed me and Aprille C. push people whenever they bump into us. In our defense, we're both tiny! We get stepped on a lot cuz no one sees us so we have to defend and stick up for ourselves! I just find it funny that he said we were mean for pushing people. Like little ol' us can do any damage. And it's always the little ones that think they can do the most damage huh? But other than pushing people, we're pretty much happy go lucky drunks. Before heading to XS, we were in the room talking about how we are drunk. None of us can use fake names or phone numbers cuz it's really hard to think of something fake when we can just say the truth. And then I said, yea and I always say yes when I'm drunk. My friends turned to the guys and told them to take notes. It's not my fault it's easier to just say yes than no.

Sleepy Hallow

I can't believe I slept through Halloween! My favorite holiday. I was so exhausted from Julia's birthday the night before that we all decided to just stay in Halloween evening. None of us slept at all Friday night so it was understandable neither one of us wanted to go out. My mind was racing but my body was craving the bed. I really wanted to be a pirate this year, but it's all good. There's always next year. At this stage of my life, I'd rather not kill myself just to party. What I've learned all these years. There's always next time. So all I have to say is, til next time matey!

Corn "Maze"

Last night I went to a corn maze out in Moapa Valley with Karen, her boyfriend Ryan, and his coworker Ty whom they were trying to set me up with. Karen doesn't know me very well. She does not know my type at all! Oh well. I agreed to go only to see this corn maze. When we got there, Ryan ran into some of his friends. Random huh? So we all went through the maze together in mini groups. Karen and I were holding flashlights and decided to flash the creepers before they get to us by yelling "headshot!" I felt so bad when I flashed a guy in the face. I didn't mean to but he ran right into the light. This corn maze wasn't even a maze at all! There was only one way to get out. It was pretty lame, but Karen and I were able entertain ourselves by "headshooting" people. The other fun party was watching one of Ryan's friends scream bloody murder with fright. After the corn maze, we decided to go to Pahrump and hang out in the desert and tell ghost stories with Ryan's friends. We saw a few shooting stars and the whole night we kept trying to scare Shaun. It's so cute to see guys scared of these things. Even though the guy and I didn't hit it off, I still had fun.

Don't Use Yourself As an Example

I went to Big Bear over the weekend for my mom's birthday. We were all hanging out in my uncle's cabin and we had 3 games of cards going on in the living room. It was funny cuz we were all using different types of cards. One regular set of cards, one mahjong set of cards, and the other were either humongous or round cards. Those were fun to play with. After a few rounds of cards, a few of us decided to play Taboo. Oh my goodness is that game fun, especially if you're competetive like my family. Boy were we loud and rombunctious. If you've never played the game, you have a word you are trying to get your team to guess, but there is a list of words you can't say to describe this word. Well, it was our team and I had to describe this word to my teammates. The word was "flab" and I decided to use myself as an example. BIG MISTAKE. The round went like this.

M: "I have these." And I kind of sat up higher thinking maybe they'll see I meant flab in my stomach.

C: "A belly!"
"Fat!"
"Celulite!"
"Rolls!"

M: "OMG you guys! Thanks for making me feel so great about myself"

It was so funny that I was laughing with tears in my eyes. But yes, never use yourself as an example. You never know what people will come up with. Besides that, Taboo is a great game! Especially if you're winning, like my team. By 10 points baby!

No Means No

My friend Karen tried to set me up with this guy. We talked a few times through facebook and through text/phone for a few days before meeting up. He lives by my house so he came over to hang out. He seemed like a cool guy so on Saturday I asked him to come over after partying with my family. Big mistake. This guy did a 180 on me. He was a total douche bag and didn't take no for an answer. He tried to get me to do stuff I didn't want to do and when I couldn't take it anymore, I kicked him out of my house. But before he left he kissed me, which made me feel really uncomfortable. So after I kicked him out, he calls me asking me if his keys were in my house. Great. I can't believe I have to let him back inside. His keys weren't in the house, and he still tried to kiss me. Are you fucking serious?! I'm trying to figure out what to do with you, and all you're concered right now is kissing me?? I asked if his keys are in his pockets and he said to search him. Guess what I found? A condom in his pocket! I can't believe after just 2 meetings, he really thought I was that type of girl to sleep with him. Idiot. Anyways, after he tried to kiss me again, I tell him to leave. Not more than 5 minutes later, he called me again, but I didn't pick up. He texted me saying he found his keys. They were under his car near the wheel. Yea, like I'm really that stupid to think you didn't put them there.

