I just lost my rain of thought

Before all the hype about gas rising to four bucks, I was looking at folding bikes. It wasn’t because I wanted to save money on gas, since I don’t drive, and it wasn’t because I had any difficulty getting to places I needed to go, because there is a shuttle that stops right around the corner from my apartment that takes me to campus, which is really the farthest place I need to go during the week. I wanted a bike just because. I wanted the option to bike somewhere if I felt like doing so, thinking mostly about bringing it to campus for when the shuttles stop running.

Thinking about biking is a lot easier than actually doing it. Duh. I rode around a lot as a kid, but I kind of stopped when I sold my soul to the computer and started spending most of my time online. We’ve got a couple bikes back home, but I wanted something more BA, something not that common but easy to transport. That’s when I got to lookin’ at folding bikes. I wanted one of those cool, shiny ones that fold in 15 seconds, but they were pretty expensive. I thought I needed something fancy that changed gears and whatnot and I was on the verge of calling this person on Craigslist when I thought I found the perfect deal until I saw another Craigslist post with pictures of this guy. I can’t resist something fun looking AND vintage. Are you crazy? So I went and bought it and it is a BA piece of pre-loved awesomeness.

The first week I had it, I thought it would somehow enable me to beat traffic, but I seemed to have forgotten that it is powered by my ability to ride it. Because I leave for my sister’s work during typical LA rush hours, I thought I would gain the upper hand in traffic by riding my bicycle part of the way and then boarding my normal bus when I got too tired to go on. I did not account for my out-of-shapeness, the hilliness of Wilshire Blvd, and the fact that Wilshire doesn’t really get so packed that a bike would outrun a bus. As I trudged along, watching bus after bus pass me by, Wilshire began to bend. I figured it would be a shortcut if I took some local streets and then met Wilshire again later. Unfortunately, the moment I turned onto a street, it was all hill. I figured after I went over one, that would be it, but no, there was more. I eventually made my way back to Wilshire, probably only moving up one block, and gave up. It was beyond hot and my legs were butt tired. I had barely put a dent in my nine-mile trip but wasted probably at least half an hour.

To make matters worse, the driver of the bus I boarded was SUCH a jerk. It was my first time using a bike rack and I had no idea what to do, so I asked the bus driver and he, with a scowl on his face, impatiently told me there were directions on the rack. I fought with the bike rack for a minute or so (mind you, I had a large duffelbag and heavy backpack to carry, as well) and I looked up to the bus driver for a little sympathy but there was none to be had and his scowl just turned more sour. Finally, this nice man on the bus got off and asked if I needed help and he put my bike in the rack for me. I was already running late to my sister’s and all the previous events of that day had just put me in such a bad mood. At least I found out the rack thing on my bike can hold my duffelbag without needing bungee cords. That was pretty impressive.

But anyway, when I’m not pressed for time and carrying a buttload of stuff, biking is a pretty cool, relaxing, and sustainable way to get around. Speaking of sustainable, sorta, I actually read somewhere that some old Royce Union bikes (don’t know about mine) were made from scrap metal from cars, which I thought was interesting enough to share with you. Anyway, for longer commutes with heavy items, I suggest just taking the bus if it is more convenient (which, for me, it is, since the bus stop is very close to my apartment and drops me off a couple blocks from my sister’s work).

I don’t really know anything about bikes, but according to my friend, I am in desperate need of a new bike chain, because mine could potentially kill me. I have made few mods to it since its purchase (by few, I mean adding a bell that says “I <3 My Bike”), but I am going to clean it up some more during the summer and decide if I want to give it new parts or keep it original. I’m considering a new seat because my bum really hurts after riding a while. All this talk of biking makes me want to ride around the block, so I am going to do that now. If anyone wants to join my bicycle gang, feel free to ask me.

I have fallen in love…with a bicycle! I saw this really cool vintage bike on Craigslist and decided that I had to have it. I have yet to take pictures but I will soon. I’m a little reluctant to name it just because of all the possible innuendos, but I will decide on that later. For now, it will just be my Royce Union. It does not look too dissimilar from the bike on this site (In fact, it’s probably the same model but the seat is a little different.). According to the site, it was probably made in Germany in the 1970s. I believe mine has all its original organs, except maybe the tires because they look kind of new. I’m not sure if I want to change it at all, because I like that it’s so original, even though it’s not shiny. I do have an affinity for shiny things… Anyway, the best part about it is…that it folds! YAY! I’ve been wanting a folding bike for quite some time now and I was looking to get something more modern, compact and lightweight (this thing is heavy!), but once I saw this, I felt like I had to get it, especially since I negotiated for such a good price. It’s not quite as compact or lightweight as I’d like it to be, but it looks awesome and it’s a really smooth ride. I also love that it does not make me hunch over like some bikes do nowadays because that just makes me more tired than I need to be. The only modification I want to make to it right now is adding a bell. Ding ding!

