whipped cream

That was the best snow I've been on in a long time. The sun was out in Lake Tahoe on Friday, the sky was clear and the view was great. There was about an inch of fresh snow covering hard packed snow underneath. Saturday morning was like a blizzard! We started off with a thoughtful warm breakfast, geared up then were hit with high winds, lots of snow and freezing cold! But by 3pm the weather started to clear up and 2 friends and I were lucky enough to endure a 30 minute hike to the Nevada side of Heavenly. We were pretty much the only ones there, riding over fresh untouched powder. It was like dipping my board in whip cream, soft, fluffy and smooth. Those few runs within an hour made the whole trip worth it. By 3:50pm my hands were numb, nose dripping and my body was hating me, but we just had to squeeze in one more. You know you had a good time when your body is ready to go home but you just don't care. I took a nose dive on my last run 'cuz my board was sinking into the powder (oh, cry me a river). I wished I had enough speed to make it all the way to the Gondola, but that fall actually felt good.
That night I paid for all the fun with so much pain that every move became a work out.

Sunday morning we cleared the place by 12 noon, thanks to all my friends for lending a hand with clean up, helping to eat all the left overs and being swift to pack up. Or maybe I shouldn't thank them 'cuz we might have been able to leave later and miss the 7 hour traffic.

Either way, it was so nice to get away, be with your friends, have fun on the slopes and if you didn't lose money at the casino, it was a pretty cheap trip.

Sunday night: My bed never felt so comfortable.

swoosh swoosh

4 more hours of work left. I can't wait to get out of here. I've been training hard for the slopes this weekend. Been working my "core" muscles as recommended by Fitness Magazines and strengthening my legs. It's going to be so fun

Good Bye May

After much debated paired with my indecisiveness I decided to bring my first Guitar, which I named 'May'. =( poor May. She served me well for 5 days but for the same price, I could get a better guitar. So I packaged her up and brought her back to Costco. After a short transaction with the cashier, May was carried away and gone. I turned around and walked briskly back to my car, raced down to Guitar Center in Santa Clara and happily lifted up a Fender G-8s beginner package. I ran my fingers through her strings and she sounded much brighter and deeper than May. Without much thought, I made my purchase. I shall name her Eve. I would have named her Lilith, but she's not exactly my first guitar, so Eve it is. The strings are much easier on my fingers too and she looks much nicer.

After a quick walk through DSW I drove around the block and went for Korean food with some friends. The food definitely added some weight to all of us in the end. But the bill was surprisingly light on our wallets. Korean House on El Camino, my next favourite dinner spot.

My first GUITAR

I purchased my first guitar this past weekend. I've always wanted to learn how to play! I'm so excited that I really don't know what to do. Really.

I pick it up every hour and I run my thumb through the strings, what else can I do? I don't know how to play. I'm planning on getting some DVD's or go online to learn the basics. I hope to get a song down by the end of the year. Until then, my roomates are going to have a field day with me strumming non-sense for the next few months.

I'm looking forward to playing a few songs at our staff retreat down at Aptos in January. Singing by the campfire and what-not.

Grant money

November 3rd, 7pm. I received a call from the government grant ****** program. The lady explained the selection process through her heavy East Indian accent and busy background noise from her office. "you can use the grant money for whatever you choose to. The $8,000 is yours and you can use it to pay off your loans, your car, your house" House? what's $8G going to do for a house? "the money is yours for whatever you want but hopefully you will use it for something good" She repeatedly explained. "You are a Citizen and are paying taxes right?" "I'm not a citizen" I responded suspiciously. The whole time I thought it was my Canadian student loans officer calling to ask if I was deferring my payment or am I going to pay up! "oh you're not? but you do pay taxes right?" "yes, I do" "then you're qualified. There's a lot of background noise can I call you back?" I was driving home and she called back after 5 min as promised. "So, this grant is yours to use for whatever you want blah blah blah accent accent accent but we need to transfer the funds directly to your account so it ensures the money does not go to the wrong person. Do you have your account number on you?" NO "do you have a cheque book on you?" NO "oh, do you have a receipt or something with the digits of your account number?" NO, getting a little frustrated I told her to call back after 2 days, I might know if by then. " oh we have a deadline to meet, and we need to finish the case by tonight." "why are you guys working so late? And you're located in Las Vegas you said?" I questioned. "well, we're just working for another hour" I can't believe this was happening to me! I read scams all the time on the email, but for this to happen to me and to know that they found my cell number and has my office address, that's messed up!
She called back at 9:30 pm after an hour as promised to see if I managed to retrieve my account number. I didn't think they'll call, quite persistent! I kindly declined my $8,000 grant which I would have received directly into my account to use towards whatever I want, but hopefully for good cause such as paying off my tuition, car or HOUSE? @#%@#???

cat in bag

I walked out of the house this morning and noticed a kitten walking aimlessly with a pure beauty bag over his head. What a sad sight. Is that some kind of Halloween joke? I walked over to remove the bag just to realize his head was poked through the SIDE of the bag from a small slit. I looked down from the top of the bag and saw a white take out container sitting at the bottom below the cat's head. I guess the cat was trying to get to the food? I reached for the bag and the cat saw me from above and started panicking. He ran around but since he couldn't see, he was hitting bushes, door steps, more bushes. It was funny and sad. I had to leave the poor thing alone since it was so spastic.

