Jason's Daily Notes

Watched the IT Crowd last night. Steffen randomly wanted to grab a beer, so we went to O'Haras. It was me, Steffen, Chris, Marie (and her friend Greg from Paris), Ruchi, and Jan. Then to In-N-Out.

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It's my last day at work.

It feels weird. Like the last day of school. I have spent so much time at this office. I can't believe it's actually happening.

Music: Rooney - I Should've Been After You
Lunch: Pizza party at Johnnie's pizzeria. Nice. Talked with my coworkers about travels, the crazy playoff games, and Coby's husband's food allergies.
Star drew me a goodbye picture and haiku. Aww.

The NBA playoffs (1st round) are exciting. The (NHL) Kings blew a 4-0 lead last night to lose against San Jose. The Dodgers got taken over by MLB.

Advice from coworkers: (LG's cousin) Rent a car, swap its tires with your own car's [technically illegal - don't!]; (JL) write off your travel expenses on your taxes as research for your book that you will publish.

Watched Sixteen Candles last night. It was good, much better than I expected.


Ate mac & cheese and peas & carrots.

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Woke up with a really bad stomachache. It felt like my insides were really twisted into knots. Stomach flu? A parasite? Tapeworm? WHAT THE HELL?!

My drive to work was under very pleasant weather - 60 degrees with mixed sun and clouds. A car stopped instead of turning left onto SM Blvd from Westwood. Set me back 5 minutes.

Music: Rooney - Should've Been After You
Lunch: Leftover mac and cheese
Requesting my tickets for the 2012 Olympics in London!

MY FINAL DAYS at GBG.
Aileen M. (my cousin) has moved in to my mom's house. She got a job in Pasadena last week and just couldn't make the drive from Hesperia everyday (it's 4 hours round-trip, costs $200 in gas for the week)!

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Commuted to work from home. Monday morning light - I took Alvarado to Olympic. The marine layer was in, it felt like I was driving to high school again. It also felt like summer. I guess I'm antsy; it's just beginning to hit me that I'll be leaving soon on my summer travels!
Lunch: Leftover vegan food - Jack Daniels barbecue jackfruit sandwich, and potato salad. Sooo yummy. I'm really into vegan food. I can easily get unhealthy food at home, so I should be uber-healthy when eating out, right?
I wrote a guide manual for my shareholders job. It's comprehensive, like 6 pages long.
I am planning an "Amazing Race" around LA for my birthday celebration!

At work late today (6:40pm) - organizing files before I leave. Wow, it's really hitting now!

Friday night
Swiss Chef restaurant. Shared fondue with Felix, Jan, and Chris. Jan has a new niece. Returned to the apartment, played poker, blackjack, and beer hockey.

Saturday
A very lazy day. It was amazing.
Woke up 9am. It was already 80°F and really sunny outside. I had planned to go to mom's but stayed at the apartment to organize music files. I subsisted on chocolate soymilk for the day.
4pm - biked to Santa Monica beach. Soaked up some afternoon sunshine and a cool ocean breeze. It was incredibly pleasant. It was perfect. I had not a care in the world. I returned around 5:30, showered, and, exhausted, I passed out on my bed. Before I knew it, it was already 8:30 and dark outside. My body must've been really exhausted from the bike ride (my bike's tires seemed underinflated, so that might be it).
Made pasta (linguine with peas/carrots) and watched a few episodes of Californication. Then sleep around midnight.


Sunday
Stayed in the apartment for the first part of the day. More music organizing. Went home in the afternoon. Had vegan dinner with my mom and Sage Organic Bistro in Echo Park. It was amazing. I had a Jamaican jerk burger with sauteed onions and mushrooms served on a sprouted wheat bun. My mom had a Jack Daniels barbecue jackfruit sandwich. We also shared some amazing buffalo sauce coated polenta croquettes. This restaurant really is great.
My cousin Aileen arrived. She's moving into my mom's house to help with her commute to/from Pasadena. (Driving last week from Hesperia, she spent $200 on gas, and 4 hours a day on the road. Misery!) Watched The Amazing Race as it went to Austria.

Art walk last night was... well, disappointing. No one wanted to come besides Felix. There was a 21+ display by the LA Times in a parking lot on 4th/Spring. Meh. I met Felix, we went into the Edison, where we ran into Parrish. (EVERY SINGLE ART WALK I run into someone I know!) We discussed potentially doing archery this Saturday. The three of us left, shot some vodka at Parrish's car, then went straight for the food. I got falafel, Parrish wanted meat, Felix didn't eat. Felix did run into a guy whose name he didn't remember and whom I had never met (presumably someone from Ruchi's parties?). The cops were out patrolling the sidewalks. Ugh. We ran into Felix's Irvine friends who had come to my party last November. I hardly remembered any of their names. What a small world. There were mothers out with babies in strollers. Art walk has offically not only gone mainstream; it's become... *cringe* TOURISTY.

A homeless person crossed the street as I was driving home in downtown LA. He wobbled for a bit, and then collapsed. Fucking LA, that is one thing I will not miss about this city. The incredibly rampant poverty and disgusting wealth gap.

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Lunch: Panda Express part 2.
Considering hiring a private investigator to track down something important for me.
Jack and Rob are going to Iceland during the same time that I'll be there!
The weather is warm. In the 80's today. It feels summery in a stuffy way. I would like cool, moist air, or hot, dry air. Not this warm mucky mistiness that I feel as I walk around.

