i did it. i've caved in. i'm weak. i've joined friendster. =( add me at your will... please be my friend.

someone.. anyone. please save me. i'm so tired. i don't know if i can go onnnn....
it is almost 2 am, and i just got back from working on our group project. we met at 4pm, went straight through, breaked maybe half an hour for dinner, and kept going. i'm drained and beat. that's about 9 hours of work we did... and we still have to meet briefly tomorrow to finalize everything. THE MADNESS!!!! and i still have all my individual work to get done!!! aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.......AaaaHaHHHHhh!!!! i have NEVER EVER done so much work in my entire life...

i guess i'm thankful that i'm learning a lot *mumbles*. but really, i'm getting to know my teammates better, so for that i am truly thankful. see? it's not so bad. =/

hasn't snowed at MAMMOTH since Nov. 10... =( keepin fingers crossed...

STOP INVITING ME TO JOIN FRIENDSTER!!!

i just might cave in.. <=(
i'm weak.

my spanish conversation class at SMC is a great deal of fun. =) i began class this monday and just wanted to check it out before i actually enrolled. prerequisite for the class was two years college level spanish, equivalent to 3 years high school spanish. well, i took 4 years... but it's BEEN 6 years since i even took classes. i thought that i might be totally lost in the class, but after that first day i understood everything. the class is definitely at my level, and i'm getting a lot of practical spanish!

i'm also tutoring some students, and i'll be helping out my fellow colleagues who begin teaching on July 1 for multiple-track schools. how exciting! i'm happy for them that they finally get to have their very own class. =) and that they'll be generating income for the summer, cuz now i'm not even moving out for the summer. soooo.. how will janet live. doo doo doo~ last resort: borrow $, which i don't like to do. speaking of which, i cancelled the shady-ass sounding digital liquidator order for my camera. i called to find out when it would get shipped, and they said 8-12 WEEKS!! i'm sorry, but i'm not waiting 3-4 months to see this thing. instead i went on ebay (which i haven't shopped at in a long time) and found just a good a deal with free shipping and whatnot, from a reliable seller. with what money, u ask? ah, the beauty of credit cards. i'll live off of them for at least the month of august, i'm sure. can't wait til september comes around. things will be so different...

tomorrow evening i leave for KIWA's Summer Activist Training and will be back on sunday evening. i have no expectations and am excited to meet fellow pushers and movers. =) hopefully i'll come out of there with some solid community organizing and mobilizing skills. ah yes, and yesterday i had a meeting with the director of UCLA TEP, and surprisingly, it didn't go all that bad. she was actually receptive to me. O_O imagine that. there is hope yet, i feel... the funniest thing is that during our dialogue she kept mentioning the (in)famous benji chang. how he's an activist, that he co-founded Teachers for Social Justice, how he was one of the alumni who were invited back as a professor to teach a TEP class, etc etc. soooo funny. =) little does she know...

the duplex that my family currently lives in has been bought by another owner. now i think we may have to move out and find another place to live. which sorta sucks, but is also fine by me cuz i really don't like my parents' house right now. it's not a nice place to live. as for my living situation, looks like i'll be staying here for the summer. it just makes the most sense, even though it will cost me a lot of money. i'll have to most likely pay rent here AND the new place to which i'll moving moving in august. two rentals concurrently. OUCH. where would i get the money? =( i can't wait til i start getting a real, substantial salary. =) life will be a little different, and a lil less financially stressful.

so i'm a little upset at the company i ordered my digital camera from. they sound all shady. what the hell is "grey market"? i've never heard of it. i asked them why my camera comes with no warranty. he tells me because it's grey market. i'm like, what does that mean? the dood tells me it means it comes from overseas. for some reason, i feel like there's a lil more to it than that. sounds so close to "black market." makes u go hmmmm. i think i'll call and cancel. they'd better let me do it. people, don't order from digital liquidators.

