a really close call

We went to a co-worker's birthday bash at an 18 and over club in Irvine (she was turning 26, and none of her friends were under age, but this was one of the only places in the city that she could find with a guest list option). I haven't been to an 18 and over place in a long time. We went in feeling old, especially with all these girls in the bathroom with "X's" marked on each hand, a symbol for the bartenders to know who was under age. We met my co-workers friends, and my roommates and I drank and danced all night like we haven't drank and danced in long time. It was fun - my roommates and I left around 1:30 in the morning, telling each other how many drinks we thought we've had and who we talked to and danced with that night.

We woke up the next morning a little tired but decided to go to a Habit for Humanity workshop we had planned on going to anyway. On our way back, I got a call from my co-worker. She was at the hospital and said that there was a shooting at the club last night. I was in shock. She was sitting at the hospital covered in blood. Her boyfriend got shot - everyone said he was really lucky. The bullet went in his head (he has four inches of stitches) and made a u-turn, coming back out through the top of his ear. I'd say pretty lucky alright...someone was definitely watching over him that night. From what I heard, he's going to be alright, thank God. The security guard at the club though, wasn't so lucky. He was shot in the chest and had died that morning. I never thought something like this would happen to anyone I would know, especially in the city of Irvine, one of the safest cities in the United States. And you would think they would have already caught the people who did this, but they haven't yet even though there were quite a few witnesses.

My friends all said we were really lucky we left a little early that night. I'd have to say the same. Apparently this had all happened about 10-15 minutes after we had left...someone was definitely watching over us that night as well.

if they can do it, we can do it, or it can't be done at all

We stopped by Chicago on our way home from New York to visit my sister at Kellogg, where she's currently going to business school. My friend and I met a lot of her friends and classmates who were all really friendly and outgoing, way too much for the two of us who are usually pretty tame people. A simple "hi" and wave to them is an excited "hi, hug, and 'oh my gosh! you're here!,'" as if they all already knew me and were all expecting to see me.

We tagged along to a few of my sister's events and felt like two high school girls sitting in the corner while all the college students socialize and talk about their classes and professors, when in actuality, we've already graduated from college and so have they. We were kind of quiet and had few words - we felt like we had nothing in common with any of them. My sister said "It's what you make of it," but that's easy to say when you've been a social, smart, outgoing person for your entire life and can easily associate with people in any situation. I'm not saying that my friend and I are not social, smart, or outgoing - we're just the kind of people who you just have to get to know first to see that we are. We can't just be like that with random people we've never met - it's harder than it seems, especially when just talking with a few people there made us feel so unaccomplished, like we lacked something and haven't yet experienced life the way we were supposed to. Everyone there had great jobs before they decided to go to business school and have travelled to places I could only wish I've gone to. We couldn't really relate since we both don't really love our jobs and haven't really gotten the chance to travel to places around the world.

But truthfully, that whole experience enlightened us. It made us contemplate about how we can change our lives - how we can do things that they have done. I had a lot of time to think on my plane ride home and I've come up with some goals:

1.) Take a class to put together the portfolio I've been wanting to put together for years, even though it'll cost me an arm and a leg.

2.) Volunteer for something on the weekends to help out with an important cause and at the same time meet new people.

3.) Learn how to start my own business (this is a really long term goal), but I can't really disclose what I'm planning to do since I don't want to give any of my ideas away.

4.) Travel whenever the opportunity presents itself.

I feel like now that I've actually written it out, I have to follow through with all of them because if I didn't, I'd feel like one of those high school girls sitting in the corner again, like I haven't experienced life the way I wanted to...and I hate that feeling.

an L.A. moment in NYC

So I was gone for about a week on vacation in New York with a friend of mine from work. Boy do I miss not having summer vacation!

Anyway, New York was fun - highlight of my trip was seeing Mariah Carey, Alec Baldwin, Jessica Lange, and Christian Slater all in one day (although sitting in front of Carrie's stoop from Sex and the City was pretty cool too). I didn't think I'd be as star struck as I actually was since I'm from L.A. and all, but I was!

Mariah was performing in Times Square that morning - that was kind of cool. And we went to see the Glass Menagerie that night (very good seats by the way - 11th row center, thanks to the tkts booth down in lower Manhattan), starring Jessica Lange and Christian Slater (he was one of the reasons why we went to go see it. He was actually shorter than we pictured him to be). During intermission we noticed Alec Baldwin sitting in the row in front of us (we actually had better seats than he did though cuz his seats were on the far right end of the row - hehe). He looked kind of old an frumpy with huge glasses, but he was with a young Asian woman, probably about half his age - she was pretty. My friend jokingly asked "How do we become one of those Asian girls?" No, really how do we? haha. As the play ended, Jessica Lange went up on stage asking for donations to support something about theater. We weren't really paying attention since were staring at Alec Baldwin to see where he was going. Lone and behold, as we were leaving, he and his woman were standing right behind me (his arm touched my back). I turned around and just smiled and so did my friend. No words, just a smile, and we proceeded to walk out. As we were walking out, Christian Slater was standing at the door, about six inches away from us, collecting donations in a bucket. He smiled at us and we both smiled back. And we just walked out - speechless. We looked like two cheap Asian asses cuz we had no money to donate and we didn't even have the guts to say anything to him. But as we left, we saw to girls running in from outside of the theater screaming with a camera to take a picture with him. We left thinking "Thank God we didn't do that." We didn't want to be those pesky girls bugging them for authographs and pictures because they probably have to deal with that all the time. We wanted to look calm and collected, like it was no big deal when it kind of was to us. So we left excited, telling each other what we should have said to Alec Baldwin and Christian Slater, well, mostly Christian Slater - how he was great in the play, but how we was even better in Untamed Heart...LOL. We told each other about how we thought he was totally looking at us in the audience during the play (he probably really wasn't looking at either of us at all). It felt like an L.A. moment, but it was one of those moments that I'm glad I got to share with someone else, especially with one of my friends who was just as excited as I was.