OakMonster’s Den

Our talented friend, the beautiful up-and-coming singer-songwriter Jessica Callahan has her own blog. Come visit: http://jessicacallahan.com/blog/

And come to her show. We’ll be there too.

The proof that chivalry is dead can be found on a crowded train out of Downtown LA toward Long Beach at the peak of rush hour.

Actually, I guess it could be found anywhere crowded and first-come-first-serve seating is involved.

The seats were all filled. A few men peppered the aisle seats.

First there was a family of 7 that came in–mom pushed in the baby in the stroller, a 2-year-old hanging with dad looking at “la choo choo”, a 7-year old holding on to her 10-year-old sister’s arm.

Not a person in the front area or nearby seats got up for the kids. Not. One. Person.

Later on an old by able lady came in through the door. An Asian girl to my left both got up to give the lady our seats. Not a single person in the row moved a hair. (I could see that because I was sitting sideway in the front row.) The lady took her spot. The girl hauled her fat, and probably heavy, backpack over her shoulder and tried to squeeze into a spot in the aisle a few steps back, standing right next to this guy who glanced up at her and then back down to his computer magazine.

All these women, children, and elderly coming onto the train and not a single male on the train offer his seat.

Now, that’s REALLY sad.

Mine is nothing to be compared to Amy’s but I wrote one anyway because it sounds like fun.

You’ll see that most of my boys are secret crushes, and a few I actually went out/made out with. (RetroBlog: Serendipity.) Then I went and hooked me Brandon. LOL.

Anyhoo. Here’s my history with men.

My first crush at 12 was on Fabian.
Blue eyed, fanged smile German.
Next crush, Gian is a Swiss skier.
We hung out a lot in Whittier.
High school Grant was my carpool buddy.
He becomes a rocker in Cincinnati (but now in the OC).

In college, secret crush was on Joel.
The Trojan-est Trojan I’ve ever known.
Six Flag Marce is a friend of Katie’s.
Went out 4 times. First boy I’ve kissed.
Bruce the Lifeguard, a missed opportunity
Were friends all summer, turned out he did like me.
Kit taught me everything about love.
3 years later he left me on the curb.

Samoan John kisses like no other.
We made out all night, too soon it was over.
Blue-haired Mark is one great friend.
We made out once and back to friends again.

Brandon started as my best buddy.
I jumped him one night and here we are, married!

Peter Jennings dies at 67.

Brokaw called him “the Prince” of the network news triumvirate that were Jennings, Brokaw, and Rather. The friendly voice that familiar me to America nightly as I watched the news with my host mom back in 1993. The face that countdown with me to 2000. The presence that comforted me through the day on 9/11.

Thank you, Mr. Jennings. The world of news won’t be the same without you.

I was out with Brandon and his coworkers Jim and Eric yesterday. A beat up truck came by, trying to sound all vroom-vroom look at me my engine’s loud, but it didn’t sound like a vroom from a healthy engine. So Eric started ripping on how that guy would be trying to pick up chicks with that car.

Eric: Yeah, he’d be like, “Baby, do you like cars?”. “Yeah, whatever that can get me away from you?”

Oakley: So you hear that line a lot, eh?

E: No. Actually, I *use* that line a lot. You know, all the unwanted attention from chicks. Women are constantly hitting on me.

O: With what, a stick?

There was a heartbeat of silence before the guys exploded into “Oooooooohhhh!” and laughter.

Yeah. I owned.

All these times, I forgot to let you know that the pictures from Red River is up on my Flickr album.

Red River - 4th of July, 2005

A disclaimer: I haven’t touched up any of the photos. Once you see the pictures of the Barn and the valley from the Vietnam Vet Memorial, you’ll understand this disclaimer.

Feeling lonely in a room filled with people.

It’s a cliché. And I’m living it.

I am working in a friendly environment, sometimes chitchatting away with my coworkers in the next cubes. But something is missing with them. Then again, only a few people at my new work share my interests. No one is this geeky. Or random.

I miss my old coworkers so much sometimes it physically hurts. Angela, my former manager, said it best that we could never find such camaraderie again anywhere else we go. We, first and most importantly, all shared the common hatred of the work place. We bonded under atrocity that was the Big Bosses’ treatment and immoral business practice. (And as to why people are still working there, it’s the money. Big Bosses’ only hold is that they pay ridiculous amount of money for people to put up with their crap. That reason alone kept me there for 2 years.) A few of us that broke away from the hell that was my former employer found ourselves huddling together once in a while as a support group, to tell ourselves the world outside is not like that. And then the rest of the bonding came easily to us. My ex-coworkers are great people.

Not to say that my new coworkers aren’t great people. They are too. But something is missing. I can’t seem to connect with them at the same level I did with the old job. I’ve managed to start getting a handful of folks out for drinks. You know, trying the drinking buddy theory. I formed a few bonds with the boys.

Yes. I’m hanging out with the boys. Again.

I’m just more comfortable hanging out with guys. A product of having 2 older brothers, I suppose. It seems I’m prone to make new “brothers”, and I do have a collection of them now. LOL.

Well that’s at work.

As for home, as much as I understand the life of a gamer’s spouse, once in a while I do feel a bit neglected. We’d be in the same room for hours, but we’re not really together. Once in a while I get jealous of the computer. Once in a while, I actually believe I deserve a little more time with my husband than this.

But that’s once in a while. Because as you know, being with a geek, you’re always come second to their other interests may it be games, Sci-Fi channel, or what have you.

Knowing that doesn’t make it hurts less when that “once in while” moment came.

In a room full of people. In the same room as Brandon. I’m lonely.

And I’m afraid to get a Prozac or something because Tom Cruise would have my head…

Rick Romero from KABC-TV Stopped By Chris’ house to do a story on blogging. So keep your eyes on your local ABC 7 for the Frenchy!

Something triggered the alarm on 33rd floor, so a few floors above and below had to evacuate 5 floors below.

That was my first one here.

A little flashback of the at least once a week fire alarm at Fluor Tower my freshman year in college. Our building had just been renovated. The alarm was the “pull here” kind. Not “break glass” kind, and situated right by the fire stairs.

So what did people do? Ran down the hall, pulled the alarm, and exited the building. We had to wake up in the middle of the night at the oddest hours many many many times during the year. We’d lay out the robe/sweater with our keys each night. Eventually, we brought down our wallets and drove off to Del Taco for 3 a.m. snacks instead of waiting around in the cold.

Our defiant moment came during finals when half of the building decided to stay in bed instead. There was a false alarm around midnight when most people were still up cramming. But the second one at 3:30 a.m., half of the building decided not to get out of bed for it. Of course, the DPS (Department of Public Safety) noticed the usually small crowd gathering downstairs, so they checked all the rooms.

I was fortunate to be so small, and had the top bunk. I curled up under cover, leaning against the wall. I had my head toward the door. As my headboard, I had a row of stuffed animals. A DPS officer came into my room. But I was undetected.

My suitemates weren’t so lucky. Those people who didn’t come down were supposed to be fined, but so many people brought up all the false alarm through out the year that no one had done anything about it despite the complaints. So they ended up having to write an apology letter or something like that instead.