i love la! ... at times...

so i was really hoping that rachael would have been able to stay a bit longer, because after she headed back home we had some really "LA" things to do. i guess it's been a couple of weeks now, but we watched the lakers/magic game number 2 down at LA live. we finally met some of our neighbors that aren't raisins and they invited us down there. brett was still feeling pretty crummy but we've turned them down multiple times and i mentioned to brett that they aren't going to want to hang out with us if we keep standing them up! so anyway... LA live. it's a pretty awesome new part of downtown, across the street from the (home) game! it was freakin' crazy! we had to park in a ghetto lot a few blocks away where if was $5 v. the $35 it would be in the parking structure... we ended up meeting our new friends at the yardhouse. the line to get into the door to get your name on the list, was 30 minutes, then another 2+ hour wait to get seated. i'm sorry but you have to be a special kind of moron to think people are at the yardhouse for dinner! get a life because you're not getting a seat. luckily andrew, tyler & their gang arrived for pregame and had seats waiting for us. still, the server of our table had to come outside to get us and verify with the bouncer that we did, indeed, have seats available. did i mention it was insane?! but totally awesome! 

on the way back home we got rear-ended on the freeway. awesome. no damage. the chick didn't even stop, just shook her finger at me. i in turn shook one of my fingers at her. i know, i'm gansta.

so after we recovered, monday night i headed to the dances with films festival that my friend sam's movie was in. it was pretty cool, i'd never been to a film festival before & to see my friend on a big screen was just incredible. i already had a private screening of the movie, but it really amazed me how much different it is when the film is (a) on the big screen and (b) played in front of an unknowing audience. so yay for sam & really going after her dreams!! i'm excited to see what will come next. 

then tuesday night brett, ray (our guy on the couch for the next month or so) & i headed over to hollywood to candortv to watch a live taping. clearly brett had been there since he did tape last month (ps he's on www.hulu.com), but this was new for ray & i. it was an open bar. yup i said it! wines, good beers, scotch & some weird herbal drink thing. it was really fun! the comics were great & there was a good turn out. it's guest list only so it's really a pretty intimate crowd. we opted to stay in the overflow room near the open bar of course, but still a great experience. 

ray informed us around 930ish that 'this is the drunkest i've ever been on scotch for $4!' and then we sent him out to the car to take a nap. except he thought he was going to throw up so he's better idea was to lay under the trunk of the car. guy on the couch v. homeless... you decide. he eventually got back into the car & in a span of 20-30 minutes called brett's phone 12 times. & mine, which was in the trunk of the car so i'm really not sure why he couldn't hear it ringing. so i went to the car to sit with him, as i'm talking on brett's phone to a friend, ray beeps in. i reject it. two minutes later he beeps in again, i turn to him in the backseat and say, 'dumbass! i'm on brett's phone, what do you want?!' ... 'just to let him know i'm in the car.' bahahhaha! gotta love the open bar my friends. 

i'm sure you're wondering when/if i actually work... ever. yeah i do & therefore it took me two weeks to make this post and nothing else exciting has happened since.  except... samantha's film won BEST FILM at the festival!!!!

exhausted from the weekend!

My longtime friend from childhood, Rachael, came to visit this weekend! Yay for Allegiant airlines & their cheap ass, nonstop flights from Des Moines to LAX! She landed on Thursday night at around 10:30ish (after baggage claim...) and we headed back to Burbank to begin the festivities. First stop, my apartment to pick up Brett. We walked over to a complete dive, karaoke bar that I'm a big fan of... DIMPLES. Home to the 'Real Johnny Blaze.' Don't even ask! It's just a hilarious bar, I'll post some photos later when I steal them from Rachael's facebook.

Friday we were supposed to get up early and hike at Griffith Park, but when we woke up it was raining. What the hell? I know she brought it with her from Iowa, since when does it rain in LA? Ugh... so we headed to the grocery store to pick up some breakfast foods. After breakfast the rain had stopped but it was still pretty cloudy. I suggested we go to Santa Monica because who doesn't want to see the beach? It was actually NICER at the beach than in the valley, weird. It was sunny & warm! We walked down the pier, rode the Ferris wheel and then rented a couple of bikes. We took off towards Venice Beach because she was told she would be killed if she didn't go. She, like me, finds it a bit odd. Freak show, indeed. We saw an old wrinkled boobie, some really big boobies, homeless & a man standing outside of the 'doctor's office' yelling, "Medical Marijuana!" because that needs advertising! Duh!

Back to Santa Monica where we had a quick drink and discovered my amazing tan lines that Rach was convinced was dirt! (Again, pictures to follow...) We had to head back to the valley to pick up Brett. He had a callback Friday afternoon so while he did that we drove around Hollywood (not knowing how long it would take him). An hour later we picked him up & headed to PF Changs for some dinner. Then we walked around Hollywood for awhile, down the Walk of Fame and did some sightseeing. 