Where is it?

My Coffee MUGS! I NEED THEM! TWO are now missing, my tall yellow one and my little cute Christmas 80z one. WTF! I put them on rotation and use them daily to bring to work! What am I going to put my coffee in?? I'm NOT going to put them in a cup and have coffee spilling in my car! WHERE ARE THEY!!! zzzzzzzzzzz....zzz need coffee

Foldgers in the sink

I've been drinking coffee since 1st year university. It started as something I'd sip on just to stay awake. It was a trimester habit during every final. I then started having issues staying awake in class too. Thirteen weeks of classes, thirteen weeks of coffee.

Then one day I got appendicitis and I found my way to the ER. The nurse tried drawing my blood for some blood tests. She made too many attempts and withdrew too few mililiters. She asked if I drank anything that day 'cuz I was so dehydrated. I thought carefully and realized I didn't drink any water or other sort of beverages that day except for coffee. In fact, since the start of the semester I didn't drink anything but coffee. I would fill a big mug in the morning and drink it to the last drop. Then I'd fill it up again at the school coffee shop with more coffee which lasts till I get home. After dinner I'd brew more coffee to sip on while I study. Holly crap! I had lived on Coffee for 10 weeks!

Anyhow, since my coffee days it has always been Starbucks, International Delights Instant Coffee or whatever was brewing at the coffee shop: Beans Bros, Second Cup etc... Then I started working at Starbucks and woa.. MORE COFFEE!!

Anyhow, yesterday I decided to give Foldgers a shot. I brewed it and drank it black to fully experience the comparison to Starbucks. Let me tell ya that sh** has nothing to offer. It's something you offer to someone as a bad joke. That stuff is plain bitter, no flavour, nasty nasty. I thought maybe it's partly psychological, but my boss, who's also a coffee drinker, poured himself a cup thinking it's Starbucks, and he had the same reaction.

Those Foldgers commercials are sure convincing. With that crap brewing in my house I'd freaking wake up too.

To be or not to be

We all know that people in general are on their best behavior when they meet someone new. They watch what they say, choose their verbiage, dress to impress, good mannerisms, put in extra efforts etc... But where do you draw the line between being on good behavior and no longer being yourself? Let's say you get into a situation where you are confronted to do something you normally don't do. Do you do it because you don't want to jeopardize the relationship? or do you stand your ground and do what you would normally do? If you choose the former, wouldn't you be giving the false impression of being someone you're not? The task doesn't have to be something that's out of your way. It could be as simple as watching a horror movie when you don't like them, but you watch it anyways. You have now presented yourself as one who enjoys horror movies. On the other extreme, you do things unwillingly (without the other knowing), but you do them anyways to try to impress. You go out of your way to purchase small items to appear thoughtful, you open doors, pull out chairs, keep your make up fresh..
Have you thought of the consequences when you can no longer tolerate to be who you aren't? How long can you keep this up? Until you get what you want? A few weeks/months after you get what you want? Meanwhile, The other person continues to expect you to open doors, receive little tokens of affection, curb your tongue etc... But the demand becomes overwhelming to you. S/He has suddenly become demanding. S/He has suddenly lost tolerance for who YOU are. S/He has changed. Or was it you that has returned from being what you're not?

Pot Stickers

I went to a work pot luck this weekend. Being the only Taiwanese, I was asked to bring something authentic. I pondered a bit, but authentic to me would be bringing rice stick with pigs blood. I thinkwhat they meant was to bring something from Rickshaws Corner. So I decided to make pot stickers. I like them really crispy so I made full on effort to get them golden on all three sides and crispy once removed from the pan. Everyone was pleased with the pot stickers and so impressed that I actually made something 'cuz they know I didn't cook. I knew they would like it, every body loves pot stickers. Then they asked me what I put in it? um.. oil? oh wait, did I buy the pork and leeks or the chicken and leeks? I responded pork and leeks. Gosh, did these people think I made the pot stickers themselves? I mean, when I said I made them I DID, the same way my mom showed me. I didn't have the heart to tell them I didn't make them the way they thought I did. but I cooked them ok!!

