I just lost my rain of thought

At approximately 6:20am Saturday morning my break began at full throttle. I kicked it off by going to sleep and waking up sometime before 2. I had come back unannounced Wednesday night/Thursday morning, but break was yet to be official. I spent the next couple days procrastinating, rewatching the part in Enchanted where Patrick Dempsey sings over and over again, rewatching some of my other favorite chunks of the movie but mostly the one previously mentioned, attempting to work on my project, eating, transcribing my interview with my dad, and sleeping. I went in to work late because I thought I could finish in time on Friday, but alas, I gave in to time and decided making money for Europe would be more beneficial. As soon as I came home, I worked on it nonstop until I finished, turning it in several hours late but having it turned in nonetheless. It would have been a little sooner but I had a massive headache, which are rare for me. I don’t know what caused it but I wanted to break my head open and hope that a little Athena would come out, but I’m not immortal so the consequences could have been not so great. I got some great pictures out of doing my project, which I will post soon. My project was about my dad’s immigration story, which was very exciting, but he didn’t want to go too into detail.

So on Saturday, I went to Friendest’s house and we watched all the Smallvilles we haven’t seen, which were crazies. Then we went to President Thai with friendlies. The service is very good and the dinnerware was rather fancy. Thai food does not quite strike my fancy, but for those of you who like Thai food, that is a pretty good place to go. But I do not recommend the Larb. haha. Just because it has a funny name doesn’t mean it tastes as lovely. One of the dishes we ate was so spicy it made me cry a little. I couldn’t taste anything for a good ten minutes so I just drank water and nibbled on rice for a while. I had work at 9 so Daryl took the extremely long way to the mall and we got frozen yogurt at Se Fiore, which was pretty good but no Pinkberry. Next time I will order something that is non-Pinkberry-like, because they’ve got other fancy things.

Sunday I hung out with my sister and her friends. They went to check out the Body Worlds Exhibit at the California Science Center, but I had seen one of them a few years ago on a field trip in high school, so I decided not to pay to see it again. I feel like once you’ve seen slices of people and every system inside of them, you don’t really need another look. Some people would say otherwise, but that’s just my opinion. I instead hung out at Exposition Park and drifted in and out of sleep on a bench like a bum. After a while of sleeping, reading, and finishing off my box of dimsum, I decided to venture into the California African American Museum. It’s not very big, but they have some interesting things in there. There’s a little section dedicated to ex-mayor Tom Bradley, whose name has been branded all over Los Angeles with all his achievements and such. The international terminal of LAX bears his name, for instance. His section in the museum was right next to Ella Fitzgerald’s and there’s one picture in that area with the two of them, when they first met, I presume.

The reason I was there was because we were supposed to go airdiving afterwards at Universal City Walk. It was not until we got there that we realized how lame it was. I’m not saying it wouldn’t be cool to float in that tubey thing, but the way it’s set up versus what I had imagined totally did not see eye to eye. As put by my sister’s friend Wing, I did not want to be watched like I was a zoo animal. It’s basically this large conical tube with air blowing you upwards from the bottom and it’s all outside for everyone to see. There’s an instructor who is in there with you and you just float around for two minutes. As cool as it sounds, I didn’t think it was worth it. So we pretty much drove to Universal and paid for parking so we could get Jamba Juice and leave. At night, I put my telescope to use and looked at the moon. That was actually really, really cool, but I feel like that’s all I can use my telescope for astronomy-wise. Looking at planets and stars is pretty useelss, because they’re just slightly brighter and bigger dots in the telescope than they are viewed by the naked eye. Dar and I decided to drive around and see if there was anything cooler to look at (not as creepy as it seems ok) but found nothing so we went to his house and watched last week’s episode of America’s Best Dance Crew, which I found to be preposterous. America voted, and frankly, I think they made the wrong choice, so America, I am very angry with you. One of the last routines done was just ridiculous and I don’t know what the heck they were thinking. A clown theme should never be thought of as cool when it comes to dancing.

