David and Khanh's birthday
That's what you get for running around so much, Andrew.
I think I may just have had dinner with the most beautiful girl I have ever met. Lea I believe her name is. She was simply breathtaking. There may be prettier girls in the world. But she ranks if not number 1 at least top 3 of the most beautiful girls that I am lucky enough to hold a conversation with. Of course she was sitting next to her fiance, Hubert, equally gorgeous. Pretty babies from them for sure.
Afterwards we went over to Jen's house to play party games. And I think this may be the biggest house I have ever been invited to. She lives in Arcadia where every house is a mansion. I have never seen this before. The neighborhood is patterned like a normal suburban residential neighborhood but every house is gigantic. This is like one of those gigantic Hollywood type houses except you don't have the gigantic lawns and driveways. Every house is spaced close together. It's like Kim's house but almost twice as big. What really sparked me as odd is that Jen drives an old 1997 or so Honda Civic LX. Why is that odd? Because in San Jose, she would be driving a late model BMW or Lexus. I had no clue she came from a wealthy family because her clothes and accessories are not expensive name brand. Not that I can tell anyway. A couple months ago, I was looking at her shoe and the heel was falling off. I could see the double-sided tape inside. I mentioned it to her because I didn't want her to slip and fall. Her response led me to believe she's going to wear those shoes down to nothing. As if she was living barely within her means. She's a welcome change from the usual who's-got-the-newest "blank" race that I am more accustomed to. I believe she has one of those old Nokia bar phones too. I really admire her. She's a friend I'd like to keep.
Anyway, Jeff, Cynthia, and I won Turbo Cranium. This game is even more fun with loads of people.
Dong Qua Tong
It was my turn to bring food to my weekly Lifegroup meeting. I debated in my head if I should cook something or buy something. On the one hand I can spend about $25 of my diminishing wealth to buy something from a restaurant. Or I can spend about $7 at the supermarket to buy some "liu" and cook up something. People might not like it but people might not like what I buy from the restaurant either. Save some money and if people complain, I can say these are my daily victuals as a starving college student. Anyway, I came to the latter conclusion because I really needed the money and there's no guarantee to please everyone either way. If people don't like it, I can go out and buy something real quick. I can always take this stuff home and eat it for the next 3 days. No biggie. So I went over to Shun Fat instead of Ranch 99 (Doing my part to help out the little guys) and picked up some pork bones and vegetables. Peeling carrots is hard with a knife. I declined on using my roommate's fruit peeler that hadn't been washed for God knows how long.
As I brought in the food I carefully prepared, people went, "Wow, a guy cooked. It smells good." I kept it light and said, "You haven't tasted it yet." Everyone was surprised but eager to test out my cooking. As Clara brought the winter melon soup to her lips. She said, "Mmmm, it's good." It sounded like a response you give someone so that you don't hurt their feelings. Ernie said, "Hey no meat?" while pointing at the red and green bell peppers. "Yeah, I wanted to be healthy and made some tofu," I mumbled. Halfway through, I noticed that all my stir fry was gone and the soup pot was going on empty. Huh? I thought there would be some leftover for me tomorrow. I made a huge pot. Mark picked up the last of the bell peppers from my stir fry and said, "This is really good." Clara asked if she could take the rest of of the soup for herself. Jeff came afterwards and said, "Is there anymore soup left?" Jen said, "You're a good cook!" as I retired for the evening.
Success! Must not let this get to my head though. I just hit a milestone is all. I have to continually hone my skills. I'm gonna have to ask my mom how to make another kind of soup for next time.
Shield's down?
It's an odd year. Year of the Pig huh? I don't do the lunar calendar so I will start back to Jan 1st. I defy tradition and got my haircut on Chinese New Year. (I wasn't trying to be a rebel, my hair was really getting nappy and it was the only day I could get off to get it cut.) Anyway, it's an odd year because I've been doing "regular" people things. What do I mean? Well for one, I got more than my annual $30 bucks for Chinese New Year's. This thanks to my increase in family members this side of the Pacific. I had an actual birthday party this year. Sad but true, never had one in my 28 years of living. I don't like being center of attention so no need to feel sorry for me. I miss home when I am away from home. I miss the familiar streets where I grew up. I miss school when I am away from school. My classmate offered to drive me to the airport even though she'd have to take a half day at work. She said I was her good friend and didn't want to see me waste 2 hours on the world's worst public transportation system. Awwww... When did I become so emotional? Good stuff has been happening to me. I got out late from my apartment last week but just made it into the post office as they closed the doors behind me. I go out sometimes and have chats with friends. Haven't been able to that outside of San Jose for lack of friends. I go out with my cousin sometimes and she seems to look up to me like a big brother. I always wanted to have a little sister. I just thought she liked me because I could do things for her but it seems she actually enjoys spending time with me. How odd is that?
Don't get me wrong. It's not like I am some low self-esteem guy who feels sorry for myself everyday. I admit, I used to feel that way but nowadays I am just content with being me. And being me requires pessimism and failure. I don't let it deter me. I just don't let it phase me. but what am I supposed to do when I have nothing to block. It's like I am the starship Enterprise with my shields up. But no one is shooting photon torpedoes at me anymore. Speaking of which, I have 4 trekkies in my bible study group? What the heck? I used to say, "I like Star Trek." And people would laugh and snicker, "Geek." Now, they go, "Oh really, which series? I like Voyager myself." Are you kidding me? Anne actually asked me if I liked Odyssey 5 too. OMFG, how in the world do you even know of that show? Only true sci-fi fans know of that show.
Oh and I think I am warming up to this touching thing. No, I am still not comfortable with all the handshakes and hugs yet... or ever if I get a say on changing the standard social greeting. But it's getting difficult to ignore all the cool people I've been meeting so I just give in. I prefer the hugs because there is no direct skin-to-skin contact. I find myself trying to reason that it's ok to hug sometimes. It's a kind of thinking that was totally unheard of a couple of years ago.