friday nite i worked hard to get benji's class videos together. i figured out the basics of adobe premiere. it's always fun learning how to use a program under pressure. =p his culmination celebration was really inspiring to see. parents, family members, friends... they all came out and celebrated. his students even did a dance routine at the end... soooo apsa. mayrin came out to help with all the tech stuff too. she and i were the tech women. woo hoo. and we served food. mmmm... good stuff. =)

saturday. happy birthday to anton!!! nearing the quarter-century mark. O_O how frightening. i drove down to SD on saturday afternoon, with some minor traffic. we all went out to E Street Alley in gaslamp SD. i was expecting it to be whatevers. we got there early and ate dinner, which was cool cuz then we didn't have to pay cover. all drinks were $2 until 10pm, so u can be sure we drank up. and anton... poor anton. he had so many drinks bought for him, which he couldn't finish. it's all good, he had that drunken stupor look on his face the rest of the nite. =) mission accomplished. the club was awesome, at least last nite. there was a b-boy competition going on, and the music was actually good. didn't catch the dj's name, but s/he was good. not the mainstream, radio ish that u just hear all the time. actually played some stuff that benji would spin. i'd definitely go back there again. =)

today. FINALLY washed my car. also did my laundry. but today in general was not a fun day. not thus far. i'm not in that great of a mood. have to re-evaluate some things. took me 3 hours to get back up to LA, cuz i had to take the 5 and 101. stupid freeways!! how is anyone supposed to get around anywhere on a 3 lane fwy?? damn civil engineers. figure out a better plan. those fwys are obsolete. it needs a makeover. like 5-6 lane makeover. but then that means the low-income areas that usually exist near fwys will be knocked out, which is not a good thing. argh.

rumors float that i will be getting a lower grade position at 99th street. that is not what the principal promised when i shook hands with him when i agreed to teach there. by next week sometime, i should know what grade i'll be getting. it'd better be an upper grade. >=/ grr...

that being that, i'm excited about next year. =) what better, diverse living situation could i ask for in my first year of teaching? i'll be living with two other first-year teachers, mayrin and jimmy. mayrin, who's thai, just finished with her credential and master's. she's looking to teach kinder around my school in watts or southcentral. jimmy, who's (part?) brazilian, will be going through the Teach For American (TFA) program on his emergency credential. he'll have 6th grade at LA academy, southcentral. and then there's me. with my credential, but still in school at UCLA to work on my master's. the three of us will surely have a lot to talk about. it'll be hot. =) hot hot hot. and crazy.

but first i get to worry about the summer living situation. whee. ooh, and i finally decided to buy the canon s230 digital camera. got more than $100 off the msrp. =) janet happy. janet will have camera! janet take lotsa pictures of important ppl in her life. =)

anyone looking for a 1bdrm in west l.a. for two months? $950/mo. semi-furnished.

i went to traffic court on thursday. of course it was bs and i had to wait at the courthouse for 3+ hours. everyone else was there for running reds, not wearing seat belts, speeding, littering, etc. then it was my turn. yes, i am guilty of having blue headlights so i changed them. fine reduced from $91 to $10. of course when i came out i got a parking ticket because my meter ran out 10 min before i got out. u just CAN'T WIN in l.a. i was really reallyyyy frustrated and angry that day.

saturday. marshall graduation. starts 8:30am. janet leaves l.a. around that time. gets to field at about 10:30. misses mikey's speech. =( but am there in time to cheer for apsa folks and to take pictures. eat lunch with old SD buddies. hit up mikey's graduation get-together where i'm the only apsa folk to show up for a while. everyone else is family. thought i came too early. anyhoo, had reallyyyy delicious pilipino food, so many kinds! mmm... =)

sunday. 2 graduations: muir and erc. congrats, finally, to davy, lang, and kevin! =) and my roomie graduated from ucla that day too! such a joyous day. =) after being a bit toasted by the sun and walking around everywhere, i took a 2 hour nap before driving back up to l.a. once again. to have dinner with the family. we went to a the redondo pier, where we have not been for a long time. ate at this great korean seafood house, which brought back memories. that nite my parents also gave me a lot of their thoughts and advice about my future... job, marriage, life in general. aiya~

monday. el camino college. drive back down to torrance and walk all over el camino campus to find my sign language class... only to discover that all special resource and educational development courses had been cancelled due to the budget cuts. fun. i am almost about to feel a bit of anger. instead i call my mom up and we have breakfast together! =)

tuesday. bamboo lane hosts Tuesday Nights @ the cafe it little tokyo. students read their pieces and we did our skits. annddd.. we raised about $400. =) happy campers we be.