After that, I went home and called to see if I had jury duty for the first time. I still haven’t gotten it yet but with my luck, something inconvenient will happen. I don’t want to say any more because I may jinx myself.

Monday was rather uneventful. I woke up late, watched TV, ate, and went to work. Tuesday, I woke up a little earlier, ate dimsum with my mom, aunt, and grandma. My brother’s girlfriend called me when I got home and we hung out in Old Town until dinner time. We hit the usual spots but did not really buy anything. I just bought a fun penguin shirt from Urban and Steph ate some stuff and spoiled her appetite. haha. We also spent some time at Barnes, where she tried out her Cantonese skills. Then we went to Target to pick up some stuffs. We then joined some Freundinnen but not at Green Street Cafe, where we were waiting for them. We ended up eating at Cheesecake Factory at the mall, which isn’t really that great, I noticed. Their food is subpar and it takes forever to come out, even when it’s not extremely busy. The only thing I would go there to eat is, well, cheesecake, and I’d rather not wait years and years for a slice of deliciousness so I wouldn’t even go for that. We all happened to order pasta dishes and nobody finished. I had to work so I bade them farewell and embarked on another fantastic voyage of updating a store I don’t even like, but I happened to get my black card that night. hahaha.

My strawberries finally started growing the other day. I’m very excited about that. My radishes have been doing quite well, also. I will have to switch them over to a different container soon!

Here is a short list of things I had compiled prior to my break’s beginning. I have taken the liberty of crossing out things I have accomplished so far, which is not much:
.use telescope
.Smallville
.craft/knit
.watch Enchanted again!
.guitar
.read
.chipotle
.rearrange room

There are, of course, other things I want(ed) to do, but this was the list I made in anticipation of all the relaxation and freedom I was going to experience. It’s hard to get a lot done when you’re sleeping in all the time and then have work at night, though. haha. I don’t want break to pass me by!

By the way, Helen’s Etsy, Sheer Whimsy, is finally up and running! Everyone order a cute case for your gadget from her! And check out her crafting blog!

I looked up Boxing Day once and there were several different explanations for it. I guess in days long ago, it was the day poorer people carried boxes to work and received little bonuses from their bosses, which I imagine was always a treat. At least it’s not the fighting type of boxing. I would be afraid to go outside then…in Canada, at least, because it’s not celebrated in the US.

Christmas was typical this year, yet it felt different. I love the holidays, but I don’t really celebrate. I just love the spirit of it all, despite the crowded parking lots (though I found my way around that at the mall. Muahaha) and vicious shoppers. I tend to tune them out and just listen to the Christmas music they play in stores. I didn’t do much Christmas shopping this year, though, so little time was spent doing so, meaning little Christmas music was heard by these ears. Sadness. I did, however, spend more time than necessary at the mall, because of my intense work shifts that went from 9pm to roughly around 7:40am last week. I stayed relatively cheery for at least half of each shift, then after a while I got really cranky because I just wanted to be in my warm, toasty bed, dreaming about Leehom, and not in a poorly lit store, breathing in dust bunnies. I applaud the managers for being able to stay in that store for so many hours on a regular basis, because I would probably consider strangling myself with a sweater if I had to be in the store that long. Anyway, after the shifts, I’d go straight home and sleep until afternoon. I can’t remember what I did after I woke up. I sort of lost track of the days and forgot that Christmas was coming up.

At some point during that week, though, I went to Office Depot and bought an external hard drive of 500 gigs. I’ve been debating since then whether it is better to have a portable or regular, but now I’m trying to convince myself that I don’t need a portable one, because the only reason the portable is appealing is because I have the option of moving it around, but I know I really don’t need to. I have my new flash drive for that. Space beats portableness in the long run anyway.