To reiterate, I had a nice plan for myself the last 5 years. Accept myself for the way I am and deal with it objectively. I considered myself the lowest common denominator which is a loser. But don't pout on it. Work myself up from there. It's a waste of time to feel bad and worry about it. Accept the fact as a pile of manure would accept the fact that it was a pile of crap. Even manure eventually composts into dirt used to flower a magnificent rose. The "1st Agreement" taught me not to look down upon myself. And now, like I've been saying every few posts or so, I am just so used to being a pile of crap. I'm not sure I want to lower my shields and accept the changes.
3/2/07
School rocks. Guantanamo Bay Protest? I don't know. I'm not even sure I spelled it right. I don't really care. It just looks cool.
Habeas Corpus baby!
I got a letter today and the date was the title of this blog. I twisted my nose a bit before I realized this wasn't from the future. This is no
Lakehouse. It's just dating using a more logical placement with the day, month, year.
Y-Y is mistaken. I was able to stretch Nam's care package beyond 2 weeks. How? I don't know. It's been 3 weeks and I still have over half the contents of the box. Meanwhile, I start wondering if I should punch a new hole in my belt because I am using the tightest hole and my pants are still getting looser.
I'm sure you're dying to know the contents of my "future" letter. Well, I am glad because I am going to tell you. Right now! That's right, as we speak, I am opening up the letter! I will paraphrase as too protect the decency of
libel. (huh?)
"From my perception, you like a girl who is cute. A girl who always finds you curious and tends to ask questions about you. She has good communication with you. That much I can tell about you."
All that from reading my words. As Marv Albert would say, "Fantastic!" I do prefer cute girls as opposed to sexy or beautiful. That whole girl next kind of look. And I love it when she asks me lots of questions. Means, she's interested in my answers and I can listen to myself talk! Isn't that just neat?
Happy Valentine's Day
This card brought me back to good ol' elementary school days. I don't normally say happy to any holiday but for today I'll say Happy Valentine's Day to you. Someone brought a smile today so I should reciprocate.
今天晚上的天空很完美。 這個情人節, 我希望妳覺得幸福和快樂。
My first care package
... courtesy of Nam.
And probably my last too since I won't be a student much longer. Nearly brought tears to my eyes when I tore up that heavy box. It's exactly what a starving college student needs. You know what's peculiar? There are 3 packages of dried spaghetti but only 2 jars of spaghetti sauce. But that is not what's peculiar. What's peculiar is that I have an extra jar of spaghetti sauce because my roommate "borrowed" one of my spaghetti packages 3 weeks ago.
But that's not all. Lee gave me a cassette tape of Canon in D. Again, it just amazes me how well people pay attention to what I say. It was playing in the background as we were taking a walk. I casually mentioned to her that it was one of my favorite tunes but I didn't know what it is called. But who still has cassette tape players? I don't. But that's not what is peculiar. What's peculiar is that I bought a CD/tape boombox for my bible study group a while back. I had originally got it for worship but our group multiplied and no longer needed it.
The puzzle pieces keep fitting together.
No time
If I get any busier, just shoot me in the head. My brain is so tired. Is the brain a muscle because it has been getting quite a workout the past month? I need a break badly.
5 and M
Task 1
Contrary to what I wrote before, pessimism still has a strong foothold in my life. Last week, I filed for graduation. I'm late because I'm an idiot and didn't pay attention to the schedule. This means I will graduate at end of summer instead of end of spring. No big deal. Except I won't be able to walk. For my parents, it's a big deal. But oh well, can't be helped now.
Anyway, I never filed for my General Education back at Foothill College. I assumed that since the classes I took can be directly transferred over to the Calfornia State University system, it wouldn't matter. Right, never assume. My first quarter here two years ago, the counselor told me I had to get certified otherwise, I would have to meet CalStateLA's requirements for G.E. which for some odd reason is vastly different than Foothill's. Alright, no big deal, I'll just go back to Foothill and file for GE certification. But there is a caveat, I took an AP Biology test to fulfill the lab science requirements and I don't know where my test results are. I can hear Jack saying already, "Didn't I email you the site to get the test results sent to you two years ago?" Yes, you did and I did absolutely nothing about it until last week.
So burdened with these two tasks to complete, I made an appointment with a Foothill College counselor last week. Being a pessimist, I fully expect the counselor to say, "It's been quite a long time, I don't think we can do anything for you." Luckily, I came back on a Thursday instead of my usual Friday because counselors are not available Fridays. And my counselor actually said, everything should be taken care of provided I get the AP test scores sent to her. Que? no mas? You sure?
Task 2
Went over to grandma's to install a wireless card in my cousin's computer. It worked.
Again, no problems. Everything went smoothly.
Task 3
Fix broken interior light in Corolla. Add an mp3 adapter to my stereo deck. Both installed fine.
Task 4
Fix sliding door in back yard. The door drags and is hard to open and close. Found adjustment screws on the bottom that raises and lowers the wheels. Done.
Task 5
Get back money for returning stuff at Best Buy. Missed the return date by one day. This is my only mishap. I needed it too. It made me feel at ease as I had lunch with Jack and Y-Y. All my tasks were being completed so smoothly and efficiently. It was finished just in time to have lunch with them too. What are the chances of that? I needed something negative to put me back on solid ground.
Task M
I didn't expect to run into her. I had decided to just let it lie and not think twice about her. Unexpectedly and pleasantly, she called me the week before. I sought my chance to see her. And I actually saw her last week. This is where pessimism rules. Expect nothing and every once in awhile you get lemonade. Neat!