funny clip here. click!

hmm.. =/ nevermind the roommate thing. i think i'm just going to move out entirely for the summer (both my current roomie and i) and just sublet the place. it's too complicated to try to find another roommate for me. besides, i'll be saving a lot of money that way, anyhow. but to go back home for about a month? ooh~ that'll be hard. no space.. where would all my things go? just throw it in storage for a while? i suppose. what about my computer? i need to invest in a laptop. =p well, when my life starts to come together again in august, things should be a little more settled. i eagerly await what this upcoming school year has in store for me. =)

my neighbor is crazy. the cops came over to her place at 4am. she's got some serious issues with her multiple male friends. she doesn't have to take it out on us though, shoot. lucky for my roomie, she gets to move out for the summer. gotta find a new roomie first! why am i always cursed with anal, psycho neighbors?

for this upcoming year i think i'll look into renting a house. it's really hard to find a house here in west l.a. though. i saw a few, but it's too early to look now. anyhoo~ time to chill. summer is around the corner, and i'm all done with ucla classes!! =) good luck to everyone else who has finals! and especially to you seniors... it's almost over. hang in there... it'll be behind u in no time.

what the.... blogger's posting template changed. how weird.
alright so anyone wanna take american sign language classes with me over the summer? it'd be nice to have a buddy. classes are at el camino college in torrance, m-th from 9am - 12:30pm. begins june 16-july 24. only $33! what a steal. =) anyhoo, if u'r in the LA area and it's something u'r interested in, lemme know. i'ma sign up soon. wheee~

i had an interesting dream last nite. maybe i should say something about it to the person who was in the dream. maybe it's an omen...

i don't think i am an idealist. sometimes i wonder if i can do all the things i want to do, and all the things i say i will do. self-doubt... hm. =/ i keep claiming that i am going to change the face of urban education. yes, it has crossed my mind that this may be an insurmountable task, but it's not like i had planned to do it on my own. i have these great plans to shake things up beginning with my first year of teaching, which is coming up in a few months' time. can i do it? or am i just being an idealist?

**ANNOUNCEMENT** i'm looking for a roomie for just the summer. that'll be from about mid or late june through end of august. i live in the living room, so my roomie would get the bedroom. anyone know persons who might be interested? tag me!

on the road, funny bumper sticker: "Lead me not into temptation. I can find it myself."

APSA Grad Banquet was beautiful. long and jam-packed with lotsa stuff, but fun nonetheless. the beautiful part was seeing everyone together: undergrads, seniors, alumni, high school students, and families. i was quite nostalgic, but it feels right to be the outsider/observer. it feels right in terms of timing, like i had mine, now it's their turn. i left APSA during a good time in my life, and with good relations. i have only happy memories with them. and not just that, but i have been able to come back to help out and participate in major events. i kept in contact with many APSA folks, and i know they will continue to be a part of my life. that's why i'm happy. =)

i just got back from the KIWA (Korean Immigrant Workers Advocates) SAT (summer activist training) interview. it went well, i think they liked me. =) i'll hear from them in a week or two. i hope it's sooner than that, cuz the program starts the end of this month, and i like to know my schedule ahead of time, esp for programs. my whole summer is up in the air. this is the first summer that i don't know exactly what i'm doing. i was always involved in a summer youth program. to fulfill that need, i am going to apply for Gear Up math and science program which takes place in august. i'm applying to be a middle school math instructor, so let's see if they want me for that. it would be nice to generate some sort of income to sustain myself during the summer. other than that, i've got plans to do a lot of reading, visiting bookstores and getting resources for my classroom, hitting up what conferences and trainings that i can, helping out with Bamboo Lane, maybe do some tutoring, and i'm still trying to find a community college to take sign language and/or spanish conversation courses. =p much to do.