I call both Karen and Aprille whom are both friends with him and tell them what happened. They were both in shock and disgusted with the guy. They can't believe he would act that way. Karen expressed her disappointment towards him and so said we need to talk. We didn't get to talk til later that night and when I told him how uncomfortable he made me feel that night, he was shocked. Like he didn't realize what an asshole he was. Then he tried to make an excuse for his actions by saying he was just joking around. And I pointed out that he didn't act like he was joking around and he should have known better when a woman says no, she really means no, and she shouldn't have to repeat herself more than twice. He kept appologizing to me, but I really didn't feel he was sincere about it. He later told Karen that he feels he should just drop all his classes and move back to Utah so the three of us will feel comfortable he's gone. I really think he just wants to take the coward's way out now that a girl stood her ground and pointed out what he did wrong. This guy is just really immature and he just need to realize that not all girls are easy and should be treated with respect. He still wants to be friends but I told him we need to cool off for a bit and he still tried to push us being friends. He needs to also learn how to just accept things and stop pushing his opinions on others to make them change their minds. Big turn off!

Pizza Talk

We thought we were so sly using "pizza" to mean getting laid. Funny how a little inside joke turns into something we use all the time now. Last night people started picking up on it pretty quickly. Especially when we said Julia had pizza last night and is on number 2 now. We have no shame and will talk about anything and everything anywhere. After a night of dancing and drinking, we retired to Grand Luxe at the Venetian to eat. I brought my friend Shene with me to eat and we ended up talking about Julia's latest adventure in front of him. He said we were all cool for being really open in front of him. He said not a lot of girls talk about "pizza" especially in public. We're just different I guess.

Brrr! It's Cold in Here!

I'm really excited that fall is here. I absolutely love fall. I like to wear layers and jackets. The only thing is. I hate wearing shoes. I guess I have to put away my flip flops and start wearing shoes. Well, I need to buy shoes to wear. Even though I told myself I'll stop shopping for a bit, I really want to buy a trench coat. Man, I'll never stop shopping. Just recently I dropped my phone and played all the king's men and tried to put it back together again. I was almost successful. I'm just missing a button so now my phone is super ghetto. So I need to buy a new phone before this one breaks cuz let's face it. If my phone breaks, it's going to be the end of the world. I can't even leave the house without it let alone go through a whole day without a phone. One day I'll go through a month without using my credit card. One day.

What Would You Do?

Last night my sister threw a suite party at Caesar's Palace for her birthday. It was pretty fun. I invited 3 of my crazy friends Aprille square and Julia. We were in our own little world. We were pretty loud and hung out at the bar area just drinking our bottle of Hennessy I bought. We pretty much killed that bottle by ourselves and still didn't feel a good buzz going on. At the end of the night, Julia and I retired on the twin bed we put in the hallway away from everyone. We were trying to sleep when two of my sister's friends started fighting really loud. And this went on for a couple of hours about their relationship and in the middle of their argument, the girl screams and yells out "help!" and a door was slammed shut. Julia and I were listening to their conversation in bed trying to see if we should do something. But we decided to just sit back and see where it will go since we knew my sister and her friends were in the same area as the two people. But what would you have done when you hear a girl yell out "help!" and is trying to get away from her boyfriend?? I really wanted to step in but I wasn't sure if it was my place since I didn't know who they were. If this guy is capable of talking to his GIRLFRIEND like she's nothing and lay a hand on her, what will he do to me? And if it gets out of hand and he leaves, what will he do to her when they meet up later and no one is around? So our decision was to let them yell it out unless something actually does happen. But because of that incident, I couldn't sleep the rest of my stay. I ended up taking an hour nap when I got home this afternoon. Throughout the night I was texting ARod telling her some drama is happening and that I couldn't sleep. She would call and text to make sure we're ok until I was able to sleep when I got home. What a great friend and September is surely an exhausting month!

PS. Nessa if you're reading this, don't mention this to my sister. When we were cleaning up this morning, I asked what happened, she seemed like she didn't want to talk about it. Ok. Thanks! :)

NY Trip in a Nutshell

Delayed flight going to New York by 30 minutes. Broke a light bulb cover in the New Yorker Hotel. May flushing her phone in the toilet, 130 dollars to ship to NY the next day. I lost my metro card, another $27. Missed flight and having to cancel birthday party, $419 for a new ticket for May. Knowing the ex boyfriend was at the party. Worth it.

Okay, so that's just all the bad luck that happened to us. But the whole trip was worth all the bad luck. We were able to see almost everything New York has to offer. The first day we went around Time Square and Grand Central Station. Walked around Manhattan trying to take in everything and realizing we were actually in New York.

