2005 My Year in Review

Early, in 2005, I decided to buy a whiteboard to keep track of my personal goals for the year. I hung this whiteboard in my kitchen, and every quarter, wrote in new goals for myself. Here is a picture of the whiteboard: (Click to enlarge the picture)

Q1 2005:

• Write rough draft of Tarot (A horror script I was working on). I fell short of Q1 just barely though. I finished it on April 6th. It was 114 pages.
• Get a Green Belt in Six Sigma (this is job related, Continuous Improvement). Completed.
• Get a way cool honey. I thought about this, and after the rediculous long distance relationship I was in, I decided to take the year for myself and accomplish these personal goals before going out in trying the relationship thing again.
• Be Fabulous. I checked that off as soon as I wrote it ;)

Q2 2005

• Be Fabulous. Again, an easy task :)
• Go to Australia and have an excellent time. This was one of the high points of the year! What a great trip! Pics of highlights can be seen on my main site (www.fallenstar.com) in the trip section.
• Finish Final Draft of Tarot. It didn't happen in Q2. There were a few drafts that came after the first draft and before the final draft.
• Finish Studying for PMP (Project Management Professional Exam). This took up a lot of my time. I had to do this for my career (and wanted to for personal reasons). What a huge help it turned out to be. This took a lot of time away from anything else, including working on Tarot.
• Join some groups. Like I said, Studying for the PMP Exam took up a lot of time. I did however start going to Drag Queen Bingo! at Hamburger Mary's every Wednesday. So, I guess that counts. I have made friends there and am now known as a regular. :)

Q3 2005

• Be Fabulous. Start off the third quarter right!
• Pass PMP Exam. Ta-Da! I did it! I took the test and passed it in August! It was a great Birthday Present to myself.
  
• Finish Tarot. Again, I worked on another draft, but it wasn;t the final one.
• Start Book. I had this idea to write a book with my friend Sheldon and have him take pictures for it. It is a good idea. We started the outline for it.
• Finish rough outline for Void. This is a new script. I didn't finish the outline, but have about half of the beats done.
• Finish Website content. Lou had finished (for the most part) my site, and I filled it with all kinds of content. From writing words, to scanning pictures and uploading etc. www.fallenstar.com was opened to the public! My life was now online for the world to see. (Business cards and Postcards followed!)

Q4 2005

• Be Fabulous. Check!
• Finish Tarot (3rd Draft). Finally it is done and shelved!
• Send Tarot to agents. I didn;t get around to doing this. With working on the Halloween costume, preparations for Christmas and my job, time was short.
• Finish Project "K". I had this idea for an invention. I discussed it with my friend KD and she agreed to help. She got the material and was going to put it all toegther but she also ran out of time. We do plan on finishing it.
• Get patent on Project "K". We will do this after we finish the prototype next year.
• Finish rough outline for Void. When the mood hits ya, ya write. The mood didn't hit.
• Start book. No time because...
• BONUS - Get promotion at work! My Six Sigma Green Belt and my PMP paid off. I transitioned into a different department at work, Program Management. I finally left the tiring world of IT. More opportunity and more pay, gotta love it!
• BONUS - Visit back home. I went back hme for a 4 day visit in November. I had such a great time. My Mother had no idea I was coming! I got to see my family and my friend Barb and her new family. It was a great visit and when I returned to my home in Cali., I was a bit homesick.
  

And that is my year in review! Some goals I hit, and some I didn't. This wasn't everything I did in the year, just some major goals I wanted to hit. Which basically boiled down to three things:

1. A new Job.
2. A new work of expression (Tarot).
3. A way cool vacation on the otherside of the world.

I plan on continuing this goal thing as I can see the benefits of it! But next year, I'll be posting my goals at the beginning of each quarter instead of just at the end of the year.

I had myself a Merry Little Christmas...

Oy, where to begin!

Let's see. Midnight Mass was actually fun. Saw some people I haven't seen in a while had a lot of laughs and hugs. A very nice evening.

Christmas Day/Night was a blast! I opened up my presents from my family in the morning. Dizzy and Doodle also opened their stuff...An Ionic brush, a remote controlled toy as well as several small toy with capnip and a scratch pad).