So on Friday, I went over to Susan’s to have a little baking party. We cut out butter cookies, baked them and then decorated. It seemed to be a contest of who could make the most…interesting cookie. haha. We had some shabu shabu beforehand and it was delicioso. I’m glad I don’t have Susan’s mom, or Susan as a mom for that matter, otherwise I’d be gigantor. They make such good food. Afterwards, Hayley and I headed to Pomona to visit Jayder and others because he was throwing a little party. Rather than being party folk, we plopped down on the couch. Hayley fell asleep first and then I dozed off, only to be rudely awakened by a clap in my face from Grant moments later. We played his little voodoo card game once again and it was scary because my results were about the same as last time I did it. Eep.

Saturday was the Freundinnen gift exchange. I hadn’t really had time to finish my shopping, so I had to strategically plan out what I was doing up until I met up with them. Sadly, my homemade gift paled in comparison to everyone else’s, plus it refused to finish in time. I don’t understand why :(! I received an awesome gift from my secret Santa. I can now be a traveling guitar player, not that I can actually play, because I got a guitar strap! :D!! I also got a cute cocoa/tea set thingy and a gift card to Best Buy. I do love them electronics. After the gift opening, we watched Superbad. I finally got to see it (after missing it the night before my last final, sniffs.) and it is so funny. Oh but before the gift exchange and all, we went to Green Street Cafe. Never a complaint about that place. It’s so yummy. It also provided me with lunch the next day. haha. I don’t know why, but I can’t seem to eat as much as I used to. I guess that’s a good thing.

On the day of Christmas I did not do a whole lot. I woke up to get dimsum with the famaree. My cousin told me he was going to go snowboarding today. I had been planning to go too, but it’s his board and I’ve been the only one using it, so I figured I should let him use it for the first time. haha. It was a little weird, because he wanted to borrow all my stuff. First he asked for the pants, then I lent him my mittens, because my pass was attached to them and I didn’t want to cut it off, then my mom insisted that he try on my boots, which didn’t really fit but he was going to wear them anyway (which I do not suggest doing. I warned him repeatedly, but he did not listen.). As I was leaving the house, he asked my mom what kind of eye protection he should have and my mom said that sunglasses were fine, but I had goggles so I brought them down too. I warned him that all my stuff was girl stuff, but he didn’t care. I guess he’s confident enough about his masculinity to wear my gear…or he’s just super cheap. After that, I went to hang with G-face and watch episode after episode of Smallville, because I hadn’t seen any of this season’s eps. Man, they’re so crazy but weird. And that was my Christmas… Exciting huh?

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.

I saw Hairspray on Tuesday with Amy and I really liked it. I am glad that there are people I can enjoy a musical movie with. Now I just have to find someone who will watch Becoming Jane with me. hahaha. It’s not only that I love ultra cheesy, romantic movies, it’s also that I loved Pride and Prejudice and I really want to see what events inspired the story. Please watch with me.

Anyway, Hairspray, when you ignore the catchy tunes and whatnot, has a really good message. It’s about being comfortable with who you really are and not conforming to society. I guess if who you really are is a conformist then that’s sort of a bummer for you, isn’t it? Tracy Turnblad, the main character, is very lovable, because she’s always doing her own thing and not accepting the way things are just because it’s the norm. By the way, if you look at the characters in the 1988 Hairspray and the 2007 one, the current ones look so much younger, even Corny Collins. Man, James Marsden is hot. Oh and just out of curiosity, WHAT possessed John Travolta to dress up as a woman?? Did they somehow lure him in by advertising this movie as this generation’s Grease and he decided he couldn’t allow this generation’s Grease to happen without him? Every time he was in one of the scenes, I shuddered and cringed, especially the scenes with Christopher Walken.

Though I did very much enjoy this movie, I’m just wondering what’s with this trend of remaking movies that came out like less than 20 years ago. Just because special effects and stuff are better nowadays, it doesn’t mean those old movies aren’t any good. I am especially shocked that they are putting out a remake of Halloween because dood, there’s been like a hundred of them already. I get it, Michael Myers is scary. When you run out of stories to use, you don’t go back to the beginning and start all over again. Stop putting out movies about him already.