The second day we went to the Natural History Museum and saw Wicked! Oh my God! I LOVE Wicked! I think the actress who played the good witch Glinda made the show better. She was just so crazy and hilarious. We even visited St. Patrick's Cathedral. That church is so beautiful and gothic. The architecture in New York was really something. It was nice to see different types of buildings unlike here in Vegas, where everything is new. Later that night, we ended up bar hopping because we wanted to go dancing. I was sad it was the only time we partied but then again, we were in New York to be tourists. After walking all day, all you want to do at night is relax and not walk.

The third day, Shawn's sister Vahlen took us around Lower Manhattan. I hated this day because of all the walking we did. We barely rested but if we wanted to see everything, we couldn't rest. She took us around Soho, the village, the Meatpacking District, and the Brooklyn Bridge. We saw the Statue of Liberty from afar at night. I was sad we didn't get to see her up close and personal but that just means I have to come back.

The fourth day, we went to the MET, Central Park, and lots of Gossip Girl sites. My friend Rei is obsessed with Gossip Girl so we went to a lot of their sites. But Central Park is so beautiful. We rowed a boat in the lake. It was very nerve racking because that water was nasty and May kept moving. But it was fun! While Rei and I watched West Side Story later that night, May went to a tanning salon and laid out.

Our last night, we all woke up around 5am to pack our stuff and check out by 7am. We wanted to get a head start on our last day in New York. We left our luggage in the hotel storage and went to Lower Manhattan to do some shopping and went to MoMA. By the time we got to the hotel, we had to rush to the subway so we can get to the airport. What we didn't know was, some subway routes were closed for repairs so EVERYONE and their mama were at this particular subway. And to top it all off, it took 30 minutes for a subway to get to us and it stopped at every stop. By the time we get to the airport, they are boarding already. We couldn't board since we had baggage and they wouldn't let us check it in anymore. May had work the next day, so she went to JetBlue and bought another ticket to go home an hour later. Rei and I decided to check in our luggage at the airport storage and cruise around New York one last time. What we didn't realize was, we couldn't really do anything since lots of places close early. So we ate and wandered around all of New York through the subway. We ended up people watching at Time Square til 5am and ended up at the Tick Tock Diner and tried to stay awake. I later found out my sister and two good friends were partying without me at the place I was going to throw my party. It made me sad. That and watching people roll in the diner all dressed up after partying craving greasy food after a night of drinking. We ended up going back to the airport around 7am and we tried to take a nap on the benches in the airport. But I think I ended up sleeping for a half an hour. What an adventure right? It was. It made for a good story, but the best part of it was, I was in New York. Next adventure? Who knows. Aprille wants to go to Hawaii next year. We shall see.

Our postcard from the Brooklyn Bridge. Isn't it beautiful. "Wish you were here!"

Balloon Phobia

This past new year's eve, my coworkers and I had lunch at a restaurant where they were blowing balloons in preparation for the midnight celebration. Every now and then, a balloon would pop and I would jump up from my seat. So during lunch, I was so stressed out because I didn't want to hear another balloon pop. Just anticipating another pop made me loose my appetite. All I could think of was another balloon was about to pop. Ever since I was young, I hated the sound of balloons popping. I hated walking through Circus Circus cuz of the carnival games involving balloons. So for 9 months, they've been planning and waiting for my birthday so they could tape a bunch of balloons in my cube. So when I got back from vacation, I saw all their hard work and long awaited scheme scattered in my cube. It was a sweet gesture, but evil at the same time. I didn't know what to do with them, so I left them all taped in my cube. I couldn't concentrate one bit. I was still on vacation mode, but having balloons all around me made it more difficult to concentrate. While I was working, my coworkers decided it would be funny to pop one of the balloons. My coworker Vince and I share a cube wall, so he stood up and popped it. And I fucking screamed at the top of my lungs! I was so frightened and embarrassed that my eyes started tearing up. I felt like I just died. My coworker Michael got so mad at Vince that he kinda yelled at him for scaring me. I love how my team mates usually have my back and watch out for me. At the end of the day, I had Shawn pop all the balloons while I stay back a little covering my ears. It may be a weird phobia but my coworker showed me a video of Olivia Munn and her fear of balloons. I'm glad I have the same phobia as a hot chick. Cuz honestly, she is freaking hot and I was cringing the whole time I was watching the video.

Quarter Century Celebration

I celebrated my 25th birthday yesterday at home in bed, looking through my New York pictures. I was so exhausted that I didn't want to do anything at all! Went to church in the morning, had lunch with the family, and kicked it in my bed. And I loved every minute of it! New York update soon. Once I catch up on my Zzzz.