It was a nice small cozy group of friends. Me, Terry, Morticia, Walter, David, Lou and Billy. We ate the massive dinner I prepared for everyone and then we sat around being too stuffed to move. We each took turns opening the tons of presents on the floor and then had dessert. Mmmm. Boy, that fruit tart went in a snap (*snap*) haha

We were all set to play games when Walter declared he had never seen Sex and the City. (Morticia got me the entire series box set for Christmas!) so we put on an episode, then another, then another haha. 6 episodes in all! Walter is now hooked!

Everyone stayed late laughing and having fun. It was a great night.

Yesterday, I got up late and I took Terry to see Brokeback Mountain. The theater was packed! We had to sit in the second row! I'm SO glad the movie is doing that well! After the movie we had Christmas dinner leftovers (YUM!) and vegged.

Today, we met Walter down in Weho at the French Market for brunch. It was a good time. We then went shopping in the mall for a bit and I bought a new vacuum cleaner (got mad at my last one and threw it out). It's a bitchin' Dyson. It better work like that gay British guy says. I seem to have no luck with vacuum cleaners. We just got done eating the last of the Christmas dinner leftovers and so tomorrow the diet begins! hehe

Below are just a few pics from Christmas night. I'll have to post more on my main site. Enjoy! As always, click to enlarge, and for Christ's sake hit the comments button to comment! :)

Here is a pic of Lou and Terry (and part of Senatr's ass). I think this was taken close when when people were just comin'.













Morticia and Walter. Put down the laptop David! Wow, David's shirt is very Christmasy. We should have put him under the tree.

Good pic of Walter too! He was probably saying something sarcastic! :)










Senator's look says it all. Haha Morticia and I got him a gift certificate for Burke Williams. Morticia got a huge box from Lane Bryant and wrapped Senator's gift certificate in it. He wasn't too happy. haha. We got a laugh though! :)

Merry Christmas Eve!

Merry Christmas Eve all!

Just a quick update as I have a guest.

All is now ready for the big dinner! All of my chores are done!

I went to Porto's and picked up the desserts for Christmas dinner. Terry came in when I was there. Porto's was VERY crowded as usual for a holiday, but Mmmm worth the wait!

I came home, hung out with Terry a bit and then got to work making the stuffing. After that I cleaned the turkey and now it is time to relax.

We are gonna go out to dinner and then relax before we do midnight mass. Yeah, I know I'm a non believer and Terry is a Jew but I have to go to see if my sister's friends's prophecy will come true! :)

Plus a chance to hold a candle and sing while surrounded by hundreds of other well dressed guys? Now THAT'S a gay man's Christmas! haha

An Eric Christmas!

Here are 2 pics of my living room as of a few days ago. :) I since wrapped the presents and palced them under the tree. Sorry for the blurry pics. Dunno why they came out blurry, but I'll be taking more on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. As always Click the pic to enlarge.

Here is a pic of my living room. Got the Christmas tunes playing on Dish Network and Dizzy is sleeping on her spot on the sofa. That's usually where we nap. Doodle must be under the tree. Her and Dizzy have taken to eating the branches. When all is quiet you can hear *crunch* *crunch*. They chew the branches off and drag them to the middle of the living room!







Here is basically the same picture but with using the flash. I didn't use the flash at first cuz without it, you get an idea of the comfy feeling all the Christmas stuff gives my place. :)

Shopping is done!!!

Christmas shopping is now officially done!! Even my quest for the Honey Glazed Carrots!!

I even stopped by Petco and picked up a few more things for Dizzy and Doodle (kept hidden in the bedroom until I wrap them) Hmm, which I should do after this post.

Then, I just have to clean tomorrow and all will be ready. :)

I can't wait.

I had a nice conversation with my Mom tonight. Off and on we talked for almost 2 hours. We always laugh a lot. :) I told her I'll be coming home in Feb. for another visit. It's so nice not to be in IT anymore. I can actually plan stuff on the weekends now.

This year was a big prep year in various aspects of my life. Next year will either be to buy a place or just totally revamp my place while I wait a bit more for prices to drop (they are leveling off now). But more on that next week when I do my year in review! Oh Boy! Aren't ya excited? Have you just pee'd your pants thinking about it? Well my friend, stay tuned to this very exciting blog and you'll be reading it soon enough!