Anywho, after the movie we got pho and then boba. Dinner under ten dollars? Gee wiz!

This past Sunday my sister and I went to get haircuts. My aunt is a hairstylist and we both just wanted the same haircuts we got last time. I suppose it is hard to cut hair the same way with no photograph or anything to go by, so she pretty much just cut it however she felt like doing so, resulting in my semi-mullet. haha. She’s very good at what she does, and I suspect she draws inspiration from pictures newspapers, magazines and TV, because the hair is very fobby. I don’t hate it, but I haven’t embraced it yet. Most of my hair is short and about ear level and then in the back it’s long, so that when I tie the long hair, I look like I got a little bob going on or something, which I think is sort of funny. Unfortunately, when I let my hair down, I feel like I have a mullet and it looks like my semi-mullet is in permanent pigtails because my hair curves funny. If I dye my hair reddish brown, I’ll fit right in when I go to China next week.

After the haircut, I went home to shower and my brother dropped by. I went with him and his girlfriend to Old Town Pasadena for some shopping, but we didn’t really buy anything and got really hungry. We drove around trying to think of places to eat at and ended up at Jazz Cat Cafe, where my sister and her boyfriend met up with us to eat hotpot. ‘Twas delicious and smelly. After that, I went with my sister and her boyfriend to Live Oak Park because August 12th was the peak night for the Perseids meteor shower. We watched for I think a little under an hour and saw several shooting stars, a couple of them were freakin’ fireballs. One of them was one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen. It just went across the sky and it was huge. If you find a good location, you can supposedly see up to 50 an hour, but it’s hard to skywatch here in LA. There’s lights almost everywhere, so I just go to the park so I can see a lot of sky and hope that somewhere in my periph I’ll catch something.

This doesn’t have to do with my day of adventure, but I forgot to blog about it. I spent Thursday and Friday in San Diego visiting people down there, mainly Nat and Tammy. We ate a lot and talked a lot, played cards occasionally. We did some shopping on Thursday and hung out at the place Tammy’s staying at. Susan was on a kitchenware spree at Carlsbad. Before going to Islands to harrass Tammy while we eat, we went to UTC to look around. We saw this one middle-aged lady with everything hanging out of her shorts and it was sooooo gross and traumatizing that the image is burned into my memory. They weren’t even short shorts. They were just shorts that were too small for her and were hiked up her butt crack. She looked like she could hardly walk and I thought it was because of the shorts but then I looked down and she was wearing these super platform wedges. I’m pretty sure it was mostly the shorts, though. I don’t mean to be so mean about it, but really, people need to wear clothes that suit them. I guess if you want the world to see your cellulite then fine, but I don’t think most people do, so I suggest something a little more decent then butt crack shorts.

Anyway, after that we went to Islands and the cutest thing happened. Someone got flowers from a boy. :O! We were so excited for her. hahah. Yay! A lot of girltalking went on those couple days. After Islands and all that excitement, we went to check out Nataly’s place, which is huge and nice. We were watching all these videos on YouTube and singing Chocolate Rain over and over again. The original and the remix. Then we were watching Japanese game show videos, waiting for Tammy to get off work so we could rush to Yogurt World, which is pretty awesome. We went back to Tammy’s to gossip and whatnot and stayed up super late.

The next day we ate at The Cottage, which was a very cute and delicious restaurant in Downtown La Jolla. Afterwards (or laterwards, as Wendy would put it), we went to the beach and saw seals. We also saw this seagull get attacked by these weird brown birds. They were so freakin’ mean but kind of funny. They kept following the seagull everywhere and pecking at it until finally it gave up and this whole fish slipped out of its mouth, which one of the evil birds stole. After it ate it, it continued to follow the seagull around, pecking at it. It was an interesting sideshow to the seals. I want to pet a seal. They look so cute! And pelicans look weird! We originally wanted to go to the beach to tan, but it was very overcast. Walking back from the beach, there was this weird dog we kept seeing that I suppose only Wendy and I thought was funny.