2 Person Kickback

Last week, my friend Jeff IMed me on Facebook. I haven't seen him since college but we'd talk every now and then through Facebook. So when he IMed me, I teased him he never invites me to see his new house yet. So he invited me to come over right then and there. I told him I couldn't since I've been working 12 plus hours that night and all I want to do is relax at home. I figured he lived too far anyways. So he said to come over on the weekend. The weekend comes and he texts me asking if I'm still coming over. I thought he was having a few friends over to have a kickback. Nope. It was just him and me hanging out. We ended up watching football for a few minutes with him explaining me some of the rules. I kind of got into it, but not so much where I wanted to watch a whole game. He noticed I was bored so he pointed to a couple of blue rays he borrowed. I ended up picking National Treasure 2 which by the way was kind of boring. It's no wonder I never finished that movie. I think I've tried watching it twice and fell asleep both times. Anyways, while we were watching the movie, he would touch my leg and slowly go towards my hand. It was so cute. But it kind of caught me off guard. He did kiss my hand a few times which REALLY caught me off guard. I started to feel tired since I spent the whole day shopping. Yes, shopping is tiring! So after the movie ended, I got up and said I should go home now. If he liked me, I think I pretty much blew it right there. I should have at least stayed a little bit to see where he wanted to go. But all I thought about was, wow it's late and I have to wake up at 9am for church. Sigh....oh well. I'll get em next time!

Early Bday Present

I turned 25 a few weeks early. Last Saturday, my friend Jill threw me a surprise birthday scavenger hunt around Town Square and a surprise dinner with some close friends. And everyone was in on it. About a month ago, she asked if we can have a jmarck. dinner before Rei and I leave for New York. I was wondering why she wanted to have dinner with us as if we were never coming back. So on Saturday, she asked me to come early so we can go shopping before dinner. I meet her and Abbie and she hands me a birthday card with a piece of paper included.

After reading the paper, the first thing that came out of my mouth was. "What?! We're not eating?? I'm hungry!" I was seriously sad we weren't eating, but then I realized what was going on and agreed to go on the scavenger hunt.

Rei: Clue #1 - I obviously luv movies, and I’m sure u do too. So take a pic of the current movie most appealing to u.

Friend #2 helps those who heal, yet shes always sick, even more than you?!

Aprille: Clue #2 – Ur next destination is where we party at the most. Go there and take a pic of one of the hosts. OR U can shop at a particular store that carries all ur SECRETS and a lil bit more ;)
Friend #3 is our friend from afar and she knows how to party it up like a ROCK STAR!

Angela: Law school sucks that’s the clue. JK! Clue #3 – Ur next picture reminds me of alcohol. Care for a wild turkey or vodka redBULL? I def need a drink! All these law BOOKS r driving me crazy! Wanna help me read one?
Friend #4 is a huge BITCH SLUT!! But we love her anyway =]

Ann: Clue #4-Hey Tiny Tanks! U must have the smallest bladder in the world! I bet u need to go right now, dont u? BATHROOM PIC! OR Use some of that $ and buy urself an outfit at one of ur fav Euro stores
Friend #5 is ur coolest and prettiest friend ever!!! =]

Jill: Clue #5 – Your last task is to take a pic of one of my favorite animals. I luv them so much, I have TWO! OR Use the rest of ur $ and buy urself ur first bday shot on me!

Wasting time til I get the next clue at the LV sign. This is my first time here..crazy huh?

Next clue:
Jill: In this city full of sin u will magically find a place close to paradise, full of tropical DRINKS and plenty of food and the entertainers will put u in a good mood. But first u must travel to a place filled w crooks and wenches…right in ur field. Tell rei ur answer and he will take u there if ur right =] off to TI!

Kathrina: Now that you’re in TI, take a photo by the place where the sirens sing in front of your face.
Before I met up with Jill, Rei and I were outside TI getting a drink. He bought me a drink cuz he said it'll be more fun if I was more loose and buzzed. I got nervous thinking what's going to happen next. What is Jill going to have me do?? And he reassured me it was nothing bad. We meet up with Jill at Starbucks and she walks me to Kahunaville.

SURPRISE! Everyone was waiting for me at Kahunaville.

What a surprise! Everyone was waiting for me to finish my scavenger hunt so they can get me drunk. And boy did they. But at least I was able to eat first. The food was good and the company was the best. I have the greatest friends. Especially these.