Double booked

It was a Wednesday night and I sat at the bar at TGIF's sipping on my Tropicolada, allowing the alcohol to infuse my brain cells. The buzz must have taken me to another wordly dimension because a vision came to my mind... my jean jacket on a hanger with another jacket over it!! The mystery was solved! I had double booked my hanger and fogotten about it! I'm so excited, one item crossed off the list of the lost.

Where is it?

Where is my frigging jean jacket? Why do I keep losing things? Has anyone seen a CK jean jacket laying around? I'm one of those dysfunctional peple that get pre-occupied with lost items. I can't function until I find it! or till I forget that I lost it. grr...

Bikram

Going home was the highlight of my year. Got to see my friends, eat lots, check out JW's new pad and new car and SS's new car and PG's new car and bike. sigh, and I just got back from the car shop who claimed my rotors are warped. He's the warped one, freak, he's the one who worked on them in January. F-er.
I can't get over how much better food is up there and cheaper!! I got to check out what LuLu Lemon is all about, then left with 3 pairs of shorts and a Dry-fit T. Got to check out what Bikram Yoga is about then had a close encounter with the Yoga Nazi. Bikram Yoga is basically Yoga performed in a room heated to about 40C? The room is carpeted, there's only two small windows which the guy opens on the rare occasion. Anyhow, the Yogi nearly bit this chicks head off when she was unable to perform a back bend his way because of back pain. "if you can't do it then lay down"he snaps, the girl responds "I was taught to do it this way instead." Yoga Nazi "well this is my class" 10 minutes laters " which Yoga College did you attend? what kind of yoga?" the guy was interrogating her in front of the whole class. That was just rude, in addition, to his non-stop talking for 90 minutes which made me feel as if I was at an auction or a race track

"Now BREATH BREATH BREATH and STRETCH STRETCH STRECH, feel your arm REACH REACH REACH, NOW step LEFT foot to the LEFT to the LEFT to the LEFT and TURN TURN TURN"

HD's thoughts 'would you just SHUT THE FUCK UP??'

Maybe if he tried to perform some of the moves he's describing he wouldn't have to talk so much. Unfortunately I was too dehydrated to speak and sweat was dripping all over me. Plus he was drenched in his own sweat and the last thing I wanted was for him to come over and drag me out. Actually, I was with my friends and I didn't want to embarrass them. Besides the Yoga Nazi, the exercise was rather refreshing and my skin was glowing after my shower!! Would I do it again? yes, but I may have to shoot the Nazi first and voluntarily deodorize their carpet for them. When my left foot stepped off the yoga mat onto the carpeted floor, I saw sweat drip off the arch of my foot into the carpet. I wondered how many other pairs of sweaty feet am I stepping over. ew...

MoVeD

I moved again , for the 10th zillion time. This might just be a hidden disease that I've not yet discovered. Perhaps I'm so accustomed to moving throughout my life that i'm incapable of staying in one place for too long. The longest I've ever stayed in a resident was 7 years, shortest was 3 months. This is starting to sound like a relationship. I think the number of times I moved might actually equate to the number of guys I dated. I wonder if there is a similarity with the length of time with each house/relationship too?

Anyhow, I managed to pack my whole life's worth into the back of a caravan and moved it all in one trip. THERE it was, all my belonging in a car. It seems so insignificant. But once I started to unpack I realized how much stuff I had. Unfortunately most of it were books, I have to get a book shelf the size of my closet just to unpack those books. The room is also very small, I would have to strategically arrange my furniture (or lack of) to fit everything in. Once I squeeze in a queen size bed my room will be one big trampoline, how fun. I can bounce out of bed and into the bathroom every morning.

Anyhow, the move was rather unsettling. I've moved too many times since coming down here. The next time I move, I'm moving to the carribeans (there's a story to that to follow later).

Hey, it's "me"

Everyone is entitled to be a little lazy now and then, speak in half sentences, drop a few words here and there, create a few words to make things FUNNER. BUT! why are you too freakin lazy to tell me your NAME when you leave messages??!! "Hey head dump, it's ME" who the f*** is ME? Unless that's your name, you're not "ME"! Do you think I only have one friend? okay okay, I may have a small circle of friends but 'common now, after all that static on my cell phone you're all starting to sound the same. male, female, male trying to sound female I dunno.. WHO ARE YOU!!! why do you have to make me search my caller ID? Just tell me your name. Just say it! "say your name bitch!"

