Rain inspired

The rain, as well as my dying umbreller that I have temporarily fixed with a paperclip (call me MacGyver), reminded me that this really tickles my fancy. Oh to protect my Beehive from the furies of wind and rain. This umbrella would allow me to see from the inside, all while protecting my wondrous ‘do. Okay, so I don’t have a Beehive, but if I did, this would make it all the better. I just hate when my umbrella flips out because of the wind and there is rarely rain without some wind. Debating on which color I should get. It’s between green to go with my rainboots or colorful polka dots to go with my everything!

Another quarter

I won’t go into it, but long story short, I have one more quarter at UCLA and then I am done. I know, I already walked and stuff. Surprise! I am still in school. Not a whole lot of posting going on, because I am super busy with school and work and commuting. I don’t know how to balance time very well. Still looking for that secret formula. Egh. So if you really want to know what I am up to, check out my Twitter on the side. You don’t have to sign up to look at it, if that’s what you’re wondering. I won’t judge you for looking at it either if you are totally against tweets.

Life.

My cousin sang at his own funeral. It’s a little morbid but it was something he loved to do so I guess it was appropriate. I didn’t even know it was him at first until my mom pointed it out. I then recognized his voice and I just started breaking down. I was probably the first person to start crying and my mom tried to tell me to quit it because I was making her do it too, and the service hadn’t even started yet. My sister tried to make me stop too by jokingly gesturing that she would punch me if I did not desist.

It was really different from the traditional Chinese funeral I went to almost exactly nine years ago for my grandpa. That one was a little shorter, less talk more ritual, more about paying our respect than sharing memories but I guess in both types it is our way of coping and trying to keep the person with us for just a little bit longer.

But I felt like this one was so geared towards removing every drop of tear you have in your body because the moment I walked in my heart sank. Up on screen were images of my cousin during happy times before he got really sick. On loop was a very professional sounding recording his brother found in his car of him singing that I guess he did not share with anyone. What can you do but cry knowing that you will never see or hear him in this lifetime again? My parents were a little upset about this because it obviously hurt them, especially my dad, to have to see/hear it, but I feel like it was a really beautiful tribute from his big bro.

It’s so weird to see everyone in your family, even the most stoic, show so much pain. I hugged several relatives in my family for the first time in my life and my parents for the first time since I was little. Strange how death urges us to let down our guards a little.

I kept wondering where my aunt and uncle were until I realized they didn’t come, couldn’t come actually. In Chinese culture, parents aren’t supposed to bury their children. I don’t think any parent should have to do that. I don’t know if his mom would have been able to bear it anyway.

Being there I began to feel really bad about my relationship with him. There was so much I didn’t know about him. I had no idea, first of all, that he was such a good singer! I thought his song was sung by a professional. I also had no idea that he was such a devout Christian. When I learned of this, everything about the way he treated the situation began to make a little more sense to me. We may have been close to siblings in terms of Chinese family relations (our dads are brothers) but as I looked around the room at all the strangers across the aisle, I felt like his real family (outside of his immediate family and family he grew up with, of course) may have been his church family. They sent him off I guess the way he would have wanted to go.

I was a little upset before because the way I saw it, he gave up. He refused to take any of the medicines my dad was trying to get him to take. But as I listened to the service, I realized I was thinking selfishly. To wish for him to live longer may have meant more pain, more chemo, more meds, and endless pain. Who knows if he would’ve been able to lead a normal life again? He isn’t suffering anymore and he is in a better place now. I’m sure he knows that he left behind a lot of people who loved him.

Rest in peace, Patrick.

Perspective

We, especially young people, seem to think that we are immortal, but it can all be taken away just like that. It’s like a piece of our family is missing. I can tell my dad is really upset because he felt like he was the only one who was trying but he is one of those people who can’t really express it and instead gets upset about other lesser things. I am just having a difficult time understanding how all this happened. I can’t even begin to understand how his parents must feel.. Sigh.

RIP P.W.

Check out what my mister made

here. :] They failed to mention that the eyes light up too! He’s been working really hard on it for months and he made our apartment smell gross from all the stuff he was doing on it but it definitely paid off because it looks super awesome and I haven’t come across any comments from pissed off Star Wars fans as of yet. It’s to be auctioned off to benefit the Make A Wish Foundation. Very exciting stuff.

P.S. Happy holidaze, friends.

shafted

My dad’s all stressed because of his filial duties. I wonder why both my parents always get stuck with the family duties. Even though most of our conversations consist of them scolding me or making fun of me, I think maybe they’re too nice and their sibs pick on them because they’re middle children. I guess I can see what lies in my future.

In case you’re wondering we are driving to Rose Hills to bury the grandma I never met, who he retrieved the ashes of from China and paid to keep in his storage unit because Chinese people don’t keep loved ones in the house and no one else seemed too eager to help him with it.

