I just lost my drain of thought

I realized recently that one of the reasons this year has been not so good is because I didn’t get to watch any meteor showers. I have watched the Leonids one every year since 8th grade, but this year I missed it. I didn’t even watch the one this month to redeem myself. I guess I just felt like there wasn’t anyone who actually wanted to watch with me and I haven’t really been watching alone these past few years so I just sort of gave up. Some astro person I am. Sadness.

I felt really down Christmas night because it just didn’t feel like Christmas to me. Christmas during the day was quite fun, but after I got home, I just didn’t feel the excitement of Christmas I usually feel. I didn’t get to wrap any gifts and put pretty ribbon on anything. I love wrapping presents. Agh. I just felt like it was too commercialized this year and I personally contribute to it, working for such an evil retail corporation. Gotta pay the mortgage right? haha. That was from Thank You For Smoking, for those of you who don’t get it. Hilarious movie. Hilariousss.

But anywho, I had a freaking blasty on my Chinese tour. I went with my family (minus my brothers), two uncles, one aunt, and my aunt’s friend. The first day we just sat in the bus all day. We were supposed to go to Zion Park in Utah, but it was already dark by the time we got there so we just went to our hotel instead. We stopped at McDonalds for lunch and dinner. Yucko. I haven’t eaten there for so long and I didn’t really want anything. I have to say, though, their French fries, or crack fries rather, are addicting. I probably ate two boxes myself that day. The next day we went to Lake Powell, which is in four states and I believe we traveled on the lake in Utah and Arizona. We took a cruise that covered 11 miles, while the lake is 186 miles long. It was quite pretty, but SO SO cold and I got burns from the coldness mixed with sun. At one point, we were in Antelope Canyon, which is quite narrow and the boat was seriously inches from the rocks and I got so freaked out because I was out at the front of the ship. It was intense. We saw a lot of Navajo tapestry walls and in one of them there’s this thing that’s shaped like a bunny eating a carrot. :D! The black stuff on the walls is rusted manganese. I made sure to ask because it looks so awesome. Like the whole wall looks the way maple looks when you cut it with a saw and it’s got those burn marks and stuff. Later that day, we went to Bryce Canyon, which is the smallest of Utah’s national parks, and we played in the snow! I love snow!! The canyon was awesome looking and there was just snow everywhere. It made my family members very happy. I love seeing adults happy. hehe. That night we stayed in Mesquite, Nevada and up until I saw a sign with the name Mesquite, I was so confused about what the tour guide had been saying all that time. He kept saying something that sounded like “mer-ski” and I could not, for the life of me, figure out what he was saying. It was kind of relieving to know. haha. I barely slept that night because I slept so much on the bus, so I got like an hour and a half in before we had to get up at 4am to get to Zion Park. I can say that I have been to Zion. Woohoo! It was soooooo friggin’ cold there. I had to put on the extra pair of pants I brought in my backpack to make the wind stop hurting me. We got off the bus to take some pictures in front of the Checkerboard Mesa. It looked especially cool with the snow on it. The tourguide specifically told us to go out there and “make some memories.” haha. OH, by the way, I learned on the Lake Powell cruise that a butte (they pronounced it like beaut) is like a mesa but it’s much more narrow. Anyway, we did indeed make some memories. We also got to ride the bus through one of the manmade tunnels there. That canyon is REALLY awesome because a long, long, long time ago, it was actually all under water so all the rocks have these really cool shapes. After leaving from there, we were off to Vegas for lunch. After lunch of course, some of my family members decided to do some gambling. I think the only person who won any money was my dad, who made a bet at a roulette table at the last minute. Pretty cool. After Vegas, we were on our way home. Super heavy traffic though. The bus driver took a detour that I’ve never seen before. I slept most of the way. We got to San Gabriel around 7 or so and went over to my aunt’s house to eat congee and then we were off to our own home. My brother came home not long after with Patches and she was soooo excited to see everyone. I heart her. hehe.

Yesterday I spent most of the day working on my secret santa gift. I think I could’ve done better but it’s ok. I hope she likes it. We ate at the new Cheesecake Factory and I did indeed get to have my cheesecake! Tiramisiu. Mmm. Wendy and I got it for free because their service was so slow. haha. Woohoo. Afterwards was our gift exchange and it was so fun seeing who everyone had and all the awesome gifts. I LOVE love love everything I got. I finally have my galoshes!!! YEAH! They’re gorgeous and so fun to wearrr. I kept putting them on and taking them off throughout the night while we watched eps on Wendy’s new Sex and the City DVDs. I think Susan enjoyed her gift the most because she finally got her yoga mat bag, which she delightfully rubbed all over her face, as well as a MCAT practice book or whatever, and a bunch of different office supplies, all of which she loved. I was sorta down about this break but after my trip and seeing all the Freundinnen so excited, I’m quite happy. I hope I accomplish some stuff I really wanted to do this break so I can be suuuper happy. I also hope that I start to hate work less.