Swiss Chef restaurant tonight. Gonna try some racklette finally. And maybe get drinks with ANg afterwards?

Got a veggie burrito from Poquito Mas. The burrito was meh - needed some grilled veggies or rice at least. The woman parked next to me asked for a jump start, but I had no jumper cable to help her out. She was acting very dumb and helpless; I couldn't help thinking, "do all women think guys are that gullible?" After that I saw her ask at least another 3 men for help.

As I was driving back to the apartment, I saw a guy in an old leather pilot helmet with goggles. He was wearing a leather jacket and had his eyes transfixed on the sky. He had one arm on his hip, and with the other arm he pointed directly at the sky. I glanced up and saw the he was pointing either at the moon or at a small plane. He seemed crazy, yet somehow, in that fleeting moment, I completely understood him. And that is another thing that I will miss about LA.

Back at the apartment, I watched some of the Lakers playing the Sacramento Kings (their last game in Sacramento), and the Dodgers game too. Slept around 10.

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Woke up early and took my car to the carwash on Overland and Venice. They really cleaned my car thoroughly. Traffic was insanely bad. Overland was jammed up the entire way. It took me 8 songs (that's approximately 28 minutes) to get to Century City. It should only have been like 10 minutes. [I later found out from Ryan that there was an accident that had shut down the street.]

Today is better than yesterday at work.
National Parks week is next week! I think I should celebrate my liberation from employment with a camping trip!
Meeting at work to divide up my responsibilities - among 3-4 people! Whew - I do a lot of work for this firm! They really rely on me. It's good to know that :)
Lunch: Panda Express. Again no eggplant tofu, so I'm eating chicken :X
Finished Me Talk Pretty One Day.
My departure from my job is really causing some disruption in the work duties. I'm feeling slightly guilty about it.

Art walk tonight.

Stopped by Walgreens after work to get my passport photo taken (for my UK visa). I had to wait 15 minutes, so I walked 2 blocks to the nearby liquor store to buy lottery tickets. I then came back to the apartment and watched Mad Men season 1.


I can sort of get why people like this show, looking back at a time 50 years ago, it's easy to see just how sexist and confidently ignorant everyone was. Makes you think about what we're so confidently wrong about nowadays.

Read some more of David Sedaris' Me Talk Pretty One Day. I'm finally almost done with this book.

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Today is not going well.
Problems:

• Traffic this morning. It took me 4 cycles of the traffic light just to get past the intersection at Beverly Glen. Usually it's only 1-2 cycles.
• A truck blocked the entrance to our parking garage at work. I had to back out and drive around the first floor just to get down to my usual parking space.
• I scheduled my court date online. It's in July.
• Should I take traffic school?
• Work is busy as ever. Calculating shareholder losses for several cases.
• My passport/visa application. Another headache: I left it at the apartment. (After I went through all the trouble of getting my photo taken yesterday!)
• I have to rush home to my mom's tonight - to sell the elliptical.

Lunch: Went back to the apartment (to get my visa documents). Made 2 quick veggie burgers.
... at least my parking space wasn't taken while I was gone.
So much need to be organized at work before I leave. Mostly shareholder stuff.

• I still need to wash my car. Ugh!

3:30pm. FINALLY mailed in my visa application. Hope it gets processed and returned in time for my travels. I only have 4 pages left in my passport! :)

At work late - until 7:00pm. Entering hours for this pay period.

Stephanie's last night LA last night. We (+ Steffen and Gavin) went to Road to Seoul Korean bbq. Morgan joined us there. The food was good; I enjoyed the kalbi more than the bulgogi. We also had octopus and squid, since Gavin's not eating meat for lent. Then we drove to Harvard and Stone. Mine and (her NY friend) Laura were there. Felix, Marie, Ruchi, William (Steph's friend from Pasadena), and Sana (Ruchi's friend) were there too. Sana is from Hungary and soon moving to London. The bar was nice, but Steph's bouncer-crush wasn't there.
Driving back to WLA, the freeway connector roads were closed, at both junctions (10/110, and 10/405)! Frustrating.

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Steph and Gavin slept over. So did Marie.
Steph's now gone, on to SF. (Gavin drove her to the airport) Then Seattle, Chicago, New York.
I feel nasty. I smeel like bbq; I feel like I smoked a pack of ciagarettes. I have a meat hangover.
Changed my CouchSurfing profile back to "yes" - now I'm getting more requests.
Lunch: Andrew N. came to visit me at work! Got Fuddrucker's.
The weather is very pleasant. Springtime in LA. The sun is strong, but the air is cool. The ocean air drifts inland and makes everything feel so comfortable but refreshed.
I'm planning to drive all of Sunset Blvd. Maybe this Saturday. Kevin's karaoke this Saturday too.
I DID IT. I just bought a new digital camera online. Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS7.



Selling the elliptical machine - someone's interested, will check it out Friday.
Only in LA: Saw a beach blonde Asian mom with her 4 quadruplet boys, all dressed in the same outfit.
Coincidence: I saw Marie pulling out of the mall parking lot in her BMW convertible. (Later talked to Felix and confirmed that it actually was Marie, she was with her friend from France who had just arrived in LA).
It's hard for me to decline my acceptance to NHH, other universities.