Officially Winter, Officially feeling better!

Welp, calling out yesterday was the right thing to do. I got my wrapping down and stayed in bed the rest of the day/night. I sweated everything out and today...ta-da I'm Faaaabulous! :)

Whew. It would have sucked being really sick for Christmas!

After work today, I am going to go shopping for the rest of my Christmas dinner items and tomorrow I will clean the rest of my place so everything is clean for Christmas and for when Terry comes to visit!

All is ready! Turkey has been taken out of the freezer and put in the fridge to defrost.

Dizzy was a sweetie, she didn't leave my side at all when I was sick. :) Doodle on the other hand, was running around my place eating the Christmas tree and being her playful self trying to get me to play with her. :)

Welp, back to work! :)

PORTO'S! and sicky-poo

Welp, This mornign I ordered my dessert's for Christmas dinner.

I ofcourse orderd them through Porto's Bakery as nothing else compares (http://www.portosbakery.com). I ordered the 1/4 sheet of Tres Leches with Whipped Cream and the 11' Fruit Tart. Mmmmmm. They are sooo yummy!

Last night A big sickness hit me. I have been avoiding it for a month now but yesterday it hit hard. After work, I went home, ate something and had the chills so bad I just hopped into bed. Dizzy joined me to keep my company. I was shivering so much my teeth were chattering! And then my pillow was burining hot. Staying in bed and sleeping all night helped. My fever broke and today I feel much better but have a sore throat. I am going to leave work early and spend the rest of the day in bed just to make sure I get rid of this thing quickly!

It is *SO* windy here today. The wind coming in the front lobby sounds liek the lost souls of little children screaming...

Shopping with a Butterball on Brokeback Mountain

Welp, on Friday night I went shopping. No Butterballs were found. I then went out with Morticia do do more shopping. We both got some stuff done and we met up Saturday to do more. We rocked on Saturday, completing almost everything we both had to get. I also mailed all my presents back home. They should get them on Wednesday.

AND...

I got my Butterball turkey! 24.19 pounds! Oh it's Glorious! Hopefully this year, dinner won't be haunted! I also bought a few things for Christmas dinner and started to clean the apartment in preperation for the big day.

My menu (so far) consists of:
Wine
Asti (Mmmm)
Soda
Water (Regular and Propel! haha)

Turkey w. yummy gravy
Stuffing
Assorted veggies
Mashed Potatoes
Cranberry Sauce

Tres Leches Cake
Fresh Fruit Tart

Hmmm, I think some things are missing, but I can't think of them right now.

Sunday, I went shopping again with Morticia and his nephew. Walter was back in Philly all weekend so I'll have to hear about his adventures today.

All I have to do is clean my place and find something for Terry and I'm all done. No Christmas cookies this year as I refuse to put on any more holiday poundage :)

Comments?

It has recently come to my attention, from Charlie Brown ("Merry Christmas Charlie Brown.") hehe that commenting isn't too apparent on the blog.

All, you do is click the comments hyper link at the end of the post you wanna comment on. You do not need an account to comment. You can put your name or leave it annon.

The only one that comments is my darling sister and I know many people read this thing!

Anyways, I didn't do anything last night. I took the night off from Bingo and just watched the Grinch. I also thought about some Christmas gifts to get people. Sigh, Christmas would be more exciting if I had a boyfriend but its still fun :) Oh, I forgot to post the pics of my place all decorated! I'll post them tonight maybe when I get back from my movie screening with Steve. (Forget the name of the movie now).

Welp, back to work after I get a cup of this gross coffee that tastes like ass. *blech*

Stuffed crust pizza and resumes!

YUM. I *love* Pizza-The-Hutt's Stuffed crust pizza with extra cheese! YUM! Mmm, and those cinnemon sticks with the icing! That's what I had for dinner last night. It was very very yummy!

Afterwards, I hung out with my friend Steve. It's been a little while since we hung out (Bingo a few weeks ago) and I helped him on updating his resume. It looks really good! He should have no problem getting a job with it.

Hmmm, that's it really. After he left, I went to sleep shortly there after.