I think both my parents were raised in a situation where they had to take on grown-up responsibilities at a really young age whereas their older bros got first pick of everything the ‘rents were rationed.

Alien technology

Check it out. This light appeared in the sky over Norway, started spiraling and then became some kind of black hole and collapsed. I think it’s just some kind of manmade light but there are some crazy theories out there right now like it being a failed missile launch or aliens. My out-there theory is that it might be some kind of artist’s emphasis on the hole in the ozone, but that’s just a theory as well.

Speaking of aliens, Tom and I are watching Jersey Shore. All I can say is, OMG.

Night out on the town in Silverlake

Tom and I had a little date night tonight. Our planned destinations were Vietnamese Soy Cafe and Intelligentsia but plans changed a bit.

Soy Cafe is a little hard to spot. I forgot that I had seen it before until I saw it again. Turns out it is right next to Hyperion Tavern, a bar that I love to go to sometimes for Rock Band Night (Wednesdays 10pm-2am), which is also very difficult to find the first time because it has no signs.

Anywho, Soy Cafe was closed for a while but just re-opened about three weeks ago. This was my first time there, but I’ve been trying to eat here ever since Jesse mentioned it like a year ago. I wanted some kind of noodle dish like I saw in pictures on Yelp but right now their menu is limited to spring rolls, banh mi (Viet baguette sandwiches) and drinks but Huy, the guy running the one-man show tonight, told us that he was going to add noodles back onto the menu soon (chicken and a vegan option).

The restaurant is a lot smaller than I expected. The only seating is at the counter and I think the place probably seats around eight people at most. The decor is pretty cool though, very clean and decorated with sort of a modern coffee and tea theme. When you sit down, it feels like you’re sitting in someone’s kitchen, and from where I was sitting, I could see some of where Huy did his thang.

We ordered spring rolls which were carefully constructed and wrapped very tightly. Sometimes when I eat spring rolls, stuff tends to fall out while I’m eating and it gets all over my hands but these were awesome and the sauce was really good and not all gooey or overly sweet. I had a banh mi with jambon, Viet ham, pate and a special kind of mayo and all the other little things that go into banh mi and Tom had a vegan (they always have a vegan option) banh mi that had “meat” that was sort of like pork skin with a sauce that tasted kind of like hoisin sauce. They were so good and flavorful! Very well crafted as well. You could tell from the way the sandwich looked (and from seeing him put it together in the back kitchen area) that the sandwich wasn’t just a bunch of stuff thrown together, and all the veggies were very fresh. The baguette, which Huy says is what makes the sandwich, was not too hard and didn’t fall apart.

We stayed a while longer and talked to Huy. He drives like two hours just to get to the restaurant! So craze. He’s a really friendly and talkative guy who lives a very interesting life as a musician/singer and restaurateur (I think he co-owns the place with friends but not sure).

We wanted to go for a little coffee and dessert afterward at Intelligentsia but when we walked up to it at the late hour of 8:45 p.m., it was closed. I have heard so many good things about this place and Tom loves it so I was pretty disappointed. We settled instead for Moroccan/Algerian/something like that Casbah Cafe. We got some kind of little lemony chocolate cake thing that came with a little thing of cream. It was really, really tasty. Not too rich or too sweet. Unfortunately, the cuppa mocha we got blew. There wasn’t much of a coffee flavor in it, so that was a little deceiving. The place was a little overdecorated and tried too hard and Tom thought even the people were trying a bit too hard to converse with each other. It looked kind of cool but may have been a little much. Our favorite part about the place, though, was the page boy who served us coffee. He was friendly.

WordPress app for Blackberry

I am posting from my phone with the Blackberry WordPress app! Actually, I’ve already written a few posts using the app. It’s pretty cool because I can type while I’m offline and, say, waiting somewhere to pick my pink man up, save the scribble-age, and then upload it when I get on wifi. I do currently have a 30-day trial of a data plan but I dunno if it’s a good idea for me to keep it because I am poor and have enough distractions in my life. Anyway, aside from the broken English in the instructions and stuff this app is awesome and works on wifi as well as data and offline if you want to save your posts for later. It also has pretty much all the posting features except maybe the tweeting function but I’m sure they’ll fix that later. I don’t use it anyway.

By the way, blogging with your thumbs has proven to be quite a strain x_x!

Thanks

Happy Thanksgiving yo! I’m very thankful for everyone in my life and all the great experiences I’ve had this past year. What I am not thankful for is the fact that KOST 103.5 plays holiday music before Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving seems to get overlooked and all people care about is holiday shopping. Lame. Couldn’t they wait till the day after Thanksgiving while all the people are shopping and shoving each other? It might cheer them up a little and make them less hostile. That’s just my theory.