That night we headed to our friends place, Jay & Sonia to visit them and their adorable baby Derek. We only stayed for a short time and then went to have cocktails with some friends at a house party. I think we finally called it a night around 1:30am. 

The next morning we were up bright and early again because we had to go to Six Flags for a friend's going away party. It was a lot of standing in lines, but the roller coasters were so fun! I think the Flash Pass is probably a good investment though. I felt really bad for Brett the whole time, I think he pushed himself a little too far. He rode the first ride with us, Goliath (one of his favs) and seriously blacked out for a few seconds and then came to. From then on he became Grandpa Brett and just held our jackets & purses while everyone else rode the rides.  It does say on every ride, DO NOT RIDE IF YOU'VE HAD A RECENT SURGERY. DO NOT RIDE IF YOU HAVE ANY NECK/BACK DISKS THAT AREN'T ALIGNED. oops! So he had a lot of alone time, but did amazingly well with his anxiety/hate for crowds. I don't know if it was the massive amounts of trees around the park causing his allergies to go haywire or if he is coming down with a cold, but the poor guys sneezed about 400 times.

We decided to call it quits and headed back to Burbank, grabbed some Chipotle to go and headed home. We were exhausted! I'm pretty sure we all could have gone to bed at that point but instead we decided to go see the Hangover. It was, of course, sold out. So we walked across the street to another theater and bought tickets an hour & a half in advance. While we waited we got a drink or two and then saw the funniest movie of all times. If you haven't seen the hangover, I highly recommend it. Wear a diaper! Seriously.

Sunday morning I woke Rachael up & gave her three options: (1) continue to sleep (2) go to the beach & lay out (3) go hike in Griffith. We decided to go for a hike. It's so amazingly quiet up there, you almost forget you're in LA until you look down! We hiked for about an hour. I made cinnamon rolls while she showered and packed. Then it was off to the airport!

A very quick, adventure packed, exhausting weekend! But very fun, nonetheless! Can't wait for the next visit. 

I think next on the list is Brett's mom, then mine, then his dad, brother, sister & her boyfriend, and then my friend Erica. And then I go home for my cousin's wedding (which I'm really hoping Brett can go to). I'm tired just thinking about it! Oh and at some point I'd like to move again, I think we have a little more space than we need....

Brett's Entertainment Debut...

Hey Everyone! Today is an exciting day, (one of) Brett's video clips just got posted on www.candortv.com (coming soon to hulu.com)!!! Please go check it out, click on 'Comedy Videos' & he's the main page! There will be more clips coming soon so keep your eyes open! Hopefully this will be the jump off he needed to begin his career! Let the blessings flow!!! 

If you like the video (which I know you will) please spread the word! & thank you all for the continued support!

ever hear that saying...

what comes around goes around? remember that little post i made a few days ago? well, here it is to bite me in my ass!

yesterday i'm laying in bed trying to get some rest before i head off for a long night of work. around 3:30p my phone rings, unrecognized number. i'm really bad at answering my phone anyway, but when i don't recognize the number i almost always ignore it. this drives brett mad, but i do it anyway. so i just close my eyes and my phone rings again, same number. hmmm... this time a voicemail. 

now it's my ex-boyfriend from OVER 7 YEARS AGO! um yeah, he said *in the message* 'i tried to look up your number online but couldn't find you, but i did find your brother so i called him and talked to him for awhile. i got your number... blah blah blah. i'm not married, are you married? maybe we can reconnect & be friends. i miss you baby.' WTF!

i immediately make brett listen to it as i laugh hysterically, bad idea because now brett is questioning my judgement based on past decisions. next order of business, start calling my brothers. cory first because he has a different last name making me think he is not the source. negative. clint... left a message on his cell phone, he returned with another message a few hours later which made me laugh really hard, but also a negative. so chad, huh? the only brother with a land line. the oldest, wisest brother? i have yet to call him & harass him. 

because now this ex of mine has called me a total of 4 times and sent an ebonics text message in the last 24 hours. help me jesus. i do not want to have to change my phone number. i'm going to have to do what brett did and text him and tell him to 'back off dude! it's ova!'

ew. how did this happen? why are BOTH of our exes of MULTIPLE YEARS ago trying to contact us within one week of each other? my mom says we should introduce them:) haha! 

so for future reference, which i already believe is the common courtesy... ask me before you hand out my number!!!!! 

ps my brother just got my cell phone number last week and he's already passing it on! 

on a lighter note...

i've gotten terrible at taking my camera with me lately, i guess that means i need to get a new one so i'm excited about it. but... i wanted to share my wonderful weekend & birthday, even without real pictures.