Attempting to get home, we got lost and I fell asleep through some of it. Somehow we ended up in PB and did some more driving and finally got back to Tammy’s. By that time, it got sunny, so we went to her pool instead. We wanted Asian food, so we decided to have dinner at this Korean place that was alright, but at 8pm they turned down the lights so it was hard to see our foods. I felt like we were in a club or something because it was dark and there was music blasting. After dinner and Wendy going to Yogurt World one more time, we set sail for home. Weeee! Oh yeah and Tammy sent us home with a buttload of posters, so if anyone wants some Transformers posters, let me know.

This is my last week of summer school and then freeedom. I haven’t been doing what I had planned to but I have been trying to organize the room. I have rearranged some things to get rid of some cardboard boxes, though. I think I keep ignoring everything else I wanted to do because my cleaning hasn’t been complete. This week I shall be reading and studying though.

Regarding movies, so far this summer I have seen Ocean’s 13, Transformers (twice), License to Wed, Die Hard, and Knocked Up (the last four in one day, thanks to ninja skills). I have not been disappointed so I am glad. I hope to see the Simpsons movie when it comes out as well. I think the best part in Transformers is the twenty seconds they waste on the close-up of that screaming girl as one of the robots is flipping over her. Maybe she’s friends with Shia Lebeouf or something. And when I went to watch those four movies, there were so many cameos of people from The Office that I am getting the movies a little mixed up. When I watch movies with a lot of extras, I wonder how I can get in on the action, because it seems so easy to just walk around in a background for a living. I mean, I totally did it for free in the spring musical my senior year. I don’t see why I shouldn’t get paid for it.

Next month I will be going to China again. I hope we get to go on a Chinese tour because I don’t know how much shopping I will feel like doing this time. I am still bitter about everyone saying what they did, of course, but this time my mommer will be there to help stave off the meanies. Alright! I also want to go on the tour because I will get more usage out of my neck pillow that I bought recently. YESS. Maybe this time my mom can assist in finding me a hubby, preferably one who looks and sounds like Wang Lee Hom.

Yesterday I went with Wendy and Susan to Huntington Beach. It took forever and a day to find parking and all the lots were full. It was a little bit of a shock, because I had never seen a parking lot that you have to pay ten bucks to go into be full before. What sucked was that not long before we got to the beach, the sky turned dark and got darker as time passed. We were probably there for an hour before we started feeling drops of water. Since there were so many people, we were nowhere near the actual ocean, so it couldn’t possibly have been the waves splashing at us. The drops gradually fell faster and we realized it was sprinkling, causing us to leave in disappointment. So the day would not be a complete waste, we went shopping in Irvine/Tustin and then had dinner at Lucille’s, where my sister met up with us. Oh my goodness I thought I was going to burst after dinner. It was so delicioso and even more so because it was free since my sister paid for me. Teehee.

So I guess that’s all I can remember for now. Keep recycling, folks. Oh, speaking of being green, the reusable shopping bags from Target are freakin’ cute. I heart them!! <3

I’ve been wanting to play guitar for quite some time, yes? Yes. I decided I would start during break and seriously, the signs were everywhere. Just like the movie said! Oh my. So I just wanted a used guitar or something. Anything I could dabble with for now until I got better and could possibly need something new but would instead decide to be faithful and stick with ol’ Chance (I’m testing out this name because I met this hot guy with the same name once and it reminded me of the show Strange Luck.). I decided to go to a swap meet to find one because my mom said they had a lot of them the last time she went. I walked the first couple rows with my dad and when my mom met up with us, she took me to the last few rows, which is where she saw them last time. We started from there and walked all the way back to the front and my search seemed hopeless. We skipped some of the rows as we headed towards the front again because my mom was uninterested in anything they had to offer. I was pretty much ready to pass out because I haven’t gotten a whole lot of rest so far this break and I definitely did not sleep much during finals. The sun was shining down on me, making me so sleepy that I almost fell asleep standing while waiting for my mom. She said we were going soon and maybe we’d see something next week, but the whole point of me going was to find one to start learning to play with during break and by next week it’d be too late. As we neared the end of the last row we were at, I turned around, and there standing on a table against the owner’s van…was Chance. My dad didn’t want me to buy it at first, too, due to its oldness, but after a while, he agreed it was okay, since I was just learning how to play. And then instead of me paying for it with my Chinese New Year money, he bought it for me as a gift. Before going on my journey to find a guitar, I was sure I would find one, because the other day, my first time going to the mall to shop and not to work since I don’t know when, I was at Borders with Susan and Tammy and I came across a couple good guitar learning books without even looking or being anywhere near the sections they would be located in. Having walked so many rows at the swap meet to only walk away with a new DDR mat was exasperating. I thought, there has to be something. I can’t wait another week. So right when I was ready to give up on my quest, sleepy, hungry, and sunbeaten, there he was, all shiny and pretty, calling to me with his gleam. I think I am in love.