Oh my stars, it's Bingo tonight! Gotta "Git on the horn" and see who's goin!

A bummin' kinda day...

...Today I just feel kind of blah. I have a lot of work to do which is always cool (Just started lunch break now) but I just feel blah. Just one of those days where you feel kind of lonely.

Tonight shoul dbe better though, I am supposed to help my friend Steve with his resume.

I think next year, I'll do another revamp of my life. Add/delete things I like/want to do for fun etc. and go through my list of friends and see who's been naughty and nice. Something just isn't clicking.

The promise of pictures goes fullfilled!

Okay all, Here are the pictures I have been promising for a while.

Here is a picture of Mike (friend andgreat ex-boss). This is from the boat parade last week. He won second place! This parade is going on a 4 year tradition now!
















Here is a picture of his boat. He has a generator on board that supplied the air for the huge blowup dolls...(hmmm...) :)











Here is a picture of the boat that won first place. Pretty spiffy isn't it?













The next few pics are from last weeks Bingo night. What a blast it was! (As always). The guests here Adrienne (forget her last name). She plays Nichole on "Days of our Lives". She is veeeery pretty and super super nice! I hope she comes back again soon! As always, these pics were taken by Sheldon! As with all the pics, click on them to make them bigger!

Here is a pic of me and Adrienne. She is so sweet! I feel like TiVOing the soap opera now so I can see her! hehe










And ofcourse Bingo wouldn't be complete without our antics with Candy. We just love her so much! This week she kept smackin' my butt when she would walk by, so I had to get her back by untying her apron several times. And that was inbetween her sitting on my lap telling me what she wants for Christmas!


And the Bingo picture of the day was this! Candy trying to shove a Pepper Mill up my butt!

Ah, I love Bingo!

Pissy, Pissy, Poor "lil Missy...TERROR AT THE SUPERMARKET

Boy, Oh Boy. I am so pissed right now, I figured I'd get on the computer and rant.

All I wanted to do is buy some Propel water (YUM!) and a 24 pound frozen Butterball Turkey for Christmas. You think that would be easy wouldn't ya?

Well, I go to Ralph's (how handy...just a few blocks away!....yeh, Handy if they actually had anything...) They had *1* 6 pack of Grape Propell and *1* bottle of Arrowhead Mountain Spring Water. What the fuck? That store is always like that. I'm going to write a letter and tell the manager to do his/her job.

Tired of obnoxious fat people standing in the middle of the aisle being stupid, I thought "I'll go to Gelson's" that's supposed to be upscale, no riff-raff people. So I drive to Gelson's. Not a Single God Damn Turkey in the place! Ofcourse the butcher can barely speak any English (that's a rant for another time...) and I think (through is broken pitiful use of the language) that he said they had some small 16 pound turkeys in the back. I just told him no thanks (with a smile even). I figured, while I was there I could get some Propel. *BUZZ* wrong. They didn't have any. I just stopped pushing my cart and steered it over the the side of the Aisle out of the way (TAKE A NOTE AND LEARN THIS PEOPLE).

I figured, I'd check out the Ralph's at Coldwater and Laurel Canyon. Well, after squeezing through the door, some bitch had her cart in the middle aisle/doorway getting logs for her fireplace, I went to the back to find the turkeys. They only had small ones too. They had one 24 pound turkey but I didn't like the way it looked., never heard of the company. For all I know I could unwrap it and it would be some little mexican child that was smuggled across the border.

Not being able to walk 10 feet without waiting for some stupid people to move their cart out of the way, the pressure was rising in my veins. Reaching the water and discovering yet again, no Propel, I turned the corner to leave and smack, hit some bitch's cart. Well, I had it. She gave *ME* a nasty look, so with one big obnoxious gay hard bump with my hip, I smacked her cart and sent it wheeling down the aisle. I flashed her a fake smile and walked away. Servers her right.

God damn that felt good.

The Calico, The Tree and the Wardrobe

Welp, Doodle is fully back to normal now! Yay! It's so nice to have her back, all cute and playful! Thanks to all those who sent good vibes and prayers her way!