last weekend was beautiful out here in sunny socal. it was even more wonderful because i had the entire weekend off. brett & i discussed going out of town for the weekend but ended up staying here. saturday afternoon we went for a hike in griffith park, up above all the smog. it was so nice, i realized i'm way too out of shape to be alive, but it was still fun! until i saw the signs to 'look out for rattlesnakes and mountain lions.' luckily we didn't run into any of those guys. as we were driving out of the park, brett saw these people trying to coax a 'dog' to come near them, you know those tree huggin' hippies have to save their animals. um yeah, it was a coyote! we turned around to warn them so they wouldn't get attacked. once we got there we found the coyote, thankfully he didn't feel threatened and eventually ran off. yikes!so then we came home and caught park of the celtics game and were supposed to head to laverne to watch the fight that night with my coworkers. until i found out that laverne is an hour & a half away from burbank. so slight change of plans, i decided we should walk to a local irish pub, timmy nolan's. and a walkin' we went, in heels and the bar is a bit further than i'd remembered. i swear four miles round trip.

sunday.... my ass hurt really bad! but i survived it & brett and i went biking/rollerblading. it was just nice to be outside and active. tuesday, my bday/cinco de mayo, we headed over to santa monica. we rented a tandem bike and rode down to venice beach. we saw denise richards taping her reality show. she was standing on the curb of the bike trail with her camera crew, after we passed we decided we should have yelled, 'it's complicated!' and bitch slapped her! haha! after the bike ride we rode the ferris wheel on the pier. it was so romantical. i love my boyfriend times one million infinity. after basking in the sun we headed back to burbank to drink a few margaritas. sadly i was in bed by 9:30 that night! i had to get up really early the next morning for more ekg classes to prepare for the intensive care unit.
i wish i had non-generic pictures to post, i will work on it!

truly pathetic

i know i'm not very good at consistently blogging, but that's because i don't always have a ton of excitement in my life. i'm in a loving, committed relationship = boring. i am a nurse & work full time = boring. i don't have any children = boring. my point is, it takes something in the news or in real life to get under my skin to motivate me to blog. so this week....

sunday night i was pretty tired and headed to bed quite early, brett decided to head over to our friends place to hang out with friends, play pool, etc. suddenly at 0130am he gets a text from an unrecognized number. turns out it was his ex-girlfriend. as in FROM SIX(+) YEARS AGO! & here's the conversation:

pathetic white trash dirty redneck whore (PWTDRW): miss you
brett: who is this
PWTDRW: really?
brett: really. new phone.
PWTDRW: steph
brett: i can't talk.
PWTDRW: why?
brett: please don't try to contact me ever. i'm happy. i hope that you are too. please. thanks.

did i mention its been SIX(+) years?! what a friggin' idiot! so brett decides to tell me this on monday night, because we're very open & honest and don't keep things from each other. he thought i was upset about it and then got all angry and said, "you know what, i'm just not going to tell you when shit like this happens. i'm such an idiot, why do i give you ammo?" the thing is i wasn't mad, i was a little upset that she somehow has his phone number.

i don't think i shared back in december about how he performed a comedy show in his hometown. she & her entire family came to the show and sat in the front row. (oh yeah, i was at work in california at this time). and they all bought a crapload of his merchandise. i'm guessing brett either gave her brother his number, or business card (which is also how he remembers it). PWTDRW was really drunk that night and tried to come onto MY boyfriend, told him about her children & failed marriage blah blah blah. she gave brett her phone number that night which brett's brother happily tore into multiple pieces and sprinkled into the garbage can.

so while it is on my mind a few days later, it's mostly because i can't stop laughing at her pathetic ass! get over it. move on. your relationship ended long ago.

BUT i am a woman, so of course i wonder about things. it's only natural... so i logged onto our shared cell phone account, grabbed her number since i knew the time of the messages, tagged the number 'dirty whore' and went through our old bill cycles since december. she's never contacted him before & i already knew he wouldn't contact her. so why now? why four months later? i just can't stop shaking my head!

movin' on up

over the last week i've made a pretty big decision that is going to effect me for the rest of time. i saw a sign posted at work that there was a new cohort entering the icu may 14th. i have been thinking about critical care for awhile now & getting tired of med/surge. while i'm terrified of the intensive care unit, i knew that it was the next step for me. so after work the other morning i told my nurse manager that i was thinking of going. she gave me an amazing recommendation and boosted my confidence, i interviewed the next week and 4 days later i was working my first shift! i didn't realize that the transition would be that fast so i am kind of feeling like i abandoned my old unit.
while the transition was quick, the months to follow will not be. i now have to take 3 1/2 months of classes and precepting, and then i have to pass my test! this last week i started the ekg class, 3 more days of that. on top of classroom learning, there are online lessons and tests, and then advanced cardiac life support, followed by more classes. wow. i'm not really overwhelmed yet because the classroom is intertwined with actually being on the floor.
the first night on the floor was really interesting and the second night we had a different patient so i was able to learn quite a bit. there are so many machines and cords and drains... just a lot of obstacles to get to the patient. i think i made a good decision. i wanted to get icu experience before/if i go back to get my masters.
it's going to be stressful but completely worth it! forgive me if i'm absent for awhile and don't respond to my voicemails as quickly!