All I’ve learned so far are the strings’ open notes and tuning. Gotta start with the basics, because I really do want to know how to play. I don’t want to only learn to play songs. I want to read notes and everything. Yayuhh.

Since the last time I wrote, I have gone to a pants party that turned out to be more of a sweater party, because really, what the heck is Ranahann? Even though I have a bunch of other hoodies, I decided Primp hoodies, thumbs up. Wendy, Susan and I bought matching seafoam sweaters because we’re going to start a hip hop group. hahaha. We decided Ashley will be the one spitting rhymes and we’ll be her backup dancers.

I later went to see my brother run the 1600-meter event at a track invitational. Got some pretty awesome action shots that are hilarious when you zoom in on his face. hahaha. I suppose I should recognize some of those people on the track team, but there was not one person that I knew of, besides my brother, of course. I really don’t care to know any of them, though, because.. Well, let’s put it this way. If I knew I acted like them in high school, I think I’d beat myself up. But I like to think that back then I had much more sense and the kids just get more and more immature as the years go by. Yes, that’s it. I worked later on that night and had a conversation that was less superficial than the usual ones. They are nice every once in a while. It’s great to just be able to talk back and forth without really having to think about what to say, because I usually feel like I have to think of something to keep the conversation from lulls.

After getting my guitar the next day, I had dimsum and then came home to start my learnins. I was getting really sleepy again so I stopped after I finished tuning and fell asleep on the floor of my bedroom. Later on I watched the half of Smallville with Friendest that I missed that was about Lana and Lex’s wedding. I HATE THE LUTHORS. GOSH. Watching someone you love marry someone else must be the crappiest feeling ever. Ugh. I seriously cried the first time I saw the last half because of the way Clark asked if Lana stood him up because of his secret and said that he would tell her if it could change her mind. Sigh. Anyway, after that, I had dinner at Green Street Cafe with Susan, Ashley, and Wendy. I feel that I ate too much. After that last piece of Quesadilla, I felt like I was about to burst. We came back to my house to play Mahjong. After a sufficient amount of Mahjong-ing we went to Susan’s house for Babel and cream puffs. Mm mm. Babel was so sad.. It was a good movie though. The way someone described it to me was completely different. I thought it was going to be like a six degrees of separation type of thing from what I heard of it, but I think it’s more about how even though people are of different backgrounds or from different places or are just different from the norm, they still go through the same ordeals. It’s an intense movie.