Getting it was kind of tough, because Meeshella and I had to go to Torrance to get it. Getting there wasn’t that hard but once we got there, Google maps led us the wrong way and we ended up in Compton or something. Eventually we opened the window and asked this lady where the street we were looking for was and it turned out to be quite far. I eventually called the guy with the bike and he gave me completely different directions from the ones I got on Google. We got to his place, I tried the bike out, and then life was great. After that we went to this place called Albertitas (not Albertos), which had awesome carne asada fries. Delicioso.

I rode to the school’s bike shop today to see if I could and man, was it tiring. The other reasons I went were to see if they sold bells and to ask for a bike map. Unfortunately, they did not have any bells and unfortunately again, I forgot to ask for a map. I went over to the local bike shop in Westwood to check out their bells but what the frag, they’re expensive. I really only liked the sound of two of them because the other ones made this annoying, mind-numbing, dragged-out diiiiiing. But alas, they were all like ten bucks, which I think is redonkulous, because, if my memory is correct, I saw some at Target for 2 bucks. Anyway, the ride home was nice for the most part, since it’s downhill, but I almost killed myself because I didn’t tighten this nut thingy tight enough, I guess, and it came off because of my extreme biking, so my bike started folding while I was riding and it was quite freaky. Luckily, I could see the piece I was missing from across the street and it hadn’t rolled down a storm drain or something, because that would’ve totally sucked butt, but I had to wait for the crosswalk sign to change back to the walking guy before I could go and pick it up. I’m just glad no one thought it was pretty enough to pick up during that time.

So while I was driving to pick up my roommate, I got a text that she would be getting out later than expected. Rather than turning the car around, Michelle and I decided to head to Ralphs. When we got there we decided instead that we wanted to go to their neighbor store, Best Buy. We spent some time looking at lovely gadgets and then headed over to the laptop area because I wanted to see if they carried any sort of tiny laptop (My sister told me about this laptop that has a 7-inch screen and costs but a couple hundies and so I looked up computers of that sort and got a little excoited.), but they unfortunately did not. We then headed over to the Macbook Air, which really is as incredibly thin and amazing as the commercial with the envelope and catchy song makes it look. We still had some time before I had to get my roommate, so we began taking pictures, and then Michelle had the genius idea of putting our picture as the desktop. We had a bit of difficulty figuring out where to go to do that, since we are both Windows people, but due to the simplicity of Macs, we eventually got to it. After that, we did it again on the Mac next to it, having some trouble finding the Desktop preferences once more, because for some reason, that computer seemed to be configured a little differently, but Meeshella figured it out. Whilst we were changing the second desktop, this guy came by to look at the Air, so we had to step on it before he minimized iCal to reveal us incognito. After changing the second one, we ran out the store. The pictures are probably gone now, but if you happen to see two bearded girls on a Macbook Air……yeah.

Dark and early Saturday, April 5, my sister and I tumbled out of our beds to get to the local train station on time so as not to miss this month’s Metro Art Tour. Neither of us had ever used the rail system in LA and I don’t believe my sister had ridden any Metro vehicle since she was a kid going to Chinatown. We got on the Gold Line to get to Union Station, excitedly staring on the windows on both sides of the train, ready to absorb whatever images we could and making a mental notes about a couple of the stops. We finally got to Union Station and I stupidly ran to the first machine I saw, not reading what was written on top and blindly buying another two tickets for our next ride on the Red Line, our Metro fares for the day totaling only to five dollars between the both of us. When the tickets came out, I noticed they said Gold Line again and I felt so stupid! We headed towards the Red Line stop anyway, hoping they’d understand if we showed them the tickets we bought at the first station, and waited for the subway. As we came down the stairs, the subway we were supposed to board sped off without us, so we had to wait quite a while for the next one. We were rather anxious, because we didn’t know how long it would take to get to our destination at Hollywood and Highland, and we didn’t want the tour to leave without us. Luckily we got there with minutes to spare and there were some people who came even later than we did.

There was one particular moment that was pretty funny on the Red Line ride where this older gentleman walked in who looked sort of like Santa Claus if he were one of the Blues Brothers, sunglasses, hat and all. He was holding this bag with his arm straight up in the air, but the subway was not crowded and no one was in his way. As soon as he sat down, the arm closest to the pole near him shot up and stayed that way until he got off the subway. He did not exit the subway with his arm up, though, so my sister and I figured it was a ploy to make him seem less than sane so that no one would mess with him. I, in fact, saw him get out of an elevator as we waited for our tour to begin and he looked perfectly sane again. Well done, sir.