I have my Christmas Tree up now! It is the biggest and best tree I have ever had! Standing at 8 feet tall and 4 feet wide (Yes, I had a tape measure in hand at the lot haha!) The tree is complete with new stuff as well as some old favorites like my Leo Christmas ball, Darth Maul and my lawn chicken! The newest additions are these balls that have a character inside (Santa, A snowman, the good ol baby Jesus etc.) and they plug into the string of lights and the whole things strobes slowly through an array of colors...kind of like those fiber optic things). I just turned off all my lights to go to bed but I will take pics tomorrow...err later on today. I know, I know...I still owe pictures form the boat parade and bingo (Played with a "Days of our Lives" soap star who was very nice, funny and cute...some chick who plays Nichole on the show.

Friday, after the work Christmas party that was at the Hollywood and Highland complex, with yummy food catered by Wolfgang Puck, I went to see The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. This was my favorite book as a kid and the movie did not disappoint! So spectacular! The woman who played the Witch was soo amazing. She stirred up so many feelings, I felt like yelling "Bitch!" at the screen and giving it the finger haha, but alas I didn't. So now it is 2am and I am very tired.

Oh, after the Tree trimming (or actually during, we took a break cuz it took us like 5 hours) David, Walter and I went to our favorite mexican restaurant, "Senior Fred". YUMMY.

Time Flies...

Wow time flies around Christmas time. My lazy ass hasn't updated my blog in a while.

Let's see, Saturday I had my writer's pitch meeting. How dull. The guy hosting it only did so to feed his ego on stage. Nnot knowing what I was doing, I grabbed the mic and stood up in front of the whole auditorium and pitched Tarot. It didn't go that well, but at least I did it and now know what to expect for when I pitch to someone who matters.

After the pitchin' session, I went to Castaic Lake and helped my old boss decorate his boat for the Christmas lighted boat parade. This has been a tradition now for 4 years! This year was kind of lame though. It was very windy and they wouldn't let the boats in the water, so instead of canceling it, they just kept the boats on the trailers and drove them around. Lame, but it was still fun with Peppermint Schnapps! We won 2nd place too!

Sunday rolled around and I hung up my garland by myself. It looks okay, I am happy with it. It really finishes off the Christmas look! Well, until I get a tree...

I realized something when I looked around at my place all decked out for Christmas...my next boyfriend will have to really be into it. I think that says a lot about a person. My last two boyfriends didn't decorate at all and they were duller than dish water.

Morticia came over later in the day and we grabbed dinner at the Macaroni Grill in the Sherman Oaks Galleria. It was a fun time...cute waiters!
I introduced him to Desperate Housewives too!

Monday night I just sat around and relaxed. Worked a lil more on the script. (My friend KD was right when she said a script is never done until you sell it!) I bought The Polar Express too. It was okay. Nothing too exciting though.

Last night I just did some laundry and watched "C Charlie Brown Christmas". I've been going through dishnetwork's menu and TiVoing all of the Christmas cartoons. The passed couple of years, I've only caught a few. It really makes a difference when you see them all! Really puts you in the spirit. Oh, I'm such a Christmas freak.

I'll post some pics of the boats probably tomorrow night.

Sings "Doodle Head...She's got the cutest Little Doodle Head..."

Welp, Last night Doodle finally started coming around...at 12:30 am!

I was just about to go in to go to bed when she came out in the living room and started to Meow. Well, I couldn't just go in and go to bed after her hiding for almost a week. I sat out in the living room, gave her a few pets and just watched her (didn't want to freak her out too much). Man, she was thirsty. She sat and drank non stop from her fountain for like 10 minutes!

She stayed in the living room all night (with Dizzy) and this morning she was walking around some more and meowing. She is still a bit timid but definately majorly improved. I didn't even see her scratch once!

On a side note, I think the fleas were only part of it. When I was watching her last night, she was looking oddly at her tail. She was wagging it very wildly, in every direction and looking at it as if to say "What's this?" I read a few months ago that that is some disorder (I forget what it is called right now) and that's what I thought she had before. (Makes note). Anyways, I am *SO* glad she is coming around.

Last night, I also finished and registered my 3rd draft of Tarot. I cut out 4 pages, bring the total down from 117 to 113. It makes it a bit tighter and quicker to read.

I am so diggin' Survivor too. I really hope Stephanie wins!