I love having two New Year days a year. It’s like I get to start over twice! The Lunar New Year is more important to me, because I was raised to believe that and I still do. Celebrating the regular New Year just means making a resolution that I will probably forget about in a matter of days, or weeks, if it’s something sort of big. I celebrate it with friends at Nataly’s house. We play games (This year was Mahjong. Coincidentally, it was played on Chinese New Year too. Haha.) and we just hang. But Chinese New Year (or Lunar New Year for those who aren’t Chinese) is something huge. I stay up all night the night before to freaking finish cleaning because I’m so messy and unorganized. I basically clean up a year’s mess once a year. Well, cleaning to me is more like stuffing all the stuff in the middle of the floor towards the sides of the room and in places where no one will see. As soon as the celebration period is over, everything slowly creeps back out towards the middle of the room and distributes pretty evenly all over the floor. I would like to change that this time because I’m trying to change my life and a clean room will help. Anyway, during the Chinese New Year period, I go with my mom to visit people–family friends, relatives, and whatnot. I eat a bunch of candies and snacks at their houses that I sometimes don’t really like but they’re right there and I want to be polite. It’s a time when people are nicer to each other and people are handing out moola left and right. ;P For a while, I really looked forward to the moola part, because I didn’t have a job and I was always broke because my parents don’t give me money all the time. I always felt bad asking because on the few occasions that I did, they always sort of glared at me and shelled out like a 10, which was supposed to last me for the next two months. Haha. I don’t blame them, though.. It’s not like I do a whole lot to deserve everything they give me. Anyway, I’m back to looking forward to the holiday for the traditions and the fun stuff. This year I cleaned until maybe 3am or so. We’re actually supposed to clean like a week before, but I’m a procrastinator, what can I say? It’s supposed to be like a “starting anew” kinda thing. Get rid of all the dust and clutter of the year before and start all overrr. My mom said that because I cleaned so late, I probably vacuumed up all my luck. haha. Dang. Anyway, I got up at 7am to go to the temple. It’s really nuts on New Year’s Day. They had this giant inflatable monk and there was a golden wishing tree and there was one area where they had all these stuffed animals that were the animals of the zodiac set up for display. My sister and I made wishes at the wishing tree because it looked so cool. You have to throw this ribbon attached to a coin up, but she’s so weaksauce that she couldn’t throw it up to get stuck in the tree. It fell to the ground like three times. hahaha. I threw mine into the tree on my first try but I wanted to get it onto a higher branch. Whatevers. We always go to this section with these 18 guys (I don’t know what they’re called in English) to throw coins in the fountain and at this bell thing. I totally hit it this year. haha. My mom is awesome, though, because she hit it on her second try. It took me quite a few pennies. Good thing we went prepared with ammo. So I guess regular New Year’s is for friends and Chinese New Year is for family, is what I’m trying to say. It’s weird because, like my friend Pheebo said, back in middle school and high school and stuff, our friends and social lives seem to mean the world to us, but nowadays family kinda comes first. They aren’t as judgmental and there isn’t really family drama. haha. I can tell them about people and I don’t have to worry about backstabbing. Like Emily said in a recent ep of Gilmore Girls, “Blood is thicker than water.” I don’t really understand how other people=water, but whatever. I think that’s why I don’t like to play Mahjong with other people anymore, though. I feel like it’s a family thing. Plus the last time I played, I didn’t want to play anymore because this little girl kept bugging us..

My grandpa was the one who taught me, or tried to, when I was little, but I liked building stuff with the tiles instead. My cousins and aunt retaught me at my grandma’s house. My grandma played too but she’s all talk. haha. When I went to China, we played all the time because of the power outages. They’re so intense there, I could hardly keep up. My uncle bought me this miniature set that I really wanted towards the end of the trip and it was oh so exciting. I opened it as soon as I got home and Alan and I taught Wendy, but after that, I barely ever touched it. They’re still super cute though. haha. Oh and not long after that day there was that whole scary Chinatown incident when Alan, Wendy and I went shopping for a set for him and narrowly escaped death. haha.

Oh yeah, my sister came to visit me on V-day, because I am a lonely old spinster. I wasn’t sure if it would be a good idea because I had a test and a quiz the next day, but I had tons o’ fun. We always do! We just hung out in Westwood for a couple hours or so. We went to Diddy Riese’s for coooookies. She bought me an ice cream sangwich. SO good. And she bought half a dozen cookies for herself. We ate in her car because it was cold outside and then we walked around some stores. It was just nice to hang because I don’t see her that much anymore with school and her working and all. We made fun of people too. That’s always fun. haha. We were supposed to watch Lost together but we wouldn’t have made it on time, so eh. Good ep though.