For those of you who don’t know (probably most people because it’s not very publicized), on the first Saturday and Sunday of every month, Metro puts on free tours for about two hours where docents talk to tourists about the different kinds of art in some of the rail stations. You are given a sticker that acts as your free Metro pass and the Metro system is all yours for the rest of the day. It’s pretty cool and according to the site, “Metro is the first transit agency to benefit from such a program.”

Our particular tour took place in more of the Hollywood-ish region and we looked at about four stations or so. The Hollywood/Highland station was pretty nifty because the inside of the station is shaped like human ribs. Next we went to the Universal City station, which was very colorful. The columns were covered in stories with pictures. The artist actually wrote on the tiles with a chopstick and on each column, one side of the is in Spanish and the other side is in English. The columns are sort of made to look like trees, with leaves all over the background and branches popping out above. You can take that particular station to go to Universal Studios or City Walk. After that, we went to the Hollywood/Vine station, which had to be the coolest one, because it leads you right across the street from the Pantages Theater, which is housing Wicked at the moment. Woot! The tourguide mistakenly called it Enchanted, even though there were Wicked signs everywhere. Psh. After that, we headed to the Vermont/Sunset station, which wasn’t super exciting but kinda. There’s some sort of strange astronomy/medical theme going on. I’m not totally sure where the astro theme comes in, but the medical theme is because Kaiser is right outside the exit and I believe they put in a lot of funds while this station was being built. The solar system is scattered around on the floor of this station and what is special about that is that there are actually models of bacteria on the planets. It’s kind of random. That was where our tour ended and the rest of our day began.

Anyway, like I said, the Hollywood/Vine station was the coolest station, not only because Wicked was right outside but also because of the inside. It totally has a Hollywood theme, with the whole ceiling of the inside being covered with old movie reels. There were also ancient cameras in there that Desi Arnez’s old production company had donated. They were supposed to be used to project images onto the walls of the station that had been made to look like movie theater screens, but the ceiling needed more support than they realized so the palm tree columns got in the way, but the theater walls still add to the whole Hollywood ambience of the station. There are also scattered yellow tiles all over the floor, because originally, the artist who designed this station wanted to use all yellow tiles to make it like the Yellow Brick Road, so while it was being approved, in anticipation of making this yellow brick road, she bought all the tiles. Unfortunately, the owners of the rights to The Wizard of Oz turned it down, so the yellow tiles are spread out so that the floor is not totally yellow but you still kind of get that Yellow Brick Road feel. What also made this station the coolest were the benches that had different types of motorized vehicles on them. My sis and I had a little fun with that. The walls were also pretty cool because many of the tiles were decorated by kids with some sort of Hollywood/car theme. I wasn’t totally sure what it was and I don’t think the tourguide knew either and he made up something about the kids decorating the tiles with their favorite movies, only I have never heard of any of those so-called movies, so I don’t think that was true.

After the tour, we went exploring. We headed back towards the Pershing Square station to get to downtown. On the way there at the Wilshire/Vermont stop, we were deciding whether we should get off or not, because I always see that stop across from where I get off the bus to get to my sister’s work, but neither of us had ever been to it. At the last moment, I said that we should get off so I jumped out the door and the door shut between us. She was stuck inside the subway and I was on the outside and we just stared at each other with looks of horror on our faces. I noticed the girl behind my sister laughing at us hysterically. For a good few seconds, I thought the subway was going to leave with her on it and me stranded in the station, but the door opened again, because I guess the cameras that are located all over the stations came to our rescue.

According to the tourguide, the stations are full of state-of-the-art gadgets that have the ability to zoom in so close with such clarity that they can see the tiny timestamp on our Metro badges. He told us this story about how this one lady’s bag was stolen and the man got on a subway and the people watching were able to act so quickly that within the couple minutes between the stations, there were a bunch of cops waiting to arrest the guy. I found the super zooming thing to be sort of not totally believable, but I’m sure the cameras can at least see when someone needs the door to open up again, especially if she is knocking on the door. In retrospect, that incident was so classic but when it was happening it kind of sucked. haha

After snapping a couple photos, we were on our merry way again to Pershing Square. First we went to Central Library, the hotspot for all the hipsters. Not really, but it’s still pretty cool. After that, we were on a hunt for the Grand Central Market. Armed only with our street smarts and a couple photos we had snapped of a large map of downtown when we emerged from the Pershing Square station, we naturally got a little lost. Well, not lost per se, but we did a little more walking than we really needed to. We stopped by the outside of MOCA and took a gander at the Disney Concert Hall. Finally, we found the market and it was full of so many good smelling things. We kind of wanted food but we kind of wanted to save room for sushi in J-town but we kind of thought that maybe if we filled up here we could save money on sushi… Eventually we decided to just eat some desserts to stave off the hunger for the time being, buy some strawberries for 75 cents, and then eat sushi later.