Those 2 weeks

There are two painful weeks in a month in a woman's life. The week before and the week of her period. You PMS, then you bleed. When you really think about it, we spend 1/4 of the year bitching and anther 1/4 of the year bleeding that leaves us only 1/2 a year to lead a normal life! That means a quarter of women's decisions are hormonally influenced and another quarter with cranky, bloating symptoms. That wasn't the point of this story though, it was simply something I concluded while diagnosing my eating habits. I have a pretty strong craving for sweets, but most of the time I can keep it under control. I also work out frequently to stay in shape, but when that one special week comes I lose all self control! I'll stock up on chocolate! lots of chocolate! I have this brownie cake sitting in front of me right now that weighed about 5 pounds! I bought it on Saturday along with some chocolate bread pudding, a pear danish and some other pastry. The brownie is already half gone and I cleared the bread pudding on Sunday and the other two pastries on Saturday. I pretty much took in my months' caloric intake in one week! and I do this every month!! Why do I work so hard at the gym just to sabotage my hard work with this food!! crap, this blog is taking awhile to write between my brownie bites.

mmm....yummy.... actually maybe this PMS stuff isn't so bad after all. I get to indulge in all the good sinful sweets that I normally won't allow myself to indulge in, and I give myself excuses to miss the gym. I also feel it's quite ok to bitch slap those who get in the way. ahh.. yes, those 2 fabulous weeks.

Olympics

oooh, this is bad, but last night I went to a bar that had the olympics on TV. It was the men's gymnastics. I haven't been keeping up with the olympics, but when I saw those guys on the rings and vaults I thought woa... they've got pretty nice bodies, then the men's swimming events came on. I think I might actually start watching 'cuz some of these guys are hot!

over time bitch fest

I've always felt it was important to have some time to yourself, but lately I've been missing it more than anything. I still spend most of my week nights alone, watching TV, DVD's mostly, chatting online of just catching up on some chores, bills, laundry, cleaning and stuff. But there's been so much happening at work for the past 2-3 wks. The minute I step foot through that door at 8am I know I won't be sitting down till lunch time, and that's when I go work out. I come back around 2pm, catch up on emails then 2:30 hits and i'm off running through the halls again, yes, literally running from the back room up to the front. I have been putting more and more hours in the weekends to work and all the deadlines, constantly talking to people, several people throughout the day, listening, empathizing, understanding, ignoring the whiners and at times getting hit on! WTF, this one white guy in his late 30's flat out asked me my height and weight, I didn't answer, "how old are you?", I continued my portion of the questioning, "do you have a boyfriend?" fockers, how disrespectful... by the time I get home I don't want to talk to anyone (conveniently my roomate is never around). Ssshh... and a beer or some kind of herbal remedy would be great, thank you.

Shopping is a great remedy. I bought a new pair of jeans the other day, it's supposed to make my booty look good. I sure spent enough on them. I also got this blush for Benefit, but I don't even see the colour show up on my face.. what a rip. I'm thinking of buying a guitar! I want to learn to play. I'm also looking into joining a running clinic or hiking club or some club to show me some good trails. That is one thing I like lots about the Bay area. There are lots of trails around, though the nicer one's are usually further away. oh, and I want an electric piano too, so I can play and not irritate the hell out of my roomates or neighbours. hm.. 1:30, time to take a nap since I didn't hit the gym.

22 bites

I couldnt' sleep well Sunday night 'cuz I was scratching myself all over. I finally took a count of how many mosquito bites i have, and here's the stats. 5 on my left arm 4 on my right, 3 on my right leg and one hella itchy one on my left, 4 on my forehead and 2 on my neck, one on my head and lastly one little annoying one on my back. It was still worth it.

quirly helped me figure out how to use web IM, not that it was hard to figure out, but she definetly helped me find it. Not sure if that's a good thing though 'cuz now i'll be IMing at work!!! or atleast when the Boss isn't around.

Lost creativity

The Boss came back lasts Monday, that definitely stumped my ability to blog during the day. Anyhow, just got back from an overnight camping trip. It was great. I can say that now, but when I was hiking 7mi in 85+ degrees of dry heat with a freakin 30 pound pack on my back I was wondering what I was doing! But once we got to our camp site and took a swim in the cold water, after walking bare foot for at least 30 minutes over jagged rocks some covered in moss and then little pebbles that cut into your foot, it was worth it. The cold water felt really nice as it washed away our sticky sweat and soothed the mosquito bites we've accumulated along the way. Then we had to walk back over the jagged rocks some covered in moss and then little pebbles that cut into your foot to our camp site and make some food. Those freeze dry packages aren't bad at all!

When the sky became dark, the countless number of stars in the sky was indescribable. There was not one spot that wasn't covered with bright twinkling stars. It was great.

The next morning was the same grueling hike back to the car. But once we got home, the shower was my best friend. ahh..... can't wait to sleep on my bed tonight and be able to freely scratch those mosquito bites without the restraints of a sleeping bag.