This is exciting.

I've been asked to contribute to THEME Magazine, a bi-monthly publication based in NYC. THEME is an award winning lifestyle magazine that focuses on stories about contemporary Asian culture. THEME has a regular section in their magazine called INDEXED where they ask creatives from around the world to introduce their home cities to their readership, and I've been asked to introduce Guam in the upcoming April/May issue!

Here's where you come in. If you're from Guam you can help me tremendously by filling out a short questionnaire for me. I have my own opinions and answers to the questions, but I'd like to gather more information to make sure I don't leave out something good!

If you would like to help me out, leave a comment and include your email address or send me your email address and I'll contact you directly. Thanks!!

I've been very busy with work and I haven't had much time (or energy) for much else. I am definitely not complaining. With the economy being the way it is, very busy equals very good. I did a lot of shooting last week, both in studio and on location which is always fun but can be exhausting. My range went from shooting Hooters girls to shooting boxes of candy for an ad I designed for Circle K. I like candy. A lot.



I haven't even started Christmas shopping, but I'm not worried or stressing out about it. My list is short, I've got it all planned out in my head, and I won't even have to set foot in a shopping mall. Yay.

Things should calm down after the holidays and I'll have more time and energy to post more frequently. I hope these last few days before Christmas are peaceful and relaxing for you.

Gentlemen, I highly recommend you give your lady a corsage on your next big date. It will completely throw her for a loop.



It should be a wrist corsage. The bigger, the better. ;)

A year and some months ago during a Chesterhouse happy hour, I told Mike I had always wanted one of those happy good luck waving cats you see in chinese shops and sushi bars. It wasn't until after we'd started dating that he admitted he had "searched high and low" for a waving cat because he wanted to leave one at my doorstep for me to find, but alas, there was no waving cat to be found on Guam at the time. A few months later someone gifted him with a waving cat which I thought was unfair since it was me, ME! who really wanted one in the first place.

Last week we were poking around in one of those all-purpose Chinese shops and what did I find? A waving cat! "You can't buy your own waving cat," Mike says to me. "Someone has to give it to you." I put the waving cat in his hands. "So go pay for this, then." And that was that. Now everything is right in my world because I finally have my very own happy good luck waving cat.



I am extremely easy to please.

Since I showed you a sneaky picture of Mike's closet, it's only fair I show you a picture of half my closet. The tidy half, of course.



Nothing unusual here. Everyone organizes their clothes according to the Pantone color charts, right?

I upgraded to the BlackBerry Bold and it is the most beautiful phone I have ever owned.



Anyone who really knows me knows that I am not the kind of girl who gets excited about clothes, shoes or handbags. Coach, Louis Vuitton, BCBG? Please. The brands that make my heart flutter are Apple, Nikon and BlackBerry. Wave a cool new gadget or camera in my face and I swoon.

Anyway, my new BB PIN is 208CE74E. Add me to your BB messenger!

Almost every mac I've ever owned or used has, at some point, crashed on me in the worst way. 'The worst way' meaning I lost all my data. The latest mac to crash and burn is my personal iBook, the iBook formerly known as My Trusty iBook. It's amazing how a crisis such as your computer crashing can make you prioritize what data is most crucial in recovering. Kind of like what you might grab before escaping a raging house fire (I'd grab my bag, my cat and Mike if he were there -- in that order). As I turned over my iBook to the pros at Marianas Electronics, I told them firmly, "I don't care about anything but the two folders on the desktop that contain photographs." And that's the truth because *gulp* unless someone flies me out to Cairns for a day, those files are pretty much irreplaceable. A whole day's worth of pictures. My heart has been in my stomach since Monday. Mac gods, have mercy on me.

Other than that, everything else is smooth sailing. I'm avoiding the shops because 1) I hate shopping and 2) I hate crowds of people shopping. Right now I can see from the view at work that every stall in the parking lot on the east side of GPO is occupied and there is a train of cars slowly circling for the next open slot. It's 3 in the afternoon. Don't people have jobs?

Instead of Christmas shopping I've been reading and swimming with friends and really just enjoying my free time. I find that I enjoy my free time a lot more when I'm actually enjoying work. Work has been a lot of fun lately (because my ads and concepts are getting approved with minor changes which is a Christmas miracle in itself) and in my off time I've nothing really to stress about. Except for the iBook thing. But even with that I wouldn't say I'm stressing over it. I'm grown enough to know that it's out of my control now. Let go, and let Mac god. Sigh. And I can't avoid the shops forever. I have a Christmas party to attend in a couple of weeks and mama needs a new dress.

Hello, friends. How are you? What's new? What do you want for Christmas?

My response to hearing that Reden recently purchased a Lexus and where my inner five year old makes a rare appearance:

"Really? Reden got a new Lexus? Well, I'm getting a BlackBerry Bold this week. You hear that, Reden? Hey Reden, can your Lexus record video and take pictures and publish them to Facebook and MySpace? Does your Lexus have WiFi, Reden? Does it? Can you even go on the internet in your cool new Lexus, Reden? No? Yeah, that's what I thought. Take that, Reden!"

Well it's nice to know that if things don't work out with Mike, I have options. Ok, ONE option.
And, hello? How come you guys never told me I had magical dreamer eyes?

From:JERRY K
To:Me
Date:Nov 27, 2008 11:23 PM
Subject: Hello Josie, sweet princess with...

Message:
Hello Josie, sweet princess with magical dreamer eyes,I am from London,I don't really know how to express my feelings when i came across you profile, you really impress me with your inexplicable romantic magical beauty attractive when i set my eyes on your profile,Life is too short to wake up with regrets. So love the people who treat you right. forget about the ones who don't believe that everything happens for a reason.friends are like balloons; once you let them go, you can't get them back again. So I'm wanna tie you into my heart so I will never lose you.it's my pleasure to have you as my friend first if possible,i was divorced since 2005, so i would appreciate to keep in touch with you, and i would like to have your email address so that we can keep in touch, promise me that you will give me a positive responds even thought i don't fined enough words to describe how i feel about you,you possess all I need as a woman, i hope you will update me soon, take good care of your self.

I am thoroughly stuffed and content.

As I sit here like a beached whale on Mike's mom's sofa typing this out on the BlackBerry, I think about how lucky I am to have been born into the life I live. I am thankful for all the little things for sure, but right now I am most especially thankful for all the great big things I take for granted. I'm thankful that I don't have to run for cover from bombs or violent mobs of angry protesters. I'm thankful that my family, scattered around the world, are all safe and living in peace. I'm thankful for the freedom to own a website that is filled with my opinions on whatever it is I have an opinion about.

Sometimes I imagine what life must be like for a woman living in an oppressed or war-torn country or in extreme poverty. I could easily have been born into a life of real anguish and suffering. Whether it is providence or luck of the draw that I am not that woman, I can't say for sure. But I do know that I am truly thankful for the life I have.

Happy Thanksgiving.