I'm back home in VA for Thanksgiving break, and I have to say it's nice
to be home.  I even have the home all to myself for a couple
days.  It's strange because I've been homesick for a few
weeks.  Not homesick because I miss my place back in VA or any
place for that matter really but because I'm homesick of really not
having a place of my own.  I gave up my apartment around NYC
earlier in the year to save on rent, since I wouldn't need the place
because all my traveling.  I guess what it is is that I miss the
idea of my own home, coming back to a familar place rather than living
out of a suitcase.  I'll have my own place at some point once I
save up enough to settle down in one place.  For the time being,
I'm calling the Courtyard Marriott in Dallas my home.  It is nice
to have housekeeping come in everyday to give me new linens, make my
bed, and put mints on my pillows. 

I'm picking up my parents from the airport this weekend, since they're
coming back from Vietnam.  My parents like to leave me notes all
the time, because they really worry too much about me.  Here's a
note my dad left me on the toilet seat (on the classic Asian
Pharmaceutical stationary:

CONGRATS TO MY BRO ON PASSING THE NY AND NJ BAR EXAMS!!!!

Weekends are always short.  It feels like I just got to So Cal,
and now I'm already back in Dallas.  It was a good weekend though,
nice and relaxing for once except when I made cvu cry because I took
her to see this movie that reminded her of the story of her mom. 
Sorry hun, but it was a good movie though.

Next day, I was so scatterbrained that I asking cvu why some ppl were
crossing the street when their light was red.  I told her that it
would turn green when the turning lanes went green.  Then she was
like uhhh how's that work, so then I explained it to her.  As I
was explaining it to her, I realized how stupid I was.  If I was
turning, then I would turn into the crosswalk, so then they couldn't
walk.  Blah.  I think I'm losing my mind.

I ended up missing my flight today by 2 minutes, since the stupid Hertz
people kept me there longer than I wanted.  I called them to go
change my tire, because I was too lazy to change it myself.  It
was gonna take them 2 hours to come out to change it, so then I just
ended up changing it myself.  In the process, I bent the jack
sideways since the car collapsed on it.  Good thing cvu's dad had
a couple jacks at his house.  When I got to the Hertz return
center, I had to wait for some 30 minutes to fill out paperwork that I
eventually didn't have to fill out either then I missed my flight
because of that.  Fucking A.  

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY MOM!!!!!

My new cell phone just came in woo.  The LCD screen on my old
phone went blank, so I had to shell out a couple hundred for a new
one.  At least I get a discount through my company and a credit
for being with Verizon so long.  I got the Samsung SCH-A970. 
It's pretty nice and has a ton of features: mp3 player, 2megapixel
camera, and it swivels.  Time to play with my new toy. 

Weekend is finally here woohoo!  Gonna head out to So Cal to
visit cvu (my birthday gift to my mom is a future
daughter-in-law haha). 

Go
Democrats!  Both of my pseudo-homes (VA and NJ) got new Dem.
governors.  As for Texas though, I must be in a backwards state
when
people here just voted to have a constitutional amendment to define
marriage between a man and a woman.  I could care less what your
sexuality is, but doesn't this seem like discrimination? 

Anyhoo, it's
nice to get in touch with some old friends.  A few of the people from
our high school circulate an email trying to keep in touch with each
other, and I remembered one of my of my friends who I grew up with was
in the Dallas area.  We played piano duets as little kids, and it's
funny seeing her years later.  She's a fitness/rock climbing instructor
at SMU, so maybe she can give me some pointers for working out.  At
least I have some buddies now in the Dallas area I can kick it with.

I've
been going to bed no earlier than 2am the past couple weeks not because
of insomnia but because of all the time zone changes.  The other night I couldn't get to
bed till 6am.  I
finally got back into the gym after a 2 month hiatus from studying for
the GMAT.  I forgot how much I enjoy working out (probably not as
much as my gf enjoys having me workout since she's all into the 6-pack
and all haha). I woke up Monday morning sore as all hell and could barely walk.  My coworker came up to me and was like why the hell are you
walking like Frankenstein, Halloween's over haha.  It looked like I was walking around with
a stick up my ass cause I was waddling around the
hallways.  Everyone gave me these funny looks, but it’s good to have
that sore feeling from the gym.

I gotta say, people in the Midwest are pretty nice, but some of the
people out here have to be the dumbest fucks around.  After
stuffing myself with a sushi buffet, I decided that it was about time I
join a gym again now that I'm all done with my GMAT.  I decided to
join 24-hour fitness, since we get a pretty nice corporate discount
with them.  The guy that signed me up must've been the slowest one
around.  He took a few minutes to figure out that something was a
leg press machine when it just says leg press on the machine. 
Anyhoo, we went to his office to sign me up and he was explaining some
deals to me.  I asked him about this deal they had downstairs that
was 24/month with no contract.  I even get them to waive my
enrollment fee.  There was this huge big ass signed outside that
had it, but he didn't know anything about it.  He goes and asks
another guy who then brings in the sales manager.  I was trying to
tell them my address and info, and I don't know what it is down here in
Texas, but as I was adding on cvu to my membership, I was like last
name Vu.  He was like, oh, wow, that's it?  Le and Vu? 
Those are short last names.  That's cool.  Wow.  Oh man,
I was just staring at them in disbelief.  Seriously people, there
are other last names other than Smith and Johnson.  Gonna chill
here in Dallas this weekend.  It's supposed be in the 80s and
sunny.  Should be a nice relaxing weekend.