The next night I hung out with some Riverside peepo because they came to visit Jon for his birthday! It was so exciting. We ate and talked and hung out. It’s funny how the group always ends up separating into boys and girls. I love visitors!

If you didn’t notice, I now no longer have any webhost whatsoever. The last webspace account I had was a measly 5mb but now even that is gone and without warning, either. Life on the web is getting tough. I need space! Free things never lastttt. Wahhh. Remember when NetZero used to be free? haha. And everyone would use that code to get rid of the banner. Ah, good times. Alright it’s late. Bye.

A few hours left until the new year comes along and stomps on us. I’m looking forward to a new start! I’ll be welcoming the new year at the usual place–Nataly’s house!–with my pallies that I’ve known since elementary school. I need to think of a resolution before midnight is here! It feels like it’s just time passing, but it’s good for goal making and such, I suppose. Happy New Year, everyone!

I’m not a big fan of being sick, because I never get kind of sick. I get super sick and it makes me talk like a froggle or just not talk at all because my voice is gone (like now) or the kind that makes me just want to lie down because when I do get up, my head explodes and all the little pieces tell me that my place is on the couch or in bed, of if nothing else is convenient, the floor. When I was younger, I didn’t like getting sick because I actually liked school. haha. Weird, huh? Because since like 5th grade I’ve dreaded it half the time. But I was a sickly child nonetheless. I was out of school for what felt like forever mostly due to ear infections and fevers and there was that one time I had some rare skin problem that the doctor had never seen before. It was kind of exciting because the doc took a picture of it and put it up on the bulletin board. haha. Anyway, I know there are worse sicknesses than what I have now but it was just driving me nuts yesterday because I was trying to study for my freaking midterm and finish up my math homework, but I kept coughing every few seconds, which already hurts like a mother, but it got so bad that my head started hurting from all the coughing. My throat seriously feels like it’s lined with needles right now and when I swallow I feel all one hundred of them. When I cough, I feel like a very sharp pain near my uvula. Maybe it’s about to fall out. I was not that upset about being sick until my voice went haywire. At first I sounded mannish. Then I sounded like a frog. And now I pretty much can’t talk and I don’t want anyone to talk to me because I can’t respond and it annoys me. It’s especially stupid when people can’t hear me and they expect me to keep repeating myself until my words make sense. I mean, I don’t really blame them, but I just really don’t want to keep hurting myself and I feel stupid when my words come out in a whisper. I thought of pros and cons but now I can’t really remember the pros. But here are all the cons I’ve thought of so far!

-can’t talk
-can’t sing
-jabbing pains inside my throat
-ab pains from coughing so much
-uncontrollable coughing, especially when there’s no water around
-trying different methods of healing, knowing that none of them work
-fear of losing my voice
-wanting to clear my throat but I can’t and it hurts to try
-loss of taste and smell

Here are the few pros:
-my abs are going to be awesome from all that coughing!
-I have an excuse not to talk to people
-possibly getting people to leave me alone because they’re so disgusted

Saturday was super fun. I went to San Diego with the wife and I was Anna’s surprise gift. hahaha. We arrived at UCSD to round up some peeps and Tammy fed us there. My love for breakfast burritos has increased. I didn’t know it were possible. Anywho, we went to Anna’s condo and just chillaxed. We played Catchphrase, and at first, we were like, “Psh..it’s just an easier version of Taboo,” but it’s quite nervewracking. haha. Then we played Apples to Apples, which is freaking awesome. hahaha. But yeah, we just hung out like old times and I was very glad to see Anna for the first time since CHRISTMAS, finally! After coming back I had work and I totally got abandoned. I’m like the only one who has an excuse to leave but I was the last one clocked in. It wasn’t even that late. Stupid ditchers. But ya…this has been a crazy weekend. :O I must go do my Chinese homework now. Goooodbye.