Truth Be Told

I grew tired a long time ago. Tired of asking you two to hang out all the time and then flaking on me. Glad Rei finally realized that you two aren't that great at all. Friendships are just like relationships. They are a two way street and if you are not going out of your way to stay friends with us, then why should we keep trying? Friends don't constantly flake on friends. We used to be called jmarck. because we all had a few things in common and we all liked to hang out with each other. We'd have jmarck. themed parties and all our friends would look forward to them. Now it's more like jmar. I was talking to Eddie the other night and we were talking about how Kathrina has been acting different lately. I hated hearing him say that Kathrina would say how she doesn't need to hang out with us cuz you can still make 'jmarck.' without the 'k'. It's not about making the word 'jmarck.', it was about hanging out! That just pissed me off. And you know what? We don't need you if you don't want to be around us. It was so awkward seeing Carla the other night at Rei's house. She barely even said hi to me. I used to cut her lots of slack but I'm just tired of trying and actually I think everyone is. It's ok, they say as you grow older, your circle of friends grows smaller because you learn who to trust and who were just not a true friend. So I'm not mourning our friendships' demise because truth be told, we really weren't friends, we were just really good aquaintances and now we're just moving on with our lives to the next person we meet.

Boys Over Flowers

Being sick for over 2 weeks can sure make a girl get lazy. While I was sick, I got addicted to the Korean drama Boys Over Flowers. I can't believe how addicting they are but I look forward to going home to watch at least one episode online. I also can't believe how cute Korean boys are! The girls are really pretty too. But I guess it's like Hollywood. The majority of the people on tv are pretty. Boys Over Flowers takes place mainly at a private school for the rich. It follows 4 really good looking boys that control the school because they are heirs to big companies. The leader is the heir to the school and after picking on this poor girl, he realized he's in love with her. So you watch this Romeo and Juliet type of relationship develop as they go through obstacles on trying to figure out each other and living in each other's world. There are so many moments where I go "omg, Jan Di is so lucky to have a guy do anything for her". I don't want it to end, but all good things do end. I just hope it's a happy one. For now, I get to watch these good looking people everyday after work and just gotta wait til episode 25 to see the outcome.

Still Sick

Can you believe I'm still sick? This cough is still here and everyone at work keeps saying "poor Monica." Well it's been so long and all I have to say about camping is, it was fun and miserable at the same time. I don't think I'll ever camp that long again. It was super hot but it was fun to hang out with my family for that long. I just wish we did other things besides hang out at the river and watch the kids play. It was fun the first day, but it would have been nice to go fruit picking. I remember going fruit picking when I was a kid and I want to do it again. On our way home, we decided to take a picture at the sign. Can you believe we all fit in one RV? Well image a few more people. We lost 2 people since they were from California so they didn't have to come back home with us.

Ongoing Sickness

I want to talk about the camping trip, but all I can think of is why am I this sick?! I keep getting a fever. My chest is hurting from coughing so much. My head hurts from coughing so much. I'm all flemy. Is flemy really a word? I doubt it, but that's what I am. Try being flemy at work. I had to figure out a clever way to spit while at work. The best I could do was cough in a couple of tissues and then spit quietly in it. But there were times where I would laugh while playing xbox and I would do a coughing session and flem would come out and I am nowhere near a tissue or a bathroom. So what did I do? I had to swallow the flem. GROSS! I think that's why towards the end of work, I felt like shit. I couldn't concentrate with my chest pains and constant coughing. So I asked to go home. When I got home, I ate dinner real quick and went straight to bed shivering. After the 2 hour nap and still feeling really cold despite wearing a sweater and covered under a blanket in the middle of summer with no fan in my room, I came to the conclusion I had a fever. I wish it dawned on me sooner so I could have taken medication before the nap, but all I wanted was to sleep when I got home from work. And I was glad that when I got home my mom made spaghetti because we were both craving it yesterday and we resorted to Joliebee's bland and lack of sauce spaghetti. I've never had Jolibee before and I don't think I'll ever go back. There are reasons why I don't eat at Filipino restaurants and yesterday just proved my point. They are always too bland. So I pray I get better soon. No one likes a sick person at work. Especially when we all sit in a group cube really close together. If I'm still sick on Monday, maybe I should just call in sick. I don't really do anyone any good coughing non-stop. I think I just get sicker and sicker when I have to solve a problem at work.

Extreme Heat + Extreme Cold = A Sick Camper

I'm sick. Last night of camping my aunt, mom, and niece Gizelle got sick. Gizelle had some stomach flu and my mom and aunt caught a cold. I tried my hardest to find a different place to sleep that night because I didn't want to catch anything, but everyone was full in their tents. The only place left was either the driver's seat or right next to my mom. Great. Sleeping right next to the sick person has only one result. And I'm living the result right now. High fever, aching body, and burning throat. I hate being sick. Especially right after a vacation. So I felt bad that I had to call in sick today at work, but I had no choice. I couldn't even get out of bed. Hopefully I'll be able to go tomorrow. I miss work.