It's been a week since the GMAT, and I've had some time to do some thinking as to what I want to do with my life/career.  Looks like Plan A is out the door.  Plan A being going back to school next year.  Plan B is applying for Fall '07 and if that fails, then Plan C will be just keep on working and trying to find an industry job or a job at another consulting firm.  Talking to cvu last night, we both realized how much we don't like our respective professions.  She's not cut out to sit in a courtroom all day, and I'm not cut out sitting at a desk doing IT consulting.  She'd rather do something like being an interior designer, and I'd rather do something marketing and/or strategy related.  I don't think I've learned that much in the past few years working at my present company, but my present project might allow me to leverage some of the experience to help grow another area of our business out on the West Coast.  If not, then most likely I'll test the market and see what other jobs are out there.  Perhaps I'll get a job with a company where I can eventually bring cvu in as in-house counsel. 

It seems like so many of my friends are not happy with their jobs, and the only thing keeping them there is the money.  I can tell you that's one of the main reasons I'm staying is that I save quite a bit not having to pay rent and traveling city-to-city living in a hotel.  It's not where I thought I'd be at this point in my life.  Well, I'll admit I really didn't know where I'd be at this point in my life.  For the most part, I've been happy this year with everything that's happened with the only thing that's brought me down is my job.  That was the main reason I decided to reapply to school and get my MBA, but those plans will have to be put on hold at least for another year.  At least the 5-year plan is still intact.

We aren't getting any younger, and it seems that the older we get the faster time goes by.  Can you believe that 2005 is almost over?  Time's flown by so fast this year.  It's not to say that I wasn't extremely happy this year, but it just seems that we need to make the most of the time that's given to us.  I don't want to look back and say that I didn't live how I wanted to live or do what I wanted to do and regret losing out on some of the most precious years of my life.  There's no time like your 20s, and the older you get, the harder is to make friends or do some of things that you might have wanted to earlier in your life because of the committments that you have later on.  As to what I want to do with my life and my career?  That remains to be seen but as for now, I'm taking it a day at a time and waiting to see what happens next.  Hopefully though, it brings me one step closer to some of my goals.

I had to get up at 5:45AM to catch my flight to Minneapolis this week but I slept the whole flight though.  I'm here for training for the week and man it's cold and me with no jacket.  For once, I don't have to study for the GMAT, so that's a nice relief.  Gonna enjoy the time off from studying then it's back to the books starting in January.  Hopefully next time I'll do better. 

Edit: Sun. morn:  Ugg I forgot why I stopped drinking so
much.  I hate waking up with a headache.  At least it's
football Sunday.  Go Eagles!!!

Edit Sat night 9:15pm:  Just got home from dinner thanks to a gift card from
cvu for our anniversary.  Thanks hun!  Had a bottle of wine
and a great steak.  Learned that it's not such a good idea to
drive tipsy around a city that you don't know.  Man, I love
wine.  Something about alcohol sure does calm the nerves.   
Picked up another bottle of wine to drink back at the hotel. 
Gonna spend the rest of the night relaxing and drinking some
wine. 

The reason that I've been MIA the past couple months is that I've been
prepping for the GMAT.  After I was done with my project in
Phoenix, I decided that it might be time for a change, and I felt that
change might be to get my MBA.  I was trying to see what the
deadlines were for applying next year for fall of '06 admittance. 
I knew that I didn't have too much time, so I tried to study as much as
I could the past 2 months.  I had my exam today and while relieved
it's over, I wasn't too happy about my score.  Man, it was killer.  I didn't score as
well as I had hoped and decided that it might be best that I take
another year to study and prep to take the exam next summer.  I
was looking forward to applying to school but with the score that I got
on my GMAT, I can't justify spending my time putting together
applications when I don't have a good shot at getting into one of the
schools that I want.

I'll have another year of work experience at least and will save a bit more
money applying for fall '07.  It was a long shot anyways this
year, and next year I'll be more prepared for the GMAT.  I planned
for this contigency, and I'm not overly crushed that it didn't work out
for next year.  It's not like I won't have another chance, and if
I don't get in the year after, I have a plan for that as well. 

Since I've holed myself in my room the past 2 months, it's about time
that I get out, have some fun, and hang out with friends that I haven't
seen in a long time.  I hope everyone has a great Halloween. 

Stressing out...ugg.  So much to do, so little time.  3 days left.