One of the main reasons my sis wanted to go downtown that day was to see the Bradbury building, which turned out to be right across the street from Grand Central Market at 3rd St. and Broadway. From the outside, it already looks kind of exciting because it’s like something you would see in a movie from the early 1900s or something (it was built in 1893). And apparently you may see the inside in movies. The interior was used to shoot a scene from Blade Runner, to name one of the many. The interior is really, really cool looking. When I walked in, it felt like I was walking into a fancy ship like the Titanic. The elevators are the kind with the levers and such, but unless you’re on some sort of tour, you aren’t allowed to go in them, or even go anywhere above the first landing. And by the way, we totally met Charlie Chaplin here. He’s pretty great.

After that, we were on a quest to Little Tokyo for the Cherry Blossom Festival. There were all sorts of people, big and small, modeling traditional kimonos in a fashion show, and then there was some not-so-traditional garb donned by some interesting characters. Apparently, to some people, any sort of gathering for Japanese traditions calls for cos play, or dressing up like anime characters. There were lots of stands selling crafts and other merch, but some of the stuff was a little too pricey for my taste. We were really there for food, so we went into a plaza to a place called Frying Fish, which has conveyor belt sushi with the chefs in the middle laboring away and ready to take special orders. I am no sushi connoisseur (seeing as I equally enjoy California rolls from Costco; please don’t throw things at me), but I thought their sushi was delicious. The tastiest sushi I had was fried eel, but as far as raw fish goes, salmon and tuna seem to be the best. The one I definitely did not like, though, was the squid sushi. It was sort of covered in this gooey film. Not too tantalizing.

We were pretty pooped after that, so we walked to the Civic Center subway station to begin our journey home. We were told earlier that this station was supposed to be really amazing, so thanks to the tourguide, it was hyped up and we felt a little disappointed. He had told us that the artist chosen to design this station had absolutely no idea what he was going to put in it and then one night he had a dream that he could fly and so designed it to reflect this dream, I guess? I don’t know, I tried looking it up to confirm this story that the tourguide told us and found nothing. Well anyway, there’s several people flying near the ceilings, all made to look like the artist, Jonathan Borofsky, and every once in a while, you can hear birds chirping. They aren’t real birds, it’s just a recording that resonates throughout the station. Don’t get me wrong, this station was still cool beans, but the way it was described to us made it seem like there was a full on sky in there or something.

So we boarded on the Red Line to Union Station and right away noticed a giant puddle of barf near the front of the car we got on. It was an ungodly sight that made me want to upchuck a little myself and it reminded me a little of My Sassy Girl. That scene had almost made me throw up when I was watching it because it came out of nowhere and I was totally eating a sandwich at the time. Anyway, we moved towards the back as far away as possible, but the image was etched in my mind and a hint of it wafted back towards us. Luckily our destination was only one stop away so we jumped off the subway ASAP and went to check out the awesomeness that is Union Station.

I felt kind of bad when we went to the main waiting area, because my sister didn’t think it was as great as I said it was, but she shot some pictures to make me feel less bad anyway. I still think it’s rather grand. I’d really only been inside twice before that day, once going to San Diego and the second time coming back, but I still thought it was cool. For some reason, when I walk in, I can picture it being a really busy place in like the 20s or something. Union Station is a hub for several rails and such, but it’s not really super busy like the image in my mind. It could be if people would utilize other forms of transportation besides cars a little more.

We got on the Gold Line towards home, leaving the city for the suburbs. We got off at the Mission stop to check out the area, because it looked pretty cool from inside the train when we were heading towards Union Station that morning. It turned out to be one of the fancier areas of South Pasadena and it seems like a really cute place to go for dates and such. After snapping some photos, we headed back to the train before the sun went down. Who knows what crazy things take place when that happens? We got back to the Sierra Madre Villa stop and the sky was the same color it was when we started our trip in the morning. Having looked at a Metro map at Union Station earlier, we figured we could take a certain bus home but could not seem to find it. When we did find it, we found out it only ran once at the top of the hour and we missed it by 17 minutes. The Metro system is tricky like that. So we just walked on and then gave up and called our dad to pick us up at the DMV. When we got home, we eated some strawberries and they turned out to be kind of sour. haha. ‘Twas a fun day overall.

Okay, so it’s time for an update! I will start off with spring break. I didn’t really do much, but I did do all the things on the list besides rearranging my room. I flew kites one windy day. My fish kite flew very easily, but my new kites, though made of fancier materials than my old kites, seemed to only have like 20 feet of string so they couldn’t catch as much wind as my fishy. I went with Friendest on a hunt for kite string, only to fail miserably. Apparently, no one carries kite string alone. Our kite string hunt is to be concluded…

I had work every single day of my break besides Sunday night, because it was Easter and I guess Hell doesn’t stay open on Easter. Rumors had been floating around these past couple months that my position was being phased out due to the company no longer being as popular as they once were and losing monies, but they won’t ever admit that. We found out last month exactly what day we were getting the ax, May 3rd, and then one day during break, they told us we were being removed over a month early. I was a little unhappy that they told us with such short notice but at the same time pretty relieved. Later on that week, it occurred to me how much I wouldn’t miss that job and I probably would not keep in touch with anyone there except maybe one or two people, even though I have been there the longest. At the end of the week, my manager texted me and said that we were actually getting removed the Monday after the upcoming one, so I had another weekend of work to dread, which was this past weekend. I was so excited because it was going to be my last day of work there ever, but all of a sudden, my bubble was bursted. Towards the end of my supposed last day, I found out I’m being held captive for another month. Apparently, my manager “forgot to tell me.” He forgot to tell me that my job is never going to die, that this is actually my own personal hell. I’m thinking they are going to keep telling us on our alleged last days that we have been given an extension, so that I will continue to think, Oh well, what’s another couple of weeks? You can’t see this, but I am shaking my fist.

Anyway, with my kind of luck, I was called on the very last day to jury duty. I had only had about two hours of sleep and, with a purse full of reading materials, games, and Enchanted on my mp3 player, was dropped off near the courthouse a little before 8am Friday morning. I was confused about what to do, but the rest of the potential jurors and I were eventually herded into this large waiting room, where I would waste a large chunk of my day pretty much doing what I would’ve been doing at home during most of those hours anyway: sleeping. I situated myself on an uncomfortable but cushioned bench and waited and waited. I fell asleep (because I can pretty much sleep under any circumstances) almost instantly after attempting to read, occasionally waking up to hear what the guy on the PA system had to say. Each time a group was being called, the whole room tensed up. We all waited to hear our own names, hoping that they would never be read. Those who were called looked defeated, as if someone had just kicked them in the groins. When we were let out for lunch, I followed the rest of the cattle out the building and expected to somehow figure out which bus would take me to Little Tokyo so I could get some curry or ramen but found myself very disoriented. After all, though I do not live super far, I’ve really only been downtown a handful of times. I walked around in circles and upon giving up very shortly on hopes of Japanese food, I decided to go to the LA Mall. It took me quite a while to figure out how to get in because I kept arriving on the rooftop park area no matter what I tried and saw no food court in sight. I had to call my sister to ask her how to get in and after several more attempts, I finally found the entryway to Unauthentic Ethnic Foods Central. I spent my lunch on that rooftop park area that taunted me earlier and ate my salad gleefully, but eventually I had to return to the courthouse. I slept through the rest of it, waking up occasionally to see if I was picked and luckily, I was not! Yays. This one guy nearby was so excited at the end of the day that he jumped up and high fived everyone around him. It was quite obvious that he didn’t want to be there, because in the morning, I saw him walking in and grumbling, “Jury duty sucks!” And every single time they called names, the annoyance he emitted was almost palpable. So I was free from jury duty, and not only that, I was also one of the first few people called to leave. Yays! Somehow, I got stuck in the stairwell, though, and I kept trying to figure out how to get out. The first floor door seemed to be stuck and the second floor door wouldn’t even open, so I had to walk up to the third floor and take the elevator down. I wasn’t sure which was was north when I got out, so I just took the first bus I recognized to get home, but for some odd reason, it didn’t take me home. It stopped several miles early in Alhambra, even though that bus is specifically supposed to go to Arcadia, so I sat outside the Renaissance theater until Friendest came to get me. We went for celebratory drinks at Boba Express and I did not have to worry about jury duty anymore. I’m free for a year! Yee!

That was pretty much the rest of my break. It was nice to not be in school but it was way too short. I love vacations. This summer shall be a lovely one!

Unfortunately, this took longer than it should’ve, so I shall continue my updating (hopefully) tomorrow. There will be pictures too! Yeah! And by the way, both our bathrooms are occupied and man do I have to pee.

Happy Lunar New Year! Hope it was funsies for all who celebrate. My roommates and I rang in the new year with a countdown and by setting up a shrine to ourselves, but I decided it was probably bad luck, since we are neither deities nor dead. haha. So I moved our pyramid of Cuties (some sort of tangerine, I presume) to our telephone stand. It’ll welcome people as they come in to visit. We just did it for fun, but I’m guessing we’re going to get a lot of “You’re so Asian…”s. Yup, even Katlyn. haha.

I got sort of a bad start, since I stupidly did not finish prepping for my oral presentation in Chinese and then I sang too much in choir, if there is such a thing. My voice felt yucks and my presentation was horrible, but it’s all ohhh-va. The singing was super fun as usual, but I don’t think I allowed myself to enjoy it as much as I should’ve, because I kept looking at the clock, worried that I would have nothing prepared for my presentation in time, which I didn’t. I went up there and sort of winged it and it was a mess. My TA gave me looks of dismay and confusion from the side, but I just kept talking, filling up time and space with nonsense. I just get so nervous when I have to talk in Chinese. Actually I get nervous when I have to do anything in front of others, because I have intense performance anxiety (No. Not that kind.). Don’t tell me that I don’t, because it’s pretty apparent when you actually see it happen. And don’t tell me I’ll grow out of it, because it doesn’t just go away after a while. ALSO, don’t tell me it happens to the best of us. I don’t even know what that’s supposed to mean and how that would help me. Anyway, it was pretty awesomely bad.

I decided I wanted to go home earlier than I would if I went with my sister, so I tried a new bus route home. It took a little over two hours, which would be about as much time as it would take my mommer to drive there and back. This was a much more pleasant experience than prior ones, because the first bus I went on was clean, spacious and free of creepers. I wasn’t even scared when I started dozing off, though I tried to keep myself awake anyway, because I wanted to see the sights. This bus route was totally different from the ones I’ve taken before and it drove by some cool stuffs. The second bus was kind of grimy looking. The people looked a lot sadder and I felt claustrophobic after a while. At least I got a seat this time, though. I hate standing with all my junk. My gigantor laptop doesn’t feel nice when it’s giving me scoliosis, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. I’m a fan of public transportation, because first of all, I don’t have to drive. Second of all, I get to observe people (without veering off the road). Haha. On this trip, I overheard a girl talking about how she doesn’t want to have a baby this year, because if she did, she might go on Welfare, but maybe next year. I also made a note to myself that if I were ever going to have kids, I would not let them become spoiled. Instead, I will raise them poor while Mommy gets to live fancy. What invoked this thought was seeing this little chubby girl. Though cute at first with her sparkly flats and wannabe grown-up look, I realized after a while what a brat she was. If her loud “EXCUSE ME”s as she shoved through a crowd of people near the front weren’t enough, she was also saying things like, “I need the lights off, please!” I wanted to tell her, “Dude, you’re on a bus. Are you expecting some sort of concierge service?” but she probably would’ve tried to order someone to take me out. But yeah, that was my bus adventure.

I came home to a room with floor space and it was marvelous. My sister and I did some intense decluttering last weekend and I was so happy to see it again. My mom said she’s never seen my room so clean and I don’t think I have either. Not since before I moved in when it was empty. I do intend on keeping it this way. I’ve been working on giving up things I don’t need in my life, so hopefully the clutter does not get any worse.

Speaking of decluttering, I decided to make that my resolution for this year. Not just physical things but mental too. It’s going to be hard, but I’m going to devote copious amounts of effort to doing so. I want a clean atmosphere at home, at school, in my mind. I’m not going to let myself down about stupid stuff anymore. I’ve been working these past few weeks on starting over. I finally allowed myself to truly let go of something, of somebody, and it feels awesome. I realized I was only keeping those thoughts around as a cushion to keep myself from worlds of hurt, but it really hinders me more than anything, blaming someone else for my own problems. It doesn’t make me any less of a bitter person though. Still the same ol’ me. I just feel bad when people realize I’m just a grumpy old lady most of the time, especially my roommates. haha. My other resolution is to marry one of my superstar dream hubbies. I think this is the year, peeps.

What better way to kick off this whole starting over process than by watching Amelie? Though a little hyped up for me, I did enjoy it. I like the quirkiness of the characters and the creativity of the film itself. A couple people have said I remind them of Amelie, but I don’t know why. I am not nearly one-one hundredth as creative in strategizing and I don’t receive life changing advice from the old man next door, but that stuff would be nice every once in a while. I feel sort of like Pushing Daisies bit off some of the style of that movie, but whatever, I don’t get sick of stuff I like. I also now know where that stupid travel company stole that gnome idea from but decided to make it far more creepy. The idea was much better in the movie. It should stay that way. I really liked the movie though. My interpretation was that you need to find someone who is on the same page as you, someone with the same kind of quirkiness and such. Someone who is cute, French, and drives a motorbike of some sort. haha. And I guess when you realize who that someone is, your heart glows and you devise all sorts of intricate plans. Man would I love to live in a movie.

It’s been a while since I’ve really said anything. For, I’d say, the past few years I’ve been in sort of a funk. Had ups. Had downs. Many of the latter. It got to the point where I would have fun while I did stuff but after it was over, I was just back to whatever unhappy state I was in. Recently, I have apparently been peering over the edge of my ditch and it looks kind of dandy out there. These past few weeks have been not bad. These past few days alone have been pretty nuts. First, I was whatevers. Then I went through these feelings really fast. Really, really fast:
Sadness-> Excited-> Reminiscent-> Happy-> Relaxed-> Ultra angry-> Enjoying awesome movies-> Slightly angry still but understanding-> Annoyed-> Enjoying cookies-> Overwhelmed by sight of room-> ULTRA shocked-> Mega shocked-> Relieved after mass cleaning-> Out of it-> Giggly-> Whoa-> Hehe.

Yes, Hehe is a feeling for me. There were other feelings here and there, I’m sure. Insert grumpiness and sleepiness wherever. But yeah. I’m feeling pretty alright at the moment. I’ve got two midterms and a book report this week. Hopefully I’ll make it out alive. I think I’m pretty excited about the New Year. I feel like starting over in a lot of aspects of my life. It’ll be a blasty.

Like I said, Everlyn came to pay me a visit and I took her around campus. We took lots of weird pictures and were all sneaky climbing up some stairs and we climbed a tree. I tried to, at least. She bought a very exciting wristband with…Domo? Yes, Domo. Then I traveled ’round town with her, getting boba and such. Watched the same two Jay Chou videos a few times. We talked and laughed and had a gay ol’ time. We met up with some old friends at Buca in Old Town. Yays! Lots of I Spy was played. The next day, I saw the loverly again at a barbeque thing with Pheebo and Jesse. It was freezing but not too freezing to play Guitar Hero.

On MLK, Jr. Day, I finally tried Din Tai Fung. The fancy one. All I can say is…overrated. Sure, the Xiao Long Bao were pretty good, but it wasn’t a life-changing experience. I recall the ones at Shau May being bigger and better. The other dumplings we ordered were sucko and I had to drown them in sauces so they had some actual flavor. I guess I’ll have to try other stuff there, because Michelle says some sort of sesame seed thing is really good. I dunno if it’s worth the wait though. Also got to meet Sweater, cutest bunny ever. Teehee.

I also had Thai food for the first time last week. I think Thai people are in love with peanuts and coconuts, both of which I find to be sort of weird with salty food, and one of which I am allergic to in certain forms. The food was pretty good, though, and the guy with the crazy eyes who has met Bruce Lee in his dreams must’ve followed Jesse there. I think he had a thing for him. That was their third encounter of that day. Even I don’t get told cool stories and then get stalked by homeless people and I live here. And by the way, it’s a good thing my mom packs me food, because according to Cooking Mama, everything I make is going to end up looking like charcoal. And I can’t get the four songs I knew on Rockband out of my head.

This entry was really random. I am just trying to remember stuff and it’s kind of late. Pics, as promised:

PS Forgot to mention Baby Chloe (Photo courtesy of my sis.). My cousin held a one-month banquet for her recently, at which she tossed her baby around like a football to anyone who wanted a picture with her. Good thing she’s a deep sleeper. She’s totally cute and emits heat like crazy. haha.

So I woke up around 4:10am, woke up Daryl, and we were off to Frys by 4:30. We got there right before 5, which is when it was opening, and mang was it intense. There was a huge line of cars that pretty much went past where you get off the 60 freeway and I saw people walking towards the store from that area, which is rather far. We could not get into the right turn lane at all, because Black Friday shoppers are vicious beasts, so we had to turn left instead. All the empty parking lots around the area were prepared for this day, because they had security guards posted at every single driveway for like the next gazillion blocks. We turned at the first street in sight and drove around in hopes that it would lead us closer to Frys, only to realize that we had stumbled upon a maze of culs-de-sac (I learned that plural from Gilmore Girls). Finally we just settled and parked and began walking, feeling sad as we were about to trudge all the freaking way around the huge block we had just driven around, even though Frys was in sight and seemed so close. If only we could fly. There was a man we met along the way who had parked kind of close to us. He told us he had been driving around for an hour and a half trying to find a parking spot, approaching Frys from every direction, and this area was the only place he could find parking. He said that he had noticed the river (storm drain channel!) that was running towards Frys and was going to check if the path next to it was open, because it went more directly to Frys than the road we were on. The gate turned out to be wide open, so we walked along the river bank in the super dark and it was rather scary, because every once in a while, I saw an animal run across the path and I couldn’t figure out what they were. I’m just glad they didn’t kill me. We waited until the second opening in the fence and then had to cross some railroad tracks. It was quite the adventure. But nothing could prepare us for what lay ahead.

The guy walking with us had to run ahead to meet someone, but as we approached the crazy line that wrapped around the building and seemed to have no end, we saw him again. We were very lucky because he was near the first corner the line wrapped around and the line was moving really fast and as we waved to him, he told us to cut him. I’m glad there are still nice people that go to these crazy things. I really hope he got what he wanted. Inside the store was so nuts… I had a list prepared of the things I wanted to get that was loosely organized by priority and how fast they’d be gone. Of those things, I pretty much only got what was at the bottom of the list. They were the things I didn’t really need to get there so early for. What was at the very top of my list was an external hard drive, but those were gone way before I got to them. It’s not necessary for me to live or anything, but it’d be nice, because my laptop’s hard drive is only 40 gigs. Shut up. He can hear you snickering. But what’s cool is that I got an 8 gig flash drive to help me out for now. I was kind of mad about that because I swear I heard one of the workers say that after the rebate it would be $3 and Daryl had heard the same. I figured if both of us heard that then it must’ve been right. It turned out the rebate was for $30, but it’s still pretty good for 8 gigs. I also snagged a 2 gig SD memory card, which you have to line up for, but I was sitting somewhere waiting for this guy to get me a vacuum and saw it sitting next to me, alone and abandoned. And yeah, we finally have a vacuum now. Yay!

I barely got anything and probably spent like over four hours in there, most of which was spent lining up to check out, because that line alone zigzagged throughout the whole store. I saw quite a few people from high school there and luckily, again, someone let me cut them in line! We finally got out after 10am and went to Target so Daryl could at least get something that day. haha. After that we tried Circuit City in hopes of an external HD, but that seems to be a very hot item. I then gave up and went home.

I wasted time until around 3 something and then secretly took my sister’s car out to buy groceries to make spaghetti for our annual Freundinnen potluck. It turned out to be not what I hoped, because the sauce was too plain and I bought the wrong sausages, but it was edible. The potluck was fun and we had soooo much food. We had a little family photoshoot afterwards and our namepicking for Secret Santa. Then I had to leave early for work, where my coworker ate my leftover pasta that no one at the potluck seemed to enjoy. haha. It is also where I started becoming delusional because I had so little sleep and I just wanted to go home so badly. And that was my Friday, the longest day ever.

Wish me luck as I venture off to the world of uncertainty that is arriving too late to wait for an electronics store to open in a couple hours, late meaning not having waited since 10pm of Thanksgiving night. I choose warm, toasty bed over 50-degree-weather sleepiness any day. I have to at least get one of the items on my list, though. I mean, come on!

It’s Veterans’ Day weekend and I’m going to relaxi-taxi and it’s going to be great! Tomorrow night I’m going to see Cirque du Soleil and I’m pretty excited about it. I don’t really know what it is, but from what I saw in Knocked Up, it’s pretty trippy. I also hope to get some homework in because it never ends!

So I looked at all the most recent entries I’ve written and I realized that I’m missing big chunks of exciting junk that’s happened! For Helen’s birthday, we surprised her at midnight with some leftover cake I had brought back to the apartment. We love crap parties! The real surprise party was a tea party, because she likes tea and parties so we put together the best of both worlds. We had cookies, crackers, cheese, hummus, peanut butter, and all that good stuff.

Afterwards, we had a little photoshoot, because that’s how we do. If anyone wants to see pictures, Helen’s posted them up. But if we don’t know you, then.. there are no pictures and Helen posted nothing up.

That weekend we went to the Cal game (My first college football game! Actually, my first college game, period!) and it was freaking awesome, especially after I bought my frozen lemonade. We were all so tired, because Helen, Michelle and I stayed up late preparing for Saturday. We decorated t-shirts for the guys to wear but only Jireh wore his, which was very much appreciated. Before the game we had a little tailgate party. We were so ashamed of our so-called barbeque (some people go nuts and go all out) that we hid it behind the car, which is what all the Cal people do, I guess, so people don’t come and kick over their grills. We had some trouble with the grill but after a while it started working, because apparently, nothing gets a fire going better than soiled hotdogs in the pit.

The game was pretty excited during fourth quarter, but earlier on, I was kind of bored. I mean, there is only so many times you want to do the 8 Clap. I don’t know why we don’t have other cheers. I fell asleep periodically, because I was so sleep deprived and it was ultra hot and I totally got sunburnt, all the elements needed to make me lethargic. I got really thirsty after a while and our drinks were turned away at the door, so I spent all the money I had on me (five bucks) on a frozen lemonade and life was good again. I felt so happy after that that it didn’t matter how the game was going. haha. We were behind most of the game and then it got all crazy towards the end. So crazy, in fact, that when UCLA intercepted the ball, which eventually led to a touchdown, the man in front of me got a little too excited and toppled over backwards as he turned around. To this day, the image plays in my head and I have bouts of uncontrollable laughter. I wish we caught it on camera.

I also never mentioned our weekend in Civerside! Michelle and I traveled to the far depths of Riverside for a weekend and it turned out to be much funner than anticipated. That is where Michelle and I got our famous Soul Train move, which is always a hit at parties.. all one of them. haha. It was her friend’s birthday and we barbequed hotdogs and junks and smothered them in barbeque sauce. The drunks that aren’t belligerent are quite fun to be around. I also got to visit Tony that weekend and I played Mariokart with him and his roomies